Blacks on Council Not Assuaged

A group of African American community leaders from the San Fernando Valley stepped up to the defense of City Council President Alex Padilla on Friday, saying his decision to exclude the council’s three black members from key committees had to do with politics, not race.

However, another group of African American leaders from South Los Angeles said they will go to City Hall on Tuesday to support the request for the committee assignments to be changed.

The Valley civic leaders addressed the City Council after a meeting between Padilla and African American council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Jan Perry and Nate Holden failed to resolve their concerns about being left off two committees overseeing redevelopment, housing, job creation and social service programs.

Padilla said he understands the concerns but has not decided whether to take any action.

The meeting “was a good first step,” he said. “There is no plan to change the appointments, but we are going to continue our talks.”

One option Padilla is considering is to expand the council’s Economic Development and Employment Committee and the Housing and Community Development Committee.

Ridley-Thomas, Holden and Perry left the discussions dissatisfied, saying Padilla did not even commit to a timeline for making a decision.

“It remains unresolved, and that in and of itself is a problem,” Ridley-Thomas said. “The lack of movement is clearly a price for those of us who represent 750,000 people in this city.”

Ridley-Thomas said he is also concerned that Padilla asked them for calm and a de-escalation of tensions but that half a dozen Padilla supporters later addressed the council backing his decision.

As a result, he said, South Los Angeles civic leaders who are upset by the committee assignments will address the council Tuesday.

Padilla “started something that we are obliged to respond to,” Ridley-Thomas said.

The pro-Padilla leaders who addressed the council included Leroy Chase, head of the Boys and Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley, and Robert Winn, a Lake View Terrace Baptist Church deacon and a member of the Valley NAACP chapter’s board.

“It is not a racial thing. It is a political thing,” Winn said of the committee assignments, noting that the three black council members supported Ruth Galanter instead of Padilla for president.

The speakers praised Padilla for his work for black constituents in his northeast Valley district.

The contingent from South Los Angeles that will be at the meeting Tuesday is being organized by Norman Johnson, executive director of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“We are very much concerned that the committee assignments do not reflect the kind of power sharing and influence we would have for African American council members,” Johnson said.