WARREN, Mich. – The videos are raising eyebrows and causing concern in Warren.
Mayor Jim Fouts, 71, is shown strolling the streets of Chicago hand-in-hand with his 25-year-old assistant. She is the same assistant who allegedly got a pay raise when other city employees got pay cuts.
The political scandal surrounding the newly released videos was causing plenty of high drama at Tuesday's City Council meeting.
"I'm willing to amend this but we need to do something ... gives a sense of urgency that something must be done," said Mayor Pro Tem Scott Stevens.
Council members including Kelly Colegio and Stevens exchanged verbal jabs and spent more than an hour debating a proposed ordinance that would expand the city's code of ethics to ban nepotism and sexual harassment.
"Six million dollars last year in lawsuits. You (Colegio) were part of one of those lawsuits. You cost this city money," said Stevens.
Colegio said she has never been sued and has never cost Warren any money.
"That's an offensive statement," she said.
The ordinance was first introduced last year well before the videos of Fouts surfaced. It went nowhere then and after an exhaustive debate Tuesday night, the ordinance fell flat.