After more than 90 minutes of impassioned testimony, a Los Angeles City Council committee

Friday

slammed the brakes to suspend Councilman Curren Price

Friday

postpone a recommendation until at least the end of August.

Price, who has maintained his innocence, was charged last week with 10 felonies in a case that partly involves

centers around

votes he cast on affordable housing projects developed by companies that employed prizewoman as consultants.

Members of the council’s three-member Committee on Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations argued that the council should slow down, give Price’s voters more of a say in the process, and take time to explore the best ways to move forward. to go.

Ultimately, Council President Paul Krekorian and Councilors Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Hugo Soto-Martnez agreed to submit the suspension procedure until the committee’s next regular meeting on August 25.

They also approved Harris-Dawson’s proposal to “transparently and expeditiously explore all options” for filling a temporary vacancy and creating a process to solicit public input from voters and community agencies in the district.

Price said he was pleased with the committee’s decision, noting that he “has not yet had an opportunity to answer the baseless allegations” against him in court.

“I hope that the committee and the full council will grant me the same presumption of innocence as the law grants me, and I look forward to proving my innocence,” he said.

Dozens of people expressed fervent support for Price at the rally, including pastors, labor leaders and a long list of members of the South Central community. They urged the three committee members to allow the legal process to proceed

on it’s own

and not punish Price or his constituents before he has had a chance to defend himself in court.

“If Councilman Curren Price is presumed innocent until proven guilty, that means you are suspending an innocent person,” Rev. Shep Crawford of Experience Christian Ministries told the committee.

Speakers hailed the third-term councilor as a friend and leader who had long fought for some of the city’s poorest communities. They cited a litany of examples of Price bringing much-needed resources to his district, and begged the committee not to leave them without representation.

Price, who is black, represents a district

now

four-fifths Latino. He has been characterized as a bridge builder who brought together the black and brown communities of his district. Many speakers also argued that Price was unfairly attacked or judged under the harshest possible light because of his race.

I have no doubt that if Curren Price was like me, he wouldn’t be facing these baseless felony charges, said Kurt Petersen, co-chairman of Unite Here Local 11, the politically influential hotel and restaurant workers’ union. Peterson is white.

Price has been a staunch ally of organized labor throughout his decade on the council, and Petersen defended Price wholeheartedly at the meeting.

Several called the allegations “bogus” or expressed concerns about their “weakness”, with some distinguishing Price’s case from those of other councilors charged with corruption in recent years.

Adriana Cabrera, president of the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council and former District 9 candidate, was one of the few to speak out in favor of Price’s suspension.

Cabrera said Price’s actions in the community “accelerated gentrification” and argued that “his leadership has benefited developers and further marginalized tenants.”

This is the municipality’s third suspension procedure in three

as much as

year. Former Councilman Jose Huizar was suspended within hours of his 2020 arrest by FBI agents. A year later, the City Council took the same action with Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, suspending him a week after he was indicted on his own federal corruption charges.

Now, under the leadership of council chairman Paul Krekorian, the council is taking a slower and markedly different approach this time around.

The commission’s more cautious approach is widely seen as a reaction to its handling of Ridley-Thomas’s suspension, which left his district three

different

temporary replacements over a 12-month period and led to multiple legal challenges. Krekorian later said it had been a mistake to suspend Ridley-Thomas so quickly, “without thinking about what would come next.”

If Price is suspended, the path ahead will be equally difficult.

Krekorian could

decide to

appoint a non-voting janitor to fill the seat while Price fights the charges, but that would leave his district without a voting representative. The council could instead vote to appoint a temporary voting member. But that would clear the way for an unelected representative to make decisions on behalf of price constituents.

According to the Stadscharter, the council

only

has the power to suspend

other

not fire a colleague facing criminal charges, meaning that any vacancy is temporary and only lasts until his case is resolved or he leaves office. (Ridley-Thomas was eventually forced from office by his felony conviction.)

Suspending Price would also leave the 15-member council with only one black representative elected by voters. Councilor Heather Hutt, who is black, was selected by the council to replace Ridley-Thomas for the next 18 months and will have to run for the seat for the first time next year.

At one point, Creed Brojek, 8, described Price’s role in the community and the help he had provided to the boy’s family.

“We have to keep Curren Price because when I grow up I want to be like him,” he said to applause, before ending his comment with an “amen”.

Prosecutors have charged Price with perjury and say he failed to disclose his wife’s business dealings with developers whose projects he voted for. They also say Price violated conflict of interest laws by endorsing two of those affordable housing projects from developers between 2019 and 2021.

In addition, prosecutors have charged Price with misappropriation of public funds, saying he allowed his now-wife to receive city health benefits at a time when their marriage was not legally valid.