Los Angeles County/City Dysfunction

The elected officials of the City and the County of Los Angeles have taken all the fun out of dysfunction while dealing or attempting to deal with the most serious current issues that they face. I am referring to addressing the plight of the unhoused and the recovery from the Eaton and Palisades fires.

Without attempting to assess blame, it is apparent that the cause or the effect is an escalating inability of the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, and the County Board of Supervisors to work constructively together. And Mayor Bass often cannot seem to get out of her own way. Actually, there is plenty of blame to go around.

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HOMELESSNESS

Approximately 30 years ago, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) was formed to address homelessness issues. Several years ago County residents voted to add a 1/4 cent sales tax to fund LAHSA among other agencies. More recently the 1/4 cent sales tax was increased to 1/2 of a cent and the money poured in to LAHSA. This has been an agency managed jointly by Los Angeles city and Los Angeles County. Therefore no one was in charge and no one was “watching the store.”

LAHSA became a bloated bureaucracy with a multi-billion dollar budget. There has been little transparency and even less accountability regarding its massive resources of taxpayer funds. Most importantly, we have depressingly little to show for it. Homelessness remains at staggeringly high levels.

Now, Los Angeles County has announced that it will withdraw its share of the funding for LAHSA and create a new county agency to deal with homelessness issues in the county. Similarly Los Angeles city will now create its own agency. These developments are giant steps in the wrong direction to address a county-wide, or even regional, problem.

At the same time, LAHSA CEO La Vecia Adams Kellum has resigned. It was recently disclosed that Ms. Adams Kellum had personally signed a $2 million contract with a company that employed her husband in a leadership role. Ms. Adams Kellum‘s explanation was that she had no involvement in the selection of the company as a LAHSA contractor and inadvertently signed the contract when a stack of documents calling for signatures was presented by a LAHSA employee to her. Think about that — is it too much to ask that our public servants read what they sign?

Now, the Los Angeles United States attorney has announced the creation of a task force to investigate fraud and corruption at LAHSA. None of this inspires confidence that Los Angeles County homelessness issues are competently being addressed. And we see and experience the results all over Los Angeles County.

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THE FIRES

And then there are the efforts to deal with the aftermath of the Palisades fires. You will recall that even before the fires were contained, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced the appointment of prominent businessman Steven Soboroff as the City’s Chief Recovery Officer. That announcement was followed immediately by one hiccup after another.

First it was explained that Mr. Soboroff would have a three-month $500,000 contract to direct the recovery efforts. When that announcement proved controversial because of the contract amount, it was explained that the funds would come from a charitable donor. Then it was announced that Mr. Soboroff would not charge for his services. But wait, there’s more. Almost immediately disputes arose between Mr. Soboroff and the Mayor. There was controversy regarding just what he would do. Then, the Mayor announced that the burn area would be reopened. She backtracked when Mr. Soboroff and Pacific Palisades Councilmember Traci Park objected. Then the Mayor hired a firm to manage recovery efforts, such as debris removal, without consulting Mr. Soboroff. So, the role of the Chief Recovery Officer was diminished if not eliminated before he got started. And many others, including the Governor of California, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Councilmember Park and several prominent businessmen (all working independently) stepped into the breach. All seem to be working at somewhat cross purposes.

More recently at the end of the three-month term of his contract, Mr. Soboroff explained that he had been ignored for the last several weeks and criticized what was and was not being done. Unfortunately, what appears to be the underlying cause of this dysfunction is that some members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors do not like on a personal level or respect Mayor Bass and vice versa. This is unacceptable. Regional issues can be properly addressed only on a regional cooperative basis. Our elected representatives should get over their differences where existential problems persist and do their jobs.