DEDICATED PUBLIC SERVANTS: SHER AND VASCONCELLOS

For Byron Sher and John Vasconcellos, the last votes have been cast.

The end of the legislative session last weekend dropped the curtain on these
two distinguished Silicon Valley senators. Vasconcellos served 38 years in
the Assembly and Senate; Sher, 24.

Voters are likely to praise or pillory them depending on their own political
beliefs. But these two rank high on an ideologically neutral measurement.
They lived upright political lives in a town full of temptation. Neither was
noted for partisan warfare, squeezing special interests for money, or
building a political power base within the party.

Sher's legacy is easier to sum up. He was the essential environmental
legislator of the last two decades. On clean air, drinking water, recycling,
electronic waste, and renewable sources of electricity, all areas in which
the state has been a national leader, Sher authored the basic legislation.

He made the environment better because he understood that a bill that
becomes law is worth a thousand hand-wringing speeches decrying the rape of
the planet. He worked tirelessly with environmentalists and with industry to
craft regulations that would be effective and efficient -- and would be
enacted.

The measure of Sher's expertise is the respect and deference he received
from committee staffers, who by virtue of professional training and
lengthier tenure, are often more knowledgeable than legislators about
specific policies.

Sher isn't flashy or glib, just smart. Seeking re-election, he seemed almost
reticent to present his legislative accomplishments, in contrast to the many
candidates who are so boastful about so little.

Praising a legislator is easier if you generally agree with him, as I do
with Sher. But even those of different convictions can see in Sher a model
legislator -- serious of purpose, diligent in research, modest in taking
credit, generous to others.

To sum up John Vasconcellos, start with the press release last week from his
office announcing calVICTORYlap (capitalization and italics in original).

In it, the "Dean of the California Legislature" and "the conscience of the
California Legislature," as his press releases are wont to refer to him,
announces a goodbye tour of the state.

"All state residents are invited to join this visionary, dynamic, free,
authentic personal dialogue about how we can save and transform California's
cynical politics through our own personal faithfulness and trust."

If this language, so different from the politics-speak at both national
party conventions, resonates with you, then Vasconcellos is your guy. If,
like me, it makes you roll your eyes, you will understand my ambivalence
about him.

It is illustrated by two pieces of legislation he authored this year. One,
now on the governor's desk, aims to put rehabilitation back into the state's
prisons.

Prisoners would be evaluated for educational and vocational ability, and
then offered tutoring and training. The policy is humanitarian. And it's
pragmatic. Most prisoners eventually get out, after all. If all they can do
is deal drugs, that's what they'll do.

Prison reform reflects Vasconcellos' world view, which includes efforts to
legalize medicinal marijuana, to provide clean needles and syringes for
addicts (because they'll just use dirty ones otherwise), and to expand
numerous programs to help the sick, the poor and the mentally troubled.

I admire Vasconcellos' vision of the state as a community, not as a mere
geographical aggregation of residents.

The other legislation was a constitutional amendment lowering the voting age
below 18, with the ballots of 14- and 15-year-olds counting one-fourth of a
vote, and those of 16- and 17-year-olds a half. It was, in my humble
opinion, loopy. It's reminiscent of the self-esteem crusade that gained
Vasconcellos national ridicule.

Vasconcellos is hardly a Frank Sinatra-style of guy, but "I did it my way"
is just as much his theme. In his remarkably disheveled attire, his New Age
lingo, his willingness to spit into the political wind or risk ridicule,
Vasconcellos is the antithesis of an image-consultant's politician. Good for
him -- up to a point.

The point is where self-esteem becomes self-importance.

With term limits, 14 years in the Legislature is now the maximum. While
Silicon Valley's elected representatives can't match Vasconcellos and Sher
in years, they'd be wise to match them in dedication.