Stuart City Commissioner Eula Clarke resigned as mayor shorty after allegedly making a "pig" comment in the presence of an officer. Now, an investigative report alleges she may have said much worse.
The investigation reveals several Stuart city employees were interviewed about a history of comments allegedly made by the former mayor. The report claims Clarke went up to the Stuart police chief after a council meeting and asked "how many black men have your officers shot today?"
President of the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association, John Kazanjian, called for the commissioner's resignation as mayor after the initial pig comment. Kazanjian says Clarke is dividing the city and should also step down as commissioner.
"She's a public servant, supposed to be professional and obviously this has been going on. We knew it, we didn't know the extent," said Kazanjian in a phone interview.
The report adds "Commissioner Clarke regularly made comments concerning the chief of police (a white male) who is raising a black child - referring to that scenario as a "social experiment."
Commissioner Clarke did not want to do an interview about the report, but her attorney released a statement saying "Commissioner Clarke is very upset by the things said in the report. She never intended to harass anyone."
Clarke denies ever calling a policeman a 'pig' or making any other anti-police comments. Her attorney went on to say "the images of her created by this report are not true images of Commissioner Clarke."
The report does not name the employees interviewed or provide the context the alleged comments were made.
City attorney Mike Mortell says the report concludes the commissioner did not violate any city policies because she is not a city employee. The exemption of elected officials as it relates to city behavior and conduct policies came as a shock to other commissioners.
"They were surprised as well that the employee manual did not apply to commissioners," said Mortell.
Mortell says commissioners plan to create a code of ethics that will hold elected officials to higher standards.
On Monday, the commissioners will decide whether or not to accept the investigative report as factual information. It should be noted that Commissioner Clarke declined to be interviewed by the investigator.