Robert Hertzberg

Robert M. Hertzberg
Member of the California State Assembly from the 40th district
In office 1996–2002
Preceded by	Barbara Friedman
Succeeded by	Lloyd Levine
64th Speaker of the California State Assembly
In office April 13, 2000 – February 6, 2002
Preceded by	Antonio Villaraigosa
Succeeded by	Herb J. Wesson, Jr.
Personal details
Born	November 19, 1954 (1954-11-19) Los Angeles, California
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Redlands, Hastings College of the Law
Profession	lawyer, politician, green entrepreneur
Religion	Jewish[citation needed]

Robert Myles Hertzberg served as Speaker of the California State Assembly. He was twice elected unanimously Speaker of the State Assembly, and served two terms. In the State Assembly, he represented more than 400,000 constituents in the San Fernando Valley communities of Los Angeles. Since leaving the State Assembly in 2002, he has served as Co-Chair of California Forward and a member of The Think Long Committee of California, lost a 2005 bid to become mayor of Los Angeles, and maintains a law practice at the international firm Mayer Brown LLP, where he serves as Vice Chairman.

Early life

Robert Myles Hertzberg was born on November 19, 1954 in Los Angeles, California to Harrison W. Hertzberg and Antoinette "Bunny" Taussig Hertzberg. He was a graduate of Palm Springs High School. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Redlands with a Bachelor of Arts double major in History and English in 1976. While in college, he wrote a 400-page handbook, entitled A Commonsense Approach to English. Three years, later Hertzberg earned his Juris Doctor from Hastings College of the Law at the University of California in San Francisco. He has been an active member of the California State Bar since 1979.

Legal career and early political work

After graduating law school in 1979, Hertzberg was an associate at the Beverly Hills law firm of Fulop, Rolston, Burns, & McKittrick. In 1983, he co-authored a manual on real estate law, California Lis Pendens Practice, published by the University of California, with a Second Edition eleven years later. He was then a full partner in several small Los Angeles-area law firms until running for the State Assembly in 1996. In 2007, the Los Angeles Business Journal named Hertzberg in the article "Best of the Bar: Who's Who In L.A. LAW."

Hertzberg's first political job was a driver for Lt. Governor Mervyn Dymally in 1973 and 1974, which ended in Dymally's election as the first African-American Lt. Governor in California history. He then did a part-time stint as an advance man in the White House under President Jimmy Carter in 1977-80. From the 1970s through the 1990s, he worked for numerous California Democrats, including LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina, U.S Representatives Dennis Cardoza (Campaign Chair), Brad Sherman, Julian Dixon, Xavier Becerra (Campaign Co-chair), Lucy Roybal-Allard & Hilda Solis, LA City Council Members Mike Hernandez (Co-chair) & Herb Wesson (Chair), and also State Assembly members Antonio Villaraigosa (Campaign Treasurer), Hersh Rosenthal, and Richard Alatorre, among many others.

Election to State Assembly

In 1996, Democratic Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman of the 40th Assembly District encompassing North Hollywood, Studio City, Van Nuys and Woodland Hills in the "San Fernando Valley" section of Los Angeles was forced to retire due to term limits. Hertzberg ran for the seat and was opposed in the Democratic primary in March 1996 by Fran Oschin, an aide to Los Angeles Councilman Hal Bernson. According to the California Political Almanac, Hertzberg "racked up a sheaf of endorsements and raised well over $200,000 for the primary." He easily won the primary by 72-28%. In the November general election, Hertzberg rolled to an easy 59-31% victory over Republican Ron Culver. Hertzberg's know-how and connections from over 100 local campaigns gave him the edge over the less-experienced Assembly Members who were coming into the Legislature due to the new "term limits" law. In 1998 and 2000, Hertzberg was re-elected by successively greater margins, 69% and 70%, respectively.

Speaker of the Assembly - 2000-2002

On April 13, 2000, Robert Hertzberg was unanimously elected by a voice vote as the 64th Speaker of the California State Assembly. In 1996, when Hertzberg was first elected to the Assembly, the Democrats had 38 of 80 seats. By 2000, when Speaker Hertzberg was directing the Assembly Democratic campaigns, his party was up to 50 seats and he was the last Speaker to gain seats until the Obama landslide of 2008. As Speaker, his principle priorities were: passing bills on alternative energy and protecting the environment; public safety as with anti-gang efforts such as the CLEAR program; improving the integrity of the legislative process through new ethics rules; enhancing legislative oversight, which helped lead to the investigation that caused the resignation of Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush on misconduct charges; and establishing the Capitol Institute to better train legislators and their employees.

The non-partisan California Journal rated Hertzberg as the best Member in the Assembly for being a successful coalition-builder, for working the hardest and having "serious brain wattage."

During his time in the Assembly, Hertzberg helped open up discussion with local business leaders, sponsored legislation to make state government more accessible to the public via the Internet, to make it easier to vote, to create more "Criminal Scene Investigations (CSI) laboratories, to cut $1.5 billion in taxes, and worked with Senate President Pro Tem John Burton & State Senator Deborah Ortiz to increase funds to revamp public education through the "Cal-Grant" Program. The Cal-Grants Program was "hailed by educators as a turning point that will give poor students unprecedented access to California's colleges and universities" and Hertzberg commented upon the bill's passage, "California is back." (Hertzberg believed deeply in community colleges, seeing them as the key to growth in "New Economy"). Under Hertzberg's Speakership, the state also spent much needed money on fixing public transportation, and Hertzberg co-sponsored the legislation creating CLEAR, an anti-gang program, which Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called "the most successful gang prevention program in California history." (More specifics are listed immediately below).

Another action taken by Hertzberg was the highly controversial bipartisan 2001 redistricting. While some hailed it as a success, this closed-door deal, whose goal was to ensure safe seats and reduce competition at election time, is remembered by many as a low point in the Sacramento legislature's tendency toward self-preservation. In previous decades like the 1970s and 1990s, the remap process ended up in the California Supreme Court because the two parties could not reach agreement on a plan. Working closely both with the Republicans and Democratic House Leader (and now House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, Hertzberg was able to craft a redistricting plan that passed the Assembly by 71-8 and the State Senate by 40-0. The plan maintained Democratic control of the State Legislature and using gerrymandering guaranteed "safe seats" for incumbents of both parties.

As California newspapers have reported, these secret negotiations among the two parties in the legislature unfolded within two days of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America. The legislators' actions were widely criticized as crass politicking freighted with self-interest. As LA Weekly has reported:

"On Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001, an ashen-faced New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani spoke to a grieving America of the fallen firefighters and office workers killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks that toppled the World Trade Center and left 2,752 dead. Miles away in California, people were immobilized with shock and horror. They called in sick, gathered with friends to watch the tragedy repeatedly unfold on TV, found old American flags to lash to their car antennas and wandered into impromptu religious services. But as one California newspaper reported, the Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento's state Assembly were "practically giddy" on that Thursday of mourning and fear. Led by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, honchos from the two political parties huddled privately, scheming over a plan to gerrymander California by cutting it into crazy-shaped voting districts designed to ensure that no incumbent from either party could be ousted by voters for many years. Recalling a day seen by many as one of the sleaziest in modern Sacramento history, Republican political consultant Jonathan Wilcox says: "When they came out of the [meeting] and rushed into the Assembly chambers, I thought they were going to pass a resolution condemning terrorism. I literally thought they were going to praise the heroics of the New York firefighters. The entire attention of the world was on the most heinous attack on humanity. "But what does the California Legislature do? They saved their jobs. They saved their jobs." Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, recalls how she and others desperately tried to find out what the Legislature was doing behind closed doors. She knew the Assembly was in the middle of "redistricting" — whereby politicians redraw voting districts into absurd shapes that cut through mountain ranges and ignore city limits, stacking the districts with voters from one party or the other in order to fix the elections. Public hearings on redistricting had been held on Sept. 4 and 5, 2001, days before the terrorists attacked. But on Sept. 13, "there was a media blackout by the Legislature — we couldn't get any information," Feng recalls. "While the rest of the world was reacting to terrorism, the California Legislature — it was secretly drawing voting districts! They were moving the lines — and we couldn't find out where the lines were being moved." The losers were California voters. The "safe seats" created by the Legislature, in the form of Senate Bill 802, meant that for the next 10 years, few incumbents faced a serious challenger, few seats changed party hands, and election outcomes were known months before election day. The plan even involved the governor's office, as Carl Ingram wrote for the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 14, 2001: "[Gray] Davis, who had insisted that the once-a-decade redrawing of political boundaries to reflect the 2000 census be a bipartisan effort, is expected to sign them quickly. 'We've been plugged into the process. We don't see any major changes that the governor would ask for,' said spokesman Steve Maviglio." Although the Times reported that a few disgusted Assembly members attacked the plan as "an unvarnished incumbent protection plan that needlessly split cities and ignored 'communities of interest,' " Hertzberg spun it as having unfolded "in the most open way in the history of California."

On the issue of international terrorism, two years before September 11, 2001, Hertzberg was issuing warnings and sponsoring legislation to thwart terrorism. (See AB140 below). After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Speaker Hertzberg temporarily shut down the State Assembly and created the Bi-partisan Legislative Task Force on Terrorism to combat potential threats to California's food and water supplies.

His longest-lasting accomplishment was being the architect of a compromise that allowed numerous school bond measures to go forward. His successful negotiations with State Senator Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach) allowed the State Legislature to break a decade-long legislative logjam and place school bonds on the 1998 and 2000 ballots. In 2002, he sponsored another school bond, AB16, to place an additional $25.35 billion worth of school bonds on the ballot in November 2002 and then successfully campaigned to pass the bond. Using the framework designed by Hertzberg, California was able to pass over $70 billion in school bonds, the largest bond measures anywhere. For nearly two decades, California state government had been deadlocked with a Democratic State Legislature facing Republican Governors George Deukemijian and Pete Wilson. Hertzberg and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton broke the gridlock to pass the most progressive social legislation since the 1960s. (See below).

Legislative Accomplishments

AB206 - "Citizens' Complaint Act." (1997) Requires state agencies, with web sites, to provide a form on the web site for individuals to register complaints or comments regarding the agency's performance.

AB513 - Meth Sentence Enhancement (1997) increases criminal penalties for selling methamphetamine.

AB853 - Gang Prevention Programs (1997) establishes the Community Law Enforcement and Recovery (CLEAR) Demonstration Project to combat gangs in Los Angeles County.

AB856 - CA Witness Protection Program (1997) creates a state witness protection program run by the Attorney General.

AB880 - Elder Financial Abuse (1998) expands criminal penalties for financial abuse of the elderly and dependent populations.

AB2011 - Gun control (1998) requires that a serial number must be on a non-antique modern gun as a condition for transfer of ownership and requires law enforcement tracing of all seized guns.

AB2351 - Electronic threats (1998) adds threats made by electric communications, such as the Internet, to the list of prohibitions.

AB39 - Contraceptives (1999) Requires health care plans to pay for contraceptive services.

AB140 - Anti-Terrorism (1999) makes illegal the possession, use, manufacture, attempt or threat to use weapons of mass destruction.

AB185 - San Fernando Valley re-organization (1999) allows the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles to request a citywide vote on secession.

AB187 - Grant Information (1999) allows state agencies to make available on their web sites a list of all grants administered by that agency.

AB925 - Conservators (1999) creates a Statewide Registry for conservators and guardians.

AB1094 - Voter Registration (2000) reduces the deadline for registering to vote from 29 to 14 days before the election.

AB1391 - Forensic Laboratories (1999) authorizes the construction and remodeling of forensic laboratories.

AB1473 - Infrastructure plans (1999) requires the Governor to submit annual five-year construction spending plans.

AB1665 - Cal-OSHA Funding (1999) extends the funding for the California Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration inspection program.

AB1717 - Gun Control (2000) requires the Department of Justice to evaluate ballistic identification systems and report back to the Legislature.

ACR181 - California History Month (2000) designates September as "California History Month.

AB16 - Education Bonds (2002) authorized spending of $25.35 billion in education bond funds.

AB56 - Voting Modernization Bonds (2001) authorizes a $200 million bond to update and repair California's voting equipment.

AB423 - Farm Labor Contracts (2001) enhances enforcement of farm labor contracts and the payment of back wages owed.

AB669 - State Non-emergency phone number (2001) authorizes local public agencies to establish a "311" non-emergency phone number.

AB865 - Credit Cards (2001) requires credit card companies to detail the time and cost of paying off credit card debts by only making the monthly minimum payments.

AB935 - Public Interest Attorneys (2001) helps lawyers who work in the public interest or indigent defendant field to pay off their student loans.

AB1657 - LA County Healthcare (2001) requires the State Auditor to evaluate the financial capacity of the LA County Department of Health Services to meet its responsibilities.

AB1781 - Instructional materials funding (2002) provides funding for school districts to purchase instructional materials.

AB1838 - Terrorism - W.M.D. (2002) makes use of weapons of mass destruction murder in the first degree and a capital crime.

AB2321 - Court claims (2002) creates rules for personal injury claims against California State and local courts.

AB2717 - Water Desalination (2002) requires the Department of Water Resources to report to the Legislature by 2004 on the possibility of seawater desalination in California.

Personal style

Extremely warm and outgoing, Hertzberg has been given the nicknames "Huggy" and "Hugsberg" for his habit of offering embraces to colleagues, employees, voters and even opponents. Staffers also know to be on call whenever the Speaker would get a new idea. Republican consultant Tony Quinn described Hertzberg as the "Energizer Bunny with a 150 I.Q. -- always willing to discuss policy."^{[citation needed]}

Legacy as Speaker

With Republican Assemblyman Bill Leonard, Hertzberg worked to create the Capitol Institute to train new legislators and employees in state ethics rules and computer systems. After his tenure as Speaker ended, the Legislature under successor Speaker Herb Wesson named the Capitol Institute after Hertzberg. Hertzberg also created the Speaker's Office of International Relations and Protocol, a forward-thinking move in light of the "globalization" economic trends and the fact that if California were a separate nation, it would be among the world's 10 largest economies. The non-partisan magazine California Journal, gave Hertzberg high marks for working hard, being intelligent, having high ethical standards and for being a successful coalition-builder.

Criticism of Bob Hertzberg

Veteran Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton said of Hertzberg’s tenure as Speaker: “Reviews are mixed.  Hertzberg is an intense bundle of energy, an all-night negotiator, an affable, incessant hugger.  But critics contend there’s often more motion than forward movement.”    However, Skelton noted Hertzberg’s string of legislative accomplishments and ended the column with “Hertzberg cared.  He tried.  And he’s leaving the house in better shape than he found it.”   In the non-partisan California Journal, Sherry Jeffe criticized what she called Hertzberg’s “micro-management” and giving Republican “porky bribes” to ensure passage of the budget.  She also complained that he was “rolled on redistricting by Senate pro tem John Burton” and commented that “the low point for this speaker – with his penchant for organization, structure and fastidious to detail – came the last night of the 2000 legislative session when, argued one Capitol insider, ‘as a result of disorganization, a great number of bills which would have been enacted fell through the cracks.”  Conservative Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters said Hertzberg’s promise of legislative oversight of the executive branch “faded, particularly when the subjects were the energy crisis and the performance of his fellow Democrat, Governor Gray Davis.”

Private law practice and alternative energy ventures, 2002 to current

After retiring from the State Assembly in 2002, Hertzberg joined Mayer Brown LLP, formerly Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, the nation's 6th largest law firm as a full partner. At the firm, Hertzberg has specialized in government affairs, providing strategic advice to companies doing business in California and nationally. He has been particularly interested in the fields of the environment, climate-change, energy, water and Indian related issues, as well as the telecom and real estate industries.

Besides his law practice, Hertzberg has also been very active in the alternative energy business, founding Solar Integrated Technology in 2002, Renewable Capital in 2006 and co-founding G24 Innovations Limited in 2006. (See introduction above).

2005 Campaign for Mayor

Assemblyman Hertzberg retired from the Assembly in 2002. At the time, he said he had no plans to run for any other office, expressing a desire to "take care of my kids."

But a steady series of fundraising scandals where members of Mayor James Hahn's Administration were investigated by a grand jury for allegedly awarding city contracts to campaign contributors and the general drift of Hahn (some critics called him "Mayor Yawn") created an opening. In a LA Times poll, only 48% of voters considered Hahn honest.

Antonio Villaraigosa, who lost a tough race to Mayor Hahn in 2001, had been elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2003 while promising not to run for mayor, something he quickly reconsidered when Hahn proved vulnerable. Bernard Parks, the African-American City Councilman who had been dumped as Police Chief by Hahn and State Senator Richard Alarcon also jumped in, as did a number of minor candidates. Hertzberg's allies convinced him to run, and in 2004, he started a web site ChangeLA.Com to promote his candidacy.

Hertzberg advocated a "boroughs" system to make city government smaller, more efficient and more accountable to the grassroots, plus giving the Mayor's office more power, especially over the school system. He also opposed raising taxes, while favoring synchronizing traffic lights to ease congestion. Hertzberg's campaign platform consisted of four main planks:

• Break up the Los Angeles Unified School District to make it smaller, more responsive and more efficient. (Hertzberg called the District's 50% dropout rate the biggest threat to the city's future).
• A "Commuters' Bill of Rights" to help ease traffic woes.
• Using 25% of new revenue to hire at least 500 more police officers.
• Using revenue bond money to build "green" infrastructure immediately.

He told the LA Times that it was more than ambition that caused him to run, but a sense of duty as well:

"Could I go out and make a ton of money in my businesses and law firm? Sure. But when I'm 70 years old, I look in the mirror and I watched this place crumble and knew I could have done something about it. I just couldn't let that happen. Believe me, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. The sacrifices to me and to my family are extraordinary."

Over half of LA city voters did not know much about Bob Hertzberg. To boost his public standing, Hertzberg launched a TV campaign that featured a giant image of him towering over a city full of problems. He also unveiled an endorsement from former Mayor Richard Riordan. The LA Times expressed a preference for a Villaraigosa-Hertzberg run-off, while the Los Angeles Daily News endorsed Hertzberg. The African-American newspaper, The Los Angeles Sentinel, also endorsed Hertzberg, the first time they had ever endorsed a white candidate against a serious black candidate. Hertzberg efforts paid off as a second LA Times poll found the primary too close to call. Meanwhile, Hahn's supporters fought back with a hardball negative campaign through the mail.

Analysis by the LA Times showed that Hertzberg ran best in the San Fernando Valley and West LA, among white middle class voters and Jews. Hertzberg also won twice as many precincts as Hahn, but fell short when Hahn's negative ads decreased his support in the Valley. A lead editorial after the election in the LA Times, "Paging Bob Hertzberg," claimed a debate between Hahn and Villaraigosa made them "miss Bob Hertzberg and his outsized ideas."

After just missing the run-off, Hertzberg strongly endorsed the eventual winner Villaraigosa, helping the first Latino Mayor immensely in the San Fernando Valley, plus the Jewish and business communities where Hertzberg had run particularly strong in the primary. Villaraigosa ended up winning the run-off by 59-41%.

Political advisory roles

Since Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as California Governor in the 2003 recall election, Hertzberg has served as both a formal and informal advisor to the "Governator." In 2003, Schwarzenegger appointed him to his Transition Committee and Hertzberg helped guide the passage of the new Governor's "Economic Recovery Package" through the Legislature that allowed the state to weather the financial crisis of 2003-04. According to The People's Machine by Joe Matthews, Schwarzenegger then offered Hertzberg the position of Chief of Staff, nicknaming him "Hertzie." Hertzberg chose to stay in the private sector, but did advise Arnold to "build a thoroughly bipartisan government." Hertzberg wrote in the LA Daily News that his advice was: "Take the initiative to go and meet with members of the Legislature, Democrats and Republicans alike. Sit in their offices, meet with them as human beings, and learn to work with them."

After finishing a close third in the 2005 Mayoral Election, Hertzberg also served as the Chair of Mayor-elect Villaraigosa's Transition Team. In 2009, Hertzberg also served as the co-chair of the Transition Team for newly elected Los Angeles City Attorney, Carmen Trutanich.

Civic affairs/public policy activism

Hertzberg has stayed involved in policy debates and formulation through his service on numerous boards of public policy committees and several universities, including:

• Board Member, Town Hall Los Angeles
• Member, USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Board on History and Culture
• Fellow, USC Keston Institute for Infrastructure
• USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, Board of Councilors
• Board of Visitors for Pepperdine School of Public Policy, Member
• Robert M. Hertzberg Library and Learning Center at Los Angeles Valley College, Chairman of the Board
• California Historical Society, Trustee to 2007
• National Speaker's Conference, Honorary Member, Executive Committee
• Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA), Board of Directors to 2007
• Board Member, Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College
• Century Housing Corporation, Board of Directors, 2003-2008
• Member, Executive Committee, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
• Member, Council on Foreign Relations
• Center for Governmental Studies, Board Member
• Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), Board Member to 2008
• Southern California Leadership Council, Board Member
• California Center For Regional Leadership, Board Member
• Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, Chairman 2004, Executive Committee 2005 to date. In April 2011, Hertzberg was elected Chairmain once again.
• Los Angeles World Affairs Council, appointed Board Member in 2008.
• California Forward, Leadership Council co-chair (see below).
• Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), Board Member
• Nominated by Governor Schwarzenegger to serve on Climate Change Strategy Panel(name of panel TBD)
• Metropolitan Water Committee, Blue Ribbon Committee
• In November 2010, Hertzberg was appointed vice chairman at Pacific Capital Group, a Los Angeles investment firm founded by former Global Crossing CEO Gary Winnick.
• In 2011, Hertzberg was elected Chairmain of Palogix International, a world leader in the field of re-usable (and re-cyclable) transportation containers & storage bins.
• Member, Think Long Committee of California, (see below).
• He is also an elected member of the Board of Directors to The China-US Energy Efficiency Alliance, a nonprofit organization working to combat global climate change by promoting industrial energy efficiency in China.

Political vision/ideals

Hertzberg calls himself a "New Democrat" in the mold of Bill Clinton, who is both pro-business and pro-labor. He told the Los Angeles Business Journal that education is the key to the future and "we're trying to pave the way for what's coming next in California; intellectual property, not low-wage jobs." And Hertzberg told the Speaker's Commission on Regional Government: ""The winners in the New Economy will be the regions that learn to work together to relieve traffic congestion, build affordable housing, preserve open space and promote economic development. If government is going to be effective in this new age, it is going to have to start thinking regionally. This Commission is an important first step."

When he was running for Mayor, Hertzberg told the LA Weekly: "Get it done or get the heck out of the way is my philosophy. I start out as a holistic thinker. I'm the big picture, holistic thinker... It really boils down to the issue of getting the work done. I am sick and tired of the noise. Sick and tired of the empty promises."

California Forward

Since 2009, Hertzberg has been the co-chair of California Forward, a bi-partisan civic group dedicated to (in the words of their Mission Statement): “to help create a "smart" government – one that’s small enough to listen, big enough to tackle real problems, smart enough to spend our money wisely in good times and bad, and honest enough to be held accountable for results.”

The web site of California Forward states that they are seeking “A Comprehensive Solution” to California’s problems, including 1) Fiscal reforms (performance-based budgeting, a more rational tax system and pay-as-you-go rules; 2) Structural reforms where more power is returned from Sacramento to local governments, pension reforms and a revitalized education system; 3) Democracy reforms, including non-partisan redistricting and voting systems. Accordingly, California Forward strongly supports redistricting reform and “Open Primary” initiatives (where voters can choose candidates regardless of partisan registration), all of which California voters passed via the ballot box in 2008 and 2010.

In conjunction with Chairing California Forward, Hertzberg is also a member of the Think Long Committee of California. This Committee is another non-partisan civic group focused on fixing California’s dysfunctional state and local government structures. The Think Long Committee promotes a vision of 21st Century government in California that is more efficient and “user-friendly” to ordinary California citizens.

External links

• Official website
• G24 Innovations

Political offices
Preceded by Barbara Friedman	California State Assemblyman, 40th District 1996–2002	Succeeded by Lloyd Levine
Preceded by Antonio Villaraigosa	Speaker of the California State Assembly April 13, 2000-February 6, 2002	Succeeded by Herb Wesson