Mayor, City of Lancaster
Parris was elected mayor of his hometown, Lancaster, in 2008. He has overseen the city’s push to alternative energy, working with solar-power and electric vehicle businesses with the goal of making Lancaster a zero net energy city. All of Lancaster’s municipal buildings have been converted to solar power. Parris is a career lawyer. He obtained the first million-dollar verdict in Kern County as a young lawyer and, years later, obtained a historic defamation jury verdict in Los Angeles for $370 million. He is a founder of CarthroniX, a biotech firm developing treatments for degenerative diseases.