PRIORITIES BEING SET AT CAPITOL NEW STATE LEGISLATORS WANT VALLEY TO RECEIVE FAIR SHARE.

Byline: HARRISON SHEPPARD Sacramento Bureau

SACRAMENTO -- With a week before swearing-in ceremonies, San Fernando Valley's incoming freshman legislators have already set aggressive goals to tackle everything from poverty and transportation to education and health care.

The legislators find themselves in pivotal positions, with community activists and business groups expecting them to fight for the Valley's fair share of $43 billion in bonds approved by voters earlier this month.

``We'd like to see our delegation work together on both sides of the aisle and with the governor,'' said Brendan Huffman, president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. ``With the passage of the infrastructure bond package, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work together and make sure the money is distributed where it needs to be.''

Valley voters elected six new legislators and re-elected one incumbent Assembly member. Several Valley-region senators who were not up for re-election this year also will return.

Most freshman members won't introduce legislation until January, when they'll have staffers hired and an office assigned. But they already know what issues they want to tackle.

``I'm deeply concerned about poverty,'' said Richard Alarcon, who has represented the 20th Senate District for eight years and will be moving over to the 39th Assembly District.

``The very first thing we will do -- and I've discussed this with the speaker -- is to continue work on the master plan to end poverty in California.''

His first bill will be to create a cabinet-secretary position responsible for tackling poverty-related issues.

Alarcon also wants to oversee work on a bill signed into law this year allowing counties to assess an additional penalty on criminal fines to generate funding for pediatric trauma care.

Alarcon hopes to use some of that money -- named Richie's Fund after Alarcon's young son who died in a car crash in 1987 -- to create a 24-hour pediatric trauma care center in the San Fernando Valley.

But Alarcon may not be in the Assembly for long. He announced last week that he will run in March for the Los Angeles City Council seat vacated by Alex Padilla, who was elected Nov. 7 to Alarcon's Senate post.

Cameron Smyth, a Santa Clarita councilman elected to the 38th Assembly District seat representing Northridge, Santa Clarita and Simi Valley, said he looks forward to work on transportation and education.

He hopes the Los Angeles-area delegation can secure funds from the $19.9 billion transportation bond measure that voters approved this month.

``Now that the transportation bonds have passed, it's critical that my district gets its fair share,'' Smyth said. ``The 38th encompasses some of the busiest freeways in the state. I think we can work as an L.A. delegation, regardless of party.''

For schools, he wants to obtain funds from a $10.4 billion bond measure that passed this month and to increase vocational education, physical fitness and health offerings.

Julia Brownley, elected to represent the 41st District covering Calabasas, Santa Monica and Malibu, said she also will make education a priority.

California, she noted, ranks near the bottom among states in educational achievement, and she hopes to introduce legislation to help bring the state up to -- at least -- the national average.

``I certainly want it to be something that we can look at it in a bipartisan way to just map it out and not have it be highly charged around exactly how it is going to be funded,'' said Brownley, a Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District board member.

Another local school board member, Paul Krekorian, elected to the 43rd Assembly District seat for Burbank and Glendale, has similar goals.

``As a school board member and as a parent, public education issues are going to be my first priority,'' said Krekorian, a Burbank school board member.

``There are several areas that I'm especially interested in there, including ensuring adequate special-education resources, rebuilding our career and technical education in public schools, arts education, addressing the achievement gap. All are areas of significant concern,'' he said.

But freshmen know it won't be easy to have an impact at the beginning of their terms. Even in the term-limits era when veteran members have no more than six years of experience in the Assembly, the newcomers will have to fight for respect.

Mike Feuer, a former Los Angeles City Council member elected to the 42nd District seat representing Sherman Oaks and West Los Angeles, said he hopes to work on issues related to the budget, transportation, education, health and the environment. He said he will seek committee assignments on some of those topics.

``I ran to try to help find solutions to what I consider the biggest issues in the state,'' Feuer said. ``But I have to start to earn respect, starting all over again here.

``One can't be an architect of major change until your colleagues respect you, and I haven't done anything yet to earn that. I would hope to find a way to have an impact; it's a matter of earning it.''

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