SCRUTINIZING DAVIS; GOVERNOR'S FRESHMAN YEAR ENSCONCED IN CALM GOVERNOR TARNISHED BY WHAT HE FAILED TO DO.

Byline: Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Gov. Gray Davis is certainly not shy when it comes to loudly trumpeting his political horn. Davis proclaimed 1999, his first year in office, as the ``most productive first year of any California governor in decades.''

Even if we skip the back-slapping hyperbole, Davis ably parlayed his well-honed skill as consensus builder and his image as the ultimate political moderate into some impressive gains.

He got big hikes in funding for schools and state employee pay and benefits, turned his globe-trotting junkets, with political donors in tow, into a handful of lucrative business deals for the state, brought the state's budget in on time for the first time in more than a decade, imposed limits on HMOs, and cracked the granite-like opposition of the National Rifle Association lobby to enact restrictions on the sale of cheap handguns and assault weapons.

But even if Davis was the reincarnation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt his resume would look less impressive if he didn't have a few things going for him his Republican predecessors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian didn't.

Davis has the benefit of a budget surplus, a surging state and national economy, relative racial quiet, no emotional strife generating issues such as crime and affirmative action, sky-high consumer confidence, a solid Democratic-controlled state Legislature, and the recognition by Clinton and the Republicans that California is so important to their political success in the 2000 elections that they must bend over backward to keep the state's voters and politicians happy.

Also, when one takes a closer look at the big-ticket items that Davis shoved through the Legislature there's less than meets the eye. His education bills mostly pluck around the surface of real reform. They don't mandate that school districts implement standards to improve test scores and hold teachers and administrators accountable for student performance. Nor do they provide a blueprint for decentralizing the massive, troublesome, and chronically underserved Los Angeles city schools.

While Davis surfed the tidal wave of national angst and outrage over the horrific wave of street and high school shootings to push through the restrictions on assault weapons and cheap handguns, he opposed bills that would have imposed even tougher limits on the sale and manufacture of handguns.

But Davis' failure to take bolder political action in 1999 was even more glaring when he scuttled these vital pieces of legislation that the Legislature approved:

--Racial profiling. This bill would have required the California Highway Patrol to compile data on unwarranted traffic stops. This would have been a significant step toward determining once and for all whether police agencies are right when they claim they don't target Latino and African-American motorists for traffic stops.

--Systematic HIV/AIDS monitoring. This bill would have required the State Department of Health Services to track HIV test results. With the huge leap in HIV/AIDS cases among blacks and Latinos a monitoring system is desperately needed to determine how to properly allocate public and private moneys for AIDS education and prevention programs.

--Combating hate crimes. This bill would have required Attorney General Bill Lockyear to create a permanent commission on hate crime prevention. Since California is the runaway national leader in reported hate crimes, it badly needs a central agency to track, monitor and target violent hate mongers for prosecution.

--Equal educational opportunity. This bill would have required the State Department of Education to establish reporting procedures to determine how much progress the state is making in narrowing the bulging funding gap between well-heeled, middle-class school districts and the poorer, minority districts. It would also have required the state to develop a long range plan to do something about the spending gap.

--Sweatshop labor. This bill would have required the labor commission to create a task force to determine whether public moneys are used by state and local governments to purchase goods made in sweatshops. The suspicion is that at least some state agencies are buying goods produced by sweatshop labor. This would have been one way to prove if this is the case. And if it is the state, i.e. taxpayers, should not be subsidizing these industries.

Davis also axed legislation that would have provided more funds or established programs to deal with the homeless, youth offenders, minority health needs, to monitor sexual harassment and discrimination cases, and to improve education and training for welfare recipients. Since Davis quietly killed these bills with only the tersest of explanations, there was almost no press attention and little public outcry.

Still, these were much needed, common-sense pieces of legislation that Davis easily could have taken the extra step and backed. This would have done much to build his reputation him as a visionary leader. But he didn't take that extra step and this is what tosses disturbing tarnish on his luster.

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Photo: (color) Gov. Gray Davis has put a great deal of energy into boasting of his first-year achievements, while ignoring the political climate that has made his reign relatively easy.

Associated Press