Assembly’s Freshmen See Need for Change

SACRAMENTO â€”  As voters ordered when they passed term limits, one-third of the Assembly now is composed of freshmen. Fresh blood. New ideas. Is anybody noticing a big improvement? Any improvement?

We’re now into the third week of the new fiscal year and still there’s no state budget. Rather, there is gridlock, gamesmanship and finger-pointing.

Meanwhile, many businesses that sell goods to the state are being stiffed.

There are 27 new Assembly members who never before have served in the Legislature--20 Democrats and seven Republicans. No doubt, many ran last fall against the Sacramento status quo. Now they’re neck-deep in it.

You can’t blame them, however. While, because of term limit turnover, these frosh have more clout individually than any previous rookie class (some even are committee chairs) they don’t yet run the Legislature. The faces are new, the system is old.

I was curious about their overall impressions and reaction to the latest snafu. So I asked eight of the sharper newcomers.

Their attitudes, after six months on the job, ranged from upbeat to downcast.

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The most upbeat was Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), 42, chairman of the Public Safety Committee.

“The biggest surprise to me was the ability to influence the outcome of so much legislation,� Hertzberg said. But it should be noted that his bailiwick, crime legislation, does not get big-footed by the Big Five--the governor, the two house leaders and two minority leaders--as do the major money bills.

Still, Hertzberg continued, the legislative process “is maddening because we have these artificial deadlines� for moving bills. That’s aggravated by too many measures, he said. “It’s impossible to read this stuff and be thoughtful.�

He hopes to push the Legislature closer to the congressional system--fewer bills, more committee deliberation and a totally different budget process that involves adopting an initial spending outline, then later passing separate appropriation bills by subject.

An outspoken critic of the Big Five is Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda), 52, the Rules Committee chairman and a former Alameda County supervisor.

“I think it’s atrocious,� Perata said, that “everything of substance� is settled by the Big Five. “It incredibly weakens the committee system. Some of us came to play and we’re sitting on the bench.�

Perata is one of several freshmen who came from local government and is lobbying for the state to return confiscated property tax revenues to counties and cities. The state now is siphoning off $3.4 billion annually. Gov. Pete Wilson has proposed returning $100 million.

“That’s just a token,� complained Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), 48, chairman of the Housing and Community Development Committee and a former Contra Costa County supervisor. “A number of us won’t vote for the budget unless there’s a significant return to local government.�

Torlakson said he and another freshman, Assemblyman Jack Scott (D-Altadena), may sponsor a ballot initiative to cut off legislators’ salaries when they don’t pass a budget on time. But their proposal also would reduce the vote needed for budget passage. Now, California is the only state to require a two-thirds majority.

Scott, 63, former president of Pasadena City College, lamented the political partisanship. And Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles), 45, an ex-political consultant, said the Assembly spends too much time on the innocuous and not enough on the substantive.

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One of the more frustrated was Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside), 49, a former criminal prosecutor.

“Much like the process I came from, there are folks up here who lie and cheat,� Pacheco said. “When people give their word, they ought to keep it. A lot of folks here don’t. . . .�

“People should be more civil and do things for the right reasons. But that’s not something you can legislate. That involves voters making the right choices.�

Assemblyman Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), 43, a former Kern County supervisor, observed “a real tendency to procrastinate, to put off until tomorrow the tough decisions.�

Timidity comes with inexperience, asserted Assemblywoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley), 52, chairwoman of the Human Services Committee, where she was a longtime consultant.

How would she make things better? “Make term limits go away. New members are very concerned about how they’re viewed in their districts. That makes it very difficult to take positions. Along with experience comes bravery.�

Certainly, the jury’s still out on term limits. But there’s no evidence yet that they’ve produced what they wanted--a better Legislature.