Embattled Los Angeles Councilman Kevin de Leon told Univision on Wednesday he will not resign amid an uproar over a leaked tape that revealed him participating in a meeting in which Latino officials made crude, racist remarks and plotted to expand their political power.
The scandal already has led to the resignation of former City Council President Nury Martinez and calls from President Joe Biden for those involved to step down.
De Leon told the Spanish-language station that he is “so sorry,” and wants to continue working on homelessness and other problems in his district.
The councilman also spoke with KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, saying he would refuse to resign. “I failed in my leadership,” he said.
His statement was immediately criticized by other Council members pushing for his resignation.
“Apologies will not be nearly enough to undo the damage that this city has suffered,” said Council President Paul Krekorian, who replaced Martinez in the leadership post. “The only way we can begin to heal as a city is for Mr. de Leon to take responsibility for his actions, accept the consequences and step down.”
The racist comments came in a nearly year-old meeting, which also provided an unvarnished look into the city’s racial rivalries. Those involved in the private meeting — all Democrats — spent much of the time discussing how to safeguard Latino political power during the redrawing of council district boundaries.
The California Legislative Black Caucus said the recording “reveals an appalling effort to decentralize Black voices during the critical redistricting process.”
Martinez stepped down last week, but de Leon and Councilmember Gil Cedillo have so far resisted widespread calls for their resignations.
The Los Angeles City Council installed a new president Tuesday after a chanting crowd of protesters called for halting the vote until de Leon and Cedillo resigned for their part in the 2021 meeting.
The Council selected Krekorian to lead the chamber.
A powerful labor leader who also attended the 2021 private meeting, Ron Herrera, also resigned.
It’s not known who made the recording, or why it was released in the run-up to next month’s midterm elections.
“I will not resign because there is a lot of work ahead,” de Leon said in the interview, referring to unemployment, fallout from the continuing pandemic and the threat of evictions for renters in a city with soaring housing prices.
“I feel very bad, I feel very sorry for the damage, for the wounds that exist today in our communities,” he said.
The remarks were his first since the White House called for him to resign. He has not appeared at recent meetings, and the Council stripped him and Cedillo of much of their power as they seek to increase pressure on them to resign.
The interview Wednesday was conducted by Leon Krauze, an anchor for Univision Noticias national network.
“I ask for forgiveness from all my people, my community for the damage that those painful words caused on that day,” he said.
De Leon called the comments in the private meeting “horrible,” but said the responsibility for the offensive language rested with Martinez, who has resigned.
“I failed for not raising my voice,” he said.
When asked about a joke he made on the recording about Councilman Mike Bonin carrying around his son like Martinez carries around her Louis Vuitton bag, de Leon called it a “bad joke and I apologize.”
In a statement on Twitter, Bonin called de Leon’s comments “gaslighting of the highest order.”
“His comments on that tape make clear he is unfit for office,” Bonin added.
Los Angeles City Council members are among the highest paid in the country with annual salaries of nearly $229,000, and de Leon’s announcement also keeps his city paychecks coming.
While staying in office, de Leon and Cedillo have continued to earn their biweekly salary of $8,779.20, which increased this past July. As long as they remain on payroll, they also continue to receive medical and pension benefits.
In a letter Wednesday to Krekorian, de Leon asked to be excused from Council meetings “in coming weeks” to attempt to “rebuild the relationships I’ve broken.” He also said he would seek “professional sensitivity training.”
“Until this moment in my life, I couldn’t have imagined being part of the problem instead of the solution,” de Leon wrote.