Marqueece Harris-Dawson takes over as L.A. City Council president
During his years as a community organizer in South L.A., Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson saw the devastation wrought by the crack cocaine epidemic and the economic fallout that followed the 1992 L.A. riots.
Working in South L.A., where he lived as a child, inspired him to become a politician. It was also where he met another progressive organizer, Karen Bass.
Now, Harris-Dawson, 54, will lead the City Council as its next president, with Bass, a close ally, as mayor.
Harris-Dawson's two decades at the nonprofit Community Coalition, which Bass co-founded, will shape his agenda. Homelessness, which disproportionately affects Black and Latino populations, and housing affordability will be his top issues, he said Friday at his first council meeting as president.
"When we have a situation where tens of thousands of people are living on our streets, it literally compromises everyone's public safety," he said, with family members looking on.
"First, the people living on the street are open to all kinds of untold victimization," he added. "There are other hazards that happen as a result of that disorder — fires, you name it."
First elected to the council in 2015, Harris-Dawson has pushed for more housing in his district and a halt to sex trafficking on Figueroa Street.
He represents a South Los Angeles district that takes in all or part of the neighborhoods of West Adams, View Heights, Hyde Park, Van Ness, Baldwin Hills and Adams-Normandie.
Dermot Givens, a political consultant who has observed Harris-Dawson's career, described him as a relationship builder. The council member secured enough votes to become president without a public battle with any colleagues, Givens said.
"He’s a very nice guy, and he’ll continue that consensus-building as council president," Givens said.
The council voted 14 to 0 in May for Harris-Dawson to replace Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who had held the position since October 2022, after the audio leak scandal that spurred the resignation of Council President Nury Martinez. Krekorian is leaving the council in a few months because of term limits.
As council president, Harris-Dawson must navigate relationships with some colleagues he has publicly criticized.
Harris-Dawson, who is Black, was among those who urged Councilmember Kevin de León, who took part in the leaked conversation featuring racist and derogatory remarks, to resign.
He told The Times that he has largely restored his relationship with De León, who supported his bid for council president along with the rest of the council.
“Some of the stuff left a mark,” said Harris-Dawson this week of the comments made during the secretly recorded conversation, which included insulting remarks about Black people and others. “Those marks are still there, but I think we've gotten to the point where we can actually do work on behalf of people of the city of L.A.”
At Friday's meeting, Harris-Dawson's colleagues, including De León, congratulated him. Some praised the efforts the new council president has made to work with them behind the scenes.
Councilmember John Lee said he felt "alone" after joining the council in 2019, because he is viewed as the lone conservative on the Democratic-majority council. Harris-Dawson reached out, and the two are now friends, Lee said.
"You don't focus on the things that we necessarily disagree on," Lee told Harris-Dawson. "You focus on the things that we agree on."
Harris-Dawson grew up in South L.A., until gang violence prompted his family to move to the foothill communities of Altadena and Arcadia. He visited his grandfather in Baldwin Hills on weekends.
He went on to study political science and mathematics at Morehouse College.
At Community Coalition, he worked on education and job-related initiatives.
"They're keyed in on some of the very same issues," Jaime Regalado, a professor emeritus of political science at Cal State Los Angeles, said of Harris-Dawson and Bass. "The policy concerns that the mayor has are very much the same that Marqueece has."
As president, Harris-Dawson can pick which council members serve on the committees dealing with budgeting, public safety, homelessness and other key issues. He'll also schedule items for votes.
In an interview, he said he would form a new committee focused on "unarmed response" that will look at how police officers handle traffic stops, among other issues.
The council is already studying the cost and feasibility of creating unarmed civilian teams to respond to certain traffic issues, ending some traffic stops for minor infractions and limiting traffic fines in poorer neighborhoods.
Advocates cite racial disparities in stops and searches by the LAPD in South L.A., arguing that the crime-fighting strategy has alienated generations of Black and brown Angelenos.
Harris-Dawson has spoken about being pulled over by police while driving, including after he joined the City Council, and has described his fear of seeing an armed police officer approach his car.
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.