The city of Palm Springs has experienced a remarkable renaissance in the past 4 years. Attributable to both city government polices and the end of the Great Recession, there is no doubt a boom has been going on. The good times appeared to be rolling. But similar to an impolite guest at a dinner party, questions about the city and embattled mayor Steve Pounet and his ties to developer Richard Meaney will continue to be dominant in the near future. Supporters of the mayor will claim all of this is "old" news and "Let's move on." To paraphrase the mayor from the last council meeting, "Ain't gonna happen. No way."
Council member and potential mayoral candidate Paul Lewin is pushing for an independent outside audit of the city's business incentive program. Palm Springs big shot Film Festival head Harold Matzner is threatening to sue the city over the proposed Nexus inspired Aberdeen project which modernists have vowed to stop. Then word came early today that the Riverside County Grand jury may start it's own city investigation into Palm Springs. (This may sound more ominous than it is in reality because any person can fill out a form and send it in to the grand jury and request an investigation.)
What is interesting is the cracking of the political elite in Palm Springs.4 members of the council have been together for 8 years. It has acted more like a convivial club at times with their being little dissent. Those days are coming to an end with the retirement of the mayor and council member Rick Hutchinson Also for may years now, the council has relied heavily on the advice of city attorney Doug Holland and city manager David Ready. They too are caught up in some of the doings at City Hall and Mr. Ready was as quiet as church mouse at the last council meeting.
The next few weeks are going to be interesting as the script which has been adhered to pretty successfully over the last 4 years is going to be subject to being re-written on the fly down at City Hall.
Steve Kelly can be heard on 1450 KPTR from 4 to 6 daily.
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