The Fifth Los Angeles County supervisorial district is the largest of the five, encompassing 2,785 square miles and sweeping from the north county area of Antelope Valley through the foothill communities of the San Gabriel Valley.
Running for a third and final term under term limits is Kathryn Barger. The all-women, five-member board oversees a county budget of $46.7 billion and is responsible for funding of county hospitals, healthcare services, libraries, jails, probation and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and fire departments.
Supervisors earn a salary of about $232,000 annually. They also serve on the 14-member Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) board of directors.
The five candidates in the March 5 primary are Konstantine Anthony, Barger, Perry Goldberg, Chris Holden and Marlon Marroquin.
The candidates’ views on major issues are from interviews and candidate campaign websites. Here’s what they had to say:
Konstantine Anthony
Anthony is an actor and has been a member of the Burbank City Council since 2020.
He has formulated a progressive platform that gained the endorsement of the California Progressive Alliance and Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter L.A. chapter.
He wants the county to remove sheriff’s deputies and all law enforcement from responses involving the homeless. Instead, responses would be handled by social workers and those qualified to treat substance abuse. “It is not a crime to be poor,” he said.
Anthony would encourage smaller cities to stop contracting for law enforcement services from the sheriff’s department and instead form their own police departments. “Smaller police departments have a better relationship with their community and they have lower rates of use of force,” he said.
He would introduce a motion on his first day in office to close the Men’s Central Jail and build mental health treatment facilities for those inmates who need care throughout the…
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