By Stephen Oduntan
Contributing Writer
SOUTH LOS ANGELES — A campaign to recall City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is turning years of frustration over neighborhood conditions, public spending and accountability into a direct challenge to his leadership on the City Council and in South Los Angeles.
Recall organizers accuse the Eighth District councilman of neglecting basic services and failing to address concerns surrounding Destination Crenshaw, the long-delayed cultural project he championed. Harris-Dawson disputes the accusations, pointing to progress in the district.
The City Clerk approved the recall petition for circulation Oct. 28. Organizers must collect 21,569 valid signatures by Feb. 25, to qualify the effort for the next stage.
Five residents — Kimberly Yergan, Dalila Sims, Tonja Edwards, Kijai Furtak and Leotha Williamson — are listed as proponents. Their authorized representative, longtime community activist Lynn Moses, said residents have exhausted their patience.
Asked why organizers were pursuing a recall rather than pressing the councilman’s office for improvements, Moses replied: :It’s far too late for that.”
In a follow-up email, he was more blunt.
“When one goes to the toilet to take a dump … you don’t start to pick out the good parts to save … you simply flush … the toilet!” Moses wrote.
Harris-Dawson dismissed the campaign in an Oct. 30 statement, saying his focus remained on serving residents and leading the City Council.
“With so many of the pressing issues facing our communities, there is no time for distractions,” he said.
In a subsequent statement Nov. 3, Harris-Dawson defended his record.
“Despite the challenge of historic disinvestment in South L.A., these baseless allegations misrepresent our record and ignore the tangible progress we’ve made in District Eight,” he said.
He urged residents to consider what he described as the political motivations behind the recall.
Moses rejected the suggestion that the campaign was a distraction, claiming organizers already had substantial financial and community support.
“The money is there, and the organization is there,” he said.
“If I told you how many signatures, just since the 28th, that have been collected, you would not believe me,” Moses said. “You would absolutely flat out not believe me, and just a few days.”
Moses did not disclose a figure. As of press time, the City Clerk’s online tracker showed no petition submitted for verification, although that does not establish how many signatures organizers may have collected privately.
“It’ll be a distraction when we submit those petitions,” he added.
Much of the dispute centers on Destination Crenshaw, the 1.3-mile outdoor museum and cultural corridor intended to celebrate Black art, history and culture along Crenshaw Boulevard.
The project has experienced years of construction delays, with residents and merchants complaining about restricted parking, blocked access and economic disruption.
In August, Mayor Karen Bass directed city crews to remove barricades, restore parking and address neighborhood conditions following public complaints.
Moses questioned the project’s finances.
“The next step is the community is demanding a dollar-by-dollar audit of where the money went,” he said.
The recall petition alleges Harris-Dawson refused an audit, although the available records do not establish financial wrongdoing.
Moses also supplied documents concerning the former Employment Development Department building at 5401 Crenshaw Blvd., which the city planned to convert into a council district field office.
City records show Los Angeles approved a lease in 2018 at an initial monthly rent of $20,087.50. A subsequent report proposed improvements and furniture, bringing the revised one-time project cost to $284,072.
However, a 2020 city report states that the office never occupied the building because of a legal dispute involving the property. The city stopped paying rent after two months and terminated the lease in May 2020.
Moses contends the project diverted resources from employment services, but the records do not establish misuse of public funds.
For Samuel Williams, a retired Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employee who has lived in the district since 1978, the recall reflects frustrations beyond any single project.
“We’re paying for services that we’re not getting,” Williams told The Wave.
Williams described repeated complaints about illegal dumping, neglected streets and service requests closed without satisfactory results.
Correspondence reviewed by The Wave documents his efforts to address dumping near 71st Street and Crenshaw Boulevard, including responses from council staff and city departments. Williams said the exchanges had failed to resolve his concerns or secure direct communication with Harris-Dawson.
“I’ve never spoken to this man. He has never replied to me,” Williams said.
Williams supports the recall but is not among its five official proponents.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said recurring dumping and neighborhood deterioration reflected broader frustrations with the district’s leadership. He described cleanup efforts that had failed to produce lasting improvements.
Asked whether the recall was driven by neighborhood conditions or a breakdown in communication between residents and their representative, Hutchinson answered: “Both.”
Moses views the campaign against the backdrop of corruption scandals that have shaken Los Angeles City Hall. Former Councilman José Huizar was convicted in a federal corruption case, while former Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas saw his bribery and fraud convictions upheld by a federal appeals court in August. Councilman Curren Price faces an ongoing criminal case involving public corruption charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
For Moses, those cases are more than cautionary tales. He repeatedly predicted that Harris-Dawson would face a similar reckoning, an assertion the council president has rejected.
Yet, Moses insisted the recall was ultimately about representation rather than political loyalty.
“I don’t care if a ham sandwich sits in that seat,” he said. As long as they represent the people.”
Stephen Oduntan is a freelance writer for Wave Newspapers.
