Office Politics : Democrats Get Better Digs Than Republicans in Legislature’s Rite of Power

SACRAMENTO — George Runner got a shoebox-sized space near the elevators. Martha Escutia got lots of room, lots of windows and new carpet. Tom Bordonaro went from plush to purely pedestrian, losing his wood-paneled walls and killer view.

Six days after it started, the Great Legislative Office Shuffle of 1997 is essentially complete. When they arrive in the Capitol to resume work today, most lawmakers will report to new digs doled out in a behind-the-scenes ritual that inevitably leaves some people gleeful and some boiling mad.

In Sacramento, a spacious office is a status thing, second only to one’s appointments to prestigious committees. Views are desperately coveted. A convenient location and flowing floor plan are prized as well.

The authority to assign offices rests with the party in power. So every time there’s a power shift--and there have been a good many shifts in the Assembly of late--the newly powerful exercise their right to order up a move.

Bordonaro has moved three times in two years. A Republican assemblyman from Paso Robles, he started out in a modest office, moved to roomier space when the GOP grabbed the majority and has now been bumped down to more humble quarters again, a victim of the Democrats seizing control.

Despite the space shrinkage, Bordonaro is taking it all in stride: “To the victor go the spoils,” he said. “Actually, I get a kick out of the office scramble. . . . It’s amusing.”

The unfunny part is the cost.

Final figures aren’t yet in, but such moves--and related remodeling--routinely run $250,000 or more. Movers are hired to lug boxes, filing cabinets and potted plants to and fro, while technicians must be paid to switch hundreds of phone lines and reconnect computers.

“It’s a big job,” said Jon Waldie, the administrator running the operation on the Assembly side. “You’re trying to pull off 70-plus office moves--fast--without shutting down the Assembly.”

Far fewer moves were made in the Senate, which is smaller and has remained politically stable in recent years.

Traditionally, Capitol office assignments have been used by those in power to reward political allies and punish foes. Former Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown delighted in exiling his enemies to broom-closet-sized cubbyholes while giving his cohorts huge suites and ample remodeling budgets.

This year, remodeling has been limited to reflect a Legislature where term limits mean frequent turnover--and ever-more-frequent moves.

“With the exception of pulling out old shag carpeting that’s been around for 15 years, and knocking out some internal walls, we just can’t justify a whole lot of remodeling any more,” said Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda).

Perata is chairman of the powerful Rules Committee and the man in charge of this year’s office sweepstakes. It is an unenviable task, given the potential for alienating colleagues who wind up with lousy space.

Under his system, the best and biggest offices went to committee chairs and those in Democratic leadership posts. Other Democrats got the next best spaces, and Republicans were assigned the leftovers.

“There are those who are in and those who are out, and it ebbs and flows like the tide,” Perata said. “If you’re a freshman Republican, you have to be pretty naive to think you’re going to get a big office with a window.”

Runner of Lancaster is one of those freshman Republicans, and he wound up with one of the worst offices in the Capitol.

Room 4009 measures just 475 square feet. Its reception area is so tiny that Runner’s four staff members are practically sitting on each other’s laps.

Last Friday, Runner was making the best of the situation, thinking creatively, planning to hang a television monitor from the ceiling--”to make use of our vertical space.”

“I’m not thrilled, but we’ll make do,” he said. “Looking on the bright side, I can certainly speak freely. What can they do? Bump me to a smaller office? There isn’t one!”

Down one floor in Room 3146, Escutia’s staff gave off a much different vibe. As chairwoman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Escutia (D-Bell) scored some big space, which she will use to house consultants and a library of legal books.

“We’re happy,” said Suzanne Wierbinski, Escutia’s chief of staff. “The third floor is good--we’re near the chambers and the legislative counsel--and we got new carpet. This green wasn’t my first color choice, but hey, who’s complaining?”

Another relatively happy bunch could be found in Room 4117, the office of Assemblyman Keith Olberg (R-Victorville). A Republican, Olberg was just evicted from a deluxe suite he occupied last year as chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.

But his new digs aren’t bad--and far surpass some of the other four offices he has inhabited since 1995, said Lance Hastings, a senior Olberg aide. The worst, Hastings recalled, was their second office, located between the bathrooms on the fourth floor.

“You could hear the flushes,” he said. “This is much better than that.”