Greeley Councilman LeRoy Johnson, who remarked at a public hearing last week that a neighborhood has a lot of “good-looking women,” said Wednesday that he refuses to give in to calls that he step down.
Johnson said liberals are using what he calls a harmless comment as leverage to get him off the council.
“I see more reasons to stay on the council than ever before,” he said.
Johnson faces a recall attempt by a group called Citizens for Integrity in Government, which filed paperwork for the recall Wednesday. The group’s spokesman, David Gutierrez, said Johnson’s comment was just the latest in a string of transgressions that should earn him a ticket off the council.
“This is a strictly nonpartisan issue, and the only one making it a partisan issue is Mr. Johnson,” said Gutierrez, who says he is a registered Republican.
Johnson spoke while a six- hour-long hearing was winding down July 18 on whether the Cranford neighborhood – near the University of Northern Colorado campus – should be designated a historic district.
Johnson told the packed audience that he had admired the Cranford area since he was a child, adding: “They have some pretty good-looking women who live there.”
The comment was aimed at one particular woman – her name is Stacy – who once lived in the neighborhood, Johnson said.
“There was nothing derogatory or malicious in that comment,” Johnson said. “I was just trying to inject a little humor in a long night.
“It’s amazing a sentence like that can wind up having so many interpretations,” he said.
Johnson, 49, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in May after he got into a fight at a home in Northglenn involving a Stacy Medina.
He paid a $230 fine.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
