On December 13, 2022, Paul Krekorian was elected unanimously by his fellow Councilmembers to serve as President of the City Council. As Chair of the City Council’s powerful Budget and Finance Committee for the previous ten years, he led the City to recovery from two fiscal calamities: the Great Recession and the COVID-related economic collapse, completing 11 balanced budgets and building the strongest reserves in the City’s history.
He took the lead in ending oil and gas drilling in Los Angeles and initiated the City’s LA100 drive to achieve 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035. As a member of both the Metro and Metrolink boards, he brought electric buses to the Valley and is expanding the Valley’s light rail service, while Metrolink has converted to 100 percent renewable fuel.
He was the first member of the Council to create Tiny Homes and a Homeless Services Navigation Center for persons experiencing homelessness, building enough capacity to shelter every person who was living on the streets of his district at the time of the previous homeless count. As a result of these actions, he reduced unsheltered homelessness in his district by over a third during the two worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is now building five permanent supportive housing (PSH) projects with a total of over 300 units, in addition to the 100 PSH units already open in the Second District.
A longtime advocate of sensible gun law reform, he led the Council in enacting a safe storage ordinance and co-authored the City’s “Ghost Guns” ban, making possession or sale of these untraceable weapons a criminal offense.
He was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in the closing weeks of 2009. Prior to his election he was a Member of the California State Assembly. Before entering politics, he enjoyed a successful 20-year career as an attorney in the private sector.