Voices From Around County, Beyond Rise in Support of Rose

Under fire for allegedly racist statements in a letter he wrote on city stationery about the O.J. Simpson verdict, Councilman Eddie Rose is finding support in Orange County and beyond, with calls to City Hall coming from as far away as Kentucky, officials said Wednesday. At a chaotic City Hall press conference to announce a meeting to consider censuring Rose, Mayor Mark Goodman was harassed by Rose supporters who gathered behind Goodman and waved signs accusing the mayor of prejudice himself.

City phone logs show that three dozen calls to City Hall on the issue this week support Rose by 3 to 1.

“He was saying exactly what everybody in every community [thinks],” Laguna Niguel resident William Parry said in a voice-mail message to City Hall. “Eddie Rose is a 100% guy, and you should lay off of him for the stupid letterhead thing.”

The Simpson verdict has stirred strong emotion, said Rusty Kennedy, director of the county’s Human Relations Commission, because “many people felt that jury decision was unfair and unjust.”

Added to that, he said, “have been the racially charged statements made on all sides. . . . What you have here is a lot of frustration being vented.”

In Rose’s letter, sent to a number of local newspapers the week of the Simpson verdict but never published, the councilman said the public idolizes “semiliterate athletes who, were it not for their prowess in running a football or dunking a basketball, would probably be out pimping or dealing drugs.”

The letter prompted Goodman to call Wednesday’s press conference to announce a special City Council meeting Monday to consider censuring Rose.

The real issue, Goodman said, is not Rose’s free-speech rights but the fact that a personal message was sent to newspapers on city stationery.

“I’m dissatisfied with the verdicts as well,” Goodman said. But “Mr. Rose’s use of city stationery, in my opinion, uses inflammatory language to incite racial division.”

Orange County Supervisor Marian Bergeson, whose district includes Laguna Niguel, said Wednesday that she considers Rose’s action to be “highly inappropriate” because he used the city’s official stationery, implying “endorsement of the council as a body.”

“Everybody has a right to voice their opinion,” Bergeson said, “but he stepped over the line.”

Rose could not be reached Wednesday for comment. The councilman said earlier that there is no city policy or ordinance that bans use of city stationery for personal expression.

He has also flatly denied any racial connotation in his letter, which he said was merely an expression of his anger over the Simpson verdict.

The large majority of those who have called City Hall about the issue have been from outside Laguna Niguel and have expressed outrage over what they say is an attempt to interfere with Rose’s right to comment on the Simpson trial.

The caller from Kentucky, who did not leave a name, said simply, “Would like to leave a message for Eddie Rose. I wish to congratulate him.”