Update: Mayor Eric Garcetti made the following statement after Martinez’s announcement Oct 12, to step down from her city council position as well as her position as president of the council.
Nury made the right decision, one that I realize is painful to her personally but unquestionably in the best interests of a city that I know she loves. Racism and hateful words cannot ever be overlooked by our community or within one’s self, and she needs the time and space to reflect, make amends, and move forward with her life. Her two former colleagues must arrive at the same decision soon, because Angelenos deserve a government focused squarely on meeting challenges in their neighborhoods that are too serious to risk a paralyzed City Council.
In a resignation message Oct. 12 Martinez wrote: “It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home.”
Nury Martinez resigned as City Council President on Oct. 10. Her announcement comes after an October 2021 recorded conversation between Martinez, Councilmembers Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo and an LA County labor official was made public. Both Martinez and de Leon and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor president Ron Herrera apologized Oct. 9, for their comments which included an attack on colleague Mike Bonin, including racist remarks by Martinez directed at Bonin’s young son. Herrera also stepped down as of Oct. 11.
It is not clear who recorded the conversation, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, Council members and a county labor official were discussing redistricting that involved three members of the council. The audio also appeared on Reddit, but was later removed from the site
Find below a portion of Martinez’s statement:
“I ask for forgiveness from my colleagues and from the residents of this city that I love so much. In the end, it is not my apologies that matter most; it will be the actions I take from this day forward. I hope that you will give me the opportunity to make amends,” Martinez said. “Therefore, effective immediately I am resigning as President of the Los Angeles City Council.”
Martinez’s City Council District 6 seat includes North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Sun Valley and other San Fernando Valley communities.
Weighing in from the highest office on the huge controversy, ahead of his trip to California Oct. 13, Joe Biden believes Nury Martinez and other councilmembers should resign from the Los Angeles City Council over racist remarks heard in leaked recordings that were made public this week.
“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should,” said Karine Jean-Pierre White House press secretary, calling the language recorded during the conversation “unacceptable” and “appalling.”
Democratic Congresswoman Karen Bass issued the following statement on Oct. 10:
Los Angeles must move in a new direction, and that is not possible unless the four individuals caught on that tape resign from their offices immediately.
I want to again say to the innocent child who is caught in the middle of this that he is beautiful, brilliant and loved.
This weekend, from some of LA’s most powerful leaders, we heard racism and bigotry against Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, Armenian and other Angelenos, as well as slurs against a child. We also heard them stoking the divide between our city’s Black and Latino communities.
To move forward as a city, we must move past the politics of divide and conquer. There is no place for division and hate in Los Angeles.
Danielle Sandoval tweeted:
I am appalled by the recent leaked audio of the racist sentiments expressed by members of the City Council. There is never room for anti-Blackness, racist sentiments in any factions of government. At a time when we should be and need to be uniting black and Brown communities, establishment politicians continue to seek to divide us. Angelenos are tired of status quo politics that derives from bigotry and corruption. Unity between Black, brown, Asian, LGBTIQA+, is the only way to move forward to ensure a more just and equitable City of LA.
Hahn Calls for Council President Nury Martinez to Step Down
“The racism, bigotry, and cruelty revealed in this leaked audio is appalling. Words matter. The anti-Black prejudice on display in this conversation compromises the confidence any residents had in these council members’ leadership. Councilwoman Nury Martinez must step down from her position as President of the council immediately before her colleagues have to do it.
And how sad that Mike and Sean’s young son Jacob, who is the grandson of the late great ILWU labor leader Dave Arian, was the brunt of such heartless and vicious words.
What this city now needs is a Truth and Reconciliation process with real accountability and repair. I love this city and we need to find a pathway forward where all people can feel represented equally.”
AFSCME 3299 Reacts To LA City Officials’ Comments
The recently revealed anti-black and anti-Indigenous sentiments expressed during a meeting of several LA public officials and a labor leader are reprehensible. We condemn these attacks and stand in solidarity with our communities who experience the harms of colorism and anti-black racism.
President Kathryn Lyberger issued the following statement:
In the labor movement, we must hold ourselves to the core principle of solidarity and live the credo: An Injury to One is an Injury to All. This is central to building the trust and unity that is the bedrock of workers’ power.
Today, that trust and unity is broken. It has been broken before, and rooting out racism requires constant work and acts of solidarity from everyone in labor. It is incumbent on our leaders to repair beyond apology, with action and accountability.
Those individuals who are implicated in the recording and who are elected to represent the people must resign now. Labor must hold labor accountable but resignation is the only way to restore the trust that has been broken.
UTLA Calls for Resignation of LA City Councilmembers and Labor Leader After Racist and Colorist Statements
As educators, we are here to make sure our students and our communities do not face this type of harm. We expect better, and Los Angeles deserves better than political leaders who perpetuate cycles of violence and freely spew viciousness behind closed doors when they think they cannot be heard and held accountable.
It is deplorable that this is what is thought and said about the most marginalized in our communities by leaders in the halls of our city and in the house of labor. It is shameful what is not said in response; silence is complicity. And it is reprehensible to know this is taking place when and where decisions are being made that will have ongoing effects and repercussions for generations of citizens.
UTLA calls for the immediate resignations of Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmember Kevin de León, Councilmember Gil Cedillo, and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera.
California Legislative Black Caucus Calls For Immediate Resignations of LA Councilmembers and Labor Fed President
The California Legislative Black Caucus is appalled at reports of racist and homophobic comments from Los Angeles City Council president, Nury Martinez and quips from Kevin de Leon, Gil Cedillo, and Los Angeles Labor Fed president Ron Herrera.
We are hurt, we are angry, and we are disappointed in Nury Martinez for the disgusting comments about Councilmember Mike Bonin’s young child.
The conversation among Nury Martinez, Kevin de Leon, Gil Cedillo, and Ron Herrera reveals an appalling effort to decentralize Black voices during the critical redistricting process, and once again paints the Black community as an enemy of our Latinx brothers and sisters with whom we share a great deal of mutual love and respect. Angelenos should not be baited into a proxy war for politicians to keep a paycheck. Angelinos deserve better than to be manipulated into the false premise that one community must suffer for another community to survive.
Finally, no matter how nuanced you try to spin it, repeatedly referring to the only two openly gay councilmembers as “diva” and “little bitch” are just synonyms for more aggressive anti-gay hate speech. This rhetoric is purely homophobic and shows a deep lack of respect for the communities we are entrusted to represent.
It is clear that you are not the best of us and that your personal interests outweigh any semblance of respect for the Angelinos you represent. African Americans have been bridge-builders for over 400 years yet are constantly being tossed into the river by individuals within the groups we march alongside. We need true allies, not wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Therefore, we, the members of the California Legislative Black Caucus, call for the immediate resignations of Nury Martinez, Kevin de Leon, Gil Cedillo, from their posts on the Los Angeles City Council and Ron Herrera from his post with the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
LA City Attorney Mike Feuer’s Comments
As I said yesterday, those horrifying comments are shocking. There can never be any room for racism, or homophobia, in Los Angeles. We must be better than that. With society riven with division, all of us, especially public officials, have the responsibility to value and respect each other—and to use words and take action, that brings our City together. We cannot allow these grotesque remarks to impede us from that essential effort.
But that effort will be much more arduous now. The wounds from these hateful comments are profound and will continue to reverberate. Momentary condemnation will not get us past this moment. These leaders have lost credibility and forfeited the privilege of public service. For the good of a City that must begin to heal and move forward, all involved should resign.