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Donald R. Knabe () (born October 15, 1943, in
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
) is a former member of the
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member Board of Supervisors, governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Se ...
, serving the Fourth
District A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
. The long east–west district runs from
Marina del Rey Marina del Rey ( Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The eponymous harbor is a major boating and water recreation destination of the Greater Los Angeles ar ...
and
LAX A lax is a salmon. LAX as an acronym most commonly refers to Los Angeles International Airport in Southern California, United States. LAX or Lax may also refer to: Places Within Los Angeles * Union Station (Los Angeles), Los Angeles' main tr ...
through the South Bay,
Los Angeles Harbor Region The Los Angeles Harbor Region, sometimes truncated to simply The Harbor, takes up a large portion of southern Los Angeles County, California. The area is impacted by the harbor complex consisting of the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Be ...
, and the
Gateway Cities The Gateway Cities region, or Southeast Los Angeles County, is an urbanized region located in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, between the City of Los Angeles proper, Orange County, and the Pacific Ocean. The cluster of cities has ...
, to the southeastern
San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley (), sometimes referred to by its initials as SGV, is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, with the city of Los Angeles directly bordering it to the west and occupying the vast majority of the southeastern ...
.


Education and early political career

Knabe attended Graceland University and graduated with a degree in
business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...
. After enlisting in the
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
, Knabe settled in Cerritos. The Knabes owned a small business, and Knabe entered politics in 1978 as one of several candidates for the GOP nomination to replace
Del M. Clawson Delwin Morgan Clawson (January 11, 1914 – May 5, 1992) was an American politician. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He also served as mayor of Compton, California. Biography Clawson was born in Thatcher, Arizona, and a ...
as Congressman from the 33rd District (Downey-Norwalk-Whittier). Knabe lost to
La Mirada La Mirada is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California United States, and is one of the Gateway Cities, on the border with Orange County. The population was 48,008 at the 2020 census. The La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and ...
Mayor Wayne R. Grisham, but carried his home area. In 1980, he was elected to the Cerritos City Council on the basis of growth issues. Knabe took a job with Supervisor Deane Dana's office in 1982, soon advancing to Chief of Staff. In 1987, Knabe considered running as a Republican for the state Senate in a special election. However, he backed down in favor of Grisham, whose Congressional seat had been redistricted and was now a state Assemblyman. Grisham lost the special election to Democratic Norwalk City Councilman Cecil Green by a larger-than expected margin, and Republicans immediately concluded that the younger, more energetic Knabe should have been the nominee. Knabe retired from the City Council in 1988 to run for the state Senate. After a hard-fought and expensive campaign, Green defeated Knabe by 51% to 49%.


Fourth District Supervisor, Los Angeles County

In 1996, Deane Dana, the former Supervisor of the 4th District, announced that he would retire in December of that year, after serving 16 years in office. Don Knabe, who had served as Dana's chief deputy since 1982, ran to fill the vacated seat. During the campaign, he raised more than $2.6 million, with Dana's campaign committee spending more than $152,000 on Knabe's behalf. The majority of the campaign contributions came from special interest groups. In the non-partisan primary, he finished first with 40% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated former Rolling Hills Mayor Gordana Swanson, who had given Dana a tough race in 1992. A moderate Republican, Knabe instituted a safe-haven law or
baby hatch A baby hatch or baby box is a place where people (typically mothers) can leave babies, usually newborn, anonymously in a safe place to be found and cared for. This was common from the Middle Ages to the 18th and 19th centuries, when the device ...
in 2002, where mothers can leave their baby at a
fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...
, lifeguard headquarters, or
hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...
within 72 hours of their birth. The program was instituted after several publicized cases of
child abandonment A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...
and
infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of re ...
. The program was quickly adopted statewide. As of August 31, 2011, 87 babies, in
Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...
alone, have been safely surrendered. Knabe was the Chairman for the 2010 session. He was reelected in the June 3, 2008 election. Cerritos Community Regional Park was retitled to its current name on November 30, 2016, to honor Knabe. It was recommended by former mayor and supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.


Controversies

Knabe's son, Matt Knabe, is a partner at a major Los Angeles lobbying firm, Englander, Knabe & Allen and is a registered County lobbyist. Despite the family ties, Knabe routinely voted on board matters involving clients that his son and the latter's firm represented (including the award of government contracts), instead of recusing himself. Because of the father-son relationship, local media, in particular the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', regularly raised
ethic Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
al concerns over perceived or real
conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in whi ...
. Board matters on which Knabe did not recuse himself included contract awards that circumvented standard
government procurement Government procurement or public procurement is the purchase of goods, works (construction) or services by the state, such as by a government agency or a state-owned enterprise. In 2019, public procurement accounted for approximately 12% of GDP ...
processes and other actions that had a financial impact on Matt Knabe's firm: *March 2005: A $7.4 million contract award with Global 360 BGS Inc. that Knabe voted to approve. The said company paid $72,000 to Matt Knabe's firm. Later that year, J.D. Knabe & Associates, the firm owned by Knabe's wife, Julie, arranged an event for Global 360. *June 2006: Knabe voted to approve the expansion of a controversial air park in
Agua Dulce, California Agua Dulce () ( Spanish for "Sweet Water") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies at an elevation of , northeast of Santa Clarita. The community had a populatio ...
. The firm paid Matt Knabe's firm $32,800. *June 2006: Knabe voted to approve a permit for Browning-Ferris Industries (BFI), a landfill operator in Sunshine Canyon. BFI had paid Matt Knabe's firm more than $83,000. *February 2011: Knabe voted to award a $1.5 million contract to TRC Solutions, a client of Matt Knabe's firm. *December 2011, May 2012: Knabe voted twice to award American Golf Corporation lease extensions to run the County's
golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...
s. American Golf Corporation is a client of Matt Knabe's lobbying firm. From July 2012 through January 2013, AGC paid Matt Knabe's firm a total of $67,500. The company also sponsors the Knabe Cup, an annual golf tournament for high schoolers held by Knabe. *March 2012: Knabe voted to award a $1.75 million no-bid contract award with
Enterprise Rent-A-Car Enterprise Rent-A-Car is an American car rental agency headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. Enterprise is the flagship brand of Enterprise Holdings, which also owns other agencies including Alamo Rent a Car and National ...
, a client of Matt Knabe's lobbying firm. Following a ''SoCal Connected'' broadcast on the nature of the contract award, Supervisor Antonovich held a motion to investigate the contract award. In January 2013, the Department of the Auditor-Controller published its findings to a limited investigation regarding the Enterprise Rent-a-Car no-bid contract award, concluding that the solicitation had been conducted improperly. From July 2012 to January 2013, Enterprise Rent-a-Car paid Matt Knabe's firm $97,500. *July 2012: Knabe voted to award a $22,305,549 contract with Maximus Inc., a client of Matt Knabe's firm. From July 2012 to January 2013, Maximus reported paying Matt Knabe's firm a total of $48,000. *January 2013: On a motion initiated by Knabe, Knabe voted to waive the 15% gross receipts fee (typically applied for use of County facilities), for Los Angeles County Lifeguard Association (a client of Matt Knabe's firm), which sponsors United States Lifesaving Association National Lifeguard and Junior Lifeguard Championships, for the company's use of the
Manhattan Beach Pier The Manhattan Beach Pier is a pier located in Manhattan Beach, California, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The pier is long and located at the end of Manhattan Beach Boulevard. An octagonal Mediterranean-style building sits at the end of the ...
. From July 2012 to January 2013, the said company had paid Matt Knabe's firm a total of $45,000. Knabe was criticized for his use of
taxpayer A taxpayer is a person or organization (such as a company) subject to pay a tax. Modern taxpayers may have an identification number, a reference number issued by a government to citizens or firms. The term "taxpayer" generally characterizes o ...
-funded discretionary funds (each supervisor is allocated a $3.4 million spending account), including the employment of an armed driver earning an annual salary of .


Personal life

Knabe is married to Julie Knabe née Gillbreath. Julie operates J.D. Knabe & Associates, a customer relations firm. The Knabes have two sons, Curt and Matt, both graduates of
Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...
. Knabe's son Matt is a partner at a major Los Angeles lobbying firm, Englander, Knabe & Allen. Knabe is a member of New Life Community Church in
Artesia, California Artesia ( Spanish for " artesian aquifer") is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California. Artesia was incorporated on May 29, 1959, and is one of Los Angeles County's Gateway Cities. The city has a 2020 census population of 16,395. A ...
.


References


External links


Knabe bioKnabe official website
} } {{DEFAULTSORT:Knabe, Don Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors 1943 births Living people People from Cerritos, California Reformed Church in America members Graceland University alumni California Republicans