[0:11] Good afternoon. This is a call and
notice of a special meeting of the Ranch
[0:15] Mirage City Council and Community
Services District, Energy Authority,
[0:20] Housing Authority, Joint Powers, Finance
Authority, Library and Observatory, and
[0:25] Redevelopment Successor Agency boards.
May I please have a flag salute? Council
[0:32] member While,
>> please head over your heart and repeat
[0:39] after me. I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and
[0:45] to the republic for which it stands, one
nation under God, indivisible, with
[0:50] liberty and justice for all.
[0:57] Madame clerk, will you uh conduct roll
call, please?
[1:01] » Certainly. Council member DS,
>> I'm here.
[1:03] » Council member Framberg Edelstein,
>> here.
[1:05] » Council member While
>> here.
[1:07] » Mayor Prom O'Keefe
>> here.
[1:09] » And Mayor Molatto
>> here.
[1:12] We're going to jump right to the action
items. We'll take public comments after
[1:18] uh the presentation of the item now. So,
I'll defer to the city manager at this
[1:23] time. Thank you, Madame Mayor, members
of the council. I appreciate your
[1:26] flexibility in this special meeting. Uh
this uh item had some urgency to it. Uh
[1:32] as we all know, this has been a long
road. Uh taken several years to get here
[1:37] and we know the vital importance of uh
the needed capacity in this area of our
[1:43] city or else development will cease. And
so, as we've discussed before, uh we've
[1:48] partnered with other governmental
entities and other uh development
[1:52] partners to co-und a uh substation to
service the IID service uh territory
[1:59] within the city of Rancho Mirage. Uh
that substation will be located on
[2:03] Burger Foundation land uh north of the
freeway off of Cook. And uh the initial
[2:08] substation is 78 megawatts of power.
There it includes a 50 megawatt trans
[2:15] transformer and a 28 megawatt
transformer. Uh within that IID reserves
[2:20] 20% of the total capacity uh for its
needs uh send uh system redundancy and
[2:27] reliability and so we can only use 80%
uh of that capacity for projects. uh iid
[2:36] is helping to fund the project at 18%
with the participants remaining the uh
[2:42] funding the remaining amount and based
on our relevant share of the available
[2:48] capacity. Uh the purpose of today's
meeting was in previous approvals the
[2:53] council authorized up to 15 megawatts of
participation for the city of Rancho
[2:57] Mirage. uh one of the uh partners within
the agreement, the development partners
[3:03] was not ready to move forward with their
project and so they backed out of uh the
[3:08] agreement and so that uh left 8.55
megawws available for the remaining
[3:15] participants and how the agreement works
is the current participants have first
[3:19] bite at that capacity.
So the county of Riverside decided to
[3:24] take two additional megawws. Uh the city
of Ranch Mirage went from 10 back up to
[3:29] its 15 megawatts as approved by the
council. Uh that left a remaining 1.55
[3:36] megawws that was unaccounted for. And so
the purpose of today's action is to
[3:41] request the city council to consider
taking that additional 1.55 megawws uh
[3:46] which would bring our total from the 15
uh megawws to 16.55.
[3:52] uh at the end of the day after we
reviewed a project list with IID um we
[3:57] are probably the best participant to
take this capacity due to the amount of
[4:01] projects that we have and uh I was able
to speak with the uh developers of uh
[4:08] the medical facility that was entitled
by the council uh on the corner of
[4:13] Gerald Ford and Bob Hope and this
additional capacity would allow the city
[4:18] to work with that developer to allow
that project to move forward.
[4:21] uh without this additional capacity that
project would not be allowed to move
[4:25] forward because they could not obtain a
will service letter from IID. When we
[4:30] think of our city and economic
development, a medical use is critically
[4:34] important in our community uh not only
from a youth standpoint for our
[4:37] residents but also good high-paying jobs
uh and it fits well with the other
[4:42] medical uses along the Bob Hope
corridor. And so by taking this
[4:46] additional 1.55, we can now work with
that developer. the developer is fully
[4:51] on board with reimbursing the city for
these capacity costs for their project
[4:56] because as I stated before without
capacity these projects would not be
[5:00] allowed to move forward. And so the way
that this agreement would work is we
[5:04] would have a total share of 16.55
megawws. Um a little over half of that
[5:11] is going to be reserved for our
affordable housing efforts up by our dog
[5:15] park. So approximately 700 units of
affordable housing is planned up there
[5:20] and they do not have the capacity
either. So that was the origination of
[5:23] this agreement. Uh and as we look at
other development partners, the
[5:27] additional capacity uh just like the
project I referenced on the corner of
[5:31] Gerald Ford and Bob Hope would be
required to reimburse the city for their
[5:34] proportionate share of the capacity that
they uh need for their projects and this
[5:39] would enable development to continue in
this section of our city. Uh staff
[5:44] report notes that the total agreement
cost is estimated at $9.3 million. Uh
[5:50] after uh reimbursements and other funds
and sources, staff is anticipating that
[5:55] the net impact on the general fund will
be between $2 and $3 million. With that,
[5:59] I'd be happy to uh answer any questions
or comments, and I'll ask the city clerk
[6:03] at this time to take any public comment.
>> Thank you, Brad Anderson.
[6:13] Thank you. Uh my name is Brad Anderson.
I currently live in the city of Vance
[6:18] Mirage and I wanted to speak on item 3A
today which is the only item on the
[6:21] agenda. Um I'm I'm opposed. I did write
some comments and I see somebody else
[6:27] did too and I share the views of the
other person that took the time to
[6:33] write. Uh this is a burden for the city.
It has been from the beginning. uh being
[6:40] one of two people that sat on the energy
commission or Coachella Valley Energy
[6:45] Commission which was a joke for two two
to three years now. I know that this
[6:52] this is just an avenue uh for developers
not to upfront cost and have taxpayers
[6:59] do it instead. and and I understand that
uh the city manager had time to speak
[7:05] with u one developer uh which I'm aware
of um
[7:12] but didn't have time to uh really
agendaize this uh for the next regular
[7:17] meeting which is
I understand you have a 30-day window
[7:22] which is amper time for a regular city
council meeting to be held a special
[7:26] meeting as I stated in my written
comments is unnecessary
[7:31] and and and really I guess uh
[7:38] abuse of your authority to call special
meetings. So, u I I I I've have issues
[7:45] with the city now and this is one more
uh that you need to correct, but I don't
[7:51] think you will because this is power
power corrupts and the city wants more
[7:56] power. So, I'm opposed to this. Um,
and for I understand the city manager
[8:03] made comments concerning uh highpaying
jobs and so forth, but then we have
[8:09] apartment buildings going in too. So,
and for the working force apparently.
[8:13] So, it's all colluded. Um,
so I I I guess I really can't emphasize
[8:21] how bad this is for the city and as
being stewards of the city resources.
[8:26] This is bad stewardship. Thank you.
>> Thank you for your comments.
[8:31] » And seeing no other members of the
public in the audience, that was the
[8:34] only speaker.
>> Thank you. Council comments, we'll start
[8:38] with uh Council Member Steve DS.
>> I think that it's critical that we take
[8:45] this additional 1.55 megawws. uh we
don't have enough power to service the
[8:51] projects that are are uh predicted to
come on stream over the next few years
[8:56] as it is. So if we don't do this uh not
only do we have a problem with
[9:01] affordable housing in that part of the
city but we have a problem with other
[9:04] development that's to come along. So I
don't think we have a choice. This is an
[9:07] important thing for us to do and um it's
also the case that most of the
[9:10] developers who come on board in the
future will help to offset the cost uh
[9:14] to the city of uh adding this additional
uh power source. So uh this is something
[9:20] that we have to do.
>> Are there any other comments? Council
[9:24] member while
>> yes I think it's a just a great
[9:28] opportunity uh for us. Uh it allows us
to fulfill our responsibility
[9:37] uh in delivering the required number of
affordable housing units
[9:43] uh that was in the plan uh that has been
approved by the state.
[9:49] And so this allows us to move forward on
that plan. And in addition to that, as
[9:54] the city manager just mentioned,
uh the additional
[10:01] um medical facility
uh at uh Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope
[10:09] Bob Hope and Gerald Ford um will uh be
imperative for uh not only the use uh of
[10:20] uh the medical facility but also
uh the employment of staff. So it uh it
[10:30] provides the need for both of those
critical areas and I'm just uh delighted
[10:36] we have the opportunity. Thank you,
Mayor.
[10:39] » Thank you, Council Member Framberstein.
I think well I concur with both of my
[10:46] fellow council members and I think it
can't be stressed enough how important
[10:51] it is for job creation here. We don't
have a readily available amount of of
[10:57] job opportunities. We don't have large
corporations and just from the
[11:01] standpoint of the future of the city
for creating job opportunities so people
[11:06] can live and work in this city. That's
the critical reason to do it. And I
[11:11] think that we are going to look back in
10 to 15 years and be thankful that we
[11:16] jumped on these opportunities when we
did for what it will bring for the
[11:20] future residents of Rancho Mirage even
more than what it's doing for the
[11:24] present- day residents of Rancho Mirage.
And um I think that this is the kind of
[11:29] future planning that we're lucky enough
we have the ability to engage in and we
[11:33] have the resources available. This is
why we have these funds. This is why
[11:36] we've worked so hard to become the city.
We've become financially solvent and
[11:41] with these funds for these
opportunities. Exactly. That may pass
[11:44] other cities by. We're blessed that we
can do it. So, I fully believe in this.
[11:49] Mayor Prommo O'Keefe.
[11:53] » Um I agree with all my colleagues. Um I
believe this is a phenomenal
[11:59] opportunity, but not only an
opportunity, but investment in our
[12:04] community.
um not only now but in the future
[12:08] whether it has to do with uh uh
affordable housing, economic
[12:14] development, and it sets the city puts
the city in an excellent position to
[12:20] move forward with the projects that
we've committed to that our public has
[12:24] asked us to do, our business community
has asked to move forward. And it is um
[12:32] it's a win-win all the way around. And
I'm so grateful that the city of Ranch
[12:36] Mirage has the financial ability uh to
make this happen. So with that, I ask a
[12:42] motion.
>> Madame Mayor, if I may add on to council
[12:44] member Eve Framberg, Edstein's comment
about in 10 to 15 years, we'll be
[12:48] delighted that we've done this. In 10 to
15 years, we're going to find that we're
[12:51] going to need to scale up this project.
Not only will we be happy we did it
[12:54] today, we're going to have to add more
to it, and it's going to be well within
[12:57] that 10 to 15 year period that we'll
have to do that.
[13:00] » Agreed. May I have a motion, please?
I'll be happy to make a motion that the
[13:05] uh council approve the funding and
reservation of capacity agreement for
[13:08] Cook Street Substation, the 16.55
megawatt allocation and authorize the
[13:13] city manager or designate to execute the
agreement subject to revisions approved
[13:17] by all other parties and approved by the
city manager in consultation with the
[13:21] city attorney.
>> I'll second. Please vote.
[13:28] » Motion carries 5-0.
>> Wonderful.
[13:32] With that, we'll adjourn today's
meeting.