It's been a while ... sorry to my readers.
My excuse is twofold: 1) Got to do a lot of fact checking when you're hearing as many outrageous accusations as I am, and 2) Don't want to tip my hand to the competition ...
Anyway, major news on the Phoenix front, including revelations that employees and managers at community centers engaged in an ongoing BB gun battle that may have put children at risk.
Here is tomorrow's story today ...
By Robert Rogers and Andrew Edwards
Staff Writers
SAN BERNARDINO -- Already reeling from the arrest of its center manager on charges of child molestation, Operation Phoenix is mired in investigations and accusations that staff members have engaged in dangerous misconduct.
Phoenix staffers, led by a center manager, waged BB gun battles with employees from another city community center.
In interviews Friday and Monday, former city recreational staffers, city officials and a child who frequents the center reported that center manager Mike Miller - who was arrested last week on charges of child molestation - and city employees at both the Operation Phoenix Center on Sierra Way and the Rudy C. Hernandez community center engaged in dangerous BB gun battles.
At least two employees involved in the running BB gun battles, which occurred in view of children, are currently on leave, according to City Attorney James F. Penman, who declined to reveal names, citing confidential personnel matters.
Penman confirmed that the city became aware of BB gun battles in May, and that the people involved went to "great lengths" to conceal the activity from their supervisors.
In addition, other allegations are being sorted, he said.
The broader picture emerging Monday is one of a once ballyhooed program increasingly mired in lax oversight, mismanagement and routine flouting of child safety rules, according to sources ranging from former center employees to officials at City Hall.
The Phoenix program began as a multifaceted approach to local crime that Mayor Pat Morris rode into office in 2006. It won early acclaim from residents and authorities for drastically reducing crime in some spots, but derision from others who considered it costly and prone to displacing crime, not stamping it out.
On Monday, a noticably lighter turnout of local children played at the center in the 1600 block of Sierra Way. Interim manager Curtis Brown, sitting at Miller's former desk, said county counselors were on hand to speak with children. Two detectives paced the center, conducting an investigation.
Now, new questions are emerging, including who should be held accountable for misdeeds by center managers.
A bifurcated management structure, sources say, that seated overall leadership in the hands of Code Enforcement Director and Operation Phoenix Director Glenn Baude, has muddled lines of authority and responsibility between staff and superiors.
Miller, for instance, is a parks and recreation employee, but as Phoenix Center manager reported not only to Parks Chief Hawkins, but also Phoenix Director Baude.
Hawkins said he's improving operations.
"We're looking at ways we can increase oversight," he said.
But the dual lines of authority may have trickled down to lower ranking parks employees, fueling resent, rivalry and dangerous conditions.
"The rivalry has been a factor for some time" in conditions at Operation Phoenix and traditional community centers, Penman said. "Mr. Hawkins has addressed that and tried to fix it."
Jacob Martinez, a former Phoenix Center employee who said Miller fired him because of his knowledge of the BB gun battles, said the surprise "drive-by's" resulted in one Phoenix Center employee suffering a chipped tooth late last year.
That employee, who has since been fired, acknowledged his injury, but would not comment further.
"There was a war," Martinez said. "That's what they called it, a war."
Martinez said the leaders were Miller and a former manager at the Hernandez Community Center who has since been placed on paid leave. Other employees at both locations also participated, Martinez said.
Martinez' account is supported by two other former employees and one child, a 13-year-old girl who said she saw Miller and other employees firing BB guns at one another outside the Phoenix Center on Sierra Way.
In addition to discussing the BB gun battles, sources described an atmosphere of lax supervision within Phoenix center, and reported that staffers regularly provided rides, one staffer and one child, to various locations.
Hawkins would acknowledged that unspecified incidents involving employees at the center were under review.
What took place, Hawkins said, is a separate matter from Miller's arrest last Thursday.
Miller has not been formally charged, and must be either charged and arraigned in San Bernardino Superior Court today or released.
Miller kept his office at the central area Operation Phoenix center which is located at the First Church of the Nazarene on North Sierra Way. The facility is the flagship of the city's three Phoenix centers.
Morris has promoted the trio of Operation Phoenix centers as a wholesome place to study and play for children in high crime neighborhoods.
News of the alleged molestation and other questionable practices could jeopardize Operation Phoenix's future. The City Council is struggling with a multi-million-dollar budget crisis and 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack has called for the centers to be closed pending a safety review.
4th Ward Councilman Neil Derry said he may have to reevaluate his original position that the centers should stay open while investigations proceed.
"It's clear there is a lack of management oversight," Derry said. "It's Romper Room."
Morris' chief of staff, Jim Morris, disagreed, acknowledging the query into the BB gunplay at the centers but maintaining that officials have moved swiftly to address the problem.
He said the problems surrounding Miller and others reflect issues with a individual employees, not broader flaws with the program or its director. Morris put the problems firmly in the purview of Hawkins, not Baude, who he said deals with Phoenix's "macro" issues, not personnel.
"We have a relatively new parks director who is having to deal with some personnel issues in his department," Jim Morris said. "We believe he is doing his job appropriately, and he is swiftly taking appropriate steps to address the problem."
Although Hawkins did not specifically confirm that BB guns were fired by and at San Bernardino employees, he did say that Hernandez Center employee Tyrone Traylor had been placed on paid administrative leave more than one month ago.
Penman said his office was also aware of reports that Phoenix staffers had used personal vehicles to take children around town.
"Mr. Hawkins inherited a difficult situation," Penman said. "(Problems) didn't start in the last couple weeks, and they won't get fixed in a couple weeks."
But Hawkins cautioned that the programs should not be painted with too broad a brush.
"Even with a police shooting, you don't lump all the police officers with one shooting," Hawkins said.
Miller remained in custody Monday at West Valley Detention Center on $1 million bail, booked on one count of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14.
![19493774E[1].jpg](http://www.insidesocal.com/sb/sbnow/19493774E%5B1%5D.jpg)
