Los Angeles City Council Nury Martinez Resigned From Her Seat
Los Angeles: Three days after a recording of the former president of the Los Angeles City Council making racist remarks in a meeting that is currently the focus of a state inquiry leaked, she announced her resignation from public service.
Following a surge of outrage and demands for the resignations of her and two other council members participated in the chat taped last year, Nury Martinez, the first Latina to hold the highest position on the council, made her choice public in a press release. Martinez said offensive things about the Black kid of a councillor who is white and other offensive things.
Although she expressed to her daughter that she had recently fallen short of expectations and that she would work to improve herself so that she could make her proud, her resignation letter omitted any mention of these remarks.
The announcement was made several hours after Attorney General Rob Bonta announced he would look into the redistricting process in Los Angeles, which the three council members discussed with a labour official as part of a plot to preserve Latino political power in council districts.
Martinez resigned as president on Monday, but she kept her council position. A day after President Joe Biden denounced the comments and demanded that all three council members—Martinez, Kevin de Leon, and Gil Cedillo—resign, she decided to step down as she was about to arrive in Los Angeles.
Like the other three council members, Bonta is a Democrat, and he stated that the results of his investigation could result in either civil liability or criminal prosecution. In order to assist the people of LA regain trust in the redistricting process, he stated, “it’s evident that an investigation is desperately needed.”
While the council sought in vain to conduct business nearby during the ruckus that exposed City Hall’s ethnic rivalry, Bonta spoke in Los Angeles. Latinos made up the whole conversation that was leaked, and Bonta is the first Filipino American to hold the top law enforcement position in the state with the highest population.
The council met again on Wednesday, maybe to condemn the three members, but no business could be conducted because a group of roughly 50 demonstrators yelled obscenities like “No meeting without resignation” and drowned out the acting president. A quorum of at least 10 of the 15 members was present, however the meeting was terminated when one member departed. The three troubled council members did not appear.
“Who turned you off? You are stopped by us! As the lights dimmed, the boisterous audience erupted in applause.
Acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell stated that because there was no indication that the fury would abate, he didn’t believe the council could begin its work until all three had left, which was unavoidable.
Accountability is necessary for Los Angeles to mend and for its City Council to rule, he declared in a statement. “I reiterate my demand that Councilmembers de Leon and Cedillo step down as well. There is no other course of action. The council can only suspend a member when there are active criminal allegations against them. No one is removed from office or suspended as a result of a censure.
Martinez referred to councilman Mike Bonin as a “little bitch” in the recording of their chat. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday that she called his Black son’s behaviour while riding on a parade float at the age of two “parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.” Martinez also made crude comments about Jews and Armenians at another point in the hour-long recording, calling indigenous immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca ugly.
In 2019, Martinez made history when she was elected as the first Latina to the council presidency. On her website, Martinez referred to herself as “a glass-ceiling smashing leader who brings tremendous life experience as the proud daughter of working-class immigrants.” She was raised in the San Fernando Valley and is the daughter of immigrants from Mexico.
The topic of the conversation with a significant Latino labour leader, who has since quit, was safeguarding Latino political strength when redistricting council districts. One group may be pitted against another during the once-every-ten-year redistricting process to obtain an electoral advantage.
Even though Bonta left the prospect of criminal charges open, Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School and former member of the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, claimed she did not find evidence in the tapes that would support them.
Although the current maps are being used to elect new council members next month, she suggested a probe might require redrawing of council districts. It is quite uncommon to hear audio that suggests someone is actively making racial distinctions, according to Levinson. “Even though technically speaking it’s a tragedy, there needs to be a remedy for that if in the end we decide these lines were improperly drawn.”
Mike Feuer, the city attorney for Los Angeles, has advocated for the establishment of an impartial panel to create redistricting plans. By this point, Feuer claimed, “it should be obvious to everyone that giving elected officials the authority to draw their own political boundaries is a recipe for conflict of interest and an invitation to backroom dealings.”
A user who has since been suspended shared the recording on the social media platform Reddit. Who made the audio recording, who posted it to Reddit, and whether anyone else attended the meeting are all unknown.
