A week after being rocked by public corruption allegations against yet another member, the Los Angeles City Council met Tuesday and elected Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson as the next president pro tempore.

The number of the municipality. 2 role was previously filled by Councilor Curren Price, who resigned last week after being accused of committing perjury by failing to disclose his wife’s business dealings with developers whose projects he voted for, and for embezzling of town money by his now-wife receives health benefits for spouses while they were not legally married.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the vote, Harris-Dawson called the situation Price faced “troubling”. Harris-Dawson also said the case “scratched” him and others.

“It’s just unclear. I haven’t seen any crime for this kind of activity. I’ve seen ethical violations for this kind of activity,” Harris-Dawson said. “So it makes me curious.”

Ethics Commission matters are handled administratively, with financial penalties for those who violate financial disclosure and conflict of interest laws. the

DA’s Attorney

office institutes criminal prosecution.

The news of the criminal report shocked councilors at the beginning of last week. But as the shock wore off and details of the case became more widely known, some at City Hall quietly began to question whether Price’s actions warranted such serious charges.

Harris Dawson

seems to be

the first council member to publicly raise concerns about the case against Price, which consists of 10 felonies: perjury, embezzlement, and violations of the state’s conflict of interest law. Much of the case centers on votes cast by Price on affordable housing projects developed by companies that hired Price’s wife as a consultant.

When asked about the comments of Harris-Dawson, a spokesman for Dist. attentive George Gascn said the

ir

office filed felony charges against Price because “the alleged actions are defined as a crime by law.”

If the OM had found that

violations of civil law

had occurred but that no crime had been committed, it would have referred the case to the city’s ethics committee or the state’s fair political practices committee, it said

Tiffany Blacknel

the director of Gascn’s communications office.

Price previously called the allegations “unjustified” but has not provided a more forceful rebuttal. Harris-Dawson also serves on the council’s rules committee, which will consider Friday a proposal to suspend Price.

Harris-Dawson declined to say whether he thinks the award should be suspended.

Tuesday’s pro tempore elections were held with little fanfare. After the council unanimously approved more than 20 cases with a single vote, council chairman Paul Krekorian’s face lit up when he asked the clerk to clarify that the pro tempore vote was included in the list.

“With that vote I congratulate our

congratulate our

Council President Pro Tem Marqueece Harris-Dawson,” Krekorian said shortly after, as Harris-Dawson smiled and raised his clasped hands with a slight bow. “I’d like you to come up and take the desk.”

start trimming

After walking to the raised dais where the chairman of the board sits, Harris-Dawson spent the next 20 minutes presiding over the meeting

instead of Krekorian

. It’s a role he will now play in Krekorian’s absence.

End of trim Krekorian had initially put forward Harris-Dawson’s name for the role last week and faced no public opposition on the board.

The shakeup won’t drastically change the council, but it does put Harris-Dawson in a prime position for further political rise. The South Los Angeles councilman and former community organizer has been eyeing the council presidency, which will be vacant again late next year when Krekorian steps down.

Harris-Dawson is also particularly close to Mayor Karen Bass. He led Community Coalition, the South LA progressive nonprofit that Bass founded,

before before

join the council. Former Harris-Dawson Chief of Staff Solomon Rivera recently left City Hall to join the mayor’s administration.

He represents the 8th District, considered the heart of LA’s black community. Along with Price, Harris-Dawson is one of only two elected black members on the council. (A third member, Heather Hutt, was appointed by the council to fill former council member Mark Ridley-Thomas’s seat.)

Although the president is elected pro tempore by his or her peers, rather than directly elected by the chairman of the board, he or she is still part of the leadership team of the chairman of the board. The pro tem can “provide critical power to a leadership coalition on the council,” said Raphael J. Sonenshein, executive director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which sponsors social science research in Los Angeles.

Harris-Dawson leans politically to the Krekorian left and has strong relationships with the council’s most progressive members. Those connections could be a boon to Krekorian as the chairman of the council tries to rally votes.