Being a Garden State native, this morning's developments in Palm Springs seem almost homey. My Dad was a 23 year veteran of the FBI so I welcome their visit to the fair city of Palm Springs. I may not be the only one.
Today's FBI and DA raid at the Palm Springs City Hall and at the apartment of Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet certainly came as a shock to the Coachella Valley. There are at this point unconfirmed reports of of a raid at the home of developer Rich Meaney whom the Mayor worked for over 200 grand as a consultant.
There are a few things that need to be clarified:
As of noon, no one has been arrested.
The IRS also is involved in the raid. This has to be that they are looking at possible payments that were not declared as taxable income. This means that there is a suspicion of bribery.
There are some candidates who are calling for the resignation of the entire City Council. This is grandstanding at it's worst.
It will be interesting to see if as a courtesy, the Feds ave any heads up to the local PSPD about the raid. Sometimes they do, sometime they won't for fear of a tip off.
As usual, the ostrich crowd will try to bury every one's head in the sand and say this is hurting Palm Springs. Of course it is but is necessary for the citizens of Palm Springs to have confidence in their city.
How foolish does councilman Chris Mills look for his vigorous denunciation of critics of the city back in April? And that "investigation" which cleared the city of any wrong doing?
From day one I have been asking what did Steve Pougnet do to earn 200 grand from Meaney's company which had a suspended business license? I think others with a tad more authority may be asking that same question now.
Steve Kelly can be reached at skelly@rrbroadcasting.com
hey Steve, are you off the air locally? I leave town for a month and poof no more Kelly's Corner?!
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