José Huizar

José Huizar won a seat on the board of the Los Angeles Unified School District on April 10, 2001, as a candidate supported by Mayor Richard Riordan, defeating Ralph Cole with 75% of the vote.[5] He served as member and president of the board until 2005.

In November 2005, Huizar ran against Nick Pacheco for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council vacated by Antonio Villaraigosa and won.[6] He was reelected to a full four-year term in 2007 and again in 2011.[7] On March 3, 2015, he defeated former Supervisor Gloria Molina, along with three other candidates, to be re-elected to the Los Angeles City Council for a fourth time.[8] He is the first Mexican immigrant elected to the L.A. City Council.[9]

On November 7, 2018, the FBI served search warrants on Huizar's City Hall office and his residence. They removed computers and boxes of files, but did not disclose the purpose of the search.[10]

On November 15, 2018, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson gave notice and removed Huizar from all of his committee assignments, with no explanation as to why he was being removed or addressing speculation on a forthcoming resignation. Wesson's notice read, “We're optimistic Angelenos will be best served by these changes as the Los Angeles City Council continues the people’s work without interruption,” said Wesson spokeswoman Vanessa Rodriguez.[11]

On May 28, 2020, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Council President Nury Martinez called on Huizar to resign.[12]

• Planning & Land Use Management (previous)
• Rules, Elections & Intergovernmental Relations (previous vice chair)
• Energy & Environment (chair 2012–13)
• Economic Development (previous)[13][14]

Huizar chaired the Los Angeles City Council's Energy & Environment Committee in 2012 and 2013. Under his leadership, the committee pushed forward the single-use plastic bag ban,[15] and worked to expand recycling efforts in commercial and apartment buildings.[16] Huizar also oversaw two of the largest solar projects in the country,[17] advocated for a coal-free Los Angeles by 2025,[18] and ensured that the council adopted a $120 million annual budget for energy conservation. In 2013, Huizar received the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters Environmental Champion Award [19] and the Sierra Club's Political Leadership award.[20] He has also worked to preserve open space and improve parks, especially in park-poor areas of the City of Los Angeles.[21]

Huizar has advocated for the complete streets model of city planning, where streets are safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transportation users. In 2012, Huizar and then-Councilmember Jan Perry wrote a City Council motion that created a parklet program for the City of Los Angeles. According to the motion, parklets would encourage "pedestrian and ground-floor activity [and provide] much-needed open space."[22] In 2013, the city's first parklets were installed in the Highland Park, El Sereno, and Downtown Los Angeles.[23] Huizar has also worked to grow bike infrastructure in the City of Los Angeles, including a green bike lane Downtown.[24] The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition recognized Huizar in late 2013 for his complete streets efforts and forging a compromise to ensure Downtown's Spring Streets bicycle lanes remained in place.[25] In 2010 and 2011, Huizar worked to install the city's first bike corral on York Boulevard in Highland Park.[26]

In 2009, Huizar was appointed to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors.[27] While on the board, he pushed for extended Metro hours,[28] increased funding for pedestrian and bicycle projects,[29] and greater attention to civil rights in transportation planning.[30] He served on the board until 2013.

In 2008, Huizar created the Bringing Back Broadway initiative, a ten-year plan to revitalize the historic Broadway Theater District in Downtown Los Angeles.[31] The plan includes reactivating historic theaters,[32] as well as more than one million square feet of vacant commercial space.[33][34] As part of the plan, Huizar has also led the campaign to bring back the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Streetcar.[35]

In August 2013, the Huizar-authored Mural Ordinance was passed by the City Council, ending an 11-year ban on murals on private property.[36] In October 2013, Huizar commissioned nine murals to be painted on utility boxes on First Street in Boyle Heights.[37]

In 2011, Huizar authored a motion to help extend the Mills Act, which incentivizes historic preservation by offering lower property taxes to those restoring historic structures.[38] Also in 2010, Huizar also helped expand the Highland Park Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.[39][40] Historic preservation is also a key aspect of the Bringing Back Broadway initiative.[41] Huizar has been criticized for land-use decisions that resulted in the loss of such historic landmarks as the Ambassador Hotel, Parker Center, Sixth Street Bridge and Lytton Savings.

The FBI opened up a case at City Hall after reports of retaliation by a council member. Fundraiser and former city planning commissioner Justin Jangwoo Kim has pleaded guilty to federal charges of coordinating large cash bribes to a LA City Council member.[42][43] One of these was former council member Mitch Englander, who has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Kim.[44] In a separate case, the US Attorney's office has filed charges against a real estate developer described in public legal papers only as Developer C, accusing the developer to giving $500,000 to an unnamed person. According to an analysis by the L.A. Times, details in the suit make it clear that C is Kim and that the alleged recipient of the bribe was Huizar.[45]

Huizar's former aide, George Esparza plead guilty in the investigation. He facilitated bribes from Chinese real estate developers to a council member, known to be Huizar. Specifically Developer C, now known to be Shenzhen New World Group, totaling over one million dollars.[46] On June 23, 2020, Huizar was arrested and taken into federal custody at his Boyle Heights home on racketeering charges. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. [47]

Former staffers Mayra Álvarez, Pauline Medina, and Jesse Leon have sued Huizar, claiming that he retaliated against them when they spoke up about conduct by Huizar that they considered unethical or illegal. Álvarez's suit says she was fired for "voicing discomfort with some of his and the office’s practices which she believed violated local, state, and federal law."[48] Medina claims that she was forced to resign because "she complained about using city funds to pay for Huízar’s personal expenses, and accused him of giving preferential treatment to another staffer with whom he was having an extramarital affair."[49] Leon's suit says he was fired after he went to the FBI with information about pay-to-play schemes involving cannabis business licenses, but Huizar says that Leon himself had a conflict of interest involving his own attempts to get such a license.[50]

On October 17, 2013, Huizar was sued for sexual harassment, and he subsequently confessed that he had engaged in a "consensual relationship" with a former female staffer, Francine Godoy.[51] Huizar reportedly reduced her duties in response to her refusal to grant him sexual favors. In addition, during her campaign for a seat on the Los Angeles Community College District Board, Huizar promised to support her campaign in exchange that she give in to his advances.[52]

A City of Los Angeles investigation overseen by an independent panel of retired judges and other law experts found no evidence supporting Godoy's harassment claims.[53] The lawsuit was dropped against Huizar and the City of Los Angeles in September 2014.[54] With the lawsuit being dropped, the City of Los Angeles paid no money to Godoy.[55]