Candidate for
Council Member; City of Los Angeles; District 14

José Huizar was elected to the Los Angeles City Council's 14th District in 2005 and overwhelmingly re-elected in 2007 and 2011. Through his years of public service, Councilmember Huizar has proven himself a staunch advocate for educational reform, public safety, environmental protection and sustainable economic development.

He has helped create thousands of new jobs, promote historical preservation and bring hundreds of acres of open space and park upgrades to park-poor areas of the City of Los Angeles.

He is one of the City's leading "Complete Streets" proponents, ushering in groundbreaking transit, pedestrian, business and bike-friendly policies that are seen as the model for the entire City. Councilmember Huizar is leading the effort to bring the Streetcar back to Downtown Los Angeles after a half-century absence.

A strong supporter of the arts, Councilmember Huizar has also created legislation to allow Los Angeles muralists to once again practice their craft and help Los Angeles reclaim its place as the "Mural Capital of the World."

He is Streetsblog L.A.'s 2014 Elected Official of the Year for all of Los Angeles County. In 2013, José Huizar received the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters Environmental Champion Award and the Sierra Club's Political Leadership Award, recognizing his efforts to usher in environmentally sound policies to expand the City's recycling efforts in commercial and apartment buildings, transition the City of Los Angeles to cleaner, renewable energy and to make the City coal-free by 2025.

Under his leadership, the City also embarked on two of the largest solar projects in the country, adopted an unprecedented $120 million annual budget for energy conservation and created policy to cut down on pollution by leading efforts to make the City of Los Angeles the largest city in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags.

Councilmember Huizar is a former Board of Directors member for Los Angeles Metro, where he helped oversee transportation policy for Los Angeles County. Prior to his Council election, José served as a member and President of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education. As Board President, José oversaw the planning and implementation of the largest school construction program in U.S. history.

Councilmember Huizar has been awarded numerous awards and distinctions, including profiles by the Los Angeles Business Journal as one of the 25 figures in the Los Angeles Area that "stand out for their potential to shape lives" and by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the "100 most influential Hispanics" in the United States.

José Huizar was born in Zacatecas, Mexico and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master's degree in Public Affairs and Urban Planning from Princeton University and a Juris Doctorate from UCLA School of Law. He is the first Latino immigrant elected to the City Council in Los Angeles' history and in 2004, he became the first Latino to serve on the Princeton Board of Trustees.

He resides in Boyle Heights with his wife Richelle Rios, their son Simón and three daughters, Emilia, Isabella and Aviana.