Rating Two Veterans

It’s been hard to detect that two of the five Los Angeles County supervisors, Zev Yaroslavsky and Gloria Molina, are running for reelection. Since Molina faces no opposition and Yaroslavsky no strong opposition, they’ve had little need to campaign hard. Arguably that makes it even more important that their records be examined before the election on June 2, to assess how both supervisors have served their constituents and the county.

Gloria Molina

Very few people who know Gloria Molina are neutral about her; she generates intense heat among both supporters and opponents. Many say she’s a no-nonsense powerhouse, a local politician with useful connections to Sacramento and Washington. Others say her intolerance of other views has made her an isolated and ineffective political figure.

There’s ample evidence for both views. But all agree that she consistently champions her 1st District--including the Eastside, East L.A. and parts of the San Gabriel Valley. Otherwise she wouldn’t be breezing toward a third term.

Many constituents see her as an elected official who raises issues and questions that few Latino or non-Latino officials dare to raise. On the board of directors of the powerful Metropolitan Transit Authority, Molina opposed the rampant conflicts of interest that riddled the agency. She was instrumental in devising the county’s welfare-to-work rules.

Her critics acknowledge that, yes, Molina raises important issues, but that’s often as far as she goes; she neither offers good solutions or builds coalitions to put them into effect. Some have called her style “governing by tantrum.”

That lack of collegiality may have led to the 4-1 vote against the 750-bed rebuilding plan for County-USC Medical Center that Molina had championed. Yet she worked very effectively with other supervisors to save the county health system from collapse in 1995.

Molina is a forceful presence on the board, but too often she undercuts herself. In her next term, the forging of alliances and political partnerships would multiply her effectiveness.

Zev Yaroslavsky

The money in the 3rd District race says it all. Zev Yaroslavsky has raised more than $1 million, enough to run for Congress, for a race he doesn’t even have to run. His opponents have raised only a few thousand dollars each.

He’s running for his second term and, like Molina, Yaroslavsky came to his post from the Los Angeles City Council. His 3rd District includes the wealth of the Westside and West Hollywood, as well as parts of the San Fernando Valley. He represents many of the same constituents he had on the Council, and who sent him to that post for five terms. Yaroslavsky’s schedule--he regularly shows up at events all over town--appears more hectic than most, but it’s a life he seems to relish.

Yaroslavsky counts as one of his greatest achievements helping bring the county back from the brink of bankruptcy. With the budget under control, he says he would like to focus on two things: better health and emergency care for children and a focused and practical Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Yaroslavsky has also called for a ballot initiative to halt further expenditures of sales tax revenues on subway construction after completion of the North Hollywood extension of the Red Line. He’s used initiatives successfully before, but Yaroslavsky is smart and knows that initiatives are crude tools. He must watch a tendency that afflicts many politicians--holding a finger to the wind before leading. When he was a councilman, for example, he supported killing the use of an existing right-of-way for an east-west light rail line because some of his Westside constituents were vocal opponents. He now acknowledges, to his credit, that such a line would make good sense not only for the Westside but for the community at large. More evidence of such broader thinking will be necessary if Yaroslavsky wants to fulfill all of his political ambitions.

Yaroslavsky and Molina are among the more talented people in the Hall of Administration. Let them both use the next term to advance policies to make all of Los Angeles a more livable and civil place.