A public official in Flint, Michigan, blamed the city’s ongoing water crisis on black residents who “don’t pay their bills” in a recorded conversation with an advocacy journalist last month, The Washington Post reported.

Phil Stair is the sales manager for a county agency that manages tax-foreclosed homes. Stair, who is white, used the N-word, according to the recordings.

The day after the recording was published in an online blog, Stair resigned from the Genesee County Land Bank.

“I feel that I cannot carry out nor be effective in my position at the Land Bank with the social media [recording] of my private opinion on the Flint water crisis and the insensitive language used. I am deeply sorry for what I said and those I offended. I do not know how I can face my friends and co-workers,” said Stair’s resignation letter.

Environmental activist Chelsea Lyons, along with a partner, recorded the conversations over two days last month. Lyons said she received a tip that Stair was at a bar.