According to Kevin Dalton, he is using his five smooth stones to take down Goliath, Hilda Solis, from the L.A. Board of Supervisors (BOS) District 1. Entrepreneur Dalton is running for office as an independent in District 1 of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. (Yawns.) The issue of being the David challenging Board of Supervisors Goliath incumbent Hilda Solis is that no one is even aware of (or even cares about) what the Board of Supervisors position entails or the power it holds to influence residents’ daily lives. It's time to pay attention. Those who have been living in Los Angeles County for years know that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors prefers to keep its actions private. They keep themselves out of the spotlight.
Kevin Dalton did not know who was on the Board of Supervisors until 2020, the year the pandemic hit. “I had never considered having a run for the Board of Supervisors. It's a complete disclosure. About two and a half years ago, I'd likely been unable to explain how…the Board of Supervisors even was. Then [as] you're aware…a pandemic struck, and suddenly our businesses were shut, children's schools were shut, and beaches were shut down, the skate parks were saturated with sand, and suddenly it was ‘OK, STOP.’ What's happening here?”
What is the Board of Supervisors, and what is their job?
Contrary to the separation of powers that is characteristic of the state and federal governments, the Board of Supervisors is both the executive and legislative power of the county. The Board also has quasi-judicial authority. To put it into simple words, the Board of Supervisors is the president, the Congress, and the Supreme Court all rolled up into one. If your jaw dropped, you can imagine the reaction of Kevin Dalton. “Then I was introduced to the Board of Supervisors and started taking part in meetings, Zoom calls, and conferences and witnessing the immense power they boast of having more than 10 million members. It was…it was shocking.”
Powerful and unmatched over all 10,170,292 residents of 88 cities that encompass the 4,084 square miles of unincorporated and incorporated Los Angeles County, the Board of Supervisors oversees a $28 billion budget. That's “billion” with the letter “B.”
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has utilized its power and the budget to hire the director of Health Services for Los Angeles County, Doctor Barbara Ferrer, who is raking in and benefits from nearly one million dollars per year. She has a Ph.D. in Social Welfare and an M.S. in public health. The school closures, mask and vaccination directives, and closings of businesses? You can thank “Crypt Keeper” Dr. Ferrer for them all, and Ferrer is backed by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors on everything.
Dalton decided to become involved in the race and did. Yet, the majority of the old media, from the Los Angeles Times to the Los Angeles Daily News, are rubber-stamping the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors races rather than reporting on the two district (Districts 1 and 3) races and covering them in a fair manner for the entire field of candidates.
According to the Los Angeles Daily News: Aiming to block Solis, who is running for re-election, are David E. Argudo, 51, who is a La Puente City Council member; Brian Smith of Azusa, 43, an LA. County Sheriff's deputy; Kevin Dalton of Pomona, 45, father, yoga instructor, and businessman; as well as Tammy Solis, 47, an entrepreneur who hails from West Covina.
Argudo and Smith have garnered some attention. The candidate with the same last name as Hilda, Tammy Solis, doesn't even have any campaign websites. If other publications mention her, they usually state that she wasn't available to be interviewed. Is Solis II taking a page from President Joe Biden? Or is she an ingenuous entity designed to split the vote more to ensure Solis I gets more than 50 percent? We can’t put anything past the Democrats. However, the outcome remains to be observed. On Tuesday, June 7, the primary will show the rest.
Dalton's explanation of why District 1 voters should vote for him over other District 1 candidates is quite simple: “The most important thing that I inform my voters is that I'm not a politician therefore I don't have any particular interest. I don't have any big corporations. I'm a steward to the two million residents of my own county. That's it. That's the job I have to do. I don't have any desire to run for another term. If you offer me four years, you'll get the same amount of time, not three, and then I campaign for a whole year to finish the job. This is extremely deceitful. My task is to serve the people, and then to motivate others to achieve the exact same. I would like another District 1 resident that can step forward and join me and take that step! The more members we have, the more active citizens we will have on boards, or any other elected office, the more prosperous our communities are likely to be. I'm just an average guy trying to help my community.”
