As the complaints continue to flood in, Essex Town Councillor Sherry Bondy is calling for an emergency council meeting over her colleague's tweets some have deemed "racist."
Meanwhile, hundreds of people have signed a petition demanding Chris Vander Doelen's resignation.
Bondy told BlackburnNews.com she has received over 100 emails from irate residents furious Vander Doelen called COVID-19 "the Chinese flu" and appeared to make light of having to self-isolate after a positive test result.
She would like Mayor Larry Snively to call an emergency meeting in the next 24 hours to deal with the fallout. She also asked that an emergency notice of motion be added to the agenda for council's next meeting on April 19.
Bondy fears the matter may not be dealt with until May.
"It needs to be dealt with," she said. "People want to council to come out with a resolution, whether that's removing the councillor from committees or a public apology -- he's not backing down. We can't have that."
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Vander Doelen is a member of several paid committees including the Essex Region Conservation Authority, Union Water, and ELK Energy.
Bondy is not worried about how a penalty will play out among Vander Doelen's supporters.
"Yes. There's freedom of speech, but there's no freedom from consequence," she explained. "When the people come to council in large numbers like this, then that tells you, you hit a sore spot."