Lawmakers Work Through the Night in Turbulent Closing Session

In a turbulent 17-hour marathon end to the legislative session early Saturday, partisan conflict killed a bill to extend California’s registered sex-offender database and nearly blocked restitution for a man who spent 12 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Bills to protect sacred tribal sites and boost firefighter pensions died, but others to boost fees on rental cars and tweak state labor agreements, criticized as overly generous, will go to the governor to be signed into law or vetoed.

Lawmakers worked through the night, sometimes handling bills that had been drastically amended just hours earlier. Wrung out by long debates over sweeping health insurance and workers’ compensation bills and made edgy by the possibility that Democratic Gov. Gray Davis will be thrown out of office in an Oct. 7 recall election, Assembly Republicans and Democrats at times taunted one another like schoolchildren.

Work in the lower house bogged down as Republicans repeatedly withdrew for private meetings and interrupted debate with parliamentary questions. At one point past midnight, acting Assembly Speaker Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) and Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Alameda) pierced the tension with laughter by appearing on the dais in silk jockey outfits, carrying riding crops.

“Members, we need order in the house,” said Kehoe. “I’m sorry, but it has finally come to this. It is time to crack the whip.”

“We’re in meltdown,” said Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim).

But partisan pressure built again shortly before 3 a.m., when Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) quietly and emotionally appealed for Republican support on a bill to rush payment of $428,000 -- $100 per day of his incarceration -- to an East Palo Alto man wrongly convicted of killing his former girlfriend. Rick Walker served 12 years in prison for first-degree murder before the Santa Clara County district attorney acknowledged that the wrong man had been convicted.

Without quick action, Walker would have had to wait roughly six months. The Legislature typically appropriates money for claims only twice a year.

Simitian’s bill required a two-thirds majority vote, meaning the support of at least seven of the Assembly’s minority Republicans. But in the last several weeks, Republican leaders had steadfastly refused to help Democrats pass bills that required a two-thirds majority vote. They withheld votes in retribution for what they called a betrayal by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), who refused to approve the nearly $300 million in increased spending that Assembly Republicans had insisted upon in exchange for their votes on the state budget in July. The additional money would have gone to rural law enforcement and airport security, among other things.

Simitian begged Republicans to set aside the dispute for the sake of Walker.

“I only know that the system has made him a victim once,” Simitian said. “Please do not make him a victim twice.”

Assembly Minority Leader Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks) quickly rose in the hushed chamber.

“Because of the circumstances,” he said, “we’re going to ask our members to either lay off or vote no.”

Democrats appealed to their colleagues.

“A vote against this measure is a vote for the bureaucracy and against the humanity we should be about,” said Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach).

“We’ll know whether in fact there still exists the compassionate conservative,” said Assemblyman John Longville (D-Rialto) shortly before the roll was called.

The measure failed, with only two Republicans -- Shirley Horton of Chula Vista and Alan Nakanishi of Lodi -- supporting it.

But 25 minutes later, Simitian brought the measure back for a second vote.

With no debate, 13 Republicans switched their votes and passed the measure 62-0. Loud, sustained applause erupted in the chamber.

“I was hopeful,” Simitian said afterward. “But I was not optimistic.”

Assembly Republicans rejected another two-thirds majority vote bill by freshman Nicole Parra, a Democrat from Hanford who barely won her seat against a Republican opponent. The bill, AB 1313, would have prevented the January expiration of the law that gives the public access to the state sex-offender registry.

The 51-0 failure -- falling three votes short -- of the bill means that starting Jan. 1, Californians can no longer go to their local police or sheriff’s office to review a database showing the location of 81,000 serious and high-risk sex offenders.

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer expressed disappointment and frustration Saturday over the failure to extend Megan’s Law, as the sex-offender registry is known in honor of a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and killed in 1994 by a neighbor who, her parents discovered later, was a convicted sex offender.

“This bill was crucial to allow the thousands of Californians who have used this valuable tool since 1996,” said Lockyer. He said he would try to persuade lawmakers when they return in January to enact emergency legislation to extend Megan’s Law.

All year, Democrats and Republicans have tussled over bills to change Megan’s Law. Republicans have sought, and some Democrats resisted, putting the addresses of sex offenders on the Internet.

One after another Saturday morning, Republicans peppered Parra with questions about why her bill did not include provisions to put the registry on the Internet or narrow the location of sex offenders beyond a ZIP Code. Finally, Democrats called for a halt to the questioning.

“This is not about the bill,” said Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles). “This is about the author of the bill.”

Lawmakers also engaged in bitter partisan debate over contracts for state employee unions, negotiated by the Davis administration, that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years. After 2 a.m., the Assembly ratified numerous state employee contracts negotiated by the governor, but singled out for greater scrutiny a contract with state engineers that would potentially grant a 25% raise over the next four years.

On a 47-26 vote, the Assembly passed AB 977 by Assemblyman Manny Diaz (D-San Jose), which would give the Legislature authority to review contracts with state engineers before future raises take effect.

Republicans said the contracts would only add to the state’s fiscal problems at a time when California needs to cut the state payroll by $1.1 billion to keep the budget in balance. They accused Davis of pandering to the unions at taxpayer expense in his bid to survive the recall. The state employee unions whose deals were approved and their affiliates have raised more than $1 million for the governor. Officials from the governor’s office denied that the recall influenced the contracts in any way.

“The governor should not be negotiating contracts for people from whom he is soliciting contributions,” said Assemblyman John Campbell (R-Irvine), calling it a blatant conflict of interest. “This deal does a little bit now for huge, huge costs down the line, and it is sold as a cost savings.”

Publicity surrounding the contracts prompted Democrats to scale back the most generous of them with Diaz’s bill.

“We’re only saying we reserve our right to approve or not approve potential salary increases in the future,” said Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).

Among the late-night bills that cleared the Assembly and go next to the governor:

* AB 487, a bill radically amended late Friday to require rental car companies to collect a 2.3% fee on each rental. The fee would generate $325 million over five years to be spent by the state on road projects near airports. In exchange, rental car companies would be allowed to include a separate charge on customers’ bills to cover state vehicle license fees, which were tripled this summer.

Under the bill, by Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Los Feliz), companies would have to warn renters of the vehicle license fee charge when they make reservations and actually rent the car. The bill was strongly supported by rental car companies. It passed the Assembly on a partisan vote of 42-33.

“You’ve used the rental car companies to increase taxes in this state,” said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange).

* SB 1064 by Burton would block hundreds of millions of dollars in potential business tax refunds. It would undo the precedent set last month when the Board of Equalization voted to give $6.3 million in tax refunds to two Silicon Valley computer part makers. The refund involves a sales or income tax break passed by the Legislature in 1993 to encourage manufacturing in California.

Board staff members argued that the companies were not eligible for the refund, but the board -- a five-member elected body that collects taxes and fees from more than 1 million California businesses -- voted 2-1 in favor of the refunds. Two of three Democrats on the board recused themselves from the vote because they had accepted campaign contributions or obtained stock ownership that might create the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Senate staff members estimate that the state could lose as much as $600 million if all eligible companies received such refunds.

Burton’s bill allows only the 22 companies that had filed for such refunds as of Aug. 7 to pursue their claims. If successful, the claims could cost the state $82 million.

The bill passed the Assembly 75-0.

* AB 28 by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) boosts the redemption value on aluminum, glass and plastic bottles and cans from 2.5 cents to 4 cents, or from 5 cents to 8 cents for larger containers. It would generate an estimated $330 million a year for recycling efforts. The bill passed 65-6.

* AB 17 by Kehoe requires companies that sign contracts worth $100,000 or more with the state to provide employee benefits to domestic partners if they also provide spousal benefits. It passed 41-34.

Measures killed during the final legislative day included SB 18 by Burton, which would have required developers to consult with Native American tribes to protect places considered culturally and historically significant. It died in the Assembly despite late-night amendments to appease business groups.

The Senate also defeated a union-backed measure negotiated by Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) that would have made it possible for firefighters and police to retire with pensions of 100% of their salaries.