PE.com - Tourism Blog

Former Palm Springs Airport Director Learns, Send E-mail At Own Risk

Intrigue surrounding the dismissal of Richard Walsh from his post as Director of Aviation for Palm Springs International Airport got a whole lot more intriguing today.

Walsh had been vying for the top spot at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The Miami Herald reported on and posted e-mails (for the voyeur in all of us) that Walsh had sent from his city e-mail account to his former right hand at the airport, Steve Zehr, who may still be the airport director at Incheon International Airport in the Republic of Korea. The e-mails are frank, occasionally vulgar, and don't hold back when current, former and future employers are mentioned.

It could be used as a clear lesson in what should and shouldn't be written in e-mails sent to and from work especially when you're a government employee (the city of Palm Springs owns the airport) and there are such things as public records requests. Amy Sherman, the reporter of the Miami Herald story, said in an e-mail that she made a public records request and had more than 100 pages of Walsh's e-mails sent to her. The name on top of the e-mails -- Jay Thompson -- is that of the city clerk.

For a little background, click here for an earlier entry I wrote about the city of Palm Springs firing Richard Walsh and a story we published in the paper.

The e-mail at the top of the documents the Miami Herald obtained was written the day Walsh was fired for what City Manager David Ready said was "conflicting management styles."

In the e-mails he refers to Ready as "CM" and says he may have a sensitive part of his chest anatomy "in a ringer." Ouch. It also looks like Walsh applied to Pheonix International Airport and thought about applying to Pittsburgh International Airport.

I tried calling Walsh at what I think is his number, but no response. Check tomorrow's newspaper or www.pe.com for a full account.