Richard Meaney sentenced to probation for role in Scandal at Palm Springs City Hall

 RIVERSIDE (CNS) - A businessman involved in arrangements to illegally procure support from a former Palm Springs mayor for downtown development projects was sentenced Monday to a year of probation.
   Richard Hugh Meaney, 59, pleaded guilty in 2023 to a misdemeanor count of financial conflict in a government contract. During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Monday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Joshlyn Pulliam certified the terms of Meaney's plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office and imposed the sentence stipulated by the prosecution and defense. His sentencing officially ends all proceedings connected to a case that began over a decade ago, implicating the defendant, fellow developer John Elroy Wessman, 86, and ex-Mayor Steve Pougnet, 62.
   Earlier this month, Pougnet was sentenced to two years' felony probation after pleading guilty in May to nine counts of bribery by a public official, eight counts of illicit financial interest in public contracts and one count of conspiracy, as well as no contest to three perjury counts. He was additionally ordered to pay $325,000 in penalties.
   In June, a Banning jury acquitted Wessman of nine counts of bribery of a public official and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony. Meaney had testified against his one-time colleague during the three-week trial.
   All felony charges against Meaney were dismissed in 2023. However, he soon afterward pleaded guilty to the reinstated misdemeanor count.
   Deputy District Attorney Amy Zois had alleged Wessman and Meaney conspired to favor Pougnet with high-dollar rewards to gain his support for the men's redevelopment projects between 2012 and 2014.
   Zois said Pougnet's $3,605-a-month salary during his two terms was ``peanuts'' compared to the hefty cash infusions into his bank account facilitated by the developers.
   She argued it was Wessman's influence that landed Pougnet work on the Palm Springs International Film Festival, for which he received $150,000 in 2012. The festival board chairman ended the mayor's consultancy when it didn't net results.
   Zois alleged the developers provided $225,000 in illicit payoffs to the mayor, all to ensure his active support for their downtown renaissance projects, which court records said included construction of The Dakota, the Desert Fashion Plaza, The Morrison and Vivante. Pougnet left office in 2015 after two terms.
   He, Wessman and Meaney were criminally charged, for the first time, in 2017 and later indicted by a grand jury. The case began as a federal corruption probe until it was turned over to county investigators in 2016.
   A judge in December 2020 dismissed all counts against Wessman, characterizing them as baseless, but the charges were reinstated by the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Riverside less than two years later.
   ``This is ... about corruption and the public trust,'' Zois said during his trial.
   One of Wessman's attorneys, Elliot Peters, countered that most of the prosecution's case rested on ``speculation, guesswork and the false testimony of Mr. Meaney," whom Peters characterized as a ``dishonest, manipulative person.''
   Zois cited evidence confirming Wessman's signature appeared on numerous checks issued against Wessman Development Inc. in 2012 and 2013. The money was part of the payoff scheme involving Pougnet, the prosecutor said.
   Peters asserted his client took appropriate steps and remained within the bounds of the law to get his projects approved by the Palm Springs City Council. He said Wessman was steeped in business affairs, deferring to Meaney to handle smaller details, including direct email correspondence with the mayor.
   The defense underscored how Wessman relied on creative financing to contend with impacts of the Great Recession that started in 2008, seeking what amounted to a ``public-private partnership'' between Wessman Development Inc. and the city to move forward. The efforts led to Measure J being put before voters in 2011. It passed, resulting in $43 million in municipal bonds going to the developer's projects, which began in the winter of 2012.