LA County supervisors get first look at proposed $43B budget

By City News Service

Aproposed $43 billion Los Angeles County budget proposal for 2023-24 got early support Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors, although the initial review only begins a months-long public hearing process leading up to final adoption of a spending plan in October.

County CEO Fesia Davenport unveiled her budget proposal Monday, and presented it Tuesday to the Board of Supervisors, which took a procedural vote giving preliminary approval to the document. Public hearings on the budget will begin May 10.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the budget proposal "got several things right."

"I am pleased it includes ongoing funding for sheriff's academies to help keep our communities safe," she said in a statement. "Our county must have a functioning pipeline that recruits and trains quality candidates for the sheriff's department. This has a ripple effect, allowing us to maintain necessary staffing levels for our local sheriff's stations and jails.

"I am also encouraged that the Department of Mental Health is allocated more than $60 million in Mental Health Services Act funding and more than 165 positions to expand services -- including 32 positions for the Antelope Valley Children and Family Health Clinic. The rural communities I represent need more access to services and will welcome the additional support."

Supervisor Holly Mitchell said she hopes there will be good attendance at the upcoming public budget meetings. She said the public has to understand that the county "cannot rely on unanticipated revenue."

In releasing the budget proposal Monday, Davenport warned of an unstable economy and potential future liabilities from child sex assault claims that could range into the billions of dollars, having a significant impact on the county's finances.

The spending plan includes investments in mental health services, homelessness programs and establishment of an Office of Constitutional Policing within the sheriff's department. It also realizes the goal set by voter passage of Measure J in 2020 -- mandating that at least 10% of the county's locally generated "unrestricted revenues" be dedicated to community service programs and alter-

Davenport said the budget proposal dedicates $288.3 million to such programs, along with nearly $198 million more that will roll over from the current fiscal year, putting the 2023-34 total at about $486 million.

The budget proposal dedicates $692 million toward efforts to combat homelessness. The amount includes more than $60 million for mental health services and 168 positions to provide them; a $100 million pot of money for development and preservation of affordable housing; and $25.5 million for "city-specific programs and services" with a primary goal of moving people out of homeless encampments and into housing, along with supportive services.

By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica

In 2014, one of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow’s companies purchased a string of properties on a quiet residential street in Savannah, Georgia. It wasn’t a marquee acquisition for the real estate magnate, just an old single-story home and two vacant lots down the road. What made it noteworthy were the people on the other side of the deal: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.

The transaction marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice. The Crow company bought the properties for $133,363 from three co-owners — Thomas, his mother and the family of Thomas’ late brother, according to a state tax document and a deed dated Oct. 15, 2014, filed at the Chatham County courthouse.

The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements on the twobedroom, one-bathroom home, which looks out onto a patch of orange trees. The renovations included a carport, a repaired roof and a new fence and gates, according to city permit records and blueprints.

A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of most real estate sales over $1,000. Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties. That appears to be a violation of the law, four ethics law experts told ProPublica.

The disclosure form Thomas filed for that year also had a space to report the identity of the buyer in any private transaction, such as a real estate deal. That space is blank.

“He needed to report his interest in the sale,” said Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer now at the watchdog group CREW. “Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets.”

Thomas did not respond to detailed questions for this story.

In a statement, Crow said he purchased Thomas’ mother’s house, where Thomas spent part of his childhood, to preserve it for posterity. “My intention is to one day create a public museum at the Thomas home dedicated to telling the story of our nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice,” he said. “I approached the Thomas family about my desire to maintain this historic site so future generations could learn about the inspiring life of one of our greatest Americans.” circulation in court case number ES016728 City of Burbank, County of Los Angeles, State of California.

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