Candidate Survey
SEAT: Supervisor, County of Los Angeles, Second District
1. There is tremendous racial/ethnic diversity within the 2nd District, not simply African Americans and Latinos. How do you plan to bring all the groups onto the same page without isolating or upsetting one group in favor of another? (100 words or less)
Ethnic diversity is a source of strength and pride to our community. It need not and must not mean division and conflict. An elected official has an obligation to assure that the public’s business is conducted evenly, that services are provided equitably, that the administration of justice is color-blind. We cannot abide government officials or work force who are racially insensitive, lack diversity and culturally ignorant, for example, and we cannot have large swaths of our County that happen to be “minority-majority” park-poor, service-poor and violence-ridden. Cross cultural education, events and activities should be the norm. Fairness and fair play have always characterized my public service and will continue in my role as Supervisor.
2. How will you address the overcrowding in the jails? (50 words)
I support the Sheriff’s $523 million proposal to improve facilities and bed capacity at the Men’s Central Jail, the Pitchess Detention Center and the Sybil Brand Institute. I would also support work-release programs for non-violent, non-felony offenders and early release for non-violent, non-felony offenders who complete in-jail rehabilitation and education programs. I support community reentry programs that address the recidivism rates.
3. Where do you stand on the Three Strikes Law? (50 words or less)
I support the Three Strikes Law as it applies to the commission of violent crimes or significant violence history, but the law needs to be changed to either permit district attorney/judicial discretion in determining what crimes count toward “strikes” or to eliminate from the three strike rule crimes that are non-violent, no violent criminal history or do not involve the use of weapons.
3. Gang violence is horrendous in the 2nd District. Besides increasing police presence and community youth programs, what are some of your plans to ease the tension and help decrease the violence? (100 words or less)
There are 1,000 street gangs and 80,000 gang members in the County, with many of them operating in the 2nd District. Gang-related homicide is the leading cause of death for all
persons age 15 through 44 in the County. Youth development is the key element and component of raising healthy and educated children. I support the Community Law Enforcement and Recovery program (CLEAR) that provides a multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency approach to gang suppression, prosecution and rehabilitation and incorporates strategies for neighborhood recovery as well. I will also work for passage of legislation that would provide funding for a full spectrum approach to criminal justice, prevention, education, intervention, enforcement, incarceration and rehabilitation.
4. Illegal fire arms are readily accessible in L.A. County, especially in the 2nd District. According to the 2000 California Dept. of Health Services Death Data, more people die from gun violence than die from AIDS and motor vehicle crashes combined. How can you and the L.A. County’s law enforcement (Sheriffs/CHP) turn these numbers around? (100 words)
As Chief of the LAPD, I relentlessly supported gun violence legislation at the local, state and federal levels. My position hasn’t changed since I retired as Chief. While illegal firearms are of course a major concern, so are legal firearms in the hands of the wrong people. I will continue to work with law enforcement officials and legislators to strengthen the background check process, lengthen the waiting period for the completion of a firearms sale, reduce the number of weapons that can be purchased, support technology for production of “smart guns” and “tagging” of ammunition and rigorously enforce existing laws against illegal weapons and pursue laws to make many weapons illegal that are now legal. Follow the historical lead of the City of Los Angeles in this area.
5. Where do you stand on deporting illegal immigrants who are gang members or violent crime offenders? (50 words or less)
I absolutely support the deportation of illegal immigrants who are involved in criminal gang activity or convicted of criminal acts. I would beef up the gang-affiliation data check of all law enforcement agencies to ensure that illegal immigrants arrested for these crimes are not released to the community but returned to their countries of origin.
6. Describe the financial health of the County. Include which key programs must survive any budget cuts. (50 words or less)
The County is in a precarious financial condition with declining revenues, increasing demands and $300 million in state cuts so far this year. The County also faces an unfunded pension and retiree health care liability of more than $20 billion. Priority programs that must be protected include public health, public safety, infrastructure and social services.
7. Is L.A. County prepared for a major disaster? (50 words or less)
L.A. County is a national leader in emergency preparedness but the major flaw in their response is the lack of interoperability in their radio and communication systems. Mainly
because the 54 law enforcement agencies and 31 fire departments that serve the County do not have interoperable communications systems that can talk to one another, hampering emergency response when there is a major disaster. We have made progress since 9/11, but far much more needs to be done.
8. Over $5.3 billion of the County’s $22.5 billion budget goes to health care, yet the system and services are on the brink of collapse. What are three critical steps you would take to stop and/or prevent the collapse? (100 words or less)
25% of the County’s population is uninsured and many are underinsured. Eleven hospitals and five emergency rooms have closed in the last five years. First and foremost, we need a system of health care that is universal and national to provide through equitable patient funding the resources needed to keep hospitals open and health care professionals willing and able to provide services. Second, health care management in the County needs to be restructured to provide for an independent and accountable governance system. Third, the State Legislature must simply stop ravaging the MediCal system and adopting cuts to medical and mental health services.
9. What are your plans for reestablishing King Drew and other closed emergency services in the 2nd District? (100 words or less)
Few if any hospital management entity wants to assume operation of King Drew under current conditions. Potential eligible operators faced the prospect of certain failure if they reopened King Drew as a full service hospital all at once and under the current governance of health care in the County. The County should solicit interest in the phased reopening of the hospital and the new operator (government, private-public partnership, educational institution or a combination) should be assured that the governance will be independent, accountable and apolitical. No closed emergency rooms can be persuaded to reopen without a system of national and universal health care to fund patient medical costs for ER services.
10. How will you bring more jobs and businesses into the 2nd District? (50 words or less)
As I have done on the City Council, I will create a system of workforce training and local hiring on County projects, make better use of economic redevelopment tools (there are only two redevelopment areas in the 2nd District) and update Community Plans to make the process for residential and commercial development more predictable. Create incentive for business attraction, concentrate on infrastructure improvements and aid in land assemblage.
11. What can you do in the 2nd District to aid those affected by the foreclosure crisis? (50 words or less)
I would require lenders on properties nearing foreclosure to provide complete disclosure to
borrowers about conditions of foreclosure and meet personally to discuss options to avoid it. I would also require lenders to disclose the risks of exotic mortgages that caused the foreclosure crisis in the first place. I support several pieces of current federal legislation that force lender to be forthright about the requirements of the existing and future mortgages and provide a “bail-out “ to the borrowers.
12. According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the 2nd District has the highest percentage of homeless, 34%, and growing. What are your plans to deal with homelessness in the 2nd District?
The tragedy is that the County itself compounds homelessness by its unwillingness or
Inability to integrate services by the multiple County agencies that individually hold a piece of the homelessness puzzle. Among many other things in what for me will be a very high policy priority, I will force the integration and coordination of County services, work to abolish the “Rule of Five” that governs the allocation of resources for so many programs, and absolutely insist that the County eliminate the chronic backlog (currently 5,000 cases) that denies the otherwise eligible poor and homeless Social Security and Disability allowances. Concentrate prevention efforts on year round shelters with services, areas with high concentration of Section 8 vouchers and areas that have a high concentration of unauthorized housing.
13. What would you do to improve the foster care system? (100 words or less)
Affected children are casualties of a foster care system that is fragmented and uncoordinated, with services scattered over a wide array of single-purpose departments. The problem isn’t so much one of funding as it is management and administration. It seems to me that as is the case with homeless services, we need to force the integration of foster care related services so that every department involved from the schools to the criminal justice system approach foster care from the affected child’s perspective rather than their own. One great step forward is the $100m construction of the one step Children Service Center at 83rd and Vermont Ave, which I sponsored with Supervisor Burke which bring five children related services to a co-located facility.
14. How can you improve access to Mental Health services? (100 words or less)
Access to mental health services is challenging for all who need the services, but especially difficult for the homeless mentally ill. There are two major initiatives I am interested in pursuing to improve access. I will work to include mental health clinicians in all emergency shelters. And I will work to revise criteria under the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63), so that the billions of dollars raised do not go exclusively to new programs with corresponding reductions in existing programs, as is the case in the County..
15. What can be done to increase Child Support enforcement? (100 words or less)
Child support enforcement is a County program that has markedly improved in the past few years, with stepped-up efforts to locate parents not meeting child support obligations, greater
use of the criminal justice system to compel payment, wage garnishment and even the publication of the “most wanted list” of recalcitrant parents fleeing their responsibility. Any program can be improved, but compared to just five years ago, this program is a success story.
