Lansing - Mayor David Hollister’s administration denied accusations of racism in the mayor’s administration Monday, a day after accusations were leveled at a public meeting that a top official was fired because she is black.
“I reject and deny the accusations,” Deputy Mayor David Wiener said at Monday’s city council meeting. “The administration has made many efforts to bring minorities in. Our record speaks for itself.”
Hollister was not at the last three public city council meetings and was unavailable for comment.
Genise Rhodes-Reed, who is black, said she was forced to resign as director of the city’s Human Relations and Community Services Department in May because of subtle racism within the administration. She held the post more than three years.
Rhodes-Reed first spoke out publicly about her resignation Sunday. She maintains that the decision was racist.
“I committed three and a half years to him and his administration,” she told The State News on Tuesday. “I did the best I could with the resources I had.”
Mayor David Hollister announced Rhodes-Reed’s resignation May 23 and appointed former state executive Willard Walker, who is black, to fill the position from June 10 through the end of this year.
City officials said Rhodes-Reed was asked to resign because of poor job performance. Wiener said the mayor supports all the department directors and told Rhodes-Reed specific things that needed to be worked on during her annual review in March.
Wiener said he was in China the day Rhodes-Reed left and declined to comment specifically on the actions that took place.
After hearing Rhodes-Reed was asked to step down, Lansing resident Robert Egan resigned from his 10-year seat on the department’s citizen advisory board. Last week, Lansing resident Noel Copiaco resigned from the board for similar reasons. The board, made up of volunteers, currently has five of its eight seats filled.
Yvonne Christopher, Arthur Walker and Michael Murphy - who are all black - served as director before Rhodes-Reed.
Wiener said each of the three previous cases were different, but only one was let go for not performing up to expectations.
