Austin Council Member Don Zimmerman Draws Ire For Comments To Latino Audience [VIDEO]

AUSTIN, TX --District 6 council member Don Zimmerman, at Thursday's City Council meeting, set off a firestorm after admonishing a group of students comprising mostly Hispanics to "...finish school, learn a trade...produce something in your society so you don't have to live off others."

Given a typically packed Austin City Council agenda, the group of children waited for hours until the agenda item for which they and their parents signed up to speak -- funding for after-school programs at the city's public schools -- was finally discussed. The issue was the 81st in a long list of agenda items.

Sometimes, issues come up before council -- school or housing issues, for example -- that affect the city's sizable Hispanic population in a city that has gentrified many, largely Latino neighborhoods. And, sometimes -- as happened Thursday -- Latino parents not fluent in English address the council in their native language to add their voices to the debate.

After the children had their exercise in democracy -- urging city leaders to adequately fund their after-school programs -- council member tacitly expressed admiration at their efforts, urging the children to register to vote as soon as they turned 18 so their voices could also be heard at the ballot box.

That's when Zimmerman -- arguably the most conservative member of the dais who enthusiastically and invariably votes against any city program even remotely smacking of a social program -- took his cue. The Austin American-Statesman posted the snippet on YouTube:

“I’d ask for everyone here, including the children, when you grow up, I want to ask you to pledge to finish school, learn a trade, a skilled trade, get a college education, start a business, do something useful and produce something in your society so you don’t have to live off others,” Zimmerman said. “Thank you,” he concluded.

The reaction was immediate, as members of the audience reacted to Zimmerman's comments with booing and jeering. Some of his fellow council members voiced their objection to what he told the gathering.

“I want our community to know that we do not condone what he said,” an emotional District 2 council member Delia Garza -- the first Latina elected to the Austin City Council in 2014 -- told the audience. “We have your back, not just the ones that are brown or black on this council. There are other progressive members of this council that support you and understand your issues.”

Her comments were met with spontaneous applause and cheers from those gathered, including the children who had waited about seven hours to speak.

Condemnation of Zimmerman's remarks continued on social media. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate for the seat being vacated by the retiring Rep. Elliott Naishtat, tweeted her reaction. She labeled Zimmerman's remarks as "...unbelievable and completely offensive.

The notion that the Hispanic segment of the U.S. population represents the greatest group using welfare is a widely debunked statistic that yet persists to be used by some social commentators. In truth, data indicate that 38.8 percent of welfare recipients are white while 15.7 are Hispanic.

Even allowing for population proportionality, the official data at the very least illustrates the tactic to "live off others" vis a vis social program benefits is not unique to a particular segment of the population, but seen across the board.

This isn't the first time Zimmerman has gotten into hot water for lashing out against something he views as contrasting with his political ideology. In June 2015, councilman Zimmerman earned backlash after comparing same-sex marriage to pedophilia, as the Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported at the time.

Zimmerman's Facebook-posted theories on gay marriage were captured in a screenshot on the social media site Imgur.

>>> Photo of Zimmerman via City of Austin website