2022 Los Angeles City Council scandal

Nury Martinez
Kevin de León
Gil Cedillo
Ron Herrera

On October 9, 2022, an audio recording surfaced of a private meeting involving Los Angeles City Council members and a union leader that involved racist and disparaging comments and led to a local political scandal. The audio recording captured a conversation between City Council president Nury Martinez, fellow councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (colloquially referred to as the "Fed") President Ron Herrera.

The next day, on October 10, Martinez resigned her presidency position but remained in her city council seat, as did the other city council members, despite numerous prominent calls for them to step down. Since none were under indictment, they could only be removed from office by a voter-initiated recall.[1] Herrera, however, resigned from his position the same day.[2]

After mounting pressure, on October 12, Martinez announced her resignation from her elected seat in the City Council.[3] Cedillo and de León did not step down despite numerous calls for their resignations. They were stripped of their committee assignments and chairmanships and were formally censured along with Martinez by the City Council in a unanimous 12–0 vote on October 26.[4][5]

  1. ^ Cruz, Irene; Pulliam, Tim (October 11, 2022). "LA City Council meets for 1st time following leaked audio of racist remarks". ABC7 San Francisco. Archived from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  2. ^ Pearce, Matt; Sakoui, Anousha; Roosevelt, Margot (October 11, 2022). "L.A. Labor head Ron Herrera resigns; federation joins calls for councilmembers to resign". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2022.
  3. ^ Zahniser, David; Wick, Julia; Smith, Dakota; Oreskes, Benjamin (October 12, 2022). "Nury Martinez announces resignation from L.A. City Council in wake of audio leak scandal". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 12, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
  4. ^ Melley, Brian; Dazio, Stefanie (October 17, 2022). "LA politicians to lose committee positions over race scandal". Associated Press.
  5. ^ "LA City Council censures Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo over role in racism scandal". ABC7 Los Angeles. October 26, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.