July 2008 Archives

The Sun's blogs already have at least two postings regarding Manny Ramirez's trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deal that probably gives the Blue Crew a decent shot at winning a weak National League West division.

But Manny wasn't the only slugger who got traded today. The Cincinnati Reds dealt Ken Griffey Jr. to the Chicago White Sox, giving the future Hall of Famer a chance to play for a contending team in the twilight of his career.

Griffey Jr., many will recall, played in San Bernardino before he reached the Major Leagues. A 2006 article in our archives reported that Griffey played 58 games for the San Bernardino Spirit in 1988, hitting .338 over the course of those contests.

Do any readers watch Griffey playi at Fiscalini Field? The comments section is open for your memories.

The increasingly vigorous SB blogosphere has been humming for weeks with Operation Phoenix stuff.

One of the more interesting pieces today is happening over at Red County, where City Attorney James F. Penman has taken on right-wing blogger Joseph Turner.

For days, Turner has been lampooning the city leaders' handling of the Operation Phoenix debacle.

I was wrong. I didn't have complete information, a fact I realized when I saw that I didn't have Cpt. Curtis Janeway's name and gross pay.

I was missing one-third of the firefighters, a page of some 52 men and 1 woman who earned $7.3 million in total salary. Cpt. Janeway was on it.

I have now factored these new numbers in, and come up with a new gross pay average for 2006-7:

The average gross pay (salary+overtime) for a San Bernardino Firefighter in fiscal year 2006-7 was: $121,245

This is about $24,000 higher than the police average.

Of the 155 personnel who earned above the minimum salary, 128 earned more than $100,000.

More than 4 of every 5 firefighters took in more than $100,000.

A fire captain earned the highest amount, higher than the chief, with $179,157.

What was really startling was the overtime. Without it, the average salary would have been under $100,000.

95 out of 155 firefighters raked in more than $30,000 in overtime.

2 guys took in more than $60,000 in overtime.

13 guys took in more than $50,000 in overtime.

41 firefighters took in more than $40,000 in overtime.

For those who are uninitiated, the way overtime works is basically this: Firefighters work two full days per week, or 48 hour shifts. In a month, they can work 10 days, or 240 hours, at regular pay. Any shift beyond those 10 days is overtime. Every firefighter has opportunities to sign up for overtime, and virtually all do.

Some do a lot more than others.

The long-awaited story on police and fire compensation is coming this weekend. But the angle is a little different than originally expected.

Now, it's within the context of city budget crisis. The police union overwhelmingly voted down a measure last night to accept some concessions.

We'll ask them, and the fire unions, whether the city should expect to cut any costs at the expense of their salaries, benefits or other perks.

The big news of the day is the announcement that City Manager Fred Wilson is on his way from San Bernardino to Huntington Beach.

Coincidentally, this reporter's first job after college was in Huntington Beach. For much of 2004, I spent my work weeks splitting time between the "Huntington Beach Independent" and "Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot."

I spoke briefly with Debbie Cook, Huntington Beach's mayor on how she sees Wilson fitting in at that city.

"Hopefully he fits well," she said.

Cook said Huntington Beach officials liked that Wilson has managed a city of comparable size to Huntington Beach and that he has worked for San Bernardino for many years.

Cook said she has not followed recent news reports relating to the Operation Phoenix situation.

Current issues in Huntington Beach include development of mixed-use developments. The restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands - a hot topic for many years in Surf City - is almost completed she said.

In terms of population, Huntington Beach is about the same size as San Bernardino but much more affluent. The city generally has a low-crime rate and when this reporter worked there, political debates generally centered on issues of development versus environmental concerns.

I covered schools and public safety for the Independent, rather than politics, but I remember the political culture in Huntington Beach as being less aggressive than in San Bernardino. The city doesn't have the dynamic of a strong-mayor and elected city attorney that can institutionalize disputes in San Bernardino.

That's not to say the town's some kind of Mayberry. My colleagues covered real estate scandal there that cost a city councilwoman her post and her freedom. The LA Times reported on Sept. 26 2006 that former councilwoman Pam Julien Houchen was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison after she confessed to mail and wire fraud.

Prior to my arrival in Huntington Beach, Orange County prosecutors pursued a case against former HB Mayor David Garofalo for conflict-of-interest violations. The Orange County District Attorney's office boasts on its Web site that Garofalo ended up paying more than $49,000 in fines and was banned from holding public office.

I'm not including the history to criticize any of HB's current officeholders or predict that Wilson will face any similar political explosions over there. It's just to show that there's a lot more that happens in Huntington Beach than surfing.

Updating a story we broke here last night ...

Dennis Baxter told me an interesting story this morning while on a break from his work at KCAA news station.

He said a houseguest that wouldn't leave called police last night during an argument precipitated by Baxter insisting that it was time the woman move on.

Couldn't locate Wentworth, unfortunately, but no injuries were reported and Baxter said there was no physical component to this argument.

One thing that's interesting is how this all started. Baxter lives alone. He said he allowed the woman, whom he'd known a couple years, to live with him rent-free for a while as she got her life in order. He said there was never a romantic situation.

He said he was just being a good samaritan. Most people would agree, and probably a better samaritan than the average person would be. Moving someone in rent-free, without a lifelong, blood or romantic bond, seems a bit unusual.

"I am the victim here," Baxter said.

City Manager Fred Wilson will leave the city to take a new job in Huntington Beach.

Wilson said he applied for the job more than three months ago.

"I'm going to be 50 in January. I was looking to make one more move in my career."
"Huntington Beach looked like a good fit."

Click below for more rough chunks of the story we'll be running tomorrow ...

Breaking news ... you heard it here first. The Sun has learned that City Manager Fred Wilson is leaving for a position with the City of Huntington Beach.

Wilson has been the top management official in the city since taking over in December 1996.

Wilson leaves amidst swirling controversy over the Operation Phoenix and the current budget imbroglio.

Click below to read the one-page press release issued by the mayor's office announcing Wilson's move ...

Press_Release.pdf

Went to West Valley Detention Center for a third jailhouse conversation with accused child molester Mike Miller.

Not to be. Miller saw me and turned and walked away. A wasted morning. I hate going to the dungeon-like detention facility and leaving empty-handed. Not sure why he suddenly doesn't want to talk.

Maybe he didn't like my neck-tie?

As you know, eyes are all over the city ...

Numerous sources have told me they spotted Mayor Pat Morris, Chief of Staff Jim Morris, and ousted Operation Phoenix Director Glenn Baude having breakfast together at the Coco's restaurant on Highland Avenue near Arden.

One can only speculate what the topic was. Baude, whom Morris originally entrusted with the lead role in his anti-crime program, was placed on leave Friday by City Manager Fred Wilson for unspecified "conduct" over the past few weeks, according to Wilson.

Okay, here is the story as of late Tuesday.

We'll follow with more detail tomorrow.

San Bernardino Police responded to a 6:33 p.m. disturbance call at 2nd Ward City Councilman Dennis Baxter's home in the 300 block of East 17th Street.

At the scene, they discovered Baxter and a 52-year-old woman. The woman initially accused Baxter of some level of misdemeanor battery, police said.

But the woman declined to press charges, so Baxter was not arrested. Had there been significant injuries, police could have arrested and charged the 58-year-old Baxter with a felony.

The extent of injuries, if there were any, is unknown.

"She didn't want him charged," the watch commander on duty said Tuesday.

The information police gathered will be forwarded to the District Attorney for review, police said.

Baxter works as a radio show host in addition to his council duties. Since taking office in 2005, Baxter has established himself as a steady, if quiet and unassuming, presence on the council.

His political decisions typically align him with Mayor Pat Morris and liberal councilmembers Rikke Van Johnson and Esther Estrada.

The San Bernardino Police Department's watch commander just confirmed that police responded to a disturbance call tonight at 2nd Ward City Councilman Dennis Baxter's home on 17th Street.

Details are unclear as of yet. I understand that a woman was at Baxter's home when police responded.

We'll keep you posted as details emerged, but you heard it here first ...

Click below for the full story of Kevin Hawkins' journey from favored son to embattled leader - and back to work.

Hawkins, pictured in his office earlier this year | photo by E. Reed

The City Council emerged from closed session Monday and voted not to extend the San Bernardino's utility-users tax to Riverside-owned facilities in the city limits.

San Bernardino officials were traveling on a road to ask San Bernardino's voters to approve a plan to extend the tax to Riverside, which has wells inside San Bernardino's boundaries. But City Attorney James F. Penman said the council changed course Monday, when 5th Ward Councilman Chas Kelley introduced a motion to keep the tax off the ballot.

Reached by telephone late Monday, Kelley said he would defer to assistant city manager Lori Sassoon to explain why officials soured on the tax idea.

Monday's decision appears to prevent what could have been a heated campaign between San Bernardino and Riverside officials. This reporter isn't immediately knowledgeable of any case where a city taxes another city.

Considering Chief Justice John Marshall's famed remarks on the power to tax being the power to destroy (McCulloch v. Maryland), it could have been interesting to see what kinds of arguments would have been advanced by each side.

Click below for a fuller version of tomorrow's story.

In it, City Manager Fred Wilson admits to inadvertantly giving untrue statements to the press and District Attorney's investigators during their probe of the Mike Miller child molestation case.

Wilson also says publicly for the first time that he knew of BB gun incidents at the Operation Phoenix Center months before the information became public.

High-level sources have confirmed today that Glenn Baude was placed on paid administrative leave on Saturday.

Baude came under heavy criticism with the arrest of Operation Phoenix Center Manager Mike Miller.

Most recently, it was revealed by a District Attorney's report that Baude and City Manager Fred Wilson had directly contradictory accounts for the DAs investigators.

No word yet on the reason Baude is on leave, but answers are coming.

For information about enrolling a child, donating or becoming a
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call Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy at (909) 881-3382

By Robert Rogers
SAN BERNARDINO - The turnout was as big as ever, but the organizers
had a shadow of doubt.

I'm back at the Gardens. This is a story I am particularly proud of - a look at a great group of kids in a really tough housing project.

What's important is that very little in the way of resources go to any programs related to these poor children. And none for organized sports, a departure for past practice.

This story will not get as many reads or comments as the political intrigue stuff, but this is very important. Want to know how talented kids lose their way? See it here ...

Check this piece below, which shows there have been a lot of new faces coming into the city's beleagured parks and rec. dept. ...

Click below for the full ...

This version is extended beyond what will fit into tomorrow's print version.

Glenn Baude, Kevin Hawkins and two others are cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Mayor Morris' office chipped in this 4-page response at about 5 p.m.

In it, he applauds the DAs work, says it confirms what he thought previously and vows to continue to tighten the bolts in his beleagured program.

He also slams the City Attorney for providing those damning emails between Hawkins, Martin-Robinson and Baude to the press ...

Click below to read Morris' response ...

patmorrispressrelease.pdf

This is an incredible read.

Of particular importance are two things: 1) The DA lists Glenn Baude as Mike Miller's supervisor since June 5. Baude continues to maintain that he never had supervisorial powers over Miller, contending that such a structural shift would have required council approval.

2) City Manager Fred Wilson and Baude directly contradict one another. Baude says he tells Wilson about rumors and other Miller-related stuff on June 30, and reports that Wilson tells him "we'll take care of it." Wilson denies ever discussing any of this with Baude prior to July 1, when he said he was told about email and investigation by Chief Mike Billdt.

Click on the link below to read the full, 8-page document and decide for yourself ...

OperationPhoenix.pdf

Just got an announcment that the District Attorney's office will not prosecute San Bernardino employees for failing to report possible child molestation.

Investigators examined the actions of Code Enforcement director Glenn Baude, Parks and Recreation director Kevin Hawkins and Parks and Recreation administrators Glenda Robinson and Curtis Brown. None of the four will be charged with violating the state law that requires officials to report suspect child abuse.

Community center supervisor Mike Miller was arrested on suspicion of child molestation on July 3. Police were alerted to the case on July 1, four days after emails show the officials knew of rumors that Miller was sexually involved with a minor.

Prosecutors concluded that key those rumors were not enough knowledge to develop "reasonable suspicion" of child abuse.

More to follow ...

Just got a document from the Human Resources Dept. showing 17 workers leaving the department since Jan. 1.

Document does not specify firings or retirements, but sources are telling me that the majority of the people on my list got the axe.

12 of the "separations" are recreation aides or leaders, and 13 have occurred between March 1 and July 15, around the time that Mike Miller started raising red flags with erratic behavior before his July 3 arrest.

More on this to come ...

Just talked to Lt. Scott Paterson.

He wouldn't confirm that the results of the Phoenix investigation were coming in today, but he said it was "possible" the announcement will come.

I'd be surprised if it didn't ...

The California Department of Education announced today more than $200 million in bond money dispersals to school districts around the state.

San Bernardino County is getting nearly $50 million ...

Funds available to SBUSD schools for structural improvements:

Cole Elementary $3,067,376
Curtis Middle $8,197,982
Cypress Elementary $4,718,526
Lankershim Elementary $4,071,990
Ramona-Alessandro Elementary $4,815,032
San Bernardino High $14,629,537

Funds available for new school construction countywide:

Adelanto Elementary School District
New Elementary School $1,587,049

SBUSD
North Verdemont Elementary $2,335,121
Roosevelt Elementary $2,455,425

San Bernardino County Office of Education
Chino Hills Early Ed Center $336,800
Phelan Young Adult Center $15,000

Lt. Scott Paterson of the San Bernardino Police Department just informed me that there won't be any announcements today regarding the department's joint investigation with the District Attorney's office.

"We're working through some things," he said, noting that he'll be on the job Friday.

"If there's something, I'll give you a call," he added.

Police and the District Attorney's office embarked upon their investigation last week to determine if any city staffers failed to obey California law that requires several classes of public officials to report possible cases of child molestation.

Community center manager Mike Miller has been charged with more than 20 counts of molestation, and e-mails show that some officials knew of rumors that he had been sexually involved with a minor about four days before a county staffer notified police.

It seems like we'll know whether that's the case sometime Friday. We'll update when we know more.

Just spoke to Police Chief Mike Billdt, who is part of the joint investigation with the DA into the city's response to reports of child molestation.

I asked Billdt straight up whether the public would get the results of the investigation today.

He said he could only tell me that when the Police Department was ready, they would issue a press release and alert the press and public.

I asked if that was likely to happen today, tomorrow or next week, and he repeated the same answer.

Getting the feeling the investigation is wrapped. Just waiting for an announcement ...

Salvia divinorum, a plant that can be used as a hallucinogenic drug, has been unencumbered by legal restrictions in the Golden State but that will change in 2009.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 259 on Tuesday. The law, authored by Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Claremont, makes it a misdemeanor to sell salvia to minors. Adults will still be able to purchase and use the drug.

I spoke with San Bernardino County Sheriff's Lt. Jerry Davis late Wednesday about salvia. Davis said he's worked narcotics cases for a decade has taken an interest in salvia.

He said salvia use hasn't risen to epidemic proportions but he doesn't like it.

"There is absolutely no good reason to use this stuff," Davis said. "Whereas pot will just make you paranoid or happy or really hungry, this stuff will make you hallucinate like an acid trip."

Davis related to me some discussions he's had with salvia users who experienced bad trips. He told me one person got into a fight with mini blinds, and another had a confrontation with food.

"One told me that they had a burrito on their plate and it grew legs and feet and started coming at them" Davis said.

Davis, like Adams in an interview earlier this year, referred to the many YouTube videos that show teens high on salvia. The clips often show users - especially first time users - tripping out while friends sit back and laugh the user's actions.

The effects of salvia, Davis said can be compared to an out-of-body experience or even time travel.

One commenter on a YouTube video had this to say:

"that ...[expletive deleted] makes you feel like a puppet, or like your getting pulled into something like a different dimension..no joke...i do think it is funner to watch people on it, that [expletive deleted] made me feel way too [expletive deleted] weird."

Another viewer of a different video argued the YouTube users are paving the way for salvia's eventual prohibition:

"people need to STOP making salvia high videos please i want to bea ble to smoke this legally"

Salvia was first used by the indigenous people of Oaxaca, Mexico. Now, Internet retailers sell the plant alongside other herbal products that are billed as legal alternatives to marijuana or tobacco as well as other botanicals.

Daniel Siebert of Malibu is a salvia advocate with a Web site dedicated to the plant and its uses. I interviewed him in January and he said he does not oppose restricting salvia sales to minors.

On his Web site, he writes that some people use salvia as an entheogen, which means they seek to attain profound spiritual experiences via salvia-induced altered perceptions.

He also writes that salvia users should not use the drug while alone. Siebert recommends that users have a "sitter" to watch out for them if they have a bad trip.

"Having a sitter present is absolutely essential whenever you are taking a dose that might be high enough to cause you to lose awareness of your physical environment, freak out, or become delusional," he writes.

I am hearing that the Department of Parks and Rec. has undergone a serious cleansing.

Not only were many top level officials' files, computers, etc. subject to full investigation, but as many as 10 employees have been cut loose in just the last two weeks, according to sources requesting anonymity.

What will be interesting is what the DA's decision on this case and investigation says. It will either indicate that charges will be filed or provide a brief declaration that no charges will be filed, or it will be a longer explanation about why the delay between hearing allegations and contacting police (4 days) did not rise to criminal misconduct.

Stay tuned ...

Went to the Waterman Gardens Community Center in the housing projects of the same name again today.

We played some football and had a great time.

I will have a full story about this meagerly-funded center and the kids who flock to it this weekend.

Here are two photos of us catching a breather after a grueling game of touch football. This is a great bunch. Tough, smart kids who grow up amid a tragic milieu of poverty and gang violence.

We've already introduced new blogger and San Bernardino city reporter Andrew Edwards.

He has also streaked to a fast start with timely and incisive posts.

But his picture is not yet up on the blog. So here is a shot of our intrepid reporter, pictured here on a typical "working lunch."

The "food" is some unidentified slop from the nearby Taco Bell. Andrew is known around the newsroom as "Pacman." Not because he has anything in common with precocious Dallas cornerback Pacman Jones or Sean Penn's character in the crime drama Colors. In Andrew's case, it's just because he'll eat anything ... and frequently does.

Feel free to comment. We always welcome constructive criticism ...

Here is tomorrow's story today. Click below for full piece ...

By Andrew Edwards and Robert Rogers
Staff Writers

SAN BERNARDINO -- Mayoral aide Kent Paxton said he's moving forward as Operation Phoenix coordinator although City Attorney James F. Penman continues to maintain the City Charter prohibits his new role.

Paxton's new job was revealed Friday as part of Mayor Pat Morris' Operation Phoenix reorganization plan. The plan was announced as a way to eliminate communication breakdowns among officials involved with Phoenix activities.

Paxton said that on Monday he participated in his first management meeting as Operation Phoenix coordinator.

We're working on a story about President Bush dropping his opposition to a Congressional housing bill that could include some tax incentives and credits of up to $7,500 for first time buyers.

I have been talking with a number of city housing officials and got a statement from Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto).

Click below for some local outlook of how this legislation could impact us, one of the nation's hardest hit places ...

My sources tell me the investigation by the District Attorney's office into the city's handling of the Mike Miller molestation case is extensive.

Phones may be tapped, email communication is monitored, and files of information held by a number of high level Department of Parks and Recreation staff has been seized, I'm told.

In a conversation with a high-level official this morning, I was cautioned that our conversations were likely being recorded.

This reporter can't help but continue to think about the ways Mayor Pat Morris has used the word "cancer" when discussing the Operation Phoenix.

Here's an excerpt from the July 22 article headlined "Delayed reaction" that Robert Rogers and I wrote:

During an interview at The Sun last week, Mayor Morris complained that his office asked parks staffers for policies outlining responses to suspected molestation and was told no such policy could be unearthed.

"We said it was totally unacceptable," Pat Morris said.

"We've found major cancers," he added.

Morris' statement showed a clear shift in outlook. On July 3, the day of Miller's arrest, the mayor said there was "no cancer" afflicting Operation Phoenix.

When the Mayor disclosed his judgment that "major cancers' have been found, he was referring specifically to his reaction to Parks and Recreation managers being unable to produce any policy that outlined what actions staffers need to take when confronted with the possibility that someone inside Parks and Recreation may be abusing children.

We know that some city employees, including former Operation Phoenix director Glenn Baude and parks chief Kevin Hawkins were aware of rumors that community center director Mike Miller was sexually involved with a minor about four days before July 1, when a county worker alerted San Bernardino Police to Miller's alleged crimes.

Police and District Attorney's officials have launched an investigation to determine if state law that requires officials to notify police of suspected child molestation was broken. We should emphasize here that we do not know if the minor who was referred to in the June 27 emails that refer to Miller's rumored activity is one of the alleged victims who prosecutors identified (by birthdate only) in their criminal complaint against Miller.

Back to the parks issue, a July 16 memo from Hawkins to the Mayor and City Council lays out revised community center policies that were written to address the safety of children who use San Bernardino's recreational facilities.

Here are some excerpts:

Policy #1: Staff shall not be alone with individual minors. If intervention with a minor is necessaruy, the intervention shall not occur out-of-sight of a second staff member. Individual staff/child interaction shall not occur behind closed doors.

Policy #2: Staff shall not maintain a personal relationship with a minor attending the community services center or its programs, outside of the community services center or its programs.

Policy #5: All applicants for employment shall continue to be fingerprinted and have a criminal background check prior to being hired.

Policy #6: All staff shall have child abuse mandated reporter and sexual harrassment training. Staff shall have an annual refresher course on both trainings and a post-test following training.

On Tuesday I visited the Waterman Gardens Community Center in the housing projects of the same name.

The center is open to kids from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. five days per week.

Funds for its operation come from the county housing authority through the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The department pays contract groups to staff the center.

The center is small and programming leaves something to be desired, which probably shouldn't be surprising given the lean funding (one part-time sfaffer was there Tuesday) is very lean, but the kids there were great.

Below is a shot of one of favorite youngsters, Jermontay Bealton, 12. His friends call him "peanut." Jermontay is a very smart and athletic kid growing up in the projects. He told me his grades were "B's and C's." I made him promise he would bring 'em up a bit. Below, he demonstrates his skateboarding dexterity.

We played basketball, a sport in which they more than held their own. Later, I was able to teach a few things at such rigorous sports as ping pong, Connect Four, and chess.

I'm going to do a story on this center for the weekend. What will be key is just how economically poor children in this community are and how meager the funding for their afterschool program is.

Also, don't forget that the "Gardens" has historically been a rather violent place. My first visit there was after the tragic shooting death of teenager Traveil Williams.

Growing up here is a profound challenge. The lure of gangs. The grind of poverty. The social backdrop of few role-models and under-educated parents.

Spending some time there really helps one empathize with how hard a road these kids have. It's rather heartbreaking to look around and see all this talent, all these kids who have the capacity to excel in school and go to college and do anything, and know at the same time that the statistical odds of that happening are dismal.

Not many kids in the Gardens go to college. And it's not because they aren't smart or driven enough.

Their disadvantages aren't hereditary or personal, they are environmental, economic and social. That assessment isn't ideological either, it's simply true.

Pastor David Rhone of First Church of the Nazarene, the local church that partnered with Operation Phoenix to provide the facilities and gym for the central center on Sierra Way, called me today.

We spoke briefly. In particular, he said he thought the blame the community was heaping on former Operation Phoenix Director Glenn Baude was misplaced, most importantly because Baude was not the guy in charge of Mike Miller, the center manager now in jail of child molestation charges.

Who was actually in charge of Miller has always been in dispute. Emails between Baude and Parks and Rec Director Kevin Hawkins show them discussing the ways in which oversight of Miller could be tranferred from parks to Operation Phoenix.

For Rhone, a respected pastor who spent much time at the center (in his church facility), the blame is clearly not Baude's.

"For those four months, during which his behavior was reportedly becoming more bizarre and questionable, Miller was firmly and completely under the Department of Parks and Recreation," Rhone said.

Rhone continued.

"Through conversations with people in management of Parks and Recreation, Miller was reporting directly to them, he didn't report to Phoenix and didn't report to the mayor," he said.

Rhone went on to say something else of interest.

After a leaked memo written by parks supervisor Glenda Martin-Robinson showed four months of serious misconduct by Miller, questions began arising as to what course of action Martin-Robinson, apparently Miller's direct supervisor at least until last month, had done about it. She has steadfastly avoided questions.

Rhone said, "Employees told me directly that the chain of command was so strong, that anybody who jumped the chain would find their job in peril," Rhone said.

Hmmm. To recap, we know Hawkins, Martin-Robinson and Baude discussed via a June 27 email possible sexual misconduct with a "minor" on the part of Miller. We don't know precisely what they did with that information, but we do know police said they weren't contacted until July 1.

We also now know of four months of misconduct by Miller, because Martin-Robinson documented it in a July 8 memo. We don't know what she did with that information, but we do know that Miller continued to work.

Click below for a fuller version of the exchange between the police union and Mayor Pat Morris.

There is some redundancy, but this very interesting piece is more detailed than what will make the paper tomorrow.

A must read ...

In tomorrow's article, we are going to take a closer look at the fissure that has ripped open between Mayor Pat Morris and the police union over Operation Phoenix.

Just another element of fall-out over the debacle that has emerged since Mike Miller was arrested July 3 on more than 20 counts of alleged child molestation.

There is more information seeping out of the saga that began with Mike Miller's arrest on child molestation charges.

No one will say it on the record, but I now have two high-level sources telling me that the emails between Glenda Martin-Robinson, Glenn Baude and Kevin Hawkins on June 27 originated with reports that Miller was carrying on an innapropriate relationship with a 16-year-old girl at the center.

I had one source telling me this same thing last week. But, as most people know, one source without a name doesn't mean much in terms of legitimacy.

Miller was arrested July 3, and has been charged with molesting three girls. None of the charges pertain to a 16-year-old girl.

So what does this mean? Does this change anything? Not really.

We reported numerous times the content of the emails between the three principals. In the emails we obtained thru a public info request, no one says anything about a 16-year-old. Instead, the email states that Miller may have engaged in "possible sexual involvement with a minor during work hours."

Whether the principals were discussing a 16-year-old or a 7-year-old or a minor of any other age at that early juncture doesn't seem particularly important in terms of how they responded.

The response, it would seem, should be the same either way.

What was the response? Well, Baude, Hawkins, Martin-Robinson and others may have investigated Miller, but we're not sure to what extent.

What we do know is that the mayor said no one told him. We also know the police department said no one told them until July 1, when a county worker reported Miller. We also know Miller was allowed to work with kids after his bosses learned of allegations of "possible sexual involvement."

Just got a call from a nice woman who said she woke up this morning to helicopters whisking away massive sacks of marijuana from a creekside estate in Summit Valley off Highway 173.

The woman, who declined to give her name but said she was an ex-Sheriff Deputy, said this looked like a big one.

My colleagues are working to put together a fuller story about this for tomorrow's paper. Readers always love news about huge pot busts ...

A quick rundown of Monday night's actions:

- The council voted 5-0, with Esther Estrada and Rikke Van Johnson absent, to extend its moratorium on group homes for parolees, probationers and sex offenders for one year. The city's current moratorium was set to expire on Aug. 1. The move officially gives the city more time to study the group home issue and draft a permanent policy.

The council voted after a handful of parolees and Tom Kanavos, CEO of Turill Transitional, spoke in favor of group homes. Kanavos appeared to be near tears when he denounced City Attorney James F. Penman for listing the names of registered sex offenders in his request for council action.

- The council approved a Fire Department plan to establish a Hazardous Materials Investigation Unit that will be charged with keeping an eye out for illegally dumped materials like oil drums.

- A group of women from the Inland Empire and beyond spoke against substandard conditions at the city's animal shelter. The new group is calling itself Canine 909.

-The council did not hold budget discussions, but will meet again to discuss the matter next Monday.

Tomorrow's story today.

Click below to get the full.

The big news? What's new here is two things: One, the mayor's office acknowledging that accountability was subpar and information wasn't flowing through the chain of command.

The second new revelation is that Police police were ultimately keyed into Miller by a county employee. Not sure who this person is or why they reported Miller, but they did.

This is significant because it appears that after becoming aware of allegations of possible sexual misconduct on June 27, city officials apparently never did contact police. They were beaten to that punch by the county social service worker.

A press release issued today by the San Bernardino Police union rips Mayor Pat Morris for suggesting union pressure played a role in siphoning money away from Operation Phoenix.

The press release, which lists POA president Rich Lawhead and POA contract employee Joseph Turner as contacts, criticizes the mayor for telling The Sun that the police union and its council allies hampered the quality of Operation Phoenix by consuming Measure Z funds.

In the release, Lawhead rips the mayor for insinuating the union shares some blame in the sudden problems with Phoenix, including the arrest of a center manager for alleged child molestation and bb gun battles.

"These attacks are a deliberate distortion to hide the gross mismanagement of the program," Lawhead said in a written statement.

We'll report this fuller later.

Sunday's paper. I think Andrew Edwards and I have published the most stunning information yet on the Operation Phoenix/Mike Miller saga.

In our story today we obtain an inner-department memo that lays out a four month history of misconduct by Mike Miller, none of which was apparently acted on until police arrested him July 3 for allegedly molesting three girls.

The criminal charges state Miller could have committed his alleged crimes up until July 2, meaning that over the last four months, Miller potentially committed sex crimes while his supervisors let him slide on a number of disturbing incidents.

Below is an excerpt that was cut from today's story for space reasons ...

__________

Two sources who declined to give their names said Chief Billdt and Mayor Morris were copied some of the emails volleying between Hawkins and Baude.

Morris on Friday denied being aware of either the long list of transgressions by Miller or receiving emails showing haggling between Hawkins and Baude over who was charged with Miller's supervision.

Billdt said a joint investigation into city leaders launched Friday precluded
him from addressing the question.

"Given that this is a pending criminal investigation I'm not going to
discuss it," Billdt said.

Residents have been up in arms for days. Many crowded city hall, most in support of Phoenix, at last week's special meeting.

West side resident Gil Botello, 47, said he's been calling City Hall and Esther Estrada, his councilwoman, looking for answers. He said he isn't getting any response.

"Somebody needs to send a clear message that the mayor and the city are not going to tolerate this," Botello said. Yes we need the program, or something like it, but it needs to be done right. The mayors got to stand up and say this this is broken."

Operation Phoenix, the ballyhoed program implemented by Morris in June 2006, is under heavy criticism with the revelation about Miller - who has been charged with more than 20 counts of molesting three children - and other reports of pellet gun battles and unauthorized car rides given by staffers to children.

Today's issue contains an article headlined "Mayor responds" that deals with Mayor Pat Morris' plan to have his aide Kent Paxton assume a coordinating role for Operation Phoenix.

The Mayor's Office maintains the plan will address the kinds problems Robert Rogers and I have reported on in recent articles, particularly the confusion over whether jailed community center manager Mike Miller should have reported to former Operation Phoenix director Glenn Baude or Parks and Recreation director Kevin Hawkins.

But nothing is easy in San Bernardino and City Attorney James F. Penman has already taken the position that the Mayor's reorganization plan can't be put into effect.

Penman's said in a phone interview late Friday that he is concerned that the plan has not been presented to the City Council for approval in open session and that it is his opinion that the City Charter prohibits Paxton from occupying his new role.

Under the City Charter, the City Manager - currently Fred Wilson - has the power to administer city departments. Penman said that means Paxton can't take on a coordinating role above Wilson and city department chiefs.

"If he (Paxton) told an employee to do something and he said no, he (Paxton) couldn't discipline him for insubordination," Penman said.

Penman said city voters would have to approve a charter amendment to place Paxton in his new job.

"This document is a long way from taking effect," Penman said.

However, there's probably a lot more room for debate on this. Paxton said Friday that the Phoenix reorganization does not create a "command and control" system.

Mayoral chief of staff Jim Morris said the existing supervisors retain their places in San Bernardino's chain of command.

He also said some budgetary implications of the plan would require council approval but that for the most part, it's an administrative move.

The Mayor's memorandum on the reorganization describes Paxton's duties as a matter of "communication, coordination and collaboration" while Wilson would be responsible for day-to-day oversight.

We'll write more on the issue after the weekend.

Mayor Morris strode into The Sun's on Friday.

But he was a little different. A little less bounce in his step.

But that didn't mean he wasn't still determined.

As a reporter who has had a close eye on Pat Morris for the better part of two years, I will admit I had grown a bit worried about the man over the past 10 days.

I know Mayor Morris. I've talked to him for many hours, and listened to him talk publicly for many more. This is a man of almost superhuman energies and passions at age 70. And the idealism is there to match. This is an optimistic person.

Not optimistic in the way that former Governor and President Ronald Reagan was. Reagan was cheery, a bit detached. His quips always evinced a basic belief that things would get better because people (well, maybe not protesting college students, drug users, hippies or communists, who were basically subhuman to the Gipper) were good.

Morris is a different sort of optimistic. He believes in people, and certainly believes in wider groups of people than Reagan did. But he also believes in government and its ability to appeal to a our better angels.

And he believes in himself and his vision.

I wondered if that was shaken by this tragic unraveling at Operation Phoenix.

The answer is, Morris is clearly shaken, which is probably a good thing (better than cool detachment, I'd guess). But what I saw Friday was a man who, though looking more tired and weathered than I'd seen him before, was still ready to work right up to the hilt.

And boy was he determined.

After starting the meeting slowly with a rote recitation of Operation Phoenix's merits and past accomplishment (rote only because we journalists know the story so well), we started challenging Morris and he started taking on questions head on.

Morris, often raising his voice to demonstrate urgency and even exasperation, was adamant about Baude's demotion within the new Operation Phoenix structure.

"He is not here anywhere," Morris said when asked about Baude's role in the new Operation Phoenix organizational structure, later back-tracking to allow that as Code Enforcement Director, Baude will remain leader of a key Phoenix collaborator.

Morris waved his hands and jabbed at the air. A lot.

Morris also implied that he settled on Baude as a second option.

"I couldn't get Kent to join me initially when I became mayor," Morris said.

Although coherent and prepared to deliver his action plan, Morris looked drawn and tired, and alternated his rising voice with occasional mea culpas, including acknowledgements that he could have acted more forcefully to assuage concerns amidst the crisis.

"Do you think I slept much last night," Morris said, when asked how he was taking the news. "Not at all."

As for discipline of top officials, Morris said little will change other than Paxton replacing Baude atop Phoenix.

"The leadership will stay in place as the investigation runs its course," Morris said.

Morris at times spoke wistfully about the past and his intentions, remarking repeatedly how he left a long and distinguished career as a jurist to relieve his city from the throes of crime and economic stagnation. He noted his work in the passage of Measure Z, a tax he said few had confidence that voters would pass, then noted bitterly that "the police union and members of the council" gobbled up the resources, leaving him "no water in the well" for his programs.

He added that Phoenix was vital in the reform, a way for him to root out crime with something different than a "simple suppression model."

"I ran essentially to try to deliver a new model," Morris said. "That (suppression) is a dead model and expensive as hell."

Morris and his son and Chief of Staff Jim Morris repeatedly said the mayor served as "the convener," bringing various parties and government groups together in partnerships.

Kent Paxton, Morris' longtime partner at the county and new Phoenix director, defended Phoenix's activities, including the block parties that have been met with derision by some critics.

"They are about building neighborhood cohesion," he said.

Morris and Jim Morris acknowledged that Baude's role as Phoenix and Code Enforcement director may have played a role in confusion over who led Mike Miller.

"It created a dual responsibility role," Jim Morris said.

Jim Morris said the new organizational plan was about a clear structure.

"Some of this is clarity, because that, to be quite honest, was part of the problem," Jim Morris said.

Mayor Morris said the council's funding decisions forced him to expand Phoenix into the east and west districts "on the cheap."

Morris called the molestation charges "a tragedy." He said "major cancers" have been discovered in the Parks and Recreation Department, which he said was weakened by years of disinvestment.

"This parks department has been flatlined for two decades," Pat Morris said.

Morris said there was nothing the city could have done to prevent Miller from working with children. He said Miller made it through a background check three times.

"This guy was clean as a whistle," Morris said.

Morris said it was wrong to expect him to move swiftly to punish managers who were charged with Miller's supervision.

"I can't go out and start hanging people," he said.

"There was some level of confusion given that Glenn Baude was wearing two hats," Pat Morris said.

The VA hospital in Loma Linda has an incredible 1,600 panel solar set-up on its roof.

Many green technology supporters say the federal government's recent embrace of investing in this kind of product is a crucial boost to the green economy.

Click below for the story ...

Better later than never.

Today I published a shocking story full of illegal detentions, recorded conversations and an interesting "good-cop-bad-cop" dynamic.

The story, which you can read by clicking below, is basically about two longtime officers. One, Sgt. Mike Desrochers, portrays himself as a lone wolf for justice, demoted from the prestigious homicide bureau by Chief Mike Billdt (Desrochers said it was "retaliation" for his filing a complaint).

The other, Sgt. Brad Lawrence, doesn't portray himself as anything (at least not to me; he hung up on me). But Desrochers says Lawrence is a "corner-cutting" cop who routinely tramples on people's rights in pursuit of arrests. Desrochers said he had to go public when Lawrence allegedly scooped two guys off the streets and ferried them around, in custody, to at least three locations while first waiting for a search warrant, then waiting for evidence from that search warrant.

The ACLU is investigating, and the detainee has an attorney.

The one new piece of info I can add to today's big story is on Lawrence's background. It has been confirmed to me by multiple sources that Lawrence was once fired from the department for allegedly cuffing some kids to his back bumper and threatening to drag them. Apparently, school police saw and reported this, and Lawrence was fired.

But then he won a court case, I'm told, and was rehired. Since then, he attended law school and has resurrected a once-shaky police career.

Feedback on this is encouraged ...

Today's edition of The Sun carries an article written by Robert Rogers and myself that reveals how city e-mails show that Operation Phoenix director Glenn Baude and Parks, Recreation and Community Services director Kevin Hawkins were at least aware of rumors that a recreation supervisor may have molested a child during work hours.

The e-mail exchange happened during the noon hour on Friday, June 27. Police emphatically tell us they were not aware of allegations against recreation supervisor Mike Miller until Tuesday, July 1. The Police Department's version of the timeline shows that three full days and parts of two days passed before law enforcement was alerted.

Miller is currently in custody and has been charged with more than 20 counts of lewd acts against young girls, as well as one count of possession of child pornography. A judge has entered "not guilty" pleas on Miller's behalf.

The Operation Phoenix program includes a trio of community centers and is Mayor Pat Morris' signature initiative. We at The Sun received the e-mails after business hours Thursday and immediately went to the phones to collect comments from San Bernardino officials.

We connected with Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff around 8 p.m. Thursday, when we were at our print deadline. As such, the print edition of the story won't carry Jim Morris' response, so posted his words online for the record.

Jim Morris said City Attorney James F. Penman alerted the mayor to the emails around 5 p.m. Thursday.

"Since receiving a copy of that e-mail ... it was the first time we've seen it, the mayor called Mr. Baude, Mr. Hawkins and Mr. (City Manager Fred) Wilson into his office," Jim Morris said.

Jim Morris said the officials gathered around 6 p.m. Thursday. He characterized the e-mail exchange as being prompted by rumors of disgruntled employees who planned to carry allegations against Miller to authorities.

"At this point all we have are e-mails with unsubstantiated rumors," Jim Morris said. "It's pretty distant evidence."

Jim Morris said the mayor has yet to conclude if anyone involved in the situation acted improperly by not contacting police between June 27 and July 1.

"We're still obviously trying to piece all the facts together," Jim Morris said.

"It's who knew what, when and what actions were taken," he said later.

The City Council approved a round layoffs at its Wednesday night meeting and Facilities Management plumber Brian Lozano called The Sun after getting the bad news this afternoon.

"I've had better days, but I'm not crying," he said.

Lozano, who lives in Chino Hills and has a wife and two kids, was the sole plumber working for Facilities. He said he was responsible for fixing problems in about 200 city buildings.

"They're making all the cuts at the bottom instead of the top," Lozano, 28, said while maintaining that facilities is becoming a top-heavy operation.

Facilities director Jim Sharer responded to a question about the department's staffing level in an e-mail.

"Brian Lozano was layed off from the Building Maintenance section of Facilities Management," Sharer wrote. "Building Maintenance has two supervisors who oversee eight employees. The section now has four positions that will be kept unfilled for one year due to the budget"

Including Lozano, the council greenlighted the following layoffs:

-Cut two Police Department community service officers to save $113,000

-Cut one Police Department records tech and upgrade FileNET system to save $41,500

-Cut one Animal Control customer service representative to save $48,000.

-Cut one part-time Civil Service staffer to save $16,000.

-Cut one Facilities plumber (Lozano) to save $65,500.

The council opened budget talks in June facing the prospect of a $17.3-million deficit during Fiscal 2008. The layoffs and other moves will reduce the deficit to more than $4 million.

Information learned today showed a new complication in San Bernardino's budget situation. A leaked memo contained the tidbit that rank-and-file employees rejected a city-proposed furlough plan.

San Bernardino Public Employees Association general manager Bob Blough could be reached for comment today. City figures show unspecified cost sharing proposals with mid-level and general employees were projected to save $1.3 million.

Today's issue of The Sun carried an article headlined "Council keeps vacant six officers' positions." The story covered Wednesday night's City Council meeting, during which the body chose to hold three sergeants' and three detectives' jobs vacant in order to save nearly $654,000 during Fiscal 2008.

Deadline prevented some details from appearing in the article. Here's more information:

One point of debate was whether holding three sergeants' positions would allow for enough supervision of the Police Department's young patrol team. Police chief Michael Billdt told the council the department maintains a staffing ratio of one sergeant per six patrol officers and that the ratio would hold steady if the staffing cut was approved.

"We still have the same amount of supervision," Billdt reported.

However, 4th Ward Councilman Neil Derry said in a phone interview today that he thinks the department needs more officers wearing three stripes on their shoulders.

Billdt reported during the meeting that SBPD has 356 sworn positions authorized in its budget and that 1/3 to 1/2 of the force joined the department in the past five to seven years.

For Derry, that means there's a heightened need for saavy veterans to teach younger police who may be prone to "youthful exuberance."

"Five years ago it (SBPD) was old, now it's young," Derry said. "We probably went from an average age of 40 to 30."

However, budget concerns carried the day. Billdt included the vacancies in a departmental reorganization plan and 3rd Ward Councilman Tobin Brinker (who ended up being the swing vote) supported the spending cut.

"If we don't make the cuts here, we have to make them somewhere else," Brinker said.

I just returned from a fact-finding visit to the newest Operation Phoenix Center at the corner of Arden Avenue and Pacific Street.

Attendance is up to about 30 daily from about 20 daily last week.

One full-time supervisor and two part-timers, all parks and rec employees, were there.

I played pool and foosball and ping pong with the kids, and talked to a parent.

People out there are totally out of tune with what happened to Miller at the central center. They don't know and really don't seem to care.

They do say they like the center and are glad it is there. Most came from the nearby neighborhood known as "Little Africa."

Hanging out at the center for a few hours shows you the good and the not-so-good of the center.

The good: A safe, orderly place where time-passing activities and air conditioning are available. It's a nice, friendly atmosphere.

The not so good: Programming is thin. There is "outside time" for sports, which is sparsely attended because of the heat. Tellingly, the six computers are rarely used.

The center's activities are much more about easy recreation than learning or organized activities.

There is a stunning report in the Press Enterprise today detailing audio-taped instances of a police Sgt. illegally detaining people in violation of Constitutional Law.

I want to say right now that I have this story too. I had lengthy interviews with the principals, but did not have the tapes the PE has. My editors decided not to let my story run today.

Anyway, the PE story did run, and it's a doozy. Sgt. Mike Desrochers, a veteran cop who was tranferred from the homicide bureau to patrol during Chief Mike Billdt's administration, has blown the whistle on the whole thing.

The story includes an incredible quote which Desrochers told me too: He says the accused officer refer to the practice of illegally detaining and interrogating people as putting them "on ice."

The officer accused has declined comment.

Desrochers is an interesting character. He has a lawsuit against Billdt. He has basically turned into a Serpico-like figure in the department.

Desrochers told me yesterday: "What has gone on is wrong, and the public deserves to know about it."

Pretty incredible stuff.

Robert Rogers promised you a full report on Mike Miller's court appearance and here it is:

Miller, charged with several counts of child molestation, walked into Judge John Martin's courtroom Wednesday morning and got a new court date.

Martin ordered Miller to return to court on Aug. 20 for his next appearance. Miller never even sat in the jury box next to other in-custody defendants. He simply stood near a doorway behind his public defender, who shielded Miller from the view of the audience.

Miller had supervised recreational activities at San Bernardino's flagship Operation Phoenix community center. He was arrested on July 3 and was placed on unpaid administrative leave by the city.

A judge entered not guilty pleas on Miller's behalf on July 8. He was arraigned on 23 counts of comitting lewd acts on girls younger than 13 and one count of possession of child pornography.

A parks and recreation employee since 1999,, Miller was given a leadership role within Operation Phoenix (Mayor Pat Morris' anti-crime program) in 2006. He also served as a Police Department volunteer, according to city officials.

The alleged molestations date back to before Miller's employment with the city. Prosecutors have accused him of crimes as long ago as 1997.

At least three people visited the court room to watch the proceedings against Miller. A man said they worked with Miller in the parks department and expressed surprise at the allegations, but did not want to comment for any news coverage.

Mike Miller is in court today.

Colleague and blog-partner Andrew Edwards is there, and will bring back a full report.

Today's hearing is a pre-preliminary. I'm told the most that may happen today would be an attorney could ask for a reduced bail, which would trigger a release of some evidence by the prosecution to justify keeping bail at $1 million.

More on this later ...

Yesterday, I posted my calculations concluding that the average pay for a San Bernardino Police officer was about $97,000. This figure is, of course, more than double (closer to triple) the average pay of a San Bernardino resident, but lower than the $102,000 average earned by Orange County Sheriffs, the Orange County Register reported.

Now I have crunched the raw data from the San Bernardino Fire Department, with surprising results. I assumed some parity between their pay and the police counterparts.

I was wrong.

The average salary for a San Bernardino Firefighter in fiscal year 2006-7 was $112,799.79.

This is more than $15,000 more than the police average.

A deeper look at more numbers:

Of the 102 personnel who earned more than the minimum salary, 73 earned more than $100,000.

Just 1 in 4 firefighters earned less than $100,000.

Fire Chief Mike Conrad had the highest pay, at $164,217.

What was really startling was the overtime. Without it, the average salary would have been under $100,000.

45 of the 102 firefighters sampled took in more than $30,000 in overtime.

What does this all mean at this early stage of analysis? Well, the average firefighter earns three times the median average income of residents in the city he/she serves (only two clearly female names are listed in the department, but there may be a couple more).

So, we can safely say firefighters are very well paid, and paid significantly better than police in San Bernardino.

Like with police, the take-home pay doesn't take into account the full medical/dental benefits and generous pensions these civil servants receive.

Whether this is fair compensation, particularly in light of the gaudy overtime numbers, is a question which requires more analysis. This job is, after all, dangerous. This service is valuable to residents, particularly those living in the northern, fire-prone areas.

To answer a question posed by a reader in a prior post, The Sun's previous reports showed that about 95 percent of firefighters live in other cities, meaning much of this money is invested into other communities. More than 90 of police, including Chief Mike Billdt, live in other cities.

We'll be looking more closely at this taxpayer expenditure in the future.

Feedback is welcome on this.

Below is the email that riled up some in and around City Hall today.

Note that Rawls, whom Phoenix Director Glenn Baude said is no longer a city employee as of July 1, used a city email and included a tag at the bottom listing his city office address, cell phone, etc.

Baude said Rawls is now paid by the Operation Phoenix private foundation, not the city, due to the budget crisis. It prompts an interesting question: What are the rules in terms of enjoying the facilities and prestige of a city official without actually being employed by the city?

Anyway, here is what Rawls wrote to perhaps more than 100 recipients:

From: Rawls_Ra
Subject: URGENT! Operation Phoenix UPDATE!
To: "Rafael Rawls (E-mail)"
Date: Monday, July 14, 2008, 6:59 PM

Hello Everyone,

Operation Phoenix is in need of your help! As some of you may or may not know,
our program has been under fire lately and there have been talks around City
Hall of shutting down the program altogether. A large portion of our budget
right now consists of City funds and if the council votes to not have the
program refunded we will not be able to continue our programs and services
another year. On top of that, there have been talks of shutting down all three
Operation Phoenix Community Centers.

The potential ramifications of this happening would be a dramatic increase in
crime in areas in which Operation Phoenix has had a huge impact in affecting
attitudes and working to eradicate crime. This would also be detrimental to
the communities in which we are currently servicing in that the youth will have
no where to go for the duration of the summer and could be at-risk of engaging
in unhealthy behaviors.

We are enlisting your help in vying for the continuation of this life-changing
program. The City Council is scheduled to convene in a special meeting on
Wednesday, July 16 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at City Hall: 300
N. D Street, San Bernardino. We are asking that all of our partners please be
there between 4:00 and 6:00 to show your support for the program and to help us
lobby for the furtherance of Operation Phoenix. We are encouraging all of our
partners and community members to show up and show their support that the
council may see just how vital this program is to the edification of our City.

Please consider joining us. We greatly appreciate your support; physically,
emotionally, and spiritually.

Thank you.
<>
<>

Rafael R. Rawls
Community Outreach Director
Operation Phoenix
201-B North "E" Street, Suite 201
San Bernardino, CA 92401
(909) 384-5025 Off.
(909) 677-0681 Cell
Fax: (909) 384-5247
www.sbcity.org
<>

Tomorrow's story explores Operation Phoenix community liaison Rafael Rawls' email, sent to dozens, urging lobbying on behalf of the program by which he is employed.

Rawls, pictured last year | Sun file

Legal experts tell me this isn't illegal. Rawls also attached a flier saying not to let "political aspirations of any person(s) run San Bernardino." Draw your own conclusions about to whom Rawls referred.

Naturally, plenty of people, mostly Phoenix critics, are decrying this as ethically questionable. Others wonder why Rawls, 25, is sitting down to pen lengthy email messages and fliers while the program's safety has been called into question since the arrest of Center Manager Mike Miller on July 3.

Click below for the full story ...

We've just received a document that provides a department-by-department outline of how the City Council has cut the budget.

The council started the budget process in June with a projected $17.3-million shortfall for Fiscal 2008. Previously approved cuts have whittled that figure down to $5 million-plus.

The Police Department loses $2.4 million, an amount that's the largest in dollar figures among any city agency. That cut represents 3.5 percent of the Police Department's $69.6-million budget and only three departments (Fire, Civil Service and Code Enforcement) lose smaller percentages of their budget than Police.

The council has approved 2.9-percent cuts to Fire ($1.01 million out of $34.3 million in expenditures), 2.0 percent cuts to Civil Service ($6,400 out of $317.200) and Code Enforcement (no cuts from a budget of $5.1 million.)

In terms of percentages, the five biggest cuts have been taken from Development Services (14.7 percent), Human Resources (14.2 percent) the City Manager's Office (12.5 percent), Facilities (12.4 percent) and Parks, Recreation and Community Services (11.5 percent).

2008 Budget Cuts.xls2008 Budget Cuts.xls

The City Council has yet another budget hearing set to begin at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"Begin" is kind of a weird word to describe these meetings, because they way things have gone since June is that the council gathers in the Economic Development Agency board room (Wednesday's meeting will be in Council Chambers at City Hall), goes into closed session for two hours or so and then begins public deliberations.

During past weeks, the closed session discussions have meant that city staffers, reporters and other observers have been left waiting while the council goes behind closed doors to negotiate with public employee unions.

Wednesday's agenda does not use the term "Operation Phoenix," but it's hard to imagine the council would meet and fail to discuss the ramifications of the Miller scandal.

Michael Miller, who managed the flagship Operation Phoenix community center that's now at First Church of the Nazarene on North Sierra Way, was arrested July 3 on suspicion of child molestation. He was placed on unpaid administrative leave that same day.

This reporter sees at least three closed session agenda items that may involve Operation Phoenix. State law allows city councils to hold confidential talks on matters like lawsuits and labor deals but agencies are obligated to disclose in vague terms what they will talk about.

Here they are:

Conference with legal counsel - anticipated litigation - significant exposure to litigation - pursuant to subdivision (b) (1), (2), (3) (A-F) of Government Code Section 54956.9.

(Allegations of child molestation could lead to not only the criminal case against Miller, but a civil lawsuit against the city if anyone alleges liability on the part of city officials.)

Closed Session - personnel - pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.

(If the council wants anyone's head to roll, this is their chance to move on that.)

Closed session with Chief of Police on matters posing a threat to the security of public buildings or threat to the public's right of access to public services or public facilities - pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.

(Given reports that Parks and Recreation staffers waged BB gun wars at community centers, there would be an opportunity for the council to discuss that issue.)

Robert Rogers and this reporter have written several articles since July 3 that deal not only with Miller's arrest on suspicion of child molestation but also on the troubles that affect the city's Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.

As reported in The Sun, parks employees including Miller, engaged in BB-gun battles and broke city rules that prohibited staffers from giving children rides in their cars. It should be noted that City Attorney James F. Penman has said its essentially impossible for recreation staffers who are engaged in the social service efforts of an Operation Phoenix type program.

We'll be doing some more work today to learn if council members want to spend a lot of time Wednesday debating Operation Phoenix expenditures. What the agenda specifically calls for are talks on proposed tax hikes that could be part of City Hall's effort to fill its multi-million budget hole.

A few weeks ago, I informed readers that I would be examining Police Department salaries.

I explained that this information was relevant because salaries have been on the upswing for years, contributing to a Police Department budget that should soar north of $70 million this year.

Also, an Orange County Register expose revealed that sheriffs in that county averaged an extraodinary $102,000 per year peaked my interest.

If deputies there, in an area far wealthier per capita than the city of San Bernardino, were making six-figures, how much were we paying our civil servants here? Also, I had a suspicion that officers earn far more than the average taxpayer would guess.

After 24 business days, City Hall handed over the raw data. I have crunched the numbers. My preliminary findings:

The average total pay of a San Bernardino police officer, of all ranks, was $97,161 in fiscal year 2006-7.

The average was taken from 295 sworn officers. I had to eliminate 24 employees because their salaries were below the minimum starting salary, meaning they probably didn't work the entire year.

120 of the 295 full-time sworn officers earned more than $100,000.

The highest salary, aside from Chief Mike Billdt and Assistant Chief Frank Mankin (who earned $181,300 and $168,157, respectively), was earned by a sergeant, who took in $163,554, thanks in part to $70,071 in overtime.

The average command staff pay, comprising 16 lieutenants, captains and chiefs who cannot earn overtime was $132,774. This figure is factored into the overrall total as well.

Not quite the $100,000+ figure in Orange County. About $5,000 short. But still a nice living.

This does not factor in medical and other benefits, including the pension packages that allow personnel to collect 90 percent of their final salaries annually for life after retiring after 30 years of service. Mankin, for instance, retired from the force this year and, based on the formula, will be paid in the neighborhood $150,000 annually for the rest of his life. He is in his mid-50s.

So there are some numbers to start. A reasonable person could conclude that police are, on average, paid well for the hard work they do.

I welcome reaction/feedback on these numbers.

After some technical glitches slowed our meteroic rise earlier this year, SBNOW is again firing on all cylinders.

Thanks most of all to you, the growing throng of keen and incisive readers/responders.

My colleague Andrew Edwards has joined the blog, effective today. Edwards covers San Bernardino City Hall, and will fire off fresh news tracking our city leaders on a daily, er, hourly, basis.

I will continue to help in that pursuit while staying atop regional economic and social news.

In other business, I want to extend to all readers the opportunity to contribute guest blog posts on topics of their choice, providing they loosely follow our coverage aims. I'm doing this because of the robust outpouring of commentary in recent days.

Clearly, you have much to say. Contact me at robert.rogers@inlandnewspapers.com, and you can enjoy top billing.

Welcome Andrew. Welcome readers. Stay engaged.

- Robert

The Flesh Club won't be opening tonight.

The club's court-ordered shut down expired today. However, attorney Roger Jon Diamond said Flesh Club's owners are still pursuing an alcohol license that's part of a proposed plan to convert the plan into a topless bar.

"They want to provide food and alcohol and topless dancing, no totally nude dancing," Diamond said by telephone.

The exotic dancing business may be the only industry in which serving alcohol would be part of a plan to make a venue more community-friendly, but that's the position that Diamond has advanced.

He has said serving alochol would require the club to ban patrons younger than 21 from entering the club. It's illegal to serve alcohol at a nude revue so when Flesh Club's dancers left nothing to the imagination, it was lawful for an 18-year-old to visit the Hospitality Lane cabaret. Diamond has said that a slightly older customer base would lessen the chances of untoward behavior at Flesh Club.

In October of last year, Judge Donald Alvarez of San Bernardino Superior Court ordered a temporary shut down of the club after San Bernardino City Attorney James F. Penman brought a case against the club under the Red Light Abatement Act.

The case featured lurid testimony of illicit sexual activity inside the club. Penman has maintained that Flesh Club is a "house of prostitution," as opposed to a "theater of dance."

Reached by phone Monday, Penman said he expected Flesh Club to stay closed and that police have been prepped to keep a close eye on the venue whenever it reopens. He also said any dancer who touches a patron is subject to arrest.

Flesh Club's owners need San Bernardino officials to support their bid to obtain a liquor license from Alcoholic Beverage Control. In June, the council denied Flesh Club's bid for support after Diamond presented lengthy presentation on his clients' behalf.

An appeal for that decision is set for July 21.

Flesh Club has sought the City Council's backing

Tomorrow, my colleague Andrew Edwards and I will again probe the problem of transportation at Operation Phoenix and other community centers.

I say problem because we know accused child molester Mike Miller routinely broke policy to drive children around, and that others may have done so as well.

Simply put, city officials aren't allowed to give kids rides anywhere. This can be a tough situation, given that the parks and recreation department has no transport capabilities of its own. Field trips? Mommy can't give kid a ride to wherever? All, apparently, an incentive to break the rules.

Click below for a piece of tomorrow's article ...

On Saturday my colleague Andrew Edwards and I pored over the history and exigencies that have contributed to the current Operation Phoenix debacle. Read that important story by clicking here

But there's more. Space constraints left much of our work on the cutting room floor.

Click below to see the real McCoy, including more commentary from top city officials on the deterioration of parks and recreation and its role in Phoenix's tragic turn (manager Mike Miller's July 3 arrest for child molestation).

Below you'll find a fuller version of a report slated for Monday's newspaper. In it, I explore the condition of business on the city's premiere restaurant row, Hospitality Lane, and the condition of the restaurant sector in general as a lens through which to view today's economy.

No one needs more proof that the economy has tanked, but restaurants are a particularly telling way to examine the economy.

The restaurant industry offers a sharp picture of the economy due to its elasticity, a fancy economic concept that broadly means demand for and consuption of a certain good or service is highly sensitive to changes in market conditions.

In short, when the economy is bad, restaurants get hit hard.

So, click below to read the story. We can learn a lot about the impact of today's sluggish economy by looking anectdotally at our local eateries and digesting a few broader statistics.
___________

SAN BERNARDINO -- It's a competitive industry straining for the
increasingly lean wallets of its customer base.

And the pick-ins aren't getting any thicker.

The rule among Hospitality Lane's famous row of full-service and fast
food restaurants is simple: You either adapt - or you don't get
eaten.

8:30 a.m. Friday. My appointment to visit Mike Miller in West Valley Detention Center.

Miller looked smaller, more drawn than the plump and jovial guy I had known more than two years while covering his work with Operation Phoenix.

He was unshaven, with a grey flecked beard sparse on his face. He cut a pitiable figure, with a jumpsuit color denoting to other inmates that he is probably an accused sex-offender.

He looked hunched and unsure, his small eyes squinting to make out my face.

Miller has very poor eyesight, and has been without his glasses since his arrest.

Click below to read the story, as well as the few words Miller wished to utter publicly ...

By Robert Rogers
Staff Writer
RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- Former Operation Phoenix Center Manager Mike Miller wore a dark-blue jumpsuit and a weary look on his unshaven face.

San Bernardino police officials have asked us to discontinue publishing Mike Miller's photo.

They say the photo could hinder the investigation by tainting the pool of people they are interviewing in the investigation.

The rationale seems to be that seeing Miller's photo in the paper could trigger faux victims spinning tales.

We as a paper have agreed. That is why I removed Miller's photo.

Well, here is a sanitized look at the gruesome details of the allegations against Mike Miller, an Operation Phoenix manager accused of child molestations.

My colleague Andrew Edwards obtained a one-page report submitted by investigators that lays out the justification for Miller's arrest.
______

By Robert Rogers and Andrew Edwards
Staff Writers

SAN BERNARDINO -- Operation Phoenix Center manager Mike Miller snapped photos and recorded videos of the girls he allegedly molested, according to the investigative report filed by investigators justifying his incarceration.

The one-page form was signed by a San Bernardino Superior Court judicial officer on July 4, the day after officers arrested Miller at a Redlands restaurant.

With the heading: "Crime Summary Information Probable Cause Declaration," the five-sentence report signed by three San Bernardino investigators reveals graphic details of the alleged crimes.

The form says the details of the alleged crimes were unearthed "During the course of an extensive investigation."

It alleges oral copulation with two victims. The form does not discuss or mention a third victim, although in the formal complaint filed against Miller earlier this week, prosecutors allege there were three victims.

The report says Miller snapped photographs of a 7-year-old alleged victim and shot video of another alleged victim.

Deputy District Attorney Lynn Poncin said she could not comment on whether video or photographic evidence would be introduced in the case.

Miller's next appearance in court is scheduled for July 16.

Just returned from an afternoon visit to the newest Phoenix Center, the eastern district location off Arden just south of Highland Avenue. Center manager Tracy Parker, an 11-year-veteran, showed me around and expressed confidence that the program was an early success there.

Things seemed relatively smooth.

Brief report:
____________

At the newest Phoenix Center, opened last week, about a dozen children milled around playing pool and foosball on Thursday afternoon. The parking lot is unpaved, and port-a-potties stand-in for restrooms.

Center Manager Tracy Parker, a Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department employee, pointed to log-in books over the past few days showing daily attendance hovering steadily around 20.

Parker said the controversy and allegations stemming from Miller's July 3 arrest had seemingly no effect on the eastern district facility.

"We have to do our jobs here regardless," Parker said, emphasizing that morale remained high among she and her half-dozen part-time staffers. "We can't focus on that stuff. We're here for the kids."

The new center boasts six computers to go with a handful of recreational games. It sits on what was once land used for San Gorgonio High School's agricultural program.

Parker said children there were largely unaware of Miller's arrest.

"These kids don't even know who Mike is," she said.

I want to go into more detail concerning my Wednesday interview with Glenn Baude.

Readers are already jumping on Baude for his comment about pointing a finger of blame toward the City Council.

That's fair, but I want to explain what he said a bit further and publish some other comments he made in our roughly 10 minute telephone chat.

First of all, Baude repeatedly made clear his intention of pushing the comment about pointing blame at the council into newsprint, telling me explicity: "and that's for the record," which is a kind of code word among government officials for "that is what I'd like to see in print." This time, I obliged.

Glenn Baude | Sun photo

Baude was clearly exasperated about the backlash the Phoenix program has faced over center manager Mike Miller's arrest on child molestation charges.

When he said the council deserves some blame, he was asserting that its funding decisions over the years have eviscerated the parks and recreation department, thereby setting the stage for poor performance and misconduct within its programs, Operation Phoenix included.

He may or may not have a point, depending on your outlook. The parks department has endured deep and chronic defunding since the early 1980s that have trimmed staff and kept pay relatively low, thereby lowering the quality of personnel.

Baude said he'd talked to Parks director Kevin Hawkins about this problem about a month ago.

"My converstaion with Kevin a month ago was that we were concerned about the lack of funding for recreation, for lack of staffing for all centers, not just this one," Baude said. "It's a revolviong door, your paying minimum wage," he said.

Baude went on to say that new center manager, Curtis Brown Jr., was a top-level official, and that putting him in the role was the right call.

"Did we send curtis in there, yeah," Baude said. "We are dealing with this. Kevin did that, and that was a good decision."

Baude then answered me when I said who should take responsibility for the mess that has been revealed this week.

"Is it Kevin Hawkins' fault that he had someone in place from the former director?" Baude said.

"By all accounts, including Wendy (McCammack), Mike was doing a great job. It's the responsibility of the guy who did the crime."

Baude also noted all the positive press Mike Miller received over the past few years.

"Should we point the finger at you? You praised him."

Baude said he wanted to right the ship.

"i don't bail on a problem," he said.

Later, Baude again addressed whether he should bear responsibility.

"I'd love to do that, but I can't because I didn't have control over it. I didn't hire and fire, I didn't place personnel there. I didn't place people there. I didn't supervise the staff."

Baude also genuinely bemoaned that Operation Phoenix, which he said still did "great things" for kids and communities in distress, was now facing a political storm over last week's news.

He drew an analogy with schools and churches that have suffered the tragedies of serious misconduct, noting that you "don't pull the plug" on these institutions that provide so much.

"You put things in place to make sure it never happens again," he said.

So that's a fuller look at what Baude said Wednesday. It's for the benefit of you, the readers.

Glenn Baude has broken his silence. He said responsibility lies first and foremost with Mike Miller, the Phoenix manager who has been arrested on suspicion of child molestation.

Gavin Comas, 8, of San Bernardino, left, gets some help with his
lay-up from Glenn Baude, Director for Code Compliance, Friday,
December 1, 2006, (ie. happier times) at the Phoenix Center in San Bernardino.
Jennifer Cappuccio/Staff Photographer

Check this story below ...

By Robert Rogers and Andrew Edwards
Staff Writers
SAN BERNARDINO -- It seemed like a natural partnership in late 2005.
A mayoral candidate campaigning amid the chaos of the highest murder rates in a decade. A code enforcement director with an expansive view of his role and a burning ambition to match.

Click below for full interview I conducted with Mike Miller's younger brother, Joe, this morning.

Notably, Joe Miller said no one in Miller's family, including his wife, has visited Mike Miller in jail. No one attended his arraignment either, Joe Miller said.

Click below to read ...

Mike Miller looked tired and worn in his green jumpsuit, which indicates that he is in protective custody because he is accused of child sex crimes.

Miller appeared to the court for less than a minute, and gave monosyllabic answers to a few simple questions.

Interestingly, he said he could not afford an attorney, so the judge appointed a public defender.

The molestation charges against Miller have rocked the city and helped unleash a
torrent of other allegations about oversight of Operation Phoenix and Miller's fitness for a management role.

Miller faces 24 counts, including a forcible lewd act and upon a child. The alleged abuse occurred between Oct. 1 of last year and last Wednesday, the day before Miller's arrest. The young girl was 6 when the abuse began, and later turned 7.

There are charges of abuse involving two children this year, both girls ranging from 6 to 7 years old.

THere are also of a lewd act upon a child committed from June 1997 through November 1998. That girl, the third alleged victim, would have been 12 when the abuse began. Today she would be 23, based on her date of birth.

What just months ago was still routinely hailed by city leaders as a short-term and long-term blow to local crime is now dogged by charges of molestation, dangerous misconduct, lax oversight and flouting of child-safety rules.

Miller, a mid-level parks and recreation employee since the late-1990s, ascended to the role of Phoenix Center manager in mid-2006. While continuing as a parks and recreation employee, Miller also began working closely with Glenn Baude, a code enforcement
director who was tapped by Mayor Pat Morris as Operation Phoenix's overall director around the same time.

Miller was placed on unpaid leave the day of his arrest last week. Sheriffs spokesman Cindy Beavers said Tuesday that Miller was held in protective, solitary custody at West Valley Detention Center.

Miller's fall from grace has been swift. After becoming a prominent city official over the last two years, routinely drawing praise from the mayor and city council members. Now, his name has been removed from the city's online Operation Phoenix resources, and remnants of his tenure have been wiped from his office in the center on Sierra Way.

A reporter visited Miller's Highland home Monday. A woman appeared to be loading a car with belongings. A man in his mid-20s said the family would not comment on Miller's behalf.

"We're done here," the man said.

Read below for full profile of the new guy sitting in what was Mike Miller's desk.

By Robert Rogers
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - Curtis Brown Jr. is a friendly face on an ugly situation.

The longtime Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department employee has been tapped by Director Kevin Hawkins to do what many would consider an unvenviable job:

Taking spot left vacant by Operation Phoenix Community Center Manager Mike Miller, who was arrested last week on charges of allegedly molesting three children, including two this year.

The District Attorneys office just released a 23 count complaint that alleges Mike Miller molested two 7-year-old girls this year, possibly at the Operation Phoenix Center, and another girl, now aged 23, in 1997-8.

More on this coming soon ...

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.

Click below for a full report out of today's PE which says Phoenix center manager Mike Miller faces $1 million bail and was booked into West Valley Detention Center on suspicion of molesting a child under age 14 ....

I am told, by multiple sources, that police were searching for Operation Phoenix supervisor Mike Miller by 10 a.m. the morning of July 3.

Miller, who is accused of child molestation, was presumptively wandering somewhere in the community for some three hours or so before police claim to have arrested him at a Redlands restaurant at 1:20 p.m.

If the timeline is correct, this would mean police were on the hunt for a suspected child predator behind the scenes for hours while a police spokesman and officials at City Hall stonewalled the press and did not alert the public. Even City Councilmembers learned of the unfolding drama from the press or other backchannel sources.

At 1 p.m., about 20 minutes before Miller's arrest, Lt. Scott Paterson said, "We're looking into some issues of concern and that's all we have right now, period."

Approximately 30 minutes later, Jim Morris told me in a telephone interview Miller had been investigated and arrested.

At 3:33 p.m., Paterson sent reporters a press release on Miller's arrest.

This could get dicey. I called Jim Morris at 8:28 a.m. Thursday morning to ask about this situation, which I became aware of Wednesday night. Morris said he had no knowledge of the situation.

I called Lt. Scott Paterson at 9:27 p.m. Wednesday night after learning from a tipster that police cars had converged on the Phoenix Center, which I now know was to search the premises for evidence against Miller. I called the watch commander on duty, who said nothing had happened at the Phoenix Center. I then called Paterson, who told me there was an investigation (after I said I knew police were at the center) but wouldn't confirm it had anything to do with the Phoenix Center.

Political and police officials will have to explain why they thought it prudent to hide from the public that they were investigating - and later searching for - a publicly servant accused of molesting children.

If ever there was something the public needs to be aware of, it would seem to be a potential threat to their children. Police clearly think Miller is a threat to people's children - that's why they arrested him. So why did they think the people didn't need this information?

How was your 4th? I spent mine working.

But I'm not complaining. I got to go to the downtown parade.

Click below for the full report ....

SAN BERNARDINO -- Fourth of July in this city is a diverse celebration.

According to Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff, Miller went through a thorough background check at the time he was hired in the late 1990s.

Morris said Miller had one incident of "petty theft" in his background, but did not specify whether it was a conviction.

Also, it was confirmed by a Little League executive yesterday that Miller has worked as a longtime umpire. The Sun had that detail in last night's blog and today's print story. SB Redcounty also had that detail, with links to Miller's profile on Little League sites, in their posts last night.

We'll update as new info becomes available.

Mike Miller, the supervisor arrested in a Redlands restaurant on suspicion of child molestation yesterday, was awarded by the city in mid-April for his work with local children.

From a document obtained off the city's Web site reporting on Operation Phoenix's April 2008 events:
__________
4/10/08 - Shine A Light on Child Abuse Awards
Mike Miller received an award for his work with children in the community as
the Supervisor of the Operation Phoenix Community Center on Sierra Way.
- Operation Phoenix Steering Committee Meeting
__________

The city has already erased Miller from the it's Web site's Operation Phoenix page and he has been placed on unpaid leave.

No word on who the alleged victim(s) is/are.

Thanks to an SBNOW reader for bringing this to my attention.

This is the full report on the ongoing saga of Operation Phoenix Center manager Mike Miller on charges of child molestation.

It includes passages that will not make the print version of tomorrow's paper:

By Andrew Edwards and Robert Rogers
Staff Writers

SAN BERNARDINO -- A key Operation Phoenix official who supervised recreational activities for city youth was arrested Thursday on suspicion of child molestation.

Michael Steven Miller, 48, of Highland, has served as a Phoenix youth center manager since July 2006. He started his career in the city's parks and recreation service in 1999.

"It's a tragic, tragic event," Mayor Pat Morris said in a telephone interview.

San Bernardino Police began investigating Miller on Tuesday July 1 when officers received a report that he had been involved in an alleged child molestation.

Miller was arrested at 1:20 p.m. Thursday at a Redlands restaurant, police said.

He was placed on unpaid leave Thursday morning, Jim Morris, the mayor's chief of staff, confirmed.

Police did not release the age or gender of the alleged victim. The
investigation was said to be ongoing. Several police officers converged upon the center Wednesday night while conducting the investigation.

Around noon the following day, more than a dozen small children and two or three teens played pool and video games while supervisors looked on.

Miller's office was closed and locked. Staff on duty declined to
comment, referring questions to the Police Department.

Operation Phoenix and city parks facilities are not the only venues where Miller has interacted with local children. He also worked for years as a local Little League umpire, a local administrator confirmed.

"At this point, I can't have any comment on it," said District 43 administrator Randy Robbins. "He was an umpire for District 43."

The Morris administration's Operation Phoenix program includes numerous anti-crime strategies that range from police patrols to a trio of community centers.

Morris said it would be "politics in the extreme" for other officials to use Miller's arrest as an incitement to wrangle over the fate of Operation Phoenix.

The mayor maintained that the allegations against Miller do not show that Operation Phoenix centers are dysfunctional.

"This is not some kind of a contagion. This is not some kind of cancer," Morris said.

But 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack said the Operation Phoenix centers should be closed down pending a review to determine if there are adequate safeguards in place to prevent crimes against children.

"If the politicians of this city are not willing to do everything that is necessary to protect our children, then that is 'politics in the extreme,'" McCammack said.

Fourth Ward Councilman Neil Derry, who has questioned whether Operation Phoenix will solve crime problems, said he's not ready to go forward with closing the centers.

Third Ward Councilman Tobin Brinker said he wants the centers to stay open.

"It's a much bigger project than one individual," he said. "I can't see putting the brakes on this."

But McCammack said officials need to take a close look at the centers to find an answer to this question: "What didn't we do to prevent this type of alleged activity?"

City Attorney James F. Penman, who is often allied with McCammack, declined to say whether he wants the centers to close but said he is concerned about safety and supervision at the centers.

Pastor David Rhone of First Church of the Nazarene, which rents one of its facilities to the city for the center Miller heads up, said he was "shocked" when he heard about the allegations Thursday morning.

"Our position is that we are very sorry to hear about this and have great sympathy for the alleged victim and the family and we hope the allegations are not true," Rhone said. "Obviously, we're very saddened."

Rhone, a long-time Morris supporter, stressed his view that parents should not worry about the safety of their children at the Phoenix center.

"I don't think this is a pervasive problem at all," Rhone said. "I have full confidence in the Operation Phoenix staff."

But Rhone and others said they were concerned Miller's arrest could fuel criticism of Operation Phoenix as a whole.

"I am concerned that there are people in the political realm who will use this to further their own political ambitions and harm Mayor Morris and his positions," Rhone said. "I expect that this will be used as a wedge to advance the agendas of others," Rhone said.

John Longville, a former state legislator and Rialto mayor who supports Morris, had a similar view.

"It looks to be an isolated, tragic sitatuation calling for some specific response, but it shouldn't in any way reflect on the advisability of the overall need for multi-pronged approaches to crime problems," Longville said.

"When cases of police misconduct emerge, for instance, you don't immediately question the approach of using police for public safety," he said.

Councilman Chas Kelley, a frequent mayoral critic, was unaware of the arrest until a reporter informed him Thursday afternoon. He implied the incident underscores the importance of thorough background checks.

"I'm not commenting on this case specifically," Kelley said. "But this is why I did not support the ban the box iniitiative."

Police were tight-lipped with information most of the day Thursday.

At 1 p.m., about 20 minutes before Miller's arrest, Lt. Scott Paterson said, "We're looking into some issues of concern and that's all we have right now, period."

Less than one hour later, Jim Morris told reporters Miller had been
investigated and arrested.

At 3:33 p.m., Paterson sent reporters a press release on Miller's arrest.

McCammack and Derry said they also had trouble getting details on Miller's arrest.

"If I had been mayor, I would have called all the council members, the police chief, the city attorney, the city manager (and) had a pow-wow, called an emergency council meeting," McCammack said.

McCammack said she learned of Miller's arrest through reporters. Derry and Kelley said they also got word through unofficial sources, Kelley from a reporter.

"I shouldn't have to hear about this from guys out on the street," Derry said.

Brinker said officials notified him some time after noon Thursday.

The city's third Operation Phoenix center opened the day before police received a report of the alleged molestation.Monday,

Miller showed a reporter around the Speicher Park facility in eastern San Bernardino on Monday. He said he was looking forward to days when the new center would be up to speed and children would be able play sports, learn to repair bicycles and grow their own produce there.

Rumblings are already coming from opponents of Mayor Pat Morris and his anti-crime plan that the allegation that a center manager molested a child could prove to be Operation Phoenix's coup de grace.

Councilwoman Wendy McCammack has publicly called for center closures to reasess safety.

City Attorney James F. Penman told me this afternoon he feels differently, but is concerned.

"Councilwoman McCammack and I have both expressed our concerns for the safety of the children," Penman said. "She has gone a step further and made a public statement on the centers, but I have not joined her on that."

Penman went on to say: "And I think we need to pause and remember there is an alleged victim here. This should not be a political football."

But a political football it is sure to be, as Penman is probably aware.

Two big-picture questions emerge clearly here" 1) Where does the buck stop? Does it stop with Miller, or his superiors? Operation Phoenix Director Glenn Baude, Miller's Operation Phoenix boss? Parks director Kevin Hawkins, Miller's parks boss? Mayor Pat Morris, THE boss?

2) What will this mean for Operation Phoenix as a program, which was already facing tenuous council support and crisis city budget conditions before Miller was ever accused of molesting a child? Supporters will generally still support Phoenix's programs and philosophy, while opponents will surely be emboldened by this tragic turn of events. No question, this will have political consequences. The question is only HOW they will play out.

SAN BERNARDINO - Michael Miller, a soft-spoken Parks and Recreation manager, finds himself at ground zero of Mayor Pat Morris' Operation Phoenix crime-reduction plan.

_______________

That was the opening sentence of a story written by my colleague Michel Nolan in Feb. 2007. The rest of the story, a Q & A with Miller, can be read by clicking below.

Miller, a run-of-the-mill parks administrator who ascended to new status and public acclaim within Operation Phoenix, came across as a modest, shy and noble guy. Even Wendy McCammack rousingly complimented his dogged work last year, showing how bipartisan the support for this man was.

But now he's under arrest, accused of molesting a child on July 1 at the very Sierra Way center he all but helped build. The end of the story is not here, but this is certainly a startling turn of events.

The people I'm talking to right now, who I'll name and quote extensively in tomorrow's paper, are sounding like a broken record.

"Shocked," "Unbelievable," and "Wow" are some of the most common phrases. Some are even admitting they are having trouble believing the charges.

My sources are saying Miller is accused of committing some sort of sexual misconduct on a small child (boy/girl unknown) at the Phoenix center on July 1.

For those who have known or worked with Miller (this reporter included), the allegations about this outwardly gentle, even meek man who seemed to care deeply about his job seem counterintuitive.

More on this later.

Operation Phoenix center manager Mike Miller was arrested today by San Bernardino police.

No word yet on the charges ...

Something is brewing at the Operation Phoenix Center in the 1600 block of Sierra Way. My sources tell me the investigation was thorough and may have included computer equipment confiscation.

By Robert Rogers and Andrew Edwards
Article Launched: 07/03/2008 01:11:16 PM PDT

SAN BERNARDINO - Police conducted an investigation at central Operation Phoenix Youth Center Wednesday night.

The investigation is ongoing, Lt. Scott Paterson said today.

Police are remaining mum on the status and purpose of the investigation at the center, which opened to great fanfare as a flagship of Mayor Pat Morris' anti-crime program.

"We're looking into some issues of concern and that's all we have right now, period," Paterson said. "If ever or when we get some info we can release to the press, naturally we would do so."

At the center about noon today, more than a dozen young children played pool and video games while supervisors looked on.

Center Director Mike Miller was not at the site, and his office was locked. Staff on duty declined to comment on Wednesday's events, referring questions to the Police Department.

Miller has not responded to numerous phone calls, and his number was disconnected late this morning.

City Attorney James F. Penman this morning said that he could not comment on any investigations related to Operation Phoenix or personnel who work for the program.

However, Penman - frequently at odds with Mayor Pat Morris - was highly critical of Operation Phoenix's management practices.

"In general the people responsible for the delivery of service to the people and to the youth do not have the minumum qualifications - and I'm not speaking of Kent Paxton - or they lack proper supervision," Penman said.

Paxton, the mayor's iaison for anti-crime initiatives, has several years of social service experience while working for San Bernardino County.

Calls to the mayor's office had not been returned as of 1 p.m. today.

We'll have a fuller report on this in tomorrow's paper. Police say the driver was drunk and high on cocaine.

The most seriously injured was a teenaged girl. She now lies in a coma, in extremely critical condition.

The 16-year-old was leaving an event after being honored as a young scholar by the local Rotary Club when the minivan she was riding in was hit by a sedan at a high rate of speed.

Reader Bobby Vega sent in these photos. He said this accident occurred at about 1:40 p.m. today near intersection of E and Fifth Streets.

Vega further reported that a passenger was trapped. No word on passenger's condition at this time.

photo by b. vega

Just got off the phone with William Dean Dinoso, who, while riding bikes with his wife and two small children was hit by a fleeing SUV Sunday afternoon in Rialto.

Three local residents lay flowers on Monday (photo by L. Carter)

As one would imagine, Dinoso was distraught and scattered.

He said, "It's all new, I don't even know what to do right now. I'm trying to come to grips with the fact that my little girl is gone."

Dinoso's 1-year-old daughter was killed, and his wife and son remain hospitalized.

Asked about his injuries and his discharge from the hospital yesterday, Dinoso said, "I did what I had to do to get discharged to see my girl and my son. They're going to be okay, I hope. My boy has a head injury; they're doing a surgery on his head today."

Asked if boy make full recovery, Dinoso said, "They're doing surgery on his head, that's all I can say."

Asked about his own injuries, he said, "My heart is really broken right now, it's my heart. I don't know what else is hurting on my body, but my head is going crazy right now."

Dinoso said he had to go.

"I'm sorry, I can't really talk right now. I have to go to the hospital. I have to go now."

We at The Sun devoted a lot of ink to California's historic opening of marriage to same-sex couples.

So did other area newspapers, and rightly so. It was national news.

But since the transition (which, by the way, went more smoothly than I had expected both here and in Riverside County), the ink has dried.

We at The Sun have not taken an editorial page position on this historic and controversial issue. Nor has The Riverside Press Enterprise.

Both papers have remained silent on the issue. Not sure why.

The LA Times did not. They came out in unequivocal support of same-sex marriage.

Newspapers serve two critical functions. One is providing timely, objective news and analysis (the front page). The other is providing editorial commentary (the opinion page).

Newspapers should be the great repository of debate and ideas in any community. The mere fact that I have this blog and am able to speak frankly to you on this and other issues is a testament to our continued devotion to that role.