news-record.com

GREENSBORO - Dianne Bellamy-Small says she will continue to serve on the City Council "with dignity and pride" because she has done nothing wrong.

But she still hasn't been able to explain how her copy of a classified report on the police department wound up on a Web site.

On Wednesday, Bellamy-Small released a statement saying she didn't give out her copy of Risk Management Associates' report, which is critical of David Wray's management of the police department as chief.

The City Council revealed Tuesday that Bellamy-Small's copy was the one posted on Greensboro101.com, which a forensic document analyst verified.

"I do not know how the copy of the report I am alleged to have had access to got in to the hands of those who have put it on the Internet or used it in any other way," she wrote. "I know that I did not give it to them. ...

"I do not know who or how the report got into the hands that it is now in."

Bellamy-Small didn't return telephone calls Wednesday or Thursday and has not responded to a list of questions left at her southeast Greensboro home.

Several council members say they haven't talked to her since Tuesday's announcement at a council meeting, which she didn't attend. Mayor Keith Holliday said she hasn't returned his calls.

Holliday said Thursday that there is "no where else to go" with the situation, and that he won't push for Bellamy-Small's resignation. He said he'll "play marriage counselor" with the board in the coming months, mending relationships and focusing on city services.

If Bellamy-Small didn't leak the document, then he has "pretty rough feelings" for the person who did, Holliday said.

"That person needs to take the pressure off of Dianne," he said.

Most of what the public knows about the police department scandal stems from the report produced by RMA, a Raleigh-based consulting firm . It concluded that Wray "crippled" the force as the city's police chief by giving black officers stiffer punishments than white counterparts in similar situations and by intimidating white captains who opposed some of his decisions.

Wray resigned in January.

A link to the report appeared Oct. 17 on Greensboro101.com, a Web site that publishes information from bloggers. Last month, the city hired an RMA investigator to compare that copy with all city copies.

Some people say that focusing on the leak is detracting from the larger investigation into the police department. That includes Gladys Shipman, president of the Greensboro branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , who gave $250 to Bellamy-Small's campaign for C ity C ouncil in 2003.

"Who gives a nickel at this point? Everybody and their brother has seen that report," an angry Shipman said.

Another campaign contributor has called on Bellamy-Small to resign. Councilwoman Florence Gatten, who donated $250 to Bellamy-Small's campaign in 2005, said Wednesday that "she should do the honorable thing and that is to resign."

But in her statement , Bellamy-Small hinted she has no plans to do so.

"I intend to continue to serve with dignity and pride and I assure the public, City Council and city staff that I have done nothing wrong, " she wrote.

Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or mbanks@news-record.com