Besieged Los Angeles Councilman Kevin de Leon said Wednesday he will not resign amid the leaking of a controversial recording that reveals him participating in an obscene conversation with fellow city officials.

The conversation included several city council members and the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, a powerful labor organization, making racist remarks and plotting to exploit the city's redistricting process.

All those present at the meeting were Latino Democrats, and the recording showed them angling to consolidate power through the process which realigns Council districts every decade.

Councilman de Leon has refused resignation even after former council president, Nury Martinez, resigned her seat early last week. Calls for de Leon's resignation have also rained in nationally, including from President Joe Biden.

"I won't resign because there is still a lot of work to be done," de Leon said in a Spanish-language interview with Univision. "The crisis taking place in the district, the infections, unemployment, the threat of eviction, the homeless humanitarian crisis."

Another councilman who was present at the meeting, Gil Cedillo, has also resisted calls to resign and has largely remained silent, absent from recent council meetings and doing little press.

Cedillo lost his reelection bid this summer, and his term will end in December should he choose not to resign.

De Leon showed remorse for the language used in the video, saying "I feel very bad, I feel very sorry for the damage, for the wounds that exist today in our communities," in the interview with Univision.

"I ask for forgiveness from all my people, my community for the damage that those painful words caused on that day," he said.

The apology was not welcomed by de Leon's fellow councilmembers, who do not have the legal authority to remove a member from office absent criminal allegations or a costly recall effort.

Fellow Los Angeles City Council member Mike Bonin tweets his thoughts on the controversial recording.

"Apologies will not be nearly enough to undo the damage that this city has suffered," said new Council President Paul Krekorian, who replaced Nury Martinez in the leadership post. "The only way we can begin to heal as a city is for Mr. de Leon to take responsibility for his actions, accept the consequences, and step down."

Both de Leon and Cedillo have been stripped of all their committee positions, and De Leon seems poised to serve out the rest of his two-year term.

Los Angeles City Council members are among the highest paid in the country with annual salaries of nearly $229,000, and de Leon's announcement will keep his biweekly check of $8,779.20 coming despite the uproar.

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