Sexually Harassed? Step to the Back of a Long Line

In Washington this week, senators appeared dumbstruck at the prospect of a woman failing to take immediate action after being sexually harassed at work.

Here in California, victims face a two-month wait to even meet with a state investigator to discuss the possibility of filing a complaint.

The lengthy appointment process is due in part to an increasing caseload. Last year, 1,744 work-related sexual harassment complaints were filed with the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing--double the number filed five years ago.

Yet at the same time, the department’s budget was slashed by $2 million from its previous $12-million level.

Fewer than 20% of the 10,594 work-related complaints filed on the grounds of sex, race, religion, handicap or age discrimination were settled with the department’s help. In 25% of all cases, fed-up victims with the financial ability decided instead to hire lawyers and fight their alleged harassers in court.

In total, only four of the cases filed last year were resolved by hearings before the Fair Employment and Housing Commission.

In the midst of the Clarence Thomas confirmation battle, Gov. Pete Wilson drew fire this week for vetoing a bill that would have allowed the commission to award damages from employers to harassment victims. Critics say the veto is but the latest example of the state’s laissez-faire attitude.

CAPITOL INSIDER

Public executions?: Among the latest in novel state ballot initiatives is the proposal of a Burbank group called Californians for Constructive Capital Punishment.

The initiative, requiring 384,974 voter signatures to make the 1992 ballot, calls for executions to be held in public near the location of the crime with the convicting jury in attendance.

Method of execution--gunshot, hanging, electrocution or beheading are the choices--would be up to the victim’s survivors. The proceeding would be televised and the executioner would be selected from a pool of bidders. As for souvenir vendors, they’d be welcome to work the crowd.

Sign of the times: The state Legislature suffered a new indignity at the recent auction of the late Sammy Davis Jr.’s personal possessions.

A framed proclamation from Assembly Speaker Willie Brown went for $55 less than a similar one from the city of Los Angeles, which drew a $385 winning bid.

The way we were: When it comes to history museums, California might well be labeled the forgive- and-forget state.

On Veterans Day next month, celebrated cartoonist Bill Mauldin is scheduled to appear at the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit.

According to a museum newsletter, Patton was once so angered by a Mauldin cartoon mocking his strict GI dress code that he called for the cartoon to be banned and the cartoonist to be replaced.

And then there’s the story Daniel Ellsberg tells about his recent visit to the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda.

Two decades after leaking the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg was asked for identification when he tried to pay by check for a book about the Nixon era.

Turning to the tome’s index, Ellsberg says, he pointed out his name. Rather than recoil, the gift shop operator--apparently with no idea just who was standing across from her--smiled and asked him to autograph a copy.

“To Peace,” he wrote. “Daniel Ellsberg.”

MEDIA WATCH

Off and running: In a report on 10 unknown presidential hopefuls who have filed statements of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission, the New Republic cites three dark horses from the Golden State.

Elijah Anderson Omega of Palmdale says he would seek to forbid females under 18 from having sex.

David Hornberger says he anticipates difficulties winning because “the Republicans and Democrats are not going to relinquish power without shooting someone.” The Covina resident survived a previous run in 1980.

Finally there’s Kip Lee. The Redding resident’s agenda, the magazine reports, includes a pledge to help facilitate the second coming of Jesus Christ. Lee also promises to release four powerful outer space beings that he says the U.S. government has been holding in Dayton, Ohio, for the last 40 years.

“Jerry Brown,” the article concludes, “the race is on.”

EXIT LINE

“California has always had a dual personality: North versus South, urban versus rural, rich versus poor. Periodically, these two Californias crack along a political fault line and it seems to be happening again with the latest effort to split the most populous state in two.”

--The Christian Science Monitor, reporting on a proposal by Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Oak Run) to create a 27-county state of Northern California, consisting mainly of rural counties north of Sacramento.

California Dateline appears every other Friday.

On Death Row

California’s Death Row population is the second largest in the nation, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. State correctional authorities say that 48.6% of California’s condemned inmates are white; 35.7% are black; 12.5% are Latino; and 3.2% are of other ethnicities. Two women are among those slated for execution at San Quentin. The ethnic and gender percentages are similar to those nationally. Below are the five states with the most prisoners awaiting execution as of August 23 . State: Prisoners Death Row Texas: 343 CALIFORNIA: 305 Florida: 297 Illinois: 139 Pennsylvania: 130

Here are the five California counties in which the most Death Row prisoners have been sentenced. Percentage indicates the number of all the state’s current Death Row inmates that were sentenced in each county.

Calif. % From From County County County *Los Angeles 29.5% 92 *Sacramento 7.4% 23 *Orange 6.7% 21 *Alameda 6.1% 19 *San Bernardino 5.8% 18

SOURCE: NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, New York; California Dept. of Corrections, Sacramento.

Compiled by Times editorial researcher Tracy Thomas