Assembly Rejects English-Only Requirement

SACRAMENTO — The Assembly on Tuesday rejected a measure that would have required state and local governments to communicate only in English in conducting official business.

The bill, AB 2183 by Bob Margett (R-Arcadia), sought to put teeth in the “English only” ballot measure passed by voters in 1986. However, needing 41 votes for passage, it received only 36, with another 36 votes against the bill.

Proposition 63 established the policy but left it to the Legislature to decide how and where to implement it.

Though the bill technically can still come back for another lower house vote, aides to Margett said he will not try to revive it, thus killing any chance of passage this year.

“Proposition 63 was passed overwhelmingly by voters,” Margett said. “It was incumbent on the Legislature to do their will,” and it failed to do so.

Requiring spoken and written English in official government dealings, said Margett, would have “avoided the kind of consternation you get in a Quebec or a Bosnia. It would have solidified the melting pot.”

However, Assemblywoman Martha M. Escutia (D-Huntington Park), speaking in opposition, said court cases involving the constitutionality of Proposition 63 should be settled before the Legislature takes up the matter. Until then, she said, “this bill would just disenfranchise people.”

Backers of the measure said that, though nominally a Republican-type measure in a GOP-controlled Assembly, “some of our members could not support the bill because of the makeup of their districts.”

Among those not voting for the Margett bill were maverick Republican Brian Setencich of Fresno and, representing districts with large Spanish-speaking populations, Republican Assemblymen Nao Takasugi of Oxnard, Jim Morrissey of Santa Ana and Peter Frusetta of Tres Pinos.

Among other things, the bill would have required the use of written and spoken English by employees in all branches of state government, in county and city offices and in all official communications. Non-official “normal conversation,” however, would have been exempt.

In other action Tuesday, the Assembly:

* Rejected a bill by Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) that called for dismantling affirmative action policies in government hiring and school admissions, much the same as a voter initiative measure that will appear on the November ballot.

However, unlike the ballot measure, AB 2468 would have added criminal fines of up to $1,000 for government or school officials who defied the ban in their hiring or admissions practices. Because of its self-governing status, the University of California system would have been exempt from the punitive sanctions, aides to Richter said.

Richter’s bill failed 37-37, needing 41 votes.

* Passed another Richter bill, 43-27, that would redistribute some property tax revenue to smaller, mostly rural counties--all at the expense of San Francisco.

Foes called the measure, AB 2167, an “embezzlement scheme” designed to take revenge on former Speaker Willie Brown, now San Francisco mayor, but Richter said he was seeking only to eliminate a “grotesque” inequity in the way the state apportions tax revenues.

* Approved a bill by Assemblyman Jim Battin (R-Palm Desert), 44-12, that seeks the governor’s approval for Indian reservation gaming including slot machine play. A controversial proposal, it is opposed by Gov. Pete Wilson in its present form, aides have said.