Monday, January 8, 2018, 12:18 PM

Monday, January 8, 2018, 12:18 PM

WARNING: This story contains offensive language.

Several town employees have allegedly been caught on tape this morning at the town hall in Warner making racial slurs about Martin Luther King Day, and the conversation was caught on tape.

Mike Whittmer, who works on the street crew and is worried that higher-ups are looking for reasons to fire him, has taken to recording all his interactions at work. So today, when he went to clock in at 7:57 a.m., he started recording the conversation happening around that area.

Joe Swimmer, the water supervisor at the city, allegedly starts talking around 1:22 of the tape:

SWIMMER: Do we get Martin Luther King Day off?

Swimmer was answered by Matt McLean, according to Whittmer, an employee at the water department.

McLEAN: No nigger day for us.

SWIMMER: We’re off for nigger day?

McLEAN: Yes.

SWIMMER: They call it that. I’m not celebrating nigger day.

McLEAN: We can just call it JER Day: James Earl Rat. Not that we don’t like black people.

SWIMMER: I’m not racist, I’m just saying that’s what it’s called here.

McLEAN: You love everybody, Joe. (silence) Tough crowd this morning.

Town manager Johnny Lewis was shocked to hear of the conversation, he said, and anyone who is proven to have been saying the racist comments will face disciplinary action.

“The town of Warner is committed to equal opportunity,” he said. “If I find out somebody made comments of that nature on the clock in a public building, it will be dealt with.”

Hear the audio here. (The Martin Luther King comments start at 1:22).