EXETER, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)- A developing story after charges of racism and racial profiling are being leveled against a mayor in Luzerne County.

Those allegations are being made by current and former police officers in Exeter.

Exeter Mayor Herman Castellani is accused of ordering his police officers to target what, in written allegations, he calls “colored people.”

Former Exeter Police Sergeant Len Galli told Eyewitness News Castellani basically wanted officers to investigate “the coloreds.” Galli claims Castellani made those comments to him and other police officers.

“He didn’t want coloreds in the town,” says Galli. “He wanted us to remove them from the town, so to speak.”

Galli filed a complaint with the borough solicitor last month citing several alleged incidents dating back to 2015, in which he claims the mayor made racist comments and profiled African Americans.

Galli was fired just this week, says other officers, including the former Police Chief Josh McNeil, who heard the comments.

“Initially when somebody tells you that, it sounds nuts, especially in 2017,” says Galli. “It’s water cooler talk in the beginning, but then as it started festering other people were hearing it, other officers and other reports started coming in.”

Galli showed Eyewitness News police reports filed by another officer when someone broke into the mayor’s home last month. The officer says Castellani told him his home was broken into, in the mayor’s words, “by those drug dealing colored people two doors down, and colored girls moved in and they had to go.”

Galli has been on the Exeter Police Force for 32 years and has had run ins with the mayor and the council, including getting fired several years ago and then taking the borough to court to get his job back.

The borough solicitor tells Eyewitness News Galli was fired this week for alleged conduct unbecoming of a police officer. He would not elaborate.

The I-Team asked if the situation is Galli versus the borough.

“I can understand why you would say that how it would look like that,” says Galli. “Here’s the problem: it’s not just me. I’m the union rep., the officer came to me with complaints.”

But the mayor is firing back.

“I never said nothing about colored people, the black people moving out of town,” says Castellani. “That is a complete lie, this is a piece of garbage he put out.”

Galli says he wants an outside law enforcement agency, such as the FBI, to investigate Exeter Borough.

The borough solicitor says he will conduct an investigation into these allegations and forward the results to the borough council for them to decide what to do next.