From Staff Reports

Asheville City Council was informed during a July 11 closed session that city Police Chief William Anderson made an error in removing a lieutenant from an interview with state investigators about his son’s car wreck.

However, City Manager Gary Jackson told council that an internal probe also indicated that Anderson made no attempt to coerce the officer to make a false statement.It was the second closed meeting within less than a week between Jackson and council over the Asheville Police Department.

Jackson made some of his findings public to council under a seldom used law intended to bolster public confidence in city administration. In turn, Jackson was authorized to release some of the detials of his probe after the closed session.

The city manager said he found concerns about “general manageent practices” within the APD. To that end, Jackson said he is directing Anderson to shuffle his top commanders as part of changes stemming from the investigation, he noted.

Jackson also will call for an organizational  review of the APD that will include outside consultants, such as former police chiefs, he said.

The internal investigation into Anderson started in June after Lt. Bill Wilke alleged the chief, and Capt. Stony Gonce, tried to coerce him into making “false and misleading” statements about Chad Anderson’s car crash.

Wilke was the scene commander on the night of the wreck.

George Hyler, Wilke’s attorney, said on July 11 that his client does not agree with the city manager’s findings.

As a result of the changes, Gonce no longer is supervising the patrol division.

The upcoming organization review should improve communication and ease friction between key employees and the command staff, Jackson told council.

.However, his overall assessment of the APD was positive, Jackson noted. He described efforts to improve policing in public housing and downtown and a drop in crime as evidence.

“While in periods of change there is stress and there may be friction, the Ashevile Police Department is doing “a stellar job,” the city manager said.

The number of police employees who have resigned has doubled year-over-year. The APD lost 12 employees from January to July 10, 2012 and 22 dring the same period this year. Ten of the resignations were retirements. The APD has 241 employees.

Chad Anderson, 22, was driving his father’s Pontiac on the night of March 9 on Montford Avenue, when it struck a concrete median, grand jury indictments indicated.

Anderson left the scene and later told police a man he knew only as “Dianty” was driving and that Dianty fled on foot after the crash.