Eight candidates for county supervisor seat meet, discuss budget
The 5th District seat for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has been occupied by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich since 1980. However, term limits approved by voters in 2002 will free up the position for the first time in 35 years.
On Tuesday, the Glendale/Burbank and Pasadena chapters of the League of Women Voters hosted a candidate forum for the vacant spot in the Burbank City Council chambers.
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All eight candidates participated in the discussion, giving their opinions on various topics, including a proposed Long Beach (710) Freeway tunnel, enhancing transportation networks and environmentally sustainable practices.
Each candidate was given the opportunity to answer the same number of questions. However, there was one question that all contenders were asked to answer.
The moderator asked all the candidates about the county’s proposed 2017 budget, which is estimated to be $28.5 billion — $282 million more than the year before — and what programs and services they would prioritize.
Kathryn Barger, Antonovich’s chief of staff, said increasing public safety, addressing the homeless population and improving mental-health services are her top priorities.
“It’s all about looking at not only the existing resources, but understanding that we have a finite amount of resources available to the county,” she said. “Two-thirds of the county budget is already allocated to mandated federal and state programs, so we should have a supervisor that’ll understand how you allocate those resources.”
Prosecutor Elan Carr also had a focus on public safety, saying that crime is up about 20% in some areas of the district. Centering his campaign on his career as a criminal gang prosecutor, Carr said it will take more than adding more police officers on the streets.
“Public safety also means taking care of our kids,” he said. “It means fixing our schools so that our kids have a nurturing and empowering education with job training and after-school programs. It means bringing back quality jobs to Los Angeles County, so that every family and every child has a chance to succeed. That’s public safety too.”
The proposed budget is not prioritized and that it needs to be a performance-based system, according to Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander.
“You can’t fix what you can’t measure,” he said. “I introduced performance-based budget initiatives in the city, and now you could do a deep dive with a dashboard online to figure out what services are being done, how they’re being done and the fact that they’re measured with deliverable outcomes.”
State Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) also has his sights set on making public safety his No.1 priority, with an emphasis on improving the revenue stream to fund projects and working with unincorporated cities to understand the services needed.
Palmdale-area real estate investor Raj Pal Kahlon was focused on helping homeless citizens, increasing support for foster children and those with mental illnesses.
Altadena Town Councilman Billy Malone said he wants to concentrate the budget on improving foster care and helping youth before they become a problem.
“If you want to decrease the amount of money you’re spending on programs or prioritize it, it means we take care of the issues before they happen, Malone said. “Then we won’t be spending the money on those programs because there’ll be no need for those programs. Rather than just throwing money at the top end, we need to take care of the bottom end.”
Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian said he will take a utilitarian approach to prioritizing the budget, “providing the greatest good for the greatest number [of people], which means helping our children in the foster care system, reducing the case load for the case workers.”
He is also focused on helping the homeless and veterans in the community.
“It’s in that manner that we can do the best for all the residents of L.A. County,” he said.
The budget is large enough to tackle all the issues in the county, adding that the money is not being properly spent, according to entrepreneur Darrell Park
“Once you solve the problems, there’s crazy money that we can spend on infrastructure and other things we need in this county,” he said. “So don’t let anybody tell you that you have to cut. If you have to cut, you’re doing the wrong thing. If you solve the problem, that is the right answer.”
The entire candidate forum can be viewed on Burbank’s YouTube page.
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
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