Candidates take a stand at local forums

By THOMAS FRANCIS
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - The registered Republicans in contention for Palmdale City Council seats agree on the need for an eastside WalMart and for a Palmdale hospital.

So far, the only matter that provides even a modicum of debate is the exact method of bringing a hospital to the city and its best location.

Speaking at a Wednesday forum hosted by the California Congress of Republicans, Antelope Valley chapter, the candidates hammered down their campaign planks, the biggest of which relates to the hospital.

"I want a hospital on the east side," said Rick Norris, a Palmdale businessman running for the council's three-year seat. "Any hospital, public or private. ... Whoever can build a hospital, so be it.

"But if they're going to come to us as a city council and request financial assistance, then we have the right to dictate where that hospital is going to go," Norris continued.

This position coincided with Richard Loa's, whose assertion is also that the east side deserves the hospital.

He said that whether the Antelope Valley Hospital is the builder or whether it's Prospect Medical Holdings, Inc., it should be on the east side. Prospect has talked with Palmdale about a hospital at Fifth Street West.

John Mayfield, a member of the planning commission for 14 years and contender in the three-year seat, first professed ambivalence about the hospital location, then seemed to lean in the direction of the west side.

"I don't see where it matters whether it goes on the west side or the east side, as long as we get it, that's fine," Mayfield said.

"We needed 65 beds in Palmdale two years ago. The Antelope Valley Hospital has shown that they do not have the money," Mayfield continued. "If Prospect (Medical Holdings Inc.) or anyone else comes (to build a hospital) I'm willing to look and say, 'OK, are you willing to give Palmdale the type of service they need in a location our citizens can get to?' "

Mayfield added that to better attract quality doctors, "I'm looking for (the hospital) to be closer to the (Antelope Valley) freeway," which, of course, is the Fifth Street West location.

Finally, Jim Root, a past councilman who is running for the oneyear seat, stressed expediency over all else, and though he didn't clearly advocate one hospital site over the other, he did say he was impressed with the Prospect plan.

Root is hoping to capitalize on another big campaign issue, that of experience, and, as a former councilman, he believes he's got more of it than his competitors.

Further, Root says he would never vacate his seat, as Kevin Carney did after his arrest on child molestation charges and as Shelley Sorsabal did in April in the face of a recall attempt.

"I've been there before, I've done this before and I'll do it again," said Root of his work on the council. "The past is the past, it's time to move on and I don't think we should dwell on what happened the last three years."

Norris said that past council members buckled under political pressure and he promises to remain his full term.

"That (attrition) arose because of some divisiveness within the City Council," Norris said. "There were efforts by one side or another to force some players to the sidelines or get out of the way.

"That's not the way to do business and Palmdale deserves better than that."

Loa joked that his one-year seat afforded him little time to defect even if he wanted to but added that he was so certain of his dedication that he announced his intention to run for a second term after his year ran out.

At the very moment the forum was going on at the Palmdale Cultural Center, two men were gunned down at a mini-market on Avenue R near Ninth Street East.

Crimefighting, Loa said, would be his first campaign priority and he echoed promises made by Norris for hiring more deputies to patrol the city's streets.

All four Republican candidates are in support of the Wal-Mart construction on Palmdale's east side, which was generally considered an enhancement of a rather thin retail industry.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the congress met to consider its endorsements. They sided with Rick Norris and Richard Loa.

"It was almost unanimous," said congress president Lawrence Hales. "The people who knew Rick Norris endorsed Rick Norris. It was the same with Richard Loa."

The decisions were based less on issues, Hales said, than on leadership qualities, mainly because there is an absence of hot topics in this campaign.

"If you listen to it, it's an issueless campaign," he said. "So that's probably why we went mainly on experience and personality."

Three other candidates for council seats - Alan Lee, Sandy Corrales and Joseph Rivera - attended, but as non-Republicans, charter rules require that they not speak at the meeting.