Clerk: Life 'Destroyed' By Airing Of Racial Slur

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP (AP) - A Michigan township clerk who was recorded using a racial slur to describe a black official said her life has been "destroyed" and the community hurt by public airing of the recording.

Buena Vista Township Clerk Gloria Platko discussed the recording during Wednesday night's meeting of the Saginaw-area community's board. She said she's already apologized, and said the earlier meeting where the recording was played should have been stopped.

"My life has been destroyed," Platko said. "The life of the township has been destroyed."

In the 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 hadn't been at a board meeting since April 22. Parker, who was seated next to Platko during the meeting Wednesday, told The Saginaw News  afterward that he plans to "continue working with each and every board member - even Platko."

The board, the Michigan Democratic Party and some area groups and residents have said Platko should resign from her post in the township about 80 miles northwest of Detroit. The resolution seeking her resignation from the board was largely symbolic, since the board, can't fire an elected official.

She has refused. On Wednesday, she also read a statement and said she believes the recording was an attempt to humiliate her.

"I'm here," she said after the meeting. "That's what the citizens put me here for. I'm not resigning and I'm not backing down."

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)