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Florida Official Who Told Black Residents They Were ‘Lucky’ to be Brought Over as Slaves Resigns

Florida Official Resigns

Cindy Falco-DiCorrado said her comments were taken out of context, but residents say otherwise. (Photo by Adam Wasserman)

A volunteer board member in Boynton Beach, Fla. has resigned amid allegations she hurled racist comments at residents during a recent meeting to discuss sanctuary cities.

Cindy Falco-DiCorrado stepped down from her post Sunday, Dec. 17, just weeks after locals said she used racial slurs at a Dec. 5 commission meeting where city leaders weighed in on whether to begin offering certain protections to undocumented immigrants, the Palm Beach Post reported. Commissioner Christina Romelus requested that leaders discuss the issue.

Falco-DiCorrado disagreed with Romelus’ pursuit, however, and residents said she made her stance on the matter quite clear. One resident, Mathi Mulligan, claimed the volunteer board member told him at the meeting to speak “better English” and allegedly told Black American residents, “You’re lucky we brought you over as slaves — or else you would be deported, too.”

The city soon received several complaints against Falco-DiCorrado from residents asking that she be removed from the Community Redevelopment Agency advisory board. Vice Mayor Justin Katz reportedly asked for her resignation last week, but she declined.

“We will keep pressing on until the City Commission fires this white supremacist from a job that gives her direct power over the lives of people of color,” Mulligan told the Palm Beach Post.

Falco-Dicorrado insisted she didn’t mean any harm by the comments and that her words were taken out of context. After leaders planned to discuss her position at Tuesday’s City Commission meeting, however, she chose to step down, citing a new career opportunity.

“I also heard that the City of Boynton Beach is being attacked through my stance on Sanctuary cities and things that I said that were taken out of context and it just keeps getting worse as those who have hate in their hearts only can hear and see hate,” she wrote in her resignation letter.

“I see that a lynch mob was put out on me which keeps Boynton Beach in a negative light,” she added. “I do love the City of Boynton Beach and I do not want to see lies and vileness spewed for an agenda of a certain group.”

Falco-Dicorrado also apologized to those who may have taken offense to her remarks.

“For the record I am NOT a racist nor a white supremacist (which I had to look up what it meant). I forgive them too.”

The City of Boynton Beach ultimately voted not to become a sanctuary city.

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