After more than 90 minutes of impassioned testimony, a Los Angeles City Council committee on Friday put the brakes on the suspension of Rep. Karen Price, delaying the recommendation until at least the end of August.

Mr. Price, who has claimed innocence, was indicted last week with 10 felony counts in connection with his part in voting for an affordable housing project developed by a company that hired Mr. Price’s wife as a consultant.

Members of the council’s three-member Committee on Rules, Elections, and Intergovernmental Relations said the council would slow its pace, give Price voters more say in the process, and move forward over time. He argued that methods should be studied.

Finally, Council Chair Paul Krekorian, Marquese Harris-Dawson, and Council Member Hugo Soto-Martinez decided to suspend the suspension until the Committee’s next regular meeting scheduled for August 25. agreed.

They also endorsed Harris Dawson’s proposal to “consider all options with transparency and expeditiousness” to fill temporary vacancies, and establish a process for seeking public input from voters and civic agencies within the district. Founded.

Mr Price said he was satisfied with the commission’s decision and said he “has not yet had an opportunity to answer the wrongful allegations” against him in court.

“I hope that the Commission and the entire Council will apply to me the same presumption of innocence that the law applies to me, and I look forward to proving my innocence.” he said.

During the rally, dozens of people, including pastors, labor leaders and a long list of members of the South Central community, expressed their ardent support for Mr. Price. They called on the three commissioners to proceed with legal proceedings and not punish Mr. Price or his voters before they had a chance to defend themselves in court.

Pastor Shep Crawford of Experience Christian Ministries told the committee, “If Councilor Karen Price is presumed innocent until proven guilty, that means suspending an innocent person. will be,” he told the committee.

Speakers hailed the third-term city council member as a friend and leader who has fought for the city’s poorest communities for years. They enumerated one instance after another where Mr. Price had brought much-needed resources to the district and pleaded with the committee not to leave them without representation.

Mr. Price, who is black, represents a neighborhood that is four-fifths Latino. He is characterized as a bridge builder who connected the district’s black and brown communities. Many speakers also argued that Mr. Price was being unfairly targeted because of his race and being tried in the harshest light possible.

“If Karen Price looked like me, she wouldn’t have been charged with such an unjust felony,” said a member of the politically influential hotel and restaurant workers union Unite Here Local 11. Co-Chairman Kurt Petersen said. Peterson is white.

Mr. Price has been a staunch ally of organized workers during his ten years on the council, and Mr. Petersen defended Mr. Price to the best of his ability during the conference.

Some called the accusations “phony”, expressed concern about their “flimsyness”, and others distinguished Mr Price’s case from that of other city council members who have been indicted for corruption in recent years.

Adriana Cabrera, president of the Central Alameda Neighborhood Council and former 9th Ward candidate, was one of the few to say she would support Price’s suspension.

Cabrera said Price’s actions in the community “accelerated gentrification” and argued that “his leadership benefited developers and even more marginalized renters.”

This is the third time in three years that the council has suspended him. Former city councilman José Wizar was suspended within hours of being arrested by FBI agents in 2020. A year later, the city council took similar action against City Councilman Mark Ridley Thomas, suspending him a week after he was indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Suspicion of corruption.

The council, now led by Council Chairman Paul Krekorian, has taken a slower and markedly different approach this time around.

The commission’s more cautious approach is widely seen as a reaction to the commission’s handling of Ridley Thomas’ suspension. The ban required three temporary replacements for a 12-month period in his district and prompted multiple legal challenges. Krekorian later said it was a mistake to immediately suspend Ridley-Thomas “without thinking about the aftermath.”

If Price were suspended, the road ahead would be similarly difficult.

Mr. Krekorian could appoint a non-voting custodian to fill seats while Mr. Price contests the charges, which would leave his constituency without voting representatives. . The council may alternatively vote to appoint temporary voting members. But it would open the way for unelected lawmakers to make decisions on behalf of Mr. Price’s voters.

Under the city charter, the city council has the power to suspend colleagues facing criminal charges, not to remove them. In other words, the vacancy is temporary and will last until the case is resolved or the employee leaves office. (Ridley Thomas was eventually removed from office due to a felony conviction.)

Suspension of Price would leave only one voter-elected black senator on the 15-member council. Councilor Heather Hutt, who is black, will be selected by the city council to replace Ridley Thomas for the next 18 months and will have to run for the seat for the first time next year.

Creed Brodjek, 8, speaks to city officials in support of City Councilman Karen Price.

(Brian van der Brugg/Los Angeles Times)

At one point, 8-year-old Creed Brodjek explained Price’s role in the community and the help he gave the boy’s family.

“We need to keep Karen Price because I want to be like him when I grow up,” he said, before applauding and ending with “Amen.”

Prosecutors charged Price with perjury for failing to disclose his wife’s business dealings with the developer of the project he voted for. Price also alleges that he violated conflict of interest laws by voting in favor of affordable housing projects from two of those developers from 2019 to 2021.

Prosecutors also charged Mr. Price with embezzlement of public funds for allowing his current wife to receive city medical benefits at a time when the marriage was not legally valid.