When the Palm Springs city council meets tomorrow night, all eyes will be on veteran council member Ginny Foat. Despite losing her bid for Mayor, she remains a formidable presence in the city. And on Wednesday night, she will decide the fate of City Attorney Doug Holland.
The council will discuss and may vote on whether or not to hire an in house attorney or continue with outside counsel. Mr. Holland works for the Orange County law firm of Woodruff, Spradlin and Smart where he serves as a director. His firm is currently contracted to the city. And while the city council could vote to change firms, it appears that option is not going to be exercised. It will be in house or no house tomorrow night.
The Desert Sun has called for an in house attorney. This being Palm Springs, no one really wants to address why this matter is being brought up. Well, I will. The main reason the city is having this discussion is because of the perception of screw ups by Mr. Holland Whether it be the bizarre hiring of possible reality-challenged former DA Rod Pacheco to advise the city on the process involving the raid on City Hall or convoluted redevelopment land sales, Doug Holland has certainly been under intense scrutiny recently. It certainly didn't help when City Manager David Ready apparently threw him under the bus in a dispute with the local newspaper.
Tomorrow night Ginny Foat could be the deciding vote for a recommendation to go to an in house counsel. She and her holdover colleague Chris Mills, have shown great reluctance to vote to change anything they feel tarnishes the prior council's legacy. Firing Doug Holland would do just that. But keeping the situation status quo may cause more tumult in the city that desperately wants to move forward.
Right now there appears to be 2 votes in favor of going to an in house counsel. Mayor Rob Moon and Geoff Kors. I believe Chris Mills will vote no. I also believe J.R. Roberts will follow along with Ms. Foat's line of thinking. I have no idea how she will vote so this will be interesting.
Oh and as for the contract with Rod Pacheco. That is on the agenda as well. It is item 4C. You may note that the name Rod Pacheco does not appear anywhere. But the law firm name of Theodora Oringher does. That is because of the Rube Goldberg way in which Pacheco was hired and paid. All through a third party which one may reasonably assume was to mask his hire. Bizarre.
Steve Kelly can be followed on twitter at @skellynj or e mailed at skelly@rrbroadcasting.com
There are times I miss Palm Springs politics!
ReplyDeleteHey Steve,
ReplyDeleteLike so much on the World Wide Web, you're blog is entertaining. Thanks for the good laugh, I needed that today. Just thought you might appreciate a few facts. Regardless of how we feel about the choice, Rod Pacheco's firm was hired by the city attorney because that is who hires outside counsel, not a third party, not the city council and not the city manager. In this case, as in all cases, unless the attorney works for himself, his firm would be hired. That's what happened here. If Mr. Pacheco didn't have the history or reputation he has in Palm Springs, nobody would have cared. Anyway, sorry to burst your bubble or kill a fun conspiracy theory but that's how it actually works. Having not yet been on the council, it's easy for me to say that I would not have supported the hiring of Mr. Pacheco's firm. And, for the record, when I asked Mr. Holland about that choice, he said that he felt Mr. Pacheco and his firm would be best to deal with the FBI considering what might lie ahead for the city . With respect to rest of your predictions, they are fun to read but I suggest that you not put too much money on those horses.
Take care. J.R. Roberts.