Recording in progress. Okay, welcome everyone. I now called to
order the regular meeting. Of the palm Desert City Council
and successor agency to the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency, the
Palm Desert Housing Authority and the Palm Desert Board of
Library Trustees for Thursday, June 25, 2026 City Clerk. May
we please have the roll calls. That's a member Harding.
Here. Council Member Moreno. Present. And may we ask the
nature of the need to remote participant. Yes, I'm participating
remotely from my office in City Hall due to illness.
There is no one present in the room with me.
Thank you. Council Member Nathan. Here. Mayor Pro Timpredetto? Here.
And Mayor Tree. Here. All Council's Present. Okay, I want
to ask Mayor Pro Tempereddo to lead us in the
pledge of allegeance. Please rise.
I will now cancel member Harnick to provide us with
some words of inspiration. Thank you, Mayor. How you do
anything is how you do everything. Portray is how the
whole picture of our life is composed of the sum
of small moments. The way we do every little task,
how we handle every minute. It's how we approach our
life, job, friends, and how we use our time. A
great philosopher, Hera Cletus, is quoted day by day what
you do is who you become. Excellent. Thank you very
much. And if we could now have a report from
closed session from our city attorney. Thank you, Aaron. A
reportable actions were taken in close session this afternoon. Very
good. Moving on to item nine, awards presentations and appointments.
We will ask for our item 9A, a Palm Springs
Airport Commission Update. And Commissioner Kevin Wiseman to present.
What do you think. He said he's parking. Yeah, oh,
okay. Yeah. Well. Okay, City Manager comments. We'll jump leapfrog
over to item 10 City Manager. Thank you, Mayor. I'll
invite up Lieutenant Porras for a quick update.
Hello. Everyone. We're going to wait up and wait till
we get a little flyer up here. Maybe it's not
ready. There we go. So next, in two weeks, we've
been invited by Semal Mayor Greg Wallace to participate in
a senior scam awareness seminar. That's going to be here
at Palm District Community Center. Unfortunately, these scams are still
happening. Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated using fear. Emergency, deception,
to convince victims to withdraw cash purchase gift cards and
send money order under false pretenses. While this is still
concerning, there is some encouraged news. We are a scene
war members of the public stepping forward and helping us
identify scams before victims lose their money. Retail clerks are
calling law enforcement when they notice someone is purchasing large
amounts of gift cards under suspicious circumstances. They were asking
questions, recognizing warning signs and helping protect vulnerable residents. We're
also seeing ride share drivers become an unexpected but important
line of defense. And many scams, criminals instruct victims to
withdraw cash. Or package money and then use ride share
drivers to transport it. The driver often has no idea
they're being part of it being used as part of
a criminal inner scheme. However, an awareness as awareness grows,
more drivers are recognizing unusual circumstances such as elderly passengers
making urgent trips to the bank or request to transport
suspicious packages. And they are contact in law enforcement when
something doesn't seem right. And of course, bank employees continue
to play a critical role for years. They've been trained
to identify fraud financial and financial exploitation. Their vigilance has
prevented countless victims from losing their life savings. And we're
grateful for their partnerships. The common threat is simple, community
involvement works, law enforcement can't be everywhere. But when residents
businesses, financial institutions and transportation providers work together, we create
a stronger safety net for those who most at risk.
We encourage everyone to join us in this effort. Talk
with your family members, especially your seniors, also about common
scams. Be willing to ask questions when something doesn't seem
right. And if you suspect someone is being targeted, don't
hesitate to contact law enforcement. Appreciate it. Thank you very
much. Thank you Lieutenant Poros. I see that Mr. Wiseman
has arrived may jump back to number nine. And we'll
have a report from the Palm Springs Airport Commission. Ur.
So exciting things going on at the airports. All, uh,
I've been asked to keep the two about three minutes.
So I'll do a painting broad strokes and leave a
little time for you guys to ask more detail questions.
Um, the biggest major developments at the airport in recent,
uh, since my last visit, uh, the executive director and
the director of marketing have left to gringer pastures. And
we have an interim executive director serving, Ms. Victoria Carpenter.
She's doing an excellent job. Um, they're actively searching for
a new executive director and for a new deputy director
of marketing air service and commercial development. Um. We'll talk
more broadly about the positive developments and then going to
just some information that I think the public should be
aware of in the next couple of months. So broadly,
uh, the airport is growing its passenger figures, uh, still
at a steady clip. They're making lots of, um, excellent
changes to the customer experience and making investments, uh, and
all sorts of areas one recent example. There was, uh,
recently an unveiling of an art at Pulp Springs. Art
at PSP. How should we call it. Initiative. And the
first launch they had was some new art in the
baggage claim area. So that's just a small taste of
the various items that the port is working on to
enhance our customer experience. Sure, sure, sure. All right. Uh,
as well, they're putting in some new EV charging stations
quite soon. So you'll look forward to seeing that. Um,
this summer, something to be aware of is that they
will be taking the escalators out of service for a
couple of months in order to get them ready for
season in October. So I think, uh, and I have
Jake here from the airport. So you can check for
some details. Is it from September to October. The escalators
are going to be closing down in August, uh, for
about two months. And so we hope to have this
done by, uh, middle or end of September so that
they're back in service ahead of season. And then the
interim will have staff at the bottom of the escalators
to help carry luggage. Our elevators are still working as
well. So people can use the stairs or take the
elevator. Uh, the goal here is to close them both
down, replace them. They are dated and they are outside
100 percent of the time. They need desperately, uh, some
work. And so we're going to close them down at
the same time with the goal of minimizing disruption, getting
it done as quickly as we can at the end
of the summer. It's, uh, it's been a long running
topic and escalators, if you're not familiar, it is, uh,
just nationwide, even international, just a nightmare across the board.
Getting parts for them. It's just crazy. Um. I think
one of the things just to be aware of is,
you know, you've heard a lot in the news about,
uh, the master plan and the plans for expansion. And
so right now, uh, the fees that were in is
the airport is examining the financial feasibility of all these
projects and how to make them happen. So that's the
sort of phase where we've progressed from figuring out what
we want to build to how we're going to build
it. And then after that comes designing what we're building
and then building what we're building. So it's going to
be a long time coming. And I think, uh, if
anyone's expecting big giant buildings to be coming up overnight
at the airport, it's not going to happen. It doesn't
work. That way. So. Uh, lastly, I think I'll throw
it to you guys. If you have any questions counselors,
any questions for my colleagues. I have one question. Airport
traffic year over year increase. Yes. A slight increase. Um,
I think there are some year over year months where
it's a decrease. Canadian travel is a headwind for sure.
Um, there is, you know, the headwinds of jet fuel.
So growth going into 26 and beyond is certainly not
a guaranteed aspect the way that airlines are reacting to
these jet fuel prices by price increases by cutting routes
or frequencies. So that could definitely impact the sort of
near term growth trajectory. But I think probably in the
longer term, it'll continue to be a pretty steady clip
of growth. Very good. Council member Hornik. On that note,
I was reading something today about the Canadian traffic going
right back up. I think they remembered how cold it
was. And that we absolutely do welcome them here. That's
good news. I want to comment just how great it
is to fly in and out of PSP. Everyone goes
out of their way to extend themselves to be friendly,
to make your experience as seamless as possible. And to
me, there's no other, the reason to go anywhere else.
If we can get in and out of Palm Springs,
it's the way to go. And I thank you for
all the effort that's been put into really make it
a friendly accommodating airport. And thank you for representing us
on the commission. Absolutely. Good. Councilmember Moreno. Any questions or
comments? Um, yes. Um, I concur that it is an
excellent place to depart. And then you get an extra
feeling of coming home. And you don't have to go
very far. Um, I'm wondering if you have any updates
on any direct flights that are coming up over the
summer so we can tell folks the good news and
not just have them focus on, um, having to endure
the lack of escalators. Making new routes. Yes. We don't
have any Jake by the way. Thank you so much.
It's great to be with you here in the City
of Palm Desert as well. Um, no new roots coming
up over the summer, although we are continuing to pursue
air service opportunities with airlines always. Those conversations are ongoing
throughout. Um, that said, you know, you can't, you don't
have to go to Ontario LX this summer. We've got
12 nonstop destinations to, uh, to major hubs across the
U S. And so, um, the opportunities are there for
a one - stop connection to over 300 global cities.
You can reach anywhere in the world from Palm Springs
International Airport this summer. And so we just ask the
public to keep that in mind when you're booking your
summer travel, Europe, Asia, Mexico, Hawaii, right here from here
in Palm Springs. I always tell folks that you may
think it's a little less expensive to fly out of
somewhere else, but the time that it takes you, the
gas that it's going to take you to fly out
of LAX, the parking is going to be more expensive
there. So I concur that you can go a lot
of places right from here. Thank you again. All right.
Thank you everybody good. Okay. So thank you so much.
Commissioner Wiseman, anything else? No, that's all. Thank you again.
All right. Thank you, Kevin. And thank you, Jake. Appreciate
it. All right. And we'll skip on over to item
10B update about the Palm Desert Aquatic Center from Miss
Sharmure. Good afternoon Mayor, members of the City Council. I'm
Sean Muir, the community services manager. Um, and I'm bringing
to you today just a quick update on the Palm
Desert Aquatic Center. Um, we wanted to take this opportunity
to just recognize the City Council's investment in this facility.
And it's an essential community asset. So we wanted to
show you some of the improvements as we pull up
the presentation.
Okay. Starting off with the, uh, recap of our memorial
day event. So we had a big reopening or welcoming
back to the community on Memorial Day after a six
month renovation closure. And that was a one dollar admission
event. We had a fantastic community turnout. We had it
open for a lap swim. First thing in the morning
with some breakfast pastries and coffee and treats, um, commemorative
swim caps were given away during that morning hour. And
then moved into recreational swim. So opened at 10 o'clock
for people to bring their families in and enjoy the
pools altogether. We had a DJ there. Um, the Palm
Desert Library was involved and did a book giveaway. And
was signing up people for library cards. So that was
fantastic. And then we did a t - shirt giveaway
as well. And I could tell you when I arrived
with my family at 11 o'clock, those t - shirts
were long gone. Um, so in looking back, we had
744 admissions that day. And so that was a 30
percent increase. And we're glad that the facility is reopen.
But just showing you how we got to this place,
um, with the pump room improvements was kind of the
impetus for these, uh, these larger renovations that occurred. Um,
the filtration systems needed to be replaced the heaters and
five pumps as well as the smart controllers that control
the pumps were replaced. And that was kind of the
core of this project. Inside, you can see the before
and after of the pump room. And the filtration tank
that's on the left there is for the lat pool.
It looks like it's kind of smaller in the picture,
but that thing is about six and a half feet
in diameter, about 10 feet tall. Um, so replacing it
with a new filtration system. It's a lot more energy
efficient. And it's also smaller and more compact. So that
the new one is only about four feet in diameter.
Saved a lot of space in the pump room. Here
are the new heaters going in. We had five and
replaced them with four just because they're that much more
efficient and we're anticipating a 12 percent reduction in gas
usage for heating the pools in the wintertime. This is
the, we call it the pit. And this is where
all of the pumps live that pump the water throughout
the facility. So all of this plumbing was redone and
new pumps installed. These are the smart controllers that control
the pumps. Um, and help them to operate efficiently. A
new generator was installed for backup power. Um, when those
smart controllers are operating and controlling the pumps, we want
to make sure that we don't have any energy outages
or power outages that affect the smart controllers in a
negative way and potentially can, you know, render them useless
after, um, power surges. So that will protect those. Um,
and then we took the opportunity to make additional facility
improvements while the pool had to be closed for the
pump and renovations. The locker room flooring was resurfaced. There
was new cabinetry and blinds installed in the multipurpose room,
which is often used for birthday parties and other events.
We did some renovations to the concessions area and repainted
the lifeguard room. Um, there was also new, new doors,
new pieces to the splash playground area, new concrete and
then resurfacing the entire parking lot. So the whole facility
got a nice facelift. And it led us to the
beautiful crystal clear blue water that we see today. We've
got some rubber decky floaties out there and some new
recreational features for kids and adults alike to enjoy. Um,
looking at the total capital investment for this fiscal year.
It was a little over 2. 8 million dollars. We
had estimated initially that this project could cost upwards of
3. 5. So this came in under budget. And, um,
we're happy that we were able to complete it at
that rate. Um, and then I pulled this slide from
the budget presentation directly. So it probably looks familiar. However,
you can see our operational costs for this fiscal year
are lower because of the closure. And we expect to
get back to normal operations this coming fiscal year. We
do have 1. 75 set aside for Capitol improvements, but
they're really focused on landscaping improvements, some fencing that needs
to happen. So they are more maintenance in nature than,
and it won't cause any facility closures. So we're not
looking ahead to do any major work like that this
fiscal year. Um, and then for the general fund transfer,
we're looking at 2. 3 million, 3. 4 is probably
the, um, expenditures that we will see. However, we're anticipating
1. 1 in revenue. So that will offset that to
the 2. 3 in general fund transfer. And so what
our next steps? Well, we're going to have some fun
this summer. The pool is back open. We invite everyone
to come back and enjoy it. We've got dive -
in movies, hot summer nights are on Tuesdays and Fridays.
And they stay open until 10. 30 at night. So
it's perfect for after the sun goes down. If you
don't want to be in the sun. We have great
attractions and great food going on. Um, we'll also be
looking to build back that attendance and look for off
season ways to improve the attendance. So take advantage of
opportunities that we're not taking advantage of now and identifying
those new programs that we can add. Um, and then
other facility upgrades and maintenance for the future. We want
to keep our fingers on the pulse of that so
we don't have any, um, big expenses that come up.
The maintenance is the key so that we can have
longevity of this asset. Um, and I will also mention
that for 4th of July, there is a 10 dollar
admission flat rate for anyone who wants to come down
and watch the fireworks from the pool. Um, and they'll
have the concessions open and all of the recreational features
going. So, uh, come on down and enjoy the aquatic
center and I'm open for any questions that you may
have. Any questions. Council member Moreno. I didn't even raise
my hand, but somehow you knew I had a question.
I just don't want to leave you left down, man.
Cost of admission, um, for the 4th of July. For
that day only. They open at noon and they'll be
open until after the fireworks have been completed. And if
I remember last year you had the concessions open even
to the park side. Like in other words, people were
just coming in from the park and able to use
the concessions. And that's the plan again this year. That
window will not be open this year. We've added more
features in the concession stand to offer more food variety.
So unfortunately that window can't be open. But the aquatic
center will be open and serving food. Okay. Perfect. Thank
you. You're welcome. Good. Just one more quick update. I'll
have assistant city manager Richard Cannone update on a new
program as well as reutilizing video more to highlight City
programs. Good evening Mayor and City Council. So tonight our
communication team would like to introduce what we're calling Palm
Desert Stories, which is a new video series to further
expand our digital communication and community outreach efforts. And so
our intent is really using storytelling to help provide a
better understanding of the programs and services that we're offering
every day. Um, as well as strengthening both our transparency
and engagement kind of giving up behind the scenes look
at what we do at times. Um, and so our
goal right now is to release new episodes at least
monthly, uh, with the intent of, uh, increasing that frequency
as time, as time goes. And so with that, uh,
let, let the premiere of our, um, Palm Desert Stories
run.
A palm Desert Packets adopted. It helps with overcrowding the
city saves money. And most importantly, the PEC gets a
better life. Homeward pause helps make that happen. The homework
POS program is a PET adoption incentive program designed to
help Palm Desert Residence Adopt Palm Desert animals through the
Riverside County Animal Services at the Coachella Valley Animal campus.
Through the program, Palm Desert Residents who adopt a Palm
Desert Cat or Dog may be eligible to receive a
125 dollar gift card wherever you want to go. These
gift cards are to help offset the expenses of bringing
home a pet and help them feel settled in.
So. Anyone that's interested in adopting a Palm Desert Pat
can just stop into our shelter and ask a staff
member we can direct you to those spreads. Or we
also play stickers on their kennels, um, so that way
you know which ones are part of the program. One
of the great things about this program. It has the
potential to be self funding. So right now the City
currently pays approximately 35 dollars a day per pet to
stay in the shelter. So by adopting one of these
animals, you're reducing the number of days saving the city
money. And we're able to reinvest that funding into the
program such as this. We definitely understand that adopting a
pet is a big commitment and a big decision that
you are taking. So we're here to make the process
as easy as possible. Um, so just come in, ask
a simple question. We'd love to introduce you to some
of our pets. And if you do decide to proceed
with the adoption, all of our adoptions are, uh, including
microchipping, spayo neuter, age appropriate vaccines and a cute little
name tag as well. Yeah.
I think. This program is important because it's going to
benefit the pets, the adopters and the shelter system. It's
going to benefit the pads because they're able to come
home to a loving family. It's going to benefit the
adopters because they're going to gain a new companion and
a loving member of the family. And it's going to
benefit the shelter system because it's going to reduce overcrowding
and open up the space for animals that are really
in need. If someone has had adoption on their mind
and aren't ready to make the full commitment yet, just
stop another shelter. We're here to help you. We're here
to make the process for you simple and easy. If
you have any questions, we'd love to help you with
that. We'd love to introduce you to some of our
pets. Um, we know adoption can be a little intimidating.
So if you're not really ready to fully adopt, we
also have our dog day out program where you can
take a dog out for the day. We're also looking
for fosters and volunteers. Um, if you want to help
contribute to the shelter. So if you want more information
or if you want to take the first step to
adopting these palm desert animals, visit palmdesert. gov forward slash
pets. When an adopter does come in and they find
the perfect pet for their family. It's so rewarding. I
feel like, I mean, that's what I'm here for. I'm
here to help people find the perfect match. So seeing
that when someone finds the pet that they want to
welcome to their home and that connection that they make
with the pet, I think it's probably my favorite.
That was our first one. Right. Any questions for my
colleagues. Good. Um, I couldn't hear any of that at
second portion, but, uh, thanks to, um, ADA requirements I
was able to read the captions, um, but I couldn't
see or, or, um, got a little blurry. Do we
know if those stickers, um, that were on there is
that the official sticker that will be taken, um, to
the library or was that something else. Yes. That is
the official sticker. We had provided those to, to the
shelter. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Very good. Good work. Uh,
we will now move on. That's it for C manager
comments, correct? Correct. All right. Very good. Thank you. You'll
now move on to item number 11 mayor and Council
Member Reports and request for action. We will start with,
Councillor, I'm going to stand here. No comments to share.
Thank you Mayor. All right. Councilmember Moreno. Let me get
to my notes here. Um, I'll leave the jazz events
for my colleagues. On June 17th. I was part of
the government advisory panel for Southern California Edison. And the
discussion topic was on the public safety power shutoffs and
the new process that's going in, um, as required by
the California Public Utilities Commission. And what's being rolled out
for 2027, um, includes more awareness of the, um, exchange
that they have on their website and residential customers are
eligible for, uh, portable power stations, uh, portable generators There
was a, um, a battery incentive. They said they're funding
for that is on the wait list and that is
the self generation incentive. Um, I know as we talk
about sustainability and how to have people keep the energy
that they, um, produce in their homes to keep some
of that in case of emergencies, they are implementing a
program called, um, AFN, which is a for customers with
access and functional needs. And that's a little bit of
a step beyond what they've done before. And it's not
just having the medical baseline saying here's, um, a way
to keep your, your medically, um, essentially the devices that
are there for life support. It's not just going to
be my asthma compressor, your nebulizer. And they, I love
that the discussions are also including individuals with intellectual disabilities.
And that could create such a devastating disorientation for some
of the customers. And I really appreciated that that hadn't
been something that was ever brought up before. They highlighted
the partnerships that cities can have by letting residents know
about projects, um, programs like 211 and connecting them to
food banks. And of course, this is when they can
anticipate any major, um, storm event and increase collaborations with
the cities. I know that they sent out a survey
to all of the city managers and public works directors.
And they happened to mention that they know that we're
ahead of that with our city. Let's see if you
are interested in getting those. They are through the SCE
marketplace. And I mentioned that they're in apartments or mobile
home communities. If you're getting your utilities from that HOA
or that central office, you don't have your own SE
account to qualify to purchase them. And they said that
is one of the topics that they're going to be
bringing up to the next day. Just, but I think
all of this should be ruled out, um, by the
middle of next year. Speaking of utilities, um, right now
there is an opportunity or a webinar to help people
understand what the decision - making process is for the
California public utilities commission. I think a lot of people
know my, my bills are going up. The rates are
increasing, but not the process to get involved and be
part of those public hearings and not exist in an
isolation as just letters that some folks know. Um, so
I think that one is going on Tuesday, June 30th,
uh, 10 a. m. to 11 a. m. I saw
the living desert is hosting your hometown zoo days. Kids
and adults in the Coachella Valley, you can save up
to 15 dollars per ticket. And that is available to
Coachella Valley residents. And you just have to show ID.
Um, so that's some fun stuff there. Speaking of animals,
um, it is national adopted cat month. I know some
folks from City Hall have adopted their, their female, their
feline companions. And I'm happy to see that the program
that was highlighted, um, brought up to speed that that
program for adoptions has launched. And something that has been
going on for, for quite some time, um, is presenting
the idea that we finally do need to have a
budget committee with animal services, um, proposed it at the
last meeting and now those conversations are going on as
far as the objectives for the committee, what that would
look like in moving it forward as another step of,
of transparency. And I think that will really help, um,
reduce some of the frustration when people don't understand all
of the limitations. And as I mentioned to the director,
it's been a, we've gotten through some uncomfortable situations to
get to where we are, but it's made the process
better. And identified problems. And I know that's going to
continue, um, I appreciate the library is doing as the
cooling center. It's a highly functional cooling center. I know
that we previously mentioned the Pokemon activities that may happen
with Desert Reck. They're not happening with Desert Reck, but
the Pokemon groups that reached out, they said thank you
to Max and Rachel for helping with the Poki Party
on July 8. And that was, um, uh, I also
saw that right now on Libby, the online app. There
are 2, 000 books and 1000 audio books available, which
includes 53 read along. So here we go for all
of the parents with kids trying to learn to read
and you don't want them on the iPads. Well, if
you can't compromise here something beneficial on the iPad, let's
see, 4th of July, um, thanks to the staff and
their family members that are going to be voluntold to
be there. Uh, and thank you for staff for continuing
the efforts to have the sensory space available at the
Portola community center. And, uh, the social media team, you
guys have been knocking it out of the park, man.
You guys are doing such a great job with having
something, excuse me, dynamic engaging and fun. And really highlights
the way that team pump desert does things. And, um,
I saw that, um, June is National PTSD Awareness Month.
And it goes hand in hand with what we were
talking about, the fireworks. Some other fun, um, June recognition,
um, let's see. What did I have my notes, sorry.
But oh, we can't forget that, um, June is LGBTQ
Pride Month. And we know some of our residents when
we had a special meeting mentioned that they were present
at Stonewall and they know what happened. And I know
that, um, thankful again to see the city recognizing that.
And amongst the, I don't even know how many there
were could be, I don't know, 160, 168 of these
recognitions. There were some interesting ones that I learned like
the ninth was Donald Duck Day. For all of the
Disney babies out there. And today is National Beatles Day,
the band, not the bug. National catfish day, global belly
button day and handshake day. So I hope you guys
get a chance to do any of those. And the
23rd was National where pink day, and I'm surprised it
wasn't on October 4th. If you know, you know. And
that's it for what I've got. Very good. Thank you.
Council Member Hornick. Well, we all had the opportunity to
go to Desert Willow yesterday. We were all, was it
yesterday? This week. Uh, we were all there to celebrate
our fire and our sheriff professionals and thank them for
what they do for our communities and I'll let the
mayor did a great job leading that, uh, entire celebration.
And I'll leave it to you to share some more.
I did want to mention that on July 7th, it
is, uh, outdoor worker day. And that is something we
commemorate every year. And it was started here in Palm
Desert. And fortunately, assembly member Wallace, Greg Wallace has taken
it and really, uh, made it his own and make
sure that we do something every year. The first year
Burtek was involved and they, they made it special. So,
you know, think about the people who keep our signals
running. Our public works who make sure that the parks
are in good shape or if a tree goes down,
all our open spaces are still maintained at those who
work at desert willow outside. Our sheriffs and Cal Fire.
They're all outdoors. Uh, and our and Burtech. So I
encourage everyone to say thank you. These are people who
are out in 110 or whatever the degrees might be
during the summer. And they carry this on to make
sure that we have a great place to live. So
please make sure to say thank you to them on
July 7th, but wouldn't hurt to say thank you every
day this summer. And that's all I have. Thank you.
Very good. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. I want to
recognize our economic development, uh, team that put on brokers
breakfast last week. It was the first one we've done
and they collaborated with cities. And it was a really
great opportunity to get in front of the commercial brokers
that are oftentimes selling the best places to do business.
So getting upstream, getting them educated onto what our city's
doing to be business friendly and get those folks coming
to Palm Desert and staying ahead of what the market
demands are for products in terms of real estate and
zoning that we can stay on top of. So thank
you for that. Last week CVAG homelessness committee met and
we made a recommendation to the Executive Committee to give
the Executive Director of CVAG the ability to negotiate non
- cash contributions for our participation in the housing first
program, which is good for Palm Desert because we use
the, um, PLHA funding. And that will go away, we'll
exhaust those soon. So that gives our team flexibility to
negotiate with CVAG in ways to preserve our general fund.
Lastly, I would like to bring a request for action.
We've had business owners come and testify to us about
the unfair business practices created by the illegal placements of
signs. I've heard from residents as well. So I'd like
to, um, ask for support to direct staff to look
at our signed ordinance and just research if it's giving
them the tools they need to properly enforce sign placement
to our expectation. And it also aligns with our zero
blight challenge. A support. Okay. Uh, as Council Member Moreno
mentioned, we did have our first annual jazz event up
in the County Theater Saturday, June 13th, the City partner
with McCown Theater. And it was sort of a three
part day where at 9 a. m. at the library.
And again, this is a great, in my opinion, great
use of library. I know. I'm so glad to see
this. It was more, um, a little bit of hands
- on. If I didn't attend it, but I think
it was a little bit more of an interactive thing
at the library where people could get to hear the
jazz and play jazz, I believe. And then at one
o'clock, we started the performances proper at McCallum Theater. There
was an all afternoon event. A lot of local talent
was showcased. And, uh, then at the evening program brought
in, I know Mayor Protem and Council Member Moreno and
I all attended and the talent there was just incredible.
It was worthwhile. It was wonderful. And it's a great
way from a column to extend their season. Whereas in
years past, they'd close at the end of April. Now
we're going into midsummer. And there was well attended and
a great event. So I look forward to hopefully that
won't be the one and only. Hopefully it'll be an
annual event moving forward. As Council Member Harnick mentioned the
COVID commission, um, held our annual awards lunch in this
week at Deser Willow where if those are not familiar,
it's Ranch Mirage Indian Wells Palm Desert all make up
the Cove Commission. We talk about common issues. And did
awards program there. And, um, the one thing really struck
me. And it's always struck me since my time on
counsel is just how good our public safety personnel are.
And, um, I'll give you one example. I actually was
fortunate enough to take a vacation last week and I
flew in and out of LA. And had some long
- term parking there, but I thought was a safe
place came back after the trip on a, on a
Sunday evening, Monday evening, uh, car had been broken into
out of this underground garage with hundreds of other cars.
They picked ours to break into. God knows why. Um,
and a filed report with security there, did the whole
rigmarole insurance, blah, blah, blah. And talking to the security
at the parking garage. He said, well, do you want
to file a report with the LAPD? And I said,
probably a waste of time. I said, yeah, online probably
won't amount to much. You contrast that with the stories
we're heard at the public safety luncheon of deputies just
doggedly pursuing these, what in many other cities we'd be
considered like a minor property crime, say identity theft or
misuse of a, somebody's credit card. And they don't stop
until the case is closed. And it was just a
great reminder. Sometimes you got to get out of the
city to remind yourself how good we have it here.
It is really remarkable. And I've just really grateful for
both fire and, uh, and sheriffs for the services they
provide in our city very, very grateful for that. And
on one last note, again, like I said, I was
fortunate enough to take a vacation last week. So I
don't have a whole lot of business to talk about.
But it did give me a chance to catch up
on my pleasure reading. I did read our poetic anthology,
which I think is the first ever we've ever done.
And it's Marigold's dip to marmalade. It's free. It's available
at, um, thereibrary. I picked this one up actually here
at City Hall. And it was outstanding. And I wasn't
really certain how I was going to take to the
poet Laureate program. It's a relatively new program for us.
I wasn't sure if it was really something the city
ought to be involved in. And even if this is
the only thing the poet Laureate does is conduct these
biweekly programs for local residents and non - residents who
want to learn more about poetry, bring out their sense
of expression and articulation. That's all well worth it. So
excellent program and thanks again to the library and the
city for moving forward with that, that project. So that's
all I have. And thank you very much. Next up,
we are going to move on to an item number
12 non - agenda public comments. This time has been
set aside for the public to address the city council
and issues that are not on the agenda for up
to three minutes because the Brown Act does not allow
the City Council to act on items not listed on
the agenda. Council members may briefly respond or refer to
the matter to staff for report and recommendation at a
future meeting. And I guess City Clerk, if you could
have a few remarks, please. For those on Zoom, if
you want to participate in public comment, please click the
raise hand button on your computer or smartphone. And if
you're joining in by calling on your phone, please dial
star nine to raise your hand. And when called upon,
press star six to unmute yourself. Okay. Very good. I'm
going to start off with our in - person. We
have one blue card here, uh, from Sensei Tamara.
Hello. Good day. My name is Sensei Tamara Canado and
I am CEO of Satan Joku and owner of Satan
Kai. Weird names. But I am a Karanian structure and
I specialize in teaching pericarati and I teach individuals with
Disabilities Autism Down syndrome cerebral palsy epilepsy blind and wheelchair.
And as of last year, I got appointed para karate
coach for Team USA. I'm super excited. Thank you, Mayor,
for attending my tournament this year. It was a very
big impact. Uh, we had over 160 para competitors. And,
um, something that I'm very proud. I am a new
palm desert resident. And I officially have the largest pair
of karate team in the country. So as a woman
in a male dominated industry, it is an honor. But,
um, the reason for the, for me coming in today
is one, I'm very grateful for the opportunity for having
presented my first grant to the city of Palm Desert.
I am also a nonprofit. And, um, we are looking
towards relocating from the quinta to also moving into the
city of Palm Desert. Um, I just got some inland
regional center approval for vendorization. And we'll be expanding our
services. As of a couple of months ago, I brought
in a therapist from Barbara Sonatra Center because a lot
of the individuals that I work with are foster kids
sexually abuse children. And believe it or not, a lot
of my children and adults with Disabilities also happen abused.
So bringing in a therapist and the mental health compartment
has been huge for us. But as of officially today,
I have an ER doctor that is joining us for
nutrition and personal training. And the reason is, as you
may know, there are dietary sensitivities and sensories that individuals
with Disabilities have which have let them to diabetes, um,
cardiac issues, kidney and liver failure every scenario you can
imagine. I am dealing with, within my team. So I'm
not just teaching para karate. We're teaching life skills. Respect
focus diet exercise. And so much. So, um, God willing
in the next couple of months, we will be officially
here in the City of Palm Desert, but I did
want to just present today and talk about a little
bit of my program. Thank you. Very good. Thank you
so much. All right. And any online comments? Yes. Uh,
one speaker, Todd Spitzer. Very good. Mr. Spitzer.
Your mic is on mute. There you go.
Mr. Spitzer, we're not able to hear you. How. About
now? Yes, we can hear you now. Okay. All right.
Sorry about that. Mr. Mayor and members of the City
Council, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak
today. Uh, my name's Todd Spitzer. I'm a resident of
the City of Palm Springs. I reside in the Monterey
Country Club. Uh, I've had correspondence on an issue I'm
going to talk about in a moment with your assistant
city manager and your staff member, Ms. Castro. And they've
been very attentive, very professional. And super responsible. So I
want to thank your staff for that. But I do
want to inform you on May 21st of this year.
Mayor Taylor, the mayor of Indian Wells laid down the
gauntlet against the City of Palm Desert. Regarding the expansion
of the Palm Springs airport. Many of you know that
the FAA has changed the flight pattern. Into the approach
corridor for landing into Palm Springs airport. The airport, as
you well know, serves about 3 million annual passengers today.
And while Mr. Wiseman didn't mention it in his presentation,
they plan to expand in the next decade or so.
To 6 million annual passengers. The City of Indian Wells
is hired an outside law firm called DLA Piper. And
they are chief counsel or one of their chief, one
of their lawyers, a partner at that Washington, D. C.
law firm. Is the former chief counsel for the FAA.
And what Mayor Taylor said on May 21st is that
the airport approach corridor and the noise associated with the
flight pattern into Palm Springs is certainly not acceptable to
the City of Indian Wells. They've hired an outside firm.
They are asking the FAA through their counsel to push
the flight corridor out of the City of Indian Wells
and into the city of Palm Desert. This conversation about
airports, um, I think we all can agree. Airport noise
can really hurt a community in a drastic way. And
what I'm asking the City Council to agendize for full
discussion. Is a presentation on the airport master plan and
the expansion. The FAA flight patterns and the changes that
the FAA is implementing in terms of the airport expansion.
If the flight pattern capacity is going to double at
Palm Springs Airport. And Indian Wells is officially on the
record lobbying to push the flight pattern north from their
city into the City of Palm Desert. I really believe
this is a very important discussion that the cities should
be having publicly. Palm Desert, excuse me, Indian Wells Mayor
Taylor is not only a pining publicly that a problem
that is in the City of Indian Wells should be
pushed into the city of Palm Desert, but he recently
took on the city of Coachella criticizing them for not
approving a project in their city. He has no Spitzer.
We have the three minute limit and you've reached that.
However, you're welcome to submit comments via email as well.
If you have more, you'd like to add. Thank you.
Any more online comments. No, they're cons. Okay. Very good.
That brings us to them 13. Our consent calendar. All
matters list on the consent calendar are considered routine and
maybe approved by one motion. The public may comment on
any item on the consent calendar for up to three
minutes. I have no blue speaker cards here. Are there
any online comments? No online comments. Very good. Would any
of my colleagues like to pull an item from the
consent calendar for separate discussion. I would like to pull
L as in Larry. Okay. And I would like to
pull C as in CAT. I'll make the motion to
approve the remainder. Second. Council Member Harnick. Yes. Council Member
Marino. Yes. Council Member Nathan. Yes. Mayor Pro Tim Perdetto.
Yes. Mayor Trooper. Yes. Motion passes five to zero. All
right. So should we address these in alphabetical order? Okay.
So we'll start with item 13 C. This is. Actually
just one very specific component of it. Page 95. Under
competitive opportunities solicitations released rather. It was the one in
the middle May 18th construction of the pilot median for
landscape master plan. I just like a little more detail
on that. I heard some rumblings around the community people
I know had talked about the process. And I don't
know who from staff. Uh, would like to talk about
it. But, um, to me, this is important because it's
a sort of a portends, what may be coming down
the pike for the entire city. And I don't know.
Just taking you through the process on this pilot while
I'd love to hear more. Thank you. Thank you. Good
afternoon again. Um, on the pilot median project, the project
was bid out. And the vids came back nearly 50
percent or in some cases above 50 percent of the
engineers estimate So what we'll be doing staff will be
going back looking at the landscape plans that were developed
for those pilot medians and then proposing changes to reduce
the overall cost of the pilot mediants and thus the
median revitalization throughout the city in the long run. From
what I understand, when you look at these medium projects,
sometimes they're sort of assessed in a per square foot.
As sort of a common measuring stick used. And that
can range from what eight to 10 dollars of square
foot. Yes. I'd have to get you the exact numbers.
I don't have them off the top of my head,
but yes, they are. Um, assessed by a square footage.
And so what we'll be looking to do is to
reduce that, um, what we saw in some of the
causes that some of the electrical components came in higher
than what was anticipated. And also the cost of traffic
control. Okay. Very good. Well, I'm satisfied with that. And
I'm just glad you guys are keeping an eye on
that and cost get out of control. So thank you.
And next we have item 13L, which is, sorry.
Solutions LLC for the traffic signal modifications and hardware upgrades
phase three. Take it away, Chris. Mayor Pro Tem. Uh,
you have the staff report as part of your agenda
package. And if the particular questions from Councilmember, uh, Moreno,
I'd be happy to answer them. Not a specific question.
Just an overall thank you for, um, working with a
team that is very proactive to be sure that we
catch things in time and not have them be more
costly in the long run. Um, I loved how diligent
you are by the life cycle of the equipment and
just wanted again to say thank you and your team
for ensuring that we have reliable and safe streets. Thank
you. Okay. Very good. Anybody cared to make a motion
to, uh, move those two items. Both items. All right.
Council member Harnick. Council Member Moreno. Yes. Council member in
a standing. Yes. Mayor Pro Timbredetto. Yes. Mayor Troopy. Yes.
Motion passes. Five to zero to pass items 13 C
and L. Perfect. Thank you. Uh, next up we have
item 14 action calendar. We begin with item 14 A,
approve the management district plan and engineer's report and order
the levy and collection of assessments for the president's plaza
one property and business improvement district for fiscal year, 26,
27 staff report. Good afternoon. Mayor and Council members. My
name is Amalia Muriel with public works. Uh, I also
have our consultant will denial here. Um, this. Report is
an annual approval for president's Plaza one for fiscal year
2627. The proposed levy funds maintenance and of the shared
parking areas and reflects the authorized three percent annual adjustment
and staff recommends approval of the resolutions. And I'm available
for any questions if you haven't. Right. Well, before I
bring it back to Council, I want to open this
up for public comment. Um, I have no speaker cards.
Are there any online comments? No online comments. Terrific. Okay.
Any questions for my colleagues. Okay. Any discussion from my
colleagues. Move approval second. Councilmember Harnick. Yes. Council Member Mono.
Yes. Council Member Nasty. Yes. Mayor Purtum Proretto. Yes. Mayor
Troopery. Yes. Motion Passos five to zero. Terrific. Thank you.
Okay. On item 14B ordinances amending Title 8 and Title
11 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code to update Skate
Park Regulations and Regulations Governing the Distribution and posting of
hand bills in City Parks. Mayor City Council, you have
before U. S. staff report amending two of the Ordinances
related to Parks. The first updating the skate park ordinance,
uh, to be consistent with state law and in preparation
for the implementation of an open skate park without an
attendant present. And the second being the Distribution of Handbills
in City Parks and clarifying language to protect the First
Amendment. I'm here to answer any questions that you may
have. Okay. Before I bring it back to my colleagues
for questions and discussion. We're going to open up for
public comment. I have no blue cards. Are there any
online comments? No online comments. Terrific. Okay. Anybody have any
questions. From the dice. You selected 25 as the threshold
for an organized distribution. Is the number of distributors is
when it becomes organized and needing a permit. How'd you
come up with that number and did you evaluate other
numbers. That number was recommended by BBNK who developed the
Ordinance Updates. And I can't speak directly to that. Perhaps
the City Attorney can weigh in. Mayor Protem. I am
not sure if we evaluated other numbers specifically for Palm
Desert, but it is going with the herd strategy. Okay.
Any other questions. I have a question. Absolutely. In regards
to the skate park, um, win issue, when fines are
issued to minors, um, who does the bill get sent
to. The bill will be addressed to the parent of
the minor or guardian. And is there a threshold of
fines at which point they'll say you're not following our
safety guidelines and you've incurred them, I think it's set
up to if there are three per year. I think
it bumps up, but is there any place in which
we'd say your privileges of the skate park are revoked
or until you pay X amount? Or what's the overall
enforcement, um, for safety. So the structure of that is
that it does reset each year. So there is an
escalating fine. So if you have a second violation in
the same year, then there's an increased fine. And then
a third violation, um, after that, it would be exclusion.
However, um, without an attendant, it is difficult to enforce.
And then, um, the following year, that would reset. So
the, the finds and the escalation of those fines reset
each year. So if, if, uh, without understandably, it's a
costly to have an attendant there. So how do people
notify, um, to get those fines is that just if
code happens to be passing or if somebody makes a
report, um, I have no idea what the process is.
Yes. Thank you for that question. Um, we will have
QR codes posted at the skate park. So anytime for
any issue in any, in the parks, um, we have
QGAR codes where you can report an issue, whether it
be with, um, folks not complying with park rules or
broken sprinkler, um, dogs off leash, what have you. So
those QR codes will be available for those reports and
then code enforcement and RSO, of course, will be present
in the parks as they normally are to enforce the
rules. Thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. Anybody care
for discussion or direction or anything else? I was just
going to say, we did discuss this issue in depth
in case the public is wondering why we're basically ready
to approve this. So it's, I believe we have fully
vetted it. And we're going to give it a chance.
All right. We'll see no further discussion. I'll entertain a
motion. Move. Second. Council member Harnick. Yes. Council member Moreno.
Yes. Council member in a standing. Yes. Mayor Propertimprededo. Yes.
Mayor Tribune. Yes. Motion passes five to zero. Terrific. Thank
you. Thank you, Sean. On to item 15 public hearings,
the public may comment on individual public hearing items within
the three minute time limit. The applicant and appellant will
be provided with up to 10 minutes to make their
presentations following public testimony. The appellant and applicant will be
given an opportunity to offer a buddle comments for up
to three additional minutes. And we're going to start with
item 15A. Introduce an ordinance amending Title 25 of the
Palm Desert Municipal Code to reestablish golf cart and neighborhood
electric vehicle sales as a distinct land use. Classification. And
we'll have a staff report. Good evening Mayor and members
of the City Council, C. E. Fernandez, senior planner with
development services here to present on this item.
So this is for our golf cart sales and neighborhood
electrical vehicle sales. This is a reintroduction. Uh, so this
is a city initiated zoning ordinance amendment. Uh, this impacts
our commercial industrial and downtown districts. Uh, this is in
order to reestablish a use that was previously established. Uh,
so just a little bit of background. This was previously
approved back in 2023, uh, which created development standards for
this type of use. And provided provisions as far as
how this use was going to be regulated. Uh, inadvertently,
uh, it was removed to in 2024. Um, it was
later identified by staff. Um, that there was an inconsistency
within the code. Uh, so now that we're bringing it
back, uh, we're looking at introducing golf cart sales. And
as an indoor use, through a staff level decision in
our plan commercial areas and in our service industrial areas.
Uh, we're also looking at, um, bring back the outdoor,
um, triggering a conditional use within our surface industrial zone.
So as part of this, um, staff identified some items
that were, um, they could be seen as barriers as
far as not allowing this use within certain zones or
within certain criteria since the development standards that were originally
introduced, provided some challenges and some barriers. So in order
to be more business friendly, we're also proposing removing some
of the requirements. And these photos are just some examples
of some businesses that are no longer there. And that
could potentially utilize this type of use. The only thing
is if the code. Is the way that it's currently
written, it would be prohibitive and costly in order to
be able to establish the use at these locations. Um,
primarily the two provisions that we're moving is that it
needs to be on a primary frontage. Also, uh, to
the requirement for a glazing. So it requires a significant
amount of glazing, which are good planning principles. But it's
prohibitive to establishing a business. Also too, we're looking at
the parking standard. I know as far as some of
the conversations that staff has had with applicants, I Council
Member Hornets. I'm already interrupt. When you talk about glazing,
can you be more specific, please? Sure. You're the Pro,
I'm just trying to keep up with.
So as of right now, um, one of the requirements
is that streets facing facades shall have transparent glazing. So
glass. Um, for the display areas, um, the transparent windows
or doors shall be provided for at least 75 percent
of the building wall area. So as an example, um,
big five no longer there. In order for them to
occupy the space, they would have to add a significant
amount of glass. Um, which obviously would enhance the building.
But at the same time could be cost prohibitive. And
it just, they would need to change the orientation of
the entire building. So it would be a pretty significant
lift in order to be able to establish the use
there. Similar to sex with avenue, um, they do have
glazing along the frontage. It's just, it still doesn't meet
that standard and requirement as the way that the code
is written. So then similar to big five, they would
have to make a significant amount of modifications to the
building in order to be able to establish the use.
No problem. Um, also too, we were looking at parking.
I know typically for this type of use, we've been
seeing a lot of demand in our service industrial areas.
Um, currently the way that the parking standards stands, it
requires a three per 1000 parking count, which it can
be challenging within our service industrial areas where parking is
established that typically around two per 1000. So what we're
looking at doing is establishing an individual parking standard for
this use to be able to allow for these uses.
And as part of that, we still review it through
the administrative use permit, which is a staff level decision.
So we can still evaluate parking on a case by
case basis. As far as public notification, this went out
to the desert sun 20 days as required by state
law. Um, we haven't received any opposition to the zoning
ordinance amendment. I know we have had some discussions with
some business owners who are interested in potentially moving to
the City of Palm Desert. And as far as what
we've heard so far is that they are in support
of the change. Also too, this went to planning commission.
Um, and they also recommended, uh, unanimous approval. So SAP's
recommendation is that city council approved inordinance establishing and amending
the applicable, municipal code sections and reestablishing golf cart NEV
sales and determined that the action is not subject to
CEQA or alternatively is exempt. Persons to state guidelines. That
concludes staff's presentation. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Fernandez. At this
time, I will open the public hearing. I don't have
any blue spirit cards. Are there any online comments. No
online comments. Okay. Then I will close the public hearing
and open up four questions for my colleagues. Any questions.
All right. Any discussion. Ari, I do have a question
I needed to click and make notes. Um, for the
image of big five and saying that it would require
more windows and a lot of, um, a lot of
change. Is there a guideline of, of how much of
that glazing ass to be put in place, um, is
that part of objective standards or what's the determination as
far as how much changes would need to happen at,
um, building, we're encouraging someone to occupy. So for in
order for a use with our current standards to establish
at the big five location, they would have to change
the orientation of the building facing highway 111. Um, as
far as a glazing, it's that 75 percent requirement. From
that two and a half feet to the eight feet.
So, and you can't have more than 20 feet of
expanse area that is devoid of, of glazing. So it
would be a pretty significant lift in order to be
able to establish that you stare. Okay. Thank you. I
appreciate that. So more questions. Yeah. So on the heels
of what Councilmember Mono just said. So we're suggesting, help
me out here because I am struggling. Sure. Um, so
you're suggesting we won't ask them to have that glazing.
The way that the code is being proposed is that
it wouldn't be a requirement in the event that the
business owner wanted to come in and make modifications to
the building. That would go through our design review process.
It's just as far as it being a strict requirement
that they have to provide that amount of glazing. That's
what we're proposing. Okay. And so often the amount of
glazing has to do with public safety. And have we
talked to, you know, any of our business teams at
the sheriff's business teams and things like that. Because so
often it's what can they see in there. Okay. Yeah.
Um, not to my knowledge. Okay. You know, I'm hesitant
with this because. We're saying now we had this standard
in place. Yeah. It would be a significant lift. There's
no question. And I, and I get that. But is
it an important lift for the integrity of the shopping
center and the character. Of what we're trying to convey.
And safety. So those are my questions. And I know
that that's no easy answer, but it's, it's my hesitancy
and my question. Sure. So
what we're being asked to do with this action item
is that this amendment is to establish a tailored parking
standard for golf cart and NEV sales. And also staff
is asking us to remove references and requirements that these
uses be oriented and fronting major public streets and removing
the requirement that street facing facades have transparent glazing. And
it went to the planning commission and they approved. Staff's
recommendation unanimously. And so we're, we're really being asked to
just clarify this ordinance as well. It's more of a
technical clerical. Discussion. So I'm ready to approve staff's recommendation.
Okay. More questions from Councilmember Hornick. I'm trying to understand
the great advantage. Of taking away. The requirements we've had
in past, has there been requests for it. So typically
the way that when we receive inquiries, we send them
the section of the code and identify what the requirements
would be in order for them to establish the use.
And typically for this type of use, when we send
them the requirements, then they typically don't come back. Let's
see. I can't help but think that we need to
run this by our public safety. I mean, there's part
of the reason we have the glass that's exposed to
the street is for safety reasons. You know, when it's
concealed from the street, all sorts of shenanigans can happen.
So I'm just hesitant about that. I think there was
a good reason for it. And I don't know, have
we looked at that? Should we look at that? And
these are authentic questions. Let me interject. We can certainly
continue the item. We can get some clearance and then
we can come back with it. If it's, if it's
the wish of the Council. And that way we can
be clear on any of the requirements from sheriff. Okay.
Is there any sense of urgency on this particular item
at this time. For this, it would just be to
clarify and provide guidance. But the one who's saying right
now, but I want that building if I didn't have
to comply with your standards. We have received interests, but
nothing, um, no, no type of application has come in.
Thank you. Could I follow up on that? I thought
we had a golf cart operator that whose lease is
up wanting to relocate. And time was of the essence.
So I know we have received inquiries, but as far
as an application, we haven't received an application. So any
type of formal application hasn't come in. So this item
is for you because there was a request for action
to review our ordinance a few months ago. And so
staff has gone through the process to clarify and understand,
um, the items that were inadvertently removed before. And so
this is why it's before you today. Could the question
be answered that Council Member Harnick has about safety right
now. I'll defer to Rosie. If I can add one
more additional context since I was here during the 2023
original Ordinance and why that actually why the requirement came
about, um, about the glass window, when staff was developing
the that original ordinance and standard, it was more about
the visibility into the store for, um, marketing purposes per
se. And making and trying to make or trying to
orient these businesses. Cause at the time it was mostly
off in front of you. And it was, as we
looked at it, it was more restrictive in nature and
what it was doing. We didn't look at it. Um,
we didn't get comments or look at it from the
safety angle. It was really from, you know, the visibility
angle. Because we were not, because we were saying we
aren't going to allow golf cart sales, um, in some
of these plan commercial areas to be outdoors. It's only
going to be indoor ones. And so the way to
maybe, um, still create a abysmal nature is to add
more window, more glazing. Now as we. Looked at it
in practicality, I see he mentioned a lot of applicants
weren't able to do that. Um, additionally a lot of
our, when buildings are originally built or any revisions, go
through our design review process where our ARC is huge
on glazing for many different reasons and trying to see
the visibility from it. So it's kind of a long
way of saying that the original intent of that requirement
was more about the visibility from a little more of
a marketing purposes, I guess, to see the golf carts.
And because a lot of these businesses, we thought at
the time would want a lot more of that. And
then as we got more feedback. Um, you know, it
became prohibitive to repurpose some of these buildings. Okay. And
I know you're waiting. I just have an additional comment.
And I, I know we're looking at it marketing, but
that's doesn't mean we shouldn't have also been looking at
it from a safety. Aspect. And if we can continue
it, it gets a full and robust feedback on this
policy. I think it's important. And if one person is
moving, one person is moving and that's important, but should
not drive policy that comes up. It should be well
thought out that it serves the entire community well. And
I think it's worth, I believe it's worth. Just let's
look at it completely from every angle. Let's do a
360 on this and make sure we're doing the right
thing. Maybe the planning commission didn't think about that. And
that's why it comes to us. Well, my only other
comment is that we've had this issue for a few
months. Already. And it would have been wonderful to have
had this looked into by now. It most certainly would
have, but we haven't. We've had it for a few
months. So let's continue it. And let's do it right.
We are community deserves that. Mayor Pro Tem. Staff. For
instance, the big five building is a retail use. Any
other retailer moves in, they would not have to change
the glazing, correct? That is correct. This was a specific,
um, development standard for this particular type of use. So
any other operator retail, they wouldn't be subject to these
standards. And so the discussion we're having is essentially treating
golf cart sales as a normal retail use. So it's
still, it's not just general retail because it would, it
wouldn't require an administrative use permit, which is our staff
level decision. So it's a little bit more distinct. So
that way we were able to come up with conditions
of approval. So that way we can try to regulate
and prevent any potential issues that we may see with
the proposed use. Cannabis gun sales. Neither one of them
have to comply with glazing for safety reasons. No. Councilwoman
Harnick, is there anything that is particular to the golf
cart sales that triggers your concern for safety above some
other uses that we don't require that it's not only
the golf cart, it is in general. We've asked for
glazing. We've asked for certain things and now we're saying,
but maybe not. And I think we need to look
at it. I would appreciate a more comprehensive review. Of
this policy before we bite the ones you know what
it takes to reverse a policy. Staff, what other retail
or similar uses to golf carts require the glazing. To
the same standard as the golf carts. So the golf
cart standard is unique. It stands on its own. Okay.
Thank you. May or may I. Absolutely. Council member Moreno.
I agree with, uh, Councilmember Harnick that we need to
take our time and do it right. And that the
difference in looking at this from the marketing perspective, from
the public safety, um, elements. And we do want to
accommodate new business. But I think that we need to
do this carefully. And if we're changing an entire segment
to treat one, um, category as very, um, in a
whole different way, I don't think that we are doing
our due diligence to make sure that we make the
best decisions. If we're making this change for one, and
I'm thinking if this were to create any safety issues
that are even unintended, not just theft. For example, of
my understanding is there would need to be more windows
facing, um, the street. Did I understand that correctly? And
if that's the case, doesn't that mean that there's potential
for somebody to end up running through their window? I
mean, if we're looking at all of the businesses that
are there on 111 where you've got the, um, olive
garden and bread lobster and the cosmetology school, the windows
there. And where it may be something people want windows.
I think we're looking at it as the additional public
safety element, not just from, from theft. But I do
concur that there's nothing that's holding us to make that
decision today. Um, good data equals good decision making. And
I would, um, support tabling this or if that's my,
if I can make the motion to table this for
a later date with better information. All right. Council member
Harnik. Thank you Mayor. I have some more questions. By
the way, we have a motion just, if anybody wants
a second, just so we know, but of course after
questions. So are we helped me out here. Are we
say now our golf, we can have electric vehicle and
golf car sales. Are we lifting it so we can
have them? And I'm, and I apologize. I'm looking through
here and I'm a little lost. Anywhere in the city.
Are we lifting that so that. I mean, I got
thrown off by the off fifth photo. Are we saying
we would have them there? So is that just an
example of glazing. No. So as far as the way
that the code has established right now, it is a
provision within our downtown district. So in the sax fifth
avenue example, not saying that we have anyone that's interested
in that location. But, um, as an example, that's not
facing the primary frontage, the primary frontage is 111 versus
San Pablo, the building faces San Pablo. So it wouldn't
meet that provision. Also too, as far as the glazing,
it does have a good amount of glazing in front
of it. On the left side, but on the right
side, it doesn't meet that provision. So it also wouldn't
meet that standard. So we, if someone was interested in
that location, currently it would be an administrative staff level
decision, but we wouldn't be able to approve it. So
they could though, if they went to you. And that
location would be acceptable for golf car sales. With a
correct use permit, yes. As it stands today, the answer
would be no. Any
other questions or anybody cared to second Council Member Reina's
motion to table with, uh, further, sounds like further research
into the safety provisions or the glazing requirements. If I
would add. Well, I'm not going to add a friendly
amendment. What I am going to do is offer another,
uh, I am satisfied. And I would offer another motion
that we move as presented. I will second that motion.
Move as presented. Okay. So, uh, for the record, the
motion from, uh, Council Member Moreno dies for lack of
second. And on the motion to move forward, um, ASSTAP
presented Council Member Harnick. Yes. Councilmember Moreno. May.
Council Member Ness Dante? Yes. Mayor Purton Perdetto? Yes. Mayor
Truby. Yes. Motion passes four to one. We have one
quick second. Thank you very much for answering all my
questions and helping me. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Fernandez. Appreciate
that. Okay. On to item 15B resolutions related to the
adoption of the fiscal year 26, 2026, 27 financial plan
and Capitol Improvement Program, looking for staff report. Mayor, can
we take a quick break since I know the budget
usually takes a little bit more time? Would that be
okay? I am okay with that. Joe is ready to
stand up and stretch it up. C might be actually
nice and quick. Okay. Let's take a break. Yeah. Thank
you. We'll say 10 minutes if that's okay. Come back
535. That's perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
Okay, welcome back everybody. 10 minute break. All ready to
resume business. And actually everybody could indulge me here. I'm
going to flip B and C. I know B, we
anticipate taking quite a bit of time. The budget and
C, of course, generally, it's a little bit quicker. So
we're going to go on to 15, item 15 C.
Approval of fiscal year 2026, 2027 solid waste recycling and
organic service rates. Authorization of annual rate adjustments through July
1st, 2030, and approval of residential solid waste service charges
on the Riverside County Property Tax Bill. We have a
staff report. Good evening, Mayor and members of the City
Council. My name is Louise Moctezuma, management analyst with the
economic development department. The item before you this evening contains
two related actions regarding the city's solid waste recycling and
organics collection services provided by Birthtech Waste and Recycling Services.
First, staff is requesting approval of the updated solid waste
recycling and organic service rates for fiscal year 2627. The
proposed adjustments reflect an increase of 4. 81 percent for
residential customers and 4. 76 percent for commercial customers. This
adjustments are necessary to support continued collection, recycling, organic diversion,
disposal services, and state mandate SB1383 compliance requirement under the
Cities franchise agreement. Staff is also requesting authorization for annual
rate adjustments through July 1st, 2030. Would be based on
changes in the garbage and trash collection index, capped up
5 percent annually along with applicable disposable fees adjustments as
provided in the franchise agreement. Second staff is requesting approval
of the annual resolution authorizing eligible residential solid waste service
charges to be collected through the Riverside County Property tax
role for fiscal year 2627. The City has utilized the
tax rule process since 2015. And it remains an efficient
and cost - effective method for collecting residential service charges.
With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. We also
have Frank Orlett, Vice President with Vertek Waste and Recycling
Services available should you have any questions for him. Very
good. So at this time, I will open the public
hearing. I have no blue common cards. Are there any
online comments? No online comments. Then I will close the
public hearing. And ask my colleagues if we have any
questions for staff or representative from Bertek. All good? All
right. Then I guess I will entertain a motion. Mr.
Mayor, if I get a problem, if I need to
conduct the protest hearing. Oh, I thank your pardon. I'm
the city has received 24 protest letters, which does not
constitute a majority protest in the City Council may proceed
with consideration of the rate adjustment. Perfect. Thank you so
much. Appreciate that. Okay. Open it up for my colleagues.
Questions first of staff, if there are any. No, questions,
any comments from my colleagues. Thank you. I do have
a comment. I realize the increase and I don't know
where in our lives there isn't an increase. And this
is very reasonable. And especially considering the service that Burtech
gives us all. We're still lowest in the valley. We're
always lower than everyone else. And that's partly because of
what Palm Desert does. And it's a whole lot because
of what Burtech does. Their services exemplary. And, you know,
as we all know when we have large pieces of
furniture, we have to do is call them and they
tell them what day they're picking them up. And they
pick it up. And we don't, you know, we don't
have to sort out. Everything. We have different bins for
each item. And, uh, the service is worth it. It
is one of those great deals we get. And I
support this without question. Council Member Standy. Was that a
motion? Actually, I have one comment. I will say I
use them Bertek for commercial and residential. And in both
cases, they're outstanding, terrific. I second Mayor Harnick's common. In
fact, I know the driver buddy. That he, I mean,
take something as simple as trash service and makes it
a customer service experience. It's incredible. So I, uh, definitely
make a motion to approve. If I may. Oh, bigger
pardon, Councilmember Reno. I'm sorry. No worries. I concur. I
concur that, um, everything is, um, the costs are, are
increasing. Our demands of the planet are increasing. Our demand
of, um, the landfill as much as we're, we're trying
to work on the 1383 landfill reduction. We are generating
more waste. And it does take a responsive partner that
is a that creates that community trust in that community
impact. And for example, like know that my nieces and
nephew, their favorite day of the week, um, it my
niece and nephew's favorite day of the week is the
day that Bortech rolls through and they wait outside and
they wait for the honk. And that's what makes their
week, their littles. They're little people out there and they
appreciate that when anybody else could just drive by and
keep doing their business. So I appreciate knowing that on
a personal level, they're not just providing a service that
they're being paid for that do it with the smile
and engage the community. So I, I concur, um, we're
receiving great services. I'll move the item. I will second.
Councilmember Harney. Yes. Council Member Mono. Yes. Council Member and
a standee. Yes. Mayor Proper Tim Perdedo. Yes. Mayor Trippie.
Yes. Motion passes five to zero. Terrific. Thank you. Okay.
On to item 15B resolutions related to the adoption of
the fiscal year 26, 2026, 2027 financial plan with Capitol
Improvement Program, staff report. Good afternoon, honorable mayor. Members of
the City Council, Veronica Chavez, your director of finance. And
I'm here with Sky Wolkovitz, your budget analyst. As you
will call this year, um, our theme was about balance.
And, um, that's not that we don't balance another years,
but it is that this year, it took a little
more effort. And much of that was at the hands
of Ms. Volkovitz who played a huge part and taken
on some of the heavy lifting this year. And so
she will be presenting the budget for you today. Um,
but what I did want to, um, share with you
was the, um, efforts we made in community engagement. Each
year with budget, we like to approve it just a
little bit more than we did, um, the prayer year.
And so, um, while we always meet our community engagement
requirements, um, this year we kicked it up a step
and we used the Civic Academy as an opportunity to
do a budget challenge. And what we did was we
gave them a budget and had, um, had limited resources
and asked them to take the different, um, uh, budget
categories and fund them according to the limited resources they
had and make, you know, very, um, very difficult decisions
with that. Um, it was very engaging. They enjoyed themselves.
They had a difficult time. They recognized the difficulty in
making decisions and cuts. And the trade - offs that
comes with that. And so it was a really great
exercise. And we enjoyed it. We intended you it again.
Um, and create, um, create budget savvy residents. And I
just want to thank, um, my favorite critique, Anthony for
helping me up the anti - on it. Cause I
was going to make it really easy. And he said,
no, we can, we can challenge them a little bit
more. And so it came out to be a really,
um, great. Um, great exercise. And so with that, I'll
hand it over to Sky. Good afternoon Mayor members of
the city council. Sky Wolcow excited analysts in the finance
department. Uh, before we get into numbers, I want to
start with the priorities that guided the budget each year.
Council establishes a set of goals and those goals serve
as the policy framework for the budget. This year's goals
include mall redevelopment and family - friendly activation. Citywide economic
activation and events, North Palm Desert and University Area Development.
Community Resilience and Climate Strategy. Clean, safe and attractive city
standards and community engagement city identity. With those goals and
mind, staff developed the fiscal year 2627 Financial Plan to
align available resources with those priorities. The proposed budget and
tenure CIP were reviewed in detail at the May 14th
study session. This budget continues. The City's commitment to public
safety, economic development, infrastructure and long - term financial stability.
Now I'll provide a high - level overview of the
general fund which supports the city's core operations and services.
The general fund budget is balanced with estimated revenue of
about 112. 6 million and projected expenditures of about 112.
6 million. The budget projects a modest surplus of 69,
000 with no use of reserves for operations. Next, we're
going to look at general fund revenue and is coming
in what's coming in. What's, sorry. We're in the revenue
is coming from and what is driving the change from
prior year. General fund revenue is estimated to increase by
about three percent over prior year. The increase is mainly
driven by a modest growth in measure G sales tax
and transit occupancy tax. The city continues to rely on
a diverse mix of revenue sources, including sales tax, district
tax, TUT, also known as treasant occupancy tax, short -
term rentals, property tax, franchise fees, permits, and other revenues.
Now that we covered projected revenues, the next slide shows
how those dollars are allocated across city services. General Fund
Expenditures are also increasing by about three percent primary cost
drivers include public safety, personnel services, and the implementation of
measure G funded priorities. The budget maintains current service levels
while supporting growth - related demands and council directive initiatives.
A major part of this budget is measure G. So
the next slide highlights how those funds are being implemented.
Fiscal year 2627 is the third year measure G sales
tax revenue. Funds are allocated according to the adopted five
- year spending plan. Measure G supports public safety, facility
improvements, north Palm Desert Infrastructure, parks, and public work staffing.
The allocation reflects both immediate service needs and long -
term infrastructure priorities. Measure G is only one component, one
important funding source for capital needs. The next slide brought
in the view to the full capital improvement plan. The
proposed fiscal year 2627 CIP totals 76. 4 million. Key
projects include fire station improvements. The palm desert library construction.
They were when park, public facility upgrades and infrastructure that
supports city council priorities. Public safety is one of the
largest investment areas. So the next slide breaks down those
costs. Total public safety costs are 60. 61
million. The general fund share is 36. 65 million, which
represents about 30 percent of the general fund budget The
budget supports police services, committee safety, county, MS fire service
operations and related capital and equipment needs. In addition to
general fund, the city manages several restricted or restricted or
special purpose funds, which are summarized next. Other funds are
generally restricted restricted or satisfied for specific purposes. The total
budget across these funds is 151. 9 million. Using restricted
funds appropriately helps protect the general fund and ensures compliance
with funding requirements. The next slide addresses the state appropriations
limit, which is a legal requirement calculation. The appropriations limit
is the state imposed spending cap for 2627. The calculator
limit is 201. 76 million budgeted appropriations are at 112.
6, which is well within the legal limit. In addition
to the budget resolutions, Council is also being asked to
consider the staffing resolution and out - of - state
travel memo. The staffing resolution identifies the fiscal year 2627
salary schedule classification groups and all allocated positions. The out
- of - state travel memo included in your packets,
lists intended travel for fiscal year. That must be approved
by Council and a public meeting. Taken together these components
support the overall fiscal year 2627 budget summary. Overall, the
budget is balanced, includes a small projected surplus, does not
use reserves for operations and allies with council 2026 goals.
The estimated year in fund balance is about 120 million
with required reserve of about 70. 1 million. Measure G
is fully allocated per plan and will continue to be
reviewed quarterly by the Finance Committee. With that summary in
mind, staff is bringing forward the following recommendations for Council's
consideration. Staff recommends opening the public hearing and improving the
resolutions presented to you today, as well as the out
- of - state travel memo. Staff will return at
a later date with a study session item on potential
financing options for major projects maintain while maintaining operations and
managing reserve impacts. Um, and that concludes the budget presentation.
And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you very
much. I will now open the public hearing. I see
no blue speaker cards. Are there any online comments. No
online comments. Very good. Thank you. I will now close
the public hearing in that case and turn it over
to my colleagues if they have any questions of staff.
Council member Moreno. Wow. I appreciate that you know I
do have questions. My first question is presenting at the
Civic Academy is that considered an official outreach session. Um,
I'm wondering in terms of I thought that our public
information sessions are to be open to the public. Um,
I'm wondering if having this presented through the Civic Academy
would make people feel like they couldn't participate or they
notified. I'm just wanting to be sure how to interpret
using the Civic Academy. So as far as the public,
um, outreach, that is what we use the study session
for. And typically that's how we address that requirement. The
Civic Academy was an opportunity to use that format for
the first time. And we can certainly send that out
further in future years, but we wanted to test it
out and see how effective it could be. In terms
of how many public, um, sessions are we required to
have. We're just required to have, um, were just required
to have public outreach. So the number designated. And so
we do use the study session. We use the advertisement
in the, um, the notice in the paper that covers
the requirement. And was this, could anybody just, um, learn
that that's what was going on with the Civic Academy
that day. Could they pop in and participate or are
events or the Civic Academy limited to participants in the
Civic Academy. I am not as familiar with how the
Civic Academy program works. Um, this was what we typically
do is we give them a budget 101 session. And
so we added this as a component to the budget
101. Got it. Um, I do have a few more
questions, but I'll let my, my colleagues. Get their questions
while I merge questions. Actually, I want to piggyback on
Council Member Moreno. The exercise you did at the Civic
Academy was like, uh, theoretical. It wasn't real numbers that
we actually have in our budget. Not at all. They
were points. So we gave them 100 points and we
assigned each category a number of points. It really was
an exercise. It wasn't real money or anything like that.
Okay. Cool. Thank you. Any other questions for my colleagues
Mayor Pro Tem when we had the study session, we
were presented with similar top line numbers. And since then,
we gave direction to support potentially the Paralympic surf event.
Palm Springs Life. Yet the top line numbers didn't change.
Is do you guys find money for those in there?
Maybe I missed it. Are those in this budget? No,
they are being currently funded by fiscal year 25, 26
funds. So this fiscal year, even though their future events
for increases, so the. Surf event would be funded out
of this fiscal year that we're currently in. The Paralympic,
um, the way it was brought was to use funds
that were available from 25, 26 budget and what we
will do is carry them over to 2627. The money
for, what was the other, the food and wine. That
was included in the budget. And kind of a question.
In the last item, I could find out what every
one of my neighbors trash role looks like. Last year
we had a lot more. We had a more robust
budget to review. Uh, I believe. Am I missing something?
Is this your different in the presentation? This is the
typical packet we're bearing for the final approval. The robust
packet you get is during the budget study session. And
so all of the detailed numbers were in that packet.
Any other questions for my colleagues? All right. Open up
for discussion. I'll get ahead. Sorry. I do have all
you mentioned that to begin with. Yes. You do. Yeah.
I just wanted to be sure. Um, I want to,
to follow up on what mayor Pro Tem mentioned that
in the past, we do get comprehensive document where we
can look at what we're looking at. And for example,
this is the one for last year. I could not
find anything similar to this. Um, I spent, I don't
know how much time last night in looking for a
comprehensive document where I could look year over year. I
am a note taker. I like physical media to consume
when I'm looking for this. And, um, I couldn't find
it. And when I asked our city clerk, he sent
me the link, but it's frustrating to think how much
work it took to find it. In previous years, it
was excellent that it could be found with one single
click. And this time it took a lot more. And
I understand that when we update our webpages, things move,
things change when you're on the finance, um, page, if
you scroll all the way to the bottom, it says
the link for the city budget. It takes us to
page not found. And again, we, it's possible to get
circular links and things get moved. But this was. This
was very frustrating. And I had residents that reached out
and said, I'm trying to find out, for example, um,
on public safety. And they sent me the screenshot that
it didn't work on their mobile phone. And we know
that it's important to get things optimized for mobile, even
to be able to download a PDF or print from
their phone onto their device. But I couldn't even print
the document here and doing my typical control P because
that's the way that I print. It would only let
me print one page at a time and a few
of the categories and not even to not even one
quarter of the categories that were there. And as we
strive for transparency, it was frustrating that once Anthony gave
me the link, it's required 16 steps. 16 steps to
get to that. And as we've mentioned, when it, when
we are asking someone to do more than three, four,
five clicks, they're going to give up. And it was
very inconvenient to have to look for the clerk website,
then a dropdown menu for online records. Click the public
reports portal. Find the new page for public records. Click
browse. Find City Clerk. Click the budget. Scroll to find
the gear. But then we can't link as before. Before
we could go to the table of contents, we could
click the item and it would take you to that
page. And here you had to scroll. For example, um,
I was asked to look at animal services. It list
page 77, but I still had to keep scrolling till
page 90 out of 146 to get to that area.
Um, the. Challenges of trying to get what was presented
in May, even in May, it's a series of, of
attachments. The May 14th study session was 14 separate attachments
when in previous years, we've had everything in one place.
And that's very unfortunate to ask our residents. I'm sorry
you had such a hard time finding it. But when
even we as council members are looking to be able
to make the best decisions, it's very frustrating. It's very
frustrating. And it's hard to bring this up when I
always tell folks we've got such great staff. Our staff
is very diligent, but this is difficult to find. It's
not mobile friendly. It's certainly not ADA compliant. And when
we tell people that transparency is one of those benchmarks
of what we ask for, this doesn't feel that way.
This doesn't feel that way at all. And we need
to do better to provide consistency in the services. Um,
it's, I'm just wondering what led to going from a
system that made things very easy to understand with everything
in one clear place to find it to now a
bunch of attachments and summaries that don't allow us to
extrapolate to truly be able to ask the questions. Okay.
So I don't know if that's a question for Veronica
or. Somebody from IT. I can speak to a portion
of it. I did appreciate, um, uh, Councilmember Moreno bringing
that to my attention today. As far as the cleanup
and what, um, how that was done. I have no,
you know, understanding of that piece. Cause I know it's
ADA related up until her pointing that out. I did
not know that all of our budgets had been scrubbed.
And so staff has been directed to add the last
three years back up there so that they are easily
accessed. Um, but I do understand that it's part of
the ADA requirements with regards to those. Yeah. Just quickly,
you know, and not to make excuses, we can certainly
do better. But, um, prior budgets were removed from the
website when the city was redoing the website to comply
with WCAG requirements, which has a website content accessibility guidelines.
Uh, which were established by the federal government. And that
requires PDFs to be fully accessible for screen readers, um,
and. Because these budget documents are so large, they were
removed from the website in order to comply. Um, and,
and moved into the city's permanent repository, which is the
laserfish web portal. And so through that web portal, yes,
if you are hitting print on a page by page,
it does that. But if you download the document, then
it will come out as a PDF and you can
print it in full. But we acknowledge the fact that
we can always do better and we will. Can I
request that we have both. Can I request what we
are used to to have that ability to click and
find and direct folks? Because again, that makes it easier
for us to get that for our residents to access
and have the separate link for the ADA compliant version.
So anybody that needs to access it in that direction
is able to, um, I think that we can continue
to provide the level of service and quality that we
have done in the past, um, and just have them
side by side. So that was one of the big
frustrations, um, issues that I had. And in terms of
specific questions, um, one of the residents brought it to
my attention that we're showing, um, a 1. 56 million
contingency fund. Whereas 2526, the allocation was zero and 2425.
It was 85, 000. Is there any, any context of,
of what that is? And I wish I could tell
you it's on page X so we could all be
on the same page, but I don't know where I
found that before. It's just. The account. For that. You
can answer it. So the 1. 5, um, if you're
speaking on the public safety budget, the police budget, is
that correct? Um, so that was established because when we
originally got, um, the request from the pleat department from
RSO, we noticed that they weren't in line with actuals,
but we still wanted to leave that capability. So if
they did come in a little bit higher, we have
the flexibility to address those needs. So that was established
just as a safety point to make sure we, we
can address that. So the 85K from 2425 were those
the actuals. Those were actual contingency funds. Um, and then
this year there was no request. So, but we did
establish that we should have some sort of contingency. So
that was, um, the reason for that 1. 5. Okay.
My question that I'm still trying to figure out is
how if we have an 85, 000 contingency that wasn't
used. And of course, we're glad that there wasn't a
need for it, that nothing happened in the city that
required that. But if, if, um, our public service of
our public safety partners didn't request that. How did 1.
56 become the figure to go from 85, 000 to
1. 56 million. So the original request from RSO was,
I don't want to say this wrong. I believe it
was 32. 4 million, 4 million. And when we started
to evaluate all of the actuals that they were spending
over the course of five years, um, we brought that
number down to a more realistic. Like an average number
to the 30 million. But city manager, you decided that
we should have a contingency in place, um, to ensure
if those costs did hit the request that they made,
we were able to, um, to have the funds available
for them. And just to add on that, we did
not want to bring it to the actual, actual given
our priority of public safety, but that contingency allows us
to use it across the entire police budget as either
demands change or police department requests more or costs coming
higher. And just to add to that in prayer years,
we budgeted police differently, completely differently. Since then, um, staff
has requested that items are, um, itemized more versus everything
being dropped into one budget so that they can really
keep track of the cost as they come through. So
if we have any additional insight on that, um, that
would be helpful. Like I said, right now I, I
was approached on, um, animal services and, uh, public safety.
And that's where I honed in on getting more info.
Other than that, that's the extent of my questions. Very
good. Any other colleagues have questions. Okay. Just clarify. We
have the technical issues, acknowledged staff is on it. We're
going to address it for next year. Perfect. Okay. Very
good. Any other, uh, comments from my colleagues. All right.
Well, then I will entertain a motion. I will thank
staff for their hard efforts and approve the motion. Second.
Council member Harnick. Yes. Council Member Mono. Yes. Council Member
Standy. Yes. Mayor Proper Tempereddo. Yes. Mayor Trubie. Yes. Motion
passes five to zero. All right. Honda item 16, which
is no further business. We are hereby officially adjourned. Thank
you everyone. Have a happy safe 4th of July hydrate.
Stop.