October 2022 - The Thorn West

Thorn West: Issue No. 132

State Politics

In response to gas prices, Governor Gavin Newsom has called for a new “windfall profit” tax on oil companies, and has even vowed to convene a special legislative session in early December to focus on the new tax. CalMatters offers a preliminary cost-benefit analysis.

City Politics

Los Angeles City Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo have continued to ignore widespread calls for them to resign. This week, the council voted to censure them, after which Council President Paul Krekorian said the council had exhausted its options and it was up to the people to “step forward with a recall.” A recall petition against De León was filed later in the week.

The physical space of council chambers remains significant, as large groups of protesters continue to disrupt meetings, demanding that De León and Cedillo resign and preventing a return to “business as usual.” The city’s responses have ranged from expressing qualified empathy to instituting hybrid public comment, threatening the use of less lethal ammunition, and, today, blocking protesters from entering the meeting because it was “at capacity.”

Councilmember Nithya Raman introduced a motion to adopt recommendations made by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission to strengthen the city’s municipal lobbying ordinance. The recommendations were submitted in April but never agendized by former Council President Nury Martinez.

Ballot return is low so far, implying that the vote count will once again take some time after the November 8 election. The DSA-LA voter guide is here. Knock-LA has also released a voter guide, here. The LA Times endorsed Hugo Soto-Martinez in CD13 (echoing DSA-LA), after endorsing Kate Pynoos in the primary.

Housing Rights

In Councilmember De León’s district, the housing reclaimers who had won the right to stay in vacant homes owned by Caltrans have received eviction notices at the end of their original two-year lease.

Councilmember Mike Bonin’s motion to make it easier for nonprofits and religious organizations to offer temporary shelter to people experiencing houselessness was approved to be drafted as legislation, 10–2. This is another motion that was left waiting to be agendized under Nury Martinez.

Environmental Justice

L.A. Taco reports on the poor labor conditions at the cleanup of the toxic Exide battery plant in Vernon (the industrial-use-only city that Kevin de León protected from disincorporation when he represented the city in the state Senate).

Local Media

Mike Davis, the Marxist historian whose writing is essential to a humane understanding of Los Angeles, has died. As many of his remembrances note, although his vision was sometimes bleak, he always urged hope. In honor of his work, his publishers have made his collection of essays City of Quartz free to download.

State Politics

Governor Newsom’s office announced Monday that, despite concerns over a winter surge, California’s COVID-19 state of emergency will end February 28, 2023. The governor will seek to codify some elements into law. This may trigger an end to eviction protections in San Francisco and Oakland. (Los Angeles didn’t wait.)

City Politics

Last week, a leaked recording of three councilmembers engaged in racist gerrymandering revealed to Angelenos a widespread malignancy in city government. Over the weekend, Knock LA analyzed another recording leaked at the same time, which doesn’t feature any councilmembers. In this recording, made just this September, LA County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera and a former Mitch O’Farrell staffer discuss Hugo Soto-Martinez, the CD13 race, and the importance of “buying” endorsements from local Democratic clubs. A surprising response from the current president of the Stonewall Democratic Club illuminated how influence was used to sway that club’s endorsement toward O’Farrell over internal objections.

On Tuesday, though Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León had still ignored the calls to resign coming from every corner of Los Angeles, City Council held a meeting. It was held via Zoom to avoid being shut down by the many activists who have been demanding that meetings halt until the resignations are in (though the stated reason was COVID-19 precautions). Only 10 members attended. This included the council’s progressive wing, despite pressure on them to refuse to attend, and their own expressed doubts — now quashed — about continuing city business without resignations. At the doors of City Hall, a protester was assaulted by an LAPD officer.

At Tuesday’s meeting, in reaction to the corruption revealed on the recording, two motions to draft 2024 ballot measures — which would, respectively, implement independent redistricting and expand the size of City Council — were approved.

Additionally, the council voted on a new president to replace Nury Martinez, who resigned last week. San Fernando Valley councilmember (and landlord) Paul Krekorian was chosen unanimously — suggesting that much council business is still coordinated out of the public view.

Councilmember Mike Bonin later wrote a lengthy thread explaining how the coalition led by Nury Martinez has stymied progressive legislation in Los Angeles for years.

Wednesday, Kevin de León announced that he will refuse to resign from the CD14 seat. Recall petitions are already being discussed, including at a forum held this week by DSA-LA on the way forward: recording here. Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, alongside other Black-led and -allied organizations, have been holding a protest at De León’s Eagle Rock residence for the entire week, demanding De León’s immediate resignation.

Housing Rights

The resignation of Nury Martinez and, eventually, of Kevin De León might impact the city’s recent settling of the LA Alliance lawsuit, which those two councilmembers spearheaded, and which has the potential to reshape the city’s homelessness policy. Details here.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson joined with Councilmembers Bonin and Nithya Raman in voting against another new 41.18 zone. Due to the few number of members in attendance, this protest vote actually caused the measure to fall one vote below the threshold for action. However, Harris-Dawson then changed his vote, and the motion carried.

The City of Santa Monica’s flouting of state housing laws has brought the city significant consequences. The city’s failure to submit a compliant Housing Element triggered a penalty that removed local control over development approval. Developers noticed, and by the time the city regained compliance this week, plans for an estimated 4,000 units of housing had been automatically approved. More on the Chauceresque “builder’s remedy” in Slate, which picked up the story nationally.

Labor

Workers at Amazon’s air freight fulfillment center in San Bernardino, the company’s third-largest in the US, walked off the job last Friday over what they say are insufficient wages and unsafe working conditions. This is the second worker strike at the air hub since August.

Environmental Justice

Last year, an LA Times investigation found that California has chronically underestimated heat fatalities even as heat waves become more frequent and more deadly. The California Legislature recently agreed to the creation of a system that will collect real-time data from emergency departments.

In a study published on Thursday, researchers estimated that over 4 tons of benzene per year are being leaked into the atmosphere from pipes that deliver the gas to buildings around California — the equivalent to the benzene emissions from nearly 60,000 vehicles. And those emissions are unaccounted for by the state.