Council President Nury Martinez and Councilmembers Curren Price, Gil Cedillo, Kevin de Len, Paul Krekorian, Paul Koretz, John Lee, Mitch O’Farrell and Joe Buscaino in support of making this historic appointment
Despite the hundreds of Council District 10 constituents who showed up at the Los Angeles City Council Meeting on Aug. 30 wearing t-shirts with slogans like “Black Women Are Watching,” “Hutt is the Voice & Vote We Need, NOW!” and numerous other slogans, a hand full of councilmembers maneuvered to delay the vote to appoint Heather Hutt as the interim councilmember for CD 10.
While the “nay” votes delayed the historic vote that would make Heather Hutt the first Black woman to ever serve as the council representative for CD 10 and the first Black woman to serve on the Los Angeles City Council in more than decade, the majority of the L.A. City Council stood firm in their praise and vowed to remain vigilant in their efforts to give the residents of District 10 the representative they want and desperately deserve.
It has been over 325 days since the City Council voted to suspend Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has been indicted on 20+ counts by the federal government alleging bribery and conspiracy during his tenure on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. Since Ridley-Thomas was suspended and since a judge issued a restraining order blocking Herb Wesson serving as the temporary councilmember, the constituents of the district have gone more than 200 days with no voting member on the City Council, subsequently leaving them voiceless and voteless for the past year.
Council President Nury Martinez, following the motion to delay the appointment of Heather Hutt, issued the following statement: ”It’s unfortunate that we found ourselves here today where members voted against considering Heather Hutt’s appointment and, as a result, continue to deny over 260,000 people in this city a vote and a representative on the Los Angeles City Council. But as a woman of color, it’s all too familiar – I know the hurdles that we have to jump through to prove our qualifications again and again.
“Heather has earned my support because she has proven to me that she cares deeply about the district she grew up in, raised her children in and continues to live in, along with her 20+ year experience in public service. I am with her today and I will be with her tomorrow because the residents of Council District 10 deserve representation,” added Martinez.
https://lasentinel.net/cd-10-community-voices-big-support-heather-hutt.html
https://lasentinel.net/wesson-appoints-heather-hutt-as-10th-district-chief-of-staff.html
Councilmember Gil Cedillo, in a passionate plea in support of the Hutt’s appointment, said the question of authority for appointing someone to serve temporarily on the City Council boils down to three things – 1) Is there a vacancy? 2) Do we have the power to appoint a replacement? 3) Is there a valid candidate?
“If the answer to all three of these thing is yes, then the president of the City Council has the power to appoint the replacement according to the City of Los Angeles Charter,” declared Cedillo.
There has not been a Black woman serving on the Los Angeles City Council in over a decade and Hutt’s appointment could make history by making her the first Black woman to ever represent the 10th Council District.
What has residents of the 10th and advocates for appointing a Black woman to the council even more frustrated is that the two of the three women of color currently serving on the City Council – Nithya Raman (CD 4) and Monica Rodriguez (CD 7) – voted against considering Hutt’s appointment. Council President Martinez was the only woman of color voting in support of taking action to appoint Heather Hutt to the City Council on August 30.
Councilmembers Kevin DeLeón and Mitch O’Farrell made equally as strong statements in support of Hutt’s historic appointment. They talked about her lifelong service to the district where she was born and raised, how she was unquestionably qualified to serve as the interim councilmember, and how she had served admirably in both state and federal government and ultimately becoming the first and only Black woman to serve as statewide District Director for then-Senator (now Vice President) Kamala Harris in the history of California.
“Council President Nury Martinez and the other eight members of the City Council who stood in support of Heather Hutt’s appointment should be applauded. They put the needs of the people who live in the 10th District over some phantom process that does not serve what the people of the district want or need,” stated Leslie Neal-Younkin, a lifelong resident of CD 10.
Councilmember Curren Price (CD 9), one of only two African American’s on the City Council, also voted in support of moving to take action towards placing Hutt as the interim councilmember for the 10th and has also pledged his support in bringing the motion forward in what will hopefully be the very near future.
