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GREENSBORO — Diners at Coliseum Country Cafe are being served some politics with their meat-and-two-vegetables: The owner is sponsoring a petition to oust City Manager Mitchell Johnson .

As of Monday morning, it had about 330 signatures.

Carolyn Johnson, who owns the small diner at Coliseum Boulevard and Florida Street, said she's fed up with Mitchell Johnson's performance. She said her customers are, too.

She cited his handling of former police Chief David Wray's departure, her opinion that "dirty cops" work on the force and allegations in the weekly Rhinoceros Times newspaper that Johnson overpaid a contractor. She plans to present the petitions to the council when she collects a "significant number of signatures."

The effort will need more than a petition. Five City Council members would have to vote to fire Johnson, but that's unlikely, since all nine have supported him during recent controversies.

The board has been unwavering in its support for Johnson, said Mayor Keith Holliday .

"We know where he's come from on his actions," he said.

Johnson said Monday that he made every effort to be fair and considerate to Wray, and said he stands by his decisions. At the end of the day, he said, he must decide whether his actions are judged appropriate by the state attorney general or "a tabloid newspaper."

He picked the attorney general.

"Of those two, that's the company I'd rather keep," he said.

Wray resigned in 2006 after allegations that the department's special intelligence unit targeted black officers for unfair internal investigation. That, coupled with accusations of mismanagement, prompted Johnson to ask the city's legal office and a private consulting firm to ferret out what, if anything, ailed the department under Wray.

Last week, two former members of the special intelligence unit were indicted on felony charges, culminating a yearlong investigation into alleged abuses of power.

Carolyn Johnson also said customers are angry the media has "misportrayed" the "black book" — a binder of pictures of African American officers, which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said "was used to attempt to obtain incriminating evidence against black police officers."

"(Customers) just don't believe that stuff," she said. "The whole thing is a sham."

When asked whether the petition contains signatures from black and white patrons, Carolyn Johnson said they were mostly white. She said she doesn't approach black customers, because she doesn't know where they stand.

Holliday said he's not surprised 300-some people are fed up with City Hall. That's always to be expected in a city with 240,000 residents, he said.

He said Mitchell Johnson has made "the right decisions, the correct decisions" regarding the police department and the payment to the contractor. Holliday also said Johnson "rose above the emotion and subjective thinking" in his dealings with Wray.

Said the mayor: "I would simply say I hope people are not letting the Rhinoceros do their thinking for them."

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