Wilson Mops Up Final Bills From Busy Legislative Session

The work of the 1997 legislative session, a roller coaster ride through disappointing failures and historic achievements, came to a quiet end Tuesday as Gov. Pete Wilson issued the last of 1,156 decisions that reached his desk this year.

Since the Legislature adjourned Sept. 13, the governor has dragged a bulging satchel of bills through every moment of his day.

He acted on more than 700 laws in the past 30 days and pored over legal reports, analyses and recommendations. He has worked in the car, at his desk over lunch and, often, in the study of his suburban home hours before sunrise.

For the year, Wilson signed 959 bills and vetoed 197.

Tuesday, he went to London. For the next two weeks, the governor will visit England and Ireland on a trip that is part trade mission and part vacation.

Hours before he left Sacramento Tuesday evening, the governor gave a parting shot to some of the lawmakers who caused him headaches this year.

As promised, Wilson restored most of a $200-million veto that he ordered in August when lawmakers finally agreed to a state budget nearly two months late.

At the time, Wilson said he was holding the vetoed money hostage until the Legislature approved a satisfactory plan to test nearly every public school student in a way that allows a statewide comparison of scores.

Lawmakers passed such a plan last month. But when Wilson went to restore the hostage funds Tuesday, he held out about $6 million, some of it from pet projects belonging to lawmakers who voted against his testing plan.

Democrats said the retribution vetoes included nearly $300,000 that Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin (D-Duncans Mills) had requested for a community garden in Mendocino and a senior center in Clear Lake; $80,000 that Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) requested for park restoration in Redondo Beach; and $100,000 in playground facilities requested by Assembly Majority Leader Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles).

Wilson’s final actions also left the State Bar of California in turmoil this week. Over the weekend, an angry governor vetoed the funding authority for the organization that is assigned to monitor California’s legal profession.

Wilson fumed throughout two pages of his veto message about a bar that, he said, is spending too much money on staff salaries and lobbyist contracts. He also complained that the bar has lost its mission by adopting resolutions at a recent convention that included support for same-sex marriages and a reduction in penalties for drug dealers or repeat child molesters.

“In recent months, as disgruntled members have leveled charges that the bar is bloated, arrogant, oblivious and unresponsive, the bar has promptly done its best to verify each indictment,” Wilson wrote. “It is time for the bar to get back to basics.”

Wilson, an attorney himself, vetoed a bill that authorizes the bar to collect dues from the state’s 122,000 attorneys over the next two years. Administrators at the State Bar responded by ordering an emergency meeting in San Francisco on Friday to determine how they will function without the state funds Wilson vetoed.

On Tuesday, they held out hope that a compromise can be reached to obtain funding. State Bar President Marc Adelman said, “This isn’t the death of the State Bar as we know it.”

Wilson’s trip to London for a trade mission is expected to cost state taxpayers at least $10,000.

On Monday, he will attend the second annual California Information and Technology Investment and Partnering Forum in London. He also plans to meet with the executives of California businesses operating in Europe.

Later, the governor plans a nostalgic tour to his family’s roots near Dublin.

The vacation plan stems from a letter that Wilson received about four years ago from an elderly man who recalled that his uncle had immigrated to the United States around 1900. The letter suggested that the uncle may have been the grandfather to a U.S. senator named Wilson.

“I wonder if the above details ring a bell with you,” asked the letter from Jeremiah O’Callaghan. Wilson, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1982 to 1990, responded: “Dear Cousin Jerry.”

Since then, O’Callaghan has died. But Wilson has stayed in touch with other family members whom he will visit next week.