Panel Backs Lottery Commission Appointee

The Senate Rules Committee voted Wednesday to recommend the confirmation of a Gov. Pete Wilson appointee to the state Lottery Commission after expressing concerns the agency had not done enough to attract competitive bids on some large contracts.

The vote on Daniel Apodaca came despite a request by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) that Apodaca’s appointment be rejected on the grounds that he and other commission members had not fulfilled their responsibility as watchdogs of lottery operations.

Commission members may serve on the committee for up to a year before their appointments must be confirmed by the Senate. Hayden, who is not a member of the committee, complained that Apodaca, a Pasadena accountant, voted to award several contracts in which there was only one bidder without checking to determine why the lottery’s staff had not obtained competitive bids.

He said the largest of these contracts, for $400 million, went to the GTECH Corp. of Rhode Island, a company that submitted the only bid to install, operate and maintain a computer system to run the lottery’s Keno, Lotto, Fantasy 5, Daily 3 and Decco games.

As the only accountant on the commission, Hayden said Apodaca should have done a better job as the panel’s “independent eyes and ears” in watching over the lottery’s books and finances.

Senate President Pro Tem David Roberti (D-Van Nuys), while agreeing that lottery commissioners had not done a good job seeking competitive bids, said the committee could not put itself in the position of “micro-managing” the lottery by refusing to recommend Apodaca’s appointment.

Apodaca said the five-member commission’s decisions were based on recommendations and research by the lottery’s staff and outside consultants. He said the failure of other companies to bid on the computer contract had “been a surprise to many of us,” but he still believed that the state had gotten a fair price.

Apodaca’s appointment comes up for confirmation by the full Senate today.