A Flint, Michigan official who works for a publicly-funded bank in Michigan recently blamed the city’s own residents for the years-long water crisis, saying they are “f-cking n-ggers” who don’t pay their bills.

Phil Stair, a sales manager for the Genesee County Land Bank, was being interviewed by environmental activist Chelsea Lyons, who caught his racial slurs via what appears to be a surreptitious recording. In the conversation, obtained by the blog Truth Against The Machine, Stair allegedly said:

“Flint has the same problems as Detroit — f*cking n*ggers don’t pay their bills. Believe me, I deal with them.”

In classic fashion, perhaps sensing the causally racist faux pas, Stair immediately went on to note that he doesn’t really like to use the n-word, because, well, some of his friends aren’t even white. He explained:

“I don’t want to call them n*ggers, sh*t I just went to Myrtle Beach (with) 24 guys, and I was the only white guy. I got friends — I mean, there’s trash and there’s people that do this sh*t. They just don’t pay their bills.”

Though swept off the headlines in recent months, the Flint water crisis is still ongoing, as residents are even now instructed to boil or filter all water used until all the city’s lead pipes are replaced–a process that’s expected to drag on until 2020 at least.

Update 6/5/17 1:17pm: According to MLive.com, Stair has resigned in the wake of the controversy surrounding his remarks.

[image via Linda Parton/Shutterstock]

Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher

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