Mayor’s new emergency order runs up against an unresolved problem: chaos at City Hall
It was the first major policy announcement from the new administration of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — a declaration of a state of emergency aimed at providing immediate relief to thousands of unhoused residents.
That declaration needs a City Council vote on Tuesday before going into effect, a simple enough task in a quieter political moment. Except the council has one meeting left until mid-January, and has been struggling to conduct its business amid a scandal surrounding Councilmember Kevin de León.
De León faces a furor over his participation in a conversation featuring racist remarks and, more recently, a violent incident involving protesters at an Eastside toy giveaway, which has only intensified the powder keg atmosphere at City Hall. He plans to attend Tuesday’s meeting, all but guaranteeing there will be a show of force from demonstrators who have demanded that all council meetings be canceled until he steps down.
Several organizations, including Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Tenants Union, urged their supporters on Monday to show up for the meeting. Ricci Sergienko, co-founder of the activist group known as the People’s City Council, pointed out that even President Biden called for De León’s resignation after the secretly recorded conversation became public.
“The city cannot move forward with him on the council,” Sergienko said.
An aide to Bass declined to comment. Council President Paul Krekorian, who has endorsed Bass’ emergency declaration, said the council would continue to carry out its work.
“We will not be deterred by any distractions or any disturbances or any disruptions,” he said.
The emergency declaration would give Bass greater power to spend money on facilities and programs to aid the city’s unhoused population — without council approval or a bidding process. Still, it is not the only big issue facing the council on its final day before winter break.
Embattled L.A. City Councilmember Kevin de León remains defiant after an altercation with activists during a holiday event.
Also on the agenda is a vote on whether to keep Krekorian as president. Until that decision is made — and the public has the opportunity to weigh in — the meeting will be run by City Clerk Holly Wolcott, who will have to respond to any disruptions in the audience.
Complicating matters further, some council members walked out the last time De León showed up. If too many of them pursue that strategy this time around, the council will not have enough members for a quorum.
The calls for De León to resign began in October after The Times’ coverage of year-old audio featuring him and three others — then-Councilmembers Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo and Ron Herrera, then-head of the county Federation of Labor. On the recording, Martinez said then-Councilmember Mike Bonin handled his young son as though he were an “accessory” and said the child was “parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.”
Bonin is white and his son is Black. De León appeared to compare Bonin’s handling of his child to Martinez holding a luxury handbag. He later said he was referring to Martinez’s “penchant for having luxury accessories.”
Demonstrators flooded City Hall immediately following the release of the audio to voice their outrage. De León said he was “extremely sorry” but has no intention of resigning.
In recent weeks, a much smaller group of activists have attempted to stop the council from meeting — chanting, clanging cowbells, banging water bottles on benches and using mirrors to shine a glare into the eyes of council members. Dozens of police officers have been assigned to each meeting, escorting protesters out of the chamber one by one or in pairs.
Tuesday’s meeting is expected to draw a much larger crowd in the wake of a violent confrontation between De León and a group of his detractors.
On Friday, five protesters showed up at a Lincoln Heights tree lighting organized by De León’s office, shouting at the council member and chasing him out of the room in front of scores of children and parents. The group cornered De León in a back room and surrounded him, with one activist, Jason Reedy, coming within inches of his face.
De León shoved Reedy into a table and down a hallway. Reedy punched De León at least once.
Both men have filed police reports. De León publicly accused Reedy, 35, of head-butting him during the incident. Reedy’s attorney called that account untrue, saying De León had “lost touch with reality.”
The incident, partly captured on video, has only heightened the concerns about safety in and outside City Hall. On Saturday, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez accused the protesters of engaging in “terrorism” during the Lincoln Heights event.
The council member said in a statement that he was assaulted. Activists said De León was the aggressor.
Rodriguez defended her use of that term Monday, saying protesters have also shown up in front of her San Fernando Valley home, surrounding the car she and her husband were in and making it impossible for them to leave.
“I don’t know what else to call it,” she said. “It’s intended to incite fear and wield intimidation to larger swaths of people, to elected officials, and intimidate them into adopting whatever their beliefs are.”
Hamid Khan, an organizer with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, strongly disagreed with those assessments, saying the council is waging “war” against political dissent — and treating protest as a crime.
“They’re painting this picture of violence. But there has been no violence,” he said.
For much of the last three years, demonstrators have gone not just to council meetings but also to elected officials’ homes. Last year, after then-Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell worked to clear a homeless encampment from Echo Park Lake, the People’s City Council created “Mitch Watch,” encouraging its followers to report his whereabouts and confront him.
On Saturday, police removed several people from a swearing-in ceremony for Councilmember Traci Park, who took office on Monday representing coastal neighborhoods. Each stood up and yelled as Park was attempting to deliver her remarks.
“I do worry about my safety, as I worry about the safety of my colleagues here at the city,” said Park, appearing at an event to commemorate the record number of women elected this year at City Hall.
De León returned to the council Friday after a two-month absence, sparking an immediate uproar from a group of audience members. Krekorian immediately called a recess, during which supporters and critics of De León shouted at each other.
Reedy and another audience member were ejected from the meeting. Police said they removed them out of concern that they were about to get into a physical fight.
In an interview, De León spokesman Pete Brown said his boss is determined to represent his district, which has a significant share of low-income households and monolingual Spanish speakers. Some of those constituents attempted to testify at a council committee meeting last week, only to find that there were no translation services available.
District residents also attempted to call into Friday’s meeting, but discovered that the public comment period had been sharply curtailed in the wake of the disruptions in the council chamber, Brown said.
“They were denied a chance to communicate their concerns,” he said. “That’s a form of disenfranchisement.”
In his final City Council meeting, outgoing member Paul Koretz quoted protesters “in their own words,” saying, “I yield the rest of my time. F— you.”
Krekorian, for his part, renewed his call for De León to resign, saying it would make the council’s work “much easier.”
“That being said, it’s not in my power to force him to do that,” Krekorian said. “So in the meantime, we will continue the work of the people in the City Council.”
Yet another X-factor is whether every council member will remain in the chamber once De León arrives.
When he entered the council chamber last week, Councilmember Nithya Raman and two of her colleagues walked out. Asked whether she plans to walk out again on Tuesday, Raman said Monday that she would be consulting Krekorian and others on “what’s best for the city.”
“I think we’re taking each day as it comes,” said Raman, who represents a Hollywood Hills district.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who took office on Monday, said she intends to leave the council floor if De León shows up. Hernandez, who represents part of the Eastside, said she and others are trying to do so in a way that ensures the meeting continues.
“There’s a process that we’re figuring out,” she said.
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