{"id":466151,"date":"2026-09-17T00:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/466151\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T00:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T00:16:23","slug":"la-council-confirms-watts-community-leader-to-harbor-commission-daily-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/466151\/","title":{"rendered":"LA council confirms Watts community leader to Harbor Commission \u2013 Daily Breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday confirmed Sheila Lewis, an executive with the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, as the newest member of the Harbor<\/a> Commission.<\/p>\n

In a unanimous vote, the council approved Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 appointee. Lewis will take the seat left vacant by former U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, who resigned from her post on the commission in July.<\/p>\n

Lewis serves as the general manager of family and reentry services with the Watts committee, a role she has held since 2005. She earned her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Capella University, and is working on a doctorate degree in education from USC.<\/p>\n

Councilman Tim McOsker, who represents the Harbor Area, welcomed Lewis to the board, noting that she is \u201ccertainly a daughter of the One-Five,\u201d meaning the Council\u2019s 15th District.<\/p>\n

McOsker also recognized the work of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ethic of the place came out of the labor movement, and the idea that folks in community in the labor movement could create spaces where there are advancing economic opportunity, jobs, developing equity, and WLCAC through the leadership of Ted Watkins, God rest his soul, and then handing it off to Tim Watkins, who is here,\u201d McOsker said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWLCAC in Watts and in the 15th (District), and in the city of Los Angeles, is a place that is really dedicated to creating opportunity for all of us,\u201d McOsker added.<\/p>\n

He said Lewis has been instrumental in many things, but particularly in job creation and opportunities in reentry programs. The councilman said Lewis would be a champion on the commission who understands employment barriers and challenges to achieving environmental justice, and how to break them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watch very closely who gets appointed to this commission, and I will say unapologetically that I was advocating for somebody to be directly related to the labor movement, in the labor movement, and the mayor, very smartly and very appropriately, found someone who lives in my community, who works in my community, who cares about jobs, and appointed Miss Sheila Lewis,\u201d McOsker said.<\/p>\n

Lewis said she\u2019s \u201cready to do the work, and I\u2019m ready to serve.\u201d Her term will end on June 30, 2028.<\/p>\n

In a similar vote, the council approved the reappointment of Ishmun \u201cLee\u201d Williams to the Harbor Commission for a term expected to end June 30, 2031. Bass first appointed Williams in 2023.<\/p>\n

A resident of San Pedro, Williams owns and operates the Lee Williams Real Estate Group, and earned a master\u2019s degree from the University of Washington. He\u2019s a board member of the Boys and Girls Club of LA Harbor and the past chair of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Williams has been an excellent harbor commissioner, representing not just the Harbor Area, but the port and the region,\u201d McOsker said.<\/p>\n

Williams was appointed to the board following an effort by McOsker to ensure that the commission had at least two members who lived in the Harbor Area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank you again for the opportunity to serve my community, to serve the people of LA and to make America\u2019s busiest port in the Western Hemisphere something that we can be proud of,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

The five-member Board of Harbor Commissioners oversees the Port of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday confirmed Sheila Lewis, an executive with the Watts Labor Community Action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,3172,48,52,51,205,47,137,50,49,100,13,1438,1439,136],"class_list":["post-466151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-harbor-area","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-local-politics","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-port-of-los-angeles","tag-san-pedro","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}