Senate OKs Raises of Up to 12% for Prison Guards and Workers

The state Senate on Friday approved a raise of up to 12% for more than 24,000 correctional officers and other prison employees, as unions representing more than 100,000 other state employees continued efforts to get a raise of their own.

The measure was approved 27 to 2, the two-thirds necessary for passage in the 40-seat Senate. The Assembly was expected to take up the bill Monday, the last day of the two-year legislative session before the two houses adjourn for the year.

Legislators will have a full plate Monday. They will decide whether to spend $235 million on a major water project to benefit San Diego and the rest of Southern California, and whether to purchase the Headwaters Forest, the largest stand of ancient redwoods in private hands, from its owner, Pacific Lumber.

Legislators will also push Gov. Pete Wilson to grant raises to more than 150,000 state workers who are not affiliated with the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., which represents prison guards, and a handful of smaller unions that have also struck labor contracts.

Meanwhile, Wilson was busy Friday, vetoing a bill that would have exempted students with limited proficiency in English from taking statewide assessment tests.

The governor also signed into law what may be landmark legislation ratifying compacts he negotiated authorizing 11 Indian tribes to operate legal gambling operations on their lands.

At a ceremony attended by representatives of some of the tribes, the governor called the compacts “a victory for the rule of law, for citizens’ rights and for patient, fair-minded negotiation.”

Several of the state’s wealthiest gambling tribes opposed the legislation, saying that it infringes on their sovereignty. They are pushing Proposition 5, a measure on the November ballot that would allow them to operate casinos as they see fit.

The Legislature busied itself Friday by poring over scores of bills. Among other actions:

* The Assembly gave final legislative approval to a bill that would strengthen California’s ban on assault guns. The Assembly also approved and sent to the Senate legislation to make it harder for cheap handguns to find their way to the streets. The handgun bill by Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) would ban Saturday night specials that fail to pass safety tests.

Under the assault weapons bill, by Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda), military-style semiautomatic weapons would be prohibited based on generic definitions of such a firearm. Current law bans specific weapons by make and model.

Wilson has said California needs a new law banning assault weapons, but he has criticized the Perata bill. Wilson’s spokesman, Sean Walsh, said the governor remains open to further negotiation.

* By a wide margin, the Assembly gave final legislative approval to a bill that would require health insurance companies to provide a variety of mental health care benefits.

The measure was approved 54 to 15.Some of the most conservative members of the lower house joined Democrats in supporting the bill (AB 1100) by Assemblywoman Helen Thomson (D-Davis) and Perata, whose sister suffers from schizophrenia.

“I have a problem doing for people who ‘won’t’ do for themselves,” said Assemblyman George House (R-Hughson). “But there is a difference between can’t and won’t. We’re talking about people who can’t help themselves.”

The bill would require employers that offer health care plans to provide coverage for severe biologically based mental illness, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, manic-depressive illness, major depression, panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

* The Senate gave final legislative approval to a bill by Sen. Jim Brulte (R-Rancho Cucamonga) to exclude payments of Holocaust claims from state income taxes. The bill would include any money recovered by Holocaust victims or their heirs from Swiss banks or other sources. Reparations to Japanese Americans interned during World War II are already exempt from state taxes.

* The Assembly passed and sent to Wilson a bill aimed at corroborating allegations that police pull over minority drivers without cause more often than they do whites. The author, Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), an African American, was stopped in June by a Beverly Hills police officer for what he said was no apparent reason.

Under the bill, the Department of Justice would have to note in its statistics the reasons and the race of all traffic stops in California--information not presently gathered.

* The Assembly gave final approval to a bill that would allow the widespread use of ethanol in the production of gasoline as an alternative to MTBE as a fuel additive. MTBE, designed to clean the air, has been turning up increasingly in underground water. Assemblywoman Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) was the author of the bill.

* In a measure pushed by some anglers and environmentalists, the Assembly approved a bill by Assemblyman Fred Keeley (D-Boulder Creek) to require the state to improve oversight of ocean fisheries. The state Department of Fish and Game would have to develop a plan to help manage the take of white bass, a prized fish off Southern California, and rockfish caught within one mile of shore.

* Responding to the March murder of a Yorba Linda youth who worked as a police drug informant, the Assembly voted 70-2 to approve restrictions on juvenile informants. The measure by Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), which now goes to the governor, would prohibit children 12 and under from being used as informants and require a judge’s approval for teenagers between 13 and 17.

As for the raise for prison guards, Wilson is expected to sign it into law if the Assembly approves it.

The raise comes as talks with other state workers remain at an impasse, and as federal criminal investigations continue at three state prisons. It also comes in the wake of extraordinary legislative hearings into brutality problems at Corcoran state prison.

“[The union] did everything to obstruct” the state and federal investigations, said Sen. Ruben Ayala (D-Chino), who headed the lengthy Corcoran legislative hearings this month. “Instead of suggesting these crumbs be deleted from their ranks, they protected them.”

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), backing the raises, pointed out that no more than 30 officers are under some sort of scrutiny, including criminal investigation or federal indictment. That’s about 0.1% of the union’s membership, he said.

Burton also dismissed charges that the union obstructed investigations into brutality at Corcoran, where seven inmates were shot to death by guards since it opened in 1988.

In all, the pay package will cost more than $140 million for the more than 24,000 members of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. Part of the raise, 5%, is retroactive to July 1. The rest starts in October.

The guards, like most of the 200,000-plus state workers, have not had a raise since 1995.

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Unlike the prison guards union, and four other unions representing small numbers of state workers, bargaining units representing the bulk of state workers have been stymied in their effort to win contracts.

The impasse has revolved around Wilson’s insistence that the unions agree to give up some Civil Service protections.

Negotiators for other unions have charged that Wilson settled with the Correctional Peace Officers Assn. because the union’s leaders are allies of the governor, having donated more than $600,000 to his campaigns.

While some other union leaders characterize the prison pay pact as a “sweetheart deal,” correctional officers point out that during the recession, when the state was strapped for money, they agreed to a temporary 5% pay cut.

Times staff writer Max Vanzi contributed to this story.