Police Union v. Mayor Morris, part ll

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By Robert Rogers and Andrew Edwards
Staff Writers

SAN BERNARDINO -- Mayor Pat Morris' recent remarks on the city's expensive compensation packages for safety employees has touched a nerve within the police force.

The mayor, while talking at length to The Sun's editorial board Friday, said city spending on police officers' and firefighters' salaries has diverted money from San Bernardino's parks system.

Morris also said the police union has hindered Operation Phoenix by working to deny new revenues from crime prevention efforts.

The San Bernardino Police Officers Association in turn denounced Morris in a statement that accused the mayor of dumping blame on police for recently discovered problems afflicting the mayor's Operation Phoenix effort.

The union, in a statement dated July 21 and bearing the names of union president Sgt. Rich Lawhead and consultant Joseph Turner, called the mayor "out of touch" with his own program and demanded he accept full responsibility for recent transgressions.

"Mayor Pat Morris' recent attempt to blame ... (the police union) for the demise of Operation Phoenix is shameful and indicative of the systemic accountability failures undermining the program," was the statement's opening line.

Lawhead said by telephone Tuesday that he thinks problems within Operation Phoenix are the mayor's responsibility to repair, but the union's statement is not a wholesale repudiation of Morris' strategy.

"We're not rejecting Operation Phoenix," Lawhead said.

After two years of tepid support from rank-and-file officers for the social aspects of Morris' flagship program, the police union's statement could represents a shift to active opposition. should we have a live quote here?

The move could prove a strain on the department, with rank-and-file officers opposing Phoenix, while Chief Michael Billdt and his command staff have staked themselves as stalwart supporters of the mayor's program.

Friday, Morris took aim at police- and dollar-heavy approaches to crime-fighting.

He said he gave up a rewarding career as a Superior Court judge to clean up the city "with a different model than a simple suppression model."

He said his objective as mayor on the idea of reversing the local trend of answering crime with more an "arrest" mentality fed by "the politics of fear" and predicated on law enforcement, more jails, more courts, etc.

"This (suppression) is a dead model, expensive as hell," Morris said.

Later, Morris again railed at the police union and the City Council, that time for standing back while he stumped for Measure Z -- a sales tax increase for anti-crime programs -- then swooping in to reap the proceeds.

"I went out for Measure Z," Morris said. "I believed the city would (pass) this if I told the story right."

Morris emphasized that he wrote Z and its companion, Measure YY, and always made clear that some of the money was to fund youth-targeted anti-crime programs.

"The police union and some members of the council said it's all for law enforcement," Morris said.

That insistence left no "water in the well" for holistic programs, Morris said, which was a particularly bitter pill since the advisory measure that voters also passed clearly indicated support for services beyond law enforcement.

"I wrote the cotton-picking thing," Morris said.

The union's written statement declares that officers were reluctant to support a tax hike, but were assured the bulk of Measure Z funding would be used to hire 40 new police.
Also on Friday, Morris raised his hands and voice as he sought to explain why funding for parks and recreation has "flatlined for two decades."

"We give the most generous benefits imaginable to our police and fire (personnel)," Morris said.

With ample funds and hefty salaries, their unions have been able to solidify its political power, Morris said.

"They endorse and elect councilpersons," he said.

Lawhead acknoledged the police union has supported six of the seven current council members, but said police do not control the town's politicos.

"If I controlled them, I wouldn't have to be negotiating right now," he said referring to talks on cost-shaving plans related to the current budget crisis.
Tuesday, mayoral chief of staff Jim Morris said the mayor stands by his remarks.

Jim Morris said the mayor's remarks pertaining to Measure Z represent the views that he has continued to express in earlier debates on how to use sales tax funds.

When it comes police officers' and firefighters' pay, Jim Morris said the mayor was not insulting safety employees but simply being frank about how city funds are spent.
"Police and fire salaries are expensive, no doubt," Jim Morris said. "Is that some criticism of them? No. It's a budgetary fact."

San Bernardino does not yet have a full budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. The preliminary budget calls for $30.8 million to be spent on firefighters' salaries and benefits and $58.6 million to be spent on police officers' pay packages.

The preliminary budget for all of Parks, Recreation and Community Services was about $6.7 million.

The preliminary budget was released in June, the City Council has approved nearly $764,000 in budgetary moves -- including deep cuts -- affecting Parks and Recreation.

Jim Morris said the mayor doesn't dispute the need to fund policing, but he said there is room for debate on how much the city should spend fighting acute crime problems and how much should be allocated to services that could prevent crime.

"Do we have 'platinum' police services or do we have 'gold' police services? Because if we can put money into other programs we can address long-term issues that ... drive crime in this city," Jim Morris said.

Operation Phoenix came under fire on July 3 when central community center Manager Mike Miller was arrested on allegations of child molestation. Since then, internal documents and emails have demonstrated Miller was in the midst of a four-month run of misconduct that went unnoticed by the Mayor or general public.

Morris said his administration was still searching with how to cope with the fallout since Miller's arrest.

"This has been a brutal moment," Morris said.

In the statement, the union admits it was "reluctant" to endorse or support Measure Z because it felt residents were "already taxed too much." But once it was passed, the union acted to "ensure that the bulk" of the funds were used to hire additional police officers.

"Simply put, no amount of additional funding can overcome the gross mismanagement and systemic lack of accountability within the program and its leadership," the release reads.