Assembly Finds College District’s New Assessment to Be Taxing

The Los Angeles Community College District was sent to detention this week by the state Assembly.

For now.

The district’s misbehavior, say Assembly members Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills) and James Rogan (R-Glendale), was taxing property owners in Burbank and Los Angeles to build and refurbish recreational facilities for the district’s campuses.

As punishment, the Assembly decreed that the college district will be docked $1.10 from the state general fund for every $1 it collects in the current assessment from Los Angeles and Burbank property owners.

The matter was raised during the budget debate in Sacramento this week, as Boland and Rogan noted that Burbank doesn’t even have a community college.

And, besides, haven’t taxpayers made it perfectly clear, No New Taxes? This means sudden property tax assessments as well, the two legislators said.

“This is nothing less than an attempt to circumvent Proposition 13,� Rogan said.

It was sharp-eyed Burbank property owners who noticed the community college district’s new $12 assessment. Some of them complained to Rogan, who’s running for Congress in retiring Rep. Carlos Moorhead’s district.

Boland is also seeking higher office in the Glendale-Burbank area--the state Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Newt Russell.

That election year connection did not go unnoticed by Democrats in the Assembly.

“What is the relevance to the budget of the Boland-Rogan election amendments?� San Francisco Assemblyman John Burton asked pointedly.

Because community college funding is part of the budget, the amendments were deemed properly offered by Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove).

But that didn’t stop Assemblywoman Marguerite Archie-Hudson (D-Los Angeles), a former community college trustee, from lashing out at Boland, informing her that, local campus or no, Burbank is legally a part of the college district, thus within its rights to assess.

“This really shows you don’t know a lot about the area,� Archie-Hudson snapped.

Boland stood her ground. Being a legal part of the system is not a justification for taxing property owners without consulting them, she said.

Add this as one of a multitude of issues to be ironed out between the Assembly and the state Senate Conference Committee before a final budget emerges.

Clearing the Air

Count Antelope Valley Assemblyman Pete Knight as another happy GOPer this week.

On a 41-29 vote, the Assembly agreed with his plan for the Antelope Valley to secede from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. It awaits consideration by the state Senate.

“We’re getting stuck with all the rules, regulations and requirements of the Los Angeles Basin,� explained Knight in an interview. “There’s a mountain range between us.�

Knight said the rules are putting a damper on the region’s efforts to recruit and retain businesses.

“We’d like to regulate our own air quality,� he said.

Women’s Work

On its best days, the tell-it-like-it-is state Assembly wouldn’t win any awards for decorum.

This week, with hundreds of bills up against a deadline and the budget to consider, the protracted sessions bordered on bedlam. The atmosphere in the chamber brought to mind an unruly junior high school assembly.

And, despite the presence of a cadre of women legislators, whiffs of a locker room mentality floated through the air.

Against this backdrop, Democratic women legislators rose repeatedly to argue against many of the proposed Republican budget cuts involving so-called women’s issues--the Office of Family Planning, teen pregnancy programs and reproductive rights.

Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, who represents the West Valley, Santa Monica and Westside, was especially energetic in that regard, popping up frequently to say her piece on these and other matters regarding affirmative action and perceived discrimination against gays and lesbians.

She suggested facetiously--or perhaps wistfully--that only those in the room who had been pregnant should be allowed to vote on one proposed funding cut. On another turn at the microphone she defended affirmative action as needed to dispel the “mythologies� that prevail about certain groups--or genders.

“Yakety, yakety-yak,� one legislator said disparagingly during Kuehl’s remarks, apparently suggesting that women talk too much.

Nonetheless, with help from a few Republicans, most of the funding cuts were restored before the budget was passed. “I am very pleased that we made it better than it was,� Kuehl said.

I’ve Got a Secret

Rich Sybert, who is vying to replace retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson in the 24th Congressional District, recently left the Navy Reserves after 10 years as an intelligence officer.

“I’m not trying to be cute,� he said in an interview, “but I really can’t tell you what I did.�

Before that, Sybert spent from 1985 to 1986 as a special assistant to then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in the Reagan Administration. The assignment was part of the White House Fellowship program.

Sybert explained his role in general terms, saying he traveled with Weinberger across the world, had a Pentagon office next to then-Gen. Colin Powell, and worked on strategic defense and arms control issues.

Beyond that, he was again mum: “Some of the things I did I cannot tell you about. I had all the clearances I could have.�

Sybert, who is challenging state Board of Equalization member Brad Sherman for Beilenson’s seat, does consider his military experience essential to the congressional post he is seeking. Sybert said he joined the Naval Reserves because he felt it would be hypocritical for him to be “somewhat hawkish on foreign policy� and not have personal experience in the military.

Sherman has not served in the armed services. But he touts his experience as a certified public accountant as just as valuable to the country. There are only a handful of CPAs in the House, his campaign says, and such accounting experts are needed to bring efficiency to the federal budget process.

“We need a cross-section of everybody in the House--teachers and plumbers and CPAs,� Sherman spokesman Jeffrey Monical said.

In the Same Boat

In his bid to restore Hansen Dam to some of its former glory as a scenic area, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon can apparently count on support from a nostalgic colleague, Nate Holden.

Holden told the council that Alarcon’s district deserved to get $2 million that Alarcon alleges has been lost because of city delays in selling off the rights to methane gas emitted from the Lopez Canyon Landfill. After eight years of hemming and hawing, the council finally took such a step this week.

“We should give you $2 million for Hansen Dam,� Holden told Alarcon.

Why? Memories.

“I used to go water-skiing out there before many of you were born. I had a boat then--I was doing pretty good.�

Water-skiing at Hansen Dam? Many of those present in the council chamber scoffed.

But those with longer memories will recall that in its heyday, the dam area was indeed a popular recreation spot. In 1949, the city opened “Holiday Lake� behind the dam, complete with two miles of shoreline, boating and picnicking facilities, a nine-hole golf course, and swimming and fishing areas (the lake was regularly supplied with trout).

By the 1970s, however, sediment and debris from fires and flooding destroyed the area.

Alarcon envisages a multimillion-dollar “environmental awareness center� at the dam site to succeed the old recreation spot.

*

Quotable: “Part of it may be the lioness in me when I and particularly the institution to which I proudly belong is attacked unjustly.�

--City Councilwoman Laura Chick

On her battles with Mayor Richard Riordan over hiring of new police officers

Hill-Holtzman reported from Sacramento, Lacey from Washington and Chu from Los Angeles.