Mark Ridley-Thomas will become Los Angeles County's newest supervisor Dec. 1, joining colleagues who stayed mum or actively opposed his campaign and owing more to a single special interest than any supervisor in recent memory.
Yet a resounding victory over Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard C. Parks and a reputation for shrewd consensus-building was expected to aid Ridley-Thomas in an ambitious agenda, including better compensation for county workers and a pledge to reopen Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital by January 2010.
Ridley-Thomas prevailed with 61% of the vote to Parks' 39%. Parks, who was planning his father's funeral Wednesday, made no public statements. His son and chief of staff, Bernard Parks Jr., said his father plans to serve the remaining three years of his council term and will run again in 2011.
Meanwhile, Ridley-Thomas awoke Wednesday to face myriad public policy challenges. That reality was reinforced at a morning news conference where he was greeted by Sheriff Lee Baca, leaders of the sheriff's deputy unions, representatives of small businesses, environmental activists and Maria Elena Durazo, chief of the labor federation that spent $8.5 million to elect him.
The first item of business, he said, would be to build momentum for King's reopening.
"There has been some trepidation on the board when it comes to setting timetables, but I don't know how you get things done if you don't have benchmarks," Ridley-Thomas said.
The facility near Watts closed in August 2007 and much of its funding has been diverted to other programs. Ridley-Thomas said he hoped the debate over its fate could be reframed as one that also affects people in areas outside his district who might need the hospital in an emergency or whose local facilities could be overcrowded in King's absence.
Those at the news conference appeared eager to cash in on their support for the new supervisor, seeking a slew of political favors. They asked Ridley-Thomas to work for raises for tens of thousands of county workers whose contracts expire in coming years and to help persuade the Sheriff's Department to staff squad cars in Lynnwood with two officers rather than one.
"I called my city manager this morning and said we finally have a friend for Lynwood," said city Mayor Pro Tem Aide Castro.
