Palm Desert City Council - Regular Meeting, February 27, 2025

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[00:20:45] Mayor Parnik: February 27th, 2025. Uh, where are we? Uh, so, can we have roll call, please?
[00:21:00] Clerk: Council Member Nandy?
[00:21:03] Council Member Nandy: Here.
[00:21:04] Clerk: Council Member Pretto?
[00:21:05] Council Member Pretto: Here.
[00:21:07] Clerk: Council Member Kimia?
[00:21:08] Council Member Kimia: Present.
[00:21:09] Clerk: Mayor Pro Tem Truby?
[00:21:10] Mayor Pro Tem Truby: Here.
[00:21:11] Clerk: And Mayor Parnik?
[00:21:12] Mayor Parnik: Here.
[00:21:13] Clerk: All Council is present.
[00:21:14] Mayor Parnik: Thank you very much. Uh, and now we'll have the Pledge of Allegiance by, from Council Member Pretto, and inspiration from Mayor Pro Tem, please stand.
[00:21:51] Mayor Pro Tem Truby: Okay, well, thank you all for coming tonight and enjoying this fun event we're going to have. I did want to share something. Two days ago, I was able to attend the retirement party for Lieutenant Rick Espinosa. It was put on by the Sheriff's Department up at the Ritz. For those of you who don't know, he served, obviously, 25 years for the Sheriffs, but more importantly to his story is, in 2008, he was pursuing a—well, I'll just call him a bad guy—and chased him down an alley. The bad guy stopped and turned around and shot Rick Espinosa in the face. Sorry, Rick Espinosa—and this is going to be part two of my story—Rick Espinosa, I beg your pardon, Lieutenant Espinosa. Lieutenant Espinosa survived, and for the average person or citizen or resident, non-law enforcement, you could say, 'Well, he could have gone on disability and ended his career right there and walked away,' and nobody would have said anything about it and would have claimed, you know, he's a hero, and he is. Instead, three months after, Lieutenant Rick Espinosa begged for his job back and continued doing his duties on the street for another 17 years. And if you ever meet the man—I've met him probably six times, so I don't claim to be his best friend or know him well or know exactly what his day-to-day job was like—all I needed to know about Lieutenant Rick Espinosa was that story. And he didn't ask for anything, he didn't claim to be a victim, he simply got back on his post and continued his duties serving the residents of the Coachella Valley. And the first time I heard that story, I said, 'Man, this guy's a hero.' And it was such an honor to be a part of that ceremony. And anyway, he's a role model and a hero, and he has all the qualities of honor, duty, commitment, courage that you look for, and I was really proud to be a part of that and really proud to know Lieutenant Espinosa. So, my hats off to him. I think his last day of work is going to be next Wednesday, so if you have a chance and want to reach out to him, feel free. But that's my words of inspiration for this evening.
[00:24:25] Mayor Parnik: So, can we have any report from closed session?
[00:24:30] City Attorney: Yes, Mayor. On item 4B, the Council in closed session today took a reportable action in the form of appointing Chris Escco, interim City Manager, and that is effective March 22nd.
[00:24:51] Mayor Parnik: Okay, thank you. We'll now move to Awards, presentations, and appointments. We have, as an award for...
[00:25:01] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: Presentation for a proclamation for the Bleeding Disorder Awareness Month. Is there someone here to receive it?
[00:25:33] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: Come on over. So, this is from our city and from our Council and community members. Whereas, with proper care and access to comprehensive medical resources, those with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders can lead productive lives; and whereas, the State of California and the Hemophilia Council of California are committed to the care and treatment of children and adults with hemophilia and other related disorders, and to advance the quality of life through advocacy, education, and outreach through ongoing collaboration; and whereas, the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California's principal mission is to improve the quality of life and elevate awareness and engagement of the public for those living with inherited bleeding disorders in Southern California; and whereas, these bleeding disorders, which share the inability to form a proper blood clot, are characterized by extended bleeding after injury, surgery, trauma, or menstruation, and can lead to significant morbidity and can be fatal if not treated effectively; whereas, this awareness month will generate great awareness and understanding of hemophilia and all inheritable bleeding disorders, including Von Willebrand's disease, platelet storage pool disorder, and Glanzmann's thrombasthenia, which impact an estimated 1% of the US population, or more than 3.2 million individuals; and now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Jan C. Harnik, Mayor of the City of Palm Desert, on behalf of the City Council, do hereby recognize the month of March 2025 as Bleeding Disorder Awareness Month.
[00:27:30] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: Thank you. Would you like to say a few words and introduce everyone, please?
[00:27:35] Ivan Hiron: Yeah, so, I just want to say thank you to the City of Palm Desert. My name is Ivan Hiron. This is my daughter, Naomi, my wife, Dulce, my son, Mason, and one of my great friends, Rigo Monzo. My daughter also has hemophilia, and so does Rigo. And we've been working very hard to raise awareness for our community. We do go through several difficulties with insurance coverage, also just our health in general. We need medication that's very expensive, and if we don't get that medication, it's life-threatening; we could lose our lives. So, we have been working very hard to try and raise awareness for our community. So, this proclamation means a lot to us. And again, I just want to say thank you to the City of Palm Desert and to you, Mayor, for signing it. Thank you so much.
[00:28:21] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: Thank you.
[00:28:30] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: Take a picture with you.
[00:29:05] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: We will now... Thank you so much for being here, and I know there are many people who thank you for your efforts. We'll now move to City Manager comments.
[00:29:13] City Manager: No report this evening. Thank you.
[00:29:16] Mayor Jan C. Harnik: Wow, okay. We'll move to Mayor and Councilmember reports. Can we start with Councilmember Petto? Why don't we go to Councilmember Kia?
[00:29:31] Councilmember Kia: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Last week, I was able to attend a virtual discussion, the Lithium Valley Vision Workshop, and it was absolutely nerdtastic to see the kinds of mineral benefits that we'll have. Not only is it lithium, but it was surprising to find out the economic impact that we could potentially here be able to extract 50% of the nation's need for potassium, which is essential for fertilizing crops and...
[00:30:00] Councilmember: Right now, half of that we are getting from China. And looking at, I think we all as a community need to support... Right now, we all know we want to support, but we need to be more vocal. There is a potential for Nevada; they have large deposits, but they are in a mountain, which would make it harder to extract. Arkansas has a large deposit, and they are looking at possibly giving some hefty tax incentives and not having environmental regulations, and they would be a little further out. So we need to do all we can to keep those good jobs here, to keep union jobs, to keep good salaries. And we would be the only geothermal plant in the US, and the second one—the only other one is in Germany. Cadmium, strontium needed for magnets and quantum computers, as we mentioned earlier, that need to support AI. So beyond lithium, we need to look at how this is a regional investment. And any opportunity that you see—online survey, phone call, wherever you can—I implore everyone present and everyone watching to support the Lithium Valley Project. Thank you.
[00:31:11] Mayor: Councilmember Nandi?
[00:31:13] Councilmember Nandi: No comments this evening, thank you.
[00:31:15] Mayor: And no comments here. I just have a couple. First of all, the Date Festival is going on, and it is going on through March 2nd. We kicked it off with the President's Day Parade, where Councilmember Kia represented the city. I got to go to the breakfast; it's always wonderful to see everybody come together for that festival. So if you haven't been out there, make sure you take a moment and go on out to the Date Festival. Also, we had our Riverside County Transportation Commission annual workshop. We are still working on the traffic relief plan for the entire Riverside County, and still working hard on getting that train to the Coachella Valley, and lots of forward motion with that. It's very encouraging. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy, but nonetheless, it is encouraging. So there will be times when we'll need your voices to support us in that effort, and we'll let you know when that is. Also, at the Southern California Association of Governments, they did have a panel that were the leaders in dealing with the fire issues that occurred in Los Angeles County. And there were lots of cautionary tales for us, but one of the things that came out is, of course, all of Southern California, all of California came together to help those in Los Angeles. We learn from the tragedy that they had, and now they are working hard to rebuild. And their focus really is just getting people back in homes. Hopefully, we'll learn from that. I know there are good people quarterbacking the effort, and we realize when we rebuild that our focus needs to be on safety and on what is best for the community. And those are my comments.
[00:33:15] Councilmember: If I may, Madame Mayor, I saw the back of my Post-it. Just wanted to remind everyone, as we conclude Black History Month, to ensure that not only because it's the shortest month of the year, that we maintain the values and the respect for inclusion that we are encouraged to observe, not just this month, but always. And the Children's Museum, we had a great fundraiser as an opportunity to see that. These opportunities only supplement what we already generously give to support the endeavors. If you haven't gone, I encourage you to go. It has been redone, revamped, reimagined. Thank you.
[00:33:55] Mayor: Okay, are there... We'll move to non-agenda public comments. Are there any? Let me read the housekeeping remarks for those on Zoom. If you want to participate in public comment, please click the raise hand button on your computer or smartphone. And if you're calling in on your phone, please dial star nine to raise your hand, and when called upon, press star six to unmute yourself.
[00:34:19] Staff: And Madame Mayor, there are no raised hands.
[00:34:21] Mayor: Thank you very much. We'll move to the consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine and may be approved by one motion. The public may comment on any items, of course, within the three-minute time limit. And are there any that the Council would like to pull for discussion?
[00:34:46] Councilmember: I would move to approve with the exception of pulling consent item E for consideration: the introduction of an ordinance dissolving the marketing committee and resolution establishing the public affairs...
[00:35:00] Mayor: Marketing panel, okay. And I know there are some others that would like to be pulled. What else would you like pulled?
[00:35:06] Councilmember: I'm good.
[00:35:07] Councilmember: Anything? Nothing.
[00:35:08] Councilmember: I'll move the balance.
[00:35:10] Councilmember: Second the motion.
[00:35:12] Mayor: Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Please vote.
[00:35:20] Mayor: Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you. We'll now go to E.
[00:35:29] Anthony Mejia (City Clerk): And Madam Mayor, for Item E, I'm Anthony Mejia, City Clerk. Before you, you have an ordinance to dissolve the Marketing Committee and establish a Public Affairs Marketing Panel. The Marketing Committee has faced ongoing challenges in meeting quorum requirements, leading to frequent cancellations. This is largely due to the intention of having industry professionals with expertise in marketing and tourism, who often have last-minute scheduling conflicts that make in-person meetings at a fixed location difficult. The proposed Public Affairs Marketing Panel provides a more flexible structure, allowing these professionals to contribute their expertise through virtual meetings as needed. These changes were reviewed and supported by the Council Subcommittee on Boards and Commissions, and the key updates include the creation of the Public Affairs Marketing Panel, which will be advisory to the Public Affairs Manager, allowing for additional flexibility to conduct all-virtual meetings. The panel will consist of seven members and advise on marketing, public relations, and event sponsorships, the same as the current committee. The resolution sets transparency standards equivalent to the Brown Act, including a prohibition on serial meetings and a minimum agenda posting requirement. Furthermore, the resolution requires the Public Affairs Manager to communicate the advice of the committee to the City Council and shall not disregard or filter such advice. And I'm happy to answer any questions.
[00:36:54] Councilmember: My question is, how many other positions or director positions or departments have their independent advisory panel?
[00:37:01] Anthony Mejia (City Clerk): There are none.
[00:37:04] Councilmember: I think that this would be creating a future opportunity to say, 'You know, we're not having enough engagement in this department, let's take away the community's opportunity to speak on the matter and just pick folks that are going to give an opinion,' and ultimately, the discretion of the staff to listen and respect or ignore what is being proposed by the community. I think that as I was reading the report, I was reminded of something that Mayor Harnik had said when we were looking into having people for the Palm Desert Foundation. When we were looking at the candidates and we're looking at, did we want to continue there, did we want to pause, halt, and put out the cast a broader net and bring candidates back, the words that stood out were, 'We as a Council needed to do a better job at recruiting people so we could get top candidates.' Staff already does that, we direct the community, it is on the website. I think that we as a Council need to do better to not support in any way limiting residents' voices. I think that, yes, I understand that sometimes things come up, but that is true for any profession. That's a fact. I don't think that having them be marketing professionals or in any other industry makes that an excuse. I think if that happens to be an issue with repeated absences that have caused the lack of quorum, then we need to remove those members. When we do our annual interviews, we hear from people and they say, 'Well, put me wherever else you need me.' That doesn't mean we're going to end up with everybody in that committee without any experience in that subject matter. But I think maybe if we're having such a hard time in finding individuals, instead of saying we're going to eliminate the committee, we should look at: Are the criteria for who serves on the committee appropriate? If we keep having cancellations, overall concern that we are allowing, we're substituting a committee with giving one person authority, usurping the community's voice, having a recommendation... Just as when we were looking at Measure B, it passed creating voter districts, and it was the opinion of the rest of the Council that this was an advisory measure and not required to follow it. It led to legal considerations. I would like to know, would there be the opportunity, or what would that look like? I think advisory is disrespecting the people.
[00:40:03] Speaker 1: ...that participate in the process. Are there any other comments?
[00:40:12] Speaker 2: I will give a little background since I am the liaison for the Council on the marketing committee. These are not just some volunteer people that like marketing; they are exemplary. They are marketing professionals that excel. Whether it is from—and understandably during the BNP Paribas, their marketing expert will not be able to attend meetings. During the high season for The Living Desert, there lies another conflict. These are advanced, sophisticated marketing professionals. It's a different sort of committee. They work full-time and they give their time. Their input is invaluable, and watching and listening to what I hear from them, losing those people would be a great loss to the city. There is no shortage of opportunity for our community members to speak up or to be involved. They can come here, they can go on any number of websites, whether it's Engage Palm Desert, whether it is the basic City website. They can email me or any other of my colleagues up here, or any of the staff. They have ample opportunity to have their voice heard on marketing issues. Marketing certainly is a profession in and of itself and deserves the respect that these professionals bring to this. As you said, it's a profession, they are professionals, and we need to recognize that. As they are working, whether they're from the JW Marriott or the McCallum, any of our really wonderful assets of Palm Desert, during the season it's tough. So if they can contribute their time on a Zoom call, and that is not then precluded by some of the Brown Act issues—and as you heard our City Clerk say, the guidelines for participating are very similar to and come from the Brown Act guidelines. So it's not that they're skating; we're giving them the best opportunity to meet to assist in the marketing and branding of the City of Palm Desert. So those are my comments on this issue. I think what we have here is now it will be a more effective group of people who can come together and move these efforts forward in our marketing and branding and the awareness of Palm Desert throughout certainly Southern California, and they do focus a lot on that.
[00:43:46] Speaker 3: But beyond that, I had been formerly the liaison for that group as well, and I did see that during that time, one of the members was with the Marriott. She left to a different property, I understand that. But how hard is it to ask someone, 'If you are committed to your city, give us one hour'? Why can't we make that quarterly? Give us one hour every three months, give us an hour and a half every four months. I think it's dangerous to just say we're going to make it an advisory panel. We are already looking at overhauling later on in the agenda, looking at how to transition the structure and function of our committees and commissions. But this is just very strange to usurp the purpose of having a committee and replacing it with a panel when no other department in the entire city has a similar support, instead of responding and engaging with...
[00:45:00] Council Member: the community. If we can't have people meeting during the BNP period, guess what? Just we're not going to meet that month. That's not that hard. If it's during the summer, well then we just don't meet that month. We have other committees that go dark. Those are logistical issues that can easily be addressed. And if these people, with being utmost professionals, can't give us the time to have them here, well then maybe they can go serve at another city where they do have the time and it can meet their flexibility. I think there is no excuse, no excuse whatsoever to say we're going to eliminate a committee just because we can't get people. I think that there are, you know, we can recruit more. We can put it out there to visit Greater Palm Springs. You know, there are marketing professionals, there are organizations that we can say, 'Does anybody here live local? We need to do more to ensure that we have the voice of the community.' This is not to say that we wouldn't get a quality recommendation presented to our staff. I think it's dangerous. Can you imagine if a future Council uses this as the precedent to say, 'You know, we're going to now do that with ARPC,' which again later on is potentially only going to meet as needed? And then if it's as needed and we don't meet quorum because people aren't engaged, would that then potentially in the future move to being advisory? When people don't feel that they are engaged, when people don't find the value, they're not going to come. Are we doing enough to feel that they are being heard, that they are feeling valued for their time to keep their buy-in to come? I mean, we have very spirited Cultural Arts meetings. There are some substantial buy-in. Those meetings very often go longer than two hours. To my understanding, that's the only committee where it goes to that level of the length of the meeting. I just think we're setting a very dangerous precedent by saying we can't get those folks, so we're going to eliminate a municipal procedure to strengthen our city.
[00:47:28] Mayor: Are there any other comments?
[00:47:31] Council Member: Yeah, I think on this one, I have a perspective as being staff and having dealt with committees, and I think that will come up in the discussion later. I could almost foresee eliminating the marketing committee and not having any public disclosure and having our PIO with the ability to have just a professional network of people he taps on for support and service. This is a midway that actually still gives that flexibility but also has agendized meetings and sunshine on it. So I think it strikes the mid-road. I was actually just abandon it and have yourself an advisory committee, but this actually still has agendized meetings with minutes and still has the sunshine to it.
[00:48:15] Council Member: Understanding how that would be the midpoint of the original concept and how we got here, as much as I do not agree personally, that is about the consensus in the majority. So with that, I would move forward to approve the item. If there aren't any comments, is there a second?
[00:48:33] Council Member: Second.
[00:48:34] Mayor: Thank you. Vote, please.
[00:48:40] Mayor: Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you. We will now move to the Action Calendar, and we are on 14a. Okay, so this is to approve the $30 million conceptual design option for the new library facility. And wait, I do have some speakers. We will take them after the presentation. Thank you.
[00:49:32] Ryan Lamb: Thank you, Madam Mayor, fellow council members. Ryan Lamb, Senior Project Manager with the Capital Projects Department, and I'm here to present the conceptual design for the new library facility with a $30 million budget, which staff is recommending for approval from Council today. So, a brief recap: a couple weeks ago at the last council meeting, we did a study session where we provided an update of the...
[00:50:01] Staff: ...timeline of the project and from where we started and how we got to where we are today. Starting with Council deciding to take over operations of the library from the Riverside County Library System, there was a formation of a library Task Force at that time, which then later was dissolved, and then a library advisory committee was formed. We contracted with Margaret Sven Studios, a library consultant, to help with the programming of the existing library facility and a new library building, as well as Rashard Kennedy Architects for design services for conceptual design and for schematic design. The project site—we went through an analysis and assessment of multiple project sites, ultimately landing on the Parkview office building site here at Civic Center campus, adjacent to the park. There was a withdrawal agreement with the County of Riverside, which gave a $4 million capital fund back to the city for us to use for the library. There's a new lease, a five-year lease, with the College of the Desert, as we're leasing their existing building right now for the interim until we build a new facility. And then ultimately, the design—the conceptual design—was presented to the advisory committee, who then voted to recommend we present it to Council for review and approval. So, moving into the design, as I mentioned, the Parkview site is the location—Parkview building is the site location for the project. We went through all the efforts with city staff, with library staff, with the community through the community engagement meetings to identify all the program needs and facility needs for the new library building. Ultimately, between the two conceptual designs with the $20 million budget and the $30 million budget, the $30 million budget had the program needs and wants of the community, as well as city staff, and for the functions to meet with the Veteran's Center—or to meet the needs of the Veteran's Center—the CVAG meeting needs, as well as other spaces that will help with the Visitor Center and community spaces for special events. The conceptual design—the basis for design from the architect, from Rashard Kennedy Architects, was the natural Palm Grove. So they looked from the flow, the shade canopy of the palms, the flow of the riverbeds, the boulders, the rocks, kind of creating some massing, and you can see that as it carries through into their actual building design. So we got the pattern of the palm fronds from where it was abstracted from the natural to the built structure that they're proposing for the shade structure on the outdoor shaded area, and the buildings represent the rocks in the pedestrian flow for the river flow. The interior—so the palm frond structure carries through from the outside to the inside, with the difference of the outside obviously is a steel structure, inside it would be acoustic panels. That would be the intent, that way you have the high vault, the high ceilings to create the open space, but also at the same time, it helps to absorb the sound to create that quietness that you would come to expect from a library. The book stacks would be lower, so you do have the line of sight over them, so you do have a very nice open space, as well as them being on casters so they can be moved around for special events, with the exception of some, you know, the ones that are against the wall and some area in the children's area where you don't want those rolling around because they can create a dangerous situation. The project budget—we did an outline for the budget where we had the $20 million that is from the bonds and the $4 million return from the county, which got us to $24 million, and then we're looking to get another $6 million from the upcoming Measure G funds, and we'll be looking to appropriate those within the next fiscal year. So, next steps: we have the conceptual design approval, which we're hoping to get from Council today, and then move right into the schematic design phase, which we have Rashard Kennedy Architects currently under contract, and that'll be happening here this first half of 2025. And that includes the entitlement process, which goes to the Architectural Review Commission, Planning Commission, to ensure that we meet all the requirements of the city to move forward. And then as we get towards the end of that phase, we'll be looking to put it out to bid for a design-build firm to then complete the construction documents and ultimately build the facility. We'd be looking to demo the Parkview building early 2026, and if all the planets align, we could be looking at a new building complete by the end of 2027. So with that, I will be willing to take any questions you might have.
[00:54:53] Council Member: I have one question, and I should have asked this ahead of time when Anthony asked for any questions, since...
[00:55:01] Speaker 1: We're still in the conceptual design phase. There's one issue that weighs on me a little bit, and that's the history of our architecture that we have here. For example, if we look at the building here, at our stonework that we have here, it's similar to the exterior. And so our City Hall mirrors the exterior of Parkview, and I was wondering if there's any way to keep a little bit of that integrity in the design of the new, modern-looking building. I don't even know if any of my colleagues agree with me, but it was just something that I thought. The architecture here is historical. Our City Hall, I find it beautiful, and I just wonder if that's a possibility.
[00:55:51] Speaker 2: Yes, it's a possibility. So, the finished materials are not final; they're not selected. That's part of the next phase where we will get into the minutia of all those different materials and how they're going to be represented through the building. So we can definitely take that into consideration as we discuss with the design team and ultimately take it through the Architecture Review Commission.
[00:56:14] Speaker 3: Thank you. Any other thoughts, questions? Okay, and this might be a question better suited for Dr. Schaefer, but square footage is about the same as what we're operating now at COD—about 25,000 square feet, more or less. I just wonder if it's too early to ask the question, or get an answer, or even speculate on operational costs of the new library. I know we'll be saving what, about $160,000 a year with our lease with COD. I understand COD does not want to renew their lease, so we're sort of, in a way, forced—not forced, but this is a good option from that perspective because we're going to need a new library. But is there any kind of guess at this point on operational costs?
[00:56:57] Speaker 2: I will defer to Mr. Schaefer.
[00:56:58] Gary Schaefer: Gary Schaefer, Director of Library Services. Thank you for the question. We do believe the operational costs will be slightly higher, but we also believe those will be offset by increased property tax revenues. I think that's fair to say.
[00:57:17] Speaker 4: Actually, I do have a question on the construction budget. Is this an engineer's estimate for construction cost?
[00:57:26] Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have an engineer's estimate, and we also have a construction manager. They both did separate estimates with the documents, and then we had reconciliation meetings, and then we came to the final estimate. So right now, it's about $1,200 a square foot.
[00:57:41] Speaker 4: Which seems about on the low end. In my other world, we were out and we had several bids on a library project, and they all—five of the bids opened came in around $1,600 a square foot. So, I'm hopeful that $1,200 a square foot is right, but with adding in that—that $1,200 assumes also the $30 million, the demo costs, so it's probably even lower of an estimate. I wouldn't be surprised if, as we move on, we see those costs increase.
[00:58:16] Speaker 4: When was the last time those estimates were generated?
[00:58:22] Speaker 2: Just a few months ago.
[00:58:23] Speaker 4: Okay, so they're recent.
[00:58:25] Speaker 2: Yeah, they're recent. And we also had other consultants that we've worked with in the past that had recently bid libraries, and they were providing us information as we were moving through, so the numbers that we were receiving weren't a surprise.
[00:58:38] Speaker 4: Okay. I know that some recent libraries within the last couple of years have been about $1,000 a square foot, so that's about right. We were a little shocked at $1,600, but I just want to make sure that you have a high degree of confidence on that budget number.
[00:58:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot of it is because the direction that we gave the architect was, 'We have a budget, we need to deliver on this budget.' And a lot of where you meet those numbers is in all the fit and finishes. When you have an architect that might want to be using higher-end materials versus more standard materials, or higher-end fixtures—not low quality, just higher end—the quality will still be at what we would want and what we would expect it to be. It's just there's some things where you get the name brands or you get those finishes that just have a higher price tag and they're not necessarily needed. So we want to make sure that we're going to deliver a high-quality facility, but with the budget in mind and ensuring that we're going to meet the budget.
[00:59:41] Speaker 4: Yeah, and then in the other world too, there was a price guarantee, so those contractors are baking in their risk. So that makes sense too.
[00:59:51] Speaker 3: Any other questions?
[00:59:53] Speaker 5: My—less of a question. Are we done with questions? If only questions right now, my question would be...
[01:00:03] Council Member: In the spirit of sentimental contributions, are we bringing over the plaques that were set up from the original founding of the library to the new one to show our commitment to libraries in Palm Desert instead of maybe facades?
[01:00:17] Council Member: Is that just... are you talking about the plate that has all the council members' names on it?
[01:00:21] Council Member: No, no, no. I want the new one to have my name on it. Oh, it doesn't matter. I think in addition to, we'll have them all. In addition to, if... I mean, if the completion is set for '27 and the original dedication was '97, I think it would be a little sentimental touch. I mean, if we can't keep any of the essential architecture or keep it looking the same, at least some of that. These are the original visionaries that wanted the library here, and we've maintained that.
[01:00:51] Mayor: Questions? Any more questions? Okay, so let's move to public comment. Miss Jan Buller, please.
[01:01:11] Jan Buller: Good evening, honorable Mayor, Council Members. Jan Buller, Samra Road, Palm Desert. Over the past several years, I've attended a whole lot of formal and informal meetings, meetings about this library. And I have been impressed with how much attention the staff has paid to the input they have gotten from residents, permanent, seasonal, to other library users and the committee in general. And in my perspective, first from the task force, from the advisory library or the Library Advisory Committee and other forums, I'm really satisfied that the staff is reflecting the perspective of the community and the path forward that we should take to serve the community in the proposed conceptual design. And I hope you will take action tonight to move it forward and get this thing built. Thank you.
[01:02:22] Mayor: Thank you. Okay, so that is... that's all our public comments on this particular item.
[01:02:30] Staff: And Madam Mayor, there's no public comment on Zoom.
[01:02:33] Mayor: Thank you so much. And are there any discussion? I'll start. I think it's a beautiful conceptual design, and as we learned at the study session, its orientation towards the sun to maximize shade, its uses... It's a library that I think we need to do right, and I think this does it right. Any other comments?
[01:03:04] Council Member: I think staff has done an excellent job. To echo what our community member, Miss Jan, said, we've been working for this. This was one of the key features of why the tax measure was proposed. I think the concern about ongoing costs... everything will continue to keep growing, but the investment in our community is paramount. I think this is creating priceless opportunities for meeting space and just... I particularly did like having the bookcases that could roll around that would open it up. As we see in the future, we may move entirely to digital books and only have one or two. We're not going to be constrained by anything that would be too difficult to move. I like the public safety element of being able to see people coming in, be aware of your surroundings, fire exits, you can see what's going on. So in terms of the schematics, the layout, everything, I think great job, great job. And so, in order to support my colleague who asked about keeping any of that consistency, that would be my suggestion, if it would be entertained, to just keep the sentimental plaque to come along with it next to the one with the new designation.
[01:04:26] Mayor: Any other comments, please?
[01:04:29] Council Member: Perfect. Well, luckily, I serve... I'm liaison with the Library Advisory Committee, so I've kind of been part of the process as it's moved forward. And I do believe Richärd Kennedy is the right architect. They have an excellent track record with libraries. I think... I love the use of natural light. I think they took into account the problems we have with the current building, which, you know, was built on a model... it was modeled after a building in Monterey, California, which...
[01:05:00] Councilmember: ...doesn't work in the desert, so I think, um, this is going to be the right building for our city, and it's beautiful and very excited for it. So, all for it. Thank you.
[01:05:10] Mayor: Any other comments? Great job, Dr. Schaefer, all the community members who came in and, and offered their thoughts and their vision, and great job to the staff. Uh, at that, I'll entertain a motion.
[01:05:24] Councilmember: A motion to approve.
[01:05:26] Councilmember: Second.
[01:05:27] Mayor: May we have a vote, please? Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you. We'll next go to 14B, provide direction on Library operations and Foundation considerations. Who will be presenting on that?
[01:05:52] Staff Member: I will, Mayor and Council. Uh, in 2024, Council provided direction to proceed with the creation of a foundation for the library and city services. In January, during your Council candidate interviews for prospective Foundation members, um, Council requested a temporary pause to refine the foundation's vision as well as mission before proceeding. Subsequent to that, there were additional requests for clarification raised on the purpose of the foundation in light of the passage of Measure G. So, before we went any further, we wanted to get further clarification and direction from Council on how you'd like to proceed. Originally, when Council provided direction to create the foundation, it was largely driven by these key attributes here: the ability to tap into grant dollars specific to 501(c)(3) nonprofits, uh, creating a fundraising platform, uh, beyond our local network, as well as generating greater, uh, donor confidence for the library. So, municipal libraries do tap into foundations and create them to augment the services for the, for the, uh, library. But with the passage of Measure G, Measure G was also intended to help add and augment, uh, city services, including the library. So, some of the options today, uh, really is to, to gain your insight and clarification. Uh, we can continue through the path of proceeding with the creation of the foundation, uh, which if we did, then we would, we would, uh, bring back that new work plan and also continue with the candidate recruitment process. Uh, the alternative to a foundation, uh, the City could supplement the library base budget with funds from Measure G. Uh, so if that's the direction of the Council, we can include some options for you in your upcoming budget sessions. Additionally, we can pause, uh, the whole Foundation activity and explore partnerships with other nonprofits or wait until the new facility is created. So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. We also have Dr., uh, and Director of Library Services Gary Schaefer here for any questions. Thank you.
[01:08:03] Mayor: Are there any public comments?
[01:08:13] City Clerk: Online, no public comments, Madame Mayor.
[01:08:15] Mayor: Thank you. Are there any questions from the dais? Any questions? Okay, questions, comments... Well, let's... questions. Okay, um, just going through...
[01:08:31] Councilmember: ...some of the verbiage on the, on the staff report. I want to make sure, this was originally set up to be a, a Citywide Foundation, but in the report sometimes it's referred to as a Library Foundation. I just want to make sure, still, it's still going to serve other purposes if needed, correct?
[01:08:46] Staff Member: The original intent was a City foundation with the focus first being on library fundraising, and then the Council could elect to expand for other types of fundraising activity, whether it be Public Safety, art, or other services.
[01:08:58] Councilmember: Got it. And I've heard a couple times mentioned that we do anticipate more money coming from Riverside County in future years. Do we have a ballpark figure on... Currently we receive 2.2 million a year, is that right?
[01:09:12] Staff Member: So, our latest estimates show, conservatively, an additional $100,000 that we're expected to receive. We won't know until final, until August of this year when the property tax rolls close. So, once we get that number, that'll be the, the fixed number, and then we intend it to increase anywhere from 2 to 3% per year.
[01:09:31] Councilmember: Okay, got it. Thank you.
[01:09:33] Mayor: Are there any other questions? Okay, discussion, please.
[01:09:40] Councilmember: Oh, okay. Uh, currently for the library, there, there's a small group of people that are, uh, it's called Friends of the Library, and, and they're already doing some fundraising. So, that could be an option if we as a Council decide to not move...
[01:10:00] Councilmember: ...forward with a new foundation. Perhaps the Friends of the Library, that group could take on a bigger role. And I know they're doing a great—or they were doing a great job of collecting donated books and selling those books on Amazon. And I know that it's a small amount compared to the goals of a foundation, but it could be another alternative if we decide not to go with the foundation. Perhaps Friends of the Library takes on a bigger role and continues on with doing their fundraising activities. Any other comments?
[01:10:40] Councilmember: I think that's a good idea. I think that we wanted the library, then we said that the Council was going to be the governing board at first. Then we said it should be external, we could make it a foundation because then of the separation of 501(c)(3) and getting into where we were going to do a dance of where the money was going. Would it incentivize more donations if it's a nonprofit? And I think from there, we kind of changed direction, and then the conversation included, 'Well, let's also include the opportunity to raise money for public safety, and we can add this to it.' And I think it morphed into something that we didn't originally intend. We asked our residents, we asked our community, and they voted to increase taxes. I don't think that it makes sense then to take our volunteers and ask them to go raise more money for public safety and public works. If part of our discussion is already about having the difficulty in maintaining people engaged and committed to serve on any of these boards, having people go out and ask for money is tough. For some of us as elected leaders, some people have no problem asking for money; that is not an easy task for me. Having members of the community, whether that may be they have a background in fundraising or not, from what I recall, it was supposed to include things about programming. This was meant to include our educators that could say, 'We're looking at this literacy program that I saw in Santa Monica. What a great idea, can we bring it here?' Having programmatic elements—those were the discussions that needed to happen, not, 'Hey, can you go raise money for us?' And maybe you have very limited time in the library, you don't go, you've never been invested. I mean, I see former staff members from our library that have been committed and spent years there. I think, as one of the things that was said is we learned from the challenges of the previous incarnation, having former employees would help ensure that we're not falling into some of those pitfalls, and they're not necessarily going to want to be the ones raising money. I think that we either need to stick to it as a library foundation, or we need to cancel the idea overall.
[01:13:21] Mayor: I would—may I? I have an oversight. I apologize, I have a public speaker card. Does everyone agree? Let's hear from the public speaker, and then we can continue our discussion. My mistake. Excuse me, Jan Buer, can you—you have a public comment on this item? I think she spoke on the second one, but there is one also for 14b. Did you want to speak on this, or do you feel you've said it all?
[01:14:01] Jan Buer: I'm a member of the Friends of the Library, but I am not speaking on behalf of the Friends of the Library. So, this is just a few pieces of information for you as you're talking about this. It is a small organization made up of volunteers. We operate a bookstore that is open the entire time the library is in operation. The library staff accepts the monies from the items that we sell in the bookstore. We also sell books online, and those tend to be on Amazon and on Biblio. And from time to time, we get sizable donations and donations of some value. Those books generally are sold online, but we do not have fundraisers. I mean, we do not have people who are professional fundraisers. This is entirely a volunteer...
[01:15:00] Speaker: operation. So I just will add that perspective. I didn't intend to speak on this, just to observe it, but I did want to give you a little—a few data points on who we are and what we do. Thank you. That said, we'd be happy to work with you.
[01:15:13] Mayor: Thank you. And I should check if there were any—did I check if there were any public comments?
[01:15:19] City Clerk: You did check, and there's no online comments.
[01:15:21] Mayor: Okay, well, I double-checked. Okay. Council Member Fora, thank you.
[01:15:25] Council Member Fora: Thank you. Following up on Council Member Kenia's comment about maintaining a focus on the library, I would agree with that and looking for ways to solve problems. I think there's—there's a couple of issues. We have a model. There's a lot of libraries that have foundation boards that do great programming, and so we look at that. And then the thought is—I think that this—this is kind of—I'm new, and so this was already done. The thought was, 'Well, if we have one foundation, it's very easy to just have them work on the whole of the city.' I think—I—I'm speculating that that's the evolution of it. I think that there's two ways to get there. We're talking about boards and committees today and Measure G, and one of my objectives is to kind of hold the line in terms of spending. Now, this foundation will intend to actually help us by alleviating general fund spending, so I understand that. However, when the library is built, it's going to take a life of its own. It's going to have a natural evolution of who comes, who uses it. We have a goal for family-friendly activities, you know, and—and this library will have its own energy. I would like to see that evolve before we set up a foundation or group that helps programming in the library. So I would—I would—I would prefer to take a pause approach until the library is built and we could see how it evolves and who's using it, and then we can form a foundation that either supplements or grows a segment that's not using it, and—and we have a better idea. That would be my preference. In the interim, if we need a nonprofit account so that people can make a donation to the city or the library for some programming or grant that comes available, there's one of two ways we could do that. And—and one of the easiest ways is setting up an account with something like the Desert Community Foundation, that they'll hold an account for us and accept money and distribute on our behalf, and we don't have to do the setting up of a—of a foundation right now. But that gives us the ability to accept donations from entities that prefer to give to nonprofits. But in terms of the foundation, my preference would be to see the library built, naturally evolve, and then find ways to build on that.
[01:18:15] Council Member: Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with my colleague, Mr. Petto. I think it's a more sort of thought approach to see, rather than have two entities—sort of an operational side and then a foundational side—maybe working at odds. And also, to Gina's point about the Friends, and I think if—if I'm not mistaken, and again, Dr. Schaefer, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the Friends, as they're currently composed or were composed, were chartered by the county. Is that right? So they've been severely diminished because—and also because I thought we were going to—I think we—we were under the assumption we're going to have foundations, so the Friends' activity sort of diminished. I think volunteer hours are way down. I wouldn't mind seeing them brought back to life a little more in the interim, but lay it out for me.
[01:19:07] Gary Schaefer: Happy to address. Again, Gary Schaefer, Director of Library Services. So, the Friends were actually formed as the Friends of the Desert Library. So, that is a makeup of all the libraries that are part of Riverside County, so we were a part of that. The president of the Friends of the Desert Libraries is actually our president—president of our local Friends chapter. But they are operating under that 501(c)(3). So, the plan was that this might roll over to a foundation or other entity. They would likely have to set up another 501(c)(3) to—to keep operations going if they choose to do that and continue to fundraise.
[01:19:47] Council Member: Thank you. So, I love the idea of, you know, creating a new Friends group that's Palm Desert-specific. And I love just having a cadre or group of volunteers that are out there advocating, they're active, they're involved, they...
[01:20:01] Council Member: I'm assuming they help staff operate the library, or at least take some of the load off of some of the foot traffic and activity coming through there. So, I would like to have a more robust friends group, get the library built, see how the energy is going, and then talk about a foundation. Put the brakes on it for now.
[01:20:17] Mayor: Okay, so I'd like to take a moment. It sounds like minds have been made up, and so I'm going to ask my colleagues to open your mind for a moment, and I want to provide full disclosure here. I have been trying to get a foundation in this city for more than a decade. It's a sophisticated tool for fundraising. Many people are somewhat wary of giving their money or their assets to government entities, shocker though that may be. But when you create a 501(c)(3) that is a foundation for something specific—and many cities have them—it's a great tool for someone to leave their assets. If they take their trust, they can leave the City of Palm Desert as a recipient. We've had people who've left homes to the city. It's a bit of a mess when they do that because now we have to find our way, and it's a little messier. If they had a foundation to leave funds to or assets to, it's much easier, and they feel comfort in the fact that it can be earmarked for specific projects. They don't feel that comfortable if they're giving it to a city, and we all know that there are questions about government, and we all know where those questions come from. But when they put it in a foundation that has a strict, clear set of accounting with earmarks on certain funds, they can then give it to that, and it's guaranteed it's going to go where it's going to go. So, it's a great tool to bring funds to a project like a library. And to wait until after it's done, I'm not sure that's good proactive planning. In fact, no, it's not. I'm sorry I chose those words. It's not looking ahead. It's not planning. To have a foundation now to give people the opportunity to donate, to put their name on rooms in the library, to put their names on the veterans room where we're helping veterans—it is a motivator. And foundations are wildly successful in situations like this. And a library is a great motivator for people because our library, as we're presenting it, it's not just a place with books. It's a community center. It's a place we are helping veterans. It will be one of those things where you can appeal to people, country clubs, other entities, other foundations, to put their names on certain rooms in our library and allow us to do greater programming and exciting programs, bring in speakers, bring in authors, whatever it might be. But it unties the hands of the city. We are not solely looking at the city for funds. We are not pulling from the general fund. We are creating a foundation that is strong and secure, and that people are comfortable donating to. I'm surprised by this reaction, otherwise I would have gone and done some research to give you names of other cities that use foundations because they're very successful, and it is a great tool. They are a tremendously successful and sophisticated way to help build things like a library.
[01:24:33] Council Member: I think you have a good point, Madame Mayor, when there will be that legacy of saying, for example, at the tram they've got the Crocker Room after Francis and—I don't remember the other person, their other half—Crocker, instead of saying, 'Go to the downstairs room.' I completely get that. However, once it's built and they walk in and they see the space, I think there's a potential for their emotional involvement that is...
[01:25:01] Council Member: ...attached to their checkbook and their legacy donation would actually increase. I think at this moment we are selling an idea. Once there is a tangible moment—I mean, there's something magic when you step somewhere new. For anybody that had been here at the council chambers before the renovation, you knew where you were going. Then it was redone, you step in here, your energy is different, the collaboration felt different when there was no longer an incline. I think having that space would make that easier. I also want to highlight that the city already has an affiliated foundation, and that's the Sister Cities Foundation. That was separate because of that exact thing. Sister Cities International is a larger organization. Instead of the city giving money or the city paying for travel the way that sister cities usually requires, they are separate. Having been the liaison, they have annual events, they have money, they don't do much—and I'm very sorry to say, and I hope I'm not offending the hard work of people that have been doing that for a long time—I don't see the ongoing community events. I think they may have a yearly dinner. They do great work when they go toaso in the liaison and work cultural work with Gisborne, New Zealand. But when it has come time to that, to going, there was the expectation these individuals were asking, 'Why doesn't the city give us... why do we only have recyclable bags and pens? The city of so-and-so gives their city hats and t-shirts and much better quality swag.' Well, that's part of the foundation, you're supposed to support yourself with that. That's why there's a delineation. We have as a city attempted that model, it wasn't very successful, and for that reason, yes, apples and oranges, but we need to allow it to grow a little more until we can determine where we're going. I think that I'm absolutely holding an open mind. I think that the naming rights are very valuable, absolutely, that will be a great money maker, but I think it'll generate more money when it's done.
[01:27:40] Council Member: All right, so I think that I have a question. The foundation is not a bad idea, I'm questioning it. Your experience, because you're in this world or have been for many years, is it the board of the foundation that is the important part, or the mechanism being the 501(c)(3) with all the financial controls? I presume it's a matter of both, but is it that people trust the mechanism of a 501(c)(3) and that there's strings on how the money is dispersed, or is it the board that they're giving to, especially specifically with the city in mind? If they're giving to a foundation knowing it's going to the city, does it matter that there's a board, or is it just they want a foundation with control?
[01:28:43] Council Member: And it almost just says, 'Yes.' They want... if we can just cut to the chase, government doesn't always have a good reputation. The foundation is separate, so yes, the board is very important. And yeah, I've been in this world, but I also was a professional fundraiser, and I did that, and I know the comfort level people need to give those large sums of money. And they want to know it's earmarked, they want to know where it's going, and people like the acknowledgment that they have provided something to their community, and that's what this would do. And very successful cities use this model because people will leave their homes to it, people will leave things that might be of historical value. When we're talking homes, but it might be, as most of us are aware, there was the woman who had the home on Portola and then abutting that on the other street, she left that all to the city. We were kind of scrambling to work with it, it was not easy, but it could have been left to a foundation. People do that, and when they look at...
[01:30:02] Speaker 1: ...a library, and that's a magnificent building that we looked at to be part of that, to be part of it from the ground up and to inspire. We don't have to cut any corners because people have been inspired to be part of a brilliant, visionary project. We don't have to cut corners, and we don't have to pull from the general fund. It will be inspirational, and it just gives us—it is a sophisticated tool for cities to do great work, to do great projects, and to give assurance to the people who are giving the funds.
[01:30:55] Speaker 2: I think, two things in terms of being proactive. I think usually it's a thing that sounds good. I think in terms of prediction, our ability to predict is zero, except for when it comes to risk mitigation. So you could look at an unsafe corner and say, 'Somebody's probably going to get in an accident there sometime, right?' So be proactive, fix that. But this, you know, being proactive in terms of creating an entity, it's not the same as risk mitigation. In this case, I think that we're not reducing risk by creating it. In ways, we're creating more work, which creates a little more risk. I think if I was just—if I ran the show and I stamped what I want tonight, I think I would say let's set up a foundation with the Community Foundation that would allow people to make charitable donations to the city to their direction. And then the foundation, that independent foundation, would then make sure that all their donations, their third party, are administered to their will. That costs us very little. They take, I think they charge a little management fee, but for us, there's no extra staff time, and that's set up separately. I'm still interested in a library foundation specific to programming, much like Rancho Mirage does. I would, or maybe the Friends evolve to that, but that's something that I think, in terms of specific for the library, I would wait to see that that's open. So, you know, I think there's two paths here, and that's in my mind what I see.
[01:32:36] Speaker 1: Okay, I would ask this, given what you've just said, and you use the Rancho Mirage Library as an example. And I told you, I am really shocked by the resistance to a foundation. From my experience with foundations, to me, it would be, 'Yeah, well, of course you would do that.' But that's my experience. What I would like to do is continue this, allow me to give you some of the research, some of the cities that use them, how they use them, how successful they are. And also, we can go meet with Rancho Mirage—two of us, or however you want to do it—and hear from them how their success has been, because they've had great success with theirs. So I would ask that we continue this with more knowledge and make the best decision possible, please.
[01:33:33] Speaker 3: Okay, all valid points. I'm leaning towards putting this on the back burner a bit. It's been my experience in life in general, but also during my time here on City Council, that the people who hold the purse strings generally get to dictate how things are run, and that would be a concern I would have with the foundation—that they're doling out how the money is spent. It would tie the hands of our staff and our library director. I'm not sure that's been the case in the past, I'm not sure if that's the case in Rancho Mirage, but that would be my concern: that they're sitting on several million dollars, for example, and our library director then has to go and beg. And we've entrusted him to dictate how this library is going to be run, and the culture, and the programming. And it gives authority, in my opinion, to another organization that has the potential of having two different groups coming at loggerheads and us losing our direction a bit. If you can talk me down from that, if you like, but that's the way it appears from the outside looking in.
[01:34:34] Speaker 1: Okay, so go look at many of the others. The Living Desert—do you think that a donor gets to tell them? And they don't, because you have a business model, whether it's The Living Desert or the McCallum, and they can give money, they're going to get their name on it, that's what they can have, but they don't get to tell you how to run your business.
[01:34:55] Speaker 3: I'm not necessarily talking about even donors, but whoever is administering the foundation, you know.
[01:35:01] Mayor Pro Tem: Director of the board or whatever, you might have some who would then... would you hire an independent director, or who would be the director of the board of the foundation?
[01:35:16] Staff: I don't know that we'd actually talked about the director so much as staff. I mean, we've had... the way it was envisioned is that the library director would be the interface with the foundation, and the foundation would work with the library director to help raise money for programming, those sorts of things for the library. We hadn't really talked about it being expanded too much further at this point, but that was the initial concept, and we really haven't gone any further until we got your feedback.
[01:35:45] Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. And I would like to go look, because a good executive director of a foundation is not going only to be a tremendous development director, but it will be somebody who is able to work in line with the vision. Just like we set policy, you have policy set for a foundation as well. And so you need a good executive director, no doubt. You need somebody who knows development, who knows how to raise those funds, who knows how to encourage people to give their treasure. So I really recommend that we get a little more information before we go further. We don't want to tie our hands before we start and say, 'Oh, I don't know if we have enough money.' You brought up some valid concerns about how much per square foot. If something changes, are we then going to not do our best work because we feel limited? Let's get some more information. And I apologize for the continuation or the potential continuation. I think it's in the best interest of going forward with our library, and I think it's in the best interest of Palm Desert. All right, well, I would make a motion to continue the item until there's more research, and then perhaps there is the subcommittee that's going to look into the Rancho Mirage Library and other entities, and anybody can do that, and I'll research other cities that have them. Can we say in two meetings? Is that realistic? Is that too much pressure, or that works for staff?
[01:37:33] Council Member: Okay, can I ask a question? You know, chicken, egg, horse, and cart. If part of the discussion has been that having a foundation works very well if we have a good executive director, that's a fact. That makes sense. I agree with Mayor Pro Tem. Truth be that somebody that's making the donation may say, 'I want it earmarked for this thing,' right? And it may not be the kind of thing that we want. And so is that money then going to sit in that line item, in that space where the donor said, 'I want this money to go to something that the Council, that the City may object to?'
[01:38:18] Mayor Pro Tem: No, money should never compromise your values, your visions, or your belief system.
[01:38:23] Council Member: So we tell them we're not going to take their money?
[01:38:26] Mayor Pro Tem: Absolutely. If it is not in alignment with the vision and the policy of the library, no, you would not take it.
[01:38:33] Council Member: Another point of clarity here. We go back to saying this is how we are going to raise money to be sure we're not in any situation where our hands would be tied. Our hands were stretched out to our residents to say the library is one of the reasons we want to raise taxes. I think that, yes, this would have the opportunity to not dip into the general fund, I get it. But part of the reason we said, 'Help us grow that general fund and our reserves,' is for the library. So I have a concern with the transparency of what the Council stated, what we're doing, and what we're dangling. I support a foundation. I think that the foundation discussion should wait entirely until the library is built, because along the way things can evolve. As I think Council Member Petto put it just perfectly, being proactive sounds good, but we can't predict the future. Government will happen at a slow pace. We're not losing a single dollar by deciding to wait a year. That money will come if people have the generosity in their hearts, whether they want to give it now or they want to give it later. I think that wholeheartedly there will be...
[01:40:00] Councilmember: An increase in funding once people are there, and if maybe we're looking at a very different set of users for the library because people shouldn't feel that they are the ones that are entitled to the library because they're the ones donating money, that they're going to decide how things get spent and the vision. Because sometimes you go somewhere and think, 'Well, this doesn't feel right to me. Whose idea was this? Oh, that's right, you know, Jim Johnson or, you know, Bill whatnot that made that donation, and that's why this exists this way.'
[01:40:32] Councilmember: Okay, to be clear, funds from Measure G will be used towards the library, but if we want to do some spectacular planning or some other spectacular things in the library, making it all it should be, there may be other funds needed. I don't view donors through a nefarious lens. I don't think they think they deserve special treatment in places they go. So, I'm going to second Councilmember G nandi's motion.
[01:41:05] Mayor: Are there, is there any other further discussion?
[01:41:08] Councilmember: What was the full motion, sorry? Please, can...
[01:41:13] Councilmember: Okay, yeah. And I like the idea of putting it off for about a month or so, two meetings. My concern, when I'll spend the next month talking to at least Rancho Mirage Library, if not others, is making sure that our fantastic Dr. Schaefer, Library Director—I have no doubt that Dr. Schaefer could go out and raise a ton of money, he's a charismatic guy and loves the library, has the passion—I want to make sure our staff maintains their autonomy in the direction of the library, and my concern is that the foundation would step on that. So, that's what I want to have addressed.
[01:41:44] Councilmember: There are checks and balances. It's not a concern that I have. I hear you, though. Thank you.
[01:41:50] Mayor: So let's do our work so that we make a good, well-informed decision. So, we have a motion and a second. Can we have a vote, please?
[01:41:58] Councilmember: Before voting, I would just add that, Mayor Pro Tem Trouy, I think that is excellent, and that should be put into writing, not just a general understanding, but it should be put into writing who maintains their own autonomy. That is essential.
[01:42:15] Mayor: Motion passes 5 to 0 to continue this matter for two meetings. Thank you. We'll move to 14C, which is a resolution of concern regarding South Coast Air Quality Management District's proposed amendments to Rules 1111 and 1121, phasing out gas water heaters and furnaces.
[01:42:40] Staff Member: Mayor and Council, the resolution of concern is before you as council members have expressed interest, concern, and comments on the proposed rules, as South Coast AQMD is proposing to reduce emissions generated by the burning of gas to improve air quality. Part of this would be to phase out the gas-burning furnaces and water heaters. Some of the concerns raised are high costs, strain on the grid, and then implementation—how does this affect the consumer? And as it was originally presented, it was designed where any renter or homeowner would be required to switch to an electric or zero-emission device, and gas wouldn't be an option. Through the process, many cities and organizations have raised concern. South Coast AQMD has delayed implementation, they've increased and expanded the incentives available. But recently, since the publishing of the staff report last week, I've been in communication with South Coast AQMD staff, and the proposed rules have significantly evolved. They've shifted away from it being a mandate on the consumer—so the homeowner or resident—and instead shifting it to incentivizing and working with manufacturers to increase the amount of zero-emission devices. I did check to see if the proposed rebates, if someone wanted to opt into electric, if they applied to Palm Desert, and in fact, the rebates would apply to Palm Desert residents and homeowners. So, with the recent adjustments, they're going to be rolling out more information in the coming weeks, but a resident or homeowner could still continue with gas options or voluntarily switch to electric with these rebates. So, the next committee meeting is March 21st in the Stationary Committee, which is the body that makes a recommendation to the full Board of South Coast Air Quality Management District before they weigh in on it. So, as more information comes forth, we can share it, but at least we want to present a resolution of concern so that the Council could express their thoughts and perspectives on the matter. I'm happy to answer any questions. That concludes the report.
[01:44:51] Mayor: Are there any questions? Are there any public comments?
[01:45:02] City Clerk: Online, no raised hands, Madam Mayor. Thank you.
[01:45:05] Mayor: Any discussion?
[01:45:09] Councilmember Gina Nestande: Well, I will say that I want to be on the record that I believe in clean air, and I want to drink clean water for myself, my family, my friends, my community, our world. That's all very important. But banning natural gas or imposing fees on manufacturers that just get passed back to the consumer or the builder, that's what will happen. And we also, as mentioned, we have grid issues with electricity, and the United States has abundant natural gas, and it is clean-burning. So, I am opposed to any type of rules that are passed by an organization that are aiming to ban natural gas. And I haven't seen studies that show the cost-benefit of banning natural gas. And if we all just, you know, look at our own heating bills that use natural gas, it's much less than when you use air conditioning and electricity to cool your home. Natural gas is still a good alternative, and so I don't believe that these latest proposals are sufficient by the Air Quality District.
[01:46:40] Mayor: Any other discussion?
[01:46:44] Councilmember: I echo exactly as Councilmember Nestande stated. The additional thing that came to mind is that if anybody purchases one of the appliances, a standard gas appliance today, they would last 30 years or more. So there's no financial incentive, as mentioned, if I can buy it right now and it'll be cheaper, and it's not going to raise my electricity. This is a matter of equity in terms of who can afford to heat their home and cook. I also know that there is great pushback from a lot of industry professionals that how are you going to make your amazing recipe if it says bring to a boil and then bring it down to a simmer? That's not going to go very well on an electric stove. So those are the additional considerations. So I support moving forward with the proposed revisions.
[01:47:42] Councilmember: I'll just add that if you can go with a heat pump, variable speed, it'll be the best summers ever. You know, they're magic, and they actually reduce the electrical load in the summertime when this problem is exacerbated. But I get the concerns with the consumer impacts, and I support the resolution.
[01:48:07] Mayor: Okay, any other comments? I'll entertain a motion.
[01:48:11] Councilmember: Moved.
[01:48:13] Councilmember: I'll second.
[01:48:20] Mayor: Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you.
[01:48:25] Mayor: Okay, we'll move to 14D, ordinance amending the Palm Desert Municipal Code to update, clarify, and codify bylaws and general provisions for the city's boards, commissions, committees, and task forces.
[01:48:41] Anthony Mejia: Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, I'm Anthony Mejia, City Clerk. Before you is an ordinance updating the Municipal Code regarding the city's boards, commissions, committees, and task forces. These updates were reviewed and supported by the City Council Subcommittee on Boards and Commissions, and the key updates include: clarification of the Finance Committee's role in reviewing financial policies only when referred by the City Council; updates to the Resource Preservation and Enhancement Committee's purpose and responsibility statements, along with a transition to an as-needed meeting schedule; standardization of most committees at seven members; and the introduction of a waiting period for former employee relatives to serve on our commissions; and then adjustments to the meeting frequencies for the Public Safety Committee, Civic Engagement Committee, Homelessness Task Force, Cultural Resources Preservation Committee, Library Advisory Committee, and ARPC. And I also wanted to make some clarifications. In 2023, the City Council did a significant revision to the boards and commission structure. At that time, the Council did approve changing the Finance Committee from every other month to quarterly; however, that had not yet been implemented. So, the proposal does include moving the Finance Committee to quarterly, consistent with the Municipal Code. The boards and commissions...
[01:50:01] Staff: Back in 2023, we delineated and did change the use of the terms 'boards and commissions' versus 'committees and task forces.' At that time, boards and commissions were terms to be designated for bodies that have final approval authority unless appealed, and then committees and task forces were terms to be designated for those bodies which are advisory to the City Council. And I wanted to point out that there are no actual formal oversight bodies; they are all advisory or final decision-making bodies unless appealed. Thank you.
[01:50:34] Mayor: Thank you. Are there any questions? Questions at the dais? Yes, okay.
[01:50:46] Council Member: The eligibility requirements, it says, 'To prevent potential conflicts of interest, the ordinance prohibits relatives of city employees and officials from serving on any appointed body and establishes a 12-month waiting period after an employee leaves the city service before their relatives may be eligible to serve.' That's relatives of, but not city employees, is that right?
[01:51:08] Staff: No, that includes city employees.
[01:51:10] Council Member: Oh, okay. Because I was thinking maybe Todd would come back and serve on RPAC or something. Okay, I just wanted to... I saw 'relatives,' I didn't see 'city employees.' Sorry.
[01:51:18] Council Member: That's not how I read the redline, because the redline has eligibility for city employees, and it says, 'City employees are not eligible to serve as members on an appointed body,' period. And then, 'Relatives of City officials and employees,' it says, 'A relative of a city employee or City Council member shall not be eligible to serve on any appointed body and shall remain ineligible for 12 months following separation from employment—the employee's separation.' So the way I read the redline is that the 12-month prohibition does not apply to former city employees, only to their relatives.
[01:51:56] Staff: In the clean version, it does, and I'll read it in its entirety: 'Relatives of city employees and officials: A relative of a city employee or City Council member shall not be eligible to serve on any appointed body and shall remain ineligible for 12 months following the employee's separation from City employment.'
[01:52:17] Council Member: And it's only speaking to relatives, is that your point?
[01:52:21] Council Member: It's only speaking to relatives, but city employees can apply immediately after separation, because immediately above it, it discusses the city employees, not relatives. So Section B... That's true, good catch.
[01:52:36] Staff: So we could clarify this for a second reading to state that city employees would also be included in this prohibition, not just the relatives.
[01:52:45] Council Member: Okay. And also, it would assume that Todd would have to come back and live in Palm Desert.
[01:52:53] Council Member: Do city employees include City Council members?
[01:52:57] Staff: Correct.
[01:53:02] Mayor: Okay. Okay, any other questions?
[01:53:06] Mayor: Are there any public comments? You should have speaker cards, and there are no raised hands. Okay, we do have three speaker cards. Let's start with Berinda Blackburn.
[01:53:26] Berinda Blackburn: Good afternoon, honorable Mayor and Council members. Berinda Blackburn. I am the current chair of the RPAC Committee. Back in 2019, I saw this 'Get Involved, Shape the Future of Palm Desert,' so I applied to be a member of RPAC. At the time, it was the Sustainability Committee, and I thought it aligned well with my background as an environmental compliance manager. But getting this information, it seemed that there were... and just to let everybody know, RPAC, we are a passionate group of people. You know, we care about the environment, we care about the city. And there are moments in our committee meetings where the members get a chance to discuss whatever they want to discuss, and that could be, you know, speeding on Hovley Lane, or it could be street sweeping schedules, or planting more trees. And those things are a concern of the committee, but during business meetings, you know, we're talking about pivoting and helping the city be the best it can be environmentally. It could be solar requirements for commercial entities, new businesses...
[01:55:00] Public Speaker: New construction coming in, will we require them to install solar? And yes, that's outside of RPEC, but that is a concern environmentally. You know, we talk about the grid. What are we doing to reduce our load on the grid? Can we do that? And there's all of these other things: electrical car chargers, it goes on and on. And the issue here appears to be that the subcommittee met with staff, and the environmental sustainability and greenhouse gas inventory reference has been outdated and no longer used by staff. Okay, update the environmental plan to create that solution of removing outdated references, and once completed, look at the greenhouse gas measurements from a comprehensive climate action plan, and also look at the 2025 work plan. It shall be the responsibility of the Resource Preservation and Enhancement Committee to make recommendations to Council. By moving RPEC to as-needed only when the City Council refers specific items or when staff determines, will basically diminish the capacity to effectively guide the city's environmental initiatives. I think I'm out of time, but I just want to talk about when you guys have a study session before those topics come to RPEC, and then you bring them back to RPEC after listening to Council's decisions. It puts RPEC in a position of confusion because we've listened to the voices of the Council, and now you're bringing it to us to make a decision, and that's not an effective way to use the committee. So thank you.
[01:57:00] Mayor: Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Donald Ziggler.
[01:57:10] Donald Ziggler: You keep it very cold in here. My name is Donald Ziggler, and I'm a resident of Palm Desert. I'm on Belinda Blackburn's RPEC committee. I applied for and was approved to serve on the Resource Preservation and Enhancement Committee last July. I've devoted considerable time and energy to the business of this committee. I receive no compensation beyond my satisfaction that I'm serving an important function by studying and providing input to City staff and the Council on the critical issues that the committee considers. It was therefore a great surprise to me to read that, in appreciation for my and the committee's efforts, the Council believes, as you stated in the text of Item 14d, that, quote, 'the committee had been meeting without clear agenda items, leading to discussions outside its intended scope.' That sounds like a bit of a scold to me. Let me say, every meeting of the committee has a clear agenda. A City Council member and City staff are active participants in the meeting. When I attend those meetings, I have no confusion as to why I'm there and what it is we are to consider. If a committee member strays too far from the intended scope of any item being considered, the staff and City Council member, as well as the committee chair, can at any time reel in the discussion. I've seen no situation where that has been abused. So I must say, I took personal offense at the implied criticism that I'm on a committee that has somehow gone rogue. I think that I and the others on the committee deserve better than this. It would be very disappointing if a majority of you truly feel this way about the work of a dedicated committee of citizens just trying to make life in the city better. The changes to the committee meeting schedule and responsibilities that you put into this resolution are clearly, to me, a result of this opinion about the committee's conduct, and therefore I request that you remove these changes to the RPEC from this item and let the committee function as it has, as an effective committee helping to serve this city. Thank you.
[01:59:27] Mayor: Thank you. And our next speaker is Carlos Garcia.
[01:59:38] Carlos Garcia: Good evening, Mayor, City Council. My name is Carlos Garcia. My husband and I are both on commissions. My husband is on the Architectural Review Commission, and I'm on the Finance Committee. So, I must say we were kind of blindsided by all of this, that we really didn't know any of this was going on, and I think it would be...
[02:00:01] Public Speaker: Really incumbent upon the City Council to listen to the people who are most directly impacted by all the things you are proposing and hold conversations, maybe even surveys or focus groups among your commissioners to test these ideas out to see how people react to these things, if they really work for them or not. So I think it's really almost unthoughtful to proceed with all of these changes without really talking to the people who are most directly, personally involved, because we do contribute a lot of time and energy. And we talk to the city, we are involved in the development in the government, we go back to our communities and we talk to our citizens, our neighbors, and we talk about what's going on. So there's a lot of that is gained. I really think you should have talked to us all before even designing this whole restructuring. Our committee—I serve on the Finance Committee—our meetings were every other month and now they're quarterly. So we used to have like a one-inch thick book of stuff to go through, now it's two inches. I mean, like literally two inches. You saw that, you were there, Mayor. You saw the stack. It's impressive. It took me like several days to go through it just to look for questions and issues. And every time we do this, we do find little things that might have been missed or might have been looked over. We try to give suggestions to the city staff of ways of improving the ways they communicate this information, and we do provide input. And I think this is also valuable, and I really feel that we were left out of this conversation completely. And I think that's really sad, honestly. I'm just curious to know if these changes that you are implementing, are these things that are happening across the Coachella Valley? And if yes, why is this trend continuing? And if not, why us? What did we do that was so terrible that you had to pull us back and scold us and tell us to start over again and to rethink our engagement with the city? So also, I really wanted to express my general support for the Sustainability Committee and the work that they do, because never in human history has the environmental focus been more important. Never. And we are doing this to ourselves. Our habitat is in play, and we are doing this to ourselves. There's no more important task for any governmental body anywhere on Earth than to protect our habitat. If our beloved desert becomes uninhabitable, there won't be much to govern. We need to step up even when it's inconvenient, even when it's complicated. We have to find a way, we have to figure this out, because our children, our grandchildren, their lives are at stake. Thank you.
[02:02:45] Mayor: Thank you. And that completes the cards. And you said there was no comment online?
[02:02:55] Staff: No comment online, Madam Mayor. I did want to note, because it did come in at around 2:00, there is a letter that was submitted from Steph Nelson and it's been placed at the dais for you.
[02:03:06] Mayor: Thank you. Okay, so are there any... you've had an opportunity to ask questions, comments, discussion?
[02:03:17] Councilmember: I have a question, Madam Mayor. In looking at the changes that were made in frequencies and intervals, one that I did not see listed was the cultural preservation. And that one, I was the liaison to that meeting, and that one would also get very contentious and go off topic. And one of those days, there was an individual who, in my opinion, was being disrespectful to staff, and I stood up and said, 'This individual staff member works too hard and is too humble to let you know why they can't provide the information that you want right off the bat.' They also had a request that benefited the Historical Society, and that's where we have to delineate, right? Palm Desert—the Palm Desert Historical Society as an organization and the Cultural Preservation Committee, and how we're preserving our culture independently. As a result of taking very detailed notes to our City Manager, that's when we said, 'Okay, let's create a work plan.' And is that kind of where we started having work plans as a result of that conversation with the City Manager? That's when we got the input from all of the other committees to find out what they wanted to work on. This is how we reached out and said, 'We need to hear more from you,' so that there weren't any meetings where people felt that they were not productive. I am concerned that a committee that has been mostly ministerial is not being revised and...
[02:05:01] Council Member: Should that one, I think, should meet semi-monthly, or maybe is it because that one involves money? One of the primary activities that it does is to approve the Mills Act applications, which results in a Historic Landmark designation, which then gives the property tax discounts.
[02:05:25] Council Member: It was changed. When is it changed? To what page is that? It's your second page, I see. It is recommended to go from monthly to every other month, but my recommendation is: why is that one not as needed? Why is that one going, you know, to every other month?
[02:05:44] Council Member: When that one again, that can wait. If we're talking about staff time, that committee is where we went and met with staff on what was going to be the best way to streamline that. That committee is much more ministerial and doesn't have such a great impact as things like Public Safety.
[02:06:00] Council Member: Why is that one being... why is that committee meeting more frequently? Why is that meeting more frequently than, for example, Civic Engagement? If part of the reasoning that's in this report is to increase civic engagement, why are we only going to let the people that we want to engage meet twice a year?
[02:06:22] Council Member: If we are saying we aren't getting enough from the committee members, then we are not doing enough as government to ensure we're hearing from them. This to me is alarming.
[02:06:37] Council Member: That, as one of our residents said, they work hard, they come in, they're industry professionals. We need to respect their opinions, just as was mentioned before with marketing. Why is it that we aren't doing more to respect their opinions?
[02:06:58] Council Member: Another big concern is if we reduce the intervals of when we meet, it does have an impact in the volume of work that not only the committee member has to do with staff to prepare all of that, and there is the opportunity for things to get left behind to follow up on.
[02:07:18] Council Member: To follow up on Mr. Garcia's point, if you look at March 2024, the agenda was 117 pages. May 2024, 181 pages. September 2024, 267 pages. January 2025, 497 pages.
[02:07:38] Council Member: Having been on that committee, there are things that slip through, and I am very thankful to Mr. Garcia because he asked for clarification on this section where it says 'Administration'. Can you break it out? What else goes in that 'other'?
[02:07:55] Council Member: The purpose of the finance committee is to ask these questions. When we were discussing the tax measure, I was very frustrated and kept saying we need to have additional oversight and community engagement, and I was repeatedly told the oversight committee, that's the responsibility of the finance commission. As our clerk right now stated, none of these committees have the purpose of oversight.
[02:08:21] Council Member: When we have people that are appointed but then disengaged, it creates the opportunity for things like the Coachella Valley Animal Campus Commission to happen. People weren't showing up because they felt they were just coming to rubber stamp. After so many years of rubber stamping, where we were looking at, 'Oh, this staff report looks great,' we would ask questions and we were told, 'No, no, no, everything is fine,' and look at where we are now.
[02:08:51] Council Member: As a matter of fact, this morning there was a hearing at the Palm Springs Courthouse to look at how to advance some of these issues because this led to animal abuse, it led to neglect, it led to financial mismanagement. That's not to say that our city is at risk of that; this is just an example of what happens when the governing body doesn't value the people that are there.
[02:09:18] Council Member: In looking at the attendance records, we have people that are attending. The attendance has been consistent. And I'm also concerned that when people have expressed their interest in running for office, they're told, 'Join a committee.' Great, that is a way that lets you know about how the Brown Act works, how the government works, how the liaisons work. But now we're reducing the number of meetings per year that people can participate in, and that, I think, is a hindrance as well.
[02:09:52] Council Member: I have a lot of concerns that there is language that says we're increasing transparency by having less opportunities to be...
[02:10:01] Mayor: Are there any other comments?
[02:10:04] Council Member: Madam Mayor, if I may speak as a member of the ad hoc. I think, um, I'll talk about my own experience as both a commissioner for the city and staff, and I do want to affirm some of the things my colleague, Council Member Konia, brought up. There is a lot of psychology that goes into managing these things, and there's a balance of making people feel included but also doing the work that benefits the government because we work for the people. And a lot of these are started to provide direct benefit to the entity that represents the people, and a lot of advisory committees think they represent the people directly. We do. We're elected directly, and these are advisory to us. And that's something that, working for other elected officials, I've learned over the years is really, the elected official is the direct representative, and advisory committees serve us and what we need to do. So when I look at these, I think some things you'll notice is the Housing Commission, the Planning Commission, they're not on here. And one of the reasons they're not on there is if there's no business, there's no meeting. As a planning commissioner, I'll tell you, if there was no business, we were all happy to have a Tuesday night off, right? But every meeting of the Planning Commission was essential to move something forward according to our municipal code, state law, and sometimes state law, right? So, same thing with the Housing Commission. There's a legal reason we have that because we have the Housing Authority, right? So once you get into these other entities that were created for some advisory purpose at some time, those issues change and the demand changes. So on those, my experience has been, when I was with the county, we'd have a lot of advisory committees, and the resolution establishing them would set a minimum of quarterly meetings. Oftentimes they would meet monthly, but that was because of a necessity. When there was no need, they would back down to quarterly. So I think that, as a framework, makes a lot of sense. In none of these are we saying you cannot meet any more than the minimum. We're setting a minimum, and that helps staff, it helps us make sure that we're using our resources well. And again, these are minimums. So I understand, because I've experienced this, when people aren't meeting, they get angry. 'You don't value us.' That's not always true. It's just there's nothing to talk about. And there's a lot of work, having done this again, there's a lot of work that goes into creating work plans and things like that. And if the Planning Commission didn't have a work plan because we had work, if there's no work, you create a work plan. So I am a creature of necessity, and when necessity drives the need, we'll have meetings. If not, we have a framework that says they'll meet on some minimum basis. I'm not speaking for my other subcommittee member, I'm just speaking from my perspective. That was my rationale for this, was to create the framework that allowed more flexibility, and that's part of how that came to be.
[02:13:34] Council Member: That's good analysis. I like it, and I do trust the findings or opinions that the subcommittee members brought forth. Just two questions. The Library Advisory Committee, you're moving from monthly to quarterly. Was that taking into account at all the creation of a foundation or any input there, or was there any assumptions given to whether or not a library foundation was going to form?
[02:14:03] Council Member (Ad Hoc): I can say I did not consider that because it's irrelevant to how often they actually meet.
[02:14:08] Council Member: Okay, perfect. And secondly, the Cultural Resources and Preservation Committee going from monthly to every other month. I know right now we're doing an inventory of historical homes and properties within the city, and it would seem to me like their workload may increase. So is there any consideration given for that, or is that in other words, they will become more important moving forward, just to watch?
[02:14:33] Council Member (Ad Hoc): And I think that's one reason why, despite my advocacy, they're meeting every other month instead of a minimum of semiannually, because again, this is irrelevant to how often they actually meet.
[02:14:44] Council Member: Understood. That was a good explanation. But I just want to—that's the minimum, so if there is need, then there will be more. Perfect, that's all I have. Thank you.
[02:14:53] Mayor: Any other comments?
[02:14:55] Council Member: My question at that point would...
[02:15:00] Councilmember: ...be when we're looking at the minimum number of meetings that we're having, would that be the opportunity to say we have maybe how many goals on average did each committee set?
[02:15:15] Staff: It varies. Some, some committees, as Councilmember Petto says, don't have the goals because their, their workload is ongoing. Uh, with using your example of cultural resource preservation, we set four or five. They were set largely because, uh, to try to interweave them with other development, uh, projects. Uh, we initially, as you know, had 25 or 30 requests, and we whittled them down to four or five, which we had the Council, um, you know, confirm. Other committees, um, you know, we need, we would probably need to take through that same process. It'd be a good idea. It's a good practice to do that because I think the other part of this is making sure that those committees are advising you on the, on the assignments you're giving them, instead of generating ideas that we may not have the resources for and you may not have the interest in. And that's the other part of this conversation.
[02:16:10] Councilmember: My, the reason I was, I was asking about that is, well, first, I was under the assumption that every one of our, our committees and commissions had a, a, a plan, plan in place. And yes, of course, with planning, that's its own separate entity, and that there's a reason that in part of the Planning Commission has, is part of the succession line with the City Council. That's entirely different. Um, I think that with regards to some of these committees where the involvement, the passion, and dedication of their members are being completely set aside and, and reduced, I think we should look at, if you're going to have quarterly, let's look at those four items on your work plan. Why don't we as a city show you that we value what's going on? Here's what we're doing. Here's what we are doing to value you and keep you engaged. As Ms. Blackburn said, she's a, she's an industry expert. She may even be more aware of some of the ongoing changes, just like each one of us here, we've got our own passions there. Said, I've, you know, asked staff, 'Hey, have you heard about this assembly bill that's pending? Have you heard about this grant?' And I'm sure all of us have done the same. The reason that I have been able to keep pushing SCE for transparency is because of Mr. Donald Ziggler. Meetings with him and his passion have made me a better council member because of his knowledge and his passion. And I, again, think that we need to do more to ensure that we don't lose the engagement. Absolutely understand if the meeting gets cancelled, sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. But if we tell people, 'This is how we're honoring your work,' if we put that in writing, not just 'This is the agenda,' but following up on your task objectives, I think that works both ways because then we're not allowing too many opportunities for random ideas that may or may not work, that aren't suitable for the desert, that aren't suitable for the century, which, whatever the case may be. I just think that moving things like homelessness as a minimum of semiannually, I think that's problematic. I think that, uh, not having Public Safety meet every month, that is problematic. Saying that we increase the number of, of, of deputies, that doesn't change the need to hear from the community. How many of us knew that there were a home invasion robbery recently in North Palm Desert? One of our local business owners, they entered their home. This was home invasion. If the people that are there aren't telling us, if we aren't hearing in different areas, because not everyone feels comfortable calling law enforcement. Maybe you don't want to feel like you're ratting on your neighbor. Maybe you don't want to see a vehicle in front of your house or on your block at all. This is our, our committee members are the liaisons, and we, we have to find ways of also saying, 'You gave us more money, we need to have you at the table to be sure that you know what we're doing with the money,' if we raised taxes because of Public Safety. I have developed a good relationship with our wonderful lieutenant in particular because of, um, an ongoing issue with one particular, um, transient in Palm Desert. I happen to have the resources to have that connection. And when people ask me, 'What are you doing about the homeless population?' I can say, 'We just had our most recent meeting, and the chair, Dr. Diane...'
[02:20:02] Speaker 1: Vines, who's part of the Cal State San Bernardino nursing program's backpack medicine, she just shared that they have seen an increase here, a decrease there. They have shifted where they're going to have their food outreach program from here to there and have ongoing information. That one's essential. People need to feel safe. If anything, if we don't change any other ones, I think at minimum we need to keep Public Safety monthly. If there's the potential to consider absorbing homelessness as a subcommittee of Public Safety, I think that would be valid. But I think it would be an error in judgment and an error in morale to the community to say, 'Oh, we're only going to meet a minimum of twice a year.' I think it's too important, and I think that Public Safety should stay monthly, homelessness should be included into Public Safety, and that Civic Engagement should at least maintain and be quarterly. If we aren't getting the engagement from and to serve on the committees, then we have maybe not done enough. I don't think we've given enough time for Civic Engagement to really find its feet and find how it's going to be instead of shutting it down. So those are my lengthy comments and substantial concerns on transparency. Thank you.
[02:21:29] Mayor: Thank you. Are there any other comments?
[02:21:33] Speaker 2: I would make one suggestion. This is something that only occurred to me after thinking through some of the public comment we received. The way it's written in terms of 'as needed' is determined by the council or staff, and that's in Chapter 26.640 as it relates to the Resource Preservation Enhancement Committee and all the other, I presume, read similarly. I would be open to seeing what my colleagues think about adding a third option to call a meeting that includes a certain number of committee members, so that if the committee members are feeling like the council or the staff is ignoring some specific issue they think is important, then maybe a minimum of two, but less than a quorum, would be able to ask staff to call a meeting.
[02:22:35] Staff: Madame Mayor, in the municipal code, there is a section on special meetings, and it does state that special meetings may be called by the chairperson or a majority of the appointed body, as long as there's 24 hours' notice, which is basically a revision of the Brown Act. Problem solved.
[02:22:54] Speaker 2: That brings up an interesting point. 24 hours' notice, that's for a special meeting. In our practice, we almost always give a full week's notice.
[02:23:04] Staff: This is a bare minimum based on the Brown Act that gives staff enough time to create an agenda, notice the agenda. This is basically just a copy and paste from the Brown Act into our municipal code, and that's what creates the minimum 24-hour notice for a special meeting. But again, if we were to call a special meeting, we would at least try to give it a 72 hours' notice, consistent with a regular meeting. That's conformity. That's not the way we want to do business. 24 hours would be conforming to the Brown Act, but we would give much more. We go above it.
[02:23:31] Speaker 2: Great, thanks.
[02:23:36] Mayor: Are there any other comments or questions? I'll entertain a motion.
[02:23:43] Speaker 3: I will move to approve.
[02:23:44] Speaker 1: I would like to add a substitute motion that we have the Public Safety Committee meeting monthly and having the Homelessness Task Force become a subcommittee that would then meet as an ongoing... but I think that those issues are too important to leave to such scant meeting...
[02:24:09] Staff: ...but you can entertain a substitute motion if she's proposing a second. So unless there's a second, it dies.
[02:24:15] Speaker 2: Now, I am very tempted to support that because I see something there, except I do think the issues are a little disconnected. So at this point, I don't want to connect homelessness and Public Safety. But again, I think we're setting a minimum here, so I'm going to support the motion.
[02:24:37] Mayor: You are supporting... No, no, I'm sorry, I'm...
[02:24:39] Speaker 1: You're not... so you're not seconding?
[02:24:41] Speaker 2: I'm not seconding.
[02:24:43] Speaker 3: Well, there was a motion. I'm not supporting the other motion.
[02:24:49] Mayor: So the second motion dies due to lack of a second. So we vote on the initial motion. And does the motion include to add additional language to meet as requested?
[02:25:00] Mayor: Or as initiated by—no, that's in the municipal code. That's already in the municipal code. Motion passes 4 to 1.
[02:25:20] City Clerk: And I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, for the record, because of those who may not be able to see the board, it is 4 to 1 with Councilmember Pia voting no.
[02:25:28] Mayor: Thank you. Our next item, I will recuse myself because it would be a conflict with my husband's business, and I will turn it over to the Mayor Pro Tem.
[02:25:48] Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, thank you, Jim. All righty, next up we have economic subsidy report and agreement for disbursement and use of funds between the City and Fine Quality Foods, Inc., DBA Papa Dan's Pizza and Pasta, California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption. So I would like to ask for a staff report, please.
[02:26:22] Staff: Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem Trouy, members of the City Council. I'll provide a brief report and give you a background. Starting off, City Council previously approved an Economic Development incentive program known as Invest Palm Desert. As we discussed earlier, the goals of the Invest Palm Desert program is to really facilitate the growth of economic base, retain and expand businesses, create jobs, and support services for our businesses and residents. Next slide.
[02:27:01] Staff: In April of 2024, Papa Dan's restaurant, which is located on Monterey and Country Club, suffered a complete fire that ruined Papa Dan's tenant space and four or five other spaces. And over the last year, we've been working with the owner to come up with a location plan. They found a space within that same Bristol Farms Monterey shopping center, and they proposed and requested a subsidy from the City in terms of the Invest Palm Desert program. They've developed a budget which includes $1.4 million in basically of tenant improvements, of furniture, fixtures, and equipment, including some of the other items you see on the table, including insurance and some other equity investments that are being proposed. Next slide.
[02:28:00] Staff: This particular agreement basically has some terms and conditions. There's a minimum of $1.2 million investment in the restaurant to be relocated to the new site. The restaurant must use Palm Desert local contractors and businesses to support the investment. There is a five-year operation covenant that they must maintain operations for that period of time. And if they choose to stop operations after five years, they would have to repay one-half of that $200,000 investment that's being requested. And the obligations are transferable to any new owners under this contract at this location. Next slide.
[02:28:50] Staff: So in terms of financial impact, you know, Papa Dan's has been in the City for over 40 years. And if you look at a five-year period, they provide about $100,000 in tax revenues to the City. Of course, this will support 45 jobs coming back to the market in Palm Desert. And basically over the term of 10 years, the City would recoup its $200,000 investment if it remains in operation. We are recommending approval of the subsidy consistent with the guidelines of the Invest Palm Desert program. There are two resolutions that are being considered: one of which is the subsidy report, one of which is the agreement for the subsidy. And also there is a finding under CEQA guidelines that this project is exempt from those requirements. Staff is recommending that you open the public hearing, take public testimony, and then make a decision in terms of the agreement. That concludes my report.
[02:29:57] Mayor Pro Tem: Any questions of staff from my colleagues?
[02:29:59] Councilmember: No.
[02:30:00] Council Member: Wow, I do have a quick question. How much money do we have in this particular fund, and how often is it used? Two questions, sorry, two questions.
[02:30:13] Staff: I believe we have $600,000, that's what I was informed earlier. And we have used this fund also to provide other incentives, like we have other programs like the bike rack program that we provide for businesses. We provide a security camera program for new businesses or existing businesses. There's other incentives for like improvements and enhancements for businesses that are currently in Palm Desert. So we've probably, I believe, used maybe $50,000 on other incentives, and this would be the $200,000 for this.
[02:30:50] Council Member: Excellent, okay. And I would just like to add that, you know, it was a homeless person that caused the fire that burned down the building, and that... that's correct, am I correct in that?
[02:31:05] Staff: Yes.
[02:31:06] Council Member: Yes, and I believe Papa Dan's is a wonderful restaurant and a wonderful business, and the people in the community really like Papa Dan's. And it seems like a good use of our funds and the job creation. I just want to double... what was the amount that you said is available in the fund at this moment?
[02:31:31] Staff: So the account in specific actually has a little more, like $500,000 right now. We've done a couple transfers this year, but...
[02:31:40] Council Member: 500... One of the other things to add for context, this is also where we were able to have the security camera rebate program. Was this also from the same fund?
[02:31:50] Staff: That's correct.
[02:31:52] Council Member: Wonderful. I think this is an excellent use of funds. As mentioned, they are a community staple, they're a landmark in their own right. When I spoke with the owner, you know, he said everything can be replaced, they're happy to be in the same shopping center, but it's the little things like their own family pictures and their own family mementos from all of the years that were there that can't be recovered, of what made it such a home. You felt like you were eating in someone's kitchen, not just a restaurant. And, I mean, even my dad worked there when I was in high school. This is a part of the fiber of the community, and this is a very worthwhile use of these funds. And as mentioned, I mean, if we're going to make our money back in 10 years, I think this is going to be a generational business that's going to stay there. So I would motion to approve.
[02:32:45] Mayor Pro Tem: Well, at this time, I have to... I'm going to open up the public hearing, and the public is invited to speak on this public hearing for up to three minutes. Mr. City Clerk, do we have anybody online?
[02:32:59] City Clerk: No public comment online.
[02:33:01] Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Well, I have one blue speaker card here from Mr. Ira Mosley. We'd love to hear from you.
[02:33:11] Ira Mosley: To all of you, my name is Ira Mosley. I'm the owner of Papa Dan's, and I came here today mainly for one purpose: to say thank you to the Council and to the City of Palm Desert for everything that you have done for us since this fire. Between the planning, the building, everything has gone through so smoothly. It would have been a worse hassle without your help, and I just wanted you to know that people come here and complain about things; I'm coming here to say thank you.
[02:33:46] Mayor Pro Tem: Okay, excellent. Thank you very much. There being no other speakers, I am now going to close the public hearing. And I do have one quick comment to make, and you guys are welcome to chime in as well. But understanding Mr. Mosley's story, you know, he was awarded $650,000 in an insurance payment. He could have walked away, decided to ride off in the sunset and go enjoy his retirement. But I applaud you, and I'm so grateful that you decided to take the risk again, reopen, and invest in our community. And yeah, I agree with my colleagues, Papa Dan's is a staple of our city. So thank you so much for doing that, Mr. Mosley. Any other comments? All right, wish you many, many more years of success. Is there a motion?
[02:34:35] Council Member: A motion.
[02:34:36] Council Member: I'll make a second.
[02:34:44] Mayor Pro Tem: Motion passes four to zero, with Mayor Harnik recused. All right, Mr. City Clerk, are there any other informational items of this evening?
[02:34:54] City Clerk: I believe the Mayor is going to return.
[02:34:56] Mayor Pro Tem: Oh, beg your pardon, is she coming back? Let me... Done, yes, we're...
[02:35:01] Speaker 1: Done.
[02:35:09] Speaker 2: Yes, I would like to do, if my colleagues will indulge me, is tonight adjourn this meeting in the name of a friend of our community and of America, and that's Stu Spencer. Most of us knew him. We can thank him for Sandra Day O'Connor, his influence on Ronald Reagan—that's why we had Ronald Reagan. He passed away January 12th. He would have been 98 on February 20th. He was a good man. He made a difference, and whether he was working with Cesar Chavez or Ronald Reagan, he was working for America and he was working for the people. So I'd like to adjourn in his name, please.
[02:35:55] Speaker 3: That's a very nice adjournment. I agree. This meeting stands adjourned.