The Good The Bad The Ugly In The Rod Pacheco Debacle In Palm Springs

As the gentle breezes of the evening made their way into Palm Springs last night, little coud one imagine the a hurricane force wind was about to roar out of the Palm Springs Council Chambers, Mayor Rob Moon has called for a performance review of City Manager David Ready, a look at whether or not to ditch City Attorney's Doug Holland's law firm and also take a gander at the consulting contract secured by former Riverside DA Rod Pacheco.

                                                            The Good             

3 people, Roger Tansey, Robert Julian Stone and Barbara Beaty were eloquent and spot on discussing the odious hiring of Pacheco as a consultant after the September 2016 raid by a joint task force at Palm Springs Cit Hall. Now a lot of attention was paid to Pacheco's role in the notorious Warm Sands sex sting years ago. Even I harped on that in yesterday's blog. While that in itself is dreadful, as someone pointed out all of Pacheco's tenure as DA was awful. 

Mayor Rob Moon was forceful and courteous demanding a closed session meeting regarding. Ready, Holland and Pacheco. He also caught Ginny Foat off guard as she was "perplexed" by the call for a special meeting. And wisely ignored her.

The Desert Sun ran a strong editorial that has called for a similar review.

                                                          The Bad

The whole "Dog ate me homework" explanation of why Pacheco was hired was convoluted. Doug Holland had to know this guy was radioactive. The intricacies of how he was and is still being compensated scream out to the heavens that Palm Springs was trying to hide his employment

Newcomer J.R Roberts did himself no favors when he called the fight over Pacheco, "Blown out of proportion." Not the most brilliant thing uttered in the illustrious chamber..

                                                            The Ugly

Council member Ginny Foat and her explanation of  Pacheco hiring was self-serving at least and responsibility shirking at best. In her melodramatic speech, she even said the janitorial staff was depressed when City Hall was raided? It is possible because I was depressed listening to her. It is fairly obvious she still can not accept her election loss to Rob Moon last fall. Ms. Foat can see the "legacy" of the prior council becoming not one of progress but one of crony capitalism marred by bureaucratic arrogance and incompetence.  

   
All in all the star of the night was Mayor Moon who kept his eye on the prize and would not be deterred. It is going to get interesting around here.

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