WARREN, Mich. – After a secret recording that voice experts said is of Warren Mayor Jim Fouts insulting people with special needs surfaced, advocates for the disabled have come forward in outrage.
Among those advocates is the lieutenant governor, who is absolutely outraged over the comments made on the tape.
About 100 people went to the Warren City Council meeting Tuesday night to vent over the tape, which voice experts said includes Fouts railing against people with cognitive disabilities.
"I want you to hear me good and clear," one man said. "I have a sister (who has special needs). I love her. If it was up to the mayor, I shouldn't love her."
READ: Fouts fired from radio station job
The tapes also allegedly reveal Fouts voicing displeasure that he was asked to attend an event at General Motors, which was a precursor to the Special Olympics.
"Fridays past I would be going to meet some women," Fouts allegedly said in the recording. "Tonight, I'm going to meet a group of retards."
The tape is seven minutes of offensive comments that had people asking the Warren City Council to take action.
"I need you, Mr. Mayor, to step down," a woman said at the meeting, to applause from the residents gathered there.
Fouts has refused all interview requests, instead taking to Facebook to deny that the comments were his.
The City Council tabled any action at the meeting, putting the case on standby. It's currently in their hands to decide what the next steps will be.
"I moved here 16 years ago because I believe in the central cities, but I'm very ashamed of this one now, because our mayor has disgraced us," another woman said at the meeting.
There have been many calls for Fouts to step down, but the Warren City Council can't make that happen.
The Council is considering many options, including a request for the mayor to sit down with a voice recognition expert and read line-for-line what the secret recordings say, so the experts could potentially exonerate him if they found the voice patterns to not be similar.
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