Three for Supervisor

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors grapples with problems as pervasive as growth, gang warfare, traffic jams and smoggy air. Under the board’s direction the county must provide basic services, run the nation’s largest jail system and provide health care and welfare in a region with 8 million residents. There is never enough money to go around. The responsibilities are as great as the challenges are tough.

Three supervisors are on the ballot in the June 7 primary. We recommend the reelection of Kenneth Hahn in the 2nd District and Deane Dana in the 4th District, and the election of Don Wallace in the 5th District.

Wallace, a fire captain from Calabasas, would make an excellent replacement for Mike Antonovich. During two terms the inflexible incumbent has eased the way for developers with seemingly little regard for balanced growth in his rural and suburban district. Despite past promises he has done little to help commuters who battle worsening traffic--including the clogged lanes of the Ventura Freeway, the nation’s busiest. He has been insensitive to the county’s poorest residents and Latino immigrants.

Wallace would add a moderate voice to the board. A hard worker, he would bring broad civic experience from his years as the former president of the city firefighters’ union and a commissioner of the Santa Monica Mountains national recreation area. An an advocate of managed growth he promises to follow density recommendations outlined in county-approved local-area plans. As a public employee he could contribute to better relations with the county’s 79,000 employees.

Hahn, a supervisor for 36 years, proudly takes credit for the county paramedic program, the freeway emergency call boxes, the Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital in Watts and the Baldwin Hills Regional Park. By also delivering on constituent services he has made his name a household word. Jobs, housing and public safety remain among the pressing needs in the poorer sections of his district. Hahn says that he’s up to the job, again. His recent disability may have sapped his vigor, but it hasn’t sapped his commitment to the predominantly minority communities of South-Central and Southwest Los Angeles.

Dana, elected in 1980, often offers the only voice of reason among the board’s conservative three-man majority. He has also become increasingly independent and certainly more knowledgeable as he has grown into the job. But in his mind less is more when it comes to government. To his credit, he has tried to run the county like a business, and has encouraged the private sector to tackle pressing concerns like the homeless problem--although with limited success. Dana has served adequately, but he must become as accessible to his critics as he is to his friends in the coastal communities stretching from Malibu to Long Beach.

The Board of Supervisors must address the needs of its districts while charting a graceful and sound future for Los Angeles County. Lean government need not be mean government. We recommend Hahn, Dana and Wallace on June 7.