From the moment this morning’s City Council meeting began, a symphony of chaos erupted throughout the chamber as angry citizens called for Councilman Kevin De Leon to resign. The loud chanting, pounding, banging and rattling would not cease until long after the council adjourned.
He cannot be representative of a community that he... he broke a trust that can never be repaired.
That’s Kenia Alcocer, a member of the LA Tenants Union. She spoke about the the power of the city council in times like these.
And they do have the power to force him to resign. By having these meetings, they’re encouraging him to not resign, by not shutting down the city and saying, you have to resign. They’re pushing it by not getting creative and calling on to the governor and the president if necessary. We have to find a way where he gets down out of here without the city having to spend money on his rent, on his recall.
Not all LA residents want De Leon out of office, though. A few residents speaking in the Zoom portion of the meeting urged the council not be pressured into it.
There is no reason to basically remove him from these committees that he has been doing outstanding work, his record is there all of you have his record for the last year and a half. So please reconsider what you are proposing today. I’m sorry, but I am quite emotional because we are going to be losing a very important representative.
City Council President Paul Krekorian, clearly bothered by the noise, asked several times for the protestors to quiet down, to no avail. But he insisted still that it would not prevent the meeting from taking place .
Yesterday, we demonstrated that the work of this council will not be deterred by distractions or disruptions. And I want to again thank the members of the council for enduring a very uncomfortable and difficult meeting yesterday.
The Ad Hoc Censure Committee still managed to conduct its meeting and unanimously passed a motion to censure De Leon, along with fellow councilman Gil Cedillo and former council president Nury Martinez, expressing severe disapproval of their racist remarks.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Ian Roddy.