Senate OKs Access to Sex Offender Database

With tempers flaring and lawmakers rushing to strike last-minute deals, the Legislature gave final approval to scores of bills Saturday, including one granting public access to color photos on CD-ROMs of child molesters and other sex offenders.

The legislation by Assemblywoman Barbara Alby (R-Fair Oaks) goes far beyond what recently approved federal law requires, and declares that police departments must provide public access to computers that display names, photos and other personal information about local sex offenders.

By a 38-1 vote, the measure cleared the state Senate, its final legislative hurdle. It heads to Gov. Pete Wilson, who probably will sign the bill into law.

The action came as lawmakers approved bills big and small in their rush to meet the midnight conclusion of the final regular session of the year.

As the deadline approached, legislators were expected to approve $279 million in tax breaks for businesses and industry. Among the many other actions taken Saturday:

* The San Fernando Valley secession bill suffered what may be a lethal blow, when Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) sent the measure to an unfriendly committee for a hearing.

Lockyer dispatched the bill to the Appropriations Committee, where Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), one of the more influential committee members, is committed to killing it.

* The Senate gave unanimous final legislative approval to a sweeping measure that deregulates the electrical utility industry and gives residential customers a 10% rate cut by 1998. The measure now goes to Wilson.

* The Assembly gave final approval to two bills--one that narrows grounds for criminal penalties against corporate polluters, and another that would grant exemptions to the state endangered species act. A final vote was pending in the Senate.

* The Assembly gave final approval to a bill that removes the state’s authority to seize heavily polluting cars that fail smog tests.

The measure, (AB 2515) by Assemblyman Larry Bowler (R-Elk Grove), came after two Bay Area radio talk show hosts crusaded against a new state effort to reduce smog, called Smog Check 2, and led a large demonstration in Sacramento.

In their final burst of action before leaving the Capitol for the year and campaigning for reelection in the fall, lawmakers took aim at one of their favorite targets--sex criminals.

On Friday, they approved a bill that would permit chemical castration of repeat child molesters. On Saturday, they gave final approval to Alby’s measure--a response to the federal legislation called Megan’s Law, named for 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was kidnapped and killed in New Jersey.

While the federal law applies only to child molesters, California’s measure applies to all felony sex offenders, including rapists and people convicted of incest.

Alby’s bill (AB 1562) also requires police to issue public warnings when especially dangerous sexual predators are paroled and move into communities.

“Cops ought to be un-gagged when talking about sexual predators,” Alby said, estimating that about 1,500 felons in the state fit that description.

The names, descriptions, aliases and other information about another 60,000 sex offenders, including 20,000 in the Los Angeles area, will become publicly available on computers, Alby said.

In addition to checking on suspicious people by perusing computers at police stations, people also can call an already existing state attorney general’s 900 phone number.

Ably carried the bill two years ago that allows people to call the 900 number to check identities of known child molesters.

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Meanwhile, a deal especially important to the governor was in deep jeopardy. Last week, Wilson signed an executive order cutting state benefits to illegal immigrants, but vowed to protect state funding for the roughly 200 mentally incompetent illegal immigrants now in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

But Wilson was having a hard time convincing Assembly Republicans and Senate Democrats to agree on legislation.

Democrats were insisting that Republicans agree to provide state health care to more than the gravely disabled illegal immigrants. They also want state-provided health care for pregnant women who are here illegally.

However, Republican lawmakers balked, believing they would be violating Proposition 187 by providing any state money for any of the disabled immigrants’ nonemergency care.

“I’m not willing to blow apart 187,” Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle said, adding that the legislation being proposed by fellow Republican Wilson “is in conflict with 187.”

“I don’t think the chances are good” for a deal, added Sen. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena). “There are too many factions.”

The issue posed an especially ticklish problem for Wilson and Republican lawmakers who were big supporters of the 1994 initiative.

Facilities may either have to foot the often hefty bill for care without state reimbursement, or evict the patients, some of whom are stroke victims or have debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our proposal is still in play and we expect the Legislature to act,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s press secretary. “This is an important issue.”

The governor could call the Legislature back for a special session to deal with state money for illegal immigrants, and other welfare-related issues.

Republicans joined by a few moderate Democrats continued to push for changes in environmental law.

The Assembly gave approval to legislation backed by oil companies that would make it harder for local prosecutors to charge polluters with crimes for spoiling streams and other waterways. A final vote was pending in the Senate.

Polluters would be relieved of criminal sanctions if they act to tell authorities about the spills, and quickly clean them up.

Insisting that the measure would gut the state’s clean water laws, environmentalists and county prosecutors, including Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, had worked to kill the bill, SB 649 by Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno).

Costa also was the author of legislation to grant exemptions to the state endangered species act if, in the course of legal activities, people accidentally kill protected species.

The measure slipped through as the last item to come up during an Assembly session that began Friday and ended at 1:35 a.m. Saturday. Four farm country Democrats joined with Republicans to carry the bill by a 43-28 vote, two more than the required majority. The measure was pending in the Senate.

The bill reopened a feud between one of the few remaining Central Valley moderate Democrats and the more liberal Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles).

Hayden labeled Costa “the treacherous Darth Vader of the Democratic Party.” Hayden said the bill would permit the state to kill young salmon while pumping water into the state water system, and allow oil firms and electric utilities to damage sensitive habitat.

Replied Costa: “It’s those kind of outrageous statements that Sen. Hayden makes that continue to brand him as a radical.”

Among other items pending or approved:

* By a 47-11 margin, the Assembly gave final passage to a reform of child welfare laws sought by Los Angeles County. The bill, SB 1516 by Sen. Hilda Solis (D-El Monte), spells out that abused children will be reunified with their families only after a court is satisfied that the home will be safe.

The measure came in response to the child abuse-related death of 2-year-old Lance Helms in Los Angeles. The boy was killed after he was returned to his father’s home, despite warnings by a social worker that he would be in danger.

* A bill prohibiting the state from purchasing goods produced by foreign slave labor was sent to the governor after a 60-1 vote in the Assembly.

The bill, AB 2457 by Assemblywoman Liz Figueroa (D-Fremont) goes further than similar federal prohibitions by requiring importers to show certificates of origin for any products sold to state agencies.

* The Assembly approved SB 2164 by Hayden declaring the drug Rohypnol an illegal substance. Rohypnol is the so-called date-rape drug used by seducers to sedate women.

Times staff writers Carl Ingram and Nancy Hill-Holtzman contributed to this story.