news-record.com

The City Council voted 8-1 Tuesday night to ask itself to voluntarily take lie-detector tests on whether a council member leaked an investigative report on former police Chief David Wray to the News & Record.

Dianne Bellamy-Small cast the lone no vote. Bellamy-Small said she didn't appreciate having her integrity questioned and is offended that people may think she was involved in leaking the report.

"It's divisive," she said.

If the council is focused on infighting, she said, "we're not going to get the focus on cleaning up the Greensboro Police Department."

She declined to comment further after the meeting.

Sandy Carmany, who has been the most outspoken critic of the leak among council members, said her decision to volunteer for a lie-detector test isn't meant to point fingers at other council members, "but to confirm my own integrity." Carmany said in March that "we're 95 percent sure" that a council member leaked the report to the newspaper.

Tom Phillips, who entered the motion to conduct the tests, said the uncertainty over who leaked the report "has really strained the ability of the (city) manager to work with council dealing with sensitive information."

Yvonne Johnson echoed that notion.

"It's important that the manager be able to trust the council," she said.

But Mayor Keith Holliday and other council members said the request for lie-detector tests came from council members, not from City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

Each lie-detector test will cost about $500. Councilman Mike Barber suggested the cost of the tests be taken from council members' travel budgets; no other council members objected.

Johnson has 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.

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

News & Record Editor John Robinson said in March that attorneys representing the city have asked the newspaper to turn over its copy of the report and identify the leaker. The newspaper rejected both requests.

Earlier during the meeting, the council also heard several representatives from the Pulpit Forum and local branches of the NAACP called for the release of the results from investigations into the police department and Wray.

"Where there is no justice, there is no peace," the Rev. Greg Headen said. "Don't just push this under the rug."

Mitchell Johnson said he and council members have previously committed to releasing all the information it can when the investigations are complete.

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