O.C. Legislators Often Fatalistic as Bill-Writers

Castrate repeat rapists.

Prohibit photographic radar machines that anonymously record speeders. Give greater peace of mind to adoptive parents.

These are just some of the ideas that Orange County legislators say they would like to see become law during the 1991-92 session.

In all, the delegation of eight Assembly members and five senators introduced 331 bills this year, almost 10% of the 3,481 measures that will undergo scrutiny before the Legislature shuts down in mid-September.

Chances that all of the county proposals will survive are nil. Even the least controversial bill can get hamstrung by inside politics or dropped for reasons unrelated to subject matter. The most innovative of measures are routinely cannibalized or subsumed into other bills.

And in Orange County’s case, the odds of success are dimmed even further for reasons related more to politics than probability: The conservative, mainly Republican officeholders of the county are often swimming upstream in a Democrat-dominated Legislature.

Those prospects mean that, unlike baseball players whose hopes are high in the heady days of spring training, local legislators sometimes introduce their bills with a grim fatalism, said Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier), whose district includes La Habra, Mission Viejo and Laguna Niguel.

“On the bills that I care the most about, . . . the bills that I think would do the most good for California, I know they will be killed in the first policy committee,” Hill said. “But sometimes you’ve got to take a loss to prick people’s consciences and make somebody be intellectually honest.”

Not every county bill is a bold social or political statement, of course. Most are highly technical measures carried at someone’s behest to correct what they see as minor defects in the law.

Some are special-interest measures that benefit one person or a select group. Others are born of local tragedy, public controversy or a member’s personal experience.

Overall, however, Orange County’s proposals show that its delegation is tough on crime, eager for welfare reform and generally sympathetic to preserving the nuclear family.

Following are short descriptions of selected bills introduced by the local delegation:

Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Anaheim): There are 29 bills penned by Allen, whose biggest coup was the passage of a 1990 initiative to bar gill net fishing along the Southern California coast.

Allen is coming back with a bill that would pay $3 million in damages to about 133 fishermen affected by the ban.

Allen also wants to triple the terms of sex offenders and force child abusers to pay for the psychological counseling their victims later require. She would provide room for day care at mass-transit facilities, while expanding on her previous laws allowing students to enroll in public schools near the workplace of a parent.

Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach): She is introducing the most bills, 53.

Her favorite would give birth mothers up to 90 days to reconsider after giving a child up for an independent adoption. Even if they failed to give permission, the elapsed time would be considered implied consent.

She would also try to make mammograms readily available by creating a special class of technician to administer them and require truck drivers to pass a literacy test.

Inspired by problems in and around Newport Bay, Bergeson would give the Coast Guard authority to board vessels suspected of polluting the water, while shutting down vehicle access to a park in the city where teen-agers go to neck and drink.

Already, Bergeson has had to abandon a bill that would have allowed millionaire Mildred Vessels, a onetime owner of Los Alamitos Race Course, to hold live horse racing on a part of her San Luis Rey ranch. Complaints from neighbors and the nearby Del Mar Race Track prompted her to drop the bill on Friday.

Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach): Last year, this former Marine made waves by insisting that there was no prejudice involved in placing Japanese-Americans in internment camps during World War II.

His package of 30 bills promises more fireworks, starting with his proposal to force repeat rapists to choose between life imprisonment and castration.

Ferguson admitted that he is pursuing the rapist bill for effect: “I want to see . . . how politicians react and see if the public even cares.”

He is continuing his attack on adult newspapers sold from street racks; wants public school discussion about homosexuality limited to students who have prior parental approval and wants to stop police from using pain holds on anti-abortion protesters.

Hoping to form an unlikely alliance with urban Democrats, Ferguson also wants to pay scholarships to inner-city students.

Assemblyman Robert C. Frazee (R-Carlsbad): The most significant of Frazee’s 27 measures would close the Aliso Creek rest stop on Interstate 5, below the immigration checkpoint just south of San Clemente.

The rest stop has become a “staging area for the movement of illegal aliens,” Frazee said. He is supported by the Marines at Camp Pendleton, which surrounds the rest stop, but opposed by the state Department of Transportation, which operates it.

Assemblyman Nolan Frizzelle (R-Fountain Valley): Among his 20 bills, his favorite would require anyone who signs an advance waiver of the use of hospital life-support systems--in case they are severly injured--to be informed that it could also mean feeding tubes would be removed, leading to their forced starvation.

His hope: Some people would stipulate that they must continue to be nourished even after a traumatic accident. “It is a step away from the current rage, which is euthanasia,” he said.

Other proposals would require prisoners to demonstrate minimum literacy before being granted parole; give every county the option to build private or public toll roads, and make it easier for grown adopted children to find their birth parents.

Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk): The top priority among his 31 bills is to cut school truancy by forcing districts to report their actual daily attendance, rather than using the current state formula that takes into account excused absences. Green said his proposal would free school staff members from paperwork to concentrate on recovering missing students.

Green would also take away the driver’s licenses of habitual truants until age 18.

He would also have the soil erosion plaguing some Cypress and Los Alamitos neighborhoods declared a “natural disaster” so homeowners could apply for low-interest government loans.

He is also hoping to repeal a controversial booking fee law that allows counties to assess cities $180 for each prisoner a police department sends to the jail; Green wants to make up for the loss of money by assessing bigger fines against criminals.

Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier): The most important of his 36 measures aims at reducing auto insurance rates by about 20%.

Hill’s measure, jointly written with another senator, would require auto insurers to offer $15,000 coverage for $220 a year. In exchange, the state would switch to a no-fault system and restrict lawsuits against insurers.

Hill would also bar photographic radar guns that clock drivers, who then get speeding tickets in the mail. He considers it an invasion of privacy.

Inspired by some recent college sports cheating scandals, he also wants to give California university athletic officials the right to a hearing, subject to judicial review, if they are investigated by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

Assemblyman Ross Johnson (R-La Habra): Johnson is carrying just nine bills, but his hands will be full as a key player in state budget and reapportionment talks.

One proposal, however, may create a stir: reversing a relatively new law that makes Department of Motor Vehicle information confidential. Businesses and lawyers argue that the law, passed after the slaying of TV actress Rebecca Schaeffer, makes it impossible to perform even routine tasks.

Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange): Lewis proposes just four bills, one of which would help spouses of Desert Storm participants to file their joint income tax return without both signatures.

Assemblyman Tom Mays (R-Huntington Beach): One of the 26 bills introduced by the former mayor of Huntington Beach would declare all unleased tracts of state tidelands wildlife sanctuaries. It would preclude further oil drilling along the coast, especially near Santa Barbara.

Mays has signed up a handful of Democrat and Republican co-sponsors from the Senate and Assembly.

Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim): The legislator’s favorite among his 44 bills is one that would require all counties to follow Orange County’s lead in the early detection of welfare fraud. Estimated statewide savings: $20 million a year. This was signed into law last year but was overturned in court because of a faulty legislative procedure.

Royce wants motorists who lead police in chases to pay for property damage; would require 20-year prison sentences for drive-by shootings, and would force the state to notify victims of a criminal when the criminal is paroled.

He would add 10 judges to Orange County Superior Court and scale back the nights of satellite wagering at the Orange County Fair.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim): Seymour was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to the U.S. Senate in January but introduced four bills first.

One that already sailed through the Legislature and is before the governor would, for the first time, require parents to pay for part of the state services for mentally retarded children they have living at home.

Modeled on the practice of an Orange County judge, Seymour also proposed turning over illegal immigrants convicted of felonies to immigration officials for deportation.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove): Of his 18 bills, the one most important to Orange County attempts to break a political deadlock on the Board of Supervisors over condemning the Gypsum Canyon site for a new county jail. The bill would change the vote needed for condemnation from four-fifths to a simple majority of three supervisors.

Umberg also wants mobile home park rent control statewide and better notification of residents who do not speak English but are affected by aerial pesticide spraying; criminal background checks for nursing home employees, and a statewide Asian-gang hot line.

LEGISLATIVE WISH LIST

What Orange County lawmakers--all Republicans except for Democrats Cecil N. Green and Tom Umberg--hope to get passed during the current legislative session.

Doris Allen

GILL NETS

The eight-year assemblywoman, who has moved her residence from Cypress to Anaheim, wants to pay $3 million in damages to Southern California fishermen put out of business by her successful 1990 initiative to bar gill net fishing in Southern California.

Chances: She has the will of the people on her side, but coming up with the money will be tough in a year when the state is nearly $10 billion short.

Marian Bergeson

CHILD CUSTODY

A legislative heavyweight of the delegation, the 12-year Newport Beach senator’s top bill would place greater restrictions on birth mothers who may later want to regain custody of children they have given up for independent adoption.

Chances: Fortified by emotional pleas of the adoptive parents, prospects should be good.

Gil Ferguson

REPEAT RAPISTS

The Newport Beach assemblyman wants to make a bold conservative statement by having all repeat rapists castrated.

Chances. Nil. Castration would be kind compared to what will happen to this bill at the hands of the Democratic majority, which considers the six-year veteran a right-wing outcast.

Robert C. Frazee

ILLEGAL ALIENS

The 12-year assembly veteran from Carlsbad wants to close the Aliso Creek rest stop on Interstate 5 because he says it is a staging area for illegal aliens hoping to slip by the INS checkpoint south of San Clemente.

Chances: Good, especially since Camp Pendleton Marines want it too.

Nolan Frizzelle

LIFE SUPPORT

Elected in 1980, the Fountain Valley assemblyman wants to make sure that people who waive their right to life-support systems realize it also means withdrawal of food and water.

Chances: Fair to good. A disclosure law.

Cecil N. Green

SCHOOL TRUANCY

Elected in 1987, the Norwalk senator wants to cut truancy by having school districts report actual pupil attendance each day and not take into account excused absences.

Chances: Good. A similar bill nearly made it through the Legislature last year.

Frank Hill

NO-FAULT

This second-year Whittier senator--he formerly was an assemblyman--wants to make auto insurers carry $220-a-year, no-fault policies in exchange for greater protection against lawsuits.

Chances: Good. Last year, a similar measure nearly passed. Support from Gov. Pete Wilson could put it over the top.

Ross Johnson

OPEN RECORDS

The 12-year La Habra assemblyman wants to reverse a recent law that makes all Department of Motor Vehicles information confidential.

Chances: Fair to good, if the Assembly Republican leader is not too distracted by reapportionment and the state budget crisis.

John R. Lewis

DESERT STORM

This 10-year assemblyman from Orange wants to allow spouses of Desert Storm combatants to be able to file joint income tax returns.

Chances: Slam dunk. You couldn’t pick a safer bill to pass.

Tom Mays

OIL DRILLING

With memories of the oil spill still fresh, the Huntington Beach Assembly rookie hopes to capitalize by making all unleased tracts of state tidelands wildlife sanctuaries and off limits to oil drilling.

Chances: Good to excellent. Mays has carefully cultivated support from both sides of the aisle and in both houses of the Legislature.

Edward R. Royce

WELFARE CHEATS

The eight-year Anaheim senator would encourage statewide use of a county program for early detection of welfare fraud.

Chances: Excellent. This bill was signed into law last year but was overturned on a technicality relating to the legislative process.

Tom Umberg

GYPSUM CANYON

The rookie assemblyman from Garden Grove touched off a local furor with his bill making it easier for the Board of Supervisors to condemn land for the proposed Gypsum Canyon jail.

Chances: Fair to good. He has smoothed some ruffled feathers, and the Irvine Co. has agreed to remain neutral.

Compiled by Ralph Frammolino and Danny Sullivan / Los Angeles Times