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Karen Bass transition team talks to ABC7 ahead of inauguration

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Karen Bass transition team talks to ABC7 ahead of inauguration

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ByAnabel Munoz via KABC logo

Sunday, December 25, 2022 7:54PM

Karen Bass transition team talks to ABC7 ahead of inauguration

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We're just days away from the inauguration of Los Angeles Mayor-elect Karen Bass, who will be the first woman to lead the city as mayor.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Mayor-elect Karen Bass's transition advisory team includes dozens of members from a wide range of sectors. Ahead of this weekend's mayoral inauguration, Eyewitness News checked in with some of them.

"I'm gonna be there with bells on," said State Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) "I wouldn't miss it for nothing in the world and I'm just going to be looking forward to seeing her take the oath of office," he said.

"I'm very excited. I'm very proud of Los Angeles that we elected Karen Bass to become our next mayor. She has an extraordinary history in Los Angeles, both as a community organizer, to speaker of the California State Assembly, to member of Congress," said State Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles.)

The transition advisory team is diverse; from elected officials like Durazo and Bradford to immigrants' rights leaders like Martha Arévalo, executive director of Central American Resource Center, CARECEN.

"We have an incredible group of women, people from the nonprofit sectors, people that have been around for a long time in L.A. City politics that care about the city," said Arévalo. "I'm really excited to be a part of something like this for the very first time," she added.

Arévalo stressed members will work on intersectional issues like housing.

"Immigrant families are facing homelessness, immigrant families are facing not being able to afford living in the city that is theirs, and that they work in and that they go to school in," she said.

Durazo plans to provide support on climate, housing, and jobs.

"I look forward to good jobs being created as a result of our partnership. Because I do think that whether you're formerly incarcerated or formally unhoused, that you have to have hope for the future," said Durazo.

"This is more than just housing, She knows you're going to need those wraparound services, so she's already reached out to those type of individuals, and when you look at this transition team, they come with a wealth of experience," said Bradford.

Among the issues Bass will be addressing is police matters, said Bradford, who is working on the issue at a state level.

"I've introduced a bill that deals with pretextual traffic stops, so we hopefully won't have to deal with just getting stopped for a nonworking blinker or brake light and it winds up escalating into something else much greater," he said.

Bass' historic inauguration will take place Sunday at L.A. Live's Microsoft Theather. She will be sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris.☺