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Thursday, December 21-December 27, 2023
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LA County supervisors take next step in General Hospital overhaul By City News Service
NO. 152
A 'delicate matter': Clarence Thomas’ private complaints about money sparked fears he would resign By Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan, Alex Mierjeski and Brett Murphy, ProPublica
T
he Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors took the next steps Tuesday in a planned overhaul of the historic General Hospital building, with the ultimate goal of providing hundreds of units of affordable housing. The board voted 4-0 to enter into exclusive negotiations with the Centennial Partners development company for the mixed-use project. The board also approved a motion by Supervisor Hilda Solis calling for the negotiations about the future of the building to include a "robust" community engagement process and ensuring county policies such as local-hiring requirements are met during the development. Supervisor Janice Hahn recused herself from the votes because she received a financial contribution from an individual involved in the matter. “The need for affordable housing in Los Angeles County, especially the Eastside, is greater than ever,” Solis said in a statement after the vote. "I am proud to takes this next step to re-purpose a historic county landmark to meet our greatest need." She added, "For years, we have prepared diligently for this milestone by completing the General Hospital Feasibility Study, gathering the necessary community input to bring forward a Request for Proposals, and securing critical seed funding."
VOL. 27,
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: Friends of the Court:SCOTUS Justices’ Beneficial Relationships With Billionaire Donors upreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ decadeslong friendship with real estate tycoon Harlan Crow and Samuel Alito’s luxury travel with billionaire Paul Singer have raised questions about influence and ethics at the nation's highest court. In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy a high-end RV. At the resort, Thomas gave a speech at an off-the-record conservative conference. He found himself seated next to a Republican member of Congress on the flight home. The two men talked, and the lawmaker left the conversation worried that Thomas might resign. Congress should give Supreme Court justices a pay raise, Thomas told him. If lawmakers didn’t act, “one or more justices will leave soon” — maybe in the next year. At the time, Thomas’ salary was $173,600, equivalent to over $300,000 today. But he was one of the least wealthy members of the court, and on multiple occasions in that period, he pushed for ways to make more money. In other private conversations, Thomas repeatedly talked about removing a ban on justices giving paid speeches. Thomas’ efforts were described in records from the time obtained by ProPublica, including a confidential memo to Chief Justice William Rehnquist from a top judiciary official seeking guidance on what he termed a “delicate matter.” The documents, as well as interviews, offer insight into how Thomas was talking about his finances in a crucial period in his tenure, just as he was developing his relationships with a set of wealthy benefactors. Congress never lifted the ban on speaking fees or gave the justices a major raise. But in the years that followed, as ProPublica has reported, Thomas accepted a stream of gifts from friends and acquaintances that appears to be unparal-
S Los Angeles County General Medical Center. | Photo by Kansas Sebastian CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED
According to Solis, the historic General Hospital building has served as a "symbol of health innovation" in the county for decades, and the project will extend its legacy as a site for "healing and community." The board confirmed and gave its Department of Economic Opportunity authority to enter into an Exclusive Negotiation Agreement with Centennial Partners. The initial proposal between the two parties calls for a contract agreement of an 18-month term, with as many as four additional 90-day periods. According to Solis' office, during the negotiating period, the county and Centennial Partners will negotiate the terms of the agreement for the adaptive reuse of the historic General Hospital building and the development of neighboring underutilized county-owned land. During that process,
the county and developer will also continue community engagement efforts. Under Solis' motiong, the developer will also be required to meet or exceed Local Targeted Worker Hire requirements, which aims for a minimum of 30% and 10% participation, respectively, for local and targeted workers' hours during construction, respectively. The board passed an additional motion Tuesday to advance the next phases of development on the campus, which will feature a Mental Health Urgent Care Center, a Residential Withdrawal Management Facility, and a Mental Health Rehabilitation Center, addressing both pressing and subacute mental health needs as well as substance use issues. The Mental Health Urgent Care Center will help
decompress overcrowded Emergency Departments while providing urgent behavioral health services, while the Residential Withdrawal Management Facility will feature 32 beds for those with substance use needs -including sobering services and case management. The Mental Health Rehabilitation Center will feature 128 subacute beds, providing a long-term caredriven setting for residents with pressing mental health needs. In a statement following the vote, Mayor Karen Bass hailed the board's action. "Los Angeles General has always served our most vulnerable and as someone who once worked there, I am proud that the grounds will continue to serve this city," Bass said in a statement. Several labor groups, housing and health advo-
See General Hospital Page 28
See 'Delicate matter' Page 13