[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:06] 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.
[0:19] 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.
[0:30] Good
[0:36] 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.
[0:50] 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.
[1:00] To ensure that any changes do not violate the settlement agreement, the city entered into with a Southwest
[1:06] Voter Education Registration Project, or violate the California Voting Rights Act.
[1:12] Any change that includes a combination of voting members of a governmental body that include members elected by district
[1:19] and members elected at large is prohibited as a remedy under the California Voting Rights Act.
[1:25] The settlement agreement, the city entered into specifically references and incorporates
[1:29] this language and states quote, whereas the CBRA, a California elections code section
[1:36] 1-4-02683, defines a prohibited at large method of election to include one that combines
[1:44] with districts and at large-based elections, unquote.
[1:50] That is clear about the settlement agreement and the CBRA.
[1:53] One of the proposals being advanced is a ballot measure, which would do just that.
[2:02] That specifically would create a six member of the City Council, a voting member, elected
[2:07] at large, who would also be a ceremonial mayor, with five members elected to district.
[2:13] That's prohibited under the severe
[2:59] and accurate, not misleading.
[3:01] Thank you very much.
[3:07] 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.
[3:27] I'm a Palm Springs resident and district one.
[3:29] I was also a co-chair of the California Boating Rights Act working group for the city in 2018.
[3:35] As part of this group of residents who made up the working group we played an important role
[3:39] as you heard in researching different forms of city government across the state, community engagement
[3:43] with residents within the official 1PS structure neighborhood structure and outside of it because
[3:49] many residents of color working class residents have historically not been engaged by 1PS.
[3:53] And we presented the city staff options for resolutions,
[3:56] stemming from the lawsuit from the Southwest
[3:58] Voter Registration Education Project.
[4:01] You heard we heard hosted over 30 community meetings,
[4:03] including notably meetings held in Spanish,
[4:08] to involve as many voters as possible.
[4:10] And now, just a handful of years later,
[4:12] we have a small group of individuals
[4:13] who are trying to ramp through a ballot proposition
[4:15] to bring back what the lawsuit and the city's own experts
[4:19] found was the most racially polarized voting,
[4:21] the at-large mayor election.
[4:22] California voting rights act working group for the city strongly recommends that the city
[4:27] not engage in any action that would violate existing state law as well as honoring our original settlement agreement with the civil rights firm.
[4:35] In fact, we are disappointed to learn that the settlement agreement was not included in the staff report for this evening.
[4:41] The city has a responsibility to conduct unbiased public education about possible litigation exposure if this ballot proposition were to move forward.
[4:48] Finally, we currently live under a federal administration that has demonstrated consistent
[4:53] disregard for legal precedent, property, community engagement, channels, and an imposition
[4:58] of will to bend to strong egos and people in power who are unwilling to be held accountable.
[5:03] It is extremely unfortunate to see similar tactics attempted here in Palm Springs.
[5:08] Thank you.
[5:12] We can move on to our online public speaker, Tobias Wolfe, if you can hear us, you have two minutes.
[5:21] I'm a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a part-time resident in Palm Springs in District 2.
[5:30] I also have the great honor of serving as one of the co-chairs of the CBRA working group.
[5:36] I endorse the statements of my colleagues.
[5:40] And I'd like to emphasize the fiduciary obligations
[5:45] that the members of the City Council bear to the city.
[5:49] It is very clear under the California voting right back
[5:54] and under the settlement that the city has entered into
[5:57] that adopting an at-large district with voting privileges
[6:03] on the council in a city that has a demonstrated and admitted history of racially polarized
[6:11] voting. We'll both open the city to litigation under the CBRA and we'll stand in violation
[6:17] of the settlement agreement which Councilman Leady signed which quite explicitly envisions the
[6:25] possibility of adding at large elements to the city's voting structure and makes that unacceptable
[6:32] And part of one of the conditions of the settlement is not to add that large elements of voting structure of the city council.
[6:42] I saw some of the literature of one of the proponents of this proposal referring to this city hall technicalities.
[6:49] This is very disappointing language.
[6:51] It's a very disappointing way to approach the duties of the office.
[6:54] This is one of the most important civil rights statues in the state of California.
[6:57] The city of Palm Springs has done an exemplary job in fulfilling its duties under that statute.
[7:05] And I urge the Council not to take any steps to undermine that work in a way that
[7:10] withstand the violation of your duties to the city.
[7:13] Thank you.
[7:16] Thank you, Mr. Wolf.
[7:19] Are there any other public comments?
[7:21] No further comments.
[7:23] Okay.
[7:24] Council will now adjourn.
[7:25] Madam Mayor.
[7:26] I'm going to accuse on the item of regarding grit development.
[7:29] is there.
[7:30] I just want to be clear that I have not participated in any of the discussions with council members on this subject.
[7:38] Thank you. Thank you. Council member Brinsen. We will now adjourn to the small conference room for closed session.
[7:49] Good evening we got a full crowd thank you all for being here I hear by call the Palm Springs
[7:55] I hear by call the Palm Springs Regular City Council meeting on April 8th, 2026 to order
[8:01] Ask if you can please stand and join in the pledge allegiance and mayor pretend will you help lead us to this evening
[8:06] You can channel your inner eighth grader
[8:17] and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice.
[8:36] I acknowledge that the land we gather, live and work on today, currently known as the City of Palm Springs,
[8:42] is the original homeland of the Aguacunited Band of Quia Indians.
[8:46] The sovereign band of Aguacunited people have stewarded this land throughout the generations,
[8:51] and continue to steward this land for all future generations.
[8:54] We honor and respect the many diverse indigenous people still connected to this land.
[9:00] City Clerk, can you please conduct roll call?
[9:03] Members are present.
[9:04] Thank you.
[9:06] We have one presentation this evening.
[9:09] We're going to get started with J.R. Roberts who's going to give us an update on the
[9:18] Jay, Robert's plus team.
[9:22] We have a presentation that we're quite.
[9:26] You read my mind.
[9:29] How's that? Better?
[9:31] So, Mayor, how about all of these nice people coming out just for a
[9:34] plus at the inter-presentation?
[9:38] So, a team, council members and staff, we're here to just literally give you a
[9:44] five minute update on the plus of theater.
[9:46] We're four months in now.
[9:47] And we thought we'd throw some numbers and some other things that you so we'll start.
[9:54] I'm, yeah, don't hold me to that.
[10:48] When that girl can start to ride all the years,
[10:52] our dancing in the light.
[10:56] For a stage mirror, then a host so sweet.
[10:58] You can hear the old birds underneath your feet.
[11:00] The La Vante is loud
[11:30] as a beat.
[11:42] Yes, it's true.
[11:43] We come with our own jingle now.
[11:46] So we, so let's see if we can advance this.
[11:55] There we go.
[11:56] I don't know if our remote's going to do it.
[11:58] Let's see.
[11:58] Here we go.
[12:06] Kind of in slow mode.
[12:07] But, okay, here we are.
[12:11] So I brought with me today a number of our board members.
[12:15] Of course, you know John Bolton, who,
[12:17] with Othew Group, who manages overseas
[12:19] and programs the theater, we've got magic mark,
[12:23] we call him Mark Hamilton, one of our great board members,
[12:27] and we have Kathy Wormick, we have Judy Blanchard.
[12:30] And of course, we have our vice president, Kevin Corquant,
[12:33] who you all know.
[12:34] So, is this flying ahead on its own?
[12:37] Maybe they can stand behind you, so the audience watching can see who they are.
[12:43] Yeah, so, okay, so this is taken on a life of its own.
[12:49] So, I don't think we can back this up either, can we?
[12:52] This isn't really working.
[12:55] Is that what it is?
[12:57] Thank you.
[12:58] Just trying to get back to that first group of numbers.
[13:03] We're going to go back a few more for me.
[13:06] 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.
[13:16] 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.
[13:23] and the challenges that we faced but we're here and we're
[13:27] for a month in and I'm going to let a few of the other board members in John
[13:31] Bolton takes take you down the adventure of some more numbers and some more
[13:37] results for you okay John hopefully that will stop good luck with that
[13:48] yeah
[13:48] clickers not working could you advance for me
[13:56] I think they need to go back to right
[13:58] there we can see right there that'd be great so I'll be brief obviously you know
[14:03] We've been busy since we opened December 1st.
[14:07] First four months, we did 120 events in 121 days,
[14:11] tracking over 60,000 people to the theater.
[14:15] And that 120 number, 120 event number,
[14:18] is significant because we originally
[14:20] are projections where that we would do 120 events a year.
[14:23] And we're happy to report that we did that in four months.
[14:27] And you might think, well, what's ahead?
[14:29] And as we look, obviously our goal for the theater
[14:33] is to be a year-round facility and not just be in season.
[14:37] And so between now and the end of the year, I'm projecting another 80 events
[14:40] that we'll have throughout the summer.
[14:43] So really, really exceeding our expectations and that's because
[14:46] of all the people in our community who have supported the theater
[14:50] through ticket sales and by coming and being part of those 60,000 people.
[14:55] We also have donated more than 2,000 tickets,
[14:58] just to get it to the palm screen.
[15:00] Unified School District, as well as non-profits throughout the entire valley. And if you can
[15:06] click to on, I'll just briefly remind everybody, obviously we're very excited to have national
[15:13] touring shows come to the Plaza Theatre, but also we're proud of all of the local groups who
[15:19] are friends and families and neighbors who have the opportunity to perform and sing on the stage
[15:24] as well. And those are represented here. We've obviously announced a few more others recently.
[15:29] the Desert Shakespeare Festival, our classical summer series with Coachella Valley classical
[15:35] voices and sort of leather local groups that will be performing this summer at the theater
[15:40] as well.
[15:46] So Mark Hamilton, one good of the next slide, Mark Hamilton, I'm the treasure, I'm going to talk
[15:53] a little bit about what's going on with the math side of the things.
[15:58] One of the big things when we came to you so many years ago, it feels right now, was
[16:04] the economic impact on the downtown area, and with 60,000 guests coming through, it is well-excited
[16:13] our expectations, and having 60 percent nearly two-thirds of the guests coming from out of town
[16:20] also exceed their expectations.
[16:23] Can I just jump in really quick?
[16:24] When you say out of town, do you mean out of Palm Springs or out of the Coachella Valley?
[16:28] Out of Coachella Valley.
[16:29] Okay.
[16:29] Thank you.
[16:30] And we have a bunch of programs that we've kicked off going forward to continue building
[16:37] the enthusiasm and the traffic in our theater.
[16:42] We've had 218 guests that have bought more than four performances.
[16:47] They've bought a total of nearly 2,000 seats so far.
[16:51] Judy's actually running a special event.
[16:53] Thank you for those folks in the coming weeks.
[16:56] And we have 60, something, 68 coming for a cocktail party to say thank you to our free confliers.
[17:08] We've rolled out our annual membership programs and we're seeing a really nice uptick of folks that are subscribing to annual memberships.
[17:16] 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.
[17:26] at the higher level and we're having great luck with people sponsoring shows so a number
[17:33] of the shows that we have coming in and then under and by our guests.
[17:51] So we want to say thank you to each of you who had the confidence in us to support us
[17:58] when our bids came in to $27 million and we didn't think we can get this done.
[18:03] U.S. City Council people have stepped forward and you support this effort and we are so proud
[18:08] after four months of what we've achieved together.
[18:10] The conclusions you see up here in terms of exceeding our goals,
[18:14] accessibility, the theater, the equality of entertainment,
[18:18] it's just extraordinary.
[18:20] And I think the feedback we're getting from our citizens
[18:21] has been amazing.
[18:23] But the thing that I think is the biggest surprise for us
[18:25] is an intangible.
[18:27] And that is the spirit of community that happens
[18:30] when people attend shows in our theater.
[18:33] There's just something whether they're going to see
[18:35] Herman's Hermits were some other talent to see 700 people in this energy that we've created
[18:42] in the theater.
[18:43] This intimate setting, which makes every artist, every performance just shine.
[18:48] It's something very special, it's something we had hoped for, but has exceeded our expectations.
[18:53] And I think as Board members, that's the thing we're proudest about, above and beyond the numbers
[18:57] and the economic impact we talked about today.
[18:59] I also wanted to just do a shout out to our partners.
[19:01] These are the businesses who stepped up initially with us and said they wanted to be part
[19:07] of the Palm Springs Plaza's their story, we're proud to announce that those businesses
[19:11] are thriving as sponsors of us, and we've asked other small businesses and hotels to step
[19:17] on board.
[19:18] We're bringing 60,000 people to their doorstep, we have to find ways to continue to market
[19:23] and to encourage people to spend money and retail and our hotels and our restaurants.
[19:27] And we're working on that with other small businesses and hotels in the city.
[19:30] 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.
[19:41] This John says what we're looking forward to in terms of new shows, new opportunities, additional people coming to Palm Springs.
[19:48] It's just great news for our city and we're very proud of the results and we hope you are too.
[19:54] Any questions?
[19:58] Yeah Kevin you mentioned excuse me partners and inviting other small businesses to come to be a partner.
[20:06] What is it take to what's required to be a partner?
[20:10] I have some ideas to.
[20:14] Yeah I mean we welcome any business that wants to be a part of what we're trying to do.
[20:20] Sorry.
[20:23] Yes, so we obviously welcome any business that has an interest in participating with us, obviously
[20:30] Kevin pointed out some of those, but you know they vary, you know, this sponsorship
[20:36] proposals vary based on their interests, our interest in trying to really create a win-win relationship
[20:43] between the two entities that the lives of theater and that business.
[20:47] 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.
[21:05] And we could have brought in what we could have felt this room with people who were working
[21:11] with who were very happy but we thought it might go on a little longer than seven minutes.
[21:16] But ultimately, from our perspective and certainly in my experience, this is the best public
[21:23] private partnership that I've ever been a part of that has a city and a community supporting
[21:31] something that's important to them and we're very very proud and happy to be a part of that
[21:37] and we're very happy and proud that you trusted us and became part of that as well. And that's
[21:43] all we really had to say in what you have other questions for us. Yeah, I think there's a couple more
[21:47] questions. Come to some number of emergency. I don't have a question just a comment, so I just want
[21:52] to say thank you. You know, you're right. It is an exceptional public private partnership.
[21:57] a lot of it has to do with you and the rest of the board who I know continue to work hard
[22:01] and raise money and work to make it all that it can be so I want to thank you and I have
[22:07] bought tickets more than four shows so I think you're on the end but okay thank you so
[22:13] just thank you all and I appreciate it and I'm very happy to see this summer booking fair
[22:19] because I think that's something that you know people don't realize we didn't always have
[22:22] the Plaza Theatre and we will have now. So we'll have a cool place to go literally and
[22:28] figuratively in the summer.
[22:30] 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.
[22:36] But can you talk a little bit about what your plans are in order to make some tickets more accessible
[22:42] to folks of lower incomes and more tickets to students? If you can just talk a little bit about that.
[22:47] Because I know you've already started that, but I know you have bigger plans.
[22:51] on the whole Dark Day when Scott Styles asked me to lunch and I had no idea why and he had
[22:58] you he had been sent as your henchmen to ask us to take on the plaza permanently and operate it
[23:06] what that meant to the foundation you know we're in all volunteer foundation was that we would be
[23:10] there forever and that the only way that the plaza theater will make it is with first of all
[23:17] support from the community and continuing ongoing work from our great foundation and, of course,
[23:24] hope you group and John. So what is the future look like? Honestly, we're raising money all
[23:30] the time. That's all we're doing. We're building partnerships. We're bringing in subscriptions.
[23:35] We're doing everything we can to make sure that the community understands that the theaters
[23:41] a gift from us, from you, to them, and in order for it to work, they will have to support
[23:47] it, they will have to show up, they will have to support it financially, and we're here
[23:52] to do everything we can to make that happen. Specifically, I could run things down, but it's
[23:59] really all comes down to that. That's what we're doing every single day, is coming up with
[24:03] ways that we can raise money and build partnerships to keep the theater going.
[24:10] I'd also say that many of the people that we're reaching out to have particular interest in supporting
[24:16] particular type of programming.
[24:18] And so we're encouraging them to support educational programming, programming for families,
[24:23] programming for families during the summer.
[24:26] Their donors we're talking to who have the specific interest to target their funds towards
[24:31] that.
[24:31] And we're encouraging and nurturing those relationships to make sure we can not only get
[24:36] the programming, but also underwrite the cost of tickets.
[24:39] Thank you.
[24:42] Thank you.
[24:43] Good evening.
[24:44] It's great to see all of you.
[24:46] And I would just note that I think we've all can agree that, you know, the
[24:50] Plaza Theatre renovation is important if not actually critical to the downtown
[24:58] renovation.
[24:59] And it's been a significant impact.
[25:03] All the years it's been vacant.
[25:05] And the interesting thing is looking at you there now.
[25:07] see, these things don't happen without you, and I know all the meetings you've been to,
[25:13] putting it together, meetings, and meetings, then all the continued volunteer time, fundraising,
[25:20] making sure, you know, this baby that we've all birthed, but you were right. They are really
[25:25] birthing it, continues to thrive. So anyway, it is a partnership that was mentioned. Thank you so
[25:31] much for doing it. And I think the future is great because this is all part of Palm Springs brand,
[25:37] And our identity, and it's what will continue to make down Tom Gray.
[25:41] So anyway, thank you for your efforts.
[25:46] 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.
[26:02] I was wondering if you could kind of expand a little bit on that 66% of out of town.
[26:07] We have such a unique population here and that we have so many part-time residents and snowbirds and so
[26:14] Can you share a little bit if there's any thoughts on how we can understand?
[26:20] Does that 60% include our snowbirds or kind of how do we under
[26:25] 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?
[26:33] I think like most businesses hotels
[26:35] venues like ours, we rely on the information that the ticket buyer in our case gives us.
[26:42] And so when we, what we look at is where people are coming from, where they're buying
[26:48] their ticket, where their address is from.
[26:50] And that's really the only way that we know if they're in the metro area, the pump springs
[26:54] are outside of that area.
[26:55] So you could have someone that lives in Chicago that buys tickets and comes to pump springs
[27:00] because they have a second house here or they could be just coming to visit.
[27:04] that we don't really know that.
[27:05] All we know is the valid information
[27:08] that the ticket buyer gives us when they come to make that purchase.
[27:11] So that's what we rely on.
[27:13] And that's how, I think, all of us to determine
[27:15] where those people are coming from.
[27:18] Because otherwise, we don't really ask,
[27:20] how you do you have to say, there's no way for us to really
[27:22] exactly know that other than the address
[27:25] that they give us when they purchase the ticket.
[27:29] Just like you do check into a hotel,
[27:31] you give your address.
[27:32] That's the same way that happens with us.
[27:35] So have you thought of or maybe in the future any kind of like desk surveys or anything
[27:41] afterward in the same way as like, how was your stay and kind of...
[27:44] Yes, after every show, ticket buyers get a customer service feedback through our program called RIPTIDE.
[27:51] We have customer service feedback on every person who responds to our survey, but yeah, if you buy a ticket,
[27:58] Unless you have bought multiple in a certain period of time, we only hit you once in the 60-day period,
[28:04] 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,
[28:13] the journey and experiences for our ticket buyers.
[28:16] Thank you.
[28:18] I would only add to that that actually we look forward to your metrics.
[28:21] So, the city has the ability to measure growth and profitability in different parts of downtown.
[28:30] So, given that the theater pretty much has a program every night of the week, once we get further along,
[28:36] we can start doing comparisons from prior to the theater opening, looking back at the days from the follies,
[28:44] the time the theater was closed and where we are today, and the metrics will probably become a lot more clear
[28:49] on what those true financial impacts are from.
[28:54] Many of the projections that we made,
[28:56] originally about our impacts to downtown,
[28:59] came from what the follies was already doing.
[29:02] And the follies was only ran I think forward four days a week.
[29:06] We're running pretty much seven days a week now
[29:08] with very full audiences.
[29:11] One question I didn't answer earlier that I think was asked of me
[29:14] is what are we going to do for going forward
[29:17] and making the theater accessible.
[29:20] One of the things that we are very much focused on in
[29:23] our fundraising is subsidizing programming
[29:27] so that we can get kids so that we can get other people
[29:30] so that we can have $20 tickets in the theater
[29:33] and we're doing that and we're achieving that.
[29:36] And we had a number of days recently where we
[29:38] filled the theater two or three times of 700 kids each
[29:42] which was an amazing thing for us.
[29:44] there are 700 kids in our city yeah well let's say there are 700 kids in the theater with
[29:50] a whole bunch of buses out front so they were coming from school districts everywhere yeah
[30:00] 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.
[30:18] Thank you so much.
[30:20] Thank you all for joining, appreciate the whole board.
[30:24] Thank you.
[30:29] Moving on to proclamations, we had two that were have been recently done.
[30:35] First, we have Karen Divine Day proclaimed on March 27, 2026.
[30:39] She received the 486 star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.
[30:45] In recognition for her distinguished careers banning nearly 35 years in broadcast journalism here in the Coachella Valley
[30:52] and her strong commitment to community service.
[30:55] So big things to care and divine there.
[30:59] We also had Kim Walltrip Day.
[31:01] I was proclaimed on April 3rd, 2026.
[31:04] She received the 487 star and recognition
[31:07] of her accomplished career as a foam producer, director,
[31:12] and overall contributions in arts and local and the local
[31:15] film community, as well as her ongoing service
[31:17] and community initiatives here in the city of Palm Springs.
[31:20] Our next item is the acceptance of the agenda,
[31:23] the city council will discuss the order of the agenda may amend the order at urgency items,
[31:28] no abstentions, or no votes on consent calendar items, or request calendar items to be removed
[31:33] for separate discussions. Are there any items, staff, or a council member were like removed from
[31:38] the consent calendar, if you can know if it's a separate discussion, a question, or a refusal.
[31:47] Anybody?
[31:59] Recuse in on one seat.
[32:01] See?
[32:02] Okay.
[32:02] See?
[32:05] Yes, Council Member Bernstein.
[32:07] I just have a question on one.
[32:14] Okay.
[32:17] That's amazing.
[32:18] Thank you.
[32:19] I would like to entertain a motion to accept the agenda.
[32:24] Do we have a...
[32:27] I have a motion by Council Member Gardner.
[32:29] Second by Council Member DeHeart.
[32:32] I'm just waiting on Council Member Bernstein and ready.
[32:37] What?
[32:37] Come up.
[32:39] You can also vote right here.
[32:42] You're a slutty.
[32:44] Here we go.
[32:45] Thank you.
[32:49] Wonderful.
[32:50] Motion carries.
[32:52] At this time, I invite City Attorney Ballinger to provide a report on the closed session
[32:55] Please.
[32:56] Yes, Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council.
[32:58] Members of the public, the City Council,
[33:00] to discuss items that are listed on the agenda and there is no report of election.
[33:05] 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.
[33:14] 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.
[33:27] If there's a written comment that you would like to distribute your welcome to hand it to the city clerk
[33:33] We have many speakers tonight
[33:35] So I'm going to ask that I will let you know who's the current speaker who's next on deck
[33:42] And we're going to try to keep it going as quickly as possible
[33:45] I will be holding the two-minute boundary for every public speaker. So fair warning to everyone now
[33:54] First speaker
[34:03] Is David Vignolio and on deck will be lex or take up please?
[34:32] This is reset.
[34:36] 151.
[34:40] Good evening.
[34:41] I'm speaking on 3C.
[34:43] I urge the council to move quickly and
[34:44] considering the transition to the direct
[34:46] election of a mayor by putting the question before the
[34:49] voters in November.
[34:51] I believe this transition, if achieved by a vote of
[34:57] protected class to influence the outcome of future elections, and would bolster the democratic
[35:03] process by having a mayor elected by the majority of the voters. I'm strongly opposed to
[35:09] the city council maintaining a rotational mayor, but extending that term of the term of that
[35:15] service as it would do little to remedy issues with the current structure and could unfairly
[35:20] elevate an individual holding that position. I also oppose the city's engaging services of a
[35:29] professional demographer to determine whether adding a directly elected mayor is in
[35:34] furtherance of the purposes of the CVRA. This likely would be costly and is less transparent
[35:40] than putting the question before the voters. Although transitioning to a directly elected mayor
[35:45] could be challenged under the CVRA. I believe the changing demographics of our city and the benefits
[35:51] of having a directly elected mayor for a term of four years far away the risks of possible
[35:57] litigation. I also have faith that the council could decide the appropriate staffing for
[36:03] a directly elected mayor position and reject this as a reason not to support this transition.
[36:09] Our city has grown significantly since I moved to District 5 in October 2018.
[36:15] I believe having a dedicated mayor representing the entire city directly elected by its citizens.
[36:22] Elevates our city allows for greater collaboration and attention from our federal and state partners.
[36:28] And provides enhanced accountability throughout our city government, which is vital as our city grows by adding a city wide perspective to council discussion.
[36:37] time is up.
[36:39] Thank you.
[36:42] Next we have Lex after Lex will be Kathy Wormack.
[36:47] I'm a Palm Springs resident and I just came from my apartment in District 1 to this meeting.
[36:52] The street I live on is a street full of apartments and doplexes.
[36:55] 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.
[37:03] 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.
[37:12] 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.
[37:22] That led to the formation of the California voting rights act working group.
[37:30] Senate agreement in that case, because even the city's officials found proof that the at-large mayors election
[37:35] have the most racially polarized voting in the city. This is a civil rights issue more than anything,
[37:41] and the people who don't see it that way, perhaps like the person before me, likely have never
[37:45] been part of a minority voting block as defined by the CBRA. If we want to see the cost of ego over evidence
[37:50] look at Santa Monica, they are currently mired in a legal battle against amicrists, brief filers, and civil rights
[37:57] tightens like the Dolores Horatva Foundation, the Legislative Black Caucus, Asian-American
[38:01] advancing justice, California Latino School Board Association, California Association of
[38:06] Black School Educators, UCLA, Voting Rights Project, and many more.
[38:10] For eight years we have seen the results of our labor, our current city council is the
[38:13] most diverse cross-sectional leaders in our city's history.
[38:16] This did not happen by accident.
[38:18] It happened because we held dozens of meetings in English and Spanish to ensure every resident
[38:22] had a voice in our current system.
[38:24] There are other options on the table than what a small group of residents are attempting
[38:28] to ramp through with the ballot proposition, including two year rotating terms.
[38:32] Ultimately, changing this now to include any at-large elements isn't about better government.
[38:37] Governance, it's about catering to strong egos who want to be talking heads rather than public servants.
[38:42] We are already seeing that federally, we should be a sanctuary for democracy, not a local mirror of those same federal tactics.
[38:48] Thank you.
[38:54] Next, we have Kathy, after Kathy will be, of course.
[38:56] 3, I'm speaking on 3, CM Kathy, we're meant to live in District 1.
[39:01] I had the privilege voting for the first Latina to serve on City Council in a district
[39:09] that was my craft of to be majority minority.
[39:13] That person also, Grace Garner, became our first Latina, and only Latino mayor in our
[39:24] chairs of the citizens folding rights working group.
[39:28] We have some other members here if they would stand up and I know Stephen is having a
[39:32] hard time standing up because he's got a broken hip.
[39:37] But we've been anyway, we engaged in a significant process of hearings, forms, workshops
[39:45] and outreach events that included more than 400 individuals and residents and we even
[39:53] meetings in Spanish. We made a detailed legislative and factual record in 2018, which I
[40:00] have to say. I'm very sorry to say was not included in the public record for this meeting.
[40:09] And we basically looking at the demographics of the city and the issues before us proposed a fully
[40:18] 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.
[40:36] And it was important that we did that because the city admitted to and also had a long history of racially polarized voting,
[40:44] And the most polarized of which has been historically in the mayor's race.
[40:51] My personal belief is the district system has worked well.
[40:55] We have gone from having two people of color serve in the 80 years of the city council's
[41:01] history to having three people with minority background.
[41:04] Your attitude.
[41:05] Thank you.
[41:06] Oh, sorry.
[41:07] Next, we have Jeff Coors, after Jeff Coors will be James Williamson.
[41:12] I'm speaking on item C3C. At a time when voting rights of minorities and women are under attack
[41:19] nationally, POMS fringe should be doing everything it can to protect voting rights, not
[41:23] limit them. Electing a six council member who will also serve as a ceremonial mayor in an
[41:29] atl...in an atl...in an atl...in an atl...in an atl...in an election will violate the city legal settlement
[41:32] that we entered with a Latino voting rights organization and violate the California voting
[41:38] rights act, allowing for legal challenges that could last years result in the city-paying
[41:42] both parties' legal fees.
[41:44] Santa Monica has been in litigation for a decade, still ongoing, and has spent tens
[41:49] of millions of dollars fighting a CVRA lawsuit.
[41:52] The CVRA and the city's settlement agreement specifically say that a remedy that combines at-large
[41:59] members and district-based members is prohibited.
[42:05] period. In addition, California courts have made it clear that the law applies whether
[42:09] enacted by the legislative body or the voters. No California government entity of any kind
[42:15] has ever won a CVRA lawsuit. If Council or the voters decides to add a six at large council member
[42:22] who serves as a ceremonial mayor, the city will find itself shockingly on the other side of
[42:28] entities who file briefs and supported the plaintiffs who are suing Santa Monica at the California
[42:33] to print court. These include the California Attorney General, the California Secretary of
[42:38] State, California's Latino Black and Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucuses, Democratic
[42:43] Legislators and Sacramento, and civil rights organizations, including the Dolores Works
[42:47] of Foundation, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund,
[42:52] and many more. I cannot imagine our residents wanting the city to take any action that could
[42:57] weaken or overturn California and voting rights laws, or to spend millions of dollars fighting
[43:02] of civil rights organizations and state leaders.
[43:05] They want this council to oppose it.
[43:07] Thank you very much.
[43:10] Thank you.
[43:12] James, just one second.
[43:13] We have Tobias Wolf who's on Zoom, so we're going to go in order.
[43:17] Tobias, if you can hear me?
[43:21] Yes, I can.
[43:22] Great.
[43:22] We'll do two minutes and then after Tobias James.
[43:25] Thank you very much.
[43:26] My name is Tobias Wolf.
[43:28] I'm a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
[43:30] and at part-time homeowner and part-time resident in Palm Springs in District 2, I had
[43:37] a great honor of serving as one of the co-chairs on the CVRA working group that helps to support
[43:43] Palm Springs in the move to district-wide elections. My role here today was to talk a little bit
[43:49] about the reasons why this agenda item 3C would be illegal, would violate the California
[43:56] voting rights act and perhaps equally important violate the settlement agreement that the
[44:00] city is entered into. My friends and colleagues have already done a very good job with that.
[44:04] So I'd like to take a second and just talk in very real terms about what this is about and why it
[44:10] is a civil rights issue. The move from at large elections to district elections in Palm Springs,
[44:17] which has resulted in a period of extraordinary good governance in Palm Springs.
[44:21] The major impact it had was to diminish the ability of a very powerful small group of residents
[44:29] of Palm Springs to exercise outsized influence and power over policy in the city.
[44:35] And this proposal is a civil rights issue under the CBRA because what it would do is allow
[44:43] that very powerful small group of residents in Palm Springs to deadlock the council.
[44:48] That's the impact that it would have to add this sixth out-large position onto the council.
[44:54] It would empower rich people in the city to...
[45:00] 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.
[45:14] Thank you, Tobias. Next we have James Williamson, after James will be Ed Duby.
[45:19] 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.
[45:29] after a past history that harmed many minorities. Now that the city is in full compliance
[45:35] with our state's voting rights act, I oppose the effort to add a large mayor, which undermines
[45:41] both the spirit and the letter of that act. When I was in country government, she states, the
[45:46] board presidency was rotated, just as a mayor's position is rotated today in Pam Springs. I believe
[45:52] that system works very well and avoids unwanted expenditures while leading to collegial power
[45:59] now come in from myself on the process. When we engage our residents, we know from
[46:05] experience that we develop better decisions and solutions. The small work we're
[46:09] working in private over a nine-month period that developed the proposed ballot
[46:13] measure did not even hold one public meeting to get input from residents. If the
[46:19] proponents, as the state, truly wanted to provide the community with a choice
[46:23] and our system of government, wouldn't we first engage the community to develop that choice?
[46:29] Rather than tell us what they had decided was the best solution and allow us only to vote
[46:33] yes or no. That's why strongly urge the council to please continue with the public process
[46:40] that Council Member Garner initiated. Take two to three months to hold public community meetings
[46:45] and find a proposal and if a proposal for change results from that, then let's make sure that
[46:52] the ballot language is not misleading, but it does not violate the law, and it does not
[46:57] disenfranchise any members of our community. And above all, there moves our city forward
[47:03] and not back as the current proposal does. Thank you.
[47:06] Thank you.
[47:10] Next we have a dooby after a dooby is Melissa Dolores.
[47:15] Hi, I'm a dooby. I live in District 5. Much of what I was going to say has already been
[47:22] said much more eloquently by the people before me.
[47:26] But let's face it right now.
[47:27] This is playing out before the public.
[47:29] Camine, our news had this as their lead story for the last two
[47:34] nights.
[47:35] And we hadn't even started discussion here at the council.
[47:38] I'd like to re-emphasize what James asked for
[47:42] that we need to do much better outreach with the community.
[47:46] We have to give people time to debate and talk about this.
[47:49] If this is how we're pushing forward, not rushing.
[47:51] to get this done. There was no staff report with this item, 3C. In my opinion, the city attorney
[48:00] should at least be telling the public these are the terms of what we came to conclusion
[48:05] that led us to having the diversity and districts. And in my opinion, it's working very well.
[48:13] If right now, the feds are dismantling DEI across the board. They're trying to rewrite history.
[48:20] their doing away with it. Palm Springs brand is at the other end of the spectrum.
[48:27] We are known for our diversity. We have, in my opinion, done very well since we've moved
[48:34] to district thing in terms of rotating the mayor and the visibility of the people that are
[48:39] on the council, not just in the valley, but nationally, on meet the press during the hurricane.
[48:46] You know, every time that I turn around,
[48:50] Palm Springs is at the opposite end of what Donald Trump's agenda is.
[48:56] What it really worries me, and I only have 20 seconds left.
[49:00] So if we, as I imagine, we go to six council members,
[49:04] we end up deadlocking and the out-large position determines
[49:10] that that's why we're deadlocked and doesn't move forward.
[49:12] What if that had been on reparations?
[49:14] The last thing is, I have the plaque that we can give in.
[49:21] It's signed by Ron DeHeart, who was the head of the civil rights thing in the end.
[49:26] Thank you.
[49:29] Next, we have Melissa Dolores and after Melissa, we'll be April Ross.
[49:36] Hello, everybody.
[49:38] I am here on behalf of the Section 14 Organization.
[49:42] On behalf of the Section 14 survivors, non-profit organization, we respect
[49:45] free urge, the City Council, to maintain the current rotating mayor system and not alter the
[49:52] position of mayor.
[49:53] The mission of the Section 14 survivors is to improve the quality of life of survivors
[49:58] and descendants of Palm Springs, Section 14.
[50:00] This work is grounded and restoring our past and reclaiming our future through meaningful
[50:05] and equitable representation.
[50:07] The rotating mayor system was designed to ensure historically underrepresented communities like
[50:14] Section 14, have a voice at the mayoral and council table, preserving the system is essential to maintaining inclusive and accessible governance.
[50:24] 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.
[50:42] The straff reports highlights the city's 2018 transition by direct elections resulted by a threat of litigation under the CBRA.
[50:52] 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.
[51:04] Moving away from district-based representation risks under mining these important protections.
[51:11] Additionally, the current system, the future, the changing the current system would increase
[51:17] financial responsibility of the state.
[51:19] I propose instead of doing that, you go ahead and complete the promises that were made to
[51:24] section 14, like affordable housing assistance and small business assistance as well.
[51:31] Thank you so much.
[51:35] After next we have April Rojas, and after April is John Leano, Leano.
[51:42] Good evening council members. My name is April Rojas. I'm a full time resident and small business owner here in Palm Springs.
[51:49] I'm here to vocalize my disappointment in agenda item 3C and the possibility of returning to an elected mayor.
[51:55] The city struggles with the perception of inclusiveness and diversity without actually practicing either in a truly impactful way.
[52:01] returning to an elected mayor has the potential to prevent more progressive and diverse leadership
[52:06] as well as create legal and physical challenges for the city.
[52:09] The at-large voting method used to elect mayors historically has not reflected the actual demographic of the city.
[52:16] Requiring candidates to fundraise and campaign creates a barrier for more diverse and underserved candidates to run.
[52:23] The decision to return to elected mayors would need to...
[52:30] And community outreach seemingly much longer than the current timeline being presented for this initiative.
[52:36] We are at a moment collectively where we must protect the rights and interests of all residents of this city.
[52:42] Not just the ones with enough privilege and resources to rush ego-driven decisions about the future of our community's leadership.
[52:49] 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.
[52:59] Thank you.
[53:01] Thank you, April.
[53:03] After John, we have Lisa Middleton.
[53:07] Hi, I'm here.
[53:08] Good evening, Mayor and council members.
[53:10] I'm here on three C.
[53:11] My name is John Lano and resident of District 2.
[53:13] And I'm here to support a directly elected mayor.
[53:16] This matter comes down to three core principles.
[53:19] Accountability, continuity, and representation.
[53:22] First accountability.
[53:23] Right now, Palm Springs residents elect council members by district but not the mayor.
[53:27] this creates a clear accountability gap.
[53:30] Our most visible leader is not directly answerable
[53:32] to the entire electorate.
[53:35] Second continuity.
[53:37] Since 2019, Palm Springs has had seven mayors.
[53:40] This turnover makes it difficult to build strategic momentum
[53:43] or sustain long-term priorities.
[53:46] Other cities like Stockton and Santa Ana
[53:48] have successfully transferred from transition
[53:51] from a rotational model to directly elected mayors
[53:54] serving multi-year terms with no legal issues.
[53:56] and research shows that long-term strength and regional and state partnerships
[54:00] improve economic development and ensure better policy fall through because the leadership
[54:05] and priorities do not reset every year.
[54:08] Third, representation, a directly elected mayor built upon our district-based system by also
[54:14] including a seat that represents a hundred percent of Palm Springs voters.
[54:18] It provides a unifying voice on citywide issues like housing, tourism, and infrastructure.
[54:23] 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.
[54:35] Finally, this change would not alter Palm Springs City, Palm Springs Council Manager Form of Government.
[54:41] The city manager would continue to oversee daily operations.
[54:44] This measure simply gives voters the ability to choose who serves in mayor and represents everyone.
[54:49] This is a practical, widely used model and a strengthens the accountability, improves continuity and gives residents a stronger voice.
[54:57] I just ask, including respectfully, that you support moving this forward and please let us vote.
[55:06] Thank you, John. Next, we have the Semental Tan, after Lisa, is Christopher Brottwell.
[55:14] Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Council. In 2018, I had the honor of serving on the Palm Springs City Council.
[55:23] At the time that we implemented the change from everyone being elected at large to a district
[55:30] base system, we had over 30 meetings within our neighborhoods in English and in Spanish
[55:41] and I attended personally almost every single one of those meetings.
[55:47] We learned a tremendous amount from those meetings.
[55:50] They were productive, they were engaging of the public.
[55:54] We had a very complex question before us.
[55:58] And that was how to take and move to something
[56:01] we had not done before to have district boundaries
[56:04] and what would those district boundaries be?
[56:08] What we have seen is that the work that went in
[56:11] to that effort to create those district boundaries
[56:14] has stood up over the test of time.
[56:17] And today, the boundaries that we have in place are almost identical to the boundaries that were drawn back in 2018.
[56:27] The question before us today is a different question, and it is not a complex question.
[56:33] It's question as to whether or not we should have in Palm Springs, like nearly 200 other California cities, a directly elected mayor.
[56:45] 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.
[57:12] We need a Mayor who has the support of the entire city of Palm Springs.
[57:19] Thank you.
[57:20] Thank you.
[57:22] Next we have Christopher Baldwin, after Christopher Baldwin we have Lori E. Yollian.
[57:29] No.
[57:31] Next after.
[57:32] Okay.
[57:33] Sorry.
[57:34] Thank you.
[57:34] I'm with district five, yay five.
[57:37] Thank you for the opportunity to address the council.
[57:42] never have so few people done so much for so many for so little reward.
[57:46] Thank you all for your contributions to the city.
[57:50] And I want to call out Scott Styles for his engagement, his efforts.
[57:56] There's no place I go in town that I don't see him somewhere.
[57:59] So thank you Scott.
[58:01] I'll be brief.
[58:02] I'm here to speak in favor of the direct election for mayor.
[58:05] Our city council as most councils has turned over.
[58:09] 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.
[58:23] Each district has a voice in the selection of their representatives.
[58:26] Yet voters have no say in who should service mayor.
[58:30] We vote for our assembly member, our state senator, and our governor.
[58:34] It seems to work at a state level, I think it can work here.
[58:37] I fully support district elections however it's time for voters to have a direct voice in the selection of our mayor.
[58:45] Direct voting by citizens is the hallmark of our democracy. It is the hallmark of our democracy.
[58:52] I don't believe this proposal is intended to hurt or disenfranchise anyone in our community.
[58:58] In fact, it is my belief that any potential candidate for mayor, regardless of background,
[59:03] that conveys an inspirational vision for Palm Springs could be elected.
[59:08] We do not need a mayor that can best, we do need a mayor that can best represent our city
[59:13] to meet our long-term objectives versus the annual passing of the baton.
[59:18] I urge the Council to support the effort or allow voters to decide.
[59:22] Thank you.
[59:23] Thank you.
[59:24] Next, we have Lori.
[59:28] Lori, thanks.
[59:30] After Lori is Stephen Moses.
[59:35] 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.
[59:48] 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.
[1:00:00] 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.
[1:00:12] The proponents of this change say that it would do three things, improve accountability, increase the mayor's influence, and provide continuity and consistency.
[1:00:21] Since a recent direct elected mayor admitted to committing more than 20 felonies, well in office,
[1:00:28] we can see that the direct election doesn't necessarily assure accountability.
[1:00:33] And increasing the mayor's influence actually negates one of the beauties of rotating mayors,
[1:00:40] which is that it is the people who have greater influence, not a solitary elected official.
[1:00:46] And greater continuity, I personally don't want to revert to the system that continuously and consistently delivers only privileged white men as mayors.
[1:01:00] Today, Americans are learning what overreaching and self-aggrandizing leadership looks like what it can do.
[1:01:06] It may work in some areas and even in the majority of American voters today, but not in
[1:01:13] Palm Springs.
[1:01:14] Palm Springs deserves better.
[1:01:17] Our residents deserve the opportunities that come from collaborative governance, not
[1:01:21] from Kingmaking.
[1:01:23] Thank you.
[1:01:24] Thank you, Ari.
[1:01:26] Next, we have Stephen Moses, and after Stephen Moses, we have Peggy Trot.
[1:01:34] You take your time.
[1:01:39] My name is Steve Moses and I participated in that decision-making process that created the rotating mirror.
[1:01:50] I think we've heard enough good things about the rotating mirror that it just doesn't make it,
[1:01:58] and that I'm sorry, that the rotating mirror is the general elected mirror, does not make the necessary criteria.
[1:02:07] I'm going to sit down very soon because I've heard all the arguments.
[1:02:14] It would be nice to be an average elect, a directly elected mayor, but it would not be
[1:02:21] fair to do it and fairness is important to voting and to buy as Wolff wherever he is.
[1:02:36] Thank you, Stephen.
[1:02:38] Peggy?
[1:02:41] I'm here to talk on three-be, right, a different one.
[1:02:47] We're here to ask, and hopefully, well, it's an intent to form an infrastructure district.
[1:02:55] You know, I've got representatives from small hotels in Veevron and large hotels,
[1:03:01] and as a large community, we want to support the modernism and expansion of our convention center,
[1:03:08] and continue to drive tourism into this destination.
[1:03:13] You know, I've been working with the city since Councilmember DeHart announced his laser
[1:03:20] fast convention center committee, which was over a year and three months ago.
[1:03:28] So at government speed, I think we're going really fast, but the intent tonight is to let
[1:03:34] know that we want to form our district, here in Palm Springs, all of the lodging establishments
[1:03:41] are behind it. And we certainly hope that we have your permission to continue with our efforts.
[1:03:48] And I'd also like to thank the city staff who have been really helpful guiding us through
[1:03:54] this whole procedure and just making sure that we stay on task. We hold our meetings. We do
[1:04:00] of things that we're supposed to do, so they've been very helpful in this as well.
[1:04:04] So thank you so much.
[1:04:05] Thank you very much.
[1:04:07] Do we have anybody who wanted to give public comments on 3A, 3B or 3C that didn't get
[1:04:13] to sign up?
[1:04:14] If you can make a line on the side,
[1:04:22] great.
[1:04:28] Well, Lena, maybe Felina can start, and then you can get the name of the next person just
[1:04:32] to keep it moving.
[1:04:35] Felina, can you just start with your name?
[1:04:36] Yeah, good evening.
[1:04:37] My name is Felina Danellis.
[1:04:39] I'm the founder of Plum Springs Sematics and a former staffer at the World Bank.
[1:04:43] I've also been a full-time resident here for over a decade in Plum Springs.
[1:04:47] I want to speak to process on 3C.
[1:04:51] Because process is what creates trust and without trust, governance, loses legitimacy.
[1:04:56] A change to how we select mayor is not a small administrative adjustment.
[1:04:59] It's a structural shift in how power, visibility, and voice are distributed in the city.
[1:05:04] And changes like that should not come before a robust transparent and inclusive stakeholder engagement process.
[1:05:10] They should come after it.
[1:05:12] Palm Springs has already done hard work to move toward more representative governance.
[1:05:16] That didn't happen by accident.
[1:05:18] It happened because community spoke up and the city listened.
[1:05:21] So my question is, where is that level of engagement here?
[1:05:24] Have we heard from every district?
[1:05:27] Have we created space for working people?
[1:05:30] for rencers, for communities of color, for LGBTQIA residents, not just to react but to shape the conversation,
[1:05:37] because if we haven't, then we're not ready to redesign the system.
[1:05:42] The current rotating mayor model is something important.
[1:05:45] It ensures that leadership is shared across the city over time.
[1:05:49] It distributes civic visibility.
[1:05:51] It says every part of Palm Springs belongs at the head of the table,
[1:05:55] and many Californian cities operate this way successfully.
[1:05:58] 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.
[1:06:08] Because in Palm Springs inclusion should not just be an outcome, it should be in the process itself.
[1:06:13] Thank you.
[1:06:14] Thank you.
[1:06:16] And next we have Michael Herspin, and after Michael will be Bill Wiley.
[1:06:23] Good evening. I'm talking on three A's, library item.
[1:06:28] And I'm just here to thank everybody.
[1:06:30] My heart is really full of thanks this evening as I look forward to the completion of the Library of Innovation.
[1:06:36] And I just like to call out a few groups of people that I'm really thankful for.
[1:06:42] And they're not in any particular order, but of course the council has been so supportive of this project.
[1:06:47] And it's really driven the whole process.
[1:06:51] So I want to thank council for that.
[1:06:53] staff, also city staff and particularly G.E.K. is a city library director who started the
[1:07:02] whole process rolling with the grant she received from the state for the renovation costs.
[1:07:08] I'd like to thank the community of Palm Springs who supports the library in so many different
[1:07:13] ways.
[1:07:14] And it really forms a nexus of community involvement that doesn't discriminate against different
[1:07:22] groups of people or classes of people, everybody uses the library.
[1:07:30] 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.
[1:07:38] So thank you to the community. Thank you for the foundation for raising all this money for the capital expenditures.
[1:07:45] I also want to thank the friends of which you know I'm a part of.
[1:07:48] The friends have been very active in this whole process through raising money through books sales and other events.
[1:07:55] 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.
[1:08:25] They've been involved and I think Michael, thank you, you're out of touch.
[1:08:32] Okay, well thanks again, everybody.
[1:08:33] Good on, thank you, then.
[1:08:38] Thanks, we have Bill Wiley, after Bill Wiley, Jim Gray.
[1:08:41] Hi, everyone.
[1:08:42] Bill Wiley, I'm the president of the Paul Springs Public Library Foundation and I want to
[1:08:48] address that three A as well.
[1:08:51] First thank you to the Council for your continued support of the Renovation Project, for
[1:08:56] main library building in Sunrise Park, and as you know, foundation has been actively trying
[1:09:04] to solicit funding and donations from the community since the last week of October.
[1:09:10] One of the great things that we've been able to utilize is opportunities to name portions
[1:09:16] of the renovated building, and that is proven to be very successful for us, and we want
[1:09:22] be able to continue that. So I want to thank Gini Kays and Mr. Styles and his staff for
[1:09:28] setting up the naming opportunities and anybody that's interested in these opportunities
[1:09:34] can go to our Capital Campaign website, which is next chapter.pslegoryfoundation.org.
[1:09:51] Next chapter
[1:09:52] to create a legacy for a family, friend or community member and again thanks a lot for everything
[1:10:01] that you're doing in regards to this particular project and overall library support and we hope
[1:10:08] that you have an approval in mind with 3A for the two large donations and that's the last thing
[1:10:16] I'll say, which is, thank you so much to our great colleagues at the friends for their very
[1:10:23] generous donation and also to the generous donation from the Jane Lichenhoff estate.
[1:10:30] Thank you.
[1:10:31] Thank you.
[1:10:34] Next, we have Jim Gray, after Jim Gray, we have Bob Hydenbaum.
[1:10:39] Hello, Council members.
[1:10:41] I won't use the full two minutes.
[1:10:43] First of all, thank you very much for your steadfast support and the library.
[1:10:47] Mayor Soto, thank you for coming to our annual meeting and it's lovely to have you
[1:10:51] to be our mayor and we live in the same district.
[1:10:53] It's great to have you for the year.
[1:10:56] Just really want to double down on the support that you've given us at the library.
[1:11:00] It's so important for our entire community.
[1:11:03] The library represents everybody.
[1:11:05] No matter what background they come from, what philosophies they hold,
[1:11:09] the library is a safe space.
[1:11:12] It's everybody's third space.
[1:11:14] Very, very important.
[1:11:15] And I want to close and saying, I'm super impressed by the library staff and all of their hard work.
[1:11:21] All of the volunteers and the comes from the friends and everybody on the foundation board.
[1:11:26] There are everybody shows up to support this resource that is important for our entire community.
[1:11:32] So thank you very much.
[1:11:38] Next year of Bob and after Bob will be Paul in Richston, Henrichston, first of all.
[1:11:47] 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.
[1:12:02] A permanent rotational mayor console allows the city to experience the strengths of each individual during their mayoral year.
[1:12:12] Regarding this rotational perspective, a new mayor every year protects against and serves as a guardrail to democracy.
[1:12:20] For what we sit today, believing in all candidates for office in Palm Springs are above and beyond reproach.
[1:12:27] The greatest protection we have is to preclude the following potential crimes.
[1:12:32] Personal gain, interfering with the democratic process, violating public trust, bribery, fraud,
[1:12:40] graphed, and measurement, and campaign violations.
[1:12:44] Taking action today to preserve and protect our current city council configuration with a rotational
[1:12:50] mayoralship is essential in assuring fairness, transparency, accountability, active citizen
[1:12:57] participation, and in hearing and adhering to the rule of law to all to protect our democracy.
[1:13:04] Thank you for your time and attention.
[1:13:06] Thank you.
[1:13:12] Evening in steam counsel and one of the staff, well, much of a Paul Hendrickson upper
[1:13:17] west side, much of what I was going to say is already been said more than once.
[1:13:21] So I'm going to wing it.
[1:13:22] That's enough to make you go bananas.
[1:13:27] As my husband mentioned about the guardrails of democracy, distributed power among equals.
[1:13:35] So five equals is one of the cornerstones of the guardrails for democracy.
[1:13:43] When too much control influence and power is concentrated in one individual and to the disadvantage
[1:13:50] of the other leaders in the city, that's when you strip away those guardrails. So you could be
[1:13:58] lucky, you could get a good leader, but the guardrails are for when, what if you don't? And that's
[1:14:06] very important. We have seen it in the past, need I remind everyone, headlines, Palm Springs City Council
[1:14:14] chambers and city hall get rated by the FBI brought to you by an at-large elected mayor.
[1:14:26] We should learn from history and in doing so there's a lot of lessons there.
[1:14:34] We've been very successful with an equal panel of five serving all of us and it also gives
[1:14:42] greater access to the residents because of that.
[1:14:48] We don't have a vacancy of leadership in our city.
[1:14:51] We don't need to make room for another leader and add that to the city budget as well.
[1:15:00] Thank you.
[1:15:01] To go back to where we were in those guardrails we're missing is a less perfect union.
[1:15:07] Let's keep a more perfect union going forward.
[1:15:11] And for generations going forward.
[1:15:12] Thank you.
[1:15:17] Is there anyone else in the room who wanted to speak on 3A3B or 3C that did not?
[1:15:25] Michael Picken, come on up.
[1:15:28] Who's it out for us?
[1:15:36] 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,
[1:16:05] refuse me all services. Joe Community Health Worker, who signed me up, would not answer my
[1:16:11] account questions, said their system is not to provide me any verifying documents, and only
[1:16:17] the city of Palm Springs can provide me my account information. Two black female volunteers
[1:16:23] intervened. They refused their names, piled my food up in front of me, a quarter pickup bed
[1:16:29] amount, which I could not carry. They ordered Mr. Garcia that I take it, or they will have
[1:16:35] removed. After a week of complaints, letters, fine food bank are now fine regional food bank.
[1:16:42] Now admits there are three separate food programs and one proxy program, all of which I have
[1:16:47] never been told. I met with Parks Director, Nicolas Gonzalez. He will not look at this contract
[1:16:53] unless he receives multiple reports from others experiencing the same. I do not consent to this
[1:17:00] county style LPS, 51-50-52-50 style restraining order without my knowledge deterrents program
[1:17:08] and Santa Monica L.A. County Riverside County State of California Palm Springs,
[1:17:13] see that tribes notice a potential litigation. Thank you, Michael.
[1:17:21] For sure, no one else.
[1:17:22] Madam Clerk is there any one online? No, for those speakers. Hi, we made it through.
[1:17:26] The next item, thank you everyone, is the consent calendar I would like to entertain
[1:17:31] motion to accept the consent calendar with the refusal from Councilmember DeHart on C.
[1:17:38] We just have a question on O.
[1:17:45] Have a motion and a second.
[1:17:49] Motion by Councilmember Garner, second by Councilmember DeHart.
[1:17:53] Motion carries. Thank you.
[1:17:58] Item C.
[1:18:00] Your question?
[1:18:03] I don't want to. I'm sorry.
[1:18:08] It's a three-year contract and this year's two and three do they come before Council?
[1:18:15] Yes, Council and Bernstein, yes, on that particular contract.
[1:18:19] The year's two and three will come back to Council as we have to budget for those additional
[1:18:24] resources.
[1:18:25] Okay, that was my question.
[1:18:26] Thank you.
[1:18:27] Thank you.
[1:18:28] Thank you.
[1:18:29] And think, and to Scott, you had mentioned on all three years, the first year is, I see the 260, the 264.
[1:18:43] Yes.
[1:18:45] 264.
[1:18:45] Now, in years two and three, I'm just looking through there.
[1:18:47] That's considerably less like there's a 180 or something.
[1:18:50] 180, cheer.
[1:18:51] And I just want to confirm that those would be different numbers that come back.
[1:18:53] That's good.
[1:18:54] Thank you.
[1:18:55] Okay.
[1:18:59] Let's move on to our business items.
[1:19:02] Oh, that's right.
[1:19:03] No, it's just a question.
[1:19:06] But it's the first.
[1:19:07] We voted on everything all at once.
[1:19:09] The next item on our agenda is item 3A, which is the renaming of J.C.
[1:19:15] Fry building and other specific areas of the Palm Springs Public Library.
[1:19:19] May we have a staff report, please.
[1:19:22] Good evening.
[1:19:23] Mayor, Mayor for Tim Members of Council.
[1:19:25] I'm Gina K's Library Director, and I have the greatest news story.
[1:19:28] ever. We are here for the renaming of the JCPri building and other specific areas of library.
[1:19:34] So on May 25th, 2023, the City Council approved a memorandum of understanding between the
[1:19:40] City and Palm Springs Public Library Foundation. The memorandum requires the City Council
[1:19:47] to approve naming opportunities for the Palm Springs Public Library system valued at more than
[1:19:51] $100,000. The foundation, so first of all, I want to acknowledge. I've got a great support
[1:19:58] system here tonight. I've got the foundation here. I've got the friends. I've got
[1:20:03] a trustee. I've got a Catherine Hoff, who's with the trustee of the Jane-Lick-and-Hoff-A-State.
[1:20:10] So we've got some really wonderful people in the audience tonight. The foundation officially
[1:20:16] launched their capital campaign just a few months ago in October of 2025, and so far they are
[1:20:23] I have $2.1 million raised in funds.
[1:20:28] Thank you.
[1:20:33] More than those 35 capital campaign donations to require the City Council's approval,
[1:20:39] the friends of the Palm Springs Library and the Jane Look and Hoff donations.
[1:20:44] Other donations that you'll see in attachment be are at the City Manager's,
[1:20:49] Scott Styles approval level and he expects to approve those following this meeting,
[1:20:53] but you can read through those and see over half a million dollars in donations just from those
[1:21:00] those gifts that are under a hundred thousand dollars. So we're really grateful for all of that.
[1:21:05] The friends of the Palm Springs Library, they have been on a nonprofit of record for over 50 years
[1:21:12] and they have given us gifts over the years. I mean even just in the last five years,
[1:21:17] totally half a million dollars. So we know they're well over a million dollars worth of gifts over the
[1:21:22] years, but they've pledged $250,000 for the opportunity to rename the J.C. for eye building
[1:21:27] as the friends of the Palm Springs Library Building.
[1:21:30] I'm going to show you a picture on the screen.
[1:21:32] So this is how it was before construction began.
[1:21:36] This building was built in 1965 at a cost of $45,000.
[1:21:42] Where is that money now?
[1:21:45] By the junior chamber of commerce, they were the J.C.s.
[1:21:48] They raised between $7 and $10,000 of a final gift by Dr. R. G. Fry.
[1:21:55] Dr. Russell Fry was an avid bridge player, and so he loved this building. This was a really nice community building.
[1:22:03] We've done an initial rendering. This is what the friends of the Palm Springs Library building will look like.
[1:22:09] That was the initial rendering, and I want to show you this last one because it's just gorgeous.
[1:22:13] This is what we're expecting this building to look like when construction is finished.
[1:22:16] And I think it's just amazing and going to be a beautiful little landmark for us on our campus.
[1:22:23] Now Jane, like on Hoth, you might be wrecked.
[1:22:30] 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.
[1:22:54] So Jane Lickenhoff's estate has left several, several gifts to the inland empire community foundation.
[1:23:04] And we, the Homestream Public Library Foundation, is one of the named donors of an ongoing sustaining gift from them.
[1:23:12] Like I said, Katherine Huff is here today. We're so grateful to her and Greg for their generous gift to the library.
[1:23:20] And we want to do a naming opportunity for her per Jane-Lick and Hoth of Desert Landscaping
[1:23:27] because she was such an outdoors person, wrote her horse all the time and we just
[1:23:34] think that the Desert Landscaping having a nice plaque as you enter the library would be a
[1:23:38] really nice honor for her and her legacy.
[1:23:43] So finally, I just want to mention that naming opportunities provide a meaningful way for community
[1:23:49] members to support the restoration and renovation of the Palm Springs Public Library while establishing
[1:23:54] a lasting legacy. These contributions strengthen the foundations of relationships with donors
[1:23:59] and help cultivate both sustaining and legacy gifts. And just me as the Library Director,
[1:24:05] I'm so grateful for our community giving us gifts, large and small, every dollar counts and we're
[1:24:12] just so grateful for them and their gifts and to you the council and the city staff for helping us
[1:24:17] like this library renovation become a reality.
[1:24:21] So I ask for your approval in approving these naming gifts
[1:24:27] for the friends of the Palm Springs Library
[1:24:28] and the Jane-Lick and Hof estate.
[1:24:32] Thank you.
[1:24:33] And I'm happy to entertain questions.
[1:24:35] Any questions, comments?
[1:24:38] One congratulations.
[1:24:40] And thank you to the trustees and the foundation
[1:24:43] and just all the supporters for your continued engagement
[1:24:46] on this.
[1:24:48] And any, my kids see every bit of work that
[1:24:52] happens behind that fence, and it's just you drive past it.
[1:24:57] And you can see them on momentum.
[1:24:58] So thank you for doing this and continuing.
[1:25:01] And we can't wait to see that progress.
[1:25:03] Pass it over to Councilmember Garner.
[1:25:05] Thank you so much.
[1:25:06] Thank you to everyone who is a part of this.
[1:25:09] Like Michael, her friends said, there's just so many
[1:25:11] thank yous.
[1:25:12] You could really go on and on.
[1:25:14] I almost want to read every single name.
[1:25:16] and your attachment of the people who have donated.
[1:25:19] But I wanted to just highlight too,
[1:25:21] that there's a lot of donors that are listed
[1:25:25] in our attachment, and there's a little information
[1:25:27] about each of them, and why they decided
[1:25:29] to give this gift to the library.
[1:25:31] And they're just really lovely.
[1:25:35] So I encourage people to read them.
[1:25:38] The question I had for you, Jeannie,
[1:25:40] is I think the history of the fry building
[1:25:43] is really interesting and important.
[1:25:45] and I'm wondering if as we move to being the friends of the Palm Springs Library, which I also
[1:25:50] love that it's going to be named that, if we could have a little plaque or information inside
[1:25:55] the building that said, you know, picture of what it used to look like and a little description
[1:26:00] of that history that you just gave us. I want to make sure that we're kind of honoring our past
[1:26:06] as we move forward. And you know what's interesting about this building is that it will house our
[1:26:11] archive. So this is where the history of Palm Springs and our library will live.
[1:26:16] So I think it'll be really fun to do to do some historic photos down the hall.
[1:26:21] Kind of like City Hall has who those photos were curated by the previous one of the previous library directors in the city.
[1:26:29] But yeah, it's really fun.
[1:26:30] I think this would be a really great way to honor obviously the history of the library and this building.
[1:26:36] I think that would be a great idea.
[1:26:38] Thank you. I appreciate that and just for anyone that does want to donate you
[1:26:43] You have there's naming rights for everything even the this aisles the stacks of books, right?
[1:26:48] You could have your name on that or on the back of a chair
[1:26:50] There's a lot of opportunities at different levels, so for anyone that's interested and it doesn't have to be your name
[1:26:55] It can be the name of anybody or or it doesn't have to be any friends name it could be something else
[1:27:00] So to some thank you all for your support of the of the library my very favorite place in all
[1:27:06] So we're looking forward to doing some hard-hat tours in the future.
[1:27:11] That should be a fun.
[1:27:13] Come from a burnt scene.
[1:27:15] So I just want to thank you for this and the people who donated.
[1:27:20] I mean, there are literally dozens of people here that have given a thousand dollars or more for the library.
[1:27:26] The second time tonight, we're seeing the community come and give financial aid to a city building.
[1:27:32] And that's when we saw the class out there before.
[1:27:33] That's pretty amazing what it says about our residents and our community and how much people want to give back
[1:27:41] To to the city that that they enjoy. So thank you to the community. Thank you to the all hard work of the foundation
[1:27:47] 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
[1:27:57] Okay any other comments
[1:28:02] Seeing none, I would like to entertain a motion.
[1:28:05] We have a motion.
[1:28:06] Make comes from a front.
[1:28:07] I know.
[1:28:07] I knew you were going to.
[1:28:10] Second.
[1:28:11] I can't remember.
[1:28:15] Motion carries.
[1:28:16] Thank you very much.
[1:28:25] Next item on the agenda is item 3b, which is a resolution of intention to establish
[1:28:30] the Palm Springs Tourism Infrastructure District.
[1:28:33] May we have a staff report please.
[1:28:35] Thank you Madam Mayor.
[1:28:37] Mayor Pro Team ready, Council members, I'm Christopher Mooney, I'm the Director of Finance and
[1:28:42] Treasury for the City.
[1:28:44] I have a short presentation for tonight's request to for the Council to approve a resolution
[1:28:51] of intent for the TID or the Tourism Improvement District.
[1:28:55] So just some highlights that it take to get here.
[1:28:59] After we've redirected our City Manager is directed to get the Convention Center Improvement
[1:29:05] Project ready to go.
[1:29:06] There are some committees that were formed shortly thereafter.
[1:29:09] One of them was the Tourism Improvement District Committee.
[1:29:12] And you heard Peggy Trot up here from PSResorts,
[1:29:15] talk about all the members, was a General Municipal Go Tells,
[1:29:19] small hotels, vacation rental owners network,
[1:29:22] and a lot of them are here tonight.
[1:29:24] And I personally just want to thank them
[1:29:25] from this to be a lot of their hard work.
[1:29:27] And we just really appreciate all of the work
[1:29:29] that they did to get here tonight.
[1:29:35] The TID Committee met every other week.
[1:29:37] The ultimately came to completing a management district plan.
[1:29:42] This MDP governs how the TID works.
[1:29:45] The TID will include all hotels and all short-term vacation rentals
[1:29:49] within the Palm Springs City limits.
[1:29:51] These businesses, it's important to know, will be self-assessing
[1:29:54] themselves 1% of gross revenue.
[1:29:58] That is going to fund the tourism and...
[1:30:00] Government district. Hopefully, to the tune of an estimated $4.1 million, this will help pay for debt
[1:30:07] service that will issue to do the improvements to the Convention Center. Any excess of the
[1:30:13] 4.1 million will go to a capital reserve fund to do future capital improvements, future maintenance,
[1:30:19] to the Convention Center to keep it fresh and to not have do these big debt nuances every 25 years.
[1:30:26] The TID group, which is led by Peggy and PS Resorts, completed a successful campaign recently
[1:30:32] to get a minimum of 50% of the hotels and STRs to sign a document in favor of establishing
[1:30:40] the TID.
[1:30:41] Tonight's action for the Council, we're asking the Council to approve a Resolution Resolution
[1:30:47] of Intent to form the Tourism Improvement District.
[1:30:50] This allows the city to move forward to legally completing the TID, which requires a couple
[1:30:58] of public hearings.
[1:31:00] But first, as you see in the next steps, once if the city council approves this this
[1:31:05] evening, the city has to notify or notice each of the businesses within the district
[1:31:10] by April 12.
[1:31:11] So we're ready to go with that if it's improved tonight.
[1:31:15] And then the next, the first public hearing is May 12th.
[1:31:18] And this is the first hearing for the community to come and give public comment at the May 12th meeting.
[1:31:24] There is no action for the Council to take that will be later on in a couple of meetings from that May 12th date.
[1:31:32] That's some of the highlights.
[1:31:33] I'd be more happy to answer any questions if the Council has any.
[1:31:39] Wonderful. Well, thank you, Chris.
[1:31:41] And I think this is just such a reflection of the hospitality industry,
[1:31:47] recognizing the importance of our Convention Center, coming together, collaborating, another
[1:31:53] really impressive public partner, public private relationship that we have to be able
[1:31:58] to make this investments in a building that drives so much of our economy.
[1:32:03] And so for me, just to kind of, my main question is just to underscore and confirm with
[1:32:09] the community, this is a self-assessment just on lodging businesses, correct?
[1:32:13] Correct.
[1:32:14] Correct.
[1:32:16] And can you just share a little bit about the,
[1:32:24] essentially, the, they will subscess and then those
[1:32:29] runner revenues will then help support the, both the current plans and future improvements that we need.
[1:32:35] Yeah, that's correct.
[1:32:36] It'll follow the collection process will be done by our team or my team.
[1:32:42] We will collect the assessment every month.
[1:32:44] 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.
[1:32:58] Okay, wonderful. Any questions? Council member to heart.
[1:33:04] Not a question, Chris, but accolades and kudos to Peggy Trot and the team on the working group.
[1:33:12] You all have done an incredible job getting us to this point, so thank you very much for
[1:33:18] doing that.
[1:33:19] And to the business community, that is standing up to support and invest in the Convention
[1:33:25] Center and having that understanding of what that economic impact is for the city of Palm Springs.
[1:33:33] Huge appreciation for the business community, for hospitality community, for stepping up and
[1:33:40] I'm making that ongoing investment.
[1:33:43] Councilmember D'Hurt?
[1:33:44] I'm sorry.
[1:33:45] I'm sorry.
[1:33:45] Thank you.
[1:33:46] Councilmember D'Hurt.
[1:33:47] So I have been a part of this DID working group and I also want to just second
[1:33:53] Councilmember D'Hurt on the amount of work that's been done.
[1:33:55] It's tremendous.
[1:33:58] So I just started by the Plaza Theatre in the Library and here again we have the community
[1:34:02] coming together to figure out how to raise funds to support a city building and
[1:34:09] district and that is truly unique to see this three times tonight.
[1:34:14] So, thank you.
[1:34:15] I also want to just highlight this is actually, you know,
[1:34:18] becomes a tourism funded thing.
[1:34:20] So, this is not on the residents.
[1:34:22] In addition to Peggy Trot, I want to thank Michael Green.
[1:34:25] I don't think he's here in Canada City as well as the rest of the committee.
[1:34:28] Because it took a lot of work and the only way this could really happen
[1:34:32] was peers talking to peers about it.
[1:34:36] 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.
[1:34:51] 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.
[1:34:59] And that's not something that we often see with our projects here, but this is designed very much
[1:35:06] so that for the next 30, 40 years, I guess.
[1:35:10] We will have funds in there to help keep it maintained properly.
[1:35:15] And then lastly, I just want to say, you know, when we did the downtown revitalization,
[1:35:21] we saw a large public private partnership, a large investment in it, and as a result,
[1:35:26] TOT increased significantly, the city's budget increased, measure J increased, and I believe
[1:35:32] that this really has the potential to be uplift our city in the same way that did to a very
[1:35:40] large extent, something that will experience for a long time, because this will really not only
[1:35:45] expand the convention center, but are hold downtown. So again, I want to thank the whole committee
[1:35:52] who work so really hard on this and continues to work hard on it, so thank you.
[1:36:04] We have a motion by Councilmember DeHart, a second by Councilmember Garner.
[1:36:10] Motion carries.
[1:36:12] Thank you very much.
[1:36:13] And thank you again, sir.
[1:36:14] P.S. Resorts and all the hospitality community help get us here.
[1:36:24] Next item on our dentist 3C titled a discussion and possible direction regarding the mayoral position.
[1:36:30] May we have a staff report, please?
[1:36:33] Yes, Honorable Mayor, members of the City Council, members of the public.
[1:36:37] The item before you is a discussion item regarding the mayoral position, and if I can figure
[1:36:45] out the PowerPoint, I will get started.
[1:36:50] As the Council is aware, in February of this year, the Council asks staff to research and
[1:36:55] bring back some options to the City Council regarding the city's mayoral position.
[1:37:01] 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.
[1:37:12] That notice of intent was resimitted on March 30th with some corrections.
[1:37:18] And then earlier this week, the city received a supplemental filing with regard to that ballot measure that changed some of the language.
[1:37:27] The staff report for you tonight.
[1:37:30] 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.
[1:37:42] 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.
[1:37:57] So if you think of a ship, the city council kind of decides where the city is an organization
[1:38:02] is going and the city manager and the city manager staff carry that out and sail the
[1:38:08] ship in that direction.
[1:38:10] The city currently has five council districts since 2018 each council member represents a specific
[1:38:17] geographic region within the city and we'll go into the background of how we got there
[1:38:23] in a little bit.
[1:38:23] We have a rotating mayor, and by that we mean the mayors selected from among the five
[1:38:28] Council members, and the mayor rotates yearly by district number.
[1:38:33] That was put in place in 2019.
[1:38:37] Under the current system of government, each Council member has a single vote.
[1:38:42] The mayor has the same number of votes, the same power from a legal perspective as each of
[1:38:48] individual council members, no additional legal authority under our current structure.
[1:38:56] We got here in 1994 the city council are the city voters adopted a city charter which included
[1:39:03] directly elected at large mayor.
[1:39:07] When the city was first incorporated in 1938, the city had seven council member districts,
[1:39:14] but that changed in 1994 personally to the city's charter.
[1:39:18] In 2018, the city received a letter from an attorney who represented a group called the Southwest
[1:39:27] Educational Voters Association and they cited the California Voting Rights Act and indicated
[1:39:36] an intent to sue the city under the CVRA.
[1:39:40] As a result of that process, the city moved to a directly elected mayor, I'm sorry, the
[1:39:47] Directly elected mayor was replaced with a rotating mayor and that's what we have right now.
[1:39:53] 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.
[1:40:07] Actually, late last year, not in 2026, in late 2025, there began some community discussion about
[1:40:14] possibly bringing back a directly elected mayor.
[1:40:18] And then, as I mentioned earlier, a ballot measure has recently been filed to do that.
[1:40:25] There are three types of mayors in California, as well as in other states.
[1:40:30] The first is the rotational mayor, which I just mentioned.
[1:40:32] It's the mayor's chosen by fellow council members.
[1:40:36] Some cities will have a process in place similar
[1:40:40] to what Palm Springs has that clearly identifies
[1:40:43] how that rotation exists.
[1:40:45] Other cities just do it informally.
[1:40:48] They wait and see each year whether they want to select a new mayor
[1:40:52] if they want to stick with the existing mayor.
[1:40:56] As I mentioned, under the rotational mayor system,
[1:40:59] the mayor has the same voting power as other council members
[1:41:02] They essentially run the city council meetings, they sort of, or tend to represent the city,
[1:41:09] you know, ground breakings and ribbon cuttings, and those types of ceremonial events.
[1:41:14] And as I mentioned, in Palm Springs situation, by council resolution, the position rotates every year.
[1:41:23] A different form of mayor position is the directly elected mayor position.
[1:41:28] 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.
[1:41:42] Different cities have a different amount of power that the directly elected mayor can provide.
[1:41:48] In general velocities, there really isn't that much difference between the directly elected mayor and other council members.
[1:41:57] 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.
[1:42:09] And then the final third form of mayoral system is a strong mayor system under this system.
[1:42:16] The mayor acts as the chief executive officer, so they don't generally have or if they do have a city manager.
[1:42:24] It's more of a city administrator and the mayor takes on the city manager functions.
[1:42:30] This is usually reserved for larger cities in California.
[1:42:33] we only have about five cities that use this model cities of like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco,
[1:42:41] some of the larger cities.
[1:42:45] In terms of what other cities in the Coachella Valley do,
[1:42:50] you'll see that three of the eight Coachella Valley cities have a directly elected mayor. None of
[1:42:55] these cities uses a strong mayor's system of government. The other five use a rotating system similar to
[1:43:03] Palm Springs.
[1:43:07] In terms of California overall, 97% of cities use the city manager system of government
[1:43:14] and only five cities use the strong mayor position.
[1:43:21] So over arching all of this discussion about the mayoral
[1:43:25] issue, we have the California Voting Rights Act. The California Voting Rights Act is a statute
[1:43:32] that was enacted by the California legislature in order to protect minority communities ability
[1:43:37] to elect candidates of their own choice.
[1:43:40] The CVRA prohibits at-large elections
[1:43:42] if those at-large elections weekend or dilute that ability.
[1:43:48] As I mentioned earlier, this is why in Palm Springs,
[1:43:51] in 2018, the City of Palm Springs
[1:43:54] switched to district elections.
[1:43:56] I should point out this point,
[1:43:57] I probably should have done it earlier.
[1:43:59] My colleague Jim Priest, from Best Best and Krieger,
[1:44:02] is available to answer some of the kind of technical election
[1:44:06] law issues, he's an election law expert and actually helped the city in 2018 with the CVRA
[1:44:12] process.
[1:44:15] So why does the CVRA matter? Well, a directly elected at large mayor could be challenged
[1:44:22] under the CVRA because it reintroduces in at large element to the elections. Under the CVRA,
[1:44:31] It's arguable that this out-large election system could dilute the voting power of minorities
[1:44:40] and that could constitute a violation of the CBRA.
[1:44:45] The city entered into a settlement agreement as you heard from some of the speakers in 2018
[1:44:50] and under that settlement agreement the city agreed to move to this district-based election system which we have today.
[1:45:00] In order to move to a different system under the CBRA, the city would need to hire a professional
[1:45:06] demographer to study and evaluate the risk of moving to something other than a purely district-based
[1:45:12] election. If sued and unsuccessful, the financial consequences could be quite severe. I think
[1:45:20] you heard some of the members of the public mention, the cities of Santa Monica.
[1:45:29] There
[1:45:29] day trial resulting in $4.7 million that the city of Palmdale had to pay to the other side.
[1:45:37] In the Santa Monica case, that case is actually still ongoing, but at one point during
[1:45:43] the litigation when they were before the Court of Appeal, the plaintiffs in that case
[1:45:48] had already accrued $20 million in attorney's fees.
[1:45:56] In addition to the CBRA, there's also another somewhat of a twist in that is a case that
[1:46:02] pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. That is the case of Louisiana vs. Cai. In this
[1:46:09] case, the Supreme Court is considering whether the Federal Boating Rights Act violates
[1:46:15] the Federal Constitution specifically Section 14 and 15 of the U.S. Constitution. If this
[1:46:22] case is decided in a way where the court perhaps strikes down or weakens the Federal
[1:46:32] exact which if weekend would actually provide cities more flexibility and would cause the
[1:46:39] CDRA to be less of an issue for cities.
[1:46:42] But until that case is decided and it probably won't be decided until June of this year,
[1:46:49] it remains unclear as to how exactly the CDRA would impact the city's position in any move
[1:46:57] to direct the elected mayor would carry with it legal uncertainty and risk.
[1:47:06] So keeping these things in mind, there are several options, which we would lay out.
[1:47:10] There are obviously many different variations, but we've kind of distilled it down to these four options.
[1:47:18] The first option would be to simply keep the rotational system that the city council has right now.
[1:47:24] 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.
[1:47:34] Under this system, the City Council could either keep the current one year rotation or the City Council could extend that,
[1:47:40] or the City Council could eliminate the automatic rotation entirely and just decide on a yearly basis,
[1:47:46] whether to whether and whom to select as the Council Mayor to run the meetings.
[1:47:54] The second option would be to adopt an ordinance similar to what the Council did in 2018.
[1:48:01] Prior to that, the State Legislature authorized city councils to adopt ordinances without going to a vote of the people
[1:48:08] to change the system of government in terms of district or at large mayors.
[1:48:14] 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.
[1:48:25] So without this demographic data to support it, this path would carry more legal risk than keeping the rotational system.
[1:48:36] A third option would be for the City Council to put forward a ballot measure.
[1:48:40] This would let the voters decide directly, whether to change the mayoral system of governance.
[1:48:48] This would be legally safer if it's supported by that same kind of demographic data that I just mentioned with the ordinance.
[1:48:55] 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.
[1:49:08] In order for the City Council to pursue this option, the City Council would need to adopt the
[1:49:13] ballot language by August 7th of this year to make the November ballot.
[1:49:18] And then the fourth option is sort of what is being proposed by the current ballot measure
[1:49:22] and that is to let the voters decide directly.
[1:49:25] This would establish an additional council position, the mayor.
[1:49:30] And as I mentioned with regard to options 3 and 2, without demographic data support at this
[1:49:37] carries with it more legal risk.
[1:49:43] With regard to a council ordinance or a council directed ballot measure, one option might
[1:49:50] be to add additional districts.
[1:49:53] The reason for this is at least arguably under the California Voting Rights Act by adding
[1:49:59] a directly elected mayor that delutes the voting power of minorities, perhaps by adding additional
[1:50:07] districts seats on the council, the council could create another one or two majority minority
[1:50:13] districts, and that wouldn't have the deluding effect of adding the directly elected mayor.
[1:50:19] It should be noted that this option would need to be thoroughly vetted from a legal perspective
[1:50:25] and would have to be supported by, again, by demographic data.
[1:50:30] So I don't want to suggest that this is a panacea or that it's automatic, it would take
[1:50:35] would take a bit of research to see if this would actually help. In addition, if the council
[1:50:41] were to adopt an ordinance to add districts under California law, we would have to hold
[1:50:47] multiple public workshops and hearings before the ordinance is adopted.
[1:50:54] So those are some of the
[1:50:55] legal issues. In terms of non legal issues such as costs and outreach, we'd like to talk about
[1:51:01] those items. The council asked us to look at what some of the costs of moving to a different
[1:51:07] system would be. We've checked with the county registrar and the first number actually on
[1:51:15] the ballot initiative number. We received word today that these numbers were updated and
[1:51:23] rather than $33 to $35,000 it would cost approximately $61,000 for just to add the ballot
[1:51:29] initiative. And then if the ballot initiative also included an election of the mayor that would
[1:51:36] and additional $105,000 to add it to the ballot.
[1:51:42] In addition to the election costs, city staff has looked at what it would cost to reconfigure
[1:51:49] some of the city hall offices, and we've estimated that that would be $125 to $150,000.
[1:51:56] There'd be some technology costs of approximately $7,500, and as I mentioned, when the
[1:52:03] Council did the 2018 process, it engaged a
[1:52:08] demarc for as well as legal council and that was
[1:52:11] $100,000 at that time and so it would be
[1:52:15] probably at a minimum that same $100,000.
[1:52:18] Those are the one-time costs.
[1:52:21] On going costs, Council salary is $82,000
[1:52:25] approximately with a salary and additional benefits and so by adding
[1:52:30] One other position that would be an ongoing annual cost to the city. Some cities, when they
[1:52:37] have a directly elected mayor, they add staff to support the mayor. This is not required by law
[1:52:43] or automatic, but if the council followed that process, then staff estimates the cost of a
[1:52:50] legislative analyst would be approximately $146,000 per year with salary and benefits.
[1:52:57] Technology costs would be about $1,500 a year on going in terms of licenses and whatnot.
[1:53:04] There'd probably be other training and contingency fees of approximately $15,000 per year in addition to these.
[1:53:13] And then the big costs really would be if the city were sued under the CVRA.
[1:53:17] 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.
[1:53:28] 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.
[1:53:48] So in addition to the cost, staff asked us to look at the community engagement that might be
[1:53:53] involved as I mentioned in 2018, the City Council directed that a committee be formed.
[1:54:02] And that was done and there were nearly 40 community events in terms of working group meetings,
[1:54:07] community forums, outreach events, neighborhood meetings, and that was done all in both English and Spanish.
[1:54:13] So if the Council were to undertake either an ordinance or a ballot measure, the City Council
[1:54:18] would want to decide whether it wants to consider that type of outreach as it did in 2018.
[1:54:28] That concludes my presentation.
[1:54:30] I'm certainly able to answer any questions as well as staff in terms of any factual information.
[1:54:39] I don't think there's any questions.
[1:54:44] Thank you, thank you, Jeff, for this kind of very thorough laying out of the work that
[1:54:52] has happened in the past in 2018, our considerations for potential examination of informing
[1:55:03] people and the litigation risks, it's very helpful.
[1:55:08] I have a few questions just to kind of confirm the settlement agreements, we had some public
[1:55:19] comments around kind of what was included in the settlement agreement in 2018.
[1:55:26] Can you just share with folks just if people wanted to find out more after reading this
[1:55:30] presentation after today's discussion where they can find that kind of information in history
[1:55:34] and the report of the voting rights, voting rights working group and just consolidation
[1:55:43] of all that 2018 work?
[1:55:45] Yes.
[1:55:45] That's a good question.
[1:55:47] All of those documents are online and city staff is going to be putting together a web page.
[1:55:53] We'll work with the city clerk's office to make sure there's a dedicated web page to include
[1:55:58] all of those historical documents.
[1:56:00] But the settlement agreement as well as the ordinance that was adopted in December of 2018 are all on the city's website
[1:56:10] 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
[1:56:16] And we can get you those documents
[1:56:19] Great
[1:56:21] And
[1:56:23] If you can put this slide up around
[1:56:27] The second to last one on ongoing costs
[1:56:39] Can you talk a little bit so the one time cost would be cost that we would do for timing
[1:56:45] before November on going costs would be obviously in perpetuity but can you talk a little bit
[1:56:52] about if just the the the part in orange of the lawsuit filed that is but unknown potentially
[1:57:01] for millions of dollars can you share a little bit just about what how much we would incur
[1:57:06] Now, or how long that work might potentially be in terms of when a loss you could happen.
[1:57:12] Are we talking about this as a one year challenge to your challenge, or how long could this potentially be hanging over our heads?
[1:57:20] 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.
[1:57:31] Santa Monica's case was a multi-week trial, it was about three weeks, and that is probably
[1:57:38] why they spent so much money on both sides, and so it could easily be five years to ten years.
[1:57:49] You know, one of the things that would be unique about this situation is, at least to my
[1:57:56] And my colleague, Mr. Priest knowledge, no city has gone from a fully district-based election system to adding an at large mayor position.
[1:58:07] And so in terms of how the CVRA or potential violation of the CVRA would be determined is kind of unknown.
[1:58:16] And so that uncertainty increases the litigation that is involved in improving and defending
[1:58:24] that type of a lawsuit.
[1:58:26] And so it could be very complex and that complexity kind of breeds costs.
[1:58:33] And the Palmdale, you mentioned Santa Monica was many, many years.
[1:58:39] The Palmdale was that similar.
[1:58:41] Even Palmdale was about an eight-day trial.
[1:58:43] the city of Palmdale lost, and that's why they paid over $4 million dollars.
[1:58:48] The court found that they were required to move to district elections.
[1:58:51] But how long was the process of it going to Supreme Court?
[1:58:55] It was a while ago.
[1:58:57] It was probably two or three years total between the trial court and the court of appeal.
[1:59:05] And then included on here is for the one-time costs.
[1:59:10] There was quite a bit of comments around public engagement and kind of informing and educating the public.
[1:59:19] Is that reflected in these one-time costs if that was something that the city did want to explore?
[1:59:23] Or do you have any sense of what that costs in 2018 when the city did it?
[1:59:29] I don't think that was included in the demographic study so we would have to we could find that out.
[1:59:39] Um, I have a lot more questions in comments, but I want to open up to my colleagues and we'll keep it going.
[1:59:45] That's what we're going to.
[1:59:46] Still kind of go on what Mayor Soto said.
[1:59:52] What would happen if we were in the in litigation? What everything just be at a standstill?
[1:59:57] And we would have this system we have now, let's say.
[2:00:00] We about measures passed, but then we were sued. Would that just mean that we would continue as we are until it was decided?
[2:00:08] 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.
[2:00:15] 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.
[2:00:27] Okay, so it just depends.
[2:00:29] I mean, typical.
[2:00:31] 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.
[2:00:40] There are, there are council members as they have historically.
[2:00:43] Got it. Okay. And then you've mentioned several times the demographic study.
[2:00:51] 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?
[2:01:05] $100,000 was both legal and demographic studies.
[2:01:10] And so I would anticipate it to be similar to if not more than that $100,000.
[2:01:16] 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
[2:01:40] Either maintain a majority minority district or add one and not backslide by adding in that large district.
[2:01:49] Okay, and if we didn't do a demographic study like this, what would we would be, I mean, it's just more risk.
[2:01:58] I think this city would be at risk of a severe loss of yes.
[2:02:02] Okay, but we would not have any evidence to refute it really.
[2:02:06] 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.
[2:02:17] Correct.
[2:02:17] Again, this is all hypothetical.
[2:02:22] Okay, thank you.
[2:02:22] Thank you.
[2:02:23] I think that's really helpful.
[2:02:26] I'm actually going to keep passing it on, I think.
[2:02:29] There's plenty to say.
[2:02:31] I just have some questions, so just to clarify what are the specific roles laid out and
[2:02:41] responsibility of the mayor?
[2:02:46] Under our current rotational system, it really is just to run meetings.
[2:02:53] There is one provision in the Brown Act that technically a mayor can call it a special meeting of the council.
[2:03:02] That's really the only extra legal power that the mayor has either in our system or even in a general law city.
[2:03:13] But other than that, it's really just ceremonial in terms of running the meetings, attending ceremonial events.
[2:03:21] The mayor tends to function more as a spokesperson for the city council, so when their pressing queries are something,
[2:03:28] 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
[2:03:35] It's just kind of more of a practice
[2:03:37] So some of the committees that they're on the finance committee. I see a bag. That's I believe our chartered does
[2:03:47] provide the finance committees is
[2:03:50] Set to be the mayor. Yes
[2:03:52] Okay, and I guess we have some other things. So
[2:03:55] 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?
[2:04:09] Not from a legal perspective, no.
[2:04:12] They just sort of champion or shepherd them.
[2:04:15] So they can, other individual council members can as well.
[2:04:19] 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.
[2:04:38] Yeah, that's not, again, that's also not enshrined in any kind of law or ordinance or resolution of the city, no.
[2:04:45] And I say this, knowing, because Councilman of the Garden
[2:04:47] and I just did a legislative trip, and Councilman of the
[2:04:50] Heart and I are leading the Convention Center,
[2:04:54] that was made right now.
[2:04:57] So it's more of a first among equals, is really what it is.
[2:05:03] And I want to talk just a little bit
[2:05:04] cost, because the citywide election would be every four years.
[2:05:10] That's an additional cost every four years.
[2:05:14] The citywide election would be every four years.
[2:05:16] the ballot initiative would not have, is it common that you have a, you have a election for
[2:05:26] an office that is being determined, there's not, it's determined?
[2:05:32] In speaking with my colleague, Mr. Priest, who's online, he can certainly correct me if I'm wrong.
[2:05:37] I don't think we've seen that before. It may have happened here or there, but we're not familiar
[2:05:42] in terms of the California or anywhere that we've worked.
[2:05:48] So is it possible we could do the if the ballot initiative for legal?
[2:05:54] 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?
[2:06:03] Council?
[2:06:04] If I'm understanding your question correctly.
[2:06:07] Could this, for instance, the City Council establish a process that requires them to be separate?
[2:06:13] I believe the council could, this city is a charter city and that gives the city council
[2:06:18] very broad discretion in terms of how council elections are conducted and so I believe so yes.
[2:06:26] Just asking because we could spend the money on a city wide election and the ballot measure
[2:06:30] fails.
[2:06:32] We've already spent that money.
[2:06:35] Okay.
[2:06:36] I know this came up that you mentioned it in the line that we rotate by district.
[2:06:40] But that's what Council decided by five years ago, or 1719, yes.
[2:06:46] And we could change that as a Council to say that without going to the voters just
[2:06:51] saying it's two years or every year we decide or we could decide to have a rest of your
[2:06:58] term.
[2:06:59] Yeah.
[2:07:00] That was adopted by resolutions so that could be changed.
[2:07:05] And I just going back to the slide on what the other city is.
[2:07:07] So most of the other cities, they have the two-year term for the elected.
[2:07:19] It's like two of them have two years as one has four years.
[2:07:24] Under California law, you can set it for either two or four years.
[2:07:27] For charter cities, you could set it for anything but for gender.
[2:07:36] Any other questions?
[2:07:55] How common is it to have an even number of equal voting council members?
[2:08:01] Again, in speaking with my colleague Mr. Priests, I think it's fairly unusual.
[2:08:08] For instance, for general law cities, the government code establishes the numbers as 5, 7, or 9.
[2:08:15] Again, charter cities have more authority, but at least for general law cities, those are the three options.
[2:08:22] And I heard in public comment that in 80 years of the directly elected mayor, we got one mayor of color, is that?
[2:08:30] Do we know if that's verified?
[2:08:34] That's true.
[2:08:35] And we had no women, mayors.
[2:08:40] I have some more questions in comments, but I'm going to pass it on to somebody to heart.
[2:08:54] I'm strangely compelled of this conversation.
[2:08:56] discussion and I think I'm just listening at the moment a yield to council member to heart.
[2:09:03] Thank you.
[2:09:04] So Jeff, we've heard some big numbers and lawsuits with Palmdale and Santa Monica.
[2:09:15] Were those lawsuits because they were electing a mayor at large?
[2:09:22] I know with Santa Monica, it was all at large.
[2:09:29] I don't know about Palmdale, Jim, do you know what Palmdale was before was it all at large?
[2:09:37] Good evening, Mr. Mayor.
[2:09:39] Madam Mayor, member of the Council, Jim Priest.
[2:09:43] Palmdale's I recall was entirely at large prior to the lawsuit,
[2:09:48] and then they transitioned to what they currently are.
[2:09:51] So both of those lawsuits that we're using to talk about these massive lawsuits were for city council, not for mayor.
[2:10:03] So they were disputing city council seats, not a mayor's seat.
[2:10:08] So, the other thing is, you know, you mentioned that no city has won a CBR suit.
[2:10:23] Now, as any city who has, do we know, as any city who has districts and elects their mayor at large, face legal challenges?
[2:10:37] for
[2:10:40] that type of system?
[2:10:43] So for violating CDRA,
[2:10:48] I'm not aware of any that either word,
[2:10:52] I'll call them 4 plus 1 just for the sake of simplicity.
[2:10:55] I'm not aware of any that we're 4 plus 1
[2:10:58] and stayed at 4 plus 1 that we're sued based on that basis.
[2:11:02] I don't know if Mr. Priest is aware of any.
[2:11:06] Here?
[2:11:08] Go ahead.
[2:11:08] Yeah, thank you.
[2:11:11] Was it officially a mayoral position?
[2:11:14] No, but what I can tell you is the city of Downey.
[2:11:17] Just last year had a four plus one structure,
[2:11:22] where there were four geographical districts,
[2:11:26] and then one, what they called a district
[2:11:28] that was actually an at large seat.
[2:11:31] The district was defined as citywide.
[2:11:34] They were threatened with a CBR day demand letter last year, and the council elected to choose
[2:11:41] rather than defend any litigation on that.
[2:11:45] And now they are in a pure five district setup that will be implemented in the coming elections.
[2:11:53] All right.
[2:11:53] Thank you for that.
[2:11:55] And how is Santa Cruz?
[2:11:56] Do we know how Santa Cruz is set up because we're hearing that there's no other city
[2:12:01] is like what's being proposed.
[2:12:07] I don't know how Santa Monica is.
[2:12:11] Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Santa Cruz.
[2:12:12] I don't know how that is set up.
[2:12:13] I can we can certainly look at it and I think there's noting,
[2:12:21] it's not so much how it's set up.
[2:12:23] It's the fact that we are changing from purely district
[2:12:28] to out large.
[2:12:28] In other words, as I believe my staff report indicated, there are some cities, for instance,
[2:12:34] Fontana, that had four at large positions and one directly elected mayor position.
[2:12:41] They were threatened by Mr. Shankman in 2017 or so, and they moved to a four plus one.
[2:12:50] So it moved to district plus and at large mayor with the kind of blessing of Mr. Shankman
[2:12:58] his client, but it was also going from purely at large to district plus at large. Here we're
[2:13:06] going from district back to partially at large. So that's where the element of risk is comes about.
[2:13:15] Yeah, I think it would be helpful for us to look at Santa Cruz because it would be nice to see
[2:13:22] how that structure has survived.
[2:13:29] A follow-up question around the, just to make sure we're clarifying this as clear as possible for the community.
[2:13:36] So there are some cities that have four, one, right, that haven't faced legal scrutiny.
[2:13:45] But do we, you know, in a venue that have gone from five districts back to an out large,
[2:13:53] and has any other city that has kind of gone in the direction of kind of moving away from
[2:14:03] large silver turning. Is that a process that you're seeing in any other cities?
[2:14:08] We haven't seen any go from fully district to an out large mayor.
[2:14:14] And that it's a four one or a five one.
[2:14:16] Correct. Okay.
[2:14:19] just on that. So we have five districts we have a minority majority district and so what
[2:14:27] would be the issue say what we're just adding another at large we still have our minority
[2:14:33] representation.
[2:14:37] Jim would you like to address that?
[2:14:42] I'm so sorry could you repeat the
[2:14:44] question to help remember? So we have five districts right now with one of them being
[2:14:48] an already majority district, so we have addressed the issue of not having a voter delusion.
[2:14:56] So what would be the issue for just adding a mayor without changing those five?
[2:15:00] 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.
[2:15:26] It would be a demographic, a factual question in any such litigation.
[2:15:32] The immediate concern may be that the district one representative becomes one vote of six as opposed to one vote of five.
[2:15:41] Is that enough to prove dilution?
[2:15:44] That's an undefined area of the law.
[2:15:46] We can see no court ruling on that yet.
[2:15:48] But it is a potential argument as a potential risk.
[2:15:54] And so along those lines, you would need, I think we heard in public comments.
[2:16:01] So if we have six votes and you could have a stalemate, why, I mean, there's been arguments
[2:16:14] against having a four to a super majority required,
[2:16:19] is that something that would be seen
[2:16:23] is motor dilution or just a difficult situation with the stalemate.
[2:16:29] Well, well, the stalemate could possibly be evidence of voter dilution.
[2:16:34] That would be subject to proof and court.
[2:16:36] And again, that's why we would have to retain a demographic
[2:16:39] if we were in litigation to provide proof to the contrary
[2:16:42] that in fact it does not reopen voter dilution.
[2:16:46] And then it is a valid added mayoral office.
[2:16:50] But again, that would be subject to proof and court requiring demographic analysis, which
[2:16:55] was a large part of the trial that Santa Monica was doing, was having demographic
[2:17:01] experts in looking at the demographic analysis.
[2:17:03] So we would need to do that to demonstrate that adding a mayor doesn't dilute votes.
[2:17:09] Okay.
[2:17:09] Another question for now.
[2:17:11] May I present?
[2:17:12] I do have a question.
[2:17:14] I just trying to think conceptually through this process.
[2:17:16] So right now, obviously, there's nothing
[2:17:18] before the council to act upon.
[2:17:20] You do have a ballot language that was submitted.
[2:17:23] So obviously, that process is a parallel process.
[2:17:29] My sense is that at the moment, we're sort of like
[2:17:31] bystanders, the council.
[2:17:34] Explain if this process goes forward, and it passes.
[2:17:40] What's our role between now and then?
[2:17:42] What happens after that in terms of the legal issues
[2:17:45] you're raising?
[2:17:49] Well, if it goes forward in it passes, I think there's a potential that somebody would
[2:17:57] challenge the new system, either the CVRA or some other legal theory perhaps as they
[2:18:07] did Santa Monica, and then the city would not be a by-stander, then the city would be defending
[2:18:13] the system that was put in place.
[2:18:14] And that would occur post the election not prior, or could it occur prior?
[2:18:19] I don't, I think it would be unlikely that a CVRA lawsuit would occur before hand.
[2:18:24] I guess it's not inconceivable, but if it were going to occur, I would very likely occur
[2:18:32] afterwards.
[2:18:42] Thank you.
[2:18:43] Thank
[2:18:51] you.
[2:18:52] You share,
[2:18:58] there was kind of going back to some of the public comments around public engagement
[2:19:05] and education, around the Voting Rights Act and what the city has done.
[2:19:11] Does that have to be dependent on if it goes to the ballot or can you just share if that
[2:19:23] has to be the potential timing options to do that work and where what value that could
[2:19:32] be done in terms of doing it now versus doing that in the fall versus once we see what
[2:19:40] happens as Mayor Pro Tem already said it kind of reacting after the fact. Do you have any
[2:19:53] public engagement would be legally required as the staff were indicated if the City Council
[2:19:58] were to adopt an ordinance of its own, similar to what it did in 2018 in order to either
[2:20:06] just create a directly elected mayor position, or to do that and add districts, then the
[2:20:12] state law does require under the Fair Maps Act that the City Council hold public hearings
[2:20:18] and public workshops and reach out to minority communities.
[2:20:21] That's legally required for that ordinance to be adopted.
[2:20:26] It absent that type of ordinance being adopted by the City Council.
[2:20:31] The public engagement is really more optional in terms of whether the City Council wishes
[2:20:36] to engage in that public education process.
[2:20:40] So it really be up to the council to decide whether and when to provide that type of education
[2:20:46] to the public.
[2:20:50] That's what we're going to.
[2:20:52] Thank you.
[2:20:53] Yeah, we went through as we heard from the community a very robust public engagement process
[2:21:00] when we moved to districts.
[2:21:03] And I know that there was, you know, comment made that this isn't easier decision.
[2:21:10] But I don't think that's the case.
[2:21:14] We have seen people become mayor that, for instance, we've had women be our mayor now
[2:21:21] that we didn't have before, people of color and I think that's been really amazing.
[2:21:28] But the other thing about it is that each district has had this opportunity to be represented
[2:21:35] and to be highlighted.
[2:21:38] And I think that we have seen a correlation of improved engagement with minority communities
[2:21:47] and the city since we transitioned to this system and I really anxious for us to get
[2:21:58] out that landing page because when you look back on our ordinance that was passed by the
[2:22:08] is really listed here. And that was a really important part of why the council felt that
[2:22:16] it was important to move to district elections because of vote dilution in our past elections
[2:22:24] and just the history of systemic racism that didn't just play Palm Springs with.
[2:22:30] 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.
[2:22:46] And the ability for us to highlight different groups of people is also because we have this rotation.
[2:22:57] 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.
[2:23:19] 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.
[2:23:30] 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.
[2:23:47] 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.
[2:24:09] It's how are the power structures going to shift in our community,
[2:24:14] who then has an opportunity to be the mayor?
[2:24:19] I know personally this directly elected for your position for mayor
[2:24:25] would limit working people from being mayor
[2:24:28] because it is a big commitment when you're mayor.
[2:24:33] And I think we have all made sacrifices for one year,
[2:24:36] 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.
[2:24:47] 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.
[2:24:54] And so those are those types of concerns that I have when we're talking about directly
[2:24:59] electing a mayor is who is able to have this seat and who is not.
[2:25:08] And by extension, what are we saying to our community, are we just telling them you don't
[2:25:16] deserve a leadership position. Your voice is not as important.
[2:25:26] I think that there's a
[2:25:26] lot more discussion that we have to have with our community. And I would hope that we
[2:25:31] can do that instead of just having a ballot measure. Because I think only having a ballot
[2:25:39] measure doesn't allow for that really critical conversation.
[2:25:51] 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?
[2:26:12] because that's what we're doing.
[2:26:13] That our settlement agreement.
[2:26:15] We're going to see where the CBRA can you clarify maybe?
[2:26:19] 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.
[2:26:29] And I have the CBRA says that you can move to a district plus out large as long as there's no vote delusion.
[2:26:39] And so that's what a number of cities did that were purely out large.
[2:26:44] So in the late 2010s, cities who were purely out large
[2:26:49] or maybe had out large plus mayor moved to district plus mayor.
[2:26:53] So as long as there's not vote delusion by going to that district plus out large,
[2:27:00] then the CDRA is not violated.
[2:27:02] Here, we're going though from just purely district-based to district-plus large and so we're
[2:27:09] kind of backsliding from the perspective of the CBRA, at least in terms of potential vote
[2:27:15] dilution.
[2:27:16] And we had already said that we had racially polarized voting from Mayor.
[2:27:21] I looked back at the 2018 ordinance and the language said that there was probably vote
[2:27:31] possibly vote delusion, and probably vote delusion.
[2:27:35] So there hasn't been a court determination
[2:27:37] that there was vote delusion, but the legislative recitals
[2:27:41] to that ordinance from 2018 said
[2:27:44] that there was probably vote delusion in the city's past.
[2:27:49] And I just, you know, I want to address some,
[2:27:51] there's a better pro-temination
[2:27:52] that we can, our role is really just to sit back
[2:27:54] and see what happens with the ballot measure.
[2:27:56] 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.
[2:28:07] I mean, it comes from the hardest and very vocal about it.
[2:28:10] 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.
[2:28:19] We heard a lot from tonight that people said it's working great.
[2:28:22] But, you know, these are a few dozen people, and we haven't really gone out to 400 plus people or whatever.
[2:28:30] It did last time.
[2:28:32] And, you know, this is, again, we have a lot of rotating mayors in our rotating council members and mayors in our valley.
[2:28:40] And, you know, and some people have said, you know, that's confusing.
[2:28:45] Some people have heard council members in other cities that said they didn't particularly want to be mayor,
[2:28:51] and we're sort of rotated in it.
[2:28:53] And other people who really embraced it, you know,
[2:28:57] and I mean, I like being better.
[2:28:59] But you know, as we've seen is we've had representation.
[2:29:02] And that's, I don't think that, you know,
[2:29:06] it's a little bit more than hearing all the different voices
[2:29:09] is what our brand as a city means.
[2:29:12] And the fact that we currently have three Latino people on council,
[2:29:17] that, you know, we had not had a person of color, other than one person in 80 years.
[2:29:24] We had no women.
[2:29:25] I think it matters to our brand of what we are as a progressive and inclusive city.
[2:29:32] So, but I think, you know, again, people like this idea of a directly elected mayor.
[2:29:38] And while it has no more responsibility, they like the idea that they have voted for that person.
[2:29:44] So I do think, and there is valid reasons for saying I voted for the mayor, or I had the option to vote.
[2:29:55] And so we talk about public engagement really if...
[2:30:00] 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.
[2:30:12] 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.
[2:30:21] 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.
[2:30:28] It doesn't mention the option of having a of of going to a 4 plus 1.
[2:30:36] So there are options that we can do when I think to the extent that it's legally possible.
[2:30:43] We should look at whether there are other options and understand what the issue
[2:30:48] and likelihood would be of a lawsuit that comes from it.
[2:30:53] And I know we've had people talk about not having lots of consultants
[2:30:56] and lots of public engagement but that is what our city is good at and we are a better city
[2:31:01] because of the public engagement that we have done over the years and sometimes people don't
[2:31:06] like it and sometimes it makes our council meetings very long but I think if you look back
[2:31:13] at the decisions that we have made as a city that have had a lot of public engagement they have
[2:31:18] almost always been better and I don't think that we should discount that and our role
[2:31:25] 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
[2:31:36] 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
[2:31:56] 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.
[2:32:07] 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.
[2:32:25] 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.
[2:32:40] 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.
[2:32:48] And you know, we have seen that we should be playing an active role because clearly there are some residents who like this idea.
[2:32:55] there's a lot of people who have raised very good, you know, very strong issues about what this does to
[2:33:03] to representation and what it does for legal liability issues, but we have not given the public any
[2:33:11] option to actually really engage and ask questions and talk to staff and city and each other about this
[2:33:18] in public meetings.
[2:33:21] So I just want to address what Mayor Pau-Tamis had said.
[2:33:24] I think that is what our role is to see how we get that public engagement.
[2:33:30] I have a couple of other comments, but I'm rambling now, so I will defer.
[2:33:37] Councillor interjecting.
[2:33:39] We, all of this has been, you know, the public comment tonight, it has been, you know, excellent
[2:33:47] opportunity to share dialogue and hear perspectives.
[2:33:56] And this is the conversation that has been happening in the community.
[2:34:00] We've had these conversations, many conversations like this.
[2:34:04] So I think this conversation is going to continue.
[2:34:07] And I appreciate everything that my colleagues have brought forward tonight, because this
[2:34:13] is an excellent conversation to continue to happen and go forward and with any initiative.
[2:34:22] It's driven by the public, it's driven by the people and the people will decide and they've
[2:34:29] been pretty loud up to this point what they want to see and my role has been standing up
[2:34:40] or what the public has been telling me for a year plus.
[2:34:48] I'm not supporting the effort because Ronda Hart is the
[2:34:52] soul individual out there that has an ego bigger than the sky
[2:34:56] that wants to have this measure or that Ronda Hart wants to run
[2:35:01] for mayor.
[2:35:03] I'm not running for mayor.
[2:35:06] That is not what this is about.
[2:35:10] This is about people in the community for a year and four months of
[2:35:16] break raise this conversation about being able to elect their mayor.
[2:35:23] I'm bringing the conversation forward and it's coming forward in the form of an initiative.
[2:35:29] of it. And we're going to see a lot of conversation continue to happen from this point on.
[2:35:35] And I think that will help derive the outcome of what happens at the ballot box. The
[2:35:44] community is going to learn. We're going to educate folks are going to have conversations.
[2:35:50] There's going to be neighborhood meetings and friends' houses and these conversations
[2:35:55] are going to take place. And then the decision will be made, how people truly feel about it.
[2:36:03] I appreciate the the opportunity that we have to be able to hear all the sides and
[2:36:10] and I just caution the fear about lawsuits. The CVRA suits that we're talking about these
[2:36:20] multi-million dollar settlements.
[2:36:23] There are suits over city council seats.
[2:36:28] We don't have suits over, we don't have suits for an at-large elected mayor.
[2:36:39] We have suits over dispute over city council seats and city council representation and
[2:36:45] and bringing districts to the avoids to districts and throughout the city, and that's
[2:36:53] happened up and down the state, and it's not just one city, it's not just two cities.
[2:36:59] It's a lot of cities have the districts in place and a city wide mayor.
[2:37:08] So the fear of legal shutdown is I think maybe a scare tactic that hasn't proven out throughout
[2:37:21] the city, I mean throughout the state.
[2:37:25] So I appreciate the conversation and look forward to ongoing conversation.
[2:37:31] I
[2:37:36] have some two. If we could go to the slide that said, path 1, keep rotational, and path 2, council ordinance.
[2:37:49] So we have a couple of questions on that.
[2:37:56] So you call it path one, keep rotational and right now our rotation is that we changed
[2:38:02] every year by district number.
[2:38:05] But the foundation of that is that the mayor is one of the five council members, right?
[2:38:14] Is that more important than the rotation or is it the rotation?
[2:38:19] And if we were to change the selection of the mayor within the five, would that still be
[2:38:31] a legally safe approach that is based off of the demographic data and sign off by at least
[2:38:36] one CBRA plaintiff?
[2:38:39] Yes, it would still be the legally safe approach.
[2:38:42] I think a CBRA or other type of legal challenge to simply changing the method of rotation
[2:38:48] and the time period, I think those types of challenges
[2:38:52] would have a hard time succeeding.
[2:38:59] So I would recommend maybe like if we're going to be talking
[2:39:03] about this again.
[2:39:05] Maybe change the name of this path one to instead
[2:39:07] of saying keeping rotational or saying something
[2:39:10] about selection within five.
[2:39:14] Because I think within this path one and some of the comments
[2:39:17] have come up, there's a lot of different ways
[2:39:19] to do this, possibly extending the year term, possibly if we want to have terms within that
[2:39:26] or there could be continuity within the mayor if the council chooses the mayor to represent
[2:39:34] the city, let's say it's a two-year term, there could be, and that's re-appointed another
[2:39:40] two years that could meet possibly the goals of some of the continuity concerns that community
[2:39:45] members said, so I'm just wondering if we might want to just re-examine some of these paths
[2:39:51] because it sounds more narrow than I think what is possibly, what is possible within
[2:39:56] path 1. So that'd be one recommendation.
[2:40:00] Because I do think there's a positive, I'm very
[2:40:02] curious as to the interest of if that's something that the community would be interested in exploring
[2:40:07] more,
[2:40:11] around, before we get too much into new ones, I just want to say like a big thank you
[2:40:17] to everyone who came out and provided public comments.
[2:40:21] The fact that we have so much engagement, so many of it in public comments, it just
[2:40:27] is a reflection that residents really care about our city, there's a lot of ideas, a lot
[2:40:33] energy around what how our local government should operate, cities would love to have this
[2:40:39] level of community engagement and we are blessed with an abundance of community engagement
[2:40:45] and its responsibility to listen to it and to respond to it and to engage in dialogue.
[2:40:50] And so I'm grateful that that's our starting point.
[2:40:54] But it is true as the public comments reflected in Palm Springs specifically, right?
[2:41:00] not what's happening in other cities, but in Palm Springs, city-wide elections did not
[2:41:06] and do not result in diverse leadership. And this was especially true for the role of the mayor.
[2:41:14] And so, if all of these discussions in 2018 about the various structures, how can we make sure that
[2:41:22] There's a really protected voting rights act, and based off of all of that feedback is our
[2:41:31] current set up, I think that's something that we should, that should really drive what
[2:41:38] we're doing, drive our understanding of how we're in compliance with the CVRA and the
[2:41:44] settlement agreement that the previous council spent a lot of time making sure would reflect
[2:41:51] the city.
[2:41:54] Diversity is part of our Palm Springs moral values. I think we should be proud
[2:41:58] of that diversity and that it's been represented since 2018 based off of those decisions
[2:42:03] of that previous council. And as my colleagues have said that the current rotation has reflected
[2:42:10] in leadership from across the city. And so I think part of that community engagement that we
[2:42:17] should be doing moving forward is really looking at what does,
[2:42:20] how do we maintain those values and power that values,
[2:42:26] so it's reflected in how our body votes or we interested
[2:42:32] in going back to a time where women were not ever given a chance
[2:42:36] to be mayor and people of color very rarely.
[2:42:40] So there's a multitude of considerations.
[2:42:42] And I think, again, deep gratitude to all the public
[2:42:45] comments that were shared for me, some of the things that I'm most interested in having an
[2:42:51] opportunity to talk to the public more about is the role and importance of the community
[2:42:56] education that was done in 2018. Maybe we need to do this every 10 years. I don't know.
[2:43:01] But there might be a need for that and maybe that landing page could help be kind of foundational
[2:43:07] to that. And I think it is the responsibility of council of the city city council to think
[2:43:16] about the legalities. So think about the nuance of how we make sure we reduce our risk
[2:43:21] as much as possible. Those technicalities matter. And those technicalities can put us dismissing
[2:43:31] or not considering them fully and not doing our full due diligence puts us at grave risk possibly.
[2:43:37] And so I don't think it's a scare tactic.
[2:43:40] I think it's part of our responsibility to examine it,
[2:43:42] to talk about it with the community, to educate, and then see
[2:43:48] if that what changes or considerations we can do that are still
[2:43:52] within the intention of the California Roting Rights Act
[2:43:57] and that we're not trying to skirt around it.
[2:43:59] We're not trying to skirt around the requirements of the state
[2:44:01] as put on us, but it actually drives what we're doing.
[2:44:09] Yes, Councilmemberancy.
[2:44:10] Well, I just want to clarify, I mean, I'm not opposed to something, a change in our form
[2:44:19] of government if that's what our voters want and have really vetted it through, and understand
[2:44:26] that there is not a legal risk.
[2:44:28] I'm not saying the out lives mayors, the right one.
[2:44:32] It could be what the mayor has suggested, but I know that there's been a lot of conversations,
[2:44:39] but there's not been community, real community engagement, like we had in 2018. There's no
[2:44:45] been organized open forums to discuss this for the public. And certainly not inclusive ones.
[2:44:51] You know, we can always have our own circles of people who have this discussion that we support
[2:44:55] a mayor and, you know, I can invite 20 friends over and they'll agree with me.
[2:45:00] 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.
[2:45:30] to do that and have that representation
[2:45:32] with that large mayors.
[2:45:34] But I think we need to really tap into the wisdom
[2:45:36] of our residents, and not just one small group
[2:45:39] that's come up with an idea and one option.
[2:45:44] And we have to go through the process,
[2:45:46] because when we do, it really hammers our disagreements
[2:45:51] into workable solutions and solutions that endure
[2:45:55] the test of time, and it can be hard,
[2:45:57] and it can be frustrating, and sometimes it can take time.
[2:45:59] But we're not a city that bypasses public engagement.
[2:46:02] You know, we've seen how the public process and public engagement works.
[2:46:06] And we need a process that ensures we all have a stake.
[2:46:09] So my view is that we should re-engage, maybe not 30 meetings,
[2:46:14] but public meetings to find out is this ballot measure the best option?
[2:46:18] Is there another option? Do we need to change what we have?
[2:46:21] And is there legal issues that we need to address?
[2:46:24] Because the public, before they vote, they should know what the options are
[2:46:28] and what the legal ramifications are.
[2:46:33] And we should help engage that public thing.
[2:46:35] And maybe, you know, as we heard from some people
[2:46:36] who want directly elected mayor, that's what rises up,
[2:46:41] and we figure out that there's a way to avoid a lawsuit.
[2:46:44] But we don't know that yet.
[2:46:46] And it would be remiss as council members
[2:46:49] if we sat as bystanders and let something go
[2:46:52] that we know could potentially result in millions of dollars
[2:46:55] or not, but we need to find that right answer.
[2:46:58] So my view is that we need to have this public engagement and we should get maybe the CBRA working group comes back together
[2:47:05] I don't actually don't know who they are. Where they are all now, but maybe we create a new one.
[2:47:10] They're on council.
[2:47:10] They're on council.
[2:47:13] And we've heard a few, I actually don't know how many there were what the process was.
[2:47:17] 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.
[2:47:27] Sorry about that. So that would be my vote to move this forward and see what really works best
[2:47:34] from our community.
[2:47:40] That's what we're going to. Thank you. The CVRA working group is all here.
[2:47:45] Every single one except one person is pretty impressive. But obviously we heard from the CVRA
[2:47:52] working CVRA working group and they have one recommendation. So I think that if we are going to
[2:48:00] do this in a move forward with a discussion in a equitable way. We're going to have to recruit
[2:48:05] some new members that might have some differing opinions as well to be fair. And it doesn't
[2:48:13] have to be the exact same group. It could be some people and new people. But I do think that
[2:48:21] these conversations are happening within our communities. Certainly, I know that I have them.
[2:48:27] And there's so many other things to consider in this process in terms of just how it would work.
[2:48:39] The impact of adding additional people to the diets when our meetings are already very long.
[2:48:48] 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.
[2:49:08] And I saw a lot of people from District 1, which I thought was interesting too,
[2:49:21] I know that for District 1,
[2:49:26] especially for folks who identify as people of color,
[2:49:32] there's a real concern about being heard.
[2:49:36] And with this change to district elections, it was this opportunity to be heard in a new way.
[2:49:45] And we've really seen that engagement because of it.
[2:49:53] 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.
[2:50:01] I'm making sure that we're engaging with them too, which is part of why we did those outreach events in Spanish.
[2:50:14] And yeah, it's very easy for us to be in echo chambers.
[2:50:16] 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.
[2:50:28] City Attorney and City Manager, what do we, what type of direction do we need to give to you
[2:50:35] in order to continue having conversations on this issue, engaging the community, getting
[2:50:41] feedback, answering questions. I think really at the end of the day, there's just a lot of
[2:50:46] people who have questions,
[2:50:50] and how do we kind of go about making sure that we can answer them in a
[2:50:56] fairway. Thank you, Councilmember, let me take a little stab on it. We were just talking about
[2:51:02] it as we were listening to your comments. Obviously, from the city staff standpoint,
[2:51:08] you know, it's not our job to be involved in any of the policy decisions here. We want
[2:51:15] to help Council with carrying out any, you know, policy directives that you have to us.
[2:51:22] Obviously, as I listened to talking about a working group and establishing that and having lots of community engagement,
[2:51:31] that's a lot of work, but we want to provide this support to Council as you may need support to do that.
[2:51:39] I don't know if that looks like some sort of subcommittee of City Council that helps put a working group together.
[2:51:47] that's what you want to do. It sounds like there's a number of community engagement meetings.
[2:51:54] You might want to have around the city to engage people to come and council members hosting
[2:52:00] those listening sessions or whatever you might call them. The city staff can help with
[2:52:08] things like community surveys or things like that that we might want to do on social media.
[2:52:15] 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.
[2:52:30] From our standpoint, it would be helping to educate. We're certainly not here to advocate for one position or another.
[2:52:38] 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.
[2:52:46] Yeah, I mean, in terms of this, sorry, Councilmember Bernstein just said how many staff are involved last time.
[2:52:55] 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.
[2:53:05] And the subcommittee, as former Councilmember Middleton stated, the subcommittee of Jeff Coorson, Lisa Middleton, they were at
[2:53:16] I mean, between the two of them,
[2:53:18] shirts certainly every single meeting.
[2:53:21] And so, but there were not as many city staff members present.
[2:53:27] It was mostly community members,
[2:53:29] the very working group.
[2:53:32] The city clerk was there at most of them.
[2:53:33] I will say that.
[2:53:35] So I don't know.
[2:53:36] I mean, things a lot of, a lot has changed since 2018.
[2:53:40] As I certainly don't know what that would,
[2:53:42] when necessarily look like exactly from a staff standpoint.
[2:53:46] But I do think that this is something that could be mostly
[2:53:53] community-led as it was last time.
[2:53:57] I think there's-
[2:53:58] I did want to make note and we talked about it earlier about the,
[2:54:04] you know, making sure we have a proper landing page set up with
[2:54:07] There's a plethora of documents that apparently we have from 2018 in prior to that.
[2:54:15] And I know we want to get together and we want to have a dedicated landing page where
[2:54:20] everybody can go to all those documents and so we'll make sure that's very transparent.
[2:54:26] People can easily find them.
[2:54:27] And it might even be a disadormant page because it did exist.
[2:54:31] It did exist at one point, so it should be fairly easy to get back up.
[2:54:38] Well, it's probably going to be a little bit more complicated this time to have a community
[2:54:43] meeting because at that point, you know, you're looking at how to go to districts and the
[2:54:46] different options. And now we're looking at whether we have a directly elected,
[2:54:51] legalities of that, or different type of rotational, or stay in the same. So you've got different
[2:54:57] different views on that. And again, we don't want to just have a group of people who want to
[2:55:02] keep things exactly as they are. And we don't want to have just go to a group of people who want
[2:55:05] go directly elected mayor.
[2:55:07] We need to have the options, but most importantly,
[2:55:09] we need some of the answers to questions.
[2:55:12] And you know, you ask anybody, do I want to elect my own mayor?
[2:55:15] Probably a lot of people will say yes.
[2:55:17] But do they want to lose any kind of representation?
[2:55:20] Do they want other things?
[2:55:22] Minority, do they want to threaten a lawsuit threat?
[2:55:25] They probably would say maybe not.
[2:55:27] And so I think we need to figure out a way to do this
[2:55:30] that we get diverse voices in a different problem
[2:55:34] to actually talk about this and come up with the best solution.
[2:55:39] Don't know exactly how to do that.
[2:55:43] Yes, that's member tart.
[2:55:45] We're going to be here all night long going up and down the road here.
[2:55:50] But it's good conversation, so I think it's all right.
[2:55:55] You know, I think what's exciting about the conversation is the more the community will look and learn
[2:56:05] and the more that we discover, the cities that have districts that added the mayor
[2:56:14] at large, that those cities, and these are south of San Francisco cities, have proven
[2:56:26] to be creating opportunities for the people who've benefited from the district system.
[2:56:37] So I don't know the city but it's here not far from us.
[2:56:44] But they elected their first female mayor who came from serving as a council member in her district.
[2:56:53] The districts bring notoriety, exposure, bring opportunities for the community to see the
[2:57:03] leadership that everybody brings to the table.
[2:57:07] Another city in the Southland, first African-American male, a elected coming from a district
[2:57:21] council member seat. Another one. First Vietnamese mayor coming from a council district
[2:57:30] seat in a 55% predominant Hispanic community. So the opportunities that districts
[2:57:40] have created are they're unending and the benefits of the districts and all the work
[2:57:49] that the city and our community residents put into establishing districts have proven
[2:57:56] effective at works and no one's questioning the districts.
[2:58:06] Let's look at those opportunities that are created to allow those who have been elected
[2:58:13] in districts to serve your community as mayor because they've got the exposure, they've got
[2:58:20] the notoriety and the community has had an opportunity to see their leadership. So the
[2:58:27] opportunities are there and I'm excited about what may come from that. And a city attorney,
[2:58:34] I just want to applaud you on your PowerPoint presentation. When I heard you were making one,
[2:58:39] I was saying, oh my God, you did a good job, so thank you, thank you for putting that together.
[2:58:48] I appreciated that.
[2:58:53] Yeah, I guess my question, your path 3,
[2:59:02] it's as it comes with must adopt the
[2:59:03] battle language by August 7th to make it to the November 2026 election,
[2:59:10] how are we feeling?
[2:59:11] What kind of how much work do we need to get started on right away if this is in terms
[2:59:18] of the landing page or public engagement process if we did want to do something, like
[2:59:27] how much can meet done by this summer?
[2:59:31] It really depends on how much resources are thrown at it, right?
[2:59:35] I mean, lightning's speed maybe, yeah.
[2:59:37] Okay, great.
[2:59:40] You know, four or five months.
[2:59:47] For how much public engagement we want to do the summer.
[2:59:53] Or before people are voting.
[2:59:58] I mean.
[3:00:00] I would say that we should get started as soon as possible, and probably limit it to a short
[3:00:07] or amount of time. I mean, we have a certain amount of time when the signatures are being collected
[3:00:13] on the ballot, and if we want to put something else together in August, I think, as our
[3:00:17] deadline, we should sort of set a date which we want to try and do this and get a group together
[3:00:23] as soon as possible. And answer questions. I mean, I think if we can start
[3:00:29] soon enough and get together a group, and that's what I would say we should do right away.
[3:00:36] And start with some community meetings and engagements.
[3:00:39] I know one PS has already asked that it be on their agenda.
[3:00:44] So this is obviously a big topic.
[3:00:47] We're going to have this meeting tonight, so people are hearing it.
[3:00:50] So how do we start this right away with a community engagement?
[3:00:53] And that's what I would say that we start, come up with our decision right now on how we're
[3:00:59] to do that. I don't know disagree.
[3:01:10] I mean, we can perhaps one option similar to what happened
[3:01:16] in 2018 is to select an ad hoc subcommittee of just two council members to work with staff
[3:01:24] to come up with a working group and kind of come up with ideas. Either report back to the council
[3:01:31] at a subsequent meeting or just start getting started.
[3:01:39] Can I say something?
[3:01:40] I do.
[3:01:41] And, you know, council just as much as I fear recommending this.
[3:01:47] It's almost feels like it's something that should be on the agenda.
[3:01:51] Every council meeting between now and, you know, going forward, getting the,
[3:01:56] if we're really talking about doing that, this, you know,
[3:02:00] It's going to be a lot of work to do it right and to get everybody involved.
[3:02:08] So the city staff will be available if there is a ad hoc working group to immediately,
[3:02:14] you know, we will dedicate whatever staff, you know, council deems is necessary to
[3:02:21] to start scheduling meetings and, you know, we can help with notifying working group members
[3:02:30] that the subcommittee might want to put together and trying to get that set up, starting
[3:02:36] to think about outreach community meetings, we can talk about how we can, what we can do
[3:02:42] with social media and other things, so we'll be available at your direction.
[3:02:49] Let's remember Garner, did I hear you interested in being part of that?
[3:02:54] Yes.
[3:02:54] I would also.
[3:02:56] Okay.
[3:02:57] We got two.
[3:02:57] Thank you, Gants, remember.
[3:03:00] To heart.
[3:03:02] Okay.
[3:03:05] We are looking forward to coming hearing your incredible plan that you'll come back with
[3:03:09] in two weeks.
[3:03:12] Yeah.
[3:03:24] I mean, you don't have to meet every week.
[3:03:28] I'm just suggesting that hearing what you're trying to accomplish between
[3:03:32] Now in November, we probably, the ad hoc committee,
[3:03:37] we probably want to get together with you pretty quickly.
[3:03:41] You would probably want to do some thinking about this working group
[3:03:44] and really together, giving us some direction on outreach
[3:03:48] of how many people you want to put together.
[3:03:52] And then we probably want to get together
[3:03:55] with pull back group together pretty quickly.
[3:03:58] Start having some discussions.
[3:04:00] it sounds like about what is there advice about community engagement, what should the strategy be,
[3:04:07] how should we set things up, you know, all of that. So that's where we'll be looking for your
[3:04:15] direction.
[3:04:20] Yeah, not necessarily that has to be it kind of, you know, but I would think you'd want
[3:04:24] to get together as you're at our committee real quickly.
[3:04:31] Heather, discussion or
[3:04:32] or direction that we want to get.
[3:04:38] I see there's consensus.
[3:04:42] You can't do it by motion, but it seems there's consensus among the council to select that committee.
[3:04:50] All right.
[3:04:50] Well, thank you.
[3:04:52] Comfort members, and thank you to the public again for the robust discussion.
[3:04:56] Next item is public comment on non agenda items.
[3:04:59] 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.
[3:05:07] A little of this Council values your comments, pursuant to the Brown Act, which generally cannot
[3:05:11] take any action on any items not listed on the agenda.
[3:05:16] Two minutes will be assigned to each speaker.
[3:05:19] Hold on one second.
[3:05:26] I have David Powell as first of our public comments.
[3:05:36] Well, Mayor Council, David Powell, objective director of Desert Business Association, the LGBTQ
[3:05:41] Chamber of Commerce.
[3:05:43] You don't get to see me too much, at least not in here.
[3:05:46] But you get to see me a lot out and about.
[3:05:48] I wanted to do two things.
[3:05:49] One is announced that DBA has is doing this annual business
[3:05:54] and community awards.
[3:05:55] Our impact awards, a Monday, May 4th,
[3:05:57] at the Palm Springs Convention Center.
[3:05:59] We have chosen our recipients, our business,
[3:06:03] the years, county bagels, pens, business person, sons,
[3:06:07] our Michael and Ernie Westman, from GED Magazine,
[3:06:10] our Community Service Organization,
[3:06:11] the Subboys and Girls Club of Cathedral City.
[3:06:13] And our outstanding community service leaders, Julie Warren, from Palm Springs Speaks, the LGBTQ
[3:06:19] Archive of the Desert, and Palm Springs Library, in addition, that night will be giving
[3:06:24] four LGBT youth scholarships through Safe Schools Desert Cities.
[3:06:29] I have to send something to staff tomorrow to get that on your calendar.
[3:06:33] Hopefully all of you will be there.
[3:06:34] The city is one of our sponsors.
[3:06:36] Second thing.
[3:06:37] Next Wednesday is the local government vendor fair, which you all know.
[3:06:42] 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.
[3:07:04] 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.
[3:07:22] 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.
[3:07:30] Back to procurement staff and this working group was to have it like two or three times a year to help develop
[3:07:37] our small businesses throughout the valley, and particularly through Palm Springs. Since you're the one's
[3:07:43] predominantly supporting this, and let's see what we can do to really get more contracts with the city,
[3:07:50] more contracts from small and diverse businesses and local businesses in there. Thank you very much.
[3:08:04] 40's not too bad, I don't know what I'm thinking.
[3:08:10] Next we have Michael Joseph Picken.
[3:08:20] Michael Joseph Picken, I moved to Palm Springs in 2021.
[3:08:24] After data breaches, gaslighting, gang stocking at 7.11,
[3:08:27] I moved to Santa Monica six months.
[3:08:30] I have used every gate and by-pock HIV service organization in L.A.
[3:08:35] Not to mention other states.
[3:08:36] I have provided these community agencies in 20 years over $1 million.
[3:08:40] I was using API over 20 miles away for medical care.
[3:08:45] I wanted to try St. Joseph's in Venice a few miles away.
[3:08:49] I set appointments, went to their paperwork orientation, filled out my medical hip-a-history,
[3:08:55] signed and dated.
[3:08:56] For some reason, they would not enroll me.
[3:08:58] I said, okay, I will hold onto these hip-a-papers until you are ready.
[3:09:02] Two giant black men blocked the exit door.
[3:09:05] They then wrestled me to the ground, trying to pull the papers out of my hands.
[3:09:09] They kept me hostage.
[3:09:10] hostage taking carries a 200-year prison sentence.
[3:09:14] Eventually, I ripped out over 10 pages of medical history
[3:09:17] and my signature and ate it.
[3:09:20] Before they let me go, in Santa Monica,
[3:09:22] I was beaten five times, two times,
[3:09:25] by BIPOC 7-11 clerks hitting me in the back of the head.
[3:09:28] One accused me of not paying when I did.
[3:09:31] Another hitting me in the back of the head,
[3:09:33] who and I was laughed at by a crowd of BIPOC in the store
[3:09:37] as I could not get the coffee cups unstuck and accidentally spilled on the counter.
[3:09:42] As I left to file a police report, a black man chased me and
[3:09:46] crock-a-kick me cracking my hip bone, spilling blood, an automatic hate crime.
[3:09:52] Santa Monica, LA, LA County, Riverside County, State of California, Palm Springs,
[3:09:56] C-Vag tribes. This is notice of potential litigation.
[3:10:02] Thank you, Mr. Pickkin.
[3:10:03] Madam Clerk, do we have any other public speakers online?
[3:10:08] We have no speakers online.
[3:10:10] Next item is the City Council and City Manager request for upcoming agenda development.
[3:10:19] Thank you, Madam Mayor members of Council, just a little preview look that upcoming meetings.
[3:10:26] I do want to point out at our next meeting on April 22nd.
[3:10:30] We will have our presentation will be from the Blue Zone's Palm Springs update.
[3:10:35] And the work that they're doing, you'll see that we've got a couple, we've got four
[3:10:42] public hearings.
[3:10:43] One is a historic designation, Riverside Drive, the CBBGA annual action plan here.
[3:10:51] Number one, you've heard a preview of that previous, and then we have a couple of hotel incentive
[3:10:57] agreements that are anxious to get before you, the Kat-Tai hotel and Terrapalms hotel.
[3:11:03] And then, an annual report that HR will give us on report of employee vacancies that's required by state law.
[3:11:14] On May 12th, we do have our presentation.
[3:11:19] It's going to be on emergency operations update and the work that is going on there with volunteers and other folks.
[3:11:27] We have another hotel and center of agreement with Al-Kazar and then we'll have a discussion
[3:11:34] on the Tribal Warehouse Project which you directed us to bring forward a month before
[3:11:40] the special meeting that we're going to have with the tribe on June 3rd.
[3:11:47] So our planning staff is working on that.
[3:11:50] 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.
[3:12:01] 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.
[3:12:14] And I do want to mention on going back to May 12th as I heard the finance director mentioned,
[3:12:24] we will have the second TID public hearing on May 12th as well.
[3:12:29] So that will be coming back.
[3:12:31] I believe that's all I have, Madam Mayor.
[3:12:34] Well, in our new agenda item of the mayoral discussion as well, right, that we just agreed
[3:12:41] on.
[3:12:42] I know that's like bullet number 12 for April 22nd, but for May 12th, April.
[3:12:51] So, okay, okay, we will do that.
[3:12:55] Yeah.
[3:12:57] Councilmember Griner.
[3:12:59] I just wanted to flag that we had previously discussed having, kind of quarterly updates
[3:13:05] about the Navigation Center and all of the work that's being done there, so I think we're
[3:13:10] coming up on another update. I'm mindful of the schedule, but I do want to make sure that we're
[3:13:18] still kind of being consistent with that and because we do have a new CEO for Martha's
[3:13:24] Village and Kitchen, it would be good to. Yeah, I agree. I think the timing is really good
[3:13:30] as council members know. They have a new executive director that some of us have met with.
[3:13:35] I've also heard some really good news just last couple days that they were, they were working
[3:13:42] to stand up recuperative care beds.
[3:13:45] Apped the Navigation Center, the last report I had gotten was that they had worked with
[3:13:51] the county to stand up three recuperative care beds.
[3:13:54] They've now stood up 17.
[3:13:57] So that's important because it could be a really important revenue source for the Navigation
[3:14:02] Center for Operations and Maintenance going forward.
[3:14:06] So we really, it'd be really timely to report out on that, our work with the Martha's
[3:14:12] Village and Kitchen as well, so we'll get that schedule.
[3:14:16] Thank you.
[3:14:18] But more important than the financial benefit is the impact it can have on our community's health.
[3:14:26] And I think we're due from Martha's presentation.
[3:14:31] It was April May sometime that we did have a discussion before.
[3:14:37] So I think their annual presentation is this,
[3:14:40] it's in this time period.
[3:14:45] But thank you for bringing that up.
[3:14:48] Council Member Bernstein.
[3:14:49] Yeah, just to that point we had a discussion about other presentations
[3:14:53] and we've had other council agenda items.
[3:14:55] And I think last time we talked about at least
[3:14:57] distributing to Council what a lot of the...
[3:15:00] 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.
[3:15:06] We see this list, but we don't know the items that we've talked about farther out.
[3:15:11] 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.
[3:15:20] 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.
[3:15:43] We'll send all of you a little recap of, we've got to get with all the organizations.
[3:15:50] A lot of them, it's different times of the year, better for them to present.
[3:15:54] Maybe away from some of their busier times, so we're trying to, we'll work on that and get you a schedule.
[3:16:01] 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.
[3:16:09] Yeah, maybe like underneath the dates, there's just upcoming agenda items that have been identified.
[3:16:15] And because then we can maybe pull up or delete them if there's no longer necessary or whatever.
[3:16:21] Okay, I had a couple of accomplishments.
[3:16:24] 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.
[3:16:34] Yeah, and Madam Mayor, I'm glad you brought that up because we've been kind of struggling
[3:16:39] with that a little bit.
[3:16:40] We know that there's, we've talked to the viewer on folks and other folks who are anxious
[3:16:45] to bring that back.
[3:16:45] I want to make sure that we're really aligned with you on this.
[3:16:50] Our kind of understanding with the short-term rental report is that there were a number
[3:16:54] of administrative, pretty basic things that could be brought back, cleaned up in the ordinance.
[3:17:01] I think that's what V-RON is asking for.
[3:17:05] There's some issues that are a little more that probably would require a lot more discussion.
[3:17:14] I'm guessing things like density and everything.
[3:17:18] How many?
[3:17:19] So our thinking is that we would bring back that short-term rental report along the lines
[3:17:25] of what V-RON has been asking some of you, really just focusing on some of the
[3:17:30] on those administrative cleanup things that have been discussed and then some of those bigger
[3:17:37] issues maybe for another day. So if I'm aligned with you on that, that's what we'll plan to do.
[3:17:45] That was my understanding. Somebody asked for us to do that to at least get the administrative
[3:17:52] pieces taken care of and we can get that off our plate and then we have to address the bigger issue
[3:17:58] down. We just separate the two.
[3:18:01] Very good. Thank you for bringing that up. I think we can get that. Get it that pretty quickly.
[3:18:06] So we'll. Thank you. We'll work on that.
[3:18:10] I think I think we're.
[3:18:12] I think we're seeing in the number.
[3:18:13] Sorry.
[3:18:13] I want to just mention a couple of coming things. The vendor fair, which.
[3:18:16] Oh, sorry. We.
[3:18:17] Is this events or agenda items?
[3:18:20] Okay.
[3:18:21] Mayor.
[3:18:21] Okay.
[3:18:22] Thank you.
[3:18:22] Yeah. I presume Scott on that list of upcoming the traffic signal synchronization.
[3:18:28] issues. Scott, the traffic signal synchronization on that list of upcoming, when you put that
[3:18:34] on there, if you could remind you of that. And then also, just to question, I, I, I saw
[3:18:39] the desert sun yesterday that there was a major change in the airport, capital policy, and
[3:18:47] I know if that's, if that can be a presentation of council, so we can become get informed
[3:18:52] on that.
[3:18:52] Yeah, we saw that in, you know, and it was a news article that was written and our master plan is still in place.
[3:19:04] 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.
[3:19:16] The number of travelers that we have is our population ramping up.
[3:19:23] We had what I think was a really good community meeting to talk about some of this.
[3:19:31] Mayor Soto kicked it off and was part of that.
[3:19:34] But from our standpoint, we're proceeding with Master Plan.
[3:19:38] But as we should, as I believe, we should be proceeding cautiously.
[3:19:44] And we're not going down the road of talking about issuing huge amounts of debt if we're
[3:19:50] not confident that we can retire that debt in an appropriate way.
[3:19:56] So I think we can have more conversations about that.
[3:20:00] And if we need to be more clear about it, we certainly will.
[3:20:02] Thank you.
[3:20:03] Can we maybe put the debt?
[3:20:04] Isn't there an airport landing page on Engage Palm Springs?
[3:20:07] we can put Tuesday's presentation.
[3:20:13] There is. We asked for that.
[3:20:15] The, that entire presentation be recorded.
[3:20:18] And we're going to post that.
[3:20:20] Both on the gauge foam springs and at the airport slanny page.
[3:20:23] If they haven't already done it.
[3:20:25] Okay. Wonderful.
[3:20:26] Okay. Thanks for your patience.
[3:20:29] Okay. Thank you.
[3:20:30] Madam Mayor.
[3:20:30] So I wanted to just follow up on the vendor fair,
[3:20:32] which is next.
[3:20:35] 15th.
[3:20:35] Thank you.
[3:20:36] At 9 a.m. at the Convention Center and it is open to everybody and I think the city
[3:20:44] I think we've done this for a few years.
[3:20:46] It's all nine desert cities.
[3:20:48] I believe plus a number of agencies like COD and how they can do business.
[3:20:52] I think there's a little hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts that go out there.
[3:20:56] And it's not just major construction items, but it could be for security, for consulting,
[3:21:01] for design, for PR, for holiday decorations at the airport.
[3:21:05] 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.
[3:21:15] 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.
[3:21:28] 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.
[3:21:40] 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.
[3:21:52] And then there will be a city-wide one at City Hall.
[3:21:56] I think it's 10am.
[3:21:57] But for those neighborhoods, again,
[3:21:59] Gateway Park, April 14 at 6 p.m.
[3:22:01] There will be a little artist reception
[3:22:03] and Victoria Park, April 15 at 8 p.m.
[3:22:08] And then lastly, I just want to congratulate
[3:22:09] the new Aquacolia Entry Tribal Council,
[3:22:12] including the new Tribal Chair or returning
[3:22:14] Tribal Chair, Jeff Groovy.
[3:22:16] Thank you.
[3:22:17] Was that a self-cuto?
[3:22:19] Yes, it was.
[3:22:21] 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.
[3:22:30] Raised about the equity cannabis grant funding in the distribution and our process.
[3:22:39] And I've had two conversations now, and Jeffrey and I had half a conversation with a business
[3:22:46] person last night.
[3:22:51] To understand, better understand how the equity money is being funded
[3:22:54] and what our process is for follow-through and verification of how those funds have been spent.
[3:23:04] So that's the concern that's been raised and I don't know if that has to come back to
[3:23:11] Council or can it be a conversation that a couple of us can have with the city manager,
[3:23:18] but we need to have that conversation, it's not, it's not the concerns not going away.
[3:23:27] I'd be open to like a subcommittee to talk about it directly.
[3:23:32] There's interest in that.
[3:23:35] Okay, so council member Bernstein and I will follow the conversation.
[3:23:40] Yeah, because it wasn't too long ago that it was presented here, so it might be helpful.
[3:23:44] you all can identify what those issues are, and then identify what needs things
[3:23:48] have to come back.
[3:23:49] Okay, thank you.
[3:23:50] Thank you.
[3:23:51] And because it is still before 9 o'clock.
[3:23:58] The city is a sponsor of Maryland 100, the Centennial Celebration on May 30th,
[3:24:06] and that where the city is going for a breaking the Guinness Book of World Records
[3:24:11] of having the most Maryland look-alikes dressed in one place at one time, and we are well
[3:24:20] on target to exceed about 850 look-alikes right now, and Council Member Bernstein, when you
[3:24:29] get your registration in, you'll put us over the list.
[3:24:33] So I think that's going to be a lot of fun.
[3:24:36] And everybody's invited to register, and it's at pspride.org slash Maryland 100.
[3:24:43] Thank you.
[3:24:44] Mayor, for the time being here.
[3:24:46] Just quickly, Mayor, just want this week at C.V.
[3:24:49] Coachella Valley Association, a government's transportation meeting.
[3:24:53] Just some good news, we advanced the $2 million C.V.
[3:24:56] Contribution to the Palm Springs Bridge at South Palm Canyon.
[3:25:00] It's sunny dunes, so that we'll finalize that $17 million price tax.
[3:25:04] So that's some good news.
[3:25:07] Okay. Oh, one more. Okay. Councilmember Gurner. Thank you. I just wanted to let the public
[3:25:14] know that Mayor Perten ready and I are going to Washington, DC for a lobby trip to continue
[3:25:20] on the legislative work that we've been doing. So we'll be gone next week meeting with members
[3:25:30] of Congress there and other federal organizations. So that's
[3:25:37] very exciting. And we will report back. And the, they're also, I wanted to, I wanted to highlight
[3:25:43] those art dedications because there's going to be art dedicating happening in every district.
[3:25:48] They're, they are going to be happening while mayor protemmoner gone, but I encourage people
[3:25:52] to get involved and go to those. I think there's going to be a lot of fun. And then one thing
[3:25:57] I wanted to mention is Coachella Weekend. This weekend next weekend and then stage coach. So
[3:26:02] there is going to be, you know, increased traffic coming into Palm Springs, but oftentimes on the
[3:26:09] 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,
[3:26:27] 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
[3:26:34] know that this is local traffic only and we're doing that again this year so was helpful it's not you know
[3:26:40] bullproof but it did definitely decrease the amount of traffic that cut through the neighborhoods
[3:26:45] to just and make sure that anyone that was going through there was mindful so that's fine and just going to come back
[3:26:51] And I think just to add to that just on awareness, there's more walkers, walking to the shuttles,
[3:26:59] the late at night, where it's very dark and just so general precaution is warranted for the next few weeks.
[3:27:07] Okay, I'm going to make it before we get to the nine.
[3:27:10] So, next city council meeting will be held on Wednesday, March, Wednesday, April 22,
[3:27:15] in 2016 at 530, this meeting is adjourned at 9. Thank you.