Second District County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Culver City) has been named the Board of Supervisors’ chairman, a position that he will hold for one year.
“Today, we usher in a new chapter for the Board of Supervisors, and it is indeed a very, very new chapter,” Ridley-Thomas told his fellow supervisors at their Dec. 6 meeting. “The composition of this board is simply unprecedented. It is historic. It is meaningful. It is purposeful. It is what I’d like to describe as the fulfillment of the promises of democracy.”
Ridley-Thomas, the first African-American male county supervisor, is now surrounded by women. Hilda Solís and Shelia Kuehl, who were elected in 2014, were joined on the board by newly elected supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger.
The two new female supervisors, who were elected last month, replace long-time veterans Don Knabe and Michael Antonovich in the Fourth and Fifth Districts, respectively.
Now the board’s longest serving member, Ridley-Thomas, who was elected in 2008, expressed his desire to continue with “a progressive government that practices inclusivity, intentional civility and respect for the wide range of constituents we serve.”
Last year, he pushed for more county funding and a ballot measure to fund construction for the homeless as well as more affordable housing countywide. At the Tuesday meeting, the board passed two of the motions that he co-authored for a sales tax measure to be placed on the March ballot that could bring hundreds of millions of dollars to combat homelessness, including in Culver City.
The supervisor’s son, Sebastian, represents Culver City in the state Assembly’s 54th District.