It comes as no surprise that this morning’s meeting of the obscure L.A. County City Selection Committee unanimously ratified the Gateway Cities selection of Mayor Rex Richardson to serve on the Metro board. The formal full county committee vote generally rubber stamps the sub-region’s decision.
Richardson joins the 13-member Metro board, effective July 1.
Richardson will fill the vacancy that opened when current Gateway Cities representative Fernando Dutra lost his Whittier City Council reelection bid.
In 2022, Rex Richardson became the first Black mayor of Long Beach. Richardson is a Democrat with a record of championing housing and economic development. In June, he was reelected, receiving 57 percent of the city vote. Long Beach has long been among the top half-dozen most bike/walk/transit-friendly cities in L.A. County.
The Metro board will shortly see at least one more change, as long-serving Glendale City Councilmember/Mayor Ara Najarian is retiring at the end of this month. Najarian represents the “North County/San Fernando Valley sector” subregion, which has yet to meet to elect Najarian’s replacement.
The L.A. City mayor’s race has the potential to further change the Metro board, as the L.A. Mayor controls four board seats.
This article originally appeared on our sister publication, Streetsblog LA.
