The Los Angeles City Council has finally begun its Tuesday, Nov. 22 meeting after clearing the chamber of protesters. City Council President Paul Krekorian had ejected a couple of dozen protesters who tried to disrupt today’s city council meeting, and he ordered the chamber temporarily cleared.
Protesters have been chanting and shouting at meetings for weeks, ever since the City Hall racism scandal broke, and they are demanding that councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo resign before the city conducts its normal business. Neither de León or Cedillo were present today.
Krekorian ordered the chamber cleared as protesters chanedt and shouted in an attempt to disrupt the council meeting. Police in riot gear entered the chamber and the council took a 20-minute recess.
This follows on the last major disruption in early November when three people were kept from entering the city council chamber for the council’s meeting, according to the Los Angeles Police Department, as the council enforced a rule that allows it to exclude those who have been removed from multiple meetings within three days of the next meeting.
That day, Krekorian also ejected at least a dozen protesters who began chanting and shouting as that meeting began.
Protesters have regularly attempted to disrupt meetings in the fall of 2022, ever since the City Hall racism scandal broke. They are demanding that Councilmen Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo resign before the city council resumes conducting its normal city business. The number of protesters had dwindled in early November, from at least 20 to about a dozen.
The council, on Wednesday, Nov. 9, gave final approval to an ordinance that sets a special election for April 4 to fill the Sixth District seat that former council President Nury Martinez held until she resigned last month amid the City Hall racism scandal.
The special election is estimated to cost the city up to $7.65 million, according to the City Clerk’s office. A runoff, if necessary, would take place on June 27.
Martinez resigned after an audio leaked of her using several racial slurs in an October 2021 backroom conversation with other officials about city redistricting. Her term was set to expire in December 2024.
The other two councilmembers involved in the leaked conversation that spurred the scandal, Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, have so far defied calls to resign.
De León’s term also expires in December 2024. Cedillo lost his reelection bid to Eunessis Hernandez in June and will leave office in December.