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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - In the wake of a leaked conversation between three council members that included racist language and discussions about redrawing district boundaries in their favor, various groups called Tuesday for the establishment of an independent redistricting commission, while one councilwoman proposed a committee to explore an overhaul of government operations.
Councilwoman Nithya Raman introduced a motion calling for the creation of an Ad Hoc Committee on City Governance Reform. The committee would be charged with "implementing reforms to increase transparency, limit corruption, and make city leadership more representative of our communities," according to Raman's office.
According to the motion, the leaked tape of a conversation between Council members Nury Martinez, Kevin de León, Gil Cedillo and former Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera has "provided the public a window into a redistricting process stained by self-interested political gerrymandering and backroom deals."
"The anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, anti-gay, and racist statements we all heard over the last 72 hours do not represent the Los Angeles that I know and that I love so deeply," Raman said. "This incident -- which happened during a broken redistricting process -- along with the recent FBI indictments have rightly shattered Angeleno's faith in their government. We will not be able to move forward as a city until we have restored the trust of residents."
Several community groups have issued statements since the release of the recorded conversation calling for change in the city's redistricting process, which is conducted every 10 years to redraw the boundaries of the council's 15 districts.
California Common Cause backed the idea of a 2024 ballot measure that would authorize creation of an independent redistricting commission, taking the process of setting district boundaries out of the hands of the politicians who stand to benefit from the boundary adjustments.
"For too long, power-hungry local officials on both sides of the aisle have sliced and diced our communities to manipulate our elections and keep themselves and their allies in power," Common Cause Executive Director Jonathan Mehta Stein said in a statement. "Gerrymandering isn't just a problem for other states -- it happens here, too, and now we have audio evidence of what it sounds like in California.
"As the leaked L.A. tapes illustrate, a partisan redistricting process also perpetuates the systemic racism that deprives communities of color of the power and representation they deserve, and along with them, the strong schools, safe neighborhoods, and affordable housing they need to thrive. In a state as diverse as California, incumbent-run redistricting often pits neighborhoods and communities against one another."
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer also backed the idea, saying he made such a proposal more than a year ago.
"It should be clear to everyone by now that leaving the power to draw their own district lines in the hands of the politicians who stand to benefit from how those lines are drawn is a massive conflict of interest and an invitation to the sort of backroom dealing this outrageous conversation revealed," Feuer said.
Members of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles, Faith & Community Empowerment and the Koreatown Redistricting Task Force, among other groups, also called for an independent redistricting process.
"The Koreatown Redistricting Task Force worked tirelessly in collaboration with many other organizations and community members to ensure that diverse voices of the community -- including the Bangladeshi, Black, Latinx and Korean in Koreatown -- were represented," according to a statement from the group. "But they treated Koreatown as a commodity that is to be dished out to political favorites. Their shameful actions further demonstrate that we must design a transparent redistricting process that is defined by an independent redistricting commission -- separate from the City Council."