September 2008 Archives

This reporter spoke with Cal State San Bernardino professor Jim Mulvihill today regarding the federal government's plan to spend nearly $4 billion nationwide to help local officials rehabilitate foreclosed homes.

The federal plan would send $8.4 million to San Bernardino to allow the Economic Development Agency to purchase foreclosed homes. The homes could then be fixed-up and sold to new buyers. The theory behind the plan is that government action can prevent the houses from becoming empty pockets of blight.

The money won't be enough to allow San Bernardino officials to buy all, or even 10 percent of the homes that home been foreclosed in the time between Aug. 2007 and Aug. 2008. However, Mulvihill said the cash infusion could help the EDA make a dent in the problem.

In Mulvihill's view, the plan isn't perfect. The feds require that 25 percent of program funds be used to house people earning less than 50 percent of their area's median income. Mulvihill said that in San Bernardino, that would mean people making less than $25,000 per year who could have trouble paying for the repair and maintenence costs that go along with home ownership, even if the government can help them buy a house.

Mulvihill studies urban planning in for the Geography and Environmental Studies Department at Cal State. He also challenged Wendy McCammack for the 7th Ward Council seat in the 2006 election.

The big national story of the day is the House of Representatives' rejection of the massive Wall Street bailout. Here's a story that Josh Dulaney and this reporter worked on a different federal attempt to stabilize the tottering U.S. economy.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program is basically a transfer of nearly $4 billion in federal funds to prevent foreclosed homes from falling into disrepair. This reporter plans on doing follow-up work, hopefully in time for Wednesday's edition, that will gather insight from economists and real estate figures in order to understand if the program is likely to succeed.

The story follows after the jump:

We'll have a short story in Tuesday's paper on the future of CinemaStar, or perhaps more accurately, the movie theater that has been known as CinemaStar.

Don Gee, deputy director of the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency, said the people at CinemaStar still have the ball in their court. It's still their right to assign the lease to another party. San Bernardino officials have the power to ratify any such deal.

Earlier this month, a Los Angeles-based company called Maya Cinemas appeared to be ready to take over the Cinema Star, which is on Fourth Street downtown. On Sept. 15, he City Council, acting in its capacity as Community Development Commission, had an agenda item to allow for a Los Angeles-based company called Maya Cinemas to run the movie theater. However, the issue was withdrawn from consideration.

The EDA owns the theater building and land where CinemaStar did business downtown. Gee said the EDA collects $82,000 per month and officials have recently attempted to make things easier on CinemaStar to keep the theater in business.

If CinemaStar defaults, that would clear the way for the EDA to find someone new to run the theater. Gee said officials have conversed with potential tenants.

"People have called us, and we've called them," Gee said.

This reporter just got back into the office after checking out CinemaStar to see what was new at the theater following Wesley G. Hughes' article that ran Saturday on the cinema's closure.

The place is indeed closed. A delivery truck was parked outside the main entrance, apparantly to haul stuff away. A message taped to the ticket windows reports CinemaStar is "closed for renovation."

A woman at CinemaStar refused to comment on happenings at the theater in any way. She also refused to provide any phone number for a company representative who would be able to comment.

Mayoral chief of staff Jim Morris said in Saturday's edition of The Sun that city officials are close to reaching a deal with a new theater operator.

Here's an article that looks at high-level city offices that are set to be occupied by new people in a few months or so. The article strictly looks at city positions - City Manager, Police Chief, Code Enforcement Director, 4th Ward Council Member.

In the Economic Development Agency, director Emil Marzullo is serving as an interim leader, but this article doesn't look at the EDA. This reporter plans on paying some more attention to the EDA and its activities in the near future, so keep checking out SB Now.

Here's the article:

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - The city is in for some big changes.

Within a span of some months, San Bernardino will have a new city manager, a new police chief and a new council member representing the city's 4th Ward.

There could be even more changes in play for high-level city leaders. Code Enforcement Director Glenn Baude has been relieved of his duties since July and although the council has held several closed-door meetings to discuss his fate, nothing has been announced.

And of course, there's always a chance other city figures could retire, find a new job or end up stepping into some as-yet undiscovered hornet's nest.

At the very least, San Bernardino's next city manager will go to work in a city where politics are played like old-time football - three (or more) arguments and a cloud of dust.

As reported in today's edition of The Sun, the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency has hired a consultant to draft an action plan to jolt downtown Berdoo back to life.

San Bernardino residents have probably heard more than a few words about plans over the years. Consultant Vaughan Davies of EDAW Inc. acknowledged as much Wednesday when he said his company's report needs to be completed by the end of the year so the city can get started on a major project (he mentioned a new town square) that would be completed in an 18-month timeframe to show actual progress downtown.

We'll see how events play out. For now, this post is open to readers to write about what they want (or don't want) to see built downtown.

Fire away.

Just got word that SB Now is back in action after about a day's worth of technical difficulties.

For those who didn't know, this will be last post on SBNOW, the blog that I launched and that you, the readers, have helped Andrew and I nourish into a 2,000+ readers daily online news source.

I have submitted my resignation and will be leaving The Sun. I plan on attending graduate school.

Writing local stories and providing you all with information has been the best time of life.

I am especially proud of my last posts, the ones that have provided a more human look at the real anguish of urban violence and have called out other media for too often just writing "another gangmember dead" -type stories.

This will be last post. Thank you all for reading, writing and searching for the truth in order to make a better community.

Robert Rogers

SAN BERNARDINO -- This year's budget cuts will soon hit home for the Police Department employees and residents who made use of the substations that have given cops a physical presence around the city.

Lt. Scott Paterson, the department's spokesman, said all six community substations are on schedule to be closed doors by Oct. 1.

That's the same day that police commanders expect to work under a reorganized structure that increases the number of patrol beats and replaces the neighborhood substations with an Internet-based system.

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

By Robert Rogers
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO -- City leaders began talks Monday with two prominent law enforcement figures about conducting an internal probe into the city's Police Department.
Former Fontana and Rialto Police Chief Frank Scialdone and Cal State San Bernardino criminologist Larry Gaines met Monday with Mayor Pat Morris, Police Chief Michael Billdt and acting City Manager Lori Sassoon.

In journalism, there are a few maxims. Strive for truth. Remain objective. Give both sides of a political debate an opportunity to speak.

And go to the scene of a homicide!

Why is that important?

It's important for balance, for a deeper view of the way the crime unfolded, for those invaluable details from the scene.

But most important is remaining in touch with the humanity of these tragedies.

I went to a scene yesterday that was heartbreaking, even for a reporter like me who has been to dozens of homicide scenes and funerals in three years.

A handful of women and small children humbly trudged up "A-Block" on the West side with a few cheap balloons. They stopped where 18-year-old Marshawn Hampton was killed. Some cried. They all talked softly about their friend, their nephew, their cousin, their brother.

All of that is in today's paper, along with the brief police description of what happened and the police contention that Marshawn was a "gangmember." Marshawn had no criminal record.

The story could have very easily gone a different way.

I could have not gone to the scene, and instead just relied on some scant info from police. That happens all the time, even in our own backyard.

The story would have been much simpler: "Gangmember gunned down," or something along those lines. And the message would have been clear:

The lives of young men, especially young black men, don't even warrant more than a blurb in the paper.

Their loved ones' descriptions of them are ignored, and instead we rely on some one-dimensional description from police ...

"Gangmember."

Newspapers do that all the time. And it's a problem.

Newspapers don't become a part of the blood and fiber of a community with a bunch of reporters who stay anchored to their desks, or avoid certain neighborhoods.

When you don't go out and feel the tragedy, the sobbing mother, the bloodstained porch, the child asking his mommy why people die, you become calloused and insulated ... and calloused reporters have a stilted ability to report the community they cover.

Here is my report on crime stats in San Bernardino. The bottom line is that Mayor Pat Morris and Police Chief Michael Billdt's heady claims in February that the city is safer than it has been in a quarter century are challenged by the FBI's newest crime report.

This is a slightly longer version of the story that appears in today's Sun Newspaper.

SAN BERNARDINO -- With 2007 barely over, police and political leaders were flush with confidence in their fight against crime.

Statistics provided by the Police Department seemed to indicate most crimes at historic lows, and Mayor Pat Morris declared his anti-crime platform - Operation Phoenix - a key part of the success.

But final statistics released by the FBI last week show that news on the crime front was not quite so rosy.

For all the spending on anti-crime efforts over the past three years - including a new helicopter, dozens more police officers and saturation patrols - San Bernardino remains among the state's deadliest cities.

The city holds the infamous honor of having the state's fourth highest murder rate per capita in 2007, trailing only Oakland, Richmond and Compton.

In February, Police Chief Michael Billdt tabulated historical data and Morris was quick to comment to local newspapers about how the city was in one of its safest period ever.

On Monday, Lt. Scott Paterson, the department's spokesman, said department leaders have never taken crime lightly or spun the situation positive to the public.

"Never have we minimized the crime in this city," Paterson said. "The chief, the mayor and the department were pointing to the significant progress we've made, they were thanking the men and women of the department and the stakeholders in the city."

With 45 murders in 2007, the murder rate stood at 2.24 murders per 10,000 people. By comparison, in 1999, when the city's population stood at 189,133 and 23 murders were committed, the rate was 1.22 murders per 10,000 people, meaning the city's murder rate was nearly twice as high in 2007 as it was in 1999.

When other violent crimes were factored in, however, the overall violent crime rate in 2007 was lower than during any year since 1985, thanks to drops in other crimes outweighing the historically high homicide rate.

Criminologists typically cite criminal homicide numbers as the most important figure in measuring big-city crime because it cannot be affected by under-reporting or other statistical vagaries.

Thus far this year, the city has had 26 homicides, 24 classified as murders, including two last weekend, numbers that are well below last year's pace.

But not everyone was convinced when Morris and others touted the crime drop earlier this year. Nor are they convinced now.

"Crime is up around here," said E.J. Ford, a 55-year-old resident of "The Projects," a West side neighborhood, while sitting on his porch. The night before, a hail of gunfire killed an 18-year-old man Ford said he watched grow up on those rugged streets.

"People are tense, you hear gunshots," Ford said. "I've known a lot of people who've been killed out here."

Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, a frequent Morris critic, said the statistics Morris and Billdt cite are suspect.

"My biggest concern when crime stats are discussed is are they being skewed or described in such a way that gives people a false sense of security," McCammack said. "My second concern is it appears to me, based on the amount of crime I know exists where I live and work, that quite a few crimes are going unreported. You can claim that your safer now than in the past 20 years, but that's based on stats that have no validity if crime is underreported or reclassified."

Allegations have floated for months from some, including retired Capt. Jeff Breiten, that the department has ordered crimes that in the past would have been deemed violent crimes to be downgraded, thus lowering the overrall violent crime rate. The speculation has been fueled by persistently high homicide rates coupled with plunging rates of other crimes in recent years.

In 1997, police recorded 16,265 total violent crimes, compared to 12,242 in 2007, a drop of 25 percent. Yet 2007 saw 45 murders, a 20 percent hike over 1997, a disparity some see as troubling.

Police leaders have denied any change in reporting policy that would cause a disparity.
Paterson said Monday the city's crime fight is far from over, but praised the department's work in driving down crime.

"We've made a significant impact on things with proactive enforcement," Paterson said. "Is it done, no, we're not done, we have a lot of work to do."

I just got back from a tragic scene on the West side. Friends and family mourned the shooting death of an 18-year-old San Bernardino man Sunday night.

Here is my initial report ...
______

Bulletholes pocked the grey cinderblock facade of a subsidized housing unit, just to the right of the door. Marshawn "Derrick" Hampton, 18, never made it inside.

The fatal bullet felled him on the small concrete porch.

This is a photo I took at about 4 p.m., of friends and family gathered around the porch on which Hampton was killed. Some cried. These small children are sitting right where Hampton laid when he was mortally wounded.

On Monday, less than 24 hours later, the porch was adorned with candles and multi-colored balloons. About 10 family and friends, all women, some with small children, clustered around the porch and talked in hushed tones.

Shirley Keegan, Hampton's aunt, stood expressionless by a massive oak tree, it's trunk bearing the scars of Sunday night's gunfire.

"He was important to us, we loved him," Keegan said. "This isn't some gang-related killing in a poor black neighborhood that is going to go unsolved. The police need to find the person who did this."

Keegan, like others at the vigil, described Hampton as an avid sports fan who liked to play basketball and football. They said he had a longtime girlfriend who is in high school. His mother and father lived separately in the West side neighborhoods, and he had always been fond of his grandmother.

"She is so hurt by this, in a lot of pain," Keegan said.

Hampton did not graduate, Keegan said, instead spending some time in court-ordered youth camps. Police said little about Hampton's slaying, other than to say he was a documented gang member. Hampton had been 18-years-old for nine months, but had nothing on his record more serious than a traffic violation in San Bernardino County.

"I was trying to get him into the C.C.C. (California Conservation Corps)," she said.

People at the makeshift vigil said Hampton had been standing near the curb with a group of friends, talking, Sunday night. An argument had occurred between two other men earlier in the evening, they said, with one stalking off angrily.

"He came back and shot the place up," Keegan said. "Derrick was just an innocent bystander."

Hampton had a younger brother and a twin sister, said Raynieka Barnes, 21, who identified herself as Hampton's older sister.

Barnes, her face streamed with tears, said Hampton was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She disputed that Hampton was a gang member. She, and others, say police are prone to documenting every young black man in the neighborhood as a gang member.

"There's a difference between gang banging and living in the hood," Barnes said. "He wanted to get out, he wanted to do something, he just hadn't figured things out yet."

The tree-lined blocks of these subsidized housing units have been notorious for bloodshed in recent years. Locals call the neighborhood "The Projects," and the street on which Hampton was slain is known as "A-block," a moniker that owes its origins to prison vernacular, said E.J. Ford, 55.

Ford added that another victim, a girl or young woman, was injured when she was hit with with bullets or bullet fragments Sunday night. Ford said shots were heard in the neighborhood the night before, a grim portent of the bloodshed to come.

"It's really bad out here," Ford said, sitting on his porch. "I knew all day something was going to happen."

Below is my selection for letter of the week. There were hundreds to sort through. Many were more complete, smarter, more passionate and more informative.

But this one was funny. Biting, satirical humor directed at political leaders has been a hallmark of American democracy, from Ben Franklin to Mark Twain to Will Rogers.

This four-line ditty came from an anonymous reader:

Tower to Morris: We have a bogie in your nine o'clock over city hall

Morris to Tower: Quick! dispatch Iceman to intercept the bogie!

Tower to Morris: Sorry Mayor, Iceman is grounded

Morris to Tower: Dammit!!

This was the conversation starter Saturday at the Route 66 Rendezvous.

The police union initiated the move, which is an outgrowth of the open war raging between Chief Michael Billdt and his rank and file.

The banner reads: "Mayor Morris support your cops remove the problem at the top."

Part of an irregular series in which we look at wise words from history and how they deepen our understanding of the here and now ...

"When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained." - Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), radio and television journalist.

Murrow was arguably the 20th century's greatest American journalist. It wasn't because he had a silvery voice or got his facts straight or put words together with beauty and precision (although he did all those things), he was great because of his grasp of the free press' role in democracy and his courage to face down powerful figures and uncomfortable truths.

So, in this quote, we get a little bit of all that was special in Murrow: The wit, the humor, the deep understanding and the fearlessness, all on display.

What Murrow was saying in a light and artful way is that people in power will often fling blame at those who expose the truth, as a method of distraction and defense.

We see this philosophy tested time and time again. Remember when fomer Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (and others) suggested that the tragic debacle in Iraq was in part a journalistic creation? How about when Bill Clinton supporters blamed a "frenzied media" for his lying and philandering in the White House? Don't forget Ronald Reagan's top press people and other supporters railing against the "media" for making too much ado about his administrations' illegal arms dealing in the Iran Contra affair.

Now ask yourself: Here, in San Bernardino, how many times have politicians or other civic leaders attempted to excuse uncomfortable truths by blaming local newspapers for reporting them?

Civic leaders who dispute not the truth, but it's full public airing, would serve themselves well by heeding advice Murrow would issue, paraphrasing another scribe, William Shakespeare, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Another installment of our irregular series that gives a little glimpse into the place and people who put out your local newspaper ...

In this installment, we'll look at Louis Amestoy.

I frankly am not sure exactly what Louis' fancy title is, but he is some kind of managing editor, basically the big kahuna strutting around the newsroom floor.

Check this pic below, of Louis holding forth with an impromptu mid-day session on community journalism in the digital age. Seated behind him, pecking away at a communications device, is the biggest enchilada of all as far as The Sun and its sister newspapers are concerned, Steve Lambert (can't recite his exact title either, so much for sucking up to the bosses!)

Louis is kind of a freak of nature to anybody who has worked with him. I once heard another top editor refer to him as a "finish line guy." Later, I appreciated how appropriate that description is.

Louis isn't one to sit around and philosophize or fritter away minutes over some trivial nuance (that would be my problem), he is an action man, the kind of guy who can't sit still long enough to get bogged down with anything.

Always driving, always upbeat, Louis was born to prowl a newsroom floor.

"What are you doing?" ... "What's your status!" he'll bark, shocking idle reporters into pounding on keyboards or telephone number dials.

"Robert Rogers," he'll shout, inexplicably ... my pace always quickens.

But Louis has everyone behind him. He has something too few managers can pull off - the ability to balance professional drive and high expectations with levity and unpretensiousness. He gets people to perform without having to swing a big stick - reaping the results without whipping the backlash.

He's also a doer, the proverbial "hands-on" manager who is as comfortable hoofing around the Route 66 Rendezvous with pockets abuzz with cameras and cell phones (as he did this weekend) as he is smartly reclining in some suit-and-tie board meeting.

So, that's Louis Amestoy: Wild-eyed, energetic, maybe a little nuts ... a guy who's got news ink boiling in his blood.

I didn't see it with my own eyes, but reports are coming in that a plane circled over the city towing a banner that called for Mayor Pat Morris to dismiss Police Chief Michael Billdt.

I'm told by sources that the San Bernardino Police Officers Association arranged for/funded the display.

I don't know the exact words on the banner, but Sun photographers snapped photos, so we'll have that soon.

Billdt has been at odds with his union for weeks, and the rank and file recently cast an overwhelming vote of no-confidence in his leadership.

Morris announced this week that Billdt will retire when his contract expires in March.

The dramatic message was seen by thousands attending the annual Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous.

Today's story makes clear that Mayor Morris and Chief Billdt are publicly proclaiming the chief will not serve past March.

They also indicated this has been a longterm decision that has not changed. Morris said Billdt's intention all along was to retire. He said he tried to get him to stay on one last time with an entreaty in August, but Billdt declined.

Billdt himself said he's wanted to pursue new interests and spend time with his family.

Sources in City Hall and the Police Department who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that as recently as three weeks ago Billdt was actively lobbying for a contract extension and telling colleagues he planned to stay on beyond March.

We'll be following this story ...

Major story. The search for the new chief should be interesting. It's certainly crucial for the city to get the right man or woman for longterm leadership.

Click below ...

A look the latest news about Chief Michael Billdt and his future with the city ...

Click below ...

In last night's marathon closed session City Council meeting, Mayor Pat Morris told the council that Chief Michael Billdt will not seek nor accept a new contract when his current one expires in March, Mayor Pat Morris said Thursday.

"A recruitment takes 4 to 6 months typcially," Morris said. "We're driving forward right now, we told the council Mike's desire to retire."

Morris added that the decision to retire in March 2009 had always been in place, but that it's announcement was delayed by recent calls for the chief's ouster by the police union.

Morris said he asked the chief at the beginning of the summer if he may be interested in another tour, and that Billdt gave him his firm decline in August.

POA President Rich Lawhead said Thursday morning that Billdt must step down immediately and be replaced by an interim leader from outside the department while a national search for a permanent replacement is conducted.

Interesting story for tomorrow's paper about a flap over the campus bookstore at California State University San Bernardino.

A private company has taken over management for the first time, and quickly sparked ire of faculty and students by blurring the line between "required" and "suggested" materials.

Click below to read the full ...

Just got word that Sgts. Rich Lawhead and Steve Filson will be meeting with The Sun's editorial board Thursday to lay out their side of the story regarding the feud with Chief Michael Billdt, pictured below.

I should also add that anyone who wants to have a full picture of the history of the chief's tenure in San Bernardino should read my work in an earlier post, where I highlight every major public issue the chief has been involved in for the last three years.

A similar invitation to Billdt has not been delivered, but will be after the discussion with the police union leaders.

During a telephone interview earlier this week, Andrew Edwards asked Billdt if he would be willing to meet with a reporter for a lengthy discussion about issues gripping the city. Billdt declined, but left the door open for to the possibility of a discussion in the future. When Andrew first took over the San Bernardino beat, he invited Billdt to lunch to have a discussion. Billdt declined.

Today we ran a story about the city's top event trucking along in this tough economy.

Some noteworthy things were said in this piece, namely that the event is expected to draw 8 to 12 percent less people and dollars, a significant economic hit.

___________________________
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
The 19th annual Route 66 Rendezvous rides into San Bernardino at 6 p.m. Thursday and leaves a trail of exhaust at 4 p.m. Sunday.

City leaders hope the event is a shot in the arm to local businesses struggling in a tough economy.

PRE-REGISTERED CARS
1,300, down from 1,500 last year

VENDORS
About 150 (same as last year)

PRIVATE SPONSORSHIP DOLLARS
Down 25 percent

ATTENDANCE, SPENDING
Estimated decline of 8 percent to 12 percent

Click below for the full ...

Here is a new blog called IE Papers offering analysis/criticsm of articles published by The Sun and our competitors at the Press Enterprise.

IE Papers section on San Bernardino and Riverside area news coverage is secondary to the blog's main page, which assesses press coverage of southwest Riverside County. This reporter has clicked around the sites and it looks like the blogger(s) is anonymous, but judging from the site's knowledge of who's who at the PE and advice to news writers on how to write stories, it appears as if the blogger is an ex-PE writer or editor with a few years of experience under his or her belt.

SB Now welcomes IE Papers to blog world and only asks that whoever's behind the site takes a closer look at The Sun's offerings. We can take the scrutiny.

As expected, the City Council set aside a potential deal with Cal State San Bernardino that would have made Fiscalini Field the school's home venue for baseball.

The agreement may happen at some point in the future, but the university Athletic Director Kevin Hatcher has said that talks had gone on too long to make the deal work since the Coyotes needed a field for fall scrimmages.

San Bernardino Adult Baseball and Pony Baseball players currently use Fiscalini. Members of both recreational leagues have said said they want to continue to play ball at the Highland Avenue stadium. Part of the issue was ballplayers' resistance to the idea of moving to Delmann Heights Park on the Westside, with the potential for crime being voiced as a concern.

Monday, 6th Ward Councilman Rikke Van Johnson took issue with players not wanting to take the field at Delmann.

"The parks on the Westside are very good, and if they don't want to use the parks in our city, they can find another city," Johnson said.

Below is a press release from the San Bernardino Valley Water Consolidation District:

At their regular meeting today, the City of San Bernardino Water Department Board of Directors voted unanimously to oppose the proposed consolidation of the San Bernardino Valley Water Conservation District and the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (Muni).

The action came after the board heard from representatives of the Conservation District, who presented information from a recent study that calls into question alleged savings to taxpayers and issues surrounding the protection of local water from the proposed consolidation.

"We are heartened by the action of the City of San Bernardino," said Robert Neufeld, General Manager of the Conservation district.

"As more people begin to understand that this proposed consolidation has serious financial implications for taxpayers and that agencies outside the county will begin receiving our local water , we believe the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) will make the right decision and allow all of us to get on with the business of providing local water for local use," Neufeld commented.

Here's an article set to run Wednesday on the evolving story of Police Chief Michael Billdt's standing vis-a-vis the unions:

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- In anticipation of Wednesday's private meeting the City Council and Police Chief Michael Billdt, First Ward Councilwoman Esther Estrada all but said the chief should step down.
"I think the fact that the majority of the union has taken a vote of no confidence, and now the (support) staff has issued a vote of no confidence is a very serious thing," she said Tuesday. "I can't imagine that any administrator in that type of situation, in that type of work environment would want to remain."
"Is it time for the chief to stay or leave?," she asked later. "I think he's an intelligent man. I hope he's able to read the tea leaves on this one."
Billdt said in he's looking forward to tonight's scheduled meet with the council. He intends to stay on as chief and lead San Bernardino's crime fighting efforts.
"I'm going to continue to do the work of the city," Billdt said.
The council is scheduled to meet behind closed doors at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Billdt ascended to the top of the San Bernardino Police Department in Jan. 2006, serving first as interim chief before being confirmed in the job in May of that year.
Lately, a rift between Billdt and the rank and file has become public.
On Sept. 5, 76 percent of police union members who took part in a no confidence vote cast ballots against the police chief.
The department's support staffers followed suit on Monday when more than 95 percent of about 120 non-sworn employees voted no confidence in Billdt.
Tuesday, Billdt offered praise to those seeking to remove him from office.
"We have a great department. We have hard working officers," he said.
(Staff Writer Robert Rogers contributed to this report.)

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- Five civilian Police Department employees in danger of being laid off now appear to be able to keep their jobs following the City Council's decision to use Measure Z dollars on their paychecks.
The decision shows that Measure Z -- the sales tax hike that San Bernardino voters agreed to in 2006 to beef up anti-crime efforts -- is now being used in part to hold the line on Police Department staffing at a time when city finances have taken a turn for the worse.
The council cast a 5-1 vote on Monday to spend slightly more than $284,000 of Measure Z dollars to keep the five civilian positions on the Police Department payroll.
The employees saved are one community service officer supervisor responsible for red light cameras, two community service officers, a forensic technician and a fleet expediter.
Early on in this summer's extensive budget debates, that money was set to be allocated to keep the Police Department's helicopter in the air.
But on Sept. 2, the council acted to delete aerial patrols from the budget and use the money to finance three detectives' and three sergeants' positions.
But on Monday, the council changed course on both the Measure Z and helicopter issues. The council's previous decision to fund the six officers' positions would have allowed police commanders to promote current officers, but not provided for a net increase in the city's police force.
Based on the idea that cutting support staffers would have resulted in sworn police officers spending time at desks instead of in the field, the council redirected money to prevent five nonsworn employees from being laid off.
"Do we want to keep as many law enforcement officers on the street as possible? Yes," Seventh Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack said Tuesday.
McCammack maintained that since the five nonsworn employees were otherwise set to lose their jobs, the Measure Z dollars being used to pay their salaries still represent an enhancement to San Bernardino's policing capabilities.
Also on Monday, the council reversed its decision to cancel the helicopter contract with Riverside-based California Aviation Services.
City Attorney James F. Penman said that decision was made during closed session, and that the secrecy was legally justified because of the possibility that nixing the helicopter contract could have exposed City Hall to a litigation.
"There was a legal issue as to whether the city had authority to unilaterally cancel the contract," Penman said.
Acting City Manager Lori Sassoon said the helicopter is not currently accounted for in the city budget.
"There will need to be action to pay for the helicopter contract at the next City Council meeting," she said. "So we will need to identify a way to pay for that contract."
When the police helicopter was still in the budget, officials expected to spend nearly $556,000 to give police a bird's eye view of the city. Penman said San Bernardino officials now intend to renegotiate the deal.
Police Chief Michael Billdt said department administrators will work to implement the council's decisions. Helicopter patrols have not ceased since the now-cancelled decision to axe the program.
San Bernardino officials expect the Measure Z sales tax to generate about $7 million in revenues during the budget year ending June 30. Unused dollars from the previous budget cycle would allow the Police Department to use about $7.7 million in Measure Z funds, while the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department would get $149,000 to run the city's three Operation Phoenix community centers.
Monday's vote does not change the highly-publicized plans to hire a net total of 40 new police officers by the end of the budget year.

City Attorney James F. Penman called this reporter's phone this morning and announced that City Officials forgot to to disclose during Monday night's City Council meeting that the council reversed a previous decision to cancel SBPD's helicopter contract.

The helicopter contract was initially scrapped to free up money to finance six sworn officers' positions. Monday, the council changed course and voted to redirect those funds to pay for five SBPD staffers who perform support tasks, the idea being that keeping those jobs on the payroll will allow cops to spend more time on the streets.

The helicopter contract was discussed in closed session and Penman said the secrecy was legal because the earlier decision to cancel the coptract may have exposed the city to litigation. The question was whether the city had the legal ability to unilaterally cancel the deal.

I'm working on a fuller story and will update when an article is ready for print.

Thanks to a loyal reader who tipped us off tonight, I have confirmed that more than 95 percent of the San Bernardino Police Department's civilian employees have delivered a "no confidence" vote in Police Chief Michael Billdt.

The vote, from about 120 non-sworn employees, follows a 76 percent "no confidence" vote from the police union earlier this month.

How this will play out is tough to say. Not exactly sure how much weight this has with Mayor Pat Morris or the City Council.

It does seem to disprove - if it still needed to be disproved - the theory that the backlash against Billdt is the product of a few police union malcontents, an explanation Morris and Billdt-supporters have continued to voice as the crisis has deepened.

Yesterday, I posted the most comprehensive history of the twists and turns of San Bernardino Police Chief Michael Billdt's career you'll find anywhere.

The chronological story is crucial for understanding today's current situation. Understanding it is crucial too, because the city will almost surely soon have a new chief, and readers need all the perspective about Billdt to have an idea what they want in their next chief.

Sources high in City Hall say there is zero chance Chief Billdt will get a fresh contract when this one expires in March. Certainly, Billdt doesn't need the job, as he will be in line for around $180,000 annually in a taxpayer-funded pension for the rest of his life, so he may not have any interest in another tour anyway.

The question now is whether Billdt makes it to March. Wednesday's meeting, where Billdt will address the City Council and answer questions behind closed doors, is crucial.

The council can conduct the meeting in secret thanks to an exception to the Brown Act that allows performance evaluations to be kept private.

This reporter knows Chief Michael Billdt pretty well, having dealt with, questioned and written about him a lot over the past two-plus years.

I want you to know him better too, so read below for a gllmpse ...

News for San Bernardino, coming in fast and heavy like a thrash metal rhythm ...

The City Council, acting as the Community Development Commission, authorized Economic Development Agency officials to begin redevelopment efforts for "The Meridians," a cluster of Westside apartments that are regarded as hotspots for crime and other problems. The apartments will likely be razed, and the EDA will be obligated to help current residents find new homes.

The council again redirected Measure Z funds for the Police Department. Earlier, the council voted to divert sales tax revenues from SBPD's helicopter program to finance six sworn officers' positions. However, the council again changed its mind Monday and opted to fund five nonsworn positions. SBPD doesn't lose any cops with the move but financing the civilians' jobs reinstates five positions that were on tap to be excised from the Police Department's budget.

In other personnel news, the council accepted several staffers' voluntary demotions as means to preserve jobs during this lean budget year.

Acting City Manager Lori Sassoon after the close of the long meeting that the council and Police Chief Michael Billdt are scheduled to meet in a special closed-door session meeting on Wednesday.

The police union has voted no confidence in Billdt and union president Sgt. Rich Lawhead spoke at the close of the meeting to repeat the union's demand for a change in leadership and call for outside intervention in the management of SBPD.

Billdt did not speak at the meeting. He has said he wants to resolve the rift with the rank and file and continue to be in charge of the city's crime fighting operations.

I went out last week and saw the finishing touches being put on an impressive new, 3-story building off Waterman Avenue and Gilbert Street.

It will be a new 90 unit senior housing complex and should open before year's end

Click below to read this story below before it gets to print ...

Sources are telling Robert Rogers and myself that Police Chief Michael Billdt's scheduled talks with the City Council could be delayed.

Billdt was scheduled to meet with the City Council today behind closed doors. The council's agenda showed that in regards to Billdt, the council had simply scheduled a personnel-related discussion for the Police Chief.

The closed session part of today's meeting was set to begin at 1:30 p.m.

The police union has voted no confidence in Billdt and wants him gone. Billdt has said he wants to resolve the dispute with the city's officers and remain on duty as San Bernardino's top cop.

Postponing today's discussion could give Billdt more time to prepare for any questions that council may have about his leadership or disagreements within the department. Likewise, council members could have more time to hone their questions.

The City Council is slated to hold a vote this afternoon on plans to raze a set of troubled Westside apartment complexes known as The Meridians.

The complexes are at the far west side of San Bernardino, near the crossing of Fifth Street and Meridian Avenue.

The vote by the council, acting as the Community Development Commission, would clear the way for San Bernardino Economic Development Agency officials to begin the process of purchasing 18 apartment complexes. Agency officials would also be required to help tenants move out of the complexes before the buildings could be demolished to make room for new development.

Officials expect the cost of redeveloping the apartment complexes will be about $6.3 million.

A second phase of redevelopment activity for nearby commercial property could cost about $11.7 million.The council would need to take a future vote to begin this phase.

Below is the second installment of the history that has brought us to the current controversy surrounding Police Chief Michael Billdt.

This one will succinctly wrap recent events in a clear, understandable, chronological way. I'm doing this because you, our readers, need to understand this controversy, which has been marked by half-truths and rumors, as fully as possible.

Here goes ...

July 3: Amidst a city budget crunch, the department still sees major jumps in overall funding, but Billdt comes up with some cost-cutting measures. He wants to keep the $500,000-plus helicopter, but opts to cut community policing offices. When he first took the job, he repeatedly vowed to make community policing a priority.

From the PE: San Bernardino Police Chief Mike Billdt is proposing a new patrol plan that would increase the number of neighborhood beats, boost police presence on the streets during high-crime periods and do away with little-used walk-in offices in favor of multiagency community service centers.City Council members will consider the proposal Monday.Among Billdt's key recommendations:
_____________________________________

July 17: The City Council decides to keep vacant six officer positions. The amount saved is about the same as that required to maintain the helicopter.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - The Police Department will have to make do without funding for six sworn officers' positions following the City Council's moves to slice more than $1.3 million from the budget Wednesday. The council voted 4-3 to leave three sergeants' and three detectives' positions vacant. The sacrifice in manpower is expected to save the city nearly $654,000.
_____________________________________

July 17: Reports come in alleging that Sgt. Bradley Lawrence has a practice of illegally detaining residents. Despite the allegation coming from a fellow officer and including ample written and recorded evidence, Lawrence is allowed to continue working. Allegations also surface that Lawrence is an officer favored by the administration and, in particular, Lt. Brian Boom, known in the department as a loyal Billdt supporter.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - A police sergeant says a colleague has a practice of scooping people off the streets and detaining them without arresting them, charging them or booking them while probing for evidence to bring charges.

The exercise is even referred to by a special term, said Sgt. Mike Desrochers.

"It's called keeping them on ice," Desrochers said. "It's keeping a guy, with no phone calls, in the hopes you'll find something later. It's pretty clear that Fourth Amendment issues are in play."

It happened as recently as July 2 when a narcotics sergeant detained suspects for hours before securing a search warrant on a suspected drug dealer's home, Desrochers said.
***
Billdt said state law prohibits him from commenting on personnel issues.

When asked whether his administration permits the detaining practices Desrochers alleges, Billdt replied, "The department does not condone conduct that violates our departmental policies."

Asked whether his department would act to reassure the public that rights of individuals were protected, the chief said, "This Police Department always follows through on allegations of misconduct."

More than two weeks later, Lawrence remains on duty with apparently no reprimands, Desrochers said.
___________________________________

Aug. 8: Following days of public backlash and then a fresh allegation of unlawful acts from a second officer, Lawrence is placed on leave. Reports surface later that another veteran officer, Steve Lowes, was placed on leave weeks before Lawrence, allegedly for prodding an unidentified officer to come forward about Lawrence's alleged behavior.
Billdt did not speak directly to questions. Asst. Chief Walt Goggin spoke in his stead. Goggin said the investigation would be conducted internally, despite the charges possibly rising to criminal levels.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Police administrators confirmed Friday that embattled Sgt. Bradley Lawrence, who faces allegations of unlawfully detaining suspects, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

"He's on administrative leave as of yesterday," Assistant Police Chief Walt Goggin said in a telephone interview.

The move represents an abrupt shift for the department. Lawrence had continued to work since July 2, when Sgt. Michael Desrochers first alleged that Lawrence may have illegally detained two suspects while securing a search warrant as part of a raid at a San Bernardino apartment complex.
***
Police administration said the allegations, which some have said could rise to a level of criminal misconduct, were not being investigated by an independent agency.

"We conduct our personnel investigations," Goggin said. "Administrative personnel matters are investigated internally."

After the story first became public on July 16, Chief Michael Billdt said the department would not "condone conduct that violates our departmental policies."

Speaking on Billdt's behalf Friday, Goggin sought to explain that the allegations may not constitute misconduct.

"I'm not commenting specifically on this matter," Goggin said. "I can say that from a broad perspective, there may be legitimate reasons as for why somebody may be detained for the service of a search warrant or other investigations."
________________________________________

Aug. 19: A local attorney defending a man allegedly held "on ice" by Lawrence in September 2007 pens a letter to Billdt, along with the DA and FBI. In it, he alleges that unlawful detention may be common "practice" in the department.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - A top police narcotics officer committed a string of felonies in arresting a suspected drug dealer in September, a local attorney alleges in four-page letter obtained by The Sun.

The letter, dated Aug. 16, is addressed to Police Chief Michael Billdt and copied to the FBI's Riverside field office. The District Attorney's Office confirmed receipt of the letter Tuesday. An FBI spokeswoman could not confirm receipt late Tuesday.

Gary Wenkle Smith, a lawyer representing 29-year-old Gregory Parker, alleges in the letter that his client was illegally detained "on ice" by San Bernardino police before they burglarized his home in search of evidence for which they had no warrant.

Smith said Sgt. Bradley Lawrence helped illegally detain Parker and then led his narcotics team to Parker's Rialto home for an unauthorized search.

Billdt declined comment because the case is a personnel matter.
***Billdt declined comment because the case is a personnel matter.

In a telephone interview, Smith said he wrote the letter to alert officials to the depth of the situation and to prompt action.

"These are allegations of criminal conduct," Smith said. "It is my expectation that the department must go to an outside agency for investigation."

Smith said police maintain that a woman at Parker's home granted permission for a search that ultimately yielded a large cache of marijuana.

But in his letter, Smith paints a picture of pervasive, rogue policing.

"Unfortunately, it appears that this conduct of Sgt. Lawrence is not an isolated incident. Apparently, he and some of your other officers have made this kind of conduct practice," Smith wrote._______________________________________

Aug. 26: Report surfaces that the investigation into a clash between officers and residents at the Dorjils Apartments is incomplete after one-year, meaning the statute of limitations for officer discipline has expired. Billdt and Mayor Pat Morris had promised the public a thorough internal investigation and to hold wrongdoing accountable. The department and the mayor blame the unfullfilled promise in part on the community's alleged non-cooperation.

From The Sun: As of Tuesday, the investigation remains ongoing, said police Lt. Scott Paterson.

"The department's review of the incident has not been completed," Paterson said. "Because it's a personnel incident we would not comment on it further."

But Paterson did say a lack of community cooperation was a factor.

"We went out to conduct our investigation, and the people we needed to talk to didn't wish to give statements," he said.

Paterson also noted that the department responded well to the federal mediator.

"We had several very positive meetings with the community," Paterson said, pointing out that officers went through a sensitivity-training program.

Morris also noted a lack of cooperation with investigators, emphasizing that the federal mediator also was unable to get more community members to open up.

Resident Linda Hart disagreed.

"To say the community whose rights were violated is to blame for your failed investigation shows why we need an investigation from above, not from inside," Hart said.
___________________________________

Aug. 28: Major allegations surface when the police union alleges that police department leadership conspired with political leadership to squelch an investigation into inappropriate photos found on accused child molester Mike Miller's camera. The allegation is that they wanted to staunch further embarrassment of the Operation Phoenix program.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Amid rumors that politics trumped police work in a high-profile case, the police union on Wednesday declared that detectives had "their hands tied."

Police Officers Association President Rich Lawhead said the statement was motivated in part to clear police rank-and-file from blame for any slowness in the criminal investigation of Mike Miller, a former Operation Phoenix community center manager charged with child molestation.

"We refuse to stand by and allow the community's faith in our ability to solve crimes to be diminished and allow the reputation of our fine detectives to be sullied by political maneuvering at City Hall and within the department itself," Lawhead said in a prepared statement, which also calls for a City Council-led probe.

Police Chief Michael Billdt and others in local law enforcement said the police union's statement does not relate to the facts of the case.

Billdt said no City Hall official pressured his department to ignore evidence.

"He (Mayor Pat Morris) told me to conduct a complete and thorough investigation. He has never given any direction on how to complete or conduct the investigation," Billdt said.
___________________________________

Aug. 31: A survey of other area departments reveals that Billdt's decision to internally investigate Sgt. Lawrence's potentially criminal allegations is unusual practice.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - When Sgt. Bradley Lawrence was accused of criminal misconduct by a fellow police officer July 2, he was allowed to continue working.

About a month later, a complaint lodged by another officer, alleging more constitutional violations, resulted in police leaders putting Lawrence on paid leave effective Aug. 7.

Lawrence is now the subject of an internal investigation, police leaders have said.

But questions have grown louder in recent weeks about whether an internal investigation is appropriate in this case, or consistent with common police practices.

A survey of several area policing agencies shows a general alignment in the way each handles criminal or procedural complaints against officers.

For the most part, agencies stick to a practice of investigating complaints of non-criminal behavior internally while bringing in an outside agency, usually the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, when the behavior would be criminal.

"Most of our policy violations are done in-house through an internal- affairs department that reports to the chief," said Fontana police Sgt. Jeff Decker. "As a general rule, if there was a criminal allegation, there would be an internal and separate investigation into criminal activity done by an outside agency."
***
In San Bernardino, Billdt has steadfastly declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding Lawrence and the investigation into his conduct, citing state law prohibiting him from discussing personnel matters.

Lawrence has a checkered history, including standing trial for allegedly threatening to tie a child to the back of his patrol car during an interrogation in 1989.
_____________________________________

Sept. 1: Retired Lt. Don Soderbloom articulates his complaints against Billdt, including that he launched baseless investigation against him to sully his career after he called Billdt out on allegedly trying to strongarm a local business into discounting a banquet. A state investigation into the allegations is ongoing.

From The Sun: Retired Lt. Don Soderbloom alleges that Police Chief Michael Billdt initiated investigations into his conduct in retaliation for a publicized memo accusing top administration officials of attempting to extort gratuity from a local restaurant.

Soderbloom alleges that Billdt and now-retired Assistant Chief Frank Mankin launched a baseless investigation into his conduct after he embarrassed them with accusations of attempting to bully the owner of the Castaway Restaurant into accepting less money than he was due for hosting the San Bernardino Police Department Reserve Banquet.

Soderbloom, a department veteran whose qualifications had many in the department thinking he would one day be chief, has taken his complaint to the state Department of Industrial Relations' Retaliation Unit, which opened an investigation into the matter in June.

"The essence of my complaint is the fact that Police Chief Michael Billdt and then Assistant Chief Frank Mankin fabricated a criminal complaint against me, which resulted in a frivolous DA investigation, in retaliation for my having voiced my opposition to their attempt to extort a gratuity from a local business," Soderbloom wrote in his complaint to the state department.

Billdt disagreed.

"Mr. Soderbloom's allegations are without merit and are an attempt to deflect personal responsibility for his conduct," Billdt said in a e-mail, adding that state law prohibits him from elaborating on the investigation.

"In regards to the three questions in your e-mail, state law, including the Police Officers' Bill of Rights, severely restricts the department from commenting on personnel investigations," Billdt wrote in an e-mail to The Sun. "Under these circumstances, it would be inappropriate for me to comment here on the details of those investigations."
___________________________________

Sept. 2: Union members openly call for Billdt's ouster, and accuse him of an array of misconduct, including deliberately destroying the previous chief's ability to lead.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Police Chief Michael Billdt and four other city officials will not be not be forced to answer questions under oath to the City Council.

But Billdt now must face the ramifications of his own officers publicly criticizing his leadership. The city's police union is now on record stating that officers want a new chief.

When the public was invited to speak on the issue, Sgt. Steve Filson, former president of the San Bernardino Police Officers Association, spoke before the council and said the department's rank and file has lost faith in Billdt's leadership.

"I derive no sense of pride or pleasure in standing before you in these sad circumstances," Filson said. "But my conscience compels me to declare in this forum that my assessment has sunk to a level of no confidence in the ability of Chief Billdt to effectively lead our agency into the future."
____________________________________

Sept. 3: After more than a year of refusing to provide a public resume, Chief Billdt relents, revealing that he has by far the thinnest educational credentials in the county, perhaps the state. He has no legitimate college degree. Suddenly, Mayor Morris' pronouncements about Billdt being among the state's best look more dubious.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Roughly 20 years ago, a handful of local police officers of varying ranks enrolled in August Vollmer University, popularly known as "Augie U."

Those in the Police Department at the time say the program cost around $3,000, lasted less than two years and featured classes at the local station, taught by law-enforcement professionals.

Police Chief Michael Billdt was among the students. When Mayor Pat Morris announced in March 2006 that he would keep Billdt as interim top cop, Billdt said he'd earned his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the Orange County-based school.

He didn't mention that the school was not accredited and was defunct.

With the Police Department gripped in a number of crises - questionable investigations, open mutiny by rank-and-file officers, allegations of criminal investigatory misconduct - questions about Billdt's qualifications have re-emerged.

The embattled chief steadfastly declined to provide the public a resume outlining his qualifications, which is common practice among area department leaders, until Wednesday. But that hasn't quelled swirling speculation that Billdt may have been hiding a weak resume.
***
Billdt stood by his degree from Vollmer University.

"It was a good program. I learned a lot from it," Billdt said, quickly adding that it was only a portion of his resume.

"If you look at my command experience for the last 14 years, that's what's prepared me to lead the department, in addition to my other education and ongoing in-house training," he said.
___________________________________

Sept. 3: Billdt responds to calls for his dismissal, brushing aside union concerns.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Responding to officers' demands that he be replaced, Police Chief Michael Billdt on Wednesday issued a statement dismissing criticism of his leadership style as being the product of personal disagreements.

The chief asserted that current friction arose from his sticking to what he listed as core values - "commitment to public service and safety, integrity, loyalty, respect for the law and accountability."

"I am fully committed to these values in my management and leadership of the department," Billdt said. "Unfortunately, adherence to these values can occasionally cause an officer or employee to disagree or become angry for personal reasons.

"While this reaction is understandable, it is unfortunate to see it spill over into baseless allegations and inflammatory statements that are destructive to the department's morale," Billdt continued.

Mayor Pat Morris, City Manager Fred Wilson and the Police Management Association also issued statements in support of Billdt.

Morris credited Billdt with overseeing a drop in crime.
___________________________________

Sept. 3: The council deals Billdt two major blows, rejecting his recommendations to continue funding a helicopter and to promote Lt. Brian Boom, who supervised Lawrence, to captain.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Police here will have to rely on the sheriff's helicopter for air support after the City Council decided to use money for personnel instead.

The decision was made Tuesday, when the City Council finally approved a budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30.
____________________________________

Sept. 3: Police union delivers a landslide 76 percent vote of no-confidence in Billdt. This is a major statement, given that Morris and Billdt had consistently characterized the problem as the product of a few, isolated, noisy malcontents.

From the PE: The city's police union emphatically called for change at the top of their department Tuesday, saying that Chief Michael Billdt's "autocratic and self-serving" leadership had created an atmosphere of paranoia, favoritism and dysfunction.

Appearing before the City Council, the San Bernardino Police Officer Association's past president read a statement describing affairs inside the department as "deplorable."

It ended by hinting at what may be the union's next move: taking a vote of no confidence in Billdt's ability to remain chief.

"Over the years I've watched varying levels of decay affecting the mindset of our officers but never rising to the level I am now seeing," said Steve Filson, a 27-year veteran of the city's police force. "Secretive closed-door meetings, interoffice memoranda, which amount to little more than divisive finger pointing, and more."
___________________________________

Sept. 5: Billdt fires back, saying he will not step down. Billdt and Morris proffer a number of arguments, including that the vote is a "snapshot in time," that labor-management relations will always have "tensions," and that Billdt's strong ethics and accounability measures have sparked backlash from officers he disciplines.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Police Chief Michael Billdt said he plans to stay at his post and attempt to resolve the divide between himself and rank-and-file officers who delivered a landslide vote in condemnation of his leadership.

"I'm committed to this town. I'm committed to this department," Billdt said in a telephone interview Friday.

"My plan is to stay the course," he added later.

Billdt spoke the morning after 135 of 178 sworn officers at a police union meeting cast votes of "no confidence" in his leadership.

Police union President Rich Lawhead called the vote "overwhelming."

Lawhead all but called for the chief's ouster in a news release, citing allegations of favoritism, inconsistent disciplinary measures, retaliation and ruling through "fear and intimidation."

"It is time for the mayor to decide if he will continue to protect his political appointment, Chief Billdt, or put the community first and restore effective leadership ... ," Lawhead wrote in a statement.

Mayor Pat Morris still supports the chief. Morris said the union's vote captures officers' views during a "snapshot in time" but does not signal an unbridgeable gap between Billdt and the city's cops.

"Tensions between management and labor rise and fall," Morris said. "These are moments of great tension."
___________________________________

Sept. 6: Billdt and Morris offer to talk to union to ease tensions.

From the PE: The day after a San Bernardino police union vote condemning Police Chief Mike Billdt's leadership by a 3-1 margin, Billdt and Mayor Pat Morris said Friday that they will welcome a discussion with union leaders.Morris called the 135-to-43 vote in favor of a resolution of no confidence "a sampling of the general viewpoint of those in attendance, really kind of a snapshot at a moment in time."
__________________________________

Sept. 11: In a shift, Mayor Morris says he is open to bringing in an independent set of eyes to examine the department.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Mayor Pat Morris said he's open to the idea of bringing in a third-party consultant to examine problems in the Police Department.

Strife in the department has become public recently in the wake of the police union's vote of no confidence in Chief Michael Billdt.

Morris and union leaders met for several hours Wednesday night. City Council members Esther Estrada, Tobin Brinker and Chas Kelley also participated.

Union leaders have accused Billdt of creating a paranoid atmosphere in the Police Department by playing favorites.

Morris said the breakdown in police-labor relations stems from disagreement on how the Police Department handles use-of-force reports, internal-affairs investigations and allegations of criminal misconduct by officers.

"Perhaps in this instance, because they (those issues) are so important to the officers and the community, an outside expert can assist us," Morris said.

I have done some fairly comprehensive recaps of major issues here on this blog.

A reader told me yesterday that the full histories of the Opertation Phoenix and the Sgt. Bradley Lawrence stories were enormously helpful in understanding the breadth of both fast-developing stories.

The same reader also said I should do one on Police Chief Michael Billdt, who has gone from under the radar leader to public figure number 1 in the past few weeks.

This is so comprehensive, there will be two installments. Below, you'll see the long-term history of the chief. Soon after, I'll post a recap of what has happened over the past month.

So, here it is ...

2001: Chief Lee Dean retires and openly pushes for Billdt, his protege, to be his replacement. During a competitive hiring process, Billdt loses out to LAPD veteran Garrett Zimmon, whose resume contains much that Billdt's does not, including a legit college degree. Billdt serves as interim chief before Zimmon arrives, and assistant chief when he does.
_________________________________________

2001-2005: Billdt serves Zimmon, whose auspicious start slowly deteriorates until the rank-and-file, community and elected leaders turn on him. Numerous sources say Billdt, sore from losing the top job to outsider Zimmon, took a Machiavellian turn by using his post to undermine Zimmon's performance. Former police union head Sgt. Steve FIlson said recently at a council meeting that Billdt worked to "scuttle" Zimmon's administration.
_________________________________________

Jan. 11, 2006: Two days after Zimmon takes a medical leave amidst mounting tension and spiking crime, Billdt swiftly took command of the department. This time, Billdt would not let his interim opportunity end.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO Two days after being appointed interim police chief, Michael Billdt is laying plans for the department's future.

Mayor Judith Valles in a memo asked Billdt to develop long- and short-term plans for policing the city after the council approved hiring 35 more officers.

"We're going to be reaching out to all our stakeholders in developing both the short- and long-term plans,' said Billdt, the assistant police chief since 2001.
****
Billdt said he has already met with his command staff and the police union to discuss strategies and that the department would not stray from Zimmon's beat plan, put into effect in 2004.

The specifics of Billdt's short-term plan are expected to be disclosed by the middle of next week, he said. That includes whether he plans to increase patrols across the city in the wake of three homicides over the weekend.

Billdt, a 27-year veteran, would not comment on Zimmon's sudden medical leave, saying only "the department's obviously very concerned about him.'

Although Zimmon's medical condition and return date are unknown, council members expressed support for Zimmon and say they have confidence in Billdt.

"I hope we don't lose him. I think he's been an excellent police chief,' Councilman Gordon McGinnis said.

McGinnis was on the committee that recommended him to the post in 2002, going against the recommendation of former Police Chief Lee Dean that Billdt succeed him as chief upon his retirement in 2001.
____________________________________________

Jan. 24, 2006: Billdt unveils his strategy of roving crime impact teams fueled by overtime. Proponents say this plan drives down crime. Critics say it is to blame for a major-spike in officer involved shootings in 2006-7 that killed more than 10 and resulted in costly lawsuits against the city.

From the PE: San Bernardino's newly appointed interim police chief introduced a policing plan Monday that assigns six-officer teams to each of the city's five patrol areas.

The teams are freed of responsibility for answering routine calls and charged with stamping out neighborhood crime trends.

Interim Chief Michael Billdt also plans to assign two-officer teams to crime-prone commercial corridors throughout the city, while preserving the beat plan, a community-based policing program developed by Police Chief Garrett Zimmon that assigns officers to neighborhood patrol areas across the city.

Facing a spike in violent crime, San Bernardino City Council members recently authorized an additional 35 officers to supplement the city's 312-officer force. But it could be months before department recruiters find officers to hire in a tight job market, and months more before the first of them completes extensive background checks and training.

Billdt said the six-officer crime-impact teams will keep track of neighborhood crime trends and respond immediately, with team supervisors given the autonomy to make independent decisions. At other times, all five teams might be concentrated to hit one persistent problem, Billdt said.

Billdt said he will create the teams out of his current force, using overtime to pay for the commercial corridor patrols. The programs could begin within a week, Billdt said.
____________________________________________

March 6, 2006: In a major riot at the NOS, police responders were unable to prevent widespread damage to surrounding businesses. Critics said police response was too slow to get there, and too rough on people once it did. Some police cars were destroyed. Billdt and Lt. Mark Garcia, his public information officer at the time, allowed for no doubts that the problem was dealt with as well as possible.

From The Sun: Although police brass will be assessing the entire incident, interim Police Chief Michael Billdt said "the officers responded appropriately."
____________________________________________

March 11, 2006: With his interim status hanging in the balance and a mayoral race on, Billdt issues statements to the press touting his work in driving down crime.

From The Sun: The drop follows a spate of homicides and other violent crime in the city over a three-month period. It's too early to call it a trend, but interim Police Chief Michael Billdt gives credit to deployment of Crime Impact Teams and a greater awareness of the crime problem by the community.

February also showed the biggest drop in overall crime for the month in five years, Billdt said.

"Crime is a multidimensional issue, but in this particular case, just looking back at the last month, I think the Crime Impact Teams combined with community awareness has had a positive impact," he said.
____________________________________________

March 14, 2006: Articles begin coming out showing that new mayor Morris and Billdt are getting along, hinting that Morris may keep the interim after all.

From The Sun: Billdt's plan shares some similarities with Operation Phoenix.

Both plans support accountability from agencies other than the Police Department. Each agency, department and business must do its part in improving the city, Billdt and Morris said separately.

"Crime is a community issue, and all of us are stakeholders," Billdt said.
____________________________________________

March 27, 2006: Without a competitive process, Billdt is awarded a 1-year contract as chief. He does not provide the public a resume, which would have shown him to be the only chief in the county - and perhaps the state - without an accredited college degree or stint in command college.
There was once a requirement that department heads live in the city. No longer. Billdt resides in Redlands.
Morris at the time suggested the move was a stop-gap while he could find another, longer term chief.

From The Sun: Morris said there would be a national search for a police chief who could take over a year from now, and he praised Billdt for putting off possible retirement to serve as chief.

Billdt, 50, said he had considered retiring this year but remained after he was asked to stay by former Mayor Judith Valles and then Morris.
____________________________________________

April 16, 2006: In an interview, Billdt says community engagement is vital.

From The Sun: Billdt said, "Sir Robert Peel, founder of the London Metropolitan Police and father of modern policing, said in 1829 that "the police are the community and the community are the police." It still holds true today. You have to join together. One, get involved with youth mentoring. Two, join a neighborhood watch. Three, volunteer. Four, be the eyes and ears to keep track of what's going on. Five, coach youth sports. Six, help at local schools."
____________________________________________

May 20, 2006: In the first even remotely negative report to hit during Billdt's tenure, an investigation by The Sun revealed that a resident had warned police that gang members were planning to shoot up the apartment complex where 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw was staying with her family just three days before the girl was killed. Billdt said patrols had been stepped up in the area.

From The Sun: Police Chief Michael Billdt said Friday that police stepped up patrols in the neighborhood following Jones' death, but on Nov. 13, gang members converged on the Cedarwood Apartments and opened fire on the unit where Mynisha and her family were having dinner.
***
Billdt said he will follow up by gathering and reviewing all police reports and other documentation taken by officers and detectives between the time of Jones' slaying and Mynisha's.

Mayor Pat Morris said he had not heard about the tip police received until Friday, but that he talked with Billdt upon hearing about it and that he believed police did what they should have.

Days later, Billdt again said police did all they could:

SAN BERNARDINO - Detectives promptly followed up on a warning about possible gang retaliation in a neighborhood that came three days before 11-year-old Mynisha Crenshaw was killed there, Police Chief Michael Billdt said.

On Nov. 10, a woman living at an apartment complex in the 2900 block of North Mountain Avenue called veteran homicide Detective William Flesher and warned him about possible gang retaliation in her neighborhood for the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Barry Jones the day before. She was afraid someone was going to "shoot up" an apartment complex and requested extra patrols in her neighborhood.
***
Billdt said Tuesday his detectives became privy to Flesher's information and had been following up on it before the shooting that killed Mynisha.

"Detective Flesher shared information he received with members of the detective bureau, and they were aware of that information during their investigation," Billdt said. "They absolutely had been in the neighborhood following up."
____________________________________________

June 13, 2006: Billdt says landlords need to join in the city's crime fight.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO Landlords need to be "active and engaged" participants in the anti-crime plan Operation Phoenix, Police Chief Michael Billdt said Tuesday. "All of us are stakeholders in the safety and welfare of our city," Billdt said.
____________________________________________

June 20, 2006: Billdt succeeds in gaining support for a helicopter. Like his own tenure, the helicopter is initially thought to be temporary.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO -- The Police Department has its airship -- for 90 days, anyway. The City Council approved a three-month contract with California Aviation Services to give the department first helicopter in its history.In the past, the department has received air support from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.Police Chief Michael Billdt has said the helicopter will help police by giving police a birds-eye view of the city,
____________________________________________

July 3, 2006: For the first time, problems between Billdt and rank and file are revealed by a lawsuit.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - The reassignment of a leading homicide detective highlights a growing schism between the Police Department's administrators and the rank and file. Detective Sgt. Mike Desrochers is asking a San Bernardino Superior Court judge to prevent his transfer, which his boss said stems in part from his handling of the homicide of an 11-year-old boy.

____________________________________________

Oct. 12, 2006: In an article, police administration and the mayor's office again tout their effectiveness in reducing crime. Also, statements seem to indicate that Billdt has "loosened" the ties on officers on the street.

From The Sun: "The officers were under a lot of scrutiny under the Zimmon administration," said police union President Rich Lawhead.

"Feeling that you would be scrutinized over every little thing you did every time you had to use force necessary for safety had an effect on police in the street. Billdt has simplified it. He made clear he doesn't need a book every time things get done."
____________________________________________

Oct. 20, 2006: A new bombshell. More respected department veterans decry Billdt's allegedly brutal control tactics.

From the PE: Chief named in complaint // SAN BERNARDINO: The case is the second claiming that the Police Department head is abusing his power.

In the three months before he was named to the San Bernardino Police Department's top job, Chief Mike Billdt pursued a fabricated personnel complaint against a department executive, according to a city Equal Employment Opportunity complaint.Jeff Breiten, who retired as patrol captain in April, is the highest-ranking officer to lodge an EEO complaint against the police chief.
____________________________________________

Nov. 17, 2006: Another one ...

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - A veteran police sergeant accuses Chief Mike Billdt of launching an internal affairs investigation against him after he refused to sign a resolution to a complaint he filed against a supervisor. In an eight-page letter that has recently been circulated throughout the Police Department, gang unit Sgt. Steve Lowes outlines complaints by himself and others claiming that Billdt and his command staff have abused their power and created a hostile work environment.

____________________________________________

Feb. 6, 2007: Instead of the nationwide search he promised, Mayor Morris announces a fresh 2-year contract for Billdt. During the announcement, incredible numbers of apparently plummeting crime are touted, and credited to Billdt. Later, former Captain Jeff Breiten would allege that Billdt had ordered changes in statistics policies to lower Part 1 crimes.

Morris called the Chief one of the "finest" in the nation's largest state.

From the PE: The San Bernardino City Council granted police Chief Mike Billdt a two-year contract extension Monday.

In announcing the closed-session decision, Mayor Pat Morris credited Billdt with engineering a steep drop in the crime rate while cities elsewhere suffer through a double-digit increase.

He cited a 62 percent drop in San Bernardino's homicide rate and a 47 percent decrease in assaults.

"You have been a marvelous partner," Morris said.

Billdt responded with praise for his officers and thanks to city residents "for the collaborative way you all have come to the table."
__________

From The Sun: The City Council emerged from a closed session meeting Monday to announce that Billdt's contract has been extended two years, meaning he will likely head the department until March 27, 2009.

Calling the chief "one of the finest in California," Mayor Pat Morris hailed the contract extension during a council budget workshop as a boon to the city's continued crime-fighting efforts.
____________________________________________

Feb. 26, 2007: As an olive branch to defray criticism that Billdt's plan soaked up all the Measure Z funds, the chief and council agreed on money for a Police Activities League. Chief Billdt pledged to get it done. Chief Billdt proposed the idea.

____________________________________________

April 10, 2007: A blockbuster story appears with a respected police leader accusing Chief Billdt and Assistant Chief Frank Mankin of attempting to intimidate a local business into cutting their banquet bill. The accuser, Lt. Don Soderbloom, is now out of the department and has a state investigation into his allegations that Billdt retaliated with a series of baseless investigations that ruined his career. Billdt has denied this.

From the PE: Senior San Bernardino police executives demanded that a restaurant cut its bill for a banquet by 13 percent, frightening the restaurant staff and so embarrassing other officials that they offered to pay the difference themselves, a city memo claims.

Eventually, the Police Department paid the full $9,154 bill. But in a memo to Police Chief Mike Billdt, the lieutenant who organized the event says the attempt to force a discount of almost $1,200 violates a basic trust.

"What occurred here is no different, at least in my opinion, than a patrol officer soliciting a gratuity," police Lt. Don Soderbloom wrote in the memo. "We asked for and expected a quality product, and after we received it weren't willing to pay for it. To say that I am troubled by what transpired would be an understatement."
____________________________________________

May 1, 2007: Another lawsuit.

From the PE: The union that represents San Bernardino police officers filed a federal lawsuit Monday alleging that Police Chief Michael Billdt and the city maintain an unlawful policy that coerces officers into surrendering their constitutional right against self-incrimination.
***

The recent federal lawsuit against Billdt is the latest in a series of accusations that the chief unjustly uses his authority to punish officers who cross him.It is also the most sweeping, filed on behalf of the 300-member police union."I think there is a common theme," said Dieter Dammeier, an attorney representing the San Bernardino Police Officers Association."It's retaliation ...
____________________________________________

May 15, 2007: For the first time, reports surface that Billdt and his administration may used some accounting tricks to enhance their crime-dropping success ...

From the PE: A San Bernardino police supervisor has urged officers to downgrade reports on some alleged robberies involving drug transactions, calling the incidents "civil matters."

Police Sgt. Dan Keil, who oversees investigations of crimes against persons, made the assertion in an April 25 e-mail to department supervisors and rank-and-file officers.

It comes as Mayor Pat Morris and Police Chief Mike Billdt point to a 14 percent decrease in violent crime as evidence that their policies work.
***

"I believe the sergeant, whom I support, was putting out a training e-mail," Billdt said. "Typically in training, people use hypotheticals. I believe the sergeant's intentions were good."

Billdt said he did not know about the e-mail until Thursday, even though he is listed as a recipient.
____________________________________________

May 16, 2007: Billdt issues a nearly $20,000 bill to a protest group that marched downtown. The bill was to pay for officers staffed. The event was radically overstaffed, with roughly one officer per five protesters. The bill was an obviously un-Constitutional violation of free speech and was soon rescinded by the city.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - What does it cost for a few hundred peaceful protesters to march against war abroad and perceived discrimination at home?

According to San Bernardino police, acting on a municipal ordinance, it costs $17,674.08, and now the protests' organizer has received the bill.

Led by UC Riverside professor Armando Navarro, the National Alliance for Human Rights will protest again in front of City Hall at noon today, vowing not only to shun the hefty charge but to cast light on what Navarro says is a blatant attempt by local government to make "free" speech anything but.

"We will remind the public of the highlights of this issue," Navarro said Tuesday. "This is an affront to all people who believe in the Constitution and First Amendment rights."

City leaders are far less strident in supporting the action than Navarro is in opposing it.

City Attorney James F. Penman said he is doing his job in serving Navarro with the Police Department's bill. Assistant Chief Frank Mankin, speaking in place of Chief Mike Billdt, who is out of town, said his agency followed the letter of the law.

More than 90percent of Navarro's bill comes from hours of pay for 59 police personnel assigned to the protest. Among the uniformed officers were four lieutenants earning $59.25 per hour and eight sergeants at $46.79 per hour.

According to news reports from the March 17 protests, about 300 protesters turned out.

Mankin said the Police Department was prepared for a crowd of 2,000. Instead, it wound up with a ratio of roughly one officer per five protesters.

Mankin said given the information available, police did not overstaff the event.

"I don't think there is such a thing as overprepared when it comes to public safety," Mankin said.
***

According to Penman, Billdt was unable to provide Navarro with an estimate of police costs before the event due to fluctuating turnout projections. Under the code, if costs exceed the chief's estimate for the event, the organizers do not have to pay the difference.

Because the chief didn't produce an estimate, Navarro did not have that option and was instead hit with the full cost after the fact.
____________________________________________

July 12, 2007: Crime begins ticking upward again. The mayor and police leaders who were quick to take credit when the numbers went down quickly downplayed the uptick as unimportant in the long term outlook.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Despite millions in new police spending, intense public interest and innovative strategies, local crime is again on the rise.

Police recorded 892 violent crimes from Jan. 1 to May 30, a 6.2 percent increase over the same five-month period in 2006.

But two key statistics are down, according to reports compiled by police,

There were 19 murders through May 30 this year, down from 24 through May 30 of last year.

Other than murders, only vehicle thefts - down 15 percent - are occurring at a lower rate than last year.

Notwithstanding murders and vehicle thefts, the year's first five months have seen crimes up across the board. Robberies are up about 9 percent. Aggravated assault, about 6 percent. Thefts, 10 percent.

Police officials say the news is in no way an indictment of their strategies.

"We are also focused on the short-term, we look at things week to week, but the proof in the pudding will be in long-term trends," said Lt. Scott Paterson. "Operation Phoenix is dealing with problems 30 years in the making. It needs to be in place for years to make a lasting difference."
____________________________________________

July 17, 2007: Parolees were back in the news. Billdt came to Morris' defense in his battle against Jim Penman.

From The Sun: Morris called on Police Chief Mike Billdt, who cited statistics apparently refuting Derry and Penman's assertions of rapid parolee population growth in the city.

Billdt said in late 2001, or about one year after Penman's inspections ceased, 1,712 parolees were in the city, a number far higher than the roughly 1,100 commonly cited as the parolee population in fall 2000. Billdt said the average parolee population today hovers around 1,974, meaning the city had seen an increase over six years of 13 percent, about on par with that of the rest of the region.

Derry questioned the numbers' source. Penman then reminded Billdt both men attended a March 2001 meeting with state parole officials. The number provided that day was 1,101 parolees, Penman said.

After the vote, Billdt acknowledged that his numbers included AWOL parolees - whose city of residence is by definition undetermined - and parolees who had been arrested and re-incarcerated.
____________________________________________

July 21, 2007: A new report shows violent crime up 6.2 percent. Billdt downplays results and sings praises of Operation Phoenix. .

From The Sun: Police Chief Michael Billdt said the statistics reflect a rise in property crime and a drop in gun-related crimes. He added that 2006, his first full year at the helm, saw drops in crime across the board from 2005, meaning 2007 numbers are compared to a year in which police had much success in reducing crime.

"What's largely driving the crime increase is theft," Billdt said. "We've got crime categories involving firearms down this year."
***

"The Operation Phoenix model of suppression, intervention and prevention are key to long-term success," Billdt said. "We will achieve our goal of making San Bernardino safer."
____________________________________________

Aug. 21, 2007: News first breaks of resident/police clash at The Dorjils. Morris and Billdt promise the community a full investigation. More than 1-year later, the investigation has expired incomplete, and both blame the community for non-cooperation.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - A throng of angry residents and a distraught mother used Monday's City Council meeting as their megaphone to accuse police of brutality in breaking up a candlelight vigil the night before. On Sunday night, community members said, more than a dozen police busted up a peaceful curbside service for Charles Marshall, 22, who was gunned down in a Westside apartment complex during the early morning hours of Saturday."It was a peaceful vigil,"...

____________________________________________

Sept. 13, 2007: Councilman Rikke Van Johnson demands the 9-1-1 tapes from the Dorjils incident. Billdt says no. Rumors swirl that tapes may not exist because there may have been no distress call, which would mean officers may have just shown up on their own.

From The Sun: "These altercations with law enforcement must stop," Johnson wrote. "I am personally investigating this matter to ensure that the full letter of the law was followed and innocent residents of the 6th Ward were not hurt."

No investigation by Johnson will take place, said Billdt, because the department is conducting an ongoing investigation.

Billdt said the probe started sometime after the Aug. 20 council meeting, and continues, but was scant on any other details.
____________________________________________

Sept. 19, 2007: The return of the vulture T-shirts, sold by a police officer, that depict San Bernardino as the murder capital of the world.

From The Sun: Police Chief Michael Billdt said early Tuesday that he had heard a rumor about the T-shirts last week, but had not seen one. Concerned, Billdt called Lawhead.

"He told me that he too had heard about the T-shirt and that the POA a was not involved in its sales," Billdt said.

Later in the day, Billdt issued a prepared statement: "Mayor (Pat) Morris, Rich Lawhead and I agree that the release of the T-shirts unwittingly ridicules and diminishes the outstanding work by the men and women of the San Bernardino Police Department."
____________________________________________

Nov. 26, 2007: Billdt shocks the council by suddenly announcing the formation of a Police Activities League at the Operation Phoenix Center (which Mike Miller managed). The Council had ordered the chief to start the program on the Westside, at the Delmann Heights Center.

We know now that the chief misled the council and public that day. No league existed then, or now.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - A long-awaited Police Activities League is finally up and running, but not in the place originally intended for its launch.

Police Chief Michael Billdt told the City Council on Nov. 19 that the league, called PAL for short, was started in the Operation Phoenix Center weeks ago.

The council approved spending $75,000 in February to start the program, modeled after a strategy that seeks to connect youths and police officers in recreational settings, at the Delmann Heights Community Center in the city's Westside.

Although initial concerns over whether officers in the department would participate in the typically volunteer program have been somewhat allayed, what concerns some councilmembers now is the sudden news of its location.

"I don't know that it won't be at the Delmann Heights Center at some point," said Lt. Scott Paterson on Billdt's behalf Monday. "But we've launched at the Phoenix Center. That's the first center."
____________________________________________

Dec. 14, 2007: The feds come to San Bernardino to mediate the growing unrest between police and Westside residents. Ultimately, Billdt agrees to send some officers on field trips to the Museum of Tolerance.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - A federal mediator from the U.S. Department of Justice is working to bridge the gulf between angry Westside residents and the Police Department, city officials confirmed Friday. Elisa Makunga, a conciliation specialist, was contacted by community members after an Aug. 19 clash between residents and police when officers arrived at a curbside vigil for a 22-year-old man slain the night before.
____________________________________________

Dec. 29, 2007: Report reveals that response times to the Westside are slightly slower than other parts of the city.
____________________________________________

Jan. 31, 2008: Final numbers show crime was on the rise in 2007, despite millions in new police funding. Billdt and Morris brush aside concerns by saying crime remained below pre-Morris levels.

From The Sun: Police Chief Michael Billdt said he was not disappointed with the uptick in crime, instead emphasizing that crime remains markedly down in 2006-7 when compared with 2004-5, the highest two-year period in the decade.

"We've seen tremendous progress over the last two years in substantially reducing crime," Billdt said. "I'm optimistic that if we continue to work collaboratively with our stakeholders and continue to focus our energies on long-term goals, we'll continue to see progress in the years ahead."

Police brass and Mayor Pat Morris' office emphasized a 14 percent crime drop since 2005, when the city set a decade high in homicides.
____________________________________________

Feb. 22, 2008: Billdt and Morris respond to crime spike of 2007 with unprecedented public relations campaign. Billdt puts together new data and has it delivered to local newspapers. Suddenly, the spike is a drop. Bad news is good news.

One voice, a local criminologist named Stephen TIbbetts, disputes the numbers and the chief's conclusions. Billdt called Tibbetts' boss soon after and tried to convince the professor to retract his comments.

From The Sun: SAN BERNARDINO - Over the past two years, the city's crime rate has dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades, a sure sign of the effectiveness of Mayor Pat Morris' Operation Phoenix, according to city leaders.

In 2006, the crime rate fell to 59 crimes per 1,000 residents, a substantial drop from 112 crimes per 1,000 residents in 1985, the earliest year for which statistics are available. The crime rate ticked up slightly last year, but remained below all years other than 2006.

"Are you in fact safer today than you were 23 years ago?" asked Morris, who advocated Operation Phoenix during his campaign for office in 2005. "The answer is a resounding 'yes."'
***
Tibbitts concurred, noting that the decline in crime overall was hard to fathom given recent increases in violent crime, which he believes to be a better indicator of general safety.

"I find it hard to believe," he said. "It may show the community simply is not reporting crime or there could be some problems with the definitions of crime."
***

"The reason we've had success, as a department and as a community, is because we've engaged all our stakeholders and entered into collaborative work efforts to really solve all those risk factors," Billdt said.

As the drama surrounding the police department and its embattled chief, Michael Billdt, unfolds, we expect that more and more of the governmental discussions about it will go behind closed doors.

Billdt, pictured below during happier times ...

Courtesy City of San Bernardino

That's unfortunate, but it's probably legal.

Officers of the law have plenty of protection from the Ralph M. Brown Act, the state law creating requirements for government business to be conducted free and open to the public.

And that partially explains how Billdt's predecessor, Garrett Zimmon, could get forced out (fired, allegedly) while for months much of the public just assumed he had a medical condition, which was the city's official position.

Jason Pesick and I have co-authored a piece that will run over the weekend and explore what government officials can and can't talk about in secret meetings.

We don't know what the outcome of this situation will be ... but we do know that the best government decisions are the ones that happen out in the open, not in secret closed door meetings.

As I've said before, I particularly like the idea of using the blog to occasionally provide a glimpse into our world. I think it's a good thing for community readers to get to know the newspaper and the people who produce it just a bit beyond a name that appears above articles ...

So, I give you Jason Pesick, pictured below while at work on Thursday.

Pesick is a respected reporter. He has worked at The Sun since 2006, starting as a city reporter for Rialto before becoming an evening general news reporter and online specialist earlier this year.

At 24, (I originally posted 23, but he just had a birthday) Pesick is one of the younger - perhaps the youngest - reporter in the newsroom. But don't let his age fool you. The University of Michigan grad's strengths are his thoughtfulness, patience and wisdom beyond his years.

Pesick is the type of reporter who sees angles and uncertainties in issues that others wouldn't even consider. Along with Andrew, he is probably my favorite debating antogonist. Soft-spoken and always receptive to new ideas - signs of the wisdom I mentioned - Pesick is one of the best at internalizing and then articulating all the nuances of a particular topic.

And he is deeply pained by the recent slide of Michigan's vaunted football program.

So now you just might conjure a thought or two the next time you see Jason's byline above one of his solid articles.

Below I have reposted an SBNOW exclusive, originally published on Oct. 3, 2007.

A brief prelude: This look at local history is striking. At the time, Councilman Tobin Brinker was still seen as a staunch police union supporter (they had pumped a lot of money into his campaign), and he surprised everyone by announcing that the Police Department was riven with internal problems.

He was ahead of the curve.

Also note Pat Morris' response to Brinker's concerns. He said Chief Billdt was in "daily contact" with the union leaders and that "there will always be tension between management and labor." Those are some of the same explanations Morris is using today, with the rank-and-file openly mutinous toward the chief.

Click below to read and gain some perspective on our current issues ...

Remember the Police Activities League we were supposed to start nearly two years ago?

Me too. That's why I felt now was a good time to ask some questions and get readers an update on what is happening with the $114,000 in public funds directed to this venture ...

SAN BERNARDINO -- Nearly two years after the City Council allocated $114,000 for its launch, a Police Activities League still has not materialized.

But Police Department and parks and recreation leaders say the nascent program has made progress, and still could become a viable entity.
But some aren't so sure.

Public Safety Academy, a San Bernardino charter school for teens planning to pursue careers in law enforcement and firefighting, held a memorial ceremony this morning to memorialize the anniversary of the Sept.11 attacks.

Jack Brown of Stater Bros. was the official keynote speaker, but as soon as he stepped to the podium he gave credit to the cadets who spoke before his turn. Some of the teens - who would have been grade-school children when the hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon - shared their own reflections of Sept. 11, 2001.

Others read the words of New York City youths who were in middle school that morning.

The event concluded when four jets flew over the ceremony in the missing man formation, a military honor for the dead.

Steve Tibbetts, a professor of criminology at CSUSB, reluctantly told me about an exchange he had with Chief Michael Billdt earlier this year. Billdt disputes Tibbetts' account of their conversations.

It was in February that Chief Billdt provided The Sun a new set of crime data, newly compiled, that seemed to indicate crime was at historic lows in 2007. We ran a story which reported the surprising new assertion. Pat Morris, at the time, made the public statement that San Bernardino residents were undoubtedly safer than they were 25 years ago, which was a shocking turnaround considering that less than two years before he ran for mayor on a platform that crime was out of control and he was the man to stop it.

The one dissenting voice in the story was professor Tibbetts, who questioned the methodology behind the city's new data, as well as its conclusions.

Once the story ran, the chief called Tibbetts boss, the department chair, to complain, Tibbetts said.

Billdt then contacted Tibbetts, and attempted to persuade him for more than two hours to see things his way.

Tibbetts did not.

According to Tibbetts, the chief repeatedly urged him to call the newspaper and disavow his comments by saying they were "taken out of context."

Tibbetts said that was not true, so he would not do it. The chief pressed. Finally, the chief told Tibbetts that he would call the newspaper on Tibbetts' behalf and tell the reporter that Tibbetts' comments were taken out of context.

According to Tibbetts, he was appalled by what he took as a suggestion that the
chief speak falsely on his behalf and he refused.

Billdt said Tuesday that he didn't remember it happening that way.

"I don't recall that being part of our conversation. I generally remember that it was very cordial and professional," Billdt said when asked whether he offered to call the paper on Tibbetts' behalf.

Click below for more ...

Mayor Pat Morris said this afternoon that he's open to the idea of bringing in a third-party consultant to examine SBPD's problems.

Strife within the Police Department has become public recently in the wake of the police union's vote of no confidence in Chief Michael Billdt.

Morris and union leaders met for several hours Wednesday night. Union leaders have accused Billdt of creating a paranoid atmosphere within SBPD by playing favorites within the department.

Morris said the breakdown in SBPD labor relations stems from disagreement on how SBPD handles use of force reports, internal affairs investigations and allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of officers.

"Perhaps in this instance because they (those issues) are so important to the officers and the community, an outside expert can assist us," Morris said.

The mayor described the policy differences between as reflecting of the difficulty police leaders have in maintaining "a critical balance between officers rights and morale and community trust."

The view from the Mayor's Office is that the Police Department's current problems are common in police forces across the country and that the current impasse between the chief and union leadership could exist if someone else other than Billdt served as chief.

The police union, however, says Billdt himself is central to SBPD's problems. Union president Sgt. Rich Lawhead said the rank and file is not relenting on their demands for Billdt's ouster.

"We told the mayor in no uncertain terms, that we were done with this chief" Lawhead said today.

Billdt was away from his office Wednesday. SBPD spokesman Lt. Scott Paterson said Billdt remains interested in keeping his job and reaching an accord with the union.

"What he has said in the past, and has commented on, is he is intent on working through the issues with the ... (union) and resolving it in a positive matter," Paterson said.

Just got off the phone with an officer in the San Bernardino Police Department.

I'm not going to give the name or even the rank of this source, because he/she fears retaliation. I will say this is a veteran from whom I've never heard complaints before.

I brought up the investigation into alleged brutality at the Dorjil Apartment complex in August 2007. This is one of more than 10 major crises/criticisms leveled at Police Department administration in recent months.

The Dorjils, as many of you know, made the news because the department recently announced they had allow an investigation into alleged brutality expire after more than 1 year. One year ago, Mayor Pat Morris and Police Chief Michael Billdt promised dozens of irate residents a full and thorough investigation. After the 1 year statute of limitations expired, they blamed the public for not delivering on their public promise.

Morris and Lt. Scott Paterson, speaking on Billdt's behalf, both said the investigation couldn't be completed because of non-cooperation from the community.

My source said something shocking: That letting investigations expire is business as usual.

"The guys in Internal affairs are really busy," the source said. "It's not a good practice, not at all, to let officers hang out in limbo and to not resolve investigations."

When I said it seemed inexcusable that an investigation into a serious matter would not be investigated within a 1 year deadline, the source laughed.

"It happens all the time," the source said.

Keep in mind that internal investigations are deeply secret. No one will talk publicly about them. We don't know how many are going on.

Keep in mind also that the department has insisted on investigating Sgt. Bradley Lawrence internally for alleged criminal illegal detention of residents. Other area departments are virtually unanimous in saying that their standard practice is to bring in independent investigatory agencies when officers are accused of criminal offenses.

Here's an article that was published in March of this year by American Police Beat. I found out about the piece when the author, Ted Hunt, wrote me an email after reading The Sun's recent coverage of the San Bernardino Police Officers Association's recent vote of no confidence in SBPD Chief Michael Billdt.

The crux of Hunt's article is his finding that police unions who take the drastic step of a no confidence vote have multiple reasons for doing so, but concerns about any chief's leadership skills are always a part of the equation.

Hunt goes on to write that one chief - unnamed in the article - experienced a "great deal of personal anguish" after being the target of a no confidence vote but that chief became more introspective and maintained his leadership role.

City Attorney James F. Penman said this morning that the City Council did not make any decisions at Wednesday's closed-session meeting that requires a report to the public.

The council was set to consider candidates applying for the job of assistant city manager and have a discussion with Police Chief Michael Billdt about the condition of his department.

As of Thursday morning, the council is still looking for temporary city manager and according to 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, still wants to learn more about the police situation.

"I'm assuming that we will have a discussion with the chief in closed session Monday night," McCammack said. "I don't think any of the council members have yet to get a handle on the whole chief - POA (Police Officers Association) communication issue."

Last week, the POA voted no confidence in BIlldt's leadership. Billdt has said he plans to stay on the job and believes he can patch things over with the rank and file.

The City Council may again change course on the matter of how Measure Z funds will be used on Police Department expenses during the current fiscal year.

Earlier this month, the council made a big move by diverting funds from the department's helicopter program to fund three sergeants and three detectives' positions.

That decision may not be final. Seventh Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, who chairs the city committee that oversees financial issues, said that money could again by reallocated to save the jobs of civilian SBPD employees who handle support tasks.

The issue has yet to be considered by the full council.

McCammack said the theory behind that plan is that SBPD won't be able to put more boots on the street if the officers who wear those boots are sitting behind a desk. (The six sworn positions that would have been funded by the council's previous move would not have allowed a net increase in sworn officers. Keeping the sergeants' and detectives' on the books would have allowed police brass to make promotions as vacancies developed within the ranks.)

Either way, it looks like the vote get rid of the helicopter will stand. SBPD got its chopper in 2006, when the highest priority on San Bernardino's political landscape was fighting crime. That was the same year voters agreed to accept higher sales taxes when they passed Measure Z.

City police can call on the San Bernardino County Sheriff's helicopter for help during emergencies without having to pay a dime. However, sheriff's deputies patrol a vast area so there's no guarantee the county chopper will be in the vicinity when needed.

The U.S. Department of Education has given Middle College High School the National Blue Ribbon Award.

Middle College High is part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District and on the campus of San Bernardino Valley College. The school allows advanced students to take college-level coursework before graduation, and it's common for teens attending Middle College to earn Associate's Degrees when they graduate.

Middle College is one of 27 California public schools to earn the Blue Ribbon award this year, according to a news release from Jack O'Connell, the state's superintendent of public instruction. No other school in San Bernardino County won the award this go around.

Part of an irregular series in which we look at wise words from history and how they deepen our understanding of the here and now ...

"Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal," - Richard Nixon, (1913-1994), 37th U.S. President, explaining his interpretation of executive privilege in a televised interview with David Frost.

This type of quote is a good pair with "absolute power corrupts absolutely." In this interview, the enigmatic, sometimes brilliant, always ruthless former president really made what he would regard as a mistake: He said what he really believed.

It was this type of executive privilege, the notion that by ascending to power one floats above the law, that was ultimately Nixon's undoing.

It has been the undoing of countless other leaders in this experiment called American democracy.

As a local attorney recently reminded me, it was the immortal Billy Jack who once said, "When the law breaks the law, there is no law."

As it should be. And it is important to remember how it was that Nixon and his long string of illegal, undemocratic political manipulations was finally brought to heel. It was the pillars of the very democracy that he so disrespected that ultimately held ground.

Free speech. Free press. Free elections. No leader is above these.

Scientific experiments that arouse fears of global, if not greater, destruction don't happen every day.

But what about Wednesday? The ambitious Large Hadron Collider project - set to begin Wednesday - is a major attempt by scientists to understand how matter itself exists.

There are swirling rumors (obviously not shared by whoever is set to turn the thing on) that the scientists working on the project could inadvertantly lead to the earth's destruction, which is somewhat reminiscent of what transpired before the first nuclear weapons test.

On July 16,1945, when the United States and Japan were still at war, Manhattan Project scientists in New Mexico conducting the first-ever test of the atomic bomb. The Department of Energy's history of that historic day recalls there was some humor expressed as to whether the Trinity Test would be mankind's last experiment.

To break the tension, (Enrico) Fermi began offering anyone listening a wager on "whether or not the bomb would ignite the atmosphere, and if so, whether it would merely destroy New Mexico or destroy the world." Oppenheimer himself had bet ten dollars against George Kistiakowsky's entire month's pay that the bomb would not work at all. Meanwhile, Edward Teller was making everyone nervous by applying liberal amounts of sunscreen in the pre-dawn darkness and offering to pass it around.

Now, physicists are seeking to debunk rumors that a major experiment slated to begin Wednesday could annihilate the world. Science writers are reporting that some are concerned the Large Hadron Collider - an immense particle accelerator built near Geneva, Switzerland, will do exactly that. The worry includes fear that the experiment could spawn Earth-destroying black holes within the 27 km particle accelerator.

It should be noted the physicists working on the Collider - intended to allow scientists to simulate conditions that are believed to have existed in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang - do not expect to murder the planet in their search for knowledge.

Here's one article on the experiment.

And here's a column about the super-small black holes that may be created, but are not expected to end the world.

Police Chief Michael Billdt is slated to meet with the City Council on Tuesday behind closed doors to explain current problems within his department.
The council is also scheduled to discuss the hiring of an interim city manager. San Bernardino's previous city manager, Fred Wilson, officially ended his time with the city Friday to take a new job in Huntington Beach.
A rift between department brass and rank-and-file cops has widened to the point that police union members have voted overwhelmingly to show a lack of confidence in Billdt's leadership.
Billdt will have a chance to provide the council with his version of events at the meeting. Mayoral chief of staff Jim Morris said City Hall officials want to schedule an additional meeting to talk with police union representatives.
In terms of the city's quest for a new City Manager, Morris said the city will likely have to rely on a temporary administrator until 2009.

The San Bernardino City Fire Department is warning that con artists are posing as fire inspectors.

"We've had several (reports)," said Manny Sedano, the department's public education officer.

Sedano didn't have an exact number handy for how many people have reported this kind of fraud.

As described by the Fire Department, the imposters' modus operandi is to visit a business while driving an unmarked car and dressed in dark blue pants and t-shirts that can give the illusion that the con artist is an actual department employee.

The con artists tell business owners that they are conducting a routine inspection and sometimes demand to install equipment or signs. They then try to make an illegal buck by asking for a cash payment. Sometimes their marks receive fraudulent invoices.

"They (con artists) wanted to take money up front. We don't do that," Sedano said.

Actual fire inspectors are not allowed to repair or install fire protection equipment, nor can they accept payments nor recommend places to buy equipment.

Other ways to tell if someone is claiming to be an inspector is a fake: Real inspectors wear department-issued badges and shoulder patches and travel in marked vehicles. Authentic inspectors will also show ID upon request. Inspectors also leave a copy of their inspection report at businesses before they leave.

Anyone who thinks they're faced with a fake inspector is advised to call San Bernardino Police at (909) 384-5742.

I spotted an interesting article today about the Italian version of an "Operation Phoenix" saga.

This is just a light post in no way meant to cast additional aspersions on the already embattled program.

What is a curious twist is that the Italian Phoenix, a rescue operation for a moribund airline, has caused a backlash for costing taxpayers billions because Silvio Berlusconi's government overreached in trying to curb the decline of a national airline.

On another note, Operation Phoenix shares its name with another unfortunate piece of history, the Phoenix Program during Vietnam.

This brutal campaign of special ops and rural terror in the late 1960s and early 1970s is described in Wikepedia thusly:

The chief aspect of the program was the collection of intelligence information. VCI members would then be neutralized (captured, converted, or killed). Emphasis for the enforcement of the operation was placed on local government militia and police forces, rather than the military, as the main operational arm of the program.[1]

Neutralization was not arbitrary but took place under special laws that allowed the arrest and prosecution of suspected communists, but only within the legal system. Moreover, to avoid abuses such as phony accusations for personal reasons, or to rein in overzealous officials who might not be diligent enough in pursuing evidence before making arrests, the laws required three separate sources of evidence to convict any individual targeted for neutralization. If a suspected VCI was found guilty, he or she could be held in prison for two years, with renewable two-year sentences totaling up to six years.[1]

According to MACV Directive 381-41, the intent of Phoenix was to attack the VCI with a "rifle shot rather than a shotgun approach to target key political leaders, command/control elements and activists in the VCI."

Heavy-handed operations--such as random cordons and searches, large-scale and lengthy detentions of innocent civilians, and excessive use of firepower--had a negative effect on the civilian population. It was also acknowledged that capturing VCI was more important than killing them.[2]

Given that history, one wonders whether the city officials who coined the slogan "changing hearts and minds" were aware of the unfortunate parallel.

Today was Fred Wilson's last day as San Bernardino's City Manager. He's slated to begin his new job as Huntington Beach's top administrator on Sept. 22.

Wilson began his time with San Bernardino in 1987. As he noted during Tuesday's council meeting, his first City Hall office was also a kitchen.

Wilson served as San Bernardino's top appointed official for the past dozen years, but his position changed substantially in March 2006 when the revised City Charter gave Wilson direct control over most city departments.

With the revised charter in effect, Wilson took a generally low-key approach to governance, and Mayor Pat Morris and City Attorney James F. Penman were the more prominent personalities on the top floor of City Hall.

One of many issues for the City Council to consider when hiring a new city manager is whether to select someone who will stay out of the spotlight while handling municipal affairs or someone with the kind of forceful personality and "vison thing" that would lead one to push a new agenda or make major changes around City Hall.

Whoever is selected, the new City Manager will be officially in charge of most officials involved in the Operation Phoenix program and will play a big role in how that anti-crime effort and the city's recreational programs evolve. Wilson's successor will also have the unenviable task of figuring out how to maintain city services at a time when revenues are expected to slow, if not diminish.

Poste below is a letter we received today from former San Bernardino Police Capt. Wes Farmer, who is now retired and living in Lancaster, Penn.

The letter is very complimentary toward Police Chief Michael Billdt. On Thursday night, the police union recorded a vote of no confidence in Billdt's leadership. A full story slated to run in Saturday's edition of The Sun will report that Billdt plans to stay on the job in the face of current disputes. He and Mayor Pat Morris both said today that they believe disagreements with the police union can be resolved.

The police union held its vote at a time when union leaders say Billdt has created a divisive atmosphere within SBPD. The union's version of the story is that some officers receive favored treatment, while anyone who runs afoul of Billdt is targeted for retaliation.

Farmer retired before Billdt ascended to the chief's position, but said he worked in the department with Billdt since the 1970s. He said he has not speak with current officers about the letter and although he told Billdt about his plans, Billdt did not request the letter.

Here it is in its entirety:

Wes Farmer
Captain (Retired), San Bernardino Police Department
September 4, 2008

Citizens of San Bernardino,
I have watched from a distance as the police department and community I loved and served in for over 30 years appears disturbed by allegations centered on the performance of Police Chief Michael Billdt. I write this letter hoping my voice may have some small impact upon the current public discourse and assist in gauging suitability for his position.
Chief Billdt's academic background seems to be of concern. While I fervently believe in the value of higher education, there is clear evidence in Chief Billdt's performance that higher education alone is not a necessary condition to effective leadership. He has been able (based on reading media reports from afar) to stem rising crime rates and improve the department's response to critical community issues. While I was present in the department, his knowledge and, more importantly, his ability to effectively implement programs were critical to bringing the department to a higher level of performance and continued accountability. At one point I supervised him when he implemented an extraordinarily effective crime suppression program. I was impressed with the high level of trust and loyalty subordinates displayed in support of his leadership even when he held them accountable for errors. Additionally, the ease with which he managed productive professional relationships with other law enforcement executives as well as community groups was critical to the project's success.
Chief Billdt is nothing if not fervent in his desire that those he works with be accountable, and in my view this is foundational for complaints against him by some rank and file. He can be very firm, when necessary, which may chafe those not performing appropriately. However, I never observed him to be "self-serving" as his clear leadership vision compelled him to operate ethically in advancing the department's mission and, when appropriate, to be caring and concerned when police members were hurting or suffering.
I have not been pleased with the words and comments by a few former colleagues in the media. While anyone has the right to speak publicly fairness would dictate full disclosure if they choose to personally criticize or attack another. Chief Billdt and the city are constrained by law from commenting extensively upon the work histories and performances of those former colleagues.
Finally, during my career I was directly involved with substantive internal and criminal investigations some of which were overseen by Chief Billdt. I speak with some certainty (not being present) that Chief Billdt and his staff is appropriately handling the Operation Phoenix investigation without succumbing to political pressure or influence. To do so would be a violation of their internal ethical compass which I believe has not been compromised.
While I have been retired for the last four and a half years, I feel I speak with some familiarity of Chief Billdt's knowledge and leadership. I cannot speak to events occurring since I left the city, but believe I provide some useful information. Additionally, by way of context, I possess two academic degrees and am a graduate student in a PhD program. I served under Chief Billdt when he was a captain and assistant chief.
My hope is my words will not be a distraction to substantive issues facing the citizens of San Bernardino.
____________________________
Wes Farmer, Captain (Retired)

Here's another snippet, this one on from Andrew's interview with Mayor Pat Morris and Chief Michael Billdt, who opted to answer questions together on a conference call.

Police Chief Michael Billdt said he plans to stay at his post and attempt to resolve the divide between himself and rank-and-file officers who delivered a landslide vote in condemnation of his leadership.

"I'm committed to this town. I'm committed to this department," Billdt said in a telephone interview Friday.

"My plan is to stay the course," he said later.

Billdt spoke the morning after 135 of 178 sworn officers met in a police union meeting and cast votes of "no confidence" in his leadership.

*********

Mayor Pat Morris, interviewed at the same time as Billdt, still supports the chief. On Wednesday, Morris issued a press release in which he expressed support for the chief and declared, "Officer and employee morale is critical to continuing our success in public safety."

Two days later, Morris said the union's vote captures officers' views during a "snapshot in time," but does not signal an unbridgeable gap between Billdt and the city's cops.

"Tensions between management and labor rise and fall," Morris said. "These are moments of great tension."

Morris went on to say that regular meetings and conversations between police administrators and union leadership could resolve the present dispute. He also voiced his disapproval of high-stakes tactics.

"What you don't do is throw down the gauntlet and issue ultimatums," Morris said.

Andrew and I will have a full story tomorrow assessing the reaction and implications of the union's 76 percent vote of disapproval of Chief Michael Billdt's performance.

Here are comments from 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack ...

McCammack said the vote proves the mayor's office was wrong in earlier assessments that dissent had come from a small but vocal minority of malcontents.

"The public position of the administration has been that this is a few disgruntled employees," McCammack said. "The 76 percent isn't just a few."

Asked what should be done next, McCammack said, "At this point, the mayor needs to make some tough decisions. The ball's in the mayor's court."

But McCammack added, "There is overwhelming evidence that the mayor should have taken some action earlier, of the fact that action relative to police administration needs to be taken now."

Asked directly if the chief can still lead a department that appears opposed to him, she said, "That's not my call, that's the mayor call, and I won't speak to that issue because I can't make decisions for the mayor."

We are working on a big weekend story about the 2008 presidential campaign, the unconventional faces it features (Sarah Palin, first Republican woman on ticket; Barack Obama, first black presidential nominee), and whether the issues and people are really engaging Inland residents who aren't typically interested in national politics.

I visited a Starbucks near UC Riverside and a barber shop in San Bernardino today for some preliminary reporting.

I'm a little heavy on the Obama supporters now, but I'll get more McCain backers in my print story.

Click below to see some of the people I talked to and read what they had to say ...

Some of you have wondered aloud why Andrew's photo is not posted on the blog, along with a biography.

I really don't know. We're waiting for our design geniuses to get around to it.

But here is the photo that will soon accompany Andrew's biography on the blog.

I shot it today. It shows Andrew with a doughnut moments before consumption. I can't really read any deeper meanings into this one. Just a reporter prepping for an unhealthy snack.

As our readers know, Andrew and I take the time to read each and every one of your posts.

Your ideas/reactions are important to us. We learn from them. Some are entertaining, too.

There are also a lot of them. In the 100's per week now.

So it's high time we started recognizing some of the ideas, craftsmanship and often sheer ingenuity of your writings.

Henceforth, we will post a weekly feature titled "Reader post of the week." The idea is simple: The post we judge the best during the week will be reprinted like a regular post, giving credit to the author of course.

So keep those ideas sharp and engaging!

Blogger Joseph Turner has broken at the SB Redcounty blog news that the San Bernardino Police Department's rank and file delivered an overwhelming condemnation of Chief Michael Billdt's leadership tonight.

Turner said the "no confidence" vote was 135 - 43, which is better than 75 percent of the 178 members who showed up to vote. The union is more than 300 strong.

This is a major development, in part because it blows apart police management's recent assertions that complaints about Billdt were coming from a small but vocal minority of malcontents.

How this will play out is unclear. Chief Billdt has been fending off a flurry of bad news, including allegations that he has mishandled internal investigations, mischaracterized the progress of a PAL league, thwarted aspects of the Operation Phoenix probe and concealed a shaky resume.

Also this week, the City Council balked at his recommendations to maintain a city helicopter and promote a management member who supervised Sgt. Bradley Lawrence, who is accused of unlawfully detaining people.

This news doesn't help. The chief has been able to count on staunch support from Mayor Pat Morris. Whether that support continues will be answered tomorrow.

Just talked to California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) spokesman Bob Stresak.

Stresak said that he was unaware of August Vollmer University when I asked him about it on Sept. 3.

With another day passed, Stresak said he looked into it, and he does have records of the school. He said the school was not accredited, but that POST accepted units from the program at the time San Bernardino Police Chief Michael Billdt earned them, which may explain how BIlldt received a management certificate, which typically requires 60 accredited units.

Stresak said Vollmer was the only school he knew for which POST has allowed an exemption to their normal rules.

Amidst all the hubbub of Operation Phoenix and internal strife within the Police Department, the City Council on Tuesday passed a law banning commercial trucks from traveling on Mount Vernon bridge.

The bridge allows vehicles driven along Mount Vernon Avenue between Second and Fifth streets to pass over BNSF Railway. The council took action to close the bridge after Caltrans provided city officials with information that buckling had been observed in bridge girders.

The law, which went into effect immediately, contains exceptions for commercial pickup trucks, vans and passenger cars. Big rigs, however, need to steer clear.

We have a story today about the end of the San Bernardino Police helicopter.

Whether you believe the city needs to pay for its own helicopter (it can more cheaply depend on the county sheriff's chopper) or not, the council's decision to ground the big, thirsty bird was clearly a big blow to Police Chief Michael Billdt's policing strategy.

This was first and foremost a move to save the city $654,000 in a time of budget crisis. Obviously, arguing to keep a costly machine in the sky while people are getting laid off is a tough position to take.

But, ultimately, the helicopter was slated for discontinuation because city officials never really proved to people that it was crucial to policing.

I can say that I sat in on many meetings (Measure Z, council, etc.) where the helicopter's costs and benefits were questioned. The answers amounted to "it helps us keep the city safe."

At the time, such an unsubstantiated answer was sufficient.

Now, the council has decided that's no longer the case.

The city's brief experiment with maintaining its own helicopter is over. Whether that is a benefit or cost to public safety may never definitively be known. But what is known is that the arguments and the justifications from police administration that once persuaded the council are now falling flat, at least in this case.

Click below for a look at a press release from Mayor Pat Morris' office in response to Andrew's questions today about whether Chief Billdt could continue to lead the department amidst growing dissention in the ranks and a host of controversial decisions.

Press_Release.pdf

The big story is below.

After two-plus years, the public gets its first glimpse of Police Chief Michael Billdt's resume.

Our story today shows that the chief has a degree from an unaccredited college, an extreme rarity among California police chiefs today. A representative from a state commission says he knows of no other chiefs in the state without an accredited bachelor's degree.

Mayor Pat Morris maintains the chief is "eminently" qualified for the post and points to his experience and record. Chief Billdt himself says he learned plenty from his time in the unaccredited, now defunct college, and points to his 14 years of command experience and his management certificate as resume builders.

Click below ...

Tuesday evening, the council rejected First Ward Councilwoman Esther Estrada's attempt to subpoena Police Chief Michael Billdt, former Operation Phoenix Director Glenn Baude, Parks and Recreation director Kevin Hawkins and recreation officials Curtis Brown and Glenda Martin-Robinson.

But the council did subpoena an as-yet unnamed individual during closed session.

"It's related to the incident at the Hernandez Center," City Attorney James F. Penman said Wednesday. "We're not giving the name of the person being subpoenaed."

"We don't want the person to know they're about to served," Penman added. "It's not an employee of the city."

The Hernandez Center, near downtown, was the place where former Phoenix center manager Mike Miller, reportedly snapped nude photos of a female. Miller is awaiting trial on suspicion of child molestation. Police and prosecutors have determined that all participants in the photo incident were adults and no crime was committed.

There has been some controversy as to whether police waited too long to interview a now-fired recreation supervisor who told police about five weeks after Miller's July 3 arrest that all parties were over 18.

Assistant District Attorney Dennis Christy has sought to defuse those concerns. He has said prosecutors knew of the photos at an early point of the Miller investigation and did not consider the pictures to be evidence of criminal activity.

I'm going to start posting occasional glimpses into The Sun newsroom ...

I like this shot below. It was taken last week, soon after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was announced as Sen. John McCain's VIce Presidential running mate.

Below, note some of the newsroom's allegedly more conservative members gazing transfixed at an overhead television beaming in images of the fresh new face ...

Pictured, from left, Michael Munoz, Andrew Edwards, Josh Dulaney

Big (and long) City Council meeting tonight. Here's a quick rundown of highlights, to be elaborated upon later on SB Now and in print.

A big suprise for the Police Department. Sgt. Steve Filson, former president of the San Bernardino Police Officers Association, spoke before the council and called for a new chief to replace current top cop Michael Billdt. Filson cited low morale caused by what he described as a secretive and divisive workplace environment.

"This has created an atmosphere rife with paranoia, one of blatantly violating officers' freedoms of expression, and of their fears of retaliation," he said.

Billdt could not be immediately reached for comment.

Sgt. Rich Lawhead, the current police union president, said the union is backing a change in leadership. About 20 union members sat in the audience while Filson spoke.

"Obviously, this is a pretty drastic step and we don't take this lightly," Lawhead said.

More news for SBPD. 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack won support for her plan to trade the Police Department's helicopter contract for human police. Money that would have funded the chopper will be redirected to fund three sergeants and three detectives.

"I am really worried that with the reductions in support staff we are going to have a lot less officers on the street," McCammack said.

Mayor Pat Morris said the defunding of those jobs would not have put any cops out of work and 6th Ward Councilman Rikke Van Johnson said he wanted to keep the helicopter to protect police from unseen assailants.

"I do believe that we need to keep boots on the street, but we also need to save lives within the department," Johnson said.

However, McCammack's proposal won over every other member present. Her motion passed by a 5-1 vote.

This move was taken before the council finally approved a budget resolution for the current fiscal year. The new budget authorizes about $150 million in general fund expenditures."

In Operation Phoenix news, 1st Ward Councilwoman Esther Estrada was again rebuffed in her effort to issue subpoenas to city officials. Estrada said her intention was to ensure that the council can find problems and enact policies to protect kids at city recreational facilities.

"We have to know what happened, know how things were broken, so we can fix it," she said.

However, McCammack was again the sole council member to agree with Estrada. Others expressed a preference to wait until current investigations conclude before considering a council-led inquiry.

"I want to see the results of that. If I have questions at that point, hell yes we'll issue subpoenas," 2nd Ward Councilman Dennis Baxter said.

The last two days have seen a whirlwind of new information regarding local investigations at the Police Department.

Today's story is a troubling one, showing a longtime department veteran who alleges that corrupt, unethical and retaliatory leadership in SBPD has triggered a state investigation. Lt. Don Soderbloom makes a number of allegations against Police Chief Michael Billdt, including that Billdt launched a costly and useless internal investigation into him after he retired and the DA had already cleared him of wrongdoing.

Yesterday's story showed that the trend in departments in the area is to refer criminal allegations into their own officers to outside agencies, a practice at variance with SBPD's insistence on investigating alleged criminal conduct by Sgt. Bradley Lawrence in-house.

These stories are part of a larger tableau of troubling developments in the city's police administration.

In recent weeks, we have reported that a high-profile investigation into alleged brutality in The Dorjils was allowed to expire after more than 1-year.

We have reported that it took police five weeks to interview Michael Allen and confirm that a female in illicit poses he was pictured with on Mike Miller's camera was over-18.

We have reported allegations from within the department that detectives were ordered not to investigate the pictures, allegedly to minimize political blowback.

We have reported that Lawrence was allowed to continue working for weeks after a fellow officer made criminal allegations against him. After another officer came forward with new allegations, Lawrence was put on leave.

We have reported that another Sgt., Steve Lowes, is also on leave. Lowes won't say why, saying he will be fired if he talks. Police won't confirm or deny he's on leave. Sources who wish to remain anonymous because of fear of retribution say Lowes is on leave for raising a ruckus with another officer over Lawrence's allegedly un-Constitutional policing tactics.

We have reported that a department booking log dated September 2007 shows a man being held in the jail without charge - "on ice."

We have reported that Billdt and Assistant Chief Frank Mankin briefly refused to pay a local restaurant a contracted amount for a banquet. They paid the full bill after another senior command officer wrote a memo that caught the attention of local media.

And now we're reporting that Billdt has declined to provide the public a resume of his qualifications. Rumors are swirling on this blog that the chief does not hold an accredited bachelor's degree, which is a particularly basic requirement to hold the top policing position in cities throughout the state.

I go over the list here to keep you up to date and fully in context. A lot has been happening, and it's important to keep the facts straight.

It is, of course, safe for any reasonable person to objectively conclude that the department is gripped by a number of serious crises and the chief is an embattled, unpopular leader.

Whether this ship can be righted by the people currently in charge remains to be seen.

We'll keep you abreast.

Part of an irregular series in which we look at wise words from history and how they deepen our understanding of the here and now ...

"Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched - criticism of writers by readers, or government by those governed, of leaders by those led - this is the soul of American democracy and the safeguard of modern society." - W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), preeminent African American scholar, author and activist.

Ah yes, the "soul" and the "safeguard" of modern democracies, as Du Bois deftly noted, is free and bold criticism.

More simply, free speech.

The idea of free speech - and more acutely free dissent - is one of those political maxims that comes relatively easy to us journalists. We are sluggish on a lot of ideas, and we constantly struggle with imperfect reports, but we, like Du Bois, Thomas Jefferson, Voltaire or any other post-Enlightenment thinker worth his or her salt get it on this score.

And I trust most of you, the readers, get it too.

What Du Bois is really getting at here, however, is a little more advanced. He is saying that all cooperative efforts benefit from free, open and often critical comment.

Today, on this blog and in our newspaper, we have made progress. When I first highlighted the salaries and benefits of firefighters and police officers, for instance, I got peppered with reactions and accusations that I had an agenda, didn't support our heroes, and a number of other transgressions.

When I first cast light all over the accusations against Sgt. Bradley Lawrence, I heard some of the same.

But, alas, the tides have been turning. With the critical analysis of a number of public issues, including Chief Michael Billdt's non-existent resume, Mayor Pat Morris' problematic Operation Phoenix and the incomplete investigation of the incident at The Dorjils, the reactions have shifted.

The debate is vigorous and open.

Nothing is sacred or exhalted, save for the public's right to know.

And we are realizing, as Du Bois did, that hushed criticism and fawning commentary is no friend of democracy.

Any government, leader, or program (or writer, for that matter) can only be legitimatized through the nourishment of honest and open criticism.