Springfield Commish Jim Devenney did a dumb thing. He got his adult daughters and grandkids onto his perky (free) Springfield Country Club pool membership and he got creamed for it. He resigned his 6th Ward seat. Not once but twice. But now he wants it back and he's bucking the party machine to get it.

My print column is up.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention in the column that Devenney is being sued in civil court for the $3,500 the township claims he owes for abusing its perk policy. He won a change of venue for that case on Tuesday and it won't be heard before the May 12 primary in which he's running against Bob Layden.

GOP leader Mike Puppio says Devenney knew that only dependent children were allowed to be included on his free membership plan because he was in the room when the policy was discussed and crafted. So was Puppio.

Devenney denies intentionally violating the policy, that he didn't remember exactly what was in it and claims he merely asked pool personnel if his kids and grandkids were allowed on his plan. Puppio scoffs at that excuse. But it's not wholly implausible.

Over the last five years, Puppio claims that Devenney was told more than once by a pool manager or secretary that it was inappropriate for him to have his kids on the $1-a-visit perk plan. Devenney denies that. He said nobody said a thing to him about it until he got a letter last July from Commish Tom Mahoney.

Puppio named the township worker who supposedly told Devenney, but she didn't return my call to confirm that yesterday.

Puppio said that Devenney went around that person and got the passes from somebody else. Devenney firmly denies that. He says he asked one person about it and if the answer had been "no" that would have been fine with him.

Puppio compared that to Devenney asking the chief of police if it would be OK for him to run every red light in the township from now it. I found that analogy to be a bit tortured.

If Devenney knew about the policy and ignored it to save a few hundred dollars for his kids, he deserved to be held fully accountable. If he didn't remember it, and the township staff responsible for handing out the membership cards, decided to overlook it on his behalf, they're complicit too. They didn't do their job either. Yet, as far as I know, nobody's been fired or punished for that.

Puppio told that Devenney want him to "make it all go away" when they met last year. But by that time, he said, the "tube was out of toothpaste." Puppio said had a choice to make. It had become common knowledge at the pool that Devenney had abused his privileges. He could either look the other way and appear to cover it up, or hold him accountable. If someone in the township wanted to embarrass the party over this, they certainly could have by going to the press with the story about how Springfield commissioners get and then abuse their special privileges. Puppio said his only goal was to protect the integrity and reputation of Springfield government.

He said he didn't threaten or intimidate Devenney he simply laid out what he'd done and told him he had two choices: pay back the full amount the benefit was worth ($3,600 plus) or resign. He told me would have been satisfied with repayment because that would have showed Devenney understood and admitted what he'd done. Devenney chose to resign instead.

Puppio didn't figure that Devenney would have the temerity to challenge his and the party's authority to decide who should hold his seat.

Devenney told me he was intimidated and "befuddled" when he offered his resignation. Since last summer he's come to believe he was buffaloed into resigning, that he didn't do anything that justified the heavy-handed way with which he was treated.

There was probably as smarter way for Puppio to handle this; a way that would have allowed Devenney to see the error in his own actions and judgment and agree to his own punishment, whatever it was. But then when Puppio talks about Devenney's "sense of entitlement" to his seat and to perks he'd gotten used to bestowing on his kids, he's got a point.

Still, for a county political machine that routinely puts relatives and family members on the county payroll, you wouldn't think this would be a hanging offense.

The Devenney family has been a beneficiary of such patronage jobs. So have a lot of local office holders. That's how machines work. But there are limits. It turns out the political pool has a deep end. And you swim in it at your own risk.