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You didn't circulate the staff report, the minutes from the two council meetings that dealt with the, the council meetings, the minutes from those council meetings and the settlement agreement to the public.

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And I would really urge you to make that material public tonight. The public deserves to see that material while they're having this discussion. Thank you, Kathy.

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Good

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afternoon, I'm here as a former member of the Subcommittee appointed by Council to analyze the CVRA, also a former civil rights attorney from private practice and with the ACLU.

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And I want to urge the Council when considering any potential litigation around changing the former government as it relates to the current ceremonial mayor's position.

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To ensure that any changes do not violate the settlement agreement, the city entered into with a Southwest

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Voter Education Registration Project, or violate the California Voting Rights Act.

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Any change that includes a combination of voting members of a governmental body that include members elected by district

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and members elected at large is prohibited as a remedy under the California Voting Rights Act.

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The settlement agreement, the city entered into specifically references and incorporates

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this language and states quote, whereas the CBRA, a California elections code section

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1-4-02683, defines a prohibited at large method of election to include one that combines

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with districts and at large-based elections, unquote.

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That is clear about the settlement agreement and the CBRA.

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One of the proposals being advanced is a ballot measure, which would do just that.

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That specifically would create a six member of the City Council, a voting member, elected

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at large, who would also be a ceremonial mayor, with five members elected to district.

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That's prohibited under the severe

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and accurate, not misleading.

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Thank you very much.

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Okay. I'm not Tobias. I'll go ahead. I'm speaking today on closed session items significant exposure to litigation because the possibility of bringing an out large mayor election back puts the city at risk of possible legal action and the city must be prepared for this possibility by helping to educate residents and the broader community about the realities of this issue.

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I'm a Palm Springs resident and district one.

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I was also a co-chair of the California Boating Rights Act working group for the city in 2018.

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As part of this group of residents who made up the working group we played an important role

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as you heard in researching different forms of city government across the state, community engagement

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with residents within the official 1PS structure neighborhood structure and outside of it because

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many residents of color working class residents have historically not been engaged by 1PS.

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And we presented the city staff options for resolutions,

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stemming from the lawsuit from the Southwest

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Voter Registration Education Project.

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You heard we heard hosted over 30 community meetings,

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including notably meetings held in Spanish,

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to involve as many voters as possible.

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And now, just a handful of years later,

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we have a small group of individuals

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who are trying to ramp through a ballot proposition

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to bring back what the lawsuit and the city's own experts

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found was the most racially polarized voting,

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the at-large mayor election.

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California voting rights act working group for the city strongly recommends that the city

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not engage in any action that would violate existing state law as well as honoring our original settlement agreement with the civil rights firm.

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In fact, we are disappointed to learn that the settlement agreement was not included in the staff report for this evening.

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The city has a responsibility to conduct unbiased public education about possible litigation exposure if this ballot proposition were to move forward.

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Finally, we currently live under a federal administration that has demonstrated consistent

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disregard for legal precedent, property, community engagement, channels, and an imposition

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of will to bend to strong egos and people in power who are unwilling to be held accountable.

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It is extremely unfortunate to see similar tactics attempted here in Palm Springs.

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Thank you.

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We can move on to our online public speaker, Tobias Wolfe, if you can hear us, you have two minutes.

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I'm a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a part-time resident in Palm Springs in District 2.

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I also have the great honor of serving as one of the co-chairs of the CBRA working group.

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I endorse the statements of my colleagues.

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And I'd like to emphasize the fiduciary obligations

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that the members of the City Council bear to the city.

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It is very clear under the California voting right back

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and under the settlement that the city has entered into

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that adopting an at-large district with voting privileges

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on the council in a city that has a demonstrated and admitted history of racially polarized

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voting. We'll both open the city to litigation under the CBRA and we'll stand in violation

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of the settlement agreement which Councilman Leady signed which quite explicitly envisions the

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possibility of adding at large elements to the city's voting structure and makes that unacceptable

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And part of one of the conditions of the settlement is not to add that large elements of voting structure of the city council.

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I saw some of the literature of one of the proponents of this proposal referring to this city hall technicalities.

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This is very disappointing language.

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It's a very disappointing way to approach the duties of the office.

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This is one of the most important civil rights statues in the state of California.

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The city of Palm Springs has done an exemplary job in fulfilling its duties under that statute.

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And I urge the Council not to take any steps to undermine that work in a way that

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withstand the violation of your duties to the city.

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Thank you.

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Thank you, Mr. Wolf.

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Are there any other public comments?

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No further comments.

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Okay.

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Council will now adjourn.

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Madam Mayor.

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I'm going to accuse on the item of regarding grit development.

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is there.

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I just want to be clear that I have not participated in any of the discussions with council members on this subject.

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Thank you. Thank you. Council member Brinsen. We will now adjourn to the small conference room for closed session.

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Good evening we got a full crowd thank you all for being here I hear by call the Palm Springs

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I hear by call the Palm Springs Regular City Council meeting on April 8th, 2026 to order

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Ask if you can please stand and join in the pledge allegiance and mayor pretend will you help lead us to this evening

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You can channel your inner eighth grader

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and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice.

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I acknowledge that the land we gather, live and work on today, currently known as the City of Palm Springs,

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is the original homeland of the Aguacunited Band of Quia Indians.

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The sovereign band of Aguacunited people have stewarded this land throughout the generations,

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and continue to steward this land for all future generations.

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We honor and respect the many diverse indigenous people still connected to this land.

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City Clerk, can you please conduct roll call?

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Members are present.

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Thank you.

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We have one presentation this evening.

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We're going to get started with J.R. Roberts who's going to give us an update on the

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Jay, Robert's plus team.

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We have a presentation that we're quite.

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You read my mind.

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How's that? Better?

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So, Mayor, how about all of these nice people coming out just for a

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plus at the inter-presentation?

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So, a team, council members and staff, we're here to just literally give you a

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five minute update on the plus of theater.

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We're four months in now.

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And we thought we'd throw some numbers and some other things that you so we'll start.

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I'm, yeah, don't hold me to that.

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When that girl can start to ride all the years,

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our dancing in the light.

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For a stage mirror, then a host so sweet.

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You can hear the old birds underneath your feet.

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The La Vante is loud

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as a beat.

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Yes, it's true.

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We come with our own jingle now.

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So we, so let's see if we can advance this.

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There we go.

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I don't know if our remote's going to do it.

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Let's see.

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Here we go.

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Kind of in slow mode.

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But, okay, here we are.

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So I brought with me today a number of our board members.

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Of course, you know John Bolton, who,

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with Othew Group, who manages overseas

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and programs the theater, we've got magic mark,

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we call him Mark Hamilton, one of our great board members,

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and we have Kathy Wormick, we have Judy Blanchard.

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And of course, we have our vice president, Kevin Corquant,

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who you all know.

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So, is this flying ahead on its own?

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Maybe they can stand behind you, so the audience watching can see who they are.

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Yeah, so, okay, so this is taken on a life of its own.

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So, I don't think we can back this up either, can we?

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This isn't really working.

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Is that what it is?

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Thank you.

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Just trying to get back to that first group of numbers.

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We're going to go back a few more for me.

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There we go. That's where we are. So we're four months in. And we thought it was time that we just came and told you what we're doing and give you some numbers.

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I'm happy to say that we're through the construction period, as you all know, it went pretty well, considering what we were up against.

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and the challenges that we faced but we're here and we're

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for a month in and I'm going to let a few of the other board members in John

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Bolton takes take you down the adventure of some more numbers and some more

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results for you okay John hopefully that will stop good luck with that

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yeah

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clickers not working could you advance for me

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I think they need to go back to right

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there we can see right there that'd be great so I'll be brief obviously you know

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We've been busy since we opened December 1st.

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First four months, we did 120 events in 121 days,

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tracking over 60,000 people to the theater.

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And that 120 number, 120 event number,

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is significant because we originally

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are projections where that we would do 120 events a year.

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And we're happy to report that we did that in four months.

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And you might think, well, what's ahead?

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And as we look, obviously our goal for the theater

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is to be a year-round facility and not just be in season.

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And so between now and the end of the year, I'm projecting another 80 events

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that we'll have throughout the summer.

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So really, really exceeding our expectations and that's because

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of all the people in our community who have supported the theater

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through ticket sales and by coming and being part of those 60,000 people.

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We also have donated more than 2,000 tickets,

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just to get it to the palm screen.

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Unified School District, as well as non-profits throughout the entire valley. And if you can

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click to on, I'll just briefly remind everybody, obviously we're very excited to have national

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touring shows come to the Plaza Theatre, but also we're proud of all of the local groups who

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are friends and families and neighbors who have the opportunity to perform and sing on the stage

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as well. And those are represented here. We've obviously announced a few more others recently.

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the Desert Shakespeare Festival, our classical summer series with Coachella Valley classical

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voices and sort of leather local groups that will be performing this summer at the theater

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as well.

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So Mark Hamilton, one good of the next slide, Mark Hamilton, I'm the treasure, I'm going to talk

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a little bit about what's going on with the math side of the things.

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One of the big things when we came to you so many years ago, it feels right now, was

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the economic impact on the downtown area, and with 60,000 guests coming through, it is well-excited

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our expectations, and having 60 percent nearly two-thirds of the guests coming from out of town

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also exceed their expectations.

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Can I just jump in really quick?

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When you say out of town, do you mean out of Palm Springs or out of the Coachella Valley?

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Out of Coachella Valley.

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Okay.

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Thank you.

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And we have a bunch of programs that we've kicked off going forward to continue building

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the enthusiasm and the traffic in our theater.

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We've had 218 guests that have bought more than four performances.

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They've bought a total of nearly 2,000 seats so far.

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Judy's actually running a special event.

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Thank you for those folks in the coming weeks.

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And we have 60, something, 68 coming for a cocktail party to say thank you to our free confliers.

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We've rolled out our annual membership programs and we're seeing a really nice uptick of folks that are subscribing to annual memberships.

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That starts at $100 and I'm happy to talk to people that want to participate in a much higher level and we actually have exclusive programs for people that want to participate.

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at the higher level and we're having great luck with people sponsoring shows so a number

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of the shows that we have coming in and then under and by our guests.

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So we want to say thank you to each of you who had the confidence in us to support us

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when our bids came in to $27 million and we didn't think we can get this done.

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U.S. City Council people have stepped forward and you support this effort and we are so proud

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after four months of what we've achieved together.

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The conclusions you see up here in terms of exceeding our goals,

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accessibility, the theater, the equality of entertainment,

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it's just extraordinary.

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And I think the feedback we're getting from our citizens

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has been amazing.

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But the thing that I think is the biggest surprise for us

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is an intangible.

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And that is the spirit of community that happens

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when people attend shows in our theater.

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There's just something whether they're going to see

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Herman's Hermits were some other talent to see 700 people in this energy that we've created

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in the theater.

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This intimate setting, which makes every artist, every performance just shine.

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It's something very special, it's something we had hoped for, but has exceeded our expectations.

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And I think as Board members, that's the thing we're proudest about, above and beyond the numbers

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and the economic impact we talked about today.

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I also wanted to just do a shout out to our partners.

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These are the businesses who stepped up initially with us and said they wanted to be part

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of the Palm Springs Plaza's their story, we're proud to announce that those businesses

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are thriving as sponsors of us, and we've asked other small businesses and hotels to step

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on board.

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We're bringing 60,000 people to their doorstep, we have to find ways to continue to market

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and to encourage people to spend money and retail and our hotels and our restaurants.

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And we're working on that with other small businesses and hotels in the city.

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So we're happy to share this information with you again, thank you for your partnership of all this and our final slide is really the message we have now and that we're just getting started.

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This John says what we're looking forward to in terms of new shows, new opportunities, additional people coming to Palm Springs.

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It's just great news for our city and we're very proud of the results and we hope you are too.

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Any questions?

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Yeah Kevin you mentioned excuse me partners and inviting other small businesses to come to be a partner.

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What is it take to what's required to be a partner?

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I have some ideas to.

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Yeah I mean we welcome any business that wants to be a part of what we're trying to do.

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Sorry.

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Yes, so we obviously welcome any business that has an interest in participating with us, obviously

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Kevin pointed out some of those, but you know they vary, you know, this sponsorship

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proposals vary based on their interests, our interest in trying to really create a win-win relationship

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between the two entities that the lives of theater and that business.

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I would add to that, did all of our partnerships are specific and what we're always looking for is not only financial partnerships to sustain the theater, but how we can benefit the people that we're working with, how we benefit the businesses and the stores.

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And we could have brought in what we could have felt this room with people who were working

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with who were very happy but we thought it might go on a little longer than seven minutes.

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But ultimately, from our perspective and certainly in my experience, this is the best public

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private partnership that I've ever been a part of that has a city and a community supporting

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something that's important to them and we're very very proud and happy to be a part of that

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and we're very happy and proud that you trusted us and became part of that as well. And that's

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all we really had to say in what you have other questions for us. Yeah, I think there's a couple more

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questions. Come to some number of emergency. I don't have a question just a comment, so I just want

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to say thank you. You know, you're right. It is an exceptional public private partnership.

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a lot of it has to do with you and the rest of the board who I know continue to work hard

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and raise money and work to make it all that it can be so I want to thank you and I have

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bought tickets more than four shows so I think you're on the end but okay thank you so

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just thank you all and I appreciate it and I'm very happy to see this summer booking fair

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because I think that's something that you know people don't realize we didn't always have

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the Plaza Theatre and we will have now. So we'll have a cool place to go literally and

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figuratively in the summer.

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I know that there's a lot of plans for the future, and I don't want to put you too much on the spot.

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But can you talk a little bit about what your plans are in order to make some tickets more accessible

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to folks of lower incomes and more tickets to students? If you can just talk a little bit about that.

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Because I know you've already started that, but I know you have bigger plans.

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on the whole Dark Day when Scott Styles asked me to lunch and I had no idea why and he had

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you he had been sent as your henchmen to ask us to take on the plaza permanently and operate it

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what that meant to the foundation you know we're in all volunteer foundation was that we would be

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there forever and that the only way that the plaza theater will make it is with first of all

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support from the community and continuing ongoing work from our great foundation and, of course,

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hope you group and John. So what is the future look like? Honestly, we're raising money all

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the time. That's all we're doing. We're building partnerships. We're bringing in subscriptions.

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We're doing everything we can to make sure that the community understands that the theaters

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a gift from us, from you, to them, and in order for it to work, they will have to support

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it, they will have to show up, they will have to support it financially, and we're here

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to do everything we can to make that happen. Specifically, I could run things down, but it's

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really all comes down to that. That's what we're doing every single day, is coming up with

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ways that we can raise money and build partnerships to keep the theater going.

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I'd also say that many of the people that we're reaching out to have particular interest in supporting

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particular type of programming.

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And so we're encouraging them to support educational programming, programming for families,

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programming for families during the summer.

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Their donors we're talking to who have the specific interest to target their funds towards

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that.

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And we're encouraging and nurturing those relationships to make sure we can not only get

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the programming, but also underwrite the cost of tickets.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Good evening.

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It's great to see all of you.

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And I would just note that I think we've all can agree that, you know, the

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Plaza Theatre renovation is important if not actually critical to the downtown

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renovation.

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And it's been a significant impact.

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All the years it's been vacant.

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And the interesting thing is looking at you there now.

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see, these things don't happen without you, and I know all the meetings you've been to,

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putting it together, meetings, and meetings, then all the continued volunteer time, fundraising,

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making sure, you know, this baby that we've all birthed, but you were right. They are really

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birthing it, continues to thrive. So anyway, it is a partnership that was mentioned. Thank you so

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much for doing it. And I think the future is great because this is all part of Palm Springs brand,

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And our identity, and it's what will continue to make down Tom Gray.

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So anyway, thank you for your efforts.

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It'll probably seem like an echo, but truly grateful for your continued support and commitment to making sure that we're fundraising and making this beautiful space, an accessible space really for all of our residents and all of our visitors.

297
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I was wondering if you could kind of expand a little bit on that 66% of out of town.

298
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We have such a unique population here and that we have so many part-time residents and snowbirds and so

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Can you share a little bit if there's any thoughts on how we can understand?

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Does that 60% include our snowbirds or kind of how do we under

301
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How can we maybe like explore that in the future to to understand really potential hotel room nights and visitors versus our part-time residents?

302
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I think like most businesses hotels

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venues like ours, we rely on the information that the ticket buyer in our case gives us.

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And so when we, what we look at is where people are coming from, where they're buying

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their ticket, where their address is from.

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And that's really the only way that we know if they're in the metro area, the pump springs

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are outside of that area.

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So you could have someone that lives in Chicago that buys tickets and comes to pump springs

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because they have a second house here or they could be just coming to visit.

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that we don't really know that.

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All we know is the valid information

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that the ticket buyer gives us when they come to make that purchase.

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So that's what we rely on.

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And that's how, I think, all of us to determine

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where those people are coming from.

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Because otherwise, we don't really ask,

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how you do you have to say, there's no way for us to really

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exactly know that other than the address

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that they give us when they purchase the ticket.

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Just like you do check into a hotel,

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you give your address.

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That's the same way that happens with us.

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So have you thought of or maybe in the future any kind of like desk surveys or anything

324
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afterward in the same way as like, how was your stay and kind of...

325
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Yes, after every show, ticket buyers get a customer service feedback through our program called RIPTIDE.

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We have customer service feedback on every person who responds to our survey, but yeah, if you buy a ticket,

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Unless you have bought multiple in a certain period of time, we only hit you once in the 60-day period,

328
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but we do have all of that customer data and feedback and at our board, our staff gives an update to the board at every board meeting about what those kind of,

329
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the journey and experiences for our ticket buyers.

330
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:17,840
Thank you.

331
00:28:18,580 --> 00:28:21,920
I would only add to that that actually we look forward to your metrics.

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So, the city has the ability to measure growth and profitability in different parts of downtown.

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So, given that the theater pretty much has a program every night of the week, once we get further along,

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we can start doing comparisons from prior to the theater opening, looking back at the days from the follies,

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the time the theater was closed and where we are today, and the metrics will probably become a lot more clear

336
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on what those true financial impacts are from.

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Many of the projections that we made,

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originally about our impacts to downtown,

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came from what the follies was already doing.

340
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And the follies was only ran I think forward four days a week.

341
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We're running pretty much seven days a week now

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with very full audiences.

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One question I didn't answer earlier that I think was asked of me

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is what are we going to do for going forward

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and making the theater accessible.

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One of the things that we are very much focused on in

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our fundraising is subsidizing programming

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so that we can get kids so that we can get other people

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so that we can have $20 tickets in the theater

350
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and we're doing that and we're achieving that.

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And we had a number of days recently where we

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filled the theater two or three times of 700 kids each

353
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which was an amazing thing for us.

354
00:29:44,980 --> 00:29:50,580
there are 700 kids in our city yeah well let's say there are 700 kids in the theater with

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00:29:50,580 --> 00:29:55,620
a whole bunch of buses out front so they were coming from school districts everywhere yeah

356
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Having those seats filled with little ones, it was really cool. And we want to do a whole lot more than that. And that's been part of the Foundation's mission from day one, is to make sure that everybody can afford to come into the plaza and see shows and be entertained.

357
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,180
Thank you so much.

358
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:23,860
Thank you all for joining, appreciate the whole board.

359
00:30:24,260 --> 00:30:24,760
Thank you.

360
00:30:29,620 --> 00:30:34,720
Moving on to proclamations, we had two that were have been recently done.

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First, we have Karen Divine Day proclaimed on March 27, 2026.

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00:30:39,980 --> 00:30:44,760
She received the 486 star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

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In recognition for her distinguished careers banning nearly 35 years in broadcast journalism here in the Coachella Valley

364
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and her strong commitment to community service.

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So big things to care and divine there.

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We also had Kim Walltrip Day.

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I was proclaimed on April 3rd, 2026.

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She received the 487 star and recognition

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of her accomplished career as a foam producer, director,

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and overall contributions in arts and local and the local

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film community, as well as her ongoing service

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and community initiatives here in the city of Palm Springs.

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Our next item is the acceptance of the agenda,

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the city council will discuss the order of the agenda may amend the order at urgency items,

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00:31:28,580 --> 00:31:33,660
no abstentions, or no votes on consent calendar items, or request calendar items to be removed

376
00:31:33,660 --> 00:31:38,600
for separate discussions. Are there any items, staff, or a council member were like removed from

377
00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:46,320
the consent calendar, if you can know if it's a separate discussion, a question, or a refusal.

378
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:48,280
Anybody?

379
00:31:59,770 --> 00:32:01,510
Recuse in on one seat.

380
00:32:01,590 --> 00:32:01,990
See?

381
00:32:02,470 --> 00:32:02,530
Okay.

382
00:32:02,930 --> 00:32:03,210
See?

383
00:32:05,370 --> 00:32:06,290
Yes, Council Member Bernstein.

384
00:32:07,090 --> 00:32:08,270
I just have a question on one.

385
00:32:14,590 --> 00:32:15,110
Okay.

386
00:32:17,170 --> 00:32:17,830
That's amazing.

387
00:32:18,210 --> 00:32:18,850
Thank you.

388
00:32:19,810 --> 00:32:24,210
I would like to entertain a motion to accept the agenda.

389
00:32:24,830 --> 00:32:27,830
Do we have a...

390
00:32:27,830 --> 00:32:29,610
I have a motion by Council Member Gardner.

391
00:32:29,750 --> 00:32:31,210
Second by Council Member DeHeart.

392
00:32:32,620 --> 00:32:36,500
I'm just waiting on Council Member Bernstein and ready.

393
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:37,160
What?

394
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:38,560
Come up.

395
00:32:39,540 --> 00:32:40,620
You can also vote right here.

396
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:43,400
You're a slutty.

397
00:32:44,620 --> 00:32:45,200
Here we go.

398
00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:46,200
Thank you.

399
00:32:49,260 --> 00:32:49,420
Wonderful.

400
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:50,980
Motion carries.

401
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,700
At this time, I invite City Attorney Ballinger to provide a report on the closed session

402
00:32:55,700 --> 00:32:56,140
Please.

403
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:58,320
Yes, Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council.

404
00:32:58,380 --> 00:32:59,900
Members of the public, the City Council,

405
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:04,300
to discuss items that are listed on the agenda and there is no report of election.

406
00:33:05,020 --> 00:33:14,120
Thank you. Next item is public testimony. This time has been set aside for members of the public to address the city council on non public hearing agenda items.

407
00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:26,620
All of our items are non public hearing agenda items. Two minutes are assigned to each speaker. You are asked to please begin your time by telling us what agenda item or items you are speaking about.

408
00:33:27,900 --> 00:33:33,520
If there's a written comment that you would like to distribute your welcome to hand it to the city clerk

409
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:35,620
We have many speakers tonight

410
00:33:35,620 --> 00:33:42,100
So I'm going to ask that I will let you know who's the current speaker who's next on deck

411
00:33:42,100 --> 00:33:45,340
And we're going to try to keep it going as quickly as possible

412
00:33:45,340 --> 00:33:51,280
I will be holding the two-minute boundary for every public speaker. So fair warning to everyone now

413
00:33:54,340 --> 00:33:55,380
First speaker

414
00:34:03,790 --> 00:34:09,250
Is David Vignolio and on deck will be lex or take up please?

415
00:34:32,860 --> 00:34:33,960
This is reset.

416
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:36,520
151.

417
00:34:40,900 --> 00:34:41,280
Good evening.

418
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:42,940
I'm speaking on 3C.

419
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:44,980
I urge the council to move quickly and

420
00:34:44,980 --> 00:34:46,740
considering the transition to the direct

421
00:34:46,740 --> 00:34:49,740
election of a mayor by putting the question before the

422
00:34:49,740 --> 00:34:50,760
voters in November.

423
00:34:51,380 --> 00:34:57,740
I believe this transition, if achieved by a vote of

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00:34:57,740 --> 00:35:03,080
protected class to influence the outcome of future elections, and would bolster the democratic

425
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:09,240
process by having a mayor elected by the majority of the voters. I'm strongly opposed to

426
00:35:09,240 --> 00:35:15,580
the city council maintaining a rotational mayor, but extending that term of the term of that

427
00:35:15,580 --> 00:35:20,940
service as it would do little to remedy issues with the current structure and could unfairly

428
00:35:20,940 --> 00:35:29,080
elevate an individual holding that position. I also oppose the city's engaging services of a

429
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:34,100
professional demographer to determine whether adding a directly elected mayor is in

430
00:35:34,100 --> 00:35:40,320
furtherance of the purposes of the CVRA. This likely would be costly and is less transparent

431
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:45,600
than putting the question before the voters. Although transitioning to a directly elected mayor

432
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:51,440
could be challenged under the CVRA. I believe the changing demographics of our city and the benefits

433
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:57,720
of having a directly elected mayor for a term of four years far away the risks of possible

434
00:35:57,720 --> 00:36:03,280
litigation. I also have faith that the council could decide the appropriate staffing for

435
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:09,040
a directly elected mayor position and reject this as a reason not to support this transition.

436
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:14,940
Our city has grown significantly since I moved to District 5 in October 2018.

437
00:36:15,540 --> 00:36:21,740
I believe having a dedicated mayor representing the entire city directly elected by its citizens.

438
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:27,980
Elevates our city allows for greater collaboration and attention from our federal and state partners.

439
00:36:28,740 --> 00:36:37,940
And provides enhanced accountability throughout our city government, which is vital as our city grows by adding a city wide perspective to council discussion.

440
00:36:37,940 --> 00:36:39,460
time is up.

441
00:36:39,860 --> 00:36:41,560
Thank you.

442
00:36:42,100 --> 00:36:46,260
Next we have Lex after Lex will be Kathy Wormack.

443
00:36:47,340 --> 00:36:51,760
I'm a Palm Springs resident and I just came from my apartment in District 1 to this meeting.

444
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:55,700
The street I live on is a street full of apartments and doplexes.

445
00:36:55,700 --> 00:37:03,560
It is a street that is packed with gummionetas and cars at night and empty by 8am because my neighbors are working class predominantly Latino folks.

446
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:11,920
My street isn't a street where it would be at large mayor candidate would go to for big donor house parties or to engage neighborhood leads through one PS.

447
00:37:12,620 --> 00:37:22,220
It's the kind of street that was historically ignored by mayor's and city council members, which is why we got sued by Southwest voter registration education project back in 2018 in the first place.

448
00:37:22,540 --> 00:37:25,620
That led to the formation of the California voting rights act working group.

449
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:35,800
Senate agreement in that case, because even the city's officials found proof that the at-large mayors election

450
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:41,040
have the most racially polarized voting in the city. This is a civil rights issue more than anything,

451
00:37:41,140 --> 00:37:45,160
and the people who don't see it that way, perhaps like the person before me, likely have never

452
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:50,800
been part of a minority voting block as defined by the CBRA. If we want to see the cost of ego over evidence

453
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:57,160
look at Santa Monica, they are currently mired in a legal battle against amicrists, brief filers, and civil rights

454
00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:01,720
tightens like the Dolores Horatva Foundation, the Legislative Black Caucus, Asian-American

455
00:38:01,720 --> 00:38:06,980
advancing justice, California Latino School Board Association, California Association of

456
00:38:06,980 --> 00:38:10,080
Black School Educators, UCLA, Voting Rights Project, and many more.

457
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:13,920
For eight years we have seen the results of our labor, our current city council is the

458
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,420
most diverse cross-sectional leaders in our city's history.

459
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:17,960
This did not happen by accident.

460
00:38:18,380 --> 00:38:22,860
It happened because we held dozens of meetings in English and Spanish to ensure every resident

461
00:38:22,860 --> 00:38:24,360
had a voice in our current system.

462
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:28,120
There are other options on the table than what a small group of residents are attempting

463
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:31,960
to ramp through with the ballot proposition, including two year rotating terms.

464
00:38:32,380 --> 00:38:37,420
Ultimately, changing this now to include any at-large elements isn't about better government.

465
00:38:37,700 --> 00:38:42,360
Governance, it's about catering to strong egos who want to be talking heads rather than public servants.

466
00:38:42,860 --> 00:38:48,740
We are already seeing that federally, we should be a sanctuary for democracy, not a local mirror of those same federal tactics.

467
00:38:48,900 --> 00:38:49,780
Thank you.

468
00:38:54,010 --> 00:38:56,770
Next, we have Kathy, after Kathy will be, of course.

469
00:38:56,770 --> 00:39:01,410
3, I'm speaking on 3, CM Kathy, we're meant to live in District 1.

470
00:39:01,650 --> 00:39:07,890
I had the privilege voting for the first Latina to serve on City Council in a district

471
00:39:09,130 --> 00:39:13,010
that was my craft of to be majority minority.

472
00:39:13,910 --> 00:39:24,790
That person also, Grace Garner, became our first Latina, and only Latino mayor in our

473
00:39:24,790 --> 00:39:28,210
chairs of the citizens folding rights working group.

474
00:39:28,350 --> 00:39:32,730
We have some other members here if they would stand up and I know Stephen is having a

475
00:39:32,730 --> 00:39:36,030
hard time standing up because he's got a broken hip.

476
00:39:37,450 --> 00:39:45,410
But we've been anyway, we engaged in a significant process of hearings, forms, workshops

477
00:39:45,410 --> 00:39:53,070
and outreach events that included more than 400 individuals and residents and we even

478
00:39:53,070 --> 00:40:00,710
meetings in Spanish. We made a detailed legislative and factual record in 2018, which I

479
00:40:00,710 --> 00:40:07,390
have to say. I'm very sorry to say was not included in the public record for this meeting.

480
00:40:09,870 --> 00:40:18,610
And we basically looking at the demographics of the city and the issues before us proposed a fully

481
00:40:18,610 --> 00:40:34,130
by district system with the mayor selected by the City Council because it best advanced the civil rights purposes of the California voting rights act, which is one of the strongest civil rights acts in California.

482
00:40:36,030 --> 00:40:44,130
And it was important that we did that because the city admitted to and also had a long history of racially polarized voting,

483
00:40:44,130 --> 00:40:49,610
And the most polarized of which has been historically in the mayor's race.

484
00:40:51,830 --> 00:40:55,130
My personal belief is the district system has worked well.

485
00:40:55,810 --> 00:41:01,190
We have gone from having two people of color serve in the 80 years of the city council's

486
00:41:01,190 --> 00:41:04,570
history to having three people with minority background.

487
00:41:04,890 --> 00:41:05,250
Your attitude.

488
00:41:05,770 --> 00:41:06,130
Thank you.

489
00:41:06,270 --> 00:41:06,590
Oh, sorry.

490
00:41:07,870 --> 00:41:12,150
Next, we have Jeff Coors, after Jeff Coors will be James Williamson.

491
00:41:12,970 --> 00:41:19,170
I'm speaking on item C3C. At a time when voting rights of minorities and women are under attack

492
00:41:19,170 --> 00:41:23,330
nationally, POMS fringe should be doing everything it can to protect voting rights, not

493
00:41:23,330 --> 00:41:29,170
limit them. Electing a six council member who will also serve as a ceremonial mayor in an

494
00:41:29,170 --> 00:41:32,350
atl...in an atl...in an atl...in an atl...in an atl...in an election will violate the city legal settlement

495
00:41:32,950 --> 00:41:38,150
that we entered with a Latino voting rights organization and violate the California voting

496
00:41:38,150 --> 00:41:42,990
rights act, allowing for legal challenges that could last years result in the city-paying

497
00:41:42,990 --> 00:41:44,370
both parties' legal fees.

498
00:41:44,830 --> 00:41:49,210
Santa Monica has been in litigation for a decade, still ongoing, and has spent tens

499
00:41:49,210 --> 00:41:52,130
of millions of dollars fighting a CVRA lawsuit.

500
00:41:52,730 --> 00:41:59,470
The CVRA and the city's settlement agreement specifically say that a remedy that combines at-large

501
00:41:59,470 --> 00:42:04,090
members and district-based members is prohibited.

502
00:42:05,050 --> 00:42:09,110
period. In addition, California courts have made it clear that the law applies whether

503
00:42:09,110 --> 00:42:15,090
enacted by the legislative body or the voters. No California government entity of any kind

504
00:42:15,090 --> 00:42:22,730
has ever won a CVRA lawsuit. If Council or the voters decides to add a six at large council member

505
00:42:22,730 --> 00:42:28,070
who serves as a ceremonial mayor, the city will find itself shockingly on the other side of

506
00:42:28,070 --> 00:42:33,370
entities who file briefs and supported the plaintiffs who are suing Santa Monica at the California

507
00:42:33,370 --> 00:42:38,490
to print court. These include the California Attorney General, the California Secretary of

508
00:42:38,490 --> 00:42:43,550
State, California's Latino Black and Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucuses, Democratic

509
00:42:43,550 --> 00:42:47,870
Legislators and Sacramento, and civil rights organizations, including the Dolores Works

510
00:42:47,870 --> 00:42:52,450
of Foundation, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund,

511
00:42:52,490 --> 00:42:57,850
and many more. I cannot imagine our residents wanting the city to take any action that could

512
00:42:57,850 --> 00:43:02,970
weaken or overturn California and voting rights laws, or to spend millions of dollars fighting

513
00:43:02,970 --> 00:43:05,270
of civil rights organizations and state leaders.

514
00:43:05,970 --> 00:43:07,610
They want this council to oppose it.

515
00:43:07,670 --> 00:43:08,690
Thank you very much.

516
00:43:10,950 --> 00:43:11,470
Thank you.

517
00:43:12,090 --> 00:43:13,130
James, just one second.

518
00:43:13,330 --> 00:43:16,930
We have Tobias Wolf who's on Zoom, so we're going to go in order.

519
00:43:17,950 --> 00:43:19,830
Tobias, if you can hear me?

520
00:43:21,410 --> 00:43:22,050
Yes, I can.

521
00:43:22,230 --> 00:43:22,510
Great.

522
00:43:22,690 --> 00:43:24,830
We'll do two minutes and then after Tobias James.

523
00:43:25,750 --> 00:43:26,590
Thank you very much.

524
00:43:26,610 --> 00:43:27,830
My name is Tobias Wolf.

525
00:43:28,010 --> 00:43:30,370
I'm a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

526
00:43:30,370 --> 00:43:37,290
and at part-time homeowner and part-time resident in Palm Springs in District 2, I had

527
00:43:37,290 --> 00:43:43,550
a great honor of serving as one of the co-chairs on the CVRA working group that helps to support

528
00:43:43,550 --> 00:43:49,790
Palm Springs in the move to district-wide elections. My role here today was to talk a little bit

529
00:43:49,790 --> 00:43:56,030
about the reasons why this agenda item 3C would be illegal, would violate the California

530
00:43:56,030 --> 00:44:00,190
voting rights act and perhaps equally important violate the settlement agreement that the

531
00:44:00,190 --> 00:44:04,150
city is entered into. My friends and colleagues have already done a very good job with that.

532
00:44:04,370 --> 00:44:10,490
So I'd like to take a second and just talk in very real terms about what this is about and why it

533
00:44:10,490 --> 00:44:17,290
is a civil rights issue. The move from at large elections to district elections in Palm Springs,

534
00:44:17,510 --> 00:44:21,930
which has resulted in a period of extraordinary good governance in Palm Springs.

535
00:44:21,930 --> 00:44:29,470
The major impact it had was to diminish the ability of a very powerful small group of residents

536
00:44:29,470 --> 00:44:34,530
of Palm Springs to exercise outsized influence and power over policy in the city.

537
00:44:35,370 --> 00:44:43,430
And this proposal is a civil rights issue under the CBRA because what it would do is allow

538
00:44:43,430 --> 00:44:48,270
that very powerful small group of residents in Palm Springs to deadlock the council.

539
00:44:48,270 --> 00:44:54,010
That's the impact that it would have to add this sixth out-large position onto the council.

540
00:44:54,270 --> 00:44:56,850
It would empower rich people in the city to...

541
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:13,280
Thank you. This is not a detail. This is at the heart of what the CVRA is about, and it is at the heart of what the community of Palm Springs decided to move away from when we established just what election several years ago. Thank you very much.

542
00:45:14,180 --> 00:45:18,800
Thank you, Tobias. Next we have James Williamson, after James will be Ed Duby.

543
00:45:19,820 --> 00:45:29,660
Good evening. I'd like to start by reading into the record of statement from Senator Barbara Boxer. I was so proud when Palm Springs became a leader in civil rights protection.

544
00:45:29,660 --> 00:45:35,300
after a past history that harmed many minorities. Now that the city is in full compliance

545
00:45:35,300 --> 00:45:41,240
with our state's voting rights act, I oppose the effort to add a large mayor, which undermines

546
00:45:41,240 --> 00:45:46,820
both the spirit and the letter of that act. When I was in country government, she states, the

547
00:45:46,820 --> 00:45:52,500
board presidency was rotated, just as a mayor's position is rotated today in Pam Springs. I believe

548
00:45:52,500 --> 00:45:58,440
that system works very well and avoids unwanted expenditures while leading to collegial power

549
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:05,480
now come in from myself on the process. When we engage our residents, we know from

550
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:09,960
experience that we develop better decisions and solutions. The small work we're

551
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:13,960
working in private over a nine-month period that developed the proposed ballot

552
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:19,440
measure did not even hold one public meeting to get input from residents. If the

553
00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:23,520
proponents, as the state, truly wanted to provide the community with a choice

554
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:28,300
and our system of government, wouldn't we first engage the community to develop that choice?

555
00:46:29,020 --> 00:46:33,780
Rather than tell us what they had decided was the best solution and allow us only to vote

556
00:46:33,780 --> 00:46:40,640
yes or no. That's why strongly urge the council to please continue with the public process

557
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:45,780
that Council Member Garner initiated. Take two to three months to hold public community meetings

558
00:46:45,780 --> 00:46:52,700
and find a proposal and if a proposal for change results from that, then let's make sure that

559
00:46:52,700 --> 00:46:57,760
the ballot language is not misleading, but it does not violate the law, and it does not

560
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:03,160
disenfranchise any members of our community. And above all, there moves our city forward

561
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:06,600
and not back as the current proposal does. Thank you.

562
00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:07,260
Thank you.

563
00:47:10,620 --> 00:47:14,280
Next we have a dooby after a dooby is Melissa Dolores.

564
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:22,780
Hi, I'm a dooby. I live in District 5. Much of what I was going to say has already been

565
00:47:22,780 --> 00:47:25,480
said much more eloquently by the people before me.

566
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:27,440
But let's face it right now.

567
00:47:27,440 --> 00:47:29,680
This is playing out before the public.

568
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:34,100
Camine, our news had this as their lead story for the last two

569
00:47:34,100 --> 00:47:34,560
nights.

570
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,800
And we hadn't even started discussion here at the council.

571
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,900
I'd like to re-emphasize what James asked for

572
00:47:42,900 --> 00:47:46,080
that we need to do much better outreach with the community.

573
00:47:46,180 --> 00:47:49,400
We have to give people time to debate and talk about this.

574
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:51,800
If this is how we're pushing forward, not rushing.

575
00:47:51,800 --> 00:48:00,400
to get this done. There was no staff report with this item, 3C. In my opinion, the city attorney

576
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:05,640
should at least be telling the public these are the terms of what we came to conclusion

577
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:13,520
that led us to having the diversity and districts. And in my opinion, it's working very well.

578
00:48:13,900 --> 00:48:20,680
If right now, the feds are dismantling DEI across the board. They're trying to rewrite history.

579
00:48:20,680 --> 00:48:27,180
their doing away with it. Palm Springs brand is at the other end of the spectrum.

580
00:48:27,460 --> 00:48:34,180
We are known for our diversity. We have, in my opinion, done very well since we've moved

581
00:48:34,180 --> 00:48:39,380
to district thing in terms of rotating the mayor and the visibility of the people that are

582
00:48:39,380 --> 00:48:46,020
on the council, not just in the valley, but nationally, on meet the press during the hurricane.

583
00:48:46,020 --> 00:48:49,400
You know, every time that I turn around,

584
00:48:50,380 --> 00:48:56,020
Palm Springs is at the opposite end of what Donald Trump's agenda is.

585
00:48:56,880 --> 00:48:59,740
What it really worries me, and I only have 20 seconds left.

586
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:04,420
So if we, as I imagine, we go to six council members,

587
00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:08,380
we end up deadlocking and the out-large position determines

588
00:49:10,140 --> 00:49:12,520
that that's why we're deadlocked and doesn't move forward.

589
00:49:12,600 --> 00:49:14,760
What if that had been on reparations?

590
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:21,340
The last thing is, I have the plaque that we can give in.

591
00:49:21,820 --> 00:49:26,360
It's signed by Ron DeHeart, who was the head of the civil rights thing in the end.

592
00:49:26,700 --> 00:49:27,420
Thank you.

593
00:49:29,220 --> 00:49:34,460
Next, we have Melissa Dolores and after Melissa, we'll be April Ross.

594
00:49:36,060 --> 00:49:36,620
Hello, everybody.

595
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:41,040
I am here on behalf of the Section 14 Organization.

596
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:45,780
On behalf of the Section 14 survivors, non-profit organization, we respect

597
00:49:45,780 --> 00:49:52,220
free urge, the City Council, to maintain the current rotating mayor system and not alter the

598
00:49:52,220 --> 00:49:53,040
position of mayor.

599
00:49:53,840 --> 00:49:58,080
The mission of the Section 14 survivors is to improve the quality of life of survivors

600
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:00,620
and descendants of Palm Springs, Section 14.

601
00:50:00,900 --> 00:50:05,180
This work is grounded and restoring our past and reclaiming our future through meaningful

602
00:50:05,180 --> 00:50:06,480
and equitable representation.

603
00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:13,100
The rotating mayor system was designed to ensure historically underrepresented communities like

604
00:50:14,700 --> 00:50:23,720
Section 14, have a voice at the mayoral and council table, preserving the system is essential to maintaining inclusive and accessible governance.

605
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:42,300
Reberting to an out-large system would represent a step backwards for equity and democratic representation, particularly at a time when progress has been made towards broader inclusive inclusivity on city council.

606
00:50:42,300 --> 00:50:52,040
The straff reports highlights the city's 2018 transition by direct elections resulted by a threat of litigation under the CBRA.

607
00:50:52,520 --> 00:51:03,720
On the CBRA prohibits at large election systems if they impair the ability of protected classes to elect candidates of their choice or to influence election outcomes.

608
00:51:04,140 --> 00:51:10,500
Moving away from district-based representation risks under mining these important protections.

609
00:51:11,220 --> 00:51:17,240
Additionally, the current system, the future, the changing the current system would increase

610
00:51:17,240 --> 00:51:18,900
financial responsibility of the state.

611
00:51:19,380 --> 00:51:24,960
I propose instead of doing that, you go ahead and complete the promises that were made to

612
00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:30,540
section 14, like affordable housing assistance and small business assistance as well.

613
00:51:31,080 --> 00:51:32,140
Thank you so much.

614
00:51:35,060 --> 00:51:42,040
After next we have April Rojas, and after April is John Leano, Leano.

615
00:51:42,780 --> 00:51:48,960
Good evening council members. My name is April Rojas. I'm a full time resident and small business owner here in Palm Springs.

616
00:51:49,500 --> 00:51:54,920
I'm here to vocalize my disappointment in agenda item 3C and the possibility of returning to an elected mayor.

617
00:51:55,560 --> 00:52:01,660
The city struggles with the perception of inclusiveness and diversity without actually practicing either in a truly impactful way.

618
00:52:01,660 --> 00:52:06,480
returning to an elected mayor has the potential to prevent more progressive and diverse leadership

619
00:52:06,480 --> 00:52:09,380
as well as create legal and physical challenges for the city.

620
00:52:09,980 --> 00:52:15,460
The at-large voting method used to elect mayors historically has not reflected the actual demographic of the city.

621
00:52:16,020 --> 00:52:23,040
Requiring candidates to fundraise and campaign creates a barrier for more diverse and underserved candidates to run.

622
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:26,380
The decision to return to elected mayors would need to...

623
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:35,180
And community outreach seemingly much longer than the current timeline being presented for this initiative.

624
00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:41,760
We are at a moment collectively where we must protect the rights and interests of all residents of this city.

625
00:52:42,020 --> 00:52:48,860
Not just the ones with enough privilege and resources to rush ego-driven decisions about the future of our community's leadership.

626
00:52:49,380 --> 00:52:59,220
I encourage every member of Council to consider what the intentions behind this update are, and what impact it would have on the future of our city before moving forward with the decision to return to elected mayors.

627
00:52:59,220 --> 00:53:01,140
Thank you.

628
00:53:01,140 --> 00:53:01,900
Thank you, April.

629
00:53:03,780 --> 00:53:05,800
After John, we have Lisa Middleton.

630
00:53:07,120 --> 00:53:08,060
Hi, I'm here.

631
00:53:08,300 --> 00:53:09,860
Good evening, Mayor and council members.

632
00:53:10,060 --> 00:53:10,900
I'm here on three C.

633
00:53:11,140 --> 00:53:13,680
My name is John Lano and resident of District 2.

634
00:53:13,800 --> 00:53:15,980
And I'm here to support a directly elected mayor.

635
00:53:16,540 --> 00:53:18,580
This matter comes down to three core principles.

636
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:21,560
Accountability, continuity, and representation.

637
00:53:22,380 --> 00:53:23,120
First accountability.

638
00:53:23,740 --> 00:53:27,580
Right now, Palm Springs residents elect council members by district but not the mayor.

639
00:53:27,580 --> 00:53:29,900
this creates a clear accountability gap.

640
00:53:30,300 --> 00:53:32,880
Our most visible leader is not directly answerable

641
00:53:32,880 --> 00:53:34,840
to the entire electorate.

642
00:53:35,020 --> 00:53:35,920
Second continuity.

643
00:53:37,260 --> 00:53:40,560
Since 2019, Palm Springs has had seven mayors.

644
00:53:40,780 --> 00:53:43,520
This turnover makes it difficult to build strategic momentum

645
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:46,060
or sustain long-term priorities.

646
00:53:46,700 --> 00:53:48,600
Other cities like Stockton and Santa Ana

647
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,240
have successfully transferred from transition

648
00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:54,120
from a rotational model to directly elected mayors

649
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:56,460
serving multi-year terms with no legal issues.

650
00:53:56,460 --> 00:54:00,920
and research shows that long-term strength and regional and state partnerships

651
00:54:00,920 --> 00:54:05,900
improve economic development and ensure better policy fall through because the leadership

652
00:54:05,900 --> 00:54:08,220
and priorities do not reset every year.

653
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:14,500
Third, representation, a directly elected mayor built upon our district-based system by also

654
00:54:14,500 --> 00:54:17,460
including a seat that represents a hundred percent of Palm Springs voters.

655
00:54:18,020 --> 00:54:23,360
It provides a unifying voice on citywide issues like housing, tourism, and infrastructure.

656
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:34,320
And in addition, cities like Fremont and Bakerfield have proven that how a district-based system can build a diversity in leadership pipeline that lead to mayor seat wins.

657
00:54:35,060 --> 00:54:41,000
Finally, this change would not alter Palm Springs City, Palm Springs Council Manager Form of Government.

658
00:54:41,420 --> 00:54:43,860
The city manager would continue to oversee daily operations.

659
00:54:44,380 --> 00:54:49,340
This measure simply gives voters the ability to choose who serves in mayor and represents everyone.

660
00:54:49,340 --> 00:54:57,340
This is a practical, widely used model and a strengthens the accountability, improves continuity and gives residents a stronger voice.

661
00:54:57,980 --> 00:55:03,340
I just ask, including respectfully, that you support moving this forward and please let us vote.

662
00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:11,420
Thank you, John. Next, we have the Semental Tan, after Lisa, is Christopher Brottwell.

663
00:55:14,740 --> 00:55:23,500
Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Council. In 2018, I had the honor of serving on the Palm Springs City Council.

664
00:55:23,500 --> 00:55:30,940
At the time that we implemented the change from everyone being elected at large to a district

665
00:55:30,940 --> 00:55:41,020
base system, we had over 30 meetings within our neighborhoods in English and in Spanish

666
00:55:41,020 --> 00:55:46,280
and I attended personally almost every single one of those meetings.

667
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,700
We learned a tremendous amount from those meetings.

668
00:55:50,700 --> 00:55:54,420
They were productive, they were engaging of the public.

669
00:55:54,940 --> 00:55:58,040
We had a very complex question before us.

670
00:55:58,340 --> 00:56:01,640
And that was how to take and move to something

671
00:56:01,640 --> 00:56:04,920
we had not done before to have district boundaries

672
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,400
and what would those district boundaries be?

673
00:56:08,200 --> 00:56:11,540
What we have seen is that the work that went in

674
00:56:11,540 --> 00:56:14,500
to that effort to create those district boundaries

675
00:56:14,500 --> 00:56:17,600
has stood up over the test of time.

676
00:56:17,600 --> 00:56:26,140
And today, the boundaries that we have in place are almost identical to the boundaries that were drawn back in 2018.

677
00:56:27,460 --> 00:56:33,380
The question before us today is a different question, and it is not a complex question.

678
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:45,280
It's question as to whether or not we should have in Palm Springs, like nearly 200 other California cities, a directly elected mayor.

679
00:56:45,280 --> 00:57:12,140
One of the things that all of us know who have had the honor of being elected to office is there's nothing that can replace the experience of standing in front of your neighbors and your potential constituents and talking to them and hearing their questions and providing your answers as to what your platform is going to be.

680
00:57:12,140 --> 00:57:19,120
We need a Mayor who has the support of the entire city of Palm Springs.

681
00:57:19,740 --> 00:57:20,420
Thank you.

682
00:57:20,420 --> 00:57:20,740
Thank you.

683
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:28,720
Next we have Christopher Baldwin, after Christopher Baldwin we have Lori E. Yollian.

684
00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:30,760
No.

685
00:57:31,860 --> 00:57:32,460
Next after.

686
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:33,200
Okay.

687
00:57:33,660 --> 00:57:33,800
Sorry.

688
00:57:34,020 --> 00:57:34,620
Thank you.

689
00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:37,440
I'm with district five, yay five.

690
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:41,260
Thank you for the opportunity to address the council.

691
00:57:42,020 --> 00:57:46,100
never have so few people done so much for so many for so little reward.

692
00:57:46,680 --> 00:57:49,560
Thank you all for your contributions to the city.

693
00:57:50,020 --> 00:57:55,920
And I want to call out Scott Styles for his engagement, his efforts.

694
00:57:56,340 --> 00:57:59,000
There's no place I go in town that I don't see him somewhere.

695
00:57:59,620 --> 00:58:00,420
So thank you Scott.

696
00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:02,080
I'll be brief.

697
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:05,160
I'm here to speak in favor of the direct election for mayor.

698
00:58:05,600 --> 00:58:09,400
Our city council as most councils has turned over.

699
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:22,320
We lose valuable and knowledgeable members, I believe that a mayor elected by the people will allow for much needed business continuity and institutional knowledge, allowing for stronger and better governance.

700
00:58:23,100 --> 00:58:25,820
Each district has a voice in the selection of their representatives.

701
00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:29,560
Yet voters have no say in who should service mayor.

702
00:58:30,260 --> 00:58:34,120
We vote for our assembly member, our state senator, and our governor.

703
00:58:34,640 --> 00:58:37,460
It seems to work at a state level, I think it can work here.

704
00:58:37,460 --> 00:58:45,080
I fully support district elections however it's time for voters to have a direct voice in the selection of our mayor.

705
00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:51,380
Direct voting by citizens is the hallmark of our democracy. It is the hallmark of our democracy.

706
00:58:52,100 --> 00:58:57,420
I don't believe this proposal is intended to hurt or disenfranchise anyone in our community.

707
00:58:58,260 --> 00:59:03,720
In fact, it is my belief that any potential candidate for mayor, regardless of background,

708
00:59:03,720 --> 00:59:07,640
that conveys an inspirational vision for Palm Springs could be elected.

709
00:59:08,520 --> 00:59:13,200
We do not need a mayor that can best, we do need a mayor that can best represent our city

710
00:59:13,200 --> 00:59:17,500
to meet our long-term objectives versus the annual passing of the baton.

711
00:59:18,460 --> 00:59:22,000
I urge the Council to support the effort or allow voters to decide.

712
00:59:22,400 --> 00:59:23,860
Thank you.

713
00:59:23,980 --> 00:59:24,380
Thank you.

714
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:26,260
Next, we have Lori.

715
00:59:28,180 --> 00:59:29,000
Lori, thanks.

716
00:59:30,040 --> 00:59:32,200
After Lori is Stephen Moses.

717
00:59:35,820 --> 00:59:48,200
Good evening Mayor and council members. My name is Laura Lian and I'm here at time because I'm not sure why this forward-thinking collaborative city is even considering taking a giant step backwards.

718
00:59:48,980 --> 00:59:58,820
For 81 years the city did not rotate mayors. All mayors were men and all but one were white men. In the seven years since the city council.

719
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:10,940
We have had four females and our first ever Latino manner. Better than that, voter turnout has increased by 301.6% just during those seven years.

720
01:00:12,020 --> 01:00:21,440
The proponents of this change say that it would do three things, improve accountability, increase the mayor's influence, and provide continuity and consistency.

721
01:00:21,440 --> 01:00:28,120
Since a recent direct elected mayor admitted to committing more than 20 felonies, well in office,

722
01:00:28,680 --> 01:00:32,760
we can see that the direct election doesn't necessarily assure accountability.

723
01:00:33,860 --> 01:00:39,660
And increasing the mayor's influence actually negates one of the beauties of rotating mayors,

724
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:46,120
which is that it is the people who have greater influence, not a solitary elected official.

725
01:00:46,120 --> 01:00:58,980
And greater continuity, I personally don't want to revert to the system that continuously and consistently delivers only privileged white men as mayors.

726
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:06,240
Today, Americans are learning what overreaching and self-aggrandizing leadership looks like what it can do.

727
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:13,520
It may work in some areas and even in the majority of American voters today, but not in

728
01:01:13,520 --> 01:01:14,400
Palm Springs.

729
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:16,560
Palm Springs deserves better.

730
01:01:17,140 --> 01:01:21,700
Our residents deserve the opportunities that come from collaborative governance, not

731
01:01:21,700 --> 01:01:22,740
from Kingmaking.

732
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:23,900
Thank you.

733
01:01:24,700 --> 01:01:25,340
Thank you, Ari.

734
01:01:26,700 --> 01:01:31,220
Next, we have Stephen Moses, and after Stephen Moses, we have Peggy Trot.

735
01:01:34,710 --> 01:01:35,510
You take your time.

736
01:01:39,190 --> 01:01:49,750
My name is Steve Moses and I participated in that decision-making process that created the rotating mirror.

737
01:01:50,750 --> 01:01:58,390
I think we've heard enough good things about the rotating mirror that it just doesn't make it,

738
01:01:58,510 --> 01:02:07,070
and that I'm sorry, that the rotating mirror is the general elected mirror, does not make the necessary criteria.

739
01:02:07,070 --> 01:02:13,600
I'm going to sit down very soon because I've heard all the arguments.

740
01:02:14,780 --> 01:02:21,780
It would be nice to be an average elect, a directly elected mayor, but it would not be

741
01:02:21,780 --> 01:02:32,000
fair to do it and fairness is important to voting and to buy as Wolff wherever he is.

742
01:02:36,150 --> 01:02:37,350
Thank you, Stephen.

743
01:02:38,170 --> 01:02:38,550
Peggy?

744
01:02:41,580 --> 01:02:45,600
I'm here to talk on three-be, right, a different one.

745
01:02:47,560 --> 01:02:54,620
We're here to ask, and hopefully, well, it's an intent to form an infrastructure district.

746
01:02:55,700 --> 01:03:01,380
You know, I've got representatives from small hotels in Veevron and large hotels,

747
01:03:01,620 --> 01:03:08,080
and as a large community, we want to support the modernism and expansion of our convention center,

748
01:03:08,080 --> 01:03:12,160
and continue to drive tourism into this destination.

749
01:03:13,760 --> 01:03:20,120
You know, I've been working with the city since Councilmember DeHart announced his laser

750
01:03:20,120 --> 01:03:27,300
fast convention center committee, which was over a year and three months ago.

751
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:34,000
So at government speed, I think we're going really fast, but the intent tonight is to let

752
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:41,300
know that we want to form our district, here in Palm Springs, all of the lodging establishments

753
01:03:41,300 --> 01:03:48,040
are behind it. And we certainly hope that we have your permission to continue with our efforts.

754
01:03:48,660 --> 01:03:54,520
And I'd also like to thank the city staff who have been really helpful guiding us through

755
01:03:54,520 --> 01:04:00,120
this whole procedure and just making sure that we stay on task. We hold our meetings. We do

756
01:04:00,120 --> 01:04:03,780
of things that we're supposed to do, so they've been very helpful in this as well.

757
01:04:04,100 --> 01:04:04,960
So thank you so much.

758
01:04:05,320 --> 01:04:06,140
Thank you very much.

759
01:04:07,080 --> 01:04:13,100
Do we have anybody who wanted to give public comments on 3A, 3B or 3C that didn't get

760
01:04:13,100 --> 01:04:14,340
to sign up?

761
01:04:14,380 --> 01:04:17,480
If you can make a line on the side,

762
01:04:22,090 --> 01:04:22,090
great.

763
01:04:28,470 --> 01:04:32,810
Well, Lena, maybe Felina can start, and then you can get the name of the next person just

764
01:04:32,810 --> 01:04:33,550
to keep it moving.

765
01:04:35,430 --> 01:04:36,610
Felina, can you just start with your name?

766
01:04:36,730 --> 01:04:37,510
Yeah, good evening.

767
01:04:37,510 --> 01:04:39,070
My name is Felina Danellis.

768
01:04:39,570 --> 01:04:43,610
I'm the founder of Plum Springs Sematics and a former staffer at the World Bank.

769
01:04:43,870 --> 01:04:47,090
I've also been a full-time resident here for over a decade in Plum Springs.

770
01:04:47,450 --> 01:04:49,990
I want to speak to process on 3C.

771
01:04:51,870 --> 01:04:56,010
Because process is what creates trust and without trust, governance, loses legitimacy.

772
01:04:56,730 --> 01:04:59,810
A change to how we select mayor is not a small administrative adjustment.

773
01:04:59,890 --> 01:05:04,050
It's a structural shift in how power, visibility, and voice are distributed in the city.

774
01:05:04,050 --> 01:05:10,010
And changes like that should not come before a robust transparent and inclusive stakeholder engagement process.

775
01:05:10,610 --> 01:05:11,890
They should come after it.

776
01:05:12,130 --> 01:05:16,130
Palm Springs has already done hard work to move toward more representative governance.

777
01:05:16,610 --> 01:05:17,850
That didn't happen by accident.

778
01:05:18,150 --> 01:05:20,670
It happened because community spoke up and the city listened.

779
01:05:21,250 --> 01:05:24,350
So my question is, where is that level of engagement here?

780
01:05:24,810 --> 01:05:26,550
Have we heard from every district?

781
01:05:27,890 --> 01:05:30,350
Have we created space for working people?

782
01:05:30,350 --> 01:05:37,430
for rencers, for communities of color, for LGBTQIA residents, not just to react but to shape the conversation,

783
01:05:37,970 --> 01:05:41,290
because if we haven't, then we're not ready to redesign the system.

784
01:05:42,070 --> 01:05:44,770
The current rotating mayor model is something important.

785
01:05:45,190 --> 01:05:49,230
It ensures that leadership is shared across the city over time.

786
01:05:49,450 --> 01:05:51,210
It distributes civic visibility.

787
01:05:51,850 --> 01:05:55,390
It says every part of Palm Springs belongs at the head of the table,

788
01:05:55,910 --> 01:05:58,670
and many Californian cities operate this way successfully.

789
01:05:58,670 --> 01:06:07,530
This is not a broken system that urgently needs fixing, so I urge you, do not move ahead of the people engage first, listen first, then decide.

790
01:06:08,090 --> 01:06:12,810
Because in Palm Springs inclusion should not just be an outcome, it should be in the process itself.

791
01:06:13,050 --> 01:06:14,050
Thank you.

792
01:06:14,350 --> 01:06:14,670
Thank you.

793
01:06:16,190 --> 01:06:20,150
And next we have Michael Herspin, and after Michael will be Bill Wiley.

794
01:06:23,680 --> 01:06:28,420
Good evening. I'm talking on three A's, library item.

795
01:06:28,420 --> 01:06:30,440
And I'm just here to thank everybody.

796
01:06:30,660 --> 01:06:36,660
My heart is really full of thanks this evening as I look forward to the completion of the Library of Innovation.

797
01:06:36,980 --> 01:06:41,420
And I just like to call out a few groups of people that I'm really thankful for.

798
01:06:42,540 --> 01:06:47,240
And they're not in any particular order, but of course the council has been so supportive of this project.

799
01:06:47,700 --> 01:06:50,800
And it's really driven the whole process.

800
01:06:51,220 --> 01:06:53,540
So I want to thank council for that.

801
01:06:53,540 --> 01:07:02,420
staff, also city staff and particularly G.E.K. is a city library director who started the

802
01:07:02,420 --> 01:07:08,400
whole process rolling with the grant she received from the state for the renovation costs.

803
01:07:08,660 --> 01:07:13,440
I'd like to thank the community of Palm Springs who supports the library in so many different

804
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:13,880
ways.

805
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:22,320
And it really forms a nexus of community involvement that doesn't discriminate against different

806
01:07:22,320 --> 01:07:26,260
groups of people or classes of people, everybody uses the library.

807
01:07:30,000 --> 01:07:37,640
Forward, when the new building opens, or when the renovated building opens up, it's going to be so much more effective in doing that community building.

808
01:07:38,040 --> 01:07:44,400
So thank you to the community. Thank you for the foundation for raising all this money for the capital expenditures.

809
01:07:45,320 --> 01:07:48,780
I also want to thank the friends of which you know I'm a part of.

810
01:07:48,880 --> 01:07:55,220
The friends have been very active in this whole process through raising money through books sales and other events.

811
01:07:55,220 --> 01:08:25,200
We support events throughout the city, one PS picnic, we have moves throughout any given city, sponsored event, our annual meeting, attracts a hundred people a year, members, friends, members, so I want to thank them as well, we also have a very robust social media presence, thanks to some of our newer friends, board members, it's grown exponentially over the time.

812
01:08:25,220 --> 01:08:31,700
They've been involved and I think Michael, thank you, you're out of touch.

813
01:08:32,020 --> 01:08:33,300
Okay, well thanks again, everybody.

814
01:08:33,380 --> 01:08:34,760
Good on, thank you, then.

815
01:08:38,280 --> 01:08:40,700
Thanks, we have Bill Wiley, after Bill Wiley, Jim Gray.

816
01:08:41,180 --> 01:08:41,540
Hi, everyone.

817
01:08:42,020 --> 01:08:48,580
Bill Wiley, I'm the president of the Paul Springs Public Library Foundation and I want to

818
01:08:48,580 --> 01:08:50,260
address that three A as well.

819
01:08:51,140 --> 01:08:56,640
First thank you to the Council for your continued support of the Renovation Project, for

820
01:08:56,640 --> 01:09:04,800
main library building in Sunrise Park, and as you know, foundation has been actively trying

821
01:09:04,800 --> 01:09:09,180
to solicit funding and donations from the community since the last week of October.

822
01:09:10,580 --> 01:09:16,860
One of the great things that we've been able to utilize is opportunities to name portions

823
01:09:16,860 --> 01:09:22,100
of the renovated building, and that is proven to be very successful for us, and we want

824
01:09:22,100 --> 01:09:28,620
be able to continue that. So I want to thank Gini Kays and Mr. Styles and his staff for

825
01:09:28,620 --> 01:09:34,800
setting up the naming opportunities and anybody that's interested in these opportunities

826
01:09:34,800 --> 01:09:42,300
can go to our Capital Campaign website, which is next chapter.pslegoryfoundation.org.

827
01:09:51,400 --> 01:09:52,080
Next chapter

828
01:09:52,080 --> 01:10:01,180
to create a legacy for a family, friend or community member and again thanks a lot for everything

829
01:10:01,180 --> 01:10:08,380
that you're doing in regards to this particular project and overall library support and we hope

830
01:10:08,380 --> 01:10:16,960
that you have an approval in mind with 3A for the two large donations and that's the last thing

831
01:10:16,960 --> 01:10:23,700
I'll say, which is, thank you so much to our great colleagues at the friends for their very

832
01:10:23,700 --> 01:10:29,840
generous donation and also to the generous donation from the Jane Lichenhoff estate.

833
01:10:30,160 --> 01:10:31,180
Thank you.

834
01:10:31,400 --> 01:10:31,860
Thank you.

835
01:10:34,710 --> 01:10:39,050
Next, we have Jim Gray, after Jim Gray, we have Bob Hydenbaum.

836
01:10:39,770 --> 01:10:40,570
Hello, Council members.

837
01:10:41,170 --> 01:10:42,510
I won't use the full two minutes.

838
01:10:43,430 --> 01:10:47,170
First of all, thank you very much for your steadfast support and the library.

839
01:10:47,170 --> 01:10:51,310
Mayor Soto, thank you for coming to our annual meeting and it's lovely to have you

840
01:10:51,310 --> 01:10:53,410
to be our mayor and we live in the same district.

841
01:10:53,810 --> 01:10:55,530
It's great to have you for the year.

842
01:10:56,130 --> 01:11:00,270
Just really want to double down on the support that you've given us at the library.

843
01:11:00,690 --> 01:11:02,890
It's so important for our entire community.

844
01:11:03,490 --> 01:11:04,970
The library represents everybody.

845
01:11:05,210 --> 01:11:09,470
No matter what background they come from, what philosophies they hold,

846
01:11:09,530 --> 01:11:11,910
the library is a safe space.

847
01:11:12,250 --> 01:11:13,670
It's everybody's third space.

848
01:11:14,190 --> 01:11:15,230
Very, very important.

849
01:11:15,230 --> 01:11:21,790
And I want to close and saying, I'm super impressed by the library staff and all of their hard work.

850
01:11:21,990 --> 01:11:25,970
All of the volunteers and the comes from the friends and everybody on the foundation board.

851
01:11:26,350 --> 01:11:32,070
There are everybody shows up to support this resource that is important for our entire community.

852
01:11:32,330 --> 01:11:33,410
So thank you very much.

853
01:11:38,570 --> 01:11:47,150
Next year of Bob and after Bob will be Paul in Richston, Henrichston, first of all.

854
01:11:47,150 --> 01:12:02,210
Good evening, Council. Earlier today, I sent to you a seven point document about my position on the mayoral issue. It's too long to read here, so give me a couple minutes to summarize something.

855
01:12:02,210 --> 01:12:11,230
A permanent rotational mayor console allows the city to experience the strengths of each individual during their mayoral year.

856
01:12:12,290 --> 01:12:19,250
Regarding this rotational perspective, a new mayor every year protects against and serves as a guardrail to democracy.

857
01:12:20,530 --> 01:12:27,130
For what we sit today, believing in all candidates for office in Palm Springs are above and beyond reproach.

858
01:12:27,130 --> 01:12:31,530
The greatest protection we have is to preclude the following potential crimes.

859
01:12:32,150 --> 01:12:39,970
Personal gain, interfering with the democratic process, violating public trust, bribery, fraud,

860
01:12:40,310 --> 01:12:43,350
graphed, and measurement, and campaign violations.

861
01:12:44,810 --> 01:12:50,570
Taking action today to preserve and protect our current city council configuration with a rotational

862
01:12:50,570 --> 01:12:57,350
mayoralship is essential in assuring fairness, transparency, accountability, active citizen

863
01:12:57,350 --> 01:13:03,930
participation, and in hearing and adhering to the rule of law to all to protect our democracy.

864
01:13:04,590 --> 01:13:05,930
Thank you for your time and attention.

865
01:13:06,450 --> 01:13:07,210
Thank you.

866
01:13:12,940 --> 01:13:17,820
Evening in steam counsel and one of the staff, well, much of a Paul Hendrickson upper

867
01:13:17,820 --> 01:13:21,240
west side, much of what I was going to say is already been said more than once.

868
01:13:21,540 --> 01:13:22,560
So I'm going to wing it.

869
01:13:22,720 --> 01:13:24,040
That's enough to make you go bananas.

870
01:13:27,600 --> 01:13:34,880
As my husband mentioned about the guardrails of democracy, distributed power among equals.

871
01:13:35,020 --> 01:13:43,400
So five equals is one of the cornerstones of the guardrails for democracy.

872
01:13:43,660 --> 01:13:50,080
When too much control influence and power is concentrated in one individual and to the disadvantage

873
01:13:50,080 --> 01:13:58,160
of the other leaders in the city, that's when you strip away those guardrails. So you could be

874
01:13:58,160 --> 01:14:06,480
lucky, you could get a good leader, but the guardrails are for when, what if you don't? And that's

875
01:14:06,480 --> 01:14:14,700
very important. We have seen it in the past, need I remind everyone, headlines, Palm Springs City Council

876
01:14:14,700 --> 01:14:24,560
chambers and city hall get rated by the FBI brought to you by an at-large elected mayor.

877
01:14:26,270 --> 01:14:33,910
We should learn from history and in doing so there's a lot of lessons there.

878
01:14:34,210 --> 01:14:42,490
We've been very successful with an equal panel of five serving all of us and it also gives

879
01:14:42,490 --> 01:14:47,750
greater access to the residents because of that.

880
01:14:48,470 --> 01:14:51,170
We don't have a vacancy of leadership in our city.

881
01:14:51,610 --> 01:14:58,370
We don't need to make room for another leader and add that to the city budget as well.

882
01:15:00,000 --> 01:15:01,060
Thank you.

883
01:15:01,060 --> 01:15:07,040
To go back to where we were in those guardrails we're missing is a less perfect union.

884
01:15:07,800 --> 01:15:10,620
Let's keep a more perfect union going forward.

885
01:15:11,060 --> 01:15:12,720
And for generations going forward.

886
01:15:12,780 --> 01:15:14,260
Thank you.

887
01:15:17,820 --> 01:15:24,200
Is there anyone else in the room who wanted to speak on 3A3B or 3C that did not?

888
01:15:25,900 --> 01:15:28,140
Michael Picken, come on up.

889
01:15:28,420 --> 01:15:29,600
Who's it out for us?

890
01:15:36,280 --> 01:16:05,640
Just this week, Michael Pickin, all financial grant items, two women in a pit bull attack me in your Albertans, drawing blood, vigilani, deterrent, citizens on control, threatening 6040 split, or all be nifed, four store manager, circle K, food fillets, Ralphs, and tower market, all accusing with accusations, fine food bank, I've used their services for six months, that James O'Gessie Desert, Highland Unity Center, manager, Cesar Garcia,

891
01:16:05,640 --> 01:16:11,900
refuse me all services. Joe Community Health Worker, who signed me up, would not answer my

892
01:16:11,900 --> 01:16:17,540
account questions, said their system is not to provide me any verifying documents, and only

893
01:16:17,540 --> 01:16:23,440
the city of Palm Springs can provide me my account information. Two black female volunteers

894
01:16:23,440 --> 01:16:29,900
intervened. They refused their names, piled my food up in front of me, a quarter pickup bed

895
01:16:29,900 --> 01:16:35,320
amount, which I could not carry. They ordered Mr. Garcia that I take it, or they will have

896
01:16:35,320 --> 01:16:42,080
removed. After a week of complaints, letters, fine food bank are now fine regional food bank.

897
01:16:42,260 --> 01:16:47,520
Now admits there are three separate food programs and one proxy program, all of which I have

898
01:16:47,520 --> 01:16:53,940
never been told. I met with Parks Director, Nicolas Gonzalez. He will not look at this contract

899
01:16:53,940 --> 01:17:00,600
unless he receives multiple reports from others experiencing the same. I do not consent to this

900
01:17:00,600 --> 01:17:08,440
county style LPS, 51-50-52-50 style restraining order without my knowledge deterrents program

901
01:17:08,440 --> 01:17:13,320
and Santa Monica L.A. County Riverside County State of California Palm Springs,

902
01:17:13,560 --> 01:17:18,420
see that tribes notice a potential litigation. Thank you, Michael.

903
01:17:21,130 --> 01:17:21,950
For sure, no one else.

904
01:17:22,890 --> 01:17:26,250
Madam Clerk is there any one online? No, for those speakers. Hi, we made it through.

905
01:17:26,710 --> 01:17:31,990
The next item, thank you everyone, is the consent calendar I would like to entertain

906
01:17:31,990 --> 01:17:37,610
motion to accept the consent calendar with the refusal from Councilmember DeHart on C.

907
01:17:38,090 --> 01:17:39,630
We just have a question on O.

908
01:17:45,480 --> 01:17:47,800
Have a motion and a second.

909
01:17:49,950 --> 01:17:53,210
Motion by Councilmember Garner, second by Councilmember DeHart.

910
01:17:53,390 --> 01:17:55,310
Motion carries. Thank you.

911
01:17:58,380 --> 01:17:59,740
Item C.

912
01:18:00,820 --> 01:18:03,200
Your question?

913
01:18:03,900 --> 01:18:05,780
I don't want to. I'm sorry.

914
01:18:08,820 --> 01:18:13,040
It's a three-year contract and this year's two and three do they come before Council?

915
01:18:15,000 --> 01:18:18,000
Yes, Council and Bernstein, yes, on that particular contract.

916
01:18:19,280 --> 01:18:24,360
The year's two and three will come back to Council as we have to budget for those additional

917
01:18:24,360 --> 01:18:24,880
resources.

918
01:18:25,300 --> 01:18:26,060
Okay, that was my question.

919
01:18:26,560 --> 01:18:26,880
Thank you.

920
01:18:27,140 --> 01:18:28,160
Thank you.

921
01:18:28,220 --> 01:18:29,020
Thank you.

922
01:18:29,020 --> 01:18:43,420
And think, and to Scott, you had mentioned on all three years, the first year is, I see the 260, the 264.

923
01:18:43,640 --> 01:18:43,920
Yes.

924
01:18:45,420 --> 01:18:45,820
264.

925
01:18:45,920 --> 01:18:47,800
Now, in years two and three, I'm just looking through there.

926
01:18:47,900 --> 01:18:50,180
That's considerably less like there's a 180 or something.

927
01:18:50,460 --> 01:18:50,920
180, cheer.

928
01:18:51,140 --> 01:18:53,700
And I just want to confirm that those would be different numbers that come back.

929
01:18:53,700 --> 01:18:54,160
That's good.

930
01:18:54,400 --> 01:18:55,760
Thank you.

931
01:18:55,760 --> 01:18:56,020
Okay.

932
01:18:59,560 --> 01:19:01,300
Let's move on to our business items.

933
01:19:02,440 --> 01:19:03,140
Oh, that's right.

934
01:19:03,300 --> 01:19:04,160
No, it's just a question.

935
01:19:06,280 --> 01:19:07,220
But it's the first.

936
01:19:07,520 --> 01:19:09,360
We voted on everything all at once.

937
01:19:09,980 --> 01:19:15,360
The next item on our agenda is item 3A, which is the renaming of J.C.

938
01:19:15,420 --> 01:19:18,980
Fry building and other specific areas of the Palm Springs Public Library.

939
01:19:19,200 --> 01:19:21,080
May we have a staff report, please.

940
01:19:22,120 --> 01:19:22,580
Good evening.

941
01:19:23,180 --> 01:19:24,920
Mayor, Mayor for Tim Members of Council.

942
01:19:25,120 --> 01:19:28,560
I'm Gina K's Library Director, and I have the greatest news story.

943
01:19:28,560 --> 01:19:34,160
ever. We are here for the renaming of the JCPri building and other specific areas of library.

944
01:19:34,940 --> 01:19:40,000
So on May 25th, 2023, the City Council approved a memorandum of understanding between the

945
01:19:40,000 --> 01:19:47,540
City and Palm Springs Public Library Foundation. The memorandum requires the City Council

946
01:19:47,540 --> 01:19:51,560
to approve naming opportunities for the Palm Springs Public Library system valued at more than

947
01:19:51,560 --> 01:19:58,540
$100,000. The foundation, so first of all, I want to acknowledge. I've got a great support

948
01:19:58,540 --> 01:20:02,620
system here tonight. I've got the foundation here. I've got the friends. I've got

949
01:20:03,180 --> 01:20:10,560
a trustee. I've got a Catherine Hoff, who's with the trustee of the Jane-Lick-and-Hoff-A-State.

950
01:20:10,920 --> 01:20:16,540
So we've got some really wonderful people in the audience tonight. The foundation officially

951
01:20:16,540 --> 01:20:23,580
launched their capital campaign just a few months ago in October of 2025, and so far they are

952
01:20:23,580 --> 01:20:27,960
I have $2.1 million raised in funds.

953
01:20:28,720 --> 01:20:30,440
Thank you.

954
01:20:33,460 --> 01:20:39,500
More than those 35 capital campaign donations to require the City Council's approval,

955
01:20:39,800 --> 01:20:43,700
the friends of the Palm Springs Library and the Jane Look and Hoff donations.

956
01:20:44,320 --> 01:20:49,020
Other donations that you'll see in attachment be are at the City Manager's,

957
01:20:49,600 --> 01:20:53,840
Scott Styles approval level and he expects to approve those following this meeting,

958
01:20:53,840 --> 01:21:00,740
but you can read through those and see over half a million dollars in donations just from those

959
01:21:00,740 --> 01:21:05,580
those gifts that are under a hundred thousand dollars. So we're really grateful for all of that.

960
01:21:05,740 --> 01:21:12,780
The friends of the Palm Springs Library, they have been on a nonprofit of record for over 50 years

961
01:21:12,780 --> 01:21:17,640
and they have given us gifts over the years. I mean even just in the last five years,

962
01:21:17,640 --> 01:21:22,320
totally half a million dollars. So we know they're well over a million dollars worth of gifts over the

963
01:21:22,320 --> 01:21:27,760
years, but they've pledged $250,000 for the opportunity to rename the J.C. for eye building

964
01:21:27,760 --> 01:21:30,280
as the friends of the Palm Springs Library Building.

965
01:21:30,280 --> 01:21:32,400
I'm going to show you a picture on the screen.

966
01:21:32,620 --> 01:21:35,720
So this is how it was before construction began.

967
01:21:36,200 --> 01:21:40,740
This building was built in 1965 at a cost of $45,000.

968
01:21:42,860 --> 01:21:44,240
Where is that money now?

969
01:21:45,340 --> 01:21:48,240
By the junior chamber of commerce, they were the J.C.s.

970
01:21:48,240 --> 01:21:54,200
They raised between $7 and $10,000 of a final gift by Dr. R. G. Fry.

971
01:21:55,400 --> 01:22:01,660
Dr. Russell Fry was an avid bridge player, and so he loved this building. This was a really nice community building.

972
01:22:03,560 --> 01:22:09,380
We've done an initial rendering. This is what the friends of the Palm Springs Library building will look like.

973
01:22:09,420 --> 01:22:12,940
That was the initial rendering, and I want to show you this last one because it's just gorgeous.

974
01:22:13,500 --> 01:22:16,940
This is what we're expecting this building to look like when construction is finished.

975
01:22:16,940 --> 01:22:22,100
And I think it's just amazing and going to be a beautiful little landmark for us on our campus.

976
01:22:23,340 --> 01:22:26,520
Now Jane, like on Hoth, you might be wrecked.

977
01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:54,100
Recognized that name Carl Lickon was her father. He and Carl and Edith Lickon were pioneers of Palm Springs. They had the first grocery store, hardware store, post office. He was the town's first postmaster, and he was a founding member of the Library Board of Trustees. And he was on the Library Board of Trustees at his death in 1972.

978
01:22:54,100 --> 01:23:03,080
So Jane Lickenhoff's estate has left several, several gifts to the inland empire community foundation.

979
01:23:04,040 --> 01:23:12,500
And we, the Homestream Public Library Foundation, is one of the named donors of an ongoing sustaining gift from them.

980
01:23:12,520 --> 01:23:20,140
Like I said, Katherine Huff is here today. We're so grateful to her and Greg for their generous gift to the library.

981
01:23:20,140 --> 01:23:27,940
And we want to do a naming opportunity for her per Jane-Lick and Hoth of Desert Landscaping

982
01:23:27,940 --> 01:23:34,380
because she was such an outdoors person, wrote her horse all the time and we just

983
01:23:34,380 --> 01:23:38,760
think that the Desert Landscaping having a nice plaque as you enter the library would be a

984
01:23:38,760 --> 01:23:42,140
really nice honor for her and her legacy.

985
01:23:43,340 --> 01:23:49,200
So finally, I just want to mention that naming opportunities provide a meaningful way for community

986
01:23:49,200 --> 01:23:54,380
members to support the restoration and renovation of the Palm Springs Public Library while establishing

987
01:23:54,380 --> 01:23:59,940
a lasting legacy. These contributions strengthen the foundations of relationships with donors

988
01:23:59,940 --> 01:24:05,340
and help cultivate both sustaining and legacy gifts. And just me as the Library Director,

989
01:24:05,540 --> 01:24:12,420
I'm so grateful for our community giving us gifts, large and small, every dollar counts and we're

990
01:24:12,420 --> 01:24:17,700
just so grateful for them and their gifts and to you the council and the city staff for helping us

991
01:24:17,700 --> 01:24:21,020
like this library renovation become a reality.

992
01:24:21,960 --> 01:24:27,080
So I ask for your approval in approving these naming gifts

993
01:24:27,080 --> 01:24:28,840
for the friends of the Palm Springs Library

994
01:24:28,840 --> 01:24:30,460
and the Jane-Lick and Hof estate.

995
01:24:32,380 --> 01:24:33,380
Thank you.

996
01:24:33,620 --> 01:24:35,140
And I'm happy to entertain questions.

997
01:24:35,600 --> 01:24:36,840
Any questions, comments?

998
01:24:38,520 --> 01:24:39,640
One congratulations.

999
01:24:40,460 --> 01:24:43,000
And thank you to the trustees and the foundation

1000
01:24:43,000 --> 01:24:46,160
and just all the supporters for your continued engagement

1001
01:24:46,160 --> 01:24:46,720
on this.

1002
01:24:48,320 --> 01:24:52,660
And any, my kids see every bit of work that

1003
01:24:52,660 --> 01:24:57,260
happens behind that fence, and it's just you drive past it.

1004
01:24:57,280 --> 01:24:58,380
And you can see them on momentum.

1005
01:24:58,640 --> 01:25:00,440
So thank you for doing this and continuing.

1006
01:25:01,280 --> 01:25:03,120
And we can't wait to see that progress.

1007
01:25:03,700 --> 01:25:05,160
Pass it over to Councilmember Garner.

1008
01:25:05,700 --> 01:25:06,340
Thank you so much.

1009
01:25:06,400 --> 01:25:09,200
Thank you to everyone who is a part of this.

1010
01:25:09,320 --> 01:25:11,480
Like Michael, her friends said, there's just so many

1011
01:25:11,480 --> 01:25:12,320
thank yous.

1012
01:25:12,500 --> 01:25:13,800
You could really go on and on.

1013
01:25:14,560 --> 01:25:16,260
I almost want to read every single name.

1014
01:25:16,260 --> 01:25:18,380
and your attachment of the people who have donated.

1015
01:25:19,340 --> 01:25:21,100
But I wanted to just highlight too,

1016
01:25:21,780 --> 01:25:25,480
that there's a lot of donors that are listed

1017
01:25:25,480 --> 01:25:27,680
in our attachment, and there's a little information

1018
01:25:27,680 --> 01:25:29,460
about each of them, and why they decided

1019
01:25:29,460 --> 01:25:30,940
to give this gift to the library.

1020
01:25:31,740 --> 01:25:34,980
And they're just really lovely.

1021
01:25:35,580 --> 01:25:37,420
So I encourage people to read them.

1022
01:25:38,340 --> 01:25:39,800
The question I had for you, Jeannie,

1023
01:25:40,040 --> 01:25:43,400
is I think the history of the fry building

1024
01:25:43,400 --> 01:25:45,300
is really interesting and important.

1025
01:25:45,300 --> 01:25:50,360
and I'm wondering if as we move to being the friends of the Palm Springs Library, which I also

1026
01:25:50,360 --> 01:25:55,960
love that it's going to be named that, if we could have a little plaque or information inside

1027
01:25:55,960 --> 01:26:00,500
the building that said, you know, picture of what it used to look like and a little description

1028
01:26:00,500 --> 01:26:06,860
of that history that you just gave us. I want to make sure that we're kind of honoring our past

1029
01:26:06,860 --> 01:26:11,220
as we move forward. And you know what's interesting about this building is that it will house our

1030
01:26:11,220 --> 01:26:16,260
archive. So this is where the history of Palm Springs and our library will live.

1031
01:26:16,680 --> 01:26:21,520
So I think it'll be really fun to do to do some historic photos down the hall.

1032
01:26:21,540 --> 01:26:28,520
Kind of like City Hall has who those photos were curated by the previous one of the previous library directors in the city.

1033
01:26:29,400 --> 01:26:30,540
But yeah, it's really fun.

1034
01:26:30,920 --> 01:26:36,900
I think this would be a really great way to honor obviously the history of the library and this building.

1035
01:26:36,940 --> 01:26:38,360
I think that would be a great idea.

1036
01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:42,040
Thank you. I appreciate that and just for anyone that does want to donate you

1037
01:26:43,500 --> 01:26:48,220
You have there's naming rights for everything even the this aisles the stacks of books, right?

1038
01:26:48,220 --> 01:26:50,320
You could have your name on that or on the back of a chair

1039
01:26:50,320 --> 01:26:55,740
There's a lot of opportunities at different levels, so for anyone that's interested and it doesn't have to be your name

1040
01:26:55,740 --> 01:27:00,880
It can be the name of anybody or or it doesn't have to be any friends name it could be something else

1041
01:27:00,880 --> 01:27:06,980
So to some thank you all for your support of the of the library my very favorite place in all

1042
01:27:06,980 --> 01:27:11,700
So we're looking forward to doing some hard-hat tours in the future.

1043
01:27:11,880 --> 01:27:12,580
That should be a fun.

1044
01:27:13,420 --> 01:27:15,100
Come from a burnt scene.

1045
01:27:15,740 --> 01:27:20,580
So I just want to thank you for this and the people who donated.

1046
01:27:20,860 --> 01:27:25,360
I mean, there are literally dozens of people here that have given a thousand dollars or more for the library.

1047
01:27:26,220 --> 01:27:30,900
The second time tonight, we're seeing the community come and give financial aid to a city building.

1048
01:27:32,020 --> 01:27:33,920
And that's when we saw the class out there before.

1049
01:27:33,920 --> 01:27:40,260
That's pretty amazing what it says about our residents and our community and how much people want to give back

1050
01:27:41,020 --> 01:27:47,660
To to the city that that they enjoy. So thank you to the community. Thank you to the all hard work of the foundation

1051
01:27:47,660 --> 01:27:55,880
The friends and obviously the library staff. So thank you very much. Thank you, and we're happy to come back as many times as we need to for more naming our pertinent

1052
01:27:57,480 --> 01:27:59,760
Okay any other comments

1053
01:28:02,180 --> 01:28:05,000
Seeing none, I would like to entertain a motion.

1054
01:28:05,740 --> 01:28:06,440
We have a motion.

1055
01:28:06,620 --> 01:28:07,280
Make comes from a front.

1056
01:28:07,560 --> 01:28:07,780
I know.

1057
01:28:07,900 --> 01:28:09,760
I knew you were going to.

1058
01:28:10,940 --> 01:28:11,300
Second.

1059
01:28:11,580 --> 01:28:12,040
I can't remember.

1060
01:28:15,590 --> 01:28:16,670
Motion carries.

1061
01:28:16,930 --> 01:28:17,950
Thank you very much.

1062
01:28:25,140 --> 01:28:30,120
Next item on the agenda is item 3b, which is a resolution of intention to establish

1063
01:28:30,120 --> 01:28:32,480
the Palm Springs Tourism Infrastructure District.

1064
01:28:33,000 --> 01:28:34,840
May we have a staff report please.

1065
01:28:35,640 --> 01:28:37,080
Thank you Madam Mayor.

1066
01:28:37,080 --> 01:28:42,220
Mayor Pro Team ready, Council members, I'm Christopher Mooney, I'm the Director of Finance and

1067
01:28:42,220 --> 01:28:43,380
Treasury for the City.

1068
01:28:44,600 --> 01:28:51,920
I have a short presentation for tonight's request to for the Council to approve a resolution

1069
01:28:51,920 --> 01:28:55,400
of intent for the TID or the Tourism Improvement District.

1070
01:28:55,840 --> 01:28:58,900
So just some highlights that it take to get here.

1071
01:28:59,640 --> 01:29:05,460
After we've redirected our City Manager is directed to get the Convention Center Improvement

1072
01:29:05,460 --> 01:29:06,560
Project ready to go.

1073
01:29:06,560 --> 01:29:09,260
There are some committees that were formed shortly thereafter.

1074
01:29:09,860 --> 01:29:12,240
One of them was the Tourism Improvement District Committee.

1075
01:29:12,960 --> 01:29:15,180
And you heard Peggy Trot up here from PSResorts,

1076
01:29:15,280 --> 01:29:19,180
talk about all the members, was a General Municipal Go Tells,

1077
01:29:19,180 --> 01:29:22,200
small hotels, vacation rental owners network,

1078
01:29:22,680 --> 01:29:24,220
and a lot of them are here tonight.

1079
01:29:24,400 --> 01:29:25,800
And I personally just want to thank them

1080
01:29:25,800 --> 01:29:27,420
from this to be a lot of their hard work.

1081
01:29:27,660 --> 01:29:29,740
And we just really appreciate all of the work

1082
01:29:29,740 --> 01:29:31,040
that they did to get here tonight.

1083
01:29:35,190 --> 01:29:37,390
The TID Committee met every other week.

1084
01:29:37,390 --> 01:29:41,790
The ultimately came to completing a management district plan.

1085
01:29:42,190 --> 01:29:44,810
This MDP governs how the TID works.

1086
01:29:45,310 --> 01:29:49,330
The TID will include all hotels and all short-term vacation rentals

1087
01:29:49,330 --> 01:29:51,250
within the Palm Springs City limits.

1088
01:29:51,770 --> 01:29:54,870
These businesses, it's important to know, will be self-assessing

1089
01:29:54,870 --> 01:29:57,710
themselves 1% of gross revenue.

1090
01:29:58,190 --> 01:29:59,970
That is going to fund the tourism and...

1091
01:30:00,000 --> 01:30:07,140
Government district. Hopefully, to the tune of an estimated $4.1 million, this will help pay for debt

1092
01:30:07,140 --> 01:30:13,240
service that will issue to do the improvements to the Convention Center. Any excess of the

1093
01:30:13,240 --> 01:30:19,360
4.1 million will go to a capital reserve fund to do future capital improvements, future maintenance,

1094
01:30:19,900 --> 01:30:26,520
to the Convention Center to keep it fresh and to not have do these big debt nuances every 25 years.

1095
01:30:26,520 --> 01:30:32,900
The TID group, which is led by Peggy and PS Resorts, completed a successful campaign recently

1096
01:30:32,900 --> 01:30:40,600
to get a minimum of 50% of the hotels and STRs to sign a document in favor of establishing

1097
01:30:40,600 --> 01:30:41,800
the TID.

1098
01:30:41,820 --> 01:30:47,080
Tonight's action for the Council, we're asking the Council to approve a Resolution Resolution

1099
01:30:47,080 --> 01:30:50,360
of Intent to form the Tourism Improvement District.

1100
01:30:50,940 --> 01:30:58,480
This allows the city to move forward to legally completing the TID, which requires a couple

1101
01:30:58,480 --> 01:30:59,300
of public hearings.

1102
01:31:00,140 --> 01:31:05,700
But first, as you see in the next steps, once if the city council approves this this

1103
01:31:05,700 --> 01:31:10,440
evening, the city has to notify or notice each of the businesses within the district

1104
01:31:10,440 --> 01:31:11,620
by April 12.

1105
01:31:11,720 --> 01:31:14,640
So we're ready to go with that if it's improved tonight.

1106
01:31:15,260 --> 01:31:18,720
And then the next, the first public hearing is May 12th.

1107
01:31:18,720 --> 01:31:23,940
And this is the first hearing for the community to come and give public comment at the May 12th meeting.

1108
01:31:24,240 --> 01:31:31,540
There is no action for the Council to take that will be later on in a couple of meetings from that May 12th date.

1109
01:31:32,440 --> 01:31:33,260
That's some of the highlights.

1110
01:31:33,680 --> 01:31:36,340
I'd be more happy to answer any questions if the Council has any.

1111
01:31:39,380 --> 01:31:40,920
Wonderful. Well, thank you, Chris.

1112
01:31:41,880 --> 01:31:46,200
And I think this is just such a reflection of the hospitality industry,

1113
01:31:47,280 --> 01:31:52,540
recognizing the importance of our Convention Center, coming together, collaborating, another

1114
01:31:53,220 --> 01:31:58,440
really impressive public partner, public private relationship that we have to be able

1115
01:31:58,440 --> 01:32:02,400
to make this investments in a building that drives so much of our economy.

1116
01:32:03,180 --> 01:32:09,380
And so for me, just to kind of, my main question is just to underscore and confirm with

1117
01:32:09,380 --> 01:32:13,940
the community, this is a self-assessment just on lodging businesses, correct?

1118
01:32:13,940 --> 01:32:14,320
Correct.

1119
01:32:14,660 --> 01:32:14,880
Correct.

1120
01:32:16,840 --> 01:32:22,320
And can you just share a little bit about the,

1121
01:32:24,800 --> 01:32:29,780
essentially, the, they will subscess and then those

1122
01:32:29,780 --> 01:32:34,720
runner revenues will then help support the, both the current plans and future improvements that we need.

1123
01:32:35,340 --> 01:32:36,180
Yeah, that's correct.

1124
01:32:36,500 --> 01:32:41,960
It'll follow the collection process will be done by our team or my team.

1125
01:32:42,520 --> 01:32:44,600
We will collect the assessment every month.

1126
01:32:44,600 --> 01:32:57,500
We put it in a separate fund, apart from the general fund, all of the dollars will go into a separate bank account as required by the MDP and the city will manage the funds along with the ownership association that the MDP requires.

1127
01:32:58,200 --> 01:33:01,760
Okay, wonderful. Any questions? Council member to heart.

1128
01:33:04,710 --> 01:33:12,670
Not a question, Chris, but accolades and kudos to Peggy Trot and the team on the working group.

1129
01:33:12,670 --> 01:33:18,930
You all have done an incredible job getting us to this point, so thank you very much for

1130
01:33:18,930 --> 01:33:19,410
doing that.

1131
01:33:19,530 --> 01:33:25,050
And to the business community, that is standing up to support and invest in the Convention

1132
01:33:25,050 --> 01:33:32,030
Center and having that understanding of what that economic impact is for the city of Palm Springs.

1133
01:33:33,350 --> 01:33:40,210
Huge appreciation for the business community, for hospitality community, for stepping up and

1134
01:33:40,210 --> 01:33:41,810
I'm making that ongoing investment.

1135
01:33:43,230 --> 01:33:44,530
Councilmember D'Hurt?

1136
01:33:44,830 --> 01:33:44,950
I'm sorry.

1137
01:33:45,310 --> 01:33:45,410
I'm sorry.

1138
01:33:45,850 --> 01:33:46,150
Thank you.

1139
01:33:46,370 --> 01:33:46,610
Councilmember D'Hurt.

1140
01:33:47,330 --> 01:33:52,590
So I have been a part of this DID working group and I also want to just second

1141
01:33:53,190 --> 01:33:55,190
Councilmember D'Hurt on the amount of work that's been done.

1142
01:33:55,590 --> 01:33:56,350
It's tremendous.

1143
01:33:58,390 --> 01:34:02,730
So I just started by the Plaza Theatre in the Library and here again we have the community

1144
01:34:02,730 --> 01:34:09,230
coming together to figure out how to raise funds to support a city building and

1145
01:34:09,230 --> 01:34:14,370
district and that is truly unique to see this three times tonight.

1146
01:34:14,650 --> 01:34:15,270
So, thank you.

1147
01:34:15,990 --> 01:34:18,190
I also want to just highlight this is actually, you know,

1148
01:34:18,290 --> 01:34:20,210
becomes a tourism funded thing.

1149
01:34:20,810 --> 01:34:22,130
So, this is not on the residents.

1150
01:34:22,770 --> 01:34:25,050
In addition to Peggy Trot, I want to thank Michael Green.

1151
01:34:25,110 --> 01:34:28,470
I don't think he's here in Canada City as well as the rest of the committee.

1152
01:34:28,870 --> 01:34:32,670
Because it took a lot of work and the only way this could really happen

1153
01:34:32,670 --> 01:34:35,230
was peers talking to peers about it.

1154
01:34:36,230 --> 01:34:50,430
And also just to reinforce this whole thing, it's not just the Convention Center, but the Convention Center District, which will be a whole new center in our downtown that residents and small businesses will benefit from as well.

1155
01:34:51,410 --> 01:34:59,030
It's also very interesting that this is one project where from the very beginning it was determined that there would be a capital reserve for future improvements.

1156
01:34:59,030 --> 01:35:06,550
And that's not something that we often see with our projects here, but this is designed very much

1157
01:35:06,550 --> 01:35:09,810
so that for the next 30, 40 years, I guess.

1158
01:35:10,150 --> 01:35:13,690
We will have funds in there to help keep it maintained properly.

1159
01:35:15,130 --> 01:35:20,810
And then lastly, I just want to say, you know, when we did the downtown revitalization,

1160
01:35:21,230 --> 01:35:26,550
we saw a large public private partnership, a large investment in it, and as a result,

1161
01:35:26,550 --> 01:35:32,750
TOT increased significantly, the city's budget increased, measure J increased, and I believe

1162
01:35:32,750 --> 01:35:40,970
that this really has the potential to be uplift our city in the same way that did to a very

1163
01:35:40,970 --> 01:35:45,770
large extent, something that will experience for a long time, because this will really not only

1164
01:35:45,770 --> 01:35:52,670
expand the convention center, but are hold downtown. So again, I want to thank the whole committee

1165
01:35:52,670 --> 01:35:57,590
who work so really hard on this and continues to work hard on it, so thank you.

1166
01:36:04,480 --> 01:36:09,000
We have a motion by Councilmember DeHart, a second by Councilmember Garner.

1167
01:36:10,660 --> 01:36:11,260
Motion carries.

1168
01:36:12,220 --> 01:36:13,040
Thank you very much.

1169
01:36:13,280 --> 01:36:14,020
And thank you again, sir.

1170
01:36:14,120 --> 01:36:16,820
P.S. Resorts and all the hospitality community help get us here.

1171
01:36:24,520 --> 01:36:29,980
Next item on our dentist 3C titled a discussion and possible direction regarding the mayoral position.

1172
01:36:30,300 --> 01:36:32,600
May we have a staff report, please?

1173
01:36:33,920 --> 01:36:37,240
Yes, Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council, members of the public.

1174
01:36:37,660 --> 01:36:45,520
The item before you is a discussion item regarding the mayoral position, and if I can figure

1175
01:36:45,520 --> 01:36:48,400
out the PowerPoint, I will get started.

1176
01:36:50,780 --> 01:36:55,560
As the Council is aware, in February of this year, the Council asks staff to research and

1177
01:36:55,560 --> 01:37:00,220
bring back some options to the City Council regarding the city's mayoral position.

1178
01:37:01,500 --> 01:37:11,440
More recently on March 16th, the city received a notice of intent with regard to a possible ballot measure to create a directly elected mayor for the November 2026 election.

1179
01:37:12,520 --> 01:37:17,600
That notice of intent was resimitted on March 30th with some corrections.

1180
01:37:18,800 --> 01:37:27,220
And then earlier this week, the city received a supplemental filing with regard to that ballot measure that changed some of the language.

1181
01:37:27,220 --> 01:37:29,800
The staff report for you tonight.

1182
01:37:30,000 --> 01:37:40,360
It lays out some of the options for the city council, legal issues, costs, as well as the process of the city council can decide what it wishes to do if anything.

1183
01:37:42,670 --> 01:37:57,370
So a little bit of background, in terms of how the city of Palm Springs is governed today, the city council is governed by a city council manager form of government, and by this we mean the city council sets policy and the city manager carries it out.

1184
01:37:57,370 --> 01:38:02,370
So if you think of a ship, the city council kind of decides where the city is an organization

1185
01:38:02,370 --> 01:38:08,770
is going and the city manager and the city manager staff carry that out and sail the

1186
01:38:08,770 --> 01:38:09,910
ship in that direction.

1187
01:38:10,870 --> 01:38:17,730
The city currently has five council districts since 2018 each council member represents a specific

1188
01:38:17,730 --> 01:38:23,050
geographic region within the city and we'll go into the background of how we got there

1189
01:38:23,050 --> 01:38:23,970
in a little bit.

1190
01:38:23,970 --> 01:38:28,930
We have a rotating mayor, and by that we mean the mayors selected from among the five

1191
01:38:28,930 --> 01:38:32,890
Council members, and the mayor rotates yearly by district number.

1192
01:38:33,330 --> 01:38:35,590
That was put in place in 2019.

1193
01:38:37,310 --> 01:38:42,810
Under the current system of government, each Council member has a single vote.

1194
01:38:42,910 --> 01:38:48,230
The mayor has the same number of votes, the same power from a legal perspective as each of

1195
01:38:48,230 --> 01:38:53,750
individual council members, no additional legal authority under our current structure.

1196
01:38:56,920 --> 01:39:03,940
We got here in 1994 the city council are the city voters adopted a city charter which included

1197
01:39:03,940 --> 01:39:06,660
directly elected at large mayor.

1198
01:39:07,180 --> 01:39:13,720
When the city was first incorporated in 1938, the city had seven council member districts,

1199
01:39:14,120 --> 01:39:18,000
but that changed in 1994 personally to the city's charter.

1200
01:39:18,840 --> 01:39:27,300
In 2018, the city received a letter from an attorney who represented a group called the Southwest

1201
01:39:27,300 --> 01:39:36,460
Educational Voters Association and they cited the California Voting Rights Act and indicated

1202
01:39:36,460 --> 01:39:39,760
an intent to sue the city under the CVRA.

1203
01:39:40,540 --> 01:39:47,640
As a result of that process, the city moved to a directly elected mayor, I'm sorry, the

1204
01:39:47,640 --> 01:39:53,000
Directly elected mayor was replaced with a rotating mayor and that's what we have right now.

1205
01:39:53,380 --> 01:40:06,440
Shortly after that in 2019, the City Council adopted a resolution that formalized the process and turned it into a rotational process and formalized how it would cycle through each district each year.

1206
01:40:07,720 --> 01:40:14,460
Actually, late last year, not in 2026, in late 2025, there began some community discussion about

1207
01:40:14,460 --> 01:40:17,700
possibly bringing back a directly elected mayor.

1208
01:40:18,420 --> 01:40:23,140
And then, as I mentioned earlier, a ballot measure has recently been filed to do that.

1209
01:40:25,250 --> 01:40:29,690
There are three types of mayors in California, as well as in other states.

1210
01:40:30,150 --> 01:40:32,490
The first is the rotational mayor, which I just mentioned.

1211
01:40:32,490 --> 01:40:35,570
It's the mayor's chosen by fellow council members.

1212
01:40:36,390 --> 01:40:40,150
Some cities will have a process in place similar

1213
01:40:40,150 --> 01:40:43,430
to what Palm Springs has that clearly identifies

1214
01:40:43,430 --> 01:40:45,490
how that rotation exists.

1215
01:40:45,990 --> 01:40:48,050
Other cities just do it informally.

1216
01:40:48,290 --> 01:40:52,490
They wait and see each year whether they want to select a new mayor

1217
01:40:52,490 --> 01:40:55,050
if they want to stick with the existing mayor.

1218
01:40:56,130 --> 01:40:59,090
As I mentioned, under the rotational mayor system,

1219
01:40:59,890 --> 01:41:02,470
the mayor has the same voting power as other council members

1220
01:41:02,470 --> 01:41:09,570
They essentially run the city council meetings, they sort of, or tend to represent the city,

1221
01:41:09,570 --> 01:41:13,890
you know, ground breakings and ribbon cuttings, and those types of ceremonial events.

1222
01:41:14,770 --> 01:41:22,390
And as I mentioned, in Palm Springs situation, by council resolution, the position rotates every year.

1223
01:41:23,910 --> 01:41:28,790
A different form of mayor position is the directly elected mayor position.

1224
01:41:28,790 --> 01:41:41,290
Under this system, the voters themselves choose the mayor and an at-large system would provide that all the city voters would select the mayor in this type of system.

1225
01:41:42,510 --> 01:41:48,890
Different cities have a different amount of power that the directly elected mayor can provide.

1226
01:41:48,890 --> 01:41:56,730
In general velocities, there really isn't that much difference between the directly elected mayor and other council members.

1227
01:41:57,250 --> 01:42:09,690
In charter cities like Palm Springs, the charter can provide or the ordinances can provide for additional power of a directly elected mayor, for instance, maybe a veto power or something like that.

1228
01:42:09,690 --> 01:42:16,670
And then the final third form of mayoral system is a strong mayor system under this system.

1229
01:42:16,850 --> 01:42:24,110
The mayor acts as the chief executive officer, so they don't generally have or if they do have a city manager.

1230
01:42:24,430 --> 01:42:29,890
It's more of a city administrator and the mayor takes on the city manager functions.

1231
01:42:30,510 --> 01:42:33,570
This is usually reserved for larger cities in California.

1232
01:42:33,570 --> 01:42:40,650
we only have about five cities that use this model cities of like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco,

1233
01:42:41,050 --> 01:42:42,390
some of the larger cities.

1234
01:42:45,670 --> 01:42:49,650
In terms of what other cities in the Coachella Valley do,

1235
01:42:50,250 --> 01:42:55,710
you'll see that three of the eight Coachella Valley cities have a directly elected mayor. None of

1236
01:42:55,710 --> 01:43:03,570
these cities uses a strong mayor's system of government. The other five use a rotating system similar to

1237
01:43:03,570 --> 01:43:04,610
Palm Springs.

1238
01:43:07,840 --> 01:43:14,180
In terms of California overall, 97% of cities use the city manager system of government

1239
01:43:14,720 --> 01:43:17,800
and only five cities use the strong mayor position.

1240
01:43:21,330 --> 01:43:25,410
So over arching all of this discussion about the mayoral

1241
01:43:25,410 --> 01:43:32,350
issue, we have the California Voting Rights Act. The California Voting Rights Act is a statute

1242
01:43:32,350 --> 01:43:37,390
that was enacted by the California legislature in order to protect minority communities ability

1243
01:43:37,390 --> 01:43:39,550
to elect candidates of their own choice.

1244
01:43:40,130 --> 01:43:42,450
The CVRA prohibits at-large elections

1245
01:43:42,450 --> 01:43:47,310
if those at-large elections weekend or dilute that ability.

1246
01:43:48,130 --> 01:43:51,430
As I mentioned earlier, this is why in Palm Springs,

1247
01:43:51,550 --> 01:43:54,310
in 2018, the City of Palm Springs

1248
01:43:54,310 --> 01:43:55,790
switched to district elections.

1249
01:43:56,450 --> 01:43:57,490
I should point out this point,

1250
01:43:57,490 --> 01:43:58,810
I probably should have done it earlier.

1251
01:43:59,150 --> 01:44:02,470
My colleague Jim Priest, from Best Best and Krieger,

1252
01:44:02,930 --> 01:44:06,210
is available to answer some of the kind of technical election

1253
01:44:06,210 --> 01:44:12,630
law issues, he's an election law expert and actually helped the city in 2018 with the CVRA

1254
01:44:12,630 --> 01:44:13,210
process.

1255
01:44:15,450 --> 01:44:22,390
So why does the CVRA matter? Well, a directly elected at large mayor could be challenged

1256
01:44:22,390 --> 01:44:29,490
under the CVRA because it reintroduces in at large element to the elections. Under the CVRA,

1257
01:44:31,850 --> 01:44:40,350
It's arguable that this out-large election system could dilute the voting power of minorities

1258
01:44:40,350 --> 01:44:44,630
and that could constitute a violation of the CBRA.

1259
01:44:45,830 --> 01:44:50,050
The city entered into a settlement agreement as you heard from some of the speakers in 2018

1260
01:44:50,050 --> 01:44:58,110
and under that settlement agreement the city agreed to move to this district-based election system which we have today.

1261
01:45:00,000 --> 01:45:06,520
In order to move to a different system under the CBRA, the city would need to hire a professional

1262
01:45:06,520 --> 01:45:12,880
demographer to study and evaluate the risk of moving to something other than a purely district-based

1263
01:45:12,880 --> 01:45:20,840
election. If sued and unsuccessful, the financial consequences could be quite severe. I think

1264
01:45:20,840 --> 01:45:25,400
you heard some of the members of the public mention, the cities of Santa Monica.

1265
01:45:29,360 --> 01:45:29,980
There

1266
01:45:29,980 --> 01:45:36,540
day trial resulting in $4.7 million that the city of Palmdale had to pay to the other side.

1267
01:45:37,960 --> 01:45:43,360
In the Santa Monica case, that case is actually still ongoing, but at one point during

1268
01:45:43,360 --> 01:45:48,880
the litigation when they were before the Court of Appeal, the plaintiffs in that case

1269
01:45:48,880 --> 01:45:52,520
had already accrued $20 million in attorney's fees.

1270
01:45:56,840 --> 01:46:02,740
In addition to the CBRA, there's also another somewhat of a twist in that is a case that

1271
01:46:02,740 --> 01:46:09,460
pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. That is the case of Louisiana vs. Cai. In this

1272
01:46:09,460 --> 01:46:15,480
case, the Supreme Court is considering whether the Federal Boating Rights Act violates

1273
01:46:15,480 --> 01:46:22,520
the Federal Constitution specifically Section 14 and 15 of the U.S. Constitution. If this

1274
01:46:22,520 --> 01:46:32,720
case is decided in a way where the court perhaps strikes down or weakens the Federal

1275
01:46:32,720 --> 01:46:39,400
exact which if weekend would actually provide cities more flexibility and would cause the

1276
01:46:39,400 --> 01:46:42,380
CDRA to be less of an issue for cities.

1277
01:46:42,940 --> 01:46:48,920
But until that case is decided and it probably won't be decided until June of this year,

1278
01:46:49,220 --> 01:46:57,580
it remains unclear as to how exactly the CDRA would impact the city's position in any move

1279
01:46:57,580 --> 01:47:02,760
to direct the elected mayor would carry with it legal uncertainty and risk.

1280
01:47:06,160 --> 01:47:10,580
So keeping these things in mind, there are several options, which we would lay out.

1281
01:47:10,820 --> 01:47:16,800
There are obviously many different variations, but we've kind of distilled it down to these four options.

1282
01:47:18,160 --> 01:47:23,640
The first option would be to simply keep the rotational system that the city council has right now.

1283
01:47:24,320 --> 01:47:33,900
This is legally the safest approach because it has been done based on demographic data and has been signed off on by at least one CVRA plaintiff.

1284
01:47:34,180 --> 01:47:40,740
Under this system, the City Council could either keep the current one year rotation or the City Council could extend that,

1285
01:47:40,960 --> 01:47:46,900
or the City Council could eliminate the automatic rotation entirely and just decide on a yearly basis,

1286
01:47:46,900 --> 01:47:52,600
whether to whether and whom to select as the Council Mayor to run the meetings.

1287
01:47:54,300 --> 01:47:59,540
The second option would be to adopt an ordinance similar to what the Council did in 2018.

1288
01:48:01,220 --> 01:48:08,760
Prior to that, the State Legislature authorized city councils to adopt ordinances without going to a vote of the people

1289
01:48:08,760 --> 01:48:14,580
to change the system of government in terms of district or at large mayors.

1290
01:48:14,580 --> 01:48:25,300
However, in order to do this, the City Council would need to make a finding and base that finding on demographic data that the change furthers the CVRA.

1291
01:48:25,960 --> 01:48:34,060
So without this demographic data to support it, this path would carry more legal risk than keeping the rotational system.

1292
01:48:36,390 --> 01:48:40,550
A third option would be for the City Council to put forward a ballot measure.

1293
01:48:40,550 --> 01:48:47,690
This would let the voters decide directly, whether to change the mayoral system of governance.

1294
01:48:48,650 --> 01:48:54,630
This would be legally safer if it's supported by that same kind of demographic data that I just mentioned with the ordinance.

1295
01:48:55,910 --> 01:49:08,370
So to be clear, just putting forward a ballot measure by the City Council without supporting demographic data would at least under current law still present the same potential risks under the CDRA.

1296
01:49:08,370 --> 01:49:13,550
In order for the City Council to pursue this option, the City Council would need to adopt the

1297
01:49:13,550 --> 01:49:17,070
ballot language by August 7th of this year to make the November ballot.

1298
01:49:18,610 --> 01:49:22,850
And then the fourth option is sort of what is being proposed by the current ballot measure

1299
01:49:22,850 --> 01:49:24,970
and that is to let the voters decide directly.

1300
01:49:25,710 --> 01:49:29,210
This would establish an additional council position, the mayor.

1301
01:49:30,490 --> 01:49:37,510
And as I mentioned with regard to options 3 and 2, without demographic data support at this

1302
01:49:37,510 --> 01:49:39,450
carries with it more legal risk.

1303
01:49:43,230 --> 01:49:50,170
With regard to a council ordinance or a council directed ballot measure, one option might

1304
01:49:50,170 --> 01:49:52,190
be to add additional districts.

1305
01:49:53,050 --> 01:49:58,210
The reason for this is at least arguably under the California Voting Rights Act by adding

1306
01:49:59,350 --> 01:50:07,010
a directly elected mayor that delutes the voting power of minorities, perhaps by adding additional

1307
01:50:07,010 --> 01:50:13,950
districts seats on the council, the council could create another one or two majority minority

1308
01:50:13,950 --> 01:50:18,910
districts, and that wouldn't have the deluding effect of adding the directly elected mayor.

1309
01:50:19,450 --> 01:50:25,590
It should be noted that this option would need to be thoroughly vetted from a legal perspective

1310
01:50:25,590 --> 01:50:30,450
and would have to be supported by, again, by demographic data.

1311
01:50:30,950 --> 01:50:35,730
So I don't want to suggest that this is a panacea or that it's automatic, it would take

1312
01:50:35,730 --> 01:50:41,450
would take a bit of research to see if this would actually help. In addition, if the council

1313
01:50:41,450 --> 01:50:47,870
were to adopt an ordinance to add districts under California law, we would have to hold

1314
01:50:47,870 --> 01:50:51,110
multiple public workshops and hearings before the ordinance is adopted.

1315
01:50:54,640 --> 01:50:55,440
So those are some of the

1316
01:50:55,440 --> 01:51:01,740
legal issues. In terms of non legal issues such as costs and outreach, we'd like to talk about

1317
01:51:01,740 --> 01:51:07,280
those items. The council asked us to look at what some of the costs of moving to a different

1318
01:51:07,280 --> 01:51:15,640
system would be. We've checked with the county registrar and the first number actually on

1319
01:51:15,640 --> 01:51:23,000
the ballot initiative number. We received word today that these numbers were updated and

1320
01:51:23,000 --> 01:51:29,680
rather than $33 to $35,000 it would cost approximately $61,000 for just to add the ballot

1321
01:51:29,680 --> 01:51:36,320
initiative. And then if the ballot initiative also included an election of the mayor that would

1322
01:51:36,320 --> 01:51:40,580
and additional $105,000 to add it to the ballot.

1323
01:51:42,800 --> 01:51:49,940
In addition to the election costs, city staff has looked at what it would cost to reconfigure

1324
01:51:49,940 --> 01:51:56,020
some of the city hall offices, and we've estimated that that would be $125 to $150,000.

1325
01:51:56,480 --> 01:52:03,960
There'd be some technology costs of approximately $7,500, and as I mentioned, when the

1326
01:52:03,960 --> 01:52:08,460
Council did the 2018 process, it engaged a

1327
01:52:08,460 --> 01:52:11,800
demarc for as well as legal council and that was

1328
01:52:11,800 --> 01:52:15,020
$100,000 at that time and so it would be

1329
01:52:15,020 --> 01:52:17,640
probably at a minimum that same $100,000.

1330
01:52:18,020 --> 01:52:19,980
Those are the one-time costs.

1331
01:52:21,620 --> 01:52:25,640
On going costs, Council salary is $82,000

1332
01:52:25,640 --> 01:52:29,980
approximately with a salary and additional benefits and so by adding

1333
01:52:30,000 --> 01:52:37,940
One other position that would be an ongoing annual cost to the city. Some cities, when they

1334
01:52:37,940 --> 01:52:43,900
have a directly elected mayor, they add staff to support the mayor. This is not required by law

1335
01:52:43,900 --> 01:52:50,720
or automatic, but if the council followed that process, then staff estimates the cost of a

1336
01:52:50,720 --> 01:52:55,900
legislative analyst would be approximately $146,000 per year with salary and benefits.

1337
01:52:57,560 --> 01:53:03,820
Technology costs would be about $1,500 a year on going in terms of licenses and whatnot.

1338
01:53:04,320 --> 01:53:12,040
There'd probably be other training and contingency fees of approximately $15,000 per year in addition to these.

1339
01:53:13,220 --> 01:53:17,440
And then the big costs really would be if the city were sued under the CVRA.

1340
01:53:17,440 --> 01:53:27,520
If that happened then the city could be facing literally millions of dollars worth of legal fees as we've seen with some of the other cities.

1341
01:53:28,900 --> 01:53:46,240
Should be pointed out, bears noting that no city has won a CVRA case, so under current law, the CVRA is really weighted heavily towards moving to district elections and against at large elections.

1342
01:53:48,570 --> 01:53:53,770
So in addition to the cost, staff asked us to look at the community engagement that might be

1343
01:53:53,770 --> 01:54:02,170
involved as I mentioned in 2018, the City Council directed that a committee be formed.

1344
01:54:02,350 --> 01:54:07,410
And that was done and there were nearly 40 community events in terms of working group meetings,

1345
01:54:07,770 --> 01:54:13,270
community forums, outreach events, neighborhood meetings, and that was done all in both English and Spanish.

1346
01:54:13,270 --> 01:54:18,230
So if the Council were to undertake either an ordinance or a ballot measure, the City Council

1347
01:54:18,230 --> 01:54:24,310
would want to decide whether it wants to consider that type of outreach as it did in 2018.

1348
01:54:28,370 --> 01:54:29,830
That concludes my presentation.

1349
01:54:30,590 --> 01:54:34,810
I'm certainly able to answer any questions as well as staff in terms of any factual information.

1350
01:54:39,620 --> 01:54:40,860
I don't think there's any questions.

1351
01:54:44,220 --> 01:54:52,680
Thank you, thank you, Jeff, for this kind of very thorough laying out of the work that

1352
01:54:52,680 --> 01:55:03,600
has happened in the past in 2018, our considerations for potential examination of informing

1353
01:55:03,600 --> 01:55:08,580
people and the litigation risks, it's very helpful.

1354
01:55:08,580 --> 01:55:19,860
I have a few questions just to kind of confirm the settlement agreements, we had some public

1355
01:55:19,860 --> 01:55:25,520
comments around kind of what was included in the settlement agreement in 2018.

1356
01:55:26,460 --> 01:55:30,760
Can you just share with folks just if people wanted to find out more after reading this

1357
01:55:30,760 --> 01:55:34,280
presentation after today's discussion where they can find that kind of information in history

1358
01:55:34,280 --> 01:55:43,200
and the report of the voting rights, voting rights working group and just consolidation

1359
01:55:43,200 --> 01:55:45,020
of all that 2018 work?

1360
01:55:45,560 --> 01:55:45,660
Yes.

1361
01:55:45,740 --> 01:55:46,500
That's a good question.

1362
01:55:47,100 --> 01:55:53,460
All of those documents are online and city staff is going to be putting together a web page.

1363
01:55:53,940 --> 01:55:58,240
We'll work with the city clerk's office to make sure there's a dedicated web page to include

1364
01:55:58,240 --> 01:56:00,740
all of those historical documents.

1365
01:56:00,740 --> 01:56:10,480
But the settlement agreement as well as the ordinance that was adopted in December of 2018 are all on the city's website

1366
01:56:10,480 --> 01:56:16,820
So if you go there and search you can you can find those if you have any questions. You can certainly email the city clerk or the city attorney's office

1367
01:56:16,820 --> 01:56:18,100
And we can get you those documents

1368
01:56:19,180 --> 01:56:19,680
Great

1369
01:56:21,200 --> 01:56:21,700
And

1370
01:56:23,170 --> 01:56:26,330
If you can put this slide up around

1371
01:56:27,990 --> 01:56:30,960
The second to last one on ongoing costs

1372
01:56:39,190 --> 01:56:44,510
Can you talk a little bit so the one time cost would be cost that we would do for timing

1373
01:56:45,350 --> 01:56:52,530
before November on going costs would be obviously in perpetuity but can you talk a little bit

1374
01:56:52,530 --> 01:57:01,110
about if just the the the part in orange of the lawsuit filed that is but unknown potentially

1375
01:57:01,110 --> 01:57:06,570
for millions of dollars can you share a little bit just about what how much we would incur

1376
01:57:06,570 --> 01:57:11,310
Now, or how long that work might potentially be in terms of when a loss you could happen.

1377
01:57:12,830 --> 01:57:18,390
Are we talking about this as a one year challenge to your challenge, or how long could this potentially be hanging over our heads?

1378
01:57:20,270 --> 01:57:30,590
If we went to trial and involved the Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court as Santa Monica did, it could be easily a decade.

1379
01:57:31,630 --> 01:57:38,190
Santa Monica's case was a multi-week trial, it was about three weeks, and that is probably

1380
01:57:38,190 --> 01:57:48,310
why they spent so much money on both sides, and so it could easily be five years to ten years.

1381
01:57:49,610 --> 01:57:56,070
You know, one of the things that would be unique about this situation is, at least to my

1382
01:57:56,070 --> 01:58:06,490
And my colleague, Mr. Priest knowledge, no city has gone from a fully district-based election system to adding an at large mayor position.

1383
01:58:07,250 --> 01:58:16,530
And so in terms of how the CVRA or potential violation of the CVRA would be determined is kind of unknown.

1384
01:58:16,530 --> 01:58:24,610
And so that uncertainty increases the litigation that is involved in improving and defending

1385
01:58:24,610 --> 01:58:25,730
that type of a lawsuit.

1386
01:58:26,110 --> 01:58:32,270
And so it could be very complex and that complexity kind of breeds costs.

1387
01:58:33,910 --> 01:58:39,110
And the Palmdale, you mentioned Santa Monica was many, many years.

1388
01:58:39,290 --> 01:58:40,270
The Palmdale was that similar.

1389
01:58:41,030 --> 01:58:43,390
Even Palmdale was about an eight-day trial.

1390
01:58:43,390 --> 01:58:48,210
the city of Palmdale lost, and that's why they paid over $4 million dollars.

1391
01:58:48,370 --> 01:58:51,410
The court found that they were required to move to district elections.

1392
01:58:51,810 --> 01:58:55,370
But how long was the process of it going to Supreme Court?

1393
01:58:55,430 --> 01:58:57,010
It was a while ago.

1394
01:58:57,030 --> 01:59:02,630
It was probably two or three years total between the trial court and the court of appeal.

1395
01:59:05,270 --> 01:59:10,530
And then included on here is for the one-time costs.

1396
01:59:10,530 --> 01:59:18,690
There was quite a bit of comments around public engagement and kind of informing and educating the public.

1397
01:59:19,210 --> 01:59:22,890
Is that reflected in these one-time costs if that was something that the city did want to explore?

1398
01:59:23,610 --> 01:59:26,690
Or do you have any sense of what that costs in 2018 when the city did it?

1399
01:59:29,110 --> 01:59:37,750
I don't think that was included in the demographic study so we would have to we could find that out.

1400
01:59:39,250 --> 01:59:44,430
Um, I have a lot more questions in comments, but I want to open up to my colleagues and we'll keep it going.

1401
01:59:45,450 --> 01:59:46,430
That's what we're going to.

1402
01:59:46,430 --> 01:59:50,230
Still kind of go on what Mayor Soto said.

1403
01:59:52,250 --> 01:59:57,130
What would happen if we were in the in litigation? What everything just be at a standstill?

1404
01:59:57,230 --> 01:59:59,970
And we would have this system we have now, let's say.

1405
02:00:00,000 --> 02:00:06,720
We about measures passed, but then we were sued. Would that just mean that we would continue as we are until it was decided?

1406
02:00:08,960 --> 02:00:15,340
I hate to give you a lawyer's answer, but it would kind of depend on what type of remedy they asked for if they asked for kind of a preliminary injunction.

1407
02:00:15,900 --> 02:00:27,220
Then that would stop any changes from occurring. If they didn't ask for that preliminary injunction, then it would switch to whatever system was voted on by the voters.

1408
02:00:27,740 --> 02:00:29,080
Okay, so it just depends.

1409
02:00:29,380 --> 02:00:30,700
I mean, typical.

1410
02:00:31,200 --> 02:00:38,980
Yeah, I mean, for, for instance, you know, in the Santa Monica case, they didn't ask for that preliminary injunction and they've just been continuing to vote.

1411
02:00:40,000 --> 02:00:43,060
There are, there are council members as they have historically.

1412
02:00:43,560 --> 02:00:49,100
Got it. Okay. And then you've mentioned several times the demographic study.

1413
02:00:51,720 --> 02:01:03,700
So would that demographic study be that like about $100,000 and that would be similar to what we did back in 2018 and again in 2020?

1414
02:01:05,120 --> 02:01:09,420
$100,000 was both legal and demographic studies.

1415
02:01:10,940 --> 02:01:16,520
And so I would anticipate it to be similar to if not more than that $100,000.

1416
02:01:16,520 --> 02:01:40,900
Yes. Okay, and I don't have handy with me what what the demographic and legal costs were from from 2020 and this would just be a demographic stage to determine if us making this this type of change would be reasonable under the CVRA or if it would potentially open us up to

1417
02:01:40,900 --> 02:01:48,800
Either maintain a majority minority district or add one and not backslide by adding in that large district.

1418
02:01:49,080 --> 02:01:58,400
Okay, and if we didn't do a demographic study like this, what would we would be, I mean, it's just more risk.

1419
02:01:58,680 --> 02:02:02,460
I think this city would be at risk of a severe loss of yes.

1420
02:02:02,820 --> 02:02:06,660
Okay, but we would not have any evidence to refute it really.

1421
02:02:06,660 --> 02:02:16,860
So we could still be at risk of a severe loss, even if we did a demographic study, but if the demographic study showed that it wasn't an issue, then we would just have more for our case.

1422
02:02:17,740 --> 02:02:17,760
Correct.

1423
02:02:17,900 --> 02:02:19,080
Again, this is all hypothetical.

1424
02:02:22,000 --> 02:02:22,800
Okay, thank you.

1425
02:02:22,920 --> 02:02:23,200
Thank you.

1426
02:02:23,300 --> 02:02:25,140
I think that's really helpful.

1427
02:02:26,680 --> 02:02:28,860
I'm actually going to keep passing it on, I think.

1428
02:02:29,340 --> 02:02:30,380
There's plenty to say.

1429
02:02:31,720 --> 02:02:41,220
I just have some questions, so just to clarify what are the specific roles laid out and

1430
02:02:41,220 --> 02:02:42,740
responsibility of the mayor?

1431
02:02:46,130 --> 02:02:51,610
Under our current rotational system, it really is just to run meetings.

1432
02:02:53,410 --> 02:03:02,710
There is one provision in the Brown Act that technically a mayor can call it a special meeting of the council.

1433
02:03:02,710 --> 02:03:12,630
That's really the only extra legal power that the mayor has either in our system or even in a general law city.

1434
02:03:13,830 --> 02:03:20,230
But other than that, it's really just ceremonial in terms of running the meetings, attending ceremonial events.

1435
02:03:21,670 --> 02:03:28,550
The mayor tends to function more as a spokesperson for the city council, so when their pressing queries are something,

1436
02:03:28,550 --> 02:03:35,930
Often times those get directed to the mayor and we have the mayor speak on behalf of the council, but even that's not necessarily enshrined in law

1437
02:03:35,930 --> 02:03:37,990
It's just kind of more of a practice

1438
02:03:37,990 --> 02:03:46,150
So some of the committees that they're on the finance committee. I see a bag. That's I believe our chartered does

1439
02:03:47,170 --> 02:03:50,010
provide the finance committees is

1440
02:03:50,790 --> 02:03:52,710
Set to be the mayor. Yes

1441
02:03:52,710 --> 02:03:55,730
Okay, and I guess we have some other things. So

1442
02:03:55,730 --> 02:04:07,890
So we've heard that there was, there was some issue to talk about accountability about overseeing long-term projects, but does the mayor oversee any projects?

1443
02:04:09,530 --> 02:04:11,450
Not from a legal perspective, no.

1444
02:04:12,090 --> 02:04:14,670
They just sort of champion or shepherd them.

1445
02:04:15,790 --> 02:04:19,430
So they can, other individual council members can as well.

1446
02:04:19,950 --> 02:04:36,630
So, it's also, there's been discussion about, you know, legislative relationships and I know when we have our Congress person come, they typically meet once a year with the mayor and mayor program, but other legislative trips is really open to anyone on council.

1447
02:04:38,450 --> 02:04:45,290
Yeah, that's not, again, that's also not enshrined in any kind of law or ordinance or resolution of the city, no.

1448
02:04:45,290 --> 02:04:47,630
And I say this, knowing, because Councilman of the Garden

1449
02:04:47,630 --> 02:04:50,710
and I just did a legislative trip, and Councilman of the

1450
02:04:50,710 --> 02:04:54,010
Heart and I are leading the Convention Center,

1451
02:04:54,310 --> 02:04:56,190
that was made right now.

1452
02:04:57,750 --> 02:05:02,490
So it's more of a first among equals, is really what it is.

1453
02:05:03,070 --> 02:05:04,830
And I want to talk just a little bit

1454
02:05:04,830 --> 02:05:09,530
cost, because the citywide election would be every four years.

1455
02:05:10,030 --> 02:05:12,110
That's an additional cost every four years.

1456
02:05:14,260 --> 02:05:16,500
The citywide election would be every four years.

1457
02:05:16,500 --> 02:05:26,520
the ballot initiative would not have, is it common that you have a, you have a election for

1458
02:05:26,520 --> 02:05:30,880
an office that is being determined, there's not, it's determined?

1459
02:05:32,220 --> 02:05:37,680
In speaking with my colleague, Mr. Priest, who's online, he can certainly correct me if I'm wrong.

1460
02:05:37,780 --> 02:05:42,560
I don't think we've seen that before. It may have happened here or there, but we're not familiar

1461
02:05:42,560 --> 02:05:46,440
in terms of the California or anywhere that we've worked.

1462
02:05:48,760 --> 02:05:53,460
So is it possible we could do the if the ballot initiative for legal?

1463
02:05:54,800 --> 02:06:01,900
Could we decide that we don't want to have the election the same time until we determine whether we would have to spend that money?

1464
02:06:03,740 --> 02:06:03,920
Council?

1465
02:06:04,660 --> 02:06:06,980
If I'm understanding your question correctly.

1466
02:06:07,440 --> 02:06:13,000
Could this, for instance, the City Council establish a process that requires them to be separate?

1467
02:06:13,000 --> 02:06:18,900
I believe the council could, this city is a charter city and that gives the city council

1468
02:06:18,900 --> 02:06:26,080
very broad discretion in terms of how council elections are conducted and so I believe so yes.

1469
02:06:26,620 --> 02:06:30,980
Just asking because we could spend the money on a city wide election and the ballot measure

1470
02:06:30,980 --> 02:06:31,580
fails.

1471
02:06:32,200 --> 02:06:33,360
We've already spent that money.

1472
02:06:35,060 --> 02:06:35,200
Okay.

1473
02:06:36,340 --> 02:06:40,620
I know this came up that you mentioned it in the line that we rotate by district.

1474
02:06:40,620 --> 02:06:45,760
But that's what Council decided by five years ago, or 1719, yes.

1475
02:06:46,420 --> 02:06:51,360
And we could change that as a Council to say that without going to the voters just

1476
02:06:51,360 --> 02:06:58,900
saying it's two years or every year we decide or we could decide to have a rest of your

1477
02:06:58,900 --> 02:06:59,480
term.

1478
02:06:59,920 --> 02:06:59,940
Yeah.

1479
02:07:00,960 --> 02:07:03,400
That was adopted by resolutions so that could be changed.

1480
02:07:05,040 --> 02:07:07,920
And I just going back to the slide on what the other city is.

1481
02:07:07,920 --> 02:07:19,720
So most of the other cities, they have the two-year term for the elected.

1482
02:07:19,940 --> 02:07:22,480
It's like two of them have two years as one has four years.

1483
02:07:24,120 --> 02:07:27,400
Under California law, you can set it for either two or four years.

1484
02:07:27,580 --> 02:07:29,980
For charter cities, you could set it for anything but for gender.

1485
02:07:36,820 --> 02:07:42,500
Any other questions?

1486
02:07:55,120 --> 02:07:59,980
How common is it to have an even number of equal voting council members?

1487
02:08:01,540 --> 02:08:06,940
Again, in speaking with my colleague Mr. Priests, I think it's fairly unusual.

1488
02:08:08,260 --> 02:08:15,040
For instance, for general law cities, the government code establishes the numbers as 5, 7, or 9.

1489
02:08:15,380 --> 02:08:20,560
Again, charter cities have more authority, but at least for general law cities, those are the three options.

1490
02:08:22,000 --> 02:08:29,560
And I heard in public comment that in 80 years of the directly elected mayor, we got one mayor of color, is that?

1491
02:08:30,700 --> 02:08:31,600
Do we know if that's verified?

1492
02:08:34,840 --> 02:08:35,340
That's true.

1493
02:08:35,740 --> 02:08:37,320
And we had no women, mayors.

1494
02:08:40,240 --> 02:08:46,920
I have some more questions in comments, but I'm going to pass it on to somebody to heart.

1495
02:08:54,530 --> 02:08:56,870
I'm strangely compelled of this conversation.

1496
02:08:56,870 --> 02:09:02,230
discussion and I think I'm just listening at the moment a yield to council member to heart.

1497
02:09:03,670 --> 02:09:04,090
Thank you.

1498
02:09:04,930 --> 02:09:14,150
So Jeff, we've heard some big numbers and lawsuits with Palmdale and Santa Monica.

1499
02:09:15,890 --> 02:09:19,770
Were those lawsuits because they were electing a mayor at large?

1500
02:09:22,730 --> 02:09:28,930
I know with Santa Monica, it was all at large.

1501
02:09:29,490 --> 02:09:36,190
I don't know about Palmdale, Jim, do you know what Palmdale was before was it all at large?

1502
02:09:37,530 --> 02:09:39,050
Good evening, Mr. Mayor.

1503
02:09:39,530 --> 02:09:41,410
Madam Mayor, member of the Council, Jim Priest.

1504
02:09:43,070 --> 02:09:47,330
Palmdale's I recall was entirely at large prior to the lawsuit,

1505
02:09:48,650 --> 02:09:51,310
and then they transitioned to what they currently are.

1506
02:09:51,310 --> 02:10:03,010
So both of those lawsuits that we're using to talk about these massive lawsuits were for city council, not for mayor.

1507
02:10:03,790 --> 02:10:08,810
So they were disputing city council seats, not a mayor's seat.

1508
02:10:08,810 --> 02:10:22,090
So, the other thing is, you know, you mentioned that no city has won a CBR suit.

1509
02:10:23,850 --> 02:10:37,490
Now, as any city who has, do we know, as any city who has districts and elects their mayor at large, face legal challenges?

1510
02:10:37,490 --> 02:10:38,530
for

1511
02:10:40,700 --> 02:10:42,060
that type of system?

1512
02:10:43,440 --> 02:10:46,100
So for violating CDRA,

1513
02:10:48,320 --> 02:10:51,800
I'm not aware of any that either word,

1514
02:10:52,380 --> 02:10:55,260
I'll call them 4 plus 1 just for the sake of simplicity.

1515
02:10:55,560 --> 02:10:58,480
I'm not aware of any that we're 4 plus 1

1516
02:10:58,480 --> 02:11:02,000
and stayed at 4 plus 1 that we're sued based on that basis.

1517
02:11:02,000 --> 02:11:05,440
I don't know if Mr. Priest is aware of any.

1518
02:11:06,940 --> 02:11:07,160
Here?

1519
02:11:08,060 --> 02:11:08,460
Go ahead.

1520
02:11:08,460 --> 02:11:11,120
Yeah, thank you.

1521
02:11:11,940 --> 02:11:13,880
Was it officially a mayoral position?

1522
02:11:14,060 --> 02:11:17,120
No, but what I can tell you is the city of Downey.

1523
02:11:17,720 --> 02:11:21,560
Just last year had a four plus one structure,

1524
02:11:22,780 --> 02:11:25,700
where there were four geographical districts,

1525
02:11:26,080 --> 02:11:28,400
and then one, what they called a district

1526
02:11:28,400 --> 02:11:31,320
that was actually an at large seat.

1527
02:11:31,380 --> 02:11:34,040
The district was defined as citywide.

1528
02:11:34,040 --> 02:11:41,060
They were threatened with a CBR day demand letter last year, and the council elected to choose

1529
02:11:41,060 --> 02:11:45,120
rather than defend any litigation on that.

1530
02:11:45,520 --> 02:11:50,660
And now they are in a pure five district setup that will be implemented in the coming elections.

1531
02:11:53,370 --> 02:11:53,610
All right.

1532
02:11:53,750 --> 02:11:54,430
Thank you for that.

1533
02:11:55,050 --> 02:11:56,390
And how is Santa Cruz?

1534
02:11:56,470 --> 02:12:01,610
Do we know how Santa Cruz is set up because we're hearing that there's no other city

1535
02:12:01,610 --> 02:12:04,610
is like what's being proposed.

1536
02:12:07,730 --> 02:12:10,130
I don't know how Santa Monica is.

1537
02:12:11,270 --> 02:12:12,510
Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Santa Cruz.

1538
02:12:12,670 --> 02:12:13,790
I don't know how that is set up.

1539
02:12:13,910 --> 02:12:20,930
I can we can certainly look at it and I think there's noting,

1540
02:12:21,110 --> 02:12:23,450
it's not so much how it's set up.

1541
02:12:23,770 --> 02:12:28,030
It's the fact that we are changing from purely district

1542
02:12:28,030 --> 02:12:28,910
to out large.

1543
02:12:28,910 --> 02:12:34,230
In other words, as I believe my staff report indicated, there are some cities, for instance,

1544
02:12:34,490 --> 02:12:41,010
Fontana, that had four at large positions and one directly elected mayor position.

1545
02:12:41,750 --> 02:12:50,770
They were threatened by Mr. Shankman in 2017 or so, and they moved to a four plus one.

1546
02:12:50,830 --> 02:12:58,410
So it moved to district plus and at large mayor with the kind of blessing of Mr. Shankman

1547
02:12:58,410 --> 02:13:06,370
his client, but it was also going from purely at large to district plus at large. Here we're

1548
02:13:06,370 --> 02:13:14,170
going from district back to partially at large. So that's where the element of risk is comes about.

1549
02:13:15,630 --> 02:13:21,310
Yeah, I think it would be helpful for us to look at Santa Cruz because it would be nice to see

1550
02:13:22,410 --> 02:13:25,410
how that structure has survived.

1551
02:13:29,100 --> 02:13:36,540
A follow-up question around the, just to make sure we're clarifying this as clear as possible for the community.

1552
02:13:36,960 --> 02:13:44,360
So there are some cities that have four, one, right, that haven't faced legal scrutiny.

1553
02:13:45,520 --> 02:13:51,940
But do we, you know, in a venue that have gone from five districts back to an out large,

1554
02:13:53,100 --> 02:14:03,080
and has any other city that has kind of gone in the direction of kind of moving away from

1555
02:14:03,080 --> 02:14:07,580
large silver turning. Is that a process that you're seeing in any other cities?

1556
02:14:08,420 --> 02:14:14,240
We haven't seen any go from fully district to an out large mayor.

1557
02:14:14,680 --> 02:14:16,480
And that it's a four one or a five one.

1558
02:14:16,980 --> 02:14:17,780
Correct. Okay.

1559
02:14:19,700 --> 02:14:27,740
just on that. So we have five districts we have a minority majority district and so what

1560
02:14:27,740 --> 02:14:33,760
would be the issue say what we're just adding another at large we still have our minority

1561
02:14:33,760 --> 02:14:34,600
representation.

1562
02:14:37,260 --> 02:14:39,120
Jim would you like to address that?

1563
02:14:42,960 --> 02:14:44,420
I'm so sorry could you repeat the

1564
02:14:44,420 --> 02:14:48,920
question to help remember? So we have five districts right now with one of them being

1565
02:14:48,920 --> 02:14:55,540
an already majority district, so we have addressed the issue of not having a voter delusion.

1566
02:14:56,340 --> 02:14:59,680
So what would be the issue for just adding a mayor without changing those five?

1567
02:15:00,140 --> 02:15:26,280
Any of those five? Thank you, Council Member. The concern of it would be that if adding a mayor results in vote dilution as defined in the CBRA, that could be a violation of the demographic question is whether in fact it would, that adding that at large element would result in vote dilution.

1568
02:15:26,280 --> 02:15:29,820
It would be a demographic, a factual question in any such litigation.

1569
02:15:32,260 --> 02:15:41,420
The immediate concern may be that the district one representative becomes one vote of six as opposed to one vote of five.

1570
02:15:41,540 --> 02:15:43,440
Is that enough to prove dilution?

1571
02:15:44,140 --> 02:15:46,480
That's an undefined area of the law.

1572
02:15:46,700 --> 02:15:48,400
We can see no court ruling on that yet.

1573
02:15:48,740 --> 02:15:51,660
But it is a potential argument as a potential risk.

1574
02:15:54,510 --> 02:16:01,230
And so along those lines, you would need, I think we heard in public comments.

1575
02:16:01,410 --> 02:16:14,030
So if we have six votes and you could have a stalemate, why, I mean, there's been arguments

1576
02:16:14,030 --> 02:16:16,910
against having a four to a super majority required,

1577
02:16:19,150 --> 02:16:23,030
is that something that would be seen

1578
02:16:23,030 --> 02:16:27,910
is motor dilution or just a difficult situation with the stalemate.

1579
02:16:29,150 --> 02:16:33,890
Well, well, the stalemate could possibly be evidence of voter dilution.

1580
02:16:34,230 --> 02:16:36,090
That would be subject to proof and court.

1581
02:16:36,230 --> 02:16:39,130
And again, that's why we would have to retain a demographic

1582
02:16:39,130 --> 02:16:42,870
if we were in litigation to provide proof to the contrary

1583
02:16:42,870 --> 02:16:46,050
that in fact it does not reopen voter dilution.

1584
02:16:46,550 --> 02:16:50,370
And then it is a valid added mayoral office.

1585
02:16:50,370 --> 02:16:55,430
But again, that would be subject to proof and court requiring demographic analysis, which

1586
02:16:55,430 --> 02:17:01,290
was a large part of the trial that Santa Monica was doing, was having demographic

1587
02:17:01,290 --> 02:17:03,550
experts in looking at the demographic analysis.

1588
02:17:03,710 --> 02:17:08,130
So we would need to do that to demonstrate that adding a mayor doesn't dilute votes.

1589
02:17:09,050 --> 02:17:09,250
Okay.

1590
02:17:09,690 --> 02:17:11,590
Another question for now.

1591
02:17:11,870 --> 02:17:12,290
May I present?

1592
02:17:12,850 --> 02:17:14,130
I do have a question.

1593
02:17:14,490 --> 02:17:16,990
I just trying to think conceptually through this process.

1594
02:17:16,990 --> 02:17:18,730
So right now, obviously, there's nothing

1595
02:17:18,730 --> 02:17:20,610
before the council to act upon.

1596
02:17:20,950 --> 02:17:22,770
You do have a ballot language that was submitted.

1597
02:17:23,070 --> 02:17:26,350
So obviously, that process is a parallel process.

1598
02:17:29,050 --> 02:17:31,350
My sense is that at the moment, we're sort of like

1599
02:17:31,350 --> 02:17:32,910
bystanders, the council.

1600
02:17:34,050 --> 02:17:38,870
Explain if this process goes forward, and it passes.

1601
02:17:40,710 --> 02:17:42,730
What's our role between now and then?

1602
02:17:42,750 --> 02:17:45,850
What happens after that in terms of the legal issues

1603
02:17:45,850 --> 02:17:47,150
you're raising?

1604
02:17:49,250 --> 02:17:57,470
Well, if it goes forward in it passes, I think there's a potential that somebody would

1605
02:17:57,470 --> 02:18:07,110
challenge the new system, either the CVRA or some other legal theory perhaps as they

1606
02:18:07,110 --> 02:18:12,310
did Santa Monica, and then the city would not be a by-stander, then the city would be defending

1607
02:18:13,110 --> 02:18:14,450
the system that was put in place.

1608
02:18:14,450 --> 02:18:18,970
And that would occur post the election not prior, or could it occur prior?

1609
02:18:19,270 --> 02:18:24,730
I don't, I think it would be unlikely that a CVRA lawsuit would occur before hand.

1610
02:18:24,830 --> 02:18:32,630
I guess it's not inconceivable, but if it were going to occur, I would very likely occur

1611
02:18:32,630 --> 02:18:33,450
afterwards.

1612
02:18:42,440 --> 02:18:43,180
Thank you.

1613
02:18:43,380 --> 02:18:43,460
Thank

1614
02:18:51,270 --> 02:18:52,390
you.

1615
02:18:52,390 --> 02:18:55,250
You share,

1616
02:18:58,090 --> 02:19:05,530
there was kind of going back to some of the public comments around public engagement

1617
02:19:05,990 --> 02:19:11,110
and education, around the Voting Rights Act and what the city has done.

1618
02:19:11,850 --> 02:19:23,970
Does that have to be dependent on if it goes to the ballot or can you just share if that

1619
02:19:23,970 --> 02:19:32,290
has to be the potential timing options to do that work and where what value that could

1620
02:19:32,290 --> 02:19:40,550
be done in terms of doing it now versus doing that in the fall versus once we see what

1621
02:19:40,550 --> 02:19:53,950
happens as Mayor Pro Tem already said it kind of reacting after the fact. Do you have any

1622
02:19:53,950 --> 02:19:58,710
public engagement would be legally required as the staff were indicated if the City Council

1623
02:19:58,710 --> 02:20:06,290
were to adopt an ordinance of its own, similar to what it did in 2018 in order to either

1624
02:20:06,290 --> 02:20:12,510
just create a directly elected mayor position, or to do that and add districts, then the

1625
02:20:12,510 --> 02:20:18,250
state law does require under the Fair Maps Act that the City Council hold public hearings

1626
02:20:18,250 --> 02:20:21,490
and public workshops and reach out to minority communities.

1627
02:20:21,490 --> 02:20:24,670
That's legally required for that ordinance to be adopted.

1628
02:20:26,850 --> 02:20:30,510
It absent that type of ordinance being adopted by the City Council.

1629
02:20:31,230 --> 02:20:36,170
The public engagement is really more optional in terms of whether the City Council wishes

1630
02:20:36,170 --> 02:20:39,870
to engage in that public education process.

1631
02:20:40,630 --> 02:20:46,590
So it really be up to the council to decide whether and when to provide that type of education

1632
02:20:46,590 --> 02:20:47,330
to the public.

1633
02:20:50,150 --> 02:20:52,010
That's what we're going to.

1634
02:20:52,090 --> 02:20:53,330
Thank you.

1635
02:20:53,830 --> 02:21:00,870
Yeah, we went through as we heard from the community a very robust public engagement process

1636
02:21:00,870 --> 02:21:02,730
when we moved to districts.

1637
02:21:03,650 --> 02:21:08,810
And I know that there was, you know, comment made that this isn't easier decision.

1638
02:21:10,330 --> 02:21:13,210
But I don't think that's the case.

1639
02:21:14,430 --> 02:21:21,450
We have seen people become mayor that, for instance, we've had women be our mayor now

1640
02:21:21,450 --> 02:21:28,750
that we didn't have before, people of color and I think that's been really amazing.

1641
02:21:28,910 --> 02:21:34,650
But the other thing about it is that each district has had this opportunity to be represented

1642
02:21:35,370 --> 02:21:38,250
and to be highlighted.

1643
02:21:38,250 --> 02:21:47,630
And I think that we have seen a correlation of improved engagement with minority communities

1644
02:21:47,630 --> 02:21:58,290
and the city since we transitioned to this system and I really anxious for us to get

1645
02:21:58,290 --> 02:22:08,230
out that landing page because when you look back on our ordinance that was passed by the

1646
02:22:08,230 --> 02:22:16,270
is really listed here. And that was a really important part of why the council felt that

1647
02:22:16,270 --> 02:22:24,370
it was important to move to district elections because of vote dilution in our past elections

1648
02:22:24,370 --> 02:22:29,950
and just the history of systemic racism that didn't just play Palm Springs with.

1649
02:22:30,000 --> 02:22:44,400
So doing something that was really going to allow for these groups to have further engagement. And we see that now on our commissions, our commissions are vastly more diverse than they were when I started.

1650
02:22:46,840 --> 02:22:56,940
And the ability for us to highlight different groups of people is also because we have this rotation.

1651
02:22:57,600 --> 02:23:17,380
So it's not really just a matter of whether or not other cities do this or not, it's what works best for our city and what are the historical issues that we're looking at when we're deciding on if we want to make a change or not.

1652
02:23:19,060 --> 02:23:29,820
And I know that one of the things that I also also on the severe working group, one of the things that we learned was that there was the greatest voter dilution when it came to the election of the mayor.

1653
02:23:30,920 --> 02:23:44,840
So moving back to a directly elected mayor could potentially have that voter dilution that we were working to prevent by moving to this other system.

1654
02:23:47,750 --> 02:24:09,870
So, I think that what I'm with my mobile larger point here is that there's a lot to discuss and I think just by seeing how careful we're all being and asking these different questions is because there's so much more to it than just do we want to directly elected mayor or not.

1655
02:24:09,870 --> 02:24:14,210
It's how are the power structures going to shift in our community,

1656
02:24:14,950 --> 02:24:18,570
who then has an opportunity to be the mayor?

1657
02:24:19,970 --> 02:24:25,530
I know personally this directly elected for your position for mayor

1658
02:24:25,530 --> 02:24:28,930
would limit working people from being mayor

1659
02:24:28,930 --> 02:24:33,150
because it is a big commitment when you're mayor.

1660
02:24:33,290 --> 02:24:36,630
And I think we have all made sacrifices for one year,

1661
02:24:36,630 --> 02:24:46,290
But making that's those types of sacrifices for four years, and that's a whole other conversation with your workplace, and I don't, and that's extremely privileged.

1662
02:24:47,090 --> 02:24:54,670
And I don't know that a lot of people would be able to do that for four years, and I know certainly I would not be able to.

1663
02:24:54,670 --> 02:24:59,790
And so those are those types of concerns that I have when we're talking about directly

1664
02:24:59,790 --> 02:25:06,930
electing a mayor is who is able to have this seat and who is not.

1665
02:25:08,030 --> 02:25:16,970
And by extension, what are we saying to our community, are we just telling them you don't

1666
02:25:16,970 --> 02:25:22,610
deserve a leadership position. Your voice is not as important.

1667
02:25:26,070 --> 02:25:26,910
I think that there's a

1668
02:25:26,910 --> 02:25:31,670
lot more discussion that we have to have with our community. And I would hope that we

1669
02:25:31,670 --> 02:25:39,510
can do that instead of just having a ballot measure. Because I think only having a ballot

1670
02:25:39,510 --> 02:25:43,630
measure doesn't allow for that really critical conversation.

1671
02:25:51,180 --> 02:26:12,300
Thank you. Yes. I have a question for the attorney. We had a comment in public comment about the CBRA, specifically not allowing combined at large and district. Is that accurate and how would that apply to us?

1672
02:26:12,300 --> 02:26:13,360
because that's what we're doing.

1673
02:26:13,640 --> 02:26:14,940
That our settlement agreement.

1674
02:26:15,480 --> 02:26:18,480
We're going to see where the CBRA can you clarify maybe?

1675
02:26:19,600 --> 02:26:28,840
So, you know, let Jim interrupt me and correct me if I'm on because he's dealt with us a lot more in a lot more cities.

1676
02:26:29,080 --> 02:26:39,240
And I have the CBRA says that you can move to a district plus out large as long as there's no vote delusion.

1677
02:26:39,240 --> 02:26:43,320
And so that's what a number of cities did that were purely out large.

1678
02:26:44,980 --> 02:26:49,520
So in the late 2010s, cities who were purely out large

1679
02:26:49,520 --> 02:26:53,740
or maybe had out large plus mayor moved to district plus mayor.

1680
02:26:53,880 --> 02:27:00,320
So as long as there's not vote delusion by going to that district plus out large,

1681
02:27:00,760 --> 02:27:02,400
then the CDRA is not violated.

1682
02:27:02,400 --> 02:27:09,940
Here, we're going though from just purely district-based to district-plus large and so we're

1683
02:27:09,940 --> 02:27:15,600
kind of backsliding from the perspective of the CBRA, at least in terms of potential vote

1684
02:27:15,600 --> 02:27:16,060
dilution.

1685
02:27:16,440 --> 02:27:20,640
And we had already said that we had racially polarized voting from Mayor.

1686
02:27:21,320 --> 02:27:31,740
I looked back at the 2018 ordinance and the language said that there was probably vote

1687
02:27:31,740 --> 02:27:35,220
possibly vote delusion, and probably vote delusion.

1688
02:27:35,520 --> 02:27:37,540
So there hasn't been a court determination

1689
02:27:37,540 --> 02:27:41,400
that there was vote delusion, but the legislative recitals

1690
02:27:41,400 --> 02:27:44,300
to that ordinance from 2018 said

1691
02:27:44,300 --> 02:27:47,920
that there was probably vote delusion in the city's past.

1692
02:27:49,300 --> 02:27:51,120
And I just, you know, I want to address some,

1693
02:27:51,260 --> 02:27:52,220
there's a better pro-temination

1694
02:27:52,220 --> 02:27:54,620
that we can, our role is really just to sit back

1695
02:27:54,620 --> 02:27:56,620
and see what happens with the ballot measure.

1696
02:27:56,620 --> 02:28:07,260
But I disagree with that with respect and mainly because, you know, a lot of people have said they like the idea of electing mayor.

1697
02:28:07,380 --> 02:28:09,860
I mean, it comes from the hardest and very vocal about it.

1698
02:28:10,300 --> 02:28:18,540
And so, you know, but we haven't ever engaged the public to actually hear how our system has been working since we started it in 2019.

1699
02:28:19,740 --> 02:28:22,940
We heard a lot from tonight that people said it's working great.

1700
02:28:22,940 --> 02:28:29,740
But, you know, these are a few dozen people, and we haven't really gone out to 400 plus people or whatever.

1701
02:28:30,480 --> 02:28:31,140
It did last time.

1702
02:28:32,160 --> 02:28:39,140
And, you know, this is, again, we have a lot of rotating mayors in our rotating council members and mayors in our valley.

1703
02:28:40,220 --> 02:28:44,160
And, you know, and some people have said, you know, that's confusing.

1704
02:28:45,460 --> 02:28:51,420
Some people have heard council members in other cities that said they didn't particularly want to be mayor,

1705
02:28:51,420 --> 02:28:53,360
and we're sort of rotated in it.

1706
02:28:53,840 --> 02:28:56,960
And other people who really embraced it, you know,

1707
02:28:57,420 --> 02:28:58,600
and I mean, I like being better.

1708
02:28:59,500 --> 02:29:02,180
But you know, as we've seen is we've had representation.

1709
02:29:02,720 --> 02:29:06,660
And that's, I don't think that, you know,

1710
02:29:06,720 --> 02:29:09,380
it's a little bit more than hearing all the different voices

1711
02:29:09,380 --> 02:29:11,700
is what our brand as a city means.

1712
02:29:12,080 --> 02:29:17,120
And the fact that we currently have three Latino people on council,

1713
02:29:17,920 --> 02:29:24,420
that, you know, we had not had a person of color, other than one person in 80 years.

1714
02:29:24,560 --> 02:29:25,120
We had no women.

1715
02:29:25,460 --> 02:29:30,860
I think it matters to our brand of what we are as a progressive and inclusive city.

1716
02:29:32,260 --> 02:29:38,520
So, but I think, you know, again, people like this idea of a directly elected mayor.

1717
02:29:38,820 --> 02:29:44,160
And while it has no more responsibility, they like the idea that they have voted for that person.

1718
02:29:44,160 --> 02:29:54,780
So I do think, and there is valid reasons for saying I voted for the mayor, or I had the option to vote.

1719
02:29:55,760 --> 02:29:59,960
And so we talk about public engagement really if...

1720
02:30:00,000 --> 02:30:11,780
This is something that is key. And we have one option that's on the ballot right now, which may be the option that everybody wants, but we have seen and heard tonight, it's not the only option.

1721
02:30:12,500 --> 02:30:20,720
It specifically says we have a four-year mayor that starts this year and there's not an option to have a two-year mayor in there.

1722
02:30:21,380 --> 02:30:28,160
It's specifically says it's a six council member. There's not the option potentially add other districts, which we saw as an option.

1723
02:30:28,160 --> 02:30:35,980
It doesn't mention the option of having a of of going to a 4 plus 1.

1724
02:30:36,500 --> 02:30:42,740
So there are options that we can do when I think to the extent that it's legally possible.

1725
02:30:43,820 --> 02:30:48,500
We should look at whether there are other options and understand what the issue

1726
02:30:48,500 --> 02:30:52,460
and likelihood would be of a lawsuit that comes from it.

1727
02:30:53,140 --> 02:30:56,040
And I know we've had people talk about not having lots of consultants

1728
02:30:56,040 --> 02:31:01,640
and lots of public engagement but that is what our city is good at and we are a better city

1729
02:31:01,640 --> 02:31:06,660
because of the public engagement that we have done over the years and sometimes people don't

1730
02:31:06,660 --> 02:31:13,040
like it and sometimes it makes our council meetings very long but I think if you look back

1731
02:31:13,040 --> 02:31:18,960
at the decisions that we have made as a city that have had a lot of public engagement they have

1732
02:31:18,960 --> 02:31:25,860
almost always been better and I don't think that we should discount that and our role

1733
02:31:25,860 --> 02:31:36,840
as a city is not just to sit back and see what happens, but is to engage our public and to ensure that everybody has a voice and a say and I realize that with a ballot measure

1734
02:31:36,840 --> 02:31:55,840
people think that gives everybody a vote yes or no, but it gives a vote yes or no on one option and again that may be the best option and people may love it, but that has done

1735
02:31:56,340 --> 02:32:06,880
We also have an issue just by the way when we go to 2030, we're going to have to look at districts again anyway when we have our new census, but to me, it seems like we need more public engagement.

1736
02:32:07,060 --> 02:32:25,400
This is our first discussion on it. We've already heard a lot from the public on it. We heard a lot about potential of lawsuits. I think the public should be aware if this is something that's likely or maybe the cities that we've seen have had lawsuits is not related to us at all.

1737
02:32:25,400 --> 02:32:36,860
But this is something that the public should be able to make valid decisions on when they are voting or if they want to put another option on it and Council may have the option to do that.

1738
02:32:40,740 --> 02:32:47,920
So, you know, I have some more comments, but I'm thinking that, you know, that we have seen that this is not an easy answer.

1739
02:32:48,380 --> 02:32:55,380
And you know, we have seen that we should be playing an active role because clearly there are some residents who like this idea.

1740
02:32:55,380 --> 02:33:03,200
there's a lot of people who have raised very good, you know, very strong issues about what this does to

1741
02:33:03,200 --> 02:33:11,460
to representation and what it does for legal liability issues, but we have not given the public any

1742
02:33:11,460 --> 02:33:18,280
option to actually really engage and ask questions and talk to staff and city and each other about this

1743
02:33:18,280 --> 02:33:20,340
in public meetings.

1744
02:33:21,320 --> 02:33:24,540
So I just want to address what Mayor Pau-Tamis had said.

1745
02:33:24,880 --> 02:33:28,820
I think that is what our role is to see how we get that public engagement.

1746
02:33:30,460 --> 02:33:33,260
I have a couple of other comments, but I'm rambling now, so I will defer.

1747
02:33:37,720 --> 02:33:38,380
Councillor interjecting.

1748
02:33:39,480 --> 02:33:47,640
We, all of this has been, you know, the public comment tonight, it has been, you know, excellent

1749
02:33:47,640 --> 02:33:54,480
opportunity to share dialogue and hear perspectives.

1750
02:33:56,140 --> 02:33:59,680
And this is the conversation that has been happening in the community.

1751
02:34:00,440 --> 02:34:04,520
We've had these conversations, many conversations like this.

1752
02:34:04,940 --> 02:34:07,100
So I think this conversation is going to continue.

1753
02:34:07,960 --> 02:34:13,700
And I appreciate everything that my colleagues have brought forward tonight, because this

1754
02:34:13,700 --> 02:34:21,860
is an excellent conversation to continue to happen and go forward and with any initiative.

1755
02:34:22,900 --> 02:34:29,560
It's driven by the public, it's driven by the people and the people will decide and they've

1756
02:34:29,560 --> 02:34:40,340
been pretty loud up to this point what they want to see and my role has been standing up

1757
02:34:40,340 --> 02:34:44,700
or what the public has been telling me for a year plus.

1758
02:34:48,140 --> 02:34:52,560
I'm not supporting the effort because Ronda Hart is the

1759
02:34:52,560 --> 02:34:56,680
soul individual out there that has an ego bigger than the sky

1760
02:34:56,680 --> 02:35:01,620
that wants to have this measure or that Ronda Hart wants to run

1761
02:35:01,620 --> 02:35:02,500
for mayor.

1762
02:35:03,300 --> 02:35:05,360
I'm not running for mayor.

1763
02:35:06,020 --> 02:35:08,460
That is not what this is about.

1764
02:35:10,500 --> 02:35:16,460
This is about people in the community for a year and four months of

1765
02:35:16,460 --> 02:35:20,780
break raise this conversation about being able to elect their mayor.

1766
02:35:23,600 --> 02:35:29,660
I'm bringing the conversation forward and it's coming forward in the form of an initiative.

1767
02:35:29,660 --> 02:35:34,640
of it. And we're going to see a lot of conversation continue to happen from this point on.

1768
02:35:35,360 --> 02:35:44,780
And I think that will help derive the outcome of what happens at the ballot box. The

1769
02:35:44,780 --> 02:35:49,540
community is going to learn. We're going to educate folks are going to have conversations.

1770
02:35:50,120 --> 02:35:55,340
There's going to be neighborhood meetings and friends' houses and these conversations

1771
02:35:55,340 --> 02:36:02,940
are going to take place. And then the decision will be made, how people truly feel about it.

1772
02:36:03,580 --> 02:36:10,620
I appreciate the the opportunity that we have to be able to hear all the sides and

1773
02:36:10,620 --> 02:36:20,520
and I just caution the fear about lawsuits. The CVRA suits that we're talking about these

1774
02:36:20,520 --> 02:36:22,480
multi-million dollar settlements.

1775
02:36:23,660 --> 02:36:26,900
There are suits over city council seats.

1776
02:36:28,520 --> 02:36:38,440
We don't have suits over, we don't have suits for an at-large elected mayor.

1777
02:36:39,160 --> 02:36:45,240
We have suits over dispute over city council seats and city council representation and

1778
02:36:45,240 --> 02:36:53,720
and bringing districts to the avoids to districts and throughout the city, and that's

1779
02:36:53,720 --> 02:36:59,180
happened up and down the state, and it's not just one city, it's not just two cities.

1780
02:36:59,940 --> 02:37:08,560
It's a lot of cities have the districts in place and a city wide mayor.

1781
02:37:08,560 --> 02:37:21,760
So the fear of legal shutdown is I think maybe a scare tactic that hasn't proven out throughout

1782
02:37:21,760 --> 02:37:23,960
the city, I mean throughout the state.

1783
02:37:25,280 --> 02:37:29,960
So I appreciate the conversation and look forward to ongoing conversation.

1784
02:37:31,900 --> 02:37:32,780
I

1785
02:37:36,400 --> 02:37:49,660
have some two. If we could go to the slide that said, path 1, keep rotational, and path 2, council ordinance.

1786
02:37:49,660 --> 02:37:52,200
So we have a couple of questions on that.

1787
02:37:56,620 --> 02:38:02,480
So you call it path one, keep rotational and right now our rotation is that we changed

1788
02:38:02,480 --> 02:38:04,340
every year by district number.

1789
02:38:05,720 --> 02:38:11,500
But the foundation of that is that the mayor is one of the five council members, right?

1790
02:38:14,480 --> 02:38:19,140
Is that more important than the rotation or is it the rotation?

1791
02:38:19,140 --> 02:38:31,240
And if we were to change the selection of the mayor within the five, would that still be

1792
02:38:31,240 --> 02:38:36,800
a legally safe approach that is based off of the demographic data and sign off by at least

1793
02:38:36,800 --> 02:38:38,560
one CBRA plaintiff?

1794
02:38:39,180 --> 02:38:42,020
Yes, it would still be the legally safe approach.

1795
02:38:42,560 --> 02:38:48,740
I think a CBRA or other type of legal challenge to simply changing the method of rotation

1796
02:38:48,740 --> 02:38:52,800
and the time period, I think those types of challenges

1797
02:38:52,800 --> 02:38:55,660
would have a hard time succeeding.

1798
02:38:59,450 --> 02:39:03,210
So I would recommend maybe like if we're going to be talking

1799
02:39:03,210 --> 02:39:04,470
about this again.

1800
02:39:05,690 --> 02:39:07,970
Maybe change the name of this path one to instead

1801
02:39:07,970 --> 02:39:10,410
of saying keeping rotational or saying something

1802
02:39:10,410 --> 02:39:12,670
about selection within five.

1803
02:39:14,610 --> 02:39:17,830
Because I think within this path one and some of the comments

1804
02:39:17,830 --> 02:39:19,510
have come up, there's a lot of different ways

1805
02:39:19,510 --> 02:39:26,730
to do this, possibly extending the year term, possibly if we want to have terms within that

1806
02:39:26,730 --> 02:39:34,090
or there could be continuity within the mayor if the council chooses the mayor to represent

1807
02:39:34,090 --> 02:39:40,910
the city, let's say it's a two-year term, there could be, and that's re-appointed another

1808
02:39:40,910 --> 02:39:45,490
two years that could meet possibly the goals of some of the continuity concerns that community

1809
02:39:45,490 --> 02:39:50,630
members said, so I'm just wondering if we might want to just re-examine some of these paths

1810
02:39:51,110 --> 02:39:56,410
because it sounds more narrow than I think what is possibly, what is possible within

1811
02:39:56,410 --> 02:39:58,010
path 1. So that'd be one recommendation.

1812
02:40:00,170 --> 02:40:02,550
Because I do think there's a positive, I'm very

1813
02:40:02,550 --> 02:40:07,690
curious as to the interest of if that's something that the community would be interested in exploring

1814
02:40:07,690 --> 02:40:08,010
more,

1815
02:40:11,050 --> 02:40:17,070
around, before we get too much into new ones, I just want to say like a big thank you

1816
02:40:17,070 --> 02:40:20,030
to everyone who came out and provided public comments.

1817
02:40:21,970 --> 02:40:27,190
The fact that we have so much engagement, so many of it in public comments, it just

1818
02:40:27,190 --> 02:40:33,440
is a reflection that residents really care about our city, there's a lot of ideas, a lot

1819
02:40:33,440 --> 02:40:39,920
energy around what how our local government should operate, cities would love to have this

1820
02:40:39,920 --> 02:40:45,440
level of community engagement and we are blessed with an abundance of community engagement

1821
02:40:45,440 --> 02:40:49,600
and its responsibility to listen to it and to respond to it and to engage in dialogue.

1822
02:40:50,340 --> 02:40:52,940
And so I'm grateful that that's our starting point.

1823
02:40:54,940 --> 02:41:00,880
But it is true as the public comments reflected in Palm Springs specifically, right?

1824
02:41:00,880 --> 02:41:06,940
not what's happening in other cities, but in Palm Springs, city-wide elections did not

1825
02:41:06,940 --> 02:41:13,520
and do not result in diverse leadership. And this was especially true for the role of the mayor.

1826
02:41:14,280 --> 02:41:21,400
And so, if all of these discussions in 2018 about the various structures, how can we make sure that

1827
02:41:22,620 --> 02:41:31,600
There's a really protected voting rights act, and based off of all of that feedback is our

1828
02:41:31,600 --> 02:41:38,420
current set up, I think that's something that we should, that should really drive what

1829
02:41:38,420 --> 02:41:44,760
we're doing, drive our understanding of how we're in compliance with the CVRA and the

1830
02:41:44,760 --> 02:41:51,120
settlement agreement that the previous council spent a lot of time making sure would reflect

1831
02:41:51,120 --> 02:41:51,920
the city.

1832
02:41:54,860 --> 02:41:58,580
Diversity is part of our Palm Springs moral values. I think we should be proud

1833
02:41:58,580 --> 02:42:03,300
of that diversity and that it's been represented since 2018 based off of those decisions

1834
02:42:03,300 --> 02:42:10,400
of that previous council. And as my colleagues have said that the current rotation has reflected

1835
02:42:10,400 --> 02:42:17,060
in leadership from across the city. And so I think part of that community engagement that we

1836
02:42:17,060 --> 02:42:20,380
should be doing moving forward is really looking at what does,

1837
02:42:20,380 --> 02:42:26,380
how do we maintain those values and power that values,

1838
02:42:26,580 --> 02:42:32,000
so it's reflected in how our body votes or we interested

1839
02:42:32,000 --> 02:42:36,400
in going back to a time where women were not ever given a chance

1840
02:42:36,400 --> 02:42:39,080
to be mayor and people of color very rarely.

1841
02:42:40,260 --> 02:42:41,800
So there's a multitude of considerations.

1842
02:42:42,320 --> 02:42:45,140
And I think, again, deep gratitude to all the public

1843
02:42:45,140 --> 02:42:51,920
comments that were shared for me, some of the things that I'm most interested in having an

1844
02:42:51,920 --> 02:42:56,540
opportunity to talk to the public more about is the role and importance of the community

1845
02:42:56,540 --> 02:43:00,760
education that was done in 2018. Maybe we need to do this every 10 years. I don't know.

1846
02:43:01,400 --> 02:43:07,520
But there might be a need for that and maybe that landing page could help be kind of foundational

1847
02:43:07,520 --> 02:43:16,320
to that. And I think it is the responsibility of council of the city city council to think

1848
02:43:16,320 --> 02:43:21,660
about the legalities. So think about the nuance of how we make sure we reduce our risk

1849
02:43:21,660 --> 02:43:31,820
as much as possible. Those technicalities matter. And those technicalities can put us dismissing

1850
02:43:31,820 --> 02:43:36,640
or not considering them fully and not doing our full due diligence puts us at grave risk possibly.

1851
02:43:37,520 --> 02:43:40,120
And so I don't think it's a scare tactic.

1852
02:43:40,260 --> 02:43:42,580
I think it's part of our responsibility to examine it,

1853
02:43:42,580 --> 02:43:48,880
to talk about it with the community, to educate, and then see

1854
02:43:48,880 --> 02:43:52,320
if that what changes or considerations we can do that are still

1855
02:43:52,320 --> 02:43:57,240
within the intention of the California Roting Rights Act

1856
02:43:57,240 --> 02:43:59,120
and that we're not trying to skirt around it.

1857
02:43:59,600 --> 02:44:01,640
We're not trying to skirt around the requirements of the state

1858
02:44:01,640 --> 02:44:04,220
as put on us, but it actually drives what we're doing.

1859
02:44:09,280 --> 02:44:10,120
Yes, Councilmemberancy.

1860
02:44:10,120 --> 02:44:19,140
Well, I just want to clarify, I mean, I'm not opposed to something, a change in our form

1861
02:44:19,140 --> 02:44:26,400
of government if that's what our voters want and have really vetted it through, and understand

1862
02:44:26,400 --> 02:44:28,740
that there is not a legal risk.

1863
02:44:28,920 --> 02:44:32,200
I'm not saying the out lives mayors, the right one.

1864
02:44:32,280 --> 02:44:39,160
It could be what the mayor has suggested, but I know that there's been a lot of conversations,

1865
02:44:39,160 --> 02:44:45,320
but there's not been community, real community engagement, like we had in 2018. There's no

1866
02:44:45,320 --> 02:44:51,260
been organized open forums to discuss this for the public. And certainly not inclusive ones.

1867
02:44:51,340 --> 02:44:55,780
You know, we can always have our own circles of people who have this discussion that we support

1868
02:44:55,780 --> 02:44:59,580
a mayor and, you know, I can invite 20 friends over and they'll agree with me.

1869
02:45:00,000 --> 02:45:29,840
You know, or 50 friends, and they'll agree with me, or maybe one won't. But that doesn't make, that's not a public discussion where you're having, you're having real engagement for it. We need to understand how that really affects our community. And I think, you know, we do have this incredible public engagement. And I, before I go on, I want to address, because it was a public comment about, you know, the right person, anyone could be mayor. Well, you know, that didn't happen for 80 years, except for one person. So it is very difficult.

1870
02:45:30,000 --> 02:45:32,080
to do that and have that representation

1871
02:45:32,080 --> 02:45:33,320
with that large mayors.

1872
02:45:34,220 --> 02:45:36,820
But I think we need to really tap into the wisdom

1873
02:45:36,820 --> 02:45:39,880
of our residents, and not just one small group

1874
02:45:39,880 --> 02:45:43,760
that's come up with an idea and one option.

1875
02:45:44,080 --> 02:45:45,380
And we have to go through the process,

1876
02:45:46,040 --> 02:45:51,380
because when we do, it really hammers our disagreements

1877
02:45:51,380 --> 02:45:55,120
into workable solutions and solutions that endure

1878
02:45:55,120 --> 02:45:57,320
the test of time, and it can be hard,

1879
02:45:57,420 --> 02:45:59,540
and it can be frustrating, and sometimes it can take time.

1880
02:45:59,540 --> 02:46:02,140
But we're not a city that bypasses public engagement.

1881
02:46:02,980 --> 02:46:06,040
You know, we've seen how the public process and public engagement works.

1882
02:46:06,860 --> 02:46:09,140
And we need a process that ensures we all have a stake.

1883
02:46:09,300 --> 02:46:14,080
So my view is that we should re-engage, maybe not 30 meetings,

1884
02:46:14,440 --> 02:46:18,520
but public meetings to find out is this ballot measure the best option?

1885
02:46:18,600 --> 02:46:21,320
Is there another option? Do we need to change what we have?

1886
02:46:21,620 --> 02:46:24,240
And is there legal issues that we need to address?

1887
02:46:24,520 --> 02:46:28,840
Because the public, before they vote, they should know what the options are

1888
02:46:28,840 --> 02:46:32,320
and what the legal ramifications are.

1889
02:46:33,000 --> 02:46:34,880
And we should help engage that public thing.

1890
02:46:35,080 --> 02:46:36,980
And maybe, you know, as we heard from some people

1891
02:46:36,980 --> 02:46:41,100
who want directly elected mayor, that's what rises up,

1892
02:46:41,120 --> 02:46:43,980
and we figure out that there's a way to avoid a lawsuit.

1893
02:46:44,180 --> 02:46:45,840
But we don't know that yet.

1894
02:46:46,640 --> 02:46:48,900
And it would be remiss as council members

1895
02:46:49,540 --> 02:46:52,240
if we sat as bystanders and let something go

1896
02:46:52,240 --> 02:46:55,920
that we know could potentially result in millions of dollars

1897
02:46:55,920 --> 02:46:58,400
or not, but we need to find that right answer.

1898
02:46:58,400 --> 02:47:05,440
So my view is that we need to have this public engagement and we should get maybe the CBRA working group comes back together

1899
02:47:05,440 --> 02:47:09,880
I don't actually don't know who they are. Where they are all now, but maybe we create a new one.

1900
02:47:10,000 --> 02:47:10,620
They're on council.

1901
02:47:10,660 --> 02:47:12,340
They're on council.

1902
02:47:13,800 --> 02:47:17,460
And we've heard a few, I actually don't know how many there were what the process was.

1903
02:47:17,960 --> 02:47:27,720
But we can certainly create another one, a working group and it should be open to all to come up with what is the best form of our city.

1904
02:47:27,720 --> 02:47:34,980
Sorry about that. So that would be my vote to move this forward and see what really works best

1905
02:47:34,980 --> 02:47:36,420
from our community.

1906
02:47:40,020 --> 02:47:44,500
That's what we're going to. Thank you. The CVRA working group is all here.

1907
02:47:45,780 --> 02:47:52,580
Every single one except one person is pretty impressive. But obviously we heard from the CVRA

1908
02:47:52,580 --> 02:48:00,160
working CVRA working group and they have one recommendation. So I think that if we are going to

1909
02:48:00,160 --> 02:48:05,980
do this in a move forward with a discussion in a equitable way. We're going to have to recruit

1910
02:48:05,980 --> 02:48:13,920
some new members that might have some differing opinions as well to be fair. And it doesn't

1911
02:48:13,920 --> 02:48:21,500
have to be the exact same group. It could be some people and new people. But I do think that

1912
02:48:21,500 --> 02:48:25,750
these conversations are happening within our communities. Certainly, I know that I have them.

1913
02:48:27,370 --> 02:48:37,630
And there's so many other things to consider in this process in terms of just how it would work.

1914
02:48:39,110 --> 02:48:45,970
The impact of adding additional people to the diets when our meetings are already very long.

1915
02:48:48,330 --> 02:49:08,350
And then again, you know, I was really struck by kind of who came out and was upset about this and kind of the age range, the demographics of who was opposed to the groups that were opposed.

1916
02:49:08,350 --> 02:49:19,290
And I saw a lot of people from District 1, which I thought was interesting too,

1917
02:49:21,530 --> 02:49:24,150
I know that for District 1,

1918
02:49:26,700 --> 02:49:30,420
especially for folks who identify as people of color,

1919
02:49:32,640 --> 02:49:36,340
there's a real concern about being heard.

1920
02:49:36,340 --> 02:49:44,880
And with this change to district elections, it was this opportunity to be heard in a new way.

1921
02:49:45,980 --> 02:49:51,840
And we've really seen that engagement because of it.

1922
02:49:53,560 --> 02:50:01,480
And so I want to be able to make sure that we're hearing from those residents who are finally feeling like they're being heard in this room.

1923
02:50:01,480 --> 02:50:09,720
I'm making sure that we're engaging with them too, which is part of why we did those outreach events in Spanish.

1924
02:50:14,080 --> 02:50:16,460
And yeah, it's very easy for us to be in echo chambers.

1925
02:50:16,800 --> 02:50:27,040
So I think we do need to have those diverse rooms of people talking about this, so that we really can understand the impacts on people.

1926
02:50:28,480 --> 02:50:35,100
City Attorney and City Manager, what do we, what type of direction do we need to give to you

1927
02:50:35,100 --> 02:50:41,680
in order to continue having conversations on this issue, engaging the community, getting

1928
02:50:41,680 --> 02:50:46,060
feedback, answering questions. I think really at the end of the day, there's just a lot of

1929
02:50:46,060 --> 02:50:48,060
people who have questions,

1930
02:50:50,120 --> 02:50:54,920
and how do we kind of go about making sure that we can answer them in a

1931
02:50:56,120 --> 02:51:02,520
fairway. Thank you, Councilmember, let me take a little stab on it. We were just talking about

1932
02:51:02,520 --> 02:51:07,480
it as we were listening to your comments. Obviously, from the city staff standpoint,

1933
02:51:08,700 --> 02:51:15,000
you know, it's not our job to be involved in any of the policy decisions here. We want

1934
02:51:15,000 --> 02:51:22,320
to help Council with carrying out any, you know, policy directives that you have to us.

1935
02:51:22,320 --> 02:51:29,660
Obviously, as I listened to talking about a working group and establishing that and having lots of community engagement,

1936
02:51:31,720 --> 02:51:39,280
that's a lot of work, but we want to provide this support to Council as you may need support to do that.

1937
02:51:39,380 --> 02:51:47,780
I don't know if that looks like some sort of subcommittee of City Council that helps put a working group together.

1938
02:51:47,780 --> 02:51:54,280
that's what you want to do. It sounds like there's a number of community engagement meetings.

1939
02:51:54,340 --> 02:52:00,880
You might want to have around the city to engage people to come and council members hosting

1940
02:52:00,880 --> 02:52:06,960
those listening sessions or whatever you might call them. The city staff can help with

1941
02:52:08,980 --> 02:52:15,460
things like community surveys or things like that that we might want to do on social media.

1942
02:52:15,460 --> 02:52:29,960
So there's a whole number of things that we can try to be helpful to the council, but clearly we need your direction going forward as we.

1943
02:52:30,080 --> 02:52:36,640
From our standpoint, it would be helping to educate. We're certainly not here to advocate for one position or another.

1944
02:52:38,180 --> 02:52:46,380
So it's sort of my thinking in terms of trying to get some direction, you know, as a council led initiative, it seems to me.

1945
02:52:46,380 --> 02:52:53,720
Yeah, I mean, in terms of this, sorry, Councilmember Bernstein just said how many staff are involved last time.

1946
02:52:55,360 --> 02:53:04,720
There were plenty of staff members that were involved, but it was mostly led by a consultant who helped with outreach and the CBRY working group.

1947
02:53:05,460 --> 02:53:15,540
And the subcommittee, as former Councilmember Middleton stated, the subcommittee of Jeff Coorson, Lisa Middleton, they were at

1948
02:53:16,340 --> 02:53:18,280
I mean, between the two of them,

1949
02:53:18,300 --> 02:53:20,760
shirts certainly every single meeting.

1950
02:53:21,960 --> 02:53:26,860
And so, but there were not as many city staff members present.

1951
02:53:27,220 --> 02:53:29,740
It was mostly community members,

1952
02:53:29,840 --> 02:53:31,200
the very working group.

1953
02:53:32,000 --> 02:53:33,940
The city clerk was there at most of them.

1954
02:53:33,980 --> 02:53:35,180
I will say that.

1955
02:53:35,620 --> 02:53:36,260
So I don't know.

1956
02:53:36,340 --> 02:53:39,540
I mean, things a lot of, a lot has changed since 2018.

1957
02:53:40,360 --> 02:53:42,500
As I certainly don't know what that would,

1958
02:53:42,500 --> 02:53:45,680
when necessarily look like exactly from a staff standpoint.

1959
02:53:46,580 --> 02:53:52,540
But I do think that this is something that could be mostly

1960
02:53:53,140 --> 02:53:57,400
community-led as it was last time.

1961
02:53:57,880 --> 02:53:58,520
I think there's-

1962
02:53:58,520 --> 02:54:02,500
I did want to make note and we talked about it earlier about the,

1963
02:54:04,020 --> 02:54:07,400
you know, making sure we have a proper landing page set up with

1964
02:54:07,400 --> 02:54:15,180
There's a plethora of documents that apparently we have from 2018 in prior to that.

1965
02:54:15,760 --> 02:54:20,800
And I know we want to get together and we want to have a dedicated landing page where

1966
02:54:20,800 --> 02:54:25,760
everybody can go to all those documents and so we'll make sure that's very transparent.

1967
02:54:26,000 --> 02:54:27,360
People can easily find them.

1968
02:54:27,720 --> 02:54:31,080
And it might even be a disadormant page because it did exist.

1969
02:54:31,200 --> 02:54:35,480
It did exist at one point, so it should be fairly easy to get back up.

1970
02:54:38,620 --> 02:54:43,180
Well, it's probably going to be a little bit more complicated this time to have a community

1971
02:54:43,180 --> 02:54:46,820
meeting because at that point, you know, you're looking at how to go to districts and the

1972
02:54:46,820 --> 02:54:51,100
different options. And now we're looking at whether we have a directly elected,

1973
02:54:51,100 --> 02:54:56,620
legalities of that, or different type of rotational, or stay in the same. So you've got different

1974
02:54:57,140 --> 02:55:02,380
different views on that. And again, we don't want to just have a group of people who want to

1975
02:55:02,380 --> 02:55:05,980
keep things exactly as they are. And we don't want to have just go to a group of people who want

1976
02:55:05,980 --> 02:55:07,100
go directly elected mayor.

1977
02:55:07,300 --> 02:55:09,400
We need to have the options, but most importantly,

1978
02:55:09,440 --> 02:55:10,980
we need some of the answers to questions.

1979
02:55:12,560 --> 02:55:15,180
And you know, you ask anybody, do I want to elect my own mayor?

1980
02:55:15,440 --> 02:55:16,660
Probably a lot of people will say yes.

1981
02:55:17,640 --> 02:55:20,200
But do they want to lose any kind of representation?

1982
02:55:20,920 --> 02:55:22,160
Do they want other things?

1983
02:55:22,420 --> 02:55:25,060
Minority, do they want to threaten a lawsuit threat?

1984
02:55:25,280 --> 02:55:26,940
They probably would say maybe not.

1985
02:55:27,420 --> 02:55:30,300
And so I think we need to figure out a way to do this

1986
02:55:30,300 --> 02:55:34,820
that we get diverse voices in a different problem

1987
02:55:34,820 --> 02:55:38,300
to actually talk about this and come up with the best solution.

1988
02:55:39,480 --> 02:55:41,100
Don't know exactly how to do that.

1989
02:55:43,730 --> 02:55:44,950
Yes, that's member tart.

1990
02:55:45,410 --> 02:55:49,490
We're going to be here all night long going up and down the road here.

1991
02:55:50,370 --> 02:55:54,650
But it's good conversation, so I think it's all right.

1992
02:55:55,290 --> 02:56:05,450
You know, I think what's exciting about the conversation is the more the community will look and learn

1993
02:56:05,450 --> 02:56:14,310
and the more that we discover, the cities that have districts that added the mayor

1994
02:56:14,310 --> 02:56:26,350
at large, that those cities, and these are south of San Francisco cities, have proven

1995
02:56:26,350 --> 02:56:36,330
to be creating opportunities for the people who've benefited from the district system.

1996
02:56:37,630 --> 02:56:44,670
So I don't know the city but it's here not far from us.

1997
02:56:44,850 --> 02:56:53,430
But they elected their first female mayor who came from serving as a council member in her district.

1998
02:56:53,430 --> 02:57:03,530
The districts bring notoriety, exposure, bring opportunities for the community to see the

1999
02:57:03,530 --> 02:57:06,990
leadership that everybody brings to the table.

2000
02:57:07,970 --> 02:57:21,070
Another city in the Southland, first African-American male, a elected coming from a district

2001
02:57:21,070 --> 02:57:30,530
council member seat. Another one. First Vietnamese mayor coming from a council district

2002
02:57:30,530 --> 02:57:40,610
seat in a 55% predominant Hispanic community. So the opportunities that districts

2003
02:57:40,610 --> 02:57:49,710
have created are they're unending and the benefits of the districts and all the work

2004
02:57:49,710 --> 02:57:56,750
that the city and our community residents put into establishing districts have proven

2005
02:57:56,750 --> 02:58:02,010
effective at works and no one's questioning the districts.

2006
02:58:06,670 --> 02:58:13,390
Let's look at those opportunities that are created to allow those who have been elected

2007
02:58:13,390 --> 02:58:20,650
in districts to serve your community as mayor because they've got the exposure, they've got

2008
02:58:20,650 --> 02:58:27,010
the notoriety and the community has had an opportunity to see their leadership. So the

2009
02:58:27,010 --> 02:58:33,770
opportunities are there and I'm excited about what may come from that. And a city attorney,

2010
02:58:34,290 --> 02:58:39,950
I just want to applaud you on your PowerPoint presentation. When I heard you were making one,

2011
02:58:39,950 --> 02:58:48,030
I was saying, oh my God, you did a good job, so thank you, thank you for putting that together.

2012
02:58:48,490 --> 02:58:49,810
I appreciated that.

2013
02:58:53,480 --> 02:58:58,580
Yeah, I guess my question, your path 3,

2014
02:59:02,040 --> 02:59:03,860
it's as it comes with must adopt the

2015
02:59:03,860 --> 02:59:07,880
battle language by August 7th to make it to the November 2026 election,

2016
02:59:10,500 --> 02:59:11,320
how are we feeling?

2017
02:59:11,320 --> 02:59:18,120
What kind of how much work do we need to get started on right away if this is in terms

2018
02:59:18,120 --> 02:59:27,540
of the landing page or public engagement process if we did want to do something, like

2019
02:59:27,540 --> 02:59:29,360
how much can meet done by this summer?

2020
02:59:31,620 --> 02:59:35,680
It really depends on how much resources are thrown at it, right?

2021
02:59:35,680 --> 02:59:37,540
I mean, lightning's speed maybe, yeah.

2022
02:59:37,640 --> 02:59:38,460
Okay, great.

2023
02:59:40,600 --> 02:59:43,120
You know, four or five months.

2024
02:59:47,680 --> 02:59:51,840
For how much public engagement we want to do the summer.

2025
02:59:53,280 --> 02:59:55,120
Or before people are voting.

2026
02:59:58,780 --> 02:59:58,960
I mean.

2027
03:00:00,000 --> 03:00:07,180
I would say that we should get started as soon as possible, and probably limit it to a short

2028
03:00:07,180 --> 03:00:13,520
or amount of time. I mean, we have a certain amount of time when the signatures are being collected

2029
03:00:13,520 --> 03:00:17,280
on the ballot, and if we want to put something else together in August, I think, as our

2030
03:00:17,280 --> 03:00:23,680
deadline, we should sort of set a date which we want to try and do this and get a group together

2031
03:00:23,680 --> 03:00:29,760
as soon as possible. And answer questions. I mean, I think if we can start

2032
03:00:29,760 --> 03:00:34,560
soon enough and get together a group, and that's what I would say we should do right away.

2033
03:00:36,280 --> 03:00:38,820
And start with some community meetings and engagements.

2034
03:00:39,000 --> 03:00:42,340
I know one PS has already asked that it be on their agenda.

2035
03:00:44,920 --> 03:00:46,860
So this is obviously a big topic.

2036
03:00:47,040 --> 03:00:49,740
We're going to have this meeting tonight, so people are hearing it.

2037
03:00:50,360 --> 03:00:53,340
So how do we start this right away with a community engagement?

2038
03:00:53,760 --> 03:00:59,660
And that's what I would say that we start, come up with our decision right now on how we're

2039
03:00:59,660 --> 03:01:03,440
to do that. I don't know disagree.

2040
03:01:10,760 --> 03:01:16,160
I mean, we can perhaps one option similar to what happened

2041
03:01:16,160 --> 03:01:24,060
in 2018 is to select an ad hoc subcommittee of just two council members to work with staff

2042
03:01:24,060 --> 03:01:31,220
to come up with a working group and kind of come up with ideas. Either report back to the council

2043
03:01:31,220 --> 03:01:34,660
at a subsequent meeting or just start getting started.

2044
03:01:39,600 --> 03:01:40,360
Can I say something?

2045
03:01:40,820 --> 03:01:41,160
I do.

2046
03:01:41,820 --> 03:01:46,420
And, you know, council just as much as I fear recommending this.

2047
03:01:47,320 --> 03:01:50,380
It's almost feels like it's something that should be on the agenda.

2048
03:01:51,220 --> 03:01:56,360
Every council meeting between now and, you know, going forward, getting the,

2049
03:01:56,940 --> 03:02:00,420
if we're really talking about doing that, this, you know,

2050
03:02:00,420 --> 03:02:06,260
It's going to be a lot of work to do it right and to get everybody involved.

2051
03:02:08,020 --> 03:02:14,080
So the city staff will be available if there is a ad hoc working group to immediately,

2052
03:02:14,680 --> 03:02:21,420
you know, we will dedicate whatever staff, you know, council deems is necessary to

2053
03:02:21,420 --> 03:02:30,760
to start scheduling meetings and, you know, we can help with notifying working group members

2054
03:02:30,760 --> 03:02:36,240
that the subcommittee might want to put together and trying to get that set up, starting

2055
03:02:36,240 --> 03:02:42,200
to think about outreach community meetings, we can talk about how we can, what we can do

2056
03:02:42,200 --> 03:02:49,080
with social media and other things, so we'll be available at your direction.

2057
03:02:49,080 --> 03:02:53,810
Let's remember Garner, did I hear you interested in being part of that?

2058
03:02:54,130 --> 03:02:54,250
Yes.

2059
03:02:54,690 --> 03:02:55,830
I would also.

2060
03:02:56,130 --> 03:02:56,410
Okay.

2061
03:02:57,150 --> 03:02:57,870
We got two.

2062
03:02:57,990 --> 03:02:59,070
Thank you, Gants, remember.

2063
03:03:00,250 --> 03:03:00,390
To heart.

2064
03:03:02,830 --> 03:03:03,010
Okay.

2065
03:03:05,480 --> 03:03:09,700
We are looking forward to coming hearing your incredible plan that you'll come back with

2066
03:03:09,700 --> 03:03:10,360
in two weeks.

2067
03:03:12,980 --> 03:03:13,500
Yeah.

2068
03:03:24,360 --> 03:03:28,580
I mean, you don't have to meet every week.

2069
03:03:28,640 --> 03:03:32,860
I'm just suggesting that hearing what you're trying to accomplish between

2070
03:03:32,860 --> 03:03:37,460
Now in November, we probably, the ad hoc committee,

2071
03:03:37,780 --> 03:03:40,440
we probably want to get together with you pretty quickly.

2072
03:03:41,120 --> 03:03:44,640
You would probably want to do some thinking about this working group

2073
03:03:44,640 --> 03:03:48,860
and really together, giving us some direction on outreach

2074
03:03:48,860 --> 03:03:52,040
of how many people you want to put together.

2075
03:03:52,280 --> 03:03:55,080
And then we probably want to get together

2076
03:03:55,080 --> 03:03:58,100
with pull back group together pretty quickly.

2077
03:03:58,420 --> 03:04:00,020
Start having some discussions.

2078
03:04:00,020 --> 03:04:07,900
it sounds like about what is there advice about community engagement, what should the strategy be,

2079
03:04:07,920 --> 03:04:15,720
how should we set things up, you know, all of that. So that's where we'll be looking for your

2080
03:04:15,720 --> 03:04:16,220
direction.

2081
03:04:20,460 --> 03:04:24,700
Yeah, not necessarily that has to be it kind of, you know, but I would think you'd want

2082
03:04:24,700 --> 03:04:27,280
to get together as you're at our committee real quickly.

2083
03:04:31,350 --> 03:04:32,870
Heather, discussion or

2084
03:04:32,870 --> 03:04:35,450
or direction that we want to get.

2085
03:04:38,960 --> 03:04:39,880
I see there's consensus.

2086
03:04:42,670 --> 03:04:47,670
You can't do it by motion, but it seems there's consensus among the council to select that committee.

2087
03:04:50,250 --> 03:04:50,530
All right.

2088
03:04:50,850 --> 03:04:52,230
Well, thank you.

2089
03:04:52,490 --> 03:04:55,310
Comfort members, and thank you to the public again for the robust discussion.

2090
03:04:56,210 --> 03:04:59,330
Next item is public comment on non agenda items.

2091
03:04:59,550 --> 03:05:07,110
This time has been set aside for members of the public to address this city council on items of general interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city.

2092
03:05:07,110 --> 03:05:11,350
A little of this Council values your comments, pursuant to the Brown Act, which generally cannot

2093
03:05:11,350 --> 03:05:15,430
take any action on any items not listed on the agenda.

2094
03:05:16,050 --> 03:05:19,110
Two minutes will be assigned to each speaker.

2095
03:05:19,710 --> 03:05:20,510
Hold on one second.

2096
03:05:26,260 --> 03:05:29,620
I have David Powell as first of our public comments.

2097
03:05:36,130 --> 03:05:41,590
Well, Mayor Council, David Powell, objective director of Desert Business Association, the LGBTQ

2098
03:05:41,590 --> 03:05:43,090
Chamber of Commerce.

2099
03:05:43,210 --> 03:05:46,150
You don't get to see me too much, at least not in here.

2100
03:05:46,150 --> 03:05:47,770
But you get to see me a lot out and about.

2101
03:05:48,150 --> 03:05:49,230
I wanted to do two things.

2102
03:05:49,450 --> 03:05:54,850
One is announced that DBA has is doing this annual business

2103
03:05:54,850 --> 03:05:55,670
and community awards.

2104
03:05:55,690 --> 03:05:57,530
Our impact awards, a Monday, May 4th,

2105
03:05:57,610 --> 03:05:59,050
at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

2106
03:05:59,490 --> 03:06:02,610
We have chosen our recipients, our business,

2107
03:06:03,170 --> 03:06:06,710
the years, county bagels, pens, business person, sons,

2108
03:06:07,010 --> 03:06:09,650
our Michael and Ernie Westman, from GED Magazine,

2109
03:06:10,610 --> 03:06:11,670
our Community Service Organization,

2110
03:06:11,790 --> 03:06:13,870
the Subboys and Girls Club of Cathedral City.

2111
03:06:13,870 --> 03:06:19,470
And our outstanding community service leaders, Julie Warren, from Palm Springs Speaks, the LGBTQ

2112
03:06:19,470 --> 03:06:24,270
Archive of the Desert, and Palm Springs Library, in addition, that night will be giving

2113
03:06:24,270 --> 03:06:28,170
four LGBT youth scholarships through Safe Schools Desert Cities.

2114
03:06:29,170 --> 03:06:32,790
I have to send something to staff tomorrow to get that on your calendar.

2115
03:06:33,150 --> 03:06:34,550
Hopefully all of you will be there.

2116
03:06:34,690 --> 03:06:36,250
The city is one of our sponsors.

2117
03:06:36,830 --> 03:06:37,410
Second thing.

2118
03:06:37,490 --> 03:06:42,370
Next Wednesday is the local government vendor fair, which you all know.

2119
03:06:42,370 --> 03:07:04,090
At the Palm Springs Convention Center for 830 to noon, I've been working through economic development and one of our partnerships with the DBA has with the city of Palm Springs and particularly with the economic development is to work with you to promote and prepare the attendees and our small and diverse businesses throughout the Coachella Valley for that vendor fair.

2120
03:07:04,090 --> 03:07:22,250
We did three workshops, three as five weeks ago we did a business plan workshop, three weeks ago we did one about capability statements and today working with Tabitha Richards and the procurement groups throughout the valley we had a great workshop explaining contracts and the system to work with local government and procurement.

2121
03:07:22,670 --> 03:07:29,650
We had about 15, 18 people there, some good questions and all of this was to support next week's vendor fair and my recommendation.

2122
03:07:30,000 --> 03:07:37,700
Back to procurement staff and this working group was to have it like two or three times a year to help develop

2123
03:07:37,700 --> 03:07:43,940
our small businesses throughout the valley, and particularly through Palm Springs. Since you're the one's

2124
03:07:43,940 --> 03:07:50,340
predominantly supporting this, and let's see what we can do to really get more contracts with the city,

2125
03:07:50,680 --> 03:07:56,080
more contracts from small and diverse businesses and local businesses in there. Thank you very much.

2126
03:08:04,720 --> 03:08:08,500
40's not too bad, I don't know what I'm thinking.

2127
03:08:10,280 --> 03:08:12,380
Next we have Michael Joseph Picken.

2128
03:08:20,680 --> 03:08:23,940
Michael Joseph Picken, I moved to Palm Springs in 2021.

2129
03:08:24,680 --> 03:08:27,700
After data breaches, gaslighting, gang stocking at 7.11,

2130
03:08:27,980 --> 03:08:29,960
I moved to Santa Monica six months.

2131
03:08:30,500 --> 03:08:35,000
I have used every gate and by-pock HIV service organization in L.A.

2132
03:08:35,060 --> 03:08:36,440
Not to mention other states.

2133
03:08:36,940 --> 03:08:40,760
I have provided these community agencies in 20 years over $1 million.

2134
03:08:40,760 --> 03:08:44,980
I was using API over 20 miles away for medical care.

2135
03:08:45,280 --> 03:08:49,020
I wanted to try St. Joseph's in Venice a few miles away.

2136
03:08:49,380 --> 03:08:54,600
I set appointments, went to their paperwork orientation, filled out my medical hip-a-history,

2137
03:08:55,000 --> 03:08:55,800
signed and dated.

2138
03:08:56,340 --> 03:08:58,180
For some reason, they would not enroll me.

2139
03:08:58,580 --> 03:09:02,040
I said, okay, I will hold onto these hip-a-papers until you are ready.

2140
03:09:02,340 --> 03:09:05,040
Two giant black men blocked the exit door.

2141
03:09:05,440 --> 03:09:08,820
They then wrestled me to the ground, trying to pull the papers out of my hands.

2142
03:09:09,260 --> 03:09:10,320
They kept me hostage.

2143
03:09:10,320 --> 03:09:14,000
hostage taking carries a 200-year prison sentence.

2144
03:09:14,620 --> 03:09:17,580
Eventually, I ripped out over 10 pages of medical history

2145
03:09:17,580 --> 03:09:19,960
and my signature and ate it.

2146
03:09:20,220 --> 03:09:22,420
Before they let me go, in Santa Monica,

2147
03:09:22,720 --> 03:09:24,980
I was beaten five times, two times,

2148
03:09:25,160 --> 03:09:28,520
by BIPOC 7-11 clerks hitting me in the back of the head.

2149
03:09:28,780 --> 03:09:30,860
One accused me of not paying when I did.

2150
03:09:31,100 --> 03:09:33,180
Another hitting me in the back of the head,

2151
03:09:33,480 --> 03:09:37,180
who and I was laughed at by a crowd of BIPOC in the store

2152
03:09:37,180 --> 03:09:41,800
as I could not get the coffee cups unstuck and accidentally spilled on the counter.

2153
03:09:42,380 --> 03:09:46,400
As I left to file a police report, a black man chased me and

2154
03:09:46,400 --> 03:09:51,940
crock-a-kick me cracking my hip bone, spilling blood, an automatic hate crime.

2155
03:09:52,480 --> 03:09:56,580
Santa Monica, LA, LA County, Riverside County, State of California, Palm Springs,

2156
03:09:56,820 --> 03:10:00,060
C-Vag tribes. This is notice of potential litigation.

2157
03:10:02,020 --> 03:10:03,220
Thank you, Mr. Pickkin.

2158
03:10:03,940 --> 03:10:07,640
Madam Clerk, do we have any other public speakers online?

2159
03:10:08,100 --> 03:10:09,340
We have no speakers online.

2160
03:10:10,720 --> 03:10:15,960
Next item is the City Council and City Manager request for upcoming agenda development.

2161
03:10:19,890 --> 03:10:25,610
Thank you, Madam Mayor members of Council, just a little preview look that upcoming meetings.

2162
03:10:26,130 --> 03:10:29,730
I do want to point out at our next meeting on April 22nd.

2163
03:10:30,150 --> 03:10:35,470
We will have our presentation will be from the Blue Zone's Palm Springs update.

2164
03:10:35,470 --> 03:10:42,810
And the work that they're doing, you'll see that we've got a couple, we've got four

2165
03:10:42,810 --> 03:10:43,610
public hearings.

2166
03:10:43,770 --> 03:10:51,070
One is a historic designation, Riverside Drive, the CBBGA annual action plan here.

2167
03:10:51,190 --> 03:10:57,710
Number one, you've heard a preview of that previous, and then we have a couple of hotel incentive

2168
03:10:57,710 --> 03:11:03,630
agreements that are anxious to get before you, the Kat-Tai hotel and Terrapalms hotel.

2169
03:11:03,630 --> 03:11:13,870
And then, an annual report that HR will give us on report of employee vacancies that's required by state law.

2170
03:11:14,630 --> 03:11:18,970
On May 12th, we do have our presentation.

2171
03:11:19,270 --> 03:11:27,190
It's going to be on emergency operations update and the work that is going on there with volunteers and other folks.

2172
03:11:27,190 --> 03:11:34,250
We have another hotel and center of agreement with Al-Kazar and then we'll have a discussion

2173
03:11:34,250 --> 03:11:39,890
on the Tribal Warehouse Project which you directed us to bring forward a month before

2174
03:11:40,690 --> 03:11:46,370
the special meeting that we're going to have with the tribe on June 3rd.

2175
03:11:47,510 --> 03:11:50,390
So our planning staff is working on that.

2176
03:11:50,390 --> 03:12:01,810
That will basically, as we've had discussion, it will basically be planning talking about what we would be asking for if this was a typical city project.

2177
03:12:01,850 --> 03:12:14,750
I can report you out on some of that, and then we hope that some of that discussion will lend itself towards the joint meeting that you want to have with the full tribe as you'll see on June 3.

2178
03:12:14,750 --> 03:12:23,550
And I do want to mention on going back to May 12th as I heard the finance director mentioned,

2179
03:12:24,170 --> 03:12:29,090
we will have the second TID public hearing on May 12th as well.

2180
03:12:29,410 --> 03:12:30,950
So that will be coming back.

2181
03:12:31,730 --> 03:12:33,710
I believe that's all I have, Madam Mayor.

2182
03:12:34,690 --> 03:12:41,890
Well, in our new agenda item of the mayoral discussion as well, right, that we just agreed

2183
03:12:41,890 --> 03:12:42,970
on.

2184
03:12:42,970 --> 03:12:50,090
I know that's like bullet number 12 for April 22nd, but for May 12th, April.

2185
03:12:51,010 --> 03:12:55,170
So, okay, okay, we will do that.

2186
03:12:55,890 --> 03:12:55,970
Yeah.

2187
03:12:57,030 --> 03:12:57,610
Councilmember Griner.

2188
03:12:59,350 --> 03:13:05,450
I just wanted to flag that we had previously discussed having, kind of quarterly updates

2189
03:13:05,450 --> 03:13:10,990
about the Navigation Center and all of the work that's being done there, so I think we're

2190
03:13:10,990 --> 03:13:18,930
coming up on another update. I'm mindful of the schedule, but I do want to make sure that we're

2191
03:13:18,930 --> 03:13:24,150
still kind of being consistent with that and because we do have a new CEO for Martha's

2192
03:13:24,150 --> 03:13:30,310
Village and Kitchen, it would be good to. Yeah, I agree. I think the timing is really good

2193
03:13:30,310 --> 03:13:35,170
as council members know. They have a new executive director that some of us have met with.

2194
03:13:35,170 --> 03:13:42,510
I've also heard some really good news just last couple days that they were, they were working

2195
03:13:42,510 --> 03:13:44,850
to stand up recuperative care beds.

2196
03:13:45,630 --> 03:13:51,390
Apped the Navigation Center, the last report I had gotten was that they had worked with

2197
03:13:51,390 --> 03:13:54,150
the county to stand up three recuperative care beds.

2198
03:13:54,510 --> 03:13:56,090
They've now stood up 17.

2199
03:13:57,350 --> 03:14:02,650
So that's important because it could be a really important revenue source for the Navigation

2200
03:14:02,650 --> 03:14:06,330
Center for Operations and Maintenance going forward.

2201
03:14:06,990 --> 03:14:12,550
So we really, it'd be really timely to report out on that, our work with the Martha's

2202
03:14:12,550 --> 03:14:15,630
Village and Kitchen as well, so we'll get that schedule.

2203
03:14:16,130 --> 03:14:17,710
Thank you.

2204
03:14:18,570 --> 03:14:25,290
But more important than the financial benefit is the impact it can have on our community's health.

2205
03:14:26,350 --> 03:14:30,310
And I think we're due from Martha's presentation.

2206
03:14:31,430 --> 03:14:36,690
It was April May sometime that we did have a discussion before.

2207
03:14:37,090 --> 03:14:40,710
So I think their annual presentation is this,

2208
03:14:40,710 --> 03:14:42,550
it's in this time period.

2209
03:14:45,070 --> 03:14:46,470
But thank you for bringing that up.

2210
03:14:48,090 --> 03:14:49,310
Council Member Bernstein.

2211
03:14:49,890 --> 03:14:53,290
Yeah, just to that point we had a discussion about other presentations

2212
03:14:53,550 --> 03:14:55,590
and we've had other council agenda items.

2213
03:14:55,590 --> 03:14:57,890
And I think last time we talked about at least

2214
03:14:57,890 --> 03:14:59,970
distributing to Council what a lot of the...

2215
03:15:00,000 --> 03:15:06,500
I think it was seven days up coming items are, so that before we keep acting new things, we know what's already on that might be forthcoming.

2216
03:15:06,500 --> 03:15:10,980
We see this list, but we don't know the items that we've talked about farther out.

2217
03:15:11,420 --> 03:15:20,280
And it would be helpful if you could give this list internally, so we can have a sense of, you know, which people are going to give presentations, which agenda items would come down the road.

2218
03:15:20,280 --> 03:15:42,600
Yeah, but thank you, Councilmember, we'll, we're very cognizant of the last discussion we had with the, we talked about this, I think it was seven groups that had primary, primary, large funding amounts given to them in Council's wish to have those groups, especially come forward with presentations so we're kind of working on that through my office.

2219
03:15:43,280 --> 03:15:49,880
We'll send all of you a little recap of, we've got to get with all the organizations.

2220
03:15:50,340 --> 03:15:54,180
A lot of them, it's different times of the year, better for them to present.

2221
03:15:54,660 --> 03:16:01,280
Maybe away from some of their busier times, so we're trying to, we'll work on that and get you a schedule.

2222
03:16:01,440 --> 03:16:09,400
As well, if there's upcoming agenda items, that three or more of us have asked to come back at some point, just not a date, but a list of what those, yes.

2223
03:16:09,400 --> 03:16:14,420
Yeah, maybe like underneath the dates, there's just upcoming agenda items that have been identified.

2224
03:16:15,200 --> 03:16:20,960
And because then we can maybe pull up or delete them if there's no longer necessary or whatever.

2225
03:16:21,780 --> 03:16:23,160
Okay, I had a couple of accomplishments.

2226
03:16:24,320 --> 03:16:34,860
Well, tight to that a little bit, I just want to flag the STR remaining updates was also one that was identified as something that needs to happen.

2227
03:16:34,860 --> 03:16:39,000
Yeah, and Madam Mayor, I'm glad you brought that up because we've been kind of struggling

2228
03:16:39,000 --> 03:16:40,340
with that a little bit.

2229
03:16:40,500 --> 03:16:45,120
We know that there's, we've talked to the viewer on folks and other folks who are anxious

2230
03:16:45,120 --> 03:16:45,800
to bring that back.

2231
03:16:45,820 --> 03:16:48,760
I want to make sure that we're really aligned with you on this.

2232
03:16:50,040 --> 03:16:54,880
Our kind of understanding with the short-term rental report is that there were a number

2233
03:16:54,880 --> 03:17:01,760
of administrative, pretty basic things that could be brought back, cleaned up in the ordinance.

2234
03:17:01,760 --> 03:17:04,780
I think that's what V-RON is asking for.

2235
03:17:05,100 --> 03:17:14,440
There's some issues that are a little more that probably would require a lot more discussion.

2236
03:17:14,840 --> 03:17:17,400
I'm guessing things like density and everything.

2237
03:17:18,000 --> 03:17:18,620
How many?

2238
03:17:19,400 --> 03:17:25,880
So our thinking is that we would bring back that short-term rental report along the lines

2239
03:17:25,880 --> 03:17:30,480
of what V-RON has been asking some of you, really just focusing on some of the

2240
03:17:30,480 --> 03:17:37,280
on those administrative cleanup things that have been discussed and then some of those bigger

2241
03:17:37,280 --> 03:17:44,620
issues maybe for another day. So if I'm aligned with you on that, that's what we'll plan to do.

2242
03:17:45,860 --> 03:17:52,060
That was my understanding. Somebody asked for us to do that to at least get the administrative

2243
03:17:52,060 --> 03:17:58,820
pieces taken care of and we can get that off our plate and then we have to address the bigger issue

2244
03:17:58,820 --> 03:18:01,100
down. We just separate the two.

2245
03:18:01,260 --> 03:18:06,520
Very good. Thank you for bringing that up. I think we can get that. Get it that pretty quickly.

2246
03:18:06,920 --> 03:18:09,820
So we'll. Thank you. We'll work on that.

2247
03:18:10,620 --> 03:18:12,060
I think I think we're.

2248
03:18:12,120 --> 03:18:13,320
I think we're seeing in the number.

2249
03:18:13,460 --> 03:18:13,800
Sorry.

2250
03:18:13,940 --> 03:18:16,660
I want to just mention a couple of coming things. The vendor fair, which.

2251
03:18:16,780 --> 03:18:17,360
Oh, sorry. We.

2252
03:18:17,620 --> 03:18:19,500
Is this events or agenda items?

2253
03:18:20,160 --> 03:18:20,260
Okay.

2254
03:18:21,220 --> 03:18:21,320
Mayor.

2255
03:18:21,520 --> 03:18:21,720
Okay.

2256
03:18:22,040 --> 03:18:22,640
Thank you.

2257
03:18:22,640 --> 03:18:28,260
Yeah. I presume Scott on that list of upcoming the traffic signal synchronization.

2258
03:18:28,820 --> 03:18:34,620
issues. Scott, the traffic signal synchronization on that list of upcoming, when you put that

2259
03:18:34,620 --> 03:18:39,820
on there, if you could remind you of that. And then also, just to question, I, I, I saw

2260
03:18:39,820 --> 03:18:47,000
the desert sun yesterday that there was a major change in the airport, capital policy, and

2261
03:18:47,000 --> 03:18:52,280
I know if that's, if that can be a presentation of council, so we can become get informed

2262
03:18:52,280 --> 03:18:52,900
on that.

2263
03:18:52,900 --> 03:19:04,280
Yeah, we saw that in, you know, and it was a news article that was written and our master plan is still in place.

2264
03:19:04,840 --> 03:19:16,960
Obviously, it's long-term planning, just as we've said all along, a lot of these projects have to be guided by long-term revenue projections.

2265
03:19:16,960 --> 03:19:22,020
The number of travelers that we have is our population ramping up.

2266
03:19:23,100 --> 03:19:31,420
We had what I think was a really good community meeting to talk about some of this.

2267
03:19:31,720 --> 03:19:34,520
Mayor Soto kicked it off and was part of that.

2268
03:19:34,960 --> 03:19:38,140
But from our standpoint, we're proceeding with Master Plan.

2269
03:19:38,640 --> 03:19:42,640
But as we should, as I believe, we should be proceeding cautiously.

2270
03:19:44,240 --> 03:19:50,320
And we're not going down the road of talking about issuing huge amounts of debt if we're

2271
03:19:50,320 --> 03:19:55,220
not confident that we can retire that debt in an appropriate way.

2272
03:19:56,080 --> 03:19:59,700
So I think we can have more conversations about that.

2273
03:20:00,080 --> 03:20:02,500
And if we need to be more clear about it, we certainly will.

2274
03:20:02,740 --> 03:20:02,960
Thank you.

2275
03:20:03,320 --> 03:20:04,440
Can we maybe put the debt?

2276
03:20:04,680 --> 03:20:07,600
Isn't there an airport landing page on Engage Palm Springs?

2277
03:20:07,600 --> 03:20:12,540
we can put Tuesday's presentation.

2278
03:20:13,040 --> 03:20:15,120
There is. We asked for that.

2279
03:20:15,520 --> 03:20:17,760
The, that entire presentation be recorded.

2280
03:20:18,460 --> 03:20:19,820
And we're going to post that.

2281
03:20:20,460 --> 03:20:23,520
Both on the gauge foam springs and at the airport slanny page.

2282
03:20:23,560 --> 03:20:25,100
If they haven't already done it.

2283
03:20:25,320 --> 03:20:25,700
Okay. Wonderful.

2284
03:20:26,880 --> 03:20:28,080
Okay. Thanks for your patience.

2285
03:20:29,380 --> 03:20:29,940
Okay. Thank you.

2286
03:20:30,060 --> 03:20:30,320
Madam Mayor.

2287
03:20:30,480 --> 03:20:32,680
So I wanted to just follow up on the vendor fair,

2288
03:20:32,860 --> 03:20:33,860
which is next.

2289
03:20:35,140 --> 03:20:35,600
15th.

2290
03:20:35,600 --> 03:20:36,560
Thank you.

2291
03:20:36,560 --> 03:20:44,560
At 9 a.m. at the Convention Center and it is open to everybody and I think the city

2292
03:20:44,560 --> 03:20:46,180
I think we've done this for a few years.

2293
03:20:46,800 --> 03:20:47,880
It's all nine desert cities.

2294
03:20:48,080 --> 03:20:52,080
I believe plus a number of agencies like COD and how they can do business.

2295
03:20:52,580 --> 03:20:56,140
I think there's a little hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts that go out there.

2296
03:20:56,320 --> 03:21:01,000
And it's not just major construction items, but it could be for security, for consulting,

2297
03:21:01,000 --> 03:21:05,320
for design, for PR, for holiday decorations at the airport.

2298
03:21:05,680 --> 03:21:15,220
I mean, there's all kinds of things inside when we encourage our businesses to go and see what it takes to do business with our city, and we have our different different departments are there to help.

2299
03:21:15,800 --> 03:21:27,540
It's an informative thing. Again, it's free and it's open to all businesses and residents really, the Convention Center. I think past years we've had 500 people shell up and found it very useful.

2300
03:21:28,260 --> 03:21:40,500
I also want to mention that three years ago, by challenged our public arts commission to get more art in the park, and we have dedication of four of them this week, including District 2.

2301
03:21:40,600 --> 03:21:52,800
We have Gateway Park, a range of VISTA states, and we're going to have April 14th at 6 p.m. a reception, and then Victoria Park on April 15th at 815 a.m.

2302
03:21:52,800 --> 03:21:56,120
And then there will be a city-wide one at City Hall.

2303
03:21:56,260 --> 03:21:57,240
I think it's 10am.

2304
03:21:57,900 --> 03:21:59,560
But for those neighborhoods, again,

2305
03:21:59,640 --> 03:22:01,620
Gateway Park, April 14 at 6 p.m.

2306
03:22:01,780 --> 03:22:03,000
There will be a little artist reception

2307
03:22:03,000 --> 03:22:06,500
and Victoria Park, April 15 at 8 p.m.

2308
03:22:08,140 --> 03:22:09,660
And then lastly, I just want to congratulate

2309
03:22:09,660 --> 03:22:11,940
the new Aquacolia Entry Tribal Council,

2310
03:22:12,100 --> 03:22:14,120
including the new Tribal Chair or returning

2311
03:22:14,120 --> 03:22:15,500
Tribal Chair, Jeff Groovy.

2312
03:22:16,240 --> 03:22:16,580
Thank you.

2313
03:22:17,120 --> 03:22:18,320
Was that a self-cuto?

2314
03:22:19,660 --> 03:22:20,520
Yes, it was.

2315
03:22:21,620 --> 03:22:29,960
You know, you got to be it on cheerleaders, I just, I'm not sure if this is an agenda item, but I don't know how council can talk about it.

2316
03:22:30,000 --> 03:22:37,840
Raised about the equity cannabis grant funding in the distribution and our process.

2317
03:22:39,060 --> 03:22:46,820
And I've had two conversations now, and Jeffrey and I had half a conversation with a business

2318
03:22:46,820 --> 03:22:48,660
person last night.

2319
03:22:51,180 --> 03:22:54,780
To understand, better understand how the equity money is being funded

2320
03:22:54,780 --> 03:23:04,200
and what our process is for follow-through and verification of how those funds have been spent.

2321
03:23:04,720 --> 03:23:11,060
So that's the concern that's been raised and I don't know if that has to come back to

2322
03:23:11,060 --> 03:23:16,540
Council or can it be a conversation that a couple of us can have with the city manager,

2323
03:23:18,020 --> 03:23:25,120
but we need to have that conversation, it's not, it's not the concerns not going away.

2324
03:23:27,520 --> 03:23:31,420
I'd be open to like a subcommittee to talk about it directly.

2325
03:23:32,640 --> 03:23:34,680
There's interest in that.

2326
03:23:35,580 --> 03:23:39,820
Okay, so council member Bernstein and I will follow the conversation.

2327
03:23:40,100 --> 03:23:44,200
Yeah, because it wasn't too long ago that it was presented here, so it might be helpful.

2328
03:23:44,200 --> 03:23:48,320
you all can identify what those issues are, and then identify what needs things

2329
03:23:48,320 --> 03:23:49,160
have to come back.

2330
03:23:49,640 --> 03:23:50,440
Okay, thank you.

2331
03:23:50,480 --> 03:23:51,200
Thank you.

2332
03:23:51,600 --> 03:23:55,840
And because it is still before 9 o'clock.

2333
03:23:58,980 --> 03:24:05,200
The city is a sponsor of Maryland 100, the Centennial Celebration on May 30th,

2334
03:24:06,400 --> 03:24:11,380
and that where the city is going for a breaking the Guinness Book of World Records

2335
03:24:11,380 --> 03:24:20,800
of having the most Maryland look-alikes dressed in one place at one time, and we are well

2336
03:24:20,800 --> 03:24:29,140
on target to exceed about 850 look-alikes right now, and Council Member Bernstein, when you

2337
03:24:29,140 --> 03:24:32,740
get your registration in, you'll put us over the list.

2338
03:24:33,780 --> 03:24:36,460
So I think that's going to be a lot of fun.

2339
03:24:36,460 --> 03:24:42,940
And everybody's invited to register, and it's at pspride.org slash Maryland 100.

2340
03:24:43,960 --> 03:24:44,520
Thank you.

2341
03:24:44,820 --> 03:24:45,640
Mayor, for the time being here.

2342
03:24:46,080 --> 03:24:49,500
Just quickly, Mayor, just want this week at C.V.

2343
03:24:49,500 --> 03:24:52,620
Coachella Valley Association, a government's transportation meeting.

2344
03:24:53,020 --> 03:24:56,000
Just some good news, we advanced the $2 million C.V.

2345
03:24:56,060 --> 03:24:59,880
Contribution to the Palm Springs Bridge at South Palm Canyon.

2346
03:25:00,140 --> 03:25:04,100
It's sunny dunes, so that we'll finalize that $17 million price tax.

2347
03:25:04,100 --> 03:25:05,080
So that's some good news.

2348
03:25:07,160 --> 03:25:14,640
Okay. Oh, one more. Okay. Councilmember Gurner. Thank you. I just wanted to let the public

2349
03:25:14,640 --> 03:25:20,340
know that Mayor Perten ready and I are going to Washington, DC for a lobby trip to continue

2350
03:25:20,340 --> 03:25:28,720
on the legislative work that we've been doing. So we'll be gone next week meeting with members

2351
03:25:30,820 --> 03:25:37,080
of Congress there and other federal organizations. So that's

2352
03:25:37,080 --> 03:25:43,220
very exciting. And we will report back. And the, they're also, I wanted to, I wanted to highlight

2353
03:25:43,220 --> 03:25:47,220
those art dedications because there's going to be art dedicating happening in every district.

2354
03:25:48,240 --> 03:25:52,220
They're, they are going to be happening while mayor protemmoner gone, but I encourage people

2355
03:25:52,220 --> 03:25:57,120
to get involved and go to those. I think there's going to be a lot of fun. And then one thing

2356
03:25:57,120 --> 03:26:02,020
I wanted to mention is Coachella Weekend. This weekend next weekend and then stage coach. So

2357
03:26:02,020 --> 03:26:06,420
there is going to be, you know, increased traffic coming into Palm Springs, but oftentimes on the

2358
03:26:09,200 --> 03:26:26,380
our, well, our hotel's are full, our restaurants and our businesses are often pretty empty, so it's a great time for locals to go downtown and support our small businesses and restaurants, but for district one, specifically in the northern part, mountain gate,

2359
03:26:27,600 --> 03:26:34,240
and as our hands get we as state there's a lot of traffic that cuts through so last year we put up signage so that people would

2360
03:26:34,920 --> 03:26:40,540
know that this is local traffic only and we're doing that again this year so was helpful it's not you know

2361
03:26:40,540 --> 03:26:44,500
bullproof but it did definitely decrease the amount of traffic that cut through the neighborhoods

2362
03:26:45,180 --> 03:26:50,380
to just and make sure that anyone that was going through there was mindful so that's fine and just going to come back

2363
03:26:51,480 --> 03:26:58,700
And I think just to add to that just on awareness, there's more walkers, walking to the shuttles,

2364
03:26:59,260 --> 03:27:06,440
the late at night, where it's very dark and just so general precaution is warranted for the next few weeks.

2365
03:27:07,160 --> 03:27:09,840
Okay, I'm going to make it before we get to the nine.

2366
03:27:10,680 --> 03:27:15,880
So, next city council meeting will be held on Wednesday, March, Wednesday, April 22,

2367
03:27:15,880 --> 03:27:20,720
in 2016 at 530, this meeting is adjourned at 9. Thank you.