Watson Opposes Honorarium Ban : Legislator Says Reform Measure for June Ballot Goes ‘Too Far’

Declaring that “we’ve gone a little too far,” Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) last week was among only three state senators to object to a new ethics standard that includes a ban on honorariums.

The measure--to place a proposed constitutional amendment on next June’s ballot--was approved by the Senate on a 33-3 vote and by the Assembly 68 to 7.

The proposal by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) would limit the acceptance of gifts by legislators, restrict lobbying by former lawmakers for a year after they leave the Legislature and require legislative committees to hold their meetings in public. It was among dozens of pieces of legislation approved before the Legislature ended its 1989 session Saturday.

During a Senate floor debate, Watson asserted that “these kinds of restrictions” would prevent poor people and minorities from running for office “because they are not going to (be able to) afford to stay here.”

Watson told her colleagues: “We ought to be ethical in what we do, but I think in some ways . . . we’ve gone a little too far.”

Not Far Enough

Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) also expressed concern about the proposal but said it failed to go far enough toward reform. Hayden did not vote on the constitutional amendment, saying he favored delaying a decision until the Legislature reconvenes in January.

In an interview after Friday’s action, Watson maintained that her vote was not a protest against ethics but against the cumulative effect of the proposal’s limits on outside income, gifts and speaking fees combined with curbs on campaign fund raising approved by voters last year.

Watson, first elected in 1978, represents an area that incudes Marina del Rey, Playa del Rey, Baldwin Hills and much of the Wilshire District.

The senator raised her objections one day after Sacramento County prosecutors announced that there was insufficient evidence to seek criminal charges against Watson for using state-paid staff and equipment in preparing her doctoral dissertation and managing a private rental property.

‘Shadow of Impropriety’

During the Senate debate, Watson cited the investigation, saying: “We always operate under a shadow of impropriety. I just came through that myself.”

But the potential for legislative misconduct, she said, is an insufficient reason for imposing new curbs. “I can’t identify a person in the Legislature who I think is bought by outside interests,” she said. “But as we rush to judge and we rush to reform, it’s almost giving support to the claims that we are all corrupt.”

The new ethical standards for lawmakers would be linked to the creation of an independent salary commission that would have sole authority to decide on the level of pay for lawmakers. Legislators now receive $40,816 a year plus a tax-free expense allowance of $88 a day when the Legislature is in session and during legislative breaks when they attend hearings or conduct other legislative business.

Watson said she believes that the legislative salary should be at least $80,000 a year but voiced concern that the commission might not raise it high enough.

“This is my entire income,” Watson said. “I have no independent wealth.”

In her annual statement of economic interests for 1988, Watson reported collecting more than $23,000 in speaking fees, gifts and travel expenses. By comparison, Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), one of the Legislature’s top speechmakers, reported collecting $46,900 in speaking fees last year.

Hayden, who favored putting over the matter until January, remarked that “it is going to be seen as curious that in response to an ethics crisis we have voted ourselves a salary commission.”

Hayden also said he believes that voters would support the pay-raise panel “if they felt we were reforming ourselves more radically than we are in this package.”

But the proposal was supported by the rest of the Westside Senate delegation: Roberti, Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), who represents Malibu.

In the Assembly, Los Angeles Democrats Terry B. Friedman, Burt Margolin, Mike Roos and Gwen Moore, who all represent parts of the Westside, voted for the bill.