Mayor Carty Finkbeiner suggested at a staff meeting that a way to resolve complaints about airport noise would be to move deaf people into the neighborhood.

On Friday, after the remark was publicized, Mr. Finkbeiner wept at a news conference and said he had meant no disrespect. "Nobody intended to be insensitive," he said. "My only words were that it was an interesting idea."

Advocates for deaf people said the Mayor's original remark was an insult. A deaf woman who attended the news conference, Delores Lisac, said that deaf people could feel the vibrations from the jets.

Dave Wielinski, chairman of Barrier Free Toledo, a group for disabled people, likened the Mayor's suggestion to "saying let the blind work at night because they can't see."