By Chris Levister

"When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb he tried many different filaments. He had a lot of blown up pieces of glass before he came up with the right combination."

2nd Ward San Bernardino City Councilman Dennis Baxter (seated 2nd left) says the troubled Operation Phoenix program is a “work in process” that must be saved for future generations. "Thomas Edison didn't invent the lightbulb on the first try."

Much like Edison's early trials, Operation Phoenix is a "work in process that must be saved," said Baxter after surveying residents in his district located in the shadow of the program's flagship youth center.

"Sure, they're concerned, but I'm hearing resoundingly ‘this cannot be shut down'.

That this has been an innovative program for my children," said Baxter.

But for all of its troubles the program is attracting growing national attention from cities, law enforcement agencies, schools and civic organizations looking for solutions to spiraling crime and drug activity.

Sources involved with the Second Chance Act which authorized up to $360 million for prisoner reentry services in 2009 and 2010 say federal officials are looking closely at the San Bernardino program. Second Chance funds programs, many of them faith-based, which prepare prisoners for the transition from prison to society. Baxter says the cities of Santa Ana, Oakland and Pico Rivera are also looking "closely" at the program. "We're examining the data to include tracking overall crime rates and public perception," said a Santa Ana official who asked not to be named. Recently Santa Ana officials toured the Sierra Way center and met with members of the City Council. 

"This is a role model. For the first time in the nation we're seeing a program that uses the elements of prevention, intervention and suppression effectively to fight crime," said Baxter. "All sources up and down the state who have looked at what we're doing say this is working, it has in fact reduced crime and empowered our youth," said Baxter.   

Since the program was initiated two years ago, statistics show overall crime in San Bernardino has declined by almost 13 percent and violent crime has dropped by almost 16 percent.

Utilizing a grant from The California Endowment, Baxter said the city plans to conduct an extensive evaluation of Operation Phoenix. He said if that data does in fact show progress in fighting crime, the program is likely to be duplicated nationally. 

Operation Phoenix has been a political whipping boy since Mayor Patrick Morris established the 18 point plan to give youths living in trouble areas a place to avoid crime and drugs.

The program has been called everything from the "Morris's pet" to a financially draining, woefully mismanaged ‘rumper room', not withstanding reports of staff BB gun wars, department and city policy violations and on July 3, the stunning arrest of community center manager and longtime Parks and Recreation employee Mike Miller on suspicion of child molestation.

"We have been fortunate. We've only had one serious piece of broken glass and that is being fixed." Baxter said city leaders are drafting stiff new policies among them a plan to  organize Phoenix much like a large corporation. The emphasis on top down management would place Morris as CEO.

"We're insisting on new clear stringent policies that will assure that this will never happen again. But we've got to look at the long haul 20 to 30 years from now not at next month or next year."

For the first time in recent memory Baxter said we've got virtually every facet of federal, state and local government at the table collaborating on solutions.  

"When problems came to light in the Catholic Church,  church leaders didn't disband the denomination they took the heat and weathered the storm. We're in the middle of a storm. We have to take the heat and use this to our advantage. Look for the silver lining." said Baxter.