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Like you, I wish he'd stayed on to fight City Hall to clear his name. But in a fight with the City Manager, he cannot win...no department head can. That would require the City Council to take sides against the Manager. As the elected officials who chose the Manager, they will not do this....for obvious reasons. All department heads know this. Each serves at the pleasure of the City Manager, and must leave when asked to do so. Generally this is done without lawsuits, character assassinations and media frenzy. So I have to wonder who really has the City's best interest in mind?

If I had been locked out of my office, and the news of that leaked to the local news media before I had been given a fair hearing, I think I would have resigned too, as this showed that the city manager does not have confidence in his employees to do their job. With the city vocally stacked against him, he had absolutely no chance of winning this uphill battle against the "political correctitude" that dominates this city.

This entire incident has been handled poorly by the city, as most personnel matters are usually kept quiet, but the city has been very vocal for some reason. Perhaps it is to pander to the black community, as Greensboro is maybe trying to make amends for its checkered past concerning race relations (segregation, Klan-Communist workers shooting of Nov. 1979).

You know, the thing that I just don't get is all of the hiding behind personnel records. I mean, you've got an officer and a police chief whose actions are both under scrutiny. Both have lawyers (understandable in both cases). Both are saying they want the public to know "the truth".

Then you've got Greensboro city management - making some incredibly questionable moves, but still not completely answering the public's questions and still hiding behind the "privacy" of employment matters.

Hello? Wake up. The public paid for this party. The public is pretty P-O'd. The boat is clearly "leaking" (to the press). Privacy is out the window.

I fought garbage like this for eight years in Asheboro . . . so-called "public servants" hiding behind & abusing laws that are supposed to protect people. "Protecting my privacy" as an employee was REALLY about hospital administrators covering up a MESS they made - and avoiding accountability. It was about protecting THEIR JOB and feathering their nest.

Based on my own experience, it seems to me that if the employees involved WANT it all out there (with the desire to make their case or clear their name) . . . then the lawyers need to get out of the way and the city needs to PUT it all out there . . . the records, the memos, the results of any "investigation" conducted by anybody . . . everything. I do not believe anybody's "side" at this point until that's done.

As the latest N&R story said today, even the lawyers have lawyers. Imagine my chagrin this morning to discover that the City of Greensboro's law firm in this mess (Smith-Moore) is same the bunch of legal geniuses that initially represented Randolph Hospital (or more accurately, hospital officials) in mine. It is the SAME esteemed law firm that, in over three years, has done NOTHING about the FACT that hospital administrators LIED UNDER OATH during litigation and settlement negotiations . . . in order to AVOID SCRUTINY OF PUBLIC RECORDS and to get their way/save some money.

Where does the Greensboro City Council (on the advice of lawyers) get off REFUSING to meet with Chief Wray - or ANY of the principals in this matter? The City Council doesn't want to BE responsible when it IS repsonsible? It is exactly like the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors blowing me off for eight years (even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the information their CEO gave them - upon which they based decisions - was "cherry-picked" and "misleading").

Put everyone in a room, put it ALL on the table, and figure it out. Then FIX it.

In my case, these same $#%&*$ lawyers were the biggest problem - because they did not make it their business to KNOW the law and to see that their clients OBEYED it.

So I'm really wondering HOW in God's name is anyone going to get the truth about anything in the Wray-Hinson-Greensboro City Police Department debacle?

The City Manager and the City Attorney attempted to coerce Chief Wray into signing a false statement by offering him money? Is it any wonder the guy walked out? No matter what anyone thinks the Chief did or did not do, I think the real story is in these two 'city officials'. Acting Chief Bellamy seems like a really decent and capable man ...wonder how long he will last under this regime?

Brooke, in our "right to work state", the employer (in this case, the City of Greensboro) rules. It is common practice, when a contracted/professional employee is fired "without cause" (i.e. no good reason) or offered "the chance to resign", for the employer to shove a legal agreement for silence in their face - often offerring whatever is owed on the employee's contract (and in many cases not that) as a warped kind of "severance pay". Frequently, in return for this "generosity", the employer also wants the employee to sign a statement endorsing the employer's version of events & absolving the employer of any liability . . . and ensuring the employee's silence FOREVER AND EVER. All the employee has to do is sell his/her voice and soul - to get what his/her employment contract says he/she is owed anyway. Sometimes they might even wave a "neutral reference" in the employee's face. It's a perverse kind of blackmail to make things look pretty on the surface . . . a cover-up.

A lot of people (especially those with families to support) do sign, because they need the paycheck to make due until they find something else - if they find something else. Rumor and innuendo aside, don't "fight" too hard for your job or your good name - because you might get black-balled. Remember the Director of the Health Department who "left" after the drunk-driving episode? There were questions about how all that went down - and how much of the public's money went with it - but the hoopla all quickly died out.

All of this is legal becasue in North Carolina, an employee's "right to work" really translates into "the right to be fired with little or no recourse". And businesses (even the non-profits/government entities) all hide behind the "privacy" of personnel records . . . as if the silence is really "protecting" the employee who is getting their walking papers. So much for public disclosure. Meanwhile, our legislators pander to business by passing the "right to work" laws that keep individuals wronged at a HUGE legal disadvantage & virutally powerless . . . and our Chambers of Commerce demonize the unions that might have the clout to stop some of this garbage.

Nobody ever talks about this stuff because it all gets buried. Now, I don't know what Chief Wray (or Lt. Hinson) did or did not do. But our Constitution is big on a little thing called due process. Right now, it does not sound like either man got that.

And again, the SAME law firm that advised/advises Randolph Hospital is advising the City of Greensboro in this Police Department fiasco, so DO NOT expect the truth to come out anytime soon.