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LA City Council considers virtual meeting Friday amid protests
Los Angeles Oct 12, 2022
Protestors crowd into LA City Council chambers on Oct. 11, 2022. | Screenshot from LA City Clerk / YouTube
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The Los Angeles City Council may conduct Friday’s meeting virtually after both of its meetings this week were either delayed or adjourned due to protests calling for three of its members to resign over a leaked tape that included racist comments and political maneuvering over redistricting.
Acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell’s office was considering its options and expected to release more information later Wednesday on how the meeting would take place, a spokesperson told City News Service.
A representative from the city clerk’s office told City News Service that Friday’s meeting taking place remotely was “a possibility.”
As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the link to the agenda for Friday’s meeting led to an error page.
Former council president Nury Martinez resigned her council seat Wednesday, though the other two council members who took part in the conversation — Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo — have not yet resigned.
Following a one-hour delay on Tuesday due to protesters, Wednesday’s meeting was adjourned after protesters again filled much of the council chamber, holding signs and loudly chanting slogans such as “shut it down,” reflecting their desire for the council to halt all of its business until the trio resign their seats.
O’Farrell called several recesses in hopes of quieting the crowd before the meeting could begin. But the protesters refused to relent. After about an hour, O’Farrell announced that the meeting was being adjourned, with all items on the agenda postponed until Friday.
O’Farrell told reporters afterward that he was prepared to wait as long as it took to hold the meeting, but he said the council lost a quorum at 11 a.m. when Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson left the chamber.
A representative for Harris-Dawson told City News Service that Harris- Dawson left because O’Farrell had “lost control of the meeting.”
In a news briefing before Martinez’s resignation, O’Farrell said it would be nearly impossible for the council to conduct its business until the council members resign.
“It’s holding us up from moving forward,” he said. “The emotions are only going to flare up more and more and more. This is not going to calm down. It’s at a boiling point. It’s boiling over.”
O’Farrell said he gave the protesters the benefit of the doubt Wednesday, but noted that council meetings need to resume “at some point very, very soon.”
“This is a time unprecedented in the city’s history in terms of the dynamics at play,” O’Farrell said. “We need to take this one moment at a time.”
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