There have been statements made in a number of venues about the ALLEGED reason Mitchell Johnson "went after" former Police Chief David Wray. Some people have speculated that he was reacting to SUPPOSED lobbying done by Attorney Joe Williams and Mitch's SUPPOSED efforts to court the support of the black community in order to be selected as the new city manager.
Absolute hogwash! The truth is -- all three black councilmembers who participated in the selection process preferred one of the other manager candidates under consideration and worked on behalf of THAT person, not Mitchell Johnson. Two of the three eventually voted for Mitch as their second choice when their #1 person was eventually eliminated from our considerations.
The only lobbying that was done on Mitchell Johnson's behalf of which I am aware was done by a white person in the business community. Upon becoming aware of that lobbying effort, Mitch contacted that person and requested an immediate end to that effort. I personally was never lobbied except by that one individual.
[NOTE: I discussed this potential blog post earlier today with Mitch, making sure that I was not surprising him by revealing information previously unknown to him. He was already fully aware of the scenario I have described.]
Ironically, I learned today of comments previously made by an outspoken member of our black community criticizing Mitch for waiting way too long to take action on the complaints of black officers because he was "trying to protect his good friend David Wray." That sure presents a totally different perspective from the one that has been so loudly proclaimed to this point!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
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3 comments:
Still drinking that Mitch kool-aid huh!
The ONLY WAY way this city council will ever regain the trust of the citizens of Greensboro in the GPD/Wray fiasco, is to release any and all information you have, down to the last sticky note.
Then the citizens of Greensboro, whom you work for, can consider all the FACTS and decide for themselves what the truth is.
But I know, we can't release this info because of this, that, whatever......
but especially because Mitch said he wasn't going to release anymore.
How would that look to you if you were in my shoes?
Anonymous,
And exactly what "Mitch kool-aid" do you mean in this case? The information I shared in this post is directly from MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THIS MATTER, not from what anyone told me(except the part about Mitch asking the one person to cease lobbying for him, and he has said that in the presence of all councilmembers). I encourage you to ask other members of the 2005-07 city council if you want to check the accuracy of my account.
It just hit me as I typed those words that NO ONE -- reporter or blogger -- has ever asked me about any supposed Joe Williams/black community attempts to influence the city manager selection process. Now isn't that odd, given all the pronouncements that have been made on the subject?
Makes perfect sense Sandy. I am glad you are helping to set the record straight. Just remember some will never let this go and want to live in the past. So no matter what you say and how much truth is behind it they will not let go.
Thanks for all you do!!
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