Marqueece Harris-Dawson has taken over as president of the Los Angeles City Council from Councilman Paul Krekorian, and will likely serve at least the next three years since he still has four years left on his council term.
Harris-Dawson’s strengths are that she knows how to negotiate with different stakeholders and work with all council members for the good of Los Angeles residents; and to do so, she is able to put aside political differences and old grudges.
He is also expected to be more forceful in handling council meetings to avoid repeated interruptions by the audience.
However, her biggest challenge is to distance herself from her former boss at the Community Coalition, now Mayor Karen Bass, and create her own leadership. While no one wants a climate of tension between Mayor Bass and the Council, and collaboration between the two is needed, it is important for the new Council president to draw the line, and maintain a healthy independence from her political ally.
It will be interesting to see if he succeeds, as this will certainly help him to realise his political aspirations in the future.
The most important hiring
Mayor Bass is running out of time to select the next LAPD chief, as she plans to announce the name of the chosen one by September 30th. Will it be former LAPD Sheriff Jim McDonnell? Will she make history by choosing the first female LAPD Chief, Emada Tingirides? Or will she go with former LAPD Deputy Chief Bob Arcos? Let’s not forget that with Arcos she would also make history, as he would be the first Latino LAPD Chief.
There is a feeling that the decision will be between Tingirides and Arcos. Here the mayor must also think about what is best for her in terms of her re-election in 2026. Not only who of them can help raise the morale of the 9,000 LAPD officers who are on the rocks these days but also improve security and reduce police abuse. All this keeping in mind that the most important sporting event in the world is coming to our home, the 2028 Olympics.
Tingirides or Arcos? It will be a matter of Mayor Bass and her advisors doing the electoral math. There is not much calculation to be made because the Latino community has always been waiting for the first police chief of Hispanic origin. Failure to do so could imply a high political cost.
Few Latinos
One of the most heartfelt criticisms of Mayor Karen Bass is that she has not appointed many Latinos to relevant positions; it has even been said that she has removed several of them from the commissions that she is in charge of appointing. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti did a great job, appointing many Latinas to city commissions.
The removal of Aura Garcia from the Public Works Commission to replace her with a white man, union lawyer John Grant, who lives in East Los Angeles, did not leave a good taste in the mouth.
In her defense, the mayor can say that she recently appointed former Assembly Speaker John Perez to the Harbor Commissioners’ board. Getting it approved gave the mayor a lot of work because many did not like her removal of Commissioner Diane Middleton, a well-liked San Pedro resident, in favor of Perez.