A city councilor in Maine is set to undergo an ethics review following remarks he made about immigrants in his community. The comments were captured during a meeting, sparking significant backlash.
Wayne Mallar, an 81-year-old member of the Bangor City Council, expressed his views during a Board of Ethics meeting on March 31. The discussion centered around a proposed budget increase aimed at enhancing multilingual services in schools.
“The school department’s asking for a 10 percent increase. As far as I’m concerned, they get no increase,” Mallar stated, seemingly unaware his words were being transmitted through a live microphone.
He continued, “They can’t speak English, read English, or write English. It’s not a disability. We do not have to furnish. They’re probably all illegals anyway. That’s what the cultural center is supposed to be doing.”
The comments were made during a meeting recess, as Mallar conversed with a city staff member seated near several microphones, according to the Bangor Daily News.
Residents of Bangor, particularly those with more progressive views, reacted with outrage. Many labeled him a white supremacist and have called for his resignation.
‘Many of the students here in Bangor are refugees, which means they are here legally. People can’t be illegal,’ a resident said during a city council meeting on April 13.
‘They can be here without documentation and without legal permission, but they themselves cannot be illegal. Mr Mallar is wrong, and hate like this has no place on this council.’
Bangor City Councilor Wayne Mallar, 81, discussed a proposed budget increase for multilingual services in schools
His remarks prompted outrage from Bangor’s liberal residents who called him a white supremacist and demanded he resign
‘Holding power over access to resources as a white man is an act of white supremacy,’ the resident said.
‘When a white public official uses his power to argue for limiting marginalized and immigrant communities’ access to education while making baseless, unsupported, overgeneralized claims that they are probably all illegals anyway, he is participating in a long and deeply documented tradition of white supremacist politics in America. It is the same political logic used by fascists and Nazis.’
Another local added, ‘Such causal cruelty that he sounds ready to kill the school budget over it. He didn’t walk it back, he doubled down.’
On Monday, Mallar’s fellow city councilors voted 5-3 to send him to the ethics board, despite some members feeling it would be a waste of resources.
‘I do have some concerns about going to ethics. The reason being we spend a lot of time and resources on this. This is not an inexpensive thing to do,’ said Councilor Susan Deane. ‘
‘I don’t think we should continue to send all of our councilors to ethics when they make statements that we do not agree with.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Mallar for comment.
One resident (left) claimed that Mallar said his remarks with ‘causal cruelty,’ and another (right) argued ‘people can’t be illegal’
Mallar’s fellow Bangor City Councilmembers voted to send him to the ethics committee over his remarks on Monday
The budget proposal Mallar was discussing would include a 6.43 percent increase in funding for second-language learning programs, allowing the department to hire an additional teacher.
Maine’s Department of Education requires public schools to teach English to non-native speakers under multiple state and federal laws. Failing to do so could be classified as discrimination.
According to the Department of Education, approximately 5.4 percent of Bangor’s students are multilingual.
The Bangor 2024 census concluded that seven percent of residents speak a language other than English at home. Six percent of the population was born in another country.
Despite the public backlash, Mallar stood by his comments in an interview the following day.
‘Why are we teaching English as a second language and taking away from teaching English to our regular citizens?’ he told the Bangor Daily News.
‘It seems we’re spending too much time on the homeless and the illegals and disregarding the citizenry. I don’t believe most of the illegals pay taxes, property taxes anyway.’
Mallar stated that he did not know his words were broadcast on the meeting’s livestream and they ‘shouldn’t have been.’
Still, he proudly argued that cultural centers in Bangor should be used to teach English to the city’s immigrants instead.
