Nury Martinez (born July 9, 1973) is an American former politician who served as a member of the Los Angeles City Council for the 6th district from 2013 until her forced resignation in 2022. A member of the Democratic Party, Martinez became president of the Los Angeles City Council in December 2019, after serving as the council's president pro tempore. Martinez was the first Latina to become council president. She was a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education from 2009 to 2013.
On October 10, 2022, Martinez stepped down from her post as council president following the release of an audio recording where she disparaged fellow council members and their children and used racist language. She remained a member of the city council, but announced that she would be taking a paid leave of absence. On October 12, facing loud protests and demands to step down from community members and politicians including U.S. president Joe Biden, she resigned her seat on the council.
Early life and education
Born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, she was the child of a dishwasher and a factory worker from Zacatecas. Martinez graduated from San Fernando High School in 1991 and from California State University, Northridge in 1996. Early in her career, she ran a support group for women living with AIDS at the Northeast Valley Health Corp. and worked as a special assistant to then-State Senator Alex Padilla.
Career
Martinez served as the Executive Director of the environmental justice organization Pacoima Beautiful and was elected to the City of San Fernando City Council in 2003 and 2007, where she also served as Mayor. In 2009, she was elected as a member of the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District, representing Board District 6 with the endorsement of Los Angeles Teacher's Union.
Los Angeles City Council
Martinez was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in a special election on July 23, 2013, to succeed Tony Cárdenas, who vacated his seat once elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for California's 29th congressional district. Martinez defeated former Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez in that election and again in a 2015 rematch when she won her first full term. Martinez was the only woman serving on the City Council for four years, until the election of Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez in July 2017 and was the first Latina member in a quarter century.
COVID-19 response
As City Council President during the COVID-19 pandemic, Martinez used her role to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars in federal CARES Act funding as part of her Families First agenda, supporting impacted Angelenos with rent, child care, and utility bills, as well as assistance to small businesses to stay afloat. In July 2020, she launched the Emergency Renters Assistance Program, which provided $103 million in subsidies of up to $2,000 per household for renters who could demonstrate how they were impacted by COVID-19 and who earned less than 80% of the area median income.
She also allocated $50 million to provide two weeks pay to those who were infected and could not work, $40 million for a regional COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Fund to provide grants to small businesses, which included specific allocations for micro-entrepreneurs like street vendors and for victims of domestic violence, and $30 million to assist low-income families access child care, which included $10 million to establish 50 Alternative Learning Centers at city parks, and $20 million to help child care facilities stay open and offer vouchers to families. In October 2020, she announced a $50 million program to provide one-time grants of $500 to help Angelenos who lost work because of the pandemic pay their utility bills over the holidays.
Minimum wage
Along with Councilmembers Curren Price and Mike Bonin, Martinez passed a law in 2014 boosting the minimum wage to $15.37 for employees at large hotels in Los Angeles. The following year, Martinez was one of six Councilmembers that led the successful push to raise the minimum wage from $9 to $15 for all workers in Los Angeles, to be gradually phased in over five years.
Human trafficking
Martinez had focused on domestic violence and human trafficking in her district and throughout the city. In 2014, Martinez passed an ordinance that temporarily prohibited strip clubs, massage parlors and other types of adult businesses from getting city permits along four streets in her district to crack down on prostitution.