Harris could be the next president. What does that mean for Garcetti?

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Dakota Smith and David Zahniser at the helm, with help from Noah Bierman.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s deep loyalty to President Biden earned him a posting to India.

Now, Biden is bowing out, and the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, doesn’t owe Garcetti anything.

Just a year and half after Garcetti was confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to India, he could soon lose his job with the upcoming change in administration — even if Harris wins. The man who once aspired to the presidency could soon find himself back in L.A., working a regular job.

Vice President Harris, whose mother was born in India, might want to make her own pick for ambassador, and she isn’t considered to be particularly close to Garcetti, despite their shared California roots.

“I certainly do expect that she would want to put her person in that slot,� said Indrani Bagchi, chief executive of the Ananta Aspen Centre in New Delhi.

Garcetti’s Senate confirmation took nearly two years, in part because of accusations that as mayor, he looked the other way while a top aide sexually harassed coworkers. Garcetti has denied seeing anything inappropriate, and a lawsuit by an LAPD officer who alleged the aide harassed him settled for $1.8 million last year.

A recent NPR series brought the scandal, which was extensively reported on by The Times, back into public view. The series raised the question of whether Garcetti lied in a deposition in the LAPD officer’s lawsuit.

Garcetti, in an email, said he isn’t focused on what’s next. He touted his work speeding up visa approvals and developing trade, military and education partnerships with India.

“I always believe that when you have an incredible job like serving as U.S. Ambassador, the focus should be on working hard and doing good work today and not on thinking about the future,� Garcetti wrote. “I love LA and always will but I love representing LA and our nation overseas in this extraordinary role as well.�

Still, it’s far from clear whether Garcetti’s family, which includes his wife Amy Wakeland and daughter Maya, is enraptured with India.

One D.C. insider with connections to California told The Times this week that “Garcetti’s family does not like living in India.�

Garcetti denied that, saying that: “Living in India has been extraordinary for my family and me. We couldn’t ask for a more enjoyable, fascinating, and stimulating place to be living — outside of LA of course.�

He declined to comment on the NPR report.

Asked about his relationship with Harris, Garcetti described her as a “longtime and close friend� who swore him in as ambassador.

A White House official said the vice president considers Garcetti “a colleague and a friend.�

“From standing together in the fight for fundamental freedoms to welcoming world leaders to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, Vice President Harris and Ambassador Garcetti have worked together on a number of critical issues over more than a decade,� the official said in a statement.

In Los Angeles, the perception is that the two California politicians — both rising stars at points — are colleagues but not confidants.

Months after Harris launched her first presidential bid in 2019 with a massive rally in Oakland, then-candidate Pete Buttigieg started gaining attention in California.

Garcetti, who had floated himself as a possible presidential candidate before deciding against a run, declined to endorse either candidate and made comments perceived by some as a slight to Harris.

“Kamala has a ton of love up and down the state, but people might say, ‘That doesn’t mean I’m not going to shop around … Maybe I’ll keep her as my senator and go with somebody else as president,� Garcetti told Politico.

Eventually, Garcetti backed Biden and served on the committee to pick Biden’s running mate. Some Harris allies accused Garcetti of backing then-Rep. Karen Bass. Garcetti allies countered that narrative. The mayor “didn’t put his thumb on the scale for anyone,� a Garcetti source told The Times in 2020.

U.S.-India experts said that Garcetti has largely done a good job in the complex role of ambassador to India.

The Indian government is accused of having a role in the fatal shooting of a Sikh activist in British Columbia and a plot to kill another activist in New York.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, is accused by opponents of hate speech against Muslims, and western leaders have questioned India’s relationship with Russia amid that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lisa Curtis, director of Indo-Pacific Security at the Center for a New American Security, described Garcetti as a “steady hand.�

“He has done a fine job. He seems to travel a lot, get around, and he seems to relate to the people,� Curtis said. “The fact that he has navigated [the relationship] through some rough patches says something about his diplomatic skills.�

At the same time, he hasn’t launched any major initiatives or pushed the relationship between the two countries forward, she said.

Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst who studies the Indo-Pacific region at RAND, said Garcetti’s record in New Delhi has “been kind of mixed.�

“The success is really just keeping U.S.-India relations on a good track, not letting bilateral irritants, such as the war in Ukraine, overtake the relationship,� said Grossman. “He has been pretty astute.�

“The criticism is he could talk more freely about human rights. He could talk more freely about how Modi is turning India into an illiberal democracy,� said Grossman. “He could be more forward-leaning on those things if he chose to, or if he had permission from the Biden administration to do so.�

If Garcetti returns to the U.S., he likely won’t have a hard time finding work.

Recently-filed financial disclosures for 2023 show that he quickly secured jobs after leaving the mayor’s office in December 2022.

The Los Angeles Clean Tech Incubator, a nonprofit focused on environmentally-friendly technology that has been subsidized by the DWP and the city, paid Garcetti $25,000 for consulting work in early 2023.

Garcetti also earned about $8,000 from Columbia University in early 2023 for instructional and advisory work, he told The Times.

State of play

— HE’S NUMBER TWO: Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson won’t take over as council president for a couple more weeks. But on Tuesday, his colleagues decided to put Councilmember Bob Blumenfield in the No. 2 leadership post. That position, technically known as president pro tempore, will require Blumenfield to run some council meetings, while also ensuring he has a seat on the powerful Executive Employee Relations Committee, which handles labor negotiations.

The proposal to make Blumenfield the council’s No. 2 was signed by an unlikely combination: Nithya Raman and Katy Yaroslvasky introduced the motion, while Kevin de León, Paul Krekorian, Curren Price, Monica Rodriguez and Hugo Soto-Martínez seconded it.

— STILL STAYING SECRET: Mayor Karen Bass said Wednesday that she hasn’t yet interviewed the top three candidates for police chief but intends to make her selection by the end of the month. Bass still hasn’t publicly identified the three finalists, telling The Times it’s not clear that they would want their names released. “I think I need to be sensitive to that,� she said.

— MEASURING MEASURE ULA: About $375 million has been collected through Measure ULA, the so-called mansion tax, since it went into effect. A big chunk of that money will go toward “social housing� programs, which would enable renters to buy properties and run them together.

— PARKING FOR PEREZ: The City Council is slated to decide later this month whether it will put John Pérez, the former State Assembly Speaker, on the city’s Board of Harbor Commissioners. Bass has been facing heat over her decision to remove San Pedro resident Diane Middleton and replace her with Pérez. Still, some in the harbor area appear confident that Pérez will be confirmed.

Pérez already has a reserved parking space at the Port of Los Angeles marked “commissioner,� which grabbed the attention of one eagle-eyed observer. Asked about the placard, port spokesperson Phillip Sanfield said harbor officials installed the sign believing that the council would take up Perez’s nomination this week. “Moving forward, the Port will wait until confirmation before installing name plates,� he said in an email.

— HELPING OUT HUTT: Bass gave a boost to the reelection campaign of Councilmember Heather Hutt, headlining a fundraising reception for her on Sunday. Hutt is facing a challenge from attorney Grace Yoo in a district that stretches from Koreatown south to the Crenshaw Boulevard corridor.

While Katy’s in France, her district pops off

What the heck is going on in Council District 5? Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky arrived in France — going to a Sister Cities event, then the Paralympic Games in Paris — just in time for things in her Westside district to suddenly pop off.

On the east end of the district, a neighborhood group sued to stop an affordable housing project planned on Lorraine Boulevard. That project was approved as part of Executive Directive 1, the mayor’s initiative to fast-track affordable housing.

Along the Fairfax corridor, supporters and opponents of the TVC redevelopment project, which would modernize the CBS Television City property, were gearing up for a showdown at the citywide planning commission, which takes up the studio proposal on Thursday.

Further west, Saucy Bird restaurant on Pico Boulevard scored a short-term legal victory in its fight against a 33-bed homeless facility. Superior Court Judge Curtis Kin issued a temporary restraining order blocking construction work on the interim housing project, at least until a hearing on Sept. 25.

Finally, even more news: a group opposed to the Pico Boulevard project told the Westside Current it has begun organizing a recall campaign against Yaroslavsky. (Recalls are extremely difficult to carry out in L.A., with most groups falling short of the required signatures.)

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s program to combat homelessness went to the South Los Angeles district represented by Councilmember Curren Price, focusing on the area around Avalon Boulevard and East Vernon Avenue. More than 10 people were moved indoors from that location, which has been the site of other Inside Safe operations, according to the mayor’s team.
• On the docket for next week: Mayor Bass, LA28 head Casey Wasserman and others will gather Thursday at City Hall to celebrate the installation of the Olympic and Paralympic flags. The exhibit isn’t without controversy.