Board of Supervisors Candidates Sit Down on CSUN’s On Point

Bobby Shriver and Sheila Kuehl, candidates for the third district Los Angeles County Supervisor, discussed jobs, homelessness, and transportation on CSUN’s student-run public affairs show, On Point.

The third district that the candidates seek to represent covers most of the San Fernando Valley including Northridge.

This years June 3rd election is the first contended race for Los Angeles County Supervisor in 20 years. In order to win the election on June 3rd one of the candidate must get 50 percent of the vote. Otherwise, the candidates will face off again in November.

The job of county supervisor deals with many issues such as homelessness, health care, and child protective services.

When asked about handling the stress of the job, Kuehl replied, “Somebody has to do it. The government has the responsibility of caring for a lot of people who really can’t care for themselves.”

When dealing with veteran homelessness on Shriver remembered a story that gave the issue a face for him.

“ I learned that a particular soldier had died in a dumpster in West LA, I felt responsible for that and it kept me up for several nights,” said Shriver. He said that individual stories make problems personal and gives a sense of urgency to get things done.

The candidates discussed their plans if elected to the Board of Supervisors, Shrivers included sending county lobbyist to DC to lobby on behalf of veterans issues.

The VA has an enormous federal budget, obviously, we should be doing more professional lobbying to get the VA to meet its responsibilities on a county-wide basis and especially in the third district.”

With that money Shriver would like to create more housing for homeless veterans.

Kuehl said that she would like to work on the issue of unemployment in the third district.

“We need to make sure the county participates where it can, in bringing more jobs here, not just industry jobs but also green jobs,” Kuehl said.