Palm Desert City Council - Regular Meeting, March 26, 2026

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AI transcript text.

[00:05:46] Mayor Trubee: Okay, welcome everybody. We are here to open up... We have a call to order for the regular meeting of March 26th, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. I guess we can get a roll call, please.
[00:06:01] City Clerk: Council member Harnik.
[00:06:02] Councilmember Harnik: Here.
[00:06:03] City Clerk: Council member Nestande.
[00:06:04] Councilmember Nestande: Here.
[00:06:05] City Clerk: Council member King Duniyas absent. Mayor pro tem Perdeto.
[00:06:07] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: Here.
[00:06:08] City Clerk: And Mayor Trubee.
[00:06:09] Mayor Trubee: Here.
[00:06:10] Mayor Trubee: I will now lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. If you would please stand and...
[00:06:19] Mayor Trubee: All right, repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[00:06:38] Mayor Trubee: Okay, I will now ask... I know your agenda may say inspiration by Council member Kitanias. In her stead, we will have Mayor pro tem Joe Perdeto provide the words of inspiration.
[00:06:50] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: Tomorrow we'll be honoring a new and our 34th recipient of the annual Senior Inspiration Award, Carlos Sullivan Dilley. She is the CEO and president of the Coachella Valley Disaster Preparedness Network and focused on improving our community by helping families be self-reliant and improve our community resiliency. So, it's an honor to serve our community and such committed individuals within it, and I ask us to all take inspiration from that as we do the people's work.
[00:07:31] Mayor Trubee: Perfect. Thank you very much. Next, we have a report of closed session.
[00:07:37] City Attorney: Thank you, Mayor. There's no reportable action to report from this afternoon's closed session.
[00:07:40] Mayor Trubee: Perfect. Okay, then we move on to item number nine, awards presentations and appointments. We have a proclamation for a Mr. Frank Locatelli. Is he here today? There he is. Terrific. And if I could be joined by my fellow council members.
[00:08:13] Mayor Trubee: Terrific. All right. We'll meet you down there. Yes, sir.
[00:08:33] Mayor Trubee: Okay, well, this is pretty heady stuff here. I'm going to read the proclamation for Mr. Locatelli. All right. Whereas, Frank Locatelli, a resident of Palm Desert, devoted his career to the pursuit of scientific discovery and human exploration, serving as one of the principal architects of NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft missions that forever expanded humanity's understanding of the universe. And whereas, working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the early 1970s, Mr. Locatelli helped design spacecraft capable of exploring the outer planets at a time when such a journey had never before been attempted, overcoming immense technological limitations through ingenuity, precision, and perseverance. And whereas, through innovation both before and after the launch, Mr. Locatelli and his team developed groundbreaking methods that allowed the Voyager spacecraft to continue transmitting scientific data from billions of miles away long beyond their original mission expectation. And whereas, the Voyager missions produced some of the most enduring moments in scientific history. I think we've all seen the photos and the pictures of the planets, including the iconic pale blue dot image and the first successful entry of human-made objects into interstellar space, milestones that reshaped...
[00:10:01] Mayor Evan Trubee: humanity's view of its place in the cosmos, and whereas more than four decades after launch, the Voyager spacecraft continue their silent journey through interstellar space carrying with them humanity's messages to the universe and standing as a lasting testament to Mr. Locatelli's life's work and vision, and whereas Frank Locatelli's achievements reflect the very best of human curiosity, dedication, and service, and his presence in Palm Desert is a source of pride and inspiration connecting the city to one of the most profound scientific endeavors in history. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Evan Trubee, mayor of the city of Palm Desert on behalf of the entire city council, do hereby honor Frank Locatelli for his extraordinary scientific achievements and lasting contributions to humanity and celebrate the legacy of innovation and exploration his work represents. So, big round of applause for Mr. Locatelli.
[00:11:00] Mayor Evan Trubee: Thank you. So, a few words. Absolutely.
[00:11:07] Frank Locatelli: Okay. Yeah, absolutely. I'd like to share something with the audience today about the Voyager missions. Um, the thing that comes to mind, I asked myself, um, if I had an opportunity to speak today, then what would the subject be? And irrevocably, I chose this one that I'm about to share with you. The mission reliability people on Voyager at the beginning said to us engineers, um, 'You can't design a spacecraft that will last as long as some of the applications that you're planning um will last.' And that's because of the statistical probability of errors and the combination of those is such that you cannot do that. And so, the project was listening to this carefully. So was our science team and the engineering teams. And we, the message here is that we overcame those obstacles, those supposedly scientific or um engineering obstacles um by actually the probability curves um were such that um we could as individual engineers uh reviews to buy off on certain discrepancies and therefore shift that curve and we did so. Uh, it wasn't only me. There was a team of people, a team of people. And uh, listen, part of this message to you is that a team of people is much more powerful than a single individual. And um, and so, we were a team. Uh, we made many, I was only a single member of that team that made major contributions to the success of that mission, those missions of both spacecraft. And so, it's a lesson. It's a lesson here and I'm concluding that um, uh, there's there's power in teamwork and we are capable of working as a team if we're highly motivated. We can get anything done and the Voyagers were a case of evidence of that that profound thinking. Thank you.
[00:14:34] Mayor Evan Trubee: Thank you.
[00:14:37] Frank Locatelli: Keep voting. It's like other contestants because the team is... Thank you.
[00:14:54] Mayor Evan Trubee: There we are. Mr. I thought we could have a few photos here with the...
[00:14:59] Speaker: We want a picture. We want a picture. Yeah, two pictures. Yeah. We want a picture. We want a picture. Yeah.
[00:15:04] Mayor Evan Trubee: Okay.
[00:15:13] Mayor Evan Trubee: All right, terrific. Thank you. Thank you, sir. All right. Well, I actually uh, our librarian uh, Shannon is here. Maybe a speaking engagement for Mr. Frank Locatelli would be nice at one of our community... What a wealth of information and inspirational words. Thank you, sir. Oh. Where do you want us? Yeah, no, come on. We got more photos coming. I want all you guys to come up to the team. Didn't he just talk about teamwork? Well, I'll tell you. All right, here we go. I love it. Here we go. Okay, we are now going to recognize and honor Government Finance Professionals Week. Whereas the California Society of Municipal Finance Officers is the state's leading professional organization dedicated to promoting excellence in financial management for California's local governments, and whereas Government Finance Professionals serve cities, counties, special districts, and joint powers authorities by ensuring transparency, accountability, and responsible stewardship of public funds, and whereas these professionals play a critical role in managing complex budgets, complying with state and federal laws, maintaining accurate financial reporting in compliance with government accounting standards, administering utility rate processes and enterprise funds, and supporting long-term financial sustainability, and whereas California's financial landscape shaped by Proposition 13, Proposition 218, and Gann appropriations limits, CalPERS pension obligations, and fluctuating economic condition requires expert analysis and sound financial leadership, and whereas finance professionals work diligently, often behind the scenes, to provide critical information that enables informed policy decisions and ensures the delivery of essential public services, and whereas recognizing Government Finance Professionals Week during the last week of March, which is now, yeah, um, helps highlight the dedication, integrity, and professionalism of these essential public servants. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Evan Trubee, mayor of the city of Palm Desert on behalf of the entire city council, do hereby proclaim that the last week of March be Government Finance Professionals Week in the city of Palm Desert and encourage all residents to recognize and appreciate... uh-huh, I think there's a few more words... recognize and appreciate the hard work and contributions of the finance professionals who serve our community. I absolutely wholeheartedly second this and say it loud and proud, our finance team is incredible. Our city is run so well and we are very, very blessed to have you. Thank you. So, come on up. Let's do some pictures with Frank.
[00:18:08] Staff: Thank you, Mayor. Real quickly, along the same lines, the finance team is a small piece of a greater team that is really doing the hard work and we're just happy to partner with everybody to do that. So, thank you.
[00:18:21] Mayor Evan Trubee: There we go. Let's get some photos.
[00:18:31] Mayor Evan Trubee: Yeah. We're going to have to... You know what? Should... Do you want rows of us up here? It's okay. Okay, good.
[00:18:44] Mayor Evan Trubee: So, I have something awesome. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[00:18:51] Staff: It's a great honor to be here. Thank you.
[00:18:55] Mayor Evan Trubee: What... what's... There we go. All right. Very good. Next, we have water conservation month. And by the way, if any residents are here, we all enjoy nice things, nice roads, good services, in large part thanks to the finance team. They help it all manage it all, make it all work. So, again, thank you. Okay, water conservation month. Do we have anybody to receive this, Anthony? Or is... Was this just announcement? Oh, from the water district? From staff. There we go. Okay, very good. Whereas water is a vital and limited natural resource essential to the health, sustainability, and quality of life in the city of Palm Desert and throughout the Coachella Valley, and whereas the city of Palm Desert in partnership with the Coachella Valley Water District is committed to promoting water conservation and encouraging the responsible and efficient use of water resources, and whereas the actions we take today to conserve water will help protect our environment and ensure a sustainable water supply for future generations. And whereas the Wyland National Mayors Challenge for water...
[00:20:01] Mayor Evan Trubee: ...conservation held April 1st through April 30th, 2026, encourages residents to make simple, impactful pledges to reduce water use and protect natural resources. And whereas through community participation and leadership, the City of Palm Desert strives to foster a culture of environmental stewardship and sustainability. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Evan Trubee, Mayor of the City of Palm Desert, California, on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 2026 as Water Conservation Month in the City of Palm Desert and urge all residents to participate in the Wyland National Mayors Challenge for water conservation and to take meaningful steps to conserve water and protect our environment. So, a few words on tips, and wanted to share with everyone that the city will be sharing out a link to go ahead and take the pledge yourself. Do what you can to save water at home and look for that on the city website and social media coming up next month.
[00:21:03] Mayor Evan Trubee: Perfect. Any photos or... Yeah, very good. Let's do it.
[00:21:21] Mayor Evan Trubee: All right. Thanks very much. Excellent. Thank you. There we go.
[00:21:31] Mayor Evan Trubee: Right. So, excellent. Okay, next up we have... We are recognizing Doug Walker for receiving the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California Service with Distinction Award. And Mr. Walker, of course, is here today. If you'd like to actually come on up while I'm reading this. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you, Mr. Walker. Whereas the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California presents the Service with Distinction Award to individuals who have made exceptional professional or voluntary contributions advancing the mission and continued excellence of mosquito and vector control. And whereas this distinguished award recognizes individuals whose service reflects significant impact within their communities and meaningful advancement of science-based mosquito and vector control practices throughout California. And whereas Doug Walker, trustee of the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District, received the Service with Distinction Award in recognition of 18 years of dedicated leadership and steadfast commitment to protecting public health through environmentally responsible and scientifically grounded vector control programs. And whereas appointed by the City of Palm Desert in 2007, Trustee Walker has faithfully represented the community while bringing extensive expertise as a Professor Emeritus and retired Dean of Applied Sciences at College of the Desert, holding a Master of Science degree in Entomology from the University of California, Davis and maintaining a California Pest Control Advisor license for more than 40 years. And whereas as a Palm Desert resident since 1971, before our founding, Trustee... Very good. Trustee Walker has further demonstrated a lifelong commitment to civic leadership through 25 years of service with the Living Desert and 35 years of involvement in Rotary, strengthening the environmental stewardship and community well-being of the Coachella Valley. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that I, Evan Trubee, Mayor of the City of Palm Desert, on behalf of the entire City Council, do hereby recognize Doug Walker for receiving the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California Service with Distinction Award and commend him for his exceptional service, professional distinction, and enduring commitment to protecting public health and serving the residents of Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley. Excellent work. I know I haven't heard anything about West Nile for a long time, and we're going to keep our fingers crossed that we won't. So, excellent work. Thank you, Mr. Walker.
[00:24:03] Mayor Evan Trubee: There we go. And shall we do some photos? Thank you, Mr. Walker. Thank you, sir. And get a photo... Yeah. Very good. There you are, sir. No. All right. Good. Come on up. Very good. Cool. Okay. Represented us so long. Okay. All right. Let's see. We have just a presentation about the Coachella Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District Board update. Any thoughts you'd like to share with us?
[00:25:28] Doug Walker: Well, thank you. Thank you for the recognition. But more importantly, thanks for the recognition of the Mosquito and Vector Control District. So, good afternoon, Mayor Trubee and members of the Council, and city staff, and members of our community who happen to be attending today. I would like to take just a moment to introduce our son, Scott, who I know the Mayor knows from bicycling over time. And I definitely like to introduce my wife, Ann, who has been very supportive during the years I've been able to serve on the Mosquito and Vector Control District Board. You can imagine what some people think when people ask her, 'Now, where are you and your husband going?' 'Oh, we're going to a mosquito meeting.' And I'm sure people get really excited about that. Also, I have a couple representatives from the district itself here today. I'd like to introduce Megan Scarborough Eckel, who is currently the clerk of the board and the executive assistant to the general manager. And then speaking of recognizing finance people, we have David Iannson, who is our chief financial officer. And I would add the description of extraordinaire. It's amazing the number of awards that our finance department has earned for transparency and accuracy over the years. And then, I'm not sure where you went now, but we also have one member of our media staff, Alex, who is here today. A brief update. I've hoped that people recognize by now that we are fortunate in this valley to have one of the premier mosquito and vector control districts in the state and also in the nation. We have, fortunately, a very professional staff. And as it was mentioned before, one of the reasons for the success of the district, they really have been able to develop and maintain a team attitude. They don't just have separate departments; they work together in order to accomplish the mission of protecting public health. And they use an integrated approach that is very much science-based. And that includes surveillance. There are traps throughout the valley to capture mosquitoes, and then they're brought into the lab for identification and testing. And what that allows the district to do is use much more focused control efforts. If you know where the mosquitoes are and where you happen to find West Nile virus or some other disease in a mosquito, you know the areas to focus on. It's not just broadcasting control. And then an important area of the district has been the, and growing, the public outreach and education group, because as residents, we all play a role in helping to control mosquitoes, especially with the arrival of our Aedes mosquito in the valley a few years ago. They can reproduce in such small amounts of water, and they're so difficult to control, that each of us can play a role in making sure we don't have standing water, including, they love things like potted plants in those saucers that have a little too much water in them. You can have an ice brood right there. And I would say the district also has operated in a very fiscally responsible fashion in terms of carrying out their duties here in the valley. I'd like to share fairly quickly here two areas of innovation that are currently occurring at the district. One of those, not too surprisingly, is the use of drones. Although the district's getting into drones, it's been done in a very deliberate, controlled fashion.
[00:30:02] Mr. Walker: Trying to make sure that the drones are able to serve a valuable purpose for the district in a cost-effective way. They're used primarily currently for surveillance, and with some limited control efforts, particularly down by the Salton Sea and areas that are very difficult to get to any other way than with the drones. The other area of innovation, the district's been exploring an alternative non-chemical strategy for controlling mosquitoes, and there's some real excitement for the potential. There's also some caution for the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness and public relations because that approach that's being experimented with, not just at our district, but other areas of the state, is the release of sterile mosquitoes. And so when people hear you might be releasing mosquitoes, they're going, 'Wait a minute. I thought you were controlling mosquitoes.' The good news, all the sterile mosquitoes are males, and the males don't bite. They don't need their blood meal. What their function is to mate with females, and if they're successful in doing that, the female will lay sterile eggs and therefore that helps with the control. And the bottom line, I would like to say just a big thank you to the city of Palm Desert for the wonderful opportunity you've provided for me to serve our city and our community over a number of years. It's been a great fit for me, for my background and years of experience in the Coachella Valley, and I'd like to think that it's been helpful for the district itself. So, thank you.
[00:32:04] Mayor: Thank you, Mr. Walker.
[00:32:08] City Manager: So proud to have you on the team. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Next, we have item number 10, city manager comments. Mayor, I'll invite up Lieutenant Porras for a quick update.
[00:32:34] Lieutenant Porras: All right. Good afternoon, everyone. This past Saturday, we had the pleasure of hosting a free e-bike safety course at Civic Center Park as part of our ongoing community outreach efforts. This event was open to adult riders. Last time it was only open to kids, but we decided there were some adults that inquired about it, and we made it open to everybody so they can get some safe riding practices and increasing awareness of California e-bike laws. We had several participants attend the course along with several other additional members of the public who stopped by to observe and engage with staff. The deputies provided hands-on instruction covering topics such as emergency braking, obstacle navigation, reaction time awareness, proper helmet use, and safe battery handling. Overall, the event was well received and provided a valuable opportunity to connect with the community and educate riders and encourage safer e-bike usage. We're going to continue to do this as, you know, as kids age, they get older, parents want to buy them e-bikes and such. We're always going to have a new person, new child riding bikes, so our efforts are going to continue along with the efforts we're doing in school. Recently, our SROs at the high school and the middle school gave a class to the kids at the schools to share the same message. So, hopefully, when it gets a little cooler, we'll do another one again and continue our efforts. And to stay on the e-bike theme, I want to introduce my staff down here and have them let you know what they recently went through and how the city's supporting us in our e-bike patrol.
[00:34:20] Lieutenant Porras: So, I would like to introduce Deputy Lyon with our business district team. They recently attended a four-day course on e-bikes. No, sorry. First it was bicycle patrol, which is a three-day course. And in order to ride an e-bike, you have to attend a one-day course, so it's total of four days. And I'll turn it over to Deputy Lyon.
[00:34:45] Deputy Lyon: Good afternoon. Deputy Lyon with the business district team in Palm Desert. As my lieutenant just said, we just came back from attending the four-day bicycle course. The first three of that were with analog bikes. That entailed us going from the Ben Clark Training Center down the hill to Mount Rubidoux, up Mount Rubidoux, down and back to the training center again. That was the first three days of our course, so it was rough, but it gave us an appreciation for these e-bikes. So first and foremost, we appreciate the generosity and the support of the bike unit. It's awesome. These are going to be an asset to the team, so we are excited to use them. El Paseo, the business areas, our SET team is going to plan on using them in the residential areas. And that's really all there is to it. I mean, they're fun to ride. We can definitely see how dangerous they could be for children. So, our education for that part of it is very important, too. But, I'm willing to answer any questions if anyone has one. These bikes specifically, they go up to 28, correct me if I'm wrong, 28 mph. They have different power modes on them, so certain ones conserve battery power, other ones use all of it, but they lasted us all the way down to Mount Rubidoux and back. That was the fourth day. We rode up it again a second time.
[00:36:12] Council Member: Anyone else? You said you'll be doing residential patrol.
[00:36:16] Deputy Lyon: Our SET team. Yeah, correct. Our SET team will be focusing more on that, whereas we're going to be more of the business-oriented team. So, you'll probably see us around, you know, El Paseo area and Highway 111. Our special enforcement team is going to focus down more towards the freeway and the residential areas in Palm Desert.
[00:36:34] Council Member: Just riding around for patrol, what is that going to look like?
[00:36:38] Deputy Lyon: It'll be just as if we were in patrol vehicles, patrol cars, but it's a much easier way, especially up in the businesses. It's an easier way to navigate and get into tight spaces. When we see something happening that's opposing us in a car, it might take forever with traffic to turn around and actually confront that situation, where the bikes make it so much easier. And likewise with the residential neighborhood with alleys and paths and trails, it's going to be easier for our SET team as well.
[00:37:09] Council Member: Where can I buy one of those?
[00:37:11] Deputy Lyon: This guy doesn't sell them that nice.
[00:37:21] Lieutenant Porras: So, thank you so much. Looking forward to it. I just want to make sure the entire team passed, and it was a really grueling thing. There was nine of us. Nine—the entire Palm Desert SET team and business district team passed with flying colors. Kudos to them.
[00:37:37] Council Member: I'd like to ask the lieutenant a question. So, can you talk about enforcement on what we call e-bikes? A lot of people call them e-bikes, but they're pedalless electric motorcycles, right? Most of the ones—I don't want to say most, you see a lot of them, but a lot of the complaints stem from kids whose parents buy them an e-bike, but they're buying them a 40-50 electric...
[00:38:02] Lieutenant Porras: That's one of the messages that we had during our e-bike safety course, and we've put out a couple videos along with some education from the district attorney's office. We don't want kids riding those on the streets. And those are usually over 750 W. They do go anywhere from 30 to actually 70-80 mph. Anywhere from the prices of $2,000 to $10,000 these bikes are costing. And parents think they're buying them an e-bike. Please understand the message is know what you're buying your children, know what they're riding and how they're riding. Fortunately, we live in a small community that sometimes when we see kids at the end of the day, we know where they go to school, and we go out and give outreach and education, connecting with the parents, saying, 'Hey, your kid was seen riding a bicycle or an e-motorcycle that was not appropriate for street usage. This could happen.' And unfortunately, it's gotten to the point that sometimes, in cases in Orange County and some in the western part of Riverside County, when education's happened and there's incidents of children getting in accidents riding these e-motorcycles, parents are being—charges are being filed against them, unfortunately, for child endangerment because of the dangers of it. They're not toys. So, we want to continue that message to share it. Know what you're buying your children, make sure they don't ride them on the streets. Technically, they need to be getting the DMV e-tag or, sorry, off-road sticker—green sticker they call it—and you can enjoy them anywhere that it's legal to off-road.
[00:39:35] Council Member: Are you able to cite parents for their children riding these technically illegal...
[00:39:40] Lieutenant Porras: Yes, we can, and it's like providing your child—letting them get into a vehicle and drive at the age of 13 or 14. Providing a vehicle to them. So, yes. It can go for anywhere from citations, which can unfortunately impact and affect the ability for them to get licenses down the road, up to felony child endangerment if...
[00:40:00] Mayor Truby: Have you issued citations?
[00:40:01] Staff: We've been on the warning side right now. Actually, you know, we have issued citations. We have towed some vehicles or e-bike motorcycles. So, it's a combination of enforcement through education and up to towing the e-motorcycles.
[00:40:20] Mayor Truby: All right. Thank you.
[00:40:21] Staff: You're welcome. Thank you.
[00:40:23] Mayor Truby: Anything else? All good? And do you have anything else?
[00:40:27] Staff: Nope, that's it. Appreciate it.
[00:40:28] Mayor Truby: Thank you so much. Appreciate it, guys. Look forward to seeing those on the street.
[00:40:32] Mayor Truby: Excellent. And anything else from our City Manager?
[00:40:35] City Manager: Nothing additional.
[00:40:36] Mayor Truby: Perfect. Okay, we'll move on to item number 11, Mayor/Councilmember reports and requests for action. I guess we'll start with Gina.
[00:40:44] Councilmember Gina: Okay, no comment.
[00:40:46] Mayor Truby: Councilmember Harnik?
[00:40:49] Councilmember Harnik: Thank you. I have a few things. On the heels of the discussion of government finance excellence, I wanted to mention that RCTC received a clean opinion from Eide Bailly for their annual audit, and that's all good. And RCTC, Riverside County Transportation Commission, they handle so much of the funding for our infrastructure, transportation infrastructure improvements. So, it's always good news to see that they receive a clean audit, and they also got the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting. So, it's nice to know when we see government function that well. Also, at SunLine this week, they announced they are continuing the public engagement requesting input to develop the plans to best serve our community. So, you will see more opportunities to give them information on what you feel would be better for all levels of their service, and they offer so much to so many people: the paratransit, the regular buses, the small buses, and then the on-demand. So, they will be coming around, and you'll have an opportunity to let them know what you're thinking. In March, a couple of weeks ago, we went with SCAG, Southern California Association of Governments, we went up to Sacramento to talk about two bills in particular. One was to codify the regional early action planning funding, which I know doesn't sound great, but it is because it has to do with our regional housing needs assessment. That is a mandate that's been in place for quite some time. It costs millions of dollars to develop the plan, and yet there are no funds that come from the government to help us with that. But we are mandated to do so, or there are repercussions. So, the REAP funding would simply codify it so that there would be some funding available when we go through the regional housing needs assessment process. And we were advocating for funds in the entire state of California, and we're just getting ready to start our seventh REAP cycle. So, this could be very important. We're hoping that gets through. The other thing we are looking at is Senate Bill 375, which—anybody—we always hear those numbers, and of course it's just one of those very popular bills, and it has to do with greenhouse reduction. It's important for everybody. We all want clean air. It needs to be modernized. It was from 2009, and it is no longer relevant with the changes that we've seen with electric vehicles, a lot of different other changes, even the miles per gallon. So, we want to look at that and see how we can make it more efficient and absolutely transparent. And those are two of the things we advocated for. On a closer to home note, the McCallum Theatre Education Program—and I don't think many people know how much they do. We know about their shows and its excellence, and it's a wonderful theater, but since it started in 1997, they have served more than 1 million participants. And these are our students. They go to their classrooms, and they also bring them to the theater. So, they have artist development, community engagement, in-school learning, and it's really amazing to watch these students when they experience theater for the first time, or when the teaching artists come into their school. Incredible things happen, and that's the McCallum Theatre Education Program, and it's something most people just don't know about. They do great work in our schools and for our students. Thank you.
[00:45:02] Mayor Truby: Mayor Pro Tem.
[00:45:03] Mayor Pro Tem: Yeah, we had a big couple weeks for the arts, and so I want to kind of continue on with what Councilmember Harnik started with because the McCallum announced their 2026-2027 season last week, and they highlighted to a big degree our partnership with them and the community impact. In fact, my own kids got to go through that program. My 12-year-old got to go see a band play, and she's in the middle school band, so it was really cool for her to see how professionals get to interact and do that. And then we finished up what appeared to be a successful Fashion Week and Food and Wine. It was very hot, but I still saw people walking the streets and shopping, and I see Patrick, he's shaking his head. So, didn't look like the heat slowed too many people down. I know we had some staff that worked really hard on that. I saw Thomas and Shelby, I think every day I was there, and there was probably others. So, I want to shout out and say thank you to everyone who made that happen.
[00:46:07] Mayor Truby: I second that. Fashion Week and Food and Wine is a great way for us to show ourselves off to the world. It was a great event, great job by staff helping to put it together. So, that is it for me. Next up we have item number 12, non-agenda public comments. This time has been set aside for the public to address the City Council on issues that are not on the agenda for up to 3 minutes. Because the Brown Act does not allow the City Council to act on items not listed on the agenda, council members may briefly respond or refer the matter to staff for report and recommendation at a future meeting. Any housekeeping remarks, Mr. Perihian?
[00:46:45] Mr. Perihian: 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 on your phone, please dial star nine to raise your hand, and when called upon, press star six to unmute yourself.
[00:46:58] Mayor Truby: Terrific. Okay, I have two blue cards here. I will start with Ms. Linda Candler. If you want to come up. Thank you.
[00:47:12] Linda Candler: Good afternoon, Mayor and members of Council. I want to take this opportunity first of all to thank you. I was here 2 weeks ago. We raised concerns that are ongoing about the construction based on the Explore Palm Desert Pulte project behind Shepherd Lane and Witter Drive. The landscaping has now started. So, I'm very pleased to report that we have seen some activity after months of it being just hillside full of dust. I have a couple of comments just on the ongoing process. Initially, and it was presented to us at the community meeting last year, I believe it was February 4th, there were some commitments made by the builder, by Pulte Homes, about the time frame. One of which to have started and already had it completed by the end of last year. So, at least we're now on track towards completion. The other was that it would only take a month. We've learned now from the landscape architect that it's more likely 3 to 4 months. So, we just ask that the planning department and the city keep an eye on the project, make sure it continues to move along at the fastest pace possible for the amount of work being done. And my second concern, which was brought up last year when the plan was approved for phase two of this project. That was back in March. I believe it was March 13th. There were some comments made by some of us homeowners, and good questions by you, Mayor Truby, because one of our concerns was that the slope, which is from 7 to 11 ft higher than our existing pad heights, had been moved closer to our homes, and also higher because of a bench or shelf at the top, which was part of, as was explained to us, the need to have erosion control until the permanent wall was built. Well, the block wall is now built, and as I said, the landscaping has started. They're starting to put in some plants. And we would ask that the city and the planning department verify that heights, not only of the pad heights, which has been, again, a point of reassurance many times that the engineers, the project managers, the city, all have an obligation to verify that the pad heights is as specified on the grading plan. We don't know exactly what the pad height looks like because of the wall, so I would ask that there be verification that the height of the top of the slope, now that the wall is in place, actually be confirmed to be the same as the pad.
[00:50:00] Public Speaker: ...height because we believe that is how it was approved in the grading plan. So, again, grateful that we've seen some action. Thanks to everyone who may have given a little push to the builder to get this going, but please continue to monitor, not only the plan, the landscape plan, but also the pad height and the elevation of the slope. Thank you very much.
[00:50:27] Mayor: And be assured staff is following up on pad heights. We'll follow up as well as contact Ms. Candland. Perfect. Thank you very much. Next, we have Roderick Alexander.
[00:50:53] Roderick Alexander: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of the board. I want to say first of all, thank you so much for allowing me space to sit with you for three minutes. I work for a nonprofit organization called Olive Crest. I've been at Olive Crest for 11 years. I started as a behavioral specialist and did all three roles as a behavioral specialist, facilitator, and a parent partner. I've since shifted over to another department that we're building. We have, for now, a C-site program. I want to say first and foremost, I thank you so much for giving us Palm Desert's finest. These guys have worked really hard day in and day out to give us safety for our kids. But I passed by to tell you, we're asking that we look into—we have a drop-in program, a place of safety. We understand about the Boys and Girls Clubs. We hear about the after-school programs, but this one's specifically for kids who are at high risk, who need a place to get away for a second and say, 'What could it be like if I didn't have to engage in the lifestyle that I have right now?' I'm asking you to consider the fact that these kids run. These kids have no way of thinking. They're told what to do day in and day out, and for once, they want a place to be able to go and to sit and think about what it could be like if they had whatever normal life looks like, but not that. At our drop-in center, the problem is that we have all this space to occupy these kids who need the attention, the life skills, the redirection, the empowerment, even. Transportation is huge. East and west of the valley, we have the SunLine, which is amazing. But on Portola Avenue, one time there was a bus stop there and it's no longer there. That bus stop sits right across the street from where our center is at. We're asking you to come together and really consider activating that bus stop again because these kids want to come. They're coming to the center right now, but parents have real jobs, 9:00 to 5:00. When they come home, they have dinner, they have households to run, and kids are falling through the cracks. And when they fall through the cracks, it means there's no attention being given. So, what do they do? They go somewhere where there is attention, but unfortunately, they find out when it's too late that attention is inappropriate. And they can't get away from that. We're giving them a place to do that and redirect and build what we say kids are for tomorrow. Let's start where the rupture is now. I'm asking for your heart, and please consider putting a bus stop on Portola because that bus stop will save many, many lives and give them a chance to have a better future, to be where you are right now and represent what we do in this fair city.
[00:54:06] Mayor: Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. And I don't know if we could get contact information shared among staff and Mr. Alexander to follow up with that. Maybe if you see the city clerk, maybe we can share information.
[00:54:18] Roderick Alexander: Yes, sir. Again, I'm sorry. Thank you for your time.
[00:54:21] Mayor: Ah, no problem. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. Terrific. Are there any online comments?
[00:54:28] City Clerk: No online comments.
[00:54:29] Mayor: Right. Okay, very good. Next, we will move on to item number 13, our consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar are considered routine and may be approved by one motion. The public may comment on any items on the consent calendar for up to three minutes. We do have a couple speaker cards here regarding item 13L. Yeah, both are regarding item 13L, so I will call the speakers up first. Very good. First, we have Ms. Debbie Green.
[00:55:06] Councilmember: Should we announce?
[00:55:07] Mayor: Uh, yeah, do we approve for our vote first, then do the speakers?
[00:55:12] City Clerk: It's the public comment first and then you decide if you still want to remove the item for discussion.
[00:55:16] Mayor: Very good. Thank you. First up, we have Ms. Debbie Green.
[00:55:32] Debbie Green: Good afternoon, Mayor Toomey and council members and city staff. The agenda item that I am addressing—again, my name is Debbie Green, and I'm here to address the item about building a charter school on the UCSB campus. It states it'll be a pre-K school in conjunction with the Palm Springs School District. And as a former public school educator, I'm opposed to charter schools. Now, I understand the two charter schools in Palm Desert are students' home schools, but it's just the lottery system that they have to be able to attend that I really don't support. And why? In my experience, I find they are elitist and it takes away an even playing field. If I were a teacher or a parent at the other public schools and could not access the benefits the charter schools get, I would wonder why am I working so hard with so much less? And why is my child not able to have access to the additional services and programs? More questions: knowing this, why is the Palm Desert City Council getting involved in this program? How much funding will the city and our residents pay? Is there an opportunity to be on the committee as it begins to research this? We know there are power issues in North Palm Desert, and that's a huge issue. Where is that all going to come from? Transportation, who will get to attend that one? What are the student population and the growth metrics that are driving this request, and who's behind this proposal and why is it needed? I hope the council will be forthcoming in sharing and inviting others to participate in the discussions in the future. Thank you.
[00:57:09] Mayor: Thank you very much. Next up, we have Mr. Stephen Nelson.
[00:57:22] Stephen Nelson: Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. I quite frankly, when I saw this on the agenda, I was somewhat surprised because we've been, as I'd mentioned to a lot of Palm Desert residents, they think that we are part of the Desert Sands school system, and I emphatically tell them like a cheerleader that we are proud members of Palm Springs Unified School District up north. That is certainly reflected in our property tax statements, and we do pay a premium. So, I guess I have a question as to what is exactly being planned for the goal setting for North Palm Desert, because unfortunately, and I've shared with our trustee at PSUSD, I said, 'You know, we're out here. We're on the fringe, but we do not have a school. No elementary school that's with a Palm Springs tag on it. We don't have a middle school with a Palm Springs tag on it, and nor do we have a high school. So, you know, you do own property here that can have a school. And that's certainly been my message for the last six years. So, I wanted to find out what is being planned for the area? Thank you.
[00:58:53] Mayor: Thank you very much. Do we have any online...
[00:58:55] City Clerk: No online comments, Mr. Mayor.
[00:58:58] Mayor: Okay, very good. We will now move on to see if any of my colleagues would like to pull any items from the consent calendar or any recusals?
[00:59:07] Councilmember: I will need to recuse myself from 13J, but I'd be happy to move the balance or move—I'd like to move the entire consent calendar and register recusal on 13J.
[00:59:23] Councilmember: I'll second the motion.
[00:59:24] Mayor Pro Tem: I actually like to pull 13L.
[00:59:28] Mayor: Okay. Item 13L pulled for discussion. Should we move the balance?
[00:59:32] City Clerk: Yes, sir.
[00:59:34] City Clerk: Councilmember Harnik? Yes. Councilmember Nestande? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto? Yes. Mayor Trubee? Yes. Motion passes 4 to 0.
[00:59:44] Mayor: The floor is yours, Mayor Pro Tem.
[00:59:47] Mayor Pro Tem: We had some questions raised. Can staff talk about our game plan on how we plan to approach this to answer some of those questions? And I'll have some of my own questions, I'm sure.
[01:00:01] Staff: At this point, it was introduced as a council goal in support of education in connection with CSU. The item was for staff to explore this effort. So many of the answered questions that have been raised today have yet to be even vetted, asked, or researched. So we're at a very preliminary stage of this council item. So there's a lot more to follow, including discussions with both school districts, the CSU system, on the viability and pathway for this.
[01:00:33] Councilmember: I notice that many of the other items have a financial component. This one does not.
[01:00:39] Staff: At present, no. Initially, it would be staff time used to meet and discuss and research these questions.
[01:00:46] Councilmember: Do you anticipate at some point spending money under your signing authority for contract support services?
[01:00:54] Staff: I do not.
[01:00:57] Councilmember: And then have you reached out to Cal State San Bernardino or Palm Springs Unified about this yet?
[01:01:01] Staff: I have had discussions with CSU, but not with the school districts.
[01:01:06] Councilmember: Okay.
[01:01:08] Councilmember: Could I add that I did meet with Palm Springs Unified about two years ago? And they at the time were not in favor of it.
[01:01:19] Staff: What they were not in favor of was taking that land and turning it into desert sands.
[01:01:25] Councilmember: That is correct. Then that's a different issue.
[01:01:28] Councilmember: I stand corrected. You're right. We did not discuss a charter school or anything like it. It's just they were opposed to giving up jurisdiction.
[01:01:40] Councilmember: I will just raise some of my concerns after thinking through this. The mayor likes to ask what problem are we trying to solve on this one? I think the question is, is it our problem to solve? And I think jumping to a charter school has the potential to create an acrimonious relationship with Palm Springs Unified. That's why I favor doing the 2 by 2 and exploring as long as we don't anticipate spending money on contracts to explore this to get a temperature. I'm okay with it, but I do think that this is outside of our realm. We're not equipped for it and I think it's outside of our lane, but we are in the business of planning and regional collaboration. So as long as that's the plan right now, then I'll support it.
[01:02:38] Mayor Trubee: All right. Councilmember Harnik?
[01:02:39] Councilmember Harnik: Thank you. And this is about regional collaboration. And it is something that the city does, just as we gave 200 acres to the CSU, recognizing there was a need for education not only in Palm Desert, but in this entire valley. So we do address those things so that we elevate the entire community. I want to remind you that what we changed the wording to was explore the feasibility. That's all we're doing right now. And once we have answers and we have something laid out for the council to look at and discuss, it'll be time. But right now, it's simply explore the feasibility. And I second the motion. So do we take a vote or what is next? To move item 13 L.
[01:03:32] Mayor Trubee: Yeah. So we have a motion and a second. Councilmember Harnik?
[01:03:37] Councilmember Harnik: Yes.
[01:03:38] Mayor Trubee: Councilmember Nestande?
[01:03:39] Councilmember Nestande: Yes.
[01:03:40] Mayor Trubee: Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto?
[01:03:42] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: Yes.
[01:03:43] Mayor Trubee: Mayor Trubee? Yes. Motion passes 4 to 0.
[01:03:45] Councilmember Harnik: Terrific. Thank you.
[01:03:47] Mayor Trubee: All right. On to item 14, our action calendar. We will start with item 14 A, which is an MOU with Palm Desert Employees Organization and unrepresented employees.
[01:04:04] Andrea Staley: All right. Good evening, Mayor and council members. My name is Andrea Staley and I'm the HR director for the city of Palm Desert. And I'm here today to request approval for the memorandum of understanding between the city and the Palm Desert Employee Organization, as well as the agreement with the unrepresented employees. So how we got here is that the current MOU and agreement is set to expire this year on July 1st. Negotiations began with PDO in January and ended at the end of February. And PDO membership approved and ratified the MOU on March 6th. And then on March 9th, we had a meeting with the unrepresented employees. These conversations were collaborative, transparent, and resulted in outcomes that benefited both the employees as well as the city. What we do definitely want to mention is that the proposed agreements are fiscally responsible, assisting in controlling long-term costs, recognize employee contributions, and help ensure the city remains competitive in the current labor market both inside and outside the Coachella Valley. Just want to highlight some key elements of the MOU as well as the unrepresented agreement. It's a 5-year agreement with COLAs, cost of living adjustments, in years 1 through 5, a stipend in year 1 with part of it being given to our employees upon ratification. One really key element was AB 339 and having PDO review our RFPs quickly, which helps us. It really streamlines the requirements for RFPs and RFQs to meet those requirements. The two floating holidays, which is typical and what we've done in the past, a deferred compensation match of up to $200 a month, which is helpful for retirement and helping our employees be fiscally aware, as well as some bilingual pay and boot allowance, and reducing liability through increasing our leave buyback. As I mentioned before, overall, these agreements provide fiscal stability, support recruitment and retention, reduce long-term liabilities, and align with best practices. Before I leave and open up for questions, I would like to thank both the PDO and city negotiations team for their work and collaboration throughout the process. It really was as pleasant as it possibly could be, and so I didn't dread these meetings that we had with them. So the recommendation before you is to approve the PDO MOU and the unrepresented employee agreement and authorize the city manager to implement both. So with that, I thank you for your time and I'm available to answer any questions.
[01:07:04] Mayor Trubee: Okay. And before I go back to council, I didn't see any blue speaker cards. Do we have any online comments?
[01:07:16] Staff: No online comments.
[01:07:18] Mayor Trubee: Terrific. All right. Any questions from my colleagues? Any comments? All right. Anybody like to make a motion?
[01:07:25] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: I just want to say kudos. For those who don't know, I think you said there was only a handful of meetings that were involved, unusual for these kinds of negotiations. It says a lot about you, our employees, and the management team. And so thank you, and I'll move approval.
[01:07:43] Mayor Trubee: Thank you.
[01:07:45] Councilmember: I'll second it and second for discussion. I just want to echo very much what Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto said. It's delightful to see when that works out because I know there's so much acrimony so many times in situations like this. And creating a healthy work environment is so important for us to be productive. So thank you for all your work on that.
[01:08:12] Andrea Staley: Thank you. And thanks to the employees. They really came in. So they helped...
[01:08:15] Councilmember: Everyone was...
[01:08:17] Councilmember: ...the whole Palm Desert team. It's a moment to be proud of how beautifully that went.
[01:08:24] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: Agreed. And kudos. Thank you.
[01:08:26] Andrea Staley: Absolutely.
[01:08:27] Mayor Trubee: All right. You have a motion and a second. Councilmember Harnik?
[01:08:29] Councilmember Harnik: Yes.
[01:08:30] Mayor Trubee: Councilmember Nestande?
[01:08:31] Councilmember Nestande: Yes.
[01:08:32] Mayor Trubee: Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto?
[01:08:33] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: Yes.
[01:08:34] Mayor Trubee: Mayor Trubee? Yes. Motion passes 4 to 0. All right. Next up is item 14 B, Civic Center Skate Park Operational Model Pilot. And we have a staff report from Ms. Shawn Muir.
[01:08:48] Shawn Muir: Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm Shawn Muir, community services manager, and I have for you today a presentation on the Civic Center Skate Park. All right. First up on the agenda, I'm going to give you a little bit of background about the skate park and let you know why we're here discussing it today. Some of the regulations and laws that govern the skate park, and then how the city operates versus some alternative options. Okay. So the skate park opened in 1989. It's a key component of Civic Center Park and it does attract skaters from across the valley. The Parks and Rec Committee brought this item up at one of their previous meetings stating that they were concerned it was being underutilized. And they asked staff to do some research. Are pads required? What would happen if it was unsupervised or a different model was used? And staff came back after doing some research and provided them with a presentation earlier this month at their meeting on March 3rd, after which they made a recommendation to temporarily change the model upon which the city operates the skate park.
[01:10:03] Staff: So starting off with the regulations, the state of California does—the state health and safety code actually states that people who utilize skate parks must be wearing a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads in order to participate. The Palm Desert Municipal Code does mimic that and carry forward the state law within the city limits. Those helmets and pads are required. So that cannot be changed; it's a state law and a city code. Looking at the current operation of the skate park, the concern of the Parks and Rec Committee was the utilization. Over the past 12 months, that's February 25th to February 26th, on average the monthly participation is 106 participants. The skate park is well placed. It's in a highly visible area. We charge $5 for an annual pass and participants must present the pass upon entering the skate park. The attendant is staffed there and verifies that users have the pass to get in, they're wearing their helmets and gear that's required. They also provide basic maintenance of the facility. One thing specific to skate parks is making sure to have a blower to remove debris before we open in the morning so that we prevent any trips and falls with debris on the skate park. The skate park is always staffed when it's open. And then in terms of hours of operation, during the school year it's open after school mainly, and then in summer all day it's open. There's time allotted both for skaters and bikers at the skate park. So in terms of supervision, the city partners with Desert Recreation District to provide that supervisor at the skate park. As I mentioned, there's always a supervisor there when it's open. They open the skate park in the mornings, ensure it's safe, and then allow users to come in and participate, and then they lock it up in the evenings when it closes. If there's any incidents or accidents, they do document those. So looking at the alternative models, we'll start first with our supervised model and go through some of the pros and cons of that. There's obviously enhanced safety just having a supervisor there ensuring that pads and helmets are used does help ensure safety and reduce liability exposure for the city. There's also enhanced programming opportunities. Right now, Desert Recreation District has beginner, intermediate, and advanced skate lessons available at the skate park. And then the facility protection and cleanliness, making sure that everything's clean, well operated, preventing graffiti and things of that nature. There is an operating cost to having an attendant there. Over the past year, and I'm looking at that February to February timeline again, it was about $88,000. So the city budgets annually to have an attendant at the skate park. But it does also provide limited access hours. So when the skate park attendant is not there, the facility is locked and it cannot be used. There's also a skate culture aspect of this where skate culture kind of dictates a self-regulated, kind of free, open mindset where having an attendant watch over you while you're skating is not ideal. So that's another factor to take into consideration. For the unsupervised model, some of the pros would be reducing that overhead to operate the skate park and increasing public access. One thing that we have heard is that, you know, early in the morning or later in the evening, the skate park is not available, and that's some of the comments that came through the Parks and Rec Committee. It does support that skateboarding culture of open, unregulated access, and then it's consistent with the industry practice because most of the skate parks in California are operated on this unsupervised model. But it does increase the risk exposure for the city. There is more likelihood of people using the facility without the required helmet and pads. And then there's no one there to enforce the rules on a regular basis. So it could increase the calls to code compliance or RSO for non-compliant issues. And then, of course, reducing the program opportunities. If it's open free skate all the time, then having a class there would be infeasible. The recommendations from the Parks and Rec Committee therefore were to remove the skate park attendant on a temporary basis. Their recommendation was specifically to remove the attendant through the end of this calendar year. The staff, at the council's discretion, would like to modify that recommendation to be one full calendar year to allow a 12-month period in which we can evaluate the effects that that would have on the skate park operation. We'd like to establish a monitoring program and see how that affects the usership at the skate park. And I believe that's all. So that's my presentation for you today. Oh, I'm sorry. One last slide: next steps. So looking at this, what would success mean? And we want to make sure that if we establish a monitoring program, what are we monitoring for and what would be the outcome that we'd be looking for? And about a 50% increase is what we're seeing, and that's just based on staff recommendation of looking at the usership. If we're at 106 average monthly users now, then we'd be looking at more like 159, 160 for the coming year if there's no skate park attendant. So the time frame there: July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Establish that monitoring program. And part of the committee's recommendation was to have a subcommittee set up. So they would help us, you know, help staff evaluate the program and make any determination on changes that would be more permanent in the future. So that's all I have for you today. Thank you. I'm open to your questions.
[01:16:10] Councilmember Harnik: And I think you just went over it again and answered it. I wanted to know how many and over what time period. So it's 106 a month are using it?
[01:16:20] Staff: A monthly average.
[01:16:22] Councilmember Harnik: Monthly average. Okay. Um, do we have cameras on that?
[01:16:27] Staff: We do not. However, if a monitoring program was to be established, there are cameras that can provide daily counts without having an attendant present there. And that would be potentially part of the monitoring program.
[01:16:40] Councilmember Harnik: Yeah, part of the—my question is coming from the fact that, yeah, maybe that will help us, then we can have good data on how many. But also, as you mentioned, there is some increased exposure. And I think the cameras would probably be a good tool in making sure that the right thing is always done, you know, in the immediate picture and in the long term. Um, and I had questions about signage, and I see in your next steps, your second bullet is 'ensure signs is installed and maintained.' But boy, we need some really good declarations on that signage to protect the city. So, do we have signage that we use now, or are we looking at a whole new, you know, whole new batch of signs for this purpose because of the change?
[01:17:35] Staff: There is signage there now, and what we would do would be to go through and review the signage and make sure that the content is consistent with the current laws and just update it. Make sure that it is bright, colorful, readily visible, and enforces the state and city codes.
[01:17:53] Councilmember Harnik: Thank you.
[01:17:57] Speaker: Councilmember Nestande.
[01:17:57] Councilmember Nestande: So when you say monitor, are you talking about monitor behavior with cameras that would be posted? Or what do you mean by monitor?
[01:18:10] Staff: What I mean by monitor is to count the number of users and attendance.
[01:18:14] Councilmember Nestande: Count the number of users, not a camera that's seeing if they're wearing the helmet and all that, because that—that's my question. So it's not for that, because, I mean, basically this is just a way to allow the skateboarders who want freedom to basically have the option of wearing a helmet or not wearing a helmet. And I think really, if the city's going to be at risk if somebody splits their head open, can they turn around and sue us?
[01:18:47] Staff: So I could take a stab at that one, Councilmember Nestande. The Health and Safety Code has a safe harbor for cities when we allow skating, and there's an update—I'll get to that. When we allow skating on public property, and so essentially the city needs to require the helmets, elbow pads, and knee pads via ordinance, and then post the signage very visibly, and at that point the city has a safe harbor against liability. So we have to be very, very sure that our ordinance is modernized. They've added some definitions, so it's not just skateboards anymore. We want to take full advantage of the safe harbor. So it has any number of wheeled devices in that safe harbor list, like even wheelchairs. And so we want to make sure our ordinance has the maximum number of devices listed and then have the signage updated, and that would be the actions to address liability.
[01:19:41] Councilmember Nestande: Okay, and then what about—so if we remove having supervised mandate, the park close at 9:00 p.m., which seems like a nice time to close the park, then it's going to be open at midnight, 2:00 in the morning, or do we have rules—
[01:20:00] Council Member: ...that say you can't be at the park? I should know this, but I don't.
[01:20:05] Staff Member: The city code states that the park is open until 11:00 p.m. However, Desert Recreation District already goes and locks up the tennis courts and pickleball courts at 10:00. So that's when everything else in the park really shuts down, and so we would still have Desert Recreation District lock the skate park at night when the park overall is closed. So there still would be some limitation to access with the locked gate during the park's normal closed time.
[01:20:36] Council Member: Thank you. Yes. Yeah, I think cameras are a smart thing in addition to everything that's brought up, but also vandalism—being able to see who and when.
[01:20:50] Council Member: Quick question. In the supervised model that we run currently, it looked like there were certain days set aside for skateboards and certain days for bikes. Is that right?
[01:20:57] Staff Member: Yes, that's correct.
[01:21:00] Council Member: And so in the unsupervised model, it would just be the kind of wild west, anybody can go anytime?
[01:21:02] Staff Member: Yes.
[01:21:03] Council Member: And they've got to sort it out themselves, who gets to use it when. Okay.
[01:21:07] Council Member: And I think we've already covered this, but I noticed in the state ordinance it said operators shall require, you know, pads and helmets, etc. If it's not supervised, we're still considered operators just by virtue of ownership?
[01:21:21] Staff Member: Yes, that's correct.
[01:21:22] Council Member: So we can't get around that law. Okay, got it. Okay, any other... you know, looking for an angle.
[01:21:28] Mayor Truby: I just have one thing. I find this sounds like something we need to try, but I do want to encourage, strongly encourage, that we review cameras on that property to protect the city.
[01:21:45] Staff Member: Thank you, we will.
[01:21:47] Mayor Truby: Any other comments? Anybody like to make a motion? I'm with the mayor. Yeah. There's no online comments.
[01:21:54] Staff Member: Beg your pardon. Yeah, I didn't see any blue cards. Sorry, Anthony. And no online comments.
[01:21:57] Mayor Truby: Very good. Thank you.
[01:21:59] Council Member: I'll move to staff recommendation.
[01:22:03] Mayor Truby: Perfect.
[01:22:04] Council Member: May I add the friendly amendment that we review the possibilities of having cameras on that property?
[01:22:12] Council Member: Agreed. Yes. I will second that.
[01:22:15] Mayor Truby: Okay, I think we're ready for a vote. Council Member Harnik?
[01:22:18] Council Member Harnik: Yes.
[01:22:18] Mayor Truby: Council Member Mass Tandy?
[01:22:20] Council Member Mass Tandy: Yes.
[01:22:20] Mayor Truby: Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto?
[01:22:21] Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto: Yes.
[01:22:21] Mayor Truby: Mayor Truby?
[01:22:22] Mayor Truby: Yes.
[01:22:23] Mayor Truby: Motion passes 4 to 0. Terrific, thank you.
[01:22:25] Mayor Truby: Thank you. Thank you, Sean.
[01:22:27] Mayor Truby: Item 14C, an amendment to contract with Tilden Coil Constructors on the library project. There we go, staff report.
[01:22:47] Ryan Lamb: All right. Honorable Mayor, fellow council members, thank you for your time. My name is Ryan Lamb, Capital Projects senior project manager. And also joining me is Jess Colepepper, the director of Capital Projects.
[01:23:00] Ryan Lamb: So we're here to present the amendment for Tilden Coil Constructors on the new library facility project. And before we get into the actual amendment, we'll just go over a little brief timeline of the project, how it started and how we got to where we are today.
[01:23:14] Ryan Lamb: So in June of 2023, the city council voted to form a library task force.
[01:23:23] Ryan Lamb: And then in September of 2023, the city... we contracted Margaret Sullivan Studios, a library-specific consultant, to work on programming for the library at our current facility, as well as start looking forward to a potential new facility and how we would program that for both use and for operations. And the city council voted to withdraw from the Riverside County Library system with the city assuming the self-operation beginning in July of 2024.
[01:23:56] Ryan Lamb: And through that process, we then started looking at site locations for the new library, identifying some goals as well as the site locations, with the four options being presented to renovate the COD facility, the existing facility, to construct a new facility on the vacant lot across Fred Waring from City Hall. And then the third and fourth option, which had the two most interest, were to either renovate the soon-to-be vacated sheriff substation next to City Hall or to demolish that building and construct a new library on that site next to City Hall.
[01:24:33] Ryan Lamb: At the time, the evaluation and the assessment for the renovation, given that it is a purpose-built facility for police, in order to renovate it, its age, the structural code upgrades that would be required, all code and accessibility items that would be renovated, we're looking at inflation-wise, it's about $20 million in today's money in order to do that. And ultimately, that's mostly just... that's interior. So the exterior of the building is still going to... would still look the same. And we do have the limitations of there's low light in the building, the facility, because again, purpose-built, there's not a lot of light, natural light, that is paramount for library facilities. So ultimately, the decision was to demolish that sheriff substation facility and build new on that site.
[01:25:25] Ryan Lamb: So moving to February of 2024, City Council voted to withdraw... I'm sorry, there was a withdrawal agreement that was executed with the County of Riverside that included $4 million to be returned to the city for improvements of a new library facility. And at that time, we also entered into a five-year lease agreement with College of the Desert of the current space that we are leasing from them. And that took into effect from July 1, 2024 through July of 2029. And COD has informed the city that they have intentions to repurpose that building at the end of our lease. So we do not have the option of staying after the five years. So we are ensuring that we are moving the library to a new location, and that is the purpose of the project.
[01:26:20] Ryan Lamb: In March of 2024, we were in the final stage of interviewing potential architects for the new library project. And during the short-list interviews with the handful of firms that were qualified, during those presentations, all of the firms recommended that the city reconsider the site for the library from the sheriff station site to be something closer to the actual park instead of against Fred Waring. And through that process, we ended up hiring and contracting Richard Kennedy Architects at the time for the sheriff substation site for it to be the new site.
[01:27:00] Ryan Lamb: And so simultaneously, the Economic Development Department was assessing the Parkview Building Complex for its future feasibility as an asset to the city, which they determined based on the cost, the deferred maintenance that was required, the code compliance upgrades, and whatnot that would require to be a feasible asset moving forward for the future, that it was not in the city's best interest to keep that facility. And along with the recommendations from design professionals of a more desirable site closer to the park, City Council directed staff to identify the Parkview site then as our location for the library project. And so that would be slated for the demolition and construction of the new library at that location. And the following month, we then executed an amendment in April 2024 with Richard Kennedy Architects for the new site. It was a non-monetary amendment. It was just a scope clarification amendment with them.
[01:27:57] Ryan Lamb: So fast forward through the year, we came to February of 2025. We were bringing forward the conceptual design of the new library as designed by Richard Kennedy Architects. Prior to this, City Council had requested staff reassess alternatives to potentially not constructing a new as an evaluation for budget. And we looked at alternative commercial sites. We looked at... we re-looked at the commercial... or I'm sorry, the sheriff substation building. Ultimately, the commercial... reaffirmed the commercial... the substation facility not being ideal, as well as commercial locations. There's one by the Costco in the Costco shopping center, the old Goodwill building, and as well as a vacant building near Trader Joe's, and all of which, they were not city-owned, so we'd be paying standard commercial lease rates, as well as the cost of tenant improvements for the facility to function for the city library, which was leaning towards the upwards near $15 million for that purpose, not to mention close to about a half a million dollars a year in lease cost.
[01:29:13] Ryan Lamb: So we proceeded forward. We were given direction to proceed forward with the approved conceptual design with a $30 million budget, which is derived via the cost estimates that were reconciled with the architects, the conceptual design architects, cost estimators, and our construction manager estimators with a $23 million cost for construction and $7 million in soft costs, which is our professional service fees, future furniture and equipment, administrative fees, and project contingency.
[01:29:45] Ryan Lamb: In November of 2025, we awarded the contract for Tilden Coil for progressive design build services with a $25 million budget, and that aligned with the $23 million in construction and $2 million...
[01:30:01] Ryan: ...worth of design fees for that. The progressive design-build scope includes taking the project from the schematic through construction documents, as well as construction administration and delivery. The first scope of work for Tilden-Coil is to do an assessment and evaluation of the schematic design package, which includes a validation of the design itself, confirmation of how they would build it, identify any potential cost-saving measures, do cost estimates, and then verify what they truly believe it's going to take them to build it at an estimated level from an early programming. And obviously, we had set a $25 million budget, and they came back with a number just over 49 million. So, the city staff, we did our due diligence to verify and reconcile those numbers. We contacted Richard Kennedy Architects again just to verify that their numbers were what they were, just revisiting the previous scope of work that they provided and their deliverables, as well as following up again with Accenture, our construction manager, and our on-call engineer, TK Engineering. And they all, you know, reaffirmed that the numbers were what they were, and I'm going to let Jess get a little bit more into that information for you.
[01:31:25] Jess: Good evening. As Ryan mentioned, as we received the validation report and estimates from Tilden-Coil, we were able to do the analysis to review it. And from there, we were able to not only look at the significant cost variance between our initial conceptual numbers that we received, but look at some of those considerations to how they arrived at their number. First, we looked at the interpretation of the schematic design and intent. In looking at that, you have many building systems and materials that remain conceptual at the schematic level, and the differences in interpretation of the schematic design. Quite simply, when you're at this very early stage, you have the conceptual, and you essentially have the shell of the thing you want to build. And from there, the design firm is there to really create that and to build that within, and to ultimately give you that building. So, with that, there's a lot that can be interpreted differently from designer to designer. And so, with each firm, one could have any different variables on their interpretation where they come to a different place and different cost, different level of material, different labor. One core example for the facilities: we have the shade structure that's on the building, and that's obviously a significant cost, a significant aspect of the library facility. So, one firm could look at that as a custom build, something that takes a great deal of steel, a lot of labor, and a custom thing that needs to be built on site. Whereas another firm could look at that as something that could be fabricated off site and then brought in and built and put into place, maybe with significantly less labor. So, with that, you can see with steel prices, so the material itself as well as the labor to put it in, it gives you a significantly different cost, and that's a big part of the building itself. So, that's just kind of an example to look at that as far as interpretation. As far as the conservative early-phase estimating, the less they know, the more they have to kind of hedge that and look into that—the elevated contingencies and risk allowances. Once those things clarify, that's where you get towards the guaranteed max price, and they're able to lock those things in. But the less that things are clear, the more they have to kind of give those elevated contingencies and conservative numbers. Lastly is the conflicting benchmarking data. So, that's between the two firms—between our conceptual firm and Tilden-Coil. You had a pretty big difference in the overall portfolio of their square-foot pricing, with Richard Kennedy being much closer in the projects delivered with the cost parameters in line with our project and our budget. As we get here today with our scope of work and the amendment before you, we have our original scope, which is our current scope, the progressive design-build with Tilden-Coil. So, with this scope, it's to progress the project design from schematic design to complete construction documents, and then also to complete the demolition of the Park View building, and then also to get to the guaranteed max price for construction. So, the amended scope would conclude the progressive design-build and compensate for pre-construction services rendered by Tilden-Coil, and then they would proceed with the demolition of the Park View building, which preserves the current market pricing, which we believe still to be good quality pricing. As far as the project budget itself, this is just a quick snapshot of the overall original 30 million that was put aside for the project. Now we're at just over 26 million that's remaining. The vast majority of the expenditures are independent of Tilden-Coil and the firm that will eventually deliver the project, design it, and construct it. The bulk of these costs were the construction management services at close to 1.7, and then the conceptual design, which is 642,000, and then also the demolition itself, that's about a million. So, you can see those higher-ticket items are somewhat independent of the actual firm that will ultimately design and construct the facility. So, next steps, looking at it, we would like to move forward, and within this amendment, we'd move forward with the demolition of the Park View office building, and that would start next month and conclude in June. And then, as soon as this amendment were to be executed, we'd move to release the new RFP for the new progressive design-build with revised evaluation criteria. Namely, that the short-listed qualified firms will provide a design validation report for final evaluation up front. While that's a little bit more lead time and a few more weeks up front, that essentially gives us that estimate and the timelines and things of that nature, so we ensure that they're aligned with our project budget, with our project. And while that's not atypical for this, we want to ensure that we don't lose any more time in any kind of process of this nature. It provides those clear anticipated costs. And if we see there is a potential for it to exceed the current $30 million budget due to escalation and market conditions, and that will get us to our final cost set at the guaranteed max price in early 2027. And then we want to modify submission requirements for a greater pool of respondents. And so, the biggest thing there is to allow for a zero self-performance, and that will open up the pool for more designers and other companies that may not plan on using their own forces to do any of the construction work, so that opens the pool of respondents. And lastly, you have the additional time that we have moving forward allows for greater cost control. This is always a component of these types of projects, but with the Olympics and a lot of the regional construction and design firms being a little bit strained as we move towards the Olympics and some of those resources are taken, that will be a greater aspect to consider. So, what we'd like to do is, with the progressive design-build RFP, put it out and then have it come back to Council in June to be approved. And then, as soon as we approve their RFP, we would go straight into design development since we already have the validation reports and those estimates already in place, so that'll save us some time there. And then move through design into construction documents in early 2027, and then move into construction completion, anticipated in 2028. Obviously, when we go through and award the RFP, they will have those validation reports and those timelines and estimates updated, so we'll have a better idea of a closer, specific date for the completion of the construction. And then lastly, staff are actively pursuing additional funding sources through federal, state, and local grant opportunities to offset some of the expenditures. So, that completes our information, and we're happy to answer any questions.
[01:38:56] Mayor: Terrific. Okay, well, I don't have any blue comment cards. Are there any online comments? No online comments. All right, I'll open it up to questions from my colleagues. Anybody like to ask questions? Mayor Pro Tem.
[01:39:12] Mayor Pro Tem: Jess, how much value engineering will you be doing between now and when you come back with new RFPs?
[01:39:24] Jess: We will ask that when they do the validation reports, because that's where we'll go in and they'll give us the initial where they look at the project itself. So, when we shortlist, you know, say the top three to five firms, we'll look at what those are and what they come in at as far as the pricing and alignment with our project. At that point, we can look at the value engineering options, particularly if they're needed, right? If they're showing that there's some significant savings there to be had.
[01:39:53] Mayor Pro Tem: Will you be prioritizing delivering the most—the most affordable project that remains...
[01:40:03] Councilmember: ...consistent with the design plans, or are you going to be looking at design engineering that brings it closer to the $30 million construction budget?
[01:40:13] Staff: I think we want to maintain the integrity of the design. That was one of the things with this process that we went through, and that was of the utmost importance even as the number of the initial estimate went up and the validation report came in. It's of the utmost importance that we keep with the integrity of the conceptual design that was put forward, but of course there needs to be a reality check within the project budget. So while we would look at those things, and if we needed to bring those forward, if there was some needed decision there, we'd bring that forward to Council.
[01:40:51] Councilmember: We're looking at dropping below our reserve policy in the coming years. An additional potentially 30% on a $30 million project gets us below that threshold a lot faster. If we don't come up—and this is probably not a question to you, but you're in front of me and it'll be something—what do we do if there's no more money found from other sources?
[01:41:20] Staff: Yeah, if I may. So part of this is come June we'll know pricing that is, I guess, most affordable to meet the design expectation. If there is a delta there, we'd be looking at—there are a couple of grant opportunities currently out on the street and others coming. So that's one pathway. The second part is looking at evaluating our entire project list to see are there other projects that the Council wants to deprioritize to fund the delta? But that would be the cash on hand direct source for that, as well as the value engineering options. So if we come to the point where there's some options where we think it's feasible to recommend that create savings, we'd present that to the Council and get your direction.
[01:42:06] Councilmember: I guess I had—yeah, Councilmember Nestande.
[01:42:08] Councilmember Nestande: It makes me somewhat uncomfortable to move forward with even going out to the RFPs because—well, I guess that part can't hurt, but my concern is the cost controls. And while I would like to maintain the integrity of the design, it's probably going to come back that that design is very expensive and we might need to rethink the design and/or go back to College of the Desert and see about leasing for the long term and renovating that building. I'm very concerned about the costs.
[01:42:56] Councilmember Harnik: I too am very concerned about the costs because that's what we do well here, and that's why we have a good financial system, because we do show concern. To renovate someone else's property doesn't make much sense because we don't own that COD building. We'd be sinking our taxpayer money into another building.
[01:43:21] Councilmember Nestande: But what if it was like a 50-year lease or something along those lines?
[01:43:25] Councilmember Harnik: And what I'd like to do is gather information. And yes, we may have to change the design to some extent, but we need information. And that's the most important part of this. We know things are more expensive. Every one of us who went to the grocery store last year and went this year knows the prices are going up. The Monroe Interchange in a span of four years went from 85 million and doubled its construction costs. The more we delay the process, whether we're renovating another building or whether we're building a new one, the price is going to go up. So let's move quickly, let's gather information, and then let's make well-informed decisions about what the future of a library and a veteran center that will be serving our community will look like. Those are my thoughts.
[01:44:30] Councilmember: Okay, I have a couple questions. How binding is a design validation report?
[01:44:37] Staff: It's really just Tilden Coil's—that's their information to us to let us know. As far as binding, it's just them saying, 'This is what we believe at the outset here.'
[01:44:48] Councilmember: Wait, I'm sorry. What I meant to say is, if it goes out for proposal again, we will request included in those proposals is a design validation report. Is that right?
[01:44:58] Staff: Yeah, so we have to, in order to go out to—since we're under contract with Tilden Coil, in order to go out to RFP we have to amend this contract in order to de-scope that from their contract. And then that's when we would take the RFP out and get those. For all the short-listed RFP submitters, we'd have them give validation reports. And they have to stick to it. That's their best as they look through as to how they interpret the design and how they'll build it. The GMP, the guaranteed max price, is really at the end of the day when all the design is done and the construction documents, that's when they'll give the guaranteed max price, and that's the full price. But as far as the validation report, that's where they outline—they basically show their work as to how they'll design the project and then as far as what their estimates and their timelines are.
[01:45:51] Councilmember: So any future proposal from a builder will have some wiggle room built into it.
[01:45:57] Staff: Yes, it can, but we have, at any progressive design-build, when you get to that point when they give the guaranteed max price, you have an option to get out. So at that point, if you say, 'Hey, that's untenable, your cost,' you have the ability to go—now you can just bid that out. So you could still take those design documents and then you can move forward with just more of your typical bid-build.
[01:46:21] Councilmember: Okay. And then we talked about additional funding sources. Can you describe a few? I know I talked—obviously the veteran center component seems to have some federal interest, I think, and then I spoke to a representative from the state today who said that as a cooling center, you know, that might be something—and of course our library will be a cooling center as well. There might be some funds available. Are there any other grants or opportunities that we're moving forward with that we hadn't thought of before?
[01:46:52] Staff: Those are the two identified so far, and I think those were somewhere in that $4 to $5 million potentially for a grant opportunity for the cooling aspect. And then as far as for the appropriations, the federal appropriations that we'd be requesting, that was, I think, right in that $5 million range.
[01:47:12] Councilmember: Okay. All right. I've got a couple comments, and I'll just share mine now and then anybody else can follow, of course. But, you know, the whole point of this exercise, in my opinion, once we started down this road of going in-house with library services, was a couple things. Was to provide better service to the residents and also to close the gap on what I thought was what the county was collecting and what they were providing financially and service-wise. And I think we've succeeded in both of those. Our staff's incredible. We've gone from maybe 5,000 visitors per month up to about 10,000 to 11,000 on average per month. So to me, we've succeeded in everything we've done so far, and that was the point—was operationally to improve everything we've done. Programming is very much more vibrant. Staff's doing a fabulous job. And we got back an extra million dollars a year from the county to operate the library. Win, win, win, win. Great stuff. However, I'm not so sure I've got the appetite to spend much more than $30 million on a building that was never—kind of the idea was to have a—I think the word is 'gold-plated edifice' in our city that, you know, maybe it was a little bit over the top. So, I always—with the Richard Kennedy design, it's beautiful and it's gorgeous. Is the horse out of the barn as far as redesigning?
[01:48:30] Staff: We haven't approached that yet. We have touched base with Richard Kennedy, and they still feel confident in their pricing and what they gave as far as their estimations, as well as their portfolio looking through their like designs that recently they've delivered, including a library. So their per-square-foot pricing, as well as just the overall aesthetic of the buildings and what they have, we feel pretty confident that that is something that we can still meet.
[01:49:03] Councilmember: Any comments from my colleagues?
[01:49:05] Councilmember: Yeah, I think I'm kind of on the same kind of line of thinking as Councilman Nestande. What we're being asked today is simply to continue with the demolition, and then staff is going next steps regardless to get more information to come back and see if we can find a plan to still make it work. So that's okay, and I think the demolition is at this point necessary because we're not going to repurpose it, and the longer it just sits there, the more of a liability it becomes. And I'm—you're shaking your head. Part of me is saying this is to make sure that my understanding of what we're doing right now is correct, which is going forward with the demolition, staff will independently come back. I want to share my perspectives, too, is when you look at value engineering, I would support engineering towards that $30...
[01:50:01] Speaker: ...million goal, not necessarily integrity to the design. And also when looking at value engineering, considering where we can, even if we have to spend a little upfront to make improvements or to build in a way that makes it easier to maintain over the life cycle and reduces the life cycle cost of the building as well. Just to think that through, because the other component that we're not talking about is maintaining the new building after it's done. So those are my comments.
[01:50:39] Speaker: Um, yes, I'm supportive of your comments, Mayor Pro Tem, and I think we really need to look at the value engineering like you said and try to be as close as possible to the $30 million budget.
[01:50:58] Mayor Truby: Okay, very good. Would anybody care to make a motion?
[01:51:02] Councilmember: I will make that motion and urge rapidly doing this. Let's not waste time.
[01:51:08] Councilmember: I will second.
[01:51:12] City Clerk: Councilmember Harning? Yes. Councilmember Nestande? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Perdeto? Yes. Mayor Truby? Yes. Motion passes 4 to 0.
[01:51:20] Mayor Truby: Terrific. All right, thank you very much staff. Appreciate that. And item 15, no public hearings so I will move to adjourn the meeting.
[01:51:31] Speaker: There we go. Thank you very much everybody.