Emotions remained raw following a council meeting last week at which North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre referred to Councilman Michael Blynn’s daughters as “prostitutes.’”

Pierre made the comment during a discussion of the city privatizing its garbage pickup. Blynn disagreed with the proposal and brought up a bribery charge against Pierre’s nephew, Ricardo Brutus, who was his campaign manager. Brutus was arrested in March for allegedly accepting $4,000 from a local businessman to ensure the garbage ordinance was successful.

When Blynn brought up the mayor’s nephew, Pierre responded with a jab of his own: “What happens if I say your daughter is a prostitute?” The mayor’s comment drew a sharp rebuke from Blynn’s wife, Esther, who shouted at him from the podium.

The mayor apologized to Blynn’s wife Wednesday. Nonetheless, the exchange angered some residents, especially after the city clerk, Michael Etienne, defended the mayor.

Resident Ellen Abramson wrote Etienne an email saying, “If Mayor Pierre didn’t want his family being mentioned at any meeting, he should not have had his nephew as his campaign manager.”

The clerk’s comments to Blynn were “rude and inappropriate,” she wrote.

Etienne replied to her in an email, calling Blynn “a bigot.’”

“So before you lecture me on confronting a bigot, a cancer in our society, highly consider keeping your mouth shut,” he wrote.