Poll indicates loss of confidence in San Bernardino mayor, police chief

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 1, 2008

By CHRIS RICHARD
The Press-Enterprise

A San Bernardino police union poll finds both embattled Police Chief Mike Billdt and Mayor Pat Morris, who appointed the chief, losing the public's confidence, the police union president said Wednesday.

"The poll should tell everybody that the leadership of the police department is not thought well (of) in the public, either," Sgt. Rich Lawhead said.

He said the poll shows people are losing faith in the mayor.

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Mike Billdt

"They're starting to lose confidence in his abilities," Lawhead said. "It's mismanagement across the board."

A union news release said NSON Opinion Research polled 400 city residents last week from a representative sample of 6,355 randomly selected registered voters. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Of those polled, 39.5 percent said they agreed with the union's no-confidence vote against the chief, while 19 percent supported Billdt, the release states. The number of voters rating Billdt's job performance as "poor" or "very poor" has doubled in the past 12 months, the release said.

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Mike Billdt

Likewise, Morris' approval rating has slipped, the release said. About 46 percent of those polled said they approve of Morris' job performance, down from 57 percent last fall.

Further, 72 percent of those polled support more investigation of the Operation Phoenix program. Morris promoted the program, which seeks to reduce crime and blight through community-based policing and increased social services.

A former supervisor at one Phoenix Center, Michael Steven Miller, faces two dozen felony child molestation charges. Allegations that Miller molested two girls recently and another more than a decade ago, which first became public in July, spurred criticism of the Phoenix program.

Morris questioned some of the conclusions in the release, including a statement from Lawhead that "the people of San Bernardino are fed up (with) the city's lack of resolve in the fight against crime."

"They don't release the poll," Morris said. "They're comparing it to prior polls about the mayor. We don't know if they even asked the same question."

Reach Chris Richard at 909-806-3076 or crichard@PE.com