Saturday, April 08, 2000
Police to look into blank tape
Tense council meeting at issue
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Vice Mayor Tom Nye on Friday asked city police to investigate why an audiotape that was supposed to have recorded a sometimes-contentious council meeting ended up blank.
Mr. Nye said he can't recall requesting a copy of a council meeting tape before, “and the first time I do it, the tape comes up blank.
“That's curious. It may be
completely innocent. But it's curious.”
The request was for a tape from a meeting Wednesday in which city charter changes were discussed.
After about 45 minutes of mostly amicable discussion, several council members exchanged contentious remarks for about 10 minutes, Mr. Nye said.
Several of those exchanges were between Mr. Nye and Councilman George McNally; each accuses the other of launching personal attacks.
Mayor Adolf Olivas, who couldn't be reached for comment Friday, was operating the tape recorder, and the device did appear to be working, Mr. Nye said.
He conceded that the recorder may have malfunctioned.
Police Chief Neil Ferdelman said, “I think anything's possible, and that (a possible malfunction) is certainly one of the things that we would be looking into.”
Chief Ferdelman said that if someone willfully destroyed the tape, which is considered a public document, the offense could constitute a third-degree felony.
Police probably will seek assistance from an independent laboratory and/or the FBI, Chief Ferdelman said.
Mr. Nye said he “didn't even want to conjecture” on what might have happened to the tape of Wednesday's meeting.
He did recall a situation in which a tape recorder apparently didn't work at a meeting within the past year or so.
That incident didn't arouse suspicions, however, because the meeting wasn't contentious, he said.
Mr. McNally volunteered to take a lie-detector test to demonstrate that he did nothing improper.
He said Mr. Nye's complaint “isn't going to do anything but foment further hard feelings.”
Mr. Nye, 36, said he and Mr. McNally have clashed on occasion.
Mr. McNally, 71, said he thinks Mr. Nye dislikes him, and noted that in January 1999, Mr. Nye, then mayor, tossed the gavel toward Mr. McNally and told him to run the meeting if Mr. McNally didn't like the way it was being conducted.
Mr. Nye says he apologized for that incident and has tried to work with Mr. McNally since then.
A relatively new council member, Kathy Becker, said she feels helpless and disappointed by the tensions
that arose during the meeting.
“It started out to be one of the best meetings I've ever seen,” she said.
Ms. Becker said she dislikes seeing energy expended in the wrong direction.
“The people of Hamilton elected us to work on issues, not to infight,” she said.
“I still firmly believe that every person on council has their heart in the right place. ... We have to get beyond this.”
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