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Whitmer: Civil rights department director should resign or be fired over remarks
LANSING – The director of Michigan's civil rights department should resign, and if he refuses to do so, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission should fire him, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday.
Until that happens, Whitmer said she will instruct her administration not to directly engage with Agustin Arbulu in light of sexist remarks he made, except as required by law.
"I will no longer permit him to participate in meetings of my cabinet," Whitmer said in a letter to Michigan Civil Rights Commission Chair Alma Wheeler Smith and other commission members.
It's the first time Whitmer has called for Arbulu to resign or be fired since he became embroiled in a controversy over inappropriate remarks he made about a woman outside a meeting in May. Whitmer said he has compromised the mission of the department he leads with his "unacceptable and admitted conduct."
Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights since 2015, made comments along the lines of "check out her ass," about a woman he saw outside a commission "listening session" held at a Grosse Pointe middle school, according to a complaint from department staffer Todd Heywood. When Heywood told Arbulu he found that remark and similar ones Arbulu made objectionable, Arbulu told him it was because Heywood "did not like women," according to investigative records released by the department last week.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/08/14/whitmer-michigan-civil-rights-agustin-arbulu/2010957001/
Until that happens, Whitmer said she will instruct her administration not to directly engage with Agustin Arbulu in light of sexist remarks he made, except as required by law.
"I will no longer permit him to participate in meetings of my cabinet," Whitmer said in a letter to Michigan Civil Rights Commission Chair Alma Wheeler Smith and other commission members.
It's the first time Whitmer has called for Arbulu to resign or be fired since he became embroiled in a controversy over inappropriate remarks he made about a woman outside a meeting in May. Whitmer said he has compromised the mission of the department he leads with his "unacceptable and admitted conduct."
Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights since 2015, made comments along the lines of "check out her ass," about a woman he saw outside a commission "listening session" held at a Grosse Pointe middle school, according to a complaint from department staffer Todd Heywood. When Heywood told Arbulu he found that remark and similar ones Arbulu made objectionable, Arbulu told him it was because Heywood "did not like women," according to investigative records released by the department last week.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/08/14/whitmer-michigan-civil-rights-agustin-arbulu/2010957001/
