Mending the fences around a glass house

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By MARY JO MELONE

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 18, 2000

God must be One Amazing Chick if She can get the police chief of St. Petersburg to step off his high horse for a second and admit that he's human and capable of screwing up.

It probably helped that somebody else, City Council member Bill Foster, went to him more or less on bended knee.

The chief who recently rated his performance as a 10 -- officialdom's equivalent of that leftover lovely of the '70s, Bo Derek -- could save some face this way.

I rely on Foster for the story, who shared it this week. The chief is out of town. So is the mayor, who Foster said witnessed the moment when Davis apologized for getting out of line at a City Council workshop last month.

Foster wanted an outside review of Davis' take-no-prisoners management methods.

So did the council's official wild woman, and the unofficial president of Davis' un-fan club, Kathleen Ford.

As is his custom, the chief took great offense. He accused Foster and Ford of "having an agenda."

Foster, typically so mild he sets a red-blooded person's teeth on edge, said that wasn't so.

Things went as they tend to in City Council, from bad to worse. As the meeting ended, Foster said he only wanted to help the chief be a 10. "Don't say nothin' to me," the chief replied.

Foster said that was uncalled for.

Davis said Foster was uncalled for.

According to Kathleen Ford, Foster later said he thought the chief was about to hit him.

Three weeks passed. Foster thought and thought. He finally decided that "I had elevated it to where it went."

Then came the National Day of Prayer on May 4. City officials and local clergy gathered outside City Hall to ask that One Amazing Chick to help them do their jobs the best they could. Suddenly, Foster found himself in a small knot of people that included Davis.

Members of the group read Scriptures and delivered impromptu prayers. Then the two Baptists faced each other.

"As the prayer group was breaking up, we kind of made eye contact," Foster said. "It was a very serious moment for both of us.

"The spirit strongly moved me . . . to bury the hatchet.

"I offered my apologies for words that were not intended to be said in a state of anger. And he pretty much dittoed what I said."

The two shook hands.

"I believed at the time, and still do, that he was sincere," Foster said of the chief.

They agreed to talk privately later. Foster said their first session went well, but their positions have not moved. Foster is still skeptical of Davis' performance.

After the April meeting, Foster, who is white, was inundated with calls from black people. They were furious with him for criticizing the city's first black police chief. But they also acknowledged that in their neighborhoods "drug crime is on the rise," Foster said. This, of course, utterly contradicts the chief's view of the city and himself. He still apparently regards himself as a 10. Still, you take what you can get.

What transpired between Foster and Davis may signal that the chief is beginning to calm down and doing what only Peter Pan avoided -- maturing.

Either that or the chief finally figured out that in this weather, the ice he stands on is getting thin.

As for Foster, he could have been moved by the spirit. Or he could really want the black vote if and when he runs for mayor.

As for Kathleen Ford, who may also run for mayor, she walked out of the April council workshop before Foster and Davis got in each other's faces. She also avoided the National Day of Prayer.

"I'm not into hypocritical prayer sessions," she said Wednesday, feisty and unrepentant as ever.

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