Just hours after his term ended, former Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo released a statement Dec. 12, defending his decision not to step down from his seat over his participation in a racist 2021 conversation that involved three other officials.
Cedillo lost his re-election bid to Eunisses Hernandez in June—months before the conversation between Cedillo, fellow councilors Kevin de León and Nury Martinez, and Ron Herrera, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, was leaked.
“I refused to resign before my term ended,” Cedillo said. “That’s not who I am, and I did nothing that warranted it. My life’s work has been about fighting relentlessly for those who do not have a voice—regardless of their ethnic background.”
In the statement, he said he regretted not speaking out against his colleagues’ racist comments during the now-leaked conversation.
“I publicly apologized for not cutting off my colleagues when their comments crossed a line,” Cedillo said. “But to resign for staying silent, with no look at who said what in that room, and ignoring the totality of my work and history? That is unacceptable.”
However, he defended the discussion about redistricting by citing frustrations over Latinos not receiving a fair share of representation on the city council relative to population. At the time, Latinos held 4 of the 15 seats on the council but made up half the population of the city.
“Ethnicity and income levels are major factors in drawing relatively balanced electoral maps, and we wanted to ensure that Latinos and all communities are represented fairly,” he said.
Additionally, he said elections decide who gets to hold office and pointed out that he did not break any laws. Instead, he noted that “recording someone without their consent is illegal” and that the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into the leak will “conclude who the criminals are here.”
In the leaked tapes, Cedillo dismissed black voters by saying “the 25 blacks are shouting,” to which de León responded, “But they shout like they’re 250.”
Cedillo did not intervene when Martinez made racist comments directed at the black son of former Councilman Mike Bonin.
He also openly advocated for keeping certain communities such as Koreatown—a majority Latino neighborhood—away from the districts of some of his colleagues.
Martinez said Councilwoman Nithya Raman was “making a play” for Koreatown but that Martinez wasn’t going to entertain the idea.
“There are some people who don’t warrant us rescuing them,” Cedillo said, referring to Raman. “She doesn’t matter. She’s not our ally. She is not going to help us. Her district is not a district we can count on.”
Raman is up for re-election in 2024. Martinez said it would serve them to not give Raman all of Koreatown because it would give Raman more voters in her district.
De León said Raman’s district is “the one to put in the blender and chop up, left or right.”
“Yeah,” Cedillo responded. “Why not?”
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. He said he didn’t want to represent Elysian Valley, Eagle Rock, Highland Park, and Lincoln Heights.
“I don’t need those areas,” Cedillo said. “I have poor people.”
Cedillo said that in comparing the population and political makeup of a district, “the politics are as important to us as the population.”
In Monday’s statement, Cedillo said what he said did not rise to the level of warranting resignation despite calls to do so, coming from as high up as President Joe Biden.
Both Martinez and Herrera resigned quickly after the leak. Though de León has vowed to serve out the rest of his term through 2024.
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.” By remaining on the council until his term expired, Cedillo collected his full salary of over $8,000 every two weeks despite not attending a council meeting after Oct. 11.
Cedillo, 68, had served on the council since 2013. He previously had a lengthy career in the state Legislature, serving in both the Assembly and Senate.
