INGLEWOOD — Cresia Green-Davis is hobbling on crutches at the moment thanks to a knee ligament injury she recently suffered at a party in her backyard garden.

She expects to be walking normally very soon, but the surprising news that Green-Davis is now the assistant to 1st District Councilman Danny Tabor appears to trouble some of the city’s residents.

Hired on Oct. 1, 57-year-old Green-Davis is the former Inglewood School board member who was convicted of 14 felony and misdemeanor counts, including grand theft, welfare fraud, perjury and campaign violations.

On Feb. 24, 2005, she was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to make full restitution of $162,788 to four local, county and state agencies: the Compton Unified School District, the Centinela Valley Union High School District, the California Department of Health and the Los Angeles Department of Public Services.

Her sentence was reduced by 30 percent after she enrolled in the fire camp, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation program that provides a trained, able-bodied workforce to supplement the state’s fire crews.

The opposition to her new appointment also spread quickly: from privately raised eyebrows to public dissent at two consecutive city council meetings on Oct. 13 and 20, where well-known gadflies, Willie Agee and Michael Benbow, voiced their criticisms.

Both talked about their concern of Green-Davis working on the ninth floor and having access to city finances and residents’ personal information.

In the city’s political firmament, Agee, a District 4 resident and Benbow, who resides in District 1, are long-time supporters of Mayor Roosevelt Dorn and in staunch opposition to Tabor, who is seen as an ally to Councilwoman Judy Dunlap, who regularly butts heads with Dorn.

However, in their first public comments about the simmering controversy, both Tabor and Green-Davis are treating her appointment as no big deal, and vowed to get on with the job of representing the district.

According to Tabor, who inherited former assistant Carl Foster from now Sen. Curren Price and has been friends with Green-Davis for 30 years, he didn’t “go into this blindly,” but had started to think about making a personnel change during his re-election campaign in June.

“I inherited Carl, who had served Curren and Jerome Horton,” explained Tabor. “When I was initially elected I wasn’t going to make any changes and didn’t for the first two years. But I was looking for someone who lived in Inglewood, who had worked with local organizations, the local community and understood from their own experience on a 24/7 basis what I do, and can have eyes on the problem at any given moment.”

Tabor added: “It wasn’t any dissatisfaction with Carl. I needed greater capacity.”

For his part, Foster was somewhat guarded in his response to The Wave.
“We did not have much of a discussion and I was never really given a reason,” said Foster in a telephone interview.

“My 10 years there was a wonderful opportunity and I don’t want to preclude any opportunities in the future. I’m disappointed. I know I was doing a good job.”

As for living outside the city, Foster noted: “That was never presented to me as a problem. A large percentage of people live outside the city and work in Inglewood.”

Tabor said another facet of his decision was his advocacy for creating greater opportunities for people who have served time in prison and can find it difficult to get employment.

He also categorically stated that Green-Davis will not be handling any money or anyone’s personal information.

“I’ve advocated that L.A. County should remove the box [which asks if anybody has been convicted of a felony] if it doesn’t relate to the type of work where somebody has access to the treasury [or] personnel info,” Tabor said.

“I’m the same person now in elective office and if you’re going to talk the talk, you should walk the walk. She’s paid her debt to society. In addition, some of the people screaming the loudest are practicing Christians, but in our faith aren’t we supposed to see the good in people? … I don’t judge her, I see her desire to want a better Inglewood and a commitment to complete her education. She’s already completed her MBA.”

Asked about political payback, Tabor dismissed the notion saying he doesn’t owe a debt to anybody. “On my team I have people I agree and disagree with,” said Tabor. “I’m trying to represent every district in the city. I welcome conversations with Mr. Benbow, but I am not going to debate my decision with anyone.”

In her recollection, the night of the election was more than special for Green-Davis, who revealed that she has worked on every campaign that Tabor has been involved in.

“It was actually some of his constituents who suggested to him that he look into the possibility of hiring me,” said Green-Davis, who also said she couldn’t remember exactly who made the suggestion.

“We were actually joking and Danny said, ‘Would you like the job?’ and I said, ‘Sure, I’ll work for you councilman.’ Danny said nothing that night. We all laughed but subsequently he called to ask if I would be willing to work for him.

“I said, ‘Are you serious?’ [and] he said, ‘Sure.’ So we sat down to talk about it. We talked about what he would expect from me and how together we could work to better not just the district, but the city.”

Green-Davis said she never had any reservations about taking the job, even if it might reflect negatively on her longtime friend.

In addition, in terms of her making good on the financial restitution, she replied: “I have not paid it back and I am going to be doing some legal stuff to care for that.”

Pressed for more information, she repeated, “legal stuff.”

“The thing is that when I came home from prison, Danny was at one of his town hall meetings where he was being criticized for being friends with a felon,” said Green-Davis.

“Danny’s comment summed up what I would say to this day: ‘She was my friend before she went to prison and she was still my friend.’ Just because someone makes a mistake he wasn’t going to throw them to the wind.”

Nevertheless, Benbow is not convinced and contended that many residents feel the same way, but haven’t publicly voiced their views.

“I have a problem because I don’t believe she is the type of person who should be up on the 9th floor dealing with residents’ personal and financial information. They say she’s not going to have access to that, but Danny has access to it and she works for Danny.

“As for forgiveness, I can forgive her, but I just don’t trust her. I attended the trial everyday. She defrauded three cities and said she had a degree from Eastern Michigan University [when she was hired as a teacher by the Compton and Centinela Valley school districts].

“Yes, I’m going to continue until Danny gets rid of her. She still has to make restitution and we’re now paying for her to do that. If she was that damn valuable, she’d go out and get a job elsewhere.”

However, fellow District 1 resident Alvin Henley, 69, a retired deputy sheriff who said he has known Green-Davis “for some time,” disagreed.

“I voted for Danny this last time, but I’ve also known his opponent George Dotson for many years and I have no political ax to grind,” he said.

“No, I don’t have a problem with it. She’s done her time and she is trying to redeem herself. Mr. Benbow may not trust her, but that’s not his call. As I understand it, it’s Danny’s choice to appoint a council assistant, whether the previous person was doing a fantastic job or not.”