Resign from the presidency?
That’s not adequate.
Nury Martinez wants to scrub out her workplace, end up the lights and disappear.
She’s morally compromised, racially divisive and politically broken.
“I take accountability for what I mentioned and there are not any excuses for these feedback,” Martinez mentioned in a press release about giving up the highest publish on the Los Angeles Metropolis Council.
Once I began to learn what she needed to say, I assumed she was going to let the town know she was resigning altogether.
That’s what taking accountability would imply.
However she didn’t. And so now, a month away from mayoral and council elections in a metropolis that already had a voter confidence downside, towards a smoldering backdrop of corruption and unmet challenges, we’ve bought this new whopper of a scandal involving ugly remarks by one of the highly effective folks in native authorities.
Martinez insulted Councilman Mike Bonin and referred to his younger Black son as a monkey. Isn’t that alone sufficient to disgrace her into retirement from public workplace?
She known as Bonin, who’s white and homosexual, a “little bitch” who was engaged on the facet of “the Blacks.”
She went after Oaxacans, calling them brief, darkish and ugly.
All these redneck remarks turned public with the discharge of a recording made one yr in the past, and she or he’s not packing her baggage?
I reached out to Miriham Antonio, a USC grad and first-year legislation faculty scholar at UC Irvine, as a result of I understand how decided she is to change into a neighborhood chief herself, and I understand how a lot she has been impressed by folks she considered function fashions.
“As an Angeleno and Oaxacan girl, I’m each infuriated and saddened by the racist and insensitive feedback uttered by the three L.A. Metropolis Council representatives towards the Indigenous and Black neighborhood,” mentioned Antonio, whom I met when she was operating a voter registration drive as a Fairfax Excessive Faculty scholar.
“These feedback are consultant of the racism and colorism that Black and Indigenous people proceed to endure on this nation,” Antonio mentioned. “These ‘representatives’ are a shame to Latinos and Angelenos; they don’t deserve to stay in workplace.”
By “they,” she was referring to the others heard on the tape of the dialog, by which the main target was on redistricting the town, with a purpose of placing extra Latinos in workplace. That may be councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, together with labor chief Ron Herrera.
Their feedback had been by levels considerably much less offensive than these of Martinez. However political marketing consultant Mike Trujillo made level about whether or not residents in Martinez’s and De León’s districts may pay a worth for his or her transgressions. (Cedillo misplaced his reelection bid and will likely be out of workplace quickly.)
“Should you’re a constituent of theirs,” Trujillo mentioned, you need your rep to be as efficient as potential, whether or not the problem is homelessness, choosing up trash or filling potholes. “So who’s going to be the primary individual to second Nury’s movement? Do you actually wish to be the primary individual?”
Jane Demian, who’s on the Neighborhood Council in De León’s district, was dissatisfied in him however shocked by what Martinez mentioned.
“I’m glad she stepped down as council president, and she or he could should resign altogether,” mentioned Demian, who has labored laborious in her neighborhood to handle homelessness. “My confidence in Martinez has been destroyed.”
The honest illustration mentioned on the recording is a reliable challenge in a metropolis by which Latinos are under-represented in elective workplace and administration positions. However the petty, coarse and demeaning language the members used could serve to sabotage the trigger and additional divide the town.
“This can be a large story that has many tentacles,” mentioned political marketing consultant Dermot Givens.
Certainly it does.
Who recorded the dialog and why? Who launched the recording and why?
Would possibly it have something to do with a corruption probe in a constructing that provides full employment alternatives to federal investigators?
And what impact may it have on the mayoral race between Rep. Karen Bass (who says she’s a consensus builder) and Rick Caruso (who says he’s operating to place an finish to corruption and awful management by profession politicians)?
Already, there’s messy maneuvering behind the scenes to find out who will slide into the council president slot and attempt to put out the dumpster fireplace. However I don’t know if anybody has a large enough fireplace hose.
In the meantime, outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti awaits discover of whether or not his nomination to function President Biden’s ambassador to India is on maintain resulting from a sexual harassment scandal involving certainly one of his former prime deputies.
“There’s no playbook for this,” Trujillo mentioned of the newest fiasco. “That is fairly unprecedented. I feel every of those people who wish to change into a greater individual — and I consider they do — most likely should stroll away from Metropolis Corridor for fairly a while.”
Martinez needs to be the primary to go.
Steve.lopez@latimes.com
