Assemblyman Cameron Smyth was sworn in for his third term in the State Assembly this morning.  With his family by his side, Smyth took the oath of office for the final time in the Assembly.  Term limits will require Smyth, who has served the 38th Assembly District since 2006, to leave the Assembly in 2012.

While Smyth acknowledged that it will take time to develop relationships with the 28 new members of the Assembly, he maintained that the Legislature must get to work immediately to address California’s perpetual fiscal crisis.

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“We aren’t starting with a clean slate,” said Smyth.  “The problems facing California today are no different than the problems we faced yesterday.  We have a six billion dollar budget deficit in the current fiscal year, and face another $25 billion deficit next year.  The longer we wait to start working on those problems, the more difficult they become.”

Smyth will also retain his position as Chair of the Assembly Local Government Committee, a post from which he will continue pursuing his legislative priorities of government accountability, economic revitalization, and public safety.

Shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, Smyth introduced Assembly Bill 23, an accountability measure that was borne out of the recent scandal in the City of Bell.

“People throughout California are fed up with public officials violating the trust of their constituents,” said Smyth.  “We held a number of hearings in the wake of the scandal in Bell, and found that one way the city officials were padding their salaries was by holding multiple meetings back to back, in order to collect separate stipends for each meeting.  AB 23 amends the Brown Act to explicitly prohibit this practice.”