news-record.com

Who should supervise the police chief? Who should punish police officers when they misbehave?

Those issues could be up for discussion tonight as City Council members weigh in on a roiling police department debate.

Council members Mike Barber and Trudy Wade asked that the council create a board to oversee police discipline issues and expand the powers of the complaint review committee, which reviews police misconduct complaints from residents.

Wade also asked the City Council to consider asking the Legislature to amend the city charter to allow the council to oversee the police chief. The city manager is responsible for hiring and firing the chief.

Wade has also asked the city attorney to research the concept of a combined police and sheriff's department. She said it could be a tax-saving measure over time.

The proponents suggest the changes would help restore public trust in the police department. The recommendations also reflect some disapproval of the force, staff leadership over it and a desire to have more direct, effective control over city issues, at least by a few members of the council.

The recommendations have yet to get a full airing by the current council (truth be told, some of the ideas have floated around the community for years). But they have raised ire the handful of times they have been discussed.

Some council members have chafed at the suggestions, calling them an unfair way to usurp power from a city manager with mixed support and an attempt by a minority of council members to dominate the conversation.

"I'm frankly fed up with the waste of time," Councilman Robbie Perkins said.

T. Dianne Bellamy-Small has said it's an attack on the police department.

"This is not the right way for the City Council to micromanage the city," she said.

She leapt to defend the department, where she once worked as a patrol officer, by reminding her fellow council members about the department's accomplishments.

Barber said the department needs to be fixed. He said he is not sure what the line between managing and micromanaging is.

The whole debate frustrates Wade, who says she is just trying to get a fair hearing for her ideas.

And that may be tough on a council with staunch rivals.

Bingham again lands co-chairman seat

Sen. Stan Bingham of Denton will serve as co-chairman of the Senate Health Care committee for the fourth session in a row, firmly establishing himself as an oddity in the highly partisan our-way-or-the-highway world of modern politics.

"He's a good businessman, a good thinker," said Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat and the man who hands out gavels in the Senate. "He's not a partisan kind of guy. He wants to do what's right regardless of the politics."

Bingham is one of four Republicans to hold a chairmanship or co-chairmanship in the Senate this year. None holds the reigns to appropriations or finance committees, considered the most powerful in the chamber. Still, the bipartisan nod stands out, particularly compared to Congress where chairmanships are doled out strictly based on who has more members.

"I don't know," Bingham said when asked why Democrats keep appointing him. "I tell a lot of stories and make a lot of friends, that's all I can think of."

Bingham is known to cross party lines on particular issues and has even been known to support Democratic drafts of the state budget, often a key flash point between the parties. And he has a reputation as a hard worker.

"I really enjoy working with him," said Sen. William Purcell, a Laurinburg Democrat and the other health committee chairman. "We have a lot of similar ideas about health care issues."

More than one source tells Scoop that Purcell put in a good word for Bingham when Democrats were clambering for a shot at his co-chairman spot.

So does playing well with Democrats get Bingham in trouble with his Republican colleagues?

"It doesn't with me," said Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican and his party's leader in the chamber. "I would hope that if Republicans were in control we would look for folks in the other party who might have something to contribute."

Bingham allows that there may be occasional friction with other members of his party but says it doesn't bother him much.

"I didn't come down here to do nothing; I came down here to get something done," Bingham said. "The way you get something done down here is work with the boss, and the boss happens to be a Democrat right now."

Staff writers Amanda Lehmert and Mark Binker contributed to this report.