San Bernardino City Attorney rejects cooperating with police in 'Nixonian' investigation
Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO - City Attorney James F. Penman said Tuesday he would not cooperate with police probing the alleged theft of a confidential city document.
Penman said he and his staff would only agree to interviews by the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office or the California Attorney General's Office.
The city attorney, who is seeking to oust Mayor Pat Morris from office in the Nov. 3 election, insisted that the theft investigation is a "Nixonian" ploy that has more to do with city politics than the pursuit of justice.
"We will not make ourselves available for interviews by the mayor's Police Department," Penman said.
The probe involves a memo by Police Chief Keith Kilmer. An unknown person distributed the document to the City Council on Sept. 21.
Morris said Tuesday during an interview with The Sun's editorial board that police have reviewed video evidence of a City Attorney's Office employee carrying what may be the memo in question.
The mayor said he has not seen the video and that the memo was stolen from a women's bathroom at City Hall.
Police Capt. Scott Paterson confirmed an investigation is ongoing but would not offer details.
Penman said no theft took place.
"Our office lawfully came into possession of a number of documents that were left in a City Hall restroom by a city manager's employee," Penman said.
The memo detailed a police investigation into a registered sex offender's presence at Master's Plan Church of the Nazarene, formerly First Church of the Nazarene, which hosts the city's central Operation Phoenix youth center and other children's facilities.
The memo's revelations prompted the City Council on Sept. 21 to send a demand that the church keep sex offenders off church property or lose "rent" for the youth center.
Dozens of local clergy complained of an affront to religious freedom. The council rescinded its ultimatum on Monday.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
Penman is out of control.
Memogate does have a Nixonian ring to it!
I'm not sure that Mr Turner is up to the task of asking for the tape showing one of Penman's Staff carrying the memo to the City Attorney's Office but I would view it as a public service.
Many years ago as a newspaper reporter, I covered the San Bernardino City Hall for eight years, during which time I saw some strange and amazing happenings, but this tops it all.
Here is a memo dealing with delicate, intimate details of people's lives, a memo that contained details so recondite that they could not even be shared with the City Council, the city's governing board. Yet, by some arcane process, they were in a women's rest room, of all places!
Where, as at least one version of the tale has it, they were purloined by someone working in another city office.
Most interesting! Most unusual!
Now I know that the city has grown larger and more intricate since the City Hall was built almost 30 years ago, but has it become so crowded that city manager's employyes must stow their paperwork in rest rooms?
Perhaps with budget cuyus, there is a shortage of tissue in the rest rooms, and employees feel that they must take a few stray papers from their desks to serve as a substitute. However, if that is the case, one would think that they might be more discriminating than to take memoranda of this level of confidentiality to use for that purpose.
Perhaps the city no longer can afford shredders and employees feel compelled to flush away their secrets.
Who knows?
The whole sorry tale has passed ludicrous and bizarre and has now headed into the territory of the grotesque.
A team of comedy writers high on drugs could not make this stuff up!