Umberg Sworn In and Heads for Reserve Duty : Military: The new assemblyman, his wife on alert, flies off for two weeks in Virginia. He and rookie Assemblyman Thomas J. Mays cast opposing votes.

SACRAMENTO —  Family partings are always difficult. But this one deserves a place in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not.”

Scarcely more than an hour after he took the oath of office on Monday, rookie Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) left the ornate legislative chambers and dashed to a bathroom, where he quickly changed out of his dark gray business suit and donned a green Army uniform. He was rushing to make a 2:35 p.m. plane to Charlottesville, Va., where he is scheduled to start a two-week tour of duty in the reserves.

Meanwhile, Robin Umberg made herself a sandwich and plopped down behind her husband’s desk in his new Capitol office. She had worries of her own. Last week, the government notified her--she’s a registered nurse and also a reservist--that she was on alert and could be sent to the Persian Gulf at any moment.

As fate would have it, this could be the last time she sees her husband for months.

“I hope he’s coming back,” she said, as dozens of family members and friends munched on vegetables and cold cuts during a victory reception. “He has to say goodby to me. . . . He has to say goodby to the children.”

In the end, Umberg did return for one last, awkward farewell in what had to be one of the strangest set of circumstances to mark the Legislature’s first day back to work.

Accompanied by parents, spouses and children, 39 senators and 80 Assembly members came to Sacramento Monday to be sworn in for the 1991-92 legislative session.

Although Gov. George Deukmejian has asked them to stick around in a special session to grapple with a mounting fiscal deficit, indications are that lawmakers will defer such nitty-gritty budget work until after the new governor, Pete Wilson, is sworn in next month.

With those worries put on hold, the atmosphere in the Capitol seemed like the first day of school--with longtime rivals chuckling over the past and rookies speaking hopefully of the future.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and I think by showing our strong support here to work together, I think we can try to solve some of the major problems facing the district,” said Assemblyman Thomas J. Mays (R-Huntington Beach), the other rookie in the Orange County delegation.

Immediately after taking the oath of office, Mays and Umberg split their votes over who should be the next Assembly Speaker. Democrat Umberg voted to re-elect Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown Jr. (D-San Francisco), while Republican Mays joined the doomed attempt to elect Orange County colleague Ross Johnson (R-La Habra).

Outside of that, the two newcomers looked strikingly similar in their chairs on the Assembly floor--young, beaming, and surrounded by their families.

Mays let a daughter sit on his lap during the Assembly proceedings, while Umberg’s children took turns horrifying their father by playing with the electronic vote buttons at his desk, uncoupling his microphone from its stand and fidgeting.

Unimpressed by the ceremony and speeches, 5-year-old Brett Umberg doodled on a legal pad and 2-year-old Tommy fell asleep. Dad, however, had different emotions.

“This is really an awing experience to be among the people who will be determining California’s course over the next few years,” Umberg said after he changed into his uniform.

Asked if his vote for Willie Brown compromised his position of political independence, Umberg reacted with poise. “I’m not controlled by him,” he said. “I expect there will be a lot of issues that we’ll disagree on.

“The key for me, though, is who is going to bring the most back, who is going to provide the most resources for our district. When I ran, I said I wasn’t going to vote for anybody for Speaker who wasn’t going to guarantee me that we were going to get our fair share. When the Speaker guaranteed we would get our fair share, I voted for him,” Umberg said.

But political considerations were not the most pressing for Umberg and his wife Monday. They were more worried about what would happen to their family if Robin were called up immediately for 180 days of duty. Put on alert last Thursday, she said she could either be assigned to Ft. Ord, where her 6252nd Army Hospital group trained, or to duty in the Persian Gulf.

The timing couldn’t be worse, with Umberg stationed in Virginia for 14 days before starting the rotation of flying up to Sacramento each week to tend to the public’s business. The couple has decided to keep Erin, 7, and Brett in school in Orange County.

That means Umberg’s mother will have to take care of the children in the short run if Robin is called up. And for the long run?

“I must find a Mary Poppins,” Robin Umberg said, adding that she had to request special permission just to attend the swearing-in ceremonies on Monday.

Until then, Umberg said he is hoping that his wife can stay on alert at least until he completes his two weeks in Virginia and begins to split his life between Orange County and Sacramento.

“I pray to God it doesn’t happen before I get back,” he said, before rushing in to say goodby.