Wilson Signs Bill Restricting Gifts to Officials

Gov. Pete Wilson announced Friday that he had signed a bill that would toughen limits on gifts and perks collected by local government officials statewide, a measure sparked by revelations last year of excessive spending and gift-taking at an Orange County water district.

Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) began pushing the bill after reading accounts in The Times about gifts and extravagant expense accounts rung up by two top officials at the Santa Margarita Water District.

“I think this will make a big difference,” Umberg said, after learning that his bill would become law. “It will dramatically reduce taxpayer-funded limousine rides. . . . It will also hopefully eliminate instances where we see public officials receiving $40,000 in gifts.”

The governor signed the measure late Thursday, but did not notify Umberg or announce it to the public until Friday. The bill, which takes effect Jan. 1, did not receive a negative vote in either the Senate or the Assembly.

In a prepared statement, Wilson said the measure will hold local officials to the “same tough standards” required of state lawmakers for gifts and perks. Citing the Santa Margarita scandal, Wilson said “all elected officials must remember who they work for--the citizens who put them in office.”

At the Santa Margarita Water District, where officials had enacted a virtual ban on gifts to district officials and workers last year, board members said they were pleased with the new law.

“It’s long overdue, very appropriate and a long time coming,” said Sean Barrett, who joined the board shortly after the scandal erupted. “This is something that has been happening throughout private industry so there’s no reason it shouldn’t be happening in the public sector.”

Under the bill, gift restrictions and other laws that currently apply to state lawmakers will be extended to include elected officials and employees at a special district or local government such as a city, county or school district.

All honorariums are banned. Gifts will be restricted to a total of $250 or less each year from any single donor. Currently, there is a $1,000 restriction. In addition, the bill requires that local officials report all gifts worth more than $50.

Umberg’s measure also would add tough disclosure requirements for special districts such as Santa Margarita. Special districts will be required to make a public report if an employee or elected director were reimbursed with taxpayer dollars totaling $100 or more for meals, lodging, travel expenses or other costs.

The districts also would be required to publish a tally of all reimbursements of $100 or more in a document published at least annually. Umberg contends the disclosure statements, which could be perused by the public and press, should curtail abuses as much as anything.

“Both Assemblyman Umberg and Gov. Wilson should be congratulated for enacting this into law,” said William R. Mitchell, chairman of Orange County Common Cause. “Unfortunately, it takes a political scandal for politicians to remedy a situation like this. It should put municipalities on notice that they should adopt a total gift-ban ordinance.”

Although the bill did not attract any significant opposition, groups representing special districts raised concerns with Umberg about the disclosure statements, suggesting they represented an onerous task that would not prove particularly enlightening to the public.

Special districts typically handle water, sewer or waste disposal duties, often in unincorporated regions. In California alone, there are more than 3,000 special districts. The bill would also apply to air pollution control districts, maintenance districts and redevelopment agencies.

The measure is the second effort undertaken by an Orange County lawmaker to contend with the type of problems that came to light because of the Santa Margarita Water District scandal. Last year, Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) pushed through a new law that changed how the water district’s directors were elected, making them more accountable to the public instead of large landowners.

As one of two surviving “landowner districts” in Orange County, the directors of the Santa Margarita and Los Alisos water districts have been elected under a system that awarded votes exclusively to landowners on the basis of one vote for each dollar of the land’s value on county property tax rolls. Conroy’s legislation changes the election system to a one-person, one-vote system open to all registered voters living in the district.

The two legislative actions were prompted by stories in The Times which revealed that the district’s two top managers, Walter W. (Bill) Knitz and Michael P. Lord, accepted more than $40,000 in meals, fishing trips, golf games, and other gifts and entertainment from companies that relied on their help in securing contracts from the district.

The newspaper articles also triggered an investigation by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, which last month filed 38 misdemeanor criminal charges against Knitz and Lord, alleging that they repeatedly failed to disclose gifts from business people and then took actions on their behalf in violation of state conflict-of-interest laws.

Prosecutors are still trying to decide whether to file charges against former board chairman Don B. Schone and district engineer William B. Dye, who also accepted gifts in excess of state-mandated limits from companies they recommended for contracts.