Sometimes You Wonder What These People Have Been Smoking

Congressmen-elect Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and James E. Rogan (R-Glendale) had better brace themselves. Once they join the House of Representatives next month, they will face a barrage of legislation--from the serious to the quirky.

But here’s one matter they can begin mulling in advance.

In years past, Congress has required mandatory drug tests for airplane pilots, air traffic controllers and others in sensitive jobs. Drug use should be out of the question in such positions, Congress figured.

Now, using that same logic, lawmakers are mulling whether to drug-test themselves.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is proposing that 10% of House members be randomly tested for drug use every month. The results would be turned over to the House Ethics Committee and the member in question. Those who test positive would be offered confidential treatment. As a deterrent, however, the results would be released publicly every two years just prior to election day.

“I would be surprised to find any congressional drug users under the program, but I have been surprised before,” Barton said. “I was surprised when, during a recent legislative session in my home state, a member of the Texas Legislature died of a crack cocaine overdose in an Austin hotel room.”

Earlier this year, to promote the idea, Barton arranged a voluntary drug-testing session on Capitol Hill that drew several dozen members. The House even approved an amendment to fund an internal drug-testing program last session, although it was deleted in the Senate.

If Sherman or Rogan are anxious about the idea of urinating in a cup, Barton is offering a convenient alternative: testing hair follicles.

Come to think of it, that could be a problem for Sherman.

Limiting Factors The gauntlet has been thrown down in the race for the seat being vacated by retiring Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude.

Candidate Georgia Mercer, a former aide to Mayor Richard Riordan, issued her challenge this week to rival Cindy Miscikowski, former deputy to Braude.

In a news release, Mercer said she plans to “accept the voluntary campaign expenditure limits called for in the city’s ethics reforms.” She challenged Miscikowski to do the same.

But actually, the spending limits Mercer refers to are mandatory--not voluntary--for anyone who accepts public matching funds.

Candidates can get up to $100,000 in matching funds in the primary and $125,000 in the runoff. In return, candidates must spend no more than $300,000 in the primary and $250,000 for the runoff.

So, to the extent that Mercer plans to accept matching funds, the limit is not voluntary.

Miscikowski said she has no problem meeting Mercer’s challenge: She plans to take matching funds, too.

“That has been my intent,” she said.

Miscikowski’s plans put an end to the repeated rumors that she was ready to launch a $1-million campaign, funded mostly by her husband, Doug Ring, a wealthy attorney-lobbyist.

In her news release, Mercer also signaled her intent to make Ring an issue in the campaign by noting that he filed a lawsuit in 1990 challenging the voter-approved ethics-reform package adopted in response to financial scandals in the Tom Bradley administration.

“Ms. Miscikowski needs to demonstrate her support and separate herself from her husband’s lawsuit by complying with the letter and the spirit of the reforms,” Mercer said.

Miscikowski defended her husband, saying Ring’s lawsuit mainly challenged a part of the reform measures that required broad financial disclosure for appointed commission members.

At the time, Ring was a member of the library commission.

The City Council later narrowed the disclosure requirements, at the request of the city’s Ethics Commission.

Starting at the Top State Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) is starting his tenure in Sacramento off with a bang.

He’s been named chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Employment and Retirement. That might not sound too thrilling to the uninitiated, but it’s a big deal at the Capitol. As far as anyone can remember, Schiff is the first novice senator to be tapped as a committee head.

Serendipitously, Schiff will head the same committee that his predecessor is best known for chairing. Retired Sen. Newt Russell (R-Glendale) made the state pension system actuarially sound during his long service in government.

Schiff was also named by Senate President Pro Tem Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) to lead a subcommittee on juvenile justice, the area that former federal prosecutor Schiff vowed to reform during his campaign.

“I’m thrilled,” Schiff said.

As well he should be. The appointments are testimony to Schiff’s relationship with Lockyer, who--after tangling with Schiff opponent former Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) over the Valley secession bill--took a particular interest in Schiff’s campaign.

Under Lockyer’s powerful wing is not a bad place for a novice lawmaker to be.

By the way, there are other new senators who will lead committees. Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) will chair the Elections and Reapportionment Committee, while Sen. John Burton (D-San Francisco) will take the helm of the powerful Judiciary Committee.

They are in a separate category from Schiff, however, because both have been in the Legislature before.

Other Valley-area senators leading committees are Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Van Nuys), chair of the Insurance Committee, and Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles), chair of the Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee.

It may take weeks to assign members to all the committees, said Lockyer spokesman Sandy Harrison.

Room to Maneuver In politics, today’s enemies are tomorrow’s bedfellows.

That was the lesson learned this week, when a citizens’ charter-reform panel met for the second time to consider rewriting the 71-year-old document that acts as the city constitution.

The 21-member panel was appointed by the City Council, the controller and the city attorney in response to threats of a San Fernando Valley secession and complaints that City Hall is unresponsive and inaccessible.

Panel members--crammed into a small room in City Hall--agreed to hold their monthly meetings at a conference room in the Department of Water and Power building in downtown Los Angeles.

Ed Edelman, a commission member and former county supervisor, said the DWP building is easily accessible and conveniently located. He added that the powerful, semiautonomous agency is likely to provide the space for free.

“They have an incentive to be nice to us,” he said.

In fact, DWP workers campaigned to defeat the last charter-reform measures in 1970 because those proposals would have eliminated the DWP’s authority to set its own salaries and would have allowed the chief administrative officer to audit the agency.

What’s more, the DWP is likely to have plenty of room for the commission meetings. In preparation for the competition of deregulation, the utility has cut 1,500 jobs through a controversial buyout plan.

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QUOTABLE: “I was surprised to come over to the Valley and find out that white people felt like we did--that we were overlooked.”

--Adrian Dove of the Congress of Racial Equality, on citywide plans to back a new secession bill