Palm Desert City Council - Regular Meeting, May 22, 2025

Transcript text

AI transcript text.

[00:03:46] Mayor Harnick: Good afternoon. We'll now reconvene the joint meeting of the Palm Desert City Council, Successor Agency to the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency, Palm Desert Housing Authority, and the Palm Desert Board of Library Trustees for Thursday, May 22nd, 2025. May we have a roll call, please?
[00:04:07] City Clerk: Councilmember Nandi, here. Councilmember Pedto, here. Councilmember Kintania, present. Mayor Pro Tem Trouy, here. Mayor Harnick, here.
[00:04:18] City Clerk: And Madam Mayor, if I could just make a couple of quick announcements, please. One is for the public to know that Item 15B, the public hearing related to the short-term rental ordinance, is being deleted from the agenda. And also, some materials were distributed to the City Council related to the presentation on the animal services, and those materials will be posted to the city's website tomorrow morning. Thank you so much.
[00:04:44] Mayor Harnick: Okay, we'll now have the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand if you're able. Councilmember Kingia will lead us in that.
[00:05:14] Speaker: We will have inspiration from Council Member Prader, please.
[00:05:16] Council Member Prader: In ancient China, a young king eager to prove himself sought the wisdom of Confucius. With grand plans for grand reforms, new armies, higher taxes, and vast trade routes, he asked, 'How may I make my kingdom great?' Confucius paused. And then he said, 'First, observe your people. What troubles them? Define the problem clearly or your plans will miss the mark like an arrow shot in the dark.' The king, humbled, walked among his villagers. He saw hunger in the fields, not a need for war. He heard whispers of unrest, not calls for trade. With the problem clear, poverty sapping his people's strength, he focused his efforts, distributing grain and easing taxes. The kingdom flourished, not through grand schemes, but through clarity and care. This is the lesson. Great leaders don't rush to act. They observe, understand, and aim true. Define the problem and the path of success reveals itself. Thank you.
[00:06:37] Speaker: After the tragedy in Palm Springs, we're all aware of it and it took away that little piece of, 'well, it won't happen here,' and it did. And the city of Palm Desert issued the following statement, and I will read it so that I don't—it's excellent, meaningful, and I don't want to miss any word of it. 'The city of Palm Desert stands with our neighbors in Palm Springs following Saturday's tragic explosion. As a community, we reject violence in all its forms and remain steadfast in our commitment to safety, dignity, and respect for all. We're deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers and emergency personnel who responded with such professionalism and care. Their example reminds us that we find our greatest strength in compassion, unity, and resilience.' It does give us all something to think about, and I know something we'd rather not think about, but it has become a reality so close to home. And we will keep moving through our agenda. If we can have a report from closed session.
[00:07:51] Speaker: Thank you, Mayor. There's no reportable action taken in closed session this afternoon.
[00:07:57] Speaker: Thank you. We'll go to awards, presentations, and appointments. And so I'll meet somebody who will be receiving the building and safety month proclamation at the dais.
[00:08:32] Speaker: Good. And we have a long... Are you ready? Okay, ready.
[00:08:40] Speaker: Whereas the city of Palm Desert is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety and essential roles our homes, buildings, and infrastructure play both in everyday life and when disasters strike. And whereas our confidence in the resilience of these buildings that make up our community is achieved through the devotion of vigilant guardians, building and safety officials, fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, tradespeople, design professionals, laborers, and others in the construction industry who work year-round to ensure the safe construction of buildings. And whereas these guardians are dedicated members of the International Code Council, a nonprofit organization that brings together local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal officials who are experts in the built environment to create and implement the highest quality codes and standards to protect us in the buildings where we live, learn, work, and play. And whereas these modern building codes and standards include safeguards to protect the public from hazards such as hurricanes, snowstorms,
[00:10:00] Transcript gap: Gemini did not return transcript text for this 00:10:00-00:15:00 clip. Use the official video for this interval.
[00:15:00] Mayor Jan Harnik: ...public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders and children in the city of Palm Desert to gain knowledge of and maintain an ongoing interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the year 2025 marks the 65th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association/Canadian Public Works Association. Now therefore, I, Jan Harnik, mayor of the city of Palm Desert, along with the entire city council, do hereby designate the week of May 18th through the 24th, 2025 as National Public Works Week and urge our citizens to join with representatives of the American Public Works Association and government agencies in activities, events, and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and staff, and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health, safety, and enhancing quality of life for all. So, thank you all.
[00:16:25] Mayor Jan Harnik: Can we get it?
[00:16:30] Public Works Representative: Yes. On behalf of the street and the traffic maintenance division within the public works division, we just like to say thank you for the recognition and that we do strive on a daily basis to deliver the very highest services possible for the city and its residents. Thank you.
[00:16:53] Mayor Jan Harnik: So these are the ladies and gentlemen. We've seen two groups that are behind the scenes, but they make the difference and they keep us safe and we never get to really see them in action so much and we don't really recognize them very much, but they certainly make the difference in our lives every day. So, thank you.
[00:18:14] Mayor Jan Harnik: Thank you. Thank you all so much. And you really did get to see some of the people who really do so much for the city and so often don't get the recognition for making our lives as good as they do. So, we have one more presentation and the city clerk mentioned there is some information that we all have up here that was passed out earlier and will be available on our website by tomorrow morning, maybe afternoon. So, we'll have a presentation regarding the Riverside County Animal Services Update by Ty Peabody.
[00:19:02] Ty Peabody: I was a little nervous when I saw the podium turned the other way. I figured my back is going to be to you and that wouldn't be a good thing. What'll happen? I'm Ty Peabody. I'm involved with the ad hoc committee for the Riverside animal shelters. In January, the supervisor put together an ad hoc committee made up of Riverside County Executives, the animal services group, the consultants, which I'll speak about, and myself and Kim Hardy, who's here in the audience. As you're well aware, there have been a lot of issues related to protection of animals, euthanasia of animals, and everything associated with that. Right now, there are over 1,000 dogs in four facilities, which means there's three to four dogs in each kennel, which is not a good...
[00:20:00] Speaker: Overcrowding is a major problem. Understaffing has also been a problem. There just haven't been enough people to process adoptions through all four facilities. The other problem is that there has been no public relations, no marketing. And to get the animals out of the facilities, you've got to promote them online through social media, through walking dogs through streets around this area. And if you don't, we can't get the animals out.
[00:20:33] Speaker: We can solve a lot of problems, and you'll see things in this report. The biggest problem we have, though, is the public. We need the public's help. The problems that we have are hoarding, illegal breeding, bringing animals back. COVID was a good thing and a bad thing. After COVID, the kennels started to fill up, and that is a major problem.
[00:21:00] Speaker: As you go through this, what I try to do is give you an outline of everything I'm going to say so that you would have it, and then all the materials that you could possibly want to look at at this point. I added one today that I think is critical. That was an article today in the Los Angeles Times. And the article basically says there are 344,000 shelter animals in California that do not have adequate access to veterinarians. You should read this. I particularly marked it in black for you to see it. It's quite alarming when you get right down to it.
[00:21:42] Speaker: But what have we done the last five months? And the supervisor said, 'Put this together.' And there's been a lot of stuff said in the news, on the radio, that is totally misleading, many things inaccurate, and I'll point those out to you. What we did, and we finished, we determined the staffing needs of the facilities. We evaluated and made a recommendation on a budget.
[00:22:12] Speaker: We hired now a marketing director who came from Dallas, whose husband happens to work in Cathedral City. She has run, from the marketing standpoint, the entire Dallas market. We also hired a marketing director who has 30 years of experience in this field, and one of her biggest jobs was she ran all of the shelters in New York City. You will find her very accessible. She's met with the haters, the lovers, all of them over the last month. It's amazing how many people she has met with. She's also been on TV discussing the issues.
[00:22:53] Speaker: Basically, I'm just going to go through the progress that we've accomplished so far. And let me assure you, there's still a lot to be done, but that's where we need the help of the councils and the public to help us get these animals out of these facilities. And I encourage you to go to the facilities and see them. There isn't a person that works there that doesn't care about animals. There is nobody that I know that wants to euthanize animals. Nobody. But unfortunately, because of the overcrowding, the euthanasia involves temperament, it involves health, and it involves overcapacity. And overcapacity is the problem.
[00:23:39] Speaker: So what we've done besides hiring those people, we have changed the hours of operation. It turns out that most people want to adopt animals from 5:00 to 8:00 at night. We never were open those hours. That's been changed. We are in the process, waiting for the final approval from the supervisors, to hire 39 employees. All of those employees will be centered at the four facilities. They are not going into administration. That's critically important. Most of them will be there to help get the animals out, cut the time. I've seen it take as long as two or three hours for a person to adopt a dog because there wasn't enough staff in the facilities. That is really critical.
[00:24:30] Speaker: The outside consultants—and this is, I'm sort of tired of talking about it, but it's just a fact—the outside consultants, there are actually ten of them involved in this thing, all are experts in different fields of animals, which includes marketing, it includes an analytical analysis. One of the problems we had when we got involved was a lot of the documentation was not kept up to date. And by law, you have to process...
[00:25:00] Speaker: the animal. You have to document the animal through the entire process. That's veterinary care. That's attempted adoptions. It's fostering. It's volunteer. That's required by law. It took them almost 8 months to now be totally up to date on processing the animals. That's critical.
[00:25:22] Speaker: The contract, so that we clearly understand the contract, is between the county and the consultants. People are saying, 'Well, you just fire the consultants and we can take the money and put it into animal services.' That is far from the truth. The fact of the matter is it is not a contract between animal services and the consultants.
[00:25:46] Speaker: I've spent a lot of time with these consultants. They know more about animals. They've done more about recommendations and changes. And it's unfortunate that we got that far behind, but they've been critical.
[00:25:59] Speaker: The other part of that contract, it has a 30-day cancellation. So, at any time, the board of supervisors could stop the contract. The question is when is the appropriate time? It's a three-year contract and it's broken down into three components. So that when you look at 10 people, it's really $70,000 a person. It's not 2.5 million. It's not 700,000. All of those things are not true. And because that's what people seem to be wanting to focus on.
[00:26:33] Speaker: The other things that we've done, they're in the budget process now. We've asked for $4.6 million and I believe we're going to get it. I may be wrong, but I think between that and the 39 employees, we're going to get them. That will be a huge, huge help.
[00:26:51] Speaker: We also have been working with Desert Arc and we're in contract negotiations with Desert Arc to have their employees come and work at the facility. That will be an immense thing for the animals. They will be walked, facilities will be always clean, and they will get attention that, excuse me, they're not able to get under the present circumstances. That also is important.
[00:27:16] Speaker: Kim Hardy, who's back here, had a dinner for 34 vets in this valley. There are approximately, and Kim can clarify it, but there's over 50. One of the biggest problems is the cost of veterinary services. And the thing that she did is she met with them and asked them as part of a civic duty to offer to do a certain amount of spay and neutering a month, and most of them have agreed to do that. I won't go into all the details because she hasn't ironed all that out yet, but that's very, very, very important.
[00:27:56] Speaker: The other thing we did, they hired a new head vet and another vet. So that gives us four, and they're out right now searching for two more. Just so you know, a vet today, first of all, there aren't many of them. A vet today gets between $250,000 and $300,000. So that is an issue, but that's been approved. So having four going to six has all been approved.
[00:28:24] Speaker: From the marketing standpoint, we're in the process of developing social media with the new marketing director from Talis.
[00:28:35] Speaker: The last thing you notice that the supervisor on Tuesday had a resolution for no kill in Riverside County. I want to explain that because it's important. Just saying no kill isn't what it is. What it is, that does not include animals that are sick. It does not include animals with temperament. What it does include is it's a 90% goal. I'm not going to sit here and tell you today that this is going to happen tomorrow. It's not. It may take us a year to get to that and that would be a major accomplishment.
[00:29:09] Speaker: But again, like I said to you, it's a public problem. We need the help from the public. We need the help from the different cities. Whether it's setting up spay and neutering in your city, whether it's having adoption facilities here to get more animals out. Rancho Mirage did it and they were able to get rid of 50 dogs, which is astounding.
[00:29:35] Speaker: And the last thing is you're going to be given a contract from the city. I'm not going to get into details because I'm not an expert in it. But what I will say is that Michael Fipps Russell, who runs Loving All Animals, is prepared to meet with your council and go through the details because what you really do is you select the menu of items that you want to have in your city. You could say no kill. The problem is you'll pay for
[00:30:01] Speaker: So, it's very important that you understand what the contract says. Unfortunately, my 10 years on the council, we never saw the contract. It was basically given to the city manager and then it was put on consent. As we all know, sometimes we don't read all the consents and we don't question many instances of consent. So, I urge you as a group to get involved in the contract and get it the way you want it, and the city will execute whatever you ask for. That's all I got. If you want to ask Kim any questions, she is probably the foremost spay and neutering taking care of animals in this valley and has done one incredible job and has been an asset to the Adart committee. Thank you.
[00:30:51] Mayor: Thank you. Thank you very much. And anyone who wants to learn more about it, again, all this information that we were given will be on the Palm Desert City website tomorrow.
[00:31:06] City Manager: And Madame Mayor, just for clarification, when I refer to the city website, if you go to the city council meeting agenda, and under presentations is listed the animal services update, that's where it will be posted.
[00:31:18] Mayor: Thank you very much for the clarification.
[00:31:23] Mayor: Okay. Thank you. I know there's a lot that's gone on about this and it's nice to get some information and some direction. So, thank you very much. Okay, we'll move to city manager comments.
[00:31:35] City Manager: Mayor, I'll invite up Lieutenant Boris for a brief update.
[00:31:41] Lieutenant Boris: Thank you.
[00:31:47] Lieutenant Boris: Good afternoon. Well, I want to echo the mayor's comments this afternoon that yes, this incident on Saturday did really hit close to home. Several of our staff members along with Cal Fire responded and were there for a duration of a long time and to help assist with the aftermath of the incident. But I want to also touch on, excuse me, go back to my notes on this one, that we're assuring the public that every measure is being taken to thoroughly investigate this incident and ensure public safety moving forward. Law enforcement partners are committed to safety, security of our residents along with our visitors. With this in mind, I want to share our approach to counterterrorism and public safety, which involves multiple coordinated layers of intelligence and security. To begin with, the first step is our first responders. Our deputies, fire, and EMS personnel are often first to respond to any suspicious incident. They're trained to secure the scene, protect the public, and begin initial assessments. That is crucial for further investigation, and oftentimes they're the ones that report odd behaviors or odd things that no one ever thinks is an issue. Secondly are our terrorism liaison officers. We have deputies and investigators at each station that are trained, we call them TLOs, that are trained and they work as a bridge between frontline responders and intelligence units. TLOs are embedded with local agencies and trained to recognize indicators of terrorism, report suspicious activities, and coordinate with regional intelligence centers. Which leads me to the next one: fusion centers. Regional fusion centers collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence from a variety of sources. They serve as a central hub for connecting local observations with a broader national trend and threats, ensuring that no sign goes unnoticed. And lastly is obviously, you've seen the FBI on the news a lot lately and they're releasing information daily, and eventually they'll receive an after-action report. But that leads us to our Joint Terrorism Task Force, what we call JTTF, which is led by the FBI and composed of federal, state, and local partners which take the lead investigating acts of terrorism. We have department members that are responsible and part of their duties, or actually their full duties are to be on the JTTF task force. TLOs and fusion centers escalate things where there's a credible threat and/or an incident involving terrorism, and they bring advanced investigative resources and interagency coordination to bear on complex terrorism cases. This multi-tiered framework ensures that suspicious activities are not only addressed quickly at the local level, but also integrated into a national system of intelligence and response. These partnerships are essential in both preventing incidents such as Saturday and responding effectively when they occur. The biggest thing is we encourage the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious behavior to local authorities or through the see, say, see...
[00:35:00] Lieutenant: ...something, 'See Something, Say Something' campaign. That's a very important thing. I've always stressed that, and especially in these instances. Please—I mean, we always think, don't think, 'I don't want to waste our time.' I talked to one of our TLOs today, and they have this saying: 'Please do waste our time, because you just never know.' And we understand the fear and uncertainty such an event can bring, but we want to make sure safety is our highest priority. And I had to ask Anthony to bring up the JREC website. As you go down further, there's a little section at the very bottom, and you can please get more information, but there's an area for law enforcement to report issues and for the public to report issues. And when that's done, this process starts. So, I just want to give you an overview of what's out there, what's being done. And I know there's a lot of questions still to be asked and answered. And like I said before, the FBI will give an overview update about the entire investigation, but that's going to take some time. So, thank you. Do you have any questions?
[00:36:14] Mayor: I do have one, and my colleagues may also. Um, I'm wondering, thank you for this website. Is there a way that we can put a link on our website to this? Is that appropriate?
[00:36:29] Lieutenant: We can do so.
[00:36:30] Mayor: Okay, to the public safety section of the website. And is there some way that, you know, other than this—and I see that this provides a lot of resources—is there another way if they wanted to get in touch with local, or is it more efficient just to...
[00:36:50] Lieutenant: ...they can do both. So eventually, if we get something, if we get a tip that's reported to us, we're going to go to the next step. We're going to get our TLOs involved, and then we kind of, you know, start the process. So if they don't want to report it to the website, they can always report to us.
[00:37:06] Mayor: Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions for the lieutenant? Thank you. Thank you very much.
[00:37:17] Mayor: Okay, we will move to Council Member reports and requests for action. Council Member Kintania.
[00:37:29] Council Member Kintania: Thank you, Madame Mayor. First, I want to remind everyone that May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and I think that it's very timely as we talk about how the individual that was responsible for this bombing has been tied to having some mental health challenges, and how it's okay to not be okay. There are places that you can get free help. You can do it on an app so you can have privacy. There are resources available, and just to keep that in mind throughout the year. Recently, I attended the McCallum Education Policy Committee. They again sent all of their continued gratitude to the City of Palm Desert for sponsoring Open Call. They will be holding it in May again next year, which is a change from April in previous years. I know that Council Member—excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem Trouy also attended the animal hospital opening. I don't know if you want to touch on that. That was amazing to hear about the 24-hour services. And then ICSC this weekend, Council Member Peto, Mayor Pro Tem Trouy, and I attended a conference that was very, very productive and gives me some hope about exciting offerings that we'll have in the desert very soon. It's International Tea Day, whether you're a coffee person or a tea person. The library, we just saw that they have their new summer programming schedule. There's a very robust list of activities. So while you go and use it as a cooling center, there's adult programming, teens, there's an excellent summer reading program that has various raffle items, I think, including maybe even a laptop or an iPad, I don't remember. So very worthwhile to look into it. And I'm glad that we had the opportunity to talk about animal services and encouraging people to go and adopt. Right now, there are 44 animals on the red list, meaning that they have 72 hours to go. Not sure when they were posted, so we don't really know how long that is. And on the 15th, there was 57. So thankfully, it's going down. I'm happy to report that because of the efforts in the Coachella Valley, right now there are zero on the red list in our local shelter, 25 in San Jacinto, and 19 in the West County. So if you want to go, you want to help support, you might have to drive a little bit, but you can help save animal lives. And that's it for me. Thank you.
[00:39:56] Mayor: Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Nandi, I was just going to say to follow...
[00:40:01] Speaker: ...up with the terrorist bombing on Saturday because it was an act of terrorism. The insurance of many of the businesses, if not all, is not covered because there's a disclaimer that an act of terrorism negates the insurance. So, I know that the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce is holding a fundraiser on Saturday afternoon to help raise money. So, I just wanted to point that out.
[00:40:28] Mayor: Council member Praetto, please.
[00:40:32] Councilmember Praetto: I attended the CVAG homelessness committee this week and got an update on the homeless point-in-time count. Good news: the number of folks who are homeless and living on the streets is down, and the number of people living or who have been sheltered is up. So our valley-wide services are working, and overall throughout the desert, the homeless population on the street is down about 9%. So it's a testament to our joint collaboration. And the city of Desert Hot Springs had left the CVAG program, which is geared to helping those who are in the most need of intervention, and they are planning to come back and join the rest of us. So that's going to be coming up in the next fiscal year. So, a lot of good success there. And as Councilwoman Quintanilla mentioned, I was at ICSC, and I want to thank Martin and Amy, Stephanie, and the economic development crew for organizing a very well-prepared trip that was very productive. So I thank staff for that.
[00:41:37] Mayor: Mayor Pro Tem Trouy.
[00:41:40] Mayor Pro Tem Trouy: All right. Well, that's the problem with going almost last because I'm going to echo some of the things Joe and actually Karina mentioned is that ICSC was a really... it was a very productive and it just gives me a lot of optimism that there's retailers out there who are eager and want to come to our city. And I want to again give a big shout-out and thank you to Amy, Martin, and Stephanie for making it, and the Retail Coach set up some really, really good meetings that were efficient, and they really already handpicked some folks that I think it's going to bear fruit. That's, I guess, as far as I can go right now. Secondly, we were greeted by pamphlets in our offices today from the library about the summer programs. I want to again reiterate what Karina was mentioning, and to me, it just reiterates and reinforces that we made the right decision to pull out of the county system. We have a vibrant, thriving library now. The activity is way up, the foot traffic is way up, and there's no excuse for your kids to say they are bored this summer because there is no shortage of activities at the library. I mean, it's just... it's like chock-a-block. So, thank you, Gary, and the staff at the library for putting together a really vibrant program. Thank you.
[00:42:54] Speaker: Wait, your kids or your parents?
[00:42:56] Mayor Pro Tem Trouy: Anybody. Should not be grown-ups, too.
[00:42:58] Speaker: That's a fact.
[00:43:01] Mayor: Um, we had little time, so I've almost forgotten everything I've done, but this is the first year I didn't go to ICSC. So, thank you very much for doing it. It's a lot of walking, it's a lot of work, and it's always proven very fruitful for our city because our city is some place that people want to do business. We've created an environment through our teams within the walls of City Hall to create an environment where people do want to come and do business. So, great. Thank you for doing all that work. I know we'll see the benefits. Um, I spent a couple days working with the Southern California Association of Governments, working to... We know that there's a few chops out there for budgets in the appropriation commission, appropriation committees on a national level, and they do impact us. And there are many programs that are important to cities all over this nation that we really can't afford to lose. And so we did some work on that. And one of the things we did work on was some freight planning. And I know that sounds like nothing to Palm Desert. When we look at the I-10, we know it's something to Palm Desert. And in LA 28, which is our Olympics—we have the Paralympics, we have Olympics, we have a Super Bowl game, and we have FIFA—and along with all of those people who live in this area, the 19 million in this SCAG (Southern California Association of Governments) region, we will have 15 million unique visitors. So we saw what happened in COVID with our shelves being empty, the freight not moving. We need a freight plan. We have to make sure that freight... we still need food, we still need our Amazon packages, we still need that movement to occur from our ports, which...
[00:45:01] Councilmember: The San Pedro Bay ports bring in 40% of all the goods that America uses. So, we need a freight plan to make sure that that keeps moving through those games because after those games—and we want to make them big, beautiful games and make everybody proud—after those games leave the cities, we will have the benefit of those efficient and effective transportation infrastructure. So, we did a lot of work on that and more on terrorism. And last night I was in Washington, D.C. and drove past where that shooting was. And it is a tragedy, and it is hard-hitting, and it will leave you feeling unnerved for a long time. So, on that note, we all have a responsibility. As I always say with the sheriffs, this is a joint effort. It's the people working with the sheriffs, and we have our role to play too. So, let's make sure we play it well and we work with our sheriffs to keep the entire community safe.
[00:46:07] Councilmember: Madame Mayor, may I add one thing? Um, I was hoping Mayor Pro Tem Trouy would mention the animal hospital. It is 24 hours a day. So, that's something that people have desperately been asking for. 24 hours a day, all types of animals, reptiles, birds, and they'll take over from your vet if they are after hours and then they'll hand them right back. So, I just want to be sure to plug that. And they have an excellent workplace culture where they encourage their employees to have service hours. They pay them to do community work. So, I'm hoping that soon we'll be able to find ways to take advantage of that to help support pets in our city. So, I just wanted to be sure that everyone knew about that. Thank you.
[00:46:51] Mayor: Okay. We'll now move to non-agenda public comments. Are there any? Thank you. We'll go to the consent calendar.
[00:47:00] City Clerk: Sorry, Madame Mayor. If I could, 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 9 to raise your hand. And when called upon, press star 6 to unmute yourself. And there are no raised hands.
[00:47:19] Mayor: Thank you so much. And I've asked the City Clerk to jump right in there and help me. I'm a little tired, so I can use the help. So, thank you. Um, are there any items on the consent calendar that anyone would like to pull?
[00:47:34] Councilmember: Madame Mayor, I would like to pull 13 I.
[00:47:38] Mayor: 13 I.
[00:47:39] Councilmember: I would like to pull L as in Larry and N as in Nancy.
[00:47:44] Mayor: L and N.
[00:47:46] Staff: And Madame Mayor, staff would like to pull item 13P and 13Q for discussion.
[00:47:53] Mayor: Just became not the consent calendar.
[00:47:57] Councilmember: Madame Mayor, I have to correct. I meant item L, not I.
[00:48:01] Mayor: Okay, so we already have L pulled. So we have L, N, P, Q. Um, are there any other?
[00:48:09] Councilmember: For some reason, I have H circled and I don't remember why.
[00:48:16] Councilmember: Um, let's see if we have that. Oh, it was just a comment and just to say that I appreciate the matrix on the front page. It makes it very easy to understand what we're doing. So, we'll skip that.
[00:48:28] Mayor: Um, I would like to pull also L. So, we're good. Okay. So, would anyone like to move the balance?
[00:48:40] Councilmember: Moved.
[00:48:41] Councilmember: Second.
[00:48:42] Mayor: Please vote.
[00:48:49] City Clerk: Motion passes five to zero.
[00:48:52] Mayor: Okay, then we will take them one at a time. The first one being item L.
[00:49:05] Vanessa Maker: Uh, good afternoon. Afternoon, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Vanessa Maker, sorry, with the Economic Development Department. Uh, the item before you is the 2025 Commercial Brokers Report, and happy to answer any questions you might have.
[00:49:20] Mayor: Are there any questions?
[00:49:21] Councilmember: Madame Mayor, I don't have questions. I have a comment. Hold on.
[00:49:25] Mayor: Does anyone else have any questions?
[00:49:28] Councilmember: I do have a question, Madame Mayor. Um, my question is in regards to some of the challenges and risks that are listed. It says the city's facade enhancement program remains underutilized primarily because improvements to older buildings often trigger costly requirements. Um, what are some of those issues? It says, um, for example, ADA compliance, prevailing wage, and that would discourage participation. But in addition to that, are there—is it mostly like code issues or anything that we can do beyond that? And the other part that I had, um, was on—
[00:50:04] Councilmember: If we're looking to, um, to other cities or just to be creative in ways that we can help consolidate some of the space where there is the high demand for smaller spaces and the big buildings that no one's looking at, right? What, what are some of the creative outlooks or what are some of the best practices you're looking for?
[00:50:23] Mayor: Can I, I'm, I'm just going to, one second, and, and this may solve a lot, maybe not, but we'll, we'll continue as needed. What I was going to say, because I had this also circled, I think this deserves a study session.
[00:50:40] Councilmember: I agree.
[00:50:40] Mayor: Okay. So perhaps, uh, we can approve it as presented but have it come back as a study session because it really is important information in here and we need to take a look at it and dig a little deeper. Does everyone agree?
[00:50:54] Councilmember: Agree.
[00:50:54] Mayor: Can we, is that, would that satisfy your, your questions?
[00:50:58] Councilmember: Absolutely. Okay.
[00:51:02] Mayor: Is that something we can do?
[00:51:04] Staff: Yes. And we'll put it on the next meeting.
[00:51:06] Mayor: Great. Okay.
[00:51:06] Councilmember: No, I just want to commend staff because lots of good stuff to investigate.
[00:51:11] Mayor: Yeah, I, I think this is a good conversation to have because especially on the heels of ICSC. So great. Okay, terrific. Then next. Thank you, Miss Maker. Uh, is N. So that would be, and yes, N like a Nancy, award contract number C442000D to American Landscape Inc. of Canoga Park, California for the Mountain View Golf Course Turf Reduction Project, Project number MLS 00005. Do I have that right? Is that what you, you wanted, correct?
[00:51:52] Councilmember: Uh, my question is in regards to, uh, page three of seven of the report or for our packets page 433 says according to the approved desert surf conditions of approval and mitigated mitigation measures, the, um, developer must reimburse the city for a portion of the turf removal cost for both the golf courses, um, before the certificate of occupancy can be issued. What is the portion? Is that a percentage? Is that a dollar amount? How much are we going to recover from that?
[00:52:28] Staff: It is in the report. If you allow me just a moment, I can...
[00:52:41] Councilmember: Oh, there I see it. I guess I overlooked that. Okay. Uh, $675,321.40. Thank you.
[00:52:53] Mayor: Okay. Uh, and what I'm trying to do is hopefully we can, we can take all four of these and move them at once. And if we're not able to, then we won't. But let's see if we can. Uh, okay. The next one is P, award construction contract to Vance Corporation for the El Paseo Street Rehabilitation Project. Project number CST 00000024, California Environmental Quality Act, parenthetically CEQA determination.
[00:53:22] Ryan Gayler: Good evening, uh, Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm Ryan Gayler with Capital Projects. Uh, the item before you is for the award of the El Paseo Street rehab project. Um, this project is going to fully repair the asphalt from Highway 74 east to Highway 111, um, as well as upgrading two of the existing midblock crossings and adding three new midblock crossings for pedestrian safety. Um, the construction of these improvements will be disruptive and it's going to require traffic to be routed onto the opposite side of the street, uh, which will eliminate the on-street parking adjacent to the work zone. Uh, the project is scheduled to begin mid-June and the completion will be around the end of September. Um, the public affairs team has done an excellent job of spreading the word to the businesses along El Paseo. Um, they've visited the dining deck operators to ensure that they're prepared to have the dining decks, uh, removed before the project starts. Um, they've done, uh, door-to-door outreach for about half the street and they're, they're continuing in that effort to make sure that, uh, the word gets out. Uh, this project has been presented to the board of the El Paseo Parking Business Improvement District twice. Um, it's been presented to the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, and at several Coffee with the Mayor events. Um, during construction, outreach is going to, um, include distribution of material from FG Creative to the businesses, uh, both in print and digitally.
[00:55:00] Staff Member: The public affairs team is also going to continue going door-to-door throughout the project to ensure that they stay in touch with businesses and address any concerns that may come up with the project. We'll have project signage on A-frames that'll be set up along the corridor with QR codes so people can—it'll link people to the project site on the Engage page. Do you have any questions about the project? Are there any questions?
[00:55:34] Council Member: I just hope it doesn't get delayed.
[00:55:35] Staff Member: Yes.
[00:55:36] Council Member: Actually, one question. So, the City is responsible for the cost of removal of the dining decks?
[00:55:46] Staff Member: No, the dining deck operators are removing them themselves. What I did was I had an alternate bid item in case they failed to remove them, my contractor could do it.
[00:55:57] Council Member: Got it. Thank you.
[00:55:59] Council Member: And I think we had a study session too, didn't we, on the cost to the restaurant owners, so they're all aware of the cost?
[00:56:06] Staff Member: Yeah. Yes.
[00:56:07] Mayor: Any comments?
[00:56:09] Council Member: No. I never want to miss a chance to say this is such a perfect example of people's sometimes resistance to change. We first put those raised crosswalks and we got complaint after complaint after complaint and every reason why it was bad, and in about six months, ten months, it was, 'We want more of them. It's safer. It slows people down. We like them.' But it's just that, you know, it takes a while to evolve to any change, and we watched our community do it, and it's a great illustration of how that works. So thank you for that. I know it'll make the street that much safer.
[00:56:54] Mayor: Okay. And now we'll go to Q. Award construction contract to—I never have known how to say this, but I've seen it on so many trucks. Is it Matich, Matich Corporation for the El Dorado Drive rehabilitation project? Project number CS200023.
[00:57:16] Ryan Lamb: Madam Mayor and fellow Council members, my name is Ryan Lamb, Capital Projects Department here at the City, and I'm here to discuss the award of contract to Matich Corporation for the El Dorado Rehabilitation Project. So, the project initially started as a repavement project on El Dorado Drive between Hovey Lane East and Country Club Drive. And the scope of work involves the complete repaving of the roadway as well as repairs and replacement of curbs and gutters and the ADA pedestrian ramps at various intersections along that stretch of road. Simultaneously, there's another project called Walk and Roll that is running simultaneously in development here with the City, and that involves some restriping to incorporate the addition or improvement of bike lanes and that pedestrian travel and bicycle travel throughout the city. So, because we are rehabilitating the El Dorado stretch, we are incorporating that stretch of the Walk and Roll aspect with the striping into this. That way we're not repaving it, striping it, and then in six months turning around and restriping it again. The restriping involves the bike lanes, which are currently at about seven feet wide, and the two travel lanes that are running east and west at about 12 feet and 15 feet wide. We'll restripe the bike lanes to be an eight-foot bike lane with a four-foot buffer, and each of the travel vehicle lanes will now be equivalent at 11 feet.
[00:58:54] Ryan Lamb: And the initial design that we had included what are called Sure Curb delineators. They're about two-foot tall white plastic cones that would go down the center of that buffer. That was a recommendation from our engineer as incorporated to improve safety along that stretch of road. They were not a requirement, but a recommendation to improve safety. So, as part of our community outreach, it was brought up as a specific topic for discussion with the community. For the community outreach, we sent out letters to a little over 2,500 households, to all the HOAs that are connected to El Dorado, and we held that community outreach meeting here at City Council chambers. Unfortunately, we only had two attendees, and we felt that was much too low to get adequate feedback from our residents. So, we worked with our community affairs team and we contacted the HOAs. We requested to present specifically to their HOAs, either to just their or we requested to...
[01:00:00] Ryan Lamb: ...present to their board as well as the residents. A couple of them only wanted their board to be present. The other couple said, 'Let's have everybody.' Ultimately, we presented to all four, being Sun Terrace, The Lakes, Indian Ridge, and Tierra Vista, to approximately about 150 different residents that were in attendance between the four of those. The primary concern that residents had, which about 20 or so, was the delineators, that they did not like them. They felt that they were aesthetically displeasing, and they were very vocal via email and phone calls, which we ensured them that we were assessing all the feedback, we were going to take what their opinions were. There was also a couple comments regarding the width of the lanes and opinions about speeding. Ultimately, there wasn't enough support for the delineators to offset the negative feeling towards them, and being that they were not a requirement, we ultimately—our recommendation, staff's recommendation to Council—is to award the contract without that being in the scope. During construction, the project is going to take approximately 90 days. We're looking to start at the beginning of July, so it'll be July, August, and September that the work will take place. We will incorporate electronic message signs as needed. We will send notifications to each of the four HOAs, and that's part of our discussions that we had with them during our outreach meeting, was that any updates in schedule we were going to notify the HOA's management company directly, and they were going to then disseminate to all the staff—or, I'm sorry, to all the households, because like I said, there's over 2,500 households affected, and so every time there's a change, that could be a very costly notification effort. But the management company said they're more than willing to send out those notifications as they change. Additionally, we're going to maintain updates regarding the schedule and information on the Engage Palm Desert page, so that'll be readily available, and we've provided that in the letters and notices that went out for all of residents to be aware. So with that, I'll answer any questions you might have.
[01:02:18] Mayor: No, I do have a card from the public to speak. So before we do questions and comments, I'm going to invite Lynn Beerish up for her three minutes of comments, please.
[01:02:36] Lynn Beerish: I had a great speech that I don't have to give. So you're going to be the only one who's going to hear this speech now is my dog. But I just want to say that we are so pleased that this was a good example of the city asking for input and citizens giving the input, the city listening to the input, and our input showing to matter in that Ryan's presentation now got rid of the delineators, or as we called them, the 'ugly white poles.' And so we are very grateful. Shout out to Ryan Lamb for his professionalism and the stellar way he dealt with all of our residents. So, thank you very much.
[01:03:13] Mayor: Thank you. Isn't that nice? We got some attaboys right there. Isn't that nice? Okay. So, here you have it. Public engagement pays off. Yes, absolutely. Okay. So, are there any questions for Mr. Lamb?
[01:03:35] Councilmember: Oh, actually, I got a few. Um, so the lane spacing you described with the bike lane to eight feet, then a four-foot buffer, then a diminution of the traffic lanes, will that more or less kind of mirror what we've seen on Haystack?
[01:03:53] Ryan Lamb: It has a similar buffer on the new striping. No, it's a little bit different because Haystack has a more unique situation because there's a parking element. So you have a parking, you have a bike, then you have a buffer, and then you have a vehicle. So it's definitely different.
[01:04:13] Councilmember: Okay, perfect. I've heard kind of secondhand, third-hand that some of the damage on El Dorado, rather, has been caused by, we'll call it, careless or mismanaged water usage from maybe one of the local developments. Is that true through your experience or, you know, kind of going through this project and some of the assessments of the road condition as it stands now? Was there water damage from runoff from local...
[01:04:37] Ryan Lamb: I can't speak to that for sure because it's years of wear and tear, and the damage to a lot of the asphalt is water-related, whether it be from overtime from rain, from irrigation. There's been some significant changes along that way from the landscape that's been changed, some hasn't been changed. Ultimately, there's flow...
[01:05:02] Staff: issues with the grade and where there's been cracks and bubbling in the asphalt. So now, once now that we will have a fresh, freshly paved road, it should be functioning exactly the way you want it. The water will be running the way it should, and the runoff that would be coming from the landscaping would go in the gutter, not on the asphalt, and then go down the way it should. And then if there is any type of excessive watering, we'll be able to identify it and then contact the HOAs as necessary to address it.
[01:05:31] Council Member: I think the mosquito and vector district calls that 'urban drool'—little puddles. And actually, I do have another question, please. Um, was there any consideration given—and this might be for Chris or, or city manager—to bundling the two projects, the El Paseo to El Dorado, to achieve sort of economies of scale? I mean, they seem like similar projects, you know, tearing up, grinding, going down to the base and resurfacing. Um, is that something we thought about?
[01:05:58] Staff (Chris): Typically, we try to bundle with similar work. Just because these projects are so distinct and large, we wanted to make sure that they were resourced appropriately and we meet the time schedule. I don't know if you have anything additional, Ryan.
[01:06:10] Ryan Giller: Yeah, so like Chris said, we do always try to bundle where we can and meet those economies of scale. Given the size of the projects and the scale of the projects and the time crunch, there's an opportunity where if the contractor is able to bid on both of them, you're going to get that economy of scale. Ultimately, from our outreach to the contractors and understanding what the bandwidth was to do the work, we would not be able to get the same contractor to do all the work at once within our time frame.
[01:06:43] Council Member: I got it, because yeah, you did have the similar, same contractors bid on both jobs separately.
[01:06:47] Ryan Giller: Correct.
[01:06:48] Council Member: Got it. Okay. And then actually, I do have one last question. This actually goes back to Alice. Sorry, it occurred to me after. Is it too late to ask a question about the dining decks?
[01:06:57] Mayor Arnick: We haven't—let's get it out.
[01:07:00] Council Member: All right, cool. So, Mr. Ryan Giller, bring the other Ryan back. Okay, so I did, for some reason, this just when you mentioned about the alternate bid one and the cost of removing the dining decks. So, you put that in there just in case we're faced with a dilemma of having to remove them for the business owners. If we have to remove them for the business owners, what recourse do we have for making them pay for that removal?
[01:07:22] Ryan Giller: The idea would be that we'd be reimbursed by the operator.
[01:07:26] Council Member: Well, we have licenses, okay. So, like withhold business licenses? I mean, there are tools in our toolbox to make sure they pay.
[01:07:32] Ryan Giller: Yes.
[01:07:33] Council Member: Okay, that's all. Thank you.
[01:07:34] Mayor Arnick: Okay, that was so... there was a brief segue and we're back. Okay, are there any other questions? Did we have any public comment on this?
[01:07:44] City Clerk: No public comment, Madam.
[01:07:47] Mayor Arnick: Okay, any comments on these? Okay, so we have four now. We have L, N, P, and Q. Can we vote on those all at once if that's okay?
[01:07:56] Council Member: I move the balance.
[01:07:59] Council Member: I will second.
[01:08:00] Mayor Arnick: Thank you.
[01:08:05] Mayor Arnick: Motion passes 5 to 0.
[01:08:08] Mayor Arnick: Thank you so much. Okay, we'll now go to 14, which is the action calendar. We have one item: approval of revised design concept for citywide wayfinding signage, parenthetically project number MST-00003. Okay, Mr. Gary, please.
[01:08:42] Chris Gary: Good afternoon, Mayor Arnick and members of the Council. Chris Gary with the Public Works Department. We're returning today to seek direction on the citywide wayfinding design concepts. And as a reminder, staff last presented an overview of the wayfinding and entry monument sign projects during a February 27th study session. And at that time, Council expressed support for one of the entry monument sign concepts and also requested refinements to the wayfinding design. And this evening, we're here to present the revised wayfinding sign concept that complements the City Council's preferred entry monument design and reflects the requested changes from that previous study session. And the updated concept has also been reviewed by the Active Transportation Subcommittee, as well as the El Paseo Parking and Business Improvement District Board. With that, I'd like to reintroduce Brandon Reeves, Design Director at Selbert Perkins Design, who will walk us through the revised concepts.
[01:09:46] Brandon Reeves: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, members of the Council. So, as Chris mentioned, we presented several different concepts when we last met, and we came to a resolution...
[01:10:02] Presenter: On one final concept. We've presented several different wayfinding signs and three different identity signs and a few amenity signs. We designed three distinct monument signs for three distinct locations and several different directional signs for different conditions. We fell onto this concept to mood board which marries a classic concept of the existing sandstone and a more modern look at a modern panel with a bright pop of color that will marry the two different concepts, and also adding in a sort of motif or imagery that mimics the mountains that you can see here in Palm Desert.
[01:10:54] Presenter: So we designed three distinct monuments. Our larger monument, which has the sandstone face with the Palm Desert name on front that will be etched out of the sandstone, and behind that would be layered a layered yellow panel with the Palm Desert logo cut out. Between these two panels would be a light that illuminates on the edges of the sandstone to look like the sun is setting behind the mountain. We wanted to mimic that with two other at two other distinct locations: a more vertical monument with the sandstone place with the Palm Desert logo on front and the metal panel behind with the cutout, and a shorter monument with the same logo and cutout for the AO3 sign type.
[01:11:43] Presenter: We wanted to show what these three monument signs would look like in context. So on the far left, you're seeing what the longer monument will look like at Monterey and Dinah Shore. That will replace an existing monument sign. The center would be on Cook as you exit the 10 freeway. This is showing what the day and night would look like, so you can see the illumination that will happen between the two panels and on the face of the sign to illuminate the Palm Desert name. And on the far right would be the Washington and Fred Waring location that will replace an existing monument with the same look and feel and lighting suggestions.
[01:12:27] Presenter: We, as Chris mentioned, we have modified the wayfinding from our last meeting. I believe we had a darker pole before, and we wanted to make sure the pole and the color of the panel were cohesive with the monument sign. So, we've brightened the poles and brightened the yellow background of the signs. And we also wanted to confirm that the backer of the panel did not create concern with any of the existing caution signs or any of the other road signs, and this doesn't. We also wanted to continue to add in the Palm Desert name on the sides of the sign so that they are cut out. So as you're driving by, you can see the Palm Desert name and then you see the logo on the face. The cap height, or the height of the letters on these signs, are still at six inches, so they match the existing cap height of the letters that exist today.
[01:13:21] Presenter: And we also wanted to include the pedestrian directory sign. These will be in walkable areas such as El Paseo with a changeable map whenever there are new or businesses that will come in. This map can be changed, and we wanted to show what this will look like in context. So on the far left, you're seeing one of the larger wayfinding signs on Portola. As you, right before you make a turn onto Fred Waring, you can see one of the signs there, and this is a context rendering of what that sign would look like. In the center, we are showing a sign on El Paseo directing users to parking or any other of the destinations. And on the far right, we're showing one of the directories for pedestrians that could be used. And those are the sign types that we are proposing. Thank you.
[01:14:11] Mayor: And before we get to questions, let's go to is there any public comment?
[01:14:21] City Clerk: No public comment, Madame Mayor. Thank you very much.
[01:14:23] Mayor: Are there any questions? Please.
[01:14:28] Councilmember: Thank you for the great presentation and also from the study session that you did some time ago. I know you've worked hard on it. In terms of the El Paseo business district, did they get a similar study session like we had in terms of looking at the various design options?
[01:14:46] Presenter: I believe they did. Yes, they did. And you did a great presentation at that as well, and they were very excited. They're supportive and they liked this.
[01:14:56] Councilmember: Okay. Thank you.
[01:14:58] Presenter: Thank you.
[01:15:02] Council Member: Any other questions, comments, comments, comment? I love it. I love it. You've really taken in the feedback that we had, um, collectively, cohesively. Can't wait to see it up with that glowing warm welcome no matter what time of day you come in. So, you did excellent work. I reiterate what my colleague has said. Great work from start to finish. Can't wait to see it. Thank you. And I guess subjectively, and I know it's very subjective, I am more traditional and I did like just the sandstone, but, uh, I'm a team player and I defer to the, um, artistic experts on this. Thank you.
[01:15:46] Mayor: Any other comments? It's, I think it's outstanding, and it, and it certainly is, it's elegant and exciting all at the same time, and it certainly speaks to the persona that is Palm Desert. So, thank you so much for all your hard work on this. Thank you all.
[01:16:04] Mayor: Okay. So, I, I suppose, um, is that a receive and file? We have to vote on it, don't we? We do. So, is there a motion on that item?
[01:16:18] Council Member: I will second.
[01:16:20] Mayor: Okay, we have a motion and a second. Please vote.
[01:16:27] Mayor: Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you so much. Okay, we will move to public hearings, and, uh, we did have one removed. The final one is B that was removed. So we are at 15A, which is public hearing on city vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts as required by Assembly Bill 2561, and we will hear from Miss Daily.
[01:16:55] Andrea Staley: Everyone left, all you. All right, that works. So hello, Madam Mayor and Council Members. Andrea Staley, HR Director for the City of Palm Desert. As required by AB 2561, public agencies must present the status of their vacancies to the governing board prior to the adoption of the final budget. In compliance with this mandate, the staff report before you, uh, today provides an overview of the city's current vacancy status. We currently have a vacancy rate of less than 5%. Um, the low rate reflects the city's commitment to proactive recruitment strategies, streamlined hiring processes, and retention initiatives. And just I wanted to mention that aligned with our culture of continuous improvement, our recruitment, hiring processes, and retention strategies are, are evaluated and refined based on feedback that's received. So that concludes my presentation. I'm available to answer any questions you may have, but, um, it's pretty exciting that we have less than a 5% vacancy, and due to that, uh, our employee organization, PDIO, um, did not feel a need to make a presentation or comment on that. That concludes my report. Thank you so much.
[01:18:16] Mayor: Thank you so much. Are there any questions of staff? Then at this point, I will open the public hearing, and since we have no one to give any more presentations, are there any public comments?
[01:18:28] Staff: No public comment, Madam Mayor.
[01:18:30] Mayor: Okay, then I think we're safe in closing the public hearing, and then I'll ask, are there any Council Member comments at this time?
[01:18:42] Council Member: No comments. Life is easy.
[01:18:48] Mayor: Uh, okay. So, will you, should, is there a motion at this?
[01:18:52] Council Member: I'll move approval.
[01:18:53] Mayor: Thank you very much.
[01:18:54] Council Member: I will second. Thank you.
[01:19:01] Mayor: Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you very much. Okay, so we have come to the end of our agenda and want to remind everybody, as, uh, Council Member Quintanilla said, it's International Tea Day. So let's go home and have some tea. And, uh, thank you for being here. Seeing no unfinished business, this meeting stands adjourned.