City Council Candidate Under Fire for Comment : Burbank: Citizens committee appointee admits using a derogatory term, prompting a call for his dismissal by a Latino colleague.

A member of a citizens committee studying Burbank’s budget process came under fire Tuesday for using the term “wetback” during a recent public meeting about turning the city’s landscaping services over to a private company.

Ron Shively, a retired Pacific Bell executive running for City Council, admitted that he said in a Jan. 6 meeting that if gardening services are handed over to a private firm, the jobs should not go to “wetbacks.”

But Shively, 60, said Tuesday that he used the term only after another committee member, Lew Stone, asked if city workers would be replaced with “wetbacks.” Shively said his critics are politically motivated because he supports consideration of privatizing some city services.

“I would not have used this as a slur,” Shively said. “I consciously used his term to get his point across. I used his term to answer his challenge.”

Stone denied using the term. Eight others present at the meeting said only Shively used the word, while two said they heard neither man say it.

On Tuesday, Gus Corona, the only Latino on the 15-member FOCUS committee, asked Burbank Mayor Robert Bowne, who appointed the committee in October, to dismiss Shively. At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Corona presented all five members with a letter calling for Shively’s ouster. “I urge you to immediately revoke Mr. Shively’s appointment to the FOCUS committee as a clear signal that his intolerant views are not acceptable,” Corona said in the letter. “It is incomprehensible that an official committee member appointed by you and the Council would speak with such contempt.”

Bowne said he had not made a decision in the matter.

“I’m just trying to find out more about the incident,” Bowne said. “It’s unfortunate.”

“He’s always been very fair-minded,” Bowne said of Shively.

The FOCUS committee has been meeting since October and has looked into nearly 100 areas of city spending to try to cut costs with minimal reduction of services. The committee, which includes residents and city employees, is scheduled to vote on its final recommendations tonight.

The committee has considered privatizing numerous city services. Shively made the remark while presenting an oral report on the possibility of contracting with private firms to provide landscaping services.

Shively had said the city could save money through contracting. Two other committee members--Stone, who represents the firefighter’s union, and Neal Hancock, president of the Burbank Employees Assn.--sharply questioned Shively’s report. They asked if the city would hire employees who were paid less than minimum wage, and Shively maintains that Stone used the term at that point.

“I replied: ‘I’m not in the position of writing the contract. I’m sure the city would not put up with hiring ‘wetbacks’ ” Shively said.

Several members present said the room, which contained about 25 people, then grew silent. After a tense minute, committee Chairman Don Farquhar asked members to go on to the next item of business.

“Shively did say it,” Farquhar said. “But I don’t think he meant any harm. I don’t think he meant it in a derogatory way. . . . It just kind of slipped out.”

Corona did not attend the meeting. But he said Shively denied using the term in a discussion before a Jan. 13 FOCUS committee meeting and had told him then that Stone had used the term.

“I confronted him (Shively) with it and he denied it. The denial really makes me angry,” Corona said. “Such bigotry and insensitivity have no place in Burbank or anywhere else. . . . We don’t need any David Dukes in Burbank.”

Shively said Corona’s letter was part of a coordinated political attack by some members of employee unions wary of privatization.

“It’s dirty politics. Politics pure and simple,” Shively said. “The letter is full of accusations and lies. No one writes a letter of that type without having a reason behind it.”

Shively said the controversy came because opponents could not find anything else to use against him.

“I carry no baggage to this campaign. . . . I’m so squeaky clean it’s almost embarrassing. . . . I’m almost a goody two-shoes.”