{"id":490280,"date":"2026-10-09T11:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T11:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490280\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T11:02:08","slug":"we-live-in-a-world-the-l-a-city-hall-audio-leak-scandal-wrought-thank-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/490280\/","title":{"rendered":"We live in a world the L.A. City Hall audio leak scandal wrought. Thank God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If I ever need to humble myself \u2014 if my head inflates with grand visions of becoming the next Steve Lopez<\/a> or Bill Plaschke<\/a> \u2014 I pull up the transcript of the secret recording<\/a> that upended Los Angeles politics after The Times broke the story exactly four years ago. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s like a modern-day version of \u201cOzymandias,\u201d except far more vulgar, nowhere near as poetic and a better warning against hubris than anything Shelley could have penned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing for us is to exercise our power,\u201d said then-City Councilmember Gil Cedillo, about halfway through an hourlong conversation he was having with three of the city\u2019s most powerful political figures.<\/p>\n

Oh, did they ever \u2014 and nowhere near the way they intended.<\/p>\n

Nury Martinez and Ron Herrera, the president of the City Council and head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, respectively, quickly resigned for their roles in the racist, homophobic drivel on the recording. Cedillo \u2014 who was finishing out his term \u2014 and Councilmember Kevin de Le\u00f3n refused to step down, besmirching their well-earned reputations<\/a> as progressive lions.<\/p>\n

The L.A. they sought to create \u2014 where Latinos ascend at the expense of the Black community, and anyone who gets in the way is crushed \u2014 never came to be. And the recording that exposed their machinations ultimately destroyed the type of ethnic politicking that made the careers of too many self-serving power grabbers, including this quartet. <\/p>\n

The transcript of their back-and-forth now reads as prophecy \u2014 and we\u2019re far better for it.<\/p>\n

Much of the discussion, which happened in October 2021<\/a> at the headquarters of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, was devoted to whining that L.A.\u2019s Latino-majority council districts, and some cities elsewhere in the county, were represented by Black leaders instead of Latinos, even as Latino residents far outnumbered Black ones. <\/p>\n

\u201cF\u2014, the way I see it, all of the seats are Latino,\u201d said Herrera, who hailed the rise of a \u201clittle Latino caucus of our \u2026 own\u201d that he felt should reign permanently.<\/p>\n

He and the others predicted a future in which vengeful Black politicians would try to sabotage future Latino leaders on their way out of office, creating \u201cpoor Latino districts with nothing,\u201d as Martinez put it.<\/p>\n

She was referring to redistricting proposals<\/a> that would chop off assets like the Coliseum and Exposition Park from South L.A.\u2019s District 9 \u2014 the most Latino district in the city, represented by a Black council member, Curren Price. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo they f\u2014 a future Latino for CD 9,\u201d De Le\u00f3n whined. \u201cThat\u2019s how arrogant, just how arrogant it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not what ended up happening. <\/p>\n

\" <\/p>\n

Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de Le\u00f3n at a council meeting in December 2022 after a two-month absence following his role in that year\u2019s audio leak scandal.<\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

District 9 didn\u2019t lose any assets. Black leaders saw the writing on the wall and didn\u2019t run a serious Black candidate to replace the termed-out Price this year. That created space for two Latinos \u2014 Estuardo Mazariegos and Jose Ugarte<\/a> \u2014 to make it to the general election. No matter which candidate wins in November, the City Council will have fewer than three Black members for the first time in 63 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both Mazariegos and Ugarte say that the anti-Black scheming of the audio leak villains inspired them to run campaigns focusing on Black and Latino residents as one constituency, reflecting how life is actually lived in South L.A., not how Latinos from elsewhere in the city imagine it to be.<\/p>\n

Mazariegos attended the first City Council meeting<\/a> after The Times dropped the audio leak bombshell in October 2022. He remembers Cedillo peeking at the angry audience and temporarily returning to the council\u2019s back room. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo community should have to lose power for another to gain it,\u201d said Mazariegos, who would become the first Central American immigrant to serve on the council if he were to win. \u201cOur power grows when we build it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ugarte, formerly one of Price\u2019s top aides, agreed. He argued that the best way to lead in South L.A. as a Latino council member is \u201cwith respect for those who came before us, the humility to listen to those doing the work today, and the understanding that District 9 is strongest when [Black and Latino residents] move forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Oaxaca, Ugarte would become L.A.\u2019s first Indigenous council member if he wins. That would be a rich coda to the audio leak, considering that Oaxacans received some of the nastiest insults<\/a>. Martinez described them as \u201c little short dark people\u201d who were feos \u2014 ugly. Cedillo joked that they were \u201clittle ones,\u201d while Herrera cracked that they were \u201cindios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s laughing now?<\/p>\n

The Feos Four also spent time kvetching about Nithya Raman, who was finishing her first year on the council. In 2020, she had upset an incumbent to become the first democratic socialist council member. <\/p>\n

At the time of the recording, rivals were trying to diminish Raman\u2019s power by drawing boundaries<\/a> that would put her district \u201cin the blender and chop [it] up, left and right,\u201d as De Le\u00f3n described it.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not our ally,\u201d Cedillo said. \u201cShe\u2019s not going to help us. Her district is not a district we can count on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Give credit to Cedillo and his pendejo pals: They were already seeing Raman and other democratic socialists as an emerging force, even while downplaying the DSA\u2019s chances. De Le\u00f3n said that Raman\u2019s politics were \u201cabout just her as an individual.\u201d Herrera dismissed Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez, then a no-name union organizer aiming to unseat Councilmember Mitch O\u2019Farrell, as a \u201ckid.\u201d Nury Martinez blithely mispronounced Eunisses Hernandez\u2019s name while cackling about the first-time candidate\u2019s challenge to Cedillo.<\/p>\n

If Cedillo and De Le\u00f3n weren\u2019t so convinced of their own political immortality, they could have helped check the DSA\u2019s rise that has so vexed L.A.\u2019s liberal leaders. Instead, Hernandez beat Cedillo in a shocking upset in 2022, while Soto-Mart\u00ednez won in the fall. And fellow democratic socialist Ysabel Jurado took out De Le\u00f3n in 2024<\/a>. Those triumphs paved the path for DSA-LA-backed candidate Marissa Roy<\/a> to make a strong run for city attorney this year. Mazariegos is also endorsed by DSA-LA, which is backing Raman<\/a> for mayor against incumbent Karen Bass.<\/p>\n

\"Former <\/p>\n

Then-Councilmember Gil Cedillo at the Los Angeles City Council meeting on Oct. 11, 2022, two days after the release of explosive audio involving him led to protesters demanding his resignation.<\/p>\n

(Gary Coronado \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The group should send Cedillo and De Le\u00f3n bouquets of red roses as gracias for assisting their ascendancy. All of us owe the foursome a thanks for hastening the demise of the old Latino political machines<\/a> that birthed them and kept the city stuck in tribalism for too long.<\/p>\n

Now, Latino politicians must run on their bona fides for all Angelenos, instead of just their latinidad. Soto-Mart\u00ednez and Hernandez won reelection outright in the June primary because their constituents appreciated their sewer socialism approach, focusing on quality of life issues instead of ideological revolution. Meanwhile, Chicanosauruses are wheezing with diminished power as they urge Latinos to back Bass. The message doesn\u2019t seem to be landing: A recent Berkeley IGS\/Times poll found<\/a> that 45% of Latino voters favored Raman to Bass\u2019 21%, with 34% undecided. <\/p>\n

Gone are the days when Latino voters blindly believed Latino leaders. Why bother, after Martinez and her crew proved the folly of ethnic politics?<\/p>\n

Near the start of the recording, Martinez complained that voters and the media always seemed to forgive Black politicians caught up in scandal, while Latinos didn\u2019t get the same treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re never done,\u201d she complained. \u201cThey never close a chapter on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

L.A. did close the chapter. Now, the Feos Four\u2019s only legacy is \u201cthat colossal wreck\u201d of their conversation, to quote the finale of \u201cOzymandias,\u201d left to rot forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If I ever need to humble myself \u2014 if my head inflates with grand visions of becoming the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[191271,1409,1610,191272,4579,13533,2303,48,52,51,11703,47,50,49,80054,172312,4840,191273,168066,8843,72],"class_list":["post-490280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-cedillo","tag-city","tag-city-council","tag-de-leon","tag-district","tag-jose-ugarte","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-latinos","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-nithya-raman","tag-nury-martinez","tag-power","tag-ron-herrera","tag-secret-recording","tag-way","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}