news-record.com

GREENSBORO - The city manager "is now having to conduct an investigation" into who leaked a report on former Greensboro police Chief David Wray to the News & Record, according to one council member.

Sandy Carmany declined to elaborate on her blog post Monday, referring questions to City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

"I really can't comment on any investigation that might be going on," Johnson said Monday evening. "I'm concerned about a leak, and we'll be looking into it."

Carmany said Monday "we're 95 percent sure" that a council member leaked the report to the newspaper, though she declined to identify the council member or say what evidence led her to that conclusion.

"If that's the case, that person has definitely lied to me (during) some previous conversations," Carmany said. "That just kills me."

The suspicions have affected relations among City Council members.

"It does make me less trusting," said Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat. "Maybe I will be a little more guarded in speaking."

Councilman Tom Phillips declined to answer a reporter's questions for this story. "City Council will work out their issues without the help of the News & Record," he said.

Efforts to reach other City Council members Monday were unsuccessful.

On her blog, Carmany has criticized both the person behind the leak and the News & Record for printing stories based on the report, saying that the need for the city manager to investigate the leak is "another distraction from all the other pressing matters that should be claiming his attention."

If a council member did leak the report, Carmany and Anderson Groat said, that person's ability to work with other council members would be compromised.

"It will be a hard road for that person to have the cooperation and respect from other council persons," Carmany said.

"I don't think there would be immediate forgiveness," Anderson Groat said. "At first, there would be some isolation, don't you think?"

City Manager Johnson said he and council members have committed themselves to publicly reporting the findings into the Wray matter once the investigations are complete.

Johnson said the leak could deter people from coming forward during this and future investigations because people would be less willing to speak up if they were afraid what they said would end up on the front page of the paper. Johnson said he had received a phone call from someone who is now declining to cooperate further in the investigation because details from the report appeared in the newspaper.

Johnson said a good deal of information developed by the city's legal staff and the consultants investigating Wray "was (developed) because people were able to come forward and talk about issues confidentially."

People speaking to investigators didn't expect to be quoted anonymously in the investigative reports, Johnson said, but also didn't expect the information provided to end up in the newspaper.

The leak, he said, has also "thrown some doubt on the integrity of my office, the legal office, some members of the police department and the City Council."

The confidential report alleged harsher discipline for black officers and a climate of intimidation under Wray, who resigned as police chief in January.

News & Record Editor John Robinson defended the newspaper's decision to print stories based on the report.

"A newspaper's responsibility is to pursue the truth wherever it takes us and print the news," he said.

Attorneys representing the city, Robinson said, have asked the newspaper to turn over its copy of the report and identify the leaker; the newspaper turned down both requests.

Contact Eric Swensen at 373-7351 or eswensen@news-record.com