Most of OC’s State Delegation Voted With Business Group
By MICHAEL LYSTER
Most of Orange County’s state legislators scored well in a California Chamber of Commerce ranking for 2002, while the delegation’s two Democrats often went against the business group’s grain.
The chamber’s scorecard ranks state senators and assembly members on bills the Sacramento-based business group took stances on.
This year’s bills include measures on paid family leave, frivolous lawsuits and a workers’ compensation benefits increase.
Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, voted once in accord with the chamber, on Assembly Constitutional Amendment 11 calling for more spending on roads, bridges and other projects.
Dunn didn’t vote on one measure opposed by the chamber and voted against the group’s stance 15 other times.
OC’s two other senators, Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, and Ross Johnson, R-Irvine, voted in accord with the chamber on 16 bills and none against.
In the Assembly, Lou Correa, D-Anaheim, voted with the chamber on ACA 11 and didn’t vote on six bills the chamber opposed. He voted for 11 measures opposed by the chamber.
The county’s GOP Assembly delegation voted almost entirely in accord with the chamber. Patricia Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, Bill Campbell, R-Villa Park, Lynn Daucher, R-Brea, and John Campbell, R-Irvine, voted in step with the chamber on all measures.
Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, voted with the chamber on all but one issue: Senate Bill 1828 to expand state environmental reviews to cover Native American sacred sites.
Garden Grove Republican Ken Maddox also went against the chamber on SB 1828, his only vote that was out of step with the business group.
The chamber itself posted mixed results for the year as several of the bills it opposed were passed and signed by Gov. Gray Davis. Among them:
n Assembly Bill 749, signed by the governor in February, increases benefits for injured workers.
n Assembly Bill 1493, which Davis signed in July, tightens emission standards for autos and trucks.
n Senate Bill 1661, which Davis signed in September, gives workers up to six weeks of annual family leave with partial pay from the state’s disability insurance program starting in 2004.
The chamber did claim some wins.
Assembly Bill 2752, which covers workers suing employers for workplace retaliation claims, passed both chambers but was vetoed by the governor.
Davis also vetoed Assembly Bill 2989, which mandated severance pay for all workers at companies where it is paid to management.
Senate Bill 1538 also was shot down by the governor. It would have prohibited mandatory arbitration clauses in employment contracts for discrimination suits.
