A San Bernardino City Council member has filed a $2 million claim for damages against City Hall, alleging police illegally searched a state database to see if she had a criminal history.

Treasure Ortiz filed the claim with the city clerk March 25. The City Council has 45 days to accept or reject it. A claim is the required first step before a public agency can be sued.

In an interview in her City Hall office April 16, I asked Ortiz if she had an attorney.

“I have one ready,” Ortiz replied, smiling.

Oh, good. San Bernardino hasn’t had any political drama in a while. Probably not for a full week. But more San Bernardino drama is always welcome.

After a tipster alerted me to the existence of the claim, I filed a public records request and got a copy April 15.

In the section in which she is asked to summarize the action that caused her injury, Ortiz wrote: “Accessing and running of all names which Treasure Ortiz use (sic) by running personal information on the State of California CLETS system and other systems without a legitimate law enforcement purpose for (sic) reasons.”

Besides a lawyer, she could use a grammarian. Anyway, CLETS, the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, connects public safety agencies across the state to criminal histories, driver records and other databases.

In a five-page narrative attached to the claim, Ortiz wrote that police improperly accessed the network to dig up dirt on her to try to torpedo her campaign. Allegations of a criminal history on her part were disseminated during the 2024 campaign by rival Jim Penman.

“It was consistently me being arrested for assault, in various years, and being painted as a violent criminal,” Ortiz told me in our interview. “The information was given to the other candidate in the 7th Ward who was running against me in the November runoff.”

Ortiz bested Penman, a former city attorney and longtime politico, by 56% to 44% in November, after incumbent Damon Alexander finished third in the March primary.

For a sitting council member to take a step toward suing her own city is rare, even in tumultuous San Bernardino.

Ortiz was a regular, and fiery, speaker at council meetings, lobbing verbal bombs about corruption by council members and city management. Sworn into office Dec. 18, she didn’t sound ready to moderate her approach.

She promised the audience that night: “I plan to work with those who want to work and I equally plan to expose those who need to be exposed.”

The first weeks of the post-election City Council, which has three newcomers, have been calm. Ortiz told me she and her colleagues are making a point of keeping their disagreements private. (I oppose this policy, if only out of self-interest.)

Her legal claim may disturb those waters.

Ortiz wrote that over lunch in November 2023, Penman told her the Police Officers Association, the rank and file’s politically active labor union, had run her name through CLETS, created a file on her and was prepared to attack her during the campaign.

Ortiz said she asked Police Chief Darren Goodman, who had been hired in June 2022, if her name had indeed been run through the state database. She said that with assistance from the state Department of Justice, he later determined that she had been the subject of online searches in March 2019 and March 2020 by a police detective.

“I thank Chief Goodman for all he has done to help me with this matter, and for all of his hard work to change the culture inside of the department,” Ortiz wrote. “This did not happen under his watch but he has treated it with seriousness as if it had.”

She added: “None the less, this entire ordeal has left me living in fear of calling 911 for help or being involved in any type of police investigation and I do not want to keep feeling that way.”

During the campaign, Ortiz was adamant that she had never been arrested. In our interview, Ortiz, 40, declined to describe any past interactions with police.

“The focus is on what the police did, not what happened 20 years ago,” Ortiz said. “The claim is about what the police chief said happened.”

It remains to be seen how City Hall will respond to the claim. The council has yet to be briefed. (Unless this column counts.)

But I would expect San Bernardino to fight.

“These are unfortunate allegations,” Goodman, the police chief, told me by phone Monday. “However, they’ve been thoroughly investigated and I have conclusively determined there was no illegal search on CLETS. And I look forward to being able to share our entire findings with the public for full transparency.”

I will keep my schedule clear.

Penman also pushed back on Ortiz’s account.

In an interview on Easter (because the news never stops), Penman told me the information put out during the campaign about Ortiz’s past was found on publicly accessible websites.

“No police officers gave me any information about her having been arrested,” Penman said. “I don’t know if police have a file on her at all. During the campaign she claimed police were investigating me. There are a lot of things Ms. Ortiz has said over the years that have not proven true.”

Penman hadn’t seen Ortiz’s legal claim but takes a dim view of it on principle.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for a city official to sue the city they represent, especially because the taxpayers will have to pay any claim,” Penman said. “I think it’s incompatible with your duties as an elected official to do that.”

Ortiz told me she’s well aware of San Bernardino’s needs and her fiduciary responsibility to citizens. But, she said, “If the police can do this to one of the most outspoken people in the community, they could do it to anyone.”

Would she really sue her own city if her claim is rejected?

“I will have to think about it when they do it,” Ortiz said. “It’s a very sad situation to be in.”

David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, three more sad situations. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.