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CD-ROM Aktief 1995 #3
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1994-02-22
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SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Copyright 1992, San Jose Mercury News
DATE: Saturday, January 18, 1992
PAGE: 1F EDITION: Morning Final
SECTION: California News LENGTH: 30 in. Medium
ILLUSTRATION: Photos (2)
SOURCE: By JAMES RICHARDSON, McClatchy News Service
DATELINE: Sacramento
MEMO: Additional information attached to end of article.
CRITICS SAY NEW POST FOR AGNOS MAINTAINS TRADITION
OF CRONYISM
When Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown appointed former San
Francisco Mayor Art Agnos to a highly paid state commission last week, he was
following a long tradition in the state Capitol.
Over the years, governors, Assembly speakers and Senate presidents pro
tem in both major parties have appointed their friends and political allies
to well-paid sinecures in state government.
The appointments to such boards tend to be overwhelmingly white and male
and often go to either former officeholders or those with inside connections.
Critics maintain that the practice smacks of old-fashioned cronyism and
ought to go the way of the stagecoach. The public, they argue, is cheated out
of getting the best-qualified appointees.
''This shouldn't be the grease from which public policy is made,'' said
Lisa Foster, executive director of California Common Cause.
The latest such example occurred when Brown named Agnos to a slot on the
state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, which pays $92,460 a year. To
give Agnos the seat, the speaker removed another of his appointees, Loretta
Walker, who previously had been an official with the United Auto Workers.
Agnos, who recently lost re-election in San Francisco, had served in the
Assembly since 1976 before his election as mayor four years ago -- with
Brown's help.
''There is no question the speaker appointed him because he is a friend
who the speaker might need again for political reasons,'' Foster said.
Brown press spokesman Jim Lewis responded that all of the speaker's
appointees are qualified. ''The speaker acts on the best information he can
on the positions,'' Lewis said.
The seven-member board on which Agnos now serves reviews decisions by
administrative law judges on unemployment-benefits cases. It issued decisions
on 15,600 such reviews last year.
Other board slots are filled by appointment from the governor and the
Senate Rules Committee, whose chairman is Senate President Pro Tem
David*Roberti,*D-Los Angeles.
Debra Berg, one of the appointees of the rules panel, also is the wife of
Clifford Berg, executive officer of the committee and a top*Roberti*aide.
Another current board member, George Meese, is the younger brother of
former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese, a longtime friend of former President
Ronald Reagan. George Meese was appointed by former Gov. George Deukmejian.
In fact, in the memory of board staff members, no seat on the
unemployment appeals board has ever been filled by someone moving up from the
ranks.
Governors and legislative leaders have a variety of boards and
commissions they use for rewarding friends.
For instance, two years ago Brown appointed former Democratic Assemblyman
Louis Papan of Millbrae to the California Medical Assistance Commission,
which reviews Medi- Cal contracts with hospitals. The commission meets twice
a month and commissioners are paid $52,500 a year -- an amount set by law as
equal to that of legislators.
In recent years, the Legislature -- with Deukmejian's approval -- began
creating new boards with paid positions. Among the newest is the Integrated
Waste Management Board, which reviews landfill permits and local
waste-disposal plans.
The six-member waste board was formed in a deal cut by Democratic leaders
and Deukmejian in 1989 in a major overhaul of the state's garbage-disposal
bureaucracy.
After its creation, Brown immediately appointed Kathy Neal, the wife of
Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, who is a former Democratic Assembly member and
Brown ally. Deukmejian appointed Michael Frost, his outgoing chief of staff,
and Jesse Huff, his outgoing state finance director, to two slots that did
not require legislative confirmation.
The board meets once a month but holds committee meetings more
frequently. Board members are paid $95,403 a year and also get a state car.
In keeping with Gov. Pete Wilson's call for 5 percent pay cuts, the
gubernatorial appointees have taken a pay cut to $90,860 a year.
Governors, by far, have the most jobs to dole out, plus judgeships that
often go to friends and ex-legislators.
Deukmejian, for example, named former Republican state Sen. Jim Ellis to
the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, with a salary of $92,465 a year. More
recently, Wilson named former state Sen. Jim Nielsen to the ALRB and former
Republican Rep. Norman Shumway to the Public Utilities Commission, a position
also paying $92,465 a year.
Legislative leaders and governors also have numerous appointments to
unpaid boards and commissions that carry a degree of prestige and power, and
those slots often go to