BENTON - Members of the Benton City Council called for a white alderman to resign, saying at their meeting on Wednesday that he repeatedly used racially insensitive language.
Joe Lee Richards apologized for using the phrase "black ghetto" at Monday night's City Council meeting but declined to resign.
"Not no, but hell no," Richards, 73, said after the meeting when asked whether he would give up his seat.
In the symbolic but nonbinding move, the council passed 6-4 a resolution calling for his resignation. Only one alderman actually cast a "no" vote, but two were absent and Richards abstained from voting, which registered as votes against the resolution.
The city called the special meeting after several aldermen said they wanted to take a public stance rebuking what they say is Richards' pattern of inflammatory statements, particularly when it comes to race.
"This has been a repeated behavior," Alderman BradMoore said. Moore earlier this year admonished Richards for characterizing "Mexicans" as having trash and litter problems when the council was discussing a trash ordinance.
Then on Monday Richards said he opposed rezoning a piece of property to allow for duplexes because he thought it would cause property values to suffer. Rental housing in his neighborhood has hurt its appearance, he said.
"It turned it into a black ghetto," he told a crowded City Hall audience before promptly adding, "Maybe black ghetto doesn't have anything to do with it, but the value on my property has gone down in the last two or three years ... because of it."
Those remarks caused Charles Cunningham, the council's only black alderman, to call Richards' comments "racist" and "inappropriate."
Richards, who along with Cunningham represents Ward 2 in the southern part of the city,apologized for making a "poor word choice" but also said he doesn't believe his words were wrong.
When talking to Luther Green, a black Benton resident who told the council on Wednesday that he was offended by the remarks, Richards said he believes his description is accurate. It's poor and black, he said.
Several residents praised Richards as an advocate for the poor and elderly and said they didn't want him to resign, even though they found the phrase - as well as previous remarks - offensive, while others urged the council to take a firm stance against the sentiment he expressed.
"He's an old man," Patricia Ashley, 59, a black resident, said after telling the council that Richards votes "with the people" more than anyone else.
When Ashley took her seat after praising Richards and declaring that she loved him, another black woman, Linda Anderson, moved two seats away from her.
She felt "very offended" by Richards' use of black ghetto, which stirred "racial tension," said Anderson, 47.
Alderman David Sparks, who cast the only vote against his resignation, said while he disapproved of Richards' language, it should be up to the voters who elected him whether he should be ousted.
"I believe it's in their hands," Sparks said. Richards is unopposed for re-election this year.
Sparks said he would have supported an alternative resolution that called on Richards to refrain from future remarks that are "considered racial and which do not reflect the values of our community."
Arkansas, Pages 11, 17 on 10/16/2008