Somberness Prevails as Lawmakers Take Office Under Prop. 140 Terms

The first California lawmakers to serve under a new law limiting their terms took office Monday amid sober reflection about the Legislature’s inability to solve many of the state’s most pressing problems.

Then, after pledging to change things for the better, the members reelected as their leaders Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti, who have been at the helm of the Legislature since Jimmy Carter was President.

Assembly members got an upbeat pep talk from lame-duck Gov. George Deukmejian and heard Brown, a San Francisco Democrat, tell them that they have been doing a “magnificent” job despite media reviews and public opinion to the contrary.

But among the rank and file, the mood was more downcast.

The reality of Proposition 140’s term limits, capping service at six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate, was sinking in. One of the ballot initiative’s other provisions, the elimination of the Legislature’s pension program, hit home recently when lawmakers got official notice that the program had ceased. Still to come is a cut of up to 50% in the Legislature’s operating budget.

“There is a realization that there’s a dark cloud hanging over the California Legislature,” said Assemblyman Sam Farr, a Monterey Democrat, whose father also served in the Legislature. “That perception has to be dealt with.”

Monday marked the official beginning of the 1991-1992 Legislative session. In the Assembly, 12 new members--the most since 1982--were sworn in along with 68 returnees. In the Senate, a single new member and 19 who were reelected Nov. 6 took the oath of office to join the 19 members who did not face the voters this year.

Addressing the Assembly from the desk he once occupied in the rear of the chamber, Deukmejian noted that more than 2,000 people move to California every day. He said they do so because he and the Legislature have kept the state “great.”

“This Legislature should feel very, very proud of the accomplishments that you’ve made,” said Deukmejian, who has often criticized the Democratic-controlled institution for failures in solving problems. Brown, after he was elected to his sixth term as Speaker on a party-line vote, suggested that the Assembly might be able to improve its image by following through on an experiment to televise its sessions on cable systems statewide.

“The public has no clue as to what we are doing,” Brown said. “We intend to correct that. We need to let the public know how we are conducting the public’s business.”

Brown said the media have focused too heavily on political corruption and the budget crisis while downplaying such successes as a bill to help the state respond to oil spills and his own legislation to require every motorist to wear a seatbelt. In a personal aside, Brown said his daughter Susan’s car was struck by a speeding automobile on a Los Angeles street over the weekend, leaving her with a broken sternum. He said her injuries would have been much worse had she not been wearing a seatbelt.

In the coming months, Brown said, the Legislature should address a crisis in health insurance, the drug abuse problem, and growth management.

In the Senate, Roberti said the top problem is the state’s water supply, dwindling with each month that the drought continues. “The drought is here. It is on top of us. I don’t know of anything that is more important,” the Los Angeles Democrat said. “It makes the budget problem pale in difficulty by comparison.”

Brown, referring to the term limits, told his colleagues that “in 1996, according to the voters, we are out of here. During the time we are here we owe the voters the responsibility to continue the magnificent work that we have done.”

Other members, however, did not seem to share Brown’s enthusiasm for the product of the last several sessions of the Legislature.

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) said the Legislature needs to be a body of “more credibility and more effectiveness and more satisfaction. The campaigns are over. Let’s start to solve some problems.”

Assemblyman Robert Frazee (R-Carlsbad) said that in passing Proposition 140, the voters delivered their most dramatic message since 1978, when they cut property taxes by passing Proposition 13.

“The voters said, ‘We are not satisfied. We want something better. We want to see some changes. And we’re going to find some new people perhaps to do those changes for us.’ ”

Assembly Republican Leader Ross Johnson of La Habra said the term limits represented a rebuke to the Legislature.

“One of the challenges is to try and deal with Proposition 140 with some grace and some dignity,” Johnson said. “We need to deal with issues of public policy in a cooperative way.”

Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this story.

BACKGROUND

On Nov. 6, California voters passed Proposition 140, a landmark initiative limiting the terms of statewide officers and members of the state Legislature. The ballot measure’s approval was widely viewed as a reflection of the public’s dissatisfaction with the Legislature. At the same time, however, voters reelected 68 of 72 Assembly members who were on the ballot and defeated just one of the 20 state senators seeking reelection.