A commissioner from a city in eastern Kansas is being asked to resign after telling a black woman he belongs to a “master race” during a public planning meeting.
Leavenworth County Commissioner Louis Klemp made the comments referring to the master race – the Nazi ideology of Aryan supremacy – while hearing a presentation from Triveece Penelton, a city planner with Kansas City consulting company Vireo on road development options in Tonganoxie.
“I don’t want you to think I’m picking on you because we’re part of the master race,” Klemp told Penelton. “You know you got a gap in your teeth. We are part of the master race, don’t you forget that.”
Mark Preisinger, the mayor of Leavenworth, and city commissioners rebuked controversial remarks on Thursday at a special meeting.
“Such behavior and treatment has no place in the Leavenworth community,” Preisinger said. “It is never justified and should never be allowed.”
Klemp was appointed to his current position by the Republican-led committee in county after a former commissioner resigned for health reasons. The City of Leavenworth has no authority to force Klemp out of office but they are calling for his resignation.
