Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-21-2007 MinutesCITY 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. Barter Tobin Brinker Ned Derry Chas Kelley Rikke Van Johnson Wendy McCammaek 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. 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. 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/Commissioncr 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. 2 03 /21 /2007 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 definition 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. 3 03/21/2007 Mr. Baude stated that $500,000 to $600,000 was liened 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. 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 part 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. 4 03/21/2007 Council Member/Commissioner McCammack 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? 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 Area/Mynisha 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 stated 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. 5 03/21/2007 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 highly -blighted and highly -challenged neighborhood. 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. 6 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 recommend 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. Ile stated that he understood the strategies. Mr. Johnson stated that they talk about the beat plan for our police and they have the crime impact teams 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. 7 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. 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 of 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 partners —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 8 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 McCammack 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 know 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 9 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 the City. Chief Billdt 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 Billdt asked if Mr. Brinker was referring to the truancy issue. Council Member/Commissioner Brinker stated 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 Billdt 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. 10 03/21/2007 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 lieutenant, 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 services 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 11 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 12 03/21/2007 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 stated 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. 13 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 decrease. 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 McCammack stated that she wanted to make a statement, and then she had a couple more questions. 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 fingerprints. His confidence in someone finding his things is gone, since he felt no one took any fingerprints. 14 03/21/2007 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 full well 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 see 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. 15 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 highly 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. fie stated that 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. 16 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. 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 he as simple as rewarding the kids with something —a candy bar for 17 03/21/2007 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 have 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 also 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 agency 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. McCammack'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 nine -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, 19 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 McCammack 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 staffing 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 McCammack asked Chief Billdt what the Police Department would do with someone who was arrested in the Operation Phoenix area and their hooking 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 an 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 any one 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 25"' 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 21 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 underprivileged 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. No. of Items: 2 No. of Hours: 2 RACHEL G. CLARK City Clerk J By/-` Linda E. Hartzel Deputy City Clerk Linda Sutherland Deputy City Clerk 22 03/21/2007