“They are like a bunch of little Jews, for Christ’s sake.” That’s how Vincent Frank, chairman of Newington’s Conservation Commission, expressed his frustration with a local developer on June 29 after a heated exchange over how much money should be spent to landscape a project. Frank doesn’t deny making the comment. He says his comments were taken out of context.

Asked Friday how his statements had been taken out of context, he told the executive editor of this paper: “I’m not a bigot, it just came out.”

Besides, Frank said, there were no Jews in the room at the time he made his comment.

“I would understand people being upset if there were Jewish people there,” Frank said.

The Board of Selectmen has asked Frank to step down and he has refused because, in his mind, he has done nothing wrong.

For some reason, the selectmen did not have the stomach to force Frank off the board and instead issued an empty statement warning Frank they were keeping an eye on him. And even that was too much for Selectman Cos Iocovozzi, who refused to sign the memo.

It is shocking to hear such blatant anti-Semitism spoken without apology in our little corner of the world in 2006.

It is equally shocking to see a board of selectmen that doesn’t think Frank’s religious slurs are important enough “to drag our citizens through such an unfortunate and lengthy process” that would be required to remove Frank from his appointed position.

In our view, Frank’s remarks undermine the very foundation of local government. How can citizens really feel they have been treated justly by a board whose chairman is obviously prejudiced against at least one religious group? Are his prejudices confined to just one group, or does he have other choice opinions about other ethnic and religious groups?

Vincent Frank is clearly an ignorant man.

We are deeply disappointed, however, to see that the Board of Selectmen, who acknowledged in its memo that Frank had made a remark that was “extremely inflammatory and displayed prejudice toward people of Jewish heritage,” chose to take the easy way out.

We’d like to think that the people of Newington don’t condone this type of talk by the men and women who represent them on town boards. We have a much higher opinion of the people of Newington, and we think the Board of Selectmen should not be afraid to remove Vincent Frank even if it becomes drawn out and messy, because removing him is the right thing to do.

PH