LOS ANGELES—After another raucous start to its meeting, the Los Angeles City Council voted Oct. 26 to approve a pair of motions to censure Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo for their roles in the City Hall racism scandal.
The city council voted 12–0 to approve the motions, which is the first time the council has censured council members since at least 1911, according to the city clerk’s office.
The council also called for former Council President Nury Martinez to be censured, because the motions were introduced before her resignation from the council. But a representative from the city attorney’s office said during a morning meeting of the council’s Ad Hoc Censure Committee that it was unclear whether the council can censure a former member.
The committee had approved the censure motions 5–0, sending them to the full council for its later approval.
After the full council vote, Council President Paul Krekorian said at a briefing that, while some may view the censure motions as just symbolic, it was still important for the council to stand united in calling for the two members to step down.
“With this vote, we have literally done every possible action available to the council in demanding the resignation of our two colleagues,” Krekorian said. “There are no steps remaining for this council to take to demand those resignations.”
The last time a motion to censure a council member was brought before the council was in 1977—against Councilman Dave Cunningham over comments he made, during a council meeting, about busing. But the motion was not acted on by the council, according to the city clerk’s office.
Wednesday, the council had to clear the chamber prior to taking up the censure items due to protesters chanting throughout the meeting.
Police issued a dispersal order as council members left the chamber, but a couple dozen protesters stayed, still chanting, even after a police captain issued a warning over the loudspeaker. The protesters left about 30 minutes later—pledging to return on Friday.
It was the second straight day the council conducted business amid loud and persistent protests, though on Tuesday the chambers were not cleared.
The October 2021 conversation between de León and fellow councilors Nury Martinez and Cedillo, along with Ron Herrera, president of the LA County Federation of Labor, included racially charged comments and discussions over favorable redistricting—and led to Martinez resigning her council presidency and later her council seat two weeks ago.
De León and Cedillo have defied widespread calls for resignation that range from President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom to nearly all of their council colleagues. Neither de León nor Cedillo has attended a meeting since Oct. 11, when they were forced to leave after protesters shouted at them.
Under the City Charter, a seat would be considered vacant if a council member is absent from the city “without consent of the Council for more than 60 consecutive days” or has “ceased to discharge the duties of the office for 90 consecutive days.”
Krekorian filed a motion Wednesday asking the city attorney to report back within a week in a closed session with clarification on those two provisions.
“It’s a challenging question,” Krekorian said. “I certainly don’t want a situation where the majority of a council who disagrees with a council member says, ‘Oh, well, he or she is not performing their duty.’ So there has to be a clear definition of what that means.”
