Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Candidate says words didn’t hurt
Council member called him ‘some little Mexican lawyer’
SPRINGDALE — Kevin Flores said Wednesday he wasn’t offended by City Council member Rick Evans, his opponent in the November election, referring to him as “some little Mexican lawyer.”
Flores, a local attorney, has said on social media he intends to oppose council member Rick Evans for his Ward 2 seat. Flores said the ward in the southeast part of the city is very diverse.
“The words didn’t hurt me,” Flores said Wednesday. “They’re just words. I’m disappointed he felt comfortable
saying it in city hall — of all places.”
Evans’ characterization was heard on the live stream while he was speaking to fellow council member Brian Powell before the meeting.
Powell made no response to Evans in the conversation, the recording shows. But Powell later laid blame for the pandemic of covid-19 on “Chinese Communists.” He was speaking as the council considered whether to
approve a mandate for masks in public places. It did not.
“It was a severe lapse in judgment and not at all a reflection of who I am or how I view Mr. Flores or the Hispanic community in Northwest Arkansas,” Evans said Wednesday of his comments before the meeting.
Evans said he had reached out publicly to Flores and his family to apologize and also apologized to his fellow council members, the mayor and residents.
“There’s no excuse for my actions last night, and there are not enough words to express how truly sorry I am,” he said.
Evans, 62, and a Springdale native, has served as a member of the City Council for 22 years.
Flores is a naturalized citizen whose family moved to the United States from El Salvador in 1991 to escape civil war, he said, and to Springdale in 1995. He is a graduate of Springdale High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a law degree from the University of Arkansas. He also is a veteran of the Marine Corps.
Community members took to social media Tuesday night and Wednesday to express anger over the comments. One person who spoke at last night’s meeting via an online platform called for the men to step down from the council.
Margarita Solorzano, the executive director of the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas, said Wednesday the comments were a reflection of the pervasive culture in Northwest Arkansas.
“It’s disturbing to see how comfortable people are in disrespecting others,” Solorzano said. “And they talk that way normally. They did not know they had shown real disrespect. Some of the old ways aren’t gone.”
Powell said Wednesday he made his comments after watching numerous news reports of the pandemic, which have said the virus got its start in Wuhan, China. He believes the Communist government in China needs to be held accountable.
“The Chinese government has not been forthcoming with what they know about the virus, and it has put the world in peril,” he said. “There is no way I was trying to disparage the people of China or Chinese. The people are not responsible for this. As a Christian first, and a fellow citizen, I feel this needs to be said.”
Solorzano said Wednesday she didn’t think Evans’ and Powell’s comments were intentionally hurtful.
“I don’t think they are ignorant people,” she said. “It was not done by intention, but when you isolate certain groups, you don’t see the damage you are causing.”
She said city leaders need to embrace various cultures to keep the community moving forward.
Jackie Tobias, a Springdale resident who spoke in favor of a requirement for facial covering during the council meeting, on Wednesday called for Evans and Powell to step down.
“An apology isn’t enough anymore,” she said. “Some people showed their true colors last night. They showed their racism.”
She also criticized Mayor Doug Sprouse.
“He had the opportunity to stop Brian, but he didn’t. It was a lack of leadership on the mayor’s part. He was aware of it but didn’t stand up against it.”
Sprouse said he encourages free speech.
“He had every right to make the comments he wants when publicly debating an agenda item. Then he can deal with the consequences of his words — whether positive or negative — just like everyone else does. I don’t make it a practice to censor comments, whether those of our council members or the public.”
Users of social media Tuesday night and Wednesday accused the city of purposely removing the comments from the city’s website after the meeting.
Sprouse said Wednesday the meeting was streamed and recorded with the same process the city uses for all council meetings. The city makes available the council and other public meetings through a live stream, he said. The city also places archived recordings of previous meetings on the site.
Sprouse said video of both the live meetings and the recordings start when the mayor calls for the Pledge of Allegiance. A look on the city’s website shows the archived council meetings of June 23, May 26 and Feb. 11 all started that way.
Sprouse also said a meeting video typically won’t be posted on the city’s website until about 5 p.m. the following day. Tuesday night’s meeting was posted by noon Wednesday.
Mark Gutte, director of the city’s information systems department, said his staff will spend the morning after a meeting adding text to the video showing the date of the meeting, names of speakers and more.
Gutte said Wednesday city technicians were testing the live feed of Tuesday’s meeting when Evans’ remarks were caught on a live microphone.
He thinks community members heard the comments as they logged in to the meeting. He compared it to the daily news conferences of Gov. Asa Hutchinson with updates of the state’s number of covid-19 cases. Viewers see an empty podium and hear the audio before the governor arrives.