Gloria Molina

Happy? Oh, try again. I was thrilled to read in my very own paper that Gloria Molina, the Los Angeles County supervisor, and her husband, Ron Martinez, had put up an illegal retaining wall at their house. It's not just the wall I admire--it's the attitude. For more than 10 years, the couple had snubbed inspectors, ignored fines and now, according to Peter Hong reporting in today's paper, it seems they may have put in a swimming pool without a permit in a yard being supported by that illegal wall.

Nearly a year after a social worker blew the whistle, Los Angeles County supervisors acknowledged Tuesday that a "crisis" had developed in a Wilshire Boulevard office building used to house difficult-to-place foster children and requested a new plan to house them. Supervisor Gloria Molina said the office near MacArthur Park, where the county's child protection agency has its nighttime, emergency operations, has become a "dumping ground" for hundreds of the county's most troubled children when social workers can't find a suitable foster home.

Now that Gloria Molina has made history by becoming the first Latino member this century on the powerful County Board of Supervisors, six candidates are trying to make a little history of their own by vying for the seat she vacated on the Los Angeles City Council. Voters in the 1st District will go to the polls June 4 to select someone to serve until 1993, which is the remainder of Molina's unexpired term. If no candidate gets at least 50% of the votes, a runoff election will be held later.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina expressed concerns Tuesday that campaign contributions to sheriff's brass by department employees created potential conflicts of interest in personnel decisions. The board approved a motion by Molina to ask the county's attorneys to gauge the legality of banning county managers from soliciting such donations within their departments, though employees would still be able to contribute on their own. Sheriff Lee Baca and Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, who is also mayor of Gardena, have over the years accepted thousands of dollars in contributions from department employees.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina's husband won a $193,200 consulting contract after Molina's appointee to a local transit board helped derail awards to competing firms, records show. Antonio Villaraigosa, a Molina appointee, abstained from voting on the awarding of the contract to Molina's husband, Ron Martinez, a Los Angeles affirmative action consultant. But Villaraigosa twice voted to rescind award of the contract to other firms after Martinez had lodged formal protests.

After more than a decade of passing laws as an assemblywoman, City Council member and county supervisor, Gloria Molina may soon be asked to pass judgment--as a member of a criminal trial jury. After answering the call for jury duty several times in the past, but never being selected to serve on a panel, Molina said she was delighted earlier this week when she made it on a murder trial jury.

Bill has called for Hillary. Antonio has called for Hillary. Barack's people have called, though he has not personally phoned yet. He probably will, though. After all, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina could be an important arrow in a Democratic presidential candidate's quiver of endorsements. Now that her favorite, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, has quit the race, Molina is a sought-after prize.

After five hours of sometimes angry debate, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a watered-down pension reform plan that allows most senior county officials to continue receiving unusually high retirement benefits. The vote was a partial but disappointing victory for Supervisor Gloria Molina, who waged a two-year battle to rescind pension rules that boosted the retirement pay of senior county officials by 20% at a cost to taxpayers of more than $400 million.

The scene unfolded Dec. 6. Four high-ranking sheriff's deputies were being grilled about why yet another inmate -- the eighth in two years -- had been killed inside the nation's largest jail. Los Angeles County supervisors, fresh from agreeing to pay a $1.7-million wrongful-death settlement to families of two other inmates, were angry and in search of an explanation.

Los Angeles County agreed to pay $6.3 million in attorneys' fees Thursday to the victorious plaintiffs in a voting rights lawsuit that led to the election of Gloria Molina as the first Latino supervisor this century, ending a legal battle that cost taxpayers $12.8 million.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors sat down Monday with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss AB 109 realignment, under which counties, beginning Saturday, take responsibility for a large portion of inmates and parolees who until now have been supervised by the state. The law mandates that board meetings be public, but the supervisors wanted their meeting to be held behind closed doors. So county lawyers cited an exception — Government Code Section 54957(a) — that applies to meetings that local officials call to confer with security experts about threats to public buildings and utilities.

The head of the region's largest labor group on Thursday accused three Los Angeles County supervisors of ignoring changing demographics for the sake of their political careers. Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, said Michael D. Antonovich, Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky favor a redistricting plan that would make it more difficult to elect a second Latino to the five-member board. "Those three supervisors … are trying to hold onto a power structure that is outdated," Durazo said at a news conference.

On a blistering day in Huntington Park, I walked into a barbershop and put the owner on the hot seat. I asked if he knew which member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors represents the area. When Benjamin Hernandez said no, I asked if the name Gloria Molina rang a bell. Yes, he said, but he didn't know much about her. How about Zev Yaroslavsky? Never heard of him. There's a slim chance, I told Hernandez, that Yaroslavsky could replace Molina as the rep for the area.

A push to increase Latino representation on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors changed course sharply Tuesday with the release of a new redistricting proposal drafted by board member Gloria Molina. Under a revised plan to create a second Latino-majority district, Molina, the only Latino to serve on the board in modern history, is suggesting that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's current Westside and San Fernando Valley district be radically reconfigured. Yaroslavsky, a white Democrat, will be termed out of office in 2014 but might run for mayor in two years.

An epic redistricting battle is shaping up at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that could result in the first nonwhite board majority in modern history and further reduce the clout of Republicans in county politics. Latino activists are pushing for the county to create a second Latino-majority district, saying demographic shifts in the last decade demand it. Latinos now make up 48% of the county population, up from 45% in 2000, census data show. And Latinos constitute a third of the county's potential voters, up from a little more than one in four a decade ago. "I hope the board is going to recognize the demographic changes in this county," said Gloria Molina, the county's first nonwhite and first person of Latino heritage to be elected supervisor in more than a century.

Los Angeles County supervisors took the unusual step Tuesday of curtailing the power of their chief executive, William T Fujioka, who has struggled to overcome breakdowns in child protective services that contributed to tragic instances of harm and even death for youths. Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich, Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky voted to place the Department of Children and Family Services, as well as the troubled Probation Department, under direct oversight of the county board.

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously ordered a review of transportation allowances of up to $5,300 a year being paid to 486 top bureaucrats, regardless of whether they use their personal cars for county business. The review was sought by Supervisor Gloria Molina, who called the stipend a hidden bonus for executives and complained that it has been improperly used to inflate pensions.

The field of candidates jostling for the powerful post of Los Angeles County supervisor in the 1st District came into sharper focus Tuesday as U.S. Rep. Matthew G. Martinez and state Sen. Art Torres prepared to enter the race while City Councilman Richard Alatorre bowed out. In what is becoming a battle royal, Martinez (D-Monterey Park) and Torres (D-Los Angeles) are expected to join City Councilwoman Gloria Molina and Sarah Flores on the Jan.

Los Angeles government has few more cringe-inducing spectacles than the regular flaying of department heads by the county's Board of Supervisors. Countless such face-offs have occurred over the years, and inevitably, whatever the failings of the administrators in question, you end up feeling sorry for them. When I heard about the confrontation that's building between the supes and some of their top deputies, I assumed it would end up with just another public whipping. But on closer inspection, the current conflict seems a bit more complex.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina introduced a motion this week that would authorize the county to boycott Arizona unless it suspends or repeals its controversial immigration law. The motion, co-sponsored by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, would direct county officials to suspend all travel to Arizona and investigate withdrawing investments and canceling contracts. Molina spokeswoman Roxane Marquez said the supervisor realizes that the immigration system is broken but believes that the Arizona law is the wrong way to address the problem.