Wilson Chips Away at Threat of Taco Bell Leaving Orange County

Gov. Pete Wilson, wrapping up a three-state tour to drum up business for California, met Thursday with a sister company of Taco Bell and urged the firm’s top executives not to move the fast-food chain’s headquarters out of California.

Wilson, joined by a bipartisan legislative delegation, asked Frito-Lay Co. officials for their help in keeping Taco Bell’s headquarters in Irvine, where the company employs about 800 people.

“We are very eager to see them stay,” Wilson told reporters after the meeting with about half a dozen Frito-Lay executives.

The tour--a reflection of Sacramento’s newfound activism as California belatedly joins other states aggressively recruiting business--brought Wilson face to face with complaints about bureaucracy, especially at the local level.

That was a recurring theme, as the contingent traveled through Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago and Dallas. The group met with executives from more than 20 companies, nearly all of which already have operations in California.

“They’ve said: ‘The state has done some good stuff. There’s more you need to do, but, by the way, local government is not as enthusiastic about expanding the jobs base as state government has been,’ ” Assembly Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga said.

Wilson added that some local governments “do a very good job and work very hard at it. Others can be downright hostile.”

Taco Bell has said it is considering a move, and that it hopes to get a decision by March from its officials and those of Pepsico Inc., which owns both the fast-food chain and Frito-Lay. Wilson Administration officials said the governor made his case to executives of Frito-Lay, based in Plano, Tex., in case they have a say in the decision.

Wilson has not met with Taco Bell Chief Executive John Martin, although aides said the governor has been trying to reach him. Taco Bell executives have met with a state-sponsored “red team” that is charged with keeping companies from moving out of California.

Several states--including Texas, North Carolina and Georgia--have been courting Taco Bell.

Frito-Lay executives complained to the delegation that local officials in Rancho Cucamonga have thwarted the company’s plan to invest $5 million in expanding a warehouse. As a condition of approval, they said, the city demanded that the firm spend $1.5 million on utilities, sewer construction, landscaping and street work.

City Planner Brad Buller disputed that account. Frito-Lay has completed several expansions in Rancho Cucamonga, he said in a phone interview. In each case, the permit process “was very amicable,” Buller said.

“My recollection is that every expansion they’ve requested has been done.”

Political campaign funds paid for the governor’s trip; the taxpayers footed the bill for his staff and the legislators traveling with him.

Wilson said he thinks the trip will pay dividends later, when the companies he visited decide whether they will expand in California or in neighboring states.

Wilson was able to make one announcement during the trip. In Chicago, he disclosed that R. R. Donnelly & Sons, which publishes business directories, has decided to invest $27 million to expand its operations in Torrance. The company, which employs 633 people in the state, will add 35 jobs, he said.

Meanwhile, Ohio-based Procter & Gamble announced that a consolidation of its California operations will result in the loss of about 600 jobs. The company said it will close a coffee plant in San Francisco, cut operations at a Sacramento chemicals facility and streamline a Modesto diaper plant.

“Sometimes we win on these reorganizations,” Wilson said, “and sometimes we lose.”

Weintraub reported from Dallas; Johnson reported from Orange County.