N&R reports Greensboro City Council member Tony Wilkins “has asked for an investigation into whether any crimes were committed when city staff members issued a $750,000 check to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum.”

Mayor Nancy Vaughan tells the N&R she thinks cutting the check without a signed contract “was just stupid. I don’t think it was criminal.”

Again, it all comes down to the “risk” former City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Khan said he was aware of when cutting the check without a contract. So far we have not heard directly from city finance director Rick Lusk, who signed off on the loan “(a)s long as everyone understands the risk of not having a signed agreement and circumventing the internal control system.”

The Rhino reports:

The risk was that Roth, Vigue and Shah-Khan were giving away the $750,000, the first installment of a $1.5 million forgivable loan, without complying with the Sept. 3, 2013 vote by the City Council that approved the loan. The City Council vote required the loan to be issued at 2 percent interest, secured by the civil rights museum’s property and paid out only with numerous conditions, none of which were enforceable without a contract.

The loan was indeed forgivable —on the condition that the civil rights museum match the loan. But the lack of a signed contract effectively turns the loan into a grant.

Not sure where pursuing a criminal investigation will lead. Shah-Khan has paid the price with his job, and good luck getting former City Manager Denise Turner-Roth to cooperate now that she’s safely ensconced in D.C.

As to whether the unsigned contract was stupidity or criminality –that’s the thing with mid-size city politics —stupidity often begats criminality.