BEFORE MAKING LAWS, OFFICIALS MUST FIND A PARKING PLACE.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- With the largest-ever crop of freshman state Senate and Assembly members taking office, the biggest challenge they face in the new session may be finding the right parking spots and the most convenient bathrooms -- not legislative initiatives.

Newbie legislators recently underwent extensive training on hundreds of how-to details on everything from writing legislation and hiring staff to filling out paperwork and finding parking.

``I think the sheer volume of information that we're trying to get our hands around is pretty challenging,'' said Assemblyman-elect Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita.

``Couple that with the fact you've got to find a place to live in Sacramento and hire staff and try to get your head on straight because you're coming right off an election. I think all of us are probably feeling similar -- just trying to get our arms around everything.''

New Assembly members have had little time to rest since the Nov. 7 election. Within 48 hours, they were summoned to Sacramento to choose new party leaders.

Assembly Republicans picked Michael Villines, R-Clovis, to be their new minority leader, while Democrats kept Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles.

After that, new members jumped into a training program informally called ``The Hertzberg Institute,'' created by Robert Hertzberg, a Van Nuys Democrat who served in the Assembly from 1996 to 2002, including a 2002 stint as speaker.

Hertzberg realized that, with term limits, the Legislature was going to lose much of its institutional memory and be flooded with a crop of rookies every two years.

``Before that, basically they had members who had 10, 15 or sometimes 30 years of experience. So (new members) weren't given the opportunity to immediately chair commitees,'' said Jonathon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly Rules Committee that organizes the training sessions. ``There was a learning process. They had the luxury to figure it out.''

While the Senate also has training for new members, it's not as extensive or formalized as the Assembly program.

Assemblyman-elect Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, said the amount of information is overwhelming.

``You can't assimilate all this information and truly retain it, because it's just too much,'' Feuer said. ``I know most people think being a state legislator is not a particularly demanding job. In fact, to do this job well is extraordinarily demanding.''

New members start with a $275,000 budget to hire staff and pay for office expenses other than rent. They can ask the speaker to grant them a larger budget for special circumstances -- such as having important committee assignments or representing a geographically large district that needs an extra local office.

On average, that base budget allows them to hire three or four people for their Capitol office and the same number for their district office.

Several new members said family issues are the most difficult part of the job. Most legislators who have families back home fly to Sacramento on Sunday nights or Monday mornings and fly back home Thursday nights.

Smyth, who signed a lease on a two-bedroom apartment in a suburb north of the capital, and his wife have two sons, ages 8 months and 3 years. He said his family will continue to live in Santa Clarita, but at least once a month his wife will bring the children to Sacramento and stay a week or so.

``I think for all of us that have families, the biggest challenge and the biggest impact is being away from them,'' Smyth said.

harrison.sheppard(at)dailynews.com

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