Morris and Penman rivalry adds heat to San Bernardino politics

Extended version:

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO - It was on election night - Feb. 7, 2006 - when City Attorney James F. Penman extended an offer of peace to Judge Pat Morris at the close of a tough campaign.

Peace has been elusive. The Nov. 3 election approaches and the rivalry between San Bernardino's Morrisites and Penmanians is on the rise.

City Council meetings have become a time for raised voices and stump speeches from the public's microphone. And there's still about one more week of campaigning to go until the votes get counted.

There are very real policy differences between Morris and Penman, especially when it comes to parolee housing issues, whether the city has any role to administer social programs and redevelopment.

The two offer mutual accusations that their opponent refuses to play fair.

In Morris' assessment, Penman may as well be the human embodiment of gridlock.

"I gotta tell you, it has been a painful experience. In all of my life, I have never found a more obstinate, difficult person to work with," he said.

In Penman's view, Morris ignores legal advice from the City Attorney's Office and does not adequately share information with the council.

"The mayor has behaved in a very Nixonian manner," Penman said.

What follows are but a few of the conflicts and key events that have happened in San Bernardino since Morris began his term as mayor.

* March 6, 2006: Morris is sworn into office.

* Nov. 7, 2006: City voters pass Measure Z, a quarter-cent sales tax intended to finance new officers. Morris' effort to use the funding to pay for also pay for Operation Phoenix proves controversial despite the fact voters passed a companion measure advising the tax dollars to be spent on police and youth programs.

* July and August 2007: Morris and Penman are on opposite sides of a charged debate over parolee housing. Then-Councilman Neil Derry backs a plan that would return to Penman the power to coordinate police, fire and code enforcement raids of parolee homes.

Morris accuses Penman of manufacturing a "false crises" and maintains the city attorney's approach would impede parolees' chances to rehabilitate. The council rejects the plan by a single vote.

Penman later keeps parolee issues in the spotlight when he proposes a moratorium on group homes. The council gives the plan its unanimous approval.

* Aug. 10, 2007: Deputy code enforcement director and former City Attorney's Office employee Marianne Milligan files papers to challenge Penman for the city attorney's post. Milligan's gathers support from Morris' allies and eventually, the mayor himself.

Nov. 6, 2007: Penman defeats Milligan in the city attorney election. Morris' effort to back a trifecta of challengers fails, as voters also reject candidates trying to unseat council members Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack.

Councilman Rikke Van Johnson, supported by Morris, wins a close race.

The political mood relaxes after the election, and McCammack votes with Morris to spend a fraction of Measure Z revenues on Operation Phoenix.

* May 19, 2008: Morris refuses to sign a council resolution to dismiss an ethics complaint against Penman.

The city attorney, who the California Bar eventually clears, takes it personally.

* July 3, 2008: Operation Phoenix youth center manager Mike Miller is arrested on suspicion of child molestation. Miller pleads not guilty.

Morris' signature program falls under intense scrutiny and the mayor acknowledges severe management problems within Operation Phoenix's recreation component. The mayor moves to reorganize Operation Phoenix and Penman steps up criticism of Morris and the program as controversy grows.

Morris does not waver from his position that Operation Phoenix's youth programs are vital to preventing crime.

Councilwoman Esther Estrada and McCammack seek to use the council's rarely employed subpoena power to compel staffers who managed Operation Phoenix to testify to the council, but their colleagues reject the idea.

* July 20 2009: The City Council approves -- by a single vote -- an ambitious plan to redevelop a cluster of eastside apartments. Morris says the plan will reduce crime in the area as 144 apartment units will be demolished and another 100 units will be rehabilitated.

Penman and other opponents insist the redeveloped apartments will become a magnet for parolees since they must be leased to low-income tenants.

* Aug. 6, 2009: Penman files papers to run for mayor on the final day of the nomination period. He cites the redevelopment vote as one of the primary reasons he entered the race. Contractor Rick Avila is the third candidate in the race.

* September 2009: A leaked memo appears on the City Council dais before the Sept. 21 meeting. The document summarizes a police inquiry into the circumstances of a registered sex offender who performed work at a church that hosts the Operation Phoenix center that Miller managed before his arrest.

The memo reports that children were not believed to be in danger. The council demands the church ban sex offenders or lose money that helps pay for the youth center. The day after the vote, Penman sends his investigators to distribute sex offender notification flyers around the church.

The church's pastor, David Rhone, says the ultimatum is a violation of his congregation's First Amendment rights and that the offender has left the area. The council rescinds its ultimatum during its Oct. 5 meeting after dozens of clergy protest.

Penman does not back down from his position that the council and public should have been informed of the sex offender's presence.

Morris says Penman exploited the situation for political gain and that police handled the investigation well.

Police are investigating the alleged theft of the memo. Penman initially refused to provide an interview to what he called "the mayor's Police Department." He did provide a statement to District Attorney's investigators, saying that a non-city agency should handle the probe in the middle of election season.

Morris has said he is not involved with the investigation. The mayor told The Sun's editorial board that there is video evidence of a City Attorney's Office staffer carrying what may be the memo in question.

Penman has said the memo was lawfully delivered to his office and that the public should have notified of the sex offender's presence. In his view, Morris has sought to cover up the presence of an offender near the Operation Phoenix site.

Police Lt. Dan Keil said Monday the investigation is ongoing.

* Nov. 3, 2009: Unless something weird happens, this is the day San Bernardino residents will go to the polls to choose Morris, Penman or Avila as San Bernardino's mayor for the term that begins in March 2010.