Molina Accuses Supervisors of Racism in Debate Over Hospital

Simmering ethnic tensions among the county supervisors exploded Tuesday, when Gloria Molina accused her colleagues of racism for failing to accept her proposal on negotiations over rebuilding County-USC Medical Center.

Molina, who represents the heavily Latino Eastside and San Gabriel Valley, said her colleagues delivered a “slap in the face” to Latinos by insisting on rebuilding the earthquake-damaged county hospital on a smaller scale than she and medical leaders believe is required.

“This community, when it had white representation--and I’m making a racial remark--people met these needs,” Molina said after supervisors balked at her highly technical proposal. “Now when you have a Hispanic representative for this district, you think you can shaft me.”

Molina later apologized for her remark after being rebuked by her colleagues. But the combative supervisor said race has been a pervasive subtext to her experience on the board. Molina became the first Latina supervisor in 1992 only after the U.S. Supreme Court found that the county had discriminated against Latinos and ordered it to redraw its supervisorial districts.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who is African American, told Molina that the decision on County-USC by their three white colleagues was not based on race. “I don’t think this has anything to do with your ethnic background or my ethnic background,” she said. “I think this has to do with money.”

Tuesday’s flare-up shows that neither side is budging in the County-USC battle, which has not only alienated Molina from her colleagues but also put Los Angeles County’s local and state representatives at odds.

A recent health department analysis showed that it may even be cheaper to run a larger facility than a smaller one, although officials say that study did not use updated numbers that show a cost difference of about $20 million. The larger facility also would be more expensive to build.

The numbers are significant, but represent only a fraction of the $2 billion the county spends on health care. Yet personal politics have mixed with medical arguments ever since the board in 1997 decided to replace the quake-damaged hospital with a 600-bed facility rather than the 750-bed one Molina and medical experts sought.

The county’s health director, Mark Finucane, initially favored a 750-bed hospital, but later said 600 beds would be sufficient because other medical facilities would take the extra patients. In the wake of the county’s brush with bankruptcy and a federally mandated push to reduce expensive hospital care in favor of outpatient care, the board majority chose a smaller building.

The decision outraged Molina, whose district includes the hospital; medical and community leaders, who warned of inadequate health care for an impoverished population; and an unusually unified coalition of Latino legislators in Sacramento. Those lawmakers threatened to hold up state funds unless the supervisors relented, but the county did not back down.

Now the Latino lawmakers have made overtures of helping the county pay for the larger facility, and state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) has introduced a bill to force the county to use the $3-billion settlement of its lawsuit against the tobacco industry to build a bigger hospital.

The county normally would have automatically opposed Polanco’s bill, but Molina forced a discussion of it at Tuesday’s meeting, at which Polanco urged supervisors to keep an open mind before leaving for a budget hearing in Sacramento.

“Let’s send a message that our county and state officials are willing to work together,” Polanco told a skeptical board.

After health experts and community leaders testified about the need for a bigger hospital, Molina proposed that the county send its estimates of the difference of the cost to Sacramento and “work aggressively” to find a way to close the gap.

The board initially warmed to Molina’s proposal, but backed away when it realized it would not still be opposing the bill. “It’s really important, from a fiscal viewpoint, that you not let the state or the federal government tell you how to spend your tobacco settlement money,” said Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen.

When Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky backed away from the proposal because, he said, it made it appear the board was moving in the direction of a 750-bed facility, Molina snapped.

“Every single argument that is being raised here is a slap in the face to this community, and I consider it a personal insult,” she said.

Molina apologized for “losing her temper” only after reminding her colleagues why race is such an issue for her on the board.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich said race had nothing to do with the board’s stance, warning that the legislators who are promising money will soon be forced out of office by term limits. “Commitments made today may be broken tomorrow,” he said.

“They are on shifting sands.”

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