Investigators Say Lawmakers Broke No Law on Trip
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Assembly Speaker Willie Brown of San Francisco and three other Democratic assemblymen did not break state law when they took a tobacco industry-paid trip to New York City last year, the state Fair Political Practices Commission has ruled.
The watchdog agency said it has closed an investigation of a complaint filed in August against Brown, Richard Floyd of Carson, Rusty Areias of Los Banos and Gerald Eaves of Rialto.
The complaint alleged in part that more than $9,000 was paid by the Phillip Morris tobacco company to cover travel, lodging and meals on the November, 1990, trip, exceeding a state limit on gifts to lawmakers.
It also charged that the legislators failed to file public reports detailing such payments, FPPC spokeswoman Carol Thorp said Wednesday.
The complaint was judged groundless, Thorp said, because the state’s gift limit did not take effect until January of this year--nearly two months after the New York visit--and because the four lawmakers turned in reports on the trip.
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