City Ethics Commission member Helen Ludwig submitted her resignation Thursday after she made a racial comment during a meeting of the commission Wednesday.
“As of today, I hereby resign from my appointment as an Ethics Commissioner. I deeply regret repeating my father’s quote from long ago in last night’s meeting. The quote was inappropriate and it is no excuse that I am 90 years old,” said Ludwig in a letter to commission members.
Ludwig served as the board’s vice chairwoman during her second term on the commission.
During the meeting, the commissioners where discussing efforts to request that the mayor or the City Council transfer funds in the budget to the recently created Office of Ethics, Compliance and Oversight.
During the discussion, Ludwig told members, “as my father would say, there’s a n ---- in the woodpile.”
No one reacted to the statement at the meeting. On Thursday, commission Chairman Braxton Gillam agreed the resignation was necessary.
“I was surprised and disappointed by her comment. She has been a good member of the commission, but (the resignation) is the appropriate thing to do under the circumstances,” he said.
Ludwig served as a City Council member in West Melbourne from 1987-95, and explained that the commission should be able to find someone to replace her from the group of candidates that had applied for other openings on the commission.
“We have many good applicants currently for Ethics Commission appointments so I hope this will not be of any inconvenience to the group,” said Ludwig.
The commission was left without any African-American members when former commissioner Rhonda Peoples-Waters resigned to campaign for a seat on the bench of the Fourth Judicial Circuit last fall.
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