Governor Rejects Bill on Needle Exchange : Laws: Wilson also vetoes a measure setting liability requirements for licensing a low-level nuclear waste dump.

Gov. Pete Wilson has vetoed legislation that would have allowed local governments to distribute clean needles to drug users as part of comprehensive efforts to stop the spread of the deadly AIDS virus, his office announced Thursday.

Wilson, completing action on hundreds of bills sent to his desk at the end of the legislative session, also rejected two measures that would have expanded the state’s open-meeting law.

The Republican chief executive also vetoed a bill that would have established liability requirements for the licensing and operation of the proposed Ward Valley low-level radioactive waste dump.

The actions were among the governor’s last on 1,716 bills the Legislature passed this year, including 378 he signed or vetoed in September. Overall, Wilson signed 1,373 bills and vetoed 340. He allowed three measures to become law without his signature.

The needle exchange bill that Wilson vetoed would have required the state to approve a pilot project in San Francisco and to consider projects in other areas that would provide hypodermic needles and syringes to intravenous drug users.

The concept, which has been tried in other states and abroad, is aimed at slowing the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus by giving drug addicts an alternative to the dirty needles that are routinely passed from user to user, spreading disease.

In his veto message, Wilson said there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the programs are effective. He cited a study by the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy that he said concluded, “Distributing needles facilitates drug use and undercuts the credibility of society’s message that using drugs is illegal and morally wrong.”

Wilson also said he was concerned that the proposed needle exchange programs would become magnets for drug users. He cited an experiment in a park in Zurich, Switzerland, that was shut down after it “drew pushers and users from all over Europe.”

But supporters of the bill noted that the Swiss program’s downfall was blamed on a key element that California would not have allowed: police looked the other way as addicts injected their drugs at a public park.

While Wilson cited opposition from the nation’s drug abuse watchdogs, national experts on AIDS have said needle exchange programs work. The National Commission on AIDS, from which basketball star Earvin (Magic) Johnson resigned recently, advocates the programs as a key element in the battle against the disease.

“Our finding is that providing injection equipment did not seem to promote the use of drugs but did seem to reduce the transmission of HIV,” said Tom Brandt, associate director of the commission. He said the programs also are valuable because they provide contact between social workers and drug users that can lead to treatment.

Jim Lewis, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), said the governor, in rejecting the bill, “put politics ahead of the interests of the people of California.”

“The needle exchange bill had been carefully crafted by the law enforcement community in San Francisco as well as many neighborhood activist groups and was designed to ensure that the spread of the virus would be curtailed,” Lewis said.

Wilson also vetoed two bills that would have tightened the state’s 30-year-old Ralph M. Brown Act, which governs meetings of city councils, county boards of supervisors, school district boards and other agencies.

The bills, sponsored by the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., would have expanded the types of bodies subject to the open-meeting law, prohibited “retreats,” banned meetings in places that are inaccessible to the disabled, required more public notice of planned closed sessions and expanded the time available for citizens to challenge actions taken in violation of the Brown Act.

Wilson said he agreed with many of the bills’ provisions but vetoed it because the state would have had to reimburse local governments for the cost of implementing the measure.

Wilson rejected another measure that would have enacted liability requirements for the Ward Valley Facility in the Mojave Desert, creating a $25-million fund financed by a surcharge on those who deposit waste at the dump. The governor said his health and welfare secretary should retain responsibility for negotiating the agreement with the contractor who will run the dump.

The governor signed a bill, sponsored by two West Los Angeles Assembly members, to prohibit the investing of state funds with companies that support the Arab-led economic boycott of Israel.

“The signing of this bill into law sends another strong signal to the Arab states who have refused to trade with Israel . . . that this form of economic warfare will no longer be tolerated,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Wilson also vetoed:

* A bill aimed at garment district sweatshops that would have held manufacturers liable for labor law violations of the subcontractors they hire to run their factories. Wilson said holding the manufacturers responsible for mistreatment of workers would “only drive the garment industry out of state” to the detriment of the employees and the state’s economy.

* A measure that would have prohibited telephone solicitors from making unsolicited sales calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. Wilson said there was “not sufficient need established at this time to warrant state intrusion into the hours of operation of telemarketers.”

* Legislation that would have allowed a majority of voters in a school district to levy taxes for general school district purposes. Wilson said he supported additional school taxing powers but opposed this bill because it was too broad, allowing schools to tax business licenses, utility users and tourists, which are already taxed to support city and county governments.

* A bill to increase the weekly unemployment insurance payment from $230 to $250. Wilson said legislation passed in 1989 provided three consecutive years of benefit increases. But unlike that bill, the measure he vetoed did not provide any financial concessions to employers in exchange for the cost of higher benefits.

* A measure designed to guarantee California workers and businesses a greater share of the government’s business. The bill would have required state agencies to provide preference for California companies for any purchase of $100,000 or more. It also would have required that 50% of workers on state public works projects be California residents.

Wilson said the bill’s motivation was understandable but said he vetoed it because it was a “protectionist bill that would invite foreign retaliation” against California exporters.