Los Angeles City Council voted 11–0 Oct. 25 to hold a special election next year to fill Nury Martinez’s former seat and to appoint Councilman Curren Price as the next president pro tempore.
The special election for the District 6 seat on April 4, 2023, will cost the city up to $7.7 million, according to the City Clerk’s Office. A runoff, if necessary, will take place on June 27.
Council President Paul Krekorian said the funding for the election would be discussed further in the Budget and Finance Committee.
District 6—which includes central and eastern portions of the San Fernando Valley—is being overseen by a non-voting caretaker, the city’s chief legislative analyst Sharon Tso. A non-voting caretaker has no voting power but oversees the council office to make sure the district provides constituent services and other basic functions.
Martinez resigned two weeks ago after she was heard making racially charged comments in a leaked conversation from October 2021 about the city’s redistricting. Her term was set to expire in December 2024.
Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-Arleta), who was floated as a candidate for the seat if the council holds a special election, said this week that she wasn’t interested.
“I love my role in the state Assembly, which allows me to work on—and make progress on—the issues that I care most about, especially environmental justice and empowering underserved communities,” Rivas said on Twitter.
Price was interested in seeking the council presidency after Martinez resigned, but the council voted 10–0 for Paul Krekorian last week. Krekorian and Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, the former president pro tempore, subsequently introduced a motion nominating Price.
“At a time of rising violence, great animosity, and hateful rhetoric, we must come together and claim who we are as a city,” Price said.
Price has been on the council since 2013 and is in his third term representing District 9. He chairs the Economic Development and Jobs Committee. He said the council will need a collaborative leadership.
“As a 71-year-old black man, I’ve had my fair share of experience fighting against adversities,” Price said. “From living through a time of segregation to the social justice revolutions today. We’ve got some difficult days ahead, but I have infinite hope that working together works.”
Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement that Price has been an “indispensable partner in the fight for racial and economic justice.”
“His leadership can help lead our city out of a painful moment and into the healing, reflection, and action that can restore broken trust and unify Angelenos around the values of compassion, respect, and cooperation that will always define our people,” Garcetti said.
Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who was absent from the meeting, released a statement congratulating Price.
“His leadership is one of a coalition builder, and he has exemplified that ability in his own district to bridge the divides,” Rodriguez said. “I look forward to working with him to emerge from this moment as a stronger, more unified Los Angeles.”
O'Farrell, who had served as president pro tempore since last fall and briefly served as acting council president following Martinez’s resignation, will relinquish his leadership post on the council.
“Both Paul and Curren are dedicated and very capable leaders,” O'Farrell said while chairing last Friday’s virtual council meeting from the chamber.
Price has served in both the California Assembly and Senate, with stints chairing the Assembly’s Committee on Elections and Redistricting and Committee on Governmental Organization, and the Senate’s Business and Professions Committee. He was also chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus in 2010.
Prior to beginning his political career on the Inglewood City Council in 1993, Price was a small-business owner and a consultant with the Small Business Administration.
The other two councilors involved in the leaked conversation that spurred the scandal, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, have so far defied calls to resign.
De León’s term also expires in December 2024.
Cedillo lost his re-election bid to Eunessis Hernandez in June and will leave office in December. Council President Paul Krekorian has suggested swearing in Hernandez immediately if Cedillo resigns.
Throughout the two-hour meeting, a couple of dozen protesters kept chanting, slapping benches, and shouting. They chanted through the Pledge of Allegiance, votes, and Krekorian’s attempts to call speakers to the podium for public comment.
None of the people who signed up for in-person public comment approached the podium, which was crowded by protesters. Instead, some councilors put on earphones to listen to those who called in to give comments.
