Pressure continues to mount on Cedillo and Kevin de Leon to resign
By Dolores Quintana
As the pressure continues to mount on Los Angeles City Council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon to resign, Acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell has stripped the two resistant members of their committee assignments and chairmanships of committees.
Per City Council rules, councilmembers must be members of one committee, so they cannot be completely stripped of all their assignments. The City Council only has so many options since City Council rules do not allow for the removal of members. The only options are for the council members to resign or be removed through a recall election.
After the first two raucous City Council meetings following the revelations were closed down by protests and because of COVID-19 exposures, O’Farrell canceled Friday’s meeting and called for the next meeting on October 18 to be held virtually. The meeting’s agenda contains several motions that were authored by Cedillo and de Leon and motions for a charter reform ballot initiative and two motions to elect a new city council president. Since Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo have yet to resign that means that both of them could have input on these crucial issues if they turn up to the meeting. According to the report from Fox 11, O’Farrell has “urged” de Leon not to attend any City Council meetings and Cedillo has agreed to not attend the meeting on October 18. Both City Council members Mike Bonin and Paul Krekorian have since tested positive for COVID-19.
Community organizers Black Lives Matter and The People’s City Council have taken the protests to Council member Kevin de Leon’s home. The People’s City Council conducted a mock LA Sanitation cleaning visit that is normally used to evict unhoused people from an area at de Leon’s home and Black Lives Matter Los Angeles has established an encampment to call for de Leon’s resignation there as well. They have been joined by other community organizations over the weekend.
Tuesday’s meeting will also consider a motion to officially censure Council members Cedillo and de Leon, as reported by ABC 7.com.
