Candidate’s Letter Fails to Quiet Critics

A candidate for the Burbank City Council, under fire for allegedly using the term wetback , issued a statement Wednesday saying he did not remember saying the word, but would “speak with greater sensitivity from this point forward.”

“There being the specter that I made that remark, I hope this letter will make amends,” said Ron Shively in a statement that appeared in the “Letters to the Editor” section of Wednesday’s Burbank Leader.

Shively, a retired Pacific Bell executive, previously agreed that he stated in a Jan. 6 meeting of the city’s FOCUS committee that if city gardening services were handed over to a private firm, the jobs should not go to “wetbacks.”

Shively, 60, a member of the committee, said he used the term only after another committee member, Lew Stone, asked if city workers would be replaced by “wetbacks.” Stone denied using the term. Eight others attending the meeting said only Shively used the word and another two said they heard neither man say it.

In his letter, Shively said he would “never use such a term to hurt or offend another person or group of people, in any way.”

But that did little to appease some present at the meeting of the FOCUS committee Wednesday night, which Shively did not take part in.

Capt. Jess Talamantes of the Burbank Fire Department called the letter insufficient.

“It was very inadequate,” Talamantes said. “I think he should have been at this meeting tonight” and issued an apology in “the forum that he used to make the comment.”

Gus Corona, the only Latino on the 15-member FOCUS committee, said the letter was not an admission of guilt.

“He really doesn’t admit he said it,” Corona said. “He said ‘I don’t remember saying it, but people said I said it, so I apologize.’ ”

Corona, who had previously called on Burbank Mayor Robert Bowne and the city’s five council members to dismiss Shively from the committee for making the remark, also said Shively should have appeared at the meeting and apologized. “That would have satisfied me,” Corona said.

Shively did not attend Wednesday night’s FOCUS meeting but arrived after it ended and most participants had left, saying he was confused about the starting time. He declined to comment except to say “the letter speaks for itself.”

In response to the statements that he should have issued an apology at the meeting, Shively said, “It was a public comment and I took a public way of stating the apology.”

Some of those who attended Wednesday’s meeting came to show support for Stone and Corona.

“My friends and family knew I didn’t say it,” Stone said. “I didn’t need his apology.”

But Stone said Shively’s use of terms such as “specter” implies that the incident did not actually happen.

“He had the opportunity to apologize to the Hispanic community and he blew it,” Stone said.

Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers circulated a statement denouncing Shively’s comment. Shively called the controversy a dead issue, but Corona said: “It’s not over. I will be at the City Council to bring it up.”

The FOCUS committee has examined nearly 100 areas of city spending, trying to find ways to cut costs with minimal reduction of services. The committee, composed of residents and city employees, has considered privatizing some city services to accomplish that goal.