Campbell Leads Legislative Junket to New York

SACRAMENTO —  A month before he leaves public office for a private job, Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) has led a weeklong legislative junket to New York City that includes a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the agenda.

As chairman of the Joint Committee on Legislative Budget, Campbell headed a delegation of six legislators--five senators and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

Taxpayers picked up the travel and hotel tab for at least four of the senators, who stayed at the exclusive Park Lane Hotel. But Brown (D-San Francisco) said Thursday that he paid for his trip out of campaign funds, while New York bond houses and other firms paid to treat the group to dinners and Broadway plays.

Officially, the trip was scheduled so lawmakers could meet with bond houses to help maintain the AAA rating for the state’s bonds.

But Campbell’s group also has scheduled meetings with officials from the Pfizer Corp., as well as the Phillip Morris Co. and U.S. Tobacco to discuss the firms’ concerns about the state’s increased tobacco tax, Campbell aide Thomas A. Burns said. As members of the California Manufacturers Assn., Pfizer and Phillip Morris will be among Campbell’s bosses when he leaves the Legislature in early January to become president of the powerful Sacramento lobbying and trade group.

An itinerary of the trip also shows that Campbell scheduled a meeting of legislators and Metropolitan Museum President William Lueres to tour the world-famous institution Wednesday. Burns, staff director of the joint budget committee, said Campbell is a board member of the California Museum of Science & Industry in Los Angeles and asked for the tour.

“If we can have quality museums in California, it will help provide better quality of life for everybody in California,” Burns said.

In addition, Burns said Campbell and his wife, Margene, and some of the other legislators saw the Radio City Rockettes; “The Heidi Chronicles,” a Broadway production that received the 1989 Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize for the year’s best play, and the musical “Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.” Tickets to the events were furnished by private firms, such as Phillip Morris, he said.

A spokesman for California Common Cause accused Campbell of taking advantage of his office in taking the trip as a lame duck legislator.

“I think it’s safe to say that there’s at least an appearance that there is a free ride, a final journey of sorts for a senator who may feel that this is what the state owes him for his service,” said Mark Haarer, acting director of the public interest group.

“I don’t think we owe Sen. Campbell anything at this point,” Haarer said. “What he owes taxpayers is an immediate resignation from his position and a refusal to embark on any future trips that may be of such lavish cost to all taxpayers.”

Campbell did not return repeated telephone calls to his hotel room Wednesday and Thursday.

Accompanying Campbell are Sen. Robert G. Beverly (R-Manhattan Beach) and his wife; Sen. Alfred E. Alquist (D-San Jose); Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland) and his wife; Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno) and his wife; Assembly Speaker Brown; several other Senate and Assembly aides, including Burns. Brown left the group early and was back in Sacramento on Thursday.

They began arriving in New York last weekend for the annual trek to huddle with members of the New York financial community, which assigns bond ratings and helps sell government bonds. Burns said Campbell’s joint legislative committee--which rarely meets and oversees routine budget paper work chores--began preparations for this year’s trip in August, about two months before the senator announced he was quitting the Legislature.

Beverly defended Campbell’s decision to take the trip: “He’s performing his duty right up to the end.”

Part of those duties included a tour of the New York Stock Exchange, but the itinerary shows lawmakers have had large blocks of open time, which some have used for less official endeavors such as sightseeing. On Wednesday, for example, the group met with Kidder Peabody representatives over breakfast and then went on to the museum for the tour.

“We went until about noon (and) then everybody went their separate ways,” said Maddy. “My wife and I did some shopping.”