L.A. City Council racist audio leak, transcribed and annotated

A bombshell recording has thrown L.A. politics into chaos. What was really being discussed? L.A. Times reporters and columnists pick it apart, line by line.

By Times staff

Nov. 21, 2022 Updated 9:09 AM PT

More than a year after it was secretly recorded and a month after it was leaked, a backroom conversation among three Los Angeles City Council members and a prominent union president continues to shake city politics. It has triggered resignations, protests that halted much council business, and condemnations from the highest levels of the Democratic Party.

The discussion among the four Latino political leaders was widely denounced as racist, and featured profane remarks and insults about Black people, Oaxacans, Jews, Armenians and others. They also plotted how to use the city’s contentious redistricting process for their own gain.

It’s a rare glimpse into bare-knuckle power politics. Parts of it can be hard to follow. To help readers better understand the context and contours of the discussion, The Times brought together a team of City Hall reporters and columnists to annotate the conversation. Beat reporters offer facts and analysis; columnists provide their perspectives on a discussion that has changed the city’s political history.

Here’s who was in the room:

About this transcript:

This transcription was produced by a team of Times journalists. They worked collaboratively, listening repeatedly to the leaked audio to compile an accurate record of what was said. The text marked in bold in the dialogue has corresponding annotations.

Parts of the recording are muffled and difficult to hear; at times participants speak over each other. In these instances, some listeners may have differing interpretations of what was said.

The transcript can be read top to bottom, or browsed in sections.

Introductions and indictments
Talking South L.A.
On L.A. political scandals
‘All of the seats are Latino’
Crude attacks against Mike Bonin
‘The thing for us is to exercise our power’
Seeking a safer district
Ridiculing Oaxacans in Koreatown
The ‘Wizard of Oz’ effect

A note to readers: This transcription includes profanity.

Introductions and indictments

Kevin de León
What’s up my—

Nury Martinez
How are you? Good. With my Doc Martens, from back in the day. When I used to go clubbing in the mosh pit.

Gil Cedillo
What’s up man?

Nury Martinez
Did you talk to, este (that is), did you talk to Curren?

Kevin de León
Yeah, I did. You know, he called and he said—

Nury Martinez
Now he’s OK with being suspended. But he doesn’t want to resign. I’m like, well, we can’t force him to resign.

Kevin de León
It will be the same action as with Jose Huizar.

Gil Cedillo
That’s right, a leave of absence.

Nury Martinez
That’s what I think he should do. But you know how Mark is.

Gil Cedillo
They don’t ask. They don’t ask.

Nury Martinez
Mark is Mark is Mark. What I did hear is I don’t think the feds have talked to him yet. You know that meeting? When they show you your options. That hasn’t happened.

Kevin de León
So he hasn’t gotten—

Nury Martinez
He’s gonna get arraigned on Wednesday, but I don’t think the meeting where they kind of show you, “Here are the options, this is what we got.”

Kevin de León
OK.

Nury Martinez
So these are your options. I think the meeting was something like this: “This is what we got. You either cooperate, or we’re going to go after your son. You both have been looked at.” That’s what I think is going to happen.

Kevin de León
I called the—

Gil Cedillo
It is going to happen.

Kevin de León
Over the weekend, I called a buddy of mine who is a former U.S. attorney.

Nury Martinez
I have one of those, too. It’s good to have one of those.

Kevin de León
Cool. We’re very close. And he, he had the Lance Armstrong case too, when they were going to indict Lance Armstrong.

Nury Martinez
The cyclist?

Kevin de León
The cyclist. Yeah.

Nury Martinez
What did he do? Doping. Is it doping?

Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar with a finger to his lips.

Kevin de León
Yeah. And the case was coming out of the L.A. office of the U.S. attorney’s office here. And I said, “Hey man, give me your objective feedback on this thing, Mark Ridley-Thomas. Dot, dot, dot.” He said, I haven’t read the whole thing, but he says I’ve read parts of it. He says, he says it’s a righteous case. It’s a legitimate, real case. We’ve said, for those we’re talking about, some people receive money like in a paper bag. And then so many people get wire transfers or whatever. This is taxpayer dollars, as opposed to private developer dollars. So in many ways you can say that the case is even worse for Mark Ridley-Thomas than it is for Jose Huizar. One thing is private dollars.

Nury Martinez
Weren’t one of the contracts moved, is worth like, 9 or 11 million dollars?

Kevin de León
Yeah. I mean, I think the thing that Huizar got was like $500,000 in cash.

Nury Martinez
In increments.

Kevin de León
In increments. He said, and then I said, isn’t this the equivalent when, particularly the African American community — which was righteous — that says Gil Cedillo had crack cocaine and was sentenced to 25 years to life. Nury Martinez had powder cocaine. She lives on the Westside, she’s a rich kid. She gets like two years’ probation. Isn’t that the same argument that they’re using, but only in reverse? You know, because now they’re trying to look like there’s a double standard. No, there’s not.

Nury Martinez
You think so? Yeah, no. They didn’t think twice before judging Jose.

Kevin de León
I know. They went after him right away. You know, what I did during the course of my campaign with the City Council? I never criticized Jose Huizar.

Nury Martinez
That’s smart.

Kevin de León
Never, one single time.

Nury Martinez
Me neither.

Kevin de León
I didn’t even know the guy well.

Nury Martinez
And what’s to say que (that) Jose wasn’t doing it to also feed his kids? Right? I mean, this, this is, this is, I mean the connection is Sebastian, but what’s to say que Jose also didn’t have debt at his kids’ school, and trying to figure out how to pay for college. I’m not saying that’s the case. I’m just saying, I mean he could have been helping his kids for all we know. That’s probably not the case, but whatever.

Kevin de León
Yeah, I know what you’re saying. And not good. Illegal but, then he’s still helping the kids as opposed to that little entitled privileged prince, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas.

Ron Herrera
Oh, I think probably he hooked it up for certain people.

Nury Martinez
She’s so cute. I can’t believe you’re in this stage of your life, by the way.

Gil Cedillo
I know. I did my interview the other day and she said…

Nury Martinez
’Tas loco con esta niña. (You’re crazy for that girl.)

Gil Cedillo
I’m a grandfather, and I have a 47-year-old son, and a 2 ½-year-old little girl.

Nury Martinez
She’s so cute.

Kevin de León
Your 47-year-old son looks like he’s 37.

Nury Martinez
Her genes.

Kevin de León
Yeah, her genes. Look at Gil, her genes.

Gil Cedillo
Let’s go Dodgers.

Nury Martinez
You like all that stuff. I didn’t really care for… I go that whole little kid shit. Thank God for my husband who wanted a kid, so I’m like, it wasn’t … I was OK.

Gil Cedillo
Look at these curls. You like these curls?

Nury Martinez
It took me eight years to have a kid. To convince me to have a kid, I should say.

Gil Cedillo
I know you like these curls.

Ron Herrera
Naturally.

Nury Martinez
[Inaudible] loves tough girls. Not whiny little kids. She tough? I love tough kids.

Gil Cedillo
Oh dude, this girl is, she’s the boss.

Nury Martinez
You’re crying…

Gil Cedillo
She’s the boss of her school. She’s the only one who walks in not [inaudible]. She walks in and puts her backpack…

Nury Martinez
With authority, that’s right.

Gil Cedillo
Gets her stuff. Goes sits in her place. She’s like, in charge.

Talking South L.A.

Nury Martinez
So anyways, you didn’t connect with Curren? He called me last night. Oh, you did connect with Curren. ¿Y tu? (And you?) Did you connect with Curren?

David Zahniser, reporter

^“Curren”

Curren Price was an ally to Martinez on some of the big issues faced by the council, including the vote to prohibit encampments near schools and daycare centers. At the time of this conversation, he had just appointed a new redistricting commissioner, who pushed back aggressively against the map being proposed by the citizens redistricting commission.

Redistricting is the process that takes place once a decade, where the City Council draws new boundary lines for each of the city’s 15 council districts. Although this process was initially handled by a citizens commission, the council had the final say over the map. That meant that, within the confines of the law, they could design the districts in a way that would enhance their ability to get reelected.

Gil Cedillo
We talked earlier. Yeah.

Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price attends a Los Angeles Trade Technical College event in 2021.

Nury Martinez
Curren is taking the temperature of the council, probably at Mark’s request. I think Mark knows sort of the direction that the council’s gonna head in. And he’s trying to take the temperature. I think they’re getting two things mixed up. I think they’re getting the whole resignation piece, with the suspension piece — that those wires are being crossed in it. And I don’t know if Curren’s the right person to explain things to … where he’s half asleep. So I was doing my best, I was doing my best last night to explain that the process we took with Jose was one of suspension. It doesn’t mess with his paycheck and he can still collect a paycheck. It’s not on us.

Kevin de León
That’s Ron Galperin.

Nury Martinez
That’s what I told him: You need to go talk to that white guy. It’s not us. It’s the white members on this council that will motherfuck you in a heartbeat. So he started naming names. You know you got it, you know who it is. [City Atty.] Mike Feuer’s gonna fuck with this. Galperin’s gonna fuck with this. [City Councilmember] Bob Blumenfield is gonna fuck with with this. Probably [City Councilmember] Paul [Krekorian]. That’s what they do.

Kevin de León
It’s the very same, uh, when I was in the Senate, when they had the whole shit go down with Tony Mendoza.

Nury Martinez
Where is that guy?

Kevin de León
In Artesia?

Nury Martinez
I never got along with him.

Kevin de León
When the whole thing went down with when I walked into the caucus, and they got all the members there, like clockwork, all the white members, “Come, right now.” Like, this is about transparency. And this is about justice, legal. And I said, “There’s not really a legal issue here, you know, there’s no criminality issue. There’s just a harassment issue.” The people of color were more like, “He’s not guilty, he’s not being charged by the U.S. attorney, district attorney, no attorney. It’s more of an internal harassment policy issue.” And it was very fascinating, to Nury’s point, the white folk cut you in a heartbeat.

Nury Martinez
With government.

Kevin de León
And then when it’s them, they figured out some shit, how to like you know—

Nury Martinez
They get a PR firm.

Kevin de León
Yeah.

Nury Martinez
They get the best attorneys in the, in the city to defend them and spin their bullshit. So that’s why I told Curren last night, I said, I think we need to be careful with that. It’s not us, it’s not Gil, it’s not, well what about Kevin and Gil? I go, they’re not saying anything about that, about his paycheck, about resigning. No, just go take care of your shit, go. Go take care of your business and hopefully it all works out.

Ron Herrera
Wow, yeah, you, um...

Nury Martinez
I’m not going to trash him in the paper either, because that’s the other thing that we’re worried about.

Ron Herrera
You should—

Nury Martinez
In fact, I’d probably do the opposite. Good luck. I hope he gets exonerated, go through the legal process, verdad? Go raise your $2 million you’re gonna need to fight this. Well, that’s the other thing that I told you, my, my friend who was a former prosecutor who was actually head of that department…

Kevin de León
Of the corruption unit?

Nury Martinez
And so, called him, he’s a good friend now. He, he said to me, about the whole call, this whole thing’s gonna work out. He’s like, there’s no, there’s no path here for him. They got him.

Ron Herrera
They wouldn’t have, they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t have moved on him had they not.

Nury Martinez
He also told me that the school is cooperating. Extensively. He knows enough about the case because he’s got friends who, inside the U.S. attorney’s office, who are working the case and the university is. I have a feeling that one of, when I read the indictment, this woman was, ’staba así (she was like that), all over the place.

Kevin de León
The dean.

Nury Martinez
Ya. Hablando, diciéndole (Talking, telling her). Listen, this is going to happen right? And somebody in her office or somebody in that department or somebody—

Kevin de León
Leaked it.

Mark Ridley-Thomas speaks to the press before voting on Nov. 3, 2020, in Los Angeles.

Nury Martinez
Yes! And started compiling all the emails, knew about the text messages, knew about the letter, that handwritten letter that she wrote to Mark. The contract. But it wasn’t in writing. It was a handwritten contract. This is what you’re agreeing to do, and I’m going to do this. The U.S. district attorney, the U.S. attorney’s office has a copy of the letter.

Kevin de León
So my U.S. attorney friend said this too. My U.S. attorney friend said the following Saturday night, he said, “What is very interesting here too is, not just MRT [Mark Ridley-Thomas] but USC themselves.” He says that USC did a preemptive strike by going to the U.S. attorney’s office right away.

Nury Martinez
Is this when Caruso sent a letter to have this investigated?

Kevin de León
I don’t know.

Nury Martinez
Caruso is the one that… Remember that?

Kevin de León
So, but he says, but the dean herself, this 83-year-old woman, was acting on behalf of the university in terms of doing anything and everything she can to raise money. In this case for her department of social work. And one could argue, she says that if I’m the lawyer for the dean of the — la viejita — I’m turning on Mark. She’s gonna most likely turn on Mark. That all she was trying to do is raise money for, for USC. And he says, but even though USC has done a preemptive strike by contacting the feds and cooperating, collaborating, the question becomes — it’s like if you’re, say if you’re Exxon, an oil company, and you committed all of these, these illegal acts and then you go to the Department of Justice and say, “Hey, we just found out from a whistleblower from within our, you know, ranks that this happens,” he says it’d be real interesting if the, if the U.S. attorney thought maybe, maybe not, no, goes after USC, too. So I guess you can go like that way too. They go after USC too. But he believes that the lady, la viejita, will turn on—

Nury Martinez
She Black?

Kevin de León
No, a little white lady.

Michael Hiltzik, columnist

^{“a little white lady”}

This is not a side De León tended to advertise to voters, for obvious reasons. I remember meeting him for the first time in 2013, when he was pitching his retirement program for low-income workers as a state Senate back-bencher. (It passed.) He was very pleased at having been welcomed in Washington as an idea man. I wrote about it here.

Not the first pol I’ve known who started out with a ton of appeal and potential, only to implode where you’d least expect it. Politicians like that always seem to try wriggling out of their fix by pleading “guilty with an explanation,” as De León is trying to do now.

But that seldom works. The last time, I think, was President Nixon’s “Checkers” speech, and that was in 1952!

Nury Martinez
I was trying to find a picture. I didn’t find a picture. You think they’ll plea out?

Ron Herrera
Oh yeah.

Nury Martinez
I think we’ll know more, guys, after Wednesday, when he goes and gets arraigned and then they have his emails.

Gil Cedillo
Here’s, here’s the problem for all of them. Everything the lady did was transparent. Like, “I told you, right, I’m gonna come here and I’m gonna do this. Kevin, I’m gonna do this. This is what we’re doing. This is from university.” So she’s acting…

Kevin de León
On behalf of the…

Gil Cedillo
Of the organization. And the university bets it out they’ve got a thousand lawyers they have [inaudible] a ton of lawyers [inaudible].

Nury Martinez
What else can go on at that school, man. They got a cochino gynecologist that was molesting kids for 20-something years.

Kevin de León
Got the dean caught in…

Gil Cedillo
Carmen.

Nury Martinez
Yeah. You got, you also have that tuition or whatever, admittance, the college admissions case where you’ve got the kids. That actress whose daughter…

Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nury Martinez
… was on the yacht.

Kevin de León
There’s one that Caruso sent…

Nury Martinez
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sent a helicopter to get the kid off the yacht in the Bahamas. Shit, what a life, huh?

Kevin de León
They really went after it. I was with Gene Block yesterday from UCLA and we’re at this event for the Chinese massacre, at UCLA. They’re really combative. … When the L.A. Times gets a bug up their ass, you know, they just like… So I talked to Sam Garrison the other day, who is the GR [government representative], he reports directly to Carol Folt.

Nury Martinez
The son of Jim Garrison?

Kevin de León
Yeah, the son of Jim Garrison. He told me that a couple of reporters got Pulitzer Prizes.

Nury Martinez
For the investigation?

Kevin de León
For the investigation. That what they’re doing has legs, just keep it going, just keep it going, just keep it going.

On L.A. political scandals

Nury Martinez
David Z. told me last week — I didn’t want to talk to him. I just was like, “I don’t want to get quoted on all this shit, but what do you want?” He’s like — you know the Feds are leaking shit to David, so that he could write about it. That fucking little piece of shit. And he’s like, “I just wanted you to know, or did you know that there was more incriminating evidence against Mark?” I said, “No, how would I know? As a matter of fact I don’t want to know. So I’ll talk to you later.” I’m uncomfortable with this conversation. I don’t know why you’re telling me this shit.

Ron Herrera
Like county stuff too.

Nury Martinez
So [Los Angeles County Supervisor] Hilda [Solis] called. You know he used to fuck with Hilda a lot. Hilda is like, I go, “Well, I get it Hilda, pero cuidate (but be careful), because, I mean, were you voting on this shit too?”

Kevin de León
Hilda should be careful.

Nury Martinez
That’s what I said. I said, I need to be careful, because whatever…

Kevin de León
She was under FBI investigation.

Nury Martinez
Whatever you start to, whatever onion you’re starting to peel, I mean…

Kevin de León
Did you know that?

Nury Martinez
Nah, I didn’t know that.

Nury Martinez
I guess we all have, huh?

Kevin de León
She was under FBI investigation. [inaudible] I know because the FBI visited me.

Nury Martinez
I guess we all have.

Kevin de León
And she doesn’t know after all these times.

Nury Martinez
Yo no se (I don’t know), but I advised her que tuviera cuidado (to be careful). And she’s, she doesn’t even know if she’s got the votes for tomorrow. She’s introducing some sort of motion to audit all of this shit.

Kevin de León
Tomorrow?

Nury Martinez
That’s what she told me. And she said that…

Kevin de León
She’s going to look into the L.A. Times after—

Nury Martinez
The only person that has sort of signaled that is going to be supportive is—

Kevin de León
[L.A. County Supervisor] Kathryn [Barger].

Nury Martinez
Yes. Las otras, no le digo (The others, I won’t tell them). Don’t be surprised if the African Americans or the old guard, get to [Los Angeles County Supervisor] Holly [Mitchell], get to [Supervisor] Sheila [Kuehl], of course, because she’s all about it. And [Supervisor] Janice [Hahn] is gonna panic and probably not do anything. So if you’re going to do this, make sure you line it up, because if not, you’re gonna look stupid.

Gil Cedillo
They gotta call an audit. Do they need a vote for that? They should just do it.

Nury Martinez
So she called me and I was like, when she calls me about that shit it’s because she wants me to help her get the votes and I’m like what? I’m not involving myself in your shit. That’s on your side of the street. I don’t... So I told her, you’re gonna have problems with Holly, Sheila y Janice, le va dar miedo (it is going to scare her), because she represents African Americans.

Kevin de León
But you know what I wish, just in general? That there was like, we should tell her whatever happens, if it was her or another Latino, they’d be fucking voting for that shit—

Gil Cedillo
In a heartbeat.

Kevin de León
In a heartbeat. They’d vote for that shit in a heartbeat.

Nury Martinez
So I go, I think it’s [inaudible] for them not but…

Kevin de León
It’s the double standard.

Gustavo Arellano, columnist

^{“It’s the double standard”}

Kevin is about to offer a master class in grievance politics, ethnic edition. Here and in a couple of seconds, he complains that Latinos are somehow held to a different standard than white politicians — they simultaneously have to be less corrupt and more “ethnic” than them.

It’s somewhat true, but minority politicians do no favor to themselves by organizing in like-looking caucuses.

I would also add that as a Latino in Southern California, De León and other Latino politicians should be held to a higher standard now as the majority in the region. People like De León long posited themselves as the leaders who were going to break the white supremacy wheel that has governed American politics for centuries. Now that they’re at the top, we’re supposed to look the other way when De León, et al., do the same?

Nury Martinez
Make sure you do your rounds. At least secure a third one.

Kevin de León
Because it’s bad politically for them. If that comes to a vote, they’re probably going to say, you know, they’re going to probably try to make sure Hilda doesn’t bring it up for a vote.

Nury Martinez
Does Curren sound nervous? Is his shit done? Like I don’t know, I can’t really tell. He told me it was done. But I’m like, man. I don’t think any of our shit is ever done. They’re never done. They never close a chapter on us. They just keep opening another book, they turn the page, huh?

Kevin de León
I think they like the business. You know, trust me. I had one situation once, it infuriated me, infuriated me. I had the FBI, one day, go visit some consultants who I fired from the Energy Commission, no not that, the Utilities Commission, because I thought they were too close to the utility companies. And I’d become pro tem. So I’m pro tem for the first time, so I’m like cleaning house, I’m cleaning house.

Nury Martinez
It was your anniversary this weekend. Facebook reminded me that I was at the Walt Disney Hall…

Kevin de León
Oh! Oct. 15th, yeah.

Nury Martinez
When you were doing your little swearing-in—

Kevin de León
Swearing-in. Which, by the way, that swearing-in ceremony—

Nury Martinez
You got shit for.

Kevin de León
I got shit all over for it and a month after my thing, in November, [former L.A. City Councilmember and county Supervisor] Zev Yaroslavsky had a black-tie, red-carpet event. The Walt Disney Concert Hall. What did the press say, what did the press say. Shhh… Zilch.

Julia Wick, reporter

^{“Zev Yaroslavsky”}

As The Times reported back in 2014, controversy partly stemmed from the fact that De León’s $50,000 celebration was paid for with foundation money from corporate interests with regular business before lawmakers.

The nonprofit California Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation picked up the tab for the event. AT&T and Chevron, both of which lobbied on several statehouse bills that year, were the biggest donors to the nonprofit during the prior 12 months, contributing $25,000 each.

Former City Councilmember and County Supervisor Yaroslavsky did indeed have a retirement party at Walt Disney Concert Hall about a month later to mark the end of his 20-year tenure on the county Board of Supervisors. (Yaroslavsky played a role in getting the concert hall built.)

Yaroslavsky told me the 2014 party cost about $45,000 and was paid for out of his officeholder account. Officeholder accounts are funded by donations but are subject to contribution limits, similar to the individual limits on campaign donations.

Nury Martinez
That’s why I don’t have parties, because of you. No, I’m serious! Because I’m like, we can’t celebrate our own, our own accomplishments.

Kevin de León
No, you can, you can have a party. But you know what? No, you can have it. You can have it. But you gotta have it at Olvera Street.

Gil Cedillo
El Pueblo.

Kevin de León
Olvera Street. You have to have it at Roosevelt High School. Or Pacoima. That’s what, because that’s where they expect us to be at.

Nury Martinez
Que no (Why not) have it in Pacoima! Right there by the swap meet. Just meet at the swap meet! Everybody’s seen it.

Kevin de León
You can’t have it at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is a public building. Or aqui en (here in) MacArthur Park.

Nury Martinez
Criticism for that, and I’m like, “I was there.” You know, you had a ceremony, and then you fed us, you fed us truck food.

Kevin de León
Taco food. Tacos.

Nury Martinez
It wasn’t even, you didn’t even have the little waiters going doing this shit, like I remember.

Kevin de León
Kamala [Harris] raised, when she got attorney general, Kamala raised, like, a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Nada. Tranquilo. (Nothing. No fuss.) I raised $50,000. And the $50,000 was to fucking feed them food. And I got—

Nury Martinez
You had a bunch of trucks.

Kevin de León
I got the venue free, but I had to pay IATSE because they had to do all the sound stuff like that. Those were all the costs. And I got shit all over it because, we, as Latinos, whether you’re labor, whether you’re in the political space, whatever space, we’re not supposed to fulfill those positions. And it has to do with the white liberal world. Because I tell folks again, all those crazies in Orange County, who are pro-Trump, I said, forget about them. They don’t do nothing to us. They’re just crazy people. They’re no threat to us. It’s the white liberals. It’s the L.A. Times.

Nury Martinez
Amen.

Kevin de León
You know, and if you saw the press, you know, just objective, if you saw the press over Mark Ridley-Thomas, you would think this guy was going to be canonized for homelessness. For everything he’s done.

Nury Martinez
For naming buildings after himself?

Kevin de León
The guy who talks about homelessness…

Nury Martinez
No hace nada. (He doesn’t do anything.)

Kevin de León
… outcome and production.

Nury Martinez
You tell me what Measure H has done? You tell me how many detox beds, how many mental health facilities? You tell me where’s, where are those beds that this initiative was, you know, that this tax is supposed to do? This is why he was freaking out when we come after the county, te acuerdas (remember)? He speaks out and defends them.

Kevin de León
He defends LAHSA. He defends the county.

Nury Martinez
Defends where he comes from because he didn’t do shit when he was there.

Kevin de León
For 10 years. He did nothing.

Nury Martinez
That’s when we started having him and I started going sideways.

Kevin de León
I told my staff, I said, “Why do I work this hard? I don’t want to work this hard. Let’s do it the way Mark Ridley-Thomas does. Let’s slide and glide at the surface, you know, lightly and then give the perception that we do things, you know.”

Nury Martinez
We hang out with white liberals and make them—

Ron Herrera
Yeah, but our community is the poorest.

Kevin de León
No, I know what you’re saying. I get it, you’re right. We’re just saying sarcastically.

Gil Cedillo
Two-sixty. Two-sixty right here. Two-sixty. Not one person left behind. Not one cop. Not one fight. Nothing. 10:30 was the deadline, 10:50 it was done.

Nury Martinez
I want him to arrest the protesters.

Gil Cedillo
The only people left were 30 protesters who bum-rushed the fence and the gate.

Kevin de León
You should make the announcement tomorrow, Tuesday. What you did, you know? And I even—

Gil Cedillo
The Times? Right? They hate it, they hate it because we didn’t call them when we did our exclusives. KPCC, Univision, Telemundo, La Opinion. Those were the four things we did exclusively.

Ron Herrera
Those 30 fucking protesters should get a, buy a tent and move into the park with these guys.

Gil Cedillo
We told them, leave ’em and lock ’em in.

Kevin de León
No, but there’s nowhere for them to charge their Teslas when they go back home to Silver Lake, you know?

Nury Martinez
Yeah, where are they going to go take a shit?

[Laughter.]

Nury Martinez
I said let them fucking—

Kevin de León
In the lake?

Nury Martinez
Ahí que se, que se hagan (Let them get) cochino.

Gil Cedillo
I said leave them. Leave them. They’re there. We got all the city vehicles out. We got everything out. We left them. I said wait till after the news and then go tell them you gotta split again. So they left. We left them there. What did they do? They, they’re sitting there like they don’t have nothing to do, right? Nobody, there’s no cameras, there’s nobody’s there, and it’s just like, park’s closed.

Ron Herrera
I thought this was a rudderless ship. Last week?

Kevin de León
What the…

Ron Herrera
The city is a rudderless ship.

Nury Martinez
Is that what [former Mayor] Antonio [Villaraigosa] said? Fucking asshole, dude. Que te, que pas— (What the, what hap—), what I don’t understand it. I don’t understand what happens on... I mean told you, I don’t have—

Ron Herrera
Rudderless ship. No leadership...

Nury Martinez
No leadership. “Rome is burning” was the other quote. I was gonna text it and get into it with him, but what for? You see the messages. “Hermanita (Little sister)...”

Kevin de León
That’s what he does.

Nury Martinez
“Hermani—” You heard the shit that I played for you? It’s crazy shit, the shit that he leaves on my voicemail. I’m like, man, dude. He’s trying. He’s trying desperately to figure shit out for [then-mayoral candidate and Rep.] Karen [Bass]. He was the only one there at his thing, at her thing on Saturday.

Ron Herrera
The same thing, he goes, “hermanito (little brother).”

Nury Martinez
“Hermanito, hermanito. Hermanita.”

Gil Cedillo
It’s the awkwardness of saying, he’s been there for me and it’s kind of, I just listen. I just listen.

Nury Martinez
How many times have you been fucked over?

Kevin de León
By him?

Nury Martinez
I keep a score for this guy ’cause he forgets. I’m like, I don’t know man.

Kevin de León
He and I have never been close. We’re not that close.

Ron Herrera
I always say fuck, Gil will fuck his ass up.

Nury Martinez
He will.

Ron Herrera
Let’s go to a beer bar. No hard liquor. Sober. Jukebox and, and a beer. Fuck it. Hey, watch my boy rock. I tell, you know, the stupid people that I hang out with, watch my boy rock. Old school. No hard liquor, just a jukebox and beer, fuck it. Watch him.

Gil Cedillo
Well, I can drink him under the table, but he’s pretty fast I will tell you. He is a fighter.

Kevin de León
He looks like a little viejita.

Gil Cedillo
I’m a diplomat. He’s a fighter.

Nury Martinez
Que trae con ese? (What’s his beef with him?)

[Crosstalk]

Nury Martinez
I realized he went grayed out. I guess he could dye his hair, but I didn’t realize that his hair was that curly. Did he call to tell you that he was gonna support her?

Kevin de León
He called and he said to me, “We’ve been friends for 40 years, we go back to the Communist Party and…” and all this stuff. Kamala’s operation did a number on Karen, you know when it came to the whole VP thing. Who do you think is a drop of opp research to the press? You know, when it came to the whole dynamic of Karen, and deep-six her with her Communist Party ties. He says it was Ace Smith and all those folks who did it, you know. Then says who, who, and then [Rep.] Maxine [Waters] called me, and Maxine says this whole VP shit, you know, Maxine starts scaring me, you know that, that was no real thing. That was [House Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi] calling Joe Biden, said: “Can you do me a favor? Can you just elevate this woman, you know, for a little bit?” That was not real, but I guess they got bronca (beef), Maxine and her.

Nury Martinez
When I was here with Maxine here at your event, she was talking all kinds of shit about all of them.

Ron Herrera
See, my thing is like with—

Nury Martinez
I like Maxine by the way.

Kevin de León
I like her too. Yeah, she’s straight. She’s straight.

Nury Martinez
Whatever Eric, I’m cool with her.

‘All of the seats are Latino’

Ron Herrera
Gil and I talk, I mean, decades upon decades upon decades. Look back, and what have any of them done for Latinos? And what are they going to do moving forward in the city? Nothing. So, you know, all this. I mean, my goal in life is to get the three of you elected and you know, I’m just focused on that. I mean, we’re like the little Latino caucus of our, you know, our own—

Kevin de León
Of our city.

Ron Herrera
Yeah. And we have to find, you know, new folks to bring in. [L.A. City Councilman Bob] Blumenfield was in here the other day, right, and he goes, “Well, we’re trying to create another Latino seat.” Why do I have to go do that? I go, fuck, the way I see it, all of the seats are Latino.

David Zahniser, reporter

^{“create another Latino seat”}

So this gets a little complicated. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s appointee on the redistricting commission was Richard Katz, a former state legislator. Katz was part of a bloc that had been looking to create a potential Latino district in the west San Fernando Valley. But to do that, the commission was going to dramatically redraw two districts — those represented by Nithya Raman and Paul Krekorian.

That new potential Latino district is identified in this document as District 4-or-2, which would have been 55% Latino. Its citizen voting-age population would have been 42% Latino. And the commission intended for it to be represented by either Krekorian or Raman.

The irony in all of this is that the final redistricting map, approved by the City Council in December 2021, made minimal changes to the districts represented by the council’s three Black members. The most significant change occurred in Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas’ district, which wound up representing all of Koreatown. But that was in response to demands made by Koreatown advocates for decades.

Nury Martinez
What did he say?

Ron Herrera
He goes, “Oh, you got a point there.”

Nury Martinez
Fuck that bitch.

Ron Herrera
You know, what do we say, 52% of the population is Latino?

Nury Martinez
His mentor is the reason we’re so fucking gerrymandered in the Valley.

Ron Herrera
Right. Right. So, I mean, I’m hoping that you guys can all figure this redistricting out because I just need you elected.

Kevin de León
Yeah.

Ron Herrera
I just need you elected. And then they’re fucking with you? Where, where are you at now?

Nury Martinez
Yeah, I was with [L.A. City Council redistricting commission members] Wendy [Mitchell] and [Richard] Polanco and [Richard] Katz. I don’t know, I didn’t have any beef with them but I have a beef now.

Kevin de León
Shadow Hills.

Nury Martinez
How the fuck you put me in Shadow Hills. Not only that, you took away the airport, you took away Anheuser-Busch. You took away — which generates about 1,000 jobs. The airport generates another, fuck, man, about 5,000 jobs, and he took away the Sepulveda Basin, which is all the shit that I’m moving forward in preparation for the Olympics.

Kevin de León
Is that Hansen Dam?

Nury Martinez
No, Hansen Dam is [Monica Rodriguez’s]. The basin is in the middle of the Valley. That’s between the 405 and the 101. That huge — it’s always on fire — that huge fucking piece of land. I’m working out a deal with the Rams, I’m working out a deal with LA 2028. The mayor’s involved. I just got off the phone with the owner of the Rams, Stan [Kroenke] and Kevin on Friday. And I’m watching all this shit, right? I’m like, hmmm. So you want to talk about Latino districts? What kind of districts are you trying to create? Because you’re taking away our assets. You’re just going to create poor Latino districts with nothing? And the whole Price, [Councilmember] Marqueece [Harris-Dawson] shit, and I told Curren yesterday, I don’t understand this whole thing. Listen, Curren, the way I see it is you busted your ass to bring the Lucas Museum. You busted your ass to build that football stadium. Right?

Kevin de León
Banc of California [stadium].

Nury Martinez
You did all that shit. And now this guy just wants to take it from you. If he’s arguing about assets, go take the airport from Bonin. Andale! You wanna do that? Let’s vote! Have the new commissioner put that shit out there.

Kevin de León
Do you know why they want to take those assets? Because they, they anticipate he loses. Let’s say he prevails next upcoming round. This will be his last four years, that eventually becomes a Latino seat. They want to take—

Nury Martinez
That’s even worse. That’s even more insulting. That you’re not only going to back up your brother, but that you anticipate it going Latino because you know it’s coming. And you don’t want that Latina or Latino to have any assets. It’s even worse.

Ron Herrera
Oh, but then the next election is determined by you three.

Nury Martinez
I’m just saying that’s— I’m glad you caught on to it because that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Kevin de León
But they’re fucking, they’re trying to fuck another — CoCo — another Latino, being me, by saying we will compensate you, Curren Price, by taking half of downtown away.

Nury Martinez
Yeah.

Kevin de León
You know, and giving it to you.

Nury Martinez
Yeah.

Kevin de León
So they fuck a future Latino for CD 9. And the current Latino for CD 14. That’s how arrogant, just how arrogant it is.

Nury Martinez
So going into this, it’s very clear to me that Katz already had a map even before they met. I think Bob Blumenfield, his fingerprints is all over this, and I think they’ve been working with, I think they co-opted Fred Ali. Fred has very strong ties to the African American community in South L.A. I didn’t realize to what extent, and I think they co-opt them and then the rest of it is just, you know. They got your commissioner convinced that this Latino seat in the Valley is worth anything. It’s bullshit. It’s a fake seat. She’s like, she’s, she’s headstrong about that shit.

Ron Herrera
Did Danny say anything about it to you?

Nury Martinez
Danny, Danny told me, Bakewell, who I have a relationship with, either he’s always been there for me. I called him for some, not advice, but sort of a sounding board about Mark. He told me some shit in private that I know I’m making the right decision, based on my conversation with him. But he also was asking me about this redistricting bullshit because he’s very frustrated, because Mark, because Mark has his fingerprints on this shit that Marqueece is trying to do. So even among them three, it’s problematic because they’re fucking each other. And so he met with Marqueece and Curren separately to try to figure out what if they can, you know, slice the baby in half. Curren’s not about that. So they’re trying to figure out how to split Expo Park and maybe, I don’t think, I don’t think that’s a good, that’s a raw deal for Curren. What I told Danny was this: I said, leave Curren alone because he needs those assets to run for reelection. That’s his platform — job creation, economic development, todo eso (all that). Leave him alone. What I think should happen, this is really about assets, I told Danny, tell Marqueece to go after the airport. You got the People Mover, or whatever that shit is called, you got the modernization projects coming down.

Kevin de León
And then he would go after another Black member.

Crude attacks against Mike Bonin

Nury Martinez
Billions of dollars worth of contracts at the airport. We’re negotiating with labor on all this shit. You want to be a baller? Go after that, because that’s where the fucking money is at.

Kevin de León
Because that’s the fourth Black member. That’s the fourth Black member. You know there’s four Blacks on the City Council.

Nury Martinez
He loved it. There’s a what?

Kevin de León
Four Blacks.

Nury Martinez
Four Blacks? Yeah. Bonin.

Kevin de León
Mike Bonin. Mike Bonin won’t fucking ever say a peep about Latinos. He’ll never say a fucking word about Latinos.

Michael Hiltzik, columnist

^{“Mike Bonin won’t fucking ever say a peep about Latinos”}

Whether you love, detest or are on the fence about the late Mike Davis, it’s worth noting that in his first book about L.A., the classic “City of Quartz,” he made the point that L.A. had gone from “the most WASPish of big cities in 1960” to one with “more polyethnic diversity than New York, with a huge ... working class of Latinos.”

Davis was hinting at the potential to develop that diversity into a functional, vibrant coalition that would make L.A. “the most dynamic center of ethnic family capitalism on the planet.” My late colleague Jim Flanigan detected the same potential in his coverage of ethnic entrepreneurial communities, especially the Korean community.

Instead, what we see and hear is the fragmentation of what could have been a powerful force. Instead of coming together, these four see ethnic politics as a zero-sum game. That’s the tragedy of this meeting, isn’t it?

Ron Herrera
That’s dead man walking, right, Gil?

Gil Cedillo
Yep.

Kevin de León
He talks so much shit about homelessness and he doesn’t even build any—

Nury Martinez
Nada. (Nothing.) The trackers, look at the trackers. You and I are always on the trackers. Even LAHSA put out a tracker last week. You should see the fucking 15 fucking motels or hotels, motel rooms that fucking Bonin put up. Fuck them.

Gil Cedillo
Two hundred and sixty placements Friday night.

Nury Martinez
To his 15.

Gil Cedillo
To his 15. Thousands of units of housing.

Ron Herrera
He’s got to run in a recall now, right?

Nury Martinez
So what’s going to happen with Bonin is, if it qualifies, if it qualifies — this is why I don’t, I really don’t ask the city attorney — if the recall qualifies, his recall is scheduled for March. Recall.

Kevin de León
Not the election.

Nury Martinez
The election’s in June. So, si pierde (if he loses), he’s still on the ballot for June, so what does that mean? He runs twice? He gets recalled in March and then he’s still on the ballot for June. How does that work?

Kevin de León
That’s crazy.

Gil Cedillo
He’ll lose both. He’s not going to rehab himself and—

Nury Martinez
So getting back to Marqueece. I told Danny if you want to cut a deal and if you want to, if you want to make like fucking boss moves, I would go after the airport. He goes, “Fuck, I love that idea.” I said, “Tell Marqueece. Go take it from his friend. Don’t go after, leave him alone. Go get the airport from his fucking little brother, that little bitch, Bonin.”

Ron Herrera
[inaudible] Black people.

Nury Martinez
I go, “What is with, what’s with Bonin?” I said, “Bonin thinks he’s fucking Black.” “That guy don’t think he’s Black.” I go, “He thinks he’s Black.” I told him the same thing.

Kevin de León
His kid is. His kid is.

Nury Martinez
He goes, “Why are they so close?” I have no idea.

Kevin de León
He’s from Massachusetts.

Gil Cedillo
His kid, the one he adopted.

Kevin de León
His kid he adopted. [inaudible]

Nury Martinez
He’s Black. Yeah. Lo trae así (He lugs him around) during Black History Month, lo lleva al council y lo pone aca (he takes him to the council and puts him there), remember? Lo trae like…

Ron Herrera
A prop?

Nury Martinez
... it’s an, it’s an accessory when we do the MLK parade.

Kevin de León
Just like when—

Ron Herrera
They used to have those statues in the plantations—

Kevin de León
Nury brings her Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag.

Nury Martinez
Ahí trae su (There he brings his) negrito, like on the side. Lo trae, verdad? You sit next to him, you don’t got nothing to say. For MLK, for the parade, that Herb used to organize and all the council who wanted to join Herb on the float, ’cause he used to do a whole float — it used to be nice. Bonin would be like, “Hey, Nury, are you’re going to the MLK?” “Well, Herb invited me, yeah, I’ll go.” “OK, I’m bringing whatever the kid’s name is.” I’m like, it’s like the oddest thing, it’s like Black and brown on this float. And then there’s this white guy with this little Black kid who’s misbehaved. Este niño (This kid) has no, he’s, they’re not even, they’re not doing, the kid’s bouncing off the effing walls on the float. Practically tipping it over. There’s nothing you can do to control him.

Nury Martinez
Parece changuito. (He seems like a little monkey.) And I’m just like, “Oh my God.” I’m over here trying to parent this kid. I’m like, you can’t do that. I said no. And Mike is like, you know, I’m like, you’re not fucking teaching your kid anything. It’s me and Karen Bass on the float trying to fucking check this little kid. Me, Karen Bass y la esposa de (the wife of) Marqueece, Carrie, we’re all looking at each other because we’re the three women on the float, like who’s gonna fucking — this kid’s going to tip us over. Because he’s literally hanging on the rails.

Ron Herrera
We can’t let them off because the spectators will beat his ass.

Nury Martinez
They treat him like a little white kid, which I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Like, let me take him around the corner and then I’ll bring him back.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah.

Nury Martinez
“¿Sí me entiendes? Ven pa’ aca.” (“You understand me? Get over here.”)

Gil Cedillo
Needs a pinch, something.

Nury Martinez
So, anyways, getting back to redistricting.

Eunisses Hernandez passes out fliers in Glassell Park.

Nury Martinez
Yeah, that is, yeah. So.

Ron Herrera
Well, I look at it like, like your opponents are broad. There’s a lot of connection between all this, right? So, and we have to be cognizant of it here. You know, I have to be quiet about it, right? But we have to analyze who really is, you know, our opponent.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah.

Ron Herrera
Right. Like with, you know, Gil’s opponent. She appears out of nowhere, a 31-year-old, you know, lawyer that, who is she, right? But once Isaac Bryan endorsed her—

Kevin de León
Isaac Bryan endorsed her?

Gil Cedillo
Yep.

Ron Herrera
It surfaced the opposition. So all the, you know, folks like with [L.A. County Dist. Atty. George] Gascón, he did call me and wants to have breakfast with me.

Nury Martinez
What’s taking him so long?

Ron Herrera
I just said, hey, we need to talk.

Nury Martinez
Gil supported him from the—

Ron Herrera
I, don’t worry, I got you.

Nury Martinez
Fuck that guy. I’m telling you now, he’s with the Blacks.

Ron Herrera
You’ll start seeing them line up. Isaac was the first one. And I was with Isaac hanging out at Taste of Soul in South L.A. So, but you know, it’s deeper than, because Gil and I were talking about it, it’s deeper than, than what you think. This isn’t any 31-year-old rookie running.

Kevin de León
Just running on her own.

Ron Herrera
She’s not running on her own.

Nury Martinez
This kid, Eunice, Eunisses, whatever her name is.

Kevin de León
I met her for the first time. The other day she came. I don’t know who she was. And she introduced herself.

Nury Martinez
I know I’ve never met her.

Ron Herrera
Yeah. But it goes back to you know, what has her mentors done for our peeps?

Nury Martinez
Who are the mentors?

Gil Cedillo
The biggest thing that I talked about Thursday, at E&A, was a lot of this has an anti-union bent.

Ron Herrera
Yeah.

Gil Cedillo
It’s all about funding, the CoCos, and the whole range and the talk to [inaudible] a whole range...

Kevin de León
You’re talking about nonprofits versus unions.

Gil Cedillo
...of affiliates, right? Good names, benevolent mission, but anti-union, right? You told me we wanted to count the number of engineers in the committee meeting and at 7% Blacks, and they were screaming for equity to get to nine. And then they tell him 22% Latinos are engineers. And they say we’re aiming at equity, he meant parity. I said that’s not parity, that’s 50. Half these engineers have to be, right? All those are union jobs. Right? Everything in the city is union. Everything is locked down union. We need more people at the desk, more architects, engineers to evaluate all the development that’s needed. All the development that’s needed as all the jobs that we have to create. But they want to give it to a nonprofit that CoCo dictates where you’re not really an architect, you’re not really an engineer, you’re kind of a tech, right? Oh, you don’t need to be an engineer. You don’t need to be an architect. You don’t need to be in public works. You don’t need to, you know, to pick up the trash. Everything is done by 501(c)(3)s. And that means all the union jobs.

Kevin de León
It’s a different type of outsourcing.

Gil Cedillo
It is outsourcing. It’s contracting out.

Ron Herrera
Subcontracted. Straight out. It’s key. That’s how we see it. It’s contracting.

Gil Cedillo
Yep. 100%. So the E&A. Same people coming after you are the same people coming after me.

Kevin de León
[inaudible] Darlene.

Gil Cedillo
Is that her name?

Nury Martinez
Darlene Kuba?

Kevin de León
The one…

Nury Martinez
Oh, Marleen.

Kevin de León
Marleen.

Gil Cedillo
African American woman?

Nury Martinez
No, no, you’re talking about, you’re talking about all engineers and architects. We’re talking about the other, the other one?

Gil Cedillo
Darlene Kuba?

Nury Martinez
Yeah, who does Darlene represent? It’s not Engineers & Architects, it’s the other one.

Gil Cedillo
This was Tyler.

Nury Martinez
They get it?

Gil Cedillo
Yeah, they got it. They’re like, freaking tossers like, oh, wow.

Ron Herrera
Yeah, literally, it’s like KIWA. KIWA does all the restaurants and small stores. They encroach on HERE and UFCW. And I had a, I’ll share this with you all. But the woman from KIWA, Alexandra, was critical of Alma from SEIU, and what went down with her, right? So she said she was driving this morning, and she didn’t know if she should say anything and be critical about what just went down, but we can’t accept that kind of behavior. You ain’t even on our radar, you’re a fucking 501(c).

Julia Wick, reporter

^{“HERE,” “UFCW,” “Alexandra,” “Alma from SEIU”}

Herrera is once again using Unite Here’s former name to describe the politically active hospitality workers union. (HERE stands for Hotel Employees Restaurant Employees — the union took the name Unite Here in 2004, per the local’s website.)

UFCW is the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

Alexandra is Alexandra Suh, KIWA’s executive director. It is worth noting that per her bio on the KIWA website, Suh previously served on the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s executive board.

And Alma is Alma Hernández, who had just stepped down from her post as executive director of Service Employees International Union California amid criminal charges. More on her a few minutes down in the conversation.

Kevin de León
They don’t say nothing about Mark.

Ron Herrera
No. No. Well, I, uh, I shut her up, though.

Nury Martinez
It’s real sad the shit that I heard what happened to her though.

Ron Herrera
But I had, I had to put her down because all the SEIU people — we were on Zoom — started bringing up their screen, but once I talked, right? They go, yeah—

Gil Cedillo
Everything at SEIU, to me, starts 100% suspect. Right? C’mon, man, I know this stuff. 100% suspect.

Nury Martinez
It just doesn’t sound like—

Gil Cedillo
There’ll be a Phil Giarrizzo back there someplace, there’ll be somebody. All I know is the people they run out were people who wanted to organize workers. And the people who stood, are people who wanted power.

Nury Martinez
So you think they wanted her out, somebody?

Gil Cedillo
Yeah.

Kevin de León
To that FPCC, but–

Nury Martinez
That’s where it started right? It’s a [FP]PC investigation.

Kevin de León
Yeah, so if [inaudible], that the taxes and DVD stuff, but I’ve said to folks, “Listen, I don’t know the particular details. I know Alma is a good strong Latina woman.” I said, $10,000 in 2014 in expenditures in a state Senate race, in Orange County [inaudible] about food? Are you fucking kidding me? Really?

Gil Cedillo
Yeah. They don’t like the tacos.

Kevin de León
Really? What? El esposo, el esposo, si el tiene bronca. Es el esposo. (The husband, the husband, if he does have a beef. It’s the husband.) But you really gonna tell me.

Nury Martinez
That’s how I saw it, too. He might have had some payroll issues, whatever. I’m not, I’m not making excuses for that. People get sloppy.

Ron Herrera
No, but the bigger thing is, is they’re looking at certain people.

Gil Cedillo
You’re right.

Ron Herrera
Right? And we just can’t give it. We can’t, you know, we can’t give ourselves to ’em. No, and it’s hard, because I mean, you know your staff might do something fucked up, right? You got a handler for it, but you know, Gil lived through this. Martin Ludlow. Martin Ludlow. They weren’t after Martin. They just said OK, fucker. You want to be that way, bam. You know, so—

Kevin de León
Janett Humphries.

Gil Cedillo
All politics. She sat there every place I went to, she was there. With her daughter. Big deal. Signed off everything. She’s a teacher’s aide. They put her in this position, right? And have her up there. Every, everything I went to she was there.

Nury Martinez
I got along with her.

Gil Cedillo
And then they jumped her.

Nury Martinez
I didn’t think she was very smart.

Gil Cedillo
They jumped her.

Nury Martinez
Se va bien conmigo. (She gets along with me.) She got along with her boyfriend. What’s his name? Used to be the head of 99?

Gil Cedillo
Bill Worries.

Kevin de León
No, Bill Lloyd.

Nury Martinez
Now that’s a fucking shady motherfucker. One time I was gonna, I remember when me and [Richard] Vladovic on the school board almost went to blows in a closed session meeting and Vladovic called Antonio [Villaraigosa] to snitch on me like, that I had disrespected him. Which I did. Cause he yelled at Mónica García and fucking Mónica García just fucking stood there and took it. Well, you going to fucking let him talk to you like that, fuck that shit, I’m getting up. And then I tapped in the judía (Jew), Tamar Galatzan, now I’m like, this is a chola. Pobrecita (poor little) Mónica. I’m like, for as big as you are and as loud as you are, you can’t fucking defend yourself. I’m not going to be spoken to that way and I’m not going to let you get spoken to that way, so I tapped Tamar in and we both took his ass on. Bill then kind of called me to kind of check me and I’m like, fuck you dude, you too. Fucking Antonio was like why are you going — fuck this guy. How you fucking let these people disrespect Mónica? You guys haven’t given her a job. You weren’t even giving her a fucking salary increase. And Antonio was the mayor! We couldn’t get a salary increase. Que, bad timing, political optics y quien sabe que tanto (and who knows how much). Meanwhile, we’re fucking scraping right? Fucking making $25,000 a year, having other full-time jobs. And Mónica just lived on that I think.

Gil Cedillo
She made everybody rich.

Nury Martinez
Pobrecita (Poor thing). All of them. Camacho, all these fucking guys y de que le sirvio (and what did it help her)? I’m like, man, Antonio used her to the 10th degree. It’s fucked up. That was, my, so me and Bill became friendly after that. But dude, whew.

Ron Herrera
Gil and I had these discussions at different ends of the city, right? But the same discussion 50 years ago that we’re having today. Right?

‘The thing for us is to exercise our power’

Nury Martinez
So what are we going to do about redistricting? Is that what we want to do, talk about?

Gil Cedillo
Let me say this about this. So unlike 25 years ago, we do have a Mexican in charge of the Fed. We have a Mexican in charge of the council. We have more members on the council. We’re in a different spot now than we were 25 years ago. The thing for us is to exercise our power.

Ron Herrera
Exactly.

Gil Cedillo
To get together, like we are, exercising our power. You’re right, there’s three seats. If you figure out the Valley, the seats on this corridor, historic African American, which I could support one. Maybe two. But those are Latino seats. Yeah, get Fernando Guerra in here, there’s 57 out of 60 seats that African Americans are in, are Latino seats. From the Comptons to the Gardenas to the—

David Zahniser, reporter

^{“figure out the Valley,” “Latino seats,” “Comptons to the Gardenas”}

At this point in 2021, figuring out the San Fernando Valley meant finding a way to revise the draft map that was proposed by the citizens redistricting commission. The draft map called for one council member to lose 100% of their district. Problem was, the commission didn’t say who that would be. At the time, it could have been either Councilmember Nithya Raman or Councilmember Paul Krekorian. (The districts were labeled 2-or-4 and 4-or-2, since Krekorian had District 2 and Raman had District 4.)

When “Latino seats” comes up, it’s not entirely clear if it’s in reference to the three districts represented by the council’s three Black council members. By then, only District 8 — the one represented by Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson — had a citizen voting-age population that was majority Black.

Also, for what it’s worth, Compton and Gardena are each their own city — and outside of Los Angeles. That means they were never in play in the redistricting conversation.

Nury Martinez
Even Inglewood probably.

Gil Cedillo
Oh, Inglewood, 100%. Right? In the city. What’s Curren at, 76%?

Nury Martinez
86.

Gil Cedillo
86.

Ron Herrera
Fucking South-Central.

Gil Cedillo
Oh my God. You can’t throw a rock and not hit a Mexican.

Ron Herrera
South-Central.

Nury Martinez
86.

Gil Cedillo
The 15th is also, right?

Ron Herrera
Yeah.

Gil Cedillo
And the 8th and the 10th.

Ron Herrera
The 15th should be run by union members and Latinos.

Gil Cedillo
Yep. Young Chicano union members, longshoremen, right? Down there, Teamsters. Right? It’s the strong — one of the strongholds.

Nury Martinez
Yeah.

Gil Cedillo
We gotta get there some talented people for the 10th, right? Celinda Vazquez, people who grew up there, not the parachute in, not that “I went to Yale, I’m gonna come back and parachute in,” but real people who grew up there.

Nury Martinez
[Talking on phone] No, no, no, that’s not true. You should call Sarah about that, Sarah’s got more information.

Gil Cedillo
You develop. And then taking the airport. I like that idea of taking the airport, because that’s powerful. Not to have a Bonin there. But to have somebody who cares about all the jobs, all the development.

Nury Martinez
[Talking on phone] Not at all. Nope. And we have no reason to do that.

Kevin de León
What I think is important is that as we speak about expansion, the current Latino seats that we have right now, CD 14, CD 1—

Nury Martinez
[Talking on phone] And [inaudible] what we’re attempting to do doesn’t even make that argument with that map.

Kevin de León
Monica, Nury, right? That base has to be protected as well. And make sure it stays that way for us. And then when we’re gone, you know, if I’m successful, I’m out next year.

Nury Martinez
[Talking on phone] So you should just call Sarah. See if she could tell you more about it because she’s been talking about it.

Kevin de León
If you’re successful, right, you’re out in four years — that CD 1 remains Latino, CD 14 remains Latino. So, as we talk about expansion, right?

Nury Martinez
[Talking on phone] Talk to you later. Bye. Bye-bye. Bye.

Gil Cedillo
That’s why Saturday, I told you I can’t go to Eagle Rock, I can’t go to Highland Park. They don’t love me.

Nury Martinez
But does that map have you going to Eagle Rock and Highland Park?

Gil Cedillo
One of them did, I think—

Kevin de León
Which one? So there’s two. P2.5?

Nury Martinez
Do you have the map, Ron? Because I’d like to get some clarity.

Ron Herrera
Which, which one? The K2.5?

Nury Martinez
Whatever map you’ve got, because we’re all over the place. And these guys already have their own deal.

Ron Herrera
The 64, what is it? 932, that one? The latest? The LCLAA [the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, which is pronounced lack-lah] one?

Nury Martinez
I think, no matter what happens, Gil, we’re going to have to fix it in our house.

Gil Cedillo
Yes.

Nury Martinez
So, let’s come up with options. The whole thing is, push both of them, and then we’ll have to figure it out in house. That’s it. So amend it, make changes now. This commission has fucking gone rogue and they’re fucking useless at this point. To me, just move them both and then we’ll fucking figure it out from there. But if you’re pushing whack maps, you’re gonna end up with a fucking disaster on the council. So push both.

Gil Cedillo
The other thing—

Nury Martinez
That’s all I’m asking.

Gil Cedillo
That process is. I’m going to leave it here. You know me on process. Right?

Nury Martinez
Yeah, that whole process is shit that they’re arguing.

Gil Cedillo
I’m not so much on the process as the result. The outcome.

Kevin de León
The outcome, yeah. Who cares about the process?

Gil Cedillo
So, there’s certain people who don’t merit, like us, rescuing them. Your comadre (female pal), right?

Nury Martinez
I’m not arguing anything about that.

Kevin de León
Quien es su (Who is your), who’s your comadre?

Gil Cedillo
You know, [L.A. Councilmember] Nithya [Raman].

Kevin de León
Oh, Nithya, yeah.

Gil Cedillo
She doesn’t merit. Right? She’s not our ally. She’s not going to help us. Her district is not a district we can count on.

Kevin de León
So you’re saying that’s the one to put in the blender and chop up, left and right.

Nury Martinez
Well, that’s what they did.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah, why not?

Nury Martinez
But it also impacts everybody else. It impacts the Valley, which fucks me. And I’m not cool with that. It impacts — and whether you like [L.A. Councilmember] Mitch [O’Farrell] or not — it impacts him. It impacts you. It impacts Curren. The whole point here is how do we stabilize the Valley?

Ron Herrera
Hang on one sec. The kid that’s running from HERE. He ain’t on your side either.

Gil Cedillo
No.

Nury Martinez
Oh, no, I know.

Ron Herrera
Hugo [Soto-Martínez].

Kevin de León
Who is he running?

Nury Martinez
Run against Mitch.

Ron Herrera
So her point on Mitch is, I just interrupted her, but I apologize for that. But I want to make sure that we protect Mitch—

Gil Cedillo
Allies.

Ron Herrera
Because this guy is, this guy is your opponent.

Gil Cedillo
[inaudible] The one I know and the one I don’t know.

[Laughter.]

Gil Cedillo
I got one devil and another devil.

Nury Martinez
So my point here, is don’t mess up the Valley, ’cause we’re cool in the Valley. Why do you want to fuck with [L.A. Councilmember Paul] Krekorian for? Nobody wants a little Armenian love? I mean, they haven’t done anything to us. He’s not a problem. Stabilize the Valley. Nithya is not going to get the perfect district. We’re not going to give her a renters district. That’s what she wants. I told her that’s not happening. You’re gonna get the district that you’re going to get, you’re going to have to run, and probably in a district that more than half of them don’t know who you are. Go fucking do the work and see if you can get reelected.

Ron Herrera
That’s why she—

Nury Martinez
But our commitment is not to reelect her. That’s not my commitment, right?

Ron Herrera
Yeah. No, she wants to rile up the renters to create a base and not do anything for the renters. But she’s just got to keep that agitation.

Nury Martinez
She’s not going to get the renters. We’re not, we can’t give her that.

Kevin de León
Because the thing is, is like say for example, CD 1, or CD 14. Of course, in the immediate for Gil’s reelection. But then Gil has one term. It’s not us. It’s for Latino strength for the foreseeable future. Whereas for her, it’s not about, it’s about just her as an individual, right?

Ron Herrera
So for us here—

Gil Cedillo
She won’t even endorse me. She won’t even endorse me.

Nury Martinez
We’re going to get to that point. So is... What is this?

Ron Herrera
One of the maps.

Nury Martinez
Which ones are these?

Gil Cedillo
Listen bad stuff is, it comes to the council.

Nury Martinez
Yeah, but give me something I can work with. You give me a fucked-up district where you piss off the entire Valley. That’s not gonna work.

Kevin de León
Yeah, that was important.

Nury Martinez
Why are people fucking with us?

[Laughter.]

Nury Martinez
Why? It’s always the case. We don’t get involved in anybody else’s neighborhoods.

Kevin de León
All the Latinos for some reason, Polanco, Sonja Diaz, Rocky Delgadillo…

Nury Martinez
But why?

Kevin de León
Everyone but the UFCW ones.

Ron Herrera
I think what happens is it’s like anything else, Gil. It’s just, given that, “Oh, OK, OK, OK.” And then other people probably said, “What? OK.” They don’t really. I’m sure Katz and his crew have an agenda but—

Nury Martinez
The judíos (Jews) cut their deal with South L.A. That’s how I see it. And they’re gonna screw everybody else.

Ron Herrera
Was it Mark?

Nury Martinez
And Katz.

Ron Herrera
So here’s like, for us, I didn’t finish, but, so we got the, you know, Gil’s opponent, whatever you want to call them. Right? And then you have, you know, the CoCo group. Right? Marqueece? And then you have us, right? Who believe in union and, you know, helping poor Latinos. So we could, if the council split three ways — which it very well could — then you got the whites on there, right? So four. We’re the minority with 25% at that point.

Kevin de León
I think Curren will come with us.

Nury Martinez
Yeah.

Ron Herrera
No, but I mean, I mean, just in the future.

Nury Martinez
Curren will come with us.

Kevin de León
Krekorian, I think, will come with us, but if they’re made sure that the labor map is better for Krekorian.

Nury Martinez
He also wants his guy elected. So he needs a district that Adrin Nazarian can win it. That’s what they want. They want to assure, they want to be reassured that they have, not a Armenian district in the Valley, cause that doesn’t exist. But they want as many Armenians in that district as possible to be able to play. Now I don’t think Adrin, Adrin gets elected. If a white, a reputable white businesswoman runs in that district, it’s still pretty white. But that’s on them. I’m not, I’m not cutting that deal with anybody because I don’t know. I don’t know that he can win.

Ron Herrera
You know that Aveen works for Caruso.

Nury Martinez
Areen. No, ya se fue (he left). He started his own business.

Ron Herrera
He’s with Caruso.

Nury Martinez
Yeah, I like him.

Ron Herrera
He’s cool. I mean…

Nury Martinez
I don’t have a problem with him. He’s been helpful to me in the past. He’s critical of Krekorian because they had a small falling-out when Areen left his office. Krekorian was really pissed off and stopped talking to him. I think they’ve made up, but I got along with Areen.

Kevin de León
What’s his name? What’s he look like?

Nury Martinez
Areen. The guy with the one eyebrow.

Ron Herrera
Tall guy.

Nury Martinez
He used to be Antonio’s body person. Like that’s how I met him. He’s married to a friend of mine. Areen, what’s his last name?

Ron Herrera
Sepa (Who the hell knows).

Nury Martinez
No se (I don’t know).

Gil Cedillo
It ends in i-a-n, I bet you.

Erika D. Smith, columnist

^{“It ends in i-a-n, I bet you”}

As fellow Times columnist Robin Abcarian wrote about this insult to Armenians:

“Being dismissive of someone’s facial features is crass and immature. And guessing that an Armenian American’s name ends in i-a-n is the intellectual equivalent of calling water wet. No duh.

Certainly, this coarseness is not in the same league as Martinez describing City Councilman Mike Bonin, who is gay, as “a little bitch,” describing his son, who is Black, as a monkey, or calling brown-skinned Oaxacans who have settled in Koreatown ugly.

But it underscores the depressing clannishness of these Latino officials, and their apparent belief that everybody who is not like them is fair game to be trampled in the quest for political muscle.”

Nury Martinez
What are we going to do guys? I mean—

Kevin de León
So the question is because—

Ron Herrera
You’re going to take care of yourselves.

Kevin de León
Yeah.

Ron Herrera
Whatever—

Nury Martinez
Yeah, but do we give up on this commission? Is there anything that is, uh, is Polanco going to keep fucking with the Valley? Like, who I don’t even understand what his shit’s about.

Kevin de León
Cannabis.

Nury Martinez
Yeah, pero (but), does he have the best interest in mind for you? Is he trying to create cannabis lines? That’s how I see it.

Seeking a safer district

Gil Cedillo
You know how I feel about cannabis. So he’s got nothing for me. He’s got a simple charge: Protect me, advance me to go west. I don’t need the northeast, I don’t need Eagle Rock. I don’t need Highland Park. And I don’t need Lincoln Heights. And so those proposals that we’re talking about, I mean that’s the access for me. And I don’t need Elysian. All these, these new proposals to, I don’t want to say to protect the Valley, but the different configurations end up giving me headaches. [inaudible]

Nury Martinez
What is, but what is—

Gil Cedillo
Elysian Valley is a headache. Eagle Rock’s a headache. Highland Park’s a headache. And Lincoln Heights. I don’t need those headaches. I have poor people. La Raza.

Kevin de León
The Elysian, Eagle Rock and Highland Park are white. And Highland Park, of course, is white. To Lincoln Heights is…

Gil Cedillo
Taken over by whites.

Kevin de León
Latinos.

Ron Herrera
Is it?

Kevin de León
But not voters, right? Are you talking about activists?

Nury Martinez
This is what I’m trying to figure out, Gil, like—

Gil Cedillo
Voters go to work and then go home.

Nury Martinez
So all these communities you keep mentioning, I don’t know where you go.

Gil Cedillo
Are being dropped into my area.

Nury Martinez
With this map?

Gil Cedillo
With the new proposal. The latest proposal hands me—

Nury Martinez
And that’s why you don’t want it?

Gil Cedillo
Yes. The only charge is to grow me south and—

Nury Martinez
So has he done that yet?

Gil Cedillo
That’s what the map is, the one that you object to. That’s what that map does. And so when you’re fixing things in the Valley, you’re sending me headaches to my side.

Nury Martinez
And that’s why you’re not down with that map.

Kevin de León
You’re referring to the labor map?

David Zahniser, reporter

^{“labor map”}

The “labor map” was submitted during the final weeks of the redistricting commission’s work, an alternative to the K2.5 map, which was under fire. It was formally proposed by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, which sent a letter touting its benefits. But many involved in the process assumed it was being floated by Herrera’s group, the Fed. Redistricting commissioners would have received the labor map a few days before this October 2021 meeting.

It featured a bunch of ideas that were later scrapped. For example, it would have sent Raman’s district southwest from Silver Lake in a zigzag all the way to Palms. It also would have allowed Councilmember Paul Koretz’s district to keep Encino.

The commission declined to take it up. However, some of the ideas contained in the labor map, such as ensuring Martinez kept Lake Balboa and the Sepulveda Basin, were adopted.

Nury Martinez
Yeah.

Kevin de León
There’s two maps, K2.5 and then the labor one.

Gil Cedillo
K2.5 I’m good with, right? I, we, all looked at the world from where we sit and I look at my K2.5 map — I’m good. When another map comes in, it dumps headaches from you and Mitch to me. So you guys are giving me your headaches.

Kevin de León
I’m not giving no one a headache.

Gil Cedillo
Well, I’m just saying that the 14 is Eagle Rock. Highland Park is Eagle Rock.

Ron Herrera
So how do you… Can you massage Gil’s issues in council, though, right?

Nury Martinez
That’s what we—

Gil Cedillo
The west and south, we can’t… Then you gotta choose…

Kevin de León
When you say, west, what are you referring to? K-town?

Gil Cedillo
Towards K-town, yeah.

Kevin de León
All of it, half of it, quarter of it…

Gil Cedillo
No, towards the gateway. Towards Vermont. [inaudible] K-town. They love us, they take care of us.

Nury Martinez
Is that what you want, K-town?

Gil Cedillo
No, I don’t want K-town. See that’s where the growth goes, towards K-town. Nobody even, when they say K-town, what’s the borders? Right? I got K-town. We go 6th to Vermont, I’m good. That gives me a population.

Nury Martinez
So this map right here, Gil, what part of this you don’t, what part of it you don’t want? This is 1.

Gil Cedillo
CD 1.

Nury Martinez
You go to Chinatown?

Gil Cedillo
Yeah, Chinatown is my area.

Nury Martinez
So here’s Pico. This is your base. I don’t want to speak out of turn. So, Westlake and Pico-Union is your base, correct?

Gil Cedillo
Correct.

Nury Martinez
Chinatown I think you’re good in. Elysian Park?

Gil Cedillo
Elysian Park. I’m OK.

Nury Martinez
Because this is labor’s map. So we’re trying to figure out what part of this map are you not good with?

Gil Cedillo
I’m not good with anything that adds more Elysian Park to me. I’m not good with anything that adds more Highland Park or Eagle Rock. I don’t see the streets here. So it’s hard for me to say. Right? Without seeing the streets here.

Nury Martinez
OK.

Gil Cedillo
I don’t know what I got.

Nury Martinez
If we can get you the streets, and this part of Highland Park is favorable for you, are you good with this map? Because that’s what I don’t understand. I understand your problems. I get that part. But if we can slice and dice this baby up to cut you off where you think that favorable people are in, bring those in and send the other part to the, to someone else, I’m all for that. I just need to know what I’m working with, with this map. So what is it on this map you’re not good with?

Gil Cedillo
I have to show this to Debby.

Nury Martinez
So can I get you this map in street form?

Gil Cedillo
Yep.

Nury Martinez
OK. That’s what I need to do. Can Ackley walk Debby through a link on a computer today to look at this map and find out where, where the cutoff, what part of Highland Park is OK? Because I don’t believe that this map is bad for you.

Gil Cedillo
I understand.

Nury Martinez
I believe that they, we, cut off the people that…

Gil Cedillo
There’s population, as Kevin mentioned, and then there’s politics.

Nury Martinez
I understand.

Gil Cedillo
And the politics are as important to us as the population. So you’re right. The voters go to work in Lincoln Heights, and come home to Lincoln Heights. But the activists, right? They’re there 24/7. And they don’t want us. I mean, the thing is, you’ve seen the meetings. It’s not ginned up. This is, they’re clamoring to go over there because they have some idea of some Chicano Mecca of Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and Boyle Heights. It’s not us, but they want to go, go in peace, man, go. We don’t care.

Gustavo Arellano, columnist

^{“the politics are as important to us as the population”}

It’s not good enough for the Latino political class that dominates L.A. politics — and California, for that matter — for there to be Latino voters. They have to be the right type — namely, Democrat of the left-liberal persuasion.

They can’t be Republicans, and they definitely can’t be progressives like Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martínez. The rise of this thinking traces itself to the backlash against Proposition 187, the 1994 anti-immigration ballot initiative that for Cedillo, De León and so many other Latino politicians was a baptism by fire into California politics.

But as I’ve argued elsewhere, focusing so much on a particular type of Latino voter at the expense of others angers Latinos who don’t fall so left on that spectrum. This has led to Latinos leaving the Democratic Party elsewhere, or gravitating toward more conservative Democrats like Rick Caruso and L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva instead of more progressive options.

Nury Martinez
And this map takes them out. No, we heard you, we heard you and they’re gone. But I just want to make sure what you’re asking for is really the reality when it comes to the data and how these people are voting, how it’s trending. Because it might sound good in concept that you want this part. But if we go back and look at the numbers of how they’re trending, and it’s a lot more Berners, a lot more white people, that does not help you.

Julia Wick, reporter

^{“it’s a lot more Berners”}

Martinez’s derisive reference to “Berners” here likely refers to Bernie Sanders supporters. Which is interesting, because Sanders endorsed Cedillo very early in his 2022 reelection fight and the pair have quite a bit of history.

Cedillo was a prominent Sanders supporter in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential primary, when many prominent California Democrats were backing Hillary Clinton. (The Associated Press identified Cedillo as “Sanders’ most visible supporter among elected officials in Southern California” in an April 2016 story.)

But history aside, it’s also true that Bernie fans are not Cedillo’s natural constituency. Sanders’ endorsement of Cedillo actually became a real topic of contention in the 2022 council race, with the L.A. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and Bernie-aligned activists pushing hard to try and get Sanders to revoke his endorsement of Cedillo in favor of Hernandez.

Ron Herrera
As soon as you guys…

Gil Cedillo
We know that, that’s why we’re against the northeast.

Nury Martinez
We can’t take all of the northeast off, either. Who takes the rest of the northeast? I mean, it’s problematic for everybody. So I think we’re gonna have to have some problem areas. All of us have to eat a little bit of shit, right? It’s not going to be a perfect fucking map.

Gil Cedillo
Mitch is a darling, for that type of people. And he’s—

Nury Martinez
OK, we’ll look at his district.

Gil Cedillo
I’m the only moreno that’s here.

Nury Martinez
And he’s not gonna get a perfect district either. I’m just trying to get a majority of a good district so that you all can get reelected. We’re all going to have to fucking face the fact—

Gil Cedillo
Debby can tell Ackley what our problems are. That’s it.

Nury Martinez
I believe that’s happened. I don’t believe it’s getting through though, Gil. And this is why I’m kinda, I don’t, I don’t know how else to convey this.

Gil Cedillo
Let me say this. Debby can tell Ackley what our problems are. And then everything else we’re agnostic to. We’re agnostic. But I will tell you there are certain, certain people who are deserving. And certain people who aren’t.

Kevin de León
You know, would it be a bad idea if Debby, Ackley and then Jennifer, for them three…

Nury Martinez
What time is the meeting tonight? I don’t even know. There’s another fucking — I don’t think they stop meeting. These fuckers. I’m so done. Like, just stop meeting ya de una vez (once and for all), throw in the towel. Shut up. Thank you very much for your service. In fact, that’s what Krekorian is pressuring me to do, to — blow the whole fucking thing up.

Kevin de León
But I think for perception-wise, to your point, is they’re not going to do what we want them to do, right?

Nury Martinez
Just move two maps forward.

Kevin de León
If they were to pull, if we were to pull like Fred Ali and I pull Sonja [Diaz], because you pull Fred Ali, I have to pull Sonja too.

Nury Martinez
Yo se (I know). But it is, it is going to be problems for us because these people are, they’re so-called purists, y se creen que (they think of themselves like), you know, they’re above it all and they know more than you and I.

Kevin de León
We created a Frankenstein monster.

Nury Martinez
We’ve created a fucking — people like, they feel like they’re in charge of themselves. You ain’t in charge of anybody.

Ron Herrera
Yeah. Took a life of its own.

Nury Martinez
Who the fuck do you think is like, fucking this monkey?

Kevin de León
Yeah, took a life of its own. Which is a lesson.

Nury Martinez
And I’ve never worked under these type of conditions. Like you’re, I’m of the opinion, right, that if I get appointed to something…

Kevin de León
I take direction.

Nury Martinez
Right here. What do you need me to do? Because I’m your, I’m your person. Like, what is it? What do you want me to move? And I’m clear about my job. These motherfuckers — I’m like…

Gil Cedillo
My guy has taken care of me. Right? But he’s created hard work for everybody else.

Nury Martinez
I don’t know that that’s true, though, Gil.

Gil Cedillo
I’m satisfied. We are satisfied with, I’m telling you, with Polanco, that’s the K2.5 and amended, we’re good with that. We can live with that. We think it’s generous to your guy, Mitch. But we’re OK with that.

Nury Martinez
Why do you keep saying “my guy”?

Ron Herrera
Well, he’s my guy.

Julia Wick, reporter

^{“Well, he’s my guy”}

This is one of several points where Herrera voices his strong support for Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell. Earlier he talked about wanting to make sure “we protect Mitch” and a minute or so after this exchange he nods to O’Farrell being “family” because he’s the son of a Teamster.

As an interesting aside, O’Farrell’s opponent during his first election to City Council in 2013 was John Choi — a former L.A. County Federation of Labor employee who was heavily backed by organized labor. O’Farrell was way outspent in that race but still emerged victorious against the labor candidate.

A lot has changed since 2013.

Unions have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on both sides in O’Farrell’s 2022 race, where he faced off against former Unite Here organizer Hugo Soto-Martínez. The Fed declined to endorse in that race.

Gil Cedillo
And your guy. He’s Ron’s guy.

Nury Martinez
Are you not cool with him any more? I needed a fucking placeholder. I don’t fucking need anybody to do my job. Because all these guys…

Gil Cedillo
I’m good with, look…

Nury Martinez
No thanks to both of you, but I do all the work.

Gil Cedillo
Look how hard I work to not let this be a compare-contrast to Echo Park.

Nury Martinez
I thought you guys were OK? You sound like you guys are OK. Like, fuck, man, you had me fooled. I’m like, oh yeah, ya se (now I know). We call it the bromance, a COVID bromance. They go on COVID y ya (and now) they’re like complimenting each other. This or this. This or that. And I’m like, oh fuck, I didn’t get the memo.

Gil Cedillo
I distinguish the work and the people.

Nury Martinez
And now we’re back to like battling, so I don’t understand.

Gil Cedillo
I’m not battling. Look how much I fought to keep him out of this.

Ron Herrera
He’s a, he’s a Teamster. I gotta support family.

Nury Martinez
Who?

Ron Herrera
Mitch.

Nury Martinez
Is a Teamster?

Ron Herrera
Yeah. That’s why this guy that’s running from HERE, I already told Susan: It’s you against us.

Nury Martinez
Sometimes you gotta bring people a little closer to try to control them a little bit, like sort of like, calm the hell down. He, I get it. He’s a, he’s a diva. I understand that.

Gil Cedillo
Look, look, here’s the deal. If I had a primary, I would not mess with this process. Let it end, and then let us resolve it. Right? So that’s what I told Paul on Saturday.

Ron Herrera
But we gotta poll like right away.

[Snaps fingers.]

Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell stands at a lectern.

Ron Herrera
We gotta, as soon as this stuff is done, we gotta poll.

[Snaps fingers.]

Nury Martinez
We gotta what?

Ron Herrera
Poll, poll in the districts. Especially ones like with Gil, I want to poll right away.

Ridiculing Oaxacans in Koreatown

Kevin de León
Let me ask this, Gil. So if you go in more into K-town, right? Are those more Latino voters?

Gil Cedillo
Yep, K-town’s a misnomer. It’s called K-town, because it’s got a lot of Koreans, but it’s all Latinos.

Kevin de León
So those are the ones you want to pick — that you’d like to pick up.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah.

Nury Martinez
But not all of K-town.

Kevin de León
Who do they belong to right now?

Nury Martinez
Right now they’re in 10 — all of it — and Nithya wants a play for K-town. I say that’s not gonna happen. Because I didn’t want a beef with Mark. So don’t beef with Mark, let him take, and that serves—

Kevin de León
But now this is the beef with Mark.

Nury Martinez
Pero, mira. (But look.) It serves us to not give her all of K-town. Because if you do, that solidifies her renters district and that is not a good thing for any of us. You have to keep her on the fence. You have to make her work for it.

Gil Cedillo
Visualize this, Kevin. Alvarado, right? Lafayette Park. Just go down a little further and…

Nury Martinez
K-town. ¿Que más? (What else?)

Gil Cedillo
Go to 6th, to Vermont.

Kevin de León
That’s where like UFCW is at. That’s where the Pipe Trades are at.

Nury Martinez
Shatto Place or Shatto. Lafayette Park. ¿Eso es Koreatown? (Is it Koreatown?)

Gil Cedillo
Yeah, that’s called K-town.

Nury Martinez
I see a lot of little short dark people.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah, puro Oaxacans. Puro Oaxacan Koreans.

Nury Martinez
[Laughs.]

Gil Cedillo
Not even like Kevin, little ones.

Ron Herrera
Indios. My mom used to call them indios.

Nury Martinez
I was like, I don’t know where these people are from. Like I don’t know what village they came out of, how they got here. But—

Gil Cedillo
[inaudible] wearing shoes.

Nury Martinez
¡Tan feos!

Ron Herrera
I get what we have to do, right? Just massage to create districts that benefit you all.

Gil Cedillo
Yep.

Ron Herrera
And the future. But we got to figure out Mark’s seat too, you know. That benefits you three.

Nury Martinez
If the African Americans look at this, now that he may or may not be suspended, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I think he should be, but anyhow, if he goes away—

Kevin de León
You mean, you mean resign. Not suspended.

Nury Martinez
You’re right. There is, there is a difference.

Ron Herrera
If I may—

The ‘Wizard of Oz’ effect

Nury Martinez
If he resigns, hold on, if he resigns and the African Americans look at this as a hostile takeover because he’s gone, we’ll have to figure that shit out. Because politically, they’re going to come after us.

Kevin de León
Yeah, but can I say something right now? And this is what I call the, the— este como se llama (what’s he called), this guy, este (this), the movie? “The Wizard of Oz” effect. And what I mean by “The Wizard of Oz” effect is when you’re at the side of the curtain, it’s like this big voice. It sounds big—

Ron Herrera
An illusion.

Kevin de León
It sounds like there’s thousands. And then when you actually pull the curtain, is that you see the little wizard of Oz. You know what?

Nury Martinez
I’ve never watched the movie.

Kevin de León
It’s the same thing.

Nury Martinez
All right.

Ron Herrera
It’s real simple. You have a hundred people, right? Fifty-two of them are Mexicanos. I feel pretty good about it. I feel pretty good about my chances of beating your ass.

Gil Cedillo
Twenty-five are for Black, and the 25 Blacks are shouting.

Kevin de León
But they shout like they’re 250, when there’s 100 of us and it sounds like it’s 10 of us.

Ron Herrera
But that, but that seat like, if you don’t, OK, if you, if you don’t take them out, then it hurts all incumbents, that the council’s corrupt right? Expecting corruption. OK, No. 1. No. 2, if somebody slides in right, temporary or however you do it, right? That person has to support the three of you. Has to support the three of you. And Danny.

Kevin de León
Know who wants to run for that seat?

Ron Herrera
Reggie.

Kevin de León
I can’t support that Reggie. Reggie was over there with Karen. After I went, after he was fucking sweating his ass off—

Gil Cedillo
The one who will support us is Heather Hutt.

Ron Herrera
Yes.

Nury Martinez
Mmm... I like Heather Hutt. She’s the one that wrote that — I’m sorry that, that ran against Bryan Isaac.

Kevin de León
You know, who else?

Nury Martinez
We need a woman. An African American woman.

Kevin de León
You know who wants to run that seat? Irma Muñoz.

Nury Martinez
I don’t know who that is.

Kevin de León
Mujeres de la Tierra.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah.

Kevin de León
And she’s married...

Gil Cedillo
To a Black dude!

Kevin de León
...to an African American and she lives up in Baldwin Hills and she lives down the street from Karen Bass. She texts me, she says, “I want to run for that seat.”

Ron Herrera
Look, you’ve just gotta combat CoCo with that seat. That seat has to be anti-CoCo.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah.

Ron Herrera
I can’t say that publicly, only to you three.

Nury Martinez
¿Que más? (What else?)

Gil Cedillo
Heather and Irma. Jesus, those are like some people we can live with.

Nury Martinez
OK. ¿Que más?

Ron Herrera
Heather’s a personal friend.

Nury Martinez
Look at the boundaries in here.

Gil Cedillo
Yeah, a little south, a little south. Debby will know. It’s a little south. It’s a little west.

Kevin de León
Convene Debby, Ackley and Jennifer.

Nury Martinez
So there’s nothing we can do with Polanco at this time, right, we can’t move him to push the other map and bring both maps to us? There’s nothing you can do there?

Kevin de León
I mean, at the very least bring in both maps, so that gives us the choice. It gives—

Nury Martinez
It gives us options to look at other shit as we’re trying to figure this—

Kevin de León
If I’m a commissioner, I am trying to do my duty by giving choices.

Gil Cedillo
Let’s talk about what Ron said. The way Ron described it is the way it’s happened, OK? You guys had people and your people went rogue. Right? You had the president and the staff. You had the sequence of the meetings, was your guy, and is now. They came up with one map, one butcher sheet, right? And the big meeting, and everybody started working on the butcher sheet, like Ron said. So a couple of people said, “Yeah, let’s do that.” And after four hours, they said, “OK, well,” and then somebody said, “Well, what about the other butcher sheet?” We brought more butcher sheet. They said, “No, it’s done here. Work off of this.” And that’s how that happened. That’s organic. That’s the way it happened. I don’t know about any conspiracies, any groups or anything. They were exhausted. And they said, let’s work off of this sheet, just like Ron said. A couple said yes and a couple went along.

Kevin de León
That’s the K2.5.

Gil Cedillo
That’s the K2.5 then, including your person. And including your person, right? So that’s what they’re on. And now at the end of, I don’t know, 40-50 hours of them sitting together, including seven and a half on Saturday, Nithya gets up one day and says, “Oh my God, I don’t know what happened,” while her person…

Kevin de León
Jackie…

Gil Cedillo
…sold her out. Her person had one thing: I just want this. And they care about Nithya. I don’t know what happened to Paul’s person. And so there’s a work product there of which it keeps getting the consensus. So then what happened is it got political, and they brought in Big Mouth Jackie. They brought in, I don’t know why he brought in Susan. Right? Paul’s upset. And we’ll take care of it, right, just as we’ve said, and Nithya brought in Jackie. You still have your person, you still have Fred and you have another person, right? Long, short is they’re stuck on that thing. So to change that, it’s going to be hard for them. It’s like the end of negotiations and somebody says, I want, I know we have a tentative agreement, but I want to bring in another alternative. I understand. It’s hard, you can bring an amendment, or after the process before the vote, we can make the amendment. It’s just that, it’s the process of negotiations. It’s the organic process that takes place. That’s why I would caution you guys about changing your appointees, because it’s going to look more—

Kevin de León
We’re not going to do it.

Nury Martinez
Nah, we’re not going to do it.

Kevin de León
We’re going to have the conversation, but we’re not going to do it.

Gil Cedillo
And two maps will politicize it, too. We can politicize it because we’re the political entities and that’s what—

Kevin de León
As long as we know, see, I don’t mind politicizing it, amongst ourselves. Once we get the map and then sit down it’s—

Nury Martinez
It’s just much easier to get more than one option.

Kevin de León
Without a question, you know, process-wise.

Nury Martinez
And that’s why I was asking, is there any room to figure that out with Polanco, but if you say there isn’t, there isn’t.

Kevin de León
You know what I’m going to do? I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna do a third ex parte with my, my member, and say, “Hey, you know what, give us the democratic choice of having more choices.”

Nury Martinez
That’s all I’m asking.

Kevin de León
So, I’m going to make that request of mine. If they are willing to play, and if she’s willing to play and give us two, if not, then it’s us—

Gil Cedillo
You’re not ever gonna date her.

[Laughter.]

Kevin de León
No.

Nury Martinez
Not your type.

Kevin de León
Not my type at all.

Ron Herrera
You have the hard copies and I’ll send you guys electronic ones.

Gil Cedillo
Can I take the hard copy?

Nury Martinez
No, no you can’t.

Gil Cedillo
C’mon.

Ron Herrera
C’mon, you know how it went.

Gil Cedillo
I don’t do things, I’m not Augustino. He kept the one to 27 people, right? He kept the one. Guess where it was when [inaudible].

Nury Martinez
What are you taking? I take them when I’m dehydrated.

Kevin de León
It was because you’re still drinking a ton of water. You get all bloated. Vas al baño siempre. (You always go to the restroom.)

Gil Cedillo
Did you work with Stevens? Was he around?

Kevin de León
[inaudible] like four bottles of water.

Nury Martinez
I don’t have this flavor, but I’m gonna take it. I have the lemon one. No, I have a bag.

Ron Herrera
I was at the fucking—

Times staff writer Salvador Hernandez contributed to this report.

Inside the room: The entire L.A. City Council racist audio leak, annotated by our experts

A bombshell recording has thrown L.A. politics into chaos. What was really being discussed? L.A. Times reporters and columnists pick it apart, line by line.

Here’s who was in the room:

About this transcript:

Introductions and indictments

Talking South L.A.

On L.A. political scandals

‘All of the seats are Latino’

Crude attacks against Mike Bonin

‘The thing for us is to exercise our power’

Seeking a safer district

Ridiculing Oaxacans in Koreatown

The ‘Wizard of Oz’ effect

More to Read

More From the Los Angeles Times

Most Read in California

Inside the room: The entire L.A. City Council racist audio leak, annotated by our experts

A bombshell recording has thrown L.A. politics into chaos. What was really being discussed? L.A. Times reporters and columnists pick it apart, line by line.

Here’s who was in the room:

Nury Martinez

Kevin de León

Gil Cedillo

Ron Herrera

About this transcript:

Introductions and indictments

The fall of Nury Martinez: A blunt talker undone by her words

Talking South L.A.

On L.A. political scandals

How L.A. City Hall became so corrupt: A recent history of bribes, kickbacks, scandal, leaks

The mystery behind L.A. racist tape scandal: Who leaked it — and why?

‘All of the seats are Latino’

Why redistricting is such a hot topic in the leaked L.A. City Council audio

Crude attacks against Mike Bonin