WELLINGTON, Fla. — Controversial statements stemming from a Village of Wellington council meeting.
A local developer is accused of making racially charged comments.
"I'm going to go ahead and probably put in things such as Frisbee golf, I'm going to put in soccer golf you're not going to like the black people to come out here, Hispanics," Glenn Straub said.
Straub is a local developer. He was reacting to an ordinance that would define how vegetation must be maintained. The issue coming up at Tuesday night's Wellington Village Council meeting.
"I was struck back," Mayor Anne Gerwig said. "Like what is he even saying and why is he bringing that up here."
Straub currently owns golf courses at Palm Beach Golf and Country Club and Polo West. The ordinance would not allow vegetation over six inches tall on a golf course. People living along Straub's land complained about the up keep of the non-operating course.
"We are considering selling," one concerned homeowner said. "Really sickened by the fact that many buyers will not be interested in our property."
But it was Straub's comments at that meeting that left some people in shock.
"Whether he was accusing other people of not liking those races or what he was doing again none of it was appropriate and I wouldn't have asked for that kind of conversation in a public meeting," Gerwig said.
WPTV met with Straub on Thursday, where we listened to his public comments together.
"What I was saying is that they're making me over react by I'll go ahead and start having golf courses because it's zoned golf that would be Frisbee golf, soccer golf and they'll have more minorities more people more youth out there," Straub said.
Straub says two years ago he started hosting minorities to play at one of his polo fields as a soccer venue. He says he paid thousands in fines to the village.
"We know that everybody should use these facilities so I pay fines to have people play on my properties and give it to them for free so they can go ahead and have some kind of a life opposed to fooling around in alleys and kicking the can and playing basketball and doing everything else," Straub said.
