Still? >> I was hoping that six.
You all set to go?
Okay. >> [snorts]
» You getting the customer service?
I know it was the longest minute. Only when you watch
it try to boil.
Good evening. Call this meeting to order. Please stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance. And Ms. Robin is going to lead us.
» Ready? Begin.
» I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. >> And Pastor Michelle from Oasis Community
Church is >> Yes.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege and the
opportunity to come before you on behalf of our council members and our city.
I thank you tonight for our servants, our mayor, our city manager, the staff,
our council members, first responders, and military. I give thanks that those
who have chosen to take up a life of service on behalf of our community and
nation. I ask you to give our leaders your wisdom to make decisions that you
would strengthen and prosper the city of Twentynine Palms and its citizens.
I pray that our city council members would have humble hearts to serve, that
their motives for everything would be pure and that they would make right
decisions concerning the social welfare, safety, and economics of Twentynine
Palms. I take authority over strife and
division and crime and every over every other evil thing that would try to take
root in our city. And Lord, I ask that the city of Twentynine Palms would make
be a good reputation, have a good reputation, and be known for a as a
blessed place to live and we thank you for your tender mercies and your loving
kindness over our wonderful city. Jesus name. Amen.
» Thank you. >> [clears throat]
» Okay, roll call, please. >> Council member Wright.
» Here. >> Council member Bilderrain.
» Here. >> Councilwoman Ramirez.
» Here. >> Mayor pro tem Scott.
» Here. >> Mayor Mintz.
» Here. >> All present.
» Thank you. Uh let's see, we have no closed session
announcements and changes to the agenda. >> We do have one change to the agenda.
We'd like to um pull item four of the consent calendar.
The um
second reading of the ordinance for sending off on project um and table that
to a uh later meeting.
» Okay. All right.
Okay, these proceedings will be viewed on demand at city of Twentynine Palms
website at www.twentyninepalms.org. You also live stream this meeting by
going to the our website and clicking on the meeting agendas link. And also on
the beginning of the agenda, obviously, there's um in-person uh public comment
and there's also you can go on to our uh register link um
city of Twentynine Palms - 448 my webex.com.
So, just go on to our website and you'll be able to uh click on you'll be able to
do it right from home if you like. Okay, uh awards presentation,
appointments, and proclamations. We have none.
Uh city council comments and reports of meetings attended. Council member
Bilderrain.
» Thank you, Mr. Um
been very slow. Just had meetings with citizens and I just want to say happy
birthday to Councilmember Wright.
» Okay, Councilmember Ramirez.
» I'll try to make this as um brief as possible.
I attended the Southern California Authority of
Governments Legislative Committee meeting.
I wish I was coming back with better
news, but I'm disappointed to report that despite the recommendations from
both SCAG and Cal Cities uh supporting additional flexibility for RHNA-related
deadlines, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed AB
2296. Um rural communities continue to need housing policy that recognizes the
very different challenges that we face compared to
our larger cities in our um metropolitan areas in California.
I also attended the East Valley Regional Steering Committee meeting for our
Office of Homeless Services. I addressed a letter that was sent to me
um that left me concerned about the potential hold on federal Well, not the
potential anymore. There is a hold on federal um fund funding
and what that could mean for our services in our region. Subsequently, I
met with our lobbyist, Ms. White, um as well as, you know, just a representative
from Washington, D.C., and I specifically requested follow-up
regarding that letter um and addressed my concerns about the potential impact
on our community. I also met with a constituent who shared
with me that he is a homeless veteran and a Purple Heart recipient. With the
assistance and coordination of Congressman Jay Obernolte's office and
staff, we were able to work towards securing him a VASH voucher um and
connecting him with housing services. I completed five additional trainings
through Washington University and a federal program that is um made for
local elected and it focuses on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity,
and emerging security threats. As technology continues to evolve, I
believe that elected officials have a responsibility to understand both
opportunities and risks that these technologies present to local government
and public infrastructure. I am going to be entering into the
record um
an update from Charter Communications and Spectrum.
Um this was something that I was proud to support. It went before the CPUC.
I started to work with Charter Communications, also known as Cox,
um to support their merger at a state
level. I provided input at the state level because I believe that the
potential benefits for rural communities like ours were strong enough. The merger
brings stronger connectivity, um expanded customer protections including
um outage related
expenses and being able to be reimbursed for for that. And the biggest part of
this, which makes me super happy, is that um part of this merger, one of the
benefits, was that to low-income and qualifying communities, there will have
a plan that offers high-speed internet that will be only $20 per month. Um and
there will be no startup fees, no deposits, no anything like that. So,
definitely something that's going to be very positive for our community.
Uh there's a few more things.
I also met with some constituents that brought forward some public safety
concerns um regarding
a city on property and some individuals that were
lingering there. And I just want to be very clear tonight that, you know,
Twentynine Palms doesn't just have a homeless problem homelessness problem.
We also have a drug problem. Addiction and illegal narcotics are driving many
of the public safety issues that our community faces today. We must continue
to show compassion to those who genuinely want treatment and recovery,
but we cannot ignore the criminal activity that fuels this crisis.
As a council council member, I will use every lawful authority available to me
to support policies that improve public safety and combat illegal drug activity.
I stand proudly with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and the San
Bernardino District Attorney's Office and our state and federal law and
law enforcement partners. You have my full support. The message is simple. If
you bring drugs into our community, I will personally continue to support
every lawful effort to stop you. 29 Palms deserves to be a safe place to
live, work, and raise a family, and I will never stop fighting for that.
Um lastly, I'm also very proud to highlight and say that uh
about a month after I got elected, I was
approached with an opportunity to become part of a case study
um of of a group of local electeds through
Stanford University. That um
has gone on for almost 2 years now,
and I was recently notified that they were moving on to the next part of
their research and and publishing the
research, and um that would be with one of their partners and their main funder,
the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. They'll be putting all of the information
together in a video, and I will be part of that. Thank you.
» Councilmember Wright. >> All right, I'm on I'll be there long.
All right.
Just messing. Um so, I attended um shot with a cop. Um
that's thing that they do I think twice a year. And this one was for a back to
school. And um it is just a wonderful opportunity.
Especially when it wasn't my money that was being spent, so.
But we I thoroughly enjoyed it. And then I did I also
um attended the Fill the Bus with Winging
It. Winging It. And um I did the back to school backpack
giveaway. Um
I've um
helped Winging It's and also Cuts for Kings did one.
Um and so I participated in both of those. And I also um want to thank
Council uh woman Ramirez because she helped out Cuts for Kings with some
backpacks that were desperately needed for their
event. Um and
um I attended the JPA. The biggest thing
with the JPA everybody knows um you know, California's really moving
with this recycling situation and things like
that. And I guess one of the biggest issues they're having right now is how
to recycle solar panels. Um because of the glass in it or
something like that. Um but um I did attend that meeting and that
was one of the biggest things they talked about.
Um I also got invited to uh Copper Mountain
College's celebration for their accreditation. Um they've been
accredited for I guess they do it every 8 years. So they've been accredited for
another 8 years. And they celebrated up out at um
Sky's the Limit. Um and my daughter she works out there, so she invited me and I
went out there. It was a really nice event and all that
good stuff. Also attended a Warhawks car wash. We've
been raising a lot of money to sponsor a lot
of children and there are a lot of people or a lot of businesses out there
that have sponsored and we greatly appreciate it. This year I think
we we've sponsored more kids than we ever have and I think it's in the area
of like 20 plus kids being sponsored just to play football. And so it's it's
going great. Um
and All right, I got through my list. And I
do want to wish Council member Steve a happy birthday.
If y'all don't know, we got the same birthday, exactly 10 years apart.
» Mayor Pro Tem, Scott. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Um
I did attend the field of bus with Student Transportation of America and
Wing It. Um I also attended the Shop with a Cop
with Council member MacArthur Wright. And um
I attended the Space Jam at Historic Plaza,
um the 70th anniversary for the American Legion.
I also attended the Senior Center. I also attended a birthday celebration for
for Kurt. Um so happy birthday, Kurt. It's his
birthday as well and happy birthday, Council member Bildrin, Council member
Wright. And um
I also gave an interview with KESQ news about our night sky.
That was done at Wing It. I I just want to wish Miss Angie from Wing It
that she feels better. She's been having some health issues. Um
and um I think that is
Oh, and I attended the um the back to school event at Wing and It
at the Youth Activity Center. And that's a amazing facility over there on
Sullivan. If you haven't been, um I I really encourage you guys to go check
that out. It seems to be like a a really cool refuge for our youth. Thank you
very much. >> Thank you.
Well, unfortunately, I was out of town almost
the last two weekends, so I missed a whole bunch of those events, but they
they know I support them. Um so I went to a Mountain Desert uh meeting. If
you're going on 247, uh allow at least uh probably a half an hour extra time.
They're repaving one side of the road on one thing, and they stop traffic, and
then they open it up to the traffic going through, and it's it takes you'll
you'll lose time, so trust me. Um one of the things are do what they're um
uh we're doing for uh Mountain Desert with through Measure I money is they're
getting ready and I forget everybody's ever gone on Bear Valley Cutoff. It used
to be a just a road you could go from 247 right to Interstate 15 and miss
everything. Well, you can't do that anymore. It's a three-lane road. Takes
forever, but they're actually going to fix all the lights so they're
synchronized, but this going to cost a lot of money to do it. I didn't realize
that's [snorts] streets like they cost a lot to But
they're going to also do some more improvements on the crosswalks and
things like that. So, that's going to get improved down there. Um on Monday, I
had to go back down to Victorville to the um
air quality meeting. Um we just we only really had one or two things, but the
there's some legislative our executive director, Brad, he um
he keeps track of a lot of the um stuff in Sacramento, and we got some stuff
coming down that I don't know. It's It's going to cost a
lot of money to to do the things they want to do, and I'm
Oops. It's going to affect everyone. And um that's all I have for for that. I
want to wish Steve and Matt both a happy birthday, and I guess Kurt, sorry I
missed yours. You know, I don't know. I guess he
» [laughter]
» All right. So, we are going to we go to the city manager update.
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We I just have two updates. One has to do with the
construction of our Split Rock Bridge. The contractor contacted city hall and
asked to be able to do some night work. Apparently, there's
some portion of the bridge that needs a special coating that needs to be done
when it's a little cooler. So, there's a couple days in there I wanted to let you
all know and and the public also. Those days look like it'd be September
11th, 14th, and 15th. And, that would go from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.
They probably would have some additional lighting out there,
generators, and concrete mixers. So, general
construction noises. It shouldn't be too too bad though. Probably won't take all
three days, but they wanted to have some flexibility to be able to do that. So, I
want to let you all know and and the public also.
Additionally, I wanted to give our um
planning department a some kudos.
Worked very hard last week to put in the final application for an 8 and 1/2
million dollar grant to redo Lear Avenue from the highway all the way out to
Pole Line Road. And, so there's portion of that that is
in the city, but also portion in the county. We are the main applicant. We
worked have been working on this. Really, this is the third application
that we've made for this project. So, it's been
I don't know, 10 years we've been trying to get this and it finally happened this
year. And that that's work with
our cooperation with the base. Our department, our federal lobbyist,
it was a whole bunch people that put in for us to be able to get this grant.
It'd be a great thing for that particular road to just rebuild
it. It won't be we won't tear it up and put
a new one down, but we're going to rebuild the one that's there. And so,
that's about 6 miles there. So, it's a it's a big win for for
us and for the base.
That's all I have. >> All right. Ask him a question.
» Of course, you can ask him a question.
» You know, I came city manager. There's
Did the base talk about like where they're going to divert vehicles
that go to Wilson? >> When we get a little bit closer
construction, we'll certainly make those announcements. There'll be have to be a
a whole traffic management plan that goes into that. And and so, when that
when we get a little closer construction, we're still ways out from
construction, but when we get closer, we will be in contact with the base and
they can let their people know what the what the plan is as will we.
» Thank you. >> All right. Move to consent calendar.
» Put this one. >> All matters that are listed on the
consent calendar will be considered routine by the city council will be
enacted by one motion in the form listed. Any item may be removed from the
consent calendar considered separately by the city council. Public will be
given opportunity to comment on the consent calendar items prior to the
council action. So, does anybody want to pull any items?
» Five and 10. >> You want to pull five and 10.
Okay.
Okay. Anybody else? Okay.
Obviously, number four is going to be tabled. I'll be abstaining from number
six, possible conflict of interest because my wife owns a shop in the
Project Phoenix area / Freedom Plaza. And number seven, it's a
check that was written to my business. Obviously, it I do not I do not have a
contract with the city. That is for bowling for the day camp kids when
they bowled four times this year. I It has That was
paid for that by the parents, not by the city. So, I just want to be clear that's
not not giving me Well, giving my business
the money, but it did not come from the city.
Okay. So, I'm going to ask the public. Anybody want Oh, I do have a comment. Um
You want to request number four, but it's been tabled. You would still want
to comment on it? I guess you could, sir. Come on up.
» Uh can you tell us why?
» I'm not sure. She wants to know why we
» to know why it's being tabled. >> Well, we're just tabling it to a a later
meeting. We're not ready to to bring that forward just yet.
» Or what We have no way of knowing. I mean, you
know, obviously as the residents that are involved in this. I'm not speaking
as Desert Trumpet, obviously. We're kind of curious as to why.
» It's we're just not ready to bring it forward
just yet. We will bring it back. 100%.
» Okay. We will submit something to try to find out
what's going on. Thank you.
» Okay, anybody else on [snorts] comment want to comment on the consent
calendar? Okay, we'll bring it back to the
council, so we'll we need we'll vote on
everything but number six and number six, right? No.
» Five and 10. >> Five and 10.
» Five and 10. >> Yeah.
» Okay, and then obviously when I vote I'll be I'm abstaining from number six
and number seven. >> I'll move the consent calendar minus
number four, five, and 10. >> Second.
» Okay, I have a motion and a second. Any other discussion?
Okay, roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Ramirez?
» Aye. >> Councilmember Wright?
» Aye. >> Councilmember Beldering?
» Aye. >> Mayor pro tem Scott?
» Aye. >> Mayor Mints?
» I am abstaining from number six and number seven.
» Okay. >> Approved five-oh.
» Okay, number five was pulled, so
Councilmember Ramirez. >> I just wanted to
ask the city manager for a little bit of clarification. I I received a couple of
emails and one phone call from constituents that wanted to know
about the two payments that look pretty
similar to the San Bernardino Sheriff's
Department. I I explained to the best of my ability just from what I know from
being here for these two years that you know, sometimes
it's a little bit delayed because their fiscal year closes in July and with a
lot of changes, but if you could just comment on on that.
» Yes, certainly. There's two There's two items on there both for
$518,419
and those are both payments to the Sheriff San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Department as part of our contract with them.
The The reason they're both on the same consent calendar is the invoice uh for
the um, July came late. And so, um, I don't
not for any reason other than they maybe closing out the end of the year uh end
of the fiscal year stuff. But, uh we usually usually see one of those every
month. And so, this one happen happens to be on on uh
both payments in the same, but they're part of our payments uh for sheriff's
contract.
» That's Hopefully that answers it. >> Yep, that's it. Thank you, sir.
» Okay. So, uh also number 10, you pulled number 10.
» Uh-oh, sorry. For number 10, some of the questions that I received
from constituents was letter G. In addition of an alcohol outlet would
increase the number of outlets from 18 to 19, which is greater than one allowed
per ABC. Uh the question was if there's going to
be any fines associated with that or if the city will be in any trouble.
» Uh no, the city won't be any trouble for adding that additional alcohol license.
This is part of the process when we do this over concentration. We have to make
this special finding of public inconvenience and necessity.
» Perfect. And then the other question that I received
was um if there's going to be any sort of provisions as far as since um people
under 21 will be allowed and there will be alcohol served, but to me this looks
more like a restaurant. >> It It's Yeah, it's a It's a restaurant
just like other restaurants throughout the city that that serve alcohol.
Uh minors would be able to be able to come
in and be with their parents or be by themselves uh and then they'll have
operational policies in place that would um speak to age verification and what
everybody else does um with respect to um
making sure people are there's no underage uh drinking.
» And that's regulated by ABC, right? >> That is regulated by ABC and there
several other restaurants in town have exactly the same license. So, it's just
» Perfect. >> It's not a 47. A 47 means you can do it.
Same thing every bowling alley in the state California has, every
theater, movie theaters have them. It's a code
47. If all they serve food, then they can have
» That's the key there is for it to be a restaurant.
» there's no food served, then it's a 48 license and then that and no one under
21 can be allowed. So. >> Perfect. Thank you. That's all.
» Okay. >> Thank you.
» All right. Any other questions? Okay. I need a motion then for number five and
number 10. >> I move five and number 10.
» Second. >> Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any
other discussion? Hearing none.
» Council member Bildrin. >> Aye.
» Council member Wright. >> Aye.
» Councilwoman Ramirez. >> Aye.
» Mayor pro tem Scott. >> Aye.
» Mayor Mints. >> Aye.
» Approved five and >> Okay. So, we
discussed all the removed consent calendar items and public hearing.
Is this the city manager or is this Keith? Keith?
» Keith is going to present this. >> All right. Go ahead, Keith.
» All right. So, this is the confirming the cost of abatement for Sherman Hoyt
property that we got we got cleaned up. Next slide.
Okay. That is just the general location of
where it is. It's in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
We do have a lot of background here, but I'm not going to go into, but
after all the cleanup it was 39,000, over 39,000 to clean this up. These are
some before pictures.
And then here are the after pictures. It took quite a bit of
work to get this cleaned up because of the amount of
tires. We have to We had to hire a specialty
uh, to get the out and handle them
correctly. Um, and this and again, this is how the
property looks today.
And um, the city council, we're asking the city council adopt the resolution
confirming the cost. If the city council does so,
um, we give the uh, property owner a certain amount of time to pay the pay
this assessment. If they don't, then uh, we by taking this motion, uh, the city
finance director can then put a special assessment on the property
ensuring that the city will eventually be paid back for this effort.
So, and that will go on the property taxes, um,
associated with this property. So, that's my presentation.
» So, so if um,
it goes on the tax the the tax roll, so then if say the person um,
just gives up on the property, then um, whoever buys the property, it goes that
that lien goes with it and we'd still get paid, correct?
» And I did ask I would I asked earlier if the property taxes on that was up to
date because after 5 years the county takes it, but we we would be first in
line still get paid if it went past that, correct?
» That's correct. >> Okay.
All right. Anybody have questions for staff?
All right, I'll open up to um, public hearing.
I don't have any slips. Anybody online? Eli?
None? Okay. I'm going to close the public hearing.
Bring it back to council. I'm looking for a motion.
» 26. >> 28.
» 28. >> Uh, one one thing I'd say before you
take the vote, um, as Councilwoman Ramirez said, um,
um, all available um, opportunities that we
have to um, uh,
fight the uh, drug and uh, vagrancy problem in Twentynine Palms we take. Um,
this is a property we're going to clean that we're cleaning up. Um, the the
planning commission added several other properties um, that that are burnt
around town that have been used for um,
illegal activities that we're going to get cleaned up. So, this is one of those
things that we can do to to to that end is clean up properties and um, we're
going to really take a uh, hard look at how we're how we're going to be able to
afford to do that cuz it is is an expensive endeavor, but it's important
to to clean up Twentynine Palms and so we're going to we're going to be doing a
lot of that in the near future. >> Good. Okay. All right, Mac, you had your
motion ready? >> Yeah.
I make a motion that we adopt resolution number 2628 confirming the cost of
abating 7535 Sherman Hoyt Avenue, a residence full of trash, debris, and
abandoned motor home and box truck, an [snorts] unsecured residence that was
declared a public nuisance and cleaned under the direction of the planning
commission. >> Second.
» Okay, motion a second. Any other discussion?
Hearing none. Roll call, please.
» Councilwoman Ramirez? >> Aye.
» Councilmember Bouldering? >> Aye.
» Councilmember Wright? >> Aye.
» Mayor Pro Tem Scott? >> Aye.
» Mayor Mintz? >> Aye.
» Approved 5-0. >> Thank you.
Okay, future council initiated items. Anybody have any item an item they want
to >> Yeah, I I got a few.
» All right, Mac. >> I got a couple today. Um, so uh, along
the lines of what this uh, city manager was talking about, um, I don't really
know if it's a be a future initiated council item or what, but I did have the
opportunity to come to the planning commission meeting
and um, they they did make a lot of these
properties a nuisance, but the where the issue comes in at is
the cost of
taking care of these properties. And I mean, I know that, you know, when the
city does it, then it's on the property owner, but
in some cases, it may take us a while to get that money back. So, I don't know
what the actual future agenda item should be, but we
need to look at the budget some kind of way to see where we could possibly
get some more money for the planning commission for these properties. That's
what I want. >> Well, we would have to
We still have That's why this came to us. They would They can't approve the
dollar amount. They can They have to First, they have to abate it, and then
we have to approve the dollar amount. They can't approve dollar amounts. They
can't approve like fees. They don't vote on fees or anything like that. But, I
don't know if >> We'll be getting some estimates, and so
we'll get a pretty good baseline of what it costs to to clean up
particularly the burnt items. And And so, we can bring it back as a as a
budgetary item for a mid-year budget item, and we'll
look at that at the probably after the first of the year.
» All right. >> May I
add maybe some clarification? Possibly,
as we look at that, also think about following the state of California's
encampment resolution fund grants that are open now.
» looking at grant funding to to help with this.
» Okay. So, that good for you, Max? He brings it back in the budget. Okay.
» And And then, the other one is um the American Legion
They're interested in doing or sending some kids to Boy State.
And way back when I was in high school, I got the
chance to go to Boy State at The Citadel.
And it's a very good program. It teaches leadership and a lot of other things to
young young men or young boys that are becoming men.
Um and so it was very beneficial to me. So,
I want us to um you know, just talk about that. Maybe
get the American Legion rep here to tell us what their plans are.
» I second that. Well, yeah. Well, we either that you can
just put that on as a future presentation.
» it I'll I'll get a hold of them and we'll see if they can't come make a
presentation >> Yeah, we we don't need to put that on
the >> Okay.
» But yes, that's that's actually a great idea.
» Thank you, Mr. Mayor. >> Okay. I'm good.
» All right. Anybody else? All right. Public comments.
» Oh, I'm sorry. Um yeah, I had a future initiated item.
Um no, I'm sorry. That was it. Thank you.
» Okay. All right. Public comments. This is the
time for the public to address the city council on issues within the
jurisdiction of the city council that's not on this agenda. All comments are to
be directed to the city council and shall not consist of any personal
attacks. Members of the public are expected to maintain a professional
and courteous decorum during their comments. There's a time
limitation of 3 minutes per person. If you have not already done so, please
fill out a name and address slips and give them to the city clerk. The city
council prohibited by state law from taking action or discussing items not
included in the printed agenda. Public comments are
on a specific agenda item will be deferred until the
consideration on the item on the agenda. Eli, do we have anybody online? We'll go
with them first. Nobody online? Okay. Okay. Robin, you're up.
» [clears throat]
» Good evening, everybody. Uh Robin Schlosser,
29 Palms resident. I wanted to invite everybody,
especially our seniors, to next Friday, September 4th. Reach Out Morongo Basin
will be holding a Labor Day barbecue for our seniors. It is sponsored by the Simi
Dabah Sculpture Foundation this year and we are planning on having smoked ribs
that are going to be done by Mr. Larry Bowden. We're going to have barbecue
chicken courtesy of Mr. Eli Marshall. We're going to have potato salad. We're
going to have all kinds of fun stuff and lots of seniors there and we want to
celebrate everybody who's helped make this country great.
» [snorts] >> A second thing that would came up when
we were talking about routes to the base earlier.
I don't know if there is a way to do this because where I live is on Mesquite
Springs Road north of Indian. And I can tell you that in the last three and a
half weeks or four weeks, I've seen probably 10 semi trucks try to take
Mesquite Springs Road heading towards the base.
Now, if you've gone up Mesquite Springs Road that way, you know, you get about a
mile and a quarter up and it turns into a little narrow dirt road. And I can't
tell you how many times I've seen semi trucks trying to back a mile down the
road to Valley Vista to be able to try to turn around. Or the one last week
that got tried to turn around closer to the dirt road and got his trailer hung
up on the asphalt and was blocking the road and had to call a
truck out. So, if there's a way that the city could consider maybe putting a big
yellow sign with black letters that says no base access there, it would probably
be really beneficial not only to the residents there, but also to these poor
truck drivers who are getting lost trying to get their way to the base.
Thank you very much for letting me talk. Bye.
» Well, thank you. I normally wouldn't comment on public
comments, but we already have that in the works. We are already making the
signs as you speak, so.
» All right. >> Robin, what's the senior?
» You. >> I'm a senior now? All right.
» Oh, what is a senior? >> Yeah.
» 60 and over. >> All right.
» [laughter]
» Not going to the park. >> Senior. Well, I got you all beat, so
that's us. All right. Lori Cosgriff, you're up.
Did she leave? Oh, there she is.
» Lori Cosgriff, Twentynine Palms, California. Good evening, Mayor, council
members, and community members. Um I'm here tonight to share with you all that
September is Hunger Action Month. And that the public pantries in the area,
the Twentynine Palms Community Food Pantry,
the Homesteader's Association, the Alex Roth Memorial Food Pantry, the Hope
Center Feed the Need, and the Twentynine Palms Methodist Church Food Pantry are
joining together for a fundraiser in recognition of
Hunger Action Month. Um we're calling the event Empty Bowls, and we're hosting
a soup cook-off. The name Empty Bowls is borrowed from an
international grassroots movement, and it's a project where a symbolic bowl of
soup is served to represent raising money and feeding the hungry.
Um our evening is going to feature a cook-off, and the judges are going to be
the attendees at our fundraiser. This will be the first time that these
local pantries have joined together for an event, and we're really looking
forward to working together. Um and of course, it is September 12th. It will be
at the Twentynine Palms Community Food Pantry, located on Sullivan Road, and um
tickets are available by calling any one of those pantries. Um it's really an
important time for us to take a look at this because statistically, one in 10
Californians is hungry. That means that each one of us could sit
on our front porch and look someone in the eye who is worried about their meal
tonight. And it's much more important than how big that meal is going to be.
It really is mothers who are thinking about not eating so that all of their
children will eat. And this is our opportunity to call awareness to that
and to maybe work together. So, this is a really good time for all
of us to think about donating to a food pantry. Donating to a food program,
maybe making a donation at the grocery store, at church, um looking at someone
on a street corner who may be in need of food and sharing something with them,
sharing resources. Tell them where the local food pantries are. Making sure
that everyone has access to those things. And most importantly, if you
know someone who is struggling with food insecurities, encourage them to reach
out to those resources, because it's embarrassing to ask and people aren't
asking for the help they need. But we have the help to provide and we
want to be providing it. Um all of the pantries who are working
on this, again, the 29 Palms Community Food Pantry, the pantry at the Alex Roth
Memorial Food Pantry, at the United Methodist Church, we are looking forward
to working together and we hope that we see all of you there, but we hope that
um during September that everyone in the community acknowledges that this is a
problem and reaches out to someone. Thank you.
» Thank you. Okay, Mark Williams.
Hi, I'm Mark Williams. I am a resident of 29 Palms. I have been for like a
long, long time. I am coming to introduce myself. I I
have currently work at Ironwood State Prison.
Before that, I worked in California Institution for Men as a substance abuse
counselor. I'm also the founder of Living With Vision, Purpose and Hope.
It's a nonprofit that is currently working in Blythe, cuz that's where I
work. Um we have our transitional living there called Hope House, where it's kind
of basically like a wrap-around type services,
sober Living um where I take people coming out of
treatment. My heart is here
cuz that's where I live. I've lived here for many years and I really wanted to do
something here, but I haven't been able to do that yet. But
currently I'm working on trying to set up a wrap-around a housing type
situation out here which would include a licensed residential detox center and an
outpatient treatment center. To be able to get to the people who as
to Ms. Ramirez was talking about, it's more than just giving people a house.
You know, you got to do more than that. You have to give them like a career. I'm
also I have a pursuing my bachelor's for career and life development right now. I
got a certificate not a full-on not full-on certified, but I have a
certificate career career and life development which
basically it's the college people you go to at the college where they they try to
find out what your interests are and what your purpose is and stuff like that
which is kind of what why my nonprofit is geared towards that. I want to be
able to give these people when they come off the streets
they're not forced them to be sober, but make that option abundantly available to
them. You know, to have a career and and and
not have a place to to not just get sober but to build a life that they
don't want to try to escape from and that's why I heart is for this town and
I see the people in town I just breaks. And it breaks for the people in Blythe
too, you know, but here I mean this is my this is my community and and I just
see these people and I'm just try to see the gold and I see the gold that if they
could just see it themselves and I want to help them to pull it out of them and
to give them a chance at life to be able to reach for something higher than than
what they have and a lot of them just gave up and they don't think they have
any other choice. So that's why they're on drugs. I want to be able to show them
that they can and that's what I'm doing right now in Blythe right now and I'm
doing pretty good at it actually. I just got a guy today going to to the college
and he's getting his GED and he just relapsed. He's back on the he's back on
the track again doing it again. >> [snorts]
» And I just man, I just I want to do that here and in where my my community is at
and and and I'm asking I I'm trying to partnership with the county
right now. I went to a thing yesterday with a proposal
for the bid to get the contract for them. I guess which is coming up. I'm
new to the game so I don't understand all the terminology, but I'm really
trying to do something here in this town and I and I want to present myself to
you and and if I can get any help, let me know if you need my number. I have
cards, but I don't have them on me, but I do have a little digital card. And I
can give my number if you need it. I just Thank you. Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it. Okay, Mark Van Horn.
» Hi, Mark Van Horn. Long long time 29 Palms resident.
I'll never forget high school graduation. After I received my diploma,
I walked to my bicycle to ride home, but during the ceremony somebody had
stripped the bike of everything but the wheels and frame, which were locked to a
big tree. It was pretty devastating, but not as bad as the year before when
somebody broke into our house and stole my stereo, my coin collection, my comic
books, or the year before that when somebody cut the thick chain securing my
bike to a rack in school. Not crowd not counting credit card fraud, I've been a
victim of crime 10 times. 10 times. Even have someone smashing the windshield to
steal the ashtray from my truck. So, I went to the recycling center near
state of brothers an hour ago. It's a new owner because the previous owner has
been robbed three times. Wouldn't it be great to catch the thieves on video? But
I know you're going to vote against flock cameras and eventually I'll have
to drive to Yucca to recycle. Last month I went door-to-door
collecting signatures in the fourth district, but I came up two short, so
Octavius, I guess I'll be seeing you in four years. And I know that you're very
passionate about banning the cameras and it's probably makes a lot of political
sense, but remember that generally speaking people are much more passionate
when they talk about things they hate rather than the things they support. I'm
sure much will be made about protecting the civil rights of people who have
nothing, but what about protecting the people who have something to lose? The
people who pay the majority of taxes and keep the restaurants in business. I
drove all over 29 to check out the cameras responsible for all this furor.
The cameras are located at nine intersections along 29 Palms Highway and
Adobe Road. Nine intersections total. No cameras in residential areas. The
cameras are mounted approximately 15 to 25 ft high, tilted downward, so they
can't read license they can read license plates, but they can't look down the
roads. They see you passing through the intersection. They don't see you
stopping off at the massage parlor down the street.
So, uh, you know, if you want to ban more cameras, great. You want to ban
them in residential areas? Of course. Want to ban drones? Absolutely. Flock
claims the data is not shared with the feds. So, ask the city attorney to make
sure the contract is ironclad and there are substantial penalties to anybody who
uses the data irresponsibly. There've been cameras in in Arizona to check the
speed now for 25 years. I don't hear people complaining about that. We just
went on a trip to Washington, D.C. and back and every single state has cameras
to collect tolls and no one's suggesting we should go back to tolls. At the very
least, we've got a highway out here that connects to a highway in Yucca that has
cameras. When since other highways have cameras, could please consider keeping
that. I mean, we've spent this money for it and I think at the very least, maybe
we could do a study and see if it reduces crime before just throwing all
that money away. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir.
All right. Eli, anybody? Nobody? Wow, I thought we'd have a few
people use that system. >> We had no one sign up for this meeting.
» Okay. All right. Okay. Well, um,
that's it for this meeting. So, we'll see you
two weeks.