After voting a little before 9 this gray, cool morning on the grounds of old Transfiguration Catholic Church on MLK Jr. Boulevard, just south of Crenshaw, state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) said that if he is elected to the County Board of Supervisors later today, his objective will be to fully reopen King-Drew Medical Center within a year and a half, by January of ’10.
Meanwhile, with only hours to go until the polls in the statewide election close tonight at 8, there was mounting speculation that a low turnout of 20 percent of less for the 9-candidate field would lead to a runoff in the November presidential election, the third and mercifully final California election of the year. A candidate needs 50 percent plus one, and the murmuring all along has been that the larded field is too fragmented for one of the two frontrunners to overcome.
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By naming a date for King’s restoration, the senator told a press conference on the lawn of the parish school that he was venturing into virgin territory.
Most community leaders — including Bernard Parks, his chief rival for Yvonne Brathwaite Burke’s 2nd District seat on the Board of Supervisors — have feared setting a specific date, he said.
Least of all the retiring Ms. Brathwaite Burke, whom Mr. Ridley-Thomas bluntly blamed “principally,’ for allowing the flagship hospital of the South L.A. black community to close in the first place.
A Connection
Not incidentally, the incumbent is backing Mr. Parks, the fired LAPD police chief, who, naturally, does not fault the incumbent.
In a low-riding campaign that became acrimoniously personal in the last two months, Mr. Parks blamed his onetime ally for King’s closure, although the hospital was rocked throughout its history by a bottomless pancake stack of scandalous professional conduct.
With his twin sons Sebastian and Sinclair and his wife Avis arrayed silently behind him, the senator told a crowded media gathering that he was doing something brave by identifying a target restoration date.
“It is very interesting,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said, “ that hardly anyone, including Bernard Parks, has been willing to set a specific date that you target for the hospital to be reopened. If you don’t set a date, how do you get there?
A Problem for the County
“In my view, a year and a half is too long, but it probably is realistic. The closing of the hospital was a huge problem, and not just for Watts and Willowbrook but the whole county. All of us are at risk because that hospital is closed.
“It should not have been closed. It did not have to be closed. The fact is that patient care and the policy of patient care was (found to be) so substandard by those who evaluate hospitals so that they couldn’t justify going another day.
“My position is that: That hospital can and should be operational. It is not good use of taxpayers’ money to have it sitting virtually as a mausoleum. We need Martin Luther King up and running, and a network of regional health clinics that support it so that, in fact, it can do what it needs to do.
“There is a need for a private-public partnership, a new governance model, a 21st century orientation to the delivery of healthcare in the public sector.”
When a reporter asked Mr. Ridley-Thomas what he would do differently about the hospital from his entrenched predecessor, Ms. Brathwaite Burke, frequently accused of casual oversight, the candidate snapped back:
Placing Blame
“First, I would show up every day, and pay attention to what needs to be done at the hospital. Accountability is the order of the day.
“There is no excuse for any public official on the (5-person) Board of Supervisors to allow a hospital to die. Just no excuse. It’s interesting to me that it hasn’t happened in any other (supervisorial) district. Under my watch, it wouldn’t happen.”
Is the closure Ms. Brathwaite Burke’s fault?
“She is the representative of the 2nd District,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said. “So ultimately, she has to bear responsibility — not exclusively but principally because this is a question of leadership, according to the current structure. It’s interesting to me that she embraces Bernard Parks. That, essentially, is why her constituents are saying ‘We don’t ant more of the same. We want something in which we can invest a sense of confidence, and where there is accountability.”
With that, Mr. Ridley-Thomas was going to motor into the territory of another rival. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), a loud backer of Mr. Parks, to walk selected precincts.
Party Time
The senator’s post-election party tonight will be at the Sheraton Gateway LAX Hotel, 6101 W. Century Blvd.
