Los Angeles CityBeat

December 28, 2006

Illustration by Scott gandell

In 1990, she was working as a physician’s assistant in the emergency room at L.A. County/USC Medical Center, the largest in the country, when she founded Community Coalition as a way to help deal with South L.A.’s intractable drug problems. She got results: When the Rodney King riots erupted, she worked to ensure that the liquor stores destroyed in that unrest – symbols of exploitation of the poor in that community and centers for drug dealing and crime – were never reopened. She also saw that drug abuse issues had a direct link to the foster care system, and that the two had to be dealt with in a comprehensive manner. After her election to the Assembly in 2004, she became a solid advocate for foster kids, launching a package of over 25 bills and bringing a big influx of new money into that system. As the vice-chair of the Legislative Black Caucus and chair of a Select Committee on Foster Care, she’s now in the position to bring more resources to some of the county’s most vulnerable citizens.

–Dean Kuipers

CityBeat: What’s the significance of becoming the first woman Assembly Majority Floor Leader, and then also the first African-American?

Karen Bass: The significance is that a lot of Sacramento is a boy’s world. And a lot of the legislature is very much male-oriented. Being the first woman to do it, I look forward to working with my colleagues, who I think will be very open and supportive. When an institution has been run in a particular way for over 100 years, it’ll be interesting to see change. But I’m confident that my colleagues will embrace that change.

How did you become so deeply engaged in the foster care issue?

I was running my own organization, the Community Coalition, and one of the issues that we had worked on for a number of years was the foster care issue. When I realized that if I made it up to Sacramento I would be able to be involved in this issue, that really sealed my desire to want to run for office.

How was foster care a part of Community Coalition? You worked on drug issues.

There you have it. When I started the Coalition in 1990, that was around the time – actually, it was the mid-’80s – when the crack cocaine crisis exploded. The reason we’ve had an explosion in our foster care system was initially because of cocaine. Now it’s because of meth. But it’s absolutely substance-abuse related. So, at the Coalition, over the last six years, we started organizing grandmothers who were taking care of their grandchildren but getting very little resources, if any. Whereas, if you’re not related to the child, you get resources. We changed that this year. The legislation is in place that says a relative can get resources like a non-relative.

What else was in the many foster care bills you have moved?

We were able to get $84 million put into the budget to help the system. We were able to get $50 million put into the housing bond that voters voted for, which goes to build housing for kids who are emancipated out of the system. Because, when they hit 18 and they get kicked to the curb, they of course wind up homeless and then they wind up in jail. And then we passed several pieces of legislation. That’s what our group did, the select committee that I am chairing. My co-chair is a Republican, and that’s the other thing that’s very exciting about the issue, is that it’s very bipartisan.

Has the Community Coalition had much appreciable effect on the drug issue?

When the civil unrest happened and the liquor stores were destroyed, we were able to prevent the majority of those stores from reopening. When we went back several years later, the crime that had been festering around the liquor stores had been reduced. The other thing that I would point to are the number of young people we involved in the Coalition over the years who, I have no doubt, would have wound up casualties.

How do you get youth involved in those community organizations?

I started as an activist when I was 14. I have a strong belief that youth have a capacity to be involved in the political process and be very effective. Rebellion is a natural part of adolescence; if you can capture that rebellion and channel it in a positive way, then you get kids protesting that they can’t get into college because they can’t get their algebra class. Heh. We recruited a number of young people like that when they were 12, 13, 14 years old, and they’re running the organization now.

Do you think the so-called “war on drugs” is working?

No. That is exactly why the organization was formed, because I disagreed with the concept. I have a background in the medical field as well as a background as an activist, so I viewed the drug problem primarily as a health issue, with an economic pull to it. I think our country has squandered billions of dollars on a problem that really requires a comprehensive solution.

What do you think of Mayor Villaraigosa’s AB 1381, his plan to take over some of the LAUSD?

I voted for AB 1381. The piece of the legislation that I am the most interested in and excited about is the piece that talks about the Least Performing Schools. And the reason is because, if you look at the areas where the schools are at the bottom, you have an overlay of so many issues. For example, two of the schools in my district are Dorsey and Crenshaw. In those schools, at any given time, 40 to 60 percent of the student body are kids in the foster care system. If you look at the gang problem, if you look at the homicide problem, you’re talking about the same geographic area. And I have always believed that it should have always been a citywide crisis.

Did the school district already have some means in place to deal with that?

No, I don’t think it did. And I don’t believe it was fair. That’s the whole point. It’s not fair for it to have just been the school district. It’s a citywide problem. And so, to expect the school district to do everything, I just don’t think is right.

Is universal healthcare or a single-payer system within our grasp here in California?

What I’m excited about is that health care is the number one issue that everyone is talking about! But here’s the thing that concerns me: The indication now is that we’re in trouble, economically. At some point in time, in our state, we’ve got to talk about raising revenue.

What will be your priority as we go into the new legislative session?

I’m definitely continuing with the foster care agenda. I’m very interested in working with the entertainment industry to make sure that we can keep the entertainment industry within our state. The number one industry in my district is the entertainment industry: Sony, Fox, MGM. Half of my district is job-rich and half is job-poor. Is there a way to link? When I was with Community Coalition, I sat on the board of Workplace Hollywood, so I have a lot of relationships there and want to see how we bridge the jobs divide in my district.