LANSING – The director of Michigan’s Civil Rights Department urged a male staffer to "check out her ass," or something along those lines — in reference to a woman he saw outside a middle school in Grosse Pointe, according to records released Friday.

When the staffer, Todd Heywood, reacted negatively, Agustin Arbulu said it was because he "did not like women," according to the state records.

Arbulu, who is under fire over the remarks made during a break in civil rights "listening sessions" held at the middle school in May, also said at one point that his own daughter looked "hot," according to a report by a state investigator.

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission announced Aug. 1 that it had formally reprimanded Arbulu for comments "objectifying women."

Until Friday, the exact nature of those comments were unknown.

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Among the roles of the commission and the department that Arbulu leads is fighting discrimination and harassment based on gender and sexual orientation. Arbulu was paid $159,800 in 2018, records show.

Arbulu is already facing calls for his resignation from House Minority Leader Christine Greig, D-Farmington Hills, among others. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who does not have the power to fire Arbulu, has questioned why he was not fired by the commission.

According to investigative reports released Friday, Heywood, a communications analyst, told state officials on May 30 that Arbulu made the comments to him a day earlier during an event at Pierce Middle School.

During a break between two listening sessions, Arbulu and Heywood were standing outside the school while parents were picking up their children, Heywood told investigators.

"There was one parent, a blond woman, that Director Arbulu began to make comments about, objectifying her appearance," according to a July 16 report prepared by Joanne Bridgford, a state Equal Employment Opportunity administrator.

Arbulu's comments were along the lines of "would you look at that woman?" and "check out her ass," according to the report.

Heywood objected to the comments, at which point Arbulu said "he would not understand because he did not like women," according to the report.

According to the report, Arbulu told Bridgford in an interview that he did not remember exactly what he said that upset Heywood, but that if he did make comments about a woman, they were likely about his own daughter, who he said had been texting him just prior to the "listening sessions" held at the school and indicated she might attend one.

"This investigator asked Director Arbulu if he would make sexual comments about his own daughter," Bridgford wrote in the report. "Director Arbulu indicated that he did not remember what comments he made but did indicate that he would make sexual comments about his daughter."

Bridgford wrote that Arbulu said during the interview that he did eventually see his daughter at a subsequent listening session and "she looked hot."

Arbulu has called his comments to Heywood a mistake which he regrets and has said he wants to continue in his post.

In a response to Bridgford's report included with the records released Friday, Arbulu said that he never made a comment about his daughter to Heywood, only to the investigator, Bridgford.

"I only mentioned this to the investigator to set the stage," Arbulu wrote. "The fact was I was looking for my daughter and excited to see her, but Heywood thought he was a "stereotypical perverted old man," he wrote.

Arbulu wrote that he thought Heywood brought his own biases to the "30-second encounter" between them, outside the school.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.