1989 Legislative Session: The Final Hours : After Midnight, Expedience Governs Open Meetings Bill : ETHICS

It can make people do strange things, this business of passing legislation in the middle of the night.

There was Assemblyman Charles Calderon, determined to win approval of his bill to require open legislative meetings, rushing to the Senate a few minutes after midnight Saturday wearing the borrowed coat of lobbyist Clay Jackson.

It would not have seemed so peculiar except for the fact that the huge insurance lobbyist’s coat hung down to Calderon’s knees and the assemblyman’s hands barely poked out of the sleeves.

But the rules of the Senate require men to wear a coat and tie at all times on the Senate floor, and the Whittier Democrat was eager to push through his bill--part of a major package of ethics measures--before the Legislature adjourned in the early hours of Saturday.

In fact, Calderon’s measure led a charmed life.

The bill is designed to make the Legislature follow the same kind of open meeting rules that already apply to local governments. It would require all committees of the Legislature to hold their meetings in public, except for discussions of personnel matters, security or litigation.

Legislative leaders had agreed to support such a measure after they were embarrassed by disclosures that important decisions were being made in secret. For example, The Times reported earlier this year that legislators secretly voted to award themselves more than $1 million in special benefits such as airline tickets and car phones.

In a series of private meetings last week, legislative leaders and their aides agreed on the language that would go into the open meetings bill.

Friday evening, as legislators considered dozens of last-minute measures, the provisions were amended into a bill pending on the Senate floor that, up until then, would have modified rules for the operation of the California Lottery. The name of the original author of the bill, Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson), was removed and Calderon’s name was added.

The next stop was the powerful Senate Rules Committee. Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti, committee chairman, agreed to hold a meeting on the bill shortly after midnight in a little room off the floor of the Senate.

As Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and three other weary members of the committee waited, the medium-sized assemblyman scrambled to find a coat. Rushing to the meeting in Jackson’s giant jacket, Calderon came across a Senate staffer who was closer to his size.

This Time a Blazer

The assemblyman borrowed his second coat of the night and arrived at the meeting in a nice blue blazer. Calderon said later of the staff member: “I don’t know his name but I’d recognize him if I saw him again.”

For Calderon, arriving at the meeting was the hardest part of getting the bill passed. With the Rules Committee’s approval, the bill moved to the Senate floor, where it came up shortly after 1 a.m.

Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) rose to question whether it was a violation of the Senate’s rules to place the open meetings provisions into a lottery bill. But Roberti quickly walked over and whispered something into his ear.

“I understand this is not the right time to ask the question,” McCorquodale said and sat back down at his desk. The Senate then approved the measure without debate on a vote of 38 to 0.

At 1:30 a.m., the bill came up on the Assembly floor. “This is the single most important action we will take to show the public our commitment in terms of reform,” Calderon told his colleagues. Again without debate, the bill was approved by a vote of 73 to 0.

In less than an hour and a half, the measure had passed both houses and was on its way to Gov. George Deukmejian--without ever facing a public discussion of its merits.

The bill, pushed by the Newspaper Publishers Assn., is one of several measures that would be required to implement a proposed constitutional amendment approved Friday by both houses of the Legislature.

Ethics Package

The constitutional amendment, which will be placed before voters in June, 1990, sets forth basic policies of ethical government, including a ban on honorariums, a limit on gifts legislators can receive, a limit on lobbying by legislators who leave office and the requirement that legislators hold their meetings in public. The measure also would create an independent commission to set legislators’ pay.

One bill that would spell out the proposed restrictions on lobbying by former lawmakers was held in the Assembly to await further amendments and will be taken up next year.

The Assembly also held up action on a bill that would create a loophole in state campaign laws and allow legislators to raise unlimited amounts of money from special interests to defend themselves in court.

A leading backer of the bill, Assembly GOP Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra, said legislators were just too worn out to take it up. “It’s something I believe we should do but the hour was late and people were tired,” he said after the Assembly adjourned at 3:42 a.m. “We’ll deal with that in January.”