In an extraordinary moment yesterday that was almost a gentle mea culpa, City Councilperson Meghan Sahli-Wells hinted at regretting her stunning outburst – some branded it an insult — against the Police Dept. a day earlier.
Deep into her limp-sounding walkback, she used the A word, “apology,” with a caveat.
She seemed to admit she had unintentionally barbequed her message of a need for more diversity. Meanwhile, feelings of hurt and anger noiselessly boiled over in the department.
Speaking from the dais just after the second and final day of budget hearings opened in Council Chambers, Ms. Sahli-Wells read from a prepared statement.
Police Chief Scott Bixby was in the sparse audience to hear the Council’s self-anointed chief scold take a shot at humility.
However, Ms. Sahli-Wells offered a “clarification” not an apology for blistering the remarkably diverse department, saying it needed to be more attentive to diversity.
“I just wanted to clarify,” she began. “Yesterday I expressed myself poorly when I spoke about diversity in the Police Dept.”
Recalling a scene from the movie “All the President’s Men,” where a non-denial denial was featured, a City Hall official called the Councilperson’s gesture “a non-apology apology.”
“Our Police Dept. is incredibly diverse,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said, reversing herself from the day before. “And we are all very proud of it. It is part of our strength as an organization and as a city.”
Ms. Sahli-Wells sought to defend her earlier and ongoing motivation. “Yesterday I wanted to make sure that our recruitment continues to reflect that focus on diversity. Happily, the answers that I got were ‘yes’ from the police chief, ‘yes’ from the fire chief and ‘yes’ from the H.R.(Human Resources) director.”
Slipping into one of her favorite talking points, Ms. Sahli-Wells said that “race is really hard to talk about. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it.
“Unfortunately, I was a bit awkward in the way I brought it up. And I wanted to apologize if I made especially our officers uncomfortable.”
Neither Ms. Sahli-Wells nor any cop could have missed the salty irony of that “apology.” In the otherwise virtually empty Council Chambers on Monday, Chief Bixby’s immaculately uniformed command staff sat in the front rows.
“My intention,” said Ms. Sahli-Wells, “was not at all to imply that we weren’t diverse or that we weren’t still working at it or that we weren’t doing a great job.
“I mean, I know I and my colleagues are quite proud of the way you represent our community.
“I just wanted to take this opportunity to clarify. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.”
