This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press October 30, 2000
By JOANNA PARSONS
Valley Press Staff Writer
PALMDALE - In recent weeks, City Council candidate Alan Lee played host to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, at his fund-raiser, and on Sunday it was candidate Richard Loa's, R-Palmdale, turn to be host to a big name politician to win support for the Nov. 7 council race.
Loa is one of five candidates vying for the one-year council seat left vacant last year by the resignation of councilwoman Shelley Sorsabal.
Loa was flanked at the Sunday morning fund-raiser at El Dorado restaurant in Palmdale by 39th District state Assemblyman Tony Cardenas, D-Los Angeles, and L.A city councilman Alex Padilla, who offered their support of Loa's campaign.
Cardenas also happens to be Loa's brother-in-law.
In recent weeks, other council candidates and voters have been concerned about the seemingly partisan turn the city's nonpartisan council races have taken, with many candidates aligning themselves with supporters of the same party to which they belong.
For Loa, he not only showed he has support from high-profile officials such as Cardenas and Padilla, but that he, a Republican, is receiving support from Democrats too.
"Having Tony Cardenas and Alex Padilla here is to demonstrate that I have the resources and connections to get things done for the city of Palmdale," Loa said. "I'm not going to be saying, 'My goodness, I'm not a Democrat, and this guy's a Democrat, so I'm not talking to him.'
"What I'm talking about is who has the resources to get this job done?" he said.
Padilla and Cardenas talked of working together with Loa to resolve issues of concern to locals if Loa was elected to the City Council.
These two Palmdale political outsiders talked about local issues to Loa supporters, including a need for a hospital in Palmdale and concerns about expanding the Palmdale Regional Airport to include domestic flights to ease the flight load out of Los Angeles International Airport.
"(Loa) does have a vision for Palmdale, and we hope to work together," Padilla said.
He added that, even though Los Angeles and Palmdale are two different cities, "the development of transportation infrastructure throughout the region, the development of the Palmdale airport is going to require cities to work together."
"I know Richard. I know he's a good man; I know we can work together when he's on the City Council," Padilla added.
Loa's supporters were especially concerned over the need for a hospital in Palmdale, particularly on the east side.
Council members and candidates have expressed different views about a hospital being built on Palmdale's east or west side.
Currently, the Antelope Valley Hospital district is working on a $6 million project to complete an emergent care facility on 40th Street East and Palmdale by the early part of 2001, according to Loa and Rick Norris, a candidate for the three-year City Council seat.
Loa hopes to persuade the hospital district to move to the second and third phases of the project to build a full-service hospital.
"We've got commitment of funds to build this thing as an emergent care, but now we've got to get them to go to the other phase," Loa said. "You have to simply do whatever's necessary to exert influence, political pressure, personal pressure, whatever's necessary to move the hospital board to start serving the needs of Palmdale in another way."
Especially of concern is the Valley's need for more physicians. According to a recent Valley Press story, there are 56 surgeons and physicians working within Palmdale, a city with 122,392 people, compared to the 880 physicians working in Santa Monica, a city with only 91,289 people.
When asked how he would attract physicians to the Antelope Valley, Loa talked of reaching out to the population of trained doctors and telling them about the opportunities they have to work in the Valley.
"The council needs to take a leadership position so that the people of Southern California and the world will know that Palmdale is a dynamic place," he said. "We'll get this message out by advertising, by whatever means necessary."
Loa also believes that building a new hospital will attract physicians.
"The opportunities are going to be there because this is a city of 120,000 people with no hospital, but it's going to grow to 250,000 by the end of this decade," he said.