Wesson Cancels Advisors’ Pacts

After coming under heavy criticism for hiring ex-legislators and political allies as consultants to the Assembly, Speaker Herb J. Wesson Jr. on Friday canceled all four of the active contracts and cut by half the $99,000 annual salary of a former colleague he put on the Assembly payroll.

The contracts, the subject of several newspaper stories in recent weeks, were enacted by Wesson unilaterally, without review by other legislators. Wesson alone judged the performance of the contractors.

The leader of the Legislature’s 80-member lower house also called for regular oversight and public accountability of future consulting contracts, saying that those measures should resolve any outstanding concerns.

“Though personal services contracts have been a useful and long-standing practice of this house,” Wesson wrote in a letter to the Assembly Rules Committee, “the excessive attention a number of these contracts have garnered has become an unnecessary distraction from the urgent business facing the Assembly.”

Wesson was criticized by fellow legislators and newspaper editorials for misusing taxpayer money at a time when California’s budget faces a $35-billion shortfall and many services to the public are threatened.

Previous Assembly speakers have put colleagues on the payroll, said Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit organization that researches political ethics and campaign financing.

But Wesson, he said, “carried it to a new degree by doing it with so many people.”

“With the budget crisis,” Stern said, “he would have had a tin ear if he hadn’t responded.”

Last week Wesson told a Times reporter that he “would not and should not share” details about the work done by the contractors.

Most invoices submitted by the contractors refer briefly and vaguely to their consulting work.

In an apparent change of heart, Wesson ordered Assembly Chief Administrative Officer Jon Waldie on Friday to assign a specific manager to provide oversight of future contracts and have contractors prepare monthly public reports on their activities.

Wesson (D-Culver City), ordered that active contracts be terminated next Tuesday with the following people:

* Mike Briggs, a former Republican assemblyman from Fresno who has earned $8,250 a month since December for consulting on “matters relating to the horseracing and rodeo industries.”

Briggs broke with his party to help end last year’s budget impasse by voting with the Democratic majority.

* Tony Cardenas, a former Democratic assemblyman from Sylmar who takes a seat in July on the Los Angeles City Council.

Cardenas has been paid $7,850 a month since December to give Wesson advice on the budget.

* Alice Huffman, a former teachers union official who has been paid $5,000 a month since March 2002 for consulting on “establishing forums to discuss issues affecting various segments of the population throughout California.”

* Chris Holden, a Pasadena city councilman and son of Los Angeles Councilman Nate Holden. Holden has been paid $5,000 a month since March 2002 for “outreach and communication with local elected officials in Southern California.”

In addition, Wesson ordered his staff to immediately put Sally Havice, an Assembly education consultant, on part-time status and to cut her $99,000 annual pay by half.

The Sacramento Bee reported Friday that Havice earns more than $67,000 a year as a full-time Cerritos College instructor in addition to the Assembly job.

“Until yesterday, I was unaware of the full-time nature of Ms. Havice’s teaching duties,” Wesson wrote to the Rules Committee, “but I continue to believe that she can provide valuable service to the Assembly on a part-time basis.”

A former Democratic assemblywoman from Cerritos, Havice left the Legislature in December after providing a key vote that led to the passage of a bill to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases.

Stern questioned why Wesson kept Havice on the payroll at all, since she works out of Los Angeles.

“She is not even in Sacramento,” Stern said. “What does he need another education consultant for? He already has some good people in Sacramento.”

Assemblyman Ray Haynes, (R-Murrieta), credited newspapers with prompting Wesson’s decision.

“It was clear what he was doing from the beginning and he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar,” he said. “Now, he is trying to minimize the damage that was caused by his own lack of judgment in the first place.”

In all, Wesson awarded nearly $350,000 in consulting contracts to half a dozen political allies.

Two contracts have already expired.

An $8,250-a-month contract for advice on education and fisheries with former Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin ended in February, when Wesson appointed her to a $114,000-a-year job on the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

A contract with Martin Ludlow, former director of Wesson’s Culver City district office, ended in March as Ludlow campaigned for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council. Ludlow received $8,470 a month from September to March to help run Wesson’s district office.

In his letter to Rules Committee Chairman Joe Nation (D-San Rafael), Wesson wrote, “I sought the counsel of these individuals in an attempt to provide the Assembly with invaluable institutional knowledge so sorely missing in this era of term limits. I also wanted to provide the Assembly with every possible resource as we seek solutions to the problems facing California.”

“In placing all my attention on working to resolve these problems, however, I did not foresee that these services would become the subject of controversy.”

None of the consultants whose contracts have been terminated could be reached for comment.

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Times staff writers Dan Morain and Evan Halper contributed to this report.