Council mulls performance audit
BY RAY GRONBERG : The Herald-Sun, Oct 23, 2006 : 9:05 pm ET
DURHAM -- City Council members say they want City Manager Patrick Baker's advice on how they could go about securing performance audits of Durham government's top three problem departments.
Members are supposed to give Baker their separate lists of potential targets in the next few days, and the manager in turn is supposed to compile them and present his recommendations at a council work session on Nov. 9. The decision emerged from a work session last week.
They acknowledged that their interest in Councilman Thomas Stith's proposal is coming because of a recent series of operational problems highlighted by the fire that erupted at the city's yard-waste dump on Sept. 10.
"Up until two months ago, I thought we were on an upward trajectory," Councilwoman Diane Catotti said. "Then we had a fire, and all of a sudden we got back to rock bottom." -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-781272.html
* Free advice-- fire Baker and then resign en masse.
No surprise here, the INDY endorses Nifong--- excerpts-- Oct. 25, 2006
Evidence has come to light that Nifong and the Durham Police Department may have mishandled the case. Nifong publicly condemned the defendants before completing his investigation and the cops sidestepped department procedures for the administration of photo line-ups. The district attorney has made amends but, to the chagrin of many, he persists with his prosecution. Maybe he continues for fear of the political fallout from quitting. Maybe he's taking a principled stand. Maybe he has a few tricks up his sleeve. Only Nifong can say, and as everyone knows by now, he's no longer speaking to media. -jump-
We're sticking with the endorsement we made for the April primary: Mike Nifong. Butch Williams, a defense lawyer representing an unindicted lacrosse player, stated it well: "It seems to be unfortunate that the man is being judged for a lifetime job on one set of facts," he told The N&O.
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A39241
--Lengthy responses to candidate questionaires-- Nifong and Monks
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A39053#nifong
Re : Friday's hearing on motions--maybe we can expect very little; possibly the idea of the Durham elite is to delay everything until after the election ("justice can wait"...)
One thought found on another board, and reposted here :
"If the judge does not eventually toss the photo IDs and any in-court lineup as a follow-up, he will be establishing a disastrous precedent. In every case thereafter,
the prosecution will say, "Well, look at the Duke case--the photo ID was not suppressed in that case"; or, "The in-court ID was not suppressed in that case"; and legions of future defendants will suffer for it and possibly be convicted even though they are innocent."
So we'll see how high a price NC justice will pay for wanting to continue this hoax. . .