Assembly OKs Bill Cutting Staff, Salaries : Legislature: Measure would eliminate 190 public information officers and reduce wages for some state commission members. Overall, about $51 million would be saved next year.

Sending shudders through the bureaucracy, the Assembly on Thursday approved a bill to eliminate 190 state public information officers, reduce salaries for members of 11 state boards and commissions, and cut travel budgets in half.

A 51-11 bipartisan vote sent the measure sponsored by Assemblywoman Valerie Brown (D-Sonoma) to the Senate. The Senate has approved one part of the package: to reduce salaries on boards and commissions to the $52,500 paid to state lawmakers. Overall, the bill would save the state $51 million next year.

If successful in the upper house, the Brown bill will go to Gov. Pete Wilson for his signature or veto. Assembly Republicans called it a “jam it to the governor” bill during lower house floor debate, accusing majority Democrats of “playing partisan games.”

But Brown said her legislation “tells the people of California, given the tremendous state budget problems of this year, that (the Legislature) can do what (we) promised to do--cut state government first. We are facing some very, very difficult times ahead.”

Members of such state bodies as the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, Agricultural Labor Relations Board, Public Utilities Commission, Energy Commission, Public Employment Relations Board, State Water Resources Board and the Workers Compensation Appeals Board would have their $88,062 yearly salaries slashed to the $52,500 level.

Brown rejected a series of GOP-sponsored amendments that would have abolished some state boards and commissions for even more savings, which is favored by Assemblyman Richard L. Mountjoy (R-Arcadia).

“Politicians need a soft landing place when they leave the Legislature because of term limits under the voter-approved Proposition 140,” Mountjoy said, criticizing the practice.

He said they were the kind of appointments that Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) enjoy making.

But Assembly Majority Leader Thomas M. Hannigan (D-Fairfield) fired back that the governor has made the majority of appointments to the various bodies. He cited a number of former GOP legislators picked by Wilson to fill those spots.

Hannigan--one of the no votes--also called the $52,500 salary cap arbitrary because it has no relationship to the amount of work done by the various bodies.

In the case of the state public relations officers, some agencies are hoping to rescue the jobs and the individuals who would fall under the ax by reclassifying the positions as something other than public relations.

Secretary of State March Fong Eu’s press office sent out a recent press release saying that revised duties include “legislative and constituent services” in addition to answering press inquiries. More state agencies are expected to follow suit.

Out-of-state travel for state employees also would be prohibited except if required by law or designed to generate more state revenue.

The approved Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), would not restrict travel or eliminate the state public information officers. It passed this month by a 22-15 vote, one more than the simple majority vote required.