"It was the most callous thing I've ever heard," said Joyce Hanley, 59, owner of the Stardust Ballroom on the mart property who attended the freeholders' meeting.
Noting that the mart's merchants represent a broad mix of racial and ethnic groups, Hanley said: "We are not hooked on money or power. We're just trying to make a living."
Some of the shop owners in the 150-store complex said Killion should apologize, and others suggested he resign.
Reached yesterday, Killion said he would not resign. But he did apologize to the "good merchants at the mart."
"I'm not going to resign . . . unless the citizens of Pennsauken ask me - the people that elected me," he said.
"Those negative comments were not directed at the majority of the vendors at the mart . . . [but] at the people that are twisting the truth and . . . giving some bad advice to the vendors."
He said he had made a poor choice of words.
"The comments were uncalled for," said Elliot Kattan, owner of the 49-year-old enclosed shopping center. "Obviously he does not know how hard these tenants work."
Phil Cantor of East Norriton, co-owner of a designer shoe discount store, said: "I'm infuriated that a man who has a dignified job like that would say something like [Killion] said."
Mark Frost, an attorney representing store owners, said in the meantime the merchants would go to court to try to block the eminent domain process.
At the meeting, Killion said the merchants "threw the first punch" by staging a protest in Trenton against the civic center project on Tuesday.
