Supervisor Candidate Advocates Healthcare Plan

By Sun Staff Reports, Alameda Sun, February 23, 2006

Alameda County Supervisor candidate Jim Price introduced parts of his county healthcare plan to members of the Service Employees International Union Wednesday, Feb. 15.

The plan Price laid out focuses on three primary areas. First, he advocates disbanding what he says is a failing Medical Center Board of Trustees. He wants to replace it with a smaller team that has the authority to, and can be held accountable for, creating greater efficiency, capturing lost revenue and providing quality healthcare.

Secondly, he says the county needs to be readied to meet the state mandate requiring that all California hospitals satisfy new seismic standards by the year 2013.

“ My campaign for office is one that focuses on solutions for our community’s needs, and our county’s Medical Center is in need of solutions,” Price said in a press release. “We can save tax payers millions of dollars by properly preparing for the mandated seismic work, and we can improve the performance of the Medical Center by providing better leadership,” Price said.

“ My plan comes after a year and a half of working with employees, their union leaders, management and executives at the Medical Center,” Price said. “Continuing with the status quo means huge deficits, taxpayer bailouts, mismanagement, a lack of leadership, and the closing of more county hospitals and clinics.”

A full version of Price’s healthcare plan is available at his website: www.votejimprice.org. He is a candidate for the county supervisor District Three seat, which represents Alameda, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Ashland, Hillcrest Knolls, and the Fruitvale, San Antonio and Chinatown portions of Oakland.

Incumbent County Supe Readies for Race

By Dan Abbott, Alameda Sun, March 24, 2006

This is the second installment in an ongoing Alameda Sun series profiling Alameda County Board of Supervisor candidates. The election will take place June 6.

As the race for supervisor of Alameda County’s Third District heats up, candidates are jockeying for position. But at the center of the storm, Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker sits calmly, working as if there were no storm at all.

“ I have been doing a good job,” she said, reflecting upon the four years since her election in 2002. “I’ve accomplished a lot, and I look forward to accomplishing a lot more.”

On June 6, the voters will decide if they agree. In the meantime, three other candidates are eyeing her position, one that oversees a $2 billion budget: San Leandro Mayor Shelia Young, businessman Jim Price, and San Leandro city councilmember Glenda Nardine.

But if Lai-Bitker is nervous about the competition, she gives no sign of it. Instead, she quietly touts her accomplishments, the centerpiece of which is the No Wrong Door program. No Wrong Door was a coordinated effort to streamline the bureaucratic tangle people sometimes face when seeking county services. The program was lauded by the National Association of Counties, and has been emulated in other counties throughout the United States.

“ It’s important to make a difference in people’s lives,” Lai-Bitker said. “The county is basically the safety net provider.” Her voice has the soft, unobtrusive cadence of a social worker, which is no coincidence. Lai-Bitker got her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Shue Yan College in Hong Kong, and her master’s degree in social work from San Francisco State University. She has been a licensed social worker since 1990, and this background colors her approach to the job, she said.

Lai-Bitker says one of her pet issues is domestic violence. She helped pass a bill to raise marriage license fees by $2 to help pay for the Family Justice Center, which centralizes a “spectrum of services for families in crisis.”

“ In the past, a battered woman would have to stand in a lot of lines,” said Lai-Bitker, who lives in Alameda with her two daughters and husband, radio-host Steve Bitker.

Though the election is still three months away, the first salvos have already been fired. Last month, her opponent Price unveiled a health care plan designed to cut costs and pay for seismic retrofits. Lai-Bitker dismisses the plan as too simplistic. “(Price) would get rid of the Board of Trustees (which oversees county hospitals),” she said. “He doesn’t understand the complexity of the issue.”

Mayor Young has criticized Lai-Bitker’s approach, calling for better coordination between the Board of Supervisors.

“ This job is a generalist job. You can’t micromanage it,” Young says. “The five Supes together must make decisions.”

Budget woes have been on the front burner for Lai-Bitker, with financial wells running dry on both the state and national level. Still, she remains cautiously optimistic about what is possible.

“ The budget is still tenuous,” Lai-Bitker said. “It’s a zero-sum game.”

She says her overall vision is to be able to provide health care to all county residents, regardless of income.

Candidates Make Final Appeal

By Dan Abbott, Alameda Sun, June 1, 2006

In a final public campaign event for Alameda County’s District 3 Supervisor seat, candidates spoke at an Island forum May 24, fielding questions from a meager crowd of the politically interested.

While only 15 citizens showed up for the event organized by the Alameda League of Women Voters (LWV), the three candidates in attendance put on their best faces in an attempt to win over the crowd before the June 6 election.

Incumbent Alice Lai-Bitker was joined by challengers Jim Price and Lou Filipovich, who outlined their priorities if elected to the supervisor position. Two other candidates, San Leandro Mayor Shelia Young and San Leandro city council member Glenda Nardine, were not in attendance.

The candidates presented contrasting views of the role of the supervisors — a group of five that manage Alameda County’s medical, social and law enforcement services. Lai-Bitker presented herself as mild-mannered and approachable, with the quiet confidence of an incumbent. Filipovich was slightly prickly, objecting to the LWV’s use of a video camera and demanding at one point that all members of the press identify themselves. Price was noticeably energetic and articulate, giving perhaps the most tangible answers to many of the questions. Both Price and Filipovich criticized Lai-Bitker’s style of management, claiming a less passive approach was needed for the supervisor’s seat.

“ We need a supervisor who can build consensus and not be marginalized by other board members,” Price said.

Lai-Bitker, an Alameda resident and former social worker, touted the improved social services she helped push through, including the No Wrong Door health insurance program and the Family Justice Center, which streamlines social services for victims of domestic violence. Lai-Bitker promised to expand services for those in need and to streamline the budget.

Price, also an Alamedan, with roots in community activism and Democratic campaigning, said his focus would be on making government more transparent, vowing to push through a “sunshine law.” Price also emphasized the county’s medical system, which is plagued by debt and the looming costs of mandatory seismic retrofits that must be completed by 2013.

Filipovich, a boisterous Republican and veteran of the San Leandro political scene, was short on details about his campaign, complaining that the issues were too complex to address with short answers. Even so, Filipovich, who several times went over his allotted response time, promised the audience, “You’ll see changes if I get in there.”

Questions submitted by the audience ranged over a wide swath of topics, including instant runoff voting, the county budget and the new $100 million juvenile detention center currently being built.

“ We need to focus on keeping kids out of juvie,” Price said. “We need to do more to show kids there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Price said one solution is connecting students with local employers in construction and health care, trades which Price said can offer decent wages without a college degree.

Asked about the difficulties of securing construction bids for the county medical center’s seismic upgrade, Filipovich was plain-spoken but rather vague about the solution.

“ You’ve got to make a deal with a hundred different contractors, and they all want a piece of the action,” Filipovich said. “It’s a matter of regulatory control.”

The two Alamedans seem to be the front-runners for the supervisor seat, and both are heavily courting their hometown vote. Lai-Bitker, an incumbent with several high-profile programs to her credit and endorsements from Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson and Rep. Barbara Lee, seems the favorite to win. Price is mounting an enthusiastic grassroots campaign, however, and recently landed the endorsement of Alameda planning board member Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft.

Lai-Bitker will be with supporters at Tucker’s Ice Cream on Park Street as the votes are tallied. Price will be watching election results with supporters at Linguini’s Restaurant on Park Street.