LA Mayor-elect Karen Bass announces inauguration program ahead of Sunday Oath of Office

The public inauguration ceremony plan for Los Angeles Mayor-elect Karen Bass was announced Saturday, Dec. 10, featuring an Oath of Office administered by Vice President Kamala Harris, several speakers and performances to usher in Bass’ tenure as the 43rd mayor of the city – and the first woman to hold the position as L.A.’s top elected official.

The program, at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, at Microsoft Theater, will feature an inaugural address by Bass, with the oath administered by Harris. That will be flanked by poems from Amanda Gorman and Sophie Szew; performances by Mary Mary, the Hamilton High School Chamber Choir, and others; remarks by state Senate President pro-Tempore Toni G. Atkins, the first female in that role; and Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center.

There will be an interfaith invocation by the Rev. Norman Johnson, Bass’ pastor and pastor of First New Christian Fellowship Baptist Church; Rabbi Sharon Brous, senior rabbi of IKAR; Sadegh Namazikhah, executive director of IMAN Cultural Center; and Pastor Rene Molina, co-founder of Iglesia Restauración.

Doors open at 11 a.m. and close at 1 p.m. Organizers encouraged early arrival, and note that masks are required.

Bass will be only the second Black mayor in the history of Los Angeles, after defeating real estate developer Rick Caruso in the Nov. 8 election.

She previously broke barriers by becoming the first Black woman in U.S. history to serve as speaker of any state legislature, is a six-term congresswoman who entered the L.A. mayoral race as the establishment candidate for the Democratic Party.

Her term as mayor will begin Monday, but Bass is holding her inaugural ceremony a day early “to make it easier for Angelenos to attend and to ensure her first day as mayor is dedicated to bringing unhoused Angelenos inside and making our city safer and more livable for all,” the Office of the Mayor-elect said in a news release.

Bass has pledged to declare a state of emergency to combat L.A.’s homelessness crisis her first day on the job.

But she will also take the oath amid major turbulence in the wake of an L.A. City Council scandal that reignited Friday and into Saturday as L.A. City Councilperson Kevin de León was involved in a physical altercation with a local organizer hours after his attempt to attend a meeting was met with a walkout by three council members.

That walkout was in protest of de León’s participation with two other council members and a former union leader in a private meeting that included racist and disparaging remarks.

Those remarks, via a leaked audio recording, have roiled the city, amid election season and now beyond as a newly elected council, with fresh faces, and Bass, begin their work.

But there are questions over how much work can get done with a censured de León — the subject of a recall campaign — seeking to be seated at meetings and colleagues on the dais who, as Councilmember Mike Bonin said on Twitter Friday, say he is a “vile racist.”

Moreover, the council turmoil calls for high-level leadership, but in a city whose charter gives the elected mayor limited powers over the council, it’s not clear what impact Bass can have on the situation beyond addressing it via her bully pulpit.