Mike Antonovich is a legend in Los Angeles County politics, and though he retired in late 2016 he’s still extremely popular and beloved by the people he served for nearly four decades as a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. When he retired, his longtime Chief of Staff, Kathryn Barger, ran for the seat and won, but Antonovich has stayed involved in the community — and is sickened by what he sees happening in his beloved county, largely the result of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer having unfettered power.
Antonovich heard about the exclusive story we broke on The John Phillips Show Tuesday, “Study CDC Relied Upon for School Mask Mandates Was Authored by LA County Public Health Director’s Daughter – Who’s Also Not an MD,” and appeared on Phillips’ show Friday to react. Ferrer held her weekly press conference Thursday and was confronted by the press but was unapologetic, saying, “The public knows what they need to know.”
Phillips asked Antonovich straight to the point, whether Ferrer should resign. Antonovich promptly replied:
She should resign, and she should be fired if she doesn’t resign.
Elaborating a bit, Antonovich called out Ferrer’s lack of specialized knowledge and her deception as two reasons to get rid of her.
Barbara is a sociologist. She’s not a public health director. She’s getting $500,000 a year to not give full disclosure to the public, her…employer, because her daughters gives a report that mandates masks that have ruined a lot of our students, having to wear them or not go to school.
Antonovich’s successor says she didn’t know that Kaitlin Barnes was Ferrer’s daughter until RedState’s story dropped on Tuesday. Antonovich answered a question about what he would do to call his daughter if he was still in service.
I would move with a motion to have her dismissed for not describing to the public or the board of supervisors or the entire health department that she was using a non-medical physician to give her information which would have a mask mandate…throughout the system.
She deceived, and there is no excuse….But right now, they’re all asleep. It’s like Rip van Winkle, and they’re all asleep.
Phillips pointed out that Antonovich has still maintained relationships with many of rank-and-file scientists in the Department of Public Health. He worked alongside a real doctor before Ferrer was forced upon the county. As described in a May 2020 open letter those employees wrote to the Board of Supervisors, exclusively printed at RedState, Ferrer has terrorized those who actually want to use science to drive good public health policy, and it’s had effects. Antonovich said:
Morale is low in the bathroom. You have incompetents running a department…who are unqualified. It’s like giving a person who can’t drive a car, a car to drive.
Antonovich spoke highly of current Board of Supervisors Members.
The Board needs to bring these people to account by removing them, because they don’t have tenure. An employee in a department does not get tenure. You can remove him or her. There was complete deceit in the media about her conflict with her child. It’s like a — reminds me of Pelosi not knowing that her husband was putting a million dollars in some business with chips.
The Board was then asked to replace Ferrer by an actual doctor.
There’s a problem with integrity and ethics in the political arena today and we ought to start now with getting rid of Barbara and bringing in an eminent public health doctor to be the head of the public health department.
It’s a blessing! He wasn’t finished.
It is time to completely overhaul the County of Los Angeles. This Board of Supervisors does not reflect the Board of Supervisors I was able to serve with four other colleagues of different political views. It was possible in the past for us to come together, have disagreements and still make sound policy decisions. Today we have no good policy decisions, and they’re not working together.
Antonovich has many criticisms about the board. He says that the three members of the board haven’t had open offices throughout the pandemic. This leaves millions without any way of getting assistance. But, it all can be summarized with these words:
This is an alarming and potentially dangerous practice. They’re asleep. They’re followers. They’re not leaders.
Next Board of Supervisors Meeting is Tuesday. This should prove to be a fascinating meeting. They will listen to the man who is in their shoes and actually puts the constituents first.
The entire segment can be listened to here. It’s a good one.
About Post Author
