For termed-out and defeated legislators or former high-ranking gubernatorial staffers in search of a soft landing, there is none softer than the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Appointees to the six-member board take home $132,000 a year, plus expenses and a car allowance. That's not bad for what amounts to four all-day meetings a month. Some them work hard between meetings; others don't.
The waste board reeks of the government's stale status quo, a potent symbol of lawmakers who are out of touch. Even as California slips further into fiscal chaos, legislators and friends of the governor continue to enjoy the benefits of this patronage plum.
This year, two termed-out lawmakers, Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, and Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, were the recipients of coveted appointments to the waste board. Laird was appointed by the Assembly speaker and Kuehl by the Senate Rules Committee.
There are reports, too, that the governor is about to appoint Carole Migden, the infamously ill-mannered former senator from San Francisco, to the board as well. That would be a shame. At least Laird is well respected, with an excellent environmental record. Kuehl is highly regarded as well. Migden was trounced in her bid for re-election after a string of embarrassing misdeeds including a temper tantrum so abusive that her staff had to be sent home one day for its own protection.
When he first came into office, Gov. Schwarzenegger talked about eliminating boards and commissions that had outlived their usefulness. The waste board was on the list of those to be consolidated out of existence, and for good reason.
After all, patronage seems to be its main reason for existence. In return for signing a landmark recycling law in 1989, former Gov. George Deukmejian insisted that he get four appointments to the board, two of which did not have to be confirmed by the Senate. Just before he left office, Deukmejian used his appointments to give jobs to his former finance director and chief of staff.
In recent years, instead of eliminating the board, Schwarzenegger appointed his former director of scheduling to the post. The Assembly speaker and the Senate Rules Committee, who have one appointment each, invariably dole out their appointments to a termed-out legislative colleague.
It makes no sense for California to have a separate Department of Conservation that administers the state's bottle disposal law and a waste board that deals with all other waste and recycling issues. Eliminating the board will help streamline policy and administration.
Also, political appointees too often have served as barriers to effective enforcement. Waste haulers, landfill operators and local government officials regularly appeal to board members to avoid fines and cleanups.
Of course, eliminating the board will do nothing to reduce the state's budget problems. The board and the agency it directs are funded by special disposal fees assessed on garbage dumped at state landfills, electronic waste, oil and tires. But eliminating the waste board could help to dispel the pervasive image of a self-serving Legislature that puts the benefit and comfort of its own members ahead of the interests of the people who elected them.
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