I will call the city of Desert Hot
Springs regular meeting of the city
council and city council serving as a
successor agency to the former
Redevelopment agency board for Tuesday
October 4th
2022 6 PM regular session roll call
please council member Betts present
council member Nas present council
member P present mayor protm Gardner
pres and mayor Mattis present I
understand tonight's invocation will be
given by Tom
Mullen come forth it's all yours
Psalm
1311
behold how good and how pleasant it is
for Brethren to dwell together in
unity our Lord please fill our community
with your love give our counsel wisdom
and knowledge to rule our city of Desert
Hot Springs justly
amen thank you Tom our Pledge of
Allegiance tonight um why don't we have
Mr nun why don't you lead
us right hand over your heart ready
begin to the flag of the United States
of America and to the Republic for which
it stands one
nation
indivisible andice for
Madam City attorney would you report on
closed session thank you Mr may members
of council we have one reportable otion
item um the uh city council agreed to a
settlement of a motion um the actual
settlement agreement uh this is for the
naen Garcia uh versus city of Hot
Springs case PSC 18
07458 the actual settlement agreement
was entered into back in 2019 but this
specifically was for um a specific um
motion uh where we settled uh fees and
other costs um Council voted 5 Z to uh
settle the matter and uh this agreement
will be made available for the public at
uh request thank you so much thank you
um at this time we'll go to the approval
of the agenda at this time city council
May amend the order of the agenda
approve the consent calendar remove
items from the consent calendar for
separate discussion action or urgency
items uh is there anybody wanting to
pull anything from consent
calendar is there anybody in audience
would like to speak on any items of the
consent
calendar see nobody coming forth on
entertain a motion to approve the agenda
so moved the motion has been moved and
seconded to approve the agenda and the
items in the consent calendar wait for
him to come up on the
screen please vote
a motion passes with council member bet
absent all right we'll move the public
comments at this time pursuant to the
brown act any person may comment on
matters of general interest within the
subject matter jurisdiction of the city
council not listed on the agenda under
the brown act the city council shall not
take action on or discuss matters raised
during public comment portion of the
agenda that are not listed on the agenda
all commments will be directed to the
city council and shall be devoid of any
personal attacks members of the public
are expected to maintain professional
courte deorum so we're going to take
items that are not on the agenda Mar and
Champion you're up
first good evening mayor Mattis and
members of the council my name is Maran
champion and I'm from Mission Springs
Water District I have a couple of items
I wanted to share with you all first
mswd is once again hosting a series of
water 101 classes at the Desert Hot
Springs Library the next set of classes
starts October 20th and will run once a
month through January these classes are
free and open to the public to sign up
all you need to do is send an email to
PR mwd.adoptions@us.af.mil
on our website at
mwd.adoptions@us.af.mil tonight and
thank you for your time thank you for
stopping by and giving us that update
Tom Moen I have no other speaker cards
on items not on the agenda if you do
want to speak please fill out a blue
card and give it to the clerk this is
the last
call thank you for allowing me the
privilege to address our awesome
Council I understand that Palm Drive uh
north of uh of 8th will be uh Paving
soon repaving and that's greatly
appreciated and I'd like to point out
that at the intersection of 12 and
palm a lot of cars bang their
bottoms because there's a big dip there
while they're Paving and have the road
worked on could we possibly put in a
four-way stop there and maybe say save
some car bottoms especially of our
tourists and uh
I'd like to address the um Highway 62
Pearson Boulevard intersection
again I note there have been six
fatalities at that
intersection over several
years this is a natural Gateway into our
city and most people just drive by
quickly but if there was a traffic
signal there they need to stop they
could see that we have some good things
to do here this is a destination
community and we need to familiarize
people with our
destinations and then I'd like to add
that I'm
excited about Tranquility Park and uh
that uh uh coming into fruition and
being finished and I encourage us to get
that going and make it a wonderful
beautiful project thank you thank you
Tom we'll get some of your questions
answered I think you'll be happy with at
least one of them um during when we're
done here any other public speakers
tonight anyone would like to speak on an
item that's not on the agenda I see
nobody coming forward we'll close public
comments at this time we're going to
move to City manager's report Mr city
manager good evening mayor and city
council uh we have several updates
tonight I'm going to start with
introducing our new human resources
manager Clyde if you would come up to
the podium and and uh I'll introduce you
so Clyde started with us last month and
he has nearly 20 years of experience in
various positions in Human Resources has
most recently served as the human
resources manager in the regional
Government Services Authority in Carmel
California before coming down here it's
a little warmer down here right and uh
he holds a bachelor's degree in Business
Administration and we welcome him so
Clyde if you would just quickly
introduce yourself oh pleasure to meet
all you distinguished members of the
council
leadership uh it's good to be down here
uh when I was Interview well when I was
looking for a place to get um
municipality experience U I was looking
high and low and then I saw the opening
for Des of hot springs and I said aha
you know with my skill sets were 25
years with where they are and where they
want to go I thought if hired it would
be a perfect match so going through the
process I'm pleased that I've been
selected and in the 3 weeks that I've
been here I've been nothing but excited
about the fertile grounds that you all
are laying for the exciting things to
happen in the future ID like to thank
all the leadership team for the open
welcom me with open arms and showing me
the enthusiasm and the excitement of
what the future might hold I'm just
happy to be a part of that experience
and looking forward to uh what we have
in store moving forward welcome thanks
CDE M okay and now I'm going to move to
our Deputy City Manager for to give an
update good evening mayor city council
and residents I'm just going to give a
quick update on the uh new stvr
enforcement uh that the city was able to
roll out uh starting last Thursday uh
September 29th uh so we had our new uh
security team out there with a staff
member from the compliance department
and over the first weekend we filled
seven uh complaints that came in uh
three of which were actually related to
short-term vacation rentals uh two of
those uh vacation rentals were licensed
one was unlicensed uh four of the
complaints that did come in were
actually uh noise complaints that were
not related to stvs they were noise
complaints uh related to residential um
noise issues uh but they spent the
weekend educating folks and getting
everybody up to date on um what our
noise ordinance are uh for residents and
for short-term vacation rental uh um
Team
and they'll be out again uh next weekend
and every weekend thereafter so just
giving an update on that thanks Doria
and then a quick announcement from our
assistant city manager thank you just
want to remind and invite everybody that
in a couple of Saturdays the city of
desert hos is hosting the de MTO
Festival Saturday October 15th from 4:00
to 9:00 p.m. at the desert hos Springs
Recreation Center it is free to everyone
there will be face painting crafts for
kids food Benders music ler showcase and
we are encouraging everybody to come
dressed up in their Katrina costumes so
hope see are there thanks Danny and now
we we'll move to our finance
update thank you and good evening mayor
and council members uh so as of October
4th these are a revised Financial um or
revised Financial um revenue or
information uh since the end of uh the
month occurred over the weekend um the
taxes and fees that were required to be
paid required to be paid monthly were
not received by I finance the finance
department until yesterday and today so
uh these numbers the original numbers
have been revised to include those items
in there so um so as of October as of
today uh revised revenues are 2.6
million which is 9% of the adopted
budget at the same time last year we had
2.63 million at 9% of the budget and two
years ago was 2.3 million our
expenditures for this fiscal year so far
are 6.4 million which is 211% of the
budget
last year at this time was 7 million at
22% and two years ago was um 6.2 million
at 23% uh the next slide on the next
slide please uh I'd like to show an
update of the revenues um um some of the
major revenues that the city receives
for the general fund and Public Safety
fund our transient occupancy P tax is
actually a little bit higher at this
point than last year so as well as our
uh dispensary tax and the sales tax and
then our utility users tax way down
there at the bottom is only slightly
lower than it was last year but we do
still have some other items that come in
and are still in the and our finance
department is still processing
them thanks Jeffrey and finally uh
update from public works from Nick
haaker good evening at Mission Springs
Park the musco lights uh project uh is
completed the lights are on and located
at the south side of the field a booster
pump is uh now installed at the park and
will increase the water coverage of the
grass at Mission Springs Park
installation was completed last Friday
over seating and watering started
immediately after the booster pump was
installed to get to get the grass back
to normal conditions staff has been
working with DHS Eagles football and
chair and AYSO on storage containers
this project is nearing completion the
contractor is currently pulling wiring
for electrical to supply power to the
inside of the shipping containers these
storage containers will allow the two
youth organizations to keep their
equipment and supplies on site Palm
Drive North project the Palm Drive North
project will start on Monday October
10th this project is located on Palm
Drive from Pearson Boulevard to Mission
Lakes Boulevard for the last few weeks
the changeable me signs have been posted
on Palm Drive notifying the public of
the upcoming Capital Improvement project
excluding weather and other outside
influences this project is scheduled to
conclude in February
2023 iron we in MOS Nick before you go
on from that can you just answer the
question on the stop four-way stop sign
at 12 Street not a problem yeah that was
actually originally part of the
agreement for the design so Tom they're
going to put a four-way stop there
uh Ironwood and mosquite the four-way
stop this inquiry was brought up at a
previous uh council meeting uh in public
comment an engineer study and stop sign
installation was already already in the
works the contractor that will install
the Stop Bar and Legend is currently
getting the city business license public
works will coordinate with the
contractor to install the stop signs at
the same time of the installation of the
Stop Bar and legends staff has been in
contact with and giving updates to the
resident that uh presented the quiry
this concludes public works thanks Nick
that concludes my report thanks City
M they're not on agenda so if you open
up questions that could cause an agenda
item I would prefer that you ask those
during your comments generally but if
you're going to cause us not to be able
to comment on it it would not be
fair
thanks um with that is that anything I'm
sorry was that it that concludes my
report move to May counc member comments
I'll start on this side tonight miss
P okay the regional Access Project on
October
16th is scheduling nonprofit desert fast
pitch and one of those persons that are
in the entry is food now
um last week we did we had 14 people and
now we have six and food now is one of
them um the the keynote speaker is
Jackie journer kiry and she's the
three-time Olympic gold
medalist also the airport commission has
been having a lot of meetings and the
next one is on the six and it's um a
special meeting to report on
branding and that's it Mr n thank you Mr
Mayor um the only thing I have was I met
uh with CP econom IC partnership uh last
week um Cod dides a presentation they
recognized the city of desert hot
springs for bringing on some interns
from um Cod students coming as political
science to help intern for the city so
we got u a good handshake for that for
for uh bringing on those internships the
other item I had uh Mr Mayor our
assistant city manager did well in in
that item was welcome to deos mortos
event coming up um on the 15th thank you
what time is that event starts at 4 four
thanks Mr
Gardner uh thank you Mr Mayor um wanted
to uh first of all let folks know about
our new big dog park up and running and
being well used by our residents uh we
expanded the fenced in area at Rotary
Park up behind Corsini Elementary School
for a fenced area for larger dogs and we
put in water fountains for people and
pups they're installed and working um my
dog Miss Luna and I visited every dog
park in the valley and I can honestly
say that this one is without a doubt one
of the best if not the best in the
valley the views at Sunset are
absolutely amazing it's a nice size
welld designed uh there's a big area for
big dogs and a small area for smaller
dogs and I want to give a good shout out
to our public work staff for a fantastic
job and if anybody has their dog needs
to run that's the place to go um we've
all been hearing about and a lot of us
have been bitten up uh pretty bad by
mosquitoes this year and I spent a day
with the general manager of the mosquito
in vector control district serving on
the on the board there as our City's
representative uh learning about
mosquitoes and our abatement efforts
here in desert hot springs and they set
a trap in my backyard overnight and we
caught a number of mosquitoes to my
surprise including 80s AG ey which
are the ones that carry diseases as well
as a bunch of what are called Southern
house mosquitoes
which are kind of nasty but they don't
carry diseases we went out then the next
day with a tech as he inspected
locations and treated them and we
actually do have a lot more mosquitoes
than ever before here in desert hot
springs so all of us can do our part by
making sure we don't have any standing
water anywhere in our yards and and
that's everywhere from underneath your
your your potted plants uh to where your
uh drier vent drips out uh hot water
vent drips out things like that um and
if you are experiencing problems you can
call Coachella Valley mosquito vector
control
76342
8287 or go online to CV
mosquito. org and they will schedule a
tech to come treat areas that are
breeding at no cost to you because that
is part of the taxes that you pay to the
mosquito District um so please uh take
care of it yourself or if you need help
you can give them a buzz uh had a great
groundbreaking at the habitat for
humanities two new houses here in desert
hot springs got to meet two new families
who were moving to the city GHA homes
the folks who did AA doce um are helping
build the homes and we got to get some
uh welcome some great two new families
to the city uh later that day uh we all
went to the uh all Valley mayor and
tribal Chairman's lunch where mayor
Mattis gave a good update on what's
going on here in DHS turns kind of every
year it's kind of a fun event because
all of the Mayors have to one up
themselves and who can put on the best
little show and all of that stuff and it
was good afternoon and lastly attended a
visit GPS board meeting um that's the
old convention and visitors bureau uh
and the forecast for tourism is up for
this coming year we're seeing levels of
pre-booking that are back to our pan
pre- pandemic levels so we should see a
lot of visitors to the valley this fall
and our new hiking map hiking trail map
that we developed with the city visit
GPS and the mountains conserv
I thought I was going to be able to show
off here tonight it didn't quite make it
back from the printer so I'll just tease
it by saying we're going to show it off
in a couple of weeks that's all I've got
thank you Mr bets all Gary um thanks for
the job you're doing there at the C the
mosquito inor control district you've
been real helpful we had mosquitoes at
our house you helped getting the um the
crew out there I was going to suggest
maybe a presentation I might be in order
to get the information out to the public
um if the mayor be so inclined uh you
learn a lot when they come out and walk
around your property go oh I didn't see
that little puddle of water there so U
maybe that would be something maybe very
informative son thanks for the job
you're doing down there um what I was
going to bring up during the city
managers report was mission Springs Park
field conditions getting complaints over
dust and I think the over seating is the
cause and my understanding was the
people used to stay off the fields
during the over seating but or not this
year and I think maybe we should look at
Alternatives other than over seating see
if there's another way to handle this um
I know there's always people out there
saying you know stop the over seating
because it's causing a lot of dust
otherwise something's got to happen but
social media was a buzz with people
complaining about barely able to see
their children on the field for all the
dust that was being kicked up um I'm
glad to hear we got the uh vacation
rental hotline number going do we know
what that number
is oh uh yes we do know what that number
is I we do and just and if you don't
know the number you can also go to the
city website and on the front page uh
right in the center is s uh short-term
vacation rentals and it'll take you
right to the uh to you can either report
it online or it gives you the number
there too okay I don't actually know it
yet I was so anxious to have this happen
and then and then you guys put this in
all quietly and I was looking for a big
splash and of noise so if we could can
we announce it now I know there bun
people waiting so the vacation rental
hotline number is 760 894
3745 perfect thank you and
um the um just a couple of things I know
we're always looking for um I'll say I
attended a grid Alternatives meeting I'm
working with a program with them uh
they've got how many is 35 installations
here in the city which is sold for
lowincome residents which provides them
solar at no cost uh we had a funding
round here where we filled all 35 we got
our most of our share of those here in
our city um they had so many for the
Cella Valley this end of the Cella
Valley and we got a bunch of them so I'm
working with them to see what
possibilities there are um to get more
and there might be an opportunity for
City participation and get together with
the mayor and see how we can get that on
an agenda for consideration for the
council
but this is just a great program um
people ending up with not just no
electric bill but no bill for the solar
panels these are free it's been going on
here for about 5 years very effective
program and we's see if we can get that
going further the only the meetings I
attended were the um Cabots board
meeting uh nothing really to report
there everybody's doing a good job they
seem to always have a handle on things
attended sunline still working on labor
contract issues there um trying to um
get the bus route back to normal I how
important it is for everybody to have
those buses every 20 minutes um still
struggling with hiring issues um Gary
gave a great uh presentation on the
habitat ground parading I'll just say it
was good to be there and um to see that
going on in our city and then this
coming Thursday I go up to Southern
California Association governments in
Los Angeles for my Transportation
committee there other than that Mr Mayor
I'm done thank you um
let's see let's put all this in order
here I wanted to address the mission
Springs Park issue also uh I know we've
had a lot of comments a lot of calls uh
we wanted to make it very clear that
there was a very expensive uh pump that
had to be replaced no one in the city
does our hot springs nor our public
works department purposely would keep
the water off to make it unsafe for our
residents but this has been a battle
we've had every year do the kids get the
space do they not get the space do we
have to find locations for them to have
space or not and so this year we chose
to just let them continue to play and
unfortunately that pump booster went out
the booster pump went out and it was a
costly fix uh supply chain issues
whatever it was to get it done it is
done it is being watered we're doing our
best we can uh for the kids of our
community and I don't think anyone would
want to put Public Health as an issue
for our kids um so we we're doing our
best uh the executive committee for seag
met and I sit on that for the
representing Desert Hot Springs the uh
one agenda item uh that I wanted to talk
about was I was trying to pull it up
here so I would correctly say the item
but it's basically the blows sand study
uh which is the design and Engineering
Services for the Western Coachella
Valley uh flooding and blow sand
projects uh this has been a big
discussion for years obviously a pep PE
of mine This is actually the uh closures
of Indian palm C or Palm Drive and
Barner uh these are only three
identified areas right now but it will
lead to a larger project in the future
uh we've been we moved this project
forward multiple times we had a study
done we went out for engineering and
design and uh one firm applied for it
and they tried to extend it to get more
firms just there wasn't any interest in
it the current firm uh was approved by
the executive committee and now it will
be going to uh design uh which is really
really important for this project once
it's designed we know the exact cost
that's when the U Association of
governments can actually go out and try
to find funing funding to get these
roadways to stay open so the bigest
bigger the big discussion is obviously
the flooding that closes those roads but
the bigger discussion is the roads are
closed more because of the wind and sand
events so how do we um think outside the
box and get that fixed but I'm pushing
on that I think we've got a good
Coalition and we've got a pathway now
with the design and hopefully some uh
funding in the
future also had a corly meeting with
supervisor Perez talked about couple
issues that are facing our city that the
county can help with and we'll have more
of an update on that
soon I also have been appointed to the
Palm Springs development project phase
one uh Advisory Group which is basically
the College of the Desert West Campus uh
there's a handful of people that were
appointed each trustee was uh to appoint
a person or two uh to the committee and
I am one that was appointed by our
trustee B Gonzalez uh for the College of
the Desert we had our first meeting uh
it was disced question on where the
buildings will lie in the Palm Springs
site in Palm Springs and how big they
will be and how much space will be
utilized there's going to be six more
meetings I'll keep you posted there
wasn't a lot but just basic a general
information put into this meeting to
start with I kept my comments uh to
myself for this meeting so I wanted to
kind of listen to what everything else
be discussed in which direction they're
going also I've been asked to speak in
front of the College of the Desert this
Friday at a special meeting uh or
special study session on uh services for
City Desert Hot Springs uh there's two
other uh entities one other city and
another community that will be speaking
also on services for their cities or
areas and so it'll be a good Spotlight
for us to be able
to vent or I want to say vent because
it's always been a frustration for us
here with Cod services but it'll be an
opportunity for us to speak in front of
the board and be able to talk about the
history and what cood has or has not
done for the city of Desert Hot
Springs uh let's see Habitat for
Humanity was talked about this is a
great project we brought this forth to
the city council earlier this year to
approve some of our housing funds to pay
for some of the development fees and
stuff like that to help this project the
more we can bring down on the fees and
the more that the contractor can get
donated the uh the homeowners are able
to finance less and which is great for
them we will have two new homeowners in
town they're residents of Desert Hot
Springs already and now they own a home
there's one on Mission Lakes one on
Flora you'll start to see construction I
think on the floor site first and then
Mission Lakes not follow follow not far
after that and again the home builder as
mentioned is GJ Holmes who's been
building homes in this community for a
while now and he's a good partner with
the guella valley so very thrilled about
that uh as was mentioned also I attended
the all Valley Mayors this happens every
year all the tribal leaders and all the
Mayors are invited to speak at the
greater a Palm Springs Chamber of
Commerce event each year once a year to
talk about our cities we are given five
minutes to talk about our city which you
cannot do in five minutes so we usually
do a brief discussion I hit a couple
points and asked everybody to come to
the state of the city state of the city
this year will be November 17th at the
health and wellness center uh hosted by
the greater uh greater Palm no greater
Coachella Valley Coachella Valley thank
you there's these greater Cella valleys
greater Palm Spring there's too many of
them our Chamber of Commerce for the
city does Hot Springs we'll be hosting
that event and I hope you can all come
out cu I think we have a lot of great
information to talk about the city of
desert hot
springs and then tomorrow is
international walk to school day
unfortunately I will not be able to do
it this year but I know their council
members are mulling it over in their
schedule to see if they can last year we
were able to walk with C Yorks
Elementary School from the state BL
shopping center to their school uh so I
just want to give everybody heads up if
you see a lot of kids out there walking
to school it's not because their parents
said go walk to school it's because it's
International walk to school day and the
principals are are joining in on this
exercise so be cautious out there when
you're driving around I know a lot of us
are in a hurry to get to where we need
to go but be extra cautious tomorrow is
a lot of kids should will be on the
street in certain Pathways to their
schools and with that said that's all I
have so we're going to move to the next
item and before we open it up I want to
let the city council know um it was
brought to my attention literally
minutes before the meeting that there is
a an error in the fee study in one area
and because of that uh we are asked to
table this item till the 18th of October
which will be our next meeting I will be
opening up the public hearing because
anybody that would like to speak on this
has to have that opportunity and then
we'll we'll leave the public hearing
open and table the idol to item to the
18th now I'm not going to ask for a
staff report obviously we'll be coming
back the 18th if there's any questions
that you have to ask today I would allow
them to be asked so that staff can
research those questions uh but i' ask
that you stay brief as this item is
going to be tabled or I'm asking it to
be tabled to the 18th is there anybody
on the city council that would like to
ask a question before I open the public
hearing take any testimony and keep the
public hearing open and ask for a motion
to
continue I see nobody coming forth I'll
open the public hearing at this time is
there anybody like to make any sort of
testimony in favor opposed or neutral on
this item this is the resolution
adopting revised user fee schedule item
number four public hearing the only
public hearing item today I see nobody
coming forth they have an opportunity on
the 18th they will the public hearing
will stay open and will take more
testimony at that time um so yes they
will I have no other comments I'll
entertain a motion to continue this item
to the 18th Mr Mayor motion to continue
to U what is it October 18th correct
second I have a motion and whoever wants
to punch in their second
first you guys can whoever's quick at
the
draw please
vote Mr Solano I don't have the
ability and I vote
Yes motion passes
uny thank you we'll go to our
administrative calendars we have no
other public hearings tonight we'll go
to administrative calendar and the first
item on the administrative calendar is
the item number five which is Adopt a
resolution authorizing Park Grant
applications for the proposition 68 per
cap capita grant program Mr haker is
that going to be you yes sir awesome
good evening the city of desert hos
Springs was allocated
$177,900 in prop 68 per capita funding
and the general per capita program in
addition to the general per capita
program the city of desert hos Springs
was allocated one or
$1,654 in Urban County County per capita
Grant General per capita program funds
are available for local Park
Rehabilitation creation and imp uh
Improvement Grants to local governments
on per capita basis Urban County per
capita funds are available for per
capita grants to cities and districts in
urbanized counties a county with a
population of
50,000 500,000 or more provoking uh
providing Parks and Recreation services
within a jurisdiction of 200,000 or less
in
population the process to OB retain
These funds is initiated by city council
adopting a resolution authorizing the
city manager to apply to the per capita
program adoption of the resolution
expresses the city council's agreement
with the state funding contract and
confirming the city council will
complete operate and maintain the grant
funding projects the resolution also
designates the city manager to represent
the city and execute all documents and
negotiations on behalf of the city
staff's recommendation is to adopt a
resolution of the city council
authorizing the city manager to file an
applic
with the city department or with the
California Department of parks
Recreations office of Grants and local
services to receive funding for the prop
68 per capita grant program that
concludes my
report CH my mic off I'll open it up for
public comments this time I do have a
written or an asked a speaker card for a
public comment Andrew
R good evening uh Mr Mayor and Council
thank for the opportunity to speak
tonight uh I'd like to talk about the uh
Parks project and specifically the
corporation uh corporate yard uh park
proposal uh thanks to those of you that
responded to my message uh a few weeks
ago uh really appreciate that um on
support of myself and my on behalf of my
neighbors and myself uh we strongly
support the Corp yard Park project I see
in the staff report uh the resolution to
apply for some grant funding and that's
fantastic the state and the federal
government have hundreds of millions of
dollars literally hundreds hundreds of
millions of dollarss in Grant funds
available for projects just like this
desert hot springs is underserved in
Parks acreage per population which is
targeted in many of these grants and we
have a design an approved squid document
and the city already owns the land for
this uh Corp yard park proposal which
makes it a really compelling and
attractive project and would probably
qualify for a huge Grant if not more
than one Grant now we're at a unique
time these grants won't be around for
forever uh the economy is changing
building materials and construction
costs are going up and we won't be in
this unique position forever so the time
to strike is now while the iron is hot
as they say and they also say go big or
go home so let's go big this part could
be a real gem for the city and part of
this council's Legacy to be the ones to
implement it now lastly a small pitch
for those of us in the neighborhood um
on the northwest corner of the lot where
the existing uh City Corp yard is um
it's fallen into disrepair it's got some
dilapidated Cyclone Fence and razor wire
uh piles of dirt and rocks and broken
Metals uh broken metal and barbed wire I
know it's a maintenance yard um but I'd
like to request that the parks effort
could include some upkeep of the
facility some new fencing or some light
Landscaping uh of that northwest corner
so that it could look as good as the
rest of the park project uh hopefully
does in the future uh maybe there's some
room room in the grant proposals to
include some uh revitalization of that
facility or even expand the park into
the unused property with more parking or
uh Sports Fields as was mentioned
earlier playgrounds or volleyball courts
or whatever other Park uh facilities
might be needed over there uh if there's
anything we can do as residents to help
please let us know if the grants need uh
support letters or a signature Drive I'd
be happy to talk to my neighbors and I'm
sure they would be willing to U support
this as enthusiastically as I am thank
thank you thank you Andrew any other
comments from the public on this
item I see nobody coming forth I'll
close public
comments um I just I get really
passionate about this kind of stuff you
know parks are so important to our youth
and to our residents here in do hot
springs and as the speaker just made
said it's we're way underserved and so
moving forth with this is so important
so we can get some funding and get these
Parks build we have a park in Rano
that's been on the books for 25 years
and never been built we have that choya
Park which we were all excited about a
couple years ago came forth but we got
to find funding and let alone all the
pocket parks and everything else we can
do so whatever we can do to move this
forward I'm I'm totally supportive of it
Miss P Mr Nas yes the only thing I have
is uh so Mr city manager with this
resolution if more money comes available
will you have to reapply for this or
this would automatically put us in the
running for it uh I I think the amount
has already been set for this particular
resolution it's based on a formula yeah
it's based on a formula but if if more
is on this per capita it's per year then
yeah we would we would be um available
for us to receive it okay will we have
to do a new resolution next year or the
next time around I am not sure about
that but we can find out is there any
way we can put this forth where we don't
have to do a resolution you just
automatically go forward you have our
permission I mean you have my permission
anyways to move forward with any monies
that come available for for parks and
recs just to automatically do it rather
then coming to us you know and we're
waiting for a resolution okay so I think
the question is is can we pass a
resolution that we would use for all
Grant applications is that what you're
asking yes okay we can definitely look
into that this particular one is
specifically for the grant that's the
subject but we can look into that
question as well thank you Mr great
question uh Mr
bits um yeah on that last part I would
like to see grants come to the council
so we can decide if that's a grant that
we want to go after although you know I
think most of them are all going to
agree with but I would like to see that
I'm not sure if I understood you or not
but definitely would like to see the
every time there's a grant go out there
bring it to us and say hi is this one
you want to pursue I think we may decide
there's one we do or don't want to
pursue in favor of another whatever um
is and we have a list of projects that
were um talked about is any of this
funding going towards those so we had
the the public speaker talk about
corporate yard Park is this funding here
specific spefic for
that and so we we do have a meeting with
the rep from uh from the state program
from the state park program and we'll go
over the projects that we do have on
list and see which ones would uh be
applicable okay and we've got the
Wardman Park pool that was on that list
of projects that were going much uh much
announced and don't seem to be going
anywhere is bman park pool on that list
also yeah all the all the projects that
we have on the on the CIP list for
projects was on there okay good good all
right that's all I had thank you Mr
Gardner um following up on what Mr Raph
was bringing about too somebody walks
past corporate corporate yard every day
he does a valid point that the fencing
and everything there is in rather bad
condition and you know this partk could
be a year or two down the road before we
can really turn shovel and start doing
anything on it do we have any plans to
just kind of pretty up corporate yard
for now for the Neighbors in that
area we we don't right now but we could
absolutely do something to clean up the
area over
there sure you brought up another good
point Gary can we do something to make
corporate yard Park not look so ugly for
the neighbors that are surrounding
it I part of the Corp Park actually goes
all the way around the entire perimeter
Landscaping a nice entrance everything
all the way around the entire property
so I think there's something we could
probably do to make that a little more
attractive for the Neighbors it's
looking pretty ratty uh you know on one
of those streets think that's you're
talking about I don't think we have to
wait for a grant to get that done but if
we're talking about cleaning things up
we might want to deal with that
one all right um there's no other
comments on the board on entertain a
motion I move that we uh that we U adopt
the resolution on the park Grant
application for proposition 68
second so a motion second if there's no
other comments please vote
motion passes
unanimously item number six is the
annual utility users tax report Mr Buck
all right thank you so currently the
city of Desert Hot Springs um levies a
7% utility users tax on electric gas
telecommunications video and water and
sewer utilities pursuant to section
3.28 one9 of the city's Municipal Code
an annual report on the utility users
tax revenue and expenditures must be
made to the city Council um so for
fiscal year 2122 the city received
3,867 547 in utility user tax of that
amount
2,488 623,000 went to the public safety
fund and was entirely spent on Public
Safety um and the remaining 1, 378,000
24 went to The Debt Service fund and
then was entirely spent on uh paying
down the city's debt uh at this time I
do not recommend any change to the tax
rate do we have any public comments on
this would anybody like to comment on
item six annual utility users tax report
I see nobody coming forth with close
public comments do I have any comments
by the Das entertain a motion so moved
Mr Mayor I have a motion is there a
second Mr Mayor this item is received in
file oh
sorry you don't need file awesome any
was there any there was no questions all
right we received and file this report
and we'll move forth to
item we'll move on to item number seven
discuss on funding for neighborhood
State revitalization and small business
incentives this is sponsored by myself
and council member Nunes I'll start and
I'll give it over to Mr Nunes in a
second um we uh joined forces on kind of
a cleanup neighborhood cleanup program
and it kind of morphed into what we
wanted to present
today um I asked Jim nadell who is on
our Planning Commission and Jack
uh Deo who has been uh a
community liaison and partner for with
us for a long time and they both worked
on the former cleanup committee and it
was a very large committee and kind of
dissolved uh due to the chairman having
other responsibilities and other people
having responsibilities uh so I asked
these two to join us in presenting a
program uh that would be
more uh I don't even know the proper
word here but it would be more organized
and it would meet more of our need of
the cleanup of our community our uh code
enforcement manager uh Christina she's
done a lot of work uh on presenting some
of the program and so I don't want to
take any of her Thunder because she's
done a lot of great work out there with
our community and presented some ideas
to us uh the one there's three prongs to
this program one is to pick a
neighborhood get in there identify the
homes that are actually homeowners and
be able to give them grant funding
similar to to the uh revitalization
program through RDA uh back many years
ago which we would give a grant to a
home for a certain period of time and be
relieved over time that they lived in
that home this is similar to that not as
much funding for it but similar to that
we want to get the neighborhoods paint
houses fix roofs replace windows fix
yards those those would be the
committee's real focus is to identify
those neighborhoods and get in there and
uh proceed with that working with our
code enforcement department
we also another prog of this is getting
into our small business community and
really helping those a lot of them have
suffered through covid don't have a lot
of extra funding to make sure their
signs and paint and Landscaping are
taken care of this isn't corporate
companies this is small business owners
in our community and helping them fund
those programs and I let Christina to
talk a little bit more about this in a
minute um and then the third prong to
this is uh going out to our schools and
educating people we can go clean up lots
every day and 3 months later that lot
needs to be cleaned up again and and
it's really Noble to do that and I
appreciate everyone that does that but
it's not getting to the root of the
problem which is people dumping or
leaving their trash open or whatever it
is one of the biggest concerns from our
trash hauler is people do not tie their
trash up when they put it in their bends
and when they go to open and dump it
into the truck on our therapeutic Breezy
days uh it ends up blowing out and
blowing all over the city so there's a
lot of Education that can be done and we
figured if we get to our educational
levels of our El elementary schools and
middle schools and high school and talk
to the kids a lot of times they'll
educate their parents a lot on this so
our our first initial kickoff will be uh
coming later this month we'll make that
announcement but we're going to Target
two schools that are going to partner
with us and do a week-long educational
program in that school uh from Desert
Valley Disposal has an education
education person that will do that for
us and then we'll spend the last day the
Saturday morning of that week uh going
out and doing some cleanup around the
school and helping those kids identify
how this process works with waste with
that said I really wanted to give some
time to uh Christina to talk about the
uh Business program and the neighborhood
program but before I do that anything
you like to add Mr
NZ uh thank you Mr Mayor yeah the only
thing I would say is Christina is very
vital to this program and making sure it
works so I want to thank Christina
anything you need from me you know
please just let me know I think what's
important too is that when we go out to
these houses to to help a senior or
someone that can afford or having issues
um getting the work done is that we find
resources for them not just go in there
and clean it up and then they're set you
know for two three months that we know
that they're going to be set up with
services that they qualify for uh
through the county or to the city or
even through the state to make sure that
they're they don't get behind the way
they did the reason why we got involved
um so working with Christine I think is
going to be great um
looking forward to it thank you this
do good evening so I think uh councilman
nun has kind of hit the nail on the head
we're out there every single day you
know attempting to enforce codes in
residential neighborhoods and Commercial
zones and the thing that we always hear
is you know does the city have any
resources and can they lend any
resources because a lot of time people
they want to comply they want to
complete these corrective actions they
simply don't have the means to do so and
so um this will give us those resources
that we so desperately need in the
community um you know especially with
respect to small business it's one of
the things that we hear all the time
that you know they're still recovering
from covid and they they need an extra
hand and it can be something as simple
as just getting proper signage or you
know fixing a dilapidated sign or you
know their retaining wall was hit by a
car and they just can't recover from it
so uh having these resources and being
able to use our expertise in Code
Enforcement to lend you know appropriate
candidates and qualified candidates um
every day we are faced you know and
making hard decisions with respect to
enforcement in our residential
neighborhoods because we have a lot of
you know members of the community that
simply can't afford to put in landscape
ground cover things that we think are
simple fixes they aren't simple fixes
when you don't have the financial means
so I'm really excited to kind of just
lend our experience and expertise to get
this
going awesome is there anything from the
committee that you'd like to add that I
missed Jackie you're not shy come on
Jim's a little shy sometimes but he's
the brains behind our operation I'm just
looking to Christina to give us those
locations so that we can you know you
give us the the the the the properties
and we will go and take care of it and
get everybody on board and make sure
that the homeowners have their taxes and
that they're not renters and they single
family homes and the things that the
city wants to to to do so Jim and I are
ready to rock and roll you like to say
something I'd just like to say I'm most
excited about the uh the portion of this
broad act relatively broad activity that
involves the businesses to
award I'm not sure what we're going to
call some of these things yet but small
grants basically $10,000 grants as much
as to uh mom and pop small businesses in
town who need a facelift front of the
store needs a paint job you know new
paint um Landscaping new signage
improved signage that type of thing um I
it would be nice to give a lot of
businesses on Palm Drive especially a
facelift and it may actually encourage
other businesses to Fork out some money
themselves and and do some of their own
um Improvement uh to keep up with the
Joneses so to speak um I think a lot of
people are ready for a little a little
bit of a facelift down Palm Drive and
that's why I'm excited about it so thank
you good for you guys' participation in
this and other thing I'd like to add is
that we are looking at qualified vendors
licensed vendors of desert hot springs
and when they do apply we will be
managing the correct work to be done so
it's not someone's going to slap some
paint on there and then want ,000 $2,000
in reimbursement we're going to have
they're going to have to qualify with a
licensed painter that's licensed are Hot
Springs to do the work and we're going
to try to vet those uh vendors and make
sure so if we get into neighborhoods
that we'll have landscapers and roofers
and people that are already vetted ready
to go and we can get them on board uh
anything I miss
guys thing I'm going to ask question
from me in a minute one other thing
Russell had mentioned solar and I know
that there's a lot of programs that
these 10 homes that we're going to uh
Target we can actually get them solar if
we can get their roof
passed that'll be free so that's an
option also to add to the program so I
think that'll make Russell happy and I
really want I really want people to
realize this is a pilot to start with so
we're going to see how it works and
whatever we have to strengthen and we
find things like Jackie found solar and
if there's other things we find when
we're out there that we'll be able to
bring it back to the council and and
just kind of massage this into a bigger
and better program over time that will
be sustainable uh I'll open up to
council for comments uh Mr Gardner you
had your hand raised thank you Mr Mayor
um when I read this on the agenda I was
wow this is great um I want to commend
both you and council member Nunes for
all of the thought and work you put into
it as well as the community members who
are stepping forward on this I really uh
I'm going to Echo what Mr Nelle said
about uh about the grants to help give
some face lfts along Palm Drive I think
that's going to be fantastic and the
point you raised Mr Mayor about
education I was going to glad you
brought that up because that is a key
part of that I think if we can start uh
educating people exactly those kind of
things bagging up your trash not just
throwing it out in the can on those
windy days don't go dump in the desert
don't go you know all of those things
I've noticed a a mark remarkable uh uh
transformation in the last year of the
efforts that we put forward to address
desert dumping it is noticeably
noticeably cleaner somebody who goes out
in the desert almost every other day
hiking I I really noticed a drop in that
and uh I think staff has too cuz they're
not getting an email from me every
morning with a pile of trash on it that
that go pick this up so uh I know I do
one a week now it's kind of nice but I
think this is fantastic I'm really
excited to see how you guys bring this
together and like you said it will
evolve over time and get a little bit
better and we can we can really um we
can really make some major improvements
in this town and do some of the things
that we see some of our other Valley
Cities doing when it comes to grants for
helping rehab homes and businesses and
stuff that we've not been able to do up
till now until we've been in a fiscal
position that we've been in so good job
and I'm excited to support
it yeah there's a lot here that's very
attractive you guys have done a good job
putting this together um very
comprehensive looks like you've touched
a lot of good areas um Apparent at some
point in time they're going to be coming
to the council with a request or an
authorization for 500,000 is my
understanding
right that's what the request is tonight
the request we're approving 500,000 so
if if you read the staff report it's
been identified from uh staff which you
can answer the question where that money
is coming from and that's the pilot is
to start okay I see I just saw discuss
and provide direction is what I saw in
the agenda item I didn't see in the
recommendation it's 500,000 okay but I
didn't see an action item to actually
approve the
spending am
I yeah go
ahead discuss the recommendation does
say um discuss and provide direction to
staff but under the discussion of the
item uh it does say the committee is
requesting funding in the amount of
$500,000 to be utilized for the creation
of neighborhood and Commercial
beautification programs in the city okay
200 do you want me to continue no that's
good okay okay so um I'm usually used to
seeing that on the agenda titles and so
okay that's my confusion there um and
some of the things here this isn't maybe
the most glamorous thing on the crime
prevention through environmental design
uh I remember when Pat Williams was here
he was was chief he was really big on
that in fact remember down there at the
Dollar General he insisted that they
take care of those trees that were at
the back so when the police car went
down there they had a sight line to the
store and I don't know what happened if
the new Dollar General fits the sight
line guidelines but I think Planning
Commission if this is going to be a
focus we need to reinvigorate that
review process in the Planning
Commission approval of these projects I
don't I would guess that Dollar General
is a little bit challenged on police
being able to drive by and see what's
going on there um the other thing is
you're talking about the schools and the
L it's a great idea if you go take a
look you know on some of these cleanups
that we've done on the lots downwind of
Quick Quack Car Wash what you're going
to find most often is the towels and the
plastic wrappers that they give out um
you'll pick lots of those out of that
lot that's immediately down with into
them so we may want to go include in
your you know your efforts um telling
businesses high this practice it sounds
great to give your customers this wipe
but they're all ending up as litter in
the desert so we'd prefer that you not
do that maybe take a look and see what's
going on there's same thing is with
telling people to wrap up their trash
bags
um and then you know as you mentioned we
had a program like this before and I
don't my view is it wasn't real managed
well managed I think we need to do a
better job if we're going to do that
this time uh we had contractor problems
we had people getting $5,000 worth of
work done on their homes and they'd call
us and say I don't know what you guys
spent 5,000 on but this doesn't look
like anything that was worth 5,000 so if
we're going to be putting money into
these homes need to be a real careful
selection of the contractors um and then
finally I know we're always focused on
Palm Drive but for life of me I can't
figure out how we had council members
for years living out on Henda
at the end of Henda and driving that
every day not making a stronger pitch to
get hasienda into the beautification
program for this city the um some of the
most vital important uh businesses to
the city the spa Boutique Spa hotels are
located out that drive and I got to say
hos Enda between I know we're getting
ready to do some work there but we're
not going far enough you take a look at
some of the businesses out there don't
just limit this to Palm Drive we got to
start thinking of Henda and and other
places so that would be my
um my concern so if I can get some
guarantee from the if we're going to
vote on 500,000 tonight is that budgeted
is where's that coming
from fiscal impact uh so if I may Mr
Mayor yes please um so for that portion
the actual budget appr Appropriations
that would come into that so count
receive and file and get um direction
that would come to the council with the
m the fiscal year 2 year 22 3 budget
adjustments which will be coming to the
Council on the 18th okay so we so if you
approve this then we'll include that in
those budget adjust okay so we're
basically giving you a vote here to go
ahead and put that in the budget
probably could you talk about where the
funding is coming I I can so uh funding
for these programs would be available
using the arpa funding the American
Rescue plan act funds uh which has a
balance of almost $5 million uh for
certain eligible expenditures Housing
Authority funds may be ized for the
program um and those funds are and I'm
going to estimate it I'm not just going
to give an approximate it's about $1.5
million that's available there so if
approved these items as Jeffrey just
mentioned would be added to the fiscal
year 2223 budget adjustments which would
come before the city council for
approval um on at the October 18th
meeting so next meeting so then it is
coming for a future meeting for the
actual final budget authorization so
that's good and so you know like I said
no I I'm sorry it wouldn't so the
funding would be approved today uh
however Jeffrey would just roll it in
with the midyear but the funding we
would be able to move forward straight
away with the program if it was approved
tonight playing around with semantics
here a little bit I'm just trying to get
clear on where the money's coming from
and how's it going so thanks for the
explanation the um so I'm it looks like
a great program I'm think somebody's
done a great job and I know the
community members that have pitched in
on this have had a big help I'm sure and
um I just want to make sure we go back
and look at when we try this before and
it didn't work so well that we make sure
that we don't duplicate that past effort
that we actually get what we want out of
this um you know me to do a real good
vetting of the contractors that are
going to be involved in this
program so that's all I got I'm take it
one of you is going to want to make the
motion well I still have another council
member might want to make comments and
yes I think Roger and I would like to
make the motion a second so um and just
to answer one of your questions we did
make sure we vetted the amounts that we
would want and what was reasonable to
start the program and that there was
funding available through those uh
Avenues so we're not taking directly out
of the general fund these are funds that
are available through the federal
government and the housing element and
so we're not going to take an impact on
our general fund budget so we wanted to
make that very clear and again it's a
working document and I don't think we
specified that it had to only be small
businesses on Palm Drive we can do
Pearson we can do Henda these are small
business owners that are in need in our
community I think we focus on Palm Drive
a lot because most of us see that and
there are a lot of needs on Palm Drive
but this is open for code enforcement to
be able to utilize our whole business
community so I hope that answers your
questions Miss P do you have any
comments yes I think this is an
excellent program for all of you and I
understand that you're going to later
find out if this is where you want to go
however I don't think that this is
enough I think this what you're asking
for is fine but I would like for it to
be
also uh an earmark in the next two years
uh you can do this
today but you still need to continue it
so I would say um please make it for the
next two
years and with that you can come back
and say this is what we did and this is
how we did it and I want to say it's
kind of where we were going with this
knowing that we only had about a half a
year left in this current budget cycle
so we wanted to identify some funding
that was available today but if the
program is successful then we would want
to roll it into the next fiscal next
two-year fiscal cycle um and see how it
works so I want to reassure you that was
a discussion I think that's where we're
going so appreciate the support on that
Mr Nas would you want to move the item
uh sure I'll move um see this word this
right here number it's not a discussion
uh we're giv clear Direction so um I
would
move
uh the requesting of funding for
$500,000 uh to be utilized for the
neighborhood and Commercial
beautification program in the city of
desert hot springs and I will second it
once you push the move button
there and please vote
motion pass unanimously and again thank
you to the subc committ that's working
with us thank you very much thank you to
all the staff and all your hard work on
this and and especially Christina for
putting these programs together and
giving us the uh the fore thoughts on
how this should really run absolutely
and I hope I can see staff and um more
community members and the residents out
to when we do these events I think it'd
be great to to show that we're all in it
to to make sure the city thrives so
awesome I saw the vote Gerald did you
announce the vote I saw the vote on
there I don't know if did you announce
it okay um with that said we uh have no
more items on our agenda there is a
public comments now if anybody didn't
speak at the beginning of the meeting
that would like to speak now I see
nobody coming forth the next uh items up
on the calendar are the Planning
Commission will meet on October 11th the
public safety Commission on 13th the
next council meeting will be on the 18th
and then we move into election day on
November 1st uh be safe out there and
and we are adjourned