de León apologized after an audio recording of a private 2021 meeting attended by himself, fellow Council member Gil Cedillo, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, and Council president Nury Martinez came to light in which he made racist remarks about the adopted black son of their white City Council colleague Mike Bonin, comparing Bonin's treatment of his son to the way one handles a handbag. They also used slurs against indigenous Oaxacan people who live in Koreatown, and discussed redistricting in order to break up black voting districts, turning them into Latino ones through the process of gerrymandering. He compared black voices to the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz, arguing that they are in fact weaker than they sound. The recording was leaked onto the internet and subsequently reported by the Los Angeles Times. Calls for resignation and recall attempts In the aftermath of the City Hall controversy, dozens of prominent politicians and leaders called for de León's resignation, including President Joe Biden, Mike Bonin, and Southern California News Group opinion editor Sal Rodriguez. On October 19, in an interview with CBS Los Angeles, de León stated his adamant refusal to resign, claiming that his constituents need to be represented by him. He did not take responsibility so much for his own words as he did for his failure in having not put a stop to the conversation, and attempted to spin his joke comparing Bonin's son to a handbag as having been more of a joke about Martinez's penchant for luxury accessories than it was a racist one at the child's expense. Bonin has stated that he was, "really disappointed, and sort of disgusted" by the answers de León gave in the interview. He went on to say that de León had simply left him a voicemail, which did not amount to an apology. Other than that, de León has not spoken to Bonin since the recording was leaked. On October 26, the City Council unanimously voted 12–0 to formally censure de Léon along with Cedillo and Martinez for their actions. Recall paperwork was filed by five of de León's constituents on October 27, 2022, with leadership problems and the racist audio leak cited as major reasons for recalling de León. Nury Martinez had faced a brief recall effort led by Alex Gruenenfelder prior to her resignation, and Gil Cedillo was