New era begins in L.A. County government as ‘supermajority’ of Democrats takes the helm

A new era began Monday at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors with the end of the old guard and the inauguration of a generation of board members that is likely to accelerate a shift toward more liberal policies on a variety of issues.

Monday marked the inauguration of new board members Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger. With this, the five-member board will have four women and four Democrats.

They’ve already made clear some of their early priorities: confronting daunting issues like the county’s mammoth homelessness problem and protecting immigrant youth who feel threatened by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

L.A. County supervisors are considered among the most influential local politicians in the region, together overseeing a massive bureaucracy with a nearly $30 billion annual budget.

Hahn, who will replace Republican Supervisor Don Knabe, resigned her congressional seat to assume her supervisorial one. She hails from a well-known political family with a history of holding elected offices that reaches back to the 1940s. Barger, now the board’s sole Republican, has worked in county government for 28 years and spent more than a decade serving as chief of staff to outgoing Republican Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

Hahn, representing the fourth district, and Barger, overseeing the fifth district, will be also sitting on a board controlled by a new supermajority of liberals, a leftward tilt that began in 2014 with the election of Supervisors Hilda Solis and Sheila Kuehl. While Barger is considered a moderate Republican, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and the three other supervisors will form a progressive voting bloc.

The board majority elected two years ago has already passed several progressive policies, including raising the county’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, allocating hundreds of millions of dollars toward affordable housing and a placing a parcel tax on the ballot to improve park space.

The two new supervisors held two different ceremonies packed with hundreds of supporters at the county Hall of Administration’s board room. Hahn’s brother, Superior Court Judge James K. Hahn, administered the oath of office on a family bible, and Barger’s oath was administered by Antonovich.

Janice Hahn has wanted to be a county supervisor for as long as she can remember, she said during her swearing in speech. Her father, Kenneth Hahn, was a county supervisor between 1952 and 1992, and the administrative building is named after him. She’ll be sitting at the very desk he used for decades, she said.

Hahn spent a good part of the ceremony wiping away tears. A singer belted out a rendition of “This is the Moment,” and Hahn raised her hands in victory throughout the performance.

Citing her father’s dedication to helping those in need, Hahn said she will bring that same focus to the job. She referenced tackling the homelessness problem, caring for foster children, a cleaner environment, economic development and transit projects under a new sales tax as among her priorities.

In one telling remark, she gave special thanks to myriad employees who work for the county. Public employee unions heavily backed Hahn’s candidacy.

Hahn also promised that she would be an “ally” to undocumented immigrant youth. “I will not stand by and watch as they revert back to the days when they lived in fear,” she said.

She won’t be wasting time. At their first board meeting on Tuesday, Hahn and Ridley-Thomas will be introducing a motion to declare homelessness an emergency and scheduling a special election to pass a quarter-cent sales tax to fund services for homeless people.

The tax, which would be in place for 10 years, would fund housing for disabled people, homelessness prevention programs, housing subsidies and mental health and substance abuse services, among other things. Supervisors earlier this year couldn’t muster the votes to place such a tax on the ballot. They also considered a millionaires tax and a tax on marijuana sales, but those initiatives failed.

“I will not stop working until every man woman and child has the services they need to get off our streets,” Hahn said.

Also on Tuesday’s meeting’s agenda, supervisors will consider looking into creating an office or department of immigrant affairs with the mission to protect immigrants after Trump takes office in January. The motion written by Solis would also require the protection of immigrant data from the new presidential administration after Trump promised to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which temporarily protects from deportation the children of undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

As part of the program, the participants gave information to the federal government that could be used by the incoming Trump administration, according to Solis’ motion.

Meanwhile, Barger didn’t highlight specific policy proposals but instead focused on what she called her “overarching philosophy” toward her duties. She highlighted a particular focus on fiscal responsibility, noting that it had been a hallmark of the board’s governing style. With a progressive supermajority, some have warned that the new board might spend beyond its means.

“The Board of Supervisors historically has struck an exemplary balance between public needs and resources,” Barger said. “This approach must continue.”

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