| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Newport Beach councilman makes derogatory comment on Mexicans
Thursday June 19, 2003NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) The mayor and City Council members are calling for the resignation of Councilman Richard Nichols, whose derogatory remarks against Mexicans were published in an area newspaper.
Nichols told the Daily Pilot, a Los Angeles Times Community News publication serving the city and Costa Mesa, that he opposed enlarging grassy areas at Corona del Mar State Beach because ``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.''
On Wednesday, Nichols said his remarks in the Tuesday interview were taken out of context.
``What I said was, of the people that are grabbing those spaces, those who are willing to come down early in the morning to have them all day, the predominant number are Mexicans,'' he told the Times.
``If this is truly the way Mr. Nichols thinks, and if this is his opinion about certain minorities, he needs to resign his position as a councilman,'' Mayor Steve Bromberg said.
The owner of a chemical engineering firm, the 63-year-old Nichols joined the council as a supporter of the Greenlight initiative, a growth-control measure approved by voters in 2000.
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