Wilson’s First 100: Mr. Nice Guy Wows ‘Em Moderately : Sacramento: Goodby confrontation, hello compromise. But is the new governor wasting his popularity by achieving little?

Pete Wilson’s personal “water gate” typifies the governor’s first 100 days in office.

After chastising his Sacramento neighbors for their profligate use of water after five years of drought, Wilson discovered that, since moving into George Deukmejian’s former residence in January, he had used nearly triple the average amount of water his neighbors had. Asked to explain, State Resources Secretary Douglas Wheeler said a leaky swimming pool was “the responsibility of the previous administration.”

Ah, yes. Historically, new governors point with chagrin at the mess left them by their predecessors--with some justification. You can’t blame the drought on Deukmejian. But no one would fault Wilson for yelling bloody murder over the fiscal hash Deukmejian left behind.

How each new governor handles the budget inherited from the outgoing administration becomes a first test of his leadership. Every modern governor, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, bequeathed fiscal problems to his successor.

Edmund G. (Pat) Brown Sr. and Reagan, with legislative support, moved quickly to raise taxes. Deukmejian and the Democratic-controlled Legislature fought until the state hovered on the brink of disaster.

So far, Wilson has opted to play moderate nice-nice with the Legislature. Despite run-ins with lawmakers over a few issues, he has moved to exorcise the Capitol of the failures of confrontational leadership. Will he succeed? Soon?

When all is said and done, it may be acts of God and Man beyond Wilson’s control that shape his leadership and his ability to build and move a policy agenda.

Wilson is the first incoming chief executive in modern California history to be handed a double whammy of fiscal chaos and natural disaster. That makes it doubly difficult to gauge this governor’s early job performance.

Because no governor can do policy until he tackles his fiscal problems, little policy gets done within a governor’s first 100 days. The surest way to get a bead on a new governor’s policy priorities, leadership style and political philosophy is to look at the cast of characters he has put in place and the tone he has set for future actions.

Reagan’s appointments came from conservative ranks. Largely unfamiliar with Sacramento politics, they helped underscore Reagan’s us-vs.-them attitude toward government.

Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.’s appointments were significant for their diversity. Drawn from the ranks of ethereal ideologues and hard-nosed pols, they mirrored the governor’s diffuse and sometimes schizophrenic approach to government and policy.

Deukmejian’s early appointments were weighted heavily toward Republican activists and stalwarts of the state’s business community. Many had Sacramento experience. But though they knew their way around the Capitol, they were blocked from showing it by Deukmejian’s negative attitudes toward new programs and spending.

Wilson’s problem is the opposite. He has told Californians he intends to be active--but he doesn’t yet have the manpower to do it right. Although most of the governor’s top office staff is in place, many cabinet and department posts remain vacant.

Word around the capital is that it’s not because Wilson hasn’t tried to fill them. It’s because he keeps getting turned down by out-of-state choices who can’t afford California, can’t abide Sacramento and are scared off by the magnitude of the problems. There are few individuals courageous enough--or foolish enough--to sign on with the crew of the Titanic.

And those who might are confronted with a long and detailed questionnaire seeking information on almost every aspect of their personal and political lives. If only saints or virgins need apply, the Wilson administration is in for a rude awakening.

The administration insists that “the Wilson team is around the system, moving it.” Staffers are holding down the fort in agencies where heads have not yet been appointed, and when these slots are permanently filled, “change will be peripheral.”

Well, that may be another reason people are turning down ostensibly “top” jobs. And bureaucrats and legislators simply will not jump to staffers’ tunes. As a result, complained one supporter, Wilson doesn’t “have people out on the street working for him.”

In the critical areas of education, finance, water and environment, Wilson has made early appointments--and they underscore the high priority he has given these issues.

His early choices also symbolize Wilson’s concern for bipartisanship, politically correct diversity, moderation and a break from Deukmejian’s hard-line, conservative approach to policy. Many of Wilson’s top staff and department appointments reflect a Washington or San Diego bias. Outside the governor’s office, they are new to Sacramento politics, the Legislature and its quirks, and the fiscal crisis currently battering state government. More than one wag has noted that the Wilson administration looks more like the team of a potential presidential candidate than of a governor of California.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who has observed executive behavior since his election in 1980, agrees “what governors do in (their first) 100 days is set a tone and an attitude.” With Wilson, he says, “the difference is night and day. We’ve had more contact on water, on transportation, on criminal policy, in the last 100 days than we had in the previous eight years or the two years of Jerry (Brown) before that. It’s been phenomenal.”

Look at Wilson’s approach to water policy. Although there was criticism from some quarters that the governor should have moved quickly to declare a full-scale drought emergency, he chose to craft and implement a series of short-term fixes calculated to assuage the fears and mitigate the opposition of entrenched water interests.

Sure, that Wilson’s strategy appears to be working can be attributed as much to the luck of a month of heavy rains as to brilliant leadership. But equally important, say Sacramento observers, this governor is reaching out to water constituencies to plan beyond the crisis.

At a recent seminar on long-term water management, convened by State Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), representatives of the Wilson administration were arrayed on the dais next to Democratic legislators.

It was a sight the water community--bureaucrats and interest groups alike--hadn’t seen in at least eight years. In the room was a palpable sense of hope, that this was not just another political dog-and-pony show and something might actually get done.

Despite the gloom and doom, there is a sense around the Capitol that compromise is not impossible because communication is continuing. And--wonder of wonders--at least for now, a modicum of a civility has returned to the process. That is something new and different.

There is no lack of Wilson proposals: “preventive government,” a Growth Management Council, Cal-EPA, Healthy Start, no-fault insurance, structural budget reform. Californians should chart their progress carefully. Whether his programs are implemented and whether they are effective will constitute the basis on which Wilson’s first-term leadership ultimately will be judged. That’s a risk for the governor.

Pat Brown recently shared some advice he received during his first days in office. “You’ll never be as popular as on the day you took office,” he was told. That pushed him to move quickly toward a tax increase and a controversial bond issue that became the California Water Project.

As the days and months fly by, and the dilemmas that have driven the state remain unresolved, those words may well come back to haunt Wilson.