Anniversary of FBI raid at Palm Springs City Hall approaches

It was a story that brought national media attention to the city of Palm Springs for all the wrong reasons, and it’s a story that is not over yet. Friday is the one year anniversary of the FBI raid on city hall.

It was a stunning scene, when the building was shut down for several hours, while investigators from the FBI, and the Riverside County District Attorney’s office executed search warrants and looked through files and documents. When it was over, agents had removed several boxes of evidence.

At the time, an FBI spokesperson would only say the raid was part of an investigation by the Inland Empire Public Corruption Task Force. Investigators also went to the home of then Mayor Steve Pougnet, and after questioning him, he turned over other items listed on the search warrants.

We later learned some documents confiscated by agents involved a questionable land deal between the city and developer Richard Meaney, who had paid at least $200,000 in “consulting fees” to Pougnet.

Last April, Pougnet announced he would not seek re-election, and its believed he is now living in Colorado.

Today, we are still waiting for the results of the investigations being conducted by the FBI and the District Attorney’s office, and there is no word on when those probes will be finished. Some questions that can be answered now are, “what lessons have Palm Springs city leaders learned since the raid”, and, “what changes, if any, have been made in the way the city conducts business?”

CBS Local 2’s Tom Tucker got answers from Mayor Robert Moon, and some members of the city council.

You can see their answers, and more on the one year anniversary of the raid at city hall, coming up Thursday on CBS Local 2 News at 5:30 p.m.