It has been a rough few weeks for Los Angeles’ City Council and the community at large. On October 9, 2022, Council President Nury Martinez was embroiled in a scandal where audio was leaked of her alongside Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León making racist remarks about fellow Councilmember Mike Bonin’s Black son and indigenous Oaxacan people. This audio, however, is not an isolated incident. It is indicative of systemic issues within Los Angeles’ City Council.
Martinez has since resigned, both from the Presidency and the Council. Calls for Cedillo and de León to resign have come from all over the country, including everyday Americans, California Governor Gavin Newsom and even President Joe Biden. Cedillo, a two-term incumbent, was defeated in his June primary by the Democratic Socialist Eunisses Hernandez and will leave office in December. De León, conversely, will not face re-election until 2024 and has vowed not to resign from his seat.
Both Cedillo and de León were stripped of their committee chairmanships and assignments by acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell on Monday, a move that was intended to ramp up pressure on them to resign. On Tuesday, the Council took its first step towards a return to normalcy by electing Councilmember Paul Krekoran as the new President in a unanimous vote.
I interned for Council President Krekorian in 2019. Councilmember Krekorian is a superb choice to lead the Council out of these scandals. While he is not going to push a progressive agenda, he is decidedly non-controversial and will, in all likelihood, prove to be a steady presence as the Council looks to re-legitimize itself amongst Angelenos.
As someone who worked at Los Angeles City Hall, I am familiar with the inner workings of Los Angeles’ City Council and I offer a warning: replacing Nury Martinez with Paul Krekorian alone will not solve the council’s underlying systemic issues that were brought to the surface by this recent scandal.
The 15-seat Council, which currently has 13 Democrats, one vacancy and one independent former Republican, is divided much like all American politics today. The key difference between local Los Angeles politics and national politics is that there is some semblance of decorum within City Hall. The Councilmembers are, in fact, nice to one another—at least to their faces.
Behind the scenes, however, is a different story. While Council President Krekorian was generally well-liked amongst his colleagues, his staff often commented on how other Councilmembers would speak horribly about one another behind closed doors, information they learned through socialization with other Councilmembers’ staffers.
Martinez, in particular, was known to be incendiary and impulsive. Her behavior was an open secret amongst those involved in Los Angeles politics. I, for one, am surprised it took as long as it did for this type of behavior to be realized, I just didn’t expect her to disgrace her own Latino community.
Before Martinez resigned, she, Cedillo and de León represented three-fourths of the Latino population on the Council. Now there are only three Latino Council members, two of which are disgraced. According to census data, Los Angeles is about half Latino. Thus, roughly two million Latino Angelenos, myself included, only have one legitimate Councilmember who shares our identity.
The leaked audio was actually from a meeting where the disgraced Councilmembers sought to influence redistricting to bolster their districts. While they claimed that they wanted to help improve Latino representation in the Council, Martinez described Oaxacans, an indigenous group from Mexico, as “little, short dark people” who are “so ugly.” This rhetoric is emblematic of a much deeper problem: racism and colorism within the Latino community.
The disgraced Councilmembers only wanted to increase Latino representation so long as it came from lighter-skinned Latinos—the individuals who were most likely to vote for them and their allies. They do not care about la raza, a term that signifies a united Latino community. They only care about themselves and their specific voting block.
These Councilmembers were just as willing to be racist towards their fellow Latinos as they were towards their colleague’s young Black son. Their behavior was abhorrent, reckless and a disgrace to themselves, the Latino community and all of Los Angeles.
These past few weeks of scandal have brought the once hidden toxicity within Los Angeles’ City Council to the forefront of national political discourse. There is certainly a lot to be done to allow the city to begin the healing process. The first step is on Cedillo and de León: they need to do what is right and resign from their positions immediately.
Councilmember Bonin should not be forced to work with the individuals who said vile things about his son, and the city of Los Angeles and its Latino community should not be represented by these racists who do not share our value of tolerance. Only once these individuals have resigned will Los Angeles be able to truly face this scandal and start to build a path forward.
A path forward, however, involves tackling systemic issues within Los Angeles’ City Council. Resignations are not enough to address the racist rhetoric displayed by those who are supposed to represent la gente. In addition, the Councilmembers need to complete their duty as leaders and exemplify not only superficial decorum but also respect for each other, their constituents and Los Angeles.
