Lobbyists Endure an Agonizing Defeat

For the lobbyists, it was war and they were losing.

As representatives of public employees and retirees, they were huddled together in a narrow hallway outside the state Senate chamber where lawmakers debated a bill the lobbyists had been battling for two weeks.

The measure would take $1.6 billion out of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to help solve the state’s budget crisis. The result, the lobbyists feared, would be lower benefits for 1 million state and local government workers and retirees who are members of the system.

In the two weeks since Gov. Pete Wilson and the leadership of the Senate had disclosed details of the pension fund deal, the lobbyists had won a few skirmishes. But by the waning hours of Friday, it was clear the battle had been lost.

The final deal will maintain the pensions of retirees at 75% of their original purchasing power, and the lobbyists had stirred up enough heat to persuade Wilson to back off his plan to take control of the board that governs what is the nation’s largest public pension system. Still, the outcome was far short of what they had hoped. Wilson will try to create a new authority that will set pension contribution rates, and the cost-of-living increases built into retirement payments do not come with a guarantee.

For the lobbyists, it was a hard lesson in reality. Despite traditional support from Democrats and a huge force of workers to promote their views, the budget deficit was just too large and the agreement too delicate a balance of political interests for employees to escape unscathed.

For a time Friday, the lobbyists believed they could turn the tide. Perhaps a few more lawmakers would stick by them and they could block the bill in the Senate. As the day wore on, these soldiers of the Capitol lobbying corps could only hope that the overall budget deal would fall apart and they might beat the measure in the Assembly. Soon they would learn the bill had been “speakerized”--that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) had put the power of his office behind it as part of the budget settlement.

But at first, prospects had seemed encouraging. It was shortly after 5 p.m. The first rounds of balloting in the Senate were completed and the vote stood at 20 to 11, seven short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass it.

The lobbyists were heartened, but still not optimistic.

“This is the time to go up to the gallery (the only vantage point to the chamber floor for visitors and lobbyists) and watch the arm-twisting,” one union lobbyist said.

After a few more rounds of voting, with the tally at 25 to 11, Steve Baker, a lobbyist representing Highway Patrol officers, forestry employees and others, wrote a note on the back of a business card and sent it in with a sergeant-at-arms to Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), one of the senators still holding out.

“Sen. Torres, Hang Tough!” the note read. But even before the message reached the Senate chamber, Torres voted for the bill. The tally was now 26-12.

“These guys have figured out who’s voting for us a long time ago,” said one especially weary union lobbyist. “This (slow count) is just a show for us.”

Two senators had still not cast their votes, Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and Ruben S. Ayala (D-Chino). Ayala was at home in Southern California, laid up after falling off a ladder and breaking a leg. “Ayala. Hart,” the clerk kept repeating. “Ayala. Hart.”

“I bet Hart goes ‘aye,’ ” said one of the lobbyists, noting that $300 million of the pension fund money would be used to help pay for a public education funding package that Hart had helped assemble.

While the Ayala-Hart mantra continued, Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale) walked into the hallway from the Senate chamber to give assurances to the lobbyists that the bill, whatever its shortcomings, would not harm government retirees.

If the purchasing power of pension payments should fall below the 75% promised in the bill, Russell said, “You’ll see a lineup of (senators) trying to introduce bills (in future years) . . . because we’ve never seen a retirement benefit we didn’t like.”

Finally, at 5:29 p.m., Hart cast his vote, surprising the lobbyists by voting no. The tally was now 26 to 13 with only the ailing Sen. Ayala unaccounted for.

“Now they’re going to switch a vote,” predicted one lobbyist.

“Who can we get to switch to no?” asked another. At 5:36 p.m., Sen. Alfred E. Alquist (D-San Jose), one of organized labor’s most steadfast supporters, rose to his feet and cast the deciding, 27th vote. Alquist explained that Ayala was prepared to return to Sacramento and vote for the plan. Rather than subject him to that, Alquist would change his no vote to aye.

“It’s just as well,” said Dave Low, a lobbyist for the California School Employees Assn. “It’s better to have a quick death than suffer a slow one.”

As senators left the main chamber on their way to dinner, a few came out to offer condolences. An officer of one employee union stood crying in a nearby corridor.

The lobbyists now shifted their attention to the Assembly, but here they felt they had even less hope.

Instead of trying to persuade members to vote the pension bill down, they filed into the Assembly gallery to watch the debate.

A few Democrats spoke in opposition. But Speaker Brown lectured his colleagues on the need to approve the bill, contending that the employee groups had rejected a more favorable proposal that would have taken only $1 billion out of the employees’ pension fund, rather than $1.6 billion.

“Now it’s our fault,” muttered one of the union lobbyists.

When Brown assured his colleagues that the proposal was fair to retirees, the lobbyist groaned. “This is getting nauseating.”

The Assembly’s electronic balloting was mercifully swift. Within minutes, the tally had reached 54 to 8, enough votes to send the bill to the governor for his certain signature, although Speaker Brown had yet to record the totals.

“Now you know what it feels like to be a squashed cat,” said one lobbyist to another.

Just before 7:30 p.m., Brown reopened the vote, bringing the final tally to 58 to 11.

Gathered under the Capitol rotunda, the lobbyists contemplated the future. There would be lawsuits, they promised, to overturn the legislation that had just passed. And, yes, because the pension issue was such an emotional one for government workers and retirees, there could be repercussions for the lobbyists themselves.

“They’re going to kill the messenger,” said one of the lobbyists. “My retirees are going to fry me.”