New Offensive Audiotape Recordings Put Warren Mayor Jim Fouts In The Hot Seat

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — Warren Mayor Jim Fouts is in hot water after the release of audiotape recordings that have been attributed to him. The tapes were released to the Motorcitymuckracker.com site and have not been independently verified.

In the recordings, a voice that critics purport "sounds" like Fouts is heard making a series of racially offensive remarks, including "Blacks do look like chimpanzees ..." The voice also is heard launching into a tirade against older women, saying "after a certain age they're all dried up, washed up ..."

It is important to note that the voice has not been confirmed as Fouts'. Additionally, the person who released the tapes and accused Fouts of making the comments has not identified himself or herself.

Fouts spoke out against the highly charged accusations on his Facebook page in posts on Jan. 18 and Jan. 17. He denied the voice was his and pointed out the work he has done promoting diversity in the Warren area. See Fouts' posts below:

Last month, an audiotape recording was released with a voice that critics alleged was that of Fouts accused the Warren mayor of making inflammatory comments about mentally challenged people. Fouts again denied it was him and insisted the voice was engineered to sound like him. Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel admitted leaking the first wave of audio recordings, but has not taken credit for the latest released recordings.

Fouts and Hackel have been in an escalating and acrimonious political firestorm over the last few months. The feud centers over the Freedom Hill landfill in Sterling Heights. Fouts claims that Macomb County dumped up to 150,000 yards of excavating dirt at the Freedom Hill site without permits and buried methane gas monitoring wells, which he claims released methane gas.

Fouts further alleges there is a cover-up about the scandal brewing in Macomb County and accused Hackel and his cronies of being involved in both the dumping and cover-up. Last month, Fouts alleges he called for a state investigation into the alleged illegal dumping. Hackel has gone on record that there was no illegal dumping or cover-up.

Fouts did not immediately respond to Patch's request for a comment.

Photo via Mayor Jim Fouts' Facebook page