The Federal Bureau of Investigation yesterday began an inquiry which will apparently focus on whether Cambridge Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72 made personal use of city funds.

But even as two FBI agents visited the mayor at his City Hall office yesterday, more than 140 of his supporters rallied outside. They accused the Cambridge Chronicle, a weekly newspaper that has reported extensively on how Reeves spends city money, of racism and homophobia.

Reeves, who is Black and gay, disclosed the inquiry during a city council meeting last night. He did not specify what the agents wanted to talk about, saying only that he had contacted his lawyer and will schedule a meeting with FBI agents soon.

"I'm not a crook or a criminal," Reeves said in an interview with The Crimson last night. "I'm not having any expectation that anything will happen."

The Chronicle has charged that Reeves used a city credit card for personal dining and entertainment expenses.

At last night's council meeting, Reeves lashed out against the newspaper. "We are a first-class city with a fifth-class newspaper," he told the rally, which preceded the meeting.

In a Chronicle article last week, staff writer Scott Farmelant wrote that Reeves had declined to clarify more than 275 expenses he charged on the city-provided credit card since July 1993. Reeves dined out 134 of 383 days, many of them on weekends with his partner, the Chronicle reported.

In his defense, Reeves claimed that four of the 275 expenses were justified. For example, he said he had paid St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal $150 to purchase 10 copies of the church's history of Cambridge for the city's public libraries.

Reeves told The Crimson last night that he planned to issue a point-by-point rebuttal of the charges "within days."

Reeves charged the Chronicle last night with based reporting.

"It seems to me that the twins of both racism and homophobia are here," Reeves said.

Farmelant shot back in an interview last night.

"He's making this seem like a personal issue. It's not," the reporter said. "It's the use of taxpayer dollars. That's what newspapers write about. That's what we're trying to do."

Meanwhile, the Cambridge Civic Association--the city's left-wing political group--called for a full investigation into mayoral expenses over the past year.

The city council unanimously passed Reeve's proposal that the council "devise a forum and policy development agenda" to address expenses made by city employees.