HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-Council Minutes
CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO
300 N. "D" Street
San Bernardino, CA 92418
Website: www.sbcity.org
Mayor Patrick J. Morris
Council Members:
Esther Estrada
Dennis J. Ba:rJfr
Tobin BrlPlker
Neil Derry
Chos Kelley
Rikke Van Johnson
Wendy McCOlTllIUlck
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MINUTES
MAYOR AND COMMON COUNCIL AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
OF THE CITY OF SAN BERNARDINO
JOINT ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING
MARCH 21,2007
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
This is the time and place designated for a joint adjourned regular meeting of the Mayor
and Common Council and Community Development Commission of the City of San
Bernardino from the joint regular meeting of the Mayor and Common Council and
Community Development Commission held at 1:30 p.m., Monday, March 19, 2007, in
the Council Chambers of City Hall, 300 North "D" Street, San Bernardino, California.
The City Clerk has caused to be posted the order of adjournment of said meeting held on
,
Monday, March 19, 2007, and has on file in the office of the City Clerk an affidavit of
said posting together with a copy of said order which was posted at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday,
March 20,2007, on the City Hall breezeway bulletin board.
The joint adjourned regular meeting of the Mayor and Common Council and Community
Development Commission of the City of San Bernardino was called to order by
Mayor/Chairman Morris at 5:04 p.m., Wednesday, March 21, 2007, in the Council
Chambers of City Hall, 300 North "D" Street, San Bernardino, California.
Roll Call
Roll call was taken by City Clerk Clark with the following being present: Mayor/
Chairman Morris; Council Members/Commissioners Estrada, Brinker, Johnson,
McCammack; City Attorney Penman, City Manager Wilson; City Clerk Clark. Absent:
Council Members/Commissioners Baxter, Derry, Kelley.
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03/21/2007
Council Members/Commissioners Baxter, Derry & Kelley Arrived
At 5:05 p.m., Council Members/Commissioners Baxter, Derry & Kelley arrived at the
Council/Commission meeting.
1. Workshop on Operation Phoenix
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that this workshop provided the Council with an
opportunity to make further inquiry of the Operation Phoenix team regarding the
presentation that was made at the March 5, 2007 Council meeting. He stated that
at that time the hour drew late and there was not sufficient time to answer
questions that may have been on the minds of the members of the Council, so this
time was set aside for that purpose.
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that the intention of the Operation Phoenix team is
to return in the near future with additional information about how they intend to
work with the Council in driving forward with sustainability issues on the
Operation Phoenix neighborhood initiative and opportunities to expand the
initiative. He stated that they haven't gathered all the data yet with regard to
other opportunity areas in the City for that purpose, but they intend to return to
the Council within the next 30 days in a workshop forum for that purpose.
Council Member/Commissioner Brinker referred to the Operation Phoenix
notebook that was distributed at the March 5, 2007 Council meeting. He stated
that at the bottom of the page titled, "Operation Phoenix Center, Schedule and
Weekly Activities," it indicated that the total attendance for August 2006 through
January 2007 was 3,871. He asked how the attendance was calculated.
Mike Miller, Operation Phoenix Center manager, stated that the numbers indicate
the total for the whole month. He stated that individual kids come in every day
and sign in once per day, so it is the total of all the kids and some of the
volunteers. He stated that some are repeat kids that come every day and some of
them are new, but it was all lumped together.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked how the soft costs for the
program were calculated based on what the County had provided. She stated that
her concern was not necessarily with the number as much as it was with the fact
that if they decide as a body to replicate Operation Phoenix in some other area,
that means that either they are going to hire extra staff or they are going to use
existing staff. She stated that if they use existing staff, which would signify the
soft costs, they really don't know what those costs would be. She stated that if
existing staff were working in the Phoenix area, then they weren't working
somewhere else around the City where they were working prior to Operation
Phoenix, so that tells her that maybe there are staffing shortages in other areas.
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03/21/2007
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Jim Morris, Mayor's Chief of Staff, stated that they did attempt to do a
breakdown of hard costs and soft costs for the City. He stated that the County
did not do that-they lumped it all together for their cost summary sheet. He
stated that Finance Director Pachon provided each department with a de[mition of
hard costs and soft costs and asked them to break down the actual full costs for
the Operation Phoenix components they drove into these two categories so they
could see what new dollars were actually being spent and what dollars were being
redirected in existing budgets in order to get an accurate picture of what it would
take to replicate the program in the future.
Jim Morris stated that about $197,000 were the actual hard costs-additional costs
that were expended by the various departments identified that weren't already
calculated to be within their budget. He stated that those were mainly the EDA
costs that they provided out of the NIP Program for the Phoenix Center and its
leasing and improvements to that facility. He stated that there were some
additional Parks and Recreation costs for the programming they provide at the
Center and Public Services costs in terms of actual hard dollars that were spent on
the materials that went into some of the public improvements. Mr. Morris stated
that the report contained a breakdown of the soft costs, which were redirected
costs already in the budget, but it was primarily labor, or in some cases, program
dollars that were already allocated for certain programs that were put in
collectively towards the Operation Phoenix Program to the tune of about
$298,000.
Jim Morris stated that the summary sheet showed a total cost breakdown of
$450,000, subtracting out the $45,000 in Code Enforcement revenues, which are
the enforcement actions they've taken and the liens they've assessed. He stated
that some are collections and some are to be collected through the typical
enforcement action-a lien that was placed upon a property that is not in
compliance and is yet to be collected. '
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked how much was hard, fast
cash at this point.
Glenn Baude, Code Enforcement Director, stated that $5,100 had been paid and
the rest was going to be property tax assessments.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked Mr. Baude if he had any
idea how much was collected in receivables for liens throughout the City for
Code Enforcement actions.
Mr. Baude stated that they collected $1.6 million in assessments last year.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked how much more were liens.
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Mr. Baude stated that $500,000 to $600,000 was Iiened last year. He stated that
normally with tax assessments, unless it goes into default, they get half the tax
money in December and half in April of the following year. Mr. Baude stated
that that's how they project revenue in their budget for the following year-they
project what they have assessed, and they hope they get that amount.
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Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that a large portion of the
$1.6 million was the Ice House.
Mr. Baude stated that in 2005/06 they brought in about $1.6 million. He stated
that the Ice House money came in after June 30.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that there is still another
$500,000 to $600,000 worth of liens.
Mr. Baude stated that there is at least $400,000 from the Ice House that had been
paid.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that that lien money doesn't
come in until the property has changed hands.
Mr. Baude stated that it is assessed on the property taxes, plus a penalty. The
assessment is put on the property tax bill and when the taxes are paid, they would
get that money. He stated that they put a Notice of Pendency on it now, which
holds the property until they get it to the tax rolls, which is in August. He stated
that if it changes hands now, they would get the money now. But, if it doesn't
change hands, they would get it with the tax payments.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked how much of that $45,700
that they've either assessed or taken in was pjrt of their budget.
Mr. Baude stated that they had projected 1.5 Code Enforcement officers in an
area. He stated that they did not set a base of how many people they had in there
or how much time they spent in there before, but if they were to project that, it
would be one-half person. He stated that one-half person would generate some of
that revenue, but at the same time they would take that one-half person off of
their actual costs. Mr. Baude stated that because they knew there were questions
about budget issues and what the costs were, they set a baseline of zero for that
area for staff time and revenue.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that if that was the highest
call for service area, she wasn't sure what he was saying was accurate.
Mr. Baude stated that the actual cost versus the revenue was probably a lot less,
but they wanted to err on the high side. He stated that there's no way to set a
base in the area.
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03/21/2007
Council Member/Commissioner McCanunack stated that there is a base for the
whole City-there's a budget for the whole City as to the cost for Code
Compliance and the potential revenue in assessments and liens. She asked Mr.
Baude how much of that $45,700 would have been apportioned to his normal
budget?
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Mr. Baude stated that there is no way to do that. He stated that they estimated
the income based on a zero base, but there is no way to say that $2,000 of that
would have come from that area anyway. Mr. Baude stated that they spent more
staff time in the Date Street ArealMynisha Circle Area than they did in the
Operation Phoenix area when they were doing the apartments and they generated
revenue from that. He stated that there is no way to evaluate that except to say
that they have 1.5 people working in there and they gave no credit for any time
that would have been spent in there before, and no credit for the costs-that was
the only reasonable way to do it.
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that Mr. Baude provided an estimate based upon
his analysis of the highest possible cost of the service.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked how much money would
they have to set aside to do this again. She stated that if these monies and the one
and one-half officers were already part of the Code Compliance budget, and then
the revenue generated was extra, that was great, she just needed to know.
Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that basically what had been
presented were opportunity cost scenarios, and instead of spending the money on
what they regularly would have spent the money on, they diverted it and they're
going to spend it on Operation Phoenix. He I!tated that he wanted to know where
the money would have been spent before. What other parts of the City would the
money have been going to? Did they rob Peter to pay Paul? How did they
decide what area to neglect in order to feed this particular approach?
Jim Morris stated that there were some costs that were paid for out of the
expenditures by funding source. He stated that a substantial share of it came out
of the NIP Program, and that was special one-time funding they received from the
County for a designated geographic area. He stated that they can't expect that
they will have NIP funds to do this somewhere else, so if they are going to select
other target areas, or if they expand, there will be those opportunity costs that
they'll need to invest. Mr. Morris stated that there was staff for some things that
were in place that was directed towards this program. He stated that there were
additional staffing hours that were reflected in the overall soft costs that were
directed to put together and help staff the Operation Phoenix pilot project, that
should the neighborhood initiative not have continued, would have been deployed
in other activities within those departments.
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03/21/2007
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Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that as they move forward in the
next budget, and as they replicate this, or if they come back to talk about just this
Operation Phoenix area, he asked if there was a way to identify where those
resources would have been otherwise so that they have some understanding of
what they gave up? What was the opportunity cost? What did they give up to get
this focus on the area? He stated that he recognized that if they were going to
solve this problem they would have to focus on these high-crime areas, but how
they do it and where they take those resources from is an equally important part
of the discussion. He stated that he didn't know if that discussion could be had or
if it was just sort of left up to the Department heads to determine for themselves
where they thought they could give a little bit.
Jim Morris stated that the reason they broke it down in terms of soft costs and
hard costs is because those budgetary decisions will have to be made should they
decide to expand this program to other areas. In answer to the question about this
particular pilot project, they did ask the departments what they could do to bring
the needed resources to be successful within their existing departmental budgets.
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley stated that he recognized the need and he
understood the resources, additional staffing, hours, and everything that has been
done to improve the area, which improves the overall quality of life for all
residents; however, he wanted to know when they were going to replicate this
program in other parts of our City. Mr. Kelley stated that he wanted to know
when and how and who determines that they have succeeded in this area and
they're going to move on to another area.
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that they've laid out the data with regard to the
investment and the results achieved and that ,was presented two weeks ago. He
stated that the proof is in the pudding in terms of the reduction of crime in this
higWy-blighted and higWy-challenged neighbbrhood. He stated that the facts are
clear that they have driven crime rates down dramatically at some cost as
indicated by the summary of costs.
Jim Morris stated that Mr. Kelley's point was well-taken. He stated that for this
initial pilot project they did a data-driven analysis to test the program to see if it
would work in this area. But on a go-forward basis, Mr. Kelley raised a valid
point that that decision needs to be made by the Council. He stated that their
pledge is to bring back the information needed to make that decision about
sustaining the current efforts and what it will take to sustain the current effort in
this target effort. Secondly, if the Council decides that this has been a good
program based upon the information they've received, where could they expand
it, if that's the desire of the Council, and how should they do that looking at all
the factors, some of which being discussed here tonight would require a
budgetary decision.
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03/21/2007
Jim Morris stated that there's a lot of opportunity areas in the City and the hard
decision about how those areas will be addressed and whether this is the right
model and, if so, what are we willing to commit in terms of resources are
decisions that are going to have to be made by the Council. Do we just go to
another area, or do we go to a couple of areas? Where do our partners
recomtiiend that we go? He stated that their pledge is that they will provide all of
that data during this upcoming budget year so that the Council can take it into
consideration during the budget process while they look at Measure Z, look at the
City's budget, and look at all the resources we have and then make a decision as
to where we can find the resources to meet what the Council wants in terms of
future sustainability and. expansion, if that's the desire of the Council for the
Operation Phoenix Program.
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley stated that the Mayor talked about the
current efforts and the level and success of the program, but no matter how you
quantify the numbers, or who you listen to, something has happened there for the
good of the whole City. He stated that as we look at the budget in the future, if
we're going to be looking at replicating the program anywhere in the City, we
want to make sure that we're not just walking away from it. How do we now
move from one area to the other? The resources and the funding and the staffing
levels that have been addressed are important, but how do we make sure that we
don't have to go back and start all over again?
Council Member/Commissioner Johnson stated that Councilman Kelley did bring
up a good observation about the need for long term sustainability of the present
area and that is something that's going to be critical as they move on because
once they move into another area they don't want this area to get the feeling that
they've been left out there hanging. He stat!ld that he understood the strategies.
Mr. Johnson stated that they talk about the beat plan for our police and they have
the crime impact tearns in and around the beat plan. He stated that they still have
resources spread out there taking care of the regular business, but they also have
targeted resources filling in the areas that are critical in the City. He stated that
as they move on and expand he was sure that staff had already pinpointed some
areas they could go into, and he really wants to know where those areas are.
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that they would return to the Council in the near
future with a full report on opportunity areas for expansion of the program, and
they will allow the Council as the policymakers to determine where to place their
resources. He stated that they are desperately concerned about this issue of
sustainability, and they have committed themselves to the Operation Phoenix
Neighborhood Initiative in this particular neighborhood for a full year. He stated
that they are still in that time period, but they are discussing strategies for
sustainability and looking at what costs will be involved in keeping that
community safe and secure as they expand or move to new opportunity areas.
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03/21/2007
Jim Morris stated that he wanted to comment on one of Mr. Kelley's observations
which is going to be important in that sustainability question that the Council is
going to wrestle with in upcoming months, and that is sustainability at what level.
He stated that in their presentation several weeks ago, they talked about the fact
that they envisioned this to hopefully be a program that is somewhat self-
sustaining by the community, but there is likely some level of commitment that
the City needs to make, at least in the near future, to help in that self-sustainment
effort-help the community assets build up, help the neighborhood take control of
their own destiny and really engrain that so that, as the Councilman suggested, it
doesn't fade over time. He stated that it's a tough balancing equation and he
would be foolish to say that they have the perfect recipe for the right balance.
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Jim Morris stated that the Council was going to see some of their ideas, but
something they will all need to wrestle with is sustainment at what level because
they want to prevent backsliding. He stated that some commitment is going to
have to be made to prevent that backsliding, but they want to make sure they have
enough resources so they can move to other areas. Mr. Morris stated that if they
just focus on one area or just a few areas in the City they will have a City that's
full of red in terms of its needs, so they need to be strategic about how they
deploy their resources.
Council Member/Commissioner Estrada stated that at some point the Police
Department is going to have to bring to the Council a set of policies that will need
to be created in order to prioritize areas after Operation Phoenix, because every
area is different. She stated that each area is going to demand different forms of
attention and resources. Ms. Estrada stated that there will be a lot of good things
from Phoenix that they're going to be able to benefit from, but at the same time
they're going to have to look at that area and its own problems. She stated that
she would not want to begin another area without first having ensured that they
have made provisions for the sustainability or Phoenix, but she also expects that
when they do that they're going to be able to say that what has happened in the
Phoenix area is that not only have crimes come down, but also the whole
mentality is changing; and because of that they won't have the reoccurrence of
things coming back to Phoenix while they are out trying to address another area.
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that Ms. Estrada hit it on the head. He stated that
every area of our City is a different profile in terms of both challenges and assets.
Today, the executive team of Operation Phoenix-all department heads, County
department folks, and other partuers-spent two hours together talking about both
sustainability as well as expansion of the program; and the Chief is a critical
player in this equation because his crime data is very contemporary and very
important. He stated that they will overlay that with other data from Code
Enforcement, from County departments, and from the schools on truancy and
they will come back with a complete analysis, the primary one being from the
Chief's hand or from his command staff about crime data. Mayor/Chairman
Morris stated that every area of our City has a distinct personality, a distinct set
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03/21/2007
of residents with distinct needs, and within those communities there are very
unique assets and they will have to weigh all those as they move forward.
Michael Billdt, Chief of Police, stated that he couldn't agree more. He stated that
as they move forward in terms of the use of the resources from Measure Z
funding, they have to first of all make sure that they have an efficient
organizational structure and they have to deploy those resources according to the
data. He stated that they have to tailor a response in a collaborative way with all
the community stakeholders wherever that neighborhood may be so they can have
effective outcomes, and they have to be patient that their efforts will be long term
and they also have to have a sustainability model and train their stakeholders to
look for slippage when things go backwards a little bit so they can stay caught up
on it. Chief Billdt stated that he couldn't agree more that each neighborhood
within the City has different issues and different problems, and they have to be
flexible enough and fluid enough with the delivery of their service so that they
can tailor responses and strategies for that specific area.
Council Member/Commissioner McCamrnack stated that one of the questions
posed early in February was how they were going to keep track of those
individuals that are breaking the law that they have arrested, or that are on parole
that they have found on parole at-large-how are they going to track those so that
they don't end up slipping or relocating into other areas of the City?
Chief Billdt stated that suppression efforts and the deployment of resources in a
way to deter crime is difficult to track, because they can't predict where crime is
going to occur. But you can suppress it, you can deter it, and you can develop
collaboratives with neighborhoods so that they can keep crime down in their own
neighborhoods. He stated that crime is down Citywide. He stated that there is no
way he can track individuals that he doesn't !mow about in terms of where they
may go to commit crimes, but they did identify 42 parolees that were living in the
Operation Phoenix area.
Chief Billdt stated that one of the good things about their community policing
model is that they have parolee liaison officers in each one of their District
Commands and they communicate amongst themselves and coordinate with parole
to manage those parolees that are still in the City that have moved elsewhere. He
stated that he believes they've done an effective job managing the original
numbers and they know where they went-most of them are back in custody or
they've left the area or they are at large. In terms of criminals, he stated that he
believes that many of those that they arrested in the Operation Phoenix area that
they've brought before the District Attorney for new charges and that are
awaiting court trials, are still in custody-he's confident that they're not
committing crimes in other neighborhoods of town. Chief Billdt stated that it is
difficult to give the Council an answer of how he could track that, but he believes
that the effort they've implemented not only in the Operation Phoenix area, but
across the City has resulted in a substantial reduction of crime in every
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03/21/2007
neighborhood; and he added that he looks forward to moving forward in other
areas of town. He stated that he believes there will be a spin-off effect for
reduction of crime in other neighborhoods in the City.
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley asked the Chief how many parolees are in
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the' City.
Chief BilIdt stated that there are about 2,000.
Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that the newspaper said that there
were 53 murders last year, but the report shows 46. He wondered which number
was correct.
Chief Billdt stated that the newspaper sometimes reports them as homicides, but
there is a difference between a homicide and a murder. He stated that there were
46 murders in 2006 versus 58 murders in 2005.
Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that one of the things that
impressed him about the Operation Phoenix Program has been the collaborative
sweeps that have occurred and that he has had some conversations about truancy
with the Mayor and the idea of doing some collaborative sweeps with the school
district and going more in depth. He stated that his question is how do you
decide when and where to do the sweeps and what kind of follow-up is there after
we do those sweeps?
Chief BilIdt asked if Mr. Brinker was referring to the truancy issue.
Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stattl(i that he was not talking truancy-
he was referring to the sweeps in the Operation Phoenix Area where they
recorded 220 building code violations, 5 referrals to Child Protective Services, 15
referrals to Public Health, 35 children that were found that were not enrolled in
school, 5 narcotics arrests, outstanding warrants, stolen cars recovered-a variety
of things that occurred during this multi-agency sweep and he wondered what
triggered a sweep and how do they decide when and where to do it? He stated
that he has an interest in the truancy side, but he sees the benefit of doing these
kind of sweeps as an important tool in helping to clean up the Operation Phoenix
area. He stated that he just wanted to have a better understanding of how it
works, so if they expand this model, how would they do those sweeps in other
parts of the City. What criteria do they use?
Chief BilIdt stated that every neighborhood has its own set of circumstances that
require the Police Department to develop strategies for those neighborhoods. For
example, in the Operation Phoenix Area one of the things they did is that they
went into the neighborhood and identified the homes that were selling narcotics
and they went through the process of developing and executing search warrants
within the Operation Phoenix area.
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Chief Billdt stated that with regard to vice operations, everyone knows that Base
Line has been a long-term problem for prostitution and in that very block and
area around Operation Phoenix they conducted several vice sweeps to improve the
quality of life for the business folks and the people who live in those
neighborhoods. He stated that when you go into a neighborhood there is an area
commander and a liel!tenant, who are in charge of that geographical area and they
coordinate with other specialized teams such as narcotics, vice, and the MET
unit, who also does gang intervention, and they develop sweeps based upon the
strategies that the area command have identified through a methodology they call
SARA-a community policing term that stands for Scanning Analysis Response
Assessment.
Chief Billdt stated that they scan the neighborhood for the issues, they do an
analysis of what the problems are, they respond to it, and then they assess
whether or not the strategies they've developed for that neighborhood have
worked; and that's a long standing practice at the San Bernardino Police
Department through each of the five district commands. He stated that the
sweeps they may use in the Third Ward may be different than in the First Ward,
but they try to tailor it based upon that SARA methodology so it's appropriate for
the problem, and then they use specialized resources whether they be within the
Police Department, within other State agencies, or in a collaborative way with
social services programs.
Kent Paxton stated that in response to Councilman Brinker's question about
follow up, both County and school district personnel participate in the sweeps.
He stated that those sweeps are generated by Code Enforcement concerns and the
City Attorney's Office generates a warrant. Mr. Paxton stated that they've had a
number of Child Protective Services (CPS) cases opened up as a result of the
multi-agency sweeps. He stated that they identify the need and have the
appropriate service agency there to offer ser*ices to the family and provide that
service.
City Attorney Penman stated that the City Attorney's Office coordinates the team
inspections and that the Police Department, Fire Department and Code
Enforcement come up with suggested locations of places where they have
observed code and fire violations and where there is high criminal activity and
that's how those are prioritized and put together. He stated that because there is
confusion as to the difference between homicide and murder, he asked the Chief
to provide an explanation.
Chief Billdt stated that the difference between a murder and a homicide has to do
with criminal intent. He stated that homicide means that someone has been killed
or has passed and a murder means that it is done at the hands of another with
criminal intent. Chief Billdt stated that sometimes a police officer has to use
deadly force. If a person has died as a result of that, it's not a murder, it's a
justifiable homicide ruled by the District Attorney. Or, if someone were
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03/21/2007
protecting himself from a violent assault and decided that they had to use force to
protect himself and as a result of using justifiable force in the protection of
himself or a family member, they killed their assailant, that would be a homicide,
not a murder.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that some comments were
made that perhaps certain resources and personnel had been shifted from one area
to another. She stated that the real concern she had was that there would be a
spillover, and her concern was not that there wasn't a great amount of success in
the Operation Phoenix area, but the negative impacts in the rest of the City have
been noticed, including impacts to several neighborhoods in the Seventh Ward.
Ms. McCammack stated that the difficulty is not necessarily that extra police have
been provided to Operation Phoenix, although she believes there has been a lot of
overtime or admin time dedicated there. She stated that it would be helpful if the
Chief could provide crime statistics by reporting district. She stated that the
northern area commander and the sergeants have been getting e-mail after e-mail
about neighborhood and quality of life issues. Ms. McCammack stated that she
was concerned that the document showed that school district and probation
personnel were present during the team inspections, yet they have zero costs,
although the document indicated that their people were already there. She stated
that her concern was that the Mayor and his team is going to come up with the
additional areas for the replication of Operation Phoenix without Council input as
to the areas that they are having the most difficulty with-that the taxpayers are
mostly complaining about-and she believes those areas should be addressed.
Mayor/Chairman Morris responded to Ms. McCammack's concern by stating that
the Council will be involved. He stated that they modeled Operation Phoenix in a
pilot project fashion within a 20-block area and they provided the Council with
the data regarding the success of that initiative. He stated that they will bring
back to the Council opportunities for reinvestment or expansion and the Council
will then decide where they want to invest the resources. He stated that perhaps
Mr. Paxton could respond to Ms. McCammack's second question with regard to
County costs.
Kent Paxton explained that in preparation for the presentation to the Council, he
had asked each of the County agencies to give him costs, and the response he got
from many of those agencies was that they were already there, so he asked for
any additional costs that may have been incurred. He noted that Probation, in
particular, indicated that they already had probation officers assigned to work
with the San Bernardino Police Department because their caseload was there, so
they didn't give him any cost for that.
He stated that if you look at the bigger partnership with the County, typically,
where there is Part I crime, that is where they have their County staff. Where
they have their largest number of probationers, their open child protective service
caseload activity, public health activity, behavioral health activity, and so on-if
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03/2112007
you look around the County and you look where there is high Part I crime, their
County staff is already there. So it was a struggle for their County agencies to
declare extra cost when they already had staff present working those areas.
Mayor/Chairman Morris noted that the County had done some reassigning based
upon a new concept of concentrating resources in a particular area, and he asked
Mr. Paxton to explain to the Council how they began to reallocate resources
based upon the geography of the City.
Mr. Paxton stated that a good example would be the Family to Family program
that is a major part of a Child Welfare Services Improvement Plan here in the
County. He explained that Family to Family has been rolled out in those high
areas of referral activity. They first started in Rialto, and then just recently in the
92404 zip code because there has been so many child abuse referrals in that
particular zip code. So, in this particular example, the County was already
realigning their resources to meet the need based on referral activity. For
example, Child Protective Services assigned a full-time social worker just to work
Operation Phoenix cases because there had been so many child abuse/neglect
referrals from that area.
Mayor/Chairman Morris asked Police Chief Billdt to comment on the first
question with regard to police data from each reporting district.
Chief Billdt stated that his staff could absolutely track crime trends and patterns
by reporting district; however, if it meant breaking the City down into 20-block
reporting areas it would be a major undertaking.
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley stat(:d that initially when the Council
talked about Operation Phoenix and what they were trying to accomplish there,
one of the questions that he had was, "Would there be a spillover of any crime
throughout the rest of the City," and he was assured that they would not see
that-that they would track parolees, that they would do a lot of different things.
He advised that staff already tracks crime by districts, and the Council members
receive a weekly report as to where crimes are occurring. He stated that in his
ward there have been additional Neighborhood Watch programs initiated by the
Police Department because of the rising crime rate, and it becomes a challenge
for him to believe there is not a spillover of crime into other areas when he reads
this information. He stated that his residents are concerned with the increased
criminal activity that they have observed, and he didn't think that our Police
Department was creating Neighborhood Watch programs just to create them.
Mayor/Chairman Morris asked Chief Billdt to speak to the issue of increased
crime in other areas of the city.
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03/21/2007
Chief Billdt reiterated that crime is down Citywide, but conceded that there are
examples of pockets of neighborhoods that have experienced increases in crime;
however, in terms of the overall reduction in crime, he thought that both Council
persons' would find that crime is down in their wards and neighborhoods. He
stated that while some may have seen an increase, there are others that have seen
a substantial decreftse.
The Chief stated that he thought it was important to point out that when you look
at the crime trends and patterns in the State of California, robbery is up
substantially, but they have been able to hold the line on it. He stated that staff
would provide the statistics for the reporting districts and, if the Council members
were interested, they would also provide the stats by ward. He stated that he
thought the Council members would see that crime is down in every ward across
the City.
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley stated that San Bernardino has one of the
finest police departments out there-that the men and women do an outstanding
job. However, even though our City has shown a decrease in crime, he was
concerned as to why crime was increasing across the state. He was looking for
an answer as to what the root cause may be.
Chief Billdt stated that he appreciated Mr. Kelley's comments about the hard
work of the men and women of the San Bernardino Police Department, because
they have worked very hard. He acknowledged that they have more work to do,
stating that he thought that was what this discussion was all about-how do we
move forward and use our resources in the most efficient and effective way in
order to improve the quality of life for every resident of this City.
Council Member/Commissioner McCatnmack stated that she wanted to make a
statement, and then she had a couple more qrtestions. She stated that it was only
fair to let the public know that the statistics Citywide may say that robberies are
down .11 percent, but she could tell everyone by anecdote specific circumstances
of where people have quit reporting crimes of burglary because it sometimes
takes upwards of 11 hours to get someone to show up.
She told of a Seventh Ward resident who had a break-in to the back door of his
house. He called dispatch, dispatch did their job and got someone out there-but
it was 11 hours later. He was told by the dispatcher not to touch the door,
because they could get fingerprints, so he waited and waited; and even though it
was very cold, he didn't touch the door because he felt that would compromise
the crime scene. Eleven hours later, two officers came and were very kind to
him, treated him very, very nicely, but no one ever took any fmgerprints. His
confidence in someone finding his things is gone, since he felt no one took any
fingerprints.
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03/2112007
Secondly, she told of a group of people that had stolen some checks from the
Orange Show and they were cashing them all over town. A bank in her ward had
been given a heads up, so when these people came in to cash the checks, they
called the Police Department-and it took about one hour for officers to show up.
The bank did everything in their power to keep the folks there, but you can't keep
people in a bank when they know ru+rwell they are guilty-they are not going to
hang around for the cops to show up.
Ms. McCammack stated these were just two anecdotes in the last 60 days that she
had heard about, not including many others of car break-ins in the middle of the
night. She stated that this happens over and over again, and people have quit
calling in those kinds of crimes. However, these are burglaries; therefore, she
feels that these statistics are not necessarily accurate.
As for her questions, Council Member/Commissioner McCammack asked City
Manager Wilson about the volunteers that were out in the Operation Phoenix area
helping with the neighborhood block parties and gathering survey information.
Since many of them were City employees, she knew they had to be given comp
time or additional vacation time. She asked Mr. Wilson where the "number" was
for those hours, or whether it had been documented anywhere.
Mr. Wilson stated that he was looking through the report he got from the
different departments, and it was not in there. He agreed that that was another
cost staff would have to recognize and include in the cost figures for Operation
Phoenix.
Ms. McCammack stated that the programs that have been implemented through
the Operation Phoenix Center for the kids have been outstanding-different types
of programs that haven't been implemented before in some of the community
centers. She stated that she would like to se~ these kids be better than a one out
of one hundred success story; that was her original hope for Operation Phoenix,
and in that vein she had a few more questions.
One is, if we are not going to track the kids' grades, how are we going to know
how successful they are from before they began the Operation Phoenix Program
and then through their school years. She used the Junior Police Academy as an
example, stating that the Police Department invests money in the Junior Police
Academy; and the program itself has proven to be very successful only because
they can then at the end of the senior year, track the kids' grades throughout that
period of time prior to and throughout their time in Junior Police Academy. She
stated that she thought that was a real critical component of how successful these
kids are going to be, and whether the programs that they are using are actually
working for the long term to keep these kids productive and not part of the
criminal element.
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03/21/2007
She stated that the other thing that goes hand in hand with that, in her opinion, is
the absolute requirement that either a parent, or a guardian, or a grandparent be
required to be part of these kids' activities at the Operation Phoenix area. She
stated that the reason she was saying this, is that she had a feeling that this
program, like many other community center and after-school programs, was
simply glorified babysitting; and she didn't think the taxpayers should be funding
glorified babysitting for children whose parents just don't care. She stated that
parents need to be held responsible for their children's actions, just as everyone
sitting around this dais would be held responsible for their children's actions; and
she thought they needed to do the same with the children involved in Operation
Phoenix. She stated that she had discussed this previously with the Mayor, but
she did not have a concrete feeling that they are at least requiring that the parents
be part of, and involved in, the program.
Mayor/Chairman Morris replied that it would be wonderful if they had intact,
two-parent families throughout our City, and they had parents available to
accompany their children to the Operation Phoenix Center or be involved in the
programming. However, they have to deal with reality, and the reality is that this
particular area of our City, like many others, is higWy challenged in terms of
family configuration-that these are largely single-parent families where the
parents quite often work during the daylight hours.
He advised that the children at the Phoenix Center have told him that if they were
not at the center, they would be on the curbstone watching bad things happen on
the street and being involved in those things, or watching television in a dark
room at home. Instead, they are involved in the Phoenix Center in a program
involving a choir master from Ecclesia Church leading voices in the street, they
are involved in dance programs and the arts, in after-school homework programs,
and in a variety of venues at the center that create opportunities for self
expression and for achievement. He stated tlfut this is the whole idea of Boys and
Girls Clubs, YMCA, YWCA, and church-based programs for kids after school;
and perhaps it may be a form of babysitting, but it is far more than that--it is
offering opportunities for positive engagement in every way for these children.
The Mayor continued, stating that he would love to be able to track the grades of
all of the hundreds of children who come by and visit the center; and if they had a
research based project going on here where they could track all the children and
their grades in school, that would be wonderful. He suggested, however, that it
would require an incredible amount of resources and a collaboration far beyond
their ability currently in Operation Phoenix to achieve that.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that she would like to be
able to follow up with the responses the Mayor had given to her because
everybody else had been given that opportunity.
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03/21/2007
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that first he was going to give Jim Morris a
chance to respond to the presenters in the audience, and then he would return to
Ms. McCammack's concerns.
Jim Morris, Chief of Staff, Mayor's Office, stated that he thought Councilwoman
McCammack brought up a good point about the need for good parenting in the
area. He stated that they have begun to offer some parenting classes and some
classes that focus on the parents, and he thought that it was an important
component of the program and perhaps one that they ought to look at expanding.
He stated that the neighborhood association/neighborhood watch building efforts
are also an effort to involve parents-not directly with their children, but
hopefully getting them focused on constructive activities as the children have been
involved in constructive activities in the Operation Phoenix programs.
Insofar as tracking grades-he thought that was a question staff could ask the
school district in their future collaborations-whether it could be an additional
component the district could bring to the program.
Mayor/Chairman Morris stated that privacy rights might be involved.
Council Member/Commissioner Estrada stated that she thought some of the
Council members refused to accept reality about our community. She stated that
a few short years ago she went to one of the elementary schools and the subject
came up about children that go to counseling from the school, and she was
flabbergasted and saddened at the number. She was told by the clerk that, "The
majority of the children in this school are not being raised in the nuclear family
setting that you and I were raised in." The majority of the 600-700 kids at this
elementary school were going to counseling because they are either in foster care,
or being raised by a grandmother, an aunt, or by someone else other than the
mom and dad. i
Ms. Estrada noted that this is not typical of just one part of our community-it is
throughout our community. And she hoped that the enlightenment of this
situation in our community would get other members of the Council to support
the idea of spending money on youth programs in this community. She stated
that youth programs work, and they are going to have to make that kind of
investment-it does not happen alone by police, and it will not happen alone in
our schools, and those kids will be out in the street doing whatever they feel that
they have to do if they have no alternative. She stated that it is not 1955, and the
family we all used to see on TV as Leave It To Beaver-this is not Leave It To
Beaver-this is San Bernardino and we have a major problem and we have to
address it and be realistic about what we are dealing with. .
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack stated that she was not thinking
about creating a whole new bureaucracy over tracking grades. She was thinking
it might be as simple as rewarding the kids with something-a candy bar for
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03121/2007
every progress report they bring in, so at least we have something-and she didn't
believe there were any privacy issues with that.
She stated that it sounded to her as though her colleagues were assuming that
children of traditional families don't have problems, and she would like to let
them know that kids that do haw"two parents, or one parent who works, or a
grandparent who is the caregiver, or a foster mother who is the caregiver, or an
adopted mother or father who is the caregiver-those children need help too; and
they are not only in the 20-block Operation Phoenix area-they are all over our
community. She stated that her concern was that unless we are teaching those
families how to change their thinking, we are teaching the kids one thing at
Operation Phoenix, and then they go home and relive the exact behavior that they
were living with to begin with-and she has a problem in that we are not
addressing that.
Mayor/Chairman Morris asked Mike Miller to come forward once again. He
noted that Mike has been the facilitator and the overseer of the Operation Phoenix
Center on Waterman Avenue. He asked Mike to tell the Council members how
he and his team of volunteers and Park and Recreation staff engage the children,
and what kind of monitoring they attempt to do by way of tracking their school
success as well as their success in the family; and what is being done by way of
offering parenting classes to those families that have particular challenges with
regard to effective parenting behavior.
Mike Miller stated that as far as the grades go, there are some kids that he pays
more attention to-the ones where he can tell that they are struggling more. He
stated that they bring their report cards to him freely, and show their progress
reports to him and to their parents. He alsa has staff that will help them with
their homework. As far as the parenting classes and trying to teach the parents,
he stated that he wished, like any other age1icy out there that has kids and the
parents just drop them off, that he had parent participation where the parents are
coming in with the kids and being involved. However, Operation Phoenix is no
different than the YMCA, or anybody else that is out there-the parents,
unfortunately, just drop off their kids. He added that the ones that do get
involved are extremely involved. He stated that he talks to a lot of the parents-
going personally to their homes to talk to them about their child-whether it's a
good thing, or whether it's a bad thing. So, every little bit that they can do,
whether it's him or his staff, they are out there doing the best they can with the
abilities and resources that they have to work with.
Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated that he has been a teacher in
Rialto for seven years, and before that he taught in Colton, and the things being
described in terms of these family situations are not unique to our City and to our
kids; and in terms of the kinds of programs that we offer, he deals with this every
day. He stated that he teaches 150 kids, and they come in all shapes and sizes
18
03/21/2007
with every kind of problem imaginable; and all kinds of programs are offered
through the schools, just like the cities offer programs.
He stated that he thought Ms. McCarnmack's intent was to say that they need to
engage the parents; and he thought that was a noble intent, and they need to honor
that. He stated that at his school they offer a ninlt-week parenting course, and
they have had hundreds of parents who have gone through this program and
received a certificate at the end, and he thought they were better for it-and it's
not just the parents in isolation, it's them and their children. He stated that the
Colton PAL program offers parenting classes, and they have also been very
successful-that it's definitely something that .they should be looking at and
engaging in-it's a strategy that is important. Mr. Brinker pointed out that the
challenge is, and he thought this was where they were getting hung up, this idea
of demanding that people be involved that way, because that is not always within
their means to be there and to be involved in the way that we would like them to
be. He reiterated that they need to look at the broader intent, and maybe not be
so bothered by the language or the way that it is being said, but try and just look
at the intent of saying that we need to have more parental involvement-which he
thought was a valuable step in the right direction.
Mayor/Chairman Morris advised that his career as a jurist involved a lot of
problem solving courts, and everyone who entered the drug court program or the
mental health court program who had a child in his or her care or had legal
responsibility financially for a child was required to go through a comprehensive
parenting program. He stated that it was an elegant way to approach the issue of
how to deal with the complex issues of youth these days, to assist parents on how
to intelligently and compassionately deal with their children's issues, which the
schools do, youth programs do, we have talked about it and have a design for one
within our Operation Phoenix Program, and we do it in a lot of our court based
"
programs.
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley noted that as indicated by Council
Member/Commissioner Estrada, there are different neighborhoods throughout
San Bernardino. He stated that he is sure there are families in the Fifth Ward and
throughout the City who need activities for their kids during those critical hours
that kids get into trouble. He acknowledged that there are many programs
available and commended the school district for extending the CAPS program at
so many middle schools, with possible plans for doing the same at the high
schools. He stated that he hoped that when the Council looked at the City's
budget in the future that they would look not only at programs, but also at
facilities where the kids can go during these critical hours.
Mr. Kelley stated that relative to parenting, he would recommend to the County
officials in attendance that if we are going to mirror Operation Phoenix, or
continue with the existing Operation Phoenix, that they look at the Pride
Program. He stated that he thought it was one of the finest programs out there,
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03/21/2007
and he would like to see our school district implement the Pride Program in the
high schools so that when these students graduate they might be able to be better
parents one day.
Kent Paxton advised that the Probation Department has been offering the Parent
Project, which is a research based curriculum for parents who have out of control
teens, at the Youth Justice Center, and they have started to offer those classes at
Operation Phoenix Headquarters.
Council Member/Commissioner Johnson stated that he grew up in this
community, and he was not as fortunate as those who come from a nuclear
family; however, he was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to go to
Johnson Hall, where they had individuals such as Ms. Anne Shirrells who cared
about people in the community. He stated that he had only one parent at the time,
and he was traveling, so he was left somewhat to be raised by the community;
and it's because of San Bernardino investing in the community at that time that
there were places such as Johnson Hall and the Boys and Girls Club that he could
venture to. He stated that as we look to broaden Operation Phoenix throughout
the City, one thing that Mr. Paxton said that he thought was key, was the need to
leverage our dollars. He pointed out that the County is already at the higher Part
I crimes, and so as we look to have partners, and we look at expansion, we need
to keep this in mind.
Council Member/Commissioner McCarnmack stated that she was told by the City
Manager's office that there were several of her questions that could not be
answered, which somewhat concerned her. She then asked how many of the
Operation Phoenix program recipients are illegal immigrants and whether the
authorities deported any of the residents who were in that Operation Phoenix area
illegally.
..
Jim Morris advised that relative to Operation Phoenix, staff does not, as with any
other City program, track immigration status in terms of what they do. He stated
that they don't have the staffmg to do that, but common sense dictates that they
just simply don't ask those questions when they deliver City services; therefore,
they don't have that data.
Council Member/Commissioner McCarnmack asked Chief Billdt what the Police
Department would do with someone who was arrested in the Operation Phoenix
area and their booking application said that they were not a citizen.
Chief Billdt stated that first, when people call the Police Department for help,
they don't check immigration status-they go out and help them. Secondly, when
they arrest people that they suspect of being illegal immigrants, they go through a
screening process at the Central Jail or the West Valley Jail by deputies who are
cross trained through the immigration service to determine whether or not they
are illegal immigrants. If it is determined by those who are crossed trained
20
03/21/2007
through the federal government that they are illegal immigrants, a referral is
made to the INS.
Mayor/Chairman Morris added that just to carry that through to the court system,
they are tried, and if convicted they serve their jail time or prison time in
California, and then, typically, are picked up at the prison facility and deported.
Council Member/Commissioner McCammack informed her colleagues that there
were approximately 50-60 people at the Wildwood Neighborhood Association
meeting, and the question was asked, "How many folks when they voted for
Measure Z were voting for more police and social programs," and four people
out of the 50 or 60 raised their hands. The balance, when asked if they were just
voting for police, then raised their hands. She stated that when some of her
colleagues tell her that we really need to start funding additional social programs
and youth programs, her heart says, "yes, we do" -her constituency says, "no,
we don't."
Council Member/Commissioner Estrada stated that she didn't want our local
monies being used to pay our police officers to be INS officers-that the federal
government needs to handle the INS and she was not going to support any of that
kind of activity. She stated that she understood what police personnel legally
have to do when they run across a criminal that's ari illegal-she understood and
supported that-but it is not up to this City to go around interviewing and finding
out how many illegals live in anyone area-that is not our job. She stated that
she was not going to support anyone, whether they work for Code Enforcement,
the Police Department, or anybody else, doing that.
Mayor/Chairman Morris indicated that he .had one public speaker and that
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley wanted to make a final comment.
,
Council Member/Commissioner Kelley stated that he wanted to say one more
time publicly that in Operation Phoenix if anybody was going to be able to pull
this off, and make it work, it would be nobody other than Glenn Baude, Director
of Code Compliance; and he thanked Mr. Baude for his efforts.
Joe Ortiz, 387 West 25th Street, San Bernardino, CA, stated that Operation
Phoenix has been very successful due to all the hard work and cooperation from
various agencies and individuals. He stated that the local Sun newspaper
continues to try to stir up turmoil using the very biased opinion pages, and
expressed dismay with its selective printing and vicious attacks on the Council
members who don't follow the paper's agenda, making it appear as if there is a
lot of dissension in the City and that there can be no progress. He stated that the
social programs that we have in our City far outnumber those in other cities, just
by necessity, but they can't flourish until it is safe to do so. He also thanked
Council Member/Commissioner Johnson for an opinion piece that he had written
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03/21/2007
to the newspaper, stating that no one was attacked or demeaned and it was a
breath of fresh air.
David Johnson, 1577 West North Park Blvd., San Bernardino, CA, stated that
he was born and raised in San Bernardino, and the City has a lot of positive
potential. He stated that he came from an unde;iJrivileged family and expressed
appreciation for the social programs throughout the City which contributed to his
education and growth. He expressed support for Operation Phoenix and urged
the Mayor and Council to make things happen in the community.
2. Adjournment
At 6:59 p.m. the meeting adjourned. The next joint regular meeting of the
Mayor and Common Council/Community Development Commission is scheduled
for 1:30 p.m., Monday, April 2, 2007, in the Council Chambers of City Hall,
300 North "D" Street, San Bernardino, California.
RACHEL G. CLARK
City Clerk
By:
b ~ i/t-,"f:/
Linda E. Hartzel
Deputy City Clerk
~~u~
mda Sutherland
Deputy City Clerk
No. of Items: 2
No. of Hours: 2
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03/21/2007