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Letter to the editor

'Mafioso mansions' remark irks developer

James DeMaria wants an apology after a planning board member uses the phrase. The county attorney says: Don't take it personally.

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published May 4, 2005

She was searching for a creative way to say gaudy. But what came out was a mob reference, which James DeMaria found offensive.

During an April 7 meeting, Marion Knudsen, a Planning and Development Review Board member, used the phrase "mafioso mansions" to describe enormous, opulent homes on tiny waterfront lots.

Sitting in the audience was DeMaria, a Citrus developer who is of Italian descent. He felt offended because he thought the remark was aimed at him, and called the county attorney 12 days later. He told a secretary that he couldn't believe someone sitting on a government board would use such a phrase.

He called for a public apology from Knudsen for the comment, which he thought seemed directed at him.

During the meeting, DeMaria said, he voiced his opposition to a county plan that would restrict development in Old Homosassa, where he owns 37 acres near a river.

Knudsen had even asked him his name, he said. "DeMaria" clearly sounds Italian.

Minutes later, after DeMaria sat down, Knudsen gave her reasons for supporting the proposed policy. She said she didn't want four-story buildings on the river - a pointed reference to a development proposal the planning board had considered earlier in the day.

And she said she didn't want "mafioso mansions" there, either.

Because DeMaria had spoken out for development rights in the waterfront area earlier, he figured the slur was aimed at him.

"I was the only Italian-American there that I know of," DeMaria said during an interview Tuesday. "You're a public official in office and I'm a huge taxpayer in Citrus County, and I don't appreciate the slur."

In an April 20 letter, DeMaria wrote County Commissioner Gary Bartell asking for a response. Commissioners appoint planning board members.

DeMaria also complained that tapes of the meeting he had acquired seem to cut off before Knudsen made her comments. DeMaria wanted to know why.

Bartell asked the county staff to look into the complaints. It learned that Knudsen has used the term in the past, and that she didn't realize it was offensive.

As for the tapes, Community Development Division director Chuck Dixon said no one had manipulated or edited them. Knudsen may not have been speaking directly into the microphone when she made the comment.

"I will ask all of the PDRB members to speak clearly into the microphone," Dixon wrote in an internal memo.

Bartell, then, sent a letter to DeMaria backing Knudsen, saying she was speaking about a development issue and not DeMaria or anyone else.

"I have heard the phrases "mafioso mansion' and "mafioso development' used on several occasions by persons other than Mrs. Knudsen," Bartell wrote. "My interpretation is it is being said with the connotation of a development that is considered to be "criminal' in an environmental or aesthetic sense. . . . I do not believe Mrs. Knudsen made the statement in a derogatory fashion toward you or any other person."

Knudsen said during an interview Tuesday that she won't use the word anymore.

"That has been taken care of," she said. "There's nothing wicked about that. First time I saw the term was umpteen years ago when they were talking about some massive development in Miami and they used that term. If you look it up in the Internet, they use that term for this and that."

The Merriam-Webster Unabridged online dictionary defines the term mafioso as an adjective: belonging to the Mafia.

Knudsen said she realized the term could be offensive to Italian-Americans only after DeMaria pointed that out. Now, she said, "I'm going to be a good girl and not use that term anymore."

But she hasn't apologized to DeMaria for using the word and said she doesn't plan to speak to him, either.

"I think I'll just leave well enough alone," she said.

DeMaria said he would let the matter rest if Knudsen issued a public apology. Had the comment been pointed toward blacks or Jews, he said, there might have been a riot.

"I haven't gotten a phone call or letters saying anything," he said. "I don't want this to be a big deal, but if you sit on that board, you better recognize it was a mistake."

Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com

[Last modified May 4, 2005, 00:57:19]