A fairly shocking development occured recently following the Thanksgiving holiday and I have been meaning to address it for several days on this blog.

Robert Rogers of the San Bernardino Sun reported a story about the Police Activities League (PAL) that was funded by the council early in 2007.  The council approved funding of $75,000 for the league which was supposed to be established at the Delmann Heights Community Center (DHCC) during the contentious period where Mayor Morris and members of the council feverishly debated where and how Measure Z sales tax revenue should be spent.  The majority of the council sided with allocating those resources in near totality to the police department, while Mayor Morris aggressively lobbied for funding of social programs in concert with Operation Phoenix.

The story, which was published on November 26th, states that the league was established, however, not on the Westisde at the DHCC as ordered by the council.  I will give you one guess as to where the PAL program has been established.

That is right.  The PAL has been set up...in the Operation Phoenix area.

"I don't know that it won't be at the Delmann Heights Center at some point," said Lt. Scott Paterson on Billdt's behalf Monday. "But we've launched at the Phoenix Center. That's the first center."

The Phoenix Center opened last month in a wing of the First Church of the Nazarene as a prevention and intervention component of Mayor Pat Morris' anti-crime strategy in a neighborhood just north of downtown. The center's manager, Mike Miller, said Monday that three officers had visited a few times in recent weeks to chat with kids and participate in a pool tournament. Miller said the officers typically wear their uniforms.

Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, and presumably others, believe that Mayor Morris and staff directed Chief Billdt to start the program in the Operation Phoenix area.  However, Chief of Staff Jim Morris emphatically denies those assertions and maintains that there has been no pressure or discussions from the Mayor's office concerning the PAL program.

Regardless of whether or not Mayor Morris' staff pressured Chief Billdt or Chief Billdt acted on his own, there was a direct circumvention of the city council and I would think that few things would anger an elected official more than seeing their wishes and designs underminded by someone else. 

Councilwoman McCammack touches on this point:

But 7th Ward Councilwoman Wendy McCammack, who questioned Billdt about why the program wasn't launched in the Westside community where she and her council colleagues intended, said Monday that her concern was that Billdt didn't follow council's direction.

"The Delmann Heights Center was the council direction, and any change to that direction should have come to the council," she said.

Aside from this comment, the council has been extraordinarily quiet on this issue.  Perhaps, the holidays have muted some of the criticisms one would expect for the time being. 

However, these actions by Chief Billdt are indicative of systemic problems within our local governance.  A few months ago, Chief Billdt arrogantly lied to the members of the council during a discussion about parolees where he contradicted Councilman Neil Derry's assessment and provided erroneous information which corroborated and supported the arguments made by Mayor Pat Morris.

During these discussions on parolees, Billdt gave numbers suggesting the rise in the number of parolees in San Bernardino was grossly exaggerated.  After questioning by Robert Rogers of the San Bernardino Sun, Billdt admitted to including awol parolees and those who had be thrown back in prison so as to inlfate the baseline year figures and make it appear the rise in the number of parolees was not as high as they really are.

One of the primary criticisms of City Attorney Jim Penman is that he allegedly provides counsel to the council that is biased and supports his political machinations.  Mayor Morris and others repeatedly argue that they cannot trust Penman's advice and input since it is colored by his own political ambitions and biases.

However, when Chief Billdt lies to the faces of the council and then acts in a matter that is in direct contravention to the wishes of the council, Mayor Morris is quiet.  It would appear that since Billdt's deceptive behavior has been directly to the benefit of Mayor Morris, he has seen no need to call into account these actions.

This all begs the question, if Chief Billdt is going to act in such a manner, what is the council to do?  How can the council hold him accountable?  Again, my understanding is that as long as the Chief has the support of the Mayor, he cannot be removed by the council.