The updated numbers include late-arriving mail-in ballots that were not counted Tuesday, the day San Bernardino's voters went to the polls.

New numbers from the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters show that Marquez now has 34 vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada in the race to represent the city's 1st Ward. Marquez has 637 votes (51.37 percent) to Estrada's 603 (48.63 percent).

In the 2nd Ward Race, Desjardins' count is now 628 votes (52.95 percent) to incumbent Dennis Baxter's 558 votes (47.05 percent).

In the 4th Ward Race, incumbent Fred Shorett has 1958 votes (52.45 percent) to challenger Joe Arnett's 1775 votes (47.55 percent).

"I hope it changes. I've extended the olive branch to the mayor several times," Penman said Wednesday.

Semi-official election results credited Penman with 37 percent of the vote. Mayor Pat Morris was reelected with about 55 percent of votes cast.

Whatever the number of olive branches that have been extended between Penman and Morris, there have also been repeated flare-ups between the two officials within City Hall and on the campaign trail.

The most recent tensions grew out of a memo that was leaked during the Sept. 21 City Council meeting. The document reported circumstances of a sex offender who performed work at a church that hosts a city youth center.

The council voted that day to demand the church ban sex offenders or lose money that pays for the youth center. Penman accused Morris of trying to cover up a danger to children and sent investigators to pass out notification flyers around the church.

Local clergy viewed the ultimatum as a threat to their First Amendment rights and crowded an October council meeting to protest Penman's and the council's actions. A council majority rescinded its demand.

At the time, Penman called protest a campaign stunt organized by pro-Morris clergy. Wednesday, he said he didn't think the episode was a decisive moment in the campaign.
"I think the mayor has a strong following. He's very charismatic and I think a lot of people like him," Penman said.

Penman said on election night that Morris' support probably includes a contingent of ex-convicts. He did not press that line of argument in an interview Wednesday.

Penman's signature campaign issue was an eastside redevelopment project that is intended to transform a cluster of apartments along 19th Street and Sunrise Lane.

Morris viewed the project, which would include the demolition of 144 apartment units, as means to transform the area and provide housing to people who are poor, but law abiding.

Penman maintained that federal requirements to lease 100 units to low-income tenants would eventually result in parolees living in apartments improved at taxpayer expense.

"I did the best I could to stop it by running for mayor," Penman said.

SAN BERNARDINO -- The vast majority of registered voters here chose not to participate in the city election.

San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil said there are 69,202 people listed on San Bernardino's voting rolls, and 12,295 of them voted on Tuesday.

Those numbers calculate to a voter turnout of just under 18 percent. In other words, less than one-fifth of San Bernardino's registered voters chose to exercise their right to help decide who will lead the city as mayor.

In case anyone cares, incumbent Mayor Pat Morris won another four-year term. He defeated two challengers, City Attorney James F. Penman and contractor Rick Avila.

"We deal with the reality of we have. This (low turnout) is not unique to our city," Morris said. "For reasons that are not readily apparent, the level of interest, the level of involvement is modest."

Turnout for Tuesday's election continues the decline in voter participation in recent city elections.

In 2007, when Penman's office and four council seats were up for a vote, about 21 percent of registered voters actually cast ballots.

About 23 percent of San Bernardino's voters participated in the February 2006 run-off between Morris and Penman.

In the November 2005 mayoral election, representative democracy was worth the time of nearly 26 percent of the city's registered voters.

Morris suggested that San Bernardino may increase voter turnout in the future by following the example of Riverside and shifting its elections to even-numbered years, when state and federal offices are also on the ballot.

Riverside also had an mayoral election Tuesday. That city's incumbent, Ron Loveridge, cq won an abbreviated three-year term.

Riverside's next mayoral election is set for June 2012, which is also the year of the next presidential primary.

Three of San Bernardino's City Council seats, those representing the city's 1st, 2nd and 4th wards, were also up for a vote on Tuesday.

A handful of votes could make a big difference in the 1st Ward contest. Challenger Virginia Marquez enjoyed a nine-vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada when semi-official results came out late Tuesday.

Elections officials are scheduled to announce their next updated vote count at 5 p.m. Friday.
Verjil said there are roughly 6,000 late-arriving mail-in ballots from races across the county that have yet to be counted.

SAN BERNARDINO -- The county's top election official said Wednesday that her office is likely to perform a hand count before certifying results in the race to represent the city's 1st Ward.

"I might do that because this is such a close race," said Kari Verjil, registrar of voters for San Bernardino County.

Semi-official election results show challenger Virginia Marquez with a nine-vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada, the City Council's longest serving member. The 1st Ward includes downtown, part of the Westside and the area around San Bernardino International Airport.
Verjil said she plans to record final election results by Nov. 23.

A hand count would be technically different from a recount. A candidate or citizen would be able to request a recount after the Registrar of Voters office completes its canvassing of votes cast in Tuesday's election.

Even if a hand count shows that semi-official results in the 1st Ward race were completely accurate, there is still a chance that Estrada could emerge as the ultimate winner.

"Like anything else, if it's not documented, it doesn't exist, so I'm waiting for the official numbers," said Marquez, who on Wednesday was nonetheless excited by the possibility that she was the victorious candidate.

Verjil said there are some 6,000 mail-in ballots from across San Bernardino County that have yet to be counted. An estimated 175 of those ballots are from 1st Ward voters.

"The 1st Ward's decision hasn't been made," Estrada said.

The uncounted ballots could have been hand-delivered to elections officials on Tuesday or arrived in the mail prior to the Election Day deadline.

The Registrar of Voters next scheduled update on election results is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday.
Tuesday's election also included contests for the Mayor's Office and the 2nd and 4th council wards.

The results of the 1st Ward election could determine whether reelected Mayor Pat Morris cq can continue to govern with a council majority on his side.

The council frequently votes 4-3 on controversial issues. The majority supports Morris and Estrada joined council members Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack on the dissenting bloc.
Morris supported Marquez's campaign, and his favored candidate in the 4th Ward contest, Fred Shorett, stands to win reelection.

In the 2nd Ward, however, challenger Jason Desjardins is the likely winner over Morris-friendly incumbent Dennis Baxter.

Desjardins had the same campaign consultant as City Attorney James F. Penman, Morris' leading opponent in the mayoral race. Desjardins said Wednesday that he doesn't want to be considered tied to any political cliques.

"Until you see me vote, it would be kind of hard to paint me into that corner," Desjardins said.
All three council elections were close. Desjardins had a 50 vote advantage over Baxter in the most recent vote count. Shorett won 98 votes more than Arnett.

Mayor Pat Morris won reelection with nearly 55 percent of the vote.

His closest challenger, City Attorney James F. Penman, claimed about 37 percent of the vote. The third candidate, contractor Rick Avila, earned about 8 percent of the vote.

In the 1st Ward City Council race, challenger Virginia Marquez had a nine-vote lead over incumbent Esther Estrada, the council's longest serving member. The San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters' next update is scheduled to be released at 5 p.m. Friday.

If Marquez is certified as the winner, she can expect to join Jason Desjardins in ousting an incumbent. Desjardins claimed about 52 percent of the vote and defeated 2nd Ward incumbent Dennis Baxter.

In the 4th Ward race, incumbent Fred Shorett won nearly 52 percent of the vote and held off challenger Joe Arnett.

Morris has 53.84 percent of the vote, leading rivals James F. Penman and Rick Avila, as first round of ballot results was released shortly before 8:30 p.m.

Penman, who currently serves as City Attorney, trails with 37.31 percent of the vote. Avila, a contractor, has 8.85 percent of the vote in the first round of election results.

The first round of ballot figures included only 39 of 178 precincts.

In council races, incumbent Esther Estrada leads Virginia Marquez in the 1st Ward race.

Challenger Jason Desjardins is ahead of incumbent Dennis Baxter in the 2nd Ward race.

Challenger Joe Arnett is ahead of incumbent Fred Shorett in the 4th Ward race.

Only a small number of votes are in so far, so the leads may change as the night progresses.

Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - Public safety - the top issue in the city's last mayoral race - could very well remain voters' top concern in 2009.

FBI statistics show that serious crimes have diminished within the past four years, but violence and property offenses remain at levels unacceptable to candidates and citizens alike.

Crime statistics compiled by the FBI show that from 2005 to 2008, the number of reported violent crimes in San Bernardino dropped from 2,510 to 2,074. Criminal homicides within the same time period declined from 58 to 32.

It's worth noting that California as a whole became a less violent state during those years. Statewide, violent crimes decreased from about 190,000 offenses to about 185,000 acts of violence. Murders in the Golden State dipped from 2,503 slayings in 2005 to 2,142 killings in 2008.

Of the three mayoral candidates vying for office, the two who hold jobs at City Hall - incumbent Mayor Pat Morris and City Attorney James F. Penman - view the statistics in very different ways.

Whereas Morris says the absolute numbers show San Bernardino has made substantial progress in reducing violence within city limits, Penman has focused on how the stats show San Bernardino's crime relative to other cities. According to Penman, San Bernardino ranked as the state's fourth-most violent city compared to the sixth-most dangerous city in 2005.

Morris and Penman, as well as mayoral hopeful Rick Avila also have differing views on how to achieve fire safety in a town that sits at the base of some highly-flammable foothills.

The election is Nov. 3.

Rick Avila
In an interview, Avila remarked on how San Bernardino's crime issue is interconnected to its economic development issue. Since the city needs money to maintain its Police and Fire departments, Avila made another pitch for his proposal to cut fees and taxes as a way to offer a carrot to new business, which he said are needed to generate tax revenue to hire more police and enhance Fire Department staffing so engine companies can have four firefighters riding on each rig.

Avila also said that he supports the deployment of surveillance cameras and in areas that have a high incidence of crime and identify funding to bring helicopter patrols back to San Bernardino. Avila emphasized that he also wants to wants to hire a team of grant writers who would seek state and federal funds that could be passed along to youth sports leagues and music and arts program to bolster crime prevention efforts.

In a state where the corrections system is so messed up that thousands of inmates could soon be granted early release, Avila doesn't see crime as a problem that can be solved simply through more and more arrests.

"So what's the use of arresting these people when their going to get out?," Avila asked. "So what we have to do is prevent them from going to jail in the first place."

Avila also opined that city leadership has a lot of work to do to foster trust between police and the community. He said he wants to see the Police Department make greater use of foot patrols and less-lethal arms, and if elected, would personally appear at town hall meetings throughout the city to talk about law enforcement policies.

Regarding fire protection, Avila said he wants to find money to purchase two water tenders for the Fire Department and coordinate with the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire to conduct prescribed burns in the local foothills.

Pat Morris
Morris is counting on voters to agree with his view that San Bernardino has become a safer city since he took office in 2006.

A platform statement from the Morris campaign points to FBI statistics that show murders have dropped by nearly half from 2005 through 2008.

Other accomplishments cited by the Morris campaign include the passage of Measure Z - a 2006 tax measure that allowed the city to hire more cops, partnership with other law enforcement agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives and collaborations with nonprofit entities like Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy and the Urban Youth Conservation Corps that are intended to help prevent high-risk individuals from committing crimes.

Since the 2005 campaign, Morris has used the term Operation Phoenix to describe a range of anti-crime policies that include increased police patrols, partnership with nonprofits and other government agencies and new youth services.

"We have aggressively pursued every available funding source to expand our anti-crime strategies. During my administration, San Bernardino has received $1.8 million in grant funding and over $2 million of in-kind services and support from outside agencies," Morris reported in a written statement.

In terms of the future, Morris said the city needs to local resources to retain 16 Police Department positions that are set to be hired through federal grants. The U.S. Department of Justice granted the money this year. He also wants to develop programs to oversee and rehabilitate parolees.

"It is not enough for us to act tough and say parolees don't come here,' because they are already here and will keep coming. And while we have adopted a moratorium on parolee housing, it is not enough. We have had a moratorium in place for two years, and the number of parolees living here has not diminished," Morris wrote in a statement.

Morris said City Hall needs to demand state funding for programs that would place parolees under supervision while also providing job training and other educational services in hopes of reintegrating ex-cons into society. He also defends the recent decision to redevelop apartments on Sunrise Lane and 19th Street arguing that units rehabilitated as low-income housing will be placed in the care of a responsible nonprofit and that 60 percent of the apartments in the redevelopment area will be demolished.

The Morris campaign also maintains that Fire Department staffing should fluctuate so that more firefighters are on shift when there is a greater risk of major fires. He also wants to consider staffing plans that focus on the delivery of medical service, as Morris reports that calls for paramedic services make up more than 80 percent of the Fire Department's calls.

James F. Penman
Penman's campaign is banking on voters feeling that their neighborhoods were safer four years ago.

His campaign has zeroed in on a recently approved eastside redevelopment project as a way to distinguish his anti-crime policies from the incumbent mayor's. Whereas Morris sees the redevelopment of apartments on Sunrise Lane and 19th street as a means to transform that neighborhood into a safer place, Penman says he is convinced that promised screening efforts will not block parolees from living in apartments that are to be redeveloped at taxpayer expense.

"We must reverse the Mayor and Council's recent decision to spend over $8.4 million on low-income, Arden-Guthrie type housing because it will bring more parolees and graffiti to our city. Most poor people are honest, not criminals but most criminals and parolees are also poor," Penman wrote in an e-mail.

"Therefore, more parolees will live in these new apartments and be highly active throughout our city," he continued.

Penman also asserts that the kind of parolee rehabilitation programs favored by Morris will have the unintended consequence of attracting a greater number of ex-prisoners to San Bernardino.

Penman also took issue with the city's administration of Operation Phoenix youth centers. In July of 2008, the manager of the city's flagship Operation Phoenix center was arrested on suspicion of child molestation.

This past Monday, an unknown party informed city officials and by extension the public, the church that hosts the same Operation Phoenix center had allowed a registered sex offender to work on the premises.

The council responded by demanding the church ban sex offenders from its premises, and the church's pastor - a Morris supporter - has in turn argued that the council's demand infringes upon its Constitutional freedom to decide who the church ministers to.
Police said an investigators determined that the offender was not a danger to children and that his working there was not illegal, but Penman was not satisfied with that.

"San Bernardino spends far too much time and money, as this most recent Operation Phoenix sex-registrant debacle demonstrates, to rehabilitate violent criminals, parolees, and sex-offenders while we do too little to protect our children and families from these predators," Penman wrote.

Penman also wrote that he wants to combine police patrols and investigations with more aggressive Code Enforcement work throughout the city. He also wants increased Fire Department staffing to ensure that engine companies are staffed with four crew members each.

SAN BERNARDINO - Three people are asking to be mayor this year, and one of the biggest issues of the campaign could be 1,500 or so taggers who won't stop writing on the walls.

If there's one thing that candidates agree on, it's that the preponderance of graffiti and other visual blight in San Bernardino is one of the most important challenges to overcome if the town is to have more success in attracting investment.

"If we clean our city they will come," mayoral challenger Rick Avila said. "That's the main thing. People are afraid to open shops in the city because of graffiti."

But this year's contenders don't agree on how to solve the problem.

The two mayoral candidates who hold positions in city government - incumbent Mayor Pat Morris and City Attorney James F. Penman - are diametrically opposed regarding San Bernardino's relatively new graffiti-abatement team.

Morris continues to support the City Council's 2008 decision to take graffiti removal in-house, whereas Penman wants to restore San Bernardino's relationship with Los Padrinos, the nonprofit that painted over taggers' messes until last year's policy change.
Mayoral candidates also expressed varying views on Code Enforcement and nuisance-related issues.

The election is Nov. 3.

RICK AVILA
In an interview Friday, Avila restated his view that the Police Department needs to place uniformed cops on constant anti-vandal surveillance.

"Saturate the graffiti hot spots, graffiti-ridden areas with uniformed officers for 24 hours a day," Avila said.

Avila also wants to install surveillance cameras around vandals' favorite targets that could provide live video to patrol cars.

Technology currently advertised on the market includes cameras that can at least dispatch live text messages to patrol officers after detecting possible graffiti.

Avila also said that he thinks the city's Code Enforcement officers need to concentrate their efforts on the city's apartments and spend less time looking for violations at owner-occupied homes.

"I don't want this to be a city where slumlords can make a profit off of our residents," Avila said.

The candidate said he wants to look for some kind of federal grant that would enable the city to help landlords install security fences to keep taggers and other criminals out of apartment complexes.

Avila was also said he has spoken with many San Bernardino homeowners who feel that they are being picked on by Code Enforcement staffers.

"I would trim down the code enforcement," Avila said. "I hear too many times from residents. I feel they're being harassed and they're being charged for more like a nuisance type of a crime. To me its not really important."

PAT MORRIS
Morris considers the city's anti-graffiti team to be a critical asset to prevent vandalism.

"Make no mistake, we have a long road to travel before winning the road on graffiti, but we now have the sustainable, consistent, accountable and professional battle plan needed for victory," reads a platform statement from the Morris campaign.

Official city statistics show that when the Public Services Department's graffiti clean-up personnel took over from Los Padrinos in January, the crew received 705 work orders, of which it closed 353.

In June, the city's clean up crew closed 1,374 work orders and took in 1,362 new requests to clean up graffiti.

City figures also show that response times shrunk from 25 days to close a graffiti abatement order in January to one day in August.

The Morris campaign asserts Public Service's crew initially had to deal with a serious backlog, and has since evolved into a more efficient unit.

The incumbent also also emphasizes an imperative to eliminate "crime-infested housing."
Morris supports ongoing redevelopment projects that include the demolition of apartment complexes such as the "Meridians" on the city's western limit and a rehabilitation project on Sunrise Land and 19th Street on the city's eastside.

The latter project has been controversial, as supporters have said it will clean up troubled apartments and opponents reply that the work would perpetuate low-income housing.

The law requires some of the rehabilitated apartments to be rented to low-income tenants, and the plan calls for new occupants to pass a screening process. Morris' campaign also reports the project would actually replace 60 percent of the apartments in the project area with single-family homes and senior housing.

"What we need to help solve our crime problem and restore our local economy is more proactive aggressive strategies like those being deployed at the crime infested housing at Meridian and Sunrise. What we do not need is continued inaction and reactionary strategies that have been ineffective over the past twenty years," Morris wrote in a statement.

JAMES F. PENMAN
Penman said when he announced his plans to run for mayor in July - after having said multiple times that he would not seek the office - that one of reasons he changed his mind was the council's 2008 decision to scrap City Hall's relationship with Los Padrinos.
The candidate considers Los Padrinos to have been an organization that could successfully rehabilitate taggers while putting them to work.

"This program will also help our community by employing local youth who learned employment skills and received the positive reinforcement of a paycheck and the responsibility of holding a job," Penman wrote in an e-mail.

Penman also supports the deployment of surveillance cameras and undercover police around spots where vandals frequently strike. He also wants to take advantage of existing state laws to impose penalties on taggers' parents and take vandals' drivers' licenses away.

The candidate also contends that the eastside rehabilitation project slated for Sunrise Lane and 19th Street near the site of the now-demolished "Arden Guthrie" apartments will actually attract vandals to San Bernardino.

"That's why I will support a strict citywide ban on additional group homes for criminal offenders and repeal Mayor Morris' disastrous decision to build the Arden Guthrie housing project," Penman wrote.

"These graffiti gangs will continue to grow and thrive if we build more low-income housing to attract more parolees to our city," he continued.

Penman also writes that if elected mayor, he would seek to foster greater cooperation between the City Attorney's Office and Code Enforcement, Fire and Police departments to fight nuisances.

He maintains that closer cooperation between those departments can generate the necessary evidence to file civil cases and obtain court rulings to shut down apartments, motels and homes where gangsters and drug dealers congregate and do business.

Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - San Bernardino voters will need to consider many important issues when they vote this year.

Economic development is the first issue that San Bernardino candidates will discuss in a series of articles planned for this month. The next story will focus on graffiti and "broken windows" issues and a third will deal with crime and law enforcement, and keeping the city's budget balanced.

San Bernardino is a city where economic hardship as been a part of life even before the recession hit the nation. The city never fully recovered from the job losses that occurred after Fontana's Kaiser Steel shutdown in the mid-1980s and when Norton Air Force closed in the mid-1990s.

The recession and the wave of foreclosures that it spawned created yet more challenges for San Bernardino.

However, the city may enjoy a window of opportunity in the next few years if major transportation projects are successful.

The expansion of the 215 Freeway, potential passenger air service at the former Norton Air Force Base and a new high-speed bus line running from northern San Bernardino to Loma Linda could all present business opportunities within San Bernardino.

City voters will have to decide Nov. 3 which candidates offer the best ideas and possess superior skills to position the city for new business and job growth.

Below are what this year's mayoral candidates have to say. Council candidates addressed the same issue in Sunday's Sun.

In the mayoral race, Mayor Pat Morris is running for a second term. He is being challenged by City Attorney James. F. Penman and contractor Rick Avila.
Rick Avila

Avila says the city can attract business by reducing the city's utility users tax and increasing the number of police officers assigned to catching vandals.

"I want to give incentives to new business by lowering impact fees, utility tax, red tape at City Hall," Avila said.

Avila said that having uniformed police officers visible 24 hours per day around graffiti hot-spots is a necessity to keeping the city looking clean and ready for business.

Attracting new entertainment options is also important to Avila.
Although the San Bernardino Economic Development agency is working on a plan to bring a new cinema operator to downtown, Avila thinks the E Street corridor is a better location for a movie theater.

What Avila wants to see downtown is a 14,000- to 17,000 seat sports arena that he said could be a venue for a minor league hockey team, something Ontario already has in the Reign. A freeway-visible arena, Avila said, would be a magnet for new restaurants, coffee shops and night clubs and be a way to put San Bernardino on the map.

"Right now is the time to build. I'm in the construction industry, and you could probably build for half-price now," Avila said.

Pat Morris
Morris' platform streses crime fighting as a prerequisite for any economic development.
"I will continue to aggressively fight violent crime and redouble our efforts on quality of life crimes, like graffiti and blight, until our city's image and reputation have been transformed," reads Morris' platform.

Morris' platform also calls for future investments into infrastructure, remaking downtown San Bernardino, supporting the city's hospitality industry and redeveloping the land around Arrowhead Springs Hotel.

Infrastructure, in the words of Morris' campaign "is a double whammy in terms of job creation. Infrastructure projects themselves create immediate high-paying jobs, and once completed, the new infrastructure creates a better and lower-cost business environment that attracts and promotes private investment, which results in additional job creation."

He also calls for the city to fight Sacramento's plan to balance the state budget with local redevelopment dollars and asserts that its critical for the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency to accomplish in-progress plans to bring a movie theater back to downtown "First on the list for downtown must be reopening the movie theater complex as soon as possible," reads Morris' platform. "The movie theater must be upgraded as a first class facility that attracts patrons from throughout the region."

James F. Penman
Penman also contends that San Bernardino's economic problems won't be solved until the city achieves greater success against crime and blight.

He asserts that business owners interested in setting up shop here often lose that interest after driving around town and seeing vandalism, homelessness and other signs that suggest San Bernardino is not a prime business location.

"Make San Bernardino safe by taking tough, no-nonsense action to clean up graffiti, rid our city of gang crime, and strengthen our moratorium against parolee housing," Penman wrote in an e-mail.

Penman writes that the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency has "top notch" leadership, but criticizes the agency for spending time on plans to rehabilitate low-income apartments, such as a cluster of eastside four-plexes on Sunrise Lane and 19th Street near the former site of the Arden-Guthries.

Penman says he would cancel that reverse project if elected.

The candidate also wants to join forces with the San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce (Penman's wife Judi Penman is the Chamber's executive director) to establish citizen's business development committee with figures from the realms of business, labor and education.

The candidate also writes that he would use the city's bully pulpit in support of a proposed conversion of Pacific High School into a vocational academy.

"This priority will result in a skilled work force being created in our city that will serve the entire region," Penman wrote.

The debate over eastside redevelopment

One of the more stark differences between Morris and Penman this year pertains to the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency's plan to redevelop several apartments on Sunrise Lane and 19th street, a neighborhood that is adjacent to the now-demolished apartments that were known as the Arden Guthries.

The plan, which the City Council approved by a single vote, calls for the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency to use federal dollars to purchase and redevelop foreclosed and abandoned apartment buildings. By law, any tenants who displaced through redevelopment work must receive financial assistance to find a new home.

Morris considers the project a bold plan to reduce crime in one of the city's more troubled areas. He and other redevelopment proponents maintain that the nonprofit hired to acquire and rebuild apartments will be able to prevent felons and other troubled individuals from renting the apartments, which in compliance with federal law, will be rented to low-income earners.

Supporters of the redevelopment work also note that the plan also calls for a reduction of apartments, as many four-plexes are slated to demolished to make way for single-family homes and senior housing.

Penman, however, has contended that the plan is doomed to failure.
He maintains that the plan to bring in a nonprofit to manage refurbished apartments will not guarantee that parolees and troublemakers will not slip through the cracks and end up living in the redevelopment area.

Penman also says he is concerned that city and EDA policies that make San Bernardino appear to be particularly friendly to low-income housing can make the city vulnerable at a time when the state's prison system appears to be falling apart. Officials are anticipating the potential release of tens of thousands of inmates, and Penman says he is concerned that the more low-income apartments there are in San Bernardino, the more likely prisons officials will direct newly-released cons to the city.

Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - San Bernardino voters will need to consider many important issues when they vote this year.

Economic development is the first issue that San Bernardino candidates will discuss in a series of articles planned for this month. The next story will focus on graffiti and "broken windows" issues and a third will deal with crime and law enforcement, and keeping the city's budget balanced.

San Bernardino is a city where economic hardship as been a part of life even before the recession hit the nation. The city never fully recovered from the job losses that occurred after Fontana's Kaiser Steel shutdown in the mid-1980s and when Norton Air Force closed in the mid-1990s.

The recession and the wave of foreclosures that it spawned created yet more challenges for San Bernardino.

However, the city may enjoy a window of opportunity in the next few years if major transportation projects are successful.

The expansion of the 215 Freeway, potential passenger air service at the former Norton Air Force Base and a new high-speed bus line running from northern San Bernardino to Loma Linda could all present business opportunities within San Bernardino.

City voters will have to decide Nov. 3 which candidates offer the best ideas and possess superior skills to position the city for new business and job growth.

Below are what this year's mayoral candidates have to say. Council candidates addressed the same issue in Sunday's Sun.

In the mayoral race, Mayor Pat Morris is running for a second term. He is being challenged by City Attorney James. F. Penman and contractor Rick Avila.
Rick Avila

Avila says the city can attract business by reducing the city's utility users tax and increasing the number of police officers assigned to catching vandals.

"I want to give incentives to new business by lowering impact fees, utility tax, red tape at City Hall," Avila said.

Avila said that having uniformed police officers visible 24 hours per day around graffiti hot-spots is a necessity to keeping the city looking clean and ready for business.

Attracting new entertainment options is also important to Avila.
Although the San Bernardino Economic Development agency is working on a plan to bring a new cinema operator to downtown, Avila thinks the E Street corridor is a better location for a movie theater.

What Avila wants to see downtown is a 14,000- to 17,000 seat sports arena that he said could be a venue for a minor league hockey team, something Ontario already has in the Reign. A freeway-visible arena, Avila said, would be a magnet for new restaurants, coffee shops and night clubs and be a way to put San Bernardino on the map.

"Right now is the time to build. I'm in the construction industry, and you could probably build for half-price now," Avila said.

Pat Morris
Morris' platform streses crime fighting as a prerequisite for any economic development.
"I will continue to aggressively fight violent crime and redouble our efforts on quality of life crimes, like graffiti and blight, until our city's image and reputation have been transformed," reads Morris' platform.

Morris' platform also calls for future investments into infrastructure, remaking downtown San Bernardino, supporting the city's hospitality industry and redeveloping the land around Arrowhead Springs Hotel.

Infrastructure, in the words of Morris' campaign "is a double whammy in terms of job creation. Infrastructure projects themselves create immediate high-paying jobs, and once completed, the new infrastructure creates a better and lower-cost business environment that attracts and promotes private investment, which results in additional job creation."

He also calls for the city to fight Sacramento's plan to balance the state budget with local redevelopment dollars and asserts that its critical for the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency to accomplish in-progress plans to bring a movie theater back to downtown "First on the list for downtown must be reopening the movie theater complex as soon as possible," reads Morris' platform. "The movie theater must be upgraded as a first class facility that attracts patrons from throughout the region."

James F. Penman
Penman also contends that San Bernardino's economic problems won't be solved until the city achieves greater success against crime and blight.

He asserts that business owners interested in setting up shop here often lose that interest after driving around town and seeing vandalism, homelessness and other signs that suggest San Bernardino is not a prime business location.

"Make San Bernardino safe by taking tough, no-nonsense action to clean up graffiti, rid our city of gang crime, and strengthen our moratorium against parolee housing," Penman wrote in an e-mail.

Penman writes that the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency has "top notch" leadership, but criticizes the agency for spending time on plans to rehabilitate low-income apartments, such as a cluster of eastside four-plexes on Sunrise Lane and 19th Street near the former site of the Arden-Guthries.

Penman says he would cancel that reverse project if elected.

The candidate also wants to join forces with the San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce (Penman's wife Judi Penman is the Chamber's executive director) to establish citizen's business development committee with figures from the realms of business, labor and education.

The candidate also writes that he would use the city's bully pulpit in support of a proposed conversion of Pacific High School into a vocational academy.

"This priority will result in a skilled work force being created in our city that will serve the entire region," Penman wrote.

The debate over eastside redevelopment

One of the more stark differences between Morris and Penman this year pertains to the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency's plan to redevelop several apartments on Sunrise Lane and 19th street, a neighborhood that is adjacent to the now-demolished apartments that were known as the Arden Guthries.

The plan, which the City Council approved by a single vote, calls for the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency to use federal dollars to purchase and redevelop foreclosed and abandoned apartment buildings. By law, any tenants who displaced through redevelopment work must receive financial assistance to find a new home.

Morris considers the project a bold plan to reduce crime in one of the city's more troubled areas. He and other redevelopment proponents maintain that the nonprofit hired to acquire and rebuild apartments will be able to prevent felons and other troubled individuals from renting the apartments, which in compliance with federal law, will be rented to low-income earners.

Supporters of the redevelopment work also note that the plan also calls for a reduction of apartments, as many four-plexes are slated to demolished to make way for single-family homes and senior housing.

Penman, however, has contended that the plan is doomed to failure.
He maintains that the plan to bring in a nonprofit to manage refurbished apartments will not guarantee that parolees and troublemakers will not slip through the cracks and end up living in the redevelopment area.

Penman also says he is concerned that city and EDA policies that make San Bernardino appear to be particularly friendly to low-income housing can make the city vulnerable at a time when the state's prison system appears to be falling apart. Officials are anticipating the potential release of tens of thousands of inmates, and Penman says he is concerned that the more low-income apartments there are in San Bernardino, the more likely prisons officials will direct newly-released cons to the city.

Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - Just about any candidate running for local office will identify public safety as among their highest priorities.

It's up to the voters to decide who is best suited to help craft their town's policies for law enforcement and firefighting.

The city's Police and Fire departments are its most expensive operations, so politicos attempting to quickly increase the amount of funding allocated to public safety may have to perform some fiscal gymnastics at a time when tax revenues are scarce.

This year's election has three City Council seats up for grabs. Two candidates each are competing for the honor of representing San Bernardino's 1st, 2nd and 4th council wards.

The election is Nov. 3.

In the race to represent the city's 1st Ward, challenger Virginia Marquez is running against incumbent Esther Estrada. In her day job, Estrada is executive director of Casa Ramona Academy. Marquez is a part-time field representative for U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino. The 1st Ward comprises downtown and part of the Westside.

Estrada's public safety platform calls for a broken windows theory style emphasis on increased code enforcement activities. She also wants to see police officers and firefighters spend more time in schools teaching children how to stay safe.

"Code Enforcement has to concentrate on those violations that contribute to making our city look bad," Estrada wrote in an e-mail.

"Junk cars on front lawns and in our streets need to be cleaned up.
"Overgrown vegetation has to be taken out and we should see if there are service clubs that can help seniors who can't do the work," Estrada said.

Estrada further proposes that City Hall enlist service organizations to help care for city parks and streets, since the city does not have sufficient funds in its budget to hire enough workers to take on these tasks. At present, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services department heavily relies on county inmates and volunteers to care for San Bernardino's green spaces.

The incumbent also maintains that educational programs can help prevent crime while saving the money that would otherwise be spent on future law enforcement activities.
"We need to attack the cycle of irresponsibility at a very young age.

People need to go to the schools and talk about what happens if kids do not respect other people's property.
Sooner or later, they end up in prison," Estrada wrote.

Marquez's platform statement notes that she supports a "community policing" style of law enforcement.

Community policing generally refers to a law enforcement strategy that asks police to deepen ties with city residents and attempt to solve neighborhood problems in addition to patrols and investigations.

"This concept will open the lines of communication between police staff and community members," Marquez wrote in an e-mail.

Marquez also wants the Fire Department to host several fire safety fairs throughout the year to advertise the importance of families' having fire detectors and their own household escape plans.

"These safeguards are also simple, yet effective," Marquez wrote.

In the 2nd Ward contest, incumbent Dennis Baxter faces challenger Jason Desjardins.
Baxter is general manager of local radio stations KCAA and Desjardins owns Big Z Auto Works. The 2nd Ward includes land north of downtown and surrounding Perris Hill Park.

Baxter wrote that the city can benefit in the short term from a U.S. Department of Justice grant that can enable the Police Department to hire 16 officers.

The challenge, he writes, is obtaining funds to keep police on the payroll over the long term as the federal funds will dry up in three years.

"Other non-traditional municipal funding sources must be identified as we did by using Home Depot and Chrysler Corporation to fund several "KABOOM" playground projects in City Parks," Baxter wrote.

"Budget strategy on the City level in the future will require more "out of the box" thinking and a team approach with all our elected and department heads, working together."

Desjardins' platform includes support a ban on group homes for parolees, sex offenders and people with drug problems. He writes that he disagrees strongly with his opponent's recent dissent from a City Council vote to ban such facilities.

Baxter voted against a new city law to prohibit group homes for parolees or sex offenders after questioning whether the ordinance, as written, would stand up to a challenge in court.

City Attorney James F. Penman, who proposed the law and contended that it could block new parolees from moving to San Bernardino, acknowledged at the meeting when the council adopted the law that he could not guarantee a judge would uphold the entirety of the ordinance.

Desjardins also emphasized that he wants to identify funding that can be used to increase Fire Department staffing so that engine companies have four crew members, instead of three.

"My first action as our city councilman will be to restore these budget cuts and return San Bernardino fire engine crews to the national safety standard of four firefighters per engine," Desjardins wrote.

San Bernardino's 4th Ward comprises the city's northeastern neighborhoods. The race to represent the ward features incumbent businessman Fred Shorett and challenger Joe Arnett. Arnett is an IT manager for Loma Linda University.

Arnett's campaign launched with a push to seek more funding for the Fire Department. Like Desjardins, he is calling for four-person engine companies to allow firefighters to enter a burning house without needing to call for backup. The law requires firefighters going inside a burning to building to adhere to a two-in/two-out policy unless its obvious that someone inside needs to be rescued.

"The delays caused by the City Council's fire safety cuts will put the lives of 4th Ward residents - whose homes are often on the front line of wildfires - in much greater jeopardy," Arnett wrote in an e-mail.

Arnett's campaign statement also repeats his opposition to an eastside redevelopment project slated to include the rehabilitation of apartments on 19th Street and Sunrise Lane, which is near the site where the now-demolished apartments of the "Arden-Guthries" once stood.

Proponents of the redevelopment work say the project will strike a blow against crime by significantly reducing the number of low-rent apartments in the area and hiring a nonprofit to manage the redeveloped complexes while being able to screen out potential troublemakers. Arnett and other opponents, however, insist that legal requirements that apartments be let to low-income tenants will result in the neighborhood existing as a high-crime area even after redevelopment.

"My first action as our new 4th ward councilman will be to reverse the City Council's disastrous vote for slum housing," Arnett wrote.

Shorett's public safety platform calls for increased volunteer programs and educational initiatives to augment public safety efforts at a time when the city's budget is severely constrained.

"Faced with mounting fiscal deficits, I will initiate new policies to encourage a new era in volunteerism, reaching out to our retirees to enhance the "eyes and ears" of our police and fire departments" Shorett wrote in an e-mail. "There are no-cost programs that have become best practices in many communities including fire watch and neighborhood patrols."

Shorett also writes that he wants to provide Police and Fire department leadership with the resources necessary to fulfill their missions, but sees public safety as requiring a broader set of policy initiatives than the work done by those departments. Shorett's platform also calls for crime prevention that he asserts can be achieved by maintaining library and parks programs for youth and working with local schools to create conflict resolution and peer mediation programs.

"Dollar for dollar, these programs are some of the best investments in public safety we can make," he wrote.

Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - Many people would agree that the city looks a mess.

Whoever wins the Nov. 3 elections will take part in governing a city that like other urban environments, is slogging through a long battle against taggers. The graffiti problem is one issue that voters can consider when deciding who to cast ballots for.

Besides the mayoral race, this year's contests include competitions for three of San Bernardino's seven City Council seats. Two candidates are on the ballot in each council race.

Graffiti has lately received more attention from city officials, as police and other city staffers have recently worked to development an idea being called SB TAAG.

SB TAAG, or San Bernardino Taking Action Against Graffiti, would include educational efforts toward schools and the community at large to impress upon youths the idea that graffiti is a serious problem.

The plan also calls for cooperation between multiple agencies, such BNSF Railway police and the San Bernardino District Attorney's office, to arrest and prosecute vandals.

Mayor Pat Morris and City Attorney James F. Penman - two of three contenders in this year's mayoral race - have themselves been involved in graffiti-related efforts.

Morris has called for a new law to hold juvenile vandals' parents financially responsible for their children's crimes. Also, one of Penman's deputies has proposed the crafting of anti-tagger injunctions to prevent vandals from congregating around graffiti hot spots.

These efforts follow action taken in 2008 to cancel the city's graffiti abatement contract with Los Padrinos - an outfit that sought to help troubled youths by putting them to work painting over graffiti - and take graffiti removal in-house.

Council candidates' views on the issue follow:
FIRST WARD CITY COUNCIL RACE
San Bernardino's 1st Ward includes downtown and part of the Westside. Incumbent Esther Estrada, who is also executive director of Casa Ramona Academy, is running against Virginia Marquez. Marquez is a part-time field representative for U.S. Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino.

ESTHER ESTRADA
Estrada did not respond to an e-mail and phone calls asking for a written campaign platform statement.

VIRGINIA MARQUEZ
Marquez asserts that City Hall needs master plan that would lay out short- and long-term anti-vandalism strategies and a corps of "volunteer graffiti workers" that would work under the auspices of the Police and Public Services departments.

"The residents of this City are ultimately the 'eyes and ears' of our communities and will partner with these departments in an effort to accomplish this mission," Marquez wrote in an e-mail.

Marquez also calls for increased lessons at elementary schools to teach children to respect others' property and understand the demoralizing effects of graffiti on a city.

SECOND WARD CITY COUNCIL RACE
The race to represent the city's 2nd Ward, which includes the neighborhoods north of downtown and around Perris Hill Park, features incumbent Dennis Baxter and challenger Jason Desjardins.

Baxter is general manager of radio station KCAA and Desjardins owns Big Z Auto Works.

DENNIS BAXTER
Baxter contends that San Bernardino improved its anti-graffiti efforts when the city created its own clean-up force to replace Los Padrinos.

"Now we need to focus more attention on trying to get compensation from the vandals," Baxter wrote in an e-mail. "If the perpetrators are youth, then their parents must been held accountable and pay for the repairs including the replacement of expensive windows that have been etched with acid."

Baxter also writes that San Bernardino officials should also pay attention to businesses that fail to repair broken windows or other problems. He maintains that government intrusion into business is not always the best policy, but that the city also has a duty to protect residents' health and safety.

"I have been stunned by how many businesses do not apply for funding available to help fix and clean up some of these problems," Baxter writes.

JASON DESJARDINS
Desjardins' platform calls for strict deadlines to remove graffiti, a code enforcement "crackdown" and restitution penalties for vandals or their parents.

The candidate also aligns himself with the city attorney's stance to block any kind of new parolee housing within city limits.

"I will support a strict no-new group home policy for San Bernardino to keep additional parolees and sex offenders out of our city," Desjardins wrote in an e-mail.

FOURTH WARD CITY COUNCIL RACE
The Fourth Ward comprises San Bernardino's northeastern neighborhoods. Incumbent Fred Shorett, a businessman, is facing challenger Joe Arnett. Arnett works as an IT manager at Loma Linda University.

JOE ARNETT
Arnett, who is working with the same campaign consultant as Desjardins, also maintains that the city has too many group homes, needs tight deadlines for graffiti removal, and should fine juvenile taggers' parents.

"At a minimum, I suggest doubling the penalty both in terms of cost and community service time spent in the field," Arnett wrote in an e-mail.

He also supports the use of Administrative Civil Penalties, a mechanism favored by the city attorney that allows for a maximum fine of $1,000 per day to be imposed for any municipal code violation.

Arnett also wants to host monthly volunteer clean up days in the 4th Ward and a citywide policy to limit future low-income housing projects to senior housing complexes.

FRED SHORETT
Shorett also calls for vandals' parents to be held responsible for their children's crimes.
He also wants to consider publishing the names of taggers or their parents.

"Public exposure will ensure that our citizens know who in their neighborhoods are responsible for these hideous crimes and waste of taxpayer's dollars," Shorett wrote in an e-mail.

Shorett also wants to reexamine existing curfew laws and push the San Bernardino City Unified School District to place all campuses on a traditional schedule so police can have an easier time identifying truant youth.

SAN BERNARDINO - City voters will soon have a chance to decide which candidates are best suited to help craft policies that can enable the town to improve its economic standing.

Three City Council members - representing San Bernardino's 1st, 2nd and 4th wards - each face a single opponent in this year's election.

If the national recession comes to an end in the next four years, whoever wins those contests can be expected to have a vote on whether to go forward with future redevelopment proposals, new laws that could change the city's business climate and 1st Ward City Council race.

The 1st Ward includes downtown and part of the city's Westside. Incumbent Esther Estrada, the council's longest serving member, faces challenger Virginia Marquez, who is a part-time field representative for Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino.

Esther Estrada considers San Bernardino International Airport and the future development of a new downtown civic center as keys to the city's economy.

Regarding the airport, Estrada said she is counting on passenger service to begin in the near future.

She sits on the boards for both the airport and the Inland Valley Development Agency, or IVDA, which is responsible for redeveloping the land around the airport. Stater Bros.' corporate headquarters and other businesses are in that area, and Estrada supports the use of IVDA tax revenues to subsidize airport construction.

"I have tried to make sure that we bring in as many jobs as possible," she said.

Estrada also favors the idea of building a joint city/county civic center where the struggling Carousel Mall stands downtown. Proponents have said such a project could create a freeway-visible landmark for San Bernardino.

For the Westside, Estrada expects business to pick up on Mount Vernon Avenue after a new gas station opens there.

Virginia Marquez reports that her economic priorities for the city are the Mount Vernon Avenue corridor, Carousel Mall and San Bernardino International Airport.

Marquez considers Mount Vernon Avenue spots like Placita Park and the Mount Vernon Bridge to be significant city landmarks and the mall to be the city's "face" for motorists arriving in San Bernardino via the 215 Freeway.

"As the City Council member from the 1st Ward, I will be open-minded and work with the city's Economic Development Agency, other government officials and developers to bring businesses into the Mount Vernon Corridor and Carousel Mall," Marquez said in a written statement.

Marquez's platform includes seeking to work closely with the Inland Valley Development Agency on plans to bring more business to the area around San Bernardino International Airport.

Second Ward council incumbent Dennis Baxter is running against Jason Desjardins, the owner of a small business. The city's 2nd Ward includes many of the neighborhoods north of downtown and surrounding Perris Hill Park.

Dennis Baxter's platform echoes a common theme among many of this year's candidates. He asserts that San Bernardino must overcome its reputation as a crime-ridden city. He writes that publicizing FBI statistics showing crime reductions over recent years could help.

"Attracting new businesses to our city will remain a challenging task so long as business leaders perceive San Bernardino to be unsafe. Our reduction in major crime numbers over the last three years received more attention from the federal government - including even the White House - than it did here at home," Baxter wrote in an e-mail.

Baxter also supports business incentives such as tax breaks and the establishment of a one-stop center for businesses that need permits from city agencies.

Jason Desjardins said in an interview that he is running as a pro-business moderate. He said the animosity that is often on display at City Council meetings can be as much of an obstacle to business growth as bad decisions.

"You have disrespect from both sides," he said. "I am a moderate. As a businessman, I've had to deal with both sides."

Desjardins' priorities include reducing the city's utility user tax and creating a business advisory council in his ward to support small business.

The candidate threw his hat in the ring after speaking against the now-moribund proposal to create a city-run tow impound yard. Desjardins said he will divest himself of the towing business if he wins the election.

Fourth Ward council incumbent Fred Shorett, who won the special election to fill a council vacancy in March, is running against challenger Joe Arnett. Arnett, who also ran in the springtime contest, is an information technology manager at Loma Linda University.
Joe Arnett shares the common view that graffiti is a major impediment to economic development.

He also wants to reduce city fees and regulations in order to make it easier for the business community to deal with City Hall.

Arnett contends that San Bernardino does not need more minimum-wage employers and says the city should pursue federal grants to attract environmental and technology firms with the object of becoming the "'green jobs' capital of the Inland Empire."

"Bio-fuel technology that can be converted to diesel, jet fuel and other types of energy resources will be significant for our growth and development," Arnett wrote in an e-mail.
Arnett's platform also calls for the creation of a marketing plan to attract new employers as well as job training and mentoring programs at City Hall.

Fred Shorett is part of the general consensus that reducing crime is an imperative to establishing a healthier business climate. He also wants San Bernardino officials to establish property-based business improvement districts along the city's primary business corridors: Highland Avenue, Base Line, E Street and 40th Street.

The creation of such districts would empower the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency to provide loans to business owners for marketing, security and physical improvements to their shops. He also sees the return of a movie theater to downtown as a vital improvement.

Shorett further contends that San Bernardino officials need to cease the hard-nosed City Hall politics and aggressively promote city assets like Cal State San Bernardino, San Bernardino International Airport and local water supplies.

"One major asset that cannot be ignored is the historic Arrowhead Springs Hotel property. This unique and historic property has the potential to provide high-end housing, resort and boutique commercial development that our city desperately needs," Shorett wrote in an e-mail.

Council members Dennis Baxter, Tobin Brinker, Fred Shorett and Rikke Van Johnson voted to make the hire. Council members Esther Estrada, Chas Kelley and Wendy McCammack voted no.

The hire, revealed in the request of council action as Heather Gray, is scheduled to begin work Tuesday with a salary of $9,027 per month, subject to be cut 10 percent in accord with the city's across-the-board salary cuts.

How long the new hire gets to stay on the job could very well depend on the outcome of Tuesday's elections.

McNeely, hired on the recommendation of Mayor Pat Morris, has said the new position is vital to get the word out on San Bernardino and plans to pay Gray's salary without using the general fund. Nevertheless, mayoral candidate City Attorney James F. Penman has said the position is a poor use of city funds and has pledged to axe the job from the payroll if he wins.

"I only vote federal," said Jose Luis Salinas, who lives in the city. "There hasn't been a lot of promotion (for the election). I haven't heard anything about it."

The election is scheduled for Tuesday, and Salinas' remark would not please any of the candidates who have collected and spent thousands on their campaigns.

"It's very important that they get out to vote this time," said Rita Arias, a former city councilwoman who doesn't expect a throng of residents to heed the call to the polls.
"Turnout is probably going to be very little," she continued.

The citywide ballot features three candidates are running for mayor -- incumbent Pat Morris, City Attorney James F. Penman and contractor Rick Avila.

There are also three pairs of candidates running for a trio of City Council seats.

* The 1st Ward contest is a race between incumbent Esther Estrada and challenger Virginia Marquez.

* The 2nd Ward race matches incumbent Dennis Baxter with challenger Jason Desjardins.

* In the 4th Ward, incumbent Fred Shorett faces a rematch with Joe Arnett, who took second place in the Special Election that was held in March.

The City Council has lately divided into 4-3 votes on big issues, with Morris enjoying a one vote majority. Baxter and Shorett tend to support the mayor, and Estrada often votes against Morris.

Tuesday's vote could decide if Morris returned to office with a friendly or a feisty council. The ballot count could also end with Avila or Penman named as the next mayor.

The mayoral contest could also end without any candidate achieving a majority, leading to a runoff election and a lot more fun (i.e. stress) for the city's political players.

But many city residents -- not included in the ranks of San Bernardino's political watchers -- said they either did not know an election was coming up or were not paying attention to the mayoral and City Council campaigns.

Terry Kouba, chief deputy registrar of voters for San Bernardino County, said his offices don't predict voter turnout, but that turnout was low for the last citywide election.

In November 2007, when the City Attorney's post and other council seats were up for election, only about 20 percent of city voters cast ballots.

A former city councilman said dismal voter participation figures result in weak foundations for government officials who are responsible for representing broad swaths of the population.

"Overall, it's just important for people to participate in the political process, for the legitimacy of the process," said San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry, who previously represented the 4th Ward.

"You can't claim a mandate when only 10 percent of the people voted," he added.

About 38 percent of voters voted in the mayoral election four years ago, but that election likely drew more voters because several state measures were on the ballot.

Next week's election will decide the mayor's seat, three council seats and a handful of local school and water district measures.

Rosa Estrada of San Bernardino said she has already cast her ballot. She votes in advance by mail. But she said she wasn't that interested in this year's election and "just voted for the ones on TV."

Pat Duncan also voted early, although she said she doesn't imagine any of the candidates for mayor or the 4th Ward council seat can do much about the issues she cares about: blight, crime and the economy.

"There's very little can be done," she said.

Voter turnout in recent San Bernardino elections

March 17, 2009
Special Election
Office on ballot: 4th Ward City Council
Turnout: 25.69 percent

Nov. 6, 2007
Consolidated Election
Office on ballot: City Attorney, City Clerk, City Treasurer, City Council Wards 3, 5, 6 and 7
Turnout: 21.07 percent

Feb. 7, 2006
Mayoral Runoff Election
Office on ballot: Mayor
Turnout: 23.34 percent

Nov. 8, 2005
Consolidated Election
Offices on Ballot: Mayor, City Council Wards 1, 2 and 4
Turnout: 38.01 percent