State Official Convicted of Filing False Expenses : Courts: Board of Equalization member pleads no contest in deal with prosecutor. His status as an officeholder is uncertain.

William M. Bennett, a war hero who became a self-appointed ethical watchdog on the State Board of Equalization, pleaded no contest Friday to a misdemeanor charge that he filed false travel expenses.

Municipal Court Judge Jane Ure fined the 74-year-old officeholder the maximum $1,000 and placed him on probation for a year. The judge also ordered Bennett to make $5,500 restitution to the state and to perform 200 hours of community service.

Bennett’s decision to plead no contest to the misdemeanor charge created uncertainty over his status as a member of the State Board of Equalization, the five-member elected panel that administers the state’s business taxes and hears appeals on state income tax cases. Bennett’s attorney insisted that he had a right to continue in office, but a spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson said it appears he will have to give up his seat.

As part of a plea agreement, Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Steve White formally dropped a 23-count felony complaint that had accused Bennett, a Democrat, of collecting reimbursement from the state for thousands of dollars in hotel, meal and other travel expenses that he did not incur.

The single misdemeanor charge involved a June, 1988, claim for reimbursement for travel from Bennett’s Marin County home to a board meeting in Sacramento. The district attorney said Bennett sought full per diem--a payment of $82 a day meant to cover the costs of meals and hotel--when he did not stay at a hotel but returned home every night.

James Lee, Wilson’s deputy press secretary, said the governor is required by state law to appoint a replacement for any officeholder who is convicted of an offense involving his official duties. He said the governor had taken similar action last year when another member of the board, Paul Carpenter, was convicted in U. S. District Court of four counts of racketeering, extortion and conspiracy.

“The initial reading from our legal office is that (Bennett’s) seat is vacant,” Lee said.

With Democrats now holding a bare majority, an appointment by the Republican governor is expected to give the GOP control of the board for the first time in years.

Although Bennett’s attorney, James J. Brosnahan, would not say he would fight an attempt to remove his client from his seat, he insisted that the governor’s office was misreading the law. “There is no legitimate legal way to remove him from the board,” he said.

Brosnahan said that his client may resign voluntarily, saying that Bennett would take the next couple of weeks to decide “whether or not he wants to remain on the board.”

Bennett’s colleagues, meanwhile, expressed concern that the latest criminal case against a board member would further damage the agency’s image.

“I’m personally disappointed that this agency has suffered another blow to its reputation,” said board member Matthew Fong, a Republican who was appointed by Wilson to replace Carpenter.

Added board Chairman Brad Sherman, a Democrat: “I can’t imagine that this has done us any good.”

Board member Ernest J. Dronenburg, a Republican, criticized the Sacramento County district attorney for accepting a plea bargain, saying it appeared to be no bargain at all for the state considering that 23 charges had been filed against Bennett.

“I only have one question of Mr. White,” Dronenberg said. “Why did he bring a 23-count felony complaint if he was going to settle for one misdemeanor?”

Dronenberg, the only member of the board to suggest that Bennett should resign, said if any state workers had been accused of similar crimes they would have been fired immediately, but Bennett had so far been allowed to retain his $95,000-a-year job. “This causes a dual standard that should not be tolerated,” he said.

In Municipal Court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Fred Meyer told the judge he believed the plea bargain was reasonable because it was doubtful that Bennett would have drawn a heavier sentence even if he had been convicted of a felony.

Meyer said Bennett’s age, his lack of a criminal record and his four decades of public service made it unlikely that he would ever be sentenced to a jail term. “We don’t feel the outcome would have been any different,” Meyer said.

As part of the agreement with the district attorney’s office, Brosnahan said he planned to challenge prosecutors’ interpretation of the state’s travel regulations in a higher court. He said he will argue that because legislators can collect a per diem without staying overnight, elected officials like Bennett should be allowed to do the same.

A highly decorated bomber pilot in World War II, Bennett first won election to the Board of Equalization in 1970. Throughout his career on the board, Bennett refused to take campaign contributions and frequently drew attention to other board members who accepted political donations and then voted on matters affecting their contributors.