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Clash over Parolees Bitter Between Morris and Penman |
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Wednesday, 08 August 2007 |
SAN BERNARDINO
Chris Levister
SB Council Agree to 45-day Block on Group Homes
Mayor Pat Morris struck an angry aggressive tone Monday in
his clash over San Bernardino's
exploding parolee population, portraying the city as vulnerable and accusing
City Attorney James F. Penman of "being asleep at the switch".
Hours after often bitter debate between the mayor, Penman
and city council members over who's to blame for the mess the famously divisive
City Council voted unanimously to block the establishment of parolee group
homes for a period of 45-days.
"Unbridled, unscripted reality TV," recalls council meeting
observers Donna and Otis Graham of the public showdown, as the city continued
its intense effort to stem the growing tide of parolees.  The hotly debated parolee problem took center stage at Monday’s meeting of the San Bernardino City Council.
At last count the city of San Bernardino has 1,714 parolees of that
number 513 are registered sex offenders - many of them living unmonitored in
squalid ramshackle housing. State law
requires parolees to reside in the county they lived in when they committed
their crime.
Frustrated over the growing parolee population, Penman sought
last month to launch an aggressive sweep of parolee housing, but was rebuffed
by Morris and the council - largely because previous attempts failed to
acknowledge on going enforcement efforts and ignored a long-range strategy of
incorporating prevention and intervention along with suppression.
"This has been a problem for decades in our city, and we
should have stayed on top of this issue and had better ordinances in place a
long time ago," said Morris.
"Unfortunately the city attorney who is responsible for
staying on top of these municipal code updates and new laws has been asleep at
the switch," said Morris.
Penman responded angrily, telling the council that an
aggressive crackdown on parolees in 2000 ridded the city of 200 parole
violators.
"We don't need any new ordinances if the council will let us
do what we did in 2000," said Penman.
"This is just hogwash," Penman said of the mayor's
criticism. For weeks Penman and Morris have engaged in a finger pointing spar
over the extent of the problem and who is to blame.
The moratorium allows the city to study how best to regulate
parolee and sex offender housing, but most experts say a statewide solution is
needed.
True enough, says, councilmember Rikke Van Johnson. "The
governor and state legislature must be called to task. This is not something we
can fix alone."
Several legislators including Assemblyman Bill Emmerson,
(R-Redands) are working with the League of California Cities to pursue a
gubernatorial proclamation to fix the problem.
The league is urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign an
executive order requiring state departments to find a better way of
distributing the parolee population.
"They are supposed to be integrated into the communities,"
Emmerson said of the parolees. "But if you have too many in one city, you're
not integrating."
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