Dan Rolle, community activist, uses a wireless speaker to play audio clips from his cellphone during a news conference outside Las Vegas City Hall in downtown Las Vegas Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020. The audio clips highlighted comments made by City Councilwoman Michele Fiore, pictured at right, during a local talk radio show on Aug. 14, 2020.
Friday, Aug. 21, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore had choice words for one of the residents leading a recall effort to remove her from office, labeling the head of the Las Vegas chapter of the NAACP a "criminal" during a recent radio appearance.
In an interview last week with Alan Stock on KNXT 840-AM, Fiore said she didn’t have a lot of faith in an organization led by Roxann McCoy.
“She is a criminal, and she is the president of the NAACP? That doesn’t give me a lot of faith in that organization. She really just needs to step down from the NAACP if the NAACP really wants to be taken seriously,” Fiore said.
The comments were so poorly received that a prominent car dealer pulled their advertising from the station.
Fiore referenced a 2008 accusation of fraud against McCoy, but NAACP Executive Committee member AK McMorris, who spoke on behalf of McCoy, said those charges were unfounded. Information on the case, including how it was resolved, was no longer available on Clark County court logs.
“One of the reasons that we consider her remarks to be slanderous is because she’s intentionally posting the different photos and articles from when our madam president did have her legal justice issues that were going on. However, she’s had her day in court and all of those charges were unfounded,” McMorris said.
It's not the first time Fiore’s comments have been criticized. The recall effort was launched in early June amid backlash from remarks Fiore made at Clark County GOP Convention about affirmative action.
The Clark County Republican Party sent a letter shortly after apologizing for her overheard comments, which they said were racially charged.
The NAACP and Expel Michele, a group formed to recall Fiore from the council, sent a letter Thursday to leaders, including Mayor Carolyn Goodman and City Attorney Bryan Scott, calling on officials to take action against Fiore by removing her from her city post.
“Her attacks on the president of the NAACP, Roxann McCoy, border on slander and continue her racist attacks on the black community,” the letter reads.
They also sent a letter to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority urging it to remove Fiore from the board. Fiore shouldn’t be the one to represent Las Vegas with her history of offensive statements, the letter reads.
Expel Michele has until Sept. 9 to collect 1,911 signatures in support of recalling Fiore. Signatures must come from the 7,605 people in Ward 6 who voted in the 2017 municipal election in which Fiore was elected — whose identities are public information. So far the group has collected 1,000 signatures using voter data to identify and approach Ward 6 voters for signatures.
All signatures must be verified with the county clerk and forwarded to the secretary of state for approval, per state recall guidelines. A recall election would be scheduled for only Ward 6. The estimated cost of verification is $5 per signature, totaling $10,000.
“When you look at who is signing the recall, because I have the list, and then you go look them up on social media ... their description is socialist,” Fiore said in the radio interview.
Attempts to reach Fiore for comment were unsuccessful.
