PAVLEY GETS, GIVES TOUGH LESSONS SUV MEASURE'S SUCCESS SURPRISES, OUTRAGES FOES.

Byline: Rick Orlov Staff Writer

Career schoolteacher Fran Pavley learned early in her political career how to stand up to the pressure, and that lesson helped her beat the odds in winning passage of a controversial bill that could force sharp reductions in vehicle emissions.

``When you're in local government, when you're the mayor of a small city, people let you know how they feel,'' said the former mayor of Agoura Hills, now Democratic assemblywoman for Woodland Hills.

Pavley is at the center of a national political storm this week over her anti-smog measure that critics say could lead to a ban on SUVs.

``Up here, in Sacramento, it's almost like everything is privately done. In Agoura Hills, everyone let you know if they liked what you were doing.''

Pavley was the first mayor of the then-new city of Agoura Hills when it was formed in 1982.

A career schoolteacher until her election to the Assembly in 2000 - in a crowded field against much better-funded and better-known opponents - Pavley has built a career on surprising people.

Soft-spoken and often deferential, Pavley has demonstrated a grit and sometimes single-minded determination for issues she supports.

``She's tough,'' laughed Ernie Dynda, who served on the Agoura Hills City Council with Pavley and generally differed with her on policy. ``And, she's gotten tougher over the years. Before, she could just be very stubborn. Now, she's learned how to be subtle to get her programs through.''

Dynda, head of the United Organization of Taxpayers and who disagreed with Pavley on most basic political issues involving growth, added he had respect for her.

``She was interested in stopping growth, and she was able to build coalitions of support that made it hard to fight,'' he said. ``And, she was always well-prepared, and you have to give her credit for the work she put into issues.''

The measure approved by the state Assembly this week on a 41-30 vote - and now headed to Gov. Gray Davis - became the subject of a multimillion- dollar media and lobbying campaign by the auto and gasoline industries.

Although revised to ease some concerns, the measure still is being looked at - depending on who's talking - as a threat to the economy or a model for the nation in dealing with the greenhouse effect and reducing emissions from sport utility vehicles and trucks.

``This is going to be devastating to California consumers,'' said Eron Shosteck of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. ``This is strictly an attempt to ban a certain class of vehicles. It's an attack on the family SUV and the family minivan. All it will do is drive up the cost of these vehicles.''

Donn Walker, a spokesman for General Motors, said the measure is bad public policy with only a minimal impact on the environment.

``All this will do is mean much higher costs to the public,'' Walker said, adding with grudging respect that Pavley ``worked the politics pretty well.''

Under the measure, tailpipe emissions from trucks and SUVs must be reduced over the next decade to reduce the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide.

Pavley said the measure was first suggested to her by an environmental group shortly after she took office in 2000.

A lifelong environmentalist, she was forced to make changes in it to get it heard in the Legislature and then had to rely on help from Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, and Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles, to see it carried through committees.

``I will say I learned a lot about how the politics of the Legislature is played out,'' Pavley said. ``It has been an educational experience.

``I think, perhaps, some of my opponents underestimated me. I think what they also underestimated was the broad coalition of support that developed for this measure and the need for it. We couldn't have hoped to have done this 10 years ago.''

Shosteck and Walker said no decision has been made on whether to go to court to try to block the measure.

``We are looking at all our options,'' Shosteck said.

Opponents should have paid closer attention to Pavley over the years, said Mary Wiesbrock of Save Open Space, who's been a friend of Pavley's for more than two decades.

``She may not make a lot of noise, but she has her principles and sticks by them,'' Wiesbrock said. ``To those of us who know her, we always thought she would accomplish great things, and this is just the start. The one thing about Fran Pavley is that she holds true to her principles.''

With the measure, Pavley also has found herself thrust into the gubernatorial race between Davis and Republican businessman Bill Simon.

While Davis has called it good public policy and his campaign has criticized Simon's opposition to it, the governor's staff indicated it does not know for certain if he will sign it.

Simon has come out against the measure, saying ``its real purpose appears to be social engineering and yet another attempt to force people out of their cars and into public transportation.''

The Davis campaign said such statements show Simon is opposed to improving the environment.

The attention Pavley is receiving concerns her Republican opponent, Michael Wissot, in the Nov. 5 election.

``Actually, this sort of notoriety isn't favorable to her in the public eye,'' Wissot said. ``We are hearing from businesses that are enraged. We think what this shows is that she has a one-sided agenda and this is going to show up on people's radar screens.''

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Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Woodland Hills, succeeded in getting a state bill passed to force vehicle-exhaust reduction.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News