Charter memos now a trilogy

Beyond the specifics of the truck issue, the memos consist of a debate over who should do what on the Sixth Floor of City Hall, with first City Attorney James F. Penman contending that Mayor Pat Morris overstepped his bounds. Morris responded with a missive that asserted Penman had done the same.

It's probably worth mentioning at this point that Morris is a former San Bernardino Superior Court Judge. His son and chief of staff Jim Morris also has a law degree. There isn't exactly a shortage of personalities on the Sixth Floor of City Hall with an interest in debating the law, which in this case, is the City Charter.

"Memo Wars" began with what this reporter will call "A New Debate." Aug. 12 was a period of civil disagreement and Penman wrote a strongly-worded memo that asserted Pat Morris improperly sought to use his influence to convince city staffers to negotiate with MWD to find a way for the trucks to roll through the city. (The City Charter provides that the City Manager has authority to issue direct orders to city workers. The mayor has "general supervision over all departments and institutions of the city" and the duty to suppress riots and tumults.)

The second chapter of our story was written on Aug. 15, with a memo that will be referred to here as "The Mayor's Office Strikes Back." In this communication, the mayor wrote that he never attempted to boss anyone around during discussions of the truck problem, but simply encouraged city employees to find a solution that suits the interests of all parties.

Mayor Morris further argued that Penman should exercise his duties to provide legal advice by directly writing to the City Manager, instead of writing to pretty much every important San Bernardino official.

Penman's initial memo warned that city staffers could be fired if they obeyed an mayoral order contrary to the chain of command outlined in the City Charter. Morris' response in his memo was that Penman's tactic was a threat that could "create a destabilizing and intimidating environment" within City Hall.

The third entry in the Memo Wars Trilogy - "The Return of the Lawyer" - was written Aug. 26 by senior assistant city attorney John Wilson. Wilson here asserts that the City Attorney's office is not interested a political battles and also maintains that "appointed city officials are expressing concerns to individual attorneys in this office about political interference by the Mayor's office in the day-to-day operations of their department," however, none of these staffers are willing to say as much in public.

Wilson wrote the charter does not outline the kind of chain of command, that as described by Pat Morris, would require a city attorney to deliver advice to the City Manager, who would later forward messages to subordinates.

Wilson also writes that if Pat Morris wants the City Manager (who has a Charter-mandated duty to regularly confer with the City Attorney) to carry messages between the City Attorney and other officials, the mayor should have allowed City Manager Fred Wilson write the second memo rather than "presuming to speak on his behalf."

(The City Charter mandates the City Attorney to provide legal advice upon written request by other city officials, but as far as this reporter can tell, is silent as to whether the City Attorney should provide unsolicited advice. Given that more than two centuries of American jurisprudence have given us a country where educated people still disagree about what the Bill of Rights does and does not allow, this reporter is not surprised that San Bernardino officials are debating a charter that in its revised form, is only about two and one half year's old.)