PHOTOS: Assemblyman Richard Gordon Reaches Out to Los Altos

Assemblyman Richard Gordon, elected to the 21st District, held one of his "town hall" meetings in the home of Los Altos Councilman David Casas and his wife, Carol, Thursday evening to update residents about his first six months in office and provide an update about the budget.

The freshman legislator, who has served on the San Mateo County Board of Education and the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, was getting more acquainted with his Los Altos constituents, where he has been less known.

In the past two weeks, he's had community meetings in Palo Alto and Redwood City.

The Legislature is trying to solve a $11 billion shortfall by mid-June. The shortfall  has already been trimmed by more than half since Gov. Jerry Brown first announced his budget this winter, some by cuts and others by improving revenues, he said. Gordon talked about his efforts to "reach across the aisle" to build relationships with Republicans as a way of overcoming some of the gridlock in the Assembly.

Among his pending legislation is a bill to require initiative petition circulators to wear buttons identifying themselves as either volunteers or paid signature-gatherers.

School board member Doug Smith asked for Gordon to try to change the education code so that districts could use more volunteers in certain situations, rather than staff.