One of the most consequential elections in Los Angeles County for the next decade will take place in eight days. It is for a little-noticed but enormously influential office. The implications are profound, but the candidates disappointing.
We're talking about the race to succeed Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the longtime county supervisor for 2 million people, including some of the region's neediest, poorest and most chronically neglected. Burke and her four colleagues oversee and massive and sprawling county government, responsible for criminal justice, health care, welfare, and social services. With over 100,000 employees, the county is also the largest employer in the state of California.
The two top contenders to succeed Burke are Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks, the former police chief, and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who preceded Parks on the council. The stakes are enormously high. The board sorely needs two things: a progressive and a genuine leader.
Whoever wins will be the likely swing vote between the more conservative Don Knabe-Mike Antonovich wing of the board, and the more liberal Gloria Molina-Zev Yaroslavsky bloc. When it comes to health care, homelessness, overcrowding in the jails, environmental programs, and labor issues, that ideological difference matters - a great deal.
Parks is one of the least labor-friendly members of the L.A. City Council. He has the strong backing of business groups, was adamantly opposed to mandating a living wage for LAX-area hotel workers, and has been a consistent critic of rent control.
While he has softened and warmed considerably since joining the City Council, Parks' tenure as police chief can only be described as autocratic.
Ridley-Thomas, the choice of organized labor and most environmentalists, generally votes progressive and has displayed a fervent desire to forge a much needed black-brown coalition in LA politics. But his accomplishments have been more about process (starting the Days of Dialogue and forming an Empowerment Congress) than in actually getting stuff done.
Ridley-Thomas will likely be a solid progressive vote, but it's hard to feel confident he'll lead the board or the county in a new direction. He is a more a technical wonk than a visionary or a creative thinker. Moreover, he is one of the more annoying public figures in Los Angeles, in love with the sound of his own voice and never satisfied to choose a word with one syllable when a word with eight or more will do.
The problem is that the Board of Supervisors needs a progressive leader, a local legislative equivalent of former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan -- someone who can bring some energy, creativity, and direction to a massive, stagnant and stinking bureaucracy that does too little to serve the poorest people in the region.
We could have had that type of leader in Karen Bass, who instead opted for a two-year stint as speaker of the state assembly. Our next best shot is in a few years when Yaroslavsky finally retires, making room for progressive champion Sheila Kuehl.
In the meantime, in the race between Parks and Ridley-Thomas, the choice is easy, but not very inspiring.
