" My point is that the city manager may have had more insight into this situation than you. The possibility is that he made the right decision. Maybe there were no innocents. I guess that the bottom line is that it has been done and his decision may prove to be the best and maybe it won't but he made a decision and either way something is lost. So give him credit for making a decision he thought was best. Why would any of us claim that we could do better? "

" BTW, brew, you wrote:

"Maybe they were all guilty of theft or looking the other way."

My point exactly -- the honesty of those who did not steal has been called into question -- by you, in public, just now. Those who did not steal are hanging under a cloud of suspicion they do not deserve, as you yourself have just proven. "

" If the public is willing to sacrifice the good names of innocent people for money, then there's something wrong with the public too.

We may well be at an impasse now, thanks to the City Manager's decision, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Yes, it was important to recover stolen property. But it's also important to protect the innocent and not offer up their reputations to protect the not-innocent. It was up to the City Manager to find a way to do both, and he dropped the ball. "

" Maybe they were all guilty of theft or looking the other way. The taxpayers may have a different view. They may appreciate the savings of thousands of dollars of city property. "

" He made a BAD decision, and put recovery of some property ahead of the good names of the DPW workers who did NOT steal. Maybe we should stay on his back even more! "

" Totally different situation. The lady was caught cold with evidence and proof of her guilt and she was punished. The DPW workers had no evidence or proof of guilt against them. The only reason the city mgr made a case was to offer an amnesty. He got recovery of lost property because he offered an amnesty. It is unfair but life is unfair. If the city could have made a solid case for the guilt of the DPW workers they would have been punished and probably more severely but we will never know. If the city mgr did not offer an amnesty and never was able to prove a case against them there would have been no punishment and no recovery of property. He made a decision and maybe we should just get off his back. "

" Amen, Kendra. I could not have said it any better. "