Kevin de Leon, resign or get recalled

Disgraced Los Angeles Councilman and former California Senate President Kevin de León is back in the news for a physical confrontation he had with activist Jason Reedy on Friday. Police reports have been filed by de León and Reedy, who blame each other for the fight. However that shakes out, it’s clear de León cannot be an effective representative of his council district.

Kevin de León is the lone participant of the infamous 2021 discussion between then-City Council President Nury Martinez, Los Angeles Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and de León, and union boss Ron Herrera in power.

The secretly recorded conversation was leaked back in Oct. 2022, revealing deep-seated casual racism among the group as they derisively spoke about Black Angelenos and members of other groups, including Armenians, Jews and indigenous Latinos.

Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Herrera was the first to resign from his post a day after the recordings were released. Council President Martinez, who was the chief offender, stepped down as president before eventually resigning from the council completely.

Councilman Cedillo, defeated for re-election in the June primary election, decided to keep collecting his paycheck and rode out the remaining months of his term.

His successor, Eunisses Hernandez, has now taken office.

But de León, who ran for mayor this year, has remained defiant, evidently believing that he can simply ride things out.

He can’t.

Kevin de León has certainly accomplished a lot in politics, working his way from the state Assembly to state Senate president before landing a highly-compensated post as a Los Angeles councilman.

The fact, however, is that he failed a true test of his integrity and leadership by engaging in such a cynical and racist conversation with others in positions of power.

The least he should have done was speak up and put a halt to the sort of demeaning language used throughout the recorded discussion. But he didn’t and everyone knows that.

This newspaper called for the resignations of every council member involved back in October.

We once again reiterate that de León should do Los Angeles a favor and step down.

We urge Mayor Karen Bass to push for his ousting.

And, failing all of that, we urge Angelenos to support a pending recall effort against de León.

But if de León has an ounce of integrity left, if he cares at all about his community, he will know that he cannot be an effective council member any longer.

For de León, the true test of leadership at this point is to know when to step down.