Mayor suggests that Nichols resign
June Casagrande
Mayor Steve Bromberg said Wednesday that Councilman Dick Nichols
should consider stepping down from the council in the wake of
Nichols’ comments about people he identifies as Mexicans using the
beach. But Nichols on Wednesday vigorously defended his statement.
“If Mr. Nichols’ comments about specific minorities reflect the
way he truly feels, he should consider resigning as councilman
because that’s not truly representative of the best interests of this
community,” Bromberg said.
Nichols had said during a phone interview Tuesday that he opposes
some of the renovations proposed for Corona del Mar State Beach,
including expanding the grass areas.
“With grass, we usually get Mexicans coming in there early in the
morning, and they claim it as theirs, and it becomes their personal,
private grounds all day,” Nichols said Tuesday.
In a phone interview from a Santa Ana hospital where he is being
treated for an infection in his leg, Nichols on Wednesday defended
the previous day’s comment and said that it had been taken out of
context.
“Why don’t you go down there and take a survey and see what
fraction of the people on the weekends are from where? You’re going
to see a predominance of people that don’t live in the area,” Nichols
said Wednesday. “My statement was honest. It doesn’t say I’m
discriminating against them. Where the hell am I in any way
discriminating or being a bigot by making a statement that is
blatantly true?”
Some of his colleagues criticized Nichols’ comment, but none has
publicly accused him of discrimination or of being a bigot.
Nichols pointed out that the comment was just one of about 25
points he had made in an extended phone interview on Corona del Mar
State Beach improvements. He said that the fallout over his comment
amounted to political correctness.
“This is P.C.,” he said. “Evidently, if you use one of these
special words, you’ve done a no-no and you’ve already been fired from
office if you’re a Republican. If you’re a Democrat, you can join the
Ku Klux Klan, and not a thing happens to you.”
Rusty Kennedy, who heads the county’s Human Relations Commission,
was speaking to the Newport-Mesa Interfaith Council at the Orange
Coast Unitarian Universalist Church in Costa Mesa on Wednesday. He
found Nichols’ comments surprising.
“It is hard to believe that someone in a position like that would
say something so insensitive,” Kennedy said. “He should apologize.”
Last week, Nichols’ colleagues debated censuring him for a comment
he made at a Planning Commission meeting. At that meeting, Nichols
told Planning Commissioners that he thought their opposition to a
variance request was illogical and unfair.
“It doesn’t look good,” Nichols said at that meeting. “It looks
like you’re taking money for this one.”
Nichols apologized for the remark, and colleagues ultimately
dropped the matter.
In October, Nichols drew heat from a community member for
describing a motorist as a “Mexican” in a televised council meeting,
even though Nichols did not know the man, his nationality or whether
he was a U.S. citizen.
* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She
may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at
june.casagrande@latimes.com.
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