Investigating Payments To Unlicensed Contractor
Desert Hot Springs, CA - Why would the city be holding back release of the checks? That was an important question that emerged while investigating Pete Chryss, the mystery man operating an unlicensed alarm company business out of the home of a councilman, a business profiting from city contracts.
Three weeks after our first reporting the issue, the “City’s deal with alarm company scrutinized” story finally made front page of the daily paper in The Desert Sun today thanks to an article by reporter Kate McGinty who also suggested something appeared funky with the checks. After another much delayed public document request and researching 320 pages supplied by the city, a vital and glaring omission was the checks paid by the city for the security contracts, the paper trail of payments sent to the councilman’s home address.
For the ensuing weeks since our first report, Lee Rayburn on KNEWs talk radio has been lambasting The Desert Sun for ignoring the story. Rayburn has also been asking about the checks, on the air, for the past three weeks.
Karl Baker (photo by Bruce Montgomery)
What is the city hiding?
The burning question is… who are the checks made out to and who endorsed the checks?
Could it be that the city’s checks, paying for city security contracts, were made out to Councilman Karl Baker? That is one possibility. We are trying to think of another possibility.
The connection between the two is far more than roommates. Baker is listed on The Chryss Home Automation city business license as emergency contact for the business, so is officially known to the city as having a direct association with the business.
While Baker only admits renting a room to Chryss and said he knew nothing about Chryss’s business, for Pete Chryss it is quite a different story.
Chryss was listed on Baker’s campaign disclosure forms as a consultant. Chryss created Baker’s election website. Payments to the Baker campaign were handled by Chryss who also handled email correspondence from Baker’s campaign website.
Repeated efforts to reach Chryss remain ineffectual as he is no longer answering his phone or returning calls. Karl Baker is also not answering his phone or responding to our request for another interview.
The city council will be meeting in closed session today at 4 p.m to discuss the results of a week long investigation into the matter.
