By Kanaya Adams
The Northeast Los Angeles neighborhood councils of Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Glassell Park voted this week to send letters demanding the resignations of their city council representatives, Councilmembers Gil Cedillo (Council District 1) and Kevin de León (CD 14).
The letters add the voices of the councilmembers’ NELA constituents to the growing chorus of Angelenos and political leaders calling on the two to resign. The furor began on Oct. 9, when the L.A. Times made public a leaked audio recording of racist comments and other slurs in a meeting in 2021 among Cedillo, De León, then City Council President Nury Martinez and a former top labor official Ron Herrera. (Martinez and Herrera resigned last week.)
De León told Noticiera Univision and KCAL-Channel 9 on Wednesday that he will not resign.
In Cedillo’s most recent public comment on the scandal, issued last week, his spokesperson said that Cedillo “is at a place of reflection”.
At the neighborhood council meetings in NELA this week, several residents said that they had lost faith and trust in the ability of Cedillo and De León to represent them, using words including “racist,” “bigoted,” “reprehensible,” “inexcusable,” and “infuriating,” to describe the discussion heard on the recording.
Many residents also said that without accountability — that is, resignations — there can be no healing of the hurt caused by the remarks or the rifts they have exposed in communities and local government.
“Kevin De León and Gil Cedillo must resign… if they love this community, they must stand down… so that it can heal,” said Clara Solis, a member of the Highland Park neighborhood council who said she had supported De León. “This isn’t who we want to be, and we need them to resign so that we can be the city we want our city to be.”
Some of the participants at the neighborhood council meetings scolded Cedillo and De León for their refusal thus far to resign. By staying in office, the councilmembers were “holding us back from our future,” said one caller in Eagle Rock. Another said that Cedillo and De León were holding local government “hostage,” a reference to the difficulty in getting anything done as long as Cedillo and De León remain on the City Council. The longer they stay, said the caller, the longer it will take to “move on and clean up L.A.”
In Highland Park, there was concern over the loss of representation, but it wasn’t raised to argue against resignations. Rather, it was expressed in terms of being prepared for the fallout of the scandal, especially in the communities represented by De León, who has two years left in his term. (Cedillo lost his bid for reelection this year and is scheduled to be replaced in December by councilmember-elect Eunisses Hernandez.) If De León resigns, his seat will be vacant pending the steps that need to be taken to elect someone new. If he stays in office, he will be ineffective because he has been stripped of his committee assignments.
“I’m very nervous about having no representation for the remaining time,” said Emily Stokes, the vice-president of the Highland Park neighborhood council who supported the demand for resignations. “My trepidation is that we’re just going to lose that and I’m afraid we will.”
Participants in the neighborhood council meetings also spoke about what they believed should be learned from the scandal. Jesse Saucedo, an Eagle Rock resident and past president of the Eagle Rock neighborhood council said that the recording “is a reminder to all of us” to call out racism and bigotry wherever and whenever we hear it – at home, in families, at school and in workplaces.
On the neighborhood councils for Eagle Rock and Glassell Park, the votes to send the letters were unanimous. In Highland Park, one neighborhood councilmember, Steve Crouch, was opposed, saying that demands for resignation are a form of canceling and that Cedillo and De León should be forgiven rather than their careers destroyed.
The letters from the neighborhood councils of Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Glassell Park, can be read here, here and here.
Kanaya Adams, a sophomore at Occidental College, is a participant in the NELA Neighborhood Reporting Partnership, a collaboration of the Boulevard Sentinel and The Occidental campus newspaper.
It’s really funny that everyone acts so “faux-outraged” when they hear this kind of racist garbage from these traditionally democrat brown skinned factions. We all know that this is exactly the opinion of a decent size of this supposedly left-leaning community. And of course in the rare instances when this is acknowledged, it’s blamed on colonialism, self loathing or white people. Rarely do these whiners ever take responsibility for their own vile behavior. It’s why they are rarely taken seriously by anyone other than people of the same passive/aggressive mentality. F.O.A.D.
Funny, hearing from a Racist!!
speak for yourself thanks.
“We all know” is a logical fallacy.
I support forgiveness for Cedillo and De Leon since they played a passive role in what occurred and have already been censured & removed from committees. The press wrongly propagated the notion that the were equal participants which is not at all accurate. The protesters seem to have the financial backing of a rival who stands to gain from forcing them from office. Those protesters apparently have carte Blanche in disruption our previously quiet, family neighborhood. It cannot be legal to host encampments for this duration. Some are speculating that the 2 property owners doing so are being compensated financially. The “protesters” block our sidewalks, our driveways, the vandalize private property, posts signs everywhere, hold parties and concerts at all hours of the day & night. It’s time that they leave.
I was wondering who was allowing people to camp out in front of their houses for days on end and what was in it for them. It makes sense someone would be getting paid, and the non-participating neighbors would be getting pissed off.