Courage Talks Cronies Walk In Latest Palm Springs Drama

I was very impressed the other night watching Mayor Rob Moon keep a campaign promise about looking for more transparency in city government. Now most people would think that looking at the contract and employment of a City Manager who was in charge while City Hall was raided would be a reasonable action. Not apparently for some members of the Palm Springs City Council,

3 members, Ms. Foat, Mr. Kors and Mr. Roberts all have expressed varying degrees of indignation at Mayor Moon proposing this. Now let's cut through the nonsense and say exactly what was asked for.

David Ready, the Palm Springs City Manager, has an annual performance review in July. Mayor Moon wanted to schedule the review earlier. He did not say Mr. Ready should go. If one looks at the calendar, the review would take place in May. That would be 2 months before the currently scheduled. 2 months earlier!! Oh the heavens

Then there was this gem from councilman J.R, Roberts on a potential Ready review courtesy of the Desert Sun:

“My fear is there is great collateral damage even in making public statements the way that he did because it sends the rest of the staff a scary message, quite frankly. That they might be losing their boss, or in our case, our chief-of-staff,”

In one of the worst kept secrets in Palm Springs, Mr. Ready earlier in the year had expressed interest in maybe going to Santa Monica. Yet, I saw no signs of panic emanating from City Hall if he was to depart.

Now I like Geoff Kors personally. but he is now early in the running for the dumbest thing said in a public meeting this year by a Coachella Valley elected official. When discussing whether or not the hiring of former DA Rod Pacheco as a consultant should have disclosed.

"I was unaware that this information was not shared with the public when Mr. Pacheco was retained and believe that the hiring of legal counsel should always be disclosed unless it would somehow jeopardize the city's legal position,

How could you have been unaware? You were here in September running for office. This tells me that a bright mind like Mr. Kors is pretty oblivious to his new home area. An outcry equal to if not surpassing the current one would have been forthcoming if Pacheco's name had been released in September. A little less time at cocktail parties and a little more time hanging out at Bit Of Country may be in order for Mr. Kors. He is not a councilman from the Bay Area but one from a medium sized town in Riverside County and he should be aware of happenings in the last 10 years here both in Palm Springs and the County.

The writing is on the wall for both David Ready and City Attorney Doug Holland. And I applaud Mayor Rob Moon for picking up the pen.


Steve Kelly can be reached at skelly@rrbroadcasting.com or on Twitter @skellynj