Conservancy Is Braced for Battle as State Funding Ax Looms

BUDGET BATTLE: Joseph T. Edmiston, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy executive director with the physical profile and tenacity of a grizzly bear, is gearing up for battle to retain his share of the state budget.

In a blow to Edmiston and his crew, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill recommended this week that the governor and the Legislature cut the conservancy completely out of the state’s general fund.

That would mean eliminating the already modest $100,000 allocation that Gov. Pete Wilson proposed for the conservancy in the 1995-96 budget year.

Hill reasons that since the conservancy is not scheduled to get any extra state funds for capital outlay such as parkland acquisition, there won’t be much for the conservancy to do. So with the workload reduced, the state’s $100,000 won’t be needed.

Additionally, she argues, state legislators intended for the conservancy to become self-reliant by 1995, acting as a magnet for private, local and federal dollars, but no longer depending on state money.

Edmiston says Hill fails to take into account the conservancy’s success in attracting federal and local money as well as donations from the private sector.

“Basically, what the Legislative Analyst’s Office has done is punished us for being successful in getting (other) money and saying . . . we are going to cut back the state allocation,” Edmiston said. “That’s going to be a real kick in the pants to the organization.”

If the Legislature approves Hill’s recommendation, Edmiston predicted, the conservancy will be further downsized. Some contracts might get canceled, he said.

Furthermore, it will cost the conservancy a lot more than $100,000 because of lost support services--such as legal or real estate services--that the state extends to agencies included in the general fund. With that taken into account, Edmiston estimates the true price-tag could tally $300,000.

“I think we have to make the Legislature aware of what the facts are, that cutting our general fund monies down to zero is frankly sending the wrong signal,” Edmiston said.

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BUCKS FOR BILL: Anyone asking Mavis McNalley why she gave money to President Clinton’s legal defense fund should prepare for an impassioned answer.

“We are deeply appalled how this Republican party has gotten in control,” said McNalley, who, along with husband, Stephen, donated $200 to the cause because “no one’s defending the Democrats.”

The President established the fund last year to pay for legal bills--now estimated at more than $1 million--stemming from a sexual harassment charge from former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones.

Besides the McNalleys, two other San Fernando Valley residents chipped in to aid the Clintons. Marsha Posner, a television producer from Sherman Oaks, gave $1,000 and Steven H. Jacobsohn of North Hollywood donated $200, according to a list of people who contributed at least $200 released by the Presidential Legal Expense Trust.

The McNalleys say they have long been politically active. They’ve registered as members of both major parties at different times and were accused of having Communist sympathies in the 1950s when Stephen worked in the legal department at a major studios.

The sexual harassment charges, Mavis McNalley says, lack credibility and, at any rate, are fueled by Clinton’s enemies. That makes it just another cheap shot as far as she’s concerned.

But what really bothers the couple--both veterans of World War II--are critics who question the President’s right to be commander-in-chief.

“No one with any dignity questions someone’s patriotism,” she said.

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SPENDING HABITS: Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who coasted to reelection in November, leads his San Fernando Valley colleagues by a bundle in the size of his campaign war-chest.

Year-end figures released by the Federal Elections Commission show Waxman had $420,929.95 on hand as 1994 closed. Next was Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale), whose financial report showed $30,499.59.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) had enough to buy a good used car, $6,006.47.

The rest of the delegation was in the red.

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), who fought off a strong challenge by Rich Sybert, showed a negative balance of $18,458.35. Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), who soundly defeated James Gilmartin, was $21,768.49 in the hole.

Sybert, who intends to challenge Beilenson again in 1996, was in the worst financial straits of all. He spent nearly $1 million and had a year-end deficit of $566,877.29.

FEC records show the average candidate nationwide spent $132,619 for the chance to serve in Congress. Waxman was the only local lawmaker who spent below that figure--$36,165.47. Beilenson and Moorhead led the pack, spending $511,120 and $751,785.37, respectively, to hold onto their seats.

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PACKIN’ HEAT: The things you learn about school board members.

A Board of Education committee recently heard details of a Los Angeles Unified School District proposal offering rewards to students who tattle on classmates caught carrying weapons, dealing drugs or vandalizing campuses.

The program would be underwritten by the San Fernando Valley chapter of Safari Club International, a nonprofit group of sport hunters. Bill Gillespie, who initiated the proposal with the school district police, told board members that his group understands the potentially tragic effects guns can have on school campuses.

“As hunters, we are acutely aware of guns and the importance of the safe-handling of weapons,” Gillespie said.

It was then that board member Barbara Boudreaux admitted that she knows first-hand about guns. “I shot my first gun at age 7 when I was taught to hunt in Mississippi,” Boudreaux said. “I know what guns can do.”

Boudreaux didn’t elaborate on what--if anything--she shot.

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OUT OF LEFT FIELD: State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica)--college teacher and author, demanding boss and ambitious politician--is brimming with weighty thoughts and goals.

He wants to curb the spread of government corruption, inspire modern society to re-examine itself and help redefine the California dream.

But never accuse him of losing sight of what really matters.

Among the legislative measures awaiting action in the Assembly is Hayden’s Senate Joint Resolution No. 8, sparingly described in the official Senate record as “relative to professional baseball.”

Hayden has noted in speeches that leisure time for the average working person has dropped from 26 hours a week 20 years ago to 16 hours a week now. With free time dwindling, what’s a person to do to make the most of it without . . . baseball?

Enter Hayden’s resolution: “. . . Whereas, a continuing strike threatens the 1995 professional baseball season . . . the Legislature of the State of California respectfully memorializes the Governor of California and the President and the Congress . . .to act quickly to mediate and resolve the crisis.”

Would you expect anything less from a man who keeps a bat, balls and gloves in his legislative office, and has been spotted making the most of his shrinking leisure time playing catch on the lawn of the Capitol?

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VOICELESS VALLEY?: When the Los Angeles Board of Education districts were reorganized three years ago, several San Fernando Valley-based groups complained bitterly that they would lose representation despite the fact that the Valley would be split among four--rather than two--board districts.

In this spring’s northeast Valley District 5 race, no candidates have emerged from the Valley.

“It’s not an I-told-you-so, it’s more a fear coming true,” said Harriet Sculley, the president of the 31st District Parent Teacher Student Assn., which covers the San Fernando Valley. “Can somebody in that district truly represent everybody ?”

The candidates--all from that other side of the hill--are competing for the board seat being vacated by Leticia Quezada, who also lives outside the Valley.

This column was reported by Times staff writers Cynthia H. Craft in Sacramento, Marc Lacey in Washington, D.C., Beth Shuster in Los Angeles and Peter Roberson of States News Service in Washington, D.C.