Eric Garcetti

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Eric Garcetti (born 1971) is the son of former Los Angeles county district attorney Gil Garcetti, and was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2001. He was reelected in 2005.

He succeeded Alex Padilla as President of the City Council on January 1, 2006. As the President, he appoints the Assistant President Pro Tem, makes committee assignments for his colleagues on the Council, and leads the City Council meetings, which occur Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of each week. He has drawn respect as President by ensuring that the meetings start on time, adding cushions to the pews in council chambers, publishing a City Council Gazette, implementing a Council Ambassadors Program, and controlling the timing of public comment and council presentations at meetings. He has also strived to teach constituents about the governmental process by hosting Government and Planning 101 courses throughout the city.

As a City Councilman, he has made housing and economic development, the environment, community engagement, neighborhood beautification, and international diplomacy his main issues. As chair and member of the Housing, Community, and Economic Development Committee, he was instrumental in creating a 100 million dollar housing trust fund. He has also worked to revitalize the Hollywood area and reform the city business tax. He was a primary author of Proposition O, which works to clean the city's waterways, has doubled the amount of parks in his district, and has helped to found the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. He created the Neighborhood Leadership Institute which has trained hundreds of constituents to be active citizens. He appeared as a proponent in the 2006 documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" He has used the idea of engaging citizens to increase neighborhood beautification. A prime example is his successful UNTAG program, Uniting Neighborhoods to Abolish Graffiti, a volunteer program which has reduced graffiti in his district over 50 percent in its first year. As a diplomat, Garcetti has traveled to Armenia and Lebanon to initiate Sister City programs with Los Angeles. In addition, he was part of the delegations on both of former Mayor Hahn's trade missions, one to Mexico and the other to various countries throughout Asia. Garcetti is currently working on implementing clean money, also known as public financing, in Los Angeles elections. His work as an elected official resulted in his being awarded in November 2006 with the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, given by the Kennedy Library and Kennedy School of Government to one elected official under 40 who best embodies the ideals of service and leadership of President Kennedy.

Garcetti taught public policy, diplomacy, and world affairs at the University of Southern California and Occidental College prior to his election. In 1998, the Rockefeller Foundation selected him as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow. Garcetti received a B.A. and M.A. in International Relations from Columbia University. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and also studied at the London School of Economics. He is an avid photographer, jazz pianist and composer. He lives in Echo Park with his partner of eleven years, Amy Elaine Wakeland.