San Bernardino rescinds ultimatum after congregations protest
By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- The City Council on Monday retracted its demand that a local church ban sex offenders or lose its ability to collect money that helps pay for a city youth facility.
The council voted 5 to 2 -- after more than two hours of public comment -- to rescind its ultimatum and apologize to Master's Plan Church of the Nazarene, formerly known as First Church of the Nazarene.
The council's move reverses action the body took on Sept. 26 21 after a still unknown party distributed a confidential Police Department memo that a registered sex offender had performed work for a contractor at the church.
Master's Plan Church hosts San Bernardino's central Operation Phoenix youth center as well as SOAR Charter Academy and Valley Christian Pre-school. In the memo, Police Chief Keith Kilmer reported investigators' view that the sex offender's presence was not illegal.
The council reacted to the memo's revelations by voting Sept. 26 21 to demand that Master's Plan Church prohibit sex offenders from property the city pays money to use or to relocate the youth center.
On Sept. 27 22, Penman sent his office's investigators to the church pass out notification flyers warning of a sex offender's presence.
David Rhone, pastor of Master's Plan Church, considered the city's demand to be an affront to his and his congregation's First Amendment rights to minister to whomever they choose.
"Our church has been slandered and our people maligned," Rhone said to the council on Monday.
"I am commanded to forgive you, and I do," he added.
Rhone has also said the sex offender left San Bernardino before Penman's investigators passed out the flyers.
Dozens of other clergy and parishioners joined Rhone to insist that city officials reverse course.
"We will not comply with the outrageous demand that those who come on to our properties or into our sanctuaries submit to background checks before doing so," said Pastor Joshua Beckley of Ecclesia Christian Fellowship said.
Beckley read from a statement bearing the names of more than 50 local religious leaders or churches. Beckley also said local clergy recognize moral and legal duties to protect children.
Most speakers supported Rhone and his allies, but not all.
"If he (the sex offender) wants to go to church, that's fine and dandy. But not with a school. That doesn't fly with me," said Paul Sanborn, one of speakers who rose to support the city's original stance.
Penman refused to apologize for sending investigators to the church with notification flyers.
He also said that if he had served on the council, he would not have supported the ultimatum, saying further that he does not think Master's Plan Church should have accepted city money to host the youth center.
"You have accepted Caesar's law and Caesar's rule," Penman said after quoting a passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus Christ instructs believers to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.
Councilman Rikke Van Johnson made the formal request for the rescind the ultimatum. Council members Esther Estrada, Dennis Baxter, Tobin Brinker and Fred Shorett supported his move while council members Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack did not.
Johnson and Baxter were not present for the Sept. 26 21 vote. Brinker and Shorett switched their positions.
"I'm not comfortable with the vote I said last meeting," said Brinker.
Brinker also said he did not want to rush to a vote on McCammack's proposal that would require background checks on all contractors or volunteers who work at facilities subsidized by city tax dollars.
The council also voted Monday to have its legislative committee discuss issues related to such background checks and when the council should be notified of investigations pertaining to sex offenders around city programs.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
Jim Penman, I think you have finally gone completely over the edge! That shameless rambling display was hilarious, and for you, embarrassing. You act as if you are the only one who thinks child molestation is wrong. For anyone that has had any kind of experience with this issue, and there are many, your display was offensive. We don't need a Lifetime movie re-enactment...everyone understands the issue...the way you sensationalized it is unbelievable. You really have gone off the cliff....
Jim Penman was right not to apologize, for what ?, he was doing the job we elected him to. and no one answered the one big question , why wasnt the council and city att. 's office not told that there was a possible problem? the mayor's office and the city manager , the police , knew for a whole month . come on , the mayor didnt want to look bad. The Phoenix Operaton should not be in a church .they should not be getting money from the city , and still the mayor has never told the people of San Bernardino just how much has been spent. and it seem's that with all the local clergy at the council meeting Monday night ....in support of the mayor .... it could be a whole lot. but who knows? hey if i was a church and the city was giving me money I'd be there speaking in favor of more............. he wont tell anyone , Jim Penman was doing the job. and if something would of happen I'm sure the same group would of been there asking what why the city wasn't looking out for the children . rog
Andrew,
The Council meeting you refer to was on September 21 and the City Attorney Investigators notified the parents on September 22. The article mistakenly says September 26 and 27 respectively.
I will readily admit I have not been following this story closely but did skim some of the comments made by Rhone who I assume is the leader of this church. Also,noticed the SB city council backed off on demands regarding sex offenders at this location.
My initial response is that this guy Rhone sounds like some over the top touchy/feely guy and borderline quack. I know that at my church the congregation would be up in arms over having sex offenders around and the comfort zone would be quite small. The council should be majorly concerned over this as should every day citizens.
Unbelievable! What's next? "Molestors for Morris?" "Pedophiles for Pat?". Maybe Roman Polanski can even come into town for an Operation Phoenix fundraiser. Oops, the Swiss won't let him out on bail.
As I understand this story, the majority on the City Council is reluctant to have contractors operating programs EVEN RUN BACKGROUND CHECKS on employees who work around their facilities?
If that is really true, San Bernardino must, sadly enough, be governed by the biggest bunch of loons on the planet earth. That is just astonishing. I have always taken it for granted that such a procedure was de rigueur in such circumstances. I'm beginning to believe that San Bernardino is a parallel universe. xz
Watching Jim Penman last night I felt proud to be from San Bernardino. Mr. Penman is correct about Operation Phoenix and I support him in his campaign for Mayor.
Just Me:
It would appear that you are quite good at Nasty Rambling and critiquing everyone else's actions. Must be a lot of pent up anger? Some one pray for her.
Must be nice to be above reproach and consider your self judge of everyone else.
Boy , am I gonna get it now!!! Lets see how I am judged!
Did everybody see Penman writing his "hit list" as the commenters spoke against him on item 23? He wrote every name down so now they are gonna get it!
Did anybody see Wendy McCammack trying to wave Penman off of his tirade about how sympathetic he is to molestation victims?
Did anybody see the parents removing their children from the council chambers due to the graphic nature of Penman's comments?
Did everybody hear how out of it JustMe was during her comments? Those of us sitting in the council chamber weren't all associated with First Church of the Nazarene. Many of us were with other churches and just didn't agree with the ultimatum. As for her whining about not getting a seat, well we bothered to get there early.
The next time Mr Penman feels the need to make a private comment durring an agenda item he should get in line with the rest of us "po citizens". Then he would be limited to only three minutes. He made it very clear he was not speaking as the City Attorney durring his 20 minute plus rant last night.
Back of the line Penman! You're no better than us "po folks".
Once again the City Council has failed to stand up for what is right among men. Could it be they are afraid to stand up individually and tell the sitting Mayor he has been WRONG about Operation Phoenix from day one? This entire program has been a tremendous financial drain on City funds and has given not ONE but now, TWO black-eyes to the City in terms of molesting children and/or harboring the convicted. With the Council’s original vote on keeping convicted felons and child molesters from being in the presence of children, we foolishly thought there was some resemblance of common sense with the Council. However, these four spineless puppets of the sitting Mayor did not let him down…AGAIN. I can only hope the voters will see that change is long overdue this election year and we see individuals come into the elected office that have the necessary character to represent and be accountable the voters and not the Mayor. Additionally, our sitting Mayor has been the biggest disappointment in this City in over 20 years. His intimidation management style has taken SB into an period of questionable ethics and decision making that will require a very long recovery period for SB to turn the corner of being an undesirable place to live. We can only hope the voters also see the course we current heading under these five leaders is NOT what is best for the City, the voters, the citizens.
Did anyone notice that every so-called pastor that came to speak, did not mention what this whole thing was really about, their whole tirade was about how they will be affected, not one of them bothered to even mention the children that must always be protected from any potential danger. It frankly looked like a pimp parade, all we needed was Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson there for the circus to really get top billing. Let's look at who is being hurt by this, not the City Attorney, he does not depend on these "churches" for his support. The children, need everyone's attention here, not smooth talking "preachers" who more than likely really did embarrass the real christian base that might happen to attend their churches. Let's focus on the real victims here, ok!!!!....
It has been said once...and now it needs to be repeated. Maybe the readers will understand this time!
Separation of Church and State
The phrase separation of church and state is generally traced to the letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists, in which he referred to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state…meaning GOVERNMENT (Local, State, or Federal). If this still holds true, what on earth is a City run or sponsored program (Operation Phoenix) doing at a Church? How can this happen? We know who’s idea it was (Mayor Morris’) but how can the Council approve it? Is the Mayor really that far above the law, discounting his nepotism issue? How can we even consider his re-election based on his demonstrated performance? As the first Operation Phoenix child molestation embarrassment is now entering the courts, San Bernardino has been embarrassed yet again with another child molester (parolee) issue at the Mayor’s Operation Phoenix Center. San Bernardino deserves and must have better leadership than we currently have.
Uhmmmm....."Just Me Too" is NOT ME! It's a copycat. I support Jim Penman for mayor and Morris is a crook!
Andrew,
Just so you know, "Pastor" Rhone told his church that this incident with the pedophile caught working at his church was when he was 17 and with a 14 year old & it wasn't violent...NONE of that is true. The church-goers from other churches were told that the guy was ALWAYS supervised, NEVER around children and they made a big deal about the pedophile being gone now. THAT is why so many of them were upset and up in arms: their own pastor lied to them through his teeth.
DOWN WITH OPERATION PHOENIX!