Macomb County politicians call for Warren Mayor Jim Fouts to resign
Eight county, state and federal politicians representing the city of Warren today asked Warren Mayor Jim Fouts to resign in light of recordings released Monday in which a voice that is purported to be Fouts denigrates black people and older women.
A statement was released from U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, State Sen. Steve Bieda, state Representatives Henry Yanez, John Chirkun, Patrick Green and Macomb County Commissioners Andrey Duzyj, Veronica Klinefelt and Marv Sauger. Green is a former councilman in 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," according to the politicians' statement. "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 continues: “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.”
Related:
Warren mayor denies it's him insulting blacks, older women on recording
Former adviser: I heard Fouts use N-word, saw him dance like monkey
The statement comes after Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said Monday on Twitter that "If Mayor Fouts said those disgusting things, he has to go. The tapes are sickening. It's hard to believe anybody could say those things."
On Monday, a national holiday meant to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of America's greatest civil rights leaders, Fouts found himself having to deny the veracity of newly released audio recordings purportedly of him comparing African-Americans to chimps and using vulgarities to disparage older women.
Fouts took to Facebook in a lengthy post Monday and again today saying today: "I will not resign." He did not respond to repeated requests from the Free Press for comment Monday.
Here is his Fouts' Facebook post today:
"There is tremendous effort to force me out immediately by slander, by character assassination, lies, and by out right condemnation of me. This is an attempt to reverse the 2015 election results when I won with 85% of the vote. I won with 81% in 2011. This is despite solid evidence that I did nothing wrong whatsoever. My actions as mayor have been inclusive and no one can deny that. We are the best run city in the state when it comes to police, fire, and fund balance. I will not resign," according to Fouts' Facebook post. "I will be here through at least 2019 as the people wanted me to. I will not capitulate to a rush to judgement by those who wish to take over city hall and hijack the 2015 election. Why? Because I have changed things for the better in the city. I serve the citizens 24/7 and they know it. I'm not answerable to any politician I'm only answerable to the people of Warren. I serve the interests of the people of Warren not the politicians. I will continue to push for diversity in employment in Warren and that is why I hired Greg Murray as diversity coordinator."
Related:
Warren Mayor Fouts quickly exits MLK event when questioned
Many of the people who commented on Fouts' post today wrote that they supported him and a few encouraged him to get an expert to review the recordings.
Joe DiSano, a political consultant who says he advised Fouts from 2003 until 2013, told the Free Press on Monday that the content of newly released recordings was nothing new to his ears.
“In many meetings I’ve heard him casually use the N-word," DiSano said in a phone interview Monday. "At one of the last meetings I ever had with him, he actually stood at the front of the conference room table and danced around like he was monkey. And that was in reference to voters in Detroit."
Fouts denied during the MLK Day event in Warren that it is his voice on the recordings and accused Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel — with whom he has been feuding about dumped dirt at Freedom Hill County Park in Sterling Heights — of being behind the "phony, engineered tapes."
"Mark Hackel and friends attempted to hijack this ceremony by releasing more vile, vitriolic, phony tapes against me," Fouts later wrote on his Facebook page Monday, referring to the city's pre-scheduled MLK Day event.
John Cwikla, a spokesman for Hackel, denied that Hackel was the source of the new recordings.
The source and date of the audio tapes are unknown.
They were revealed Monday on the Motor City Muckraker web site, operated by Steve Neavling, a former Free Press reporter who previously covered Warren City Hall. Neavling declined to reveal who provided the tapes, only saying that he believes they are authentic.
“Blacks do look like chimpanzees. I was watching this black woman with her daughter and they looked like two chimps," the male voice says in one of the tapes embedded on Neavling's website.
In another, the n-word is used.
In two other tapes, the male voice disparages older women, calling them "mean, hateful, dried up ..." and using vulgar terms for female genitalia to describe them.
"I’m not interested in any old ugly hag. I think after a certain age, they are dried up, washed up, burned out.”
Fouts has denied the authenticity of the latest recordings as well as earlier released recordings containing derogatory remarks about disabled people. He says that the "phony, engineered tapes" are part of a conspiracy against him by Hackel and other political opponents. Lt. Gov. Brian Calley weighed in after that set of recordings was released.
Contact Christina Hall: chall99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @challreporter.