Assemblymember Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita, sat down with KHTS Radio live on the air to discuss her priorities three weeks after taking office.

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Smith, who represents the 38th district, was sworn-in on Dec. 3 in Sacramento, in a “very special day” not only for her fellow freshman, but also members of the Assembly who have been there for several terms.

“Swearing in day is amazingly fun to be on the Assembly floor, not only with my colleagues but their families as well,” said Smith.

The legislator reflected on her long-fought campaign, unseating former Assemblyman Dante Acosta in November.

“We were a small, but mighty campaign,” said Smith. “Everybody did a lot of heavy lifting so there was a number of things I had to do on my own, which I don’t mind, I’ve never been afraid of hard work.”

After sharing her experience about settling into her new office in Sacramento, she shifted her focus to local issues in Santa Clarita.

“We’ll do everything here in Santa Clarita with our Sheriff’s department, making sure those folks have everything they need,” said Smith.

See Related: Assemblywoman-Elect Christy Smith Sits Down With KHTS To Talk Priorities

The assemblymember also discussed the controversial high-speed rail project, which passes through the eastern edge of the Santa Clarita Valley.

“Making sure we get our community share of local transportation dollars, figuring out what will be the future of the high-speed rail and figuring out how it affects this community or not,” said Smith.”It really doesn’t bring good things for the 38th district, so we need to take a hard look at that.”

In addition, Smith went on to say she is fully supportive of Senator Scott Wilk’s Senate Bill 53, which seeks to increase transparency at the state agency subcommittee level and give the public access to meetings.

“Every meeting of the high-rail authorities really should be public because of the significant costs,” said Smith.

After holding a couple of stakeholder meetings, Smith said she wants to continue her work in the area of education.

“I went right to work on looking at the community college funding formula, especially given its expanding mission in the state of California, not only a gateway to universities and colleges, but really a prominent role in job training and job retraining,” said Smith.

Smith says she looks forward to the next two years serving the community, as she prepares for her term in office.

“I’m looking forward to getting this going,” she added. “We should have our committee assignment sometime this week, so I’ll have an idea where my primary assignments will be, and by the end of January we’ll have a legislative agenda pretty fleshed out.”

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