L.A. City Councilmember Curren Price’s suspension motion still on hold

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Dakota Smith and Julia Wick at the helm.

Los Angeles City Council leaders reacted quickly when Dist. Atty. George Gascón unveiled criminal charges against South L.A. City Councilmember Curren Price in June.

Council President Paul Krekorian announced that the council would consider suspending Price. At the same time, Councilman Bob Blumenfield called the continuous string of charges at City Hall “depressing” and said that he supported Krekorian putting forward legislation to suspend Price.

But since late June, when a council committee overseen by Krekorian discussed the motion and heard from community leaders in South L.A. opposed to Price’s suspension, the issue appears to have taken a back seat.

Krekorian spokesman Hugh Esten told The Times this week that the motion to suspend Price won’t be considered again before Price is arraigned. He didn’t respond to a question about why the council was waiting for an arraignment.

As The Times has previously noted, the council’s handling of the allegations against Price is far different from how the council reacted to the criminal allegations against former Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas.

In that case, the council suspended Ridley-Thomas on the same day that the politician entered a formal plea.

Krekorian later said that it had been a mistake to suspend Ridley-Thomas so quickly, “without thinking about what would come after that.”

Prosecutors charge that councilman Price had a financial interest in development projects that he voted on and that his wife improperly received medical benefits from the city.

Price calls the charges “unfounded” and said that his name will be cleared.

He has yet to enter a plea in the case. His arraignment has been repeatedly delayed and is now set for Oct. 13.

Around Los Angeles, council members aren’t saying too much about Price’s possible suspension. Blumenfeld’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment about it. A representative for Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson declined to provide comment.

Meanwhile, Price — who stopped coming to council meetings after charges were first announced — has since returned to the council. This week, he was among those council members who took part in quizzing a nominee to the city’s ethics commission, and his participation rankled some City Hall critics.

Some neighborhood leaders in his district continue to push back against a suspension.

The South Central Neighborhood Council last month submitted a comment to the city stating the group “utterly opposes” the motion to suspend Price and recommended that council members “postpone the vote until a court of law rules a verdict.”

State of play

— BEHIND THE CURTAIN: LAist podcast host Antonia Cereijido writes about why she wanted to interview former Council President Nury Martinez for their four-part podcast on last year’s leaked audio scandal and how they got Martinez to agree to the interview. It is Martinez’s first interview since she resigned in October 2022.

— LAWSUIT OVER DECLARATION: An L.A. group is suing the city over Mayor Karen Bass’ emergency declaration on homelessness, calling it a “vast and illegal expansion of mayoral power.” Fix the City, a non-profit, has sued the city several times over planning and development decisions.

— CITY ATTORNEY’S OFFICE PROBE: Sentencing of Paul Paradis, a central figure in the government’s criminal investigation of the city attorney’s office and the DWP, was again delayed this week. Separately, former City Atty. Mike Feuer is also being sued for his alleged role in the scandal inside in the city attorney’s office. Feuer, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Adam Schiff, has denied knowing about wrongdoing in his office.

— THE ROBOTS ARE WATCHING: A food delivery robot company provided footage to the LAPD for a police investigation into two men who attempted to steal one of the robots. More broadly, the incident is raising questions about how such footage may be used in the future, 404 Media reports.

— ON THE LINE: Nearly 2,000 Angelenos tuned in for Mayor Karen Bass’ first telephone town hall this week, according to the mayor’s office. The live town halls were a mainstay for Bass in Congress, she said. A half-dozen deputy mayors also chimed in during the event to answer specific questions.

—SMALL BIZ UPDATE: Three months after Bass signed an executive directive to identify burdensome processes and fees that impede local small businesses, the mayor’s office put out their first progress report on the topic Friday. The report identifies a number of solutions to implement before the end of the year.

— NEED A CAT? Staffers with Councilmember Tim McOsker‘s “Clean 15” team picked up a little something extra in Wilmington this week: five stray kittens. They were taken to Harbor shelter in San Pedro and are now available for adoption. The staffers dubbed them “Phineas, Fermin, Rosecrans, Malloy, and Mingus — in honor of the One-Five.”

QUICK HITS

• On the docket for next week: Bass will appear at the Ebell Theater to discuss homelessness on Wednesday.
  
• The city’s Neighborhoods and Community Enrichment Committee will discuss a motion to “place an immediate and indefinite moratorium on the issuance of new breeding permits” for animals in the city.