LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles City Council is set to resume in-person meetings next week in the council chamber, according to the city clerk’s office Oct. 21.
The agenda for next Tuesday and Wednesday’s meeting, posted Friday afternoon, notes the meeting location as the council chamber at City Hall. A representative from the city clerk’s office confirmed the in-person meetings to City News Service.
The council held meetings virtually this week due to COVID-19 exposure, with 10 members—the minimum for a quorum—present for most of all three meetings.
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.
City News Service has reached out to Krekorian’s office for an update on whether the council president has tested negative.
Last week’s meetings were either delayed, adjourned, or canceled as protesters filled the council chamber demanding the resignations of the council members involved in the City Hall racism scandal.
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.”
But 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.
“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.
“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.”
The protest is one of the latest developments in the public’s reaction to the recording that was leaked Oct. 9.
In the conversation from October 2021, then Council President Nury Martinez made racially disparaging comments toward various ethnic groups, as well as Councilman Mike Bonin’s 2-year-old black adopted son.
The remarks were made during a discussion on the city’s once-a-decade redistricting with Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
In the tapes, de León compared Councilman Mike Bonin’s handling of his son at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade to “when Nury brings her little Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.” He did not interject as Martinez belittled Bonin, who is white and openly gay, and called Bonin’s child “ese changuito,”—Spanish for “that little monkey.”
Martinez also said of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón: “[expletive] that guy. (inaudible) … He’s with the blacks.”
The group later talked about how to keep Latino councilors in office so that Latino districts would not lose financial resources after the maps were redrawn.
While former Council President Nury Martinez has resigned, Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo have defied calls for resignation.
If neither resigns by Tuesday—and de León already said this week he does not plan on stepping down—protesters could attempt to disrupt the meeting again if it is 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.
