The Los Angeles City Council is set to meet Friday for the first time since Councilman Kevin de León said he does not plan to resign over his involvement in the City Hall racism scandal. The council will meet virtually due to COVID-19 exposure among council members.
The council has so far conducted its business this week despite de León and fellow Councilman Gil Cedillo continuing to resist widespread calls to resign, with just 10 members — the minimum for a quorum — present for most of Tuesday and Wednesday’s meetings. Neither de León nor Cedillo have attended a council meeting since last Tuesday, 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, 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.
De León, who said earlier this week that he does not plan to step down, asked in a letter to newly installed Council President Paul Krekorian that he be excused from attending council meetings “in the coming weeks” so he can focus on the healing process. The letter was first reported by the Los Angeles Times and obtained by City News Service.
Krekorian quickly responded with a statement reiterating that de León should resign, and told KNX on Thursday that if de León tries to attend a council meeting, “many if not all” council members would leave and city business would again come to a halt. De León’s comments, which were made in a pair of interviews Wednesday with Univision and CBS2, was met with another round of resignation calls from colleagues, other elected officials and organizations.
Alberto Retana, president and CEO of Community Coalition — a South Los Angeles nonprofit organization that has worked to build relationships between Black and Latino groups — told CNS that de León’s refusal to resign was both arrogant and a slap in the face.
De León told CBS2 that he’s begun reaching out to various leaders and organizations. But Retana said he doesn’t anticipate hearing from the councilman.
“I don’t anticipate him reaching out to us at all,” Retana said. “Quite frankly, what I think we’re all looking for to make amends is not a call. It’s a resignation.”
The council cannot remove de León; he would have to resign or be recalled, a process that could take months.
It is unclear when the council will return to in-person meetings. Both 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 president pro tempore, presided over Wednesday’s meeting in front of an empty chamber while Krekorian and the other council members joined remotely.
A spokesman for Cedillo said Wednesday night that the councilman remains at “a place of reflection,” echoing a comment he made Monday.
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.
On Friday, the council is set to consider an ordinance to prohibit misleading advertising by pregnancy services centers in Los Angeles, recommendations to expand the city’s Eviction Defense Program and a report on amending the city code to require air conditioning in all rental units in Los Angeles.
The council will also take up several items accepting grants for housing.
Councilwoman-elect Eunisses Hernandez, who beat Cedillo and is set to represent District 1 beginning Dec. 12, said in a statement this week that the longer de León and Cedillo stay in office, “the more they put these life-saving protections in jeopardy.”
Hernandez could be sworn in prior to Dec. 12 if Cedillo steps down and the council chooses to start her term sooner.
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 soonest. 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.
Both de León and Cedillo were also stripped of their committee assignments last week, leaving 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.
Protesters calling for the council not to meet until both de León and Cedillo resign were outside City Hall again Wednesday, placing crime-scene tape at the entrance.
“The scene of continued crimes, we must shut it down, replace the hate, shed light on the conspiracy(s), and take our city back,” the activist group Los Angeles Community Action Network wrote on Twitter.
On Tuesday, a couple dozen protesters gathered outside City Hall, trying to enter the locked building during the meeting and chanting “No resignations, no meeting.” The protesters were confronted by police in riot gear, and a video posted by Spectrum News on Twitter showed one officer grabbing a protester on the back of the neck to keep him out of the building as another protester was trying to push him into City Hall.
Some members of the public who called in Wednesday criticized the council for continuing to meet with the two embattled members still in their positions, though Krekorian pledged Tuesday that the council would not be held hostage by de León and Cedillo.
Jamie York, a member of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, said the council should refuse to hear any items put forward by de León and Cedillo.
“Why are we doing Kevin’s business for him?” York told the council.
“Don’t schedule any business for CD 14 or CD 1 until they resign. It’s very easy. There are things that you can do that apply pressure, but that still allow you to do business,” York said.