Racial Slur Divides Quiet Bay Area Town : Northern California: The mayor of Pinole admits repeating a derogatory term used by a local merchant. Some community members call for his ouster.

A bitter battle over a racial slur uttered by the mayor has divided this once-placid small town, with one segment of the community angrily demanding the ouster of Mayor John Goularte and others stoically defending him against charges of racism.

A retired oil company worker-turned-politician, Goularte, 66, stirred emotions two weeks ago when he repeated a derogatory statement that he said a merchant had told him.

His comment, overheard by at least one city employee, came as Pinole was contemplating a paid city holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Only a handful of Bay Area communities do not have such a holiday.

Although it is unclear exactly what Goularte said--the mayor admitted to the slur but would not repeat it--a letter detailing the mayor’s comments was mailed to the the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and a local newspaper.

On Jan. 23, say city officials familiar with the allegations, Goularte was discussing with a local building contractor whether the city should approve a King holiday. In a conversation held in the Pinole community development office, Goularte noted that a paid holiday would cost the city more than $30,000 a year, and added that, on top of the cost, a city merchant had vowed he would never observe “a holiday to honor a (black man)”--using a derogatory term.

Reaction was swift. Tipped off by the anonymous letter, the NAACP, a regional union and a sizable contingent of the Bay Area’s news media descended on Pinole within a week.

The crisis crescendoed inside a crowded City Council meeting last week when, after nearly two hours of debate, council members decided to reprimand the mayor for his remarks after failing to muster enough votes to remove him. The council also gave its approval to the paid King holiday.

Goularte’s personal apology to the NAACP, coupled with the council’s measures, seemed to mollify some of the mayor’s critics. But others in the community still saw the mayor as unfit to hold office.

Organizers for the city’s employees said they were pleased by the efforts to repair the damage, and the president of the Richmond chapter of the NAACP, Lee Howard--after hearing Goularte’s tearful confession--promised to “closely monitor” Pinole.

The Bay Area community of nearly 17,000, 15 miles north of Oakland, is believed to have a black population of about 5%, with almost as many Asian-Americans and Latinos. Hidden by rolling hills that slope into San Pablo Bay, Pinole was founded in 1903 by Italian and Portuguese merchants after the railroad opened the area to trade.

Goularte refused to comment on his disciplining. “I did something wrong and I regret it,” he said after the meeting. “That’s it. It’s behind me and I want to leave it there.”

Mayor Pro Tem Ann Williams, who helped organize the effort to remove the mayor, said she believes Goularte’s remarks were not only poorly chosen, but also self-generated.

“What he said characterized him as racist,” she said. “I don’t believe you can continue to be mayor after saying such a thing.”

City Councilwoman Gretchen Mariotti called the mayor’s statement “obscene and shameful. The honorable thing would have been for him to step down.”

Williams and Mariotti spearheaded the effort to remove Goularte as mayor, although if the measure had passed he still would have been on the council. The five members of the City Council take turns as mayor each year.

Other residents of Pinole who consider themselves more forgiving insist that the mayor should not be judged by a rule of “one strike and you’re out.”

“Mayor Goularte just said the wrong thing at the wrong time,” said Edith Ryan, walking home from a meeting of the American Assn. of Retired Persons. “I think he’s a good man. His life has been devoted to Pinole.”

Former city leaders, such as Anna McCarty, Pinole’s mayor in 1989-90, have also rallied to defend Goularte, although McCarty admits the mayor made a mistake by repeating the remark.

She said Goularte has enjoyed a commendable career in city politics and that the charges against him are “unjust, demeaning and hideous.”

“If Martin Luther King had been in that City Council meeting,” she added, “he would have been the first one to accept his apology.”