Interesting that the N&R mentions the number of residents speaking out on City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s black-book flip-flop while defending the city against black officers’ EEOC suit, but doesn’t go into great detail about their comments. I can’t help but wonder how city beat reporter Amanda Lehmert felt sitting there hearing citizens openly discuss a story she should be covering but isn’t. That’s not a personal criticism of her reporting skills; this story’s been out there so long that we can only conclude N&R editors are spiking it.
Here’s Guarino’s statement; I’ve also cued up frequent blog commenter Fred Gregory’s statement, which comes at about the 48-minute mark.
After introducing himself, Fred reads verbatim this comment from an Elon law professor under this Cone post:
In my past life, I represented both plaintiffs and defendants in discrimination suits of this nature. I find it astonishing that any competent attorney would tell the City Council that he cannot reveal the names of the plaintiffs in this case. And I find it even more astonishing that the City Council would go ahead and authorize a settlement of this size without knowing who the plaintiffs are and what the strengths and weaknesses of their case was. I certainly have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the Rhino’s report; but I truly hope that something was lost in translation somewhere. The alternative is simply too disturbing.
What I found interesting about last night’s Council discussion about the purchase of the Canada Dry property was how council members talked about how they were providing much-needed leadership in revitalizing the Lee Street-High Point Road corridor. Yet they seem content to let Mitchell Johnson lead them around on this issue, where $750,000 of taxpayers’ money is on the line.
