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Recall Petition Rejected For Clerk Who Used Racial Slur

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP (WWJ/AP) - The Saginaw County Election Commission has rejected a proposed recall petition for a white Michigan township clerk who was recorded using a racial slur to describe a black official.

The Saginaw News reports the decision on petition language seeking to recall Buena Vista Township Clerk Gloria Platko was made Tuesday. The commission said it couldn't determine whether petition language filed in November was factual.

In an April 22 meeting, the township's interim manager Dexter Mitchell played an audio recording of a January phone conversation between himself and Platko, which included Platko using the slur when talking about township Supervisor Dwayne Parker.

Platko, 69,  who said her life was "destroyed" by public airing of the recording, which she said  was an attempt to humiliate her.

She previously apologized but refused to resign.

"I don't have a discriminatory bone in my body," Platko said in a letter to MLive.com. "I spoke out of frustration following a long history of difficulties with the supervisor. That is not an excuse for my language but I hope it relieves any hurt feelings my remark may have caused anyone."

Platko says she wants to do her job and doesn't understand why the recall is being pursued.

Township board members, in May, passed a resolution asking Platko to step down. That effort, however, was largely symbolic, since the board in Buena Vista Township, about 80 miles northwest of Detroit, can't fire an elected official.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

 

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