A move to investigate City Administrator Fred Russell's computer hard drive to determine whether Commissioner Marion Williams has a bootlegged copy of it failed Tuesday.

The racially divided Augusta Commission also refused to rescind last month's censure of Commissioner Calvin Holland for asking a city employee to give him a copy of the administrator's hard drive information.

Mr. Holland said he would continue to bring the censure issue back before the commission.

"Their ploy was just to try to embarrass me," he said. "I've been down this road before, so that doesn't hurt."

Commissioners did agree to fire in-house General Counsel Eugene Jessup after he refused to resign, as he was asked to do a month ago when the computer controversy boiled over.

Commissioner Andy Cheek's motion for a full scan of the hard drive for hacking or copying, followed by prosecution if it was determined the computer had been hacked, failed to make the quorum on a 5-4 vote, with the five white commissioners voting for the probe and the four black commissioners voting against it. Mayor Pro Tem Betty Beard left before the vote.

Mr. Williams, who requested a copy of Mr. Russell's hard drive information after the controversy erupted, argued against the investigation. He has said he has the information but won't say how he obtained it.

Commissioner Joe Bowles suggested the hard drive, which an attorney has said is not public record, could be checked for tampering without examining the contents. Mr. Williams said that was the "dumbest thing" he'd heard in a long time and referred to Mr. Bowles as "boy."

"Don't call me boy," Mr. Bowles said before suggesting Mr. Williams pay his overdue property taxes.

After the vote, Mr. Cheek said he will seek further legal review of the matter, possibly with federal officials.

"Anybody that claims to be in possession of stolen property kind of makes you wonder about their character if they are aware it is stolen and illegally obtained," Mr. Cheek said.

The vote on Mr. Williams' motion to rescind the censure against Mr. Holland and apologize failed on a 6-4 vote, with the same commissioners who voted for the censure last month voting against the motion.

The vote followed a statement by Mr. Holland defending his actions and reasserting that he had done nothing wrong. He also asked that Atlanta attorney Quinton Seay's letter be read. Mr. Seay had written that Mr. Holland only violated the intent of the city ordinance, not the law itself, by seeking the information.

Mr. Seay also rejected Mr. Williams' request for a copy of the hard drive information on the grounds that it was too broad and that a hard drive does not constitute a public record under Georgia law and is not subject to disclosure under the Open Records Act.

The computer controversy began when Mr. Jessup and Mr. Shepard obtained a copy of hard drive information from assistant in-house attorney Vanessa Flournoy's city computer, which indicated she was doing real-estate closings on it. Mr. Jessup wanted Ms. Flournoy fired. He soon clashed with Mr. Holland, Mr. Williams and Commissioner J.R. Hatney, and shortly thereafter Mr. Holland tried to get Mr. Russell's computer information to see whether he had been doing private business on it.