Elizabeth Chou has reported on Los Angeles City Hall government and politics since 2013, first with City News Service, and now the Los Angeles Daily News since the end of 2016. Its the prerogative of a boy whos too young to really understand whats going on., The crowd quiets to allow council member Mike Bonin, whose son was the target of racist remarks caught on tape, to speak. Prominent leaders call for the people involved to resign their posts. LOS ANGELES President Biden joined a growing chorus on Tuesday calling for the resignation of three Democratic politicians in the nations second-largest city, after a leaked audio recording revealed racist and disparaging remarks made by the City Council president in a meeting last year. public speakers demanding that the Los Angeles City Council stop holding meetings until Councilmen Kevin de Len and Gil Cedillo resign . Mike Bonin, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, shed tears on Tuesday as he spoke about the racist comments directed toward his son. Mr. de Len, who has apologized for the audio recording but has not yet offered to resign his council seat, is a savvy former state legislator who ran unsuccessfully for mayor himself, finishing a distant third in the June primary. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me and I hold myself accountable for these comments. Mike Bonin, who represents several of Los Angeless Westside neighborhoods, gave an emotional speech calling for some of his colleagues to resign after his son was the target of some of the racist remarks heard in a leaked audio recording from a 2021 meeting. I am prepared to do that job if the members want me to serve in that position, he said. The recording was a conversation among Nury Martinez, the Council president; Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Len, council members; and Ron Herrera, the leader of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, that took place in October 2021 during intense negotiations over City Council redistricting. Cedillo said elections decide who gets to hold office, and pointed out that he did not break any laws. We choose public life, but our families and should always be off limits and never part of the political discourse. Many speakers at this long, contentious City Council meeting have called for a deeper look into the policies shaped by the three members who participated in the racist conversation. The two changes are expected to sharply increase voter participation in the mayoral race, and both candidates have been aggressively courting Latino voters. Price, who is Black, represents the council district with the largest population of Latinos in the city and has shown he can build coalitions, Rodriguez said. There are naturally tensions, said Mr. Yaroslavsky, who now teaches at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles, which conducts annual surveys of Los Angeles County. She grew up in the Los Angeles area, and is formerly a San Gabriel Valley girl. I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. "In most people's memories, it's the first time there has been a censure motion heard against a councilmember," Council President Paul . [1], Martinez provided a statement in the Los Angeles Times apologizing, "In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me. David Zahniser covers Los Angeles City Hall for the Los Angeles Times. [2] Cedillo and de Len did not step down despite numerous calls for their resignations. The council has moved to censure Cedillo and de Leon but doesn't have the power to remove fellow elected officials from office unless they've been charged with a crime. Sign up here for our free newsletters. One of the three council members whose comments were on the recording, Kevin de Lon, just walked in, and people are shouting profanities at him. In a statement, she said, "At this moment, I need to take a leave of absence and take some time to have an honest and heartfelt conversation with my family, my constituents, and community leaders. Black people, by contrast, make up about 9% of the population and hold three seats. Acting L.A. City Council President Mitch OFarrell announced early in the day that he had removed Councilmembers Kevin de Len and Gil Cedillo from an array of council committee assignments the latest in a series of attempts to pressure the two men to step down, following reports that they participated in a secretly recorded conversation where racist and disparaging remarks were made. For that I am sorry. Los Angeles confronts its racial divide anew after the leak of racist comments. "I refused to resign before my term ended," Cedillo said. ", "The voters go to work in Lincoln Heights and come home in Lincoln Heights," Cedillo said. L.A. Councilmember Kevin de Len, left, and former Council President Nury Martinez confer at a meeting on Oct. 4, 2022 . The crowd at the City Council meeting erupts again in angry shouting after Mike Bonin finishes speaking about the racist comments regarding his son, and Mitch OFarrell, a council member who has drawn the ire of progressive activists over his handling of homelessness in his district, calls a recess to attempt to restore order. Eunisses Hernandez, who appears to have unseated Gil Cedillo on the Los Angeles City Council, hopes to shift funding priorities for the LAPD and other agencies. Whoops! Presiding over the meeting in Nury Martinezs absence is Mitch OFarrell, the president pro tempore. The decades-old advocacy organization, which focuses particularly on educational and business opportunities for Black people, called for the city to conduct an investigation to determine the extent to which the racial animus displayed by these elected officials has impacted any other decisions made by the City Council.. Your email address will not be published. I am proud and humbled to have done this work and I am grateful for all those who have worked with me and supported me through the years, Cedillo said. Mr. de Len issued this statement on Monday: There were comments made in the context of this meeting that are wholly inappropriate; and I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private. All three members apologized for their conduct. The profanity-laced recording of Los Angeles leaders mocking people in racist terms has stunned the nations second-largest city. To move forward as a city, we must move past the politics of divide and conquer, she said in a statement. Top Democratic Party officials in the state also called for the three council members resignations, as did a wide array of advocacy groups. I am so sorry to the residents of Council District 6, my colleagues, and the City of Los Angeles.. The winner will serve out the remainder of Martinez's term, which expires in 2024.[46]. The Los Angeles city attorney race was still seemingly too close to call, with three frontrunners. ", "Anger Erupts at Los Angeles City Council Meeting Over Racist Remarks", "Protests, calls for resignation grow as LA councilmembers recorded making racist remarks", "LA Council Members Apologize for Comments in Recording That Included Racist Slurs", "Council President Martinez on DA Gascn: 'Fuck That GuyHe's with the Blacks. "[52], Cedillo ultimately did not resign and served out the remainder of his term. Eunisses Hernandez, a progressive who defeated one of the three council members, Gil Cedillo, in a June primary and will succeed him when his term ends later this year. He believes they all should resign, she said. Separately, another chief of staff to Mr. Garcetti, Ana Guerrero, went on leave in June 2021 after disparaging comments she made about other elected officials, government employees and labor leaders in a private Facebook group surfaced. I know this is the result of my own actions. Please reload the page and try again. ", But Cedillo attempted to defend the discussion about redistricting, citing frustrations over Latinos not receiving a fair share of representation on the City Council relative to population. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. OFarrell said he does not see how either councilmember could return to the council floor with any level of credibility.. He claimed that the council members were "doing our jobs.". Councilman Kevin de Len, left, and the Councils president, Nury Martinez, conferred at a City Council meeting this month. People should not ask me for forgiveness, Mr. Bonin said. LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles City Council is set to vote Wednesday on whether to censure Councilmen Kevin de Len and Gil Cedillo for their role in the City Hall racism scandal. On October 9, 2022, an audio recording surfaced of a private meeting involving Los Angeles City Council members and a union leader that involved racist and disparaging comments and led to a local political scandal. Among the major issues in the mayoral race, Caruso has called for adding 1,500 sworn officers to LAPD. Mike Bonin, a white City Council member with a Black son, both of whom were the targets of bigoted remarks in the recorded conversation. Man, that makes my soul bleed.. She can also be heard to remark, "tan feos" (Spanish for "[they're] so ugly"). With three members effectively gone, the basic task of ensuring the council has a quorum the 10 members needed to hold a meeting has become considerably more difficult. Even though the server responded OK, it is possible the submission was not processed. [29], Los Angeles Council District 11 candidate Traci Park rejected the endorsements of Martinez and Cedillo, which had been given before the release of the recording. Since none were under indictment, they could only be removed from office by a voter-initiated recall. "Seeing my elders having to dig through the recycling bin every week, the blue trash cans, trying to make ends meet. And all registered and active voters will automatically have a ballot mailed to their households. "She doesn't matter. All four people on the audio recording are Latino. Were in crisis, and thats what we should be talking about, he said. After the release of the audio, Herrera faced calls to step down from across the labor movement, including the leaders of eight SEIU California unions with Los Angeles-area members, United Teachers Los Angeles, Unite Here Local 11 and the California Nurses Association. "When you're saying defund the police and people are getting upset, that is an opportunity to have a conversation, to let them know yes, we've given them a ton of money and still we have harm and violence. We are going to need to look at those maps, he said. Los Angeless 12th district seat was held by Mitchell Englander from 2011-18, and he was the Council's only Republican. Heres what was said on the leaked recording of L.A. City Council members. I look forward to closing out my time on City Council, finishing projects and preparing to serve in a new way.. Mr. Cedillo and Mr. de Len have given no indication that they will step down. They were stripped of their committee assignments and chairmanships and were formally censured along with Martinez by the City Council in a unanimous 120 vote on October 26, 2022[3][4], In a closed door meeting at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor offices that lasted approximately one hour,[5][6] Martinez, Cedillo, de Len, and Herrera discussed specific councilmembers, redistricting, and how to "consolidate and preserve political power. Nearly drowned out by a circling LAPD helicopter last week in Chinatown, 32-year-old Hernandez told Eyewitness News how she would re-assess the department's budget if the election results hold in council District 1 and Hernandez replaces longtime L.A. politician Cedillo, who has served on the city council for nine years. At the time, Latinos held four of the 15 seats on the council but made up half the population of Los Angeles. Ald. In a highly unusual outcome for Los Angeles City Council, progressive activist Eunisses Hernandez appears to have unseated Eastside city councilman, Gil Cedillo, getting more than 2,000 votes over the incumbent. By the end of the afternoon, the council was on the brink of a leadership fight, with at least two members competing to replace Nury Martinez, who resigned from the presidency last week and then stepped down from the council entirely. {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}Your submission failed. Cedillo later talked about certain areas that he was afraid would be drawn into his district, and requested that his district move more to the south and the west. None of the three council members on the recording seem to be here. Man, that makes my soul bleed., Mr. OFarrell, the council member leading the meeting, condemned the comments and the political maneuvering of his colleagues. Councilman Mike Bonin, whose son was the target of racist comments, asks for his colleagues who participated in the conversation to resign, to cheers from the crowd at the council meeting. "But the activists, they're there 24/7. "[40] Bonin's family replied in a tweet condemning the racist comments and demanding Martinez's resignation. The only recourse is resignation or recall, he said. In the end, it is not my apologies that matter most; it will be the actions I take from this day forward. Those new arrivals may have a sharply different idea of who should lead the body. I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Scores of angry protesters disrupted a council meeting as the episode exposed painful racial fault lines in the diverse and heavily Democratic city. The court of public opinion has rendered a verdict, and the verdict is they all must resign., For more than a half-century, Los Angeles politics have been a study in demographic constituencies and race relations. On Tuesday, Ms. Martinez said she would take a leave of absence from the City Council: This has been one of the most difficult times of my life and I recognize this is entirely of my own making, At this moment, I need to take a leave of absence and take some time to have an honest and heartfelt conversation with my family, my constituents, and community leaders. [17][18] The motion was opposed by Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Mike Bonin, who instead proposed instructing the city attorney to find eligibility requirements for appointments. As of Tuesday morning, however, Gov. Can it survive racist recordings? Because the Los Angeles County Registrar and Recorder does not identify which parts of Los Angeles still have uncounted ballots, the outcome of close races have been hard to call. [24] In the recordings, Cho also disparages clubs backing Soto-Martnez including the East Area Progressive Democrats and Democratic Socialists of America by saying "they don't actually go outside" and "that's why they're so pale." Cedillo has been absent from council meetings for the past two weeks. Cedillo had said little regarding the leaked conversation for months, with the only public statement continuing to be that he was "at a place of reflection." O'Farrell has spoken with Cedillo and said he is "reconciling his feelings about this transgression and understood the gravity of the moment." They . He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial in May. Over the decades, the assorted constituencies have tried to develop a coalition style of politics based on common interests in the heavily Democratic city, but, beneath that veneer, the reality often has been a quest for power and political spoils. The recording was so shocking that local and state leaders on Monday called for all involved to resign immediately. "[47] On October 20, 2022, de Len said he would not resign and that he planned to serve out the remainder of his term. / KCAL News. While I did not engage in the conversation in question, I was present at times during this meeting last year. The four people heard on an audio recording that rocked Los Angeles politics over the weekend have long been significant Democratic power brokers, not just in the city but in California as a whole. Those remarks echoed long-held complaints about representation and power in the city. Los Angeles City Council members Gil Cedillo, and Kevin De Leon attended Tuesday's council meeting briefly on Tuesday, October 11, 2022 at Los Angeles City Hall, Council Chambers. 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