[0:04] Don't get so squishy. Good afternoon. Welcome to Cathedral City City Council meeting. The Mayor, Mayor St. Henry, is out of town. He'll be joining us by telephone for this for the evening session in Councilman Agu IV, finishing up a meeting in Palm Desert and is on his way. We'll go ahead and start and if the clerk can call the roll call.

[0:30] Council Member Aguilar, Council Member Carnivali, Council Member Kaplan, Mayor Potem Pettis, Mayor Henry.

[0:39] Mayor Motion to Excuse, Motion to Excuse, Mayor Henry.

[0:44] Please be an motion or second on favor.

[0:46] I think carries.

[0:49] I don't believe there's any change to the agenda.

[0:52] All right.

[0:53] We could read the statement of participation, please.

[0:56] Public comment is the opportunity for members of the public to comment on any items not appearing

[1:01] on the regular agenda.

[1:03] Because of restrictions contained in California law, the City Council may not discuss or act

[1:07] on any item not on the agenda, but may briefly respond to a statement made or ask a question

[1:12] for clarification.

[1:13] The mayor may also request a brief response from staff to questions raised during public comments

[1:18] or may request a matter of being a genderized for a future meeting.

[1:21] If you desire to address the City Council during the meeting, please complete a request

[1:24] to speak from available at the entrance and present it to the Deputy City Clerk.

[1:28] Speakers will be called upon by the mayor at the appropriate time.

[1:31] All speakers are encouraged to fill out a form so the mayor can call on all those who

[1:34] wish to speak.

[1:35] Please remember you have three minutes.

[1:37] Thank you.

[1:38] Is there any public comment on any item that is not on the study session agenda?

[1:44] Seeing that, we'll move on then to the first item, which is an update on the Agwork Collianta

[1:49] Elementary School Project.

[1:51] That's Mayor Pro Tem.

[1:53] I would like to introduce Julie Arthur from the School District, and she will introduce the architect on this project to us here this evening

[1:59] and they're going to give you an overview of how the project is coming along and what the building's going to look like.

[2:12] This afternoon I have with me, I have John Vega, our project manager.

[2:17] I have Dr. Brian Murray, our assistant superintendent of Business Services, and I have Rich Nguickie of Baker Nokey Design Studio, who has worked with us still at the G on this project as we move forward.

[2:29] So, right now, we have actually let the contract, so we have Ericsson Hall Construction, who

[2:36] is our construction team, and these are the gentlemen, Rick, Ryan, Dane, and Christopher,

[2:41] who are on the day-to-day site work, actually, on-site right now.

[2:48] So, what we have here is, it's actually called a renovation since the existing school site,

[2:54] and the existing school buildings were built in 1961.

[2:56] We currently have enrollment of 599 students in kinder through fifth grade.

[3:02] The site layout for the school is a circle, which is really unusual.

[3:07] I've been in school construction business for over 20 years, and this is the first circle

[3:11] site that I've ever seen.

[3:14] And we get why it was done.

[3:15] It was actually at that time when the dream home was constructed.

[3:20] The elementary school was the center of that community.

[3:22] And it truly was, and we wanted to be again, and how that community works together, and

[3:29] comes together as a loving community, has always been one of the essence of that school.

[3:34] One of the other challenges we've had, besides not having any corners, is that it has one

[3:39] way in and one way out, a one way road that actually comes in and goes around.

[3:46] It was also 1961, it was built out of metal modular building materials.

[3:50] So, at the time, many schools in California were under the state building program, and they

[3:58] actually had, kind of, a prototype that they were putting out that time.

[4:02] Through, I imagine, all these steel that came back from ships and buildings, the military,

[4:08] after World War II, they actually melted those down and went into many school buildings.

[4:13] So, the type of metal modulus that they have are all over Southern California.

[4:18] Right now, it has 18 permanent classrooms, which are the metal modules.

[4:22] We have two Kinder buildings.

[4:24] One was built with a school was originally done, then one was added about 10 years later.

[4:28] And we have 13 portable tight classrooms.

[4:31] And those are the kind of, we bring those in and pieces, we put those together, and part of that

[4:36] was with the growth that has happened at Agalian since it was originally built.

[4:41] So, in 2012, the construction twice as full district, we did a facility master plan update.

[4:49] And one of the items in the master plan was aquacallante's need for seismic mitigation.

[4:56] Considering the year it was built materials and such, and the building envelope needs.

[5:01] As many buildings have aged from the 60s, we have cast iron pipe in the ground.

[5:07] And that has about a lifespan of about 40 years or about 10 years past that, maybe a little more.

[5:13] So you start seeing the rust and all that type of things that happen at the schools.

[5:17] So with that, we then worked with Baker Nuickie design, and we've brought three options to our Board of Education.

[5:25] The first option was just prepared the necessary items of the building.

[5:30] Second option was repair the permanent billies bring them up to code and replace all the portables with permanent construction.

[5:38] And the third was replace all the facilities on campus with new construction.

[5:43] So our Board of Education selected option C, which was to replace all the facility buildings on the existing campus.

[5:50] And the idea was that we would be building new buildings on the play field.

[5:55] So what they did is they requested the new design include a campus layout that was safe and secure for all the students and staff.

[6:04] They also wanted the architecture to complement the surrounding neighborhoods.

[6:07] They didn't want to put a Spanish style building in the, like, computer city elementary and the neighborhood.

[6:13] The architecture didn't fit with that.

[6:15] And while we're doing all this, we couldn't interrupt the school program during the school year.

[6:23] So we didn't have a place to locate the students so we had to keep them intact in the buildings are in.

[6:29] We're building on the play field, the new buildings.

[6:32] Once those are complete, and we'll move the students over, take the old buildings down, and we'll do their play field there.

[6:39] So after about two and a half years, that's where we're at.

[6:43] And now I'm going to have Rich Norwicky, our design architect come up and talk about the essence of how the design came about.

[6:52] Good evening. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present design for Admiral Kelliante Elementary School to you.

[7:00] Before I get started, I do want to just thank Tracy for working with me diligently on getting this very large PowerPoint file to work on your systems.

[7:08] So congrats. Thank you for that.

[7:11] But so once the school district decided that we needed to replace all the buildings on the campus,

[7:17] That gave us the opportunity to reassess how the site worked, and if you saw that previous slide showing how the campus is currently laid out, there's a lot of supervision and security issues having the building so far back from the access point to the campus.

[7:32] So this diagram was a diagram that was ultimately chosen by the district, and what it does is it brings the buildings closer to the main entrance where it can supervise a control of the parking conditions,

[7:44] and the service or the drive that extended all the way to the north side of the property is now going to be limited to pick up and drop off in the morning and the afternoon and the rest of the day that will be secured.

[7:58] And that way I think will help create a more secure campus.

[8:05] You can let click.

[8:07] What's that?

[8:07] You can let click in at all the answers, but we're going to work.

[8:15] So, from that diagram, we resulted in this site plan, as you can see, the buildings numbered

[8:22] one through five are new buildings, and the fields are now to the north side of the site.

[8:28] That allowed us to do two things.

[8:29] One is, as Dually mentioned, keep the existing campus in operation during construction.

[8:35] The new buildings are built on the fields that campus will have to deal with a little bit restricted to PE during the term of construction, but construction can't happen.

[8:53] Also, as Julie mentioned, very critical is that the architecture of the complementary to the community and the legacy of design that's here in the cathedral city area.

[9:05] And in our looking around, we saw great deal of Palm Springs

[9:10] Modernism, the dream homes themselves, the dreamer homes are

[9:14] Modernist homes, and this original school is a modular

[9:20] sort of modernist expression.

[9:24] And so we looked at architecture of the area and attempted

[9:30] to plan our school accordingly.

[9:32] So we have some animations I just want to run through quickly.

[9:36] You can see how the campus is working, if you want to stop at any point, we can.

[9:45] But in this diagram you can see the parking at the front.

[9:49] I'm going to use a laser pointer field mark.

[9:52] But the front entrance is here.

[9:54] So as people come in, parents come in and they drop off.

[9:58] The drop off is right in the front of the school,

[10:00] where it's easily supervised and the academic buildings are secure

[10:04] behind the admin and multiple multi-purpose room building here,

[10:10] providing that security on campus that you want to see.

[10:13] Is that all single story?

[10:15] It is not.

[10:16] And I think the next renderings will show better.

[10:19] But this building here and this one

[10:21] can continue here and that are two-story construction.

[10:25] Two-story classrooms.

[10:27] The food service MPR admin and part of the kindergarten are all seen in the story.

[10:35] Where's the food service at?

[10:37] Right, it's right here.

[10:39] So there's a service trucks and come in.

[10:42] There's a service yard here.

[10:43] This is a lunch shelter.

[10:47] And so at this point right here where there'll be a gate so that after the drop-off in the morning

[10:53] that can be closed and secured visitors during the school day will park and leave the way

[10:58] they came and they won't have this access around the site.

[11:01] It was in meeting with the police department at the New York City that that drive being

[11:08] open throughout the day and night has been problematic over time.

[11:15] So just a few more character.

[11:17] This is sort of the kindergarten drop-off coming around to the front of the school.

[11:22] We

[11:28] put more people, but it really slows the renderings down.

[11:32] So this is the breezeway at the front of the school, the NPRs, on our left, coming into

[11:37] the main campus quad,

[11:43] and continuing from there, you'll look down that, emerging interview

[11:47] is the library, media center, and that's the kindergarten building in the background.

[11:54] kindergarten perspective.

[12:09] These classrooms here are actually science labs, which is somewhat

[12:14] new to elementary school design, but the curriculum is changing and we're seeing that more

[12:18] and more in schools.

[12:23] So moving from there, just to reiterate the phasing, the red dash line

[12:30] here delineates, here's the existing campus for the existing buildings, and this is the new area.

[12:34] So, at present, this is Finstoff, they're going to construct this half of the site, and then when that's complete, students can then move into the new buildings, that will turn over this half of the site to the contractor, they can tear down the old buildings and turn that into the fields, and then we'll have complete.

[12:52] So, the schedule then, construction is underway, and that phase one is slated to be completed in September of 18, the end of September, at which time they'll make the

[13:04] the move into the new buildings and the face to the fields of the playground, which is a shorter duration,

[13:10] should be done by the end of March 2019.

[13:14] Happy to answer any questions.

[13:17] Are you destroying the existing buildings or you deconstructing the existing buildings?

[13:23] They are being demolished.

[13:28] Their condition is not very good over the years.

[13:32] They really weren't built to last this long.

[13:35] And analysis was done, a structural analysis was done,

[13:39] before we started design.

[13:40] I hope we did a needs assessment of the property.

[13:43] And the structural engineer determined that there was no

[13:48] economic or feasible way to bring those buildings up to

[13:54] current seismic codes without really stepping into a

[13:59] that matches, you know, what we're getting in the facility for.

[14:04] That parking lot going to go solar, like most of the other schools.

[14:12] So, at this time with the parking lot, we'd actually have to lay it out and see what we could actually put in.

[14:19] We have put in quite a bit of solar, as you know, at most of our school sites.

[14:22] It's something our board is very involved in.

[14:25] But it may not go in the parking lot.

[14:27] We believe that some of the flat roofs in the back, we left in us face,

[14:31] So we may go on rooftop there, but solar is something that our school district of course embraces very much and we like the renewable energy part of that

[14:40] The building itself is a CMU burnish block and it's highly actually efficient a sustainable product as well as we use what's called low E

[14:51] Which is a heat resistant wrap that we put within the roof in the areas and it actually prevents the heat from coming in

[14:58] It's again one of our sustainable projects

[15:00] And one of the things that we didn't actually show, just time limited, is we actually did a wind and sun analysis, which is actually how we set the buildings in the direction, of course, to maximize the most shade we can with the buildings, as well as wind blockers in the area.

[15:19] during construction,

[15:23] how was traffic being worked on, not so much for the students because I would imagine the drop office in the state of the same, but for the residents and also they can get in and out of the neighborhood.

[15:36] So right now we only have the back entry, the double gates that was the construction entry area.

[15:43] And during the school year, we'll only allow entry in that area at certain times.

[15:50] So, entry into the construction zone would probably be before 8 a.m.

[15:54] and then the gates closed and no one can actually enter the construction zones until after all the students get into campus.

[16:00] And then we can open it back up later for deliveries and we close it for an hour period as well at the end of the day.

[16:05] That way the parents can come and go into the traffic area without any construction traffic interference.

[16:15] Most of my questions have already been answered.

[16:19] Am I correct in saying that the neighbors use some of the green space around the school presently?

[16:27] At this time, for the last couple of years, the neighbors have not been using the back area as a park or anything.

[16:34] That actually stopped a couple of years ago.

[16:36] The school space has been basically used as a school.

[16:40] Okay.

[16:44] Thanks.

[16:45] In comparison to the existing green space, how much is that?

[16:50] What were you having the new new facility?

[16:52] Well, actually because it's going with a two-story footprint, we'll actually have more

[16:57] green space available on the campus.

[17:00] The parking lot does go a little bigger as well because we really have to work on the pickup

[17:04] drop off there.

[17:05] the existing pickup drop-off is definitely not ideal.

[17:10] And, but you're also creating more stormwater management.

[17:14] We are, and we actually, if you can actually look on the side there,

[17:18] we actually mitigate that.

[17:19] When the requirements for the Division of State Architect who approves all of our civil sites

[17:23] is we have to keep all water on the site.

[17:27] And so we have a retention basin that's right in this area,

[17:30] that's quite deep, that's actually finced off from students that allows the flow

[17:34] the water would be captured in there.

[17:38] Is this a school set up? I know the existing one isn't, but is this set up for uses and emergency

[17:45] for the residents to be able to use it in the case of earthquake or absolutely. So they have

[17:52] actually two options the residents do. So our multipurpose rooms are always set up for emergency

[17:57] operations, but actually about 500 feet to the west of this building is our service center.

[18:04] which is actually the district's entire emergency operation center as well.

[18:08] So they actually have two options, probably a vending neighborhood.

[18:11] They've got the most close options available to any residents.

[18:15] Our service center also has our central kitchen production.

[18:18] So that's where all of our food comes in and out and it's actually cooked out.

[18:24] And he's that being communicated with the residents.

[18:27] I mean the ability to use that the district facility.

[18:31] Actually, as we move along through our, we're redoing our emergency operation process and procedures, it will all be shared with the community.

[18:39] So what we've been doing right now in community with our community is we've been sending letters to the residents all around the area within 500 feet as well as home with students and

[18:49] to parents as well. So we're trying our best to outreach and have these programs and that way

[18:56] we actually keep in touch with what's going on. If there's an issue, they can let myself

[19:01] for the principal know we've got a website as well that they can actually email us.

[19:06] And as we progress a little bit, people actually start seeing buildings coming out of the ground.

[19:11] That's when it gets exciting. We can actually bring the community back in probably in September

[19:15] when school starts and then along the whole process I'm sure we're going to be

[19:20] wanting to come back and as the skeleton fills in and give tours hard-hat

[19:24] tours as we're moving along so they we we really like the community to get excited

[19:28] about the buildings we think it's going to be a beautiful project beautiful

[19:31] buildings so we hope the community really gets behind us on that just going back to

[19:37] the emergency response situation will you have emergency generation

[19:43] So, at the elementary schools, we do not have backup emergency generation, but at the service center, again, 500 feet to the west.

[19:50] We have emergency generators there.

[19:52] Thanks.

[19:53] And what's the student capacity that this school's being built for?

[19:57] Actually, this capacity is 875 students.

[20:01] So, again, as we, and that doesn't include our two early childhood classrooms in what we have right now.

[20:07] So, that's actually part of the 875, but currently we have 600 students.

[20:11] we count early childhood isn't counted in there.

[20:15] So early childhood will probably add another 50 to 75.

[20:19] And I don't know whether you can answer this or Brian can.

[20:23] But what is the area of the city that is served by this?

[20:29] It's not just the dream homes.

[20:31] I mean, it's a larger...

[20:32] Actually, our boundary for this elementary school actually goes all the way

[20:37] through to the wash up to about landell boulevard, and then actually goes across into the sky,

[20:46] sky blue area.

[20:49] And that split half way there.

[20:54] And those areas actually, the students are best in, because we don't want them cross in the

[20:59] remote, of course, it's a dangerous street, but that area is best in.

[21:02] We have several buses that actually come in.

[21:04] That's why it's important to make sure our best drop off.

[21:07] And this design you can see is actually separated on the side over here.

[21:12] So our part cars and our best drop off don't intersect at all, like the existing site.

[21:18] Right now we have a lot of trouble with that.

[21:21] Any other question?

[21:23] All right.

[21:23] Thank you very much.

[21:24] Great.

[21:25] Thank you.

[21:25] Again, any questions or anything that moves along?

[21:28] We're happy to talk with you on it.

[21:29] You indicated you already started construction.

[21:32] Yes.

[21:32] Okay.

[21:32] So we've actually, we were, as you showed you on the site,

[21:36] a lot of the black top and one of the buildings is coming down. So we're doing this

[21:40] fastest removal right now on one of the buildings and the black top is already being

[21:45] removed and the whole play field is already been graded starting. So getting ready for the

[21:50] infrastructure and good thing. Chris, maybe there might be an opportunity to interview someone

[21:56] from the district to put on CCTV so that they can give an update to the entire community

[22:02] on our own.

[22:04] I would love to.

[22:05] If you would like to take this PowerPoint as one of those, put it up or anything as we

[22:09] move along, that would be great.

[22:11] Thank you very much.

[22:12] Great.

[22:13] Thank you.

[22:16] Okay.

[22:16] Next up is an update from Coachella Valley Economic Partnership.

[22:21] Thank you, Mayor Protem.

[22:22] Members of the Council, Joe Wallace is here.

[22:24] Who is the CEO of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership?

[22:28] And you had some questions and you asked for an update from CVAP when we were

[22:32] considering this in the budget. So along with the regular update he is here to provide he'll be addressing some of those questions as well.

[22:46] Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. I'm going to give you an update and then I've brought John McMullon who is a resident of

[22:55] cathedral city and his company is one of our eye hub companies. They're located at the accelerator campus.

[23:02] wanted him to talk to you a little bit about what his relationship with Steve App and the IUP has been helping his business.

[23:10] You know, so our annual report last year, our assets, you know, we came off of a bad year 2014-15.

[23:17] We've corrected that.

[23:19] Our revenue exceeded expenses in the previous year to the one that's ending now by about $235,000.

[23:26] We use that to get rid of all of our long-term debt and to drop our payables.

[23:34] So our liabilities are down by 64.5% relative to where they were when we were having problems.

[23:40] And our assets have increased and all of our indicators for the year that we're finishing now is that everything is going to be positive.

[23:48] So we are to, I'll say, the point where we consider ourselves to be sustainable if our investors stay with us.

[23:55] We turn on investment. First number is valley-wide. Last year, there were $8.1 million of

[24:03] loan and equity capital access by small businesses in the entire region. That's been

[24:08] 33 million since 2012. That does not include DiHub. That's the work that we do outside

[24:14] DiHub to our business services group. Last year in Cathedral City alone, $80,000 of

[24:20] an equity capital was raised by companies that are owned by people who live in the

[24:25] digital city or and the companies that are located in the digital city. Real quick

[24:31] when on the I hub, our first five years is over, we exceeded goals, equity investments

[24:37] are more than $20 million, goal was 7, the goal was 20 patents and that 19 became 20

[24:44] last week. So every metric except number of employees has been exceeded. Going for

[24:52] 290, we actually have 163, but these are very good jobs. They're, you know, well in

[24:57] excess of $50,000 a year. And we're getting 2 and 3 applications a month coming in

[25:04] now. We're going to be over capacity. Funding sources. I haven't been sharing this

[25:10] until this year. The important thing is that for this year, a public funding is about 40

[25:14] 1%, health care sectors 12.7, banking 133,000, 11%, other small businesses, private businesses,

[25:25] 14%, but we have self-generated income.

[25:28] That's where we're running ourselves as a consulting firm, where we generated $240,000 or

[25:36] 20% of our income last year, self-generated.

[25:40] That number was zero three years ago.

[25:42] So part of the reclamation of C-Vat was going out and finding a way to sell our own services to the outside world.

[25:50] So we're one of our own donors.

[25:52] And if you look at that, we're the second largest sector from our own labor.

[25:57] Economic impact report.

[25:59] This was done by Southern California Edison.

[26:02] We supply them necks, codes, numbers of jobs, locations.

[26:06] You know, to be real, jump right to the bottom line.

[26:10] And they turned the crank, it's their calculations, not ours.

[26:14] They said that our economic impact for the calendar year 2016 is $80.3 million.

[26:21] We spent $1.1 million.

[26:23] That's almost an 80-to-one leverage of what's been going into the entirety of CVE.

[26:30] Business Services Division, we now have its branded under CVE up now and not the SBDC.

[26:36] We have a GIS services offering and that's geographic information services.

[26:42] What they do is their big data crunchers, two of the projects that we've worked on for

[26:48] outside groups, one of them is for one of the Indian tribes that wanted to know where to

[26:53] send their buses to be able to get more people who are in tune with that and I go to

[27:00] the casino, I lose $20 and I go home.

[27:02] They're not looking for people like me, they're looking for people that are willing to come in there and spend more.

[27:09] And they gave us all of the data on their little cards and we told them exactly the three places that they could go to expand their business to make more money.

[27:16] You guys are going to have a casino in a couple of years. That's going to be available.

[27:20] We have Axion in our building, that's a micro-linder.

[27:24] They chose our offices to domicile their business.

[27:28] They give loans to small businesses from zero to $25,000,

[27:32] and they don't require an 800 credit score.

[27:34] They're financing people that the banks won't.

[27:38] On top of that, we have industry now in the building.

[27:40] Lendistry takes over where Axion knocks it off.

[27:44] They start at about $25,000.

[27:46] They go up to about a million.

[27:48] When you get over a million, you're talking about angel investors or VCs, things like that.

[27:53] So, to have two groups like that inside our building that are offering loans.

[27:57] It's never been done anywhere else in this valley.

[28:01] Tangible value to the table city.

[28:03] 30 hours of counseling, and that doesn't count counseling to the eye-hub companies that have cathedral city people.

[28:11] We work with five different client businesses.

[28:13] We're assisting several of your brick and mortar businesses here in town to put loan packages together.

[28:21] And actually the city has taken advantage of our GIS services for some demographic and income comparisons.

[28:29] We participated in all of the stakeholder engagement workshops here.

[28:35] We've hosted one event in Cathedral City over the last year at the Chamber of Commerce.

[28:40] and I've been a guest speaker at your chamber for two years and my trusty Chief of Staff

[28:46] back here has been the head of your chamber, the head of your board of directors for the past

[28:51] year, and has been very instrumental in the decision to merge your chamber into the Greater

[28:57] Coachelli Valley Chamber, which will allow you to have a regional focus from that, and it's

[29:02] a very good decision, and I applaud all of you for it. We've had some business attraction activities

[29:07] for the past year. We had a $50,000 advertising package given to us by American Airlines.

[29:14] The Google Foundation funded us to $10,000 a month worth of ad words, so we can go out and

[29:20] try to attract people to come talk to us. And we've done some direct GIS targeting of coastal

[29:27] companies. What we're looking for is not the guy that made $10 billion on a startup company

[29:32] that makes you face to have bunny ears and things. We're looking for the kid down down the

[29:37] away from him that didn't make the $10 billion, who can come to the

[29:41] word, you can have a lifestyle on a reasonable salary here, you don't

[29:45] have to have $3 million for a house, here you can find a good one for

[29:49] way less than that. Objectives for next year, this is, you know, first off, I'll

[29:55] mention our workforce excellence group, the one that doesn't

[29:58] scholarships. They are now there.

[30:00] Our own entity. They're called one future CV. And the reason we spun them off is because those who like to fund scholarships for children are not the ones who like to fund economic development.

[30:14] And vice versa. The people who will fund them, won't fund us. The people who will fund us are not interested in funding them. This is a better way for them to become sustainable so that those scholarships can go forward in perpetuity.

[30:27] It's giving out a million and a half dollars a year to the children of the Pachele Valley.

[30:32] We did manage that until two months ago.

[30:35] We still are the custodian of the dollars from California Futures Foundation and is a

[30:41] little over a hundred thousand went to students from Cathedral City from the Cebep Scholarships.

[30:47] Business Attraction activities, I talked about some of the cyber activities, we're planning

[30:52] this year to step it up a little bit, we're putting together a plan to have a site select

[30:57] We're going to invite people to our site selectors for the kind of businesses that we can do here and that we want to do here.

[31:06] And so that'll probably happen in February or March.

[31:09] So we're still in the planning stages.

[31:11] We're attracting new private investors.

[31:14] But some of this is to invest in critical infrastructure that we're lacking here.

[31:19] You know if I have three dreams to really make us competitive with some of the other high tech areas.

[31:24] Number one is to bring in bandwidth.

[31:28] That's over a gigabit per second.

[31:31] We have a map where you can go check that.

[31:33] We're pretty good down at about 50 mag per second.

[31:36] What you need to listen to music, watch television.

[31:39] There are two very little areas in the valley.

[31:42] Some in Palm Springs, a little bit down in Washington Avenue area,

[31:47] where you get a hundred megabit per second.

[31:49] When you ask for a gigabit per second,

[31:51] that it is completely blank.

[31:54] Bandwidth will be just as critical as sewers and water and roads in five years.

[31:59] We're working with this group at the county.

[32:02] We have co-connect.

[32:03] I think I see that on your consent calendar.

[32:06] And we're certainly in favor of that.

[32:09] See that doesn't have millions and tens of millions of dollars to put in fiber.

[32:13] But if we work with the county, maybe we can all work together and make something happen.

[32:18] So we're behind that effort.

[32:19] And then the third one is we need CSU or some other college to continue the expansion of degree offerings.

[32:27] You know, they're offering degrees in nursing.

[32:30] Nursing takes a person who would make $30,000 a year.

[32:34] They get them a degree. They go make eight.

[32:36] The next is hospitality. Same thing.

[32:38] That kind of degree makes you a better job if they do teaching.

[32:44] Once again, better job. These are not wealth creating degrees.

[32:47] So, we need to go as fast as possible to where degrees are offered in engineering, computer science, business, and finance.

[32:56] Because the apples of the world, the Googles of the world, they come out of the STEM education schools.

[33:01] They don't come out of service groups.

[33:03] And so, we're going to advocate for that.

[33:06] That's got to be done by the state.

[33:09] But, you know, we're 600,000 people living out here.

[33:12] We need a full service university, and we're going to start getting in the middle of that.

[33:16] We will be working a lot closer with the chambers of commerce last year.

[33:22] We did bring eight of the nine cities back into the Seabep fold.

[33:26] We were down to five.

[33:27] It's now at eight.

[33:29] And we will continue to be attentive, transparent, and interactive with all of you.

[33:33] Any of you can come in for a tour a couple of days.

[33:36] And we would love to hear what you want us to do and make some of it happen.

[33:41] You know, you spoke and I think Mr. Councilman Aguilar spoke last year about Spanish language courses.

[33:48] We do them. We don't have a person on staff that does them, but it's the guy that does it here.

[33:52] Our Mundo. We're the ones that started using him for things in the valley and will continue to do so.

[33:59] So that we learned that here and we've done things about it.

[34:03] So with that, I would encourage you to come to our summit on October 25th and I'll leave this to John to talk to you about

[34:10] we've helped him and then I'll be available for questions if you have them after that.

[34:17] Thank you and good afternoon. I became involved with the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership

[34:24] late last summer early fall. When we were engaged, our business was engaged in doing some

[34:31] video production work for the organization ahead of its economic summit and in the course of building

[34:40] that relationship and working with their then marketing director, Stephen Miller, and eventually

[34:47] being introduced to Joe, and later to Lisa Baudenard.

[34:52] We realized that this was a critical organization at the stage bar business that we needed

[34:59] to get involved with, and as a company that had started in mid 2015 here in Cathedral City,

[35:06] We were based up the street over by Elpertoll restaurant.

[35:12] We had, in a very short period of time, outgrown our space, and we're facing the challenges

[35:20] that a lot of businesses here in the area face with regards to the infrastructure of bandwidth

[35:24] and telecommunications needs, which we're just not up to snuff here.

[35:29] And we wanted to not go too far from where we were based here.

[35:33] as Joe mentioned, I live in Cathedral City, I've been here for 10 years, and so we got

[35:43] involved with Siva at the board level, and that was critical to our company being able

[35:51] to grow in terms of business relationships in the Valley, the networking opportunities

[35:56] that came about as a result of being involved at that level were significant, and a short

[36:01] time later, Joe and Lisa introduced me to the I have program to the Accelerator Campus in Palm Springs.

[36:09] And after looking far and wide across the Contella Valley for the better part of eight to

[36:15] ten months for a place that could accommodate us without bankrupting the company at the stage.

[36:20] We were at an art development.

[36:23] We were able to find really a great turnkey solution for us to be able to move into and to

[36:29] our multi-media business. We produced a syndicated radio programming that's heard across the country.

[36:35] We do, we develop and distribute podcasts, audio and video. We have a full complement of

[36:44] multimedia production. We do a lot of animation, and we also have gotten into some of the newer

[36:52] technologies with augmented and virtual reality, and those applications certainly are going to

[37:02] be more in demand in the future.

[37:03] And we're one of the few companies here in the Coachella Valley that makes it affordable

[37:07] for a lot of businesses, smaller businesses to be able to do those kinds of creative services

[37:14] at a price that's not going to break their bank.

[37:17] So, it's important to me to stay here and to the people who are part of the founding

[37:24] of my company to stay here in this area, but we couldn't find, if we found the right

[37:30] building, they didn't have any bandwidth infrastructure.

[37:33] If we found the bandwidth, we couldn't find buildings that weren't going to take a significant

[37:37] amount of money to do tenant improvements.

[37:39] So working with Seavup and going into the IHUB campus, we found a great turnkey solution that

[37:47] was fully furnished and was able to accommodate our needs

[37:51] and rather than having to focus on spending

[37:54] a significant salon money on rent

[37:57] and other critical things to desks to work at

[38:01] and chairs to sit on, we're able to focus that

[38:06] those resources more so right now

[38:09] on developing a business and creating jobs in a decent

[38:14] a pain sector that we hope will not only attract more people to do the kinds of work we do here in the valley,

[38:26] but where we have the opportunity to work with groups like Joe referred to the workforce organizations,

[38:34] now one future CV, we're involved with them and kids who go to the various academies,

[38:40] Here in Jolavalia, especially the data Academy at Cathedral City High School, are able to be

[38:47] in-turning and working with us and us working towards developing jobs, that hopefully when

[38:51] they come out of college, we'll be able to train them the way we like them to do the job

[38:56] and that we can help to be a resource that stops the brain train from hearing the ballying

[39:01] and keep people here doing things other than just service jobs.

[39:08] But some of the reasons that I have really found beyond what we initially experienced when

[39:16] we first got involved with see that have been great for us.

[39:22] We have found a great team of advocates for the things that are important to us like the

[39:30] bandwidth situation, the RIVCO Connect, and we to fully support everything that can be done

[39:37] the municipalities in this area to make that a reality, but we also have access to a great

[39:46] team, Joe, Lisa, and others, Ted Daniels, who is an investment coach, a former CEO of his

[39:52] retired who serves really as a consultant to us to help us work with constantly updating our

[39:57] business plan and making our business potentially more successful we hope. Axe on, as a resource

[40:05] for us to look to as the early stage business to be able to find funding for the things we need

[40:10] to do, the capital we need for equipment and to have enough money to roll with the cash flow

[40:17] while we're waiting for our clients to pay the bills. All these things are very important to us

[40:23] in our strategic planning, see that play-to-roll and helping us to revamp our marketing plans.

[40:31] So there's just so many different forms of mentoring that as a member of the I hub community we have been able to benefit from.

[40:42] And there have been moments as there are within a young business where we've seen some pretty dark days and weren't sure that we're going to be around.

[40:51] But I can tell you that we are still around doing a large part to the support and the encouragement and all around community that has been created as being a part of the I have program.

[41:07] It's extremely important and I support it also from the standpoint of wanting to see more industry, especially the really important industries, the high tech kind of stuff coming into this market.

[41:22] and helping us to grow beyond just health care and the tourism business and I think it's going to be a great future with organizations like this and having the leadership of people like Joe Wallace and Lisa Baudinar and the rest of the team there.

[41:40] So thank you very much this afternoon for your time.

[41:45] Any questions?

[41:47] I think the only question I would have is, Joe, how would a local businessman, how would

[41:53] a local businessman find out about CVEP, if not no one about it, do you market, is there?

[42:01] We do some marketing.

[42:02] We do a newsletter every week.

[42:05] It goes out to about 6,000 email addresses.

[42:08] we publish papers and articles in the public record we submit

[42:13] objects to the desert sun and you know sometimes they print

[42:17] them sometimes they don't you know if there's a slow news day we get in there

[42:21] but we try to be out there you know I speak it not just the cathedral city chamber

[42:27] I go to the chambers I go out to the optimist club the the road to

[42:32] Rotarians you know I'm invited there and you know we don't have a billboard because we

[42:38] We're doing everything we can from a gorilla marketing perspective to get out there and make ourselves be known without spending $200,000 on marketing.

[42:49] Thank you.

[42:52] You had mentioned angel investors.

[42:55] How much of that?

[42:57] How much do you use those?

[42:59] And do you have a network of investors that you have been able to call on whether in value or out of the valley?

[43:06] Yes, to all of the above, there's two angel groups who are in the valley.

[43:10] One is exclusive to the valley.

[43:13] It's called the Coachella Valley Angel Network.

[43:16] The principles of it are very deep in medical devices.

[43:20] So when we have medical companies, we can get their business plans in front of them.

[43:24] The tech coast angels, which is the largest dollar volume of angel investors in the United States.

[43:31] They have an office in our building, too.

[43:33] in their chairman emeritus lives in Palm Springs.

[43:36] He comes over about once a quarter,

[43:39] and we can actually feel people

[43:41] into their shark tank type events.

[43:44] What we can't do is make them right checks.

[43:47] So they've written checks to one of our companies.

[43:49] Civan hasn't any.

[43:52] Most of the dollars that have gone into the companies

[43:54] as equity are coming from, I'll say, angels

[43:58] who are unafiliated.

[43:59] So, what people of means, who see a business plan and they decide to put in, you know,

[44:05] we have some that are over a million dollars into companies, we have one that's at 700,000.

[44:11] And, you know, they kind of become a de facto board member whenever you come into a small company

[44:15] with that kind of money.

[44:17] So, we haven't had a big VC from Silicon Valley come in yet, but we're starting to build that

[44:23] rapport up there because I'm starting to get invited to speak in the Bay Area on a pretty

[44:29] regular basis and it's on on the basis of the fact that we are the lowest funded

[44:34] I have in the state and the highest performing one.

[44:37] I'll go figure out that happens but I think it's a badge of honor.

[44:43] Thank you very much.

[44:47] Appreciate you coming.

[44:56] Mayor for ready for me to move on mayor.

[44:58] That's it, that's it.

[45:00] I'm happy to introduce Tom Kirk. You all know him, who's the director of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments, also with him as Katie Barrows.

[45:10] And I've been working with him as has Councilmember Kaplan on an ad hoc group exploring the opportunities that exist for us to reduce electrical costs for our residents, as well as offer greater options in terms of green energy by using the community.

[45:29] choice aggregate. So Tom is going to give you an update on where we are and where we're going

[45:34] from here and I think Katie all chime in as necessary as well.

[45:39] That's probably sufficient enough of a presentation. That puts it very simply and probably don't

[45:44] need a whole lot more. We're going to make the update really quick because I know some of you particularly

[45:49] Mr. Kaplan have seen the presentation 7,000 times. We're getting up to speed on with this community

[45:55] choice aggregation means and we're ready really to take the next step as Charlie pointed out.

[46:01] So, very briefly, what our CCA is, do I hit the left one or the right one?

[46:13] They buy electricity and they give your customers your residents, your businesses,

[46:19] a choice on where to buy that electricity.

[46:23] The way of currently works, somebody called, and something called Southern California,

[46:28] by electricity for us, they deliver it to us, and then they sell it to us, and handle

[46:38] metering and maintenance in the rest of it. Under a community choice aggregation system,

[46:47] you, the community doesn't, and you, a C-C-C, could mean the city. It could mean two cities,

[46:55] it could mean three cities, it could mean fifty cities, do it together.

[47:00] Do you completely replace Edison in just that capacity of buying electricity not exactly?

[47:08] Edison still sticks around buying electricity and the customer has a choice.

[47:15] They decide whether to stick with Edison buying electricity or the CCA and they weigh that choice.

[47:25] Under CCA legislation, once we, the city, multiple cities set up a CCA, all of the customers within your boundaries are in the CCA automatically.

[47:41] And during formation, they have four chances to opt out, two before the formation and two after.

[47:49] And even after they do that, they can get back into the Edison system after one year.

[47:56] They tell Edison, hey, we don't like the CCA.

[47:59] We want back in having you by our electricity.

[48:02] It takes a year for that to happen, but it can happen and again, your customers, your businesses,

[48:09] how to choice.

[48:11] And keep in mind, under both systems, Edison is still doing all the billing, all the distribution,

[48:16] all the transmission, all the maintenance.

[48:21] So how many customers opt out, not very many.

[48:26] And you'll hear in a second, CCA has been set up

[48:28] for a number of years in California, most of them

[48:31] in Northern California.

[48:33] And generally, when you set these up,

[48:35] you assume that some number of customers

[48:36] are going to opt out right away, very few do.

[48:42] And the reason for that is every CCA in California

[48:46] is offering a better deal.

[48:48] financially. And for some customers a better deal qualitatively. Customers and CCAs are given

[48:56] other choices. We'll talk about that briefly.

[49:01] So what are the benefits? Not a lot of these

[49:03] have been set up in California, landcasters, done it. We've got a number of them in Northern California,

[49:10] and again all of them are offering essentially lower rates. And that obviously means a lot to us

[49:16] in this climate zone and with Edison's race.

[49:21] I want to make a point, though.

[49:22] We're talking about lower race.

[49:23] We're talking about just the generation component

[49:26] of your race.

[49:27] And you get your bill.

[49:30] The generation component could be 35, 45% of the total bill.

[49:35] The distribution, transmission, customer service, public

[49:40] goods charges are common to either approach.

[49:46] Under a CCA, you have the local control and local power over where you buy electricity.

[49:53] Some CCAs do a little more than go out on the market and buy electricity and compete against Edison.

[50:00] Why are they doing better than Edison?

[50:04] They are because the marketplace is flush with power.

[50:08] And Edison's made a lot of long-term deals.

[50:12] Every CCA could beat those right now.

[50:14] That doesn't mean that they'll always beat them.

[50:17] The market could change in 10 years or 20 years,

[50:19] and we'll talk briefly about that as well.

[50:22] Some CCA say, the important thing for us to do

[50:25] is not only lower rates,

[50:27] but we also want to invest in our community.

[50:29] We want to offer additional energy efficiency programs.

[50:33] Some CCA, as I think it was, as it ran

[50:35] or Sonoma Katie that actually incentivized

[50:39] electric car purchases. Is it marin? So mama. So you decide how to use those revenues

[50:46] and split in some ways the differences between addisons rate and yours. Some CCAs and particularly

[50:54] those Northern California are making additional investments to reduce greenhouse gases and provide

[51:00] more green power than the state mandate. A CCA has to meet the state standards, but it can do more.

[51:09] And again, green choices are a big part of that.

[51:12] CCAs are often giving their customers multiple choices in their purchasing.

[51:19] Perhaps you, to customer, could be offered an all-local power choice, or all green choice,

[51:25] or a 75% green choice, there are a number of ways to do this.

[51:29] Let's give you a sense of the rates, and this is a very broad schematic, or at least a very crude one.

[51:38] To sit at gas in electric, call it 10 cent power, and that's just for the generation.

[51:43] Southern California Edison is the second for the bottom called 7.5 cent power.

[51:48] Lancaster is the only one that we could really compare it easily to Southern California Edison,

[51:53] and it's offering a substantially lower rate than Edison.

[51:58] That's a big deal in the high desert, be certainly even a bigger deal in this desert.

[52:07] One of the questions I had initially is, boy, is Cathedral City and Palm Springs going

[52:14] to get together and form a power buying business, is there really enough load or power here

[52:19] to do that?

[52:21] Can you compete with the big guys?

[52:22] Can you compete with an Edison or Department of Water Power or San Diego Gas and Electric?

[52:29] And I don't know really what these numbers mean, but look at that last column.

[52:35] If you add up the cities in Southern California, Edison, your revenues and just for purchasing

[52:41] the power, not distribution and transmission, are $181 million of power purchase per year.

[52:50] This is a big deal.

[52:52] And you see where cathedral city is.

[52:54] You're a pretty substantial piece of that.

[52:57] You'd be the third largest generator or a generator and a purchaser of power in the desert cities in Edison country.

[53:08] We had another slide that didn't really work.

[53:10] It gives you a sense of how we compete.

[53:12] They're called 60 municipal electric buyers in the state of California.

[53:20] Department of Water Power LA is number one, by a long, long shot.

[53:24] But I think ID is number three, they're in big purchaser as well.

[53:31] If you all form cathedral city with neighbors, you'd be like number 10 in the state of California.

[53:38] You'd be a substantial player in these markets.

[53:43] So why participate competitive rates?

[53:46] There's not really enough front cost of the city.

[53:49] There is a front cost, there are, a million to two million dollars.

[53:55] On some programs that would seem like a lot of money when you're generating a hundred

[53:58] and eighty million dollars a year, it's a relatively small up front cost that would

[54:02] be paid back in that first year or second year or third year.

[54:06] We're working on all children with Charlie and others right now on that.

[54:10] Tom, can I start you there?

[54:13] So,

[54:16] I had this question flagged earlier because in the staff report,

[54:19] It does talk.

[54:21] There's a lot of great program and I think we should do it, but it talks about start-up

[54:26] costs, a repaid and ongoing costs are paid by customers through the utility charges.

[54:32] So, how does that start-up cost really look if I get a bill and I'm married and Joe out

[54:39] in the community?

[54:40] What is that really?

[54:41] What can I expect?

[54:43] You wouldn't see it in your bill, it's such a ministerial cost, it would be a part of this

[54:48] start a cost that would be absorbed in the rates.

[54:51] A board would be set up, let's say, made up of one council person from each city, rates would

[54:58] be established for the year based on the total load and what your consultants say could be purchased

[55:07] given that year, six months or five years, and you would set the rates to cover all of

[55:11] cost, one of your cost, a very small line item would be your upfront cost, the consulting fees

[55:19] and the planning fees, and hiring the consultants to buy the power up front. And that's

[55:25] again in a one to two million dollar range. Does that make sense?

[55:30] It does. So the customer would not, shouldn't expect, shall I know you know all of this,

[55:35] but shouldn't expect to get a hit on their first bill if he said opt-in. If they just

[55:41] decided to opt out, they will be, if you form a CCA, they will be in the CCA, unless they

[55:48] opt out, sorry.

[55:49] And if they opt out, they would not be subject to that initial cost.

[55:55] No.

[55:55] Okay.

[55:56] Thank you.

[55:58] Notably, one or more of the consultants that thank you, Charlie, for being part of the

[56:05] interview panel, the consultants and power purchasers that Charlie and other and

[56:11] I think one or more of them said, oh, on that upfront cost,

[56:15] we'll cover it for you for a while.

[56:19] And when you hire us really, or when we really ramp up

[56:24] in six months and a year, we'll pay ourselves back.

[56:28] Well, they'll pay ourselves back with a little bit of interest.

[56:32] But that is one strategy for doing this.

[56:35] Frankly, I've asked our finance officer to look at

[56:39] see that money. We don't have a big success in our budget that might be something for cathedral

[56:45] city or Palm Springs or Palm Desert or others to do as well. I get a little better return

[56:51] on your investment than we currently do under very conservative investment strategies. I think

[56:57] this is a pretty good bet. Again, you set the local ranks. As scariest that might seem, it's

[57:04] rocket science. It has been done a thousand times in this country before. We've done a thousand

[57:09] times in the future and I think Charlie has a little bit more experience certainly than I do

[57:13] in all of this. There are lots of folks out there that help agencies like a CCA purchase power

[57:21] and structure it so that you're taking advantage of market conditions and balancing that with minimizing

[57:28] risk.

[57:31] That will quickly, where they form a mostly form northern California. We've got a couple

[57:35] On Southern California, a lot of regional groups are looking at doing this.

[57:42] It seems to be a perfect time to do it in order to give our customers lower rates.

[57:48] One of the things that intrigued me today is we saw an email today saying one of the things

[57:54] we're going to tell you is if we get started today and tomorrow, we may be able to get ready

[58:01] for next May to launch really the program.

[58:05] It takes about a year.

[58:07] And there are a number of reasons to start about that time

[58:10] of year.

[58:10] One of them is the CalISO, the guys that are moving electricity

[58:15] around the state of California for most entities,

[58:19] have too much solar power during the summer.

[58:24] And it gets pretty cheap that time of year.

[58:26] Wouldn't it be wonderful to buy cheap power

[58:28] for the desert in the summer?

[58:31] We could be in a great position to do so obviously.

[58:35] So, we got some examples.

[58:37] I'll go briefly through these landcaster,

[58:42] Sonoma, San Mateo.

[58:44] And if you have questions about those,

[58:46] okay, it's much more familiar with them.

[58:47] We did a little field trip up to Northern California

[58:50] and learned a lot more about these.

[58:52] Where are we today?

[58:54] We finished a feasibility study.

[58:56] You have an ad hoc working group.

[58:58] Thank you, Council Member.

[58:59] be for being engaged in that.

[59:02] We work very closely with our colleagues

[59:04] in Western Riverside County on interviewing consultants.

[59:09] I think we got a very good range of consultants

[59:12] and contractors out there.

[59:14] We think we can establish the JPA soon.

[59:18] See that we'll be considering the JPA

[59:20] this joint powers agreement on its executive committee agenda

[59:24] at the end of this month, but that doesn't form the JPA.

[59:28] The JPA is formed as soon as two C-bag members decide to do it, that could happen in July, that could happen in September, that could happen in November.

[59:39] But we would like to get it going over the next few months in order to take advantage of good market conditions.

[59:45] We do have to submit plans to Southern California Edison who believe it or not is neutral on the subject.

[59:51] They're not working against CCAs and they're not working for them.

[59:56] They've been very good to work with technically.

[59:58] I could tell you that.

[1:00:00] And the PUC essentially says, okay, there's not a lot of review, as long as you cross all the T's and dot all the eyes, and this has been done a number of times already in the state of California.

[1:00:13] We do have to arrange for those start-up funds. I wanted $2 million. You work on opt-up out-nosis next year.

[1:00:20] And you want to, hopefully, may, June of next year, we could be giving your residents and businesses a choice that they don't have.

[1:00:29] Let's get started. Any questions?

[1:00:39] What has been your reaction from the cities here?

[1:00:44] I'm obviously none of the cities that are in IID can participate.

[1:00:48] So it's for the most, it's a question of Washington.

[1:00:52] It is. And the city of life, generally positive.

[1:00:56] And I think the reaction has been the same one I've had.

[1:01:00] And that is, I've heard about this a year ago.

[1:01:02] and was cautious.

[1:01:06] It sounded kind of too good to be true and there had to be risk.

[1:01:09] There had to be considerations.

[1:01:12] And after spending some time with colleagues in Southern California and San Diego,

[1:01:17] it seems that everybody's jumping into this ship because it does give our customers choice.

[1:01:23] There isn't much risk unless we all decide to go out and build a nuclear power plant.

[1:01:30] or buy capital assets. As long as you engage just in the market place, there's not a lot of risk.

[1:01:37] If you start doing long-term capital purchases, there's risk. There may also be a reward.

[1:01:43] Talk to ID about that. They're doing quite well by investing in capital facilities.

[1:01:49] So I think there's a learning curve here. It's one reason Katie. Thank you very much.

[1:01:53] set up the study sessions, I think those that have spent a little bit of time on the subject,

[1:01:58] and I don't want to speak on behalf of all of the committee members, Mr. Kaplan, but I think

[1:02:03] there's generally very positive about the prospects of doing so.

[1:02:08] The city of Blife is saying, hold on, we've got really important issues to deal with, which

[1:02:14] is an unusual and the city of Blife. They don't want to complicate their agenda right now.

[1:02:19] I think Palm Springs is pretty engaged.

[1:02:23] Palm Desert certainly wants more technical information.

[1:02:27] Desert hot springs seems engaged.

[1:02:29] But again, they've got some pre-substantial

[1:02:31] other issues that seem to be higher priority.

[1:02:35] But I think there's a general interest in the Western

[1:02:36] Coachella Valley.

[1:02:37] Is that...

[1:02:38] That's my sense.

[1:02:39] You're missing one.

[1:02:41] Oh, actually.

[1:02:43] There might be something missing my brain on the subject.

[1:02:47] A rancher Mirage, and by the way, the county of Riverside as well, a rancher Mirage has

[1:02:51] decided to do their own thing at first they contacted good energy and to set up

[1:02:57] perhaps their own CCA.

[1:02:59] Now I think they're exploring working with Lancaster.

[1:03:02] It's that latest, we're here.

[1:03:04] And the county of Riverside opted not to join the WR-Cog C-Vag effort and are doing their

[1:03:12] own thing with a company called Good Energy, but it's not clear how far they're going

[1:03:17] there's not a lot of Southern California Edison

[1:03:21] load in unincorporated area in the Coachella Valley.

[1:03:26] So they're not a big plight right here.

[1:03:31] I have another question, maybe it'll come back.

[1:03:36] Shall we do one?

[1:03:36] And you could understand my mental block on that one.

[1:03:39] Completely.

[1:03:42] I obviously don't have any questions.

[1:03:44] Because I think this is a great opportunity.

[1:03:52] I spent my career in higher education and administration on the East Coast and I was actually

[1:03:59] chair of the Boston Edison customer committee that worked with Boston Edison when they

[1:04:10] said it to deregulate, they really got out of the generation business back in the late

[1:04:16] 80s and early 90s.

[1:04:18] And on our college campus we actually started purchasing our own utilities directly using consultants

[1:04:27] who obviously knew what they were doing and locking into various rates which saved us

[1:04:33] a significant amount of money over the years in terms of the purchase of the actual utility.

[1:04:39] And so I think this has a good opportunity, my general sense, from the committee, so far as that

[1:04:47] number of the cities are interested in it, and I think this provides an opportunity for

[1:04:52] the residents for a different way to purchase their power without really seeing any different

[1:05:01] potential for lower rates, and probably most importantly, the potential for purchasing more green energy

[1:05:07] than they're purchasing now at lower rates than they can purchase it.

[1:05:13] So my question that I forgot and had to do with City of Bany, they have their own power

[1:05:19] utility.

[1:05:21] How did they fit into the WR cog model or do they?

[1:05:25] They don't.

[1:05:26] Much like ID or the City of Riverside, I believe.

[1:05:30] They are already a municipal utility essentially.

[1:05:34] So this only applies outside of the IEDs and the bannings and city of Riverside's.

[1:05:42] And one advantage we may have is by being next door to an IED.

[1:05:50] And one of the things that, as the committee knows, we took advantage of early on.

[1:05:56] We have a consultant that works both for IED and the Coachella Valley cities within the medicine territory.

[1:06:03] There may be some opportunities to develop solar or wind or something else or geothermal with ID and partnership with ID in the future.

[1:06:15] I don't think that's something in the first year of horizon or maybe not even in the first five, but maybe in the first ten.

[1:06:21] And with it, let me ask, our sphere of influence runs almost

[1:06:25] and washing to north of my tent, so it takes it all

[1:06:27] of a thousand poms in the event that annexation took place sometime

[1:06:33] in the near future.

[1:06:35] How would this affect a community that has one third of it in IID

[1:06:42] and two thirds of it in Edison territory?

[1:06:46] I honestly don't know, but I'm assuming, like, other services, they would be given the same

[1:06:53] services and opportunities within the city of Cathedral City.

[1:06:58] I've got to assume that in this case, because they're already out of the town, actually,

[1:07:02] actually, thousands of homes, some of those ideas, and they would not be available, they

[1:07:06] could not take advantage of this, whether they're in your city or within the county of

[1:07:12] side so that that would be unchanged. However, in the other way around Cathedral City could then

[1:07:19] petition to annex into IIT territory because our boundaries would touch. My understanding, I don't know

[1:07:25] that for sure. The entire city of Cathedral City. If that was the case, I do it right now because

[1:07:32] that would be motivation enough to annex, but I'm not sure about that either. I'm just asking

[1:07:38] more questions so there could be more dialogue by our staff and you're as we go

[1:07:42] forward on all these sexy questions. That's an interesting one and I'm

[1:07:46] assuming that isn't the case because if it was a lot of cities would have

[1:07:52] annexed a long time ago, it's just to take advantage of the idea of power rates.

[1:07:58] It's out there, so. Yeah, so whether you're the best of luck and do some more

[1:08:02] investigation. Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Thank you.

[1:08:08] Is your staff handling the homelessness staff report?

[1:08:12] Yeah, it is.

[1:08:14] I mean, if that's okay, we can take that first, so you don't have to.

[1:08:20] Mayor, and Mayor pretend members of the Council, I just wanted to add on this.

[1:08:24] We have, there's a draft, JPA that CVEG has prepared.

[1:08:28] We have sent it to the Attorney's Office to start the process of reviewing that.

[1:08:34] And so, you know, the next step, in addition to working through some of the questions that

[1:08:39] we're here would be to bring forward the JPA for consideration, assuming there are other

[1:08:45] cities that are also pursuing that.

[1:08:50] Hang on a minute.

[1:08:51] On the electricity, I want to make sure that there was anyone in the audience that had a question.

[1:09:06] So during the study session regarding the CCA and the

[1:09:11] CCA considering forming a CCA, I would like for you all to please consider reading the

[1:09:19] desert article about Rancho Mirage and why they've decided not to go the C-Vag route

[1:09:25] regarding the CCA.

[1:09:27] And if they're looking to pair up with Lancaster, I would like, all I would like you to

[1:09:35] do is to look into the rates that they're proposing because when ZVAC did their feasibility

[1:09:43] study, I think they found they can cut costs by, was it three points, something, 3.5,

[1:09:51] 3.7, but when Rancho Mirage did a feasibility study, they could, they found they could

[1:09:57] rates for 5%. So my message to you would be, if you're going to form a CCA, could we look

[1:10:03] to Ranch and Raj, other cities, do we have to go through CVAR? And that's my question, and

[1:10:10] just from the history in the last four years, five years that I've seen a CVAR and Cathedral

[1:10:17] City, you know, there's a former council member who said he's found CVAR to be an ineffectual

[1:10:24] organization when it comes to the means of Cathedral City. So I would really like you to have

[1:10:30] the backs of the residents of Cathedral City if we're going to be forming a CCA and really

[1:10:36] do the homework. Also, I don't know how much time I have left, I can't see. But San Bernardino

[1:10:42] County, they have rejected the CCA at this time. And when the presentation on the CCA, they didn't

[1:10:51] to why San Bernardino at this time chose not to go forward with it. So I will be sending you messages.

[1:10:59] You just have to go on YouTube and you just type in San Bernardino community choice aggregation.

[1:11:05] And you can see a lot of residents coming out and seeing expressing things that I can't express right now as to why this all has to do with

[1:11:15] It's the structure of government.

[1:11:17] They're essentially proposing a JPA adjoint powers of authority,

[1:11:20] which is another layer of government.

[1:11:23] So how are you really communicating this to the residents?

[1:11:27] Like, hey, we're creating another layer of government.

[1:11:30] And also, we're automatically going to be opted in.

[1:11:34] Why can't we have the choice to opt in?

[1:11:36] You're automatically going to put us in.

[1:11:39] And then if we choose to opt out, we have to pay exit fees.

[1:11:43] I don't know how often, and I think they said San Bernardino in San Bernardino County.

[1:11:49] I don't know how it would compare to here, but they're starting up cost for $200 million.

[1:11:54] So if you could look into that, those numbers exactly, and that's it for right now.

[1:11:58] Thank you.

[1:11:59] Thank you, Rosario.

[1:12:02] Obviously, when this gets put on our agenda for action, we can have some of those answers.

[1:12:09] Absolutely, Mayor Perchettman.

[1:12:10] One thing I'd like to point out that CVEG is facilitating the start-up of this, the CCA, if it forms, will not be CVEG.

[1:12:22] We may purchase some services from them, but it will be whatever cities joined together in the JPA, and CVEG won't be the ones running the CCA.

[1:12:33] They're facilitating us getting started because it's a regional issue, and it seemed appropriate for them to do that.

[1:12:39] So I want to make sure that's clear as well.

[1:12:41] It would be more similar to Erica, then.

[1:12:44] Absolutely.

[1:12:44] Yeah.

[1:12:44] That's a good comparison.

[1:12:48] Anyone else?

[1:12:50] Come on, Valerie.

[1:13:00] Hi, Council members.

[1:13:03] My question is actually directed to currently

[1:13:07] So Caledicin has a care program for seniors, low income people.

[1:13:12] We have our fair share in Cathedral City, and my question would be, is that going to transfer

[1:13:19] to anything else we do?

[1:13:22] Thank you.

[1:13:27] Katie, kick me if I'm wrong, but none of those programs are changed under this approach.

[1:13:33] So all the public benefit type programs, seniors, low-income, et cetera, will remain regardless

[1:13:39] of whether you are taking your power from the CCA or Southern California out of

[1:13:45] the Senate and let me repeat what Charlie indicated at his CVAC doesn't have a dog

[1:13:51] in this fight. We are a facilitator long, long ago I believe CVAC formed some line

[1:13:57] transit or the regional agency and one two or more of our cities or members want to do

[1:14:03] something we try to facilitate it and we look forward to helping you do so. Whether you go

[1:14:09] with Lancaster, do it your own, join Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

[1:14:14] We don't have a particular stake.

[1:14:16] We want the right thing for you and your residents and businesses.

[1:14:21] And then, thank you.

[1:14:24] I don't know whether it would be patterned Charlie or DeGena,

[1:14:27] but maybe Rosario could send whatever information she has over that can be distributed to the council to review.

[1:14:38] All right.

[1:14:39] I

[1:14:44] want to thank Rosario and all these others that really are doing their due diligence and researching because that's our job.

[1:14:55] We vote you guys in but it's really up to us to help you do your job.

[1:14:59] So I want to thank Rosario.

[1:15:00] All those others that are bringing these to our attention so that we can do our own research. Thank

[1:15:08] you.

[1:15:09] Okay, Charlie, you want to leave us into this?

[1:15:12] Mayor Protem, I will, homeless, and councilman kind of all I actually requested that this be put on the agenda, so that he could get some feedback from the full council, because he'll be asked to make a vote on the homelessness committee next week.

[1:15:27] and ultimately Mayor Henry will, as well, have to take a position at the executive committee

[1:15:31] when this comes forward.

[1:15:33] And I'll introduce it the best way I can.

[1:15:38] I've just learned a lot about this recently, Councilor Connevali, probably knows more

[1:15:41] than I do, and I'll let him speak to that in a minute.

[1:15:46] But as you know, the Roy's Desert Resource Center, which was the Coachella Valley Emergency

[1:15:54] shelter for the homeless is closing at the end of this month I believe.

[1:15:59] And the Homelessness Committee at CVEG has been working to solicit proposals from agencies

[1:16:06] to provide homeless services of some sort to replace that.

[1:16:11] And I think it was sort of an open request to see what kind of things were out there.

[1:16:18] A proposal was received from a group called Pathways of Life Ministry, and I believe one

[1:16:24] their representatives is here today, yes, I forgot your name, Damian, and he presented this

[1:16:32] to the technical advisory committee the other day as well.

[1:16:38] Basically, I'm not going to

[1:16:41] go through the whole discussion of what it is. There's a presentation in your packet, but it

[1:16:47] of decentralizes emergency shelter services to a bunch of smaller facilities in the West Valley.

[1:16:56] And then, persons who check into the emergency shelter are assigned a case worker and

[1:17:03] the idea is to the next step to move up to more long-term housing options, which they would

[1:17:10] lease under their name and initially with a rent subsidy.

[1:17:14] Basically, the cost of this would be covered by contribution from Riverside County, which

[1:17:19] they've committed to just recently at $375,000, and then the five cities, which is Palm

[1:17:25] Desert, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, and Palm Springs, meeting

[1:17:33] up the difference each for about a $100,000 contribution.

[1:17:36] And so, I think there was a lot of misunderstanding at first, and that caused some alarm amongst

[1:17:43] some people concerned that these are going to be group homes, which is not the case,

[1:17:48] and some things like that.

[1:17:49] So I felt much more comfortable with the program after hearing the presentation about it

[1:17:54] on Monday.

[1:17:57] But Mr. Carnival, I can't smell Carnival, I would like some feedback from all of you, and

[1:18:02] perhaps you have some additional insight you would like to.

[1:18:04] Pretty much Charlie, you mentioned everything that I think is very important with this with the homeless situation we have in the West Valley.

[1:18:13] And what I like about the path of life, it takes a kind of a different unique turn at homelessness.

[1:18:21] And if David, would you like to come up to the...

[1:18:25] Oh, you'll be my guest time.

[1:18:27] And I want to take more than a minute, again, Tom Kurt, a C-bag.

[1:18:32] And there are some of you here that I know, again, the subject better than both Charlie

[1:18:36] and I can bind.

[1:18:37] And thank you for your participation on the Homeless Committee, Mr. Aguilar, and Mr. Kind of

[1:18:41] all day.

[1:18:42] With respect to this, it's kind of an exciting time in the program.

[1:18:46] We've been lamenting in some ways the closure of Roy is one we should be rejoicing in it.

[1:18:51] And Roy is was a wonderful facility that helped 6,000 people over the last five years.

[1:18:59] And I'm sure some of those people would love to be here and thank you for your financial contribution and your support of the program.

[1:19:07] And it was in the wrong place.

[1:19:09] It just is a bad location for that type of service.

[1:19:13] And we struggled with it.

[1:19:15] We spent $300,000 a year on transportation alone at Roy's.

[1:19:19] That's a lot of money.

[1:19:21] And we knew the county was going to be cutting back emergency bed subsidies, and we had to make a choice

[1:19:28] and so did Jewish family services, doors closed at the end of the month, and every person at Royce will have either found

[1:19:36] permanent transitional or in just one or two cases, other emergency housing.

[1:19:42] It's been a real success, and part of that success has been half of life,

[1:19:47] who is not under contract with CVAC yet, but is already working in the county with some support from the county of Riverside and private the private sector, and help us and the county move people out of the world and do what they plan on doing under this program.

[1:20:04] In your study session pack, and I believe you have their presentation that they've given to the homeless committee.

[1:20:10] Damien O'Farell, there are chief executive officers here.

[1:20:15] He's done a fantastic job explaining the program.

[1:20:18] And one way to think about it is we don't want to build barracks to put people in for two days,

[1:20:26] four days, twenty days or two hundred days.

[1:20:29] We want to keep them out of shelters in the first place.

[1:20:33] We want to put them into services and to a supportive environment where they can go back

[1:20:39] having productive members of this society and do things on their own.

[1:20:45] And that's a model that's being employed statewide and nationally, and we want to follow

[1:20:51] that model and want your investment in the homeless program to go towards that kind of

[1:20:56] model.

[1:20:57] With that, if you want to have Damian go through the presentation, you can.

[1:21:01] But Damian O'Farell, please come on up and please address the questions that I certainly

[1:21:05] can.

[1:21:09] Hi, David.

[1:21:10] Thanks for coming in tonight.

[1:21:11] I think what I like you to explain to the Council here and the residents and everybody who's

[1:21:17] watched on TV right now, they have a fear that these are going to be housing in their

[1:21:22] neighborhoods.

[1:21:23] And I like you to explain what we're putting out with your contract, how this process

[1:21:29] is working, and how it works as far as going out in the field, finding the homeless helping

[1:21:34] them a emergency location that they're just a whole process of how they're taking care of

[1:21:42] and then moved on to permit a housing. So if you'd like to just take it from me out

[1:21:46] appreciate it. Absolutely. Can we turn this on? The site presentation I can go through a couple

[1:21:52] of the most most pertinent slides to answer those questions.

[1:21:57] It's in a PDF but you should still

[1:21:59] that works perfectly. So, one thing to notice, that path of life, it houses as over 115 different

[1:22:07] step-stice units in which we've moved individuals from homeless situations into housing situations.

[1:22:14] Other owned, leases in their own name.

[1:22:17] Yeah, there he goes.

[1:22:19] Which one?

[1:22:19] That one? Okay. Leases in their own name, using private market homes.

[1:22:25] And these homes are like any other homes in neighborhoods.

[1:22:27] their neighbors just like anybody else. You drive by them, you know your neighbor, you don't

[1:22:32] suspect that person was formally homeless because they're in a longer homeless. They're now

[1:22:36] in housing. Everything that we do is geared towards that, helping somebody exit a homeless situation

[1:22:41] and read self-sufficiency and have the highest quality of life possible for them. One of those

[1:22:48] placements, these are the placements in the East County here. One of those placements happens to be

[1:22:53] and cathedral city, yet you wouldn't know it.

[1:22:59] Skip down to,

[1:23:06] well, I don't have the slide that should show some of the homes that we, well, I guess I do.

[1:23:11] There we go. Just a couple pictures.

[1:23:14] You can't see the entire home, but again, these are not group homes.

[1:23:18] These are not situations that are burdened on neighborhoods.

[1:23:22] These are just neighbors with an address instead of without an address.

[1:23:27] our program that we proposed focuses in three areas. Prevention, diversion, and crisis stabilization,

[1:23:37] and I'll walk through each of those very quickly. Prevention involves outreach,

[1:23:42] and not what typically people understand is outreach, which is sometimes historically outreach

[1:23:46] has been going out with water bottles and blankets and those sorts of things.

[1:23:49] And though we may do that for an initial encounter, our entire goal is to help the person in that homeless situation

[1:23:55] to make the choice to get out of that homeless situation and off the street.

[1:23:58] So we really focus on intervention of homeless situations, or than simply outreach, and

[1:24:04] our outreach teams, we do have three of them currently operating throughout the county.

[1:24:09] They focus on everything from the street, initial contact, up to leasing if that individual

[1:24:14] is going into a home of their own through one of our housing programs, or another housing

[1:24:18] program throughout the county, or if they need bridge housing, which often they do, which

[1:24:23] some sort of an emergency housing situation, our outreach team gets them to that situation.

[1:24:29] The problem with typical bird housing, which has been mentioned, is that in a very

[1:24:33] situation where you may be sharing space with 50 or more people, there are many individuals

[1:24:38] that have been on the street for quite a long period of time that cannot mentally make it

[1:24:44] in that sort of situation, so they refuse that service and they become known as service

[1:24:48] resistance, however, if they're able to get into a place that's more private, that's more

[1:24:54] like a house, a temporary house, we find that they take that service up and then they begin

[1:25:01] to have the mental and emotional margin to move forward.

[1:25:04] So our outreach focuses on getting them to that point.

[1:25:06] We also have a hotline available in which individuals that are trying to help somebody or

[1:25:12] the individuals in a homeless situation themselves can call.

[1:25:15] They can get the resources they need, they can get our outreach intervention team out to them right away

[1:25:22] For those that are risk of becoming homeless, but are still in their home

[1:25:25] We have rental assistance built into this proposal and of course through our office

[1:25:31] Sites and through our hotline we have referrals available

[1:25:35] Which we've been doing for quite a long period of time

[1:25:39] Our diverse and so that's prevention diversion is really about getting somebody

[1:25:43] not having to force them through a shelter system but getting them into the fair market housing as quickly as possible.

[1:25:52] And then it involves housing counseling that in people know what their options are.

[1:25:55] There are those on the street that do have incomes.

[1:25:58] They simply do not have the wherewithal to manage the or navigate the housing system to find the housing.

[1:26:05] They need and or the life skills then to sustain that housing.

[1:26:08] And so our goal is for those that have that resource help them use that resource well.

[1:26:12] That's the housing counseling piece and also that combines with rapid rehousing, which is, again,

[1:26:19] moving somebody as quickly as possible, even from the street.

[1:26:22] And over 200 placements that we had this last year, the majority of those were from the street

[1:26:27] into housing of their own, with leases in their own name.

[1:26:31] And these are working with people that have been on the street 15 up to 31 years.

[1:26:35] And so we have seen that it works.

[1:26:37] National average for this type of housing, this type of approach is at 86% success and retention rate.

[1:26:45] We're working at about a 96% retention and success rate.

[1:26:50] Right now, over time, we'll see how that goes.

[1:26:53] We hope to keep that up over 90%, but we are seeing that it's very, very effective.

[1:26:59] So this program has that type of housing built into it as well as leverage as other housing programs throughout the county,

[1:27:05] because we are very, very well connected and integrated with the continuum of care throughout

[1:27:11] the county, the oversight and working closely with other resource providers, both in the East

[1:27:16] County and West County.

[1:27:18] Once we find a home for somebody, we don't just leave them there.

[1:27:22] We work with them until they're at the place that they are self-sufficient and can manage

[1:27:27] that household on their own.

[1:27:30] Sometimes that means just bringing along our navigators, sometimes that includes bringing

[1:27:34] long our behavioral health program and our employment program, often, it means bringing alongside

[1:27:40] individuals from our employment program to help somebody find a self-sufficiency income

[1:27:45] that they need.

[1:27:46] The last piece of what we've proposed includes crisis stabilization housing, and this

[1:27:52] is probably the area that it was in the request to provide some form of emergency housing

[1:27:59] for individuals that wasn't a barracks style emergency housing, because not only is it that type

[1:28:05] of emergency housing very expensive, it very prohibited for many people who have been

[1:28:13] homeless for a very long period of time and so people fall through the cracks and remain

[1:28:16] on the street. But then also it concentrates a large number of people that are trying to exit

[1:28:22] a homeless situation in one place. And so the original request asked for something new and what

[1:28:29] provided is crisis stabilization that does involve emergency housing, that we would have

[1:28:36] master least in our, in our name, half of life's name. We would have a contract with those

[1:28:41] that state temporarily in that emergency housing, our average in the shelters about 75

[1:28:47] days that somebody would stay. So we, we project that the stay would be somewhere between 30 and 90

[1:28:55] days for the individuals in that housing, and the housing would look like 12 scattered

[1:29:00] site homes throughout several different cities, not concentrating in any one neighborhood

[1:29:07] and not group homes, but this would be a combination of mostly either studio or most likely

[1:29:14] one bedroom units in this area, so three one bedroom units in an area and a family unit in

[1:29:21] area, not the same neighborhood, but the same municipality for those four units to make sure

[1:29:28] we have space for both families and individuals.

[1:29:31] And our staff would be making daily visits for those individuals to ensure the safety

[1:29:36] of the area, their own personal safety, the well-being of the property, so on and so forth.

[1:29:43] While they are working with them, taking them to the appointments that they need in order

[1:29:47] to get into a more permanent and stable housing for themselves, so they're family.

[1:29:52] So that's the general overview.

[1:29:54] Happy to answer any other questions that I can answer.

[1:29:56] I think one question I have is, how do you...

[1:30:00] To call if I summoned to take one of these housing. There are some homeless people out there by choice. Some are out there because of bad luck. How would you differentiate from the one who's having bad luck versus happy out there and maybe just want to hang out?

[1:30:15] Sure, it's a lesson for a month or two.

[1:30:17] We have a series of assessments. Really, the intervention component starts with conversation and building trust with somebody and that takes a couple interactions.

[1:30:27] usually to just get somebody to begin to talk and open up, and as soon as our intervention

[1:30:31] team can approach the subject with somebody, they let them know that there may be some

[1:30:37] housing options available. If you want them, it's just a gauge interest, and if somebody's

[1:30:42] interested, then we have a series of assessments that our team uses. One of which is the acronym

[1:30:48] is the B.I. Spadat, which is the vulnerability index. I should ask my housing director. I can never

[1:30:53] the full acronym, but it's a shared, it's actually best practice throughout the nation that

[1:31:00] identifies somebody's point of vulnerability and helps us identify how successful they would

[1:31:06] be in what type of housing. And so one, we're able to use that assessment to put them into the county

[1:31:12] wide what's called coordinated entry system for many different types of housing. And if it makes sense

[1:31:18] for them to use one of these emergency houses based on that assessment or housing assessment or

[1:31:23] than we would use these resources in this program.

[1:31:28] So, the beauty of that is this is creating a gap in the current system that we believe will help move more individuals off the street,

[1:31:37] out of homeless situations in this area.

[1:31:40] Two, it's leveraging what's already existing both within our agency and within other agencies throughout the county.

[1:31:46] Thank you.

[1:31:51] I do thank you by the way, very familiar through my employment of what you guys do and you do a really great job at it.

[1:32:00] So, thank you.

[1:32:02] But I have a couple questions, but I must be confused because the 12 scattered sight homes that you're talking about are not,

[1:32:09] are in addition to the three emergency shelter locations that we've heard discussions around.

[1:32:14] So these are what the new form of emergency self-delocations.

[1:32:21] So we've gone from three potential sites to 12 potential sites?

[1:32:26] Yes, but we're not group sites.

[1:32:28] And so instead of having many individuals in one location in three different cities,

[1:32:36] you're having one individual in one home that we're personally working with,

[1:32:41] we're using that home simply as bridge housing until we get them into more permanent housing

[1:32:46] in a situation.

[1:32:47] I understand it, but that still means that you have, you know, at least real estate cost,

[1:32:53] you know, operating subsidy requirements for 12 sites now.

[1:32:57] That might be ultimately less expensive than maybe three sites, but, yes.

[1:33:02] So I've been slightly disconnected from this recently and so, you know, I miss that piece.

[1:33:08] But in general, can you give me a sense of the total budget that you're looking at for the West Valley Navigation Plan?

[1:33:16] How much of that is going to go into service delivery versus operating in sub-city costs for a real estate to house these folks?

[1:33:25] You know, I don't, I'll set up my head. I don't have that number. I know that the total budget, I would have to pull up the breakdown which I can do.

[1:33:33] can give to you even within a few minutes here if I'm able to get online and pull up our

[1:33:37] budget.

[1:33:39] Yeah, I'd like to know that.

[1:33:40] I think it'd be important to know what that number is.

[1:33:45] And with Councilman Braggular, I can't read the exact number but it was in the 800 and something

[1:33:49] 1000 range was for the whole program.

[1:33:52] The whole program.

[1:33:57] We did get to you in a minute, Bob.

[1:34:02] Okay, that'd be great.

[1:34:03] Thank you, Tom.

[1:34:04] And then my last question is, in the Staff Report, it talks about the Mark I think maybe

[1:34:12] you can help me understand this better.

[1:34:14] It talks about 51,500 in CDBG funds.

[1:34:23] Is that our total request because I thought we had talked at the homeless committee that I recall

[1:34:32] about a contribution of over 100,000.

[1:34:36] 103,000.

[1:34:36] Yeah.

[1:34:37] 103,000.

[1:34:37] So we haven't committed the other 51,000 yet.

[1:34:41] Yeah.

[1:34:41] Mayor Protem and members of the Council.

[1:34:45] And I probably told Council and Recount of all the wrong thing when we first met on this,

[1:34:50] because I was thinking back to the budget and recalled that we had decided to put the other 50,000 out of the general fund in there.

[1:34:57] We went back and looked at the meeting.

[1:34:58] And what you actually did was said, once we have a program that comes forward, then will

[1:35:05] take the steps necessary to put that other in there.

[1:35:09] So when this comes to fruition and we opt in into the program with all the other cities,

[1:35:17] we will contribute our community development, block grant money, and this appears to be a program

[1:35:22] that would be eligible for that, because it is a 501c3, and it is serving low and moderate

[1:35:26] and come people, and then we would have to do a budget amendment to ask you.

[1:35:31] We're there.

[1:35:32] We're there.

[1:35:32] I believe so.

[1:35:32] I thought we were there a few months ago when we had through the budgets, but evidently

[1:35:36] it wasn't formalized.

[1:35:38] I think it was.

[1:35:39] So we talked about it a number of times.

[1:35:41] I never took the action yet to do it.

[1:35:44] And I took it as we did take the action.

[1:35:46] So I went ahead and actually committed to it.

[1:35:48] But I think the other cities, at least at the meeting that I attended, and we were both there.

[1:35:53] I think all the other cities that also stepped up at the higher level.

[1:35:55] that they are. The five cities that I mentioned and of course some of them still have to

[1:36:01] formally act on it but all appear to be in for around 100,000 each and then Riverside County

[1:36:06] at 375 and then that gives you the 875,000 dollars. Okay, cool. And then we last, excuse me.

[1:36:13] John, are just so we all understand it. Are other half of that would have to come out of reserves.

[1:36:20] All right. That's correct. We'd have to bring forward a budget amendment on that and I think that was

[1:36:23] the understanding really when we discuss this.

[1:36:26] Thank you.

[1:36:27] Great for reminding me of that.

[1:36:28] But we're going to be generating additional revenue.

[1:36:30] They should write from all the member want to tax it.

[1:36:33] That's what he should be there.

[1:36:36] And then my last last question actually is that one of the questions that was raised at the

[1:36:39] homelessness committee meeting that I attended was, was the ability to make direct referrals to the,

[1:36:47] what is now the Roy's repurpose behavioral health center.

[1:36:50] and at the time, and maybe that question has been answered subsequently, that direct referrals

[1:36:55] were not allowed, they had to go through. It's time still how I can't see behind it if

[1:37:00] you still hear or not, but direct referrals were not going to be provided for, and there

[1:37:06] were some concern about that. Is there been any more discussion around that? Is that still my

[1:37:14] recollections the same as yours? There are not direct referrals, however, that directer was

[1:37:19] mental health came and said, you made a number of changes to allow more direct access to

[1:37:26] a curve.

[1:37:27] I still don't think everybody in this coach will now, they can send somebody over there.

[1:37:31] We have a long-term care facility, as you know, there aren't going to be a lot of open beds

[1:37:36] all the time.

[1:37:38] But I can follow back up with you and I can't get that information right now.

[1:37:42] I'll follow up with you tomorrow or not.

[1:37:44] Thank you.

[1:37:44] I appreciate that.

[1:37:45] I just think that anything that would help

[1:37:46] relieved the load that you're taking on,

[1:37:51] that really should be focused on

[1:37:52] to a program service delivery,

[1:37:54] should be something that we're prioritizing.

[1:37:58] If I might on the total program cost,

[1:38:01] I think one other exciting occurrence

[1:38:04] on mental health, regional access project

[1:38:07] is indicated they have some funding,

[1:38:09] specifically for mental health, mental health

[1:38:12] of our in the biggest sense of the word homeless program, and the other really important

[1:38:20] development is Desert Healthcare District, has also expressed an interest in financial

[1:38:24] contributing to a West Coach all of our homeless program, and we do this every year.

[1:38:32] Our budget is always a bit squishy because we don't know what the county's budget is

[1:38:38] to the last second, more do we know the cities?

[1:38:42] This program, one advantage of this program versus a voice type program is how scalable

[1:38:47] it is.

[1:38:48] It could go a little bit down and it could go a lot, we want to provide a lot more subsidies

[1:38:54] out there in the marketplace.

[1:38:56] We can, if we have more resources, if we want to provide more outreach workers, we can.

[1:39:02] So that's good news, and I have a funny feeling, we may be scaling up, and I haven't

[1:39:07] I've said that about the homeless program in five years.

[1:39:11] Thank you.

[1:39:12] I have that number for you, too.

[1:39:14] I'd like to hear it.

[1:39:15] So for the scattered side emergency units,

[1:39:18] what we have, budget is 223,900 and eight.

[1:39:22] And then in rapid rehousing,

[1:39:25] which doesn't include other rental systems

[1:39:27] and numbers stepping or anything like that,

[1:39:29] we have 30,688 plus some money for utility, utility payments,

[1:39:34] food, transportation, and so on and so forth.

[1:39:38] And that's just budgeted cost in this

[1:39:39] does not count leverage costs or in kind resources

[1:39:43] that we'll be bringing into the table from our partners in the area.

[1:39:47] Thank you.

[1:39:47] You're welcome.

[1:39:49] Any other questions or comments from Council?

[1:39:53] Anyone in the audience?

[1:39:56] OK, thank you.

[1:39:58] While before Chris comes up for the Banner Program,

[1:40:02] And while C-Bag is still here, just so everyone knows on your place is the draft prioritization

[1:40:13] for signalization of the stops, stop lights, if you will, throughout the valley.

[1:40:23] This came before the Transportation Committee in our last meeting, and I believe it's going to the executive committee at the next meeting.

[1:40:32] for them to look at. So if you have any questions or comments that would be the time to go to

[1:40:38] either Mr. Milo, sir, to Mayor Henry prior to the Executive Committee meeting.

[1:40:43] Can I ask a question about this? This was the Traffic Signalization Program for the Valley.

[1:40:52] There are obviously fairly sophisticated analysis programs now available associated with traffic

[1:41:02] signal control that takes a look at a whole series of things associated with traffic flow and improves it.

[1:41:12] And I guess my question is are we just synchronizing traffic signals?

[1:41:16] are we doing analytics associated with it that would significantly improve traffic flows

[1:41:23] throughout the valley and reduce energy consumption, etc.

[1:41:31] Welcome back Tom Perth.

[1:41:33] It's up in a C-Dag Regional Day.

[1:41:36] The answer is yes, we're looking at the big picture.

[1:41:40] At the same time, I feel like I am NASA planning for the Moon Launch in 1960, whatever it was.

[1:41:47] And planning for the computer that'll be on that orbiter 10 years' advance, it's still

[1:41:55] behind the game.

[1:41:56] Every time we plan for the future in this program, something...

[1:41:59] Future screws us up.

[1:42:02] So I think we're trying to be as darn flexible as we possibly can be.

[1:42:06] And we're not getting into specific work.

[1:42:09] We're looking at corridors first.

[1:42:11] And when we're ready to deploy, at that point, we're going to be looking at the technology.

[1:42:16] not today and we're still a couple years from deployment. Is that a reasonable fair and it's not

[1:42:22] it is, although I wish we could deploy faster.

[1:42:24] Yeah, I do too. And one reason we can't, and I hate to use this excuse, but it's absolutely

[1:42:30] fair, it's federal money. And there are a number of steps we have to take under CalTrans and

[1:42:37] FHWA processes. And I know Mayor Pro Temp had us as painfully well aware of those.

[1:42:45] Thank you.

[1:42:47] All right.

[1:42:47] Mr. Parman, you're up.

[1:42:51] I'll introduce this one for him just briefly.

[1:42:53] We've been asked by a number of the businesses who participated in our banner program.

[1:42:58] That is scheduled to end this fall that was originally done for the 35th anniversary.

[1:43:03] Are we going to have another one?

[1:43:04] They like it.

[1:43:05] Especially since we are now able to thank our banner sponsors through our billboard.

[1:43:11] billboard. And Chris will go through the proposed designs and get your feedback on that.

[1:43:19] And then also we do have a question about, we've opened our banner program to any business

[1:43:26] at this point. We've had a request from one of the cannabis businesses. So we want to

[1:43:31] make sure that in light of some of the other discussions we've had about advertising in the area,

[1:43:36] you know, what your position is on that. But to this point, we've treated the banner program

[1:43:41] that any business can participate into it?

[1:43:44] Chris.

[1:43:44] OK, Mayor Pro Tempettos and Council members.

[1:43:48] As you know, last November, we implemented the 35th Anniversary

[1:43:54] banner program.

[1:43:55] As you can see there, it runs from November 1, 2016

[1:44:00] through October 31st, 2017.

[1:44:05] We had 32 businesses and organizations participate.

[1:44:09] It generated about $15,000 in revenue.

[1:44:13] It paid for 82 banners along East Palm Canyon Drive,

[1:44:17] which in the past, the city has had to pick up that expense.

[1:44:23] It generated about $2,600 in net revenue,

[1:44:27] which went back into special events,

[1:44:29] and $2,600 of revenue can pay for an event

[1:44:32] like Easter, Kittapalusa that we had.

[1:44:35] It added a burst of color to our downtown section, and it offered businesses a new opportunity

[1:44:42] to reach 35,000 automobiles at travel along that stretch of East Palm Canyon Drive between

[1:44:49] Dape Palm Drive and the Digital Canyon Drive on a daily basis.

[1:44:55] As Charlie mentioned, businesses are coming on.

[1:45:00] Again, even as late as the last couple of weeks, I've had several businesses that have called and want to be participant in the current program and then looking to do in a future program, if council proves.

[1:45:15] So, we're looking at doing the next round, which would be starting November 1, 2017 through October 31, 2018, and as Charlie mentioned many of them see a benefit,

[1:45:27] because when space is available, when we don't have advertisements for our other events and sponsors

[1:45:34] of those events, then we're able to think those sponsors who invested in our banner program

[1:45:41] on the new electronic festival line sign there. So Kevin Lockwood, who's our graphic designer

[1:45:50] and web master, and I came up with two options, option one and two, and we would like your

[1:45:56] feedback if you so choose to continue the program, which one of these two do you think you would

[1:46:03] like to see on the East Pump Canyon. So here's option one. Who are you going to that?

[1:46:08] Yes. Is the cost of the businesses do you disfake being the same? It's going to be the same

[1:46:13] at $500 for one banner and then we'll make some modifications on the price if they buy like

[1:46:22] six or more, it'll be 450 of banner.

[1:46:24] Okay, thank you.

[1:46:27] So this is option one.

[1:46:29] This is kind of given it a completely different look.

[1:46:33] We used the color purple as for the 35th anniversary public works went through and had all of

[1:46:41] downtown street lights and the power lights and traffic signals repainted to purple so we're

[1:46:52] using that as part of our design and so this is the first one and what I like about this

[1:47:00] is it says not only discover cathedral city but it's also discover whatever business

[1:47:06] organization that would be listed below as well. And then here's option 2 which is kind

[1:47:12] of similar to what we had for the 35th on there but we use it for the purple kind of background

[1:47:21] with the bright orange on that and you can see that we're using the discover treatment as well. So

[1:47:30] to give you a back option 1 and then option 2.

[1:47:38] Any feedback? Yeah I think that the white stands

[1:47:43] out and makes it more easily recognizable so I like option 1 too. That's also.

[1:48:00] My only question would be how does the white, how do we anticipate the white standing up to the sun and the sun, the sun, the stand, the occasional rain?

[1:48:14] Well, we have in the downtown section around town square park all of those banners are white and they seem to be holding up pretty well.

[1:48:22] And, again, these banners will only be up for about a year, and the printer, which is

[1:48:29] Canyon Copy and Print, who's a cathedral city business, who puts these banners together

[1:48:34] for us, guarantees them for a year or more.

[1:48:39] Chris, I like one, too, but I have another question.

[1:48:44] What are the locations that these banners can be opted for at?

[1:48:49] Is it just in the immediate East Palm Canyon area or can it be expanded to other locations throughout the city?

[1:48:57] Yeah, so what you're getting?

[1:48:58] Well, currently we only have the infrastructure far as the poll lights and the things that the

[1:49:05] banners hang from in the downtown area, but maybe in the future someday we'll have money to be able to

[1:49:15] expand that into, I would really like to bring this to Ramon Road and then.

[1:49:20] Yeah, I mean, I've had this, we've had this conversation, this is, you know, for the last three years.

[1:49:25] And I keep asking for it to be expanded in other areas.

[1:49:29] And I think it's legitimate, and the feedback is that it's not, we don't have the infrastructure to be able to do that.

[1:49:34] So if that's going to be the continued response, then I think we should start looking at how we can make that answer different.

[1:49:41] Because there are other businesses and other locations that could benefit from this at art getting that benefit now.

[1:49:45] Sure.

[1:49:46] So I think we should look at it.

[1:49:48] So I think you heard the majority like option number one.

[1:49:54] You know, you're also hearing that we'd like some budget figures on what it would take to add the infrastructure,

[1:49:59] at least on remote road and other sections of East Palm Canyon.

[1:50:04] Possibly date palm, but I think remote is probably would be the first step.

[1:50:11] And then the question Mr. McClendon had is related to continuing to allow all businesses

[1:50:22] to participate, or are we going to want to restrict businesses?

[1:50:31] Are you asking me that question?

[1:50:32] Well, you've turned your mic on, so I think I have another question.

[1:50:35] Oh, go right ahead.

[1:50:37] The last program, did we sell out on all the manners?

[1:50:40] We did not. We sold probably about half of them, but at the time when we were selling them back in last September, October.

[1:50:50] The one thing that we didn't have, which we do now, which makes everybody want the program even more,

[1:50:56] is the ability to also have their logo on the festival on electronic billboard, as part of the banner program.

[1:51:04] Okay, because I had a caution flag when you said who are about six or more banners.

[1:51:09] Obviously that would be a larger corporation that could afford them, that might be a larger one.

[1:51:14] That would take some advantage away from a small business man that could only afford one and would be able to have it because a larger corporation took it.

[1:51:21] So I would just, you know, be cautious of, you know,

[1:51:26] in the savings that they're getting is pretty minimal versus vine one banner versus sex.

[1:51:33] Yeah, it's a $50 savings, so.

[1:51:37] Okay, thank you.

[1:51:39] All right.

[1:51:40] Any comments on there?

[1:51:41] I mean, I, for one, would just assume, keep it so that every business has an

[1:51:44] opportunity to participate.

[1:51:46] If they're a legal business or a legal business, and think of the

[1:51:48] University, you should be able to participate in there in the programs.

[1:51:52] But what I would agree with it as well.

[1:51:54] And it's basically the name of the business and their logo.

[1:51:57] That's all that's going to show.

[1:51:59] So I think that's where the reason is going to be a cross.

[1:52:02] you know, the green cross and I just think that just reflects kind of negative on the city with the green cross,

[1:52:09] but then how can you restrict a business's logo on a banner that they're purchasing?

[1:52:16] Well, I think Mark, I think we have a separate discussion that's going to take place on signing each.

[1:52:23] And I think that particular issue will be included in that discussion.

[1:52:30] We do have a committee that's going to be working on the comprehensive sign code revision,

[1:52:35] which will address that, you know, this one, we really haven't treated this as advertising.

[1:52:41] And I think that distinction is important because it is nothing but the name of the business

[1:52:45] and the logo. There's nothing, there's no address, there's no phone number, there's no pricing,

[1:52:50] there's no buy here, the things that you typically see and advertising. And so I think that has made

[1:52:56] it easy for us to just, we simply say, thanks to our banner sponsors and roll their names and

[1:53:04] So I think you could argue that it's really not advertising in that particular case.

[1:53:10] It's thanking them for supporting our banners.

[1:53:14] And you mentioned atomic buzz, but whether it's atomic buzz or relief or something,

[1:53:18] their logo is not necessarily the green cross.

[1:53:22] It's part of their name.

[1:53:25] So I'm hearing if they're a business, they're a business.

[1:53:30] Anything else on this item that you need?

[1:53:34] Thank you.

[1:53:34] Go forth and make money.

[1:53:39] Charlie, we have five minutes for back yard breeding.

[1:53:44] That's pet breeding, don't get excited.

[1:53:47] This is Council Member Ogilars request and we can introduce it.

[1:53:50] We can always continue this discussion onto the regular agenda.

[1:53:55] So this is my item and particularly since there is nobody here who was part of the interest group that had proposed this here tonight that we postpone it that would be my recommendation.

[1:54:05] Okay.

[1:54:06] That's the desire of the council.

[1:54:07] I can recalender for this for either June 26 or July 26.

[1:54:12] Okay.

[1:54:12] Thank you.

[1:54:13] Let's do that.

[1:54:14] And obviously we won't have time to go into close session.

[1:54:18] Now let's take a five minute break and let the clerk reset everything and we'll come back at six thirty.

[1:54:23] Thank you.

City Council Study Session on 2017-06-14 4:30 PM

Agenda

Transcript