Bill to Erase Robbins’ Name OKd

Assemblyman Lou Papan, known for his pit bull-style tenacity, brought back from the dead Monday a bill to erase the name of former state Sen. Alan Robbins from every law “tombstoned” in his memory.

Without discussion or debate, the Senate Rules Committee reversed course and sent the unusual bill by Papan to the full Senate, where approval is expected.

Robbins, who represented the San Fernando Valley for almost two decades, was snared in the Legislature’s corruption scandals of the 1980s and sent to prison for 20 months on racketeering and tax evasion charges in 1991.

Papan, a Millbrae Democrat who served in the Legislature with Robbins, took it upon himself to “obliterate” Robbins’ legislative legacy by removing the former lawmaker’s name from the title of the state laws that bear it.

Gone, for example, would be the Robbins Rape Evidence Law of 1974 and the Robbins-Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practice Act. The laws would remain in effect, but their “tombstone” titles would be stripped of Robbins’ name.

Tombstoning is the 50-year-old legislative practice of naming laws after the men and women who wrote them. A high-flying wheeler-dealer, Robbins was one of its chief practitioners.

Papan, once dubbed a “heat-seeking missile” by Gray Davis in the 1970s, has in recent years embarked on a self-appointed mission to restore respect for the Legislature.

Papan argues that Robbins’ felonies brought “disgrace and discredit” on the Legislature, the state and its citizens. The Legislature can help erase the stain by forever stripping Robbins’ name from the lawbooks, Papan says.

The Senate Rules Committee in June balked at approving his bill. Instead, the committee told him to rewrite it to outlaw tombstoning by future lawmakers.

At first Papan agreed. But when he returned Monday, the bill was in the same form that the committee had rejected.

He again presented his arguments for the bill. He got silence but no questions or comments from the three committee members present. He also got no motion to approve it.

Then, two tardy members, Sens. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo) and John Lewis (R-Orange), arrived. Lewis quickly moved the bill for approval and it passed, 4 to 1, with Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) casting the only no vote.

Papan beamed as he swaggered out of the hearing room. Later, committee members said they had been “talked to” by Papan to vote for his unamended bill.

“Did you ever try to tell Lou Papan no?” Senate leader John Burton, the committee chairman, asked a reporter. “He’s a very persuasive author.”

Members said Robbins, who had made phone calls to lobby against the bill in June, had made no calls this time.