By Pat Keeble, Editor

The 2007 Contra Costa legislative delegation to Sacramento appears to have more power than at any time since term limits began, with three of the five having high positions in their respective houses.

State Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, is chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, through which all money bills must pass. He was appointed by the even-more powerful Sen. Don Perata, D-Oakland, who is president pro tem of the Senate. Torlakson represents all of Contra Costa except the Richmond/San Pablo area, which is represented by Perata.

In the Assembly, newcomer Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, scored a position on the Rules Committee, which decides critical committee and bill assignments that guide the direction the Legislature's lower house will go.

Assemblymembers Guy Houston, R-Livermore, and Lori Hancock, D-Berkeley, each representing portions of Contra Costa, have not received their committee assignments, but as third-term members are expected to continue to hold upper level positions.

The county has not seen so many power assignments since the 1980s and early '90s, when Assemblymen Dan Boatwright of Concord (later a Senator), Bill Baker of Danville, Jack Knox of Richmond, Bob Campbell of Richmond and Sen. John Nejedly of Walnut Creek and others all held upper level chairmanships and committee assignments that gave the county leverage in Sacramento it hasn't seen since.

The five have similar goals, many of them linked to the five state bond measures passed last November. They'll be working together on many of them. Here's what they plan in the coming weeks.

Torlakson will emphasize education, transportation and housing.

Torlakson said Contra Costa has "better than even chances of getting meritorious legislation" with the delegation able to help.

In the Assembly, he was chair of the Transportation Committee and succeeded in getting money for East Bay projects. As head of Senate Appropriations, he will oversee not only transportation funding, but how the five bond funds approved by voters last November.

"We have to figure how to move the bond money into the street, getting housing and transportation money in the right place," he said.

"The voters showed great trust and faith in us by their positive vote on the bonds," he said, adding that Appropriations has already started, in back to back to back meetings the past few days, working with such officials as new state controller Bill Lockyer and treasurer Steve Poisner, as well as the governor's staff to determine priorities.

As former head of Assembly Transportation, Torlakson has long worked on major projects in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties that stand to get funding from the bond measures, including widening of Highway 4 in East County and the fourth bore of the Caldecott tunnel.

In education, he will be working with school districts and businesses to develop programs students can translate into good jobs needed by local business and industry. He and Hancock are combining efforts on school-to-work and other programs.

"We have an exciting year in front of us," Torlakson said. "There is a sense in the Legislature that we can find the middleground and get things done."

Torlakson has just been named to the Senate Housing and Transportation Committee and the Education Committee. His 7th Senate District includes all of Contra Costa except Richmond and San Pablo, which are represented by Perata.

Perata's transportation record indicates success for local projects.

As president pro tem of the Senate, he and the Assembly Speaker are key to the success of the Legislature's working with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Perata has been working since the election with the governor on bond measure implementation, and, by putting Torlakson as chair of Appropriations, has made the Antioch Democrat one of his chief lieutenants. They have worked together for years on major transportation and other projects.

Perata's Alameda County-based district has only about 7 percent of its registered voters in Contra Costa, in Richmond and San Pablo. But the two portions of the district are intricately tied by the I-80 corridor.

DeSaulnier wants to build on experience on air board as well as as county supervisor.

He's the total newcomer to the Legislature among the five, but, with the help of Torlakson and others, he's hit the ground running. Although he may be in the Assembly only two years, he scored the seat on the Rules Committee. He's not unknown in the Capital, having served for the past several years on the state Air Resources Board.

With that background, he hopes to serve on a related committee in the Assembly, where he expects there will be legislation to consider on climate control. It's clear, he said, that carbon dioxide, a chief feeder of global warming, must be brought under control.

With his experience on the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, DeSaulnier also expects to be involved in ongoing discussions of how to handle population growth predicted for the state, including new approaches to land use, which he dubbed "the third rail of politics."

He also wants to work on suicide prevention legislation, a personal interest stemming from his father's suicide, and on developing juvenile programs.

He said as a supervisor one of the hardest things that happened was the forced closing of the Summit Center juvenile program, after the state yanked its funding of several years at a time when the county had no funds to fill in.

"We were telling the kids who thought their life wasn't worth anything that it was," he said. "It was working."  He hopes to influence establishment or re-institution of better juvenile programs.

Houston aims at transportation needs

The only Republican in the delegation, and one of the few in the Greater Bay Area, Houston is in the minority but says he is enthusiastic over the Democratic majority's response to GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposals to implement November's infrastructure bond measures.

"The governor has always been a big thinker," he said, noting that although Schwarzenegger's proposals for health care are causing the biggest stir, he believes prison reform will also be prominent.

While nothing changed in last year's elections as far as the party numbers, with Democrats retaining their majority, Houston said he believed the Legislature accomplished a lot by working together, and he expects that will continue.

He said he will continue to work with Torlakson on transportation issues affecting the area, including improvements to I-580, I-680, and Vasco Road, as well as widening Highway 84 south of the Tri-Valley area. He will support the governor's position for a market-based approach to global warming problems, and continue to work on getting more money for the area's under-funded school districts.

Noting he won approval last year of legislation to partially make up funding deficits experienced by local districts, he said he would continue to work for equality of funding for the state's schools.

Houston represents the San Ramon Valley, Walnut Creek and East County along the Delta as well as portions of Alameda, San Joaquin and Sacramento Counties.

Hancock is working on education and anti-violence projects.

Hancock last year, as chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, oversaw the state's landmark legislation on greenhouse gas emissions, a subject that is expected to be of continuing concern in the Capitol.

She also chaired the Select Committee on Bridging the Achievement Gap, tackling issues such as high drop-out rates and implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act.  She and Torlakson are working together on school-to-career programs aimed at giving high school students training they need to get jobs, and on projects to prevent violence among youth.

Although she is more closely identified with the Berkeley area, where she was the first woman mayor and where her husband, former Assemblyman Tom Bates, is the current mayor, she has more voters in the Contra Costa portion of her district than in Alameda, about 55 percent to 45 percent. In addition to the Richmond and San Pablo areas, she represents Lamorinda and Pleasant Hill.

Most committee assignments in the Assembly have not been made as of this writing.

(posted 1-21-07)