Allen Terminates GOP Caucus Staff : Assembly: Speaker says action is ‘not a purge,’ and employees may request interviews if they wish to stay on. Possible firings draw sharp criticism.

Throwing the Assembly into further disarray, Speaker Doris Allen announced Friday that she has sent termination notices to the entire staff of the Assembly’s Republican Caucus.

Insisting her action is “is not a purge,” Allen announced that she had instituted an “overall review” of Republican staffers, sending termination notices to the more than 90 people employed by the caucus. In a letter to disaffected Republican lawmakers, Allen said she was “somewhat surprised to learn” the size of the caucus staff.

Allen said she has “no intention of hobbling our staff” and assumes “changes will be minimal.” But Allen said the review was necessary “to establish the Speaker’s office and confirm the focus of our staff on the work that lies ahead.”

“This is a normal part of any change in management,” Allen said.

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The notices to staffers say they must contact Morgan L. Staines, Allen’s chief administrative officer, if they wish to continue working with the Assembly, and go through “the Speaker’s interview and staff review process” to keep their jobs.

At 4 p.m. Friday, members of the caucus staff were summoned to a meeting at which Assembly sergeants-at-arms handed them individually addressed letters. Among the recipients was the chief of staff to Assembly GOP Leader Jim Brulte, who lost out to Allen for the speakership when he failed to find Democrats who would support him.

“They’re downtrodden. You have a lot of people looking shell-shocked,” said one staffer who was at the meeting. “It’s never pretty when people get pink slips--especially when they do it at 4 o’clock Friday. They are undoing everything Jim Brulte did to actually improve and professionalize the staff.”

If Allen does not retain them, staff members would be fired effective June 30. The staffers are Republican loyalists who help GOP lawmakers write bills, help them avoid political mistakes and analyze Democratic bills. They are all political appointees and work exclusively for the GOP lawmakers. At election time, legislative staffers from both parties often take leaves to work on their patrons’ campaigns.

Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) decried the possible firings. Pringle said he assumes that staffers who have been “diligently doing their job to promote Republican causes may find their jobs in jeopardy,” adding, “that’s what the Democrats wanted to do when they gave Doris complete control without any involvement by Republican legislators.”

He pointed out that Alice Huffman, a onetime top official of the California Teachers Assn., which supports primarily Democrats, is helping Allen with the transition.

“If you were the Republican consultant promoting change in education and fighting the dominance of the CTA, you should be very nervous about the future of your job--and I think that’s shameful.”

Also on Friday, Allen dumped one of her GOP critics--fellow Orange County Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer (R-Newport Beach)--from the powerful Rules Committee. Brewer had said after Allen was elected Speaker with 39 Democrats’ votes and Allen’s own vote that Allen’s ascension “denigrates women, because Doris Allen is being used by Willie Brown,” the outgoing Speaker who helped engineer Allen’s election.

“It appears that Doris is carrying out the wishes of Willie Brown,” Brewer said Friday.

“Willie Brown has touted her as the first woman Speaker and one of her first acts is to dump a fellow Orange County Republican woman.”

Pringle, who stands to lose his position as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, also attacked Allen for sacking Brewer, saying: “Doris may have been celebrated as the first woman Speaker, but she’s quickly booting women out of all top positions they were appointed to. Shows you that Doris has one thing in mind: revenge and going after her political enemies.”

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At the same time, Republicans, using their newly rediscovered tactic of recalls, pressed ahead with an effort to dump Allen as well as Stockton-area Democratic Assemblyman Mike Machado. On Friday, Gov. Pete Wilson set the Machado recall election for Aug. 22, the middle of summer when voter turnout will probably be lower than normal.

Machado, a freshman lawmaker, ran afoul of Republicans for voting for Brown as Speaker in December. What makes the recall unusual is that Republicans are targeting a Democratic lawmaker for voting for a Democratic Speaker.

Recall proponents charge that Machado implied during the election that he would not vote for Brown. Machado says he never made such a suggestion, instead telling voters that he would be an independent voice.

“The main thing we have to do is get out and let people know what I’ve done,” Machado said Friday, citing several crime bills he is carrying and successful efforts to get water from New Melones Reservoir for farmers and city dwellers in his district. Machado will enter the recall knowing that turn-out will be low and that 18,082 voters signed petitions calling for his recall. Machado won his seat by fewer than 1,400 votes. He ended 1994 with a campaign debt of $94,000, after raising $658,000 to win the election--including $164,000 from a Brown-controlled campaign fund.

“In a low turnout scenario, it’s going to be tough,” said Richie Ross, Machado’s campaign manager. “If all those people who signed the petition voted [against Machado], it would be very difficult to win. The point is, we have to take it seriously.”

If Machado loses the recall and a Republican wins the seat, Republicans would probably enter the 1996 election with 42 Assembly seats to the Democrats’ 38.