The embattled former president of the LA city council stepped down from the board, days after a recording surfaced documenting her and two other Latino council members using racist language to mock colleagues and constituents while they planned to protect Latino political strength in council districts.
Nury Martinez announced her resignation in a statement on Wednesday, hours after the state attorney general announced an investigation into possible criminal charges involving the meeting where she made the remarks.
“It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for council district six, the community I grew up in and my home,” Martinez said in the statement.
Martinez, the council’s first Latino president, and Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, the two other council members, had faced a groundswell of outrage and calls for their resignation over their comments at the October 2021 meeting, including from Joe Biden.
The recordings documented the political leaders crudely discussing the power dynamics behind the redistricting process. But they also recorded Martinez mocking the young son of her fellow councilmember Mike Bonin, calling Indigenous immigrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca ugly, and making crass remarks about Jews and Armenians.
Martinez’s resignation came after California’s attorney general earlier on Wednesday announced he would investigate Los Angeles’ redistricting process.
The move by Rob Bonta, a Democrat like the three councilmembers, comes amid growing calls to address the way politics can influence the redrawing of district maps after the census count each decade.
“My office will conduct an investigation into the city of LA’s redistricting process,” Bonta said, without providing many details. “We’re going to gather the facts, we’re going to work to determine the truth and take action as necessary to ensure the fair application of our laws.
“It’s clear an investigation is sorely needed to help restore confidence in the redistricting process for the people of LA,” he added.
Bonta said the results could bring civil or criminal results. “It could lead to criminality if that’s where the facts and the law dictate,” he said. “There’s certainly the potential for civil liability based on civil rights and voting rights laws here in the state of California.”
Bonta on Wednesday spoke in Los Angeles while the council itself was trying to conduct business nearby, possibly to censure the three members, none of whom were in attendance. But the board was unable to operate because of a crowd of protesters outside. Demonstrators inside shouted: “No resignations, no meeting.” The acting council president eventually announced that there was no longer a quorum and adjourned the meeting.
De León and Cedillo have so far resisted calls to step down. The council cannot expel the members; it can only suspend a member when criminal charges are pending. A censure does not result in suspension or removal from office.
A city council meeting the previous day – the first since news of the recording broke – was interrupters by demonstrators filling the chambers, demanding the councilmembers’ resignation.
In emotional remarks at Tuesday’s meeting, Bonin said he was deeply wounded by the taped discussion. He lamented the harm to his young son and the fact that the city was in international headlines spotlighting the racist language. “I’m sickened by it,” he said, calling again for his colleagues’ resignations.
“Healing is impossible as long as you remain in office,” Bonin said in a tweet directed at the trio on Wednesday. “Resign. Now.”
In one of the most diverse cities in the nation, a long line of public speakers at the meeting said the disclosure of the secretly taped meeting brought with it echoes of the Jim Crow era and was a stark example of “anti-Blackness”.
There were calls for investigations and reforming redistricting policy.
Many of the critics also were Latino and spoke of being betrayed by their own leaders.
Candido Marez, 70, a retired business owner, said he wasn’t surprised by the language used by Martinez, who is known for being blunt and outspoken.
“Her words blew up this city. It is disgraceful,“ he said. “She must resign.“
Calls for the council members to resign came from across the Democratic establishment.
Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said on Tuesday that the president wanted Martinez, De León and Cedillo to resign.
“The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable, and it was appalling. They should all step down,” Jean-Pierre said.
The US senator Alex Padilla, the outgoing mayor, Eric Garcetti, the mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso and several members of the council have called on the three members to depart.
California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has stopped short of doing so, denouncing the racist language and saying he was “encouraged that those involved have apologized and begun to take responsibility for their actions”.
