CD8 Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson was sworn in as LA City Council President on September 20th following the terming out of former Council President Krekorian.

Unfortunately, Mr. Harris-Dawson’s first acts as Council President have ranged from questionable to outright reprehensible. As reported by Unrig LA, the new Council President appointed CD12 Councilman John Lee as Chair to the Planning and Land Use committee. Mr. Lee has been embroiled in a series of ethics controversies, from accusations by the City’s Ethics Commission of accepting and failing to report excessive gifts which resulted in the Councilman filing a lawsuit against said Ethics Commission, to being implicated in the infamous Las Vegas trip with indicted Councilman Mitch Englander, for whom Lee served as Chief of Staff.

Most egregiously, Council President Harris-Dawson also appointed racist CD14 Councilman Kevin de Leon to the PLUM committee. De Leon, who is running for re-election, was a protagonist in the LA Fed Tapes scandal, which revealed audio of him referring to the adopted son of fellow Councilmember Mike Bonin as an “accessory”, “like a luxury handbag”. Council President Harris-Dawson’s decision to grant De Leon such a powerful committee assignment is shameful considering that the conversation in the Fed Tapes centered around redistricting, and how the involved players could use their political power to secure their own Council seats by weakening the voting power in majority-Black Council Districts.