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Meet the candidates: Ford
By LEONORA LaPETER © St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2001 ST. PETERSBURG -- When Kathleen Sweeney held the baton, everyone in Yorktown, Va., knew she was in charge. She would strut onto the football field at halftime, 100 members of the marching band behind her, and head to her platform above the rest of the band. "She had this long stick with a metal ball on the end and she had to wave that sucker around to keep everybody on the same page at the same time," Vicki Regetz, a close high school friend, recalled of her high school days in Yorktown. "There was no question in anybody's mind as they watched that she knew what she was doing. She was in charge. She was a leader." More than 25 years later, Kathleen Sweeney is Kathleen Ford, and she is again up on a platform -- the race for mayor of St. Petersburg. Only today, she's known more for her energy -- and her infamous eye-rolls -- than her ability to put everybody on the same page. Several of her fellow council members accuse her of rude behavior: attacking city employees verbally, hurling insults at council members when a vote doesn't go her way, even throwing pencils and stomping off during council business. But Ford, running against Rick Baker in Tuesday's general election, is one of the most energetic forces to hit City Hall. She is well-prepared, knowledgeable and asks tough questions. Even her most ardent critics say she can be extremely charming and upbeat. "A chameleon comes to mind," said Connie Kone, a former City Council member who hasn't gotten along with Ford over the years. "She can put on that angelic thing and this is very deceptive because when she wants to, she can be as sweet as she can be. She has talent. If she could ever control her temper." Ford, 43, would not talk to the St. Petersburg Times for this story. At one point, after consulting with Ford, one of her friends, Lorraine Margeson, said she didn't want to talk to the Times. But she later agreed to an interview. Ford's husband, Harvey, agreed to talk about her. Interviews with a dozen of Ford's friends, teachers and coaches, most of whom she has lost touch with in Virginia and Texas, reveal she was a go-getter from the get-go. The eldest of six children, Ford grew up a Catholic in an inviting and immaculate home in Yorktown, Va., a small historic town near Williamsburg. All of the Sweeney siblings were active. In high school, Kathleen was vice president of the National Honor Society, secretary of the French Club, a member of the Monogram Club, the Student Civic Association, the Keyettes and the marching band. She played the bassoon. She ran the 400-meters in 56 seconds. Friends and teachers said she was popular, well-liked, confident and happy, and she hung out with athletes and the smart crowd. "She got along with everyone, and I think that was something special about her," said Michael Sullivan, drama activities director at York High School. "She was always smiling, always cheerful, and I really can remember that." After she graduated from high school in 1975, Ford continued her running career at the University of Virginia, where she majored in nursing, became co-captain of the track team and ran the last leg of the 1-mile relay. Track coach Dennis Craddock said she was one of the first women who treated running as a competitive sport rather than exercise. "She was one of my ferocious athletes at the time," said Craddock, now track coach at the University of North Carolina. In Charlottesville, Ford met her husband, Harvey, whose family moved to St. Petersburg in 1902. Harvey Ford was painting houses in Charlottesville for a summer, and he lived in Kathleen's apartment complex. They married in Houston, in 1981, where Ford, then a nurse, coordinated a hemophilia center and later worked in the intensive care units at two hospitals. At night, she attended South Texas College of Law. "I've been teaching for 33 years and there are about 20 students who stand out and she was one of them," said Charles Weigel, Ford's law professor. "She had a lot of confidence, a lot of drive, a lot of spark." None of Ford's teachers or friends said she exhibited abrasive behavior. But they could see her standing up for her convictions if she felt she or someone else had been done wrong. "She has a strong belief system," said high school friend Regetz, an elementary school guidance counselor. "I think she appears to be a very competent person in who she is and what she believes in, and I assume some people could interpret that kind of stance as pompous." The Fords, both lawyers, moved to St. Petersburg in 1987 and had their second child. Ford became active in the North Shore Neighborhood Association. Over the years, she joined the Junior League and was a Brownie leader and a board member of the Northeast Raiders Soccer program. She ran for City Council in 1997 against Pat Fulton. It was in this campaign that voters got their first taste of Ford's blunt, sometimes disarming, candor. She talked of making the Old Northeast a buffer zone for Snell Isle and said the city was catering to lower socioeconomic groups. After her election, Ford gained respect among some constituents for her willingness to spend time hearing their concerns. "That's what impressed me first and foremost about her, her compassion, her willingness to listen, to spend more than two minutes with me, to listen to the whole story," said Margeson, a campaign supporter and friend who met Ford while appearing before her as a neighborhood watch leader. But Ford's behavior at City Hall soon earned her a reputation, and not just as the person who nearly shouted the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of each meeting. She besieged the administration with requests for information -- 1,051 of the 2,163 requests made by the council over the past three years. She repeatedly insulted Mayor David Fischer, and his staff ("Doesn't know. Doesn't care. Empty suit. Empty chair," she once said during a council meeting). She was quick to assert that she was smarter than others, even noting her academic degrees on documents she signed ("I don't know how to educate you all," she once said to her council colleagues). "Anyone that differed from her came under fire, outside the meetings and even up there on the dais," said former council member Robert Kersteen, who recalled that Ford once threw a pencil from the council dais in frustration. "What you may say is that she's a street fighter. She wants to win and I don't blame her. She doesn't like to lose." Foster and Bea Griswold said Ford has never become angry at them or disrespectful once a decision had been made. Foster said Ford's anger develops when she thinks someone has been untruthful or dishonest. "One of the things I notice about Kathleen is that if you are always honest with her, she'll treat you fairly," Foster said. "Here's a warning for anyone who ever has to deal with her: Don't ever try to pull anything on Kathleen Ford because she never forgets." Ford has drawn support from some city employee unions, but she has also alienated some of St. Petersburg's oldest institutions. After she pressed the council to pursue a lawsuit against Bayfront Medical Center, that hospital's CEO and many of its board members became determined Baker supporters. The Times editorial board has been a frequent critic of her style and ideas. And she was rejected in the mayoral primary by the people who should know her best -- residents of the neighborhood she represented on the council. Baker won the North Shore. Her near-constant criticism of police Chief Goliath Davis III has also drawn Ford admirers and detractors. For two years, Ford has questioned whether he is soft on drug dealers. But she has never provided proof of her most serious claims. Former City Council member Frank Peterman, now a state representative, said Ford's stance on Davis and several other issues has revealed an insensitivity to the black community. Davis is a native of St. Petersburg, the first black man to head the Police Department. Ford's inability to see that he has good points, to instead paint him in a broad negative stroke, shows insensitivity, Peterman said. "This consistent rebuffing of everything he's ever done," he said. "I don't know if there's been any comments where she's mentioned that fact that he's done a good job of keeping crime down." But Ford has a number of black supporters in her campaign who say she is very concerned about their needs. "She's always hugging and kissing me on the cheek," said another campaign supporter Leroy Lewis, who works at Tropicana Field. "Do you think a racist person would let a black man touch her? Kathleen does not look at the color of a person's skin. She looks at the content of character." Harvey Ford discounts his wife's critics. Instead, he is proud of his wife's courage and outspokenness. "I guess I'm grateful that she feels secure enough in herself and in her family and friends, that she can stand up and do that without fear of retribution or backlash," he said. -- Researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.
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