Local voters may get two state senators for two years

McPherson's replacement to share area with Sher

Monte Sereno loses Honda

By Gloria I. Wang

For two years, two state senators will represent Los Gatos and Monte Sereno. One does not give up his position until 2004. The other will be vacating his office early. The situation, though complicated, is not unusual after a remapping of the state's legislative districts.

Following the release of census 2000 data, state districts on three separate levels were reorganized and their boundaries redrawn. As a result, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno will have different people representing them in the California State Assembly and the California State Senate. In addition, Monte Sereno will no longer be represented by Congressman Mike Honda.

Those changes, however, will not take place until after elections at each level of government--some in 2002 and others in 2004.

Both communities will shift senatorial districts, from Democrat Byron Sher's 11th District to the 15th District, represented by Santa Cruz resident Bruce McPherson, a Republican.

Sher will finish his final term in the state senate in 2004. McPherson's seat will not be vacated until 2004. McPherson, however, confirmed that he will be running for lieutenant governor in 2002, and the district will have to hold a special election to replace him.

According to Mike Potter, Sher's district director, since District 11 voted for Sher, he must continue to represent it until the end of his term. At the same time, because a new senator will represent District 15 in 2002, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno will be included in that district as well. Having two senators representing a region simultaneously "is not pretty," Potter said, especially since each senator represents roughly 850,000 people. "That's an awful lot of people, and they are often spread over great distances."

One of McPherson's pieces of legislation that should be of interest to Los Gatans--given the town's commitment to preserving its natural resources-- is the funding that he obtained to fight pitch canker, a disease that is fatal to pine trees. In 1998, McPherson successfully requested from the legislature $2 million for research to develop a stock of Monterey pines resistant to the disease.

The communities were also dropped from the assembly district of Democrat Rebecca Cohn, a Saratoga resident, and into that of Joe Simitian, a former county supervisor and also a Democrat. Simitian's district spreads north and includes Los Altos Hills, which has often been compared to Los Gatos because of shared characteristics.

Simitian says that, although Monte Sereno and Los Gatos have much in common with the existing cities in his district, the area is unique in its own way. "West Valley communities have their own burden to bear in terms of traffic and alternative forms of transportation," Simitian said.

The former mayor of Palo Alto says that he understands many of the issues that small towns face because of his own background in local government. Property taxes, for example, are not quite as important to larger cities, but "particularly for small communities, these funds are quite precious," Simitian said.

Simitian added that he had met all the members of the Los Gatos Town Council. He said that he knew Town Manager Debra Figone "quite well" from a yearlong leadership training program that they had participated in together.

Los Gatos Mayor Joe Pirzynski said that Simitian had called him at home two weeks ago. "I think that we're going to have a very good working relationship with Joe," Pirzynski said. "His intelligence and his ability to form and articulate issues is already very well-regarded."

Due to congressional redistricting, Los Gatos will stay in Democrat Mike Honda's district, while Monte Sereno will be shifted to Atherton resident Anna Eshoo's. Like Simitian, the Democrat Eshoo says that her experience representing small communities makes her especially sensitive to local issues.

"Communities don't have to be large for me to pay attention to them," Eshoo said. "I'm very pleased and excited ... to give Monte Sereno nothing short of the best, which is what they deserve."

Photo: Los Gatos Film Festival

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