Marqueece Harris-Dawson, a Los Angeles city councilmember representing parts of South L.A., was unanimously elected by his colleagues on Tuesday, May 28, to serve as the next City Council president starting Sept. 20, taking over for outgoing President Paul Krekorian.
As president, Harris-Dawson will decide which councilmembers to assign to council committees and will decide which issues to bring before the council for a vote. He’ll also be instrumental in shaping the council’s relationship with Mayor Karen Bass and her office.
“You’ll hear more from us later. Until September, expect to see me with my head down, studying as hard as we can, so we can be as prepared as possible when we take leadership of this council,” Harris-Dawson said immediately after he was named the next council president.
The council voted 14-0 to elect Harris-Dawson. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was absent.
Harris-Dawson, 54, was first elected to the council in 2015. He won his third council term in March to represent Council District 8, which spans from Baldwin Hills to the border of Watts.
Before joining the council, Harris-Dawson was president and CEO of Community Coalition, a nonprofit founded by Bass, long before she became mayor, to improve the conditions of residents in South L.A.
After Tuesday’s council vote, Bass congratulated Harris-Dawson.
“Councilman Harris-Dawson has a long history in City Hall and beyond of bringing people of all backgrounds and across all sectors together,” the mayor said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to lock arms with council leadership to bring more unhoused Angelenos inside and make Los Angeles safer for all.”
Harris-Dawson currently chairs the Planning and Land Use Management committee and is vice chair of the budget committee, another powerful committee.
In an interview after Tuesday’s council meeting, Harris-Dawson said he plans to spend a lot of time over the next few months with the city’s chief legislative analyst, Sharon Tso, and her team “figuring out the nuts and bolts of how you run the operation.”
“The council is very, very fortunate,” he said. “When the current president took over, he had a couple days, literally, to prepare, and the city was in turmoil. We have an opportunity to do it differently now, and we’re taking full advantage of that.”
The “turmoil” that Harris-Dawson was referring to stems from an audio leak scandal that erupted in fall 2022.
Krekorian took over as council president that October, as the city was reeling after a closed-door conversation between three councilmembers and a highly influential union leader was secretly recorded then leaked to the public. That conversation, which included racist and derogatory remarks about various groups of people, also revealed that the four Latino leaders had privately discussed how they wanted City Council districts redrawn to benefit themselves or their allies.
Nury Martinez, who was then council president, resigned for her comments in the leaked audio. Still, weeks of pandemonium followed as Angelenos flocked to council meetings to voice their outrage and called for the resignation of the other two councilmembers caught in that recording – Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León.
Neither one resigned, although Cedillo, who had only a couple months left before his term ended, stopped attending council meetings.
De León stayed away from council meetings for awhile but started attending again. He is now seeking reelection in November.
Krekorian, whose time on the council will end in December due to term limits, wrote to the other councilmembers last week, informing them of his plans to step down as council president on Sept. 20 – about three months before his term is up.
“Serving as President of the Los Angeles City Council is the greatest challenge and the greatest honor I’ve had in my professional career,” Krekorian wrote. “As my service on this Council is now drawing to a close after almost 15 years, it is time to begin planning a smooth transition for new leadership to take the helm of this body.”
During his time as president, Krekorian noted, the council voted to place independent redistricting reform on a future ballot, approved reforms intended to increase the independence and effectiveness of the city’s ethics commission and approved the creation of the first citizens’ charter reform commission in 25 years.
In recent days, members of the City Council and the mayor have praised Krekorian for leading the city through a particularly tumultuous period in the city’s history.
“With a steady hand, he guided the council during a challenging time while continuing his push to advance good governance reforms that contribute to President Krekorian’s long legacy of exceptional service here in City Hall,” Bass said. “For decades, President Krekorian has served with distinction and with a deep dedication to the people of Los Angeles.”