Palm Springs mayor wants review of city attorney & city manager
Palm Springs Mayor Robert Moon called Thursday for talks to hire a new city manager and a new city attorney during a late night city council meeting on Wednesday.
Moon also called for reviewing the city’s continued relationship with former Riverside County District Attorney, Rod Pacheco, who city leaders hired to provide advice and council shortly after an FBI raid at City Hall.
Read Mayor Moon’s complete Facebook post.
Mayor Moon proposed an orderly transition to a new City Attorney and City Manager saying the time was right for such talks.
Impacted would be current City Manager David Ready and City Attorney Douglas Holland.
Also affected would be former Riverside County District Attorney, Rod Pacheco, who has provided council to the city at an hourly discounted rate of $425.
The city has already paid more than $9,000 for Pacheco’s services following questions about former Mayor Steve Pougnet’s close relationship with several developers.
4521 documents were seized by FBI agents during a raid last September at Palm Springs City Hall.
Moon said Thursday the city charter does not allow for a City Manager to be removed from office within 90 days of any municipal election where a city council member is elected. That window has now passed following November’s election.
Moon called for the discussion at a future meeting, saying now is an appropriate time as a council to conduct an honest debate on whether to maintain the current status quo in city operations, or to put into place a new, fresh leadership for the only two positions he says actually report to the council.
Moon furthered his comments in a Facebook posting Thursday morning, saying he was making the recommendations after meeting and talking with countless city residents privately and in group settings.
He added none of his proposals were intended to suggest any incompetence or malfeasance by any of the city’s senior staff members.
38913986Moon says his call for the meeting was not as the result of the FBI raid last September, but rather looking forward and making sure the city is being run as best as possible.
“if we don’t make a conscience decision to look at and say we’ve looked at it we’ve made a decision to move ahead, otherwise people are going to think we are just not even looking at it we are just pretending that none of the things in the past never happened,” said Moon.
Other city council members don’t see it that way.
“i’d be very concerned about losing to two senior staff positions, the only two that report to council, the city attorney and the city manager, who are the people with the institutional knowledge, they’ve both been here more than a decade, at such a critical time in the city. The Downtown Project is finally approved and so much better than it was before,” said councilmen Geoff Kors.
Kors, Ginny Foat and J.R. Roberts agree a review needs to be done, but would rather wait for the annual review for the city manager that’s already scheduled this summer.
“It is not appropriate to do a public firing of someone. It is not appropriate to do a public witch hunt of someone. If you want to do a review, which is absolutely appropriate for us to do, then that is what you schedule. You schedule a review, but you don’t have to schedule a big public spectacle. He is not the commander-in-chief of the city of Palm Springs. He is a member of the city council,” said councilwoman Ginny Foat.
Foat said Moon asked for Ready’s resignation before Wednesday’s city council meeting.
Moon said that’s not true. During a private conversation with Ready to inform him of his plan to call for the closed session, Ready asked him for his opinion. Moon told News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 he said he wanted to hear what the other council members had to say, but if he had to vote now, he would vote for a new city manager.
“Personally, I think it would be good for us to have some change,” said Moon.
Any personnel changes are voted on by all city council members, not just the mayor.
City manager David Ready was not available for comment.
The date for the closed session has not been set.
