The building (check out photos) is called the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration. Named after Kenneth Hahn, the long-serving county supervisor in Los Angeles County history. He served on the Board of Supervisors for 40 years from 1952 to 1992.

I worked down the hall from Kenny’s office from 1973 to 1991, almost half of the time he was a county supervisor.

The Board of Supervisors is theoretically a non-partisan post. But Kenny was a liberal Democrat and I was a conservative Republican, who worked for a conservative Republican board member. Coming from different political persuasions, we of course had differences of opinion regarding country government expenditures. Still, he was always friendly with me. That said, I can assure you there were times in the privacy of his office when he had less than kind words to say about me. For instance, I got in the way of building a replacement county hospital in his district, located downtown. Because of my opposition, we ultimately settled on going forward with a comprehensive health center, which exists today. But I liked a political opponent like Kenny. We had our public policy differences but we were unfailingly civil with each other. Matter of fact, I recommended that my boss, Supervisor Pete Schabarum introduce the motion that named a park, the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area at 4100 South La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, in his honor.

Kenny was a consummate politician. A white man who represented a heavily black district, he always handily won re-election. The morning after each re-election to office I would tease Kenny’s staff about what I predicted he would require them to do that day: go meet with every person who didn’t vote for him—all 20 of them.

I vividly recall a conversation with Kenny. He took me into his office and showed me pictures taken with all the presidents who had served during his time in office. And those photos with presidents of the United States pictorially showed his increasing power in California politics over the years. The first was a photograph of Kenny and President Harry Truman. Kenny met Harry during one of Truman’s famous whistle-stop campaign tours. Truman standing on the platform at the rear of the train. Kenny standing on the ground, the tracks, reaching up to shake the president’s hand. The last photo, for this was during the Jimmy Carter Administration, had Kenny standing beside Jimmy with his hand, clasping, firmly atop Carter’s shoulder. No longer was Kenny a supplicant, he was now a powerhouse and the pose showed this fact clearly. I said nothing to Kenny, who I doubt noticed the psychological significance of the pose these two powerful men struck, one a Los Angeles County Supervisor, the other President of the United States.