ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Forty-five days after a police SUV crashed through the brick front wall of Bar:PM, two city officials showed up at the scene and made in-person attempts to de-escalate tensions with the bar owners and their landlords who own the building.
Frank Oswald, the St. Louis Building Commissioner, showed up with one of his aides, offered an apology, and hand-delivered a letter stating that the damaged building would not be condemned nor would the owners be forced to pay fines while it awaits repair. He also suggested the city would bear the cost of any construction permits required to fix the place.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Bar:PM received a letter warning of fines, condemnation due to damage caused by an SLMPD officer crash
"I sympathize with you," Oswald told Kevin Benear, the building owner during his Thursday morning visit. "I'm not going to sit here and defend organizations that are big and have all these different silos like the city does."
Oswald offered the city's chief architect to come by and review the property at no cost, though the landlords said the damage was mostly to boards, windows, and trim, and was likely "not structural."
Within minutes of police arriving at the original scene of the crash just after midnight on December 18, James Pence, one of the owners of the gay bar, had been handcuffed; Chad Morris, his partner, was arrested and later charged with a misdemeanor after an alleged physical altercation with one of the responding officers.
So far, police have only permitted a small handful of city leaders to review select portions of body camera video of that incident, which the police chief has said remains under investigation.
Spence and Morris rent the property from Benear and his business partner, John Claus, both of whom remain entangled in the pile of paperwork that comes with filing an insurance claim. Benear claims he has still not been able to review the full police report. The vague incident report he received does not include any mention of the damage to the building.
The city officials listened to the building owners vent for 25 minutes, and offered their explanations for why the aftermath has been so disjointed and difficult to navigate.
"The police department hits you and they're like their own little entity," Oswald's building division aide John Carrico told them. "Nobody messes with them."
Oswald's Building Division had previously sent a letter to the bar that included a deadline to repair the damage the police left behind.
"We realize your frustration," Carrico told Benear and his business partner John Claus. "That's why we came down here. We're not trying to do anything to your business."
"It takes a lot of balls to send a letter to a building you guys hit and say, 'Oh, by the way, you've got to have this done by this date, or you get fined and stuff,'" Claus said.
"Those letters are form letters that go out to everybody," Carrico assured them. "When an inspector comes out here and there's damage, you're getting the letter. And the letter just says, 'you need to move on this.'"
Then, Morris chimed in from behind the bar.
"In my opinion, this could have been done differently," the bar owner said. "The letter is obviously a form letter that goes out. But in my opinion, with it being a city-involved vehicle, somebody should have reached out immediately and said, 'Look, we have to send this letter, but we understand what you're going through.'"
"And that's my fault," Oswald responded, "and I take responsibility for that."
Receiving a letter like that can make "you feel threatened," Benear said.
Oswald's personal visit appears to have helped to smooth things over.
"I feel like having the commissioner down here helps," Benear said. "At least I've got somebody I can speak to. And, you know, if I feel like I'm threatened again, at least I have a number and feel like I have some support from the city."
Morris is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing in his misdemeanor case on Friday morning.
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