[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.

Rancho Mirage City Council Special Meeting, February 20, 2026

Transcript