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	The Ypsilanti Courier A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

Clerk resigns after alleged racial slur

By Dan DuChene, Staff Writer

PUBLISHED: March 29, 2007

Ypsilanti City Clerk Rebecca Bintz announced her resignation Monday.

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Bintz declined to comment when called at her Saline home Thursday.

"Rebecca resigned for her own personal reasons," Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber said. "She felt it was in her best interest."

He said Bintz will be replaced by Frances McMullan, the city's new deputy clerk, until Council can take action at its next scheduled meeting, because city clerks report to City Council. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

While this is McMullan's first week on the job, Schreiber said she has worked in Ann Arbor, and helped with the city of Ypsilanti's 2004 election.

"I think the transition will be smooth," he said.

Mayor Pro-Tem Trudy Swanson, D-1st Ward, said a county worker helping in the clerk's office had overheard Bintz make a racist remark, under her breath, toward a customer in the Clerk's Office March 22. The customer did not hear the allegedly racist remark, but the county worker did and reported it to Schreiber.

While he had no comment about any complaints made against Bintz, Schreiber said he had met with her on Thursday and Friday of last week.

Washtenaw County Clerk Lawrence Kestenbaum had no comment regarding the resignation and neither did Matthew Yankee, who Kestenbaum said has been contracted to assist the city.

"All I can say is I did meet with her," he said.

Council, in mid-December of last year hired Bintz. A Saline resident, she had been the city clerk in Bangor and started working for Ypsilanti in late January for $60,000 annually. She was hired after council rejected a previous offer to Ohio resident Lisa Johnson after a background investigation revealed she had been arrested in Moraine, Ohio, where she had been the city's clerk, for tampering with a youth football team's financial records.

One of the experiences Bintz said she had from working in Bangor, with a 1,933 population, was working with the population diversity.

"The diversity is about the same," Bintz said of Bangor's population compared to Ypsilanti after Council hired her in December.

According to the US Census Bureau, Ypsilanti has a population of 22,362. Of that, 30 percent are African American and 2.5 percent are Hispanic. Bangor is 13 percent African American and 12 percent Hispanic.

Contact Staff Writer Dan DuChene at 1-734-697-8255 or at dduchene@heritage.com