Lottery Awaits the Right Ticket

SACRAMENTO —  Pledging to make the California lottery “an example of excellence for the nation,” the five-member state Lottery Commission held its first formal meeting and news conference Monday.

The commission members made it clear that although they would waste no time in setting up the lottery, impatient bettors will have to continue the wait to buy their first lottery tickets.

Breezing through a light agenda, the commission appointed businessman Howard E. Varner of Pacific Palisades as its chairman and former Los Angeles schools chief William J. Johnston as vice chairman.

Varner and other commission members repeatedly told reporters that they are more concerned with setting up a well-managed operation than with rushing to get lottery tickets on the street. The voter-approved lottery initiative called for sales to begin by March 21, but Varner was unwilling to say that ticket sales would begin even by July.

“We think it’s more important to proceed in an orderly manner,” he said. “The honesty and integrity of the state is imperative, and we think that is more important than trying to meet an arbitrary deadline that might be established.”

The first task of the commission, Varner said, will be to help Gov. George Deukmejian pick a lottery director from a field of eight candidates, seven of whom are directors or deputy directors of lotteries in other states.

Varner appointed Johnston and commission member Laverta S. Montgomery, Compton’s city manager, to begin interviewing candidates as soon as possible. “The whole program hinges on getting an experienced director,” Johnston said.

Under the lottery initiative, approved by 58% of voters last November, the governor was to have named a lottery director and the five commission members by Dec. 6. But Deukmejian moved slowly, naming the commissioners only last week after conducting background checks described as perhaps the most thorough in state government.