In April, Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price rallied with workers on the steps of City Hall to demand higher pay for hotel workers and janitors who clean Los Angeles International Airport.
“The living wage movement is a social justice movement,” Price declared alongside union members in purple shirts, before introducing a proposal to dramatically boost wages for workers who cater to tourists.
The moment distilled the causes on which Price has built his reputation in his decade on the City Council: his advocacy for low-wage earners and close ties to organized labor.
Price’s South L.A. council district includes some of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city, and the politician has led efforts to boost the earnings or job opportunities of sidewalk vendors, hotel workers, formerly incarcerated people and others.
First elected in 2013 to represent District 9, Price is now a veteran of the 15-member City Council. He’s outlasted several colleagues who have shared the horseshoe of seats assigned to City Council members, some of whom have left in recent years not only because of election loss but also in scandal-caused resignation or indictment.
Now, Price’s reputation is on the line following criminal charges of perjury, conflict of interest and embezzlement, filed Tuesday by the county district attorney’s office. The councilman was accused of having a financial interest in development projects that he voted on, and improperly receiving medical benefits from the...
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