Paid for by the Committee to Re-Elect Mayor Pat Morris 2009 - ID #1278701
Guest Editorials by Mayor Morris
"Let school bell ring for all 4-year-olds" (published in The Sun, August 28, 2009)

More than 5,000 children in San Bernardino are entering kindergarten. These children are our city's future.
Our long-term prosperity and public safety depend on these children succeeding in school.

Half of these children will have attended a preschool and will have a head start in developing the social,
language, and cognitive skills critical for educational success. The other half will play catch-up.

Research tells us that children who do not have a quality preschool experience are more likely to be placed
in special education or retained in-grade. Over the long-term, non-preschool students are more likely to
drop out of school, more likely to become teenage parents, and more likely to get involved in juvenile crime.

That is why, as part of the Mayor's Educational Roundtable, we have established the Promise of Preschool
Initiative. We are developing a plan to make quality preschool available to every 4-year-old in San
Bernardino. Funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and led by the Mayor's Office, this
initiative involves a collaborative team of educational leaders from our city and county schools, our state
university and community college, and representatives from our public and private preschools and
child-care center providers.

We have made good progress:

We obtained $1 million in new funds from the Family Literacy Act to expand preschool services to over 220
children in San Bernardino.

We completed an assessment of the supply of public and private preschool programs in our city and
identified the areas with the greatest need for new preschool services. We provided training to more than
100 preschool teachers and directors on how to assess and improve the quality of early care and education.

We are developing a quality rating system that will assist the 65 preschools and child-care providers in San
Bernardino to improve their programs. The quality rating system will also create a guide for our families to
help them select a preschool program for their children.

Some may ask why the Mayor's Office is leading this educational initiative. The answer is simple. Our city's
future is at stake. Clearly, our first priority must be to deliver quality municipal services that our residents
and businesses need: from streets, water, and sewer to reducing crime, providing parks and libraries, and
stimulating economic development.

But while we focus on creating a better city today, we cannot forget our future. San Bernardino's future is
only as bright as those students answering the school bell in preschool programs. Educational success for
our youth leads to lower crime rates, a more educated work force, sustainable economic development, and
ultimately a higher quality of life for everyone in San Bernardino.

For the sake of our city's future, let's continue pursuing the resources to ensure all 4-year-olds in San
Bernardino answer that preschool bell.
"Civility key to successful policymaking" (published in The Sun, December 10, 2008)

At our last City Council meeting, Councilwoman McCammack read a letter from her husband who was
justifiably angry about taggers defacing their business on Highland Avenue and stealing a utility trailer over
the Thanksgiving weekend. In his letter, he laid blame for this event at the feet of the Mayor. Mr.
McCammack also spoke at the meeting about the incident and in a very emotional outburst used curse
words to describe his anger at the Mayor.

After the meeting, I was verbally accosted by both Wendy and David McCammack demanding that I make
the city safer. As I tried to express my sympathy for their weekend loss and discuss our city's
crime-fighting efforts, the McCammacks' discourse elevated into emotional shouting, with Wendy
McCammack yelling obscenities.

When a local resident and community leader overheard McCammack's tirade and suggested she was being
uncivil and disrespectful, City Attorney Jim Penman physically and verbally confronted the resident.
Putting his face within inches of the resident, Penman yelled at him to "butt out" as this was none of his
business. Penman shouted that McCammack had a First Amendment right to use whatever language she
desired. Penman accused the resident of being a "kiss-ass" for the Mayor and threatened him. As I turned
and left the council chambers with the City Manager, I heard Penman continuing to shout and berate the
stunned resident.

This is not the first time in my short tenure at City Hall that I have been witness to an expletive- laced
shouting session by Councilwoman McCammack toward city leaders. Nor is it the first time I have heard
Jim Penman attempt to intimidate, most often by using the law, to bludgeon others to silence. This kind of
uncivil, degrading, fear-inducing conduct and language is unacceptable and destructive to good government.

We all know there are many differing opinions and ideas on how to govern our city, our state, and our
nation. Dialogue and debate about our differences and ideas is democracy's true engine. But our dialogue
and debate must be done with civility. Civility means that at all times we show respect for our fellow
citizens. Respect is reflected in the manner in which we approach others and the language we use when we
engage them in conversation or debate.

In this nation, we have wisely chosen to limit the role of government and place the highest value on
individual freedoms. However, if we are a nation of people without civility, where voluntary rules of social
discipline and self-control fail, then we will become a nation ruled by overly intrusive laws that put at-risk
the freedoms we prize so highly. Civility is a prerequisite for freedom and limited government.

Because I was unable to civilly engage the McCammacks about our city's crime-fighting efforts, I would like
to provide the following facts. Since we deployed the Operation Phoenix crime-fighting model of
suppression, intervention, and prevention in July 2007, the FBI crime statistics show the following
reductions in crime over the past 29 months in San Bernardino, compared to the prior similar period:
Murders down 32%
Vehicle Theft down 23%
Aggravated Assaults down 20%
Rape down 13%
Burglary down 11%
Robbery down 10%
Theft down 6%
I certainly empathize with the McCammacks' recent property loss. Each victim of crime brings pain and
tragedy which we must continually work to prevent. We have made very good progress in reducing crime
over the last 2 ½ years, and it is incumbent on our leaders and residents to fight diligently and civilly to
maintain and improve on our success.