Editor’s note: This article contains quotes using derogatory racial terms from quoted sources and could be offensive to some readers.

After a special called council meeting Tuesday evening, Elberta council members said they wanted to ask questions about whether Elberta Mayor Marvin Williams and potentially other town officials remained silent on a letter of determination from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued on Aug. 19 that involved allegations of racial harassment and a hostile work environment from a former town employee.

“Tonight’s meeting was to discuss the racial discrimination charge brought against the town of Elberta and the mayor,” Councilman John Conti said. “Unfortunately, we were unable to discuss it tonight because there was not a quorum.”

Conti, Councilman Michael Hudson and Mayor pro team Jim Hamby were in attendance at the special called meeting and said they had only found out over the past weekend that a letter of determination from the EEOC had been issued to the town.

“We just found out about it on Sunday, and part of the reason for the special meeting tonight was to discuss it and find out exactly what is going on,” Hamby said. “There are just a lot of questions that need to be answered.”

Councilwomen Alma Doege and Betty Wood were not in attendance due to prior commitments, while Hamby informed the council that Williams would not be able to attend due to a “sudden issue with high blood pressure.”

The EEOC investigation had been ongoing since the claim was filed last year.

In Aug. 2015, Gulf Coast Media reported that a claim had been filed against the town by Steve Archuleta that resulted in the letter of determination released last month.

Archuleta, who said he is of Thai and Spanish descent, was a Public Works employee for the town from July 2013 to July 2015, where his complaint alleges that he was subjected to a racially hostile work environment.

Archuleta said in his complaint Williams “regularly called me racially offensive names,” adding “every time I see him, he comments on my race and/or color.”

Archuleta said he was the only non-white employee for the town, a fact that Williams confirmed.

In the letter of determination from the EEOC, the “harassment included frequent use of racially derogatory terms by the Mayor to include the following: ‘wetback,’ ‘n----r.’ ‘boy,’ ‘Thai boy,’ ‘Mexican’ and ‘spic.’”

In an interview in Aug. 2015, Williams denied that he had ever made any racially charged remarks to Archuleta and that the former employee’s charge of discrimination was a complete surprise.

“If I would have said anything like that, it would have been a joking manner between two individuals, but I’ve never done it in public especially…” Williams said. “If it ever happened, it happened in a one-on-one situation and I would have apologized to him if he would have ever said ‘Hey, I take this sensitive.’ I would have apologized to him immediately. It’s not my style.”

This is not the first time Williams has been under fire for potentially using racial slurs. Back in December 2013, Williams was accused of using a racial slur against a black person after an anonymous Youtube video posting claimed to have him recorded using the term. Williams denied the allegation then and it has still not been proven it was indeed his voice on the video.

“That’s the kinds of things I have dealt with because people have called me discriminatory in the past, but I don’t discriminate,” Williams said in 2015. “Nobody can ever say that I looked at them with malice in my eyes and called them a name. That’s not my style. Now I might look you in the eye and knock the [expletive deleted] out of you, but I’m not going to call you a name because I’m not stupid.”

At the time, Williams said he believed the claim was a ploy to discredit him.

“Everything goes along and it tends to get political,” Williams said. “And that’s what’s happening right now – they’re getting cronies and people to make allegations and everything to discredit the mayor and his style of leadership. And I see it – I’ve been seeing it for the last two months. They’ve been making all kinds of claims against me, but have they been able to prove one? No. Am I afraid? Hell no – I stand on my record.”

The council members in attendance Tuesday evening said they believed negotiations were ongoing in trying to reach an equitable settlement with the EEOC and Archuleta.