A Mighty Lack of Curiosity About a Leak

A week has passed since the recent unpleasantness burst upon Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

The episode revolves around that most titillating form of political document, the leaked memo. In this memo, a tobacco industry lobbyist describes Speaker Brown plotting with tobacco officials to end the authority of local governments to impose tough smoking regulations.

The Speaker purportedly suggests a “Comprehensive Tobacco Control Act” that he would help usher through the Legislature. It would be sold as a get-tough bill on smoking but in reality its purpose would be otherwise: the preemption of local authority.

“The Speaker,” the memo states, “believes the trick of doing this would be that such an act would have to have the ‘appearance’ of a comprehensive scheme.”

OK. Here we have the most powerful legislator in the state seemingly caught in the act of foisting a trick on the people of California. His scheme is as cynical as anything you might have imagined. And, to no one’s surprise, we also learn that considerable money has changed hands between the tobacco companies and the Speaker.

So here’s the question: after taking a week to absorb the damning evidence, what has been the response of Sacramento’s ethics committees and watchdog agencies?

That’s right. Nothing.

Now let’s be clear about something first. We don’t know that Speaker Brown is guilty. Perhaps the memo was faked by the American Cancer Society, which disclosed it to journalists, or even by the tobacco companies themselves for Machiavellian reasons.

Supposing that the memo is real, the writer may have exaggerated or misstated the Speaker’s remarks. Speaker Brown, in fact, has suggested all these possibilities and denies his role as one of the tobacco plotters.

In any case, what we have are several intriguing possibilities.

One, Speaker Brown conspired to create sham legislation after accepting about $260,000 in donations from the tobacco industry over the last five years, and he should be held to answer for his actions.

Two, he is the victim of a vicious political trick--or even a colossal mistake--and should be exonerated.

Whichever way it turned out, the resolution would be cleansing. Suspicion would be confirmed or laid to rest. We would know who betrayed us, and how.

But thus far, not one political figure in Sacramento--at least, none within my hearing--has suggested an inquiry into the tobacco plot. The state Capitol has turned out to be a place with a surprising lack of curiosity.

After thumbing through the state phone book, I discovered to my mild surprise that two ethics committees exist in the Legislature. One oversees Senate matters only, so I marked it off. The other, however, is titled the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee. I dialed their number.

But the news was not good. The committee has announced no investigation of the tobacco plot, I was told by the committee’s counsel, Anthony Marquez.

“Maybe later?” I asked.

Maybe, Marquez replied. He was not at liberty to say. The committee’s initial inquiries usually remain secret. Only when the committee finds probable cause does it reveal its activities.

I asked if Marquez could recall the last time the committee found enough probable cause to go public. Marquez could not recall. But that was understandable. He had only arrived in 1989.

It was much the same at the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission. A cheerful spokeswoman told me the putative tobacco plot did, indeed, fall within the investigative sweep of the commission. What’s more, she said, “a file has been opened.”

“Aha!” I chirped. “ Getting any good stuff?”

There was a pause. Not exactly, she said. So far the file contained only newspaper clippings. It turns out that many files get opened at the FPPC. Only a few grow into true investigations.

And so it goes. Over the past decade in Washington, Congress has proved capable of making at least occasional inquiries into the more flagrant breaches of its members’ conduct. It is difficult, in fact, to try to recall a time in recent years when no ethics investigation was taking place in Congress.

But not in Sacramento. Inquiries on ethical matters get left to the FBI. The fact that the tobacco plot memo could come and go without investigation surprised nobody. It was, after all, just another Willie Brown story, another chance to watch the Speaker dodge and weave, all those things that he does best.