Council gives Nichols one last chance

June Casagrande

Councilman Dick Nichols told a room jammed with residents, reporters

and TV cameras Tuesday night that he is not a bigot and that he

believes the furor over his race-related comments is the result of a

conspiracy of his fellow City Council members, the Daily Pilot and

the Newport Beach Firefighters Assn.

“I am not a racist,” Nichols said, noting that he has worked with

and supervised Mexicans at different times during his professional

career. “If you think you can label me a Mexican hater, the evidence

just won’t support that.”

Nichols also said that Mayor Steve Bromberg could not prove that

Nichols had made a racially insensitive comment during a phone

conversation between them, but Nichols did not deny that he made the

comment.

“You said I have made the comment that all Mexicans perform this

traffic scam,” Nichols said to Bromberg. “I believe you have no data

to support that. ... Did you tape record it?”

“Of course not,” Bromberg replied.

“It’s basically your word against mine,” Nichols said.

“I don’t hear you denying it,” Councilman Gary Adams added.

Bromberg had reported that, during a phone conversation, Nichols

had tried to explain an earlier comment about phony car accidents by

saying “it’s the Mexicans that do these phony accident rings and rip

off the white people in [Corona del Mar].”

The comment was just one of four instances documented in the staff

report before council members as they considered what actions to take

against Nichols. A fifth instance has been alleged in a letter from

the Newport Beach Firefighters Assn. stating that Nichols had made

racially objectionable comments during an interview to decide whether

the association would support Nichols’ candidacy.

Near the end of the night, as 1 a.m. approached, council members

voted to support some scaled-back punishments of Nichols.

Voting 5 to 2, with Nichols and Councilman John Heffernan voting

no, and Councilman Gary Proctor absent because he had to leave early,

the majority voted on a resolution that says that if Nichols cannot

abide by the oath of office council members take, then he should

resign.

“Every one of us took an oath to support the state Constitution

and the federal Constitution,” said Adams, who had requested

revisions to the resolution. “We are obligated to make policy

decisions without consideration for race, religion, creed ... . By

Mr. Nichols comments, it appears that that’s not the way he goes

about making policy decisions.”

The furor had erupted after a telephone interview on Corona del

Mar State Beach improvements in which Nichols said that Mexican

people occupy the grassy areas all day.

Heffernan said that he voted no because he felt that such a formal

rebuke could damage Nichols’ ability to be effective in office,

thereby denying his constituents fair representation.

The council decided not to strip Nichols of his committee

appointments.

“Though in my mind, he is certainly prejudiced, I don’t think

those prejudices would affect those committees,” Councilman Tod

Ridgeway said.

Some council members also apologized to the Latino community on

Nichols’ behalf.

“Because you’re not going to apologize, I would like to issue that

apology,” Adams said to Nichols.

* 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.