Ysabel Jurado sat in on her first L.A. City Council meeting Tuesday, a day after starting her four-year term as District 14 councilmember.
Jurado, who took the oath of office from the City Clerk behind closed doors on Monday, joined her new colleagues in the John Ferraro Council Chamber at City Hall. She listened to public comments, chatted with community members in Spanish and voted on several agenda items, including boosting housing development in high-density neighborhoods.
Following the regular session, Jurado was sworn in in a public ceremony along with newly elected CD 2 rep Adrin Nazarian.
Last month, Jurado defeated incumbent Kevin de León by nearly 12,000 votes. Her victory marked a series of firsts: The political newcomer will be the first woman and the first openly queer person to lead the district, the first Filipino American to sit on the L.A. City Council and first person of non-Latino descent to represent CD 14 since 1985.
Jurado will be paid $231,173.96 a year to represent the district that includes more than a quarter-million people from downtown Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and Northeast Los Angeles.
Looking forward, Jurado must work to fill several roles in her office.
According to the L.A. Times, Jurado was eyeing former City Hall lobbyist Lauren Hodgins as chief of staff to run her office. In the past, Hodgins worked with Santa Maria Group, a group that worked to represent educational institutions, hotel projects and real estate developers.
Critics of the rumored appointment argued that someone with a background like Hodgins could represent a partnership with the private interests that Jurado worked hard to distance her campaign from. Boyle Heights Beat could not independently confirm any updates regarding office appointments with Naomi Villagomez Roochnik, Jurado’s campaign manager.
During her campaign, Jurado, a Highland Park native and former tenant rights attorney, emphasized delivering quality-of-life services and increased government transparency.
She promised a new era of leadership for CD 14, one that staves off the scandal and corruption that has plagued the district for years and makes way for a more transparent relationship between representative and constituent. That new direction, Jurado said, is what is needed to restore trust in local government and address a slew of community issues that have long gone neglected.
“People are tired of the status quo,” she said in a November interview with Boyle Heights Beat.
Jurado is poised to lead a majority Latino district facing challenges ranging from homelessness and gentrification to affordable housing and a severe lack of parking infrastructure.
She also knows that each neighborhood may require a different approach. A plan for community safety, a top concern for CD 14 residents, may look different for Boyle Heights than it does for other, more affluent neighborhoods like Eagle Rock, she said.
Jurado joins a growing progressive block on the City Council including Nithya Raman of CD 4, Hugo Soto-Martínez of CD 13 and Eunisses Hernandez of CD 1. All have been critical of police spending and voted to approve L.A.’s new sanctuary city status.
