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Politics Oct 22, 2022
Los Angeles City Hall. | Photo courtesy of Ken Lund/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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By ERIC HE
The Los Angeles City Council is set to resume in-person meetings in the council chamber starting Tuesday following a week of virtual sessions after two members tested positive for COVID-19, according to the city clerk’s office.
Both Council President Paul Krekorian and Councilman Mike Bonin have tested positive for COVID-19 since last week, though Bonin has since tested negative. Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, the council’s current president pro tempore, presided over meetings this week in front of an empty chamber while Krekorian and the other council members joined remotely.
CNS has reached out to Krekorian’s office for an update on whether the council president has since tested negative.
During Friday’s meeting, the council heard from many public speakers demanding that the LA City Council stop holding meetings until Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo resign over their involvement in the City Hall racism scandal, several council members explained why they were continuing with the city’s business, and said that whether they meet has no leverage over the two embattled councilmen’s decisions.
The meeting marked the council’s first session since de León said earlier this week that he does not plan on resigning.
A spokesman for Cedillo said Wednesday night that he remains at “a place of reflection,” echoing a comment the councilman made Monday.
“We will not shut down meetings because one person out of 4 million people chooses not to do the right thing and resign from his office,” Council President Paul Krekorian said.
Krekorian said he cannot imagine a scenario in which de León can continue to operate as a member of the council. Cedillo had already lost his bid for re-election prior to the secretly recorded tape becoming public.
This week’s virtual session were held with 10 members — the minimum for a quorum — present for most of all three meetings. Neither de León nor Cedillo have attended a council meeting since Tuesday, Oct. 11 when they were forced to leave the chamber as protesters shouted at them.
The October 2021 conversation between de León and fellow council members Nury Martinez and Cedillo, along with Ron Herrera, then president of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, included racist comments and discussions over favorable redistricting — and led to Martinez resigning her council presidency and later her council seat last week.
On Friday, the council heard from speakers who described the meeting as illegitimate, stating that the city’s business cannot continue without resignations. The council took public comment for an hour and 23 minutes, hearing from every speaker in the queue.
Molly Talcott, who lives in Cedillo’s district and teaches in de León’s district as a professor at Cal State LA, implored the council to break quorum.
“It’s up to you all to take a stand,” Talcott said. “You cannot be neutral on a moving train. And continuing to hold City Council meetings shows that you continue to be complicit.”
Denise Kniter, policy manager with the Los Angeles County Business Federation, spoke for the group of more than 200 businesses.
“We have lots of pressing, important issues that we need to tackle that cannot be addressed in good faith while you are still holding office,” she said, addressing de León and Cedillo. “You’ve proven yourself completely unfit for public office.”
However, council members suggested that neither de León nor Cedillo care whether the council meets.
“We cannot let bullies continue to block the work of the council by refusing to resign,” Councilwoman Nithya Raman said. “And I don’t believe that us not meeting has any leverage on them making that decision. They have shown a clear indifference to calls from throughout this entire country.”
Councilman Mike Bonin said: “Mr. de León and Mr. Cedillo don’t give a crap what anybody thinks. That is abundantly clear. Our meeting or not has no leverage over them whatsoever.”
Bonin, whose 2-year-old Black son was the target of a racial slur in the tape, said he understands the anger and disgust of those calling for no meetings without resignations. He said he “couldn’t stomach” being in a meeting with de León or Cedillo, either virtual or in-person.
But both Bonin and Krekorian pointed to items that the council passed this week that they said are crucial to helping the people of Los Angeles.
On Friday, the council voted to approve an ordinance to prohibit misleading advertising by pregnancy services centers in Los Angeles, explore expanding the city’s Eviction Defense Program and seek reports on amending the city code to require air conditioning in all rental units in Los Angeles. On Wednesday, the council essentially extended certain renter protections due to COVID-19 by extending the local emergency declaration.
“The reforms that we need to do, we need to meet in order to do them,” Bonin said, adding that the council also needs to hold a session in order to certify a potential recall campaign against de León.
There is not enough time left in Cedillo’s term — which ends in December after his defeat to Eunessis Hernandez in the June primary — for him to be recalled.
Bonin said both council members, who were stripped of committee assignments last week, are “effectively powerless” and have lost credibility with the council and the city.
Their removals have left the vital Homelessness and Poverty, and Housing committees without chairs. Councilwoman Nithya Raman is vice chair for both committees, though Krekorian has the authority to appoint committee members and chairs.
“I refuse to give them the power to determine whether or not this council meets,” Bonin said. “I refuse to give them the power to say that we can’t do things to help the people of Los Angeles.”
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson was absent from Friday’s meeting, but said at a town hall hosted by the Los Angeles Times and Fox11 on Thursday evening that he went “back and forth” on considering whether the council should continue meeting. He decided the council couldn’t risk allowing COVID-19 protections to expire, and also pointed out the council approving several dozen affordable housing units earlier in the week.
“The city can’t afford to let those kinds of things fall by the wayside because we have these two recalcitrant and selfish members,” Harris-Dawson said.
Council members make nearly $229,000 in annual salary — or more than $8,700 every two weeks — with de León and Cedillo continuing to collect paychecks as long as they stay in office.
While the council met this week, many committee meetings were canceled — meaning items that need to clear committees before heading to the council will be delayed until next week at the earliest. On Thursday, both the council’s Energy, Climate Change, Environmental Justice, and River and Information, Technology, and General Services committees put up notices of cancellation hours before the scheduled meetings.
As of Friday afternoon, all of next week’s committee meetings were scheduled to take place, including two on Monday.
O’Farrell said Friday that the council “cannot be held hostage from doing the people’s business.”
“The longer they refuse to resign, the wounds just keep getting deeper and deeper,” O’Farrell said. “I’m hopeful that they will realize the inevitable and do the right thing and resign.”
If neither resigns by Tuesday protesters could attempt to disrupt the meetings again when they are held in-person.
Items scheduled to be taken up next week by the council include calling a special election to fill Martinez’s vacant seat and censuring de León and Cedillo.
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