PROPOSAL TO DRUG TEST COUNCIL MEMBERS DROPPED

Charles Evans, who broached the unconventional idea just before
Christmas, now says he lacks the support to push it any further. He
has pulled discussion of the item from Monday's work session agenda.
"It would have died," he said Wednesday.

Evans, a recovering drug addict and alcoholic who has been clean
since 2001, said he wanted to squash recent -- and false, he says --
rumors that he had lapsed into substance abuse.

He said he would take a drug test any time and anywhere to prove he
is clean. He wanted to urge the rest of the City Council to
voluntarily take a urine test, even though there is no law requiring
an elected official to do so. When Evans floated the idea in an
e-mail to council members Dec. 20, the reaction was nearly unanimous:
Drug testing would be unnecessary and create an unwanted distraction
to city business.

"If he has a problem in trying to clear his name or character, he
doesn't need to drag anybody else into it," Councilman Keith Bates
said then. Evans, who is 48, pleaded guilty in 1992 to two counts of
embezzlement and one count of felony possession of cocaine.

Evans has been open about his past. He was elected in 2005, defeating
incumbent Mable Smith in District 2, which represents east
Fayetteville. In a Dec. 20 e-mail, Mayor Tony Chavonne advised Evans
and the rest of the council against drug testing, calling the matter
personal. On Wednesday, Chavonne said he had no additional comments
on Evans' decision to drop the idea.