On Friday, Mayor Morris met with the San Bernardino Sun to salvage Operation Phoenix.  San Bernardino Sun reporter Robert Rogers, who sat in, delved into greater detail about this meeting via the SB Now blog.

Unfortunately, the picture depicted is one of Mayor Morris detached and out of touch with his very own program.  More disturbing is his propensity to place the blame at the doorstep of everyone else.  Not once have I seen any mention of the mayor assuming any responsibility for this fiasco.

Here are some of the reasons Operation Phoenix finds itself in its current situation: (1) Glenn Baude was Mayor Morris' second choice, and (2) the police unions and city council "gobbled up" all of the Measure Z resources and left him nothing in the well for Operation Phoenix.

The fact of the matter is that Glenn Baude was tapped by Mayor Morris to spearhead Operation Phoenix.  Before this, Baude was lauded by many for his great work in code enforcement.  I know that I thought highly of him as a result of my experiences in the Kendall Hills Neighborhood Cluster Association when I was helping Chas Kelley.  And I know that Councilman Kelley often spoke highly of Baude as well.  Before all of this Baude was a highly regarded employee.  Although I am disappointed that Baude did not discipline Miller for the "BB gun" stuff, I am still withholding judgment until I get a better understanding of who knew what when.

Clearly, after what appeared to be an attempt by the Morris administration to throw Kevin Hawkins to the wolves, it looks like Baude is now the designated fall guy.  Mayor Morris emphatically stated that Baude was out during the meeting, as if that almost in and of itself would entirely rehabilitate the program.

Let us transition now to the blame placed on the Council and the police union (Disclaimer: I do consulting work for the San Bernardino Police Officers' Association) by Mayor Morris.  When Morris ran for office, many asked how he would pay for his program.  Moreover, the Measure Z sales tax increase passed in November of 2006 and the first cent of the tax increase didn't occur until April 1, 2007.

Unless you were the Wal-Mart on Highland Avenue and a whole host of other businesses that weren't collecting the new sales tax rate for months.  But, I digress.

My point being that the program was already in place long before Measure Z was even passed, let alone any of the financial benefits were incurred.  It is incredibly disingenuous to suggest that these two entities undermined Operation Phoenix when Measure Z wasn't even though of until after the program was initiated, it was never a guarantee that the measure would pass and the revenue from the measure was still months in the offing.

If Mayor Morris was so confident the sales tax would have passed, he should have specifically designated the funds from the tax for Operation Phoenix. However, he knew that that would require a 2/3rds vote in order to pass and he wasn't confident.  Also, that would have prevented him from marketing the tax increase as being for the purpose of hiring more officers.

If Mayor Morris is truly blaming the failures of Operation Phoenix on the Council and police union, he needs to look in the mirror for his plan was doomed to failure.  Not once did he state during the campaign for mayor that he was going to implement Operation Phoenix and that he was going to raise taxes to do it.  If Measure Z never would have passed, what would his response be today?