Ex-Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet was sentenced Wednesday to two years’ felony probation for accepting six-figure bribes to publicly support development projects in the city.
Pougnet, 62, in May admitted 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 submitted his guilty plea directly to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Samuel Diaz at the outset of jury selection for his trial at the Banning Justice Center.
The District Attorney’s Office objected to the court’s acceptance of the admissions, anticipating leniency for the former mayor, who avoided jail time altogether under the sentence handed down by Diaz during the hearing at the Banning Justice Center Wednesday. The judge, however, ordered the defendant to pay $325,000 in penalties.
Last month, a Banning jury acquitted one of his former co-defendants, 86-year-old real estate developer John Elroy Wessman, after a three-week trial. Wessman was found not guilty of nine counts of bribery of a public official and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony.
Deputy District Attorney Amy Zois had alleged Wessman and fellow developer Richard Hugh Meaney, 59, 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 The Dakota, the Desert Fashion Plaza, The Morrison and Vivante.
Pougnet was in office from 2007 to 2015.
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 the defendant’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 that 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.
All the felony charges against Meaney were dismissed over a year ago. However, he pleaded guilty to a reinstated misdemeanor count of financial conflict in a government contract.
He’s free on his own recognizance and is scheduled for sentencing on July 28.