BURBANK : Council Hopeful Under Fire Over Use of Word

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.” He said critics are politically motivated because he backs 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.