Community Activist Dismayed by Removal From Hospital Board

The Los Angeles City Council has confirmed Mayor Richard Riordan’s decision to remove Sweet Alice Harris, founder of a nationally known community group, from the board that oversees Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center in Willowbrook.

The decision, taken without discussion last week, dismayed Harris, who said she will discuss her disappointment with Riordan in the coming weeks.

“I am going to tell him the staff made a decision that I don’t think he would have accepted had he known I would have liked to stay on there,” said Harris, the 58-year-old founder and director of Parents of Watts.

Riordan’s removal of Harris was finalized on a 9-1 vote; the lone dissenter was Rudy Svorinich Jr., whose district runs from San Pedro to Watts.

The council’s action means Harris’ 10-year term on the board is over. But Riordan has appointed Harris to the Rent Adjustment Commission--a post she accepted even as she hopes to return to the hospital board.

The move to replace Harris on the hospital panel began in the days following Riordan’s election in June. As is customary, the new mayor asked that all of the commissioners appointed by his predecessor, Tom Bradley, submit their resignation. And even though Harris complied, she said she sought to make it clear to Riordan’s staff that she wanted to stay on.

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But after submitting her resignation, Harris said, she heard nothing about her future on the board until Riordan’s office released the names of other appointees. “Then I began to get calls from people who said they didn’t want me to get off the board. And I said it was not of my choosing,” Harris said.

“The reason (the appointment) was unique was that I was one of the ones who got the hospital in the community,” said Harris, who has drawn national attention for her Parents of Watts, a 15-year-old group dedicated to easing tensions between blacks and Latinos.

Before the King-Drew medical center opened in 1972,, Harris said, there was no hospital for the surrounding community--home to five of the city’s housing projects.

Riordan’s press secretary Annette Castro expressed surprise that Harris did not want to leave the hospital board. Castro added that Riordan appointed Harris to the rent adjustment commission because that is where he believes she can best serve the city. “We think she’s an extremely qualified candidate for the position” on the panel, which oversees the rent control law.

But Harris, who supported Riordan’s election, sees things differently.

“I believe in working where you work best,” she said. “Now, I would be good anywhere. But I would be best (on the hospital board).”

Harris said she intends to talk with Riordan soon about what happened and her interest in returning to the hospital board.

But even if that does not happen, Harris said, she will not allow the situation to sour her disposition.

“I don’t get upset anymore,” she said.