Valley-Area Legislators: A Look at ’93 Scoreboard

One lawmaker set out to whittle down the state bureaucracy, filing bills to abolish seven boards and commissions. Another made splitting up the huge Los Angeles Unified School District look like a distinct possibility. Others tackled crime, the economy and health care measures in a year when it seemed foolish not to.

For some San Fernando Valley area lawmakers, the 1993 legislative year shaped up to be a heady period of hard-won victories. For others, it was a year of disappointment and hard knocks.

As a whole, the Valley-area delegation is lagging a bit behind the Legislature’s 35% overall bill-signing success rate, with 29% of its bills ascending into law.

But tallying up how many bills were written, passed by colleagues and signed by the governor is just one measure of a lawmaker’s effectiveness. And because the two-year legislative session is only half over, members point out that they still have time to wrap up the job when they return to the Capitol in January.

Until then, a glance back reveals a year at times peppered with high political drama, as Assemblyman Richard Katz regained his stride after getting trounced in his bid for Los Angeles mayor, as Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight apologized for distributing an anti-immigrant poem, and as Assemblyman Pat Nolan was indicted in the FBI’s political corruption probe.

Legislative highlights include Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman’s victory in getting a 2-cent tax added to a pack of cigarettes to fund breast cancer research and detection--no small task given the tobacco lobby’s substantial budget and political might in Sacramento.

Also, Sen. Tom Hayden pushed through a bill to require University of California regents to set pay and benefits in open session, and Sen. Newton Russell steered a bill preventing California from offering job placement and training to illegal immigrants.

Here is a look at some high and low points for delegation members from the San Fernando, Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys in 1993:

Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills)

Championing the cause of sex-crime victims, Boland got the law changed to enable victims to file criminal complaints without a statute of limitations.

She also pushed through a law that requires schools to suspend and expel students who bring weapons to campus or to school activities.

Another new law by Boland allows jurors to keep their identities secret, stemming from a case of juror harassment after the Simi Valley trial of four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney G. King.

Although Boland suffered the defeat of two bills aimed at helping to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District, she plans to tackle the subject again next year.

Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood)

Even before mobilizing an army of breast cancer survivors to lobby for the cigarette tax, Friedman had targeted other women’s, health and children’s issues.

Doctors and counselors now must be trained to spot and intervene in cases of domestic violence under a new law by Friedman.

Another law instructs the California Youth Authority to develop plans to educate disabled children it oversees; yet another bolsters funds to prevent child abuse.

But Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed two of her Medi-Cal-related measures, one ensuring that medical transportation costs are covered; the other that children receive preventive care such as immunizations as the state converts to managed care.

Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood)

One of Friedman’s big priorities was helping to keep Los Angeles County’s 18 juvenile probation camps up and running. His bill providing $36 million in camp funding was signed into law.

Arguing that the camps are better places to rehabilitate youthful offenders than the more hard-core California Youth Authority facilities, Friedman urged that they be spared from budget cuts.

The lawmaker’s other top agenda item was a bill to outlaw smoking in enclosed workplaces. It nearly died in the Assembly, after tobacco lobbyists urged its defeat, but was revived following a groundswell of support from backers. It now sits in a Senate committee, awaiting action next year.

Assemblyman Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena)

A Pasadena insurance executive whose district includes parts of Sunland and Tujunga, Hoge was elected in 1992 after pledging to battle government bureaucracy and regulation.

New laws by Hoge enable beer or wine makers to sell their products at a discount to certain nonprofit groups, require employers to notify employees when they have overpaid for unemployment insurance and mandate that insurance companies show proof of delivery when notices of cancellation are sent out.

He wrote a number of get-tough-on-crime bills that failed to pass the Assembly, including one that called for the death penalty for anyone committing three violent offenses.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar)

Katz says his biggest gain of the year occurred when he came to the aid of the city of Los Angeles during state budget negotiations. The city stood to lose up to $300 million during a property-tax shift engineered in Sacramento, and Katz said he was instrumental in reducing that to $20 million.

He also took part in the reform of the state workers’ compensation system, and pushed through a law that generates $130 million in loan money for small businesses.

Another Katz bill that became law authorizes state Department of Motor Vehicle offices to open on Saturdays.

Next year, Katz plans to work toward ironing out snags in the vehicle smog-check program, creating a free market for water in California and levying a surcharge on guns and ammunition to help fund trauma centers.

Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight (R-Palmdale)

Knight’s biggest moment in the spotlight came when he distributed a slangy anti-immigrant verse to fellow Assembly members, and then took the heat. The five-stanza poem, titled “I Love America,” mocked U.S. citizens for allowing illegal immigrants to receive some public services funded by taxpayers.

He produced seven bills to abolish state boards and commissions this year, including the Commission on the Status of Women, the Native American Heritage Commission and the California Arts Commission. All are stalled in the Assembly.

The new legislation he pushed through includes a law guaranteeing people with disabilities access to public buildings, another clarifying the parent-child relationship for adoptions and another requiring public utilities to charge discount rates, when available, at military bases that are converting to civilian use.

Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles)

The majority of Margolin’s bills so far are geared toward health care, including one that will establish California’s mechanism for the Clinton Administration’s reform effort.

One new law he wrote prohibits insurance companies that sell policies to one or two people from refusing to cover a pre-existing health condition.

Another protects doctors who work for managed-care health plans from retribution or firing should they recommend a costly procedure for their patients.

Margolin also pushed through a law forbidding the renewal of state trust fund investments in financial institutions that support the Arab League’s economic boycott of Israel.

Assemblyman Pat Nolan (R-Glendale)

Five years after his Capitol office was searched in a federal investigation, Nolan was indicted in April on political corruption charges. He has pleaded not guilty to six counts of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy and money-laundering charges.

The former Assembly Republican leader has introduced 20 bills this year. One of them, a measure to authorize the deployment of National Guardsmen at the U.S.-Mexico border, never made it out of the Assembly.

Of the bills that became law, one allows police to arrest suspects who violate protective orders and another re-enacts auto theft-related statutes that expired last January.

Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica)

In his first year in the Senate after 10 as an Assembly member, Hayden set out to shake up the process for confirming the governor’s appointments. He also focused on tightening oversight of the University of California regents, who came under fire for boosting compensation for administrators while increasing student fees.

New laws by Hayden crack down on stolen car “chop shops,” increase sentences for dealers who recruit children to sell drugs and add a Malibu-Calabasas representative to the Santa Monica Mountains committee that plans parkland acquisition.

One setback came early in the year when Hayden asked if it was absolutely necessary that he wear a tie on the Senate floor, as the dress code dictates. He was told yes.

Sen. David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys)

As the first legislator facing ouster from office because of voter-approved term limits, Roberti is expected next year to give up his Senate leadership role and focus on his remaining legislative agenda.

He promises to continue aiding the movement to split the Los Angeles Unified School District into smaller districts. Although his bill this year died in committee, he managed to advance the issue further along in the Legislature than it had gone in decades. He also pulled a number of other lawmakers aboard the breakup bandwagon.

New laws by Roberti include the closing of a loophole in his earlier law that forbids the sale of toy guns that appear real. Another law designed to speed up California’s economic recovery creates a matching grant program for defense conversion projects.

Roberti also played key roles in negotiating the investment tax credit for businesses and getting the state budget passed on time.

Sen. Don Rogers (R-Tehachapi)

Having pledged his opposition to environmental legislation, Rogers wrote numerous bills that make life easier for surface-mining operations. Only one, a bill limiting the amount of fees collected from certain mining operations, was signed into law this year.

Rogers, whose district includes Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita, also pushed through a new law that eliminates the need for a smog check whenever someone purchases a used car that has cleared a smog check within the 60 previous days.

Another new law for garlic and onion growers loosens reporting requirements on the progress of organic farming methods.

Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles)

At 75, Rosenthal is not only the most senior member of the delegation but last year he was the most prolific, writing more bills than any of the others. Under Senate rules that limit to 65 the number of bills each member brings to the floor, he has just 16 more chances to change the legal code.

His new laws freed up $18 million for a variety of energy programs, cracked down on cellular-phone fraud and gave landlords three weeks to return security deposits to tenants.

The governor vetoed a Rosenthal bill that would have provided bond assistance for clean-fuel vehicle and alternative-energy projects.

Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale)

Responding to the case of a Granada Hills woman who had sex with 10 teen-age boys, Russell spearheaded a new law that expands the definition of statutory rape to include boys as victims.

Another new statute is designed to heighten detection of child abuse by adding firefighters, humane officers and anima- control officers to the list of people required to report cases of abuse or neglect.

Russell also wrote a new law that would curb pension abuse in the public employees retirement system.

His disappointments included a failure to usher through a post-riot, law-and-order bill that would increase penalties for suspects fleeing police. It remains bottled up in the Senate.

Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley)

Also in her first year in the Senate after a decade in the Assembly, Wright wrote a number of measures making technical changes to hazardous-waste control laws.

Among those signed by the governor were bills exempting ground-water treatment facilities and laundry facilities from the requirement that they obtain special hazardous-waste permits.

Consumers may now get their eyeglasses fit or adjusted by a registered optician rather than having to go to doctor or optometrist, under another new law by Wright.

The senator also played a key role in protecting some local special districts from the state’s property tax shift last summer.

The Bill Box Score

Halfway through the two-year session, San Fernando Valley area legislators are taking stock of their accomplishments. Below is a tally of how their bills have fared in Sacramento so far.

ASSEMBLY BILLS SIGNED MEMBERS AUTHORED PASSED INTO LAW Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) 33 9 9 Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood) 25 12 9 Terry B. Friedman (D-Brentwood) 29 6 3 Bill Hoge (R-Pasadena) 16 4 3 Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) 21 5 5 William J. (Pete) Knight (R-Palmdale) 28 6 6 Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles) 38 17 15 Pat Nolan (R-Glendale) 20 6 6

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STATE BILLS SIGNED SENATORS AUTHORED PASSED INTO LAW Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) 42 9 6 David A. Roberti (D-Van Nuys) 29 14 11 Don Rogers (R-Tehachapi) 30 5 5 Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) 51 26 22 Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale) 42 14 14 Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) 37 15 14

Source: Legi-Tech bill-tracking service