NORWALK — Public transportation will play a big part in the future of Los Angeles County, according to county Supervisor Don Knabe, who represents the Fourth Supervisorial District covering much of the Southeast area.

Knabe was the keynote speaker March 31 at a State of the County Breakfast conducted by the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce in the Norwalk Arts and Sports Complex.

As a supervisor, Knabe also sits on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board and is currently its chairman.

The former Cerritos city councilman noted that the passage of Measure R by county voters in 2008 not only provided funds for mass transportation though a sales tax hike, but also put the county in a favorable position when seeking more transportation funds in Washington, D.C.

“I told [Congress] we had taxed ourselves three times in recent years for transportation,” Knabe said.

He and other county officials, along with Los Angeles City officials headed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promoted the mayor’s 30/10 plan which calls for borrowing funds in the next 10 years and paying off the loans in the next 30.

“We want these [transit] projects to start now, not 30 years from now,” Knabe said. “They will provide some 2,000 high-paying jobs. We should get credit for taxing ourselves three times.

“Our motto is America Fast Forward. We are trying to put people to work,” he said.

Knabe said the transportation projects include a commuter rail line to the west side of Los Angeles and connecting the Green Line, which starts in Norwalk, to Los Angeles International Airport. The Green Line, which runs along the Glenn Anderson (105) Freeway now ends about a mile from the airport.

“I am looking forward to the day when [we] will widen the Santa Ana (5) Freeway,” he noted of a project now under way.

Also under way is a project with the Orange County Transit Authority to expand the connector road from the Garden Grove (22) Freeway along the San Diego (405) Freeway to the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway.

“The project will be painful, but in the end it will improve traffic flow,” he said

Concerning the importance of transportation, Knabe noted that “40 percent of all U.S. imports comes through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.”

Questioned on immigration, he said providing health care to undocumented people costs the county a lot, but he said most of those seeking free medical care are legal residents with low-paying jobs.

“We don’t ask them if they are legal or not any more than we would ask if they were Democratic or Republican,” Knabe said of people using county medical facilities. We can’t have [untreated] sick people in the streets. It’s a public health issue.”

In response to a question on Homeland Security, Knabe said the county remains vigilant 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York City.

“We have a regional intelligence agency in Norwalk which gathers information on possible terrorism from all sources and sends the information to the FBI, the Los Angeles County Sheriff and Los Angeles City police,” he said. “We have a strike force of about 100 stationed at the docks. We have to be ever alert. There are a lot of people who don’t like [Americans].”

He said a growing concern is “homegrown terrorism” from people who may be U.S. citizens.

He praised District Attorney Steve Cooley for his work in confiscating funds from the area meant for terror operations overseas.

“There is a lot of stuff going on that you don’t hear about,” he said.

In answer to a question from Norwalk City Councilman Luigi Vernola on state government, Knabe decried the state for taking funds from counties and cities to balance its budget and urged state representatives to “think outside the box” for funding.

He said a major problem in approving a state budget is partisan ideologies in which both Democrats and Republicans often vote along party lines without a regard for the public good.

“I would never go back to partisan politics,” said Knabe, a Republican, although by law supervisorial seats are non-partisan.

He said term limits are the major cause of problems at the state level as both Assembly and Senate seats are held for limited times.

“You can’t [compromise] and make a deal,” he said under the current climate in Sacramento. “Everybody in the state Legislature is looking for their next job,”

On the plus side, Knabe praised the county’s Safe Surrender program in which an unwanted baby may be left at any fire station.

“There is no name [of the mother], no blame and no shame,” he said, adding that a newborn mother has 14 days to reconsider and reclaim the infant before it goes to social services for adoption.

“In the past two years we have saved 83 babies,” he said. “You look at these kids and think they were that close to [being thrown] in a trash can,”

Knabe helped establish the Safe Surrender program.

He recalled that several years ago after a baby’s body was found in a trash dumpster he formed a task force of about 50 people to get a safe surrender law on the state books, only to learn a law had been on the books since 2001 but nobody knew about it.

County officials now seek to spread the word of safe surrender through posters and personal contact.

“We don’t publicize it during the day. Those who need this information are often night people,” he said.