The Los Angeles City Council adjourned its meeting Wednesday as protests calling for the resignations of three members continued in the council chambers for a second straight day.
After multiple delays and recesses, the meeting was adjourned and all agenda items were moved to a scheduled Friday meeting. Interim Council President Mitch O'Farrell called multiple recesses in an effort to get the meeting started, but called for adjournment after about an hour.
Protesters gathered inside and outside of City Hall for Wednesday's meeting, which was scheduled for 10 a.m. The crowd was noticeably smaller than the one that descended on a sometimes raucous meeting Tuesday that was delayed by vocal protesters who chanted and shouted in council chambers, calling for councilmembers Nury Martinez, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo to step down. They were heard on a leaked recording of a closed-door October 2021 meeting discussing redistricting in a conversation that included attacks on colleague Mike Bonin and racist remarks about his 2-year-old adopted Black son.
Martinez announced her resignation in the hours after the meeting.
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O'Farrell told reporters that he was prepared to wait even longer to start the meeting, but the council lost a quorum at 11 a.m. when Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson had to leave. A quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present for a meeting.
"The harm that has been done to Angelenos and this city requires that we be very patient,'' O'Farrell said, again calling for his three colleagues to resign. "It's holding us up from moving forward."
De León, Martinez and Cedillo were not in attendance. Bonin's office announced that he tested positive for COVID Tuesday night, but he was prepared to be part of Wednesday's meeting via Zoom.
Wednesday's agenda did not specifically mention actions involving Martinez, de León and Cedillo, but the matter would likely have been addressed during the usual public comment period.
After the adjournment, O’Farrell's office announced that he appointed five councilmembers to a newly created ad hoc censure committee. As part of the process, the committee is required to permit testimony from the councilmembers making the request and those who are subject to the request.
The committee will determine whether further investigation is required to determine if a censure hearing is necessary. That committee would then present recommendations to the full council.
Despite repeated interruptions, several motions were introduced and voted on at Tuesday's meeting, including items demanding the three councilmembers' resignations, motions to censure, another that would remove them from council committees and a broader motion that revisits redistricting and other reforms.
The meeting included emotional remarks from Bonin, who fought back tears as he asked shouting and chanting protesters inside the City Council Chambers for quiet so he could address the firestorm surrounding his colleagues.
"I am still trying to wrap my head around this," Bonin said. "My husband and I are both raw and angry and heartbroken and sick for our family and for Los Angeles. As an Angeleno, I am reeling from the revelations of what these people said. Trusted servants who voice hate. These people stabbed us, and shot us and cut the spirit of Los Angles. It gave a beatdown to the heart and soul of the city."
Martinez, who stepped down Monday as council president, announced a leave of absence Tuesday. De León and Cedillo were initially at the meeting, but later left after a discussion with other members.
There have been widespread calls for the councilmembers to step down. On Tuesday, President Biden joined the list of people and groups demanding change on the 15-member panel.
All three member issued public apologies over the weekend, but have not mentioned plans to step down.
Here are some of the motions introduced and voted on at Tuesday's meeting.
Mike Bonin's tearful remarks during raucous meeting
Bonin spoke Tuesday not as a Los Angeles public official, but as a father.
The 11th District representative fought back tears as he asked shouting and chanting protesters inside the City Council Chamber for quiet so he could address the remarks made by his colleagues, all of whom issued apologies Sunday.
"I am still trying to wrap my head around this," Bonin said. "My husband and I are both raw and angry and heartbroken and sick for our family and for Los Angeles. As an Angeleno, I am reeling from the revelations of what these people said. Trusted servants who voice hate. These people stabbed us, and shot us and cut the spirit of Los Angles. It gave a beatdown to the heart and soul of the city."
Click here to watch his full remarks.
Motion calls for councilmembers' resignations
Nearly half of the council backed a calling for Martinez, de León and Cedillo to step down.
The motion was signed by Bonin, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Nithya Raman, Bob Blumenfield, Paul Koretz, Heather Hutt and Mitch O'Farrell. It states that the comments made in the recording "exposed layers of contempt for the people of Los Angeles and a cynical, ugly desire to divide the city rather than unite and serve it."
The motion also described the conversation as "vile, abhorrent, disgraceful and demonstrates a culture of corruption in our Council Chambers. It is unbefitting of any public office."
Motion introduced to censure councilmembers
In a separate motion, seven council members also called for their colleagues to be censured.
According to the city charter, council members can be censured with a two-thirds vote if they conduct actions that "constitute a gross failure to meet such high standards, even if the action does not constitute a ground for removal from office under the Charter."
Council members Bonin, O'Farrell, Raman. Koretz, Paul Krekorian and Curren Price signed onto one censure motion, while Councilman Bob Blumenfield introduced a separate motion also calling for the three members to be censured. With full attendance, the council would need 10 members to vote to censure Martinez, de León and Cedillo.
Council considers removing three councilmembers from committees
Separate motions called for removing Martinez, de León and Cedillo of their leadership positions on council committees. The changes would be made at the earliest opportunity.
Martinez chairs both the Ad Hoc Committee on COVID-19 Recovery and Neighborhood Investment and the Rules, Election, and Intergovernmental Relations committee; De León chairs the Homelessness and Poverty Committee; and Cedillo chairs the Housing Committee.
Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson filed the motions regarding Cedillo and de León. Councilwoman Nithya Raman sought Martinez's removal.
The motions state that the City Council and the public have "lost faith" in the respective council members' ability to lead committees.
The Council cannot expel the members. It can suspend a member when criminal charges are pending. A censure does not result in suspension or removal from office.
Another look at redistricting and reform
Councilwoman Nithya Raman introduced a motion calling for the creation of an Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform. The committee would be charged with "implementing reforms to increase transparency, limit corruption, and make city leadership more representative of our communities,'' according to Raman's office.
According to the motion, the leaked tape of a conversation between Council members Nury Martinez, Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo and former Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera has "provided the public a window into a redistricting process stained by self-interested political gerrymandering and backroom deals.''
"The anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-gay, and racist statements we all heard over the last 72 hours do not represent the Los Angeles that I know and that I love so deeply,'' Raman said. "This incident -- which happened during a broken redistricting process -- along with the recent FBI indictments have rightly shattered Angeleno's faith in their government. We will not be able to move forward as a city until we have restored the trust of residents.''
Several community groups have issued statements since the release of the recorded conversation calling for change in the city's redistricting process, which is conducted every 10 years to redraw the boundaries of the council's 15 districts
