Palm Desert City Council - Regular Meeting, June 26, 2025

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[00:10:03] Mayor: And we will go to the City Manager comments, please.
[00:10:05] City Manager: Mayor and Council, I'd like to invite up Sergeant Crriider, who has a brief update for us, and also, for the second item, we'll be inviting up Ivan Toriel as well to give a quick update on our PIT count.
[00:10:23] Sergeant Crriider: Well, thank you for having me, Madame Mayor and members of the City Council. I don't have an update per se, but there are a couple of topics I wanted to discuss today, just for a matter of education for the public, just so that they can prepare. One, for any kind of summertime activity, specifically hiking and things like that here in the desert. We regularly get calls for rescues, and those rescues quite often can be avoided if some preparation on the front end of that hike or whatever activity they're doing is completed ahead of time. And so, just a couple of things, a couple of bullet points I wanted to cover. You should always prepare for that hike at least 24 hours in advance. And what I mean by that is the hydration should start about 24 hours in advance. You should start hydrating yourself, getting ready for that and preparing for that hike ahead of time. Know where you're going to go, know the weather, prepare what you're going to wear, and wear proper shoes. Make sure you have extra water available and things that provide energy and electrolytes to replenish yourself of that energy when you're out there hiking. So, just little things like that can assist us in not having to come and rescue you from your hike. So, that's the first thing I wanted to discuss today. And the second thing is also something that many people probably know about but don't really follow, as is the case with most vehicle codes. There's a vehicle code out there that states that we cannot use our cell phones while operating a motor vehicle. Yet many of us—and I can be guilty of this sometimes, I try to do my best—but there's a little added nuance to that now. Now it is touch-free. So you can't even have the phone in your hand if you are on roadways, okay? If that phone is in your hand, even if you are not talking to somebody, if you are not texting somebody, but it's in your hand and you're driving and that phone is visible, technically law enforcement can stop and cite you for that violation. Your phones now need to be—and a couple of the bullet points I want to make sure I cover: phones must be mounted on the dashboard or in the lower corner of the windshield. Only a single tap or swipe is permitted while driving. Voice commands may be used for calls, text, and navigation. Drivers under the age of 18 are prohibited to have a phone even if it is hands-free. They should not have a phone anywhere in their direct vicinity in the vehicle, okay? So, a couple of things just so people know. There's a base fine now of $20, which actually equates to about $160 once all the court fees and everything are applied. And then that actually goes up each violation after that. So, again, just for education, make sure that you mount your phone before you begin driving. Use hands-free features like voice assistants or Bluetooth. Enable 'do not disturb while driving' mode or 'in driving' mode. Set your GPS and music before starting the car—already have that set up. Again, preparation is key. And then pull over safely. If you absolutely, in any case, in an emergency, need to access your phone or make that phone call, pull that car over, stop it, get into a safe spot, and then you can access that phone and do what you need to do. So, that's all I have. Again, just a couple of education points. If anybody has any questions, we're always around. You can give us a call, you can stop by the station if you ever have any questions about any vehicle codes or preparing for any kind of activities in the desert. We can assist you with that. That's all I have. Thank you.
[00:14:19] Mayor: Thank you. Yes, please. We may have a question.
[00:14:21] Council Member: Just a quick, quick question. We've got Fourth of July coming up. We don't want anybody having any fireworks in the City of Palm Desert. We have a beautiful fireworks display show here. Can you give us the non-emergency number if someone wants to let us know their neighbor—see, put me on the spot?
[00:14:39] Sergeant Crriider: Uh, I don't know the number offhand, or if we can be sure that we post...
[00:14:44] City Manager: Yeah, we can put that on the website for us to be sure that it is.
[00:14:49] Sergeant Crriider: Well, just so you guys know, we will be out in force. My guys will be out in force after the fireworks show. We will be around probably till 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. So, if we have any of those who didn't take advantage of the free...
[00:15:02] Staff: ...firework show that the city's providing, and they decide to use some fireworks that are not allowed in the city, then we will be out there enforcing the municipal code and the laws. So, just be aware of that.
[00:15:15] Council Member: Any chance the drones might be out there looking for those great fireworks shows, too? Any chance? Just maybe.
[00:15:20] Staff: Maybe.
[00:15:21] Council Member: Hey, anybody listening, the drones are going to be looking for your shows, too. And thank you for the information regarding the phone. I know that decision just recently was made. Just started. You can't even touch it while you touch a very, a very quick—
[00:15:33] Staff: Well, you could touch it. You could technically accept a call. You could hit the accept, but that's the most you can do. So, you've all been told.
[00:15:41] Council Member: Yep. Okay.
[00:15:42] Staff: Yeah. And that even includes driving through parking lots, driving through on the roads, driving through business areas. It's everywhere. So, thank you.
[00:15:55] Council Member: Yes. So, we have to do our part. That's what you're saying. Okay. We'll do it. All right. Thank you.
[00:16:03] Mayor: And Mr. Tinorio.
[00:16:10] Ivan Tinorio: Good afternoon, Mayor, Council. Ivan Tinorio, Homeless and Supportive Services Manager. Today, I just wanted to go over and provide an update on the most recent PIT count, the outcomes of that came out late May. The PIT count itself is conducted once a year, generally around the end of January. And part of the reason why the PIT count happens every year is it's a HUD requirement. The federal government requires for HUD and the counties to provide this census that happens every year.
[00:16:44] Council Member: Before you go much further, so that everyone knows, can you explain what the PIT count is?
[00:16:48] Ivan Tinorio: Yes, the PIT count happens—it generally all cities, nonprofits, all organizations get together one really early morning, and they go out into the community and they go out and do a census count of every individual.
[00:17:03] Council Member: Point in time.
[00:17:04] Ivan Tinorio: Yes, the Point-in-Time Count. And it's really a snapshot of that morning. And the main purpose behind it is to help with funding allocations and really help shape programs from the county and services. This year alone, the county outcome and their updated reports showed that there was nearly almost 4,000 individuals counted throughout the entire county. I think what was noted in the local paper was that our district saw almost a 20% decrease in unsheltered individuals, or folks that are physically out on the street. And then sheltered homelessness increased roughly about 11%. I notated that it was really more so 56% when you factor in the comparison of 2023's count. Some of the more noted factors from the county were some of the subpopulations like veterans, families, youth, and the top causes were lack of income, unemployment, and family disruption. One of the highlights that the county mentioned is the reason in uptick of sheltered individuals is that it was more of a—more people are in shelter, so more people are accepting services. Now then, I wanted to break down our area more so between all the nine cities and really kind of get a good understanding from 2023 till now how we did. And you could probably see that, you know, some cities saw decreases, some saw upticks. Palm Desert saw almost nearly 64% drop in totality of homelessness. And then I wanted to provide just a historical trend and dated as far back as 2022 up until now. I want to make a quick note that in 2024, the county only provided a shelter count. The shelter count alone was not broken down by city by city, so we do not have any city-specific data for that year. And then again, going back to the number that I mentioned, 64% drop in totality, but in the unsheltered category, there was almost an 80% drop. And you know, what's working or what's causing this change? And I think since in my time here, a lot of the efforts have been around daily outreach, coordinated efforts working with the county, working with CVAG, working with even staff here from our code compliance, the Sheriff's Department, and kind of have this uniform approach and trying to assist folks that need the help. But with that, I conclude my presentation, and I'm here for any questions.
[00:19:42] Mayor: Are there any questions? Please.
[00:19:46] Council Member: How do you identify somebody that is unsheltered? Usually easier to see. You approach them and you have that inclination. I'm sure it's a little harder to make that determination. Is it somebody that is living in their car...
[00:20:00] Council Member: ...count as sheltered or unsheltered?
[00:20:03] Staff: What I understand is that if you're living in your car, that would be unsheltered.
[00:20:08] Council Member: Unsheltered. And what criteria is considered sheltered homelessness?
[00:20:13] Staff: My understanding is it could be someone in an actual shelter. That is how the county gets the records from the actual shelters themselves, and that's how they define sheltered homelessness.
[00:20:26] Mayor: Thank you. Any other questions?
[00:20:30] Council Member: I just have a comment. What we see here is the progress that Palm Desert made. And though Palm Desert participates regionally in so many of these efforts, Palm Desert chose many years ago, or several years ago, to take this on individually as this community. And I thank you for everything that you've done to really make sure that we make an impact on those homeless individuals. I think the point that you make that is so important is that this is something that when we're all working together—when we bring code compliance, when we bring you, when we bring the staff, when we bring the sheriffs together—that's where we get the result. When we're all working together, when people pick up the phone and say someone needs help, that's how we get it done. So, I'm really proud of the work that Palm Desert has done, and thank you so much for spearheading this and getting the results we're getting. It's really impressive. Thank you.
[00:21:26] Staff: Thank you.
[00:21:29] Council Member: I may add one final comment. The community sees it too. Our business partners see it because of the relationship that we have. The City does a great job. And as somebody who experienced homelessness as a child, it really does a lot for me to know that now there is a greater effort to also count those that are in that transition now in the sheltered system, so we can keep going at what the services are that we can provide. So, my continued gratitude to you and your team. Thank you.
[00:22:01] Mayor: Thank you so much. Is there anything else?
[00:22:04] Staff: Nothing additional.
[00:22:07] Mayor: We'll go to Council Member reports and requests for action. And this is the time for short comments to share with the public things that are important to them and they should know about. So, let's start with Council Member Pedetto.
[00:22:23] Council Member Pedetto: None, Madame Mayor.
[00:22:28] Council Member: Please. Yeah. All right. Just a couple quick notes. The Chamber of Commerce Awards, the annual awards that they picked with 13 different categories to award various businesses within the city for excellent accomplishments. And I just want to say it was a great event. Was it Tuesday night? Was it last night? I think it was Tuesday. Anyway, it was this week. It was a great event. It was wonderful. I'm so proud of the work our chamber does and the thriving business community here. And I want to give a special shout-out to Mr. Randy Chavez, who got, I believe it was, Hero or Person or Citizen or Man of the Year. Award of Excellence, there we go. I know, I thought it was all three, but anyway, great job, Randy, and well-deserved. So proud of you, man. And also, we're coming up on the one-year anniversary of our library coming under municipal or Palm Desert local control and stewardship. And I just want to say, I think in my opinion, it's been a huge success. We just had our Library Advisory Committee meeting this past Monday. The circulation numbers, they set a whole series of goals at the beginning of this process, library staff did, and they've met them all, and they were pretty lofty goals. You know, the foot traffic's up by about 30%, circulation's up, just group activity, events, programming. So, very, very proud of how that's going, and I think even better things are on the way. So, thank you.
[00:23:50] Mayor: Okay. Thank you. Council Member Kinttonia, please.
[00:23:54] Council Member Kinttonia: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I concur with the library. It is robust offerings. I was impressed that there is even a to-go bag so that you can keep your kids busy for the summer, hands-on crafts that you can do. I think that the foresight that even if you can't be there all the time, swing by, grab something, and still keep that lifelong curiosity going, and that our library is fostering that. Just a reminder, our cooling centers are open. You may have seen it on our social media. And the sensory safe zone is back this year for our Fourth of July fireworks. I think it's something that I'm very proud of having worked with last year to get it going, as being an autism-certified city and the understanding of how we can support individuals with neurodiverse needs, which includes veterans with PTSD. And I was there with our very own Daniel Urado and one of our COPS volunteers last year, and we weren't that far from City Hall, and we could hear some of the fireworks, but it...
[00:25:00] Council Member: Sounded like somebody closed a car door just in the distance, and we know that... I'm not sure if we were able to have it, or the feasibility of maybe having some sort of a live feed or a patriotic something in the background keeping it festive so that people can still find a way to celebrate and feel a spirit of the celebration but not feel as overwhelmed. I'm also pleased that staff has coordinated to have an area a little further set aside where earplugs will be available. So my appreciation to staff continues to be inclusive of having these community events and keeping in mind that everybody can celebrate a little differently, but we want them to still celebrate. Was that—is that feed going to possibly happen?
[00:25:48] Staff: We were unable to do a feed this year, but they did provide a television inside so at least someone can enjoy the fireworks show on TV.
[00:25:54] Council Member: Perfect. Perfect. And if anybody wants to find a way to volunteer their time or help grow how this can grow into other cities, I think it's a worthwhile opportunity to see how other communities can grow that level of support for the neurodiverse residents and guests. The Children's Discovery Museum had the annual planning meeting. There's been so much that happened to reimagine with the complete reopening, with everything that has changed, but now it's allowed a little bit of fine-tuning to see how we can increase the level of service that we can provide to families, how to grow membership. So, I think that if you don't already have your membership, get your membership. It's a great gift. I think within two visits it may already pay for itself. The City does contribute to the Children's Museum, so this is a way for you to not only take your kiddos, take the grandkids, go and support all of the things that we are doing with your tax dollars. What was my other note? Yep, the no fireworks. Keep it safe by not having the fireworks at all. We do put on a great show for you. And I think that is it. That's all for me. Thank you.
[00:27:12] Mayor: Thank you. I want to... Oh, thank you so much. Council Member Nandi.
[00:27:20] Council Member Nandi: No comments this evening, Mayor. Thank you.
[00:27:24] Mayor: She just had a grandchild. I think that's worth commenting on.
[00:27:29] Council Member Nandi: Oh, yes. I'm a very proud grandmother. He's just over a week old.
[00:27:31] Mayor: Oh, congratulations. Thank you.
[00:27:37] Mayor: A couple of just a couple of things. We were all—or Council Member Predetto and Mayor Pro Tem Trouy and I—were at the Palm Desert Area Chamber of Commerce Biz Awards and board recognition. And of course, as he mentioned, Randy Chavez received the Award of Excellence. And he didn't disappoint. He did exactly what you think he would do. He gave everyone else the credit for the excellence in his department. And that's just who he is. And when there's a tree down, when there's water in the roadways, when there's a mess, it's his department that cleans it up. And I said something last night: he doesn't have to manage his department because he inspires his department. And he's a wonderful leader, and we're very fortunate that we have him in Palm Desert and in our home. I did want to mention that UCR and the RAP, which is the Regional Access Project, have a certificate program in nonprofit management, and it starts in September if there's anybody interested in that. It's a great, great program. Our community definitely benefits by it. It's one more of those moments where we see our nonprofits and our volunteers make our community better. So that is available. The food bank this morning had an event. They opened their new—FIND Food Bank has opened their new facility, their new warehouse. If somebody needs some sort of food assistance, please get in touch with them. This is a tough time of year. Our children are out of school, or our students are out of school, so two meals a day they depend on, they no longer have. FIND Food Bank is there for the community. Please don't hesitate to contact them. Remember, the 4th of July is Independence Day. It's not just the 4th of July. It's not just fireworks. A lot of people gave their all so that we had that. This week is Religious Liberty Week. We have those sorts of things because of Independence Day. So, don't forget what Independence Day is all about. Let's celebrate America and what we're able to do. We...
[00:30:00] Mayor Harik: can speak up. We can celebrate as we see fit. Let's not forget. And that's all I have. So, we will move to non-agenda public comments. Would you like to do some housekeeping remarks, please?
[00:30:14] City Clerk: 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 joining in by calling on your phone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand. And when called upon, press star 6 to unmute yourself.
[00:30:28] Mayor Harik: Okay. Thank you. I have one blue card. Benjamin Jones.
[00:30:31] Mayor Harik: Can you please state your name and address for the record, and you have three minutes.
[00:30:41] Benjamin Jones: My name is... Welcome. Hello, Mayor. I'm very nervous. This is the first time I've ever done anything like this. I'm trying to contribute right now. Well, thank you. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, fellow council members. You said to give my address if you would like.
[00:30:59] Mayor Harik: Yes.
[00:31:01] Benjamin Jones: Well, I'm too nervous to even remember my address, to be honest.
[00:31:04] Mayor Harik: We have your contact information, so please...
[00:31:06] Benjamin Jones: I gave my phone number.
[00:31:07] Mayor Harik: Okay. Thank you.
[00:31:08] Benjamin Jones: All right. Well, I'm here today to address the issue of the nonoperational free EV charging stations that are in our community. One of them is right here at the park. The stations are a valuable resource for residents who have made the switch to electric vehicles, and their current state is in disrepair and is causing significant inconvenience. Maintaining these free EV charging stations and these infrastructures is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it directly supports our city's commitments to environmental sustainability by encouraging the considerable adoption of clean energy vehicles. Secondly, it stimulates local economic activity. EV drivers often patronize nearby businesses while their vehicles charge, contributing to the revenue of our local establishments. Lastly, it promotes equitable access to electric vehicle ownership, making it a viable option for a broader range of our citizens, not just those with private home charging capabilities. So, I urge the city council and its members to consider the broader implications of these charging stations. Their repair and continued maintenance are not just a convenience, but a strategic investment to our city's future. Thank you for your time and consideration.
[00:32:23] Mayor Harik: Thank you very much for coming today. We wouldn't have known you were nervous if you hadn't told us.
[00:32:30] Benjamin Jones: Oh, why thank you. Thank you so much.
[00:32:32] Mayor Harik: Thank you for... and we will, we will follow up on this.
[00:32:35] Mayor Harik: Okay. Is there any other public comment?
[00:32:40] City Clerk: No online public comments, Madame Mayor.
[00:32:43] Mayor Harik: Okay, great. We'll move to the consent calendar then. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine and may be approved by one motion. The public may comment on any items on the consent agenda within the three-minute time limit. Individual items may be removed by the city council for a separate discussion. Are there any agenda items that someone would like to pull?
[00:33:08] Council Member: No.
[00:33:11] Mayor Harik: Okay, I see none. I'll entertain a motion.
[00:33:13] Council Member: I move.
[00:33:14] Council Member: I second.
[00:33:15] Mayor Harik: Okay, we have a motion and a second. We'll have to do this roll call.
[00:33:19] City Clerk: Council Member Nestandi?
[00:33:20] Council Member Nestandi: Yes.
[00:33:21] City Clerk: Council Member Petta?
[00:33:23] Council Member Petta: Yes.
[00:33:24] City Clerk: Council Member Quintanilla?
[00:33:25] Council Member Quintanilla: Aye.
[00:33:26] City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tem?
[00:33:27] Mayor Pro Tem: Yes.
[00:33:28] City Clerk: Mayor Harik?
[00:33:28] Mayor Harik: Yes.
[00:33:29] City Clerk: Motion passes 5 to 0.
[00:33:31] Mayor Harik: Okay, let's flip everything here. Move our... now move to 14, which is the action calendar. The next... oh, is Randy Chavez, Director of Public Works. Adopt policies for the fleet management and replacement schedule and authorize appropriation and the purchase of six hybrid vehicles.
[00:34:10] Randy Chavez: Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members. My name is Randy Chavez, Director of Public Works, and today we have a staff report requesting action on several items that will help improve efficiency, safety, and long-term cost for operations of the city's fleet. A little bit of background information: currently, the city has 61 vehicles that support multiple departments. 31 of them are under five-year lease agreements that were implemented in fiscal year 2018-2019. So many are now due for replacement, and there are also city-owned vehicles that are older than that, and they're also recommended to be replaced as well. And this is a primary reason that staff contracted a fleet consultant to evaluate the current...
[00:35:01] Staff Member: conditions and to develop recommendations of the city's fleet. And the comprehensive study was completed in December 2024, which provided the basis for management policies and a phased replacement strategy. So with this staff report, staff's recommending several items, and I'm going to go through them briefly and quickly. Staff recommends adopting a fleet management policy, and this will establish consistent procedures for fleet acquisition, maintenance, assignment, and replacement. And this policy will serve as the foundation for all future fleet-related decisions and ensure alignment across all departments. Staff also requests approval of a 5-year replacement schedule which will help the city plan for fleet upgrades in a phased and fiscally responsible manner. This approach is designed to minimize downtime, reduce maintenance costs, and avoid large one-time expenditures. And as part of the replacement schedule, staff recommends rejecting the formal bid received for six plug-in hybrid carpool vehicles and purchase of vehicles at a lower price through Sourcewell, which is a cooperative purchasing program for a total of $246,350 including contingency. However, in order to move forward with the replacement schedule, staff requests an appropriation of 2.7 million from the equipment reserve. And finally, to maximize cost efficiency and respond to market conditions, we ask that the city manager be authorized to adjust the timing of purchases and execute any necessary supporting documents. So in conclusion, adopting these recommendations will allow staff to modernize and manage the city's fleet in a cost-effective and strategic manner while supporting citywide operations and sustainability goals. But I do want to note there was an error in the staff report, and just to clear up any confusion, staff would like to request that recommendation number six for the appropriation from equipment reserve be considered at 2.7 million, as noted in the financial impact table on the last page, in lieu of the 2,681,980 listed, and this will provide for any small deviations from the estimated cost. And Ruth Elson with Matrix Consulting, our consultant, and I are available to answer any questions.
[00:37:40] Mayor: Okay, thank you. Are there any questions?
[00:37:45] Council Member: I do have one. I remember when I went over this doing my homework that there were, I believe, four fully electric pickup trucks that were going to be allocated for public works. Is that right? Are we trying to replace some fossil fuel vehicles with electric, fully electric vehicles? Is that right? I mean, I saw the plug-in vehicles, but yeah...
[00:38:09] Staff Member: ...if we could bring Ruth, she could help us answer that question.
[00:38:15] Ruth Elson: Good afternoon and thank you for letting me speak. In California, the California Air Resources Board has instituted the Advanced Clean Fleets program, and that program is meant to work with municipalities in reducing their carbon footprint and having zero-emission vehicles be introduced in the fleet in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Under the mandates, anytime you replace a vehicle that is 8,500 pounds or greater, you need to replace it with an EV vehicle or a zero-emission vehicle. So, we are planning to...
[00:39:05] Council Member: Okay. And how many?
[00:39:09] Council Member: And Ruth, since they developed the report, how many vehicles in total, if you don't mind sharing that information?
[00:39:20] Ruth Elson: Um, if you could just give me a moment, please. I didn't have that pulled up.
[00:39:24] Council Member: I'm just, while she looks that up, I'm asking because I understand there was some feedback from our staff in the field that, you know, due to the high temperatures during the course of the summer, may not be the most ideal vehicle if they're spending eight hours a day in the vehicle. Essentially, that's their office or workspace, that, you know, using the air conditioning all day, whereas in a traditional gas vehicle, you could just do that without having to refuel. This may not be the most efficient way for these men and women to work.
[00:39:53] Ruth Elson: Okay. So, in looking at the replacement plan by recommended classification under the ACF program, you'd be looking at...
[00:40:02] Staff Member: Replacing a one-ton dump truck, a one-ton utility truck, a one-ton flatbed truck. You would also be looking at the aerial, the utility in class five, and in class seven, the dump truck and the tanker truck. There are also some half-ton and compact pickup trucks that would be replaced, and those are the ones that are city-owned. There's also a separate listing for those that are leased at the present time. So over the course of the replacement schedules from 2025 up until 2040, you have about 23 or 24 vehicles that will be replaced either initially, or initially and then under the replacement plan again near the 39 and 40 replacement schedules fiscal years. Are there any other questions?
[00:41:08] Council Member: I have a question, Madam Mayor.
[00:41:10] Mayor: Please.
[00:41:11] Council Member: As we make the gradual switch to replacing the vehicles within the schedule to become electric vehicles, how are we on track to have the infrastructure to have all of these vehicles plugged in? What's our plug-and-play ability?
[00:41:27] Staff Member: So we are currently working on the EV charging policy, and also we are working currently with capital projects to come up with charging stations for City Hall at the corporation yard. So we're doing that concurrently with this fleet policy.
[00:41:48] Council Member: One of the other questions that came to mind: the vehicles that we're purchasing, they are substantially heavier now, aren't they? Especially if we were looking at half-ton trucks or one-ton trucks, they are, on top of that, already heavily load-bearing as the weight of a truck, but because of the capacity of the battery, they're weighing a lot more. I remember at a conference I was at, I think one city was saying it caused more damage to the roads within the courtyard because of the extra weight. So, I'm hoping that within this, there's maybe a little bit of foresight to increase the maintenance for the parking lot, as the heavy machinery—because essentially that is a smaller, condensed heavy machinery over time—I think would be something to factor in.
[00:42:48] Staff Member: Yeah, that's something that we need to consider as well. But also, we currently do have heavy equipment going through the corporation yard. And if you recall a year or so ago, we developed a long-term parking lot maintenance program. So that way, again, just anticipating these changes, we could stay proactive and ensure that our parking lots are maintained to the highest standard, since it'll speed it up a little bit. Thank you.
[00:43:18] Mayor: Yeah. Council Member Pedto, do you have any questions?
[00:43:22] Council Member Pedto: Okay, I have a couple of questions. I appreciate that we are implementing a fleet management policy. The fleet is a huge asset of the city, and it should be managed well. I did see that it is requiring a full-time employee to manage it. So, will the savings that we see from the fleet management pay for that full-time employee?
[00:43:52] Staff Member: Actually, we already have that employee in place now. Mr. David Reyes was promoted to Public Works Superintendent a few months ago specifically to manage the city's fleet. So, we have that person in place. We didn't add another individual, but we just reorganized the corporation yard staff in order to accommodate this.
[00:44:16] Council Member Pedto: That's why you got the award of excellence. Okay. Then I have two more questions. One, what's the guaranteed ride home program?
[00:44:26] Staff Member: So, I'll turn it over to Ruth. I know we're updating the policy, so I don't want to give outdated information. But historically, it's been if someone needs a ride home, the city will provide that transportation to that individual, so that way they're not stuck here at City Hall. But Ruth, is there any updates to that under the current policy?
[00:44:51] Ruth: No, I have no updates to that.
[00:44:56] Council Member Pedto: Okay. By City Hall, you mean enjoying their time here, right? Yeah, after work.
[00:45:02] Staff: We'll take them home. It has also been intended for those who are carpooling and possibly someone goes home and leaves them without a vehicle. So we've used it for that in the past.
[00:45:13] Council Member: Okay, that makes sense. All right. And I have one other question because we are talking about a lot of electric vehicles and, as we all know living here, we have July and August where we're quite often told, 'Do not plug in your vehicle. There is not enough electricity.' So, do we have some sort of backup power program for our fleet?
[00:45:35] Staff: There's a couple of options. And speaking with Ruth and her experience with other municipalities, there's a couple of options. One of them is solar-powered chargers, so that's something that we can explore. But also too, with the rolling blackouts that we experience from time to time, speaking with a project manager that's overseeing the EV chargers, we intend to connect those to the emergency generators that we have at many of our facilities. That way, if there is a power outage, those chargers will still be energized.
[00:46:13] Council Member: Okay. Thank you.
[00:46:14] Mayor Harnick: Okay. Are there any other questions? Any comments? I'll entertain a motion.
[00:46:21] Council Member: I do have comments. I think this is just good basic business, and having a well-maintained, reliable fleet makes all the sense in the world. So, good work on that. And to have a rotational program in place so we don't have cost shocks makes sense. One thing I'd like to consider or suggest for our consideration is to address, partly to Councilman Trouby's statement and some of yours, Madame Mayor, about the heat and the reliability of our fleet. Since this is our policy, I'm looking at the page in our packet 637, policy PW00002. And if you look under fleet responsibility down around line six, we're directing the Public Works Director to coordinate across departments to maintain an efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable fleet operation. I would like to make one little suggested change to add 'reliable'. So it would read: 'efficient, cost-effective, reliable, and sustainable fleet operation.'
[00:47:34] Mayor Harnick: Seems reasonable. Is anybody—
[00:47:37] Council Member: I concur.
[00:47:38] Mayor Harnick: Any other comments? And I do want to mention something that was kind of piggybacking on what Council Member Quintanilla said. They are heavier. We know that they do impact our infrastructure in a greater way. And yes, that's bridge repair, that's our street repair that we have to stay on. And additionally, it creates greater PM2.5, which causes us to not reach our air quality attainment standards. So there's a lot in this. The electricity sounds good, electric cars sound good, it all sounds good, but you have to look at it through a broader lens and make sure we're solving the problems that kind of get created when we change course sometimes. So those are things we have to think about, and hopefully our tire manufacturers are paying attention and these things get addressed.
[00:48:39] Council Member: My wife has implemented a PM10 and PM2.5 collection program in our house. We leave our windows open and we wake up in the morning and it's just covered with dust. She hates it, but she's doing her part.
[00:48:53] Mayor Harnick: Perfect. Well, the more at your house, the less at mine. So, this is great. All right. Great. All right. Are there any other comments?
[00:49:02] Mayor Harnick: Okay. I'll entertain a motion.
[00:49:04] Council Member: So, with my suggested change, I will move approval.
[00:49:06] Council Member: Second.
[00:49:09] Mayor Harnick: Okay. Can we have a roll call vote, please?
[00:49:10] Clerk: Council Member Nandi, yes. Council Member Pedetto, aye. Council Member Quintanilla, aye. Mayor Pro Tem Trouby, yes. Mayor Harnick, yes. Motion passes 5 to 0. Thank you so much.
[00:49:21] Mayor Harnick: Okay, we'll move to 14B. Approve the management district plan and order the levy and collection of assessments within the President's Plaza One Property and Business Improvement District for fiscal year 2025-2026.
[00:49:41] Maria Gonzalez: Hello. Good afternoon, Madame Mayor, members of the City Council. My name is Maria Gonzalez with the Public Works Department, and I'm also joined today by our consultant, Financial Services. Before you is a staff report regarding the annual levy and collection of assessments for President's Plaza 1. Please note that the following agenda—
[00:50:00] Staff: This item is also related to the assessment district. And we are here to answer any questions you may have. Are there any questions?
[00:50:10] Council Member: I have one quick question because we have written into this agreement that we can increase the assessments up to 3%. And this will follow through for the rest of those district plans. Do we increase it automatically up to the 3%? Everything is getting so expensive. I want to make sure that we've got costs covered. I will let you answer that question.
[00:50:49] Keon: Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. So that is the maximum we can increase by, but we only increase by what is needed. We don't generally increase to the maximum.
[00:51:05] Council Member: Okay. I can't imagine it not being needed, the max, with what we're seeing, but I'm sure there's people working on the formula. Is it generated—is it a CPI issue or...
[00:51:19] Keon: Um, it does increase by—the maximum does increase by 2% every year, but we just determine how much is needed based on the plans and the estimated costs.
[00:51:32] Council Member: All right. Thank you. And, Madam Mayor, could I have her name for the record?
[00:51:37] Keon: My name is Keon with Builtin Financial Services.
[00:51:41] Council Member: Thank you.
[00:51:44] Mayor Harnick: Okay. Are there any other questions or comments? I'll entertain a motion.
[00:51:49] Council Member: I'll make a motion to approve as presented.
[00:51:51] Council Member: Second.
[00:51:54] City Clerk: May we have a roll call vote for 14B, please? Council Member Nestandi, yes. Council Member Peretto, yes. Council Member Quintanilla, aye. Mayor Pro Tem Truby, yes. Mayor Harnick, yes. Motion passes 5 to 0.
[00:52:06] Mayor Harnick: Thank you so much. Now 14C. Similar resolution to approve the management district plan and order the levy and collection of assessments within the President's Plaza 3 property and business improvement district for fiscal year 2025-2026.
[00:52:24] Staff: Good afternoon again. So before you is the staff report regarding the annual levy and collection of assessments for President's Plaza 3. And we are here to answer any questions if you have any.
[00:52:36] Mayor Harnick: Okay. Thank you. It's pretty much the same. So, are there any other questions? A motion to approve? Comments?
[00:52:43] Council Member: I'll second.
[00:52:45] City Clerk: We have a motion and a second. Roll call vote, please. Council Member Nestandi, yes. Council Member Peretto, yes. Council Member Quintanilla, aye. Mayor Pro Tem, yes. Mayor Harnick, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero.
[00:52:58] Mayor Harnick: Okay. 14D. Introduction of an ordinance amending Palm Desert Municipal Code section 2.34.050 related to advisory body officers.
[00:53:11] Staff (Anthony): Madam Mayor, at the last meeting, this was requested, and this action would introduce an ordinance and it would also direct the City Clerk to immediately implement a policy that advisory body chairperson and vice chairperson positions rotate annually and that no members serve consecutive terms in the same officer position in order to provide broader opportunities for members to serve in leadership roles. And I'm available for any questions.
[00:53:34] Mayor Harnick: Thank you. And this was brought forward by Council Member Peretto. I think it's an excellent idea. Are there any questions?
[00:53:42] Council Member: I have, Anthony. So if this goes into effect, it'll affect meetings in August, and so rotations will probably happen in September for this time around?
[00:53:53] Staff (Anthony): Correct. So the municipal code requires the appointment of the chair and vice chair at the first meeting after July. So whenever those meetings occur, this policy will be in effect.
[00:54:06] Council Member: Okay. Move approval.
[00:54:08] Council Member: I have one comment. I didn't raise my hand.
[00:54:11] Mayor Harnick: Yes, please.
[00:54:11] Council Member: Yeah. So, what happens—because I've seen this happen on occasion where the vice chair has been nominated to be the chair and they're like, 'No, no, no. I don't want that.' We might need a backup?
[00:54:24] Staff (Anthony): Sure. So if during the nomination process the vice chair does not want to serve, then the nomination would be open to the floor and any of the other members would be eligible to serve as the chairperson.
[00:54:37] Council Member: Sounds like a plan, except for the existing chairperson.
[00:54:39] Council Member: I have a question. If the goal is to rotate, what happens if there are members that at some point say, 'I just want to be a member. I don't want a leadership position.' Can they say, 'I don't want to participate?' And would there also be at...
[00:55:00] Transcript gap: Gemini did not return transcript text for this 00:55:00-01:00:00 clip. Use the official video for this interval.
[01:00:00] Council Member: We included the existing strategic plan that was adopted in 2013 with this report. It was—I went through it. It was a lot of information. Have we done a two-and-a-half-year and seven-and-a-half-year pulse check on the existing? Since I've been on Council, I don't remember doing it.
[01:00:17] Staff: So, in my research, the plan was adopted in 2014. What I could find was there was an update in about 2016, and then there were no updates after that.
[01:00:30] Council Member: Okay. I thought it was valuable to include that. I just—we haven't even really thoroughly looked over the existing strategic plan before we're even talking about forging ahead with this new—well, this is a comment, so I'll save it for comments. But I guess that's my only question right now. Sorry.
[01:00:47] Mayor: Okay. Any other questions? My question is, are a strategic plan and general plan interchangeable?
[01:00:55] Staff: No, a strategic plan is a high-level document that's intended to provide guidance to the Council on the public sentiment and the vision for the community, and help guide the budgetary process and resource allocation, versus the general plan is—my at least understanding is—about the development of the physical spaces in the city.
[01:01:18] Mayor: Perfect. That's what I wanted to just clarify. And also, the general plan is a legal requirement and the strategic plan is not.
[01:01:24] Staff: Correct. Correct.
[01:01:26] Mayor: Okay. And are there any other questions? We have had access to the strategic plan. We all have it. It's part of our library, and hopefully we all have it in our offices. And for the public's notice, if you're looking at your agenda, you will always see that there will be something that talks about how that agenda item is aligned or not aligned, or its meaning to the strategic plan. That's always in there. I'm glad to see that this strategic plan has updates in it, that it's incorporated updates. It seems that the process has evolved and it will serve the community better. I see Council Member Nandi, you have your hand up. Do you have a question?
[01:02:14] Council Member Nandi: Well, no. I was going to comment now. I thought, are we on comments now or we're still on questions? I do have another question.
[01:02:24] Mayor: Oh, wait. We have another question.
[01:02:25] Council Member Nandi: Wasn't it under SB 1333, was it 2019 that required ongoing evaluations or updates on the general plan?
[01:02:37] Staff: Correct.
[01:02:38] Council Member Nandi: But at no point do we have any requirement that we are to present updates to the strategic plan?
[01:02:45] Staff: Uh, I certainly don't know about the general plan, but certainly for the strategic plan, because it's not a legal requirement, there is no legal requirement for updates.
[01:02:52] Council Member Nandi: Okay. So it's just entirely our own internal set timelines. Okay. Thank you.
[01:02:59] Mayor: Okay. So Council Member Nandi, please.
[01:03:03] Council Member Nandi: Right. So in addressing the agenda item doing the 10-month versus 18 months, at first I was leaning towards 18 months because of the election, and then I was, you know, looking at our strategic plan and thinking that—and it's open for discussion—perhaps the 10-month plan is a better alternative, especially when we take our 2025 goals that we as a Council approved back in February. Some of those 2025 goals don't really align with the strategic plan, and so I'm leaning towards updating it sooner rather than later. Like, for example, the mall redevelopment, that was one of our goals, and also to include experience-based and family activities. And our strategic plan, while it broadly focused more on the civic center park, mixed-use corridors, there was no explicit mall redevelopment or other types of programming. That's just one goal, and, you know, there's a handful of others. I don't need to go through it. I'm just saying our 2025 goals don't specifically align with our strategic plan. Thank you.
[01:04:26] Mayor: Are there any other comments?
[01:04:30] Council Member: Comments? I have several comments on that. I think that it was brought up by a few of us actually at the last meeting that it would be prudent, that there would be a benefit to waiting for an 18-month timeline because we did ask our residents, our voters did choose to move to districts. We would not have the ability for the fully built-out electoral system to be—
[01:05:02] Council Member: ...functional by the time we did that. And if the change in governance is one of the key elements that's driving this change, then it would make sense that we are able to actualize it with that element in place. And I understand where the argument is being made that it would be too soon or a lot to have one person to get caught up, but you're elected to council and you have chosen to make that your commitment. I think it behooves that council member to make the time, and also I think it is something where the city can invest the time to sit with that council member and say, 'Here's where things are. Here's where we need to do this.' And we also have new staff that's coming in. I don't think that there would be any harm in saying, now that we are coming on board and have our full five council members, now we're going to start getting all of these things, now we can start fresh. Because when I looked at, in going and looking up and just Googling the Palm Desert strategic plan, when it takes you to the link for strategic plan, it does not appear. It just says the general plan. And so for me, that was problematic to find it. I happen to have the copy in my office, as the mayor mentioned, but when our community members asked where to find it, that was problematic for me that I couldn't say. When you Google Palm Desert strategic plan, it's not where it says it's supposed to be. So, that was one thing that really struck me, and comparing that to...
[01:06:45] Council Member: ...and again, knowing that they are not interchangeable. I just wanted to be sure that it gets out there because I wanted it on record. I know that they are not interchangeable. They still show our goal in looking at the strategic plan would also be looking at where we are. I think that in order to create the strategic plan, it needs to start with the self-assessment. And I think that we have a lot of work to do before we start to say, 'What else can we do?' I think instead of taking on something new and redefining, I think we need to prep and look at the things that we're not doing. And looking at the general plan and housing element, the progress report that was published in 2024 as a result triggered by SB 1333 under Government Code Section 65700, which I happen to be looking at right now—I didn't memorize it, I swear. So this is where staff has gone through and does the evaluation of a lot of the things we already are ongoing. A lot of the elements are already being fulfilled. It's not like we need a major overhaul, but there are some substantial things where, in particular to the environmental elements, there are sections that aren't even filled out. Where are they? Specifically, over the section on the work plan, if you look at page 57 of that, a lot of it is not complete. 'No discussion has occurred regarding the project.' And if we're going to look at putting our best foot forward, I think that before we look at how much we want to do in the future, we need to look at where we are now. I can see where, again, the argument is going to be made that that's why we need to do it now. There is no need to rush. This is not a legal requirement. The general plan is the legal requirement. This is an internal document, and we are under no obligation to rush through it for 10 months or 18 months. We can even put it further if we want. And so that's just what, where my brain is at in looking at lots of little red flags of different elements where, again, things that are supposed to be on here... What was this one, for example? 'Support incentives to projects to innovatively and aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions.' So these are things that I know we have been working on. I know Amy keeps that upstanding, amazing—between Amy and Luis, that crazy spreadsheet of all of the things that are done. But if we haven't even seen it as fruitful to update into this document, it makes me think, what other things are we not doing? Are we not keeping track properly, or are we just needing to re-evaluate where we truly are in the scope? But I don't think that there's a need to rush, and my objective would be 18 months.
[01:09:53] Mayor: Comments?
[01:09:55] Council Member: Yeah. Okay. Um, yeah, I mean, I know we discussed this a...
[01:10:01] Councilmember: A couple weeks ago, we wanted to revisit extending the timeline. I actually think that pushing the timeline of adoption back makes less sense than pushing the timeline of initiation back. You know, if we all work on it together and then it's adopted without any of the new, theoretically new, district council members' input in its formation, then it renders the whole process kind of moot. Like, in other words, you want the five district council members to all have input in the process, I would think, as well would be kind of the goal of delaying this process. So that's my first thought. And then I was looking over the 20—and I actually agree with Gina, but I take a different tact on it. Like, she mentioned the development of the mall. It changes so frequently. It's listed in—maybe it is or isn't listed in the strategic plan in 2013, but circumstances change so quickly. As soon as this thing's published, it, to me, looks outdated. And I'm looking through some of the—and there's so much in here that you're overwhelming staff. I think we're on the right course. Staff has a lot of direction on good programs that we're doing. And if you go through the education program, there's all kinds of things about bringing in national speakers and, you know, working, creating a 501(c)(3) with a board of directors. I mean, big, lofty goals that, when taken all together, I don't even know if they could be achievable in the 20-year timeframe that this thing is meant to happen. And so, I'd rather put it off. I'd rather actually—what I would rather see is a study session on the existing before we even were to move ahead with creating a new one. I don't think we've even revisited this thing very thoroughly where we could say, 'Hey, it is or isn't working,' or 'It is or isn't valuable.' So, I would prefer to see that moving ahead, just put this thing off until 2027 altogether.
[01:11:51] Councilmember: Any other comments?
[01:11:54] Councilmember: What I was—one thing I was going to add in terms of—you said there are a lot of things, a lot of huge tasks that staff is already juggling. For example, we're looking at the comprehensive unified development code. That's not due to be finished until late 2026. Hillside ordinances and the downtown overlay zones—that's at least going to be another year and a half to two years alone. And as we're looking at—I mean, the changes in what will or will not happen with the mall, that we know is going to be in flux. But what's the point of going through and having a strategic plan that we will then have to go back and change as we make the determinations of what we want for the building codes and the codes? I think that needs to be a seminal document and process before we even go any further on this. I think that's respectful to staff because that's the guiding document of what you will be working on, of what makes the city a city, of what keeps business going and new development and constructions and everything else that we're going to be looking at. How some of that may even seem hypothetical as we're looking into the crystal ball, where staff is dealing with tangible facts, hands-on stuff, and to—I think it's a—it's a big ask. So, I concur that maybe right now we should just put a pause on it.
[01:13:18] Mayor: Councilmember Padetto.
[01:13:22] Councilmember Padetto: I think I—I lean towards where my colleagues are, and for different reasons. And I'm thankful that we got a second bite at the apple because it allowed me some time to think. And I'm told that I—I don't look that old, but I have some years under my belt, and I've learned my own self and my decision-making. And sometimes I've ignored my intuition and later regretted it. My intuition on this is the way the consultant—in my experience, is we bring in a consultant, we bring in staff, and I feel like I will be losing control over some of the planning process because, as my colleague said, or this—more this afternoon, the quote was, 'Plan for—plan for your circumstances.'
[01:14:17] Councilmember: Yeah.
[01:14:19] Councilmember Padetto: Yeah. So, I think I don't want a consultant to come in, or even staff, and tell me what the circumstances are. That will give up my ability to control the process in a way that people elected me to do. I would feel more comfortable doing an assessment of the current plan—what has worked, what has not worked—and then proceeding to have the Council have more input on the scope rather than getting it presented. By the time it's cooked up to us, we don't have as much control. So, I—I—I would like to...
[01:15:01] Speaker 1: See us take an assessment, find out what the circumstances are, and then have a more driving role in coming up with the scope. I think another another element to add to that in terms of being able to really take the wheel in looking at the previous documents, some of the health analysis that was conducted, it cited national statistics. We have HARK. HARK is an absolutely magnificent resource. And I think that we have the capacity to—why pay money to a consultant that does not know the Coachella Valley the way that HARK already has years of data where we can tailor and say, 'Have you seen anything with changes in North Palm Desert as a result of the sand?' In fact, if we know this is something we want to look at, maybe this is something we can ask HARK to start working on now. I think that we need to use our community resources, keep that funding local because, you know, the consultants, we're going to look at RFPs are going to come from different areas. They may or may not be local, but we need to ensure that we are working with that. Um, you know, our city manager and I were having a discussion on on involving, for example, Cal State San Bernardino, they have the MS program in social work. We could have some partnership with them to conduct some of the community sessions and seminars to have a different field where the consultants would come and do the same. But we would have the ability to guide this in a way that allows this to be our own strategy instead of it being prescribed by a formula or a template document that they have consulted and created plans for other cities. So...
[01:16:43] Speaker 2: Going on along that, reminded me, you know, I think that the objective of this plan will be to get our consensus and what we want. I know that's part of the process. I still don't think that the conditions will lead to something that in four years I'll look back and say I think we did the right thing by moving it and doing it at that time. Um, I think that there is a high probability, in my opinion, that we get a product done if we go now that we don't all love, and then four years later we get staff recommendations that I probably will love even less. And so, um, you know, I would go so far as to say that I would suggest even setting up a council subcommittee to begin reviewing the strategic plan, taking an assessment, and then coming back and doing a study session.
[01:17:46] Speaker 3: I think that's a good idea. I would volunteer for a subcommittee. So, I'd like to make a few comments. I support what Councilmember Nestande said, and I want to remind that a strategic plan is a high-level policy document that articulates community priorities, guides resource allocation, and shapes long-term decision-making. It doesn't get in the weeds. We're not going down rabbit holes. It gives a good overview and a guideline to where we're going to go. I hear comments that almost make me feel—well, no, I hear comments that say we have to wait until change stops. Change doesn't stop. We're going to continue to evolve. So, if we're waiting for the evolution to end so that we can put a document in place, we will never put a document in place because change will continue. We're not going to put a fence around Palm Desert and say no one can leave and no one can come in. What is is, and we're going to build upon what exists at this moment. It's okay to create guidelines that help us recognize what our priorities are and to move on them, and then come back in two and a half years and say, 'Now, was that right? Did AI come into play? Are there technologies that have come into play that we need to look at and perhaps incorporate into this document?' Because things change, and they're going to change today, and they're going to change tomorrow, and they're going to change in two years. And if we're waiting for change to stop, we will never go into creating this document. It's time to take a look at it. The document we did in 2013 was not meant to last for 20 years. It was our best effort to look forward in 20 years. We knew we'd have to come back and change it. We knew that. But it was our best effort looking forward. And that's what we need to do today because so much has changed in more than a decade that it's time to do that.
[01:20:02] Mayor: high-level document that provides guidelines and establishes and reaffirms what our priorities are in our city. So I support let's get moving. Let's do that 10-month timeline that the strategic plan was set forth and allow us to develop something that we can look at and give us some guidelines. That strategic plan isn't meant for today that we did 12 years ago. That strategic plan was just meant to get us along. A strategic plan should really probably we should have done it seven, eight years ago. You need to keep moving. You need to tweak. You need to evolve. And what do we say about Palm Desert? Our values are constant. Our vision evolves. We've got our core values. We know what the values are of our community. Let's allow our vision to evolve and let's get to work on this. And those are my thoughts.
[01:21:09] Council Member Pedetto: If I may, I don't disagree. We plan, and I agree that waiting for change to stop isn't realistic. And I don't think you were talking specifically to my comments, but I do think that when I ran for office, you have consultants and they tell you what you should do or suggest, but at the end of the day, your victory or loss is based on your decisions. And so knowing that, I took a lot of risk in making decisions because I owned my decisions and I was not going to blame my consultants for steering me wrong. What I'm suggesting is we start the process, and I want to go into this process with complete command of the issues and circumstances. And that's my position is not necessarily delaying it, but taking a different approach before bringing on a consultant and for the council to have more input on driving the scope of work and the outcome.
[01:22:27] Council Member: I think you make some very good points in terms of—oh, so sorry. Oh, I was going to say, well, Council Member Pedetto, it seems like what you're suggesting aligns with what the mayor is suggesting in terms of let's get to work on the plan and...
[01:22:48] Council Member Pedetto: right, you want to get started as soon as possible, right? And my suggestion to do that is to start with a council subcommittee to review the current plan and look at the current circumstances, hold a study session, and also for the council subcommittee to develop a scope of work that is council-initiated that the council then will look at at a study session. I think my main objective is to make sure that this is council-driven more than it is consultant or staff-driven. And perhaps that could happen in a 10-month timeline.
[01:23:31] Council Member: It could, or it could take longer. I don't know. And I'm just trying to find common ground with all of us here to see. And I think you make some great points, Council Member Neandi. There are people who do strategic plans professionally. They know how to guide to the questions to ask, the prompts, just like—and I'm going to use AI as an example—for us to be effective with AI, we have to know the correct prompts. We have a feeling for our community, no question about it. And so often, and I know that you—I'll use your analogy of when you run and your consultant gives you something, you go, 'Yeah, that's good, but I got to put my voice in it. It's about my voice in the community and my knowledge of the community.' And we will absolutely have that opportunity with the consultants that have been chosen. They're not going to make it. They're going to rely on our input to develop this strategic plan, but they know the prompts, the guidance that is needed to get where we need to go. We give the filler. We give the bulk of the information and the guidance from what we know from living in our community. But they can provide the prompts. They can provide the pathway.
[01:25:01] Mayor: And it's up to us. We're not going to adopt something we don't like. That would never happen. We're going to look at it. We're going to say, 'Okay, that doesn't work. This works.' We're going to be part of the process. And perhaps I can have the city clerk talk a little bit about the process. It might be helpful because it seems like we've gotten a little lost on the role the council plays in this, and maybe that would be helpful.
[01:25:37] Staff Member: My understanding of the process is that, one, it begins with the project initiation and the kickoff and plan management. Phase two is really when the engagement starts, and my understanding is it does start with interviews with the City Council. And Mayor, I do think you're correct that the purpose of that is to get the sentiment of councils first, and then we go into those community engagement meetings, get more feedback, and then we begin drafting the plan. They also do a document review, so they look at the general plan, the existing strategic plan, any updates that were done. It's not going to fill in any gaps where staff doesn't have data to provide them about things that may or may not have ever been accomplished. But they do take a synopsis of all the things that are going on in the community. They'll look at perhaps the draft plans that are in the process of being developed related to development. And then they go into the drafting phase. I was going to recommend through this process that there would be a subcommittee to help review the drafting phase to ensure that it aligns with the council's expectations, and then come forward through a study session for formal feedback, and then final revisions under an 18-month plan. They also propose, which is the cost increase, to do another check-in with the City Council, especially those newer members, to ensure that their sentiments are incorporated into the plan, another final draft revision, and then council action.
[01:27:07] Councilmember: I think there's a big difference between saying, 'Hey, now that you're on board, what do you think?' versus 'Now that you're here, let's be sure you have a voice,' which, I mean, if we go back when we were looking at drawing the boundaries for the districts, one of the reasons that my peers chose map 109, I think it may have been B, in where the boundaries were drawn, a big chunk of the conversation was in regards to the growth of North Palm Desert. And I think that having a plan in place and then having someone that lives in the area where they haven't had that same opportunity before of how things change, of how things are to come, and now have that voice is different than kind of getting the... my brain is scrambling here... I think it would almost feel like a rubber stamp. To me, it would feel like a rubber stamp to have somebody that comes in a little bit later and say, 'Well, what do you think?' Now, I don't think that having somebody at the planning level of that gives them the same kind of footing and equity in having that voice. And I think that we also need to even look at when we start this process. Whether we decide right now to go with 10 or 18-month, I still think we need to push out and really make sure that we have a study session to look at where we are right now at meeting some of that. And I understand 2013 was just the first look at what needs to be there, but there are some really important things that were highlighted. One of the things that the city committed to was to look at how to create and grow, for example, within the arts, right? That there was going to be an arts district, that this is how we were going to have arts and entertainment be something that set us apart. We just hit our 50th, and that's something that I know as a city, we're still trying to look at what our identity is. We hear about, oh, Palm Desert's charm and Palm Desert's character. That's great. But as we look for our identity, we don't want to be Palm Springs. They have who they've been. Palm Springs is Palm Springs. Indio has grown. They've doubled in size. They have the music festival. That's their identity. They're the city of festivals. As the documents have guided, we want to be the home of arts and culture and entertainment. There were supposed to be plans in place to create an arts district. There were supposed to be plans in place to come up with...
[01:30:01] Council Member: Creating... not extravagant. Creating a, um, a signature event or growing upon them. I think, yes, we have the Food and Wine Festival, but honestly, to me, that feels like that's Palm Springs Life's baby and not Palm Desert's baby. I think that we need to be sure: Is this what we are—are we really even keeping to that? I think that's really important to try to figure out. Um, I think another element that was on there is that we had a commitment to diversify our economy. I think that when there have been all of the changes with, um, the, um, like the pandemic, we didn't diversify the kinds of jobs that were here. We just had people that brought their jobs with them when they came to buy up our homes here. That didn't give us any sort of opportunity to fulfill our commitment to explore what to do and what else we could attract. So those are substantial things for me to think. It's not minutia. It's not nitty-gritty. It's not an, 'Oh well, that was 2013, was a whole different lifetime ago, and it wasn't meant to be as solidifying.' So now we need to look at what we're doing. I honestly think that we owe it. We owe it to every single person that attended any of those meetings, the 16 or so people that were part of that leadership team that came and gave their time and said, 'This is what we want to do.' And I think that by saying we want to create a new strategic plan timeline, we're going to look ahead. I think it really needs to start with a good checkup of what we're doing. And I want to see a dedicated study session to say, 'Where are we? Where are we with this?' And in some of these updates, I mean, I would like to see it go section by section. I really would. Not just, 'Here's what we've done in all of these documents.' Again, a lot of these, it says, you know, at random here... let's eeny-meeny-miny find one. Um, section on green building: 'Community building stock that demonstrates high environmental performance through green design. Policy 7.1: Affordable housing green design. Require affordable housing developments to prioritize green building design features to reduce monthly utility costs, enhance occupant health, and lower overall cost of housing.' 'No program in place at this time.' That's surprising to me. Right below that, uh, education: 'Continue to provide technical support and information to educate the development community about green building.' 'No program in place at this time.' So, this lets me know either when this was done in 2024, somebody just went breezing by—'Yeah, we didn't do that yet. Yeah, we did do that'—either we aren't being very detailed with how we are documenting our progress, or we are really failing at some serious low-hanging fruit. And I think that we shouldn't rush in just 10 months, 10 months, 18 months. We're looking at a long-term plan, but we need to look at it in terms of the quality and the number of people that will be impacted. But my biggest concern is what this will do for staff, because the consultant's going to come in. They're going to consult. They're going to hand out their hand. They're going to get a big old check. They're going to go and have their people plug everything in through AI—because God love AI, as great as it is, yes, they're going to get context—but at the end of the day, our staff are going to be the ones to pull all of the information. Our staff are going to be the ones that have to feed the data to get that context. And we are not respecting everything staff is already doing if we're not honoring where we are right now. We're going to the doctor to say, 'How is my health going to look in five years, doc? How's my health going to be in seven years, doc?' But let's not look at my labs right now. That's how it feels.
[01:34:15] Presiding Officer: I saw some note-taking down here, which indicates there are some comments to be made. Would you like to, Council Member Petto?
[01:34:25] Council Member Petto: Yeah.
[01:34:28] Council Member Petto: First, I want to clarify, I don't think I'm confused on our role as a council, because as the council, we're elected to determine our role in this and what this plan represents. So I would define the role that I would like us to see us play is the leaders and initiators of this initiative, rather than a process that staff initiated, brought to us a cooked-up scope and process. I want to be on the ground floor of determining what...
[01:35:01] Speaker 1: The process is that determines what our strategic plan looks like. So, you know, also I go back to, I think, talking about prompts. You know, we could probably write this thing with ChatGPT: first step, second step, and so on.
[01:35:22] Speaker 2: Please. Okay. Um, actually agree with Council Member Pedetto as far as this. We haven't really determined whether the strategic plan we have in place, adopted in 2013, was successful or not. So we're talking about moving ahead without revisiting whether or not we made mistakes in the past, whether it was a worthwhile—even whether it's a worthwhile endeavor. You know, just a quick brief of this thing: there were huge pie-in-the-sky plans that were never implemented. And by that measuring stick, you could say, 'Well, we failed,' you know? But I don't look around this city and say we failed anything. We're hugely successful, fiscally responsible. Everything about our city—safe, is thriving. We're doing great without having implemented so many of these plans. And so many of the plans that were here were beyond our control anyway, like, you know, working together with CSUSB to develop housing or some of the other things that really aren't totally within our decision-making purview. It's a nice idea, but whether or not we can actually implement it is a whole other matter. So, I would rather see a real look at the existing strategic plan. Was it a worthwhile endeavor? Was it successful? Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past, if there were. We don't even know if we made mistakes developing this plan at all. Otherwise, we're just starting as though we just fell to here without really knowing what's worth taking from the original plan or not, or whether the process was flawed or not, and perhaps repeating that. So, I agree with Council Member Pedetto about forming a subcommittee of our council, reviewing it, having a study session before the full council, not even touching any kind of contract with the consultants until we even decide if the process is worthwhile. I'm not convinced it is, judging by what was presented to us here from the 2013 plan. That's where I stand on it. I think we've done great by not implementing a lot of these things. We're a hugely successful city, in my opinion, and whether or not this is even a worthwhile endeavor, I think, is worth visiting.
[01:37:31] Speaker 3: I'd like to remind people that a strategic plan isn't a document that sets forth mandates. It sets forth vision, aspirational vision. Quite often you don't do everything in it. You have ideas of what might happen and how you might fit in. We certainly didn't know about COVID. We didn't know about generative AI. We didn't know about a lot of things when that was done. And there were 120 community members who came together and worked on it. And there were lots of ideas, and they were good ideas. And a lot of them have moved down the road. We've gone along. We've worked on the CSU. We've built that. Some of them didn't work in today's environment. Perhaps if the environment that existed then was still in place, they would work. But it hasn't. It's changed, and we have to be flexible and work with it. Again, a strategic plan is not a document of mandates. It's a high-level document of vision that helps guide and can be changed. It's a living, breathing document that should be changed to work with the current conditions. So this is something that I believe that we are better off getting a move on. We let the other one go too long. We should have started on this project before, but there were things that got in the way, like COVID, and so we had to focus elsewhere. But it's time to focus on this and time to get together and talk about where we're going to go. We talk a lot about what role the staff plays. Well, let's hear from the staff. They're the experts. They're the boots on the ground. We're the concept people. So, let's work with their expertise and our concepts and vision, and let's put something together that gives us that high-level document that provides the guidelines as we go forward. And those are my feelings on this. And there's a lot to be said for having guidelines in place, having vision in...
[01:40:02] Mayor Karina: Place. We can look back and say, 'Did we do everything? Was it wrong?' Our goal is not to use our previous strategic plan to build on. It's to look at today's current environment and see how we can best go forward, how we can serve our community in the best way as a whole, holistically. How do we complement each other in the entirety of our community, in the entirety of our ever-evolving community? So, I would love to see us go forward with a strategic plan, work together on what we see important today, and be ready to be flexible when we go back in two and a half years and look at it and say, 'Okay, that didn't work. This does. Let's go forward.' So, and I see a lot of writing going on, which means there's more comments like... I have my hand up. Oh, I'm sorry, Gina. Thank you so much. Yes.
[01:41:13] Council Member Gina Nestandi: Yeah. So, I am listening to everyone here on our council. There are five of us. And to get anything done, we need three of us. And I'm hearing three of the council members say that they want a subcommittee. So what if we appointed you, Mayor, and one of the other council members to have the subcommittee with the hopeful goal of having a 10-month timeline, or maybe the subcommittee will come back and have another recommendation? I am just listening to everybody and trying to find perhaps a path forward.
[01:42:01] Mayor Karina: And I so appreciate that. And as our City Clerk has said, there is a role for a subcommittee in this process, and I think that's a great idea. And the subcommittee would then work how with the group that is setting forth the pathway for the strategic plan? When do they come into play on this?
[01:42:26] City Clerk: Sorry, could you repeat that?
[01:42:28] Mayor Karina: Well, Council Member Nestandi talked about putting in a subcommittee. You had talked previously that there is a subcommittee. Can you tell us when the subcommittee comes into play with this process?
[01:42:40] City Clerk: The obvious point for me would be definitely when we are going into the drafting phase, and the draft would be reviewed by the subcommittee to make sure there's alignment with the general sentiments of the Council, and then the study session would come back to Council with a draft plan. Certainly, we could establish the subcommittee before that and have it part of the environmental scanning process to ensure that we are looking at source documents or other components of the community that you would want the consultant to evaluate as they're progressing through the draft. So really, we could start it right from the beginning, or it would be during the review period of the draft plan.
[01:43:26] Mayor Karina: Okay. So, I think starting it right from the get is a wise way to go. And I would be more than happy to serve. And Council Member Praetto, you have some very strong feelings. Would you also like to serve on that subcommittee?
[01:43:42] Council Member Praetto: Actually, I was going to make a motion. And my motion—and this was, I was writing so I make sure I get the full aspect of it—I move that we abandon the consultant contract, form a subcommittee to evaluate and draft the scope and process so that it's a council-drafted scope and process report back to a study session with the council-developed scope and process recommendations. And I would recommend, actually, I would like to be on the subcommittee. Since Karina already volunteered, I had already written her name down. So that will be my motion.
[01:44:28] Council Member: I second that.
[01:44:31] Mayor Karina: Would that include any revisit of the existing strategic plan?
[01:44:35] Council Member Praetto: Yeah, part of the evaluation. Yeah.
[01:44:38] Council Member: Okay. Well, I get behind that.
[01:44:42] Mayor Karina: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Just to clarify, this is before we hire consultants at all. I don't want to spend any taxpayer money until we're...
[01:44:55] Council Member Praetto: Exactly. Okay. Perfect. Thank you.
[01:44:58] Mayor Karina: So is 'abandon' the appropriate word for...
[01:45:00] Speaker: Uh, I would say just direct staff to not execute the agreements. The agreements have not yet been executed.
[01:45:08] Speaker: Then we have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call vote, please?
[01:45:14] Speaker: Council Member Nestande, yes. Council Member Pertto, yes. Council Member Quintanilla, aye. Mayor Pro Tem, yes. Mayor Harnik, no. Motion passes 4 to 1. Thank you. Okay, we will now move to public hearings.
[01:45:31] Speaker: Uh, you know, and I didn't ask if we had any—did I ask if we had any public comment on that last one? Thank you. Okay, so going to public hearings. Uh, we'll go to 15A, approval of resolutions related to the adoption of the fiscal year 2025-26 financial plan and capital improvement program.
[01:45:56] Veronica Chavez: Good afternoon, honorable Mayor, members of the City Council. Veronica Chavez, your Director of Finance. Staff is happy to present the fiscal year 25-26 financial plan and five-year CIP plan. Um, um, one, one moment, please. What did we miss?
[01:46:15] Speaker: Was there Action Item D? Is that right?
[01:46:19] Speaker: Oh, no. I'm sorry. We already did that. I beg your pardon. My bad. Okay, he threw me a curve. We're back. Beg your pardon.
[01:46:28] Veronica Chavez: Um, you want me to start from the beginning, please? Okay. Uh, honorable members of the City Council, staff is happy to present the FY 25-26 financial plan and capital improvement plan. As you know, the City Council goals are established annually in February, and our budget is driven off of the City Council goals each year. This year, our goals included Cal State San Bernardino innovation and entrepreneurship, North Palm Desert development, the mall redevelopment, development of code and fire prevention updates, crime prevention technology, as well as assessing the city medians and right-of-ways.
[01:47:16] Veronica Chavez: For the FY 25-26 financial plan, staff developed a balanced budget, and on June 3rd, we held our study session with Council where the detailed budgets were delivered to Council as well as reviewed with staff at the study session. So today, we're looking more at a summary, a high-level summary for you.
[01:47:43] Veronica Chavez: So for the general fund, that is the fund that we use predominantly to cover operations of the city, and all the city services predominantly come from the general fund. Our revenue for 25-26 is estimated at $109.7 million, expenditures at $109.4 million, and we are projecting a surplus of $319,000.
[01:48:04] Veronica Chavez: The CIP for Year 1 is estimated at $67 million. Our public safety budget for 25-26 is $64 million, and we'll get into that a little more later. And no use of reserves are included in this year's budget for operations.
[01:48:23] Veronica Chavez: General fund revenues, as I mentioned earlier, are estimated at 109.7. That's a 31.9% increase compared to the prior year, driven predominantly by the approval of Measure G. 25-26 will be the first year that we implement the full year of sales tax from Measure G, and then also a slight increase in property tax is included in that estimate.
[01:48:48] Veronica Chavez: Our top three revenue sources still remain sales tax, TOT, and property tax.
[01:48:57] Veronica Chavez: General fund expenditures are estimated at 109.4, and that is a 31.8% increase compared to the prior year. The increase is primarily related to public safety costs, our staffing increase costs, and Measure G implementation.
[01:49:19] Veronica Chavez: Measure G has a five-year spending plan, and those items that you see there, one through five, are the items that we included in our spending plan along with the Measure G documents, and projected funds have been allocated per that plan. The funds that have been allocated support public safety, infrastructure improvements, and service enhancements.
[01:49:44] Veronica Chavez: The capital improvement plan for 25-26, as I mentioned, was $67.1 million. $56 million of those are capital projects, you see that there on the left, and the remaining $11 million are related to facility improvements and other.
[01:50:00] Veronica: Public works projects. Those items are delivered by various funds, not just the general fund, but we have expenditures in our enterprise funds, our internal service funds, capital project funds, and our special revenue funds. Any of the funds that are outside of the general funds are typically restricted and they can only be used for the purpose they're received for. Some key infrastructure that's included in next year's budget are Fire Station 102 construction, 33 and 71 renovation and rehabilitation, the start of those two projects, the new library construction, and some public facility upgrades. The capital projects that are included in the CIP plan were reviewed by the Planning Commission and align with the general plan.
[01:50:49] Veronica: So, public safety costs, we talked about them being 64.1 million. Of that, 39 million is funded by the general fund. The remaining is funded by our fire fund and some of our other grant funds that we have out there. So we have an additional 25 million that come from our special funds. 36% of the general fund is allocated to public safety and we anticipate completion of Fire Station 102 in May of 2026, and that is exactly what has increased most of the cost for fire services and the transfer that we're making there.
[01:51:32] Veronica: Our total other governmental funds are budgeted at 144 million. And again, those are the restricted funds that I spoke about earlier. They cover transportation, parks, drainage, public art, our enterprise funds, which includes Desert Willow and Park View, our assessment districts, you heard about those tonight, and our CFDs, and also the housing authority.
[01:51:55] Veronica: One of the other requirements we have with budget is our appropriations limit and that's basically the state-imposed spending cap for all cities. Our calculated 25-26 limit is $194 million. And so with the general fund at 109 million, we're well within that legal limit.
[01:52:17] Veronica: The other item that you have included in the budget is the staff allocation resolution as well as our out-of-state travel memo. The staff allocation resolution provides classification groups, all the allocated positions for the city and the 25-26 salary schedule based on our current.
[01:52:36] Veronica: All out-of-state travel must be approved by City Council at a public meeting. And so the memo you have notes all the intended travel for 25-26.
[01:52:47] Veronica: So to sum that up, the financial plan as presented results in a revenue surplus, does not require the use of reserves for operations, and aligns with the 25 City Council goals. The highlights include Measure G being fully allocated per the plan and will be reviewed by the finance committee, which they'll get their first quarterly report in July. And—oops, I did miss one—estimated year-end fund balance for 24-25 is $99.4 million. Of that, we have a required reserve of about $76 million entering into 25-26.
[01:53:31] Veronica: So, our recommendation is that we conduct the public hearing, approve the resolutions, approve the out-of-state memo, and staff will return after summer recess with a 10-year cash flow projections as well as discussion on the reserve and potential considerations with the reserve.
[01:53:55] Veronica: That concludes my report. If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.
[01:53:58] Mayor Hornik: Thank you. Are there any questions?
[01:54:00] Council Member: Please, Veronica, when we do—before we do the 10-year assessment, would it be possible to get those reports like a minimum week in advance so we could spend some time with it?
[01:54:11] Veronica: Absolutely.
[01:54:12] Council Member: Okay. Thank you.
[01:54:14] Mayor Hornik: Are there any other questions? No questions? Seeing none, then we will open the public hearing. Are there any public comments?
[01:54:26] City Clerk: No public comments, Madame Mayor.
[01:54:30] Mayor Hornik: Okay. Are there any comments from my peers?
[01:54:35] Council Member: No. I'll move approval.
[01:54:38] Council Member: I will second.
[01:54:39] Mayor Hornik: Second. Can I close the public hearing and entertain a motion?
[01:54:44] Council Member: Moved.
[01:54:48] Council Member: Second.
[01:54:50] Mayor Hornik: Can we have a roll call vote, please?
[01:54:52] City Clerk: Council Member Nesti, yes. Council Member Pedto, yes. Council Member Quintanilla, aye. Mayor Pro Tem, yes. Mayor Hornik, yes. Motion passes five to—
[01:55:02] Mayor: ...zero. Thank you so much. That was easy.
[01:55:06] Mayor: Okay. We will go to 15B: Approve the engineer's report, order the levy and collection of assessments in the City of Palm Desert Benefit Assessment District Number One for fiscal year 2025-26.
[01:55:28] Maria Gonzalez: Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. My name is Maria Gonzalez with the Public Works Department, and I'm also joined by our consultant, Wen Financial Services. Before you is a staff report regarding the levy and collection of assessments in the Benefit Assessment District, and we are happy to answer any questions.
[01:55:47] Mayor: Thank you very much. Are there any questions?
[01:55:50] Council Member: No.
[01:55:51] Mayor: Okay, then we will open the public...
[01:55:59] Mayor: And are there any—were there any public comments? I'm sorry.
[01:56:02] City Clerk: No online public comments.
[01:56:04] Mayor: Okay. And are there any comments at the dais? Or Council Member Nandi, are there any comments?
[01:56:13] Council Member Nandi: No. Thank you, Mayor.
[01:56:17] Mayor: Okay, then I will close the public hearing. A little tap, and I'll entertain a motion.
[01:56:28] Council Member: Move approval.
[01:56:30] Council Member: I will second.
[01:56:31] Mayor: Can we have a roll call vote, please?
[01:56:32] City Clerk: Council Member Nandi?
[01:56:33] Council Member Nandi: Yes.
[01:56:34] City Clerk: Council Member Petto?
[01:56:35] Council Member Petto: Yes.
[01:56:36] City Clerk: Council Member Quintanilla?
[01:56:37] Council Member Quintanilla: Aye.
[01:56:38] City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tem Trippy?
[01:56:39] Mayor Pro Tem Trippy: Yes.
[01:56:40] City Clerk: Motion passes 5 to 0.
[01:56:41] Mayor: Yes. Sorry. Okay.
[01:56:48] Mayor: We will go to 15C: Approve the engineer's report and the levy and collection of annual assessments within Consolidated Palm Desert Landscaping and Lighting District Number One for fiscal year 2025-26.
[01:57:04] Maria Gonzalez: Good afternoon again. So, before you is a staff report regarding the levy and collection of annual assessments in the Landscaping and Lighting District. And again, we're here to answer any questions that you may have.
[01:57:16] Mayor: Thank you very much. Are there any questions?
[01:57:19] Council Member: No.
[01:57:20] Mayor: Okay, then we will open the public hearing. Any comments?
[01:57:25] City Clerk: No comments.
[01:57:26] Mayor: Any public?
[01:57:27] City Clerk: None.
[01:57:28] Mayor: None, and none up here. I'll close it. It's so easy. And I'll entertain a motion, please.
[01:57:35] Council Member: Moved.
[01:57:37] Council Member: Second.
[01:57:40] Mayor: Can we have a roll call vote?
[01:57:41] City Clerk: Council Member Nesti?
[01:57:42] Council Member Nesti: Yes.
[01:57:43] City Clerk: Council Member Purdue?
[01:57:44] Council Member Purdue: Yes.
[01:57:45] City Clerk: Council Member Quintanilla?
[01:57:46] Council Member Quintanilla: Aye.
[01:57:47] City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tem Trippy?
[01:57:48] Mayor Pro Tem Trippy: Yes.
[01:57:49] City Clerk: Mayor Hick?
[01:57:50] Mayor Hick: Yes.
[01:57:51] City Clerk: Motion passes 5 to 0.
[01:57:53] Mayor: Okay. We will go to 15D: Approve a General Plan amendment from Smalltown Neighborhood to Neighborhood Center and change of zone from Planned Residential to Office Professional for a property on the northwest corner of Fred Waring and Fair Haven.
[01:58:14] Carlos Flores: Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council. Carlos Flores, Development Services, here to present on the proposal in front of you today. The proposal comes from Statewide Services, an applicant applying for a General Plan amendment and change of zone to facilitate the conversion of a former church into a medical building. The General Plan amendment would change a land use designation from Smalltown Neighborhood to Neighborhood Center. Change of zone would change from Planned Residential to Office Professional. Neither the General Plan land use designation or zoning designation allow medical professional offices, but the proposed change would allow these uses.
[01:58:55] Carlos Flores: So, here's the location in front of you. So, you see the red square, that is the property in question. As you can see just from the aerial, it is connected—it has a vehicular connection to an existing medical facility directly adjacent to it. And so, part of the facilitation is that cohesiveness between the medical facility. So, this site here, it is again, it was a former church. To the north and to the east, there's existing residential, and then to the west, existing medical offices.
[01:59:28] Carlos Flores: Here's a view of the site. So, you can see it's fully improved with landscaping, the existing building, and parking lot.
[01:59:39] Carlos Flores: These images here are just renderings for presentation purposes. There's no formal application for this change here, but it's just to give an idea in terms of the applicant's intent of the site, which, you know, this is the first step that is needed to convert this building. So, it currently sits...
[02:00:00] Staff: ...vacant. But in order for them to convert it to medical, they need this change of land use. If approved, the applicant would come back with a design review application to change the building and the interior and some of the paint changes.
[02:00:16] Staff: Here on the screen are the colors on the map that are being proposed. Again, the change of zone, it currently exists as planned residential and is being proposed for office professional.
[02:00:28] Staff: On the general plan, it is currently small town neighborhood, being proposed to be neighborhood center. A little bit of history around the site to see how we got here. So, this site has had this church building which, again, is currently vacant. It's approximated to have been built in 1968.
[02:00:46] Staff: It has not changed uses since its original construction and operation. Sorry, there's a fly here. In the year 2000, the property directly north of this, there was an approval for a general plan amendment and change of zone to construct a 250-unit retirement community. On the property directly west in 2001, there was a change of zone from planned residential to office and the general plan amendment at the same time to facilitate the construction of a medical office.
[02:01:15] Staff: So as you can see, the property surrounding this property had some entitlement to facilitate those uses. This one remained at its current designation since it had the building prior to city incorporation; it has remained as is.
[02:01:34] Staff: I will not read this verbatim, but the general plan amendment staff reviewed, and in order to facilitate the medical offices, the current general plan designation is intended for purely residential, and the change to a neighborhood center would allow a concentration of commercial business and civic amenities as well as these non-residential uses. The change would not remove the ability to construct housing on this site.
[02:02:05] Staff: So this site currently could construct housing, and the change would not do that. Here is the proposed change of zone. So you see the colors on the map, the red square surrounding the property that is the property in question. It is planned residential. It is being proposed to change to the purple for office professional.
[02:02:30] Staff: You can see on north and south of Fred Waring, there's a lot of properties along Fred Waring that are currently office professional. It's intended for various levels of business office and professional land uses. Residential land uses are permitted in the office professional zone. So if a church were to want to go back, it still would be allowed to.
[02:02:54] Staff: There will also be development standards, including a maximum height of 40 feet, which is the current maximum height of planned residential. Also want to note there were some concerns when this came to planning commission about future development on this site. The change of general plan or change of zone would not change any future processes on this site. As the site currently sits right now, any future buildings would have to go through a public hearing process, and the site today could construct new buildings on the site. It would remain the same even if approved today.
[02:03:32] Staff: So again, in staff reviewing the requirements and findings for a general plan amendment, we did find that it's in the public interest to maintain the character of Fred Waring Drive, and also because of the cohesiveness to the property directly to the west.
[02:03:49] Staff: So, public noticing was conducted for this public hearing, including a recently updated assembly bill that requires not just 10-day noticing, but 20-day noticing for these types of actions. Notices were mailed to all property owners within 500 feet of the site. There was a letter received today of public comment for this council hearing, which you received on May 20th. The planning commission did adopt a planning commission resolution to recommend the city council approve. Public comments were received for that meeting, both in support and opposition of the project.
[02:04:29] Staff: For CEQA purposes, we find that the project is exempt under the exemption for existing facilities. And with all that said, our staff recommendation today is to approve the project, which would consist of a general plan amendment and change of zone. Thank you. Are there any questions?
[02:04:53] Council Member: No, please.
[02:04:55] Council Member: I defer to our mayor pro tem.
[02:04:58] Mayor Pro Tem: Okay. Just, this is actually kind of more to satisfy...
[02:05:00] Council Member: Just out of curiosity, in January 2000, a 250-unit retirement community was approved to the north. Was it ever built?
[02:05:09] Staff: Yes, it is built and existing.
[02:05:12] Council Member: Cool. And the building dates back to construction in 1968. How long has it not been utilized as a church, or empty, or abandoned, or whatever you want to call it?
[02:05:20] Staff: I don't know off the top of my head. The applicant may know, but I believe it's been about two years.
[02:05:26] Council Member: Okay, that's it. Thank you.
[02:05:27] Mayor Hornik: Any other questions?
[02:05:31] Council Member: Yes, my question: can you briefly summarize the public comments in support or opposition? We look at it in one place, but I always wondered, since I wasn't able to attend the previous ones or previous incarnations of the issue, were there any substantial concerns?
[02:05:52] Staff: There were concerns from the surrounding residential developments on future buildings being constructed on here. So, what would it look like? What is going to happen on the site? Not necessarily on the existing building, but future buildings, and some concern about heights and some concerns about traffic. There was some conversation about the use of Fair Haven and any future development on there, and essentially the answer from staff, as well as during the Planning Commission meeting, is that any future buildings, any future projects, would have to go through a precise plan process which requires public hearings to analyze impacts.
[02:06:36] Council Member: Thank you.
[02:06:37] Mayor Hornik: We do have letters within our packet. Thank you. Are there any other questions?
[02:06:45] Council Member: Questions, please. Okay. So, the concern voiced by the resident on Fair Haven, or Vista Bonita, sorry, is that increased traffic on a dead-end road is expected because a church meets once a week theoretically and there's not as much traffic anticipated at a church as it would be at a medical facility. But also, she, this resident, voiced a concern about building height. But the plans that I saw, the schematic or the design, was just to replace, basically change the skin of the building, not the height. Is that right?
[02:07:19] Staff: Right, there's no change to any buildings proposed right now, and the maximum height of the zone would not change. So currently, the maximum height is 40 feet. The change of zone, the new standard, would be 40 feet as well.
[02:07:34] Council Member: And the building height right now at its tallest is about 40 feet, right?
[02:07:38] Staff: And any new buildings would have to again go through that public process to review those height standards.
[02:07:42] Council Member: All right, cool. Thank you.
[02:07:44] Mayor Hornik: Any other questions? We'll open the—oh, did you have one?
[02:07:52] Council Member: No, I was saying no in case.
[02:07:55] Mayor Hornik: Oh, thank you. Okay, we'll open the public hearing. And are there any public comments, Mr. City Clerk?
[02:08:02] City Clerk: No online comments, Madam.
[02:08:04] Mayor Hornik: Okay. And we do have a blue card from Mr. Lua. So, please give your name for the record and address.
[02:08:16] Oscar Lua: Hello, Mayor Hornik, council members, staff. Hi, Rosie. My name is Oscar Lua. I am the applicant developer on the project. Happy to answer any questions. The current building is 26 feet, so we're well underneath the 40 feet. This is just, in essence, a tenant improvement, upgrading the exterior facade of the building, which we'll go through the proper processes of that when we get to that. Currently, we do have an approved interior demolition. The building is old, a lot of remediation required. We're currently in our AQMD process. We're slated to start interior demolition, which we already have an approved permit for, on the 7th of July. Other than that, it's pretty simple. We're not going to be modifying the site at this time. We don't have any plans as of today to add more buildings to the site. So, just a medical building with a medical tenant that we have in tow. So, pretty simple, but I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have for me, and I'll answer to the best of my ability. Thank you.
[02:09:28] Mayor Hornik: Okay. Are there any questions of the applicant?
[02:09:30] Council Member: I do have one question. Are you able to indicate what type of specialty your applicant will offer?
[02:09:36] Oscar Lua: Just general medical at this time, you know, family practice. Nothing specific.
[02:09:39] Council Member: Yeah, thank you.
[02:09:41] Mayor Hornik: Did you have a question for the applicant?
[02:09:44] Council Member: Yeah. Oscar Lua, New England Patriots, Super Bowl champ, former linebacker?
[02:09:49] Oscar Lua: One and the same, yeah.
[02:09:50] Mayor Hornik: What a—well, that certainly was germane to the subject, so thank you for bringing that up. Good.
[02:09:58] Oscar Lua: But if it helps your approval, by all means, I'll bring the...
[02:10:00] Council Member: Rings next time if that works.
[02:10:02] Council Member: No problem. That may hurt you depending, Raider fan or something, right? Yeah.
[02:10:08] Council Member: Okay. Thank you.
[02:10:10] Mayor Harnik: If there are no other questions, then we will... Are there any comments? No. Okay. I'll close the public hearing and entertain a motion. Thank you.
[02:10:24] Council Member: I move to approve.
[02:10:26] Council Member: I'll second.
[02:10:27] Mayor Harnik: I'll second. So many seconds. Can we have a roll call vote, please?
[02:10:31] City Clerk: Yes. Council Member Nestande?
[02:10:34] Council Member Nestande: Yes.
[02:10:34] City Clerk: Council Member Pettto?
[02:10:35] Council Member Pettto: Yes.
[02:10:36] City Clerk: Council Member Quintanilla?
[02:10:37] Council Member Quintanilla: Yes.
[02:10:38] City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tem?
[02:10:39] Mayor Pro Tem: Yes.
[02:10:40] City Clerk: Mayor Harnik?
[02:10:41] Mayor Harnik: Yes.
[02:10:41] City Clerk: Motion passes 5 to 0.
[02:10:43] Mayor Harnik: Thank you. We'll go to 15E. Introduction of an ordinance amending Palm Desert Municipal Code Chapter 9.24, Noise Control, to establish uniform property maintenance operating hours. CEQA determination. Mr. Rodriguez.
[02:10:58] Mr. Rodriguez: Good afternoon, Mayor, members of the City Council. I'm here to introduce an ordinance for you. It's an ordinance amendment for Palm Desert Municipal Chapter 9.24 to amend operating hours. This proposal is a result of direction received from Council at two past study sessions, and the proposal has some very important key changes that were discussed, and I'd like to discuss those here. One of them is the removal of outdated language regarding agricultural operations in Caroline Chimes. It establishes uniform operating hours for property maintenance using power equipment, and those hours are going to be 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Sunday, holidays not permitted. An exemption to property owners performing their own maintenance on their own property—they will be exempt from all provisions of the ordinance. This proposal's operating hours will align with those established for city-hired contractors and reflect the industry standards for property maintenance activities. That concludes my report, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you so much.
[02:12:13] Mayor Harnik: Thank you so much. Are there any questions? And I'll open the public hearing. Were there any public comments?
[02:12:21] City Clerk: No comments.
[02:12:22] Mayor Harnik: Okay. Are there any comments at the dais? None. And I will close the public hearing and entertain a motion.
[02:12:29] Council Member: I move to approve.
[02:12:32] Council Member: Second.
[02:12:34] Mayor Harnik: You have a motion and a second.
[02:12:37] City Clerk: Mayor... yes. Council Member Nestande?
[02:12:40] Council Member Nestande: Yes.
[02:12:41] City Clerk: Council Member Pettto?
[02:12:43] Council Member Pettto: Yes.
[02:12:44] City Clerk: Council Member Quintanilla?
[02:12:45] Council Member Quintanilla: Yes.
[02:12:46] City Clerk: Mayor Pro Tem?
[02:12:47] Mayor Pro Tem: Yes.
[02:12:48] City Clerk: Mayor Harnik?
[02:12:49] Mayor Harnik: Yes.
[02:12:49] City Clerk: Motion passes 5 to 0.
[02:12:50] Mayor Harnik: Thank you so much. And are there any comments that anyone would like to provide at this time?
[02:12:58] Council Member Quintanilla: I do have a comment, Madame Mayor. I wanted to encourage everyone that as we look at the extreme heat, remember to check in on your neighbors and also to extend your compassion and your humanity to your neighbors that you may or may not know may be even afraid to leave their homes right now. I know that we typically tend to try to stay away from controversial national issues, but we have to acknowledge that when people are afraid to leave their home, when people are afraid to go to the doctor, when people are afraid of being profiled, when we see communities where their due process is being overlooked, we see restaurants in our neighboring cities that they are closing because they are not having their staff come in or because patrons fear going to some of these establishments. So, I just ask that you keep in mind a little bit of patience to support our local businesses when you can, and keep in mind that the hardworking people out there are the ones that pick the food. They are the ones that make it possible for you to have the food that you go out and entertain. Palm Desert is built on immigrant labor that feeds hospitality, that makes sure that we have that vibrant economy. We depend on tourism, and we don't have that tourism if we don't have the people that are going to work in these establishments. And putting it out there as a human being and a community leader, if you are afraid to leave your home to go get groceries, please reach out to me. I'm sure we can help find people that can help find those basic needs for you. We know the importance of food shelters. We know FIND Food Bank is growing, but we are going to see the price of food increase because people are not picking the crops. So that is where my general...
[02:15:02] Speaker 1: ...plea at the end of the meetings to have humanity and compassion and love for one another. So those are my thoughts. Thank you.
[02:15:10] Speaker 2: Would anyone else like to make a comment? No. Remember it is 4th of July, which is Independence Day, that Civic Center Park will have a wonderful event to celebrate something that is more important than fireworks. So keep, keep in mind, please, the true meaning of Independence Day. Seeing no unfinished business, this meeting stands adjourned. Good evening, everybody, and bye-bye. Congratulations, Gina.