GREENSBORO - Anyone with Internet access can see parts of a controversial, closely held report that alleges insubordination and possible criminal wrongdoing by former police Chief David Wray.
So will the Greensboro City Council finally talk about the report's contents?
Depends on who's talking.
"I think we would be sort of validating its appearance on the Web site by doing that," said an angry Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday, who promised "a reckoning" if he discovered the leaker's identity.
Councilman Mike Barber feels just as strongly - that the board should open up now that the report is posted at Greensboro101.com
"The demand for pure, honest, concise information has been escalated," said Barber, who is a lawyer. "We have an obligation to clarify and to elaborate what we can within the law."
The contents of that report have wreaked havoc within City Hall and the Police Department all year, with its hints of prostitution, drugs, alleged racism and a "secret police" force. The report, and the fallout from it, spawned resignations, out-and-out firings and, in the case of the City Council, a series of lie-detector tests in May to discover who leaked it to the News & Record.
Then Monday morning, a link to the report appeared on a Web site that automatically publishes information from local bloggers. The site's administrator, Roch Smith, said he didn't post the link.
The report was compiled by Risk Management Associates, an independent consulting firm from Raleigh. It concluded Wray had "crippled" the force when he gave black officers stiffer punishment than white counterparts in similar situations and by intimidating white captains who opposed some of his decisions.
The report also detailed efforts by Wray, his deputy chief and a Special Intelligence detective to find evidence of misconduct against a black lieutenant who had already been cleared by previous criminal and Internal Affairs probes.
Holliday, along with Councilwoman Sandy Carmany, said they would be reluctant to discuss the report, even if given the go-ahead from city lawyers.
Asked Carmany: "What would there be for me to talk about?"
Carmany, who is also a blogger, asked the Greensboro101 site to "de-link" her Web site - the blogging equivalent of dropping out of a club.
On Monday night, four members of Greensboro101's board of advisers resigned to protest the report's appearance on the site.
But Barber, Sandra Anderson Groat and Yvonne Johnson said they want to discuss as much as possible without violating the law.
"I just believe the citizens have a right to know as much as they can, without hurting anyone, as soon as they can," Anderson Groat said. "You can only put a lid on anything for so long."
Council members Dianne Bellamy-Small, Florence Gatten, Tom Phillips and Goldie Wells didn't return telephone calls Monday.
Meanwhile, city officials are no closer to discovering the leaker's identity - the person subject to the mayor's "reckoning." Independent consultants, the same ones hired to write the report, determined that security at City Hall was "not good" around the time of the leak, said City Manager Mitchell Johnson.
Staff members kept copies in unlocked file cabinets, he said, and some parts of the lobby and administrative offices weren't locked after hours. Consultants noted the 24-hour camera surveillance and concluded that the leaker wasn't a city staff member.
The report "was never left out where anyone could get it, but if someone went through enough files, they might have found it," he said.
"When I look back now, we might have been flippant about the security (of the report). Someone could have secreted one off."
Said Holliday: "I hope we find out who did it. As far as I'm concerned, there will be a reckoning, if I have anything to do with it."
Some revelations in the report have since been proven wrong, Johnson said. He declined to elaborate.
Most of the findings are accurate, he said.
The report is only one part of a larger investigation into Wray's conduct as police chief. And Greensboro police also are investigating who copied sensitive internal files and transcripts from highly restricted federal drug cases and fed them to a weekly newspaper.
The mayor warned of more repercussions if those reports ended up being published.
"There's obviously a lot more information that's not available," Holliday said. "If that information gets on the Web site, you're going to have an upset mayor."
Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or mbanks@news-record.com
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