Rivals for Dana’s Seat Focus on the Issues

Beyond all the rhetoric and recriminations, there are distinct differences in how Don Knabe and Gordana Swanson see the future of Los Angeles County.

The two candidates vying for the lone open seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have different approaches to how they would restore the county’s finances, restructure its health system, cope with a massive overhaul of welfare programs and relieve the jail crisis.

It is clear that Knabe’s experience as chief of staff to retiring Supervisor Deane Dana has shaped his views on how to confront the bewildering array of social and financial problems facing the county.

By contrast, Swanson, who served as president of the Southern California Rapid Transit District and mayor and councilwoman in the gated Palos Verdes Peninsula community of Rolling Hills, brings an outsider’s perspective to county issues.

Far less familiar with the inner workings of county government, Swanson offers broad-brush solutions to what ails the county, while Knabe provides a more detailed plan.

Although both candidates in the nonpartisan 4th District race are Republicans, the similarities end there.

Swanson blames the county’s recent fiscal crisis on decisions by the supervisors to boost salaries and pension benefits for county workers, particularly those at top levels.

Knabe rejects this analysis as too simplistic and instead places responsibility on Sacramento for taking a substantial share of the county’s property tax receipts to ease the state’s own budget problems.

In hindsight, Knabe admits that the county’s fiscal performance in the early years of the 1990s was a C-, but he contends that the supervisors’ recent actions to cut programs and eliminate jobs have raised that grade to a B+. “We should have moved faster,” he said.

Swanson is not so charitable. Echoing the themes she used to force Dana into a runoff campaign four years ago, she lambastes the supervisors--and implicitly Knabe--for ignoring the warning signs of a deep recession while granting higher pay and richer benefits to county workers.

In criticizing what she calls the “gross mismanagement of county government,” Swanson cites studies showing that some workers are paid more than those in comparable private sector jobs.

To bring salaries down, she advocates a 20% cut in pay for bureaucrats who earn more than $90,000 a year. But Knabe says such “willy-nilly salary cuts” are unreasonable and would strike at doctors and prosecutors who are among the highest paid county workers, an allegation that Swanson denies.

Knabe said the county may have no choice but to continue to shrink its work force in the years ahead and pay raises may be tough to come by. “If we have to bear the burden . . . of welfare reform, I don’t think the potential for raises is there for a while,” he said.

Swanson agrees that pay increases for low- or mid-level employees are “not realistic at this time” and she favors continued downsizing.

Both candidates speak about the need for the county to do away with layers of bureaucracy and to deliver services more efficiently. And each has advocated independent audits of county spending.

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Although Knabe touts his vision for the county’s future, Swanson questions his ability to change the government that he has been a part of for the last 14 years.

When it comes to restructuring the county’s vast network of hospitals and health clinics, the two rivals take a sharply different tack.

Swanson wants to create an independent commission of health professionals to take the system “out of the hands of politicians.”

But Knabe said the supervisors are ultimately responsible for operating the $2.3-billion-a-year health system and that establishing a commission would create more bureaucracy.

Both candidates have major reservations about ongoing efforts to turn over Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center in Downey to a private operator. The nationally renowned rehabilitation hospital is in the sprawling 4th District.

“I’m very concerned about the choice of that particular hospital for a privatization experiment,” Swanson said.

“It just doesn’t make any sense to me,” said Knabe.

The two candidates agree with the move to expand outpatient care by 50% in coming years as part of an overall effort to move away from the traditional emphasis on expensive hospital treatment. But how to fulfill the other half of the commitment to the federal government--to reduce hospital beds by one-third--appears to be a more daunting challenge for both of them.

Welfare reform also falls into that category. As the new federal law takes hold and threatens tens of thousands of legal immigrants with loss of benefits, county officials fear there will be a surge in the ranks of those seeking general relief.

If that happens, Knabe said, the county may have no choice but to limit general relief payments for able-bodied adults to a maximum of three to six months per year. “It definitely can’t go on forever,” he said.

“To me that would be the wrong approach,” said Swanson, who prefers to see the county provide job training for welfare recipients instead of cutting or limiting benefits. Both candidates want to encourage private employers to train and hire those moving off welfare.

There is a sharp break between Swanson and Knabe over Proposition 209, which he supports and she opposes. The measure would outlaw state and local affirmative action programs based on race or gender in hiring, admissions to state colleges and universities, and the awarding of government contracts.

From her experience on the RTD board, Swanson said she knows that businesses owned by minorities and women, who never had a chance to compete for construction contracts, have benefited from opportunities provided through affirmative action. “The world is not a totally fair place yet,” said Swanson, adding that she is troubled by restrictions the measure would impose.

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Knabe is reluctant to discuss his support for the proposition. He said he disagrees with those who fear that job and business opportunities for minorities and women would be lost if the initiative passes. Although the county’s affirmative action compliance officer is staunchly opposed to the proposition, Knabe said the county has a very good affirmative action program that does not allow preferential treatment or quotas in hiring.

When the subject turns to public safety, Knabe quickly voices support for a plan put forward by Sheriff Sherman Block and recently approved by the supervisors to finally open the Twin Towers jail near downtown Los Angeles. The $373-million, high-security facility has stood empty because the county could not afford to operate it.

Swanson is suspicious of what she calls “some cockamamie scheme” to operate Twin Towers for less than previously thought by shifting prisoners throughout the county jail system, contracting out jail beds to state or federal agencies, and using custody officers instead of deputy sheriffs. To free up the money needed to open the jail, Swanson said, she would cut bureaucrats’ salaries and slash the budget of the Board of Supervisors.

At a League of Women Voters debate Sunday in Torrance, Knabe dismissed Swanson’s approach. “My opponent’s plan is simply bizarre,” he said.

Both candidates insist that public safety would be their highest budget priority.

Local issues also divide the contenders in the crescent-shaped district, which follows the coast from Marina del Rey through the South Bay across the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Long Beach before heading inland. The district then embraces such cities as Lakewood, Cerritos, Norwalk, Downey and Whittier before stretching as far east as Diamond Bar.

Swanson and Knabe are at odds over the county’s ambitious plans for redevelopment of Marina del Rey. The marina is owned by the county, and developers there operate hotels, apartments, boat slips, restaurants, shopping centers and offices on long-term leases with the county.

Knabe, who has received significant campaign contributions from marina leaseholders in this race and others, supports the redevelopment plans, which include construction of 22-story high-rises on the western flank of the marina. “The county has a very significant asset in the marina that needs to be renovated,” Knabe said.

Swanson is strongly opposed to the plan, saying it serves the interests of marina developers, not the public.

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The candidates also take opposite positions on Measure A, a $319-million county park bond issue on the Nov. 5 ballot. Knabe favors the measure, which would increase property taxes to expand parks, increase recreational opportunities and acquire more open space.

Although she supports park and open space acquisition, Swanson said she intends to vote against Measure A because of her experience with the county’s 1992 park bond measure.

Some of that money was set aside for Deane Dana Friendship Regional Park on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The supervisors have approved a $4.4-million project on the site, including a large community building and nature center that would also house memorabilia from Dana’s 16 years on the Board of Supervisors.

Swanson denounces the nature center as “a Taj Mahal for Deane Dana” and “a perfect example of the arrogance of power.”

Knabe rejects such criticism. “It’s a nature center,” he said. “It’s not a Taj Mahal.”

But stung by intense local opposition to the project, Knabe said he would favor moving the planned building off the hilltop and reducing its size. However, he said the project would still include “a display of history” from Dana’s political career “in a very tasteful way.”

And then there’s the Los Angeles River.

Swanson and Knabe disagree over the county’s recently approved $312-million project to erect concrete walls along the lower reaches of the river and its major tributaries, Compton Creek and the Rio Hondo Channel. She likened the project to a huge drain, and backed efforts by environmental groups to explore alternatives.

Knabe, who helped negotiate a compromise that would allow construction to proceed while other options are studied, believes that the project is essential to ease the threat of wide-scale flooding in a 100-year storm.

The two candidates also differed Sunday in their positions on whether the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s new smog control plan marks a relaxation of efforts to combat pollution. Knabe said Los Angeles County must be more competitive in keeping and attracting businesses--which have been unhappy with AQMD regulations. He said the agency’s new smog control plan for the Southland was introducing “a sense of fairness.”

“Companies need to know how much it’s going to cost to do business,” he said.

But Swanson said AQMD’s air pollution regulations have created thousands of jobs. “We cannot compromise on breathing clean air,” she said.

Swanson said she is “very concerned when so many scientists . . . resign because of new policies.”

Nine of the AQMD’s 11 scientific advisors resigned in August, contending that the new smog plan is based on unreliable forecasts. They also criticized the agency’s operations, saying its “posture” was inconsistent with efforts to promote healthful air in the Los Angeles Basin.