A Florida mayor is in hot water for accusing a female commissioner of making her money from “sphincter bleaching” during a city budget meeting Monday evening.
Hallandale Beach Mayor Keith London made the crude remarks to Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub in the middle of a heated budget debate when the mayor told her to look up his IRS form to see how he earns his income, the Daily Mail reported.
“Was it getting my sphincter bleached? Is that where I earned my income from? No, that would you be and your family business,” London told her, according to Lima-Taub’s video of the exchange.
“Congratulations, congratulations. Sphincter bleaching is a very up-and-coming business,” the Hallandale mayor continued.
London made his comments after getting into an argument with Lima-Taub over firefighter Jim Bunce’s educational background. Bunce was a 30-year veteran of the department and president of a local union.
Lima-Taub told the Miami Herald that she does not, in fact, make her money from anal bleaching. Her mother is the owner of a spa which sells skin bleaching cream, but Lima-Taub is not employed at the spa.
“Even if I was doing that for a living, that’s not appropriate,” she said. “For the sitting leader of a city to speak this way was completely inappropriate.”
Lima-Taub posted the video of the exchange on her Facebook page on Tuesday with the following caption:
This is what I had to endure yesterday at the commission meeting, after defending a firefighter who works tirelessly for the rights of first responders. It’s been an extremely difficult 24 hours one spent without sleep as I know this type of behavior is an epidemic in Hallandale. Except I had to endure this humiliation tactic in front of a silent room full of at least 60 people! I DREAD HAVING to go to our meeting tomorrow and sitting next to him.
London and Lima-Taub continued their bickering during Wednesday night’s commission meeting.
“You said I do it. You said I bleach my anus. That’s what you said,” Lima-Taub told London, demanding that he apologize. “Family business has nothing to do with what’s going on here. You continue to talk about anal bleaching. You continue to talk about what I do.”
The female commissioner then claimed that London asked her mother to “bleach his anus,” according to the Daily Mail.
“You’re a sick, sick man,” she said. “You’re a pervert. Sick, sick man you are. Why don’t you tell everyone how you asked my mom to bleach your anus. Why don’t you do that, how you asked for it twice for free.”
London eventually apologized as Lima-Taub angrily left the room.
“Commissioner, I just want to put on the record so you hear it, I apologize for my inappropriate remarks to you in Monday’s meeting,” London said.
The Sun-Sentinel reported Thursday that London says he regrets his comments.
London has a history of making crude remarks towards others as well. In 2017, while he served as a Hallandale Beach city commissioner, he asked a resident if he “sucked dick in prison,” according to a video of the encounter.
London, whose party affiliation is not listed, replaced former Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper in January.
Cooper, a Democrat, was charged with three felonies, including money laundering, exceeding campaign contribution limits, and official misconduct. She was also charged with one misdemeanor count of soliciting contributions in a government building.
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