PROP. 209 GROUP SOUGHT PHONE LOGS : CSUN PRESIDENT'S RECORDS DENIED.

Byline: Steven J. Gorman Daily News Staff Writer

Officials for Proposition 209 have acknowledged they were behind a state Public Records Act request for the telephone records of Cal State Northridge President Blenda Wilson.

``We were interested in finding out if Blenda Wilson had done any work on state time in opposition to Prop. 209, because it's a violation of state law and it's a waste of taxpayer's money,'' said Jennifer Nelson, a spokeswoman for the ballot measure campaign.

The university denied the request.

The request for copies of all phone records from the CSUN president's office dating back to January 1995 came in a Sept. 6 letter to Wilson from Kevin Spillane, head of the Sacramento-based research firm The Stonecreek Group.

Nelson said Stonecreek filed the request on behalf of the campaign for Prop. 209, a ballot measure that would end racial and gender preferences in public employment, education and contracting.

The university denied the request in a Sept. 13 letter back to Spillane, saying the phone records he had requested ``are not public records subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act.''

University lawyers determined that the phone records entail ``policy-making processes,'' private communications, personnel matters and attorney-client communications exempt from disclosure, CSUN public relations director Bruce Erickson wrote. ``If we may be of assistance to you in providing information which is more specifically described, please let us know.''

Nelson said Friday Prop. 209 campaign officials had not decided whether to pursue the matter further.

University spokesman John Chandler said Friday that Wilson has heeded the legal prohibition on the use of state resources to engage in political activity, but is free to express her views on political issues as a university president.

``She doesn't lose her rights to free speech because she's president of Cal State Northridge,'' Chandler said.

Wilson has said publicly that affirmative action programs should be continued but improved and has said she is opposed to Prop. 209.

Questions about her role in the debate over the ballot measure surfaced in a July 10 memorandum from Cal State Sacramento President Donald Gerth saying he and Wilson were ``coordinating the preparation of a position paper and public document'' on behalf of all the CSU presidents.

Chandler acknowledged Wilson discussing Prop. 209 with other CSU presidents, but said the idea of a joint statement collapsed even before CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz publicly warned the campus presidents that such an action would be inappropriate because the Board of Trustees had no position on the measure.