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.

Chronicle Editor John H. Breneman also disputed the mayor's charges.

"That is unequivocally untrue," Breneman said. "And just as Mayor Reeves and many of his supporters are outraged, I am equally outraged that the mayor could accuse us of anything even remotely related to racism."

The Chronicle maintained its reporting was accurate. "We stand by the story," Breneman said last night. "As far as the charge that we did not obtain the facts, the Chronicle very meticulously tried to get the facts from Ken Reeves' office, and we did not get a response."

'Why Now!'

The half-hour rally of Reeves' 140 supporters directly preceded the 5:30 p.m. council meeting. Three Cantab- rigians--John R. Clifford, Bernard P. Hicks and Cambridge Latino Commission Chair Sylvia J. Saavedra-Keber--organized the event.

"Why now? Why Ken? We support our mayor," read an 18-foot banner unfurled by the supporters.

The open session part of the council meeting took more than three hours, as some 30 Reeves supporters packed into the council chamber to charged the Chronicle and three city councillors with prejudice.

"I think it has to do with racism and the fear of a powerful Black man who's doing the right thing for the city," said Frank Barnes, one of the protesters.

Clifford told the council that Reeves was being questioned "reason one, because he's Black, and reason two is that he's working class." Clifford is the owner of the Green Street Grill, one of several restaurants where the mayor ate on the city's tab, according to the Chronicle report.

"As African-Americans we are aware of the fact that when we take office, the rules change," said Rev. Leroy Attles, a protester and the minister of St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Reeves is a member.

In particular, the pro-Reeves speakers criticized an order proposed by Myers last week. The order asked city manager Robert W. Healy to report on an overpayment of more than $30,000 from the school committee to Reeves over the last three years.

Before being considered, the order was sent to the council's ordinance committee to resolve legal questions.

The public comments focused heavily on Farmelant, who has written for The Chronicle since February 1993 and who covered the council meeting last night for the Cambridge weekly.

Former Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, who spoke in support of Reeves, even issued a threat.

"If I knew who that reporter for the Cambridge Chronicle was," Vellucci said, "I would send him a nice little gift."

"The race issue is that it doesn't matter how hard you work as a person of color," added Ehrl D. LaFontant, a five-year resident and a Haitian immigrant. "The powers that be--the media--will bring you down for no reason whatever."

Van Le '89, a second-year law student at Northeastern University and former aide to the mayor, said that the mayor's expenses were justified for entertaining purposes.

The CCA, however, called for an inquiry into the propriety of the expenditures. R. Philip Dowds, CCA president, said he wanted to know which of the expenses were related to city business. He suggested that the expenses may have been used to court voters and potential supporters of the mayor.

"Do we want the mayor, or any city councillor, to have a credit card with no limit to court voters?" Dowds asked. "Most eminent politicians give parties for their voters, but they pay for it and it's out of their own funds."

"Ken [Reeves] has made much greater use of city dollars on discretionary items than any mayor has in the past," Dowds said. "The way to clear that up is to do a careful investigation of all his expenses."

Dowds also asked who authorized the credit card, which is provided for the mayor's use by the city. "The question is, who gave the card and what were the rules when the card was handed out," he said.

James Maloney, assistant city manager for financial operations, said Cambridge had granted the credit card to the mayor for "several years." He said he did not know who originally provided the credit card.

"If the credit card was handed out without rules, then the responsibility falls on the executive branch," Dowds said, referring to Maloney and Healy.

Although Dowds said he believed the Chronicle had "overdramatized a lot of news," he defended their investigations.

"I think one of the functions of the press is exactly what they're doing," Dowds said. "They've dug something up; we just don't know quite what it is yet."

In addition to questions over the expenses, the meeting produced sharp debate within the nine-member council. Councillor Jonathan S. Myers called for Reeves to explain his expenses.

"I think a person has to be accountable for the decisions they make," he said. Myers was repeatedly hissed by citizens in the public gallery.

"Mayor Reeves needs to substantiate what those expenses are," Myers said. "The public has a right to know and the city council has a right to know."

Reeves accused councillors of miscommunication. "You have never asked me about a council expense, period," he told Myers.

The meeting nearly became a shouting match between the two officials.

"You may doubt my integrity. I doubt yours," Reeves told Myers. "What modicum of respect I had for you dissolved tonight," the mayor added.

Reeves also accused Myers of spreading rumors that Reeves was being investigated on charges of tax evasion. Myers denied those charges, saying "I don't know anything about it."

According to the mayor's office, the Chronicle received the list of expenses from City Auditor James Lindstrom's office under the Freedom of Information Act.

In a 32-page letter, the newspaper then requested explanations of the 275 purchases, which Reeves said he did not have. "Mr. Farmelant was told that he had the actual expenses and we could not create information that did not exist," said Jubi Headley, executive assistant to the mayor.

But Breneman, the Chronicle editor, had a different take on the matter. "We asked the mayor's office to provide an accounting of how the various expenses were related to city business," he said, "but for whatever reason, the mayor's office declined--in fact, refused--to provide any information."

"The guy doesn't answer our phone calls." Farmelant asked. "How are we supposed to get his side of the story?