Disney Broke Pledge to Delay Bill, Senators Say : Resort: Two state legislators say the company had promised to wait on a measure that would help create a seaside attraction in Long Beach.

Two state senators on Wednesday accused the Walt Disney Co. of arrogance and of reneging on a deal to wait until next year before pursuing legislation to help create a $3-billion seaside resort in Long Beach.

Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) and Henry J. Mello (D-Watsonville) said Disney officials had assured them last week that they would hold off until January before pushing a controversial bill designed to make it easier for the entertainment giant to fill in 250 acres of Queensway Bay for the proposed Port Disney resort.

But without telling the senators, the company decided earlier this week to submit amendments to the bill in time for a June 25 hearing by the Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, where the measure is stalled. The new language commits Disney and Long Beach to up to $52.5 million in “mitigation” measures to make up for the environmental disruption that the project would cause.

Despite that pledge, McCorquodale, the committee’s chairman, reacted Wednesday by canceling the hearing altogether, a maneuver that effectively cuts Disney off at the pass.

He and Mello, also a member of the committee, criticized Disney’s tactics.

“They’re getting a lot of bad press because they appear to be arrogant, not willing to do things on a one-to-one basis with people,” said Mello, who called the amendments a “breach of etiquette and good faith.”

“They should have come back to us and said: ‘We’re facing some time constraints. We want to go ahead and put these amendments in and continue to work with you.’ They never said that. They’re just doing an end run on us,” he said.

McCorquodale said: “It’s sort of their highhanded effort of trying to breeze through the Legislature with a change that I think the Legislature has not wanted.”

Kate Bartolo, Disney’s vice president for governmental relations, blamed a misunderstanding. She said the company submitted the proposed amendments at the suggestion of a Senate committee consultant and had not intended to snub the senators.

“It has never been our intention to work in any way other than to articulate the merits of our project and the issues on the bill,” she said. “We thought we were following all protocol, and we’re sorry if others interpreted it differently.”

The resort would feature an amusement park, hotels, a cruise ship terminal and a marina. Long Beach is competing with Anaheim--home of Disneyland--for the second Disney theme park in Southern California.

From the beginning, the Port Disney bill, being carried by Sen. Ken Maddy (R-Fresno), has been controversial. Disney says it needs the measure merely to clarify the state Coastal Commission’s authority to allow portions of Long Beach Harbor to be filled for the resort.

But foes of the Port Disney bill, McCorquodale and Mello among them, say the measure would create a dangerous precedent by substantially changing state law, which does not allow ocean filling for recreational purposes.

While the state Coastal Commission voted recently to drop its opposition to the measure, the bill remains bottled up in McCorquodale’s committee.

Hoping to break the impasse, McCorquodale, Mello, members of their staffs and a representative of Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) met Friday with six Disney officials for marathon negotiations.

The central question of the talks: How much is Disney willing to pay for environmental “mitigation” tied to the Long Beach project?

The senators said they want Disney and Long Beach to put up about $75 million--roughly enough money to buy and restore 3 acres of damaged coastal wetlands elsewhere in Southern California for every acre of fill the company would put into the Long Beach Harbor.

But the company and city officials said they would go no higher than $50 million, creating a stalemate. “They said, ‘We’ll just make it a two-year bill and declare an impasse,’ ” Mello said. “They walked away from the table.”

McCorquodale said his decision to cancel next week’s committee meeting leaves just two more chances--one in July, the other in August--for Disney to have its bill heard at regularly scheduled panel hearings, if it is to be brought to the Senate floor and passed over to the Assembly for consideration.

That timetable may seem daunting, but legislators can obtain waivers of deadlines to speed bills through the process. Maddy said Wednesday he will leave it up to Disney whether he, as author, should do just that for the Port Disney bill before the Legislature adjourns Sept. 13.