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| Legislator attacked over ties to officers' union |
| By Los Angeles Times |
| Published: 02/14/2005 |
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The administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded last Wednesday that the lawmaker who oversees the state's prisons budget be removed from the post. Department of Corrections officials say Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez (D-Norwalk), a parole officer on leave from his job while in the Legislature, is a shill for the powerful state prison officers' union, of which he is a member. The officials said they were moved to act after a hearing last Tuesday, during which Bermudez assailed administration officials for the recent slaying of a prison officer, allegedly by an inmate. They said Bermudez used the occasion to politicize the death, then raised a laundry list of grievances the union has with the administration - none related to finances. "I think you can make a clear connection that he is right in the back pocket of the union," said Todd Slozek, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections. In a letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) last Wednesday, Department of Corrections head Jeanne S. Woodford demanded that Bermudez either recuse himself as chairman of the budget subcommittee that oversees corrections or resign his post as a parole officer. "He cannot do both without a clear conflict of interest," the letter said. Bermudez responded angrily, saying the department was trying to distract attention away from its own incompetence. "This is a case where you have a former employee who was rank and file and is now holding the administration accountable," he said. "And the administration doesn't like being held accountable." Bermudez said he had no plans to resign his budget post or his job as a parole officer. A spokesman for Nuñez said the speaker would not ask Bermudez to do either. The controversy highlights the continuing tension between the administration and the politically influential officers' union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. |
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