Riverdale Village Trustee Lawrence Jackson is facing down an accusation that he used anti-lesbian remarks in conversation with Trustee Tiasha Jackson, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Echols alleges that Jackson repeatedly used homophobic slurs to describe women on the board who disagreed with him. Echols told Windy City Times the comments were so strong that she felt uncomfortable repeating them to the paper.
"She called her a lesbian term," Echols said of a colleague, and refused to repeated the term.
She said she heard Jackson use anti-gay epithets on two different occasions.
Echols, who has been married to a man for 23 years, said she does not identify as LGBT.
"It's outright disrespectful to me as a woman, as a person and a member of this community," she said. "I'm trying to do the right thing."
Echols sent a letter to Mayor Deyon Dean asking him to look into the matter.
Windy City Times contacted the Village of Riverdale, where a receptionist said the office had no comment on the controversy and abruptly hung up the phone.
Comments about Jackson on one Riverdale forum are mostly positive. One person praises him as "the most outspoken member of the board" while another calls him "an upstanding individual who carries himself with class and dignity."
It remains unclear what, if any, action the village could take against Jackson. Much of what is said in meetings is exempt from slander and defamation rule, although sexual harassment claims might provide an exception. If anything, the village could censor Jackson and request that such alleged comments cease.