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.[4] He served as member and president of the board until 2005.

• Planning & Land Use Management (previous)
• Rules, Elections & Intergovernmental Relations (previous vice chair)
• Energy & Environment (chair 2012–13)
• Economic Development (previous)[13][10]

Huizar during a press conference in 2009.

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,[14] and worked to expand recycling efforts in commercial and apartment buildings.[15] Huizar also oversaw two of the largest solar projects in the country,[16] advocated for a coal-free Los Angeles by 2025,[17] 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 [18] and the Sierra Club's Political Leadership award.[19] He has also worked to preserve open space and improve parks, especially in park-poor areas of the City of Los Angeles.[20]

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."[21] In 2013, the city's first parklets were installed in the Highland Park, El Sereno, and Downtown Los Angeles.[22] Huizar has also worked to grow bike infrastructure in the City of Los Angeles, including a green bike lane Downtown.[23] 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.[24] In 2010 and 2011, Huizar worked to install the city's first bike corral on York Boulevard in Highland Park.[25]

Huizar, holding the "H", at the Wilshire Grand Center in 2012.

In 2009 Huizar was appointed to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors.[26] While on the board, he pushed for extended Metro hours,[27] increased funding for pedestrian and bicycle projects,[28] and greater attention to civil rights in transportation planning.[29] 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.[30] The plan includes reactivating historic theaters,[31] as well as more than one million square feet of vacant commercial space.[32][33] As part of the plan, Huizar has also led the campaign to bring back the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Streetcar.[34]

In August 2013 the Huizar-authored Mural Ordinance was passed by the City Council, ending an 11-year ban on murals on private property.[35] In October 2013, Huizar commissioned nine murals to be painted on utility boxes on First Street in Boyle Heights.[36]

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.[37] Also in 2010, Huizar also helped expand the Highland Park Historic Preservation Overlay Zone.[38][39] Historic preservation is also a key aspect of the Bringing Back Broadway initiative.[37] 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.[40]

Former staffers Mayra Álvarez, Francine Godoy, 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."[49] Godoy 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."[50] 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.[51]

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.[52] 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.[53]

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.[54] The lawsuit was dropped against Huizar and the City of Los Angeles in September 2014.[55] With the lawsuit being dropped, the City of Los Angeles paid no money to Godoy.[56]