L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian recalls the pandemonium following the release on Oct. 9, 2022, of a secretly recorded audio tape of colleagues making racist and derogatory remarks. For weeks, council meetings were marked by loud, angry protests that often shut down the proceedings.
City Hall was in crisis.
“The anguish was visceral in the council chambers and the council meetings were bedlam,” Krekorian remembers. “We could barely proceed with the work of the city.”
The scandal involved former councilmembers Nury Martinez and Gil Cedillo, Councilmember Kevin de León, and Ron Herrera, the former president of the influential L.A. County Federation of Labor. The audio was from a meeting where the four were discussing how to redraw council district boundaries in a way that would maintain their power.
In the year since the tapes were leaked, the fallout from the scandal has fundamentally changed City Hall. Martinez resigned, and Cedillo was voted out of office. (Herrera also resigned from the labor federation.) De León was urged to resign but remained defiant, not only staying on the council but announcing that he’ll run for reelection next year.
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There was also turmoil apart from the scandal. Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted on federal charges of bribery and corruption. Councilmember Curren Price was indicted on charges of embezzlement and perjury. Just last week, Councilmember John Lee was accused of ethics violations. Former Councilmember José Huizar pleaded guilty to federal charges of racketeering and tax evasion.
Perhaps most importantly, the tapes scandal laid bare the racial dynamics that sometimes pit council members against one another and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering to maintain power. Combined with the corruption charges against sitting and former council members, it upended public trust. Six new members were voted onto the council and one was appointed — none of whom had previously held elected office — and calls for government reform are now at the center of council politics.
Public comment continuing at the LA City Council. Speaker after speaker calling for the three council members to resign. @laist pic.twitter.com/Ov4BpIV8AB
— Jackie Fortiér (@JackieFortier) October 11, 2022
The City Council, then and now
Martinez was council president at the time and stood at the center of the controversy. Her comments on the tape were the most offensive. In an exclusive interview, she talked to LAist Studios for a new podcast “Imperfect Paradise: Nury & The Secret Tapes."
“There is no way I could undo what I said, or undo the hurt that I created,” she says on the podcast. “So the only thing I knew how to do was hand over my responsibilities as a council president and make sure that I didn't mess up anything else there.”
Krekorian replaced the often confrontational and sometimes bellicose Martinez as council president.
“The difference is dramatic,” said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. “They have a very different style and personality.”
He said Krekorian “refrains from strong-arming” the council.
Rob Quan heads Unrig LA, an organization focused on money in politics and representative government in the city. He’s a regular observer of the council.
“The biggest thing was it dislodged a tyrannical council president,” Quan said of the release of the audio recording. In the podcast, Martinez said she believed she was a fair president who championed the rights of working families.
Krekorian prides himself on collegiality and believes it's been important to moving the council beyond the controversy.
“My style is to welcome debate, to welcome different viewpoints,” he told LAist.
Progressives have gained a foothold
It's also a vastly different council.
Seven of the 15 members joined it in the past year. None of them had ever held elected office.
And the council leans decidedly more left.
“Things that I didn’t think would necessarily pass previously like renter protections are passing unanimously,” said Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics at Pomona College.
The more progressive council has focused less on the role of policing in addressing homelessness — something that in the past produced acrimonious debate and protests. Some council members continue to request the use of LAPD officers under Municipal Code 41.18 to remove unhoused people from around schools and daycare centers. But any debate is cordial if there is one at all, said Harris-Dawson.
It helps that Mayor Karen Bass, who took office just two months after the release of the tape, generally opposes the use of LAPD officers to remove unhoused people from encampments and has centered attention on her Inside Safe program.
“I think having a new mayor has breathed new life into the council,” Sadhwani said. “You see the mayor’s call to lock arms being quite effective at pulling the council members together.”
An outcry for reform
Amid calls for government reform, Krekorian in December created an ad hoc committee to examine changes to L.A. city government. On Thursday, that committee voted to refer to the full council charter amendments to create an independent redistricting commission.
If passed by voters, it could be one of the biggest changes to result from the release of the audio recording.
Removing the once-every-10-years redrawing of council district boundaries from council members and handing it over to an independent panel would end the kind of backroom dealing heard on the audio, supporters of the idea have said.
It's not a new idea. Reformers have been lobbying for it for years. The state and L.A. county already use independent commissions.
The release of the tapes breathed new life into the idea for the city.
The ad hoc committee is also considering a proposal to increase the size of the council.
Expanding the council would mean each council member would represent fewer people and, ideally, be more responsive to constituents. It is also an old idea that’s gained support.
Sadhwani is part of the L.A. Governance Reform Project, which is making proposals to the council reform committee on independent redistricting, council size, and changes to ethics laws. So is Gary Segura, dean of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA and part of the Latino Policy and Politics Institute at the university. He said the project’s aim is to “ensure a governance structure that secures fair and adequate voice for all Los Angeles communities.”
“Structures have a big impact on how people behave,” Segura said.
It’s up to the full council to decide whether to place the reforms on the ballot — likely in November 2024. But it may be eight years — during the next redistricting process — before the changes are implemented. That frustrates reform advocates who say any changes should be implemented immediately.
“It's the same old City Hall culture of doing far too little too late,” said Quan, who noted Krekorian’s committee has yet to vote on what reformers say is the much needed strengthening of city ethics laws.
“Until you have some reforms that bolster our Ethics Commission, it’s all for not,” said Sadhwani.
Krekorian has said he intends to place ethics on the agenda at a future date.
The power play behind the racist comments
The anti-Black, anti-Indigenous and other derogatory language used on the tapes shocked and angered many people. But the discussion around carving up council districts based on race surprised few.
Martinez and the others can be heard lamenting that half the city’s population is Latino, but Latinos hold only four of 15 council seats. In the course of the conversation, de León is heard saying essentially that Black people have too much power. Black people represent about 8% of the L.A. population and hold three seats on the council.
While the comments were denounced in both Black and Latino communities, there’s likely “simmering tension” over what was heard on the tape, Segura said.
“I suspect there is a hangover,” he said. “Distrust between and among communities is inevitable when you play zero sum politics.”
Sadhwani said the Governance Reform Project will take those dynamics into account.
“I think there are still conversations about race relations in the city that haven’t yet been had, and I hope we don’t just gloss over these dynamics,” she said.
How the renters rights movement fits in
One aspect of the conversation on the tapes that is often forgotten is how Martinez and others were scheming to dilute the power of renters in the city. It was not just a conversation.
The city council under Martinez’s leadership approved a redistricting map that changed the constituency of Councilmember Nithya Raman — a champion of renters rights — by 40%.
The result: Raman faces a tough reelection battle next year.
No other councilmember’s district changed by more than 18% and most changed by single digits or not at all, according to a New York Times analysis.
In the wake of the release of the tapes, state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigation to determine if the conversation violated the state Voting Rights Act as it pertains to redistricting. A statement from Bonta’s office last week said the investigation is ongoing.
Whether the conversation was illegal, it added to the perception that there exists a culture of corruption at L.A. City Hall. Over recent years, three former members of the council, and more than a half dozen City Hall staffers and others have been convicted of various charges, including bribery and obstruction of justice.
Krekorian rejects the idea of any cultural problem.
“That suggests that corrupt intent is widespread..at City Hall and I refuse to accept that’s true,” he said.
The council president said this the day after Councilmember John Lee was accused of ethics violations. Lee has denied the allegations.
A year later, Council politics are still ‘challenging’
Council members are seated alphabetically around the horseshoe of desks inside city council chambers. That means Harris-Dawson, who is Black, sits next to de León, who expressed anti-Black sentiment on the tape.
“It's challenging,” Harris-Dawson said. “It tests my home training.”
After the tape scandal, de León was removed from all of his committees and censured by the council. Every other member has called on him to resign. He’s convinced his constituents will forgive him and re-elect him to a second term next year.
One of the enduring mysteries surrounding the tape is who recorded it. Using unnamed sources, Los Angeles Magazine has reported it was a union bookkeeper who was spying on Herrera, the labor leader, whom he believed was sleeping with his wife. Neither the union nor the LAPD, which is investigating the potentially illegal secret recording, has commented.
On Friday, Councilmember Kevin de León and former council member Gil Cedillo filed separate lawsuits over the release of the tape, alleging it did permanent harm to their reputations as well as invasion of privacy and negligence. The lawsuits name the bookkeeper and his wife, both of whom are no longer employed by the Federation of Labor. Cedillo also names the federation. The tape is believed to have been recorded during a meeting at the federation’s offices.
An equally intriguing mystery is who leaked the tapes and why a year after it was recorded. Police searched the Eagle Rock home of the bookkeper and his wife in July with a search warrant alleging eavesdropping and destroying or concealing evidence. Neither has been charged.
There is an argument that the release a month before the 2022 mayoral election was to foment anti-politician attitudes and help businessman Rick Caruso beat Mayor Karen Bass. That obviously didn’t work. Besides, the opposite can be argued — that only a Black mayor could heal the city after the release of a recording featuring racist comments.
Harris-Dawson is well aware of the challenges facing City Hall one year after the bombshell of the tapes.
“We are fighting for our credibility,” he said.
