Aug. 10--TAMPA, Fla.--Thousands of black conventiongoers prepared to leave the city in protest Thursday after complaints of a server contaminating a punch bowl at their anniversary banquet. 

Instead, the president of the Progressive National Baptist Convention vowed to seek "full recovery of our losses" from downtown's Marriott Waterside. 

The Rev. C. Mackey Daniels later spent two hours meeting with Mayor Dick Greco, members of the Tampa-Hillsborough Visitors and Convention Bureau, the Marriott manager and others. 

While describing the meeting as cordial, Daniels said nothing has been resolved and the convention officials will be talking further with the Marriott and city officials. 

According to a Tampa police report of the incident, a conventioneer told a Marriott employee he saw a server take a glass of punch from the bowl, drink some, and dump the rest back in. 

Servers said an employee had fished a ladle out of a punch bowl. 

The report also cites secondhand allegations by unidentified people that someone spit in the bowl. 

Greco said Thursday that he isn't sure what happened. He arrived at the hotel Wednesday night after police were called and was "up all night" discussing the incident. 

"If, in fact, what was reported really happened, it's horrible, it's absolutely horrible, there's no question. And we apologize," he said. 

He said police have not spoken with the Rev. Frederick Jones, who reported the incident to hotel employees. 

Jones checked out of the Marriott and could not be reached for comment Thursday. 

Three Marriott employees have been suspended until the hotel gathers information, which is routine when an allegation of inappropriate behavior is made, said Mary Scott, the general manager of the Marriott Waterside. 

"It will be critical that we talk to the one and only individual who is a conventioneer that apparently witnessed what he claimed happened," she said. 

About 1,000 conventiongoers walked out of the hotel, leaving their dinners untouched, after Daniels told them their food had been tampered with. 

The visitors headed up Franklin Street to the Hyatt Regency about 9:30 p.m., where they had scheduled a church service for about an hour later. 

Daniels said the incident was aggravated by hotel management. He said when convention officials tried to talk to the general manager, no one was available. 

Scott said several managers were on duty Wednesday night. She was out when the hotel called but returned the call about 8:15 and arrived at the hotel by 8:50 p.m. 

In his address in the morning, Daniels urged fellow conventioneers to cut short their visit in protest. 

But two former convention presidents disagreed. 

"I will not incur any particular value out of remaining in Tampa, but I'd be darned if I'm willing to run from a satanic act," said Bill Jones of New York, and Daniels withdrew the motion.

Daniels called for Marriott to act. "We demand both restitution and reconciliation based on justice," he told conventiongoers. "We have been humiliated." 

But he urged those registered as guests at Marriott not to retaliate against the hotel, and he praised everyone for handling the matter calmly. 

"We are not hoodlums, but we are people of God, and we must be treated like people of God," Daniels said. 

The annual weeklong gathering was expected to draw 10,000 people. 

The Progressive National Baptist Convention, an offshoot of the larger National Baptist Convention, marked its 40th annual gathering with Wednesday night's reported $125-a-plate gala featuring actor Danny Glover and singer Melba Moore. 

This isn't the first time a large group of black visitors have complained about Tampa's hospitality. In 1994, fans attending the Florida Classic annual college football game between Florida A&M and Bethune Cookman discovered Tampa Bay Center mall, across the street from Tampa Stadium, closed earlier than normal. The controversy led to the game's being moved to Orlando. 

-----To see more of the Tampa Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.TBO.com 

(c) 2001, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. MAR,