Davis brings change, spawns controversy

After two years at the helm of the St. Petersburg Police Department, the embattled chief rules a house divided.

"I would just have to scratch my head and say I'm perplexed." [Times photo: Fred Victorin]

By LEANORA MINAI and ADAM C. SMITH

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 30, 1999

ST. PETERSBURG -- Here's how people describe Police Chief Goliath Davis III: Control freak. Vindictive. Arbitrary bully. Even a potential security risk on drug investigations.

Or: Consummate professional. A maverick leader with a progressive vision for policing his hometown. A victim of racist critics.

After two turbulent years as St. Petersburg's first African-American police chief, Davis generates little ambivalence.

He has become St. Petersburg's own Bill Clinton, facing controversy after controversy, attack after attack. Supporters, especially African-American community activists, describe him as a hero. His critics, especially in the police union, accuse him of going after anyone who crosses him and destroying departmental morale.

So far, the embattled chief's job looks safe, as the mayor and groups ranging from the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce to the Coalition of African-American Leadership vocally stand behind him. But the coming months could be critical, as Davis faces at least six separate legal complaints with consistent themes: arbitrary discipline, retaliation against people who anger him and reverse discrimination.

Through it all, the ever-coy chief maintains his boyish grin. Asked how his administration managed to provoke such hostility, he just shrugs.

"I would just have to scratch my head and say I'm perplexed," Davis said.

An abrupt adjustment

Officer Ron Adams, a 25-year veteran of the department, sees it differently

"He just wants to be in control of everything. He's a control freak," said Adams, pointing to the key administrators Davis has replaced with less experienced staffers.

"He only wants a certain type of individual in there, the type that basically doesn't make any decisions," Adams said. "He's got 100 percent control of everything."

Davis said he insists that all his administrators challenge decisions they disagree with. He makes no apologies for his hands-on style.

"As a manager, my job is to ensure that I develop individuals who work with me and for me," Davis said. "You just don't turn people loose to do a job."

Rick Stelljes, assistant chief for uniformed services, said he has no hesitation speaking his mind with Davis, and the chief's close involvement is natural early on as a new boss and his employees get to know each other.

"You start out with him and he wants to know a lot of things about how you're doing, what's going on and where you're heading," Stelljes said. "But as that confidence builds and the rapport gets on solid ground, a lot of those reins are loosened. That's what's happened."

Former grants writer Nancy Daly, who resigned from the department in September, suggested that Davis' need for control was evident in his lack of interest in obtaining outside grants. To challenge him, she said, is to risk a dose of temper that you won't soon forget.

"He just explodes and heaps verbal abuse on you," Daly said. "If you've crossed him and you're subjected to one of his one-on-one's, it's like being in a room with Linda Blair from The Exorcist. You try to hang on to your dignity and walk out of the room in one piece."

'Black Thursday' and beyond

But the honeymoon ended in July, on a day officers dubbed "Black Thursday." Half of the vice and narcotics unit -- 10 investigators -- were counseled, demoted, suspended or fired for time card fraud

Then, in March, Davis infuriated a police union, the Police Benevolent Association, by releasing a videotape spoof made by narcotics officers making jokes about Muslims and featuring an officer sporting a chicken costume with potatoes dangling from his crotch. The union called for a grand jury investigation into Davis' release of the tape, but the state attorney found no wrongdoing.

Some officers and residents point to the narcotics investigation as the start of Davis settling a score from the Curtsinger years, a time when racist overtones hung over the department.

Don Quire, the former commander of the narcotics unit, was among those pushed out of a job in the time card scandal. Quire said he had two strikes against him: He had questioned Davis' Weed and Seed stance, and he had been a strong ally of Curtsinger.

"You take a look at the common denominator between myself and anyone else who has been disciplined or asked to leave, and it's that we had an affiliation with Curtsinger," said Quire, a 24-year veteran and now a Pinellas sheriff's deputy.

Officer Adams agreed with Quire and said losing him was a blow to the department.

"On the surface, they'll say it's falsification of records, but bottom line, everybody knows that wasn't the real issue," Adams said. "The real issue was they wanted to clean house."

Lt. Wes Kenly, a 25-year veteran who has served under six chiefs, said the investigation into payroll abuse had to be done. Davis, he said, added structure to a department that lacked self-discipline. Under prior chiefs, officers had "free-form" schedules, often coming and going as they pleased.

But Davis' critics say there is a pattern of deep-seated retaliation and favoritism.

Some officers and sergeants are still reeling from Davis' decision to promote William Proffitt, Reggie Oliver and Luke Williams from the rank of sergeant to major, skipping lieutenant.

"All the other sergeants," said Adams, "you've just slapped in the face."

Union president Jack Soule said Davis is unfair in meting out discipline. As an example, the union has pointed to Sgt. Donnie Williams, who they say only received a written reprimand when others were fired or suspended for time card falsification.

"It's not a race issue," Soule said. "If he likes you, you're okay. If he doesn't like you, you're not okay."

The union has made a sport out of attacking police chiefs, Lt. Kenly said.

"People criticize him for taking care of his friends and taking care of a clique. Name me a chief who hasn't. Name me a chief who hasn't come into a department and developed ties with core people," Kenly said. "... I hate to rain on Curtsinger's parade, but he did the same thing when he was here. But the Curtsinger people couldn't see it because they were the ones with the silver spoon in their mouth. Now that it's Davis, it's a big deal."

In the past year, the chief has faced a series of discipline appeals and complaints filed in court and with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Davis dismisses the complaints as baseless and notes that arbitrators reviewing claims against him have mostly ruled in his favor. Still, plenty of complaints are pending:

Former officer Karen Lea, who quit the department last summer, says that after Davis became chief in 1997, she was subjected to a hostile work environment, excessive scrutiny and harassment. She has sued Davis and the city. (In the early 1980s, Lea said Davis repeatedly asked her for dates. Davis denied the charge, and nothing ever became of the complaint.)

Officer Tonia Nave and civilian investigator Patricia MacLean have notified the city that they will sue. They say the Davis administration retaliated against them for speaking their minds at a disability pension hearing in support of Lea. Nave, a sex crimes detective, was transferred to patrol several days after she testified on behalf of Lea.

Sgt. Linda Perez's lawyer said she plans to notify the city this week that a suit from Perez is coming. Perez, the head of the department's Employee Assistance Program, says she was retaliated against because she refused to give Davis confidential information about officers. She also testified on behalf of Lea.

Three white vice and narcotics investigators who were disciplined for time card violations -- Jeff Riley, Roy Olsen and Julie Gironda -- filed claims with the EEOC, alleging reverse discrimination. They say Williams, the black sergeant who also was investigated, committed the same offenses but received a softer punishment.

Former Maj. John Womer, who was forced to retire under Davis, has sued the city, saying a provision in his pension plan should have protected his job.

Some City Council members are worried how much these allegations will cost taxpayers.

"I personally know the attorneys involved with these plaintiffs," council member Bill Foster said in a recent memo to Mayor Fischer. "And I know that they are not in the habit of making frivolous allegations."

The latest dispute involves a former narcotics investigator who said he was told Davis put restrictions on a narcotics investigation into Sgt. Williams, who now heads the burglary unit.

The officer, Raymond K. Craig, is now under an internal affairs inquiry for violating confidentiality and compromising a criminal investigation. The city started a whistler-blower investigation, and an in-house attorney cleared Davis of any wrongdoing.

Murky questions about Davis' commitment to drug enforcement go back to the Curtsinger days. The former chief hinted, with no evidence, that Davis might have ties to notorious convicted drug dealer Ronald Eugene "Romeo" Mathis. Though Davis says drug arrests and search warrants have increased in his tenure, innuendo about his drug enforcement continues to this day.

"When every search warrant for a narcotics investigation has to go through the police chief, there's a concern about safety and whether somebody's getting tipped off ahead of time," said City Council member Kathleen Ford, who offered no examples.

Davis looks ahead

His third year will be focused on stabilizing the department and continuing reorganization already under way, he said. Don't look for bold, new initiatives. That's not his priority

"Trying to implement innovation in a police department is much like trying to redecorate or remodel a locomotive in full bore," Davis said.

His peers say it takes about three years for a new chief to enter smooth waters.

Tampa police Chief Bennie Holder, who has been chief six years and faced his own turbulence early on, said he has called Davis to offer support.

"My prayers go out to him because I know how it is to be under the gun," Holder said. "But you just have to hang tough. You can't manage a department trying to be popular."

Despite the criticism and allegations, Davis vowed to remain chief until he feels the job is done, even if it takes 10 years.

Said Davis: "I'm still in the honeymoon as far as I'm concerned."