Greensboro, North Carolina News & Record staff writer Eric Swensen reports on the first day of polygraph “testing” of the city council:
Polygraphs off to unusual start
By Eric Swensen
Staff WriterGREENSBORO — One council member says she passed, one wouldn’t say how he fared, and the mayor blamed the newspaper as the City Council began taking polygraph exams regarding the leak of an investigative report to the News & Record.
The council members who agreed to take the tests have said their intent has been to make a public statement about their innocence in the leak of the police department report. One member also said the tests would help restore the city manager’s trust in the council.
But the day got off to an inauspicious start. Media covering the proceedings were told the test site had been changed but weren’t told where. The exams eventually ended up where they started — in the executive offices at the Melvin Municipal Office Building.
Tom Phillips was the first to take a test but declined to discuss the results with the News & Record. He accused the paper of bias because it didn’t mention in a story Tuesday that council member Dianne Bellamy-Small has not signed an affidavit denying she shared the investigative report with anyone.
Sandy Carmany said she passed her test but declined to discuss it further at the request of the polygraph examiner because more council members will be taking the test today and Thursday.
Bellamy-Small — the lone council member to decline to take the polygraph or submit an affidavit — would not answer questions when approached shortly before council’s regular meeting Tuesday. Numerous efforts to reach Bellamy-Small by phone and at her home in recent days have been unsuccessful.
“My fax machine still works,” she said. “Fax me (your questions) and I’ll decide whether to answer.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, she denied being the source of the leak.
Holliday, meanwhile, placed a measure of blame on the News & Record for putting council members in that position.
“That’s caused us more problems (for us) on this issue because the News & Record has not respected the request to not reveal information from that (Risk Management Associates) report that they shouldn’t have had in the first place,” Holliday said during the council meeting.
The polygraphs began about 1 p.m. Tuesday. Concerns about council members’ stress levels being raised by questions from reporters before the sessions — and possibly skewing the results — led to the location for the test being switched twice.
Awaiting the results: four media members from WGHP and the News & Record.
City Attorney Linda Miles said she was approached before the tests began by the polygraph examiner for Phillips and Carmany.
Miles said the examiner informed her that test-takers need a “quiet, calm situation to have the most effective results.” Fearful that questioning from the media could stress council members and alter results, the exam was moved from the executive offices to the law library inside the legal department’s offices at the Melvin building.
On Miles’ behalf, City Clerk Juanita Cooper handed out a statement to a photographer from the News & Record and a reporter and cameraman from WGHP. “In order to get an accurate reading and for council to be more relaxed, the location has been moved,” the statement read.
No location was specified to the media, Miles said, because “the intent was to move it to a quiet place.”
The TV crew asked where the statement came from, and Cooper said it came from Miles. The TV crew later set up outside the entrance to the legal department.
Later that afternoon, Phillips was seen walking down a hallway away from the legal department toward the budget and evaluation office and the executive offices, where his test was conducted.
Representatives from Raleigh-based Risk Management Associates — who lined up the polygraph examiner for the city — declined to discuss the tests. The tests are estimated to cost $5,000, which council members have said will come from their travel budgets.
Three more council members are scheduled to take polygraph exams today, with the final three council members taking the tests Thursday.
Contact Eric Swensen at 373-7351 or eswensen@news-record.com