Phil Isenberg: 1939-2023

Phil Isenberg, a former Sacramento mayor and one of the most influential Democratic members of the Assembly in the 1980s and 1990s, died Thursday after a short illness. He was 84.

A UC Berkeley-educated lawyer whose public career spanned 50 years, Isenberg worked for a time for Willie Brown’s San Francisco law firm as he rose in Democratic politics in the 1960s.

Later, he became Assemblyman Brown’s lead staffer when Brown chaired the powerful Ways & Means Committee, served as Sacramento mayor from 1975-1982, and won an Assembly seat in 1982 representing Sacramento.

“Phil was more than a staffer,” Brown said in an interview Thursday, referring to Isenberg’s time as the chief aide on Ways & Means. “He was more like one of my children. He was really talented, bright and able, and fully principled.”

Isenberg, said Brown, made sure that Brown knew as much if not more about bills than the legislators who were carrying the measures.

“Everything he did and said was for the benefit of the Brown operation,” Brown said, “and he did everything he could to make sure the Brown operation was working for the people.”

In the Assembly, Isenberg was an inside player known for his quick wit, focus on detail and policy, and an ability to form alliances with Republicans. He focused on judicial issues and the environment, working to preserve the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and negotiating a deal to help save Mono Lake.

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he shepherded legislation merging the old municipal and superior courts into a single trial court system, and fashioned the way in which the state would fund the trial court system.

In one late night, at the end of the legislative session, Lockyer in front several lobbyists barked at Isenberg: “F— you, Mr. Termed Out.”

His opposite in the Senate was Bill Lockyer, who chaired the Judiciary Committee in the upper house before becoming senate president pro tem.

The two went way back. Lockyer recalled working with Isenberg in 1964, when Isenberg was part of the campaign to defeat an initiative sponsored by the California real estate industry that unraveled the landmark Rumford Fair Housing Act, a 1963 law that was intended to prohibit discrimination in housing based on race. The California and U.S. supreme courts later struck down the initiative.

In. the Legislature, Lockyer and Isenberg shared a love of books, particularly science fiction and would regularly trade whatever they had finished.

While senators and Assembly members often are rivals, Lockyer said the two worked as a team on trial court consolidation. The effort resulted in a major overhaul of the court system, but was hardly the sort of issue that garnered public attention or won votes. Isenberg, said Lockyer, “epitomized” legislators who would work on hard policy issues.

“I liked and respected him a lot. He was a policy wonk, and he was thoughtful,” Lockyer said.

At the end of Isenberg’s time in the Legislature in 1996, he carried legislation related to gambling that rankled Lockyer. In one late night, at the end of the legislative session, Lockyer in front several lobbyists barked at Isenberg: “F— you, Mr. Termed Out.”

Isenberg found the incident quite amusing, and laughed off that night, though Isenberg’s bill faltered. If there were hard feelings, they didn’t last.

Later, Lockyer later carried legislation on the topic and in a hat tip to his old friend called it the Lockyer-Isenberg Gambling Control Act. And understanding Isenberg’s talent, Lockyer invited Isenberg to become treasurer of his successful 1998 campaign for California attorney general.

Isenberg often found common ground with Republicans and would work to solve budget impasses in the 1990s when state law required that budget be approved by two-thirds votes. One of those Republicans was Frank Hill, who had become ensnared in an FBI sting and was sentenced to prison in 1994. Isenberg showed loyalty to his friend by visiting him in prison.

“Phil was one of the smartest and clearest thinkers in the Legislature,” said Curt Pringle, the Orange County Republican who served as speaker in 1996. “He was someone you could always work with.”

In his earlier years, Isenberg worked as a family law attorney and represented Barbara McCarty, the mother of four, in a divorce. But he did more than represent her. He encouraged her to go to college, and she did, first at Sacramento City College, and ultimately Lincoln Law School.

“Phil was one of the smartest and clearest thinkers in the Legislature…He was someone you could always work with.”

One of her sons, Kevin McCarty, invited Isenberg to speak at his mother’s funeral. McCarty counts Isenberg as a mentor, encouraging him to run for Sacramento city council, then the Assembly and now mayor. In a recent conversation, Isenberg said he was endorsing McCarty and recalled their history.

Allison Harvey, who was Isenberg’s chief of staff, recalled staff retreats to a sandhill crane preserve off Interstate 5 near Lodi, and explained the genesis of the preserve.

In his first term in the Assembly, Isenberg secured a budget appropriation to buy a few acres near Lodi that is favored by sandhill cranes. Knowing how little clout a freshman had, he submitted the request under the name of his friend and mentor, Willie Brown. Brown, who most definitely is not a bird watcher, had sufficient sway to get the appropriation. The preserve has since been expanded and named for Isenberg and his widow, Marilyn.

“He was so much fun,” Harvey said. “He involved the staff. He shared everything with us.”

His post-legislative career included time as the chairman of the Delta Stewardship Council and membership on numerous public boards, including the  Public Policy Institute of California and Women Escaping a Violent Environment (WEAVE).

Isenberg died of an aggressive blood cancer.

He is survived by Marilyn Araki Isenberg. A service is not currently planned. Contributions in Isenberg’s honor may be made to the Verge Center for the Arts, 625 S Street, Sacramento, CA 95811.