CHAMPAIGN — City administrators are taking a closer look at the police promotions process following an anonymous, scathing email that was sent to officials and later leaked to The News-Gazette and other local media last week, alleging inequitable standards advocated by department brass.

City Manager Steve Carter said on Wednesday that he has asked the police department to author a report responding to the email's accusations of favoritism and that the human resources department has closely documented the 2011 testing process "so everyone's aware how we handle that."

The board of fire and police commissioners earlier this week approved a promotions list that would have developed amid what is apparently a controversial process within the department. That list ranks sergeants based on their performance during the interview process, which includes written and oral exams and a panel interview, and determines in what order they will move to a higher rank as lieutenant positions become available.

The timing of the commission's approval of that list is coincidental, but it replaces a 2008 list, around which much of the controversy has circled. The city has made a lot of changes to the promotions process since the 2008 testing cycle, the time the alleged events in the email would have taken place, Carter said.

According to the email, favoritism played a heavy role in the development of that 2008 exam that determined which sergeant would have been promoted to lieutenant and began with the release of the reading list for the test.

"A review of the list revealed that the reference material had been twice used already; an issue that would give an advantage to veteran exam takers as they were already intimately familiar with the material while newly promotable sergeants were not," the email said.

The complaints move on to a more concrete example.

"It is common knowledge that Lieutenant Swan and Sergeant Walker are good friends and that they are among a short list of Deputy Chief Murphy's closest friends. It comes as no surprise that Lieutenant Swan's assignment to help develop the lieutenant's test was made by Deputy Chief John Murphy, but it could not have been done without the approval of Chief R.T. Finney," the complaint says.

"The concerns of those seeking the opportunity to be promoted to lieutenant in 2008 were expressed to Chief Finney, but he apparently did not share the concern as no changes were made to the process, and no safeguards were implemented. As a result, there was a very predictable out-come (sic); Sergeant Tom Walker scored a 98 percent on a written exam produced by a professional testing company. This score was more than 20 points above Walker's closest rival. This academic feat propelled Sergeant Walker to the top of the lieutenant's list for the promotion period of November 2008 to November 2011."

Walker was eventually downgraded from lieutenant to sergeant, the email said.

Carter said the city works with an independent, Chicago-based testing agency to develop the police exams.

"Presumably, the best people rose to the top of that," he said.

City council members and several other top administrators received the anonymous email last week from a group of authors claiming to be police employees. It accuses high-ranking police officials, namely Chief R.T. Finney and Deputy Chief John Murphy, of being biased in promotions and assignments.

Carter said a report will be coming from the police department within the next couple weeks, and "we'll review that, and then we'll see what additional action is necessary."

Last week, Finney, who plans to retire in January 2012, said the accusations are frustrating but not surprising, and he defended the promotions process.

It is really no different than any other complaint from a city employee, Carter said.

"We take all of those seriously and want to be able to work through that," he said.

Carter recognizes "that there are obviously some differences in opinion in the department." He hopes that the steps taken during the next couple weeks will "help the department to come together and get focused on improving the department."