After an ethics complaint was filed by a city employee, Arlington Mayor Dr. Robert Cluck is apologizing for his choice of words.
The complaint, filed in late February, said a meeting between councilmember Robert Rivera, the mayor and David Crow, president of the Arlington Firefighters Association, was being held in Rivera's office. Rivera was talking about going to a conference for Latino elected officials in Washington, DC. when the mayor allgedly said, "oh a bunch of Mexicans."
Crow responded by saying, "I don't think you can say that," and Cluck replied, "what Mexican?" before leaving the office.
Councilmember Rivera told NBC 5 “what is important is that the integrity of workplace is maintained for our city employees, it is unfortunate that any city employee was offended by these comments.”
Rivera would not respond when asked if he was offended by the comment.
Meanwhile, Cluck said the conversation was about attendance at a city council meeting.
“Someone had told me he was going to be at a meeting at a Mexican restaurant here in Arlington, it went from there and went viral I guess,” said Cluck.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
However, Cluck is apologizing for the matter. "I am totally colorblind, always have been,” he said. “If I said something to offend people, I am sorry.”
The mayor added that Arlington is close to having a minority-majority population, with a large Hispanic population.
Rivera is the only minority council member, representing District 3.
