Our Team

The Hon. Joe Buscaino is the former President Pro Tempore of the Los Angeles City Council. He has represented the Council’s 15th District which includes the communities of Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, San Pedro, Watts, and Wilmington as well as the Port of Los Angeles from 2012-2022. Councilmember Buscaino served as the Chair of the City’s Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee from 2017-2022.

The committee oversaw the Port of Los Angeles – the busiest container port in the United States; LAX – the second busiest airport in the United States; and the LA Tourism and Convention Board. Councilmember Buscaino also served as Vice-Chair of the Rules, Elections, and Intergovernmental Relations Committee and as a member of the Public Safety Committee, Transportation Committee and Homelessness & Poverty Committee. He helped secure the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games for the City of Los Angeles as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympics and Paralympic Games.

In 2019, Councilmember Buscaino was elected as President of the National League of Cities (NLC) which represents more than 2,000 cities, towns, and villages across the country and is the country’s largest municipal advocacy organization. Since November 2020, he has served as NLC’s Past President. During his tenure as president of the NLC, Joe was instrumental in advancing billions of federal COVID relief dollars to cities, towns and villages throughout the country.

Councilmember Buscaino served as the Mayor’s appointment on the board for the South Coast Air Quality Management District from 2013-2022 where as chair of the Technology Committee approved over $1B of clean technologies throughout the District. He also served as a board member for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, and currently sits on the Sister Cities International Board of Directors. He was a past member of the Democratic National Committee and served as president of the National Democratic Municipal Officials organization. Valuing the role cities play in the state of California, Joe served as a board member for the League of California Cities from 2013-2022.

Councilman Buscaino has lived in the 15th District his entire life and is a first-generation Italian-American whose parents emigrated from Italy over 40 years ago, in pursuit of the American dream. Prior to his election to the City Council, Buscaino served for 15 years as a police officer in the Los Angeles Police Department and currently serves as a Police Reserve Officer for the LAPD. Buscaino graduated Cum Laude, with a BA in Communication from California State University – Dominguez Hills.

He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the LA Harbor Area, the San Pedro YWCA’s Racial Justice Committee, and the Advisory Council for the Los Angeles Watts Summer Games and is active with Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church and various Italian-American organizations. Joe and his wife, Geralyn, an educator with the Los Angeles Unified School District, are proud parents of two children.