A small group of Los Angeles city leaders faced shame and castigation after an audio recording of racist remarks at a private meeting surfaced on Sunday.
Los Angeles City Council member Kevin de León and Council President Nury Martinez confer at a council meeting Tuesday. Martinez, de León and other Latino council members apologized Sunday after the Los Angeles Times reported that they had been recorded making racist comments in a private meeting.Dennis Romero
The meeting, apparently about political strategy and redistricting, was attended by Martinez and council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, as well as Ron Herrera, the president of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. All are Latino Democrats. During the meeting, the group settled on Heather Hutt, one of the council's three Black members, who subsequently was appointed by the full council.
A statement attributed to Bonin and his partner, Sean Arian, called on Martinez to resign and, at the same time, urged the council to remove her as president. "In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me and I hold myself accountable for these comments," she said in a statement sent to NBC Los Angeles."For that I am sorry."
“I want to start by apologizing,” he said. “While I did not engage in the conversation in question, I was present at times during this meeting last year,” he continued. “It is my instinct to hold others accountable when they use derogatory or racially divisive language. Clearly, I should have intervened.”
Those issues are front and center in the race to replace Mayor Eric Garcetti, which pits a veteran Democrat, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, against billionaire former Republican Rick Caruso.
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