L.A. on the Record: With Ridley-Thomas out, what should happen to his district?

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with help from Julia Wick, offering up our weekly menu of City Hall goings on.

The conviction of former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas on corruption charges brought some finality to his South L.A. district, forcing him out of office after a long period in political limbo.

But last week’s guilty verdict has also forced city leaders to revisit an increasingly uncomfortable dilemma: How much longer should residents of Ridley-Thomas’ 10th District, one of the city’s most racially and ethnically diverse, have to wait before electing one of their own to represent them?

Since Ridley-Thomas was indicted and subsequently suspended, three people have served at different points as temporary replacements for him while he battled charges of bribery, conspiracy and fraud. None of them were elected to that role by residents of the district.

Heather Hutt, the most recent of those three, was chosen by the council to represent the district last year. Now, Council President Paul Krekorian is calling for her to continue in that interim capacity until the district’s next regularly scheduled election.

The council is scheduled to decide on Tuesday whether to approve Krekorian’s proposal, extending Hutt’s temporary gig by 20 months — through the March primary and the expected November 2024 runoff. Critics say such a move would only continue the disenfranchisement of voters in the 10th District, one of three that historically have had Black political leaders.

Those complaints were first aired in October 2021, after the council suspended Ridley-Thomas in the wake of his indictment, stripping him of his duties.

The district, which stretches from Koreatown to the Crenshaw Corridor, was initially overseen by Karly Katona, Ridley-Thomas’ then chief of staff, who served as a non-voting caretaker.

The council later appointed former Councilmember Herb Wesson, who served as a voting member until a judge blocked his appointment. Hutt, who is Black, was installed as Wesson’s replacement in September after a huge push from then-Council President Nury Martinez and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

If Hutt’s arrangement lasts through November 2024, the 10th District will have been represented by someone they did not elect for more than three years, said Aura Vasquez, a former city commissioner now running for the Ridley-Thomas seat in next year’s election.

“It’s undemocratic, and it’s a disrespect to the people that live here that contribute to our city,” said Vasquez, who ran for the seat in 2020 but failed to make the runoff.

Vasquez wants the council to call a special election. So does state Assemblymember Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who, like Vasquez, is running for the Ridley-Thomas seat in next year’s election. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, went even further, calling the push to retain Hutt another example of “imperious decision-making” by the council.

Krekorian, for his part, contends that removing Hutt would only create more turmoil, leaving the 10th District without a voting representative for the remainder of the year. A special election would cost $9 million and cannot be scheduled until September or possibly October, he said.

If a special election were held, and no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff would occur no sooner than December, three months before the regularly scheduled election for the seat, Krekorian said in a statement.

“That kind of instability, uncertainty and political chaos does not serve the interests of the people of the 10th District, especially when the campaign for the regular election is already underway,” he said.

Mayor Karen Bass echoed those remarks on Friday, arguing against a costly special election and endorsing the reappointment of Hutt. “Why should taxpayers be put on the hook for another special election that would end in December at the earliest, just to have another election that’s already planned three months later in March?” she said.

Hutt is already a candidate in next year’s election, along with Vasquez, Jones-Sawyer, attorney Grace Yoo and community activist Channing Martinez.

The 10th District is one of the city’s most racially and ethnically diverse, with a population that is 46% Latino, 20% Black, 18% Asian and 12% white, according to demographic figures collected by the city. The population of residents who are eligible to vote is more evenly split: 33% Black, 32% Latino, 16% white and nearly 18% Asian.

Councilmember Nithya Raman is siding with Krekorian, citing the timing and “significant” financial cost of a special election. Councilmember Curren Price, who represents part of South L.A., also supports keeping Hutt, saying district residents deserve a voting representative “without any further interruptions.”

“He believes that she has done a good job representing her community,” said Price spokesperson Angelina Valencia-Dumarot.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley, plans to vote against Hutt’s reappointment, saying the council should call for a special election instead.

Rodriguez said the council hasn’t conducted a true public process for filling the seat. She also pointed out that the idea of appointing Hutt initially came up during the secretly recorded 2021 conversation featuring Martinez, former Councilmember Gil Cedillo, Councilmember Kevin de León and the then-head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, which contained racist and derogatory remarks and triggered a national outcry.

“For that reason, I will be remaining consistent in my position,” Rodriguez said.

Hutt did not respond to inquiries from The Times.

Rob Quan, lead organizer for the group Unrig LA, said a decision to appoint Hutt would give her a “significant leg up” as a candidate in next year’s election. The city would be better served, he said, if the council carried out a more extensive search for someone to serve in an interim capacity — someone with no plans of running for the seat.

Quan said that, in spite of the previous legal challenges, Wesson would be a better person to serve on a temporary basis, since he is barred under term limits from running again.

“If you’re saying we’ve got to appoint somebody, I would prefer him over Heather Hutt,” Quan said. “Herb is not running for office.”

A judge temporarily blocked Wesson last year from continuing in the role of interim council member. However, he pulled out of the post before a trial could be held on the merits.

Whether Hutt would get a serious political boost from serving on the council is not entirely clear. Last year, two incumbent council members lost their bid for another term, while three others were defeated in their campaigns for citywide office.

Community activist Imelda Padilla takes the microphone at a campaign event in Panorama City.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

State of play

— NEW BIG NAME IN CD 14: Assemblymember Miguel Santiago threw his hat into the ring to represent Council District 14 on Friday, announcing his candidacy and saying current Councilmember Kevin de León “is holding back the progress we need on homelessness, housing, and the economic recovery” by not resigning. The two had long been allies, and Santiago described his candidacy as “a difficult decision” in his statement.

Three other candidates, Ysabel Jurado, Nick Pacheco and Eduardo Vargas, have already filed paperwork for the 2024 race. De León has yet to officially file for reelection. (See also: Jon Regardie’s L.A. Mag column this week about the fight ahead for De León, after he dodged another recall attempt last week.)

— SETTLING THE 6TH: Community activist Imelda Padilla is heading to the June 6 runoff election in the 6th District, likely facing off against Marisa Alcaraz, an aide to Councilmember Curren Price. They are running for the seat vacated last year by Martinez.

— RIDLEY-THOMAS FALLOUT: Mayor Karen Bass and other city leaders have been offering tributes to Ridley-Thomas in the days since he was convicted. That’s a markedly different reaction from the ones that greeted several other City Hall corruption cases. Meanwhile, the jury’s foreperson gave The Times’ Matt Hamilton the rundown on how the MRT verdict was reached.

— PLENTY O’ POTHOLES: Mayor Karen Bass discussed the need to repair the city’s rain-damaged streets at a news conference Thursday. The city has responded to 17,459 of the nearly 20,000 pothole repair requests made since December — a period when the region was battered by rainstorms.

— ALARCON AT EASE: A very relaxed former City Councilmember Richard Alarcon sat down with The Times’ Gustavo Arellano to discuss City Hall’s spate of corruption cases and, of course, the leaked recording scandal. Alarcon, you may recall, was found guilty of perjury and voter fraud in 2014, only to have his conviction overturned a few years later. Among the bigger revelations? Alarcon is no longer married to Flora Montes de Oca, his co-defendant in the voter fraud case.

— PHOTO FIASCO: The uproar over the LAPD’s release of police officer headshots — and its subsequent response to that release — continues to grow. Hundreds of officers sued the city earlier this week, saying those publicly posted photos, released in response to a public records request, have put undercover officers in danger. Days later, the city of Los Angeles filed a separate lawsuit against the reporter who made the records request, demanding he give them back. Journalism advocates widely denounced the lawsuit as meritless.

— CURBING EXECUTIVE PAY: A ballot measure to limit annual compensation for executives at privately owned hospitals and other Los Angeles health facilities can move forward. A judge ruled this week against an effort by the California Hospital Assn. to block the union-backed measure.

Committees are back (in person, anyway)

Here’s yet another sign the COVID-19 emergency is truly over at City Hall. Starting next week, every City Council committee will once again meet in person.

For three years, council committees dealing with real estate development, public safety, the environment and other big-ticket issues met on Zoom and relied on phone-in public comment to conduct their business — a practice initiated as part of pandemic-era restrictions on in-person gatherings.

When committee meetings resume on Monday, they won’t be held on the 10th floor, as they were for the most part prior to COVID. Instead, they’ll be conducted exclusively on the third and fourth floors, with much of the action inside the council chamber.

That change has been described by police as an additional security measure. Using the lower floors will reduce the possibility of confrontations between council members and the public, said a Krekorian aide.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s program for getting people off of the street and into hotels and motels is continuing to operate in skid row. Bass’ team had no new numbers for how many have been relocated in that part of the city.
• On the docket for next week: The council’s ad hoc committee on reform will reconvene, this time focusing on the city’s redistricting process.