Bill Foster's burger flipping turns into burger flap

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Suncoast Police Benevolent Association held a Fourth of July barbecue on Saturday for the men and women of the St. Petersburg Police Department stuck working the holiday. Mayoral candidate Bill Foster stopped by to flip burgers -- while wearing a campaign shirt.

Can anyone say "Burgergate?"

That's because internal affairs has launched an "inquiry" to see if there needs to be a formal investigation into whether any city rules governing employees and political campaigning were broken.

In other words, police are seeing if maybe they should look into this more.

What rules could have possibly been broken? Rule No. 1 states that "no city employee shall take active part in political campaigns or other political activities while on active pay status."

Now the union is fired up. Executive director Michael Krohn said it was just three off-duty officers grilling burgers and delivering them to on-duty officers. They were doing it off city property, and he said there were no active-duty officers around when Foster showed up and ended up helping flip a few burgers.

Mmmm. Burgers.

The three officers have since been "grilled" -- sorry, questioned.

"Now you have officers sitting there wondering "Am I going to be disciplined? Am I in trouble? My word isn't good enough?' " Krohn said.

Foster's response: "I hope they're not spending a lot of taxpayer money on this inquiry."

The candidate said he was on his way to Albert Whitted Airport to hang out and watch fireworks when he stopped by police headquarters to thank officers working the holiday. He said he thanked a few on- and off-duty officers. But then there was trouble at the grill.

"One guy was sweating bullets," Foster said. "I grabbed the spatula, and then I couldn't talk to anybody."

Foster emphasized, though, that "it wasn't a campaign stop. I say thank you to the police all the time."

Did he get to eat anything?

"I ate a lonely charred burger," he said, noting they had run out of buns by that time. "It was one I didn't feel comfortable serving."

Jamal Thalji, Times staff writer

Comments

[Zen Master]

Don't like Foster but this is silly.

I like the writing though. Kind of funny. They shouldn't "hold his feet to the fire" for this.

[Foster Haiku]

Foster eats lonely
charred burger thinking of the
Nazis and Darwin.

[Ray]

Silly waste of taxpayer money investigating this.

[Paul]

Let's just close the door on this and move on, for crying out loud. I'm not voting Foster, but come on, how trivial can we get?

[Bill]

At least he was out there with the firefighters instead of chasing the Stonewall freaks around

[Gilbert Ford]

Unless it is more to this, that we are not made aware of...this is a waste of taxpayer resources.

Had all of the candidates shown thier appreciation for the Officers, Firemen and other First Responders, would this have been an issue?

Curious question, were was the Mayor, the Police Chief, or Dep. Chiefs to show thier appreciation?

Better yet, were was the citizens of St. Petersburg, to show thier appreciation. I'll be honest and say, as a citizen I never thought to thank the brave made and women of Law Enforcement nor Fire Fighters.

I am not a fan of any of the candidates thus far! It is hard not to apprecaite what Mr. Foster did...inspite of its appearance of impropriety.

[Ned]

That St Pete is one weird place. Robberies, gangs and who knows what and the Police are caught up investigating burgers. Y'all need a new police department. This one's priorities are out of whack. No wonder crimes are rampant over there.

[Dislike Foster]

Why hasn't there been an investigation of the time Bill Foster was tazed by active duty police officers on city time? This was before Bill received the official endorsement of the PBA. Why were on duty officers spending citizens time tazing Bill Foster as a publicity stunt as opposed to patrolling our streets?

Gilbert, this is the same Bill Foster that went ballistic on a police officer because Bill Foster the City Council member was upset with the police because a teenager said something rude to Wendy Foster while the family was visiting Bay Walk. Bill wanted to know what the police were going to do to make Baywalk safe. The same Bill Foster that did nothing to make Baywalk safer for the families of St Petersburg, UNTIL someone said something rude to a member of his family.

[bill]

Hmmmm, since it is the chief of police who decides whether or not to launch an IA investigation it must be coincidental that Chief Harmon supports someone other than Foster and that he would order an investigation in this matter. Hmmmmm...

To investigate this is clearly an abuse. Harmon needs to expend his investigative resources on fighting REAL crime! Harmon needs to go.

[Rob]

I am voting for Bill Foster and I hope the Times crumbles. Go cover some real news!

[Mike]

Atleast the guy came by. He didnt have to come at all. Who cares what he was wearing, its his actions that matter

[Pelican Pete]

Dear Dislike,

Bill Foster and several other council members, (you can see Herb Polson in the background) were video taped being tazed after the police department reveived their new Tazers.

Bill Foster was instrumental in aquiring the Tazers, so that the Police have a non-lethal alternative with which to subdue suspects.

Regarding the poster at 2:19 pm, normally you would be correct, regarding who decides to launch an IA investigation, however, Cheif Harmon was out of town when this particular investigation was launched.

Perhaps that might help you in determining who may have launched the investigation and if there might be a political motive.

[Citizen]

They were OFF-duty officers!!! Where is the impropriety? The rule is ON-duty employees. They weren't representing the police department, they were UNION representatives and I think showing appreciation for the officers (whose days off were cancelled in order to provide more coverage to this city) should be the focus of this department, not the fact that Foster stopped by!! Ridiculous that there is such little respect for the men and women that lay their lives on the line every day!

[iS cHARLIE STILL MARRIED NOW THAT THE MOVIE OUTRAGE IS OUT?]

Bring in the Pinellas County Sheriff. We do not have any more time to train SPPD, on how to investigate. Under Bill Foster we have 14 police cars, at Bay Walk on the weekends, at tax payers expense? Where was Bill on that? SPPD only talks on the phone, when you report a crime. Take the police cars away, and save more tax money. Bring in the Pinellas County Sheriff it is a savings, to the residents of St. Petersburg.

[PDQ]

Oh for cryin' out loud. I'm not planning to vote for Foster, but for dogsake this is insane.

[OsamaObama]

All Democrats and Republicans are exactly the same, steal your taxes, lie lie lie, squash your freedoms, destroy America, and hand it to illegals......time for a third party candidate in every election, one who loves freedom and America, who will seal the border and deport the illegals...this act alone would pull the US out of the recession

[Zen Master]

To 6:28 who states "seal the border and deport the illegals"

I agree. Send all those murdering white folks back where they came from!

They broke every agreement they ever made with us Native American's and are all here "ILLEGALLY"!

You are correct that this would solve the extremely high unemployment rates amoung the Native American population.

[Well!]

Ran out of buns? All the more reason to investigate!

[Speadking of buns]

While the City is investigating the burger flap why won't the Times investigate Foster's involvement with the Krispy Kreme donut calendar kaper that used city attorney time? Speaking of buns........

[Carol]

Oh for pete's sakes... how much is this inquiry going to cost? LET IT GO!!!! geez

[scott miller]

SPPD OFFICERS ARE UNDERPAID UNDER STAFFED. WHO CARES IF ANY ONE STOPS BY TO SERVE OUR OFFICERS A DRINK OR A MEAL. THEY CAN ALL USE SOME MORAL SUPPORT. SHAME ON THE SLANT PETE LIES FOR EVEN PRINTING THIS STORY. DID THEY FORGET M.J. PASSED AWAY

[Are you serious?]

This was a PBA sponsored event. An organization that has endorsed Foster. Logic therefore would dictate he is welcome to stop by and support those who support him. Obviously, the officers working the PBA event were off duty. This just goes to show what an unfocused mess our police department has become under the leadership of Goliath Davis! (That's a whole other story!) It is time to focus on the real issue of crime rather than bully effective officers because of who they support politically.

[Mike K]

Hell, this could be the only meals these police officers could be getting for days because Baker and the city drove their finances into the ground and now dealing it with budget cuts. Bet you if Gibbons was there, Baker would be giving him a medal or something.

[Pelican Pete]

Were they serving cornbread?

[tif]

I'm sure that douche officer Chris Sessions was there getting his freebie. Probably brought his loser family too.