New man of Phoenix, barely
Below is a preview of a story that will run tomorrow about Rafael Rawls, a young Operation Phoenix consultant whose new contract was narrowly approved by the City Council Dec. 17. Rawls is meant to be a sort of emissary in the city's troubled Westside, where city leaders hope to successfully replicate Operation Phoenix.
Rawls, 24, has worked as a field rep for Congressman Joe Baca since February 2006
SAN BERNARDINO — The city’s Operation Phoenix anti-crime program got a new foot-soldier last week, but not without a legislative skirmish.
Rafael Rawls, a field representative for Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, has been tapped as a community liaison focused on building support for Mayor Pat Morris’ anti-crime program in the Westside.
Distrust of police, weariness of political leaders and rates of crime are all on the rise there.
“I want to help improve the quality of life on the Westside,” said Rawls, a lifelong Westside resident. “This is an opportunity to be a part of bringing about that change.”
Rawls, 24, will earn $5,200 per month over a seven-month period ending June 30, bringing his total contract to a cost of $32,400 to the city.
Three members of the council — Neil Derry, Wendy McCammack and Chas Kelley — voted against spending $36,400 on a position they considered unnecessary.
Rawls’ contract was approved 4-3.
“The justification for the position was that we needed somebody to arrange community meetings for Operation Phoenix,” Derry said. “We have numerous community outreach personnel ... this is just redundant.”
Rawls is expected to nurse support for the city-led intervention within the deeply distrustful communities dotting the newest Operation Phoenix expansion area, a one-mile circumference surrounding 16th and California streets.
“Having someone like Rafael full-time in this position is essential for the long-term success of the program,” said Kent Paxton, who heads Morris’ Office of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.
“It is public relations, but just as important is having somebody out there to bring added value to our partnerships, to pull all the resources together.”
Why do we pay the Chief of Police such a high salary, if we could fix all of the "problems" that exist in our community by hiring somebody who's only claim to fame is being a token necessity for "finger on the pulse of society" Joe Baca?
Were there not recent arrests made within the city for embezzlement/misappropriation of city funds?
Maybe the mayor and the four council puppets need to be arrested for paying this non credentialed "community czar" anything more than what is authorized by the city...$0.00!
Why is the City Council wasting taxpayers money on this?
I thought that the Mayor already had Kent Paxton and Nick Gonzalez as his community "cheerleaders".
The City Council - namely, Estrada, Baxter, Brinker, and Johnson - need to stop wasting taxpayer dollars.......at the Mayor's behest.
Now that the Phoenix is "flying" again, we the taxpayers will get to watch a new section of the "needy" line up for the free parties and give-aways at our expense - all for the overwhelming "success" that the previous Phoenix was/is.
I am tired of watching these Councilpersons/puppets spending money on this crap.
Why don't they spend their own money on the televisions and free dinners if they think this will "solve" the problems in this area......
Can you really have more than one Operation Phoenix areas?
To better track the Westside success/failure, maybe we should refer to this one as Operation Tombstone...(sticking to an Arizona theme)
You've got to be kidding me!
This is a waste of tax money in my opinion. How do you reason with people whining with irrational demands?