"(White) Power Grab: Krekorian Disenfranchises District With Only 8% White Population" by Daniel Guss
Paternalistic racism is back in fashion at LA City Hall. Did it ever really go away?
@TheGussReport on Twitter — It has been 173 days since disgraced LA City Council president Nury Martinez resigned. It happened following the release of a secretly recorded meeting that exposed her as a hate-filled conniver as she and colleagues Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and labor union leader Ron Herrera made racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and other hateful comments while they conspired to disenfranchise the Black population of Los Angeles.
This week, the voters of her Council District 6 will have a primary to decide who may succeed Martinez, whose office has been rudderless since she stepped down.
But it was a different story last week, when suspended 10th District Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was convicted on a slew of federal corruption charges, immediately triggering his removal from office.
Before the ink could even dry on the Ridley-Thomas jury verdict form, current City Council president Paul Krekorian unilaterally decided that he will seek to have CD10 caretaker Heather Hutt serve the remainder of MRT’s term, which reaches until the end of 2024.
To be clear, that also means Hutt may run for re-election with the significant — un-earned —advantage of being the incumbent.
Re-election, that is, without actually having been elected.
Krekorian is trying to force the roughly 270,000 people in CD10 to have a Councilmember who received exactly zero votes to represent them for the past two years, and exactly zero votes for the next two years, as he ties a lead weight around anyone who is, or who is considering, running against Hutt as the incumbent in 2024 and 2028.
Krekorian’s office refused to respond to questions about the consequences of this decision and why it is being handled differently than in CD6.
That’s why, as predicted, when the Martinez scandal broke out, and Krekorian and his peers assured us that they would weed-out racism, inequality and self-dealing in City Hall, it was just talk.
It was just something our politicians said to quell the mobs of rightfully angry people who showed up to meetings and demanded the resignations of Martinez, Cedillo and de León.
It is the same old racism, this time from Krekorian, who is White, forcing his wishes on a district that, according to LA County statistics from 2016, is 49% Latino, 25% Black, 16% Asian and just 8% White.
In no uncertain terms, Heather Hutt has done nothing to indicate an inability to successfully lead the district. But she was chosen, ironically, by Martinez to fill that role when she failed to wedge-back-in the previous office holder, Herb Wesson, after a judge ruled him ineligible and this column exposed the underhanded way she tried to do it.
As the LA Times reported in a quote from the infamous meeting, Cedillo favored Hutt serving in place of MRT on the Council because she will support their devious efforts:
“Herrera, the labor official, later said that removing Ridley-Thomas was necessary regardless of potential political blowback, arguing the scandal would hurt all incumbents and make people think ‘that the council’s corrupt.’ If they do put someone in, ‘that person has to support the three of you,’ Herrera said.
“‘The one who will support us is Heather Hutt,’ Cedillo said.”
In other words, the fix was in then.
And the fix is in now.
The disenfranchisement of 92% non-white District 10 continues. Last time it was by Martinez, and this time by Krekorian, who refuses to answer questions. Like why CD6 gets to choose its Council representation after 173 days, but CD10 does not, and how his power grab impacts its residents and businesses for the next two years, and possibly the next 10.
It is business as usual at LA City Hall, where the deal of the day is paternalism, racism and disenfranchisement.
Same as it ever was.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and has been a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)