A Texas city council member defended racist comments she made in a private conversation that was recorded.

Connie Trube, a two-term La Marque City Council member, made the comments while discussing the financial and academic troubles in the La Marque Independent School District with the husband of a political adversary, reported KPRC-TV.

“It’s not going to get any better until you get those blacks off the school board,” Trube says on the recording. “She really turned black. She got on the school board with the rest of the blacks and they all just ganged up and that’s why the school system has gone to hell.”

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City officials have launched an investigation of the remarks, and Trube has so far resisted calls by residents and other elected officials for her resignation.

“What is on the tape is nothing more than me stating my honest opinion, and I don’t back down from that,” Trube said. “I never denied what was on the tape.”

Trube has been formally censured by the City Council, which has also approved city funding of an investigation by an outside law firm.

“Racism will not be tolerated on any level in the city of La Marque,” said Mayor Bobby Hocking.

The investigation should be completed by June 30, Hocking said, and the findings would be turned over to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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But some residents attended Monday’s City Council meeting to voice their disapproval of spending tax money to investigate racism claims.

Watch this video report posted online by KPRC-TV:

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