The memo, the black book and the city manager
City Manager Mitch Johnson released a statement today responding to our story this morning. It is disappointing.
Johnson's response seems to begin with blaming the newspaper.
His memo bullets nine points that he calls facts. I won't address any but the first, which is: The News and Record request did not match the document in question.
In her request, reporter Margaret Banks gave as many specifics as she could about a memo we had never seen. Had we known more, we would have included them. Specifically, the request asked for: "The two-page memo Tom Fox and Scott Sanders wrote summarizing the rationale behind the 'black book.'"
The city's initial response was: "We have researched and are not aware of the existence of the alleged two-page memo summarizing the rationale behind the black book.'
The memo itself, which the city has found but not released, provides a clear description of the rationale for creating the black book.
I will grant you that the request wasn't technically precise. But if the city staff were interested in transparency and were aware of the council's repeated interest in the black book, I would think that the legal team might have put two and two together. In fact, at least two people who aren't city employees -- Ben Holder and John Hammer -- had no trouble identifying the document we were requesting.
We ain't perfect, but this hot potato isn't ours.