Lawmakers’ Speaking Fees Drop

Declaring that honorariums for speeches have become “a political liability” for legislators, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown on Thursday reported collecting $47,440 in speaking fees and related expenses last year--down almost 50% from what he received a year earlier.

Other lawmakers, including Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti, also reported a sharp reduction in speaking fees on their annual financial disclosure statements filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission.

The drop appears to be partly the result of a new, $1,000 limit on honorariums imposed by voter-approved Proposition 73, a ballot measure that took effect at the beginning of last year.

Brown, for example, made about as many speeches in 1989 as he did in 1988--46 compared to 49--but he collected far less last year than the $89,600 he reported the year before.

But other key legislators have simply cut down on their speech-making and showed a substantial decline in their annual totals as a result. Unlike campaign contributions, money made from speeches is personal income, to be spent as the legislators see fit.

The reduction in honorariums also seems to reflect a new caution on the part of legislators in the wake of a federal political corruption probe, which already has led to the indictment, conviction and resignation of former Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier). Crucial to his conviction on charges of extortion, racketeering and money laundering was a videotape of Montoya accepting $3,000 from an FBI agent posing as a businessman, part of an elaborate Capitol sting operation. He later reported the money as an honorarium, even though he gave no speech.

California Common Cause lobbyist Ruth Holton attributes much of this year’s apparent decline in speaking fees to “the climate after the sting. I think many more members this year had a policy of not accepting honorariums because the public focuses on honorariums being so corrupting following the sting. . . . The fear of the FBI, of people who are snooping around, has certainly had a beneficial effect.”

In fact, attitudes have so changed in the Capitol that Brown, a San Francisco Democrat, now predicts that honorariums will become “a thing of the past” as lawmakers and voters consider enacting proposals to ban speaking fees and--for the first time--put a limit on gifts to elected officials.

Collecting honorariums “was becoming too visible and it’s become a serious liability for the institution (the Legislature),” Brown said.

Under state law, legislators and state constitutional officers must file economic interest forms each year--listing their outside income, property holdings, outstanding loans and gifts, in addition to honorariums. To meet the deadline for those reports, the elected officials had to deliver them in person to the FPPC on Thursday or mail them by midnight.

In his disclosure statement, Gov. George Deukmejian reported receiving $10,918 in gifts last year, including $6,000 from the late Malcolm Forbes, the publisher of Forbes magazine. The amount covered air fare, lodging, meals and entertainment at a lavish 70th birthday party that Forbes threw for himself last year in Tangier, Morocco. Deukmejian and his wife, Gloria, were part of a celebration that included Forbes’ date, Elizabeth Taylor, opera singer Beverly Sills, and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Other gifts included a $250 porcelain vase given to Deukmejian by the president of Portugal, $900 in tickets to the Academy Awards ceremony and $61 worth of Armenian bread from a Fresno bakery.

As usual, the governor reported receiving little in the way of speaking fees, listing $1,000 for each of two speeches he delivered to groups at the Claremont Colleges, the alma mater of his former Chief of Staff Steven A. Merksamer.

But many legislators, who in the past have collected large numbers of honorariums, were giving speeches less often and receiving fewer dollars per speech. For example, Roberti (D-Los Angeles) took in $14,900 in honorariums for 16 speaking engagements in 1989, compared to $49,578 for 29 speeches the year before.

Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), who resigned late last year to become president of the California Manufacturers Assn., reported receiving $13,500 for 16 speeches in 1989, compared to $46,900 for 30 speeches the year before.

Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, reported receiving $6,750 for eight appearances last year. In 1988, he received $26,750 for 24 events.

Several lawmakers who have been identified as targets of the FBI sting have also reported a dramatic decrease in honorariums. For example, Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier), whose office was searched by the FBI in August, 1988, has long been a prolific speechmaker. For 1988, he reported receiving $27,942 in speaking fees. But his total the next year plummeted to $4,000.

Another sting figure, Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale), took in only $3,750 for speeches last year, compared to $24,750 in 1988, when he was Assembly minority leader. He stepped down from that position in November, 1988.

As for Montoya, who was indicted last May by a federal grand jury, he put his own active speaking schedule on hold in 1989. As chairman of the Senate Business and Professions Committee, he had long been able to command a sizable number of speaking fees, often from groups with interests before the committee. In 1988, Montoya received $36,550 in honorariums. But for 1989, he reported receiving no honorariums at all.

POLITICAL FUNDS--Fifteen members of California’s congressional delegation got hefty help from PACs. A27