ORANGE COUNTY IN BANKRUPTCY : Allen Joins Fray to Push O.C. Aid Package : Legislature: Speaker’s bill as session winds down gives no details. Her effort is met with anger and ridicule by other county lawmakers.

Scrambling to become a player in Orange County’s bankruptcy recovery effort, embattled Assembly Speaker Doris Allen began pushing a bill Wednesday to aid the fiscally strapped county.

Allen’s bold effort in the last days of the legislative year was met with ridicule from fellow Orange County lawmakers in the Capitol, who called it a bald attempt to help her blunt the momentum of the recall effort against her.

Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Newport Beach) angrily denounced Allen’s efforts, saying she was “placing her ego ahead of solving the problem for all of the residents of the county.”

“The one member of the Orange County delegation that, to date, has played absolutely no role to fashion a solution to the Orange County problem is Doris Allen,” said Johnson, who ran against Allen for a Senate seat earlier this year.

Over Johnson’s objections, the Senate voted to gut an Assembly bill and make Allen the author, and sent it toward a two-house conference committee, which will try to draft an aid package for Orange County and financially troubled Los Angeles County.

Allen, a Republican from Cypress, is facing a recall attempt backed by several other Orange County Republicans. Organizers say they are nearing their goal of collecting the 26,000 signatures needed to put the recall on the ballot. If that happens, any positive publicity from a bankruptcy recovery bill could help Allen’s cause.

Mike Pottage, Allen’s spokesman, defended the Speaker’s efforts to become an author of a recovery bill, saying that she had an Orange County recovery plan that “probably will be the solution that the conference committee will come up with.”

Defending the effort by Allen, Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) said there had been political reaction “on both sides of the matter. I would recommend that we ignore that for the moment.”

Lockyer said a conference committee would allow all parties to sit at one table and hammer out an acceptable bill for both Orange and Los Angeles counties.

“The problem is too severe and significant not to do our best policy work on it,” Lockyer said after the vote. “This is one that they need to go to work on as soon as possible.”

Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego), who steered the bill out of the Senate on Allen’s behalf, said later that the Speaker’s attempt to insert herself into the bankruptcy debate stems from a desire to avoid being recalled from office.

“It’s a recall thing,” Killea said after the debate. “She feels very strongly about it. They can say all they want about her ego, but they’ve got the recall against her.”

Allen’s bill now heads back to the Assembly, which must vote to send it to a conference committee made up of three representatives from each house of the Legislature. Bills from Killea and Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside) also appear headed toward the conference committee.

Lockyer said he would name Killea and Craven to the committee, but was undecided on a third member. Allen has yet to announce who will represent the Assembly, although insiders say the Speaker will almost certainly choose herself and two allies.

“She was one of 80 votes in the Assembly; now she’s going to have three of the six votes on the conference committee,” Johnson predicted. “My fear is that this play at the 11th hour may derail the process.”

As yet, Allen has not revealed exactly what she has in mind for the recovery. The bill headed to conference committee contains one sentence stating that the Legislature intends to help Orange County out of its crisis. Allen’s office would not release any more details.

Craven, meanwhile, released an 18-page draft of legislation he crafted with the help of county officials and hopes serve as a blueprint for the recovery legislation.

The proposal spells out a plan to shift $38 million in transit tax revenue to the county from the Orange County Transportation Authority. In turn, OCTA would get $23 million in tax money from the county that currently goes to finance road construction.

In addition, the proposed legislation would give Gov. Pete Wilson power to appoint a trustee if the county and other participants in its failed investment pool fail to reach an agreement in bankruptcy court by Jan. 1. The trustee could assume the powers of the Board of Supervisors as well as step in to vote on a bankruptcy agreement on behalf of cities, schools and special districts that have money in the plan.

While state lawmakers considered bankruptcy legislation, county officials and representatives of agencies that had placed money in the county’s investment pool reached an agreement on how the recovery will be carried out.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors was originally scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday to approve the “term sheet” but the late agreement caused the meeting to be postponed until 10:30 a.m. today.

County bankruptcy attorney Bruce Bennett declined to disclose the agreement, but sources said the county backed down from many of its earlier demands.

The agreement does not include a state trustee with board power, and the county agreed it would not support seizing city property tax funds, sources said. Cities affected by the bankruptcy have said they would oppose the recovery plan if it included language giving a trustee the power to divert city and special district tax revenues.

The agreement would also give a seat on an oversight committee to a representatives of cities, which local officials had sought.

The county also agreed it will not make the pool investors pay $18 million as part of a complicated tax swap agreement involving the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Times staff writer Rene Lynch and correspondent Shelby Grad contributed to this report.