Mr. Katz--a Friend of a Friend of Bill--May Go to Washington

Potomac Fever?: Assemblyman Richard Katz is busy knocking down rumors that he was shopping for a job with the Clinton Administration. Not true, Katz said.

According to Capitol hallway murmurs, the Sylmar Democrat is pursuing a position as a high-level deputy to U. S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena.

Katz did confirm he was in Washington last week, but said he was discussing California’s smog-check program with Pena.

“I knew if I went to Washington there would be a lot of rumors I was job hunting,” he quipped.

Katz is not without his connections inside the Beltway. Among the advisers to his failed Los Angeles mayoral bid was James Carville, the President’s former campaign manager and a formidable Friend of Bill.

Fueling the apparent plausibility of the rumor is that Katz, chairman of the Assembly Transportation Committee, has carved out transportation as one of his areas of expertise.

More likely, sources said, is a job in the Interior Department, headed by his longtime friend Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.

Katz, also known as sophisticated on environmental issues, conceded that he dropped in at Interior while in Washington--although any movement there would be held up by the possible nomination of Babbitt to the Supreme Court, apparently a dwindling possibility.

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Up a creek: One of the fiercest battles against development in Los Angeles County history has spread to Sacramento, where Santa Monica Sen. Tom Hayden aired his vision for parkland on Topanga Canyon acreage targeted for luxury homes and a golf course.

For 15 years, developers have had their sights set on building on the 600-acre parcel in Summit Valley, not far from Top o’ Topanga, known for its breathtaking views and appeal to lovers and sightseers alike.

And for 15 years, opponents of growth in earthy Topanga have helped stall the plans. The latest incarnation, called Canyon Oaks and featuring 97 custom homes and the golf course, upsets the area’s delicate ecosystem, Hayden recently told a Senate panel.

“These people have wanted to build on that spot for years,” the Democrat said. “And I don’t think you should do that on an archeologically and ecologically sensitive site.”

Hayden’s bill would require the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which years ago made an offer to buy the land for less than landowners say it was worth, to again look at acquiring the site. Not an order to buy, just to look.

But Charles McLaughlin, Canyon Oaks’ general manager, told state senators that the conservancy couldn’t afford to buy his land and keep enough money for other planned acquisitions.

And anyway, he said, an environmental impact report failed to find any evidence of sensitive species. What environmental testing did turn up was evidence of pollution in nearby Topanga Creek, said McLaughlin, represented in the Capitol by lobbyist Richard Robinson, a former Orange County assemblyman. “The dumping of raw sewage into the creek is phenomenal. And the people of Topanga call themselves environmentally conscious.”

McLaughlin turned the creek’s test results over to water-quality experts. But state senators didn’t turn Hayden’s bill over to anyone. With the vote 5 to 4 in favor of the measure, it fell two votes short of the seven it needed to move from the Senate Appropriations Committee to the floor of the Senate.

Why would a bill with only a limited impact--and at no added cost to the state--fail in a committee that typically passes such district legislation out of courtesy to a colleague? “The developer and their hired guns may have had some influence,” said Hayden spokesman Duane Peterson.

But Hayden, never one to duck a fight, might try to revive the battle over Topanga.

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Poem Aftermath--The controversy that boiled up when Palmdale Assemblyman William J. (Pete) Knight distributed a poem mocking illegal immigrants continues to simmer.

The verse lambastes illegal immigrants, saying in pidgin English, “We have a hobby, it’s called breeding” and concluding that America is “too damn good for white man race.”

Word that Republican Knight, whose district covers the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys, passed out the doggerel to other GOP lawmakers sparked complaints from Latino lawmakers and some of freshman Knight’s Republican colleagues. Knight later apologized, saying he is not a racist. The flap prompted another rookie lawmaker, Assemblywoman Martha M. Escutia (D-Huntington Park), to routinely cite the accomplishments of real, live immigrants who become citizens.

Every time the Assembly convenes, Escutia ticks off the names of five immigrants who have gained their U.S. citizenship, saying that she seeks “to give a different spin to the immigrant stereotype” put forth in the poem.

In a tabulating the reaction to the poem, Knight said his Palmdale office has received 254 telephone calls, 196 siding with Knight that the state must curb the ability of illegal immigrants to obtain aid at taxpayer expense, and 58 finding fault with Knight’s position. Knight said some of the callers have agreed with the sentiments in the racially tinged poem.

Even though many of those sounding off agreed with him, “I don’t know whether it helps or hurts me politically in the district,” Knight said. “That remains to be seen.”

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No Political Appetite: Ed Davis, looking relaxed and slimmed down, recently returned to the Capitol, where he served as a San Fernando Valley state senator for 12 years until he decided not to seek reelection in 1992.

Was Davis plotting a political comeback? No way.

Instead, Davis was in town to appear before his former colleagues sitting on the Senate Rules Committee. The panel urged the full Senate to confirm Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointment of the former legislator as chairman of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board.

Davis, who has been performing the $25,000-a-year job since earlier this year, said the panel meets once a month to hear appeals of decisions on liquor licenses issued by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Being away from politics has not dulled the former Los Angeles police chief’s blunt edge. He described his new duties thus: “You listen and listen and listen to endless testimony that is essentially irrelevant.”

Does he miss the Legislature? No way.

As he was packing up to move to his new home overlooking the ocean in Morro Bay, Davis was diagnosed as suffering from phlebitis in one of his legs and was hospitalized. Davis attributes the swollen veins to his duties as a member of the Appropriations and Judiciary committees.

“I got phlebitis sitting there from early in the morning to late at night,” Davis complained. “I don’t miss the sitting, sitting, sitting.”

Does he miss anything about Sacramento? Well, at least a favorite local restaurant.

Davis, who estimated that he has lost 18 pounds since leaving the Legislature, said his mouth waters thinking about Biba, a tony capital eatery specializing in Italian food. He described a special salad prepared with red peppers and eggplant as “just fabulous.”

Davis is trying to lose another 18 pounds, but “the problem is good restaurants like Biba’s.”