Nury Martinez Steps Down as L.A. City Council President After Racist Remarks Surface

The Los Angeles City Council is set to resume in-person meetings next week in the council chamber, according to the city clerk’s office.

Forty-two years after first joining Disney Imagineering Bob Weis, the current Global Imagineering Ambassador and former President of Walt Disney Imagineering, announced today that he will retire at the end of the year.

Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León said that he won’t resign from the Los Angeles City Council amid the furor over a leaked audio of a conversation with two colleagues and a top labor official.

Acting Los Angeles City Council President Mitch O’ Farrell announced this morning that he is “removing councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León from their committee chairmanships as well as from committee assignments.”

New York Times columnist Charles Blow wrote Sunday that he was worried "white supremacy" would be replaced by "lite supremacy" after leaked audio revealed Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez making racist remarks.  "It is a theory that worries me and that I have written about: that with the browning of America, white supremacy could simply be replaced by — or buffeted by — a form of "lite" supremacy, in which fairer-skin people perpetuate a modified anti-Blackness rather than eliminating it," Blow wrote in his column for the New York Times.  Martinez resigned on Oct. 10 after leaked audio revealed she made racist remarks about Councilmember Mike Bonin's Black son.  "I take responsibility for what I said and there are no excuses for those comments.

Michael Tubbs, who called her “basura” (garbage).Martinez, who had already stepped down as L.A. City Council President before resigning entirely, ended her letter by addressing, “all little Latina girls across this city — I hope I’ve inspired you to dream beyond that which you can see.” The idea that she still saw herself as a role model was met with swift and savage mockery.“Nury Martinez says her heart is broken as she resigns from public office.

Friday's scheduled Los Angeles City Council meeting has been canceled as pressure continues to mount for two council members to resign after they were heard on a leaked audio recording making racist statements. Acting Council President Mitch O’Farrell announced the move Thursday, a day after former council member Nury Martinez resigned.

William Earl Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury Martinez has resigned her post amid a mushrooming scandal about racist comments she made about a fellow council member that were leaked on social media. On Tuesday, Martinez stepped down from her role as council president in light of the outcry over her comments, which were secretly recorded in October 2021. But the pressure on Martinez, who was heard using a derogatory Spanish phrase to refer to the Black son of fellow councilmember Mike Bonin, was only building on Wednesday. Martinez, who represented Van Nuys and other areas of the San Fernando Valley, issued an 11-page statement on Wednesday, according to KNBC-TV. “It is with a broken heart that I resign my seat for Council District 6, the community I grew up in and my home,” she wrote. “And last, to all little Latina girls across this city – I hope I’ve inspired you to dream beyond that which you can see. While I take the time to look inwards and reflect, I ask that you give me space and privacy.”

Nury Martinez has stepped down from her seat on the Los Angeles City Council amid the furor over the comments she made on a leaked audio of a conversation with two other colleagues and a top labor official.

Activists shut down today’s Los Angeles City Council meeting after vowing to do so until three members caught participating in a racially-charged conversation resign their seats. The council was forced to cancel its regular session due to the vocal protesters in the chamber.

The California IATSE Council, saying it is “appalled” by the racist comments made during a secretly recorded conversation last year among three members of the Los Angeles City Council and a local labor leader, called for all those involved to resign.

President Biden believes that the three Los Angeles City Council members who were involved in a closed-door meeting, in which racist language was used to describe colleagues, should resign from office, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.  Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez resigned from her leadership role following a leaked audio recording that captured open racist remarks made last year with other Latino council members Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo. FILE: Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez at podium, and Mayor Eric Garcetti, standing to her right, are seen during a news conference at Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles on April 1, 2022.

President Joe Biden has called on three Los Angeles City Council members to resign over the remarks that were made in a leaked audio recording.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin choked back tears on Tuesday as he described hearing of the leaked audio conversation in which one of his colleagues made racist remarks about his Black son and another compared his child to a fashion accessory.

reported the move late Monday, citing that it happened during a meeting with the union’s executive board. The news comes after leaked audio of a closed-door conversation was released Sunday in which Herrera and Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León were heard in conversation with the then-City Council President Nury Martinez as she made racists, disparaging remarks about her colleagues and, in one case, a Black child.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA on Monday called for the resignations of three Los Angeles council members and the president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, after the council president was caught on tape making racist and homophobic remarks. The actors’ union joined a chorus of outrage that followed the leak on Sunday of an hourlong conversation, in which Council President Nury Martinez disparaged indigenous Mexicans and made racist remarks about the three-year-old Black son of a fellow council member. “Racism and homophobia have no place in the labor movement, government or society,” the actors’ union said in a statement. “All leaders must be held to a higher standard that centers on anti-racism and immediately calls out discrimination and hateful comments in the moment.”

SAG-AFTRA has joined the chorus of outrage over a secretly taped conversation that has rocked the Los Angeles City Council, calling for the resignations for all those involved. City Council President Nury Martinez resigned earlier today.

Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 is calling for the immediate resignation Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor, for his role in a leaked audio tape that’s roiling the Los Angeles City Council. Local 399 said in a statement that if he doesn’t resign, it will pull out of the Federation.