News-Record.com

ms. banks.. this all sounds very..unprofessional to say the least! as thorough as city says rma was investigating.. you mean they missed this key piece of evidence? an investigation that the taxpayers (me) paid for. i will be very interested to read your investigation into this matter as you indicated above. since we are talking about incompetence here on rma's behalf & city staff... does that entitle city of greensboro to a refund from these "so called" consultants?

Margaret,

How stupid does Becky Jo Peterson-Buie, Pat Boswell, and Mitch Johnson think that the public is to believe such a cockamamy story like that? Why would such a memo be in James Hinson's file? How did they find the memo so fast after the Rhino published a copy of it? That was impressive, almost like they knew what it was and where it was. These people are a sad statement about the competency or honesty of city government in Greensboro.

"He's pretty pleased." You can not be serious. I can't think of one reason why he would be pleased that memo was found. It's public disclosure just made Johnson's life much harder. The house of cards built by Mitch Johnson and Linda Miles is about to collapse. And, the News-Record's performance here is pretty sad, when you can be scooped by a blogger and a weekly alternative newspaper, once again.

Now that the memo is out, I would like to see some explanation or documentation of the internal investigators' claims that "the black book was shown to people across the county to get information on officers" Show us the documentation. If you can't, this case is getting pretty thin.

You might also ask the city if a copy of this two-page memo was provided to the SBI as well. They might like to see it, too.

If anybody believes this story, call me I will sell you some swamp land in Florida. Lies, lies and
more lies. They should make a movie about
this town with Boss Jim Melvin in the lead role.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Could you get away with this in a public company I think not. Someone would be fired. Mabye that is why these people work for the city so they never get fired. Makes me feel real secure knowing these people are being paid by my tax money and loosing things. It is strange they never seem to loose my tax bill or anything like that.

Oh Mother Earth, Father Sky we pray that in your devine wisdom and mercy that you smite Mitch Johson from his perch so that he will fall onto the ground and limp away , head hung low, from the city he has tried to wreck.

Once again I call for the resignation of city manager Mitch Johnson, and an apology by the city to David Wray for his forced resignation. He did nothing wrong! A good man was trashed while bad apples were permitted to remain on the city payroll. The core of our city's infrastructure is being gutted and incompetence allowed to go unchecked. Do not permit a review of our police department commissioned by Mitch Johnson to go forward. It can not possibly gain public acceptance with him at the helm.

The last comment came from me - I forgot to attach my name to it.

Bill Knight

Margaret,

The lies are beginning to pile up high and deeper. When James HInson's name appears nowhere in the memo, how would someone become confused into thinking it had to do with him? That's pretty lame. It makes them look more stupid than before.

Let's ask Ms. Eswenski about it....oh, wait, we can't can we since she had that unfortunate accident. Funny how it seems that people that know too much seem to die accidentally.

my, oh my. this is one of the main reasons i moved away from greenboro a few years ago. too many of the wrong people making the decisions-now it's just plain dangerous to live in and around there. too bad i really liked g-boro at one time.

Post-update comment:

So, where WAS it found?

They are playing games because they have been able to get away with it. They are being non-responsive to a large part of our request, including this same item that we also requested and I for one am tired of it.

They never even sent us a letter claiming that they didn't have the document in question, so I guess I can say they didn't lie to me. But they have had our request since November and have ignored all aspects of it related to David Wray. Time is up.

They are underestimating their opposition. For the record, when the City gets sued, they can't say they weren't warned.

People should start asking themselves, who is more trustworthy at this point, David Wray or the City?

It is just one lie after another at City Hall. Who is being protected and why? Why does the credibility leak seem to have no impact on events?

It's time to let the courts settle all of this.

Glad to see there's a lively conversation taking place. I apologize for not commenting (and I probably won't again until tomorrow). But reporting and writing tomorrow's story is consuming my time.

Continue on without me!

If the memo is a public record that Mitch can "release" next week, then so is the "black book" that it accompanied. There is no legal distinction between the two. But you won't get the black book. You will get lied to again.

This man needs to be fired NOW. He is going to cost the City dearly by playing these shell games. The legal department is apparently willing to go along.

They are weaving a tangled web of contradictions that is going to hurt them. I take very good notes.

mr. spagnola... with all due respect sir.. you will now be at the end of the longest lawsuit line... but i do encourage you to continue with your legal action. this is criminal what these "people" are doing to the city of gboro. i am anxious to see the news-record's reaction to this latest discovery.

Bubba: LOL.

Anonymous: "When James HInson's name appears nowhere in the memo..."

It's on line two of the imaginary memo: "This information pertains to investigations that were conducted on James Hinson..."

Anonymous: "Let's ask Ms. Eswenski about it....oh, wait, we can't can we since she had that unfortunate accident."

Do you mean Tabitha Liggins, not Bridgett Ekwensi?

Sam: "Who is being protected and why?"

Good question.

Surely the whole Council must realize that Mitch has to go. There is no way he can manage this city. He is badly damaged and getting worse every day.

The irony is that Mitch Johnson and Keith Holliday will probably end up with the Bryan Foundation and have job security for life.

Surely the whole Council must realize that Mitch has to go. There is no way he can manage this city. He is badly damaged and getting worse every day.

The irony is that Mitch Johnson and Keith Holliday will probably end up with the Bryan Foundation and have job security for life.

I am betting right now that the City will not officially release these documents because they realize that doing so will compromise the legal positions they have taken on other documents that they refuse to release.

Despite Mitch's statements today, in the next few days, the City will say that Alan Duncan told them they should not release the documents.

Once again, Mitch will have shot off his mouth and made a decision without being fully informed. Just like he did with David Wray. Once again, he will make the City look stupid and incompetent. Once again, the City Council will bend over and take it.

Most of them are either masochists or have something really important to cover up no matter the cost in doing so.

cm,

You are right, I went right by James HInson's name. My bad. And, you are right, wrong person that was accidentally killed. Given those mistakes, this still stinks. How long can they continue to waffle on this matter? It is interesting to note that higher-ups in the city government are dropping out and not replaced. Do those people feel it is better to get out now than be tarred with the rest.

Spag,

What documents do you say they won't publicly release? The memo is already in the public view, as well as the RMA report. They may not release the photo lineup, but does that really make much difference since we know who is the lineup book? Isn't focusing upon the SBI the key right now? What do they know? Do they have all of the evidence or did the city withhold information from them? Can there be a citizen action in some way here?

"Can there be a citizen action in some way here?"... the "citizen action" is occuring right here and on other blogs around town. Not saying that will be enough to force change, but its a damn good and effective start.

Make no mistake, our elected folks read this stuff to get a feel for what the electorate is thinking and I'm confident they sense that the tide is violently shifting against the status quo.

"They may not release the photo lineup, but does that really make much difference since we know who is the lineup book?"

It makes a huge difference because the legal premise behind not releasing either is exactly the same ("Records of criminal investigations" & "personnel records"), but more importantly- if you let them get away with it by looking the other way, they will do it again and again. Letting them get by with merely complying with half of the law is unacceptable.

It is time to put all of this secrecy and all these lies and misinformation to rest once and for all.

I've just read the Feb. 8 news release from Mitch Johnson regarding the memo and black book. I find it unfathomable that after two years of continual reporting on the subject in the newspapers and online the City Manager and his staff did not know about the memo Margaret Banks was talking about.

This pitiful attempt to dodge the truth has all the earmarks of the Duke Lacrosse case, and reads like a bowl of sour grapes.

This issue is not going to go away until all of the facts are out. The City Council needs to have a public hearing similar to congressional public hearings on CSPAN. Mitch Johnson, Linda Miles, and other relevant city employees with direct knowledge of the dismantling of the command staff of the Greensboro City Police Department in response to the "Black Book" allegations should testify under oath what they knew and when they knew it in a public forum. The crime rate in Greensboro is only getting worse, and this city is at a tipping point. The bright hopes of a downtown revival are being dimmed by crime and corruption within our city and our government. It is time to shine the light on crime and corruption in our city and rebuild confidence in our local government.

This issue is not going to go away until all of the facts are out. The City Council needs to have a public hearing similar to congressional public hearings on CSPAN. Mitch Johnson, Linda Miles, and other relevant city employees with direct knowledge of the dismantling of the command staff of the Greensboro City Police Department in response to the "Black Book" allegations should testify under oath what they knew and when they knew it in a public forum. The crime rate in Greensboro is only getting worse, and this city is at a tipping point. The bright hopes of a downtown revival are being dimmed by crime and corruption within our city and our government. It is time to shine the light on crime and corruption in our city and rebuild confidence in our local government.

When will this City Council finally take some positive action? Probably not before the next city-wide election! It's time we all stood up and said " I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any longer."
Someone needs to organize a march on city hall!

When is the city council going to take action in this matter? Probably not before the next city-wide election. That's when we need to clean house. It's time for all of us to stand up and say, " I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any longer."
Someone needs to organize a march on City Hall to show where we stand!

Now that Mitch Johnson and the city legal staff have been caught in a lie, are the council members brave enough to really do something about it? There is no way that Mitch Johnson or the attorneys were stupid enough not to know what the public request was all about. Yes, maybe they are all incompetent, but they had to know about this memo. I think that they were just trying to hide this memo because it shows that Mitch has mislead the council all along. It shows that Detective Sanders as well as the others in command up to and including former Chief Wray were trying to do their job to the best of their ability. From everything I have read, if Mitch wouldn't have micro-managed the Police Department and let Chief Wray do his job, then all of this mess would have been cleared up long ago. I say that the council will be missing a prime opportunity if they pass up on cleaning house at city hall NOW. They need to fire Mitch Johnson as well as the city legal staff responsible for this blunder. After that, then put some people in place to finish the job that Chief Wray was trying to do over 2 years ago. Obviously, the evidence is there to do these things just like the evidence is crystal clear that Mitch Johnson distorted facts and tried to lead the council into a fog. If the council can't or won't take action now, they will never regain the trust and confidence of the public.