Capitol Action Weekly 3.42


April 24, 2000	CAPITOL ACTION WEEKLY	Volume 3, Number 42

A free weekly newsletter brought to you by Capitol Enquiry, Inc.

Edited by Gabe Anderson

Capitol Reports by Capitol Action Staff

Table of Contents
* Welcome
* Capitol Action
* Clips of the Week
* Letters
* News & Promotions
* The Fine Print

Welcome

With the forces of the universe in line, I'll be heading to San Diego for business on Tuesday this week and will be there through Friday. I found out last night that, sadly, I'll be attending a Thursday funeral for my Great Uncle Ken Campbell, who passed away the day before Easter. The last time I went to San Diego was for Ken's 50th wedding anniversary. This issue of Capitol Action Weekly is dedicated to Ken, who was a truly great man and an inspiration to everyone in his life.
Be good to each other, and tell your friends and family that you love them.
-Gabe
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Capitol Action for 4.24.00

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Legislative hearings are rarely exciting. They focus, properly so, on the details of bills. They are forums for policy wonks, lobbyists and the special interests affected in some fashion by the bills. Every so often, a real member of the public somehow manages to appear before a committee and testify on the merits of a bill; those appearances, however, are rare.
In recent years, too, Capitol committee hearings have drawn less media attention, simply because many newspaper editors don't want the incremental, institutional coverage of a bill's journey from one committee to another. They may be right -- editors, like broken clocks, are right twice a day -- in believing that stories about committee hearings represent an eye-glazing exercise for most readers.
But an Assembly hearing this week into the political and regulatory activities of Insurance Commissioner Charles Quackenbush promises to be an exception to the committees' track record of boredom: It is all but certain to be a humdinger.
First, the issues.
Quackenbush, a Republican, has been heavily supported financially by insurance companies. The bulk of his political contributions have come from insurers who, as commissioner, he is charged with regulating. Since his election, he has collected about $345,000 from insurance companies.
Last year, Quackenbush set up a nonprofit fund called the California Research and Assistance Fund, and allowed -- some say "pressured" is a better word -- a half-dozen insurers to contribute some $11.6 million to the fund in lieu of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in potential fines for allegedly mishandling Northridge earthquake claims.
The fund was supposed to help quake victims with their claims and pay for quake-damage research. But thus far, several million dollars have been spent on ads featuring the commissioner urging viewers to call an 800 quake-assistance number.
The suspicion -- articulated most vocally by Democrats, of course -- is that the commissioner set up the fund for his personal benefit rather than to help consumers. The suspicion may be well-founded. Thus far, no spending from the fund has gone to consumers, according to media reports.
Second, the politics.
Quackenbush is being investigated by legislative committees run by Democrats and by auditors of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, also a Democrat. The commissioner, one of the state's ranking Republicans, has denied any wrongdoing, saying the fund was "a neat idea" to help get money quickly to consumers rather than tie it up for years in litigation with consumers. His critics say any payments from insurers should have gone to the state treasury, not to a quasi-private fund over which he has influence, either directly or indirectly.
The dispute is going to come to a head this week before the Assembly Insurance Committee and its Democratic chairman Jack Scott. The panel intends to grill Quackenbush about the issue, and it clearly will be the commissioner's most significant public appearance thus far in his six years as head of the Department of Insurance.
Many top lawmakers and constitutional officers, including the Democrats targeting Quackenbush, have received contributions from insurers. But, unlike Quackenbush, they don't regulate insurers day-to-day. That's what makes Quackenbush's situation so politically explosive: He is financed largely by companies who potentially could come before him for regulatory action.
But if the public thinks that the allegations against the commissioner will receive a fair and thoughtful hearing, they are likely to be sorely disappointed. The hearing is fraught with political overtones, and is certain to be scene of breast-beating and speech-making as Democrats weigh in against the GOP commissioner.
Whatever the merits of the allegations against the commissioner, the ultimate effect of the investigations is likely to be political, not legal. If he cannot emerge unscathed from the legislative probes, Quackenbush is probably finished as a major Republican contender for future statewide office in California.
And in the super-heated world of Capitol politics, that may be the ultimate goal for Democrats looking to move up.

Clips of the Week

--Jim Sams in the Stockton Record, who reported that "Californians have little tolerance for young hoodlums. The state locks up a higher percentage of its youthful offenders than any other except Louisiana and the District of Columbia, according to U.S. Justice Department statistics. Last month, voters decided to make the justice system even tougher on juveniles by approving Proposition 21, which will refer some serious cases directly to adult courts and increase penalties. Both Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature believe it's time for the state to balance its get-tough approach to juvenile crime with a major spending increase on prevention programs. Legislation by Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Sylmar, would appropriate $510 million a year to that purpose." April 23.
http://www.recordnet.com/daily/news/articles/1news042300.html
--Ulysses Torassa and Rachel Gordon in the San Francisco Examiner, who reported that "San Francisco's long commitment to a comprehensive, top flight public health system is being sorely tested these days, as city officials wonder how much longer they can afford to pour money into the black hole that has become the Health Department's budget. The $925 million-a-year department -- a fifth of The City's spending -- is trying to retool itself while it grapples with many of the same financial pressures threatening hospitals and health departments nationwide." April 23.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/ stories/23/healthsun.dtl
--Carl Ingram in the Los Angeles Times, who reported that in "in 1996, Debi Faris voluntarily embarked on the joyless task of recovering the bodies of "trash can" babies from county coroners, wrapping the abandoned infants in snug afghans and burying them in tiny coffins at her private Garden of Angels cemetery. But as she prepared this month for funerals No. 42 and 43, Faris said, her "mission of heart" had become so heavy that it was time for the Legislature to put her out of business. She wants California to create a "safe place" at hospital emergency rooms where desperate, unprepared mothers can surrender their babies -- no questions asked -- rather than toss newborns into dumpsters, ditches, landfills and other hostile sites." April 23.
http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20000423/t000038260.html
--Todd Wallack in the San Francisco Chronicle, who reported that "Pacific Bell has asked for state permission to launch a new 'reverse directory' service that would let customers look up a name or address if they have a telephone number, sparking privacy concerns among watchdog groups. Telephone company spokesman Rodd Aubrey said the company hopes to launch the service as early as May 1 and plans to charge 95 cents per call. The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to approve the plan in some form, though not necessarily by May 1." April 22.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/ 2000/04/22/MN81521.DTL
--Margaret Steen in the San Jose Mercury News, who reported that "These days, you don't have to be a programmer or engineer to get a big raise in Silicon Valley. Pay for executive assistants has jumped about 20 percent in the past year, and some receptionists are pulling in $40,000. Lawyers fresh out of school are fetching $150,000, thanks to a valley firm that raised pay for new attorneys by 50 percent in January. And it's not unheard of for nannies to earn as much as $80,000. The reason? High-tech start-ups, awash in cash from investors, are spending freely in the competition for scarce employees. That's putting pressure on more traditional employers to boost pay for many of the non-geeks who help keep the tech revolution going." April 20.
http://www.mercurycenter.com/business/top/077640.htm

Letters

To the Editor,
Mayor Willie Brown wanted Medina in the Caltrans position precisely to halt the construction of the replacement of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which he felt would hamper his developer friends on Treasure Island. The Governor merely paid back Willie for his political support. The issue of Medina's competence and overall intelligence was never an issue.
- Michael Nolan