ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
Public comments at Town Council meetings broach many different subjects - from budget concerns to tax rates to a citizen's request for this or that.
But what about the size of a woman's breasts?
Off-the-cuff remarks recorded on a cassette tape during a Rocky Mount Town Council meeting in June embarrassed the parties involved and opened council members to criticism.
Anne Carter Lee Gravely, a civic activist, was addressing the council at a meeting June 10 when the remarks were made. On the tape, a man whispers, "She has big tSeconds later, a voice says, "Think I'll ask Pat if she's jealous."
Pat Hooke, the town manager's secretary who uses the tape to transcribe minutes of the meetings, was the only person at the meeting named Pat.
According to town employees, Town Attorney John Boitnott made at least one of the statements. Boitnott hasn't confirmed or denied it.
"This matter has been handled by Town Council, and as far as I'm concerned it's over with," he said Tuesday.
Earlier this month, the council privately reprimanded the person who made at least one of the comments, Mayor Broaddus Shively and Councilman Arnold Dillon said Tuesday.
The person who made the remark about the breasts admitted it, and the council later placed a letter of reprimand in that person's employment file, Dillon said.
Dillon, citing state law that lets personnel matters be discussed in private, wouldn't identify the person. But the heat from the start has been directed at Boitnott.
After newspaper and TV reporters began asking questions about the tape in early July, Boitnott appeared at a council meeting a few days later accompanied by his attorney, Terry Grimes of Roanoke.
Reporters came to the meeting, too, but nothing happened in public view.
The council went behind closed doors - Boitnott was briefly included in the executive session - and emerged two hours later with nothing to say.
To date, no council member has listened to the tape.
"There's no need to," Dillon said. "The person admitted it."
The council's slowness to react publicly to the situation stirred up more response than the comments themselves.
The Franklin News-Post printed an editorial this week that called for council members to listen to the tape and take action against the person who made the remarks.
"We are appalled by the locker room language used" at the June 10 meeting, the editorial begins.
"Council meetings are for the purpose of conducting business for the citizens - not a place for fun and games and distasteful language, personal or private."
Gravely hasn't commented on the situation, although she does have a copy of the tape, according to a town employee.
Boitnott, who remains the town's attorney, was hired on a part-time contractual basis as an appointee. He's paid $1,000 per month, and he can charge hourly fees for work that goes beyond his regular duties with the town. He works out of his office in the Price-Perdue Building in Rocky Mount.
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