After a week of deliberating the nomination of Heather Hutt to serve as an interim member of the Los Angeles City Council, the council is set to consider appointing her to represent the 10th District at a special meeting Friday.
If confirmed, Hutt would serve through the end of indicted Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas’ term in 2024, unless Ridley-Thomas is acquitted or the charges against him in his corruption case are dismissed. Ridley-Thomas’ trial is scheduled for November.
Hutt has been serving as the 10th District’s non-voting caretaker and chief of staff for Herb Wesson. Wesson was appointed interim council member in February to replace Ridley-Thomas, but Wesson resigned last week, three days after a judge issued a preliminary injunction barring him from performing any official duties in response to a lawsuit challenging his eligibility.
That continued the uncertainty of who would represent the 10th District. Since July 19, the district, which stretches from Koreatown to Leimert Park in South Los Angeles, has not had voting representation on the council because caretakers cannot act as voting members.
Council President Nury Martinez acknowledged Tuesday that a true democratic process would be for Ridley-Thomas to resign and a special election be held to fill the seat.
“We cannot do that,” Martinez said. “Our hands are legally tied at this time.”
Instead, she made a motion last Friday proposing the council appoint Hutt. Five council members blocked considering the appointment at Tuesday’s meeting, voicing concerns over the speedy process by which Hutt was nominated.
But on Wednesday, the council’s Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee unanimously moved Hutt’s nomination forward, clearing the way for the full council to consider it.
The committee was chaired by Martinez and also included Councilmen Joe Buscaino and Mitch O’Farrell, both of whom supported a hearing for Hutt on Tuesday. With committee approval, Hutt needs just eight votes to be appointed to the seat when her nomination comes before the council again.
Because the committee had previously waived consideration, 10 votes were required for a public hearing on Tuesday. Nine council members voted in favor of the hearing after Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson raised an objection to the item, forcing a vote.
At Wednesday’s meeting, committee members received confirmation from the City Attorney’s Office that the council would not be violating the city charter if it were to appoint Hutt. The council cannot delegate the decision to fill a temporary vacancy to another body, according to David Michaelson, chief assistant city attorney.
Members of the public who called into the meeting were split on whether the council should appoint Hutt. Supporters cited her qualifications and the immediate need for the 10th District to have a council member, while opponents believed the process of nominating Hutt was rushed and that the city needed to conduct more outreach.
Harris-Dawson, speaking after raising the objection at Tuesday’s meeting, believed the council was skipping forward in the process. Harris-Dawson said rushing to appoint Hutt would do a disservice to her, calling Hutt’s reputation and track record “sterling.”
“When we skip that process, which is what’s being proposed to us today, what it does is it calls into question the person who is being appointed and the process,” Harris-Dawson said.
Harris-Dawson added that the predicament is unique because Ridley-Thomas could still return to the council if he is acquitted of the federal corruption charges that prompted the council to suspend him last October.
“In that situation, you do all due diligence for the protection of the people in the 10th District, for the protection of Ms. Hutt, and for the protection of the reputation of this council,” Harris-Dawson said.
If confirmed by the full council, Hutt will be the first woman to represent the district and the first woman to represent South Los Angeles in a decade. She would also become the fourth woman on the 15-member council, and just the third Black councilwoman in the city’s history.
Hutt was born and raised in the district. She lives in Baldwin Vista.
Hutt was previously the state director for then-Sen. Kamala Harris and a district director for former state Sen. Isadore Hall.
“I’ve spent my whole life in public service, working on behalf of my neighbors and helping them with their needs,” Hutt said. “It’s important they have a voice in the horseshoe, but it’s equally important that their day-to-day, way of life needs are met as well.”
Ridley-Thomas was suspended from the council last October, following his federal indictment on corruption charges.
Ridley-Thomas and Marilyn Flynn, a former dean of the USC School of Social Work, are charged in a 20-count indictment alleging a secret deal in which Ridley-Thomas — when he was a member of the county Board of Supervisors — agreed to steer county money to the university in return for admitting his son, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, into graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship.