Candidates for LA County Board of Supervisors In-Studio Debate

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors manages a $26 billion budget — spending more than all but a few states. There are 100,000 county workers -- in public safety, public health, healthcare and social services. The supervisors both enact laws and implement them. Board members are as powerful as any local officials in the United States, more powerful than most.

LA County voters have a rare opportunity: term limits have forced two veteran supervisors to step down. After 20 years, Zev Yaroslavsky is termed out as Supervisor for the Third District, which runs from the Westside to the Valley. From the studios of KCRW, we hear a debate between four major candidates to replace Yaroslavsky. Warren Olney asks questions of former Malibu Mayor and council member, Pamela Conley Ulich; former West Hollywood Mayor and current councilman John Duran; former Santa Monica Mayor and councilman Bobby Shriver and former State Legislator Sheila Kuehl. Would they try to stop the $2 billion jail plan the current board approved just last week? Do they want another transit construction project in the Sepulveda Pass? Should the number of Board members be increased so each one represents fewer than two million people? Which candidate does not want to raise the County’s minimum wage?

There are four other candidates running for the Third District seat. Yuval Kremer, private tutor in the Beverly Hills area; Rudy Melendez, lighting technician and member of the Motion Picture technicians union; Eric Preven, TV writer, line producer and consultant; and Doug Fay, master automotive technician at a Toyota dealership.

We'll be covering this race and all the other election news on the WWLA blog.

Later, on To the Point, in Vienna today, the US and five other countries are resuming talks with Iran about lifting economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on nuclear development. The proliferation of nuclear weapons may be at stake. Does Iran's recent transparency justify optimism? Can either side make the concessions necessary for the other without intensifying opposition at home?

Banner image: (L-R) Pamela Conley Ulich, Sheila Kuehl, John Duran, Bobby Shriver and Warren Olney in the KCRW Studios, May 13, 2014.