Panel Backs Davis to Head Liquor Board

Former state Sen. Ed Davis, looking relaxed and slimmed down, recently returned to the Capitol where he represented Ventura County for a decade.

But Davis, who decided not to seek reelection last year, was not plotting a political comeback.

Instead, he was in town to appear before his former colleagues sitting on the Senate Rules Committee. The panel urged the full Senate to confirm Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointment of the former legislator as chairman of the Alcohol Beverage Control Appeals Board.

Davis, who has been performing the $25,000-a-year job since earlier this year, said the panel meets once a month to hear appeals of decisions on liquor licenses issued by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Being away from politics has not dulled the onetime tough-talking Los Angeles police chief’s blunt edge. He described his new duties this way: “You listen and listen and listen to endless testimony that is essentially irrelevant.”

Does he miss the Legislature? No way.

As he was packing up to move to his new home overlooking the ocean in Morro Bay, Davis was diagnosed as suffering from phlebitis in one of his legs and was hospitalized. Davis attributes the swollen veins to his duties as a member of the Appropriations and Judiciary committees.

“I got phlebitis sitting there from early in the morning to late at night,” Davis complained. “I don’t miss the sitting, sitting, sitting.”

Does he miss anything about Sacramento? Well, at least a local restaurant.

Davis, who estimated that he has lost 18 pounds since leaving the Legislature, said his mouth waters thinking about Biba, a tony capital eatery specializing in Italian food.