Inspector Kelly's Winner And Losers Local Politics 2014

With a nod of the hat to my old partner Bud Furillo who called me Inspector Kelly here are my some of my local political winners and losers for 2014.

Dr, Raul Ruiz: Winner He bucked a national trend and in the end easily outdistanced his opponent. Barring something unforeseen, he should be in the office a long time.

Brian Nestande: Winner. Yeah he lost to Dr. Ruiz but he received a 170k a year job as a result from the GOP Board Of Supervisors.

Bonnie Garcia: Loser. Lost the 24th Senate Race to Jeff Stone in just an ugly race.

Linda Evans; Winner. She knocked off long time Mayor Don Adolph in La Quinta and appears to be a possible GOP Assembly or Congressional candidate.

Stan Henry: Winner. Elected mayor of Cathedral City by acclaim. Now if the City Council led by Greg Pettis acts maturely, he may have a good reign.

Gary Jeandron: Loser. The former PS PD Chief lost his 3rd attempt at elective office in 6 years. He also resigned from the PSUSD School Board.

Joe McKee: Winner First term DHS council member showed patience and restraint in an enviroment that really needed it.

Palm Springs: Winner. There can be no doubt that Palm Springs is back. The city needs to be careful though as the actions of special interests are starting to cast a shadow over some of the issues involving the city. And city leaders must be a little more open to criticism and not to use Measure J funds speciously.

Eduardo Garcia: Winner. This man has a bright future in the State Assembly

Mike Hestrin: Winner. In a bizarre election, knocked off incumbent DA Paul Zellerbach. If he can keep the police unions and Rod Pacheco from influencing his office too much, he will be okay.

Redistricting: Loser. The city of Palm Springs a liberal bastion and LBGT stronghold now has 2 of the most right wing Assembly people in the whole state legislature. Despite some mutterings from EQ California types, don't look for much from Jeff Stone and Chad Mayes.

Happy New Year

Steve Kelly can be heard weekdays from 4p to 6p on 1450 KPTR and www 1450kptr.com

For Local GOP And Allies Christmas Comes Early

It has always intrigued me how a political party that always seems to talk about the inefficiencies of government can dole out political patronage. Once again the Riverside County Republican Party has not failed to delight in giving out some pre-holiday patronage.

Former Assemblyman Brian Nestande got a Christmas gift this morning when he was appointed to a management job in Riverside County. Now I personally like Brian but he gets 170 grand a year to work on lobbying. All 4 of the current supervisors supported him in his losing Congressional bid last month.

Then newly minted Senator Jeff Stone gave some love to 2 new Valley council people, Glenn Miller and Greg Pettis. Both played roles, sometimes bizarrely in the recent election of Stone. Miller was an opponent in the primary and Pettis was using the umbrella of Equality California to help drum up votes first for Miller then Stone. They were both rewarded with staff positions here in the Coachella Valley.

Glenn Miller who sits on the Indio City Council will take a pay cut from the 100 grand a year he was pulling in running a golf program for the recreation district.

Mr. Pettis, who sits on the Cathedral City Council, will I presume be Mr. Miller's liaison to the LBGT community. Already on social media, some EQ types are trumpeting this. It is doubtful to me how much support Mr. Stone would need in the gay community anyway in order to stay in office. I tend to think Messrs Miller and Pettis will spend the vast majority of their time giving out plaques at local city council and CVAG meetings.

Mr. Pettis, who now works for the one of the most conservative Republicans in Sacramento is also angling to be a delegate to the 2015 state Democratic convention in March. Yikes!!

Steve Kelly can be heard weekdays 4 to 6P PT on 1450 KPTR or 1450kptr.com

Time To Wise Up For The Palm Springs Police Officers Association

As the fallout from both the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases continues, passions are running high. People are out in the streets demonstrating their view that the system needs change. Many police officers and police unions are upset with what they feel are the public's lack of knowledge in the cases and police procedure. And among those unions is our local Palm Springs Police Officers Associatrion.

Of course, for the record the PSPOA as individuals or as a group have the right to express their viewpoints in the public arena. Equally as true is the right of any individual, to accept, refute or ignore those viewpoints. Wearing a badge may give one insight into some issues but certainly not all. Nor does it make any of the union's policy or political views sacrosanct or render them immune from criticism.

Now for the record, I like the PSPD. For the most part they are hard working investigators and do a lot to help the city. Many in the LBGT community rave about the relations between them and the police. But that does not give a pass to the PSPOA on a few recent disturbing events.

1.) The PSPOA is involved in a lawsuit against the Desert Sun about officer involved shootings and the release of the names of the officers involved. If the CHP can do this, why not the PSPOA? They will lose this suit but it is disturbing and the legal arguments expressed by PSPOA seem ludicrous.

2.) A recent posting was on the PSPOA Facebook page for at least 5 weeks. The "news" story was from toprightnews.com, a right wing conspiracy themed website. We learned that a crazy man killed by the NYPD after a gruesome hatchet incident may have been linked to ISIS. After I complained to the PSPOA President that the post was a joke from a tin foil site, he did look into it and after 3 more weeks it is gone. Still for a group that routinely calls the local paper "tabloid" when it dislikes unfavorable coverage, this was pretty stupid.

3.) The same PSPOA President recently posted on the Palm Springs Politics Facebook page. "What Ferguson Means For America's Cops." He claimed it was written by "Family and Friends Of Law Enforcement". That of course could not be further from the truth. The piece was authored by Bob Lonsberry, a far right talk show host in upstate NY. A Tea Party radical, Lonsberry is a real class act who sells a line of FUBO clothing wear. Barack Obama is the last part of the acronym. You can guess the first. I have to say or at least I hope to think  that this was posted due to the laziness of the PSPOA President which resulted in his failure to vet the post properly.

Opposing views and discourse are part and parcel in our society. But it is very hard to hold a civil or frank discussion about issues with a group  who either by ignorance or accident have chosen to align themselves with a foul mouthed buffoon and a conspiracy website. Their input has zero credibility.

Many a police officer has counseled a youth by saying that they need to stop hanging out with the "Wrong crowd". My advice to the PSPOA and it's leadership is similar. Wise up and stop hanging out with the wrong crowd.

Now I may be attacked for not supporting the police. So be it. There are some things that just have to be said.

Steve Kelly is on KPTR 1450 Weekdays from 4 to 6p.

Buzzing Around About The Buzz

We are T minus 15 days from the launch of The Buzz "trolley" service in Palm Springs. There will be many speeches and of course enough patting on the back among local officials to induce bursitis but there remain a few unanswered questions, at least in my mind.

The city has contracted out for almost a million dollars to have this service. It was scheduled to start December 7th but with the new launch date, will the city receive somewhat of a discount or are they just going to extend the time period of the run ending by 2 weeks?

Is the "Driving Optional" slogan, one that did not sit well with some city council members, still be used?

And finally the elephant in the room, will it work? Are monitors in place to see that it really delivers on the hype or will it go the way of it's earlier predecessor?

The fact that the city has changed the route in order to keep the trolleys on time is encouraging. Also the fact that the city is allowing all people, not just hotel guests on again behooves well.

Anything that encourages use of public transit and cutting down on impaired driving is good in my book. So the bus. er trolley er The Buzz, good luck.

Steve Kelly can be heard weekdays on 1450 KPTR Palm Springs at 4 PDT

I Need A Vacation Rental

Tonight the Palm Springs City Council will debate whether or not to have new ordinances imposed on vacation rentals. As Palm Springs has grown more vibrant in the last few years, there has been a subsequent greater demand for weekend rentals.

Now in the dinosaur era before 1991, if you wanted to rent your house for a time, you went to a rental agency and they would help you. They would place classified ads in travel magazines and big city papers. They also would screen prospective renters. It seemed to work out pretty well. I am sure there were problems with some rowdy tenants but not on scale there is today.

But now in this era of Airbnb, Craig's list and Pay Pal, many homeowners cut out the middleman and use the internet on their own to connect with renters. I once was 25 and renting a house for 2 grand, then inviting 10 people to help split the cost would have seemed very reasonable at that time in my life. And like many 25 year olds, I was not the most mature person. Neither were my friends.

In today's local paper 2 viewpoints on vacation rentals appear. Both make good points but again I am not sure if the genie is out if the bottle on this one. Technology has changed the whole ballgame forever.

In order for any program to be effective, code enforcement people must work on weekends to immediately ticket violators. Also the internet must be constantly monitored. I was astounded to see how many PS Rentals are online. Surely if Measure J money can be used for a bus route, it can also be used to help try and alleviate some of the issues raised by vacation rentals.

Steve Kelly can be heard weekdays on 1450 KPTR Palm Springs

Shedding Light On Palm Springs Silliness

In the great movie, the Caine Mutiny, the magnificent Humphrey Bogart breaks down on the witness stand over strawberries. His attempts to explain a missing key gets so convoluted he winds up not even believing his own sanity.

It now appears that a case of Caaptain Queegism has struck the lovely town of Palm Springs. The Agua Caliente band of Indians has put 2 searchlights on top of their casino. Oh the horrors. The lights are due to come down on the 15^th.

For some reason this single act has caused certain segments of Facebook to become filled with conspiracy theories and reality detached speculation. Some poor citizen even had to buy “black out” curtains to protect his home from the light of beam shot into the sky. The only time I have ever seen “black out” curtains is in an episode of Foyles War.

Our local paper is reporting that people allied with the modernist community are also upset about the beams. So let me shed some light on the matter.

In my opinion, the so-called light pollution gate is not at all about the spotlights. You will not hear a peep out of the complainants when spotlights are used for the White Party for 3 days or for the Film Festival.

What this really is about is the tribe's decision to tear down the Spa Hotel. People who are not used to hearing no heard it then.

This sniping at the tribe is counterproductive being based on the deadly combination of ignorance and arrogance. The Agua Caliente tribe has been here for a lot longer than the Palm Springs pseudo-hipster crowd. And probably will be for a long time. And that is something you can spotlight.

More Departures From The Desert Sun

As more and more traditional media move to catch up, restructure and re-brand in this digital age, there have been a lot of shakeups. Many have occurred at our  local paper, The Desert Sun. This is disheartening because as a 23 year resident of the Valley, I can say that the paper and it's on line reporting has improved dramatically in the last 10 years.

The days of routine factual errors and subservience to the likes of Tim Blixseth are gone. The Desert Sun has done outstanding investigative work and has fought for things to improve our Valley.

While I find the Opinion page supercilious and self congratulatory at times, that does not lessen my respect for the departing journalists or those that still labor on courageously.

Among those who have left the paper on either their own accord or involuntarily are Michael Felci, Leighton Ginn, Patty Meyers, James Folmer and Liz Kelly Nelson. Some are moving up, others moving out.

Leighton and Patty are pals from our annual BNP Indian Wells tennis days. Michael, James and Liz are all talented people who have had great impacts in our Valley.

Local media is not doing well in the early part of the 21st century. Here  is hoping that will change soon. Good luck to all.

Steve Kelly can be heard weekdays 4 to 6p on 1450 KPTR