Dateline: May 2, 2008

 

     The field in the race for Los Angeles County Supervisor is extremely competitive, in that there are nine candidates, which include a state senator, and LA City councilman. However, on April 28, 2008 the Democratic Voters Guide selected Dr. Delaney Smith, who is a physician, pharmacist and theologian, as it's leading choice for Los Angeles County Supervisor in the Second District. The race for LA County supervisor in the Second District also includes Morris Griffin a community activist, Thomas Neusom an attorney, Martin Luther King Aubrey a community activist, state senator Mark-Ridley Thomas, LA City councilman Bernard Parks, Antonio Alvarez, Harriette "June" Hampton, and Florian Thompson a dentist, and Drew Fenton M.D.

 

      Dr. Smith was selected as the choice of the State of California Democratic Voters Guide because of his education, training, and experience and his willingness to openly share his concerns with all and for the same reason,... he complained of not being allowed to participate in local LA debates, which usually featured only two candidates. Dr. Smith voiced concern that such conduct appeared to be contrary to the goals espoused at the national level by both Democratic presidential candidates, who declare that the old days of secretive, "backroom politics" is a thing of the past. The 2- man debates were usually sponsored by special interest groups, in an attempt to maintain the "status quo", the most recent is reportedly to be hosted by Consolidated Realty on Saturday May 3, 2008.

 

      Oftentimes referred to as the leading candidates, senator Mark Ridley_Thomas and LA councilman Bernard Parks, have had several debates around the city, in which Dr. Smith and the other Second District Candidates were excluded from participation. However, yesterday the front page of the LA Times reported on the problem of wide areas of blight in the Crenshaw District, which resulted when one of the developers had financial problems, though he had the approval of 2-politicians named in the LA Time Article. We are in a climate of political change and Dr. Smith believes that the need for change, in addition to his qualifications made him the best qualified candidates...which has been echoed by many hospital CEOs, medical groups, and members of the Los Angeles County Medical Society.

 

      Dr. Smith is physician who is a residency trained specialist in Emergency Medicine, in addition to being a graduate of USC.s School of Pharmacy, where he earned a Doctorate in Pharmacy. While Dr. Smith is not a lawyer, he is a Civil Surgeon of the Armed Forces Division of the United States military, and a Board Certified Forensic Examiner who has personally taken two legal cases involving Los Angeles County officials to the United States Supreme court. The first case involved the Los Angeles County MTA, which stopped paying bills from attorneys and physicians in 1998 after wrongfully claiming that they were no longer "self insured" and had become fully insured with Travelers, which Travelers disputed in Admissions filed in federal court. The second case involved what one paper has referred to as a "kids for cash" scheme by Los Angeles county whereby children are removed from families and placed in foster care, when they could have been placed with a willing, responsible family member. It is a system oftentimes driven by financial incentives received from the federal government a great waste to taxpayers.

 

     40% of all children in foster care in the United States are in the state of California, and the majority of those arise from Southern California. According to county's records in 2006 there were over 76,000 children in foster care in Los Angeles County, and most of those arose out of Southern California. Careful examination reveals that the majority of those arose from just two communities, East Los Angeles and Southern California, who are poor, and generally referred to the Department of Family Services when a child is injured and evaluated at a county hospital in which the practice is oftentimes, that all such injuries are intentional and the parents [usually the male] is guilty until proven innocent. After finding that the judge was biased [later confirmed by state court of Appeals] on June 22, 2006 Dr. Smith removed the case to federal court [the first case ever removed from state court [Edelman's Children's Court] to the federal court system. After being referred back to state court it appears that the case is heading for dismissal by the California Court of Appeals. It is a case in which the judge was removed by the higher court, as well as all of the attorneys initially appointed by Los Angeles County. 

 

   Dr. Smith believes that there is statistical evidence that can be found in the DEA's own research data into illicit drug use [street drugs] by race, that can be used to overturn three strikes, under the US Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment which requires "equal application of the laws" and the "right to due process", when strikes are arbitrarily and selectively applied to segments of the population in an manner that is not consistent with the intent of the legislature, in that such designation was to be applied only to violent crimes. There are individual who have been sentenced as a third strike offender for "stealing a slice of pizza".

 

    The cost to tax payers is staggering, in that the cost of incarcerating some inmates is as much as $100,000.00 each and prison cannot be built fast enough.... which has caused deep cuts in education and other vital programs while increase spending for prison continue to escalate. Dr. Smith proposes a public review board "with overriding capability" to determine if application of three strikes designation is consistent with the legislature. Additionally, there should be a built in component of judicial discretion, if it appears that the third strike sentence is too extreme, given the circumstances of the cases in question.

 

   Rehabilitation for drug use, should replace incarceration, and the jails should not be used to feed and house the homeless with psychiatric problems for occupying space [loitering]. Prior to 1968 California Schools and it's health facilities were number one in the nation, after which time the funding was cut, from Metropolitan and other state hospitals and the poor with psychiatric problems were dumped onto the street, as the first wave of homeless people in California. It is much less expensive to rehabilitate than incarcerate.

 

   Dr. Smith believes that the savings from waste within the county's 22 billion dollar budget which funds the foster care system and penal system, could be redirected to fund education, job training and various other worthwhile programs.

 

Dr. Delaney Smith is a former writer

for the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper,