Legislator Attacked Over Ties to Guards Union

The administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded Wednesday that the lawmaker who oversees the state’s prisons budget be removed from the post.

Department of Corrections officials say Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez (D-Norwalk), a parole officer on leave from his job while in the Legislature, is a shill for the powerful state prison guards union, of which he is a member.

The officials said they were moved to act after a hearing Tuesday, during which Bermudez assailed administration officials for the recent slaying of a prison guard, allegedly by an inmate. They said Bermudez used the occasion to politicize the death, then raised a laundry list of grievances the union has with the administration -- none related to finances.

“I think you can make a clear connection that he is right in the back pocket of the union,” said Todd Slozek, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

In a letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) on Wednesday, Department of Corrections head Jeanne S. Woodford demanded that Bermudez either recuse himself as chairman of the budget subcommittee that oversees corrections or resign his post as a parole officer. “He cannot do both without a clear conflict of interest,” the letter said.

Bermudez responded angrily, saying the department was trying to distract attention away from its own incompetence. “This is a case where you have a former employee who was rank and file and is now holding the administration accountable,” he said. “And the administration doesn’t like being held accountable.”

Bermudez said he had no plans to resign his budget post or his job as a parole officer. A spokesman for Nunez said the speaker would not ask Bermudez to do either.

The controversy highlights the continuing tension between the administration and the politically influential guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.

Administration officials say the union has too much control over the management of prisons. They accuse the union of helping to foster a “code of silence” among guards that prevents them from speaking up when they see abuse or illegal activity, frustrating efforts to reform the system.

Union officials said they were offended by the department’s attack on Bermudez.

“How many teachers are on the Education Committee? How many lawyers are on the Judiciary Committee?” asked Lance Corcoran, executive vice president of the guards union. “Of course they want Rudy removed. They don’t like the scrutiny he brings to their budgetary practices. They want to be able to pull the wool over someone’s eyes who has no knowledge of the prison system.”

Vincent Duffy, a spokesman for Nunez, pointed to an opinion by legislative attorneys stating that Bermudez’s membership in the union and employment in the department do not pose a conflict.

“It’s a nonissue,” he said. “There is no conflict.”

Bermudez, meanwhile, made no apologies for his remarks at Tuesday’s hearing, and said the issues he raised were budget-related.

“When you have an officer who is killed in the line of duty, and protective vests we spent taxpayer money on were sitting in a warehouse rather than being distributed,” he said, “it is a budget issue.”