Rancho Mirage Councilmember speaks out about accusations placed against him

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. (KESQ)-- Rancho Mirage councilmember Steve Downs is speaking out about an ongoing state ethics investigation involving allegations related to his economic interest disclosures and potential conflicts of interest.

The investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission comes after an anonymous complaint alleged Downs failed to report continuing work with a real estate company now run by his son.

I-Team investigators spoke exclusively with Downs to ask him the tough questions.

Downs says he is cooperating with the FPPC in their investigation; which so far, has not made any determination of wrongdoing.

We reviewed Downs' statements of economic interests, commonly known as form 700 filings; which he filed in 2023 and 2024, showing the company he formed with his wife generated between $10,000 to $100,000 in gross income.

Downs says he sold his real estate company to his son who paid for the assets over time, which is why they're listed as generating income in those years.

The commission received an anonymous complaint questioning whether Downs is still active in real estate, despite saying he's retired, since he and his wife are still listed as team members on the company's website.

"What we did in the sale is we agreed to allow my son and his business partner to use my name, image and likeness in his marketing and my wife Gerri's name, image and likeness in their marketing. So the complaint alleges that since our name appeared in the marketing that we must have been active realtors and we must have drawn income from that activity. That's false we did not. We sold the business to my son. He owns the business, it's his business, not me, he manages the real estate team, not me, and I haven't since the end of 2022." said Steve Downs when asked about this topic. 

It's worth noting the state commission receives more than 2,000 complaints and referrals, opening investigations into only about half of those submitted in the last few years.  Of those investigations, only 97 resulted in financial penalties.

For more updates stay with News Channel 3.