Lawmakers Set a Full Agenda in State Capitol : Legislation: Ventura County delegation with increased clout backs a lengthy and wide-ranging list of bills.

SACRAMENTO —  Bolstered by greater clout this year, Ventura County’s state Capitol delegation is pushing a lengthy wish list ranging from crime-busting bills to requests for aid to rebuild storm-ravaged seashore bike paths.

The three Assembly members and two state senators as a whole are better positioned this year on the Legislature’s policy committees--with local lawmakers now holding key leadership slots on panels dealing with crime, taxes, higher education and toxic cleanup.

Altogether, the five lawmakers placed about 120 proposals on the table before last week’s deadline for introducing new bills and resolutions to be heard in the first year of the 1995-96 legislative session.

Those who stand to benefit range from flood victims to flower growers, from future university students to strawberry farmers. Even Moorpark city officials fretting over industrial truck traffic on California 118 will find a measure to help them ensure road safety.

“It’s going to be a pretty ambitious year,” said Republican Assemblyman Nao Takasugi, who returned to Sacramento from Oxnard for his second term.

Winning a slot as vice chairman of the Assembly’s Revenue and Taxation Committee means Takasugi is in a strong position to pursue his long-term goal: making life easier for California businesses.

“The focus this year will be a very heavy look at fiscal bills which would help California on its road back to economic recovery,” Takasugi said.

To that end, the former grocer and Oxnard mayor has drawn up at least eight bills to ease various tax-related burdens, from diesel fuel taxes to bank and corporation taxes. He declined to speculate on the measures’ chances for success.

He has also come up with his own version of the much-ballyhooed “contract with America” proposals developed by Republicans in Congress. Takasugi has authored five bills that mirror, on the state level, changes being sought in federal tax codes in the U. S. House of Representatives.

One such bill would offer a $500 income tax credit to anyone who provides home care for his or her aging parents or grandparents. Another would shelter 50% of capital gains from taxation.

Takasugi also authored two resolutions declaring the Legislature’s opposition to potential base closures at Port Hueneme and Point Mugu naval stations. The bases escaped mention on the Pentagon’s recent hit list.

Another Takasugi resolution asks the federal Environmental Protection Agency to delay its planned phaseout of methyl bromide, a pesticide found to be hazardous in large doses.

The measure, sought by strawberry growers, does not carry the force of law and follows the defeat of a similar Takasugi effort last year. Over the objection of consumer protection groups, growers want permission to use methyl bromide until a safer alternative is available.

Takasugi is also carrying a bill for Conejo Valley school officials who want the latitude to choose the second-lowest bidder for a project, rather than just the lowest bidder. Administrators are concerned that the lowest price doesn’t always bring the highest job quality.

Moorpark officials asked Takasugi for help in their efforts to regulate truck traffic and inspections. Some officials fear the traffic might be unsafe, as vehicles with large loads barrel down the California 118 grade. A bill in the works would allow city officials to be more aggressive in inspecting truckloads.

Other Takasugi bills in the pipeline include one to help flower growers develop ways to reduce agricultural field dust and another to ease the transfer of the ownership of Oxnard State Beach from the state to the city of Oxnard.

Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills), whose district encompasses Simi Valley, has had to refocus her goals on the larger picture now that she is chairwoman of the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee.

Until now, the committee that serves as the Assembly’s clearinghouse for crime bills had been controlled by Democrats, whom Republicans attacked as soft on crime. The panel, designed to act as a gatekeeper for such bills, sometimes served as an outright blockade in partisan disputes.

Boland said she sees a historic opportunity to reverse that trend.

“I keep saying there’s a new sheriff in town, and I’m it,” she said, clearly relishing her new role. “We’re going to be able to tighten up some of the laws so we will be able to keep those perpetrators in prison instead of in the revolving door.”

The majority of Boland’s bills focus on increasing punishment for crimes. One such bill would require longer prison sentences for rapists who know they have AIDS.

Boland also has measures to help break up the massive Los Angeles Unified School District and to forbid the Los Angeles school board--or other state-funded government agencies--from using taxpayer money to sue in an effort to derail voter-mandated measures like Proposition 187.

Another bill that Boland points to as key is a measure to allow county governments to recoup the costs of high-profile trials by charging broadcast outlets for TV feeds of court proceedings. The measure was inspired by the $2.4-million price tag of prosecuting O. J. Simpson.

Boland also wants to abolish the office of lieutenant governor because, she says, it is costly and practically useless. She dismisses as untrue Democrats’ charge that this is a strictly partisan measure designed to ease Gov. Pete Wilson’s worries over leaving Democratic Lt. Gov. Gray Davis in charge, should Wilson opt for a presidential bid.

Freshman lawmaker Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos), one of 17 new Republicans in the Assembly, brings to the Legislature a commitment to education issues, he says.

His pledge to carry the education banner reflects a tradition established by former state Sen. Gary Hart and newly elected state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-Santa Barbara), whose 35th Assembly District slot Firestone won.

Already, Firestone has been appointed vice chairman of the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee.

One of his bills would ease restrictions for setting up charter schools--public schools that are allowed to break away from tight district control so education reforms may be enacted.

The bill would allow petitioners for a charter school to go beyond school district boundaries to gather signatures, as long as the signatures come from within the county.

Another Firestone bill would encourage more parental involvement in the classroom. Yet another would revise and streamline portions of the state education code.

Perhaps his most controversial proposal would forbid illegal immigrants from obtaining a high school equivalency degree. The rancher and winemaker said it is unfair for unauthorized border-crossers to get degrees by passing a test, and then use the documents for identification or to get jobs.

“It seems to me to be eminently reasonable,” Firestone said of his bill. “It closes a loophole in the whole system.”

Firestone measures would also expand the definition of the crime of stalking, and force the state to adequately reimburse Santa Barbara County for the costs of an innovative public health program it administers.

He is also backing a proposal to fill a need he literally stumbled upon, he said, while touring Ventura coastal storm damage in January.

“I was walking along the shore and saw that the storm just eliminated a chunk of the Ventura seaside bike path,” he said. So Firestone drew up a bill seeking funds for repairing the path, and possibly for construction of a breakwater for protection in future storms.

Exact language for the bill is still being developed, but it calls for the California Coastal Conservancy to step in to resolve a longstanding dispute over whether the battered bike path should be moved inland, away from the seashore. The conservancy would get state funds to study the issue, then follow through with a restoration plan.

Firestone, an avid bicyclist who calls the eroded Ventura pathway “one of the premiere” bike paths in the country, said he will also try to loosen up more state funds for construction of additional bike thoroughfares.

In his first Assembly floor victory, Firestone won unanimous approval recently of a bill to extend emergency disaster relief to victims of January’s flooding. Such measures routinely glide through the Legislature unobstructed, but Firestone said the 79-0 vote for his bill--coming so early in his Assembly career--was a thrill nonetheless. The bill awaits approval by the Senate.

In the Senate, O’Connell has picked up where Hart left off when the veteran state senator departed to launch a new education policy institute in Sacramento.

O’Connell is carrying a $900-million bond measure for higher education facilities that he hopes to get on the ballot in 1996.

Though such measures do not earmark money for specific projects, O’Connell said he is counting on the measure to include some start-up funds for the long-anticipated Cal State University campus planned for Ventura County.

“My goal is to have it on the ballot in November of 1996,” O’Connell said, “and I’m going to continue to do a lot of work in education.”

Another bill he says he will push aggressively is a measure to add a contribution box on individual state income tax returns for the drug awareness education program known as D.A.R.E. Taxpayers could then donate money to D.A.R.E. by checking off the box on their tax forms.

The senator, who maintains a district office in Ventura even though he has taken over territory that stretches to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, won committee approval last week of a bill to set up a community services district for the Ahmanson Ranch area.

The entity will be responsible for land maintenance, lighting and irrigation, fire preservation and preventing soil erosion.

Another O’Connell measure would pave the way for the state to kick in matching funds on behalf of local governments hard hit by January’s floods. He had hoped that bill would have passed both houses of the Legislature by now, but it is still bottled up in an Assembly committee.

“The delay is the product of instability in the Assembly and their turmoil,” he said of the Democrat-Republican power standoff that consumed the Assembly’s attention earlier this year. Now, O’Connell said he expects the bill to reach the governor’s desk for a signature within the month.

O’Connell says he has found the Senate a more sedate and stable place than the Assembly, where he served 13 years and was Democratic Speaker Willie Brown’s second-in-command.

“It’s calmer, less partisan, more deliberative,” he said. “I have no regrets. I made the right decision coming over here.”

Despite his newcomer status in the Senate, O’Connell is chairman of the Toxics and Public Safety Management Committee. Some of his bills deal with toxics problems, such as one to allow local governments more involvement in oil spill cleanups.

The vice chairwoman of that committee is Republican state Sen. Cathie Wright, whose district encompasses Simi Valley and most of Ventura County.

In her role on the panel, Wright is continuing her years-long quest to simplify hazardous waste disposal regulations for businesses big and small.

This year, Wright came up with 11 bills to reform the guidelines and ease the regulatory burden on businesses ranging from photo processing shops to dry cleaners.

“It’ll never make headlines,” Wright said, acknowledging the technical nature of her legislation. “But someone, somewhere down the line will say, ‘Thank God she was there.’ ”

Wright said her bills are important because new technology yields new information about the hazardous nature of chemicals and, “We have to keep bringing codes up to date.”

In addition, three other Wright bills address children’s issues and family law, another of her areas of emphasis.

After stymied efforts last year, Wright hopes to help negotiate a new law clarifying rules for separated parents when the one with custody wants to move a child far from the parent with visitation rights.

Another bill addresses Wright’s concern for developmentally disabled people who are victimized by crime. The bill comes in response to a Simi Valley case, in which a disabled woman was sexually assaulted at a local hospital and then forced to face her assailant in court, where he was acting as his own attorney.

Wright’s proposal would allow developmentally disabled witnesses to answer questions through closed-circuit televisions, rather than risk intimidation by face-to-face courtroom interrogation.

Wright also singled out as key a bill that would expand a successful Ventura County project establishing a higher level of cooperation among agencies that help seriously emotionally disturbed children.

Although the bill’s details have yet to be worked out, it would pave the way for a duplicate program in the juvenile justice system, possibly starting a new two-year pilot program in Ventura County.

“I get so sick of seeing on TV the violence with youngsters,” Wright said. “And in most instances you see that if they had been counseled, if they had been helped, we could have saved them.”

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Bills to Consider

Ventura County residents and businesses stand to benefit from bills submitted by the county’s five-member Assembly and Senate delegation in Sacramento. Here is a sampling:

AB 1186 (Takasugi)--Seeks a tax exemption on oil spill cleanup equipment. Would benefit a Port Hueneme firm that specializes in cleaning up oil spills.

AB 1188 (Takasugi)--Clears the way for transfer of ownership of Oxnard State Beach from the state to the city of Oxnard. Bill will contain some deed restrictions against oceanside development.

AB 1198 (Takasugi)--Requires the state to launch a study of ways to reduce agricultural field dust. Benefits flower growers.

AB 1669 (Takasugi)--Allows the city of Moorpark to regulate truck inspection to ensure that trucks don’t carry too heavy a load along California 118.

AJR 10 (Takasugi)--Urges the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to delay phase-out of methyl bromide, a powerful pesticide and fumigant used in strawberry fields.

AB 1032 (Firestone)--Authorizes the state Coastal Conservancy to develop a plan to halt erosion along the city of Ventura’s shoreline bike path.

ABX 3 (Firestone)--Provides state funds to counties, such as Ventura, that were declared disaster areas in the January floods.

SBX 1 (O’Connell)--Provides state aid for local agencies’ share of the matching funds needed to attract federal dollars for disaster assistance. In response to the January floods.

SB 265 (O’Connell)--Continues a Ventura County pilot project that allows family day-care homes to accept additional children during after-school hours.

SB 122 (O’Connell)--Sets up a community services district to provide landscaping, lighting and maintenance for Ahmanson Ranch.

SB 171 (O’Connell)--Seeks to put a $900-million higher education bond on the November, 1996, ballot. May include funds for planned California State University campus in Ventura County.

SB 545 (Wright)--Sets up a Ventura County pilot project for public agencies to coordinate services for troubled youths in the juvenile justice system.

Source: Legi-tech legislative service