Darrell Steinberg:
A Legislator With No Time To Waste
by Chris Krueger

For the six years prior to his election to the Assembly in 1998, Darrell Steinberg balanced his duties on the Sacramento City Council against the demands of his legal career, first as an employment lawyer and later as an administrative law judge and as a private arbitrator and mediator.

Getting elected to the Assembly freed Steinberg to devote all of his energies to public service. To Steinberg, the chance to have a single focus still "feels like a luxury."

Yet Steinberg, like other state politicians in the era of term limits, has also never been under more time pressure. Only in his third year in the Assembly, Steinberg is limited to a total of six years in three two-year terms. He knows that there is no time like the present to make his mark.

"I've really taken the philosophy that every year I'm going to take on big issues because there's really no time to waste," he said in a recent interview in his Capitol office.

Top among Steinberg's legislative priorities has been the expansion of community-based mental health programs. In 1999, Steinberg's AB 34 created a $10 million pilot program in three counties, including Sacramento. The success of that program led to a bill in 2000 expanding the program to 32 cities and counties. Steinberg is carrying a bill this year to expand the program further.

Steinberg said his experience on the City Council in dealing with Loaves and Fishes, including a lawsuit by the city against the nonprofit that Steinberg did not support, alerted him to the need for expanded mental health funding. According to Steinberg, the state's reform of its mental health care laws, which led to the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill beginning in the 1970s, placed a heavy burden on cities and counties. His mental health bills are an attempt to keep a promise of help from the state to the local governments that has been unfulfilled for a long time, he said.

Steinberg bills that have become law also include a bill creating incentives for teachers whose students showed significant improvement and a bill funding a California Unity Center in the wake of a synagogue bombing in Sacramento.

Presently, Steinberg is sponsoring a bill that would ban secret settlements in major product defect and hazardous material cases in order to protect the public from the risk of bodily injury or death. He is also working with the State Bar, the Judicial Council and the Attorney General's Office to craft a bill to ensure that attorneys who expose government corruption, like Cynthia Ossias, the whistleblower whose testimony led to the resignation of former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush, will not have to risk professional discipline for breach of attorney-client confidentiality.

Another bill that would require growers to maintain written contracts spelling out the terms of the deals with farm labor contractors has been set aside until January after facing strong opposition from agricultural interests.

Steinberg said the opportunity to work on a wide range of issues has made serving in the Assembly a fascinating job.

"You have the ability by virtue of the position to just take on anything you think is important and impacts the interests of the people you represent. It is an incredible opportunity and I try to take advantage of it every day."

According to observers of the Legislature, Steinberg's seize-the-day strategy has succeeded. In 1999, Steinberg was selected as the "Rookie of the Year" by California Journal magazine. Describing him as "bright, diligent, hardworking, and thoughtful," the magazine chose Steinberg as the legislator who had generated the greatest impact among the 32 rookies in the Legislature that year.

"He's perfect in the era of term limits," said Sacramento lawyer Kim Mueller, who preceded Steinberg in representing District Six on the City Council. "He's a quick study. He's learned quickly how to be effective."

Mueller said that Steinberg is rare among politicians in his ability to handle the criticism that comes with the job and still maintain his optimism and his belief in the political process.

Steinberg's combination of even temperament and extreme motivation also helped him in his prior career representing employees for the California State Employee Association, according to Harry Gibbons, a staff attorney for CSEA who worked with Steinberg for several years.

"I just find him an amazing individual, the amount of time and energy he puts in," Gibbons said. "He never gets frustrated or angry."

Steinberg was born in San Francisco. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from UCLA and his law degree from UC Davis Law School. He started practicing law in April 1985 for the firm then known as Hyde, Miller & Savage. He worked there for six months prior to joining CSEA.

When Steinberg was elected to the City Council in 1992, he cut his time at CSEA to half-time in order to meet the demands of public service. In 1994, he left CSEA to become an administrative law judge for the State Personnel Board. Two years later, Steinberg joined Mackenroth, Ryan & Fong, a Sacramento law firm in which one of his law school friends, Rob Fong is a partner. While on the City Council, Steinberg maintained a private arbitration and mediation practice at the firm. Since being elected to the Legislature, Steinberg has remained of counsel there.

Fong said Steinberg is valuable to the firm as a sounding board. "We like to bounce things off him. I think he's a source of not only advice but inspiration."

A Los Angeles Times article in 1999 listed Steinberg as one of four front-runners to succeed current Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg. When asked about a potential Speaker bid, Steinberg said that he supports another member of his Assembly class who will likely become Speaker, but he declines to name the member. Presently chair of the Judiciary Committee, Steinberg said he hopes to have positions of increasing responsibility in the Assembly before being termed out in 2004.

Eventually, Steinberg, who is 41 years old, said he hopes to run for the Senate seat presently held by Deborah Ortiz after she concludes her service in the upper chamber in 2006.

Steinberg and his wife, Julie, have a son, Ari, who is four years old, and a daughter, Jordana, who is seven.