After a Salt Lake County child care employee condemned the County Council’s decision to eliminate four day care facilities, one council member told a department head that she wanted the worker and a colleague who stood beside her to be punished for the remarks.

“I hope they have some sort of disciplinary action,” Republican council member Aimee Winder Newton wrote in text messages obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune. “So inappropriate.”

The text exchange with Parks and Recreation division director Chris Otto , who oversees the day care programs, followed a Nov. 4 meeting in which frustrations flared in response to the council’s decision to shutter child care centers — in Magna, Kearns, Millcreek and Salt Lake City — that serve more than 250 families.

Council Republicans have argued

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