When Record reporter Phyllis Zorn dropped by the Marion Police Department on a recent Monday, Chief Gideon Cody invited her back to his office.

He told Zorn she should start a newspaper to compete with her current employer, Zorn said.

Editor and publisher Eric Meyer and the Record’s other full-time reporter were to blame for the newspaper’s negativity, Cody said, according to Zorn. When the other reporter started at the paper last year, people told her Meyer and Zorn were “the problem.”

Shocked, Zorn said she told Cody she didn’t have money to start a newspaper. Cody said he knew people who would invest in a new publication, according to Zorn. In fact, Zorn said, Cody himself offered to kick in money.

Cody tells a different version.

“Phyllis told me she had thought of starting her own paper,” Cody wrote. “I told her I would kick in money if she decided.  No one ever stated anyone was a problem.”

Zorn was furious Tuesday, when Cody, she said, showed “his propensity for saying things that are not true.”

Record attorney Bernie Rhodes laughed: “I’m running out of fingers and toes to categorize the number of reasons that Chief Cody had for doing this that are all illegitimate.”