Missing memo should concern Port Richey

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published September 27, 2007

Missing public records and turning a blind eye to potential problems is the way Port Richey used to run its City Hall. It need not return to such dysfunction.

As Times staff writer Camille C. Spencer reported this week, the city is missing key paperwork regarding the recently concluded search for a public safety director. It might be a coincidence, but, just as accurately, the public can question if the document disappeared intentionally given the subject matter - the successful candidate's use of the ugliest of racial epithets.

Mathias Brewi does not dispute using the n-word in a conversation with William Sager, the former police chief who was not a candidate for the job. Brewi, however, said the conversation as reported by Sager is out of context. Their discussion took place in April in Sager's police car while he shuttled Brewi around the city as part of the interview process.

Sager reported his concerns to City Manager Jerry Calhoun and, as instructed by Calhoun, put them in writing.

"Mr. Brewi used a racial epithet in (reference) to black people, referring to them as N------. He then also commented about the Rev. Al Sharpton," Sager wrote.

The handwritten interoffice memo on Port Richey Police Department letterhead disappeared from City Hall even though it is addressed to "Mr. J. Calhoun; files public safety director."

Calhoun, no longer employed by the city, said he does not know the whereabouts of the paper, but he said it had been filed previously. Calhoun, after talking with Sager, contacted Brewi for his version of their conversation. Calhoun also said he did additional background checks before hiring Brewi as the city's first public safety director to oversee the streamlined police and fire departments.

Brewi, in an e-mail to Calhoun, said his comments surrounded the reaction to Don Imus' statements about the University of Rutgers women's basketball team.

"I said that Mr. Imus was totally wrong for what he did, but it amazed me that the Rev. Sharpton did not seem concerned by the rap music culture using n----- or referring to women so degradingly, calling them hos." Brewi wrote.

Brewi also relayed a conversation in which he said someone told him to avoid residing in two areas in Florida because "that is where the n------ live."

Calhoun, as city manager, did not need council approval to hire Brewi. But in the current absence of a permanent manager - Calhoun resigned to work in the Middle East -the council should be concerned about disappearing public records. Tuesday evening was the first council meeting since Brewi's comments became public knowledge. Nobody asked for an accounting.

That is unfortunate. Silence does not equate to scrutiny. More appropriately, council members should be wondering what else they're not being told or what other records might be missing.

[Last modified September 26, 2007, 21:59:56]