Brown Says Wilson Farm Aide Should Quit Over Charges

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) said Monday that state Agriculture Secretary Henry Voss should resign for allegedly violating conflict of interest regulations.

Gov. Pete Wilson’s office is reviewing charges by Consumers Union that Voss violated the regulations by receiving at least $450,000 from state-regulated farm interests since he took office in 1989.

Voss has blamed his problems on omissions in his annual disclosure statements that occurred because of bad advice from an unidentified attorney.

Wilson, who reappointed Voss in 1990, has said he is unhappy with Voss’ “sloppy” attention to detail in belatedly reporting his outside farm income.

“I think Mr. Voss should save Pete Wilson the pain (of firing him),” Brown said at an impromptu news conference. “If the things being said are true, and apparently most of them are, Mr. Voss should have already saved his man the embarrassment. I would hope that anyone whom I had appointed would do me that way. I think Mr. Voss is creating a problem for the governor.”

While Voss probably has not done anything wrong “from a theft or corrupt standpoint,” Brown said, it appears that the agriculture secretary was not “following the letter of the law.”

In response, Wilson’s spokesman, Sean Walsh, said, “Mr. Brown is entitled to his views and observations. While the governor’s office is undergoing its review of Mr. Voss, we will refrain from any comment.”

Emma Suarez, a Voss spokeswoman, said, “The secretary has no comment at this time.”

Consumers Union filed a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission earlier this year charging Voss with failing to comply with the Political Reform Act by failing to disclose outside income from his private farming interests, and called for an investigation into potential conflicts of interest.

Before joining the state Department of Food and Agriculture, Voss spent eight years as president of the California Farm Bureau, a farm lobbying group and major campaign contributor, which gave $37,000 to Wilson’s reelection effort last year.