City Manager Fred Wilson: Cover Up Squared (And links to Orange County Articles)
Posted by: Joseph Turner | 07/31/2008 7:20 PM
Alright, so apparently my comments in response to Fred Wilson's hightailing it out of here to Huntington Beach have caused a little controversy. You can read my previous comments about this situation (here, here, here and here).
There are two articles out in Orange County addressing the issue. The first one will apparently be in tomorrow's Orange County Register and the other is in the Huntington Beach Independent.
For those who haven't been following this situation very closely, let me address some of the comments made in these articles. Before I do that though, it is imperative that you understand the big picture.
The fact is our Mayor, Pat Morris doesn't want Fred Wilson anymore. In an online article that was posted on the Riverside Press-Enterprise for a few hours, until it was inexplicably taken down, it reported that the Morris Administration had privately encouraged Fred Wilson to seek new employment. Although these statements aren't directly corroborated in today's San Bernardino Sun article, it alludes to a conflict between Mayor Morris and Fred Wilson:
In an interview, Morris deferred to Wilson on questions of what prompted the move but said the Huntington Beach job will be a good match for his top manager.
"We're delighted that he was able to find a really good fit for himself in a fine city," Morris said.
When asked directly whether he played any role in prompting Wilson to search for new employment, Morris said, "I'm not going to go there."
I'll leave it to the readers as to whether or not they buy the spin that Mayor Morris is hesitant to see Fred Wilson go.
While it is a fact that I do freelance consulting work (not an employee) for the San Bernardino Police Officers' Association, readers should know that I am an actual resident of San Bernardino and was also a co-leader of the committee that opposed the passage of a sales tax increase in November of 2006 that was supposedly going to be utilized to hire more police officers. The SBPOA endorsed this measure.
The notion that there is somehow some bad blood because of proposed budget cuts to the police departmnet is sort of silly. Why would I want to keep Fred Wilson here? I don't.
I simply believe that Fred Wilson knows things about the Operation Phoenix molestation scandal (specifically, what Mayor Pat Morris knew and when) and that the Morris Administration is covering up their dislike for Fred Wilson in an attempt to innoculate themselves from being held accountable on this timeline.
Unfortunately, I take child molestation a little more seriously than the leaders of San Bernardino. I believe Mayor Morris was in the loop and knew about many of the things occurring under his watch and chose to do nothing to protect his pet project.
Fred Wilson doesn't consider his misstatements (I call them lies) to the DA investigating a child molestation scandal to be "a gigantic deal". The Mayor claims to have not been aware of incidents that Fred Wilson knew for months. Yet, Fred Wilson apparently didn't think he should tell his boss about these serious acts of misconduct. And finally, why would a City Manager ever take responsibility for creating a $20 million deficit when it occurred under his watch that lasted years when he can blame a decrease in sales tax revenue.
Heaven forbid a city manager might actually be required to consider economic contraction when budgeting for a city! Fred Wilson should get into the weather prognostication business if he doesn't want to be held accountable for faulty forecasting.
Chief of Staff Jim Morris (yes, he is the son of the mayor!) states that my charges are not based on fact.
TRUTH: Fred Wilson has stated we are in a 15-20 million dollar hole.
TRUTH: Fred Wilson lied...er...misspoke to the DA
TRUTH: Fred Wilson did not tell Mayor Morris about alleged child molester Mike Miller's misconduct.
TRUTH: The City of San Bernardino failed to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenue from business...like Wal Mart. Some of you might have heard of them.
I challenge Jim Morris to directly refute my statements here on this blog. We all remember the last time he tried to engage in discourse with me on this blog.
I'll leave it to the readers to assess the situation in light of statements like the following from Mayor Pat Morris:
San Bernardino officials called Wilson a dedicated public official with a strong sense of fiscal restraint.
"One of his greatest strengths is his ability to balance the budget and keep expenses in check, even in disastrous circumstances," Morris said.
Is this the freaking Twilight Zone? Um...we don't have a balanced budget and he hasn't kept expenses in check despite the fact that we spend a smaller percentage of our annual budget on public safety than we did ten years ago?
But, I am the one making "wild accusations", "scurrilous" charges and "statements not based on fact."
Joe,
With all due respect you don't have enough information to be reaching the conclusions you are reaching. You are right that there is more to this than meets the eye.
You don't know who is cooperating in the investigations and who isn't.
There are other people digging, people who have a right to see documents and to question witnesses. You need to let them finish thier work and make their recommendations. Publicly jumping to conclusions and maligning people can hurt far more than it can help. It is going to take some time to sort all of this out, if it ever does get all sorted out.
People need to be convinced that they can be candid with the investigators. Subjecting people to public, broad brush conclusions of guilt has a chilling effect on the willingness of witnesses to come forward. If witnesses believe that by cooperating with those looking for the truth, including a witness who voluntarily corrects what may have been an inadvertant error, that witness will be attacked by Joe Turner on a blog and convicted publicly in the press without a trial, many of those potential witnesses will keep their mouths shut.
You need to back off buddy and let this process work itself through. You're not the only one with doubts and not the only one who is expressing them. But you're targeting people publicly that you shouldn't be targeting, especially at this stage of the process.
This thing is going to go on for a very long time. Only the tip of the ice burg has surfaced so far. Your blogging is hurting, and not helping those who are trying to get to the bottom of all of this. You're jumping to conclusions prematurely. There will be plenty of time for the politics after the investigations are concluded. What you are doing scares potential witnesses into thinking that if they speak out, their name may be the next one you put on this blog, their name may be the next one you publicly drag through the mud.
You've been told privately by experienced police officers to stand down. You have chosen not to do so. Now I am telling you publicly that you need to take their advice. If this matter isn't resolved to your liking you will have plenty of time to voice your opinions, be they right or be they wrong. But please wait until after the investigations are concluded.
Jim Penman
City Attorney
City of San Bernardino
Jim:
Although you are an attorney and trained to use your words precisely, you are also human and capable of making a mistake.
When you say that I have maligned someone, I am sure you would probably like to take that back and choose another word. I have not spoken any untruths about anyone, nor have I slandered or defamed them through my comments on this blog.
I have spoken the truth and drawn conclusions from the publicly available information about this scandal. Everything I have written has been based on facts and an analysis of the various timelines given by the principal players in this scandal.
I have not subjected anyone to any broad brush conclusions of guilt. I have been very sharp and exacting in my critiques and held those involved accountable for their words and actions.
To suggest that my writings are going to make some potential witnesses fearful of coming forth is ludicrous. There hasn't been one witness that has come forth that has been identified in public and I have never even commented on any of the unnamed witnesses in the DA report.
Furthermore, I find your chastisement incredibly hypocritical since it was your office that released the emails containing the allegations of molestation that were sent between Robinson, Hawkins and Baude. Don't get me wrong, I believe they should have been released, but how on Earth could you cite witness intimidation on the part of my blog posts when it was your very office that brought many of these facts to light and created an even more intense media focus on this scandal?
If you have a specific instance of where I have stated something untruthful or maligned another individual I would encourage you to point it out or slip the maligned individual the business card of an attorney you trust so that they could then take me to court.
It seems you want to have a Clinton-esque dissection of whether or not Wilson lied or misspoke. In my book, and in many others, Wilson was less than candid. If you want to stand in his defense, by all means, do so.
I don't appreciate you accusing me of maligning a person who must take responsibility for their own words. Never mind the fact that Wilson stated to the San Bernardino Sun that he stood by his comments made to the DA after the DA report was released.
It wasn't until after I pointed out in this blog and after The Sun did some digging that he all of a sudden changed his tune. Apparently, it was inconvenient to tell the DA he knew about the email on July 1, when Mayor Morris said he didn't learn about them until July 17th. How convenient.
In fact, much of what I said has been or should have been covered in a news article. Are you asking the media to stand down as well? It would seem that based on your definition of harm, they are doing more damage to any potential investigation, no?
I implore you to identify where I have maligned someone or stated any untruths.
Joe,
All of my comments stand. Cover-ups are best exposed by getting people to talk who are involved in them. Yes, first the issue someone is trying to cover up has to be in the public eye. As you pointed out, this one is.
Your commentary is causing problems with witnesses. Again, you don't know what is going on and your attempts to fuel the issue are actually causing those who can find out the truth more problems.
I again suggest that you do what your police officer employers have asked you to do and hold off on this until the investigative work can be completed. You'll have plenty of time to express your opinions then. This isn't going to go away anytime soon.
Jim Penman
City Attorney
City of San Bernardino