Legislators Spend Millions on Remodeling

One of the hallmarks of the long reign of former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown was the banging of hammers and buzzing of saws in the hallways of the state Capitol.

The never-ending work prompted some observers to jokingly compare the statehouse to the Winchester Mystery House, a 160-room San Jose mansion whose owner kept carpenters busy endlessly building new rooms.

Republicans as well as Democrats in the 80-member Assembly have not been shy about using taxpayer funds to spruce up their own Capitol digs, even while local government counterparts have been hard pressed to repair dilapidated schools and other public buildings.

Among projects given the green light in recent years: a kitchen in the Assembly sergeant-at-arms office, soundproof walls, a bookcase to hold larger books, carpets with snowflake and bamboo tree designs, overtime for carpet installation and new bathrooms.

Even as he was giving up his speakership last year, Democrat Brown, who friends say relished remodeling, had $7,225 worth of improvements, including work on partitions, finished in the speaker’s Capitol quarters, records show. The office now is occupied by Republican Speaker Curt Pringle.

In 1995, as Democrats began to share control of the Assembly’s finances with Republicans, the tab for this work in the Capitol totaled roughly $500,000, according to state documents obtained by The Times. Officials of the 40-member state Senate estimate that in the last fiscal year they spent about $450,000 on alterations.

Billing records for past years are incomplete, but Republican Assembly members say it amounts to millions of dollars for legislative offices in and out of the Capitol, one portion of which dates back to the 1860s.

Now that they are in power, Republicans pledge more fiscal accountability and less hammering and sawing, though at least one former GOP lawmaker calls such statements hypocritical because Republicans have taken part in and benefited from the continuous remodeling.

Taking control of the Assembly last month, Republicans quickly moved to slash the Assembly’s $75-million annual budget by $3 million, including half the $500,000 set aside for upgrading in the current fiscal year.

“That’s why we want to establish permanent committee offices with the hope that we can put an end to a lot of the remodeling and unnecessary moving,” said Jim Richardson, the newly installed administrative officer of the Assembly Rules Committee, which oversees the rebuilding.

Democrats are skeptical, as the new GOP majority exercises its clout by reshuffling offices. Last month, for example, the cost of moving about 75 offices was $78,000.

“Take a look and see if they’re doing remodeling,” says Assemblyman John Burton (D-San Francisco). “When people move [offices], people remodel.”

Even before Republicans gained control of the Assembly, thousands of dollars were poured into sprucing up their Capitol offices. Three rookie GOP lawmakers, for example, had more than $6,000 worth of work done early last year to fix up their quarters.

The emphasis on remodeling reflected Brown’s way of doing business, of rewarding allies with choice office space and exiling enemies to broom-sized quarters in the Capitol’s remote nooks and crannies. This often set off an intense scramble to get the best and biggest suite.

One former Republican lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, complained that if a legislator was not in Brown’s “good graces” the speaker would often fail to approve office alterations. “It was a gross waste of taxpayer money,” the ex-lawmaker said, citing the use of expensive custom-made paneling.

Wall panels in 1995 were not in short supply in the Assembly, which stockpiled 27 sheets of oak paneling “for future use in the state Capitol” at a cost of $3,200, according to an Assembly contract with R.L. Ward Construction of Sacramento.

Ward, along with BPI Construction of Sacramento, in the last few years has received most of the Assembly’s remodeling business. Richardson of the Rules Committee said some contracts were awarded with bids, but in other cases the way a company landed a contract is unclear.

Now, he plans to solicit five bids on major jobs, even though the Assembly is not legally required to solicit bids. Republicans say they also will make it harder for the speaker to unilaterally order a major remodeling.

GOP lawmakers say their goal is to remove politics from the Assembly’s housekeeping and install fiscal safeguards. Initially, they are focused on balancing the Assembly’s books and cutting waste.

But as they investigate the records, the Pringle-led Republicans say auditors have failed to find $9 million in missing assets, possibly computers or other equipment. Democrats say the equipment was either given to other state agencies or sold, and merely was not written off the Assembly’s account books.

Republicans voice amazement at the way things were run under Brown and what they say was a lack of accountability. But Democrats say Brown was tight-fisted, routinely turning down expense requests.

Brown, now mayor of San Francisco, could not be reached for comment about the office remodeling and Assembly housekeeping costs. After it was disclosed last year that Brown authorized $293,000 for a seldom-used, secretly built Capitol teleconferencing facility, the speaker called his critics “Neanderthals.”

Brown also joked in an interview with the Sacramento Bee editorial board: “It will take them [Republicans] five years just to figure out how I misallocated the resources of the house.”

Frustrated GOP lawmakers rush to cite that joke.

Assemblymen Steve Kuykendall (R-Rancho Palos Verdes) and Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos), who are overseeing audits of Assembly finances and operations, say it shows the obstacles auditors face in ferreting out how money was spent by Brown.

While not accusing Democrats of acting illegally, they complain about Brown’s tight control of Assembly operations. “This place was run like Willie’s private checkbook,” Kuykendall says.

Firestone ran into the remodeling machine when he arrived at the Capitol on New Year’s Day, 1995. He recalled how flabbergasted he was to find a construction crew busy working on a holiday. “There was no rush to get the work done,” Firestone said in an interview.

He was not the only freshman GOP lawmaker whose office was fixed up last year.

In 1995, records show, the Assembly approved $3,019 to paint, finish cabinets and upgrade electrical wiring for Bellflower Assemblyman Phil Hawkins; $1,962 to build half walls in El Cajon Assemblyman Steve Baldwin’s office, and another $1,251 to cover up wallpaper in Santa Ana Assemblyman Jim Morrissey’s quarters.

Hawkins said his remodeling occurred after he was moved “involuntarily” by Brown. Hawkins’ new space, which had been occupied by Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), contained bookshelves that would not withstand an earthquake and needed to be rebuilt.

“I would have left the shelves alone,” said Hawkins, who also said the walls were covered with smoke and needed to be cleaned.

Allen, who was recalled from office last year, dismissed the criticism, saying she quit smoking several years ago. “If he [Hawkins] wanted to fix the office up, he wanted to fix it up,” Allen said. “To blame it on a former member is kind of a cheap shot.”

Allen, who briefly served last year as speaker, complained that it was hypocritical for Republicans to assail Democrats as big spenders because GOP leaders collaborated with Brown in running the lower house.

“They made deals all the time for whatever remodels they wanted,” Allen said. “If you wanted to get a remodel, the GOP leadership would go and deal with Willie.”