Florence City Councilman Sam Pendleton stood by his comments Tuesday during a City Council meeting regarding UNA and its partnership with a Chinese business hoping to buy the Florence Golf and Country Club.

Pendleton said in the council’s July 5 meeting that the city should not do business with communists, referring to the Chinese company that was planning on buying the vacant property.

“If UNA wanted that property so bad, why didn’t they buy it before the city bought it?” Pendleton said. “UNA is a bad neighbor.”

Pendleton and Councilman James Barnhart both explained their views about China and how they do not want the city of Florence to do business with that country.

Mayor Bobby Irons wrote a letter asking the councilmen to be careful with they words they use. He said those words can affect the city’s future growth and business.

Florence resident Larry LaBarge compared Pendleton and Barnhart’s actions to former Gov. George Wallace, who tried to keep two black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama in 1963.

LaBarge and UNA student Cameron Kelly-Johnson both called for Pendleton and Barnhart to resign.

“If you stay in office, you will be voted out,” LaBarge said.

Look for more developments about this story later this week.