U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, State Senator Steve Bieda, State Representative Henry Yanez, State Representative John Chirkun, State Representative Patrick Green, Macomb County Commissioner Andrey Duzyj, Macomb County Commissioner Veronica Klinefelt, and Macomb County Commission Marv Sauger have issued a statement regarding Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, and the newly released audio tapes:
“Each of us represents the citizens of the City of Warren.
“We have listened to the audio tapes with the voice we recognize of Mayor Jim Fouts. These comments are hateful. They are racist and disparaging of women. The leader of our State’s third largest city should be a role model for how we treat each other and anyone that harbors these feelings and expresses them is not fit to lead. We believe that these comments, and the previous comments about people with disabilities, do not represent the people of the City of Warren. Therefore, we believe that it would be best for the people of Warren for Mayor Fouts to resign, and we call on him to do so.
“It would have been our preference that the individuals making these audio recordings would have immediately turned them over to the proper authorities for investigation so they would have been handled in an appropriate manner and reduced the discussion about the motivation for the recording and the circumstances of the release.”
WJR’s Chris Renwick reports — one of those state representatives say Fouts’ comments could have a negative effect on Michigan’s 3rd largest city:
Fouts has used his Facebook page as a way of communication after the first round of taps were released. Today — he posted on his social media page once again, this time saying that he will not resign: