Eric Garcetti

At the end of April 2020, Garcetti was named a member of the vetting committee for the selection of presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden's runningmate.

A study released in June 2019 by the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority (LAHSA) found that homelessness compared to the previous year surged by 16 percent to nearly 60,000 homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. Recent legal decisions in the Ninth Circuit limiting enforcement capability of LAPD to remove homeless encampments has contributed to the crisis. Garcetti responded to the report by saying “Skyrocketing rents statewide and federal disinvestment in affordable housing, combined with an epidemic of untreated trauma and mental illness, is pushing people into homelessness faster than they can be lifted out”.

A 2019 Los Angeles County report on missteps in the government's handling of the 2018 Woolsey Fire response cited the unavailability of firefighting units during critical times of the fire, which was the most destructive in county history. During this time, Garcetti personally made a request to fire officials to check the status of a private residence in Bell Canyon. The report states: "a significant number of requests by political figures to check on specific addresses of homes to ensure their protection distracted from Department leadership to accomplish priority objectives."

As early as 2017, speculation had swirled around Garcetti's potential presidential run in 2020. In 2018, rumors continued about his political ambitions as he has made visits to early primary states. In April, he spent two days attending political events across Iowa. In May, he delivered the commencement address at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire. However, on January 29, 2019, Garcetti announced he would not run for president in 2020, opting to finish his term as mayor.

On September 22, 2019, Garcetti attended the rally of Armenia's prime minister Nikol Pashinyan at the Grand Park. He stated, "With this prime minister, a new day of sunshine has come to Armenia, a day of democracy, a day of openness, a day of no more corruption, a day where we can say in Los Angeles, it is time for us to pick up to visit, invest, to support, to help the new Armenia rise, and rise, and rise under the leadership of this prime minister."

In April 2018, Garcetti met with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The meeting focused on continuing efforts to advance women's rights, and raised concerns about human rights and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Garcetti was re-elected with 81.4% of the vote on March 7, 2017. Although he avoided a runoff election this time, voter turnout was relatively low at 20%. Due to a change in the city's election calendar to align mayoral elections with statewide elections, his second term will last for five years and six months instead of the usual four years.

In December 2017, Garcetti officially proclaimed November 19 to be Women's Entrepreneurship Day in Los Angeles. This followed similar declarations made by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney, and New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

Garcetti opposed Measure S (originally known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative). The referendum would have imposed a two-year moratorium on development projects seeking variances from some aspects of the city's zoning code, made changes to the environmental impact statement requirements in the code, and required the city to update its comprehensive plan during the moratorium. On March 7, 2017, the measure failed with over two-thirds of voters rejecting it.

In July 2016, Garcetti was part of a 25-person contingent from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro to promote their city's bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. That November, he led a presentation with six-time gold medalist sprinter Allyson Felix to an array of Olympic leaders and sports officials at a general assembly for the Association of National Olympic Committees in Doha, Qatar.

In February 2016, local CBS affiliate KCBS-TV reported that in the month before Garcetti's State of the City address, where he praised landscaping company Turf Terminators, the company's employees, friends, and relatives had donated $45,000 to his re-election campaign and to his nonprofit Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles. Garcetti told KCBS-TV that the donations were legal and the sequence of events was a coincidence.

In February 2016, Garcetti recorded a R&B song "101SlowJam", backed by musicians from the city's Roosevelt High School, issuing it via a video on his own YouTube channel. The public service announcement video advertised the closure of parts of the 101 Freeway. The 84-year-old Sixth Street Viaduct bridge is slated to be demolished and replaced by a new bridge.

In March 2016, Garcetti briefly appeared in one of the recurring segments on The Late Late Show with James Corden called "Take a Break", where host James Corden pretended to take over his position for a few hours. At the end of the segment, Garcetti takes back control from Corden having him escorted away by some security officers.

In April 2015, Garcetti released a long-range plan for making the city more economically and environmentally sustainable. The city's first-ever 'Sustainable City Plan' consists of both short-term (by 2017) and long-term (by 2025 and 2035) goals in 14 categories related to our environment, our economy, and equity encompassing water conservation, clean energy, waste, green jobs, transportation, housing, and neighborhood livability.

On November 5, 2015, Garcetti's office issued a statement endorsing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Controversy later emerged about the office using government resources to distribute a campaign-related proclamation.

Garcetti was awarded the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College in 2015.

In May 2014, Garcetti announced he was bringing aboard Krisztina Holly and Amir Tehrani, two entrepreneurs in residence, to develop policies for "helping business startup and entrepreneurs in Los Angeles grow". "We want L.A. to be the leading destination for people starting new businesses, and there are no better guides for our efforts than successful entrepreneurs themselves," he said.

On September 1, 2014, Garcetti led a rally at a park in South Los Angeles, where he proposed creating a minimum wage in Los Angeles that could reach $13.25 after three years. He received support from several members of the city council, who would have to approve of the increase. He released an economic analysis, which was prepared by academics at University of California, Berkeley, that stated an "L.A. wage of $13.25—$4.25 more than the state minimum of $9—would significantly improve the lot of low-income workers and impose minimal burdens on business." Business leaders warned that boosting pay too quickly could stifle the slowly rebounding local economy (California's minimum wage then was $9, having increased from $8 on July 1). His proposed ordinance would require businesses to increase workers' pay from the state minimum to at least $10.25 in 2015, $11.75 in 2016 and $13.25 in 2017. Beginning in 2018, additional adjustments in Los Angeles would be automatically tied to an inflation index. Later that month, he expressed his support for the city council to vote on a new citywide law requiring large hotels to pay $15.37 an hour, adding that it would not conflict with his drive to raise the city's minimum wage. He aligned himself with the Fight for 15 movement when he signed legislation in 2015 to gradually raise the minimum wage in Los Angeles to $15 per hour.

In July 2014, Garcetti announced the Los Angeles Police Department would stop honoring most federal requests for detaining arrestees so they can be investigated for deportation. He stated that Los Angeles was joining with other jurisdictions to end the practice of detaining people for being in the United States illegally with no judicial review and uttered that the detainment policy was expensive to local government and erodes public trust in the police department. "The federal government has the luxury of waiting to act," he said. "Here at the local level, we are carrying out what the federal government should be doing." Later that month, he confirmed Los Angeles would help shelter immigrant children who have been detained after crossing the border and had begun talks with a federal agency about doing so.

On March 20, 2014, Garcetti responded to criticism of the department's hiring system that eliminated thousands of qualified applicants by announcing he was canceling the process. He said he had "determined that the Fire Department's recruiting process is fatally flawed". The mayor's office announced that the next scheduled Fire Academy class of 70 cadets would not be held, and that no further hiring would be made from the current civil service list (nearly 25% of the 70 recruits eventually hired were related to LAFD firefighters). It later stated that the RAND Corporation had been asked to help in reforming the recruiting process. The decision was met with mixed reception.

In July 2014, the Los Angeles Police Protective League stated its plans to file an unfair labor practices complaint with the city's Employee Relations Board to block Garcetti and police chief Charlie Beck from discussing directly with officers the proposed one-year contract that had been previously rejected. The proposal provided $70 million in overtime for that year and $50 million to buy back some of the $120 million in banked overtime while also containing no cost-of-living increase. Protective League President Tyler Izen said that while the union understood the mayor's intentions, he believed speaking directly to the officers could violate fair bargaining rules.

Garcetti found a way around the legal threats by posting a video on YouTube on July 24, noting that under the proposed contract, salaries for officers hired during the recession would be increased and overtime would no longer be given as time off, instead paid in cash. "The sacrifices you made on overtime were emergency measures—never intended to be permanent. And I understand the toll these emergency measures have taken. Not just on your pocketbook but on the LAPD as a whole", Garcetti said.

Other major changes made to the department during Garcetti's tenure include purchasing 7,000 body-worn cameras for the city's patrol officers as well as adding more than 200 officers to the LAPD Metropolitan Division to control the crime rate, which had increased in 2014.

Garcetti accepted the agreement due to provisions, which included a labor-management council to review work rules that add to LADWP workers' salaries, a modified health care system and an added pension tier for new workers and a broadened effort to reduce the disparity in pay with other city workers. In January 2014, he nominated Marcie Edwards to head the Department of Water and Power, who was confirmed on February 21.

In April 2014, the mayor was joined by current and former NBA players to praise the disciplinary actions taken by the league against L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling for his publicized racist remarks, saying that the remarks "do not represent Los Angeles". He stated during an interview that the Sterling controversy was "a defining issue" for the city and required a strong response from elected leaders. He stated that he expected Sterling to put up a "long, protracted fight" and that his continued ownership could prove harmful to the franchise.

In May 2014, Officer Shaun Hillmann received a 65-day suspension after recorded remarks of him referring to an African-American man as a "monkey" were aired on television. The next day, Garcetti said Hillmann's statements were "reprehensible" and that the officer should have received a "stiffer" punishment.

On his first full day as mayor, Garcetti proclaimed that Los Angeles was beginning to leave behind its culture of car ownership. Promoting the Great Streets Initiative, he said the effort represents "a shift from the way that our neighborhoods have been planned in Los Angeles", with a new focus on "walkability and transit". Seeking to bolster the street-level health of the city, he encouraged developing plans to make several dozen boulevards more hospitable to pedestrians, cyclists and small businesses. A pedestrian-friendly project in downtown on Broadway finished up in December 2014 that widened the sidewalks and replaced the parking lane with planters, chairs and round café tables with red umbrellas.

In April 2014, Garcetti signed into law a new waste franchise agreement, which was planned to expanded recycling to businesses and apartments. He had first proposed the program three years earlier, when he was serving on the city council. Contrasting it with the recycling program used in the city's residential areas, he said, "What we have had on the commercial and apartment side has been the Wild West, with multiple trucks on the same street, with no standards." He stated his goal was to have 90% of all trash recycled by 2025.

In January 2014, Garcetti announced a new plan to tackle earthquake safety, marking the 20th anniversary of the destructive Northridge earthquake.

In June 2014, Garcetti picked Seleta Reynolds to run the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). Later that year, the mayor's office and LADOT released a strategic plan with a Vision Zero goal to eliminate all traffic deaths by the year 2025. Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious injuries involving road traffic.

In June 2014, while calling the long wait times at the VA's Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System unacceptable, Garcetti pledged to secure 10,000 jobs for veterans by 2017. He also embraced the Obama administration's challenge to end veteran homelessness in Los Angeles within 17 months, stating that he would not accept that "veterans live in our city without a place of their own." Results from the initiatives have been mixed. On the one hand, the jobs initiative, which offers tax credits to employers who hire veterans, has been generally successful, even surpassing Garcetti's original goal. On the other hand, the housing initiative has been more complicated. In a 2017 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Garcetti said that he deserved credit for housing 8,000 veterans, as well as persuading voters to pass Proposition HHH in 2016, which sought to drastically expand the number of apartment units built in the city. However, while the measure was approved overwhelmingly, the funding appropriated by Proposition HHH could potentially fall short of the 10,000 apartment units it was intended to build.

On January 14, 2014, Garcetti was in the passenger seat of an LAPD vehicle when the vehicle struck a pedestrian. The mayor's office said that the mayor had been on his phone and not seen the crash, and had been interviewed by investigators. Battalion Chief Stephen J. Ruda of the LAFD reported the female pedestrian "was stable and alert, responding to our paramedics" before she was rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. Hospital spokesperson Rosa Saca said the woman was stable and had been admitted overnight. Garcetti visited the woman in the hospital the next day and stated "We had a nice conversation and I am very pleased that she is in good spirits. I wish her a speedy recovery."

On June 16, 2014, while speaking at the championship celebration for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team, Garcetti cautioned: "There are two rules in politics – never be pictured with a drink in your hand, and never swear." He then held up an empty beer bottle and said, "But this is a big fucking day", prompting a standing ovation from the Kings players and the crowd. The incident attracted some controversy. When he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! later that evening, Garcetti told the late night TV host, "It was hockey; it wasn't a match of lawn bowls." The following day, speaking at a luncheon at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, he apologized to those who found what he said offensive and suggested they lighten up. He argued that it was "something that plenty of people have heard in their lives for sure".

On April 3, 2014, Garcetti was joined by Bill Clinton in hosting a half-day conference on alternate energy and improvements of infrastructure. It was the first time the two men had appeared together since his run for mayor the previous year, where Clinton had endorsed Wendy Greuel. Referencing the election, the former president accidentally said that Garcetti had been elected president, not mayor. Clinton told Garcetti that he "may become president one day".

On April 16, 2014, Garcetti was joined by Jay Z in announcing during a news conference the Made in America Festival, scheduled to take place in the upcoming summer. "On Labor Day weekend, we’re going to celebrate our golden state of mind right here in L.A. with a sellout crowd, right here on the steps of City Hall and into Grand Park," Garcetti said during the news conference. Jay Z, addressing the city of Los Angeles as a whole, said "you all should be very proud of this incredible mayor you have".

In a memo in October 2013, Garcetti instructed department heads to develop a "starting point" budget based on the 5% cut from the previous year. In April 2014, he unveiled a "hold-the-line" budget for the coming fiscal year, which proposed modest increases in a number of city services and zero reduction in the business tax. His financial proposal of $8.1 billion required approval from the city council and closed the $242 million gap "in part by relying on increased tax revenue projections and reductions in vacant positions". That August, he announced he would begin his annual review of every city general manager as part of his commitment to improve accountability among Los Angeles officials.

In 2013, Garcetti pledged that 5% of the Los Angeles Fire Department's firefighters would be women by 2020. As of 2018, 3.1% of the department's firefighters are women.

Garcetti nominated four new appointees to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners: Jill Banks Barad, Michael F. Fleming, William W. Funderburk Jr., and former congressman Mel Levine. The four commissioners were confirmed by the city council on September 11, 2013, joining Villaraigosa appointee Christina E. Noonan on the panel.

In August 2013, Garcetti said he would sign off on a proposed four-year contract with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power workers. Officials estimated the contract would save $6.1 billion over 30 years. In large part, the deal was expected to save money by cutting the pension benefits of new hires and workers going without raises in pay for three years. The deal was largely worked out before Garcetti took office the previous month; he initially balked at the contract before coming around when negotiators tweaked the proposal to allow for further talks on the issue.

In July 2013, Garcetti called for "calm in the streets" after the acquittal of George Zimmerman three days earlier. While acknowledging the similarities between the Zimmerman case and the 1992 Rodney King riots, he insisted the city had come a long way.

With incumbent mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ineligible to run again because of term limits, Garcetti declared his candidacy on September 8, 2011. The election was held on March 5, 2013. As no candidate received a majority of the primary votes to be elected outright, the top two finishers (Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel) advanced to a runoff vote. Bolstered by the Los Angeles Teachers Union's endorsement, Garcetti was elected on May 21 with 53.9% of votes, defeating Greuel. The next day, he met with Villaraigosa, who worked with him over the rest of his own tenure to better the transition. His term began on July 1, 2013.

In July 2010, Garcetti, then council president, weakened a 2009 lawn watering ordinance, allowing watering three days per week instead of two. The ordinance restricting watering to two days a week had been passed 13 months earlier by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. While it helped the city cut its water use and cope with ongoing drought, the measure was unpopular and was accused of causing pressure fluctuations and water main breaks. A Los Angeles Times editorial said that the city council's changes to the watering ordinance was a "death knell for one of the best collective environmental efforts made by the citizens of Los Angeles".

From 2010 to 2012, then City Councilman Garcetti appeared as "Ramon Quintero", the mayor of Los Angeles, on the fictional TNT television show The Closer and its spin-off Major Crimes. His first appearance after becoming mayor was a 2016 episode of Major Crimes. His father, Gil Garcetti, is a consulting producer on both series. Garcetti also made a cameo appearance, as a desk security guard working in the mayor's office, in the pilot episode of the TBS series Angie Tribeca.

Garcetti is an avid photographer, jazz pianist, and composer. He served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve Information Dominance Corps from 2005 to 2013. On January 4, 2009, he married his longtime girlfriend Amy Elaine Wakeland. A Rhodes Scholar herself, the couple first met while studying at Oxford. They have one daughter, Maya Juanita, who is adopted. Her godfather is actor Evan Arnold, who has been a friend of Garcetti's since junior high school. Garcetti and his wife have also fostered seven children. Before being elected mayor, he and his family lived in Echo Park.

Garcetti endorsed Barack Obama in early spring 2007 and was the southern California chairman and one of six state co-chairs for the Obama campaign. He traveled to Iowa, Nevada, and six other states, and was a frequent surrogate (in English and Spanish) for the campaign. He served as a superdelegate during the 2008 Democratic National Convention and was elected to serve as the Chair of Democratic Municipal Officials, an organization affiliated with the Democratic National Committee that represents all local elected Democrats in the United States.

Garcetti served as council president from January 1, 2006 to January 12, 2012. He was elected by his colleagues to succeed Alex Padilla, who resigned after being elected to the California State Senate. He was one of the first elected officials in Los Angeles to hold "office hours" each month, where constituents can meet with him face-to-face. He implemented a "Constituent Bill of Rights" that ensures that constituents' phone calls are returned within a single workday, that constituents are included in all land-use decisions in their neighborhood, and that all constituent concerns are tracked on a computer system that details all actions taken on that particular case. He ensured that the meetings started on time, and all past meetings were made available online. He has also helped more than 1,500 local constituents learn about the governmental process by hosting Government and Planning 101 courses throughout the city.

In 2005, Garcetti helped found the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust. He authored two of the nation's most far-reaching municipal green building ordinances: the first requires all city buildings to be built to the LEED-certified standard, and the second mandates that all commercial buildings of more than 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m) in Los Angeles be built to a LEED standard. He supported changes in the city's landscape ordinance and plumbing codes to promote water conservation.

In 2004, Garcetti authored Proposition O, a county stormwater bond which sought to clean the city's waterways. Voters approved the bond with just over 76% of the vote, making it the largest clean water bond in the United States.

Garcetti has been the recipient of the Green Cross Millennium Award for Local Environmental Leadership in 2003, the New Frontier Award presented by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in 2006, and the NAACP "Person of the Year" in 2014.

City Council District 13 was left vacant after incumbent Jackie Goldberg was elected to the State Assembly in 2000. Garcetti ran for the open seat and was elected in 2001, narrowly defeating former city council member Michael Woo. He was re-elected again in 2005 and 2009.

Garcetti majored in political science and urban planning and received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in 1992 as a John Jay Scholar. During that time, he served on the student council, was president of the St. Anthony Hall fraternity and literary society, founded the Columbia Urban Experience, and co-wrote and performed in three years of the Varsity Show, a student-written musical, whose past co-writers include Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Lorenz Hart. He also received a Masters of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, graduating in 1993. He met his future wife while they were both studying as Rhodes Scholars at The Queen's College, Oxford. He later studied for a PhD in ethnicity and nationalism at the London School of Economics.

Eric Michael Garcetti (born February 4, 1971) is an American politician serving as the 42nd and current mayor of Los Angeles since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected in the 2013 election and won reelection in 2017. A former member of the Los Angeles City Council, Garcetti served as council president from 2006 to 2012. He is the city's first elected Jewish mayor, its youngest mayor in history, and its second consecutive Mexican American mayor.

Garcetti was born on February 4, 1971 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles and was raised in Encino, in the San Fernando Valley. He is the son of Sukey (née Roth) and Gil Garcetti, the former Los Angeles County District Attorney.