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Inventory of the Bruce Bronzan Papers
LP409  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • State Assembly, 1983-1992
  • Scope and Content
  • Accruals
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Bruce Bronzan Papers
    Dates: 1983-1992
    Collection number: LP409
    Creator: Bruce Bronzan, California Legislator
    Collection Size: 9 cubic feet
    Repository: California State Archives
    Sacramento, California
    Abstract: Bruce Bronzan was a Democratic California State Assembly Member, 1983-1992, and who served the 31st Assembly District.Bronzan was on the Assembly Health Committee for all ten years, serving as Chair the last four. As a leading legislator in health care and an expert on the Medi-Cal program, he has carried legislation to create a health facilities financing system and to increase funding for health care of the indigent.The Bruce Bronzan Papers consist of 9 cubic feet of textual records reflecting Bronzan's legislative activities during his 10-year Assembly career. Record series include Bill Files, 1983-1992; Subject Files, 1968-1990; Press Files, 1986-1988; and a subgroup consisting of Joint Legislative Audit Committee Subject Files, 1972-1989. This collection is particularly useful to researchers interested in California's health care policies, especially as it concerns the homeless and mentally ill during the 1980s.
    Physical location: California State Archives
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Administrative Information

    Access

    While the majority of the records are open for research, any access restrictions are noted in the record series descriptions.

    Publication Rights

    For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives collections.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Bruce Bronzan Papers, LP409:[folder number], California State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Sacramento, California.

    Acquisition and Custodial History

    The California State Archives acquired the Bruce Bronzan Papers following his final term in the State Legislature.

    Biography

    Bruce Bronzan was a Democratic California State Assembly Member who served the 31st Assembly District. During his time in office, AD 31 encompassed much of eastern Fresno County, stretching from the Madera County border in the north, Tulare County in the south, and running down the Central Valley roughly following State Highway 99 in the west. He was first elected to the State Legislature in 1982. His popularity continued and he easily won victories in his district for the next five elections. He ran unopposed in what became he last election in 1990. He left office in 1992 having represented his constituents from the cities of Clovis, Fowler, Orange Cove, Parlier, Reedly, Sanger, Selma, and the eastern part of the city of Fresno for ten years. (Who's Who in the California Legislature). Bruce Bronzan was born in Fresno, California on September 28, 1947 and went to Fresno schools including McLane High School and California State University, Fresno, where he graduated with a B.S. in Political Science and a teaching credential in 1969. He received a Masters in Urban Studies from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1970 and was a Coro Foundation Fellow that same year. In 1968, Bronzan wed Linda Barnes and eventually had two children, daughter Chloe and son Forest. He began his political career as a member of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, serving for eight year from 1975-1982. He became Vice Chair in 1980 and Board Chairman in 1981. Before he entered the political arena, Bronzan was the founder, director and teacher at a small, alternative-education, secondary-level school in Fresno before becoming the director of an alcoholism program at Fresno Community Hospital in 1973 (Oral History Interview, 1994).
    During Bronzan's early childhood, his father's career took the family from his native Fresno to Los Angeles and Visalia for a few years before returning to Fresno for a job at the YMCA. Bronzan suggests that his own time spent in YMCA organizations and groups prepared him for a life in politics. Learning parliamentary procedures, working with small group dynamics, planning, and budgeting yearly projects and activities created a "milieu of little models of democracy" which Bronzan would apply towards his experiences in the student government, program development, and the legislature (Oral History Interview, 1994). With a progressive, open-minded, well-read father, Nick, and artistic mother, Peggy, Bronzan was a creative leader in his endeavors inside and outside of politics.
    Bronzan not only gained experience but also an interest in health care related issues during his time at the Fresno Community Hospital. After he was elected to the Board of Supervisors at age twenty-eight in a 1975 special election, Bronzan "inherited" health care issues because no one else wanted to deal with them. After spending seven years on the Board of Supervisors he fostered a passion for health, which would become his major platform in the Assembly. While he sponsored other issues and was member on several other committees, Bronzan stated that while in the Assembly "health was the thing I cared most about...by far and away the most important thing to me." (Oral History Interview, 1994-1995).
    Bronzan was on the Assembly Health Committee for all ten years, serving as Chair the last four. As a leading legislator in health care and an expert on the Medi-Cal program, he has carried legislation to create a health facilities financing system and to increase funding for health care of the indigent. He wrote the Mental Health Services Reform Act of 1985 and carried a liberal platform on health issues throughout his service on the Assembly Health Committee, numerous subcommittees such as the Subcommittee on Health and Welfare, the Subcommittee on Health and Workers Insurance, and the Subcommittee on Mental Health, Development Disabilities and Substance Abuse, as well as multiple health related select and special committees. As a member and later as Chair of the Ways and Mean Subcommittee on Health and Welfare he was highly influential at both the budgeting and legislative end of the health care spectrum in the Assembly.
    Bronzan also served as a member of the Assembly Agriculture Committee for all ten years of his tenure in the State Assembly and demonstrated his loyalty to agricultural interests by authoring and supporting legislation that followed a conservative agenda. Coming from a district with a large population of small farmers, Bronzan's legislation sought to stop the "Big Green" initiative, which would have restricted even further the pesticide use of California farmers in the 1990s. He lamented that farmers and consumers have lost connection with one another and strove to encourage local farmers to reach out to the urban and suburban communities to remind them of the importance of local growers to California residents and the economy (Oral History Interview, 1994-1995).
    Bruce Bronzan left the Assembly in 1993 and took a job as the Associate Dean for Administration and Development at University of California, San Francisco at Fresno with the main responsibility of spearheading a model healthcare delivery system reform in central California (Oral History Interview, 1994-1995). As of March 2010, he served as the President of Trilogy Integrated Resources. According to their website, "Trilogy Integrated Resources, Inc. is a company dedicated to improving information and communication in the health and social service fields at the community level. Trilogy works primarily with state and county governments and other local human service entities to establish one-stop information places, centered on highly interactive, community-based Web sites" (former Trilogy Website).
    According to the California Legislature at Sacramento (Handbooks) and the Assembly Final History, Bronzan served on the following committees:

    State Assembly, 1983-1992

    • Standing Committees
    • Aging and Long Term Care, 1983-1984
    • Agriculture, 1983-1992
    • Finance and Insurance, 1987-1990
    • Health, 1983-1992 (Chair, 1989-1992)
    • Chair, 1989-1992
    • Human Services, 1989-1990 (Chair, 1989-1990)
    • Chair, 1989-1990
    • International Trade and Intergovernmental Relations, 1987-1988
    • Local Government, 1985-1986
    • Televising the Assembly, 1991-1992
    • Utilities and Commerce, 1983-1984 (Vice Chair, 1983-1984)
    • Vice Chair, 1983-1984
    • Ways and Means, 1985-1988
    • Select Committees
    • California Wine Production and Economy, 1987-1992
    • Children and Youth Services, 1991-1992
    • Genetic Diseases, 1989-1990
    • Mental Heath, 1983-1984
    • Chair, 1983-1984
    • Small Business, 1983-1984
    • Utility Performance, Rates, and Regulation, 1983-1984
    • Vice Chair, 1983-1984
    • Subcommittees
    • Subcommittee #1 (Ways and Means) - Health and Welfare, 1985-1988
    • Chair, 1985-1986 Health and Workers Insurance, 1989-1990 Health Personnel, 1989-1990
    • Mental Health and Development Disabilities, 1985-1988
    • Mental Health, Development Disabilities and Substance Abuse, 1989-1990
    • Minority Health Affairs, 1991-1992
    • Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance, 1987-1988
    • Joint Committees
    • Legislative Audit, 1987-1990 (Chair, 1987-1988)
    • Chair, 1987-1988
    • Special Committees
    • Medi-Cal Oversight, 1987-1992
    • Oversight Committees
    • Tobacco Tax Programs, 1991-1992
    • Legislative Task Force
    • Taiwan Sister State, 1989-1992
    • Televising the Assembly, 1989-1990
    • Additional Committees, Commissions, and Boards
    • California Commission on Health Care Policy and Financing, 1989-1990
    • Commission on Economic Development, 1991-1992

    Scope and Content

    The Bruce Bronzan Papers consist of 9 cubic feet of textual records reflecting Bronzan's legislative activities during his 10-year Assembly career. Record series include Bill Files, 1983-1992; Subject Files, 1968-1990; Press Files, 1986-1988; and a subgroup consisting of Joint Legislative Audit Committee Subject Files, 1972-1989.
    This collection is particularly useful to researchers interested in California's health care policies, especially as it concerns the homeless and mentally ill during the 1980s. As a member of the Assembly Health Committee from 1983-1992, serving as chair from 1989-1992, and a member of six health related subcommittees during his career in the Legislature, Bruce Bronzan spent his legislative career focused on creating awareness and focusing legislative attention and funds on public health issues for traditionally disadvantaged groups such as children, the poor, and the mentally ill. Bronzan also served on the Agriculture Committee dealing with irrigation, pesticide regulation, tax credits, and world trade as it relates to agriculture and agricultural products. Subject files from his time as chairman and member of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee from 1987-1990 reflect the committee's deliberation and recommendations to the Auditor General regarding State audits. Among the most notable were the audits of the major agencies including the Department of General Services and Worker's Compensation. Because of Bronzan's experience with Medi-Cal and insurance and his continued commitment to farmers, families, and the mentally ill, his collection provides a detailed view of policy changes in these areas and the effects on California during the 1980s and early 1990s.

    Accruals

    No further accruals are expected.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    California. Legislature. Assembly
    California. Legislature. Assembly. Committee on Agriculture
    California. Legislature. Assembly. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee #1 on Health and Welfare