LOS ANGELES – A week after a leaked audio recording erupted Los Angeles in scandal and left the city in a state of uncertainty over its leadership, the city council on Tuesday elected Councilmember Paul Krekorian as its new president.
In a four-hour meeting, which was held remotely due exposure to COVID-19, council members listened to hours of public comment before voting Krekorian in as president, who will replace Nury Martinez’s empty seat following her resignation last Wednesday.
With five absences on the 15-member body, the council’s remaining members unanimously voted to elect Krekorian. He took the role of president immediately following the vote.
“I offer my deep thanks to each of you for the confidence that you’ve shown in me,” he told the council. While a presidential transition would typically be a moment of celebration, Krekorian said, Tuesday’s was not.
“The city is not celebrating now,” he said. “The city is still grieving, and we’re working overwhelmingly together to try to overcome what we experienced over the last week.”
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Martinez resigned from her presidential post, and later her position on the city council, after an audio recording first reported by the Los Angeles Times was made public. In the recording, Martinez is heard in conversation with fellow council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, along with Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, discussing the city’s redistricting plans in October 2021.
Among multiple comments, Martinez spoke disparagingly about white councilmember Mike Bonin and made racist statements about his Black son. Martinez can also be heard in the audio referring to Oaxacan immigrants in the city’s Koreatown neighborhood as “little, short dark people” and calling them ugly.
Herrera also resigned his presidency role due to his part in the audio recording. Cedillo and de León have faced mounting pressure to resign their posts, but President Pro Tempore Mitch O’Farrell, who served as interim council president after Martinez’s resignation, has said they’ve refused to step down from their positions.
Both Cedillo and de León were absent at Tuesday’s meeting.
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Krekorian again called for resignations after he was elected, saying their refusal to do so was holding “the business of the city hostage.”
“We will continue to move forward, as we have, overwhelmingly calling for their resignations,” he said. “We will move forward on my motion for censure. But we cannot wait to continue to do the business of Los Angeles.”
The city council also took steps during Tuesday’s meeting to advance the creation of an independent redistricting council and expand the size of the city council.
Krekorian was first elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 2009, after serving as a member of the California State Assembly.