Stiffing Tampa's security service

By KATHRYN WEXLER and SUE CARLTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 10, 2000

It's one thing to leave an anonymous computer-generated bill unpaid. But you'd think skirting a debt would be a bit more intimidating when the person who provided the service carries a gun.

Here's how it's supposed to work:

A business owner needs a little extra muscle to guard against shoplifters, troublemakers, thieves and other undesirables.

A police officer wants to bolster his paycheck with a little extra work.

After the shift, the business is charged an hourly fee, usually $22, of which $20 goes directly to the cop and $2 to the city for administrative costs and liability.

Usually, the business pays up.

But sometimes the arrangement looks like this:

Officer provides service. Bill arrives in the mail. Business owner refuses to cough up the dough.

"I find it somewhat incredible that a company would do that to a government and a police agency," said Deputy Chief Ken Taylor, who oversees the police department's extra-duty jobs.

But stiff the department, and by extension the city, they do.

At last count, companies owed a total of $245,000 for officers' off-duty work. In fact, the police department had forwarded the names of more than 25 businesses to a collection agency.

Among the most egregious slackers and what they owed in April, according to a city audit:

Dillard's: $35,559.

Smuggler's Cove apartments: $10,090.

Club Atlanta, a night club on Kennedy Avenue: $7,230.

Frankie's Patio restaurant: $4,929.

Carlino's on Bayshore: $1,130

Oftentimes, a venture such as Carlino's goes out of business before the police department can collect. Other times, a business like Frankie's Patio goes bankrupt, new owners take over, and old bills are never honored.

The audit also faulted the police department for continually providing service in some cases where companies were in arrears.

Taylor said the department now refuses to provide some companies, such as Dillard's, with officers due to delinquent accounts. Others have to send a check beforehand.

But ultimately, it's the city that gets stuck with the bill. Officers are paid whether or not the companies they're protecting skirt the bill, and in all they collected $5.2-million for extra-duty work last year. The police department doesn't profit from the arrangement.

"It's one of the best programs in the country," Taylor said.

Of course, that's when it works.

COURTHOUSE TRAGEDY: In the rush of stunning courthouse stories in recent weeks, starting with the suicide of State Attorney Harry Lee Coe and continuing with allegations that have brought in law enforcement and the Judicial Qualifications Commission, came a terrible tragedy -- the death of Circuit Judge Diana Allen from cancer at age 55.

Even as the stories were exploding on the front pages, Allen's friends and family and fellow judges were gathering at a country church last week to remember her. Afterward, they talked of her complete lack of fear when she ruled from the bench, of the way she did not suffer fools. And they talked about her laugh.

Hank Lavandera, a friend from the days they were both prosecutors, remembers waiting nervously for a jury to return on a case he had just finished. He asked Allen, who was not presiding over his case, to join him for lunch, and they walked two blocks to the Dam Shanty, then the hangout for courthouse types.

Lavandera ordered a beer for his nerves. She asked for an iced tea. Just as the waitress was setting the drinks down, Lavandera spotted a bailiff leading in the six jurors from his case past his table to their dinner.

Not wanting to make a bad impression, Lavandera reacted. You must be mistaken, he told the waitress. I had the tea, not the beer.

And Allen, grinning, caught on.

"Diana covered for me. She said, "That's right,' " Lavandera said.

It will be hard to forget her laugh -- always loud, always bursting from her.

- Kathryn Wexler can be reached at (813)226-3386 or by email at wexler@sptimes.com. Sue Carlton can be reached at (813)226-3346 and carlton@sptimes.

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