City Council - Regular Meeting

July 9th, 2025 regular city council meeting to order. At this time, we're going to stand for the pledge of allegiance and that'll be given to us by Ernesto Gutierrez, but we'll remain standing for the invocation by Mayor Prom Raymond Gregory. Please join me with the pledge of allegiance. 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. Please remain standing. As the warmth of summer wraps around us, let us pause to feel the heat, not only on our skin, but in the shared spirit that brings us together. May the energy of this season ignite our appetite for justice. May the brightness of the day illuminate our intentions toward compassion. And may the warmth in the air be matched or exceeded by the warmth in our hearts. Thank you. You may be seated. Madame clerk, will you please give us the roll call? Council member Carnivali here. Council member Lamb, Council Member Gutierrez here, Mayor Prom Gregory here, Mayor Ross here. Do we have any changes to the agenda? I'm trying to see over the top here. Um, I I have no changes other than one of your close session items was not completed and will need to be carried over to the end of the meeting. Sounds very ominous. Thank you. Do we have any public comments um to read a statement? Would you please read the statement of participation? Then we'll go to comments. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Public comment is the opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are within the city council's jurisdiction but not on the agenda because of

restrictions contained in California law. The city council may not discuss or act on any item not on the agenda, but may briefly respond to statements made or ask a question for clarification. The mayor may also request a brief response from staff to questions raised during public comment or request that a matter be agendaized for a future meeting. Public comment will be limited to three minutes. If you are a member of the public and you wish to address the city council, please complete a request to speak form available at the entrance and submit it to the city clerk. You will be called upon at the appropriate time. If you have materials or other items to present to the members of the city council, please do not approach them. All materials shall be presented to the city clerk for distribution. We do have um one member of the public who provided a request to speak form and his name is David Sanchez. Good afternoon. I couldn't quite hear your last name. Sanchez. Yes. Welcome, Mr. Sanchez. Good evening. Good evening. First of all, excuse me if I say something bad or anything. Just want to apologize ahead of time, but street repairs, they need to be done. Miss Mayor, I fell on one of the streets. I saw m I show Mr. Gutierrez what happened to me, show him pictures and everything. And I and I came last year and I told you guys about this same problem on this street. Nothing ever got done. Now I fell in that exact same place. I fell, busted my knees, busted my lip, everything came in um made a complaint here. So hopefully that gets fixed. Okay, number two, uh tree uh palm tree ordinance. It needs to be done. One one needs to be done. I have a pool in my house and I have to

constantly clean my filters because the neighbors or whatever, they don't want to trim their trees cuz there's no tree ornaments on that. It needs to be done one. You guys need to make one. Okay. Uh so that was the other one. [Applause] I just there's a lot of wasted money that's being done in this city. I'm not going to point fingers. I'm not going to tell you where, but you guys know there is. And I'm sure you guys and it needs to be pointed. Uh I feel there's a lot of places like the amphitheater that guys built here. It only gets used two, three times a year. And I'm sure the maintenance of that one's outrageous. it's either start using and start charging rent for that revenue or something because like I said ma uh maintenance on that I'm sure is outrageous. That was one of the things my main thing was my knees and all that. If you guys I can show you if you want I can show you what happened to me also while last year when I was coming to council meetings I approached to a couple residents and told them about their yard needs to be fixed and I came to code enforcement. They said don't ever do that because you're not code enforcement. They we take care of that. I took it to myself. I went and talked to the neighbors cuz they were out there and I talked to them. Guess what? got done. They fixed their yard. I mean their yard I mean looks nice grass gravel fixed and everything and um there was a lot of dirt on baristo and I to and I I came and complained nobody ever did nothing about it. I talked to the homeowner he fixed it because nobody here ever did nothing about it. It's just concerning that

you know sometimes if you make the effort things get get done. There's a lot of things I would like to talk about. I know I only have a couple minutes. So, but my main thing was the tree ornance to waste money and how I felt that street needs to be repaired. Baristo and Baldes. Thank you, sir. Okay. So, if you guys want, I can show you the my knees, whatever. But the other thing I was going to say, Mr. Sanchez, I'm sorry, your time is up. Just give me give me just one more word. What I wanted to say is if you guys don't fix the problems, don't be part of the problem. get somebody else out here so we can fix it. And I apologize ahead of time. Like I said, if you're not going to be part if you don't want to fix the problem, don't be part of the problem. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have any other comments? I don't have any other requ uh request to speak forms, but if you're a member of the public and you wish to provide uh public comment at this time, please raise your hand. And I see no hands raised. Mayor, thank you so much. So, this is the time that we do council reports and I am just going to start down here with council member Lamb if that's all right with you. Thank you very much. And um I wanted to start off with a comment about the emergency preparedness event that we had June 7th. I just only mentioned it briefly at the um last council meeting, but it was just a great job and um Fire Chief Contrarus is here and I just wanted to thank him for um really really supporting this and having our firefighters out there. It was at Ago Caliente Elementary School and it was the day after school closed for summer. um and Eric Antuna who is the principal um helped us organize it so that it followed their their um food distribution in the morning. So, it was really wonderful and they have a team of

three that come out um and do the presentation about emergency preparedness and take you through um you know what you can do to prepare your family, especially concentrating on those first three days when if it's a a big um a big uh disaster event. Um the fire department or the police may not be able to get to you and you're going to have to um uh take care of your family. um until they do. So um and I wanted to recognize firefighter Delator Ramirez and I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it's R I G A D. Um and they are the team of three um that really do these presentations and we always have one in the first week in January and the first week in June. Um I represent the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy um for Cathedral City. Um they are in a building off Fred Wearing next to the Palm Desert Civic Center and they are raising that whole building. Um and they're going to be rebuilding their library. So we are moving and the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy is going to be relocating to the Burger Building. Um and that's on Cook Street, the sec the second floor, suite 219. And they're going to have an open house July 18th noon to 1:30. and all the meetings that we represent you um are open to the public. So, we welcome you to go to the Burger building and you want to see um where we'll be located from here on until um and I think this is going to be our um location. Um I wanted to recognize the Desert Rats. I mean, we're all desert rats because we live here, but the Desert Rats um is an actual group of ham radio operators, and they were um at their location at our wonderful Cathedral City Library two Saturdays ago from uh 10:00 a.m. until uh I think it was 1 or 2 in the

afternoon and they were doing demonstrations um on what they do. and they provide um an alternative and extra communication system um all on their own. They they have their own investment in this um and they practice and have their call numbers and they are just all over it. Um but at that particular event um first of all I want to thank them for for all their contributions. Um and uh our firefighters were there talking about the CERT training that's coming up this November, which is just expands our opportunities and our knowledge about um how to take care of ourselves in disaster preparedness. Um you can go to um let me see right here, cathedralcityfire.org um and they have the specific dates. They're in November. Um but I highly recommend it. and I am going to definitely take part in that training in November. Um the auto center um had their uh monthly marketing meeting this morning. I was not able to attend. Um but Eric Besserel um and I think Andy you were I don't know if you went or not but anyway they usually attend um and they're in the process of doing a SWAT analysis which is strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and talking about the auto center and how um number one they took a chance on Cathedral City in 1988 when they moved in here and developed the auto center. um and we want to continue to support them and so how we can do that. Um and the last thing is um um uh Councilman Gutierrez and I sit on the 2 by two committee for Palm Springs Unified School District. Um Dr. Senior who was the superintendent. They're retired and we have a new superintendent and it's Dr. Funess. I

believe that's how you pronounce his name. Anyway, uh Joan Boy, who is their communications person, had a chance to walk him through the district and walk him through the city. Um and he is happily relocated here. I don't know how happy he is now that the temperature really gotten up, but he was really excited a couple weeks ago when he took the job. So, we'll u we're really looking forward to meeting him and working him with him. So, um thank you very much. Council member, council member, dear speaker, thank you. I'll be brief. It was kind of a light week for me, but I did uh meet with Charlie and an uh for the agenda review and then uh along with council, we attended the ambulance celebration that we just got thanks to measure W that she put on a fabulous event. Uh appetizers were great and a good celebration there and it was a lot of fun seeing that new ambulance that we have here and I spoke with a cannabis owner on C4 with his odor and gave he gave me an update on that. It's been an ongoing situation and then uh I attended uh a fourth of July celebration with citizens on patrol at Day Palm Country Club about 125 people showed up. It was nice little event and that's all I have. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, everyone. Since we last met, we as a council, most of us attended the Coachell Valley Association of uh government's general assembly meeting and we had a special guest, special speaker which was con uh Congressman Ken Calbert. The event was uh was well participated and it was well attended by many dignitar local dignitaries. And I've also attended the roll back for medic 22 like it was mentioned by

council car here and also the badge pinning ceremony for several um EMTs and also firemen and promotions as well for the fire department and uh of course uh measure W which was passed by local voters um uh recently. These are just some of the fruits that uh that uh uh is being they're being provided by this measure W. Uh medic 22 is an operation that is the fourth ambulance that we have in our city. Now we can actually transport pretty much every local resident within our city. We don't depend as much as other cities do with AMR. we can actually act actually work with AMR and take some of the calls that they cannot do themselves. So, uh that's great news for our city. Uh our response times will decrease and uh our if anyone gets injured, the chances of possibilities of someone showing up within 5 minutes will increase and are better than any other city. Also, our streets will definitely be worked on like one of our gentlemen mentioned earlier. Uh, Measure W will provide additional funds for streets. So, that will be coming up. We're already working on getting some of those streets repaired. And the list is going to be rolling off. And also some of other things that are going to be worked on from measure W is later tonight we're going to be uh uh assigning appointing a um consulting firm that will tell us where is the best or what is the best idea to go about a community center also from measure W. And uh moving on, uh of course we just celebrated July 4th and we had our share of illegal fireworks in our city. Luckily, from what I saw and

noticed, uh the illegal fireworks were significantly cut down and the 911 calls to local dispatch or dispatch center were cut, but merely 50%. Is that correct? What I read? Nearly 50%. But of course, uh, one illegal firework is too many, and I hope we can cut it down to zero if we could. Uh, but our residents are doing a great job doing so. Now, the city of India implemented a program, which is a drone program to catch those that are uh, lighting illegal fireworks. And they they implemented the program and they also gave out the results. the c uh the city uh of India uh cited 26 people for uh illegal fireworks. Six of those people were issued citations because of the drones. And that's one program that I've been trying to implement with our with with our police department. And I hope that we can see that it does work. It is something that residents will fear that we will catch them. And I hope that in the follow this this coming um 2026 July 4th we can actually implement implement the same program that India did and other cities to catch all those lighting illegal fireworks. So uh a police department uh deputy chief if there's anything that you need from city council please let us know. I think we would like to implement a program next year since Indo did it and we've been talking about it for so long but from Russian one reason or another we haven't been able to do so if there's anything we can do please let us know I would like to implement that next year if possible and uh also moving on um of course we've been having a light

uh summer we've been only having meetings once a month for three months and that gives us plenty plenty of time to drive around and to notice what's going on within our city. When I do drive around either to the gym or to buy groceries or whatever I'm I'm doing, I'm always paying attention as to what's going on with our with with our streets and our city. And I do notice whether is is uh shopping carts left by somebody on our streets. I'll report them to staff or make sure that you download an app that is called my cathedral city app. You can report a lot of things uh and staff will get the report and immediately start working on it to resolve that issue. Whether it's potholes, whether it's graffiti, and there's many other issues that you can report immediately. Uh there's a there's a GPS location that where you take a picture, it will send it in and it will send it to also to to the correct department where there's debris uh homeless issues. There's a lot of things that you can do. So please download that for free. Uh my Cathedral City app uh you can download on your smartphone. And um what else did I do here? Of course, uh, this past Monday, I had my meeting with our city manager to go over tonight's agenda. And this coming Friday, I will be at the Mary Piper Theater to hand out books and snacks to kids who are going to be attending Mary Picker Theater to watch a free movie. And Antonio is going to be there as well. And the arts uh, public arts uh, uh, commissioners are also going to be there. And that concludes my report. Mayor, thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor Proto. So, it has been just two short weeks since our last meeting. I It sounds like everyone was vis uh busy. I attended some of the same. I'll touch on those, but I also attended a few different

things. Um on June 27th, I did attend the graduation for the 2025 class of leadership, Coachella Valley. Um we must have some alumni here in the uh in the audience. But uh it is a uh uh a annual session where selected leaders from the from the Coachella Valley uh participate and once a month spend the day learning all about different aspects of Coachella Valley life and how everything works here. They did have their graduation at the Palm Springs Surf Club. I know Ann Ambrose, our assistant city manager, who's not here today, was also not there at the graduation, but she was part of the class. So, it's good that the city is participating uh sending students and I know they had sessions, including one here in the council chambers, and I know the mayor spoke at at least one session. Um so, I was happy to be able to attend uh um leadership Coachella Valley's graduation. And if you are interested in such a thing, I'm sure uh they were taking applications for the next round, but they'll they continuously take them for future sessions. So if you're interested, please look into that. And then on June 28th, I attended a fundraiser. This one was at the Lucha door was called Summer Station Bingo put on by our own Miss Paty and um Ethalina K. And they are doing this once a month at the luchador on Saturdays like and you can look it up. It's it's usually like the last Saturday of the month for the next through the summer months. Um and what there the benefactor of that besides having fun with drag queen bingo. The benefactor is um Paty's promise. If you've heard Paty's promise where she's collecting money that will be used for uh to replace a van or add a van to the Cathedral City Boys and Girls Club and build up a fund for their transportation costs. So if you're trying to look for something fun um to

add a local business, summer station bingo is once a month um for Paty's Promise. And then as has already been mentioned, I did attend the Coachella Valley Association of Government's General Assembly at the Western Mission Hills along with many of my colleagues here and also attended the medic 22 roll back of the ambulance and the badge pinning at station 2. So starting July 1st, um Desert Recreation District took over the our the uh maintenance of our parks and a lot of programming. If you haven't seen on social media, you need to get on their socials. they did a very nice job of uh welcoming Cathedral City to the family and uh they've been promoting a lot of their um programming. So, we're looking forward to that. I will note that I shared with city management today. I did visit my local park for the first time and I wasn't really overwhelmed. Uh I don't know if they're having trouble um getting started or if it was just an isolated incident, but we'll we'll be um we'll be staying on top of that to make sure that uh that our roll out here with Desert Recreation District is good and I hopefully have a continued um very long-term relationship. I know we are in the process of actually merging into the district. So, and I will be bringing up an item though for for uh for a future agenda so that we can get feedback on the Desert Recreation District. So, I'll wait till the appropriate time in the agenda to do that. And we will be having another one of our council summer breaks coming up. So, just so that you're aware, our next meeting won't be until about a month from now. Actually, a little more than a month from now, uh, Wednesday, August 13th. So, you'll get a nice break from us, but we we will be back Wednesday, August 13th with probably another giant meeting because the work of the city goes on. So, thank thank you, mayor. Thank you very much. And that's very true. There'll be lots waiting for us, but just like everybody else, it's nice to have a break and a few days away, you know, pet your dog, whatever it is you

do. Okay, so I'm going to go all the way back to June 25th. I participated in a party sponsored by Sunline as my last event as their chair. Welcome to Lynn Molatto from Rancher Mirage, who will be taking the reigns for the next year. I helped give out water and popcorn and books at the Mary Pikford. Thanks to Read with Me and our events commission. Really, really nice event. sweet little kids. I attended Visit Greater Palm Springs monthly meeting to learn more about people traveling during these difficult summer months. On the 30th, I attended along with most of the valley's electeds the CEAG meeting at the Weston where we approved the annual budget among other important things. On the 1st of July, I attended the roll back. I get it. So, you're pushing the front of the the truck and you're rolling it back in, but it sounds like it really should be like the roll in because you're really rolling it into the the building. But anyway, nonetheless, not going to lose sleep. I know you won't either. Uh, so a new ambulance has been added and that will really increase the safety of our beautiful city. And as was said by one of my council members, thanks to you because thanks to measure W. Um, we have we also had the pinning of several gentlemen in the the fire department who are making steps forward in their careers, which is always great to see. I attended two house parties that I was assigned to and answered questions. You know, it used to be when I got invited to a party, we just had a party, but now I'm the person pinned in the corner with people asking, you know, questions after questions about the city. But that's our job, so I'm happy to do it. Uh represented the Cathedral City at the mosquito and vector control and two CE commissions. Bob and I celebrated the 4th of July with a party in our clubhouse. And I also want to add that I heard a few booms in the night, but nothing nothing like what we used to. Maybe 15% of what we had the year before and less than that for the year before

that. So we're we're certainly on the right track. On the 6th, we attended a brunch at Nyx Beastro as part of dinner with Paty raising money for this month who who it went to cakes for kids. I also got to, this is the important one, maybe one of the most important things on my whole agenda here for tonight. I got to visit for a bit with Mark Carnival. And that sounds funny because, you know, we spend so much time together and we're at all these events, but we never actually visit with each other. We're always working for the the city. So, we sat down and and we talked to each other about what was going on with our lives. And it was really nice, Mark. I really enjoyed those few minutes. On the 7th, I met with a group of constituents in Montage to discuss the state of the city and I spoke that evening at Courageous Resistance Group at the Miselle Center to about 200 people. Yesterday, I met with Charlie and Anne to discuss the goings on at the city. Attended a party at Sue Townsley's house to meet the n the new COO for the senior center, Yehuda Gedron. A great man. I I hope you all get a chance to meet him and jump on that that bandwagon to get stuff done at the senior center. And lastly, I have talked to you over the last, I think, seven months or so since I became the chair of the animal campus about what a difficult commission that is. And it's somewhere between they the the community isn't feel like we're doing a good enough job or they just or they're just mad and and it's sort of a mixture of the two. And I am so proud to say over these last six months, it's just turned around. And at this last meeting, the people who spoke got up and said, "Just wanted you to know you're doing a great job." And I had to kind of look, you know, I mean, couldn't possibly be talking to me because I was the person you called names a few months ago, but it is because one and only thing, and this should go for every department and every agency and every company. We decided one day that we would be 100%

transparent. I don't really want to talk about how many dogs we had to put down, but if you want to know that, I'm going to tell you what it is, but I'll also tell you how many rolls of toilet paper we used. I I don't care what your question is. You have a question, we're going to tell you what we're doing. And that and that alone really turned the agency around. Super proud of the work I did and they did. And I hope we can just keep going forward with that same momentum because there's a lot of pups and kitties and and other critters that need our help. And that concludes my statements for the evening as well. Thank you so much. City clerk, will you please read the consent agenda items? And there's a lot, so buckle in. Thank you, mayor. Item number 3A is to wave full reading of ordinances on agenda. Item number 3B is to approve the study session and regular city council meeting minutes of June 25th, 2025. Item number 3 C is to receive and file the check demand of June 2025. Item number 3D is the agreement with CEAG for homelessness services. Item number 3E is a resolution confirming assessments against various property owners for nuisance abatement costs. Item number 3F is a notice of completion for the fiscal year 2024 2025 Dream Homes neighborhood area and East Palm Canyon Drive pavement rehabilitation projects. Item number 3G is the approval of amendment number one to the intergovernmental memorandum of understanding with the AWA Caliente Band of Kawia Indians regarding the Raone Road Bridge widening project. Item number 3 H is the notice of completion for the fiscal year 2024 2025 city streets pavement reconstruction projects. Item number three I is to authorize a one-year extension to Tamjack LLC for on call community development block grant administrative support services. Item number 3J is to award a subreient

agreement to Fair Housing Council of Riverside County. Item number 3K is to provide a second reading by title only and adopt an ordinance approving zoning ordinance amendment 25002 amending chapter 9.18 of title 9 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code to add single family dwellings as permitted use in the RM multiple family residential district subject to certain conditions and to adopt an ordinance approving specific plan amendment 25002 amending ing specific plan 87-26 C to allow single family dwellings in the specific plan when permitted in the underlining zoning district subject to the development standards of the underlining zoning district. Uh item 3L is to provide a second reading by title only and adopt an ordinance amending title 9 planning and zoning of the Cathedral City Municipal Code to add chapter 9.09 09 public notification and community meetings and to amend chapters 9.05, 9.52, 9.72, 9.74, 9.76, and 9.78 to delete existing provisions that conflict with new chapter 9.09 relating to public notification requirements. Item number 3M is to approve the Cathedral City sponsorship proposal for the 2026 Palm Springs International Film Festival in the amount of 90,000 financial sponsor sponsorship and 20,000 in inind support services. Item number 3N is the fiscal year 2024 emergency management performance grant. Item 3 is the approval of agreement for wellness and occupational health services with Hogue Corporate Health. And that concludes the consent agenda. I'm telling you, I'm not that might have been one of our longest ones. Don't you think?

Long for a long time. Anyway, so are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this item? And if they if there are, our city clerk will facilitate that. So, I do have uh three comments to uh that we received for the record. Um and I will say what item they are for and they will be noted um in the formal record. Um so we received a comment from Sun Sunshine Herrera for item 3D and she provided comments expressing her support of the agreement with conditions. Um she also uh provided comments for item 3G expressing support of the agreement with the uh conditions and she also um provided comments for item 3 L expressing concerns with the proposed ordinance and s suggested amendments. Um, I don't have any requests to speak forms for any of the items um on the consent agenda, but if you are a member of the public and you wish to provide comments on any of the items on the consent agenda, please raise your hand. And I see no hands raised. Mayor, thank you so much, Madam Clerk. Are there any comments from council? Move approval. One, it's Oh, I'm sorry. Go. We're going to do Yeah, we're going to do comments and then we can move. Oh, okay. All right. Thank you very much. Uh it was actually on u agreement with Cabag homeless services. I was expressing to Charlie that over the years uh I'm not really sure if uh this program is with Cathedral City is really getting enough value for the money that we're putting out there. So it's going to keep it. It's ironic that Sunshine brought this up as well. But I think this year I think we should monitor it a little bit better. See where this money is going. See if we can use it uh better with us right here within our own services and our own fire our police department. And uh cuz I every meeting I go to it seems like it does help homelessness but not necessarily all here in Cathedral City. It's all through

the whole valley. So I'd like to just see you know be the good steward of our money here passing it out if we can just be a little bit tighter on it and make sure where these funds are going and if it's really improving Cathedral City. Thank you council members. Anybody else have comments? Move approval. All in favor? Oh, we're going to have a formal vote. Okay. So, we have a motion by uh Mayor Pro McGregory and a second by So, I did You did. That's okay. Um let me see if I can clear it out real quick. So, you're not left out. Our computers just say waiting. So, we're all waiting. There we go. I think I cleared it out here. So, we have Let me fix it. Now, we have a motion by Mayor Prom Gregory and we had a second by Council Member Lamb. Thank you. And then, Council Member Carnival. There we got it. And the motion carries. All eyes. Thank you very much. So, number four says public hearings, but I don't think we have any public hearings, so we're going to skip right over that. Number five are our legislative actions. A is a special use permit for Palm Springs Friends of Philarmonic Symphonica D. Mineria. I get it somewhat right. Thank you. That's minora. Minoria. Minoria. Listen to Hold on. Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Uh Ryan Hunt, communications events manager, will present this item. This uh is a a really exciting event that's coming to Cathedral City uh pending your approval

uh next January. That'll be free to the public and Ryan will tell you all about it. Thank you, city manager. Appreciate it. Mayor, mayor prom city council. It's good to be with you. And we have some special guests here on the production side of this event. Jeff Hawa right there who will also be uh producing our state of the city that you approved recently. So, we're excited to have Jeff uh in the building. And then Lee Mills right here is an internationally recognized conductor. Um he's the executive director of Palm Springs, Friends of Phil Armonic, also the music director for Greenville Symphony Orchestra. Uh really impressive. I had a chance just to meet him today, but I'd seen some video clips and really really sharp. You'll hear from him for a short portion of this to kind of go over the programming aspects of it uh that we included. But I'll I'll start rolling with the presentation. Uh strategic plan goals F3. You've heard this one from me a lot, which is promote additional community events and celebrations. Uh certainly in the amphitheater being a priority. I think we're booked now at about 25 to 30 calendar weeks in the amphitheater. Um so I wanted to um mention that. Um the event supports cultural diversity celebration, uh international artistic showcase, um obviously our Latino heritage and the recognition for that. Our inclusivity as a community, and then free access to highquality arts programming, and I think the ability of this, uh group to be able to make this a free entertainment uh event is certainly something that uh we certainly strive for here in Cathedral City. So, we're excited to detail that. So, I'm going to kind of breeze through a few of these because I think Lee's going to take it over for for most of the, you know, portion of of explaining the programming aspects. But, um, you know, that's Lee obviously right there. You can see him sitting there as well. But, um, bringing in the orchestra from Mexico City, Mexico, I think will be a really unique opportunity. I had a chance to look at their website and listen to some clips and sound and video. I mean, this is really world class. And so, we're we're incredibly excited to be able to host them uh potentially with your approval in the amphitheater. Uh expected attendance about 200 um and as I mentioned it's free uh to attend uh some of the planned cultural celebrations um

the or orchestral performances obviously in the amphitheater working in uh Cathedral City High School with their ballet folklorico dancers u mariachi components uh art exhibitions food trucks and beverage family-friendly programming obviously throughout the day and then Lee uh just kind of had me add this one which is really cool master class for high school students um to be able to uh really kind of uh experience a mentorship related to this field. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Lee to kind of go over a few slides and introduce himself. So Lee, hi Lee, welcome to our city. Thank you Ryan, Mayor Ross, and city council members. Thank you very much for having me here today and thank you Ryan for facilitating this. Uh Palm Springs Friends of Phil Harmonic has been around for 52 years now. We specialize in presenting world-class orchestras from all over the world uh including such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Vienna Philarmonic. We generally present at the Macallum Theater in Palm Desert as that's the sort of biggest concert venue that we have that's indoors. And since recovering from the pandemic, uh we have really experienced a surge of support from our subscribers and our donors. And because of the format of our concerts and the way we present our series in the Macllum, our board is really interested in expanding the offerings that we have and using the resources available to us to ensure that we are uh generally providing a a public good beyond just the four walls of the Macallen Theater and the subscribers that pay for our very expensive tickets to be able to attend those concerts. So um I started about a year and a half ago. I personally believe in uh being a a bluecollar kid from Montana with no musical family and having the career that I now have. It's largely because of the availability of cultural and musical experiences in my life. So I believe we do have a responsibility to be very active in education and community engagement and creating opportunities for community members of all means and

of all backgrounds to be able to experience the beauty that is symphonic music. So um here's just a picture again of the orchestia. They are frequently on tour around the world and um here's another photo of them at the Bravo Veil Music Festival. Some of you may be aware of a very important music festival in Veil, Colorado. So we will be hosting them on January 26th at the Macllum for our subscribers. But uh in talking with their tour manager, I uh negotiated a great rate to have them also stay come a day early and uh we will be presenting them um if approved at your amphitheater here for a sort of a mini festival that's going to be on a Sunday afternoon on January 25th. And this is loosely based off of a project that I spearheaded when I was um conducting the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra in Rio Janeiro where I was for 5 years. But we launched a project called musical connections where we took the orchestra out on tour to more rural areas of the state that didn't have access to this kind of music making and we put on a sort of dayong festival where we featured and highlighted local arts organizations on the same stage that then our orchestra presented a big concert sort of as the grand finale for the day. And in parallel to this, um, it was a little bit bigger than what this sort of pilot project is going to be in in that we had actually our musicians from the orchestra going out to these little rural cities and municipalities, um, frequently throughout the months preceding this to give lessons and master classes and teacher training to the elementary school teachers so that they could teach the curriculum to their students. Um, and it was really a beautiful project. So, I'm taking elements of that and trying to recreate something similar here. This is um as I just mentioned in my mind kind of a pilot project and if it's successful I'm hoping that it's something that we'll be able to repeat many times in the years to come. Uh during the day um in addition to featuring local organizations like the high school ballet folklorico and uh various other

uh mariachi bands and groups that exist in the valley already. Um we will be doing in parallel utilizing space here in the city hall uh to do master classes. Um Carlos Miguel Pto and Pacho Flores are both um brilliant international artists. Uh Mister Pto is the conductor that will be here. Po Flores won't be playing on the 25th on the Sunday but he will be playing on the on our concert on Monday at the Mallum. he will be here and they will be offering a master class for high school students um to talk about their careers and music and playing a little bit of music and um just integrating well with these students and that's going to happen simultaneously as some of the other presentations are on the stage and then the whole evening will per will culminate in a performance of this orchestra performing music that is all u Mexican and Latin American uh composers. Uh so it's a very interesting program. I think it'll be a highly engaging uh event for people. We're planning on inviting uh food trucks and vendors to come and set up at the event so that there's a lot of activities, food, drinks, and uh entertainment for uh everybody here. And we are we have budgeted for and plan on providing this completely free of charge to the members of the public. So, we will be spending about $150,000 producing this event. And it is our gift to the Coachella Valley community. Wow. Can we keep you? Yes. Can we have him, Ryan, please? Can we have him? What What a great asset. Thank you so very much. Thank you all. So, council, I'm sure you have questions. I do have a question. Did I hear it was supposed to? No, we're still working on the decisions around if we're going to have alcohol or not. You know, those insurance questions and everything like that, but Yes. Thank you, Council Member N. certainly don't have a question, but I

think this is just spectacular. Um, thank you. This is just wonderful. Thank you. I don't know how all this is. I want to be a lot more like Lee when I grow up. I I learned that tonight. So, oh my god. In our next life, I think we can't grow up. Yeah. I had a couple more slides. I think Lee went through everything. This is our no seating layout that was attached here. Um, you know, this is our template that we use for for no seating for the amphitheater. Um, we'll obviously have more of a of a defined layout here in the coming weeks working with Jeff. Um, and I think Jeff came to me with about a year ago on this, right, Jeff? So, I mean, we've been working on this together for a while, finally getting to you all for approval, uh, is a really cool milestone. So, uh, setup would be uh 8 a.m. on the 24th, the event day being the 25th. Uh, special use permit fee, which has already been paid, the nonprofit rental rate, which you know is 2500. Uh, refundable deposit for cleanup, $1,000. So, uh, total revenue coming back to the city at at $3,100, a little over that. So, um, the certificate of insurance, the just the pledge form that I wanted to provide that will be, uh, fully, uh, covered with liability coverage in the amount of 1 million, naming the city. Um, they'll be coordinating with CCPD related to any private security components as we always do. Uh, ADA accessibility and crowd management. We have the ADA accessibility established in the amphitheater already, which is terrific. Uh, and then the cleanup, uh, would be a refundable deposit, uh, obviously, and I assume everything will go well there. And, uh, without, um, belaboring the point too much, there, our recommendation is to, uh, approve the special use permit, uh, for Palm Springs, Friends of Philarmonic, to conduct the free day of music and festival in the community amphitheater on January 25th of 2026. Thank you very much. You really covered that well, but I'm still going to turn to our city manager. Anything to add? Nope. Sometimes you just need to know when to say nothing. I couldn't help it. Are you saying that directly to me or It did sounded like it was coming

straight to me. Any further questions? No, I would just echo spectacular. Thank you so much for considering us. This is the types of things that we had hoped to be able to attract for the amphitheater to benefit the community. So, we really do appreciate that. Thank you. And I might add um Jeff and I are are currently working on this and uh also uh with Ellen Goodman from the Palm Springs United Community uh United School District Foundation, you know, we're working on trying to tie this in as strongly as we can into educational opportunities. And um additionally, you know, if you haven't noticed from the orchestra and the theme of the programming, uh one of the things that we are really interested in is trying to get a more proportional um representation in our audience of the demographics of the Coachella Valley. So, this is another uh opportunity for us to increase the access especially to uh Latino families that we don't really see in the concert hall and trying to just adjust the I I believe that orchestral music is for everybody and we just need to adjust the format and the you know what's the atmosphere, what's the environment. So, we are planning on also bringing on board community leaders to try to figure out exactly what are the ways that we can most effectively serve this population. Kudos to your board members. Oh, yes. And let me just say we do have with us Pam Shanter is from our board of uh directors. So, uh thank you for coming. And then Michael Flanigan is uh he's on my staff. He helps me with ticketing and administration. And of course, Jeff Hawker, who you all know, uh is our consultant on this project. Well, we do we do know Jeff. So, welcome back. Of course. Thank you very much. So, do we um do we have anybody from the public who would like to speak on this? I don't have any request to speak forms for this item, but if you're a member of the public and you wish to provide public comment, please raise your hand. I see no hands raised. Mayor, well, most importantly then, I'm looking

for a motion. Be happy to make a move to approve. Second. So, we have a motion by council member Gutierz and a second by uh Mayor Prom Gregory. Please vote. Things come up. All right, go away. Mayor, do you have a screen to vote? No, no, no. Oh, we were I was just the wrong window. I was there. I just was the wrong window. Story of my life, huh? And the motion carries. All eyes. Sorry, guys. The screen isn't up there. Thank you all very much. Thank you very much. We look forward to getting to know you. Congratulations. In touch soon. Yeah. Thank you all. I'm up next, so I'll I'll stay here. Okay. That is We are approving a date change for the Taste of Eliscoco Festival with Sounds Skills Incorporated. Okay. Thank you, city manager. Yeah, I think I got it. All right. Okay. So, Taste of Alisco Festival. Wanted to go over um and thank you all again, Lee and and Jeff and everybody. Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much and your support. Um wanted to go through this. So, F3, as you know, are our very important goal to promote additional community events and celebrations. Taste of Lisa has been part of our uh community. I think this will be the ninth uh year. So, really excited about that. Uh actually I think we are maybe even heading into 10th with that in LGBT plus days. I'll have to double check that. But uh if that's the case, we'll certainly uh make sure we we celebrate that in a big way. But what I'm really here to talk to you about today is a proposed change. Uh talking

to uh Sound Skills and the Carnival operator that they work with. Um just a quick background on Taste Taste of Alisco. You know, it celebrates our sister sister city relationship with Tequila Haliscoco Mexico. uh features Mexican food, tequila tastings, um live entertainment, vendor marketplace, 3-day event, and downtown uh Cathedral City. So, the new timeline proposed would be for Cinco de Mayo weekend. And I'll get into all the reasons why I think it's beneficial, but um it would be May 1st through the 3rd of 2026, April 3rd through May 2nd, uh April 30th through May 2nd of 2027, and then a third year would be added um with your approval uh for May 5th through the 7th uh to align with that. Uh we think it'll strengthen some cultural significance. Obviously, this whole event celebrates our diversity and community engagement. Um and uh you know, obviously fostering cultural connections with our sister city, Tequila Halisco. We're in active dialogue with uh Steve Clayton and Sound Skills to see if we can potentially get maybe a delegation for you all to to be able to interact with from Tequila. I think it's been a little while since we've done that. It would be nice to bring them back in some way to celebrate. So, especially if it's 10 years um for them to do, you you we we've signed you up for tequila tasting already. You're you're on my list for sure. Yes. So, some of the challenges I'll set up the narrative this way. Some of the challenges and why we got here were, you know, hearing back from the carnival vendor, hearing back from our event organizer. We've lost two days in the last couple of years due to rain, due to wet weather and conditions, due to chilly temperatures, especially in the nighttime hours. Um, and so and there's also a lot of competition and we feel like everything's kind of jammed tight in this window and this would allow us a little bit of breathing room. I I feel like we we've done a really good job over the last few years of creating um events that can have their own marketing windows that aren't being competing even against our own events. It's so busy as you know. You know, you get the calendar invites starting in October. They don't really stop till Christmas and then that picks right back up in January and goes on all the way through the spring. So I

think this will give us a nice kind of extension uh and have an October to May kind of signature event season which I think will be good for our residents. Um we do think it provides some enhanced marketing with some of the tequila tastings. Cinco de Mayo, you know, obviously obviously being a very celebratory atmosphere. I think that would really help. Um but we also think that the improved weather conditions for attendees and vendors will be an asset. you know, early May, you know, looking at the calendar, I actually got with the city manager and he pointed out to me that, you know, and I'll go over the the temperatures here in a bit, but the average high is actually 91. It was even lower than that this year for the first weekend in May. And the nighttime temperatures um are in the 70s. So, we're we're we're hopeful that that move and it's really our driest month of the year as well. So, we're hopeful that, you know, could be some wind, but we think um with that move, uh it eliminates a lot of the obstacles from the weather side of it. Um, and it just gives us better calendar distribution, just spreads everything out. Um, really gives us a longer time to celebrate everything Cathedral City has to offer. So, as I mentioned, you know, 72 is the February uh average high, 47 is the average um evening low. Uh 91 to 63 is kind of what we're getting at. And you'll see on there the proposed hours with this change would come with we've had some dead hours and hearing back from some vendors and feedback that from like 11 to three it's just not you know it takes a little while for it to get going and then the evening hours it really pops. The carnival goes to 11:00 every night. So we're thinking about changing it to a 4 to 11 which is obviously in the new contract for your approval of of moving from from 11 to 9 to 4 to 11. I think we'll be able to maximize uh really the talent that we'll be able to attract in the amphitheater. expenditures won't be as much because we're not worried about the daytime hours there. So, uh it seemed to be, you know, I was a little bit, you know, I always hear when I hear May, I go, "Oh, you know, when Steve came to me, I worry about the temperature." But then when I did some more research, there's just so many more wins and pros, it seems like uh to this proposal and staff's opinion as we present this to you for approval. So, the three-year component, adding a third year, um that would be in line

with the three-year commitment that Helman Suns, uh the amusement company that we use for the Carnival, which has been the biggest and best, um you know, that I've seen. It's gotten better and bigger every year. Um and the Carnival company needs the three-year commitment for planning and and equipment scaling. But, you know, I think, you know, without the the three-year city approval, I think we would worry about losing that Carnival component if we didn't I I like this group. I like this company. Certainly, we would be able There are other carnival companies out there. We know this group, they really um you know, our fire department um certainly commended them on the inspection side. The safety seemed to be a priority. It looked really nice. The the the rides that they got were above, you know, board. It looked like it was it it looked really nice. Um and so I think we really like that aspect of it. And so it also allows some operational consistency. They did a really great job from a marketing standpoint. They have a huge following on social media. Some more collaboration we can do there. having a three-year commitment and the same partners both on the carnival side and the event operator side I think will allow us to build a little bit more momentum from a marketing standpoint. So um all all of that to be said you can see some of the beautiful photos that we've had uh for the last few years of Taste of Alisco. So another you know concern that that that I had initially but then when I really looked at the demographics and kudos to Sound Skills for providing some great analytical data of where people come from this really is a local residency event. Um, so the move to May, you know, if you lo worried about losing some of the part-time residents, some of the the winter residents, you know, here that that go elsewhere, um, as the as the season gets a little bit warmer, we're not really capturing that in the data. It's really a lot of full-time non-seasonal, uh, residents. Um, and it's obviously a cultural celebration specifically designed for our regional community, as I mentioned. Um, and we do have expected increased attendance due to the improved weather and conditions, especially with the nighttime hours and the carnival. to get, you know, as I've adapted now to my desert climate coming from the east coast, I I got a little chilly at when it gets down in the 50s now. It's bundle up weather. So, I I think we would have

a better display out there for for some of the nighttime events if we do Lucha Libé again. I I I you know, talking to Steve, you know, where this will give him a little bit more time to get ahead of it. But, um, you know, the the concert components, the amphitheater, I think getting people to to feel a little bit more comfortable in the later hours, I think would be good. Um, do want to mention a few things we're discussing. You mentioned the tequila. We are talking about a possible tequila tint expansion. It was packed pretty much from from uh from the beginning of the event to the end. Um, having a little bit more of a footprint there obviously within ABC compliance, but that's something we're thinking about. More food demonstrations. That was something that was kind of new. Uh, doing the tequila Halisco. We'd like to broaden that a little bit. I think it was kind of a VIP experience, which is great, but you know, we want it to be a little bit more than 50 to 100. And so ways that we can expand that. So those are just some ideas that are being discussed uh as we hopefully uh move forward with this new agreement. So uh the original contract uh that you approved on April 23rd was for 26 and 27 u from January 30th to February 1st and then the the January dates as you can see it really was starting to move into January too. Um so 11 to 9 the new one would be an extension adding a 2028 year uh to align with the carnival agreement with our event operator. Cinco de Maya weekend alignment I think will give us some good synergy from a marketing standpoint and then four to 11 being the new hours and then the new dollar amount is the same 5% increase that we did um that we do for all of our our signature events year to year. So no no um surprises there. So so uh without uh so I think I went over everything but I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. So, our recommendation from staff is to approve the requested date change for Taste of Eliscoco to align with Cinco de Mayo weekend and authorize the updated three-year contract for your approval uh Sounds Skills, Inc. through 2028. Thank you very much. Do we have questions from from the public? I don't have any requests to speak forms for this item, but if you're a member of the public and you wish to provide public comment, please raise your hand.

I see no hands raised. Mayor, may I start with you this time? I always pull you laugh. Okay. Makes sense to me. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Makes sense. It makes sense. It makes sense. I will share with you, and this was this sty me, but I'm just going to say the truth that visit Greater Palm Springs said we the amount that we've lost this winter is the lowest amount ever. And I don't know if you notice it out on the streets. I get like 14th in line to the red light. I'm like, "Wait a minute. It's winter. Where are where is where are these people? Why are they here?" Yeah, but glad to have them and hope they stay. Absolutely. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Mayor Burton. I need glasses. Yep. Yes. Yep, we do. So, I I'll move approval. We have a motion by Mayor Prom Gregory and a second by Council Member Lamb. Please vote. I'd like to say I was smart enough to do this even once. Just even once. Just let me do it once. I'll quit asking. You have to go to the E. I did the E. I do the Maybe I didn't go to the E. I think I went to the the one in the middle. Now, don't touch anything else. You guys would be here all night. All night. Mayor, do you need help? No, I clicked a I. Okay, there it goes. Yep. And the motion carries. All eyes. Stop. I know where you live. Okay. So, our next item is item C, professional services agreement with Group for Architecture Research and Planning, Inc. for the community center site and cost analysis. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

How are you? Great. by yourself? Very well. Thank you for asking. And as you can tell, um we're happy to have Victor Gomez, who's our administrative analyst, here to present this item. This is another step forward in our um commitment to implement the promises that were made through measure W. Um Victor, go ahead. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, esteemed city council. My name is Victor Gomez and I am the administrative analyst for the city manager's office and today I'm here to speak to you about the recommended consultant for the community center feasibility study which uh we're very excited to present here tonight. So, a bit of background. Cathedral City's 5-year strategic plan calls for a site and cost analysis for a community center. We look back to November 2024 where city residents vote to approve measure W. A portion of these funds will be used to the to go to the future construction of a community center. This past April 2025, the city issued a request for proposals to conduct a feasibility study for a new center. We received eight proposals in response to the RFP from the following firms. Albert Group Architects, Barry Dunn, Dalan, ELS, Group 4 Architecture, Johnson Favaro, Cosmon Companies, and Stainer Architects. All very reputable firms with uh excellent track records. Five evaluators were selected to review the A proposals received and to provide initial scoring which you can see here on the uh screen. The top three candidates were ELS group for architecture and stainer architects. After initial scoring, the proposers whose proposals scored among the top three were invited to panel interviews. After these were concluded, staff sought to conduct uh reference checks for two of the three interviewees. And after careful review of all factors, staff selected group 4 architecture as a firm most responsive to the scope of services and who offered the best value to the

city. Group 4 architecture has over 40 years of extensive experience in working with local municipalities on community center projects and master planning. Uh they're currently working on two other community centers. Their strengths include project management, stakeholder engagement, and community outreach. The proposed timeline to complete the study is 150 days. So by December 2025, we endeavor to have the study complete. And actually, we're hoping to uh complete it in 120 days, but of course provide some cushion for unforeseen circumstances. Some of the main factors that will be considered by group 4 architecture are amenities for the community center, the swimming pools, basketball courts, things of that nature. Uh the location of this community center, of course, will we try to utilize current city-owned property? Is it best to purchase non- cityowned property? Scalability. As we've uh come to find out, community centers are somewhat expensive. So, can we construct the community center with scalability in mind to uh potentially build on it in the future? Will it be a new build or will it be uh a rehabilitation of an existing uh building, transportation access, of course, um does it have agency to main corridors? Can we provide uh bus route access and things of that nature? Partnerships. They will engage current stakeholders and see if we can leverage some of our other community partners uh for the community center. of course um the Boys and Girls Club being one, the senior center being another, and they'll also provide a finan financial analysis and funding options. And so they will provide a multiffactorial analysis of all of these factors, including finances and um hopefully ways that we can fund the project. The fiscal impact is a one-time fee uh out of the development impact fees, a onetime cost of $99,600. This will include a center assessment,

community outreach and engagement plan. They will conduct outreach and uh do surveying. And it's important to note that they do have key staff members that are bilingual. And so given that Cathedral City is uh a major bilingual city, um we'll be able to reach out to the Spanish speaking community and and of course get their input as well. Uh the funding strategies will also be covered by this as well as the final recommendations and feasibility study itself. This is in direct alignment with goal B community investment and is actually uh stemming from action B10 to conduct a site and cost analysis for our community recreation center. Staff's recommendation is to appro to approve a professional services agreement with Group 4 Architecture Research and Planning Inc. and authorize the city manager to execute all necessary documents. With that, that is the end of my presentation. I am available for any questions as well as Don Merks from group 4 architecture who's available via Zoom. Don is a principal with group 4 and uh has had a major hand in over 25 projects from community centers to community center master planning to many other types of municipal projects. Thank you very much. And I know we do have some questions. Yeah, Victor. Thank you, Mayor. Victor, can you go back to fiscal impact? Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay. the conduct outreach survey. Can you expand a little bit more for uh for the $9,100? What what is their outreach survey? How does that work? So, I can uh perhaps let Don speak to a little bit more of this, but at least from from my knowledge, this is going to be a very involved process. Group 4 is going to facilitate meetings with not only the city council, um but with other community partners. They're going to facilitate meetings with uh potentially the school districts um and also survey the community to find out what are the community's desires for the center. And obviously everyone in the city would

like the center to be a little bit of something. So what they'll do is uh be able to facilitate these meetings, sort of weave the conversation and to um really show what um what can be done for the community center. And uh I'm not sure if Don is able to hear me, but if she'd like to speak to anything else, um please feel free, Don. Yes. Um good evening everyone. Is my audio okay? Yes, we can hear you. Excellent. Um uh just to elaborate on the community outreach. We're actually proposing two rounds of community outreach. Um, the each round will include an online survey, in-person survey, popup kiosk, as well as kind of self-s served kiosk set up in key locations in the community where the public uh frequently uh visits um such as the senior center, the library, places like that. We'll put up um self-s served kiosk where the community can weigh in. uh the two rounds. The first rounds will be the needs assessment looking at programs, services and activities helping to look at prioritization and the second round we will uh we'll have them weigh in and prioritize on different strategies and options kind of to meet those needs. Um additionally the committee will help develop the evaluation criteria um that will be used to analyze the different strategies. Um this will all be done as I said both digitally online as well as in person and we will do it um bilingually as well. Okay. Thank you for that. Uh one other uh question. You probably know that Desert Recreation will be taking over this project when it's complete. So will you be working with Desert W? Uh yes we will very closely. So part of um our work we'll be working with the project management team who will be kind of the team that'll be directing us kind

of week to week as we go through this process this planning process and would um expect the recreation district to have representative on the project management team and additionally we'll be doing technical meetings with recreation staff to really understand their operational concerns what works well for them at other facilities what they envision to do for Cathedral City and really kind of get their expertise from that operational aspect as we're looking at different program strategies and site strategies. Thank you. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Thank you. Other questions? Council member Lamb, I just I had one I have several questions, but the first one is aside and and maybe this is the the biggest factor, but aside from the fiscal impact, what what are you looking for um in terms of either rehabbing a building or having building a brand new building on a site? what are what are all what are the extraneous factors that would make a decision for that aside from the financial impact and if I can defer to you Don um just for absolutely yeah sorry I don't know why I don't have u video showing up so I appreciate no that there's no video feed on on our end but okay um I appreciate you're prompting me um so in terms of what we look at when we look at a building renovation or a rehabilitation. Um, we're going to have the functional criteria, the operational criteria, cost, access, transportation, all those things that Victor just summarized will be these criteria that we look at different development strategies for. Um, one of the things that is really, you know, one of our biggest assets is existing facilities. And if there is an opportunity, reuse an existing facility

and it checks all those boxes on our criteria in terms of functionality, operational size, capacity, adjacencies, all those things. Um, we can really get more money for uh bang for our buck if you will. um because a lot of times that renovation, rehabilitation of a building will be less expensive than new construction. Um and so those all those different um aspects of the development strategies will be brought back in a in a matrix with the pros and cons uh for council's consideration. Um and it is typically kind of self-evident which is the best option you know based on the criteria that's developed and the information and the data that we can prepare for each of the options. Great. Thank you so much. I don't have a question. I don't have any questions but a comment that uh the way you went about uh selecting this particular group and all the questions that were asked were just wonderful questions and I really don't have anything to ask except uh to see the results when they come up. But I think you guys did a wonderful job. Thank you. Thank you. So so I'll echo some of that. I know this is we're we're trying to be very sensitive to this process. So I'm I'm uh was pleased to see that so much thought so far and we're right at the beginning has gone into making sure that uh this process really does select the best location, have the best features um and uh and respect all of the different criteria. Um because I know there's there's been some concern. Um this is something that's so needed and desired in our community. Everybody wants it to be exactly what they want it to be. Um, but I think the council has expressed

um and and and held to it that they really want to have uh a process in which uh all of the factors are considered and the best overall site, the best overall features um are are what we end up with. So I I am pleased to see that it appears there's going to be extensive community outreach and uh and also with a lot of the the groups. Um I do sometimes though express or feel some concern because um a lot of people in our city especially that have a real need for access to a community center and what it might offer. um are in areas of the city that are somewhat underserved and that um aren't necessarily the most aren't necessarily those with the loudest voices, aren't necessarily those that are the most politically active or connected, but they really have a need for this community center. um perhaps more than some of the others that have better access to transportation or other other areas where they can get services. So, I I'm wondering um if we can address how in this community outreach process we're going to make sure that even those somewhat silent voices are those that aren't necessarily currently involved in city activities uh are going to be heard. We I heard mention of the senior center and the library and those those users are very important to make sure their voices are heard. But there are others that don't

have don't use the senior center or don't use the library that really would benefit and need to be considered for this community center. So I'm wondering how in the community outreach outreach we're going to I didn't hear we're going to go to shopping centers or uh those types of things, but maybe that's that's the plan because you only go to public facilities. You're likely to only talk to people that are already users of public facilities. And I I feel that this community center is an opportunity for us to to reach out to people that aren't served by the city right now. So I was wondering if uh there's a plan to address that and if uh Don if I may defer your expertise. Absolutely. Yes. Thank you, Victor. And that is a fabulous question. And so the exact participation plan is not developed. And so we have a loted uh resources for the uh participation plan, but looking at ways to partner with uh both city staff as well as other agencies by sharing paper surveys to be filled out at different programs in the city is one way we do that. We do definitely stand outside of Starbucks, stand outside of the local marcadas. We stand um wherever the people are. Um one of our most effective areas seems to be farmers markets just because people seem to have a little bit more time, want to get engaged and chat. But the exact participation plan, you know, we plan on doing uh very early in the process and working with your city staff um as well as the recreation district to find out how again how we can leverage these resources to reach as many people as we possibly can. And it's it's not only about the numbers, as you say. It's about that that cross-section, making sure we have a good cross-section of your community and we're able to reach

both the vocal and active community as well as the quiet and and less um outspoken part of your community. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you for that answer and I look forward to uh to the process. Thank you. Any other questions? Just one last comment. If we could work on the name like Mark Carnival Community Center, I think that has a nice we'll work on it. Thank you, mayor. Appreciate it. One meeting every year. We'll get to the end. So, I I have a question and it's it's my ignorance, but I hope that you'll be able to help me. When you look at either building a brand new building or rehabilitating something that is already there, how how do you facilitate making sure that that already used building will have the same lifespan that a new building would? And I I'll defer to Don on that question. Okay. Thank you, Victor. Um so how we make sure is we'll do um basically the age of a building the age of the systems of a building can tell you a lot like there's a life expectancy when you have a HVAC system for instance you know a life expectancy of typical HVAC systems is 20 years and so if we're looking at an existing building and it's in relatively good shape the envelope and the structure and everything is in good shape but some of the systems are you know aged if you will, we will look at the construction cost and the renovation cost to replace those systems. And so what we're looking at when we develop recommendations for public facilities such as the community center is a building that's going to have a life expectancy of 40 to 50 years. Um, and you know, if a building, that doesn't mean we're going to throw away good pieces of the building or the system if they have a life expectancy of 15 years, but we will present that information. So, the city council really goes into this eyes wide open on the decisions that they're making. Um, but by

understanding the condition of the building and the condition of the site and the improvements that are needed for an existing building, we will develop a cost model for that and be able to compare it to new construction. Um, so you're comparing apples to apples, if you will. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. Okay. I think we have talked you out. I sure appreciate your time. City Manager, do you have anything you want to add at this point or anything? No, I except I you know, from the staff's standpoint, we're really happy to see progress on the items that we've been talking about for years and that the community has supported through their votes. It's exciting times. Thank you so much, city clerk. Do we have anybody who'd like to comment? I don't have any request to speak forms for this item, but if you're a member of the public and you wish to provide public comment, please raise your hand. I see no hands raised. Mayor, thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you. Have a motion. I'll make the motion to approve. We have a motion by Council Member Carnival and a second by Council Member Lamb. Please vote. Okay, I'm getting there. Close. Do you need my assistance or do you I'm already open. I've lost a window. I'm so sorry. You know, when I'm dead and gone, there's going to be a special place where they're going to make me pick things on screens. Do you want to verbally tell me what your vote is? And I will just There it is. Don't really know how I did

it. Probably needing to do it again. Okay, got it. Okay, the motion carries. All eyes. Thank you so very much. Thank you, city council. Thank you, Don. I'll I'll be in communication soon. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Don. Our next item is item D. To approve recommendations from the public arts commission for a not to exceed budget of 173,000 from the art and public places fund for the Espironza Park entryway sculpture. So, Mayor, members of the council, Anne Ambrose was going to do this presentation for you. She's recovering from an injury and probably watching us. I don't know. Um but we have a very capable we have a very capable fillin um in Victor Gomez who's going to present this and the next item. And also I would like to say that uh Craig Lee Beltel from our public arts commission is here as well and can help if that's necessary. Victor, thank you city manager. Uh let me just pull up the other presentation. So, uh, good evening, city council mayor, mayor prom. Uh, as city manager McClendon stated, unfortunately, assistant city manager Ambrose is unable to be here tonight. So, I'll be presenting on her behalf. And unfortunately, I only have somewhat superficial knowledge of u of this project based off the staff report, but we do have PAC chair Lee Beltel here to uh provide any more in-depth answers. So, we're here to present the Espiranza Park entryway sculpture budget. A little bit of background. With Espiranza Park's completion, staff are now focusing on a public art piece to be located on the main entry entranceway roundabout. PAC and PA and PACE commissions selected a subcommittee to

work on soliciting community input for the piece. Back in March 2025, a meeting was held with the Dream Homes residents at Awakaliente Elementary School. Prior to the meeting, bilingual content was distributed through the school and to each Dreams Homes neighborhood home. An art exercise was also distributed to the school students for their ideas and the city received 192 drawings um from this. And unfortunately, we can't show all 192, but we'll show you just a a few snippets of what the students drew. So, very hopeful supporting CCPD, potentially a rocket launch, and of course, some more beautiful art. During that same meeting, staff bilingually solicited ideas from the residents on themes or images for the sculpture. Some of the ideas are resilience, rising from the ashes, transformation, metamorphosis, growth, regeneration, rebirth, and to be inviting for all children. Some themes are boy and girl with flowers, as we saw before, police officer with boy and girl, butterfly with rainbow colors and rainbow after the rain, big butterfly with children underneath it looking at it, and a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. And I'm only smiling because I was part of that meeting and it was nice to see all of the uh interaction. So, moving forward to May 2025, PAC voted to support a budget of $120,000 for the commission of a public art piece for the park. Following that meeting, staff's additional research determined that the budget proposed was insufficient for the piece. Fast forwarding to June 2025, staff recommended to PAC to increase the budget for the project from $120,000 to $173,000. This would include a stipend to three artists to create a concept for the sculpture for the sculpture and that would be $1,000 per artist. It would also include artist fees such as materials, construction, transportation,

and travel and city costs advertising for the call, installation, electrical plaque, and a $20,000 contingency for a not to exceed budget of $173,000. Again, in June 2025, PAC voted to recommend the $173,000 budget to the city council for approval. If the city council approves, staff will prepare a call for artists during the summer. A committee will be selected which will review and recommend three artists who will each be given a stipen to develop concepts to present to the dream homes community and public for input. Uh this committee will be composed of PAC members, PA subcommittee members as well as a member of our engineering division to ensure that the uh art piece is sound I guess you could say. Following this and PAC approval, the recommended concept and award will be brought to the city council for final approval during fall. Regarding the fiscal impact, this will be a one-time cost for the public art piece. The current available balance is $373,66. The $173,000 art piece would leave $200,66 in the uh part art and public places fund. This is in alignment with goal B community investment. Cathedral City roads, gateways, public spaces, and other infrastructure are well planned, designed, constructed, and maintained. Staff's recommendation is to approve the public art commission's recommendation to establish a not to exceed budget of $173,000 for the Espiranza Park entryway sculpture. And it is now open up for questions and discussion where again I can only answer so much unfortunately but um I'll defer to Charlie. We've already used that. We'll have to come up with something different. It's a good question for I I just had one question. You talked about the engineering to have to approve

to approve this. So will they work with the um the artist for the ultimate piece because would be I you want something that's really sustainable in all the weather and wind and how do we know that that artist knows what that requires? To the best of my understanding um the engineering division member will be part of that subcommittee that is formed. I Oh, I see. So, they'll be invol Okay, got it. I just Yeah. Okay, good. Thank you. Oh, just No, no, just in case. We just feel like um Good evening everybody. The quality of this park and we felt it was very important if the city was going to make an investment in sculpture that this would be the park to do it to really put an investment into this community and do something spectacular and wonderful. And when Anna and I kept going to these meetings and we kept talking and listening to the input and the whole commission, we kept listening and because of my our background, I kept realizing that when you start talking about steel and bronze and the kinds of things that would withstand all those things and the cost of them nowadays, what happens are probably and every time we went I went to a meeting, I would just look at it and go I would go like this and I would go like this because of my former life as a gallery director in Santa Fe, New Mexico. So, we also want to do a put the call out more regionally, nationally, and we're going to hit up a lot of people all over the country. I see. Um, the part of that cost, too, is if it was coming outside of our region, the cost of transporting those kinds of heavier things here would kind of up the ante, but it could also up the creativity and who would actually participate. So, I'm hoping to reach out to a lot of Hispanic artists, a lot of Native American artists, a lot of other kinds of people that are maybe not from this region, but from like New Mexico, Colorado, those kinds of areas. So, that's why engineering has to be involved and that's why the money

there's going to be a bit of a back and forth and then transporting it here and making sure that it's set up. That's why it's a good idea to have like mckettes or like miniatures or those faximiles built first to get a concept. And our whole process with this piece was to always have the community involved. So when we can narrow it down and find things that are obviously feasible, if we can narrow it down to three and then have that community um also come in and put their input and support of what they feel the strongest about. And so all the creative input from the kids and those things that's going to go out in the call for artists to be part of the inspiration for what they come up with to do this. So again, it supports what the community's vision is for this piece. So it's going to be a process that going to call for artists, I believe, is about we're looking at sort of six weeks, that sort of thing to hopefully narrow it down. Then from those we can select those three and then do more of a back and forth and get very clear about what people are going to do and what we expect, what we want. Then once that's done, then we can do that. Pick the three and then get those um the uh mckettes is the professional word mckett made for them to show what it's like. Okay, good. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I you know you I was at that I mean I think most of us were at that meeting but you can't underestimate the enthusiasm of having the kids you know participate in all this because that's their park. So anyway, it's just wonderful. So, thank you all. You as a teacher, me as a former gallery director, I always said my favorite people to have in the gallery were kids. They were unfiltered. They'd say things clearly. They once you gave them permission, they were not touching and doing and being involved. And I'm always excited about their vision and creativity because they don't have limits. We put limits on ourselves. Kids don't. So, I'm always very excited and I'm curious to see how artists will respond to that and be able to hopefully

influence the kinds of I have what I'm kind of envisioning what I would like this sculpture to look like, but I want to see what everybody else's interpretation is too. So, it's going to be a really fascinating process that we're really really excited about it. And the city, we have another sculpture, I think similar value. I forget exactly where it is, but we haven't made this kind of investment in a piece for a while. And we felt if we have this is the opportunity to do that at this park. Yeah. Thank you. And for this community good and for all of us. That's fun. You actually answered the call to service. What's that? You answered my question how you're going to get all the artists how you're going to interview them and bring. So answer it. Council member Gutter. My question is ultimately is the public arts commission going to make the decision of what piece to actually get built or is it going to be a combination between? I think it's going to be a combination but I say we really want the community's input as much as possible. So if we if we narrow it down to three, it's like to then that we feel really like either one of those three could work then to get the community involved. And I think ultimately that could be like it could be very democratic and be majority rules. And ultimately ultimately it's the city council that will Yeah. Y'all have to obviously approve the people that I was going to say but then you got to go talk to the community. We said we gave you a chance, right? I think a a lot was answered um you know because I think the concern was about you it's you have a lot of uh you have drawings you have a lot of conceptual idea but I think you know the question was well are you going to be able to find something that's structural but also fits in into that I think and again the color artists you have to go with people who have worked on public art projects that know what they're This

is not a chance for somebody to see if they can make they have to have some. Yeah. And there's websites for that. Um, and I mean sort of my background in working with bronze foundaries and things like that, too. But yeah, this is not like usually for a first time artist. And it could be, but you have to really understand public art and all the effort that goes into that to make sure it's like all those things because it does have to be sustainable, right? That's why I think you kind of touched on it with and with your experience that you would make sure it's it's one thing to say, "Oh, you can have whatever design you want, but at the end of the day, no, it has to be you have to find a piece and it has to has to work in the physical world with the, you know, with withstanding what you're going to withstand in a park. It can't just be pretty. Pretty is wonderful, but no. In this kind of realm, no. It's got to be have longevity." Yeah. And the kind of materials that you're looking at too have got to be play a definite part in this, too. All right. So, this is more of a financial question. I think we have a financial guy at the back of the room, but uh so this would be using a substantial portion of the fund, which is I agree with you. This is a chance to do that and we should do that. But I was just wondering how quickly that fund has been replenishing itself in the last few years. And I know it depends on development, but I was wondering if we have a general idea. Y'all moving aside because Kevin's coming up. What's all moving aside now? Because Kevin's coming. The money guy is coming. Uh oh, here comes the finance man approach it. Thank you, sir. In answer to your question, when we tie back to our numbers, we also tie back to where we end our fund balance at the end of last year. And so we're not there yet with respect to this year. And fortunately, we've had quite a bit pleasantly surprised development this year. Perfect example, 42 out of 52 homes in a Cena 52 building permits have already been

pulled. And do homes pay into this fund or is it mostly commercial development? It's development with respect to new. So there's an art and public places piece. Okay. So yes. So when all is said and done, we'll have real numbers for you when we come back to you in October for um our preliminary. So the numbers we saw here today are actually last year's number. So that the some activity that has happened throughout the year because um when the assistant city manager asked, we provided a number that we had at that point in time. I see. But there will be an updated number for you later this late summer. That's a good non-specific answer, but it sounds like it we are looking at it replenishing. Well, yes. So that say in a few years we wanted to do a similar piece and and depending upon the activity, we had years where we would have up to $100,000 a year, but then depending upon other activity, 5 to$10,000. It does depend on what goes on in the outside community, right? And we're not using this fund for maintenance or any other activity. So it really is just for art. Hallelujah. We have a $60,000 budget in the general fund now for those improvements and repairs. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Good. Thank you so very much for your presentation and for your help with that. Thank you, gentlemen. And I'm going to take this one off your back. Mr. Bishu, do you have anything you'd like to say? Because you are our only person in the audience. You are in member of the community. I'm not trying to call you out. I'm just offering if you had something you'd like to share as a member of the community. Okay, we can move on. Thank you so much. Are there any um you guys we've done this? I'm just looking for a motion. Second. I'm sorry, I did not hear who made the motion. You did. Okay. Thank you, Council Member L. So, we have a motion

by Council Member Lav and a second by Mayor Prom Gregory. Please vote. And the motion carries by uh all eyes. Thank you so much. Stop it. You guys look who it is. Hello. Last one. So this is item number E, acceptance of the donation of sculpture ozone by Craig French and authorization to use Art and Public Places funds for installation. And I'm just going to let Victor take it away. He's doing so well. Thank you, city manager. Uh so, hello. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Prom, City Council. Uh tonight, I'm here to present a presentation on the acceptance of a donation of an art sculpture. A bit of background. In March 2025, PAC Chair Lee Belt, who you just heard from tonight, presented an item for the commission's consideration to accept a donation of a sculpture titled Ozone by artist Craig French. The piece Ozone is valued at $19,500. And Craig French's work is recognized internationally. A few pictures of Ozone. In May 2025, Chair Lee Beltel spoke with the Cathedral City Library director about possible placement of the sculpture in the library. Library staff supported the idea of locating the sculpture in the library's main rotunda. Fast forward to June 2025, PAC voted to recommend acceptance of the donation of the sculpture and requested approval of up to $5,000 from the Art and Public Places Fund for construction of a base and installation at the library. The fiscal impact is a one-time cost of

$5,000 from the art and public places fund. This is again in direct alignment with goal B community investment of the 5-year strategic plan. Cathedral City roads, gateways, public spaces, and other infrastructure are well planned, designed, constructed, and maintained. Staff's recommendation is to approve the public arts commission's recommendation to accept the donation of a sculpture titled ozone by Craig French and authorize the use of art in public places funds for the installation. And for any questions and discussion, Chair Lee Belt's available. Thank you very much, chair. I do have a question. Five $5,000. How did you I think it's up to up to $5,000. when you saw the picture, um, one of the the main concerns about that is it has a very sharp point. So, we're looking at building a pedestal. My fabulous idea was it it could roll around that they could actually physically move it around the library. So, that's for engineering, but um, I measured it and we want that the base pedestal to be at least 40 in tall. So, to put that like that point like way up above safety I'm going to call it the safety zone. above all and it's going to be more impactful to have it up at a certain height, certain size, certain height. I think what we were saying is we didn't have an exact number from engineering yet, so we came up with a plan to not exceed that much, but the pedestal shouldn't really cost that much. Um, okay. I'm looking away from you now. The pedestal will cost that much or less, do you think? We got you got to gauge the weight less. It's about two Yeah, 250 pounds. I just know you and I have been in this position before where we came up with the dollar amount and engineering had a different dollar amount. Oh, I know. I'm sure we had enough. But the but then um I'm I'm friends I've been friends with Lisa, the gallery director of a gallery for a long time and uh this was a collector of hers that

wants to donate this piece. He just wanted to do something generous. It was one of those right a friend of mine was in the gallery at the right time. Heard this conversation, mentioned my position here with the arts commission. And so Lisa immediately called me and so I thought, "Oh, yeah." And it's a very clean piece. It's very contemporary piece. It's a very universal piece. So it's a great peel. It's stainless steel. It's incredibly low maintenance. If it was outside, their only concern is if it could eventually go outside. That's stainless steel. The base is steel, but it's patined. It would the color would evolve over time. But that's the beauty of that kind of work. It's the combination of those two. the the stainless steel with the thing um that the donor doesn't even necessarily want name on it. It's so they're being just very generous. Um I thought it might be nice to mention Lisa or the gallery since they facilitated all of this. The artist is willing to come and bring it and install it himself for very minimal cost for just his guys like 200 bucks. He's from LA. He's got pieces in corporate collections all over California, all over the United States, and some even internationally. So, this is in really good company. It would be great piece for the city. Um, again, there was that safety issue and that's why for a lot of places it wouldn't work. But, and then when I talked to Kristen about and I just walked in and I went and I wanted that rotunda and I went, "Okay, if I believe the plan is they're going to do some remodeling there." And I I said, I want to be there on the day that we talk about lighting because if they put some spots on there, it would be spectacular cuz right now they there's nothing in that rotunda that directly light it. It I already tell I'm going tell them easily how they could do that. So, and then in the future again, if they needed to move it, they could they could do other things there with it, you know, too. But, um, yeah, it's really the pedestal and just making sure we place it right and correctly. So, I think we just said the budget up to 5,000. And to to to your question, mayor, if

you if you authorize up to 5,000, then if it turns out that it's more than that, we'll have to come back for to authorize Yeah. Yeah. I know. We know how the pricing go. Murphy's a lot. I know. A lot of money. We're sure that'll cover. Oh, it won't cover it, huh? Right. Right. Right. But this is just this isn't the sculpture itself. Remember, this is the pedestal. All right. Council questions. No. So tell me about the point. It looks like from the one picture that maybe it has like a little disc right at the So what the artist did it's kind of like a I'm going to call it a a psychological safety feature. They put like a disc on the end and I think it was also it's visual safety feature. Um they have it on the ground level in the front. Um but yeah, that's what my whole is to bring it and have it be just be more impactful. Probably kind of weaker there at the end. So you wouldn't want people hanging on it or grabbing hold of it on the end. Anyways, I would I'm sure that we could put a sign in how people love to read signs and not pay attention, but I would ask that we just make sure that it is sturdy enough, but I know engineering will make you again the piece itself is like a 250 lbs. So, that would be pretty Yeah. And but although no one should be climbing on it, somebody will climb on it. So, you want to make sure that even those circumstances. But that's what I thought in uh out in the public space outside but inside the library it's less likely to be messed with in that way and you know better protected overall and not have to worry about graffiti or anything else too. So yeah it's a pretty spectacular that rotundas would be pretty spectacular to have it there and city manager would have no problem adding that to our insurance. That's right. We have we have it covers universally our All right. Thank you so much. I was waiting for him to say, "Yeah, we'll cover it for F." No. A lot more than that. Thank you so very much. Sure. Are there any members of the public who wish to comment on this item? I do not have any request to speak forms for this item, but if you're a member of

the public and you wish to provide public comment, please raise your hand. I see no hands raised. Mayor, for a motion. Move to approve. Second. Okay. I have a second. We have a motion by council member Gutieres and a second by Mayor Prom Gregory. Please vote. Tracy, I voted all by myself. You did. And the motion carries. All eyes. Thank you very much. Thank you, city council. Our last item is discussion for future agendas other than we will be going back into close session for one last item that we did not complete. So, mayor, I mentioned in my my uh public our own council report that uh we have joined our we have had our recreation and parks taken over by the desert recreation district. We are in the process of joining them. I know we have some local staff. I have not met them. So I would ask if we could agendaize on a future maybe study session to have an introduction to some of our local DRD staff and um maybe they could just chat a little bit about themselves and what they foresee it doesn't have to be long but then I have a second request and the second request is while we're in this especially this initial period but maybe great going forward that m maybe quarterly they could come and report to us and report to us about what they have going on, what's coming up and then if we do have issues with facilities or those types of things that um of course we can always talk to city management and in between but then we can if we need clarification we can uh speak face to face then. So if it's okay if everyone is all right with that I would ask those two items be added to future agendas. Thank you with me. And that's that's no problem on both counts accounts. Somehow weave into that or you can

explain. Will they be producing a a pamphlet much like our public works does now or are they going to be providing things to public works to go into our community pamphlet? Actually both. They put out um three times a year, I think it is, a full catalog um of all the programs and activities which now Cathedral City will be featured in and that has been being mailed to every home in our city for some time now, but it'll have more information moving forward. Um but we can also incorporate um some of their activities into our um mailer and along with what council member Gregory has suggested they're already scheduled on a regular basis to provide updates to the uh parks and community events commissions. And so that that just piggybacks on you if you don't mind. Okay. I have I have an item. Yes. And I also like to suggest an item if possibly council can actually agentize this in the future to talk about. We had a resident earlier today that t talked about uh triming palm trees. Well, um I happen to own a home in this hot springs and every year uh around this time around June I get a letter that it's time for palm triming. And palm triming is not just for pool debris, but it's also a, if many of you know, it's a rodent infestation ground that many rodents actually live in there. And uh it it really infects many other uh areas of our of our city here. And also, it's a fire hazard that definitely uh uh if they're not cleaned, we can definitely have fires. And aesthetically, many people don't do it. So, it's a safety thing as well. So, possibly in the future, I would like to actually take a look at possibly uh adding an ordinance to trim our palm

trees uh once a year or so if council will will be. So, is that letter that you get from the city or is it from an HOA? Uh the letter I get is from an HOA. That's what I thought. And if this would be just an ordinance and uh have that in the booklet that we send out once a year, it's time to train your palm trees. I have two thoughts and and one of those is that there are those that I know of, I'm not an expert in this, that believe that they like that natural um growth of the palm tree. They don't trim their palm trees at all. And I know then in the some of the wilderness more areas of the of the tribe that they let the fans grow down. I'm not saying that that's always great in the in the cities, but I would worry about running into some type of a cultural thing. And then my second thought though is something that I know council member uh Carnival brought up in a first one. At some point we end up being unwelcoming to people in our city by putting a lot of specific requirements on them in their own private areas. I know you were talking about when the code was going, you know, going to we were adding the cameras that at some point people feel like the city is putting a lot on them, right? So I I would hesitate with that because there I think it would take more thought because there are people with limited incomes um or people that again enjoy the aesthetics of of palm trees a certain way. So I would hesitate just bringing forward something without a lot more research. Um, members, if I'm I remind the council that this section is just to suggest you put something on for future discussion,

we shouldn't actually have debate. And what I'm really talking is about is this something that should be maybe put out as a long-term thing to be researched and brought back versus something that would come back right away. Mayor Proim and Council Member Gutierrez, that's what I was going to suggest that this sounds to me like a topic that requires some uh research. We want to see what the arguments are both sides both cultural and I think there's even um certain species that um have homes in those. And so we'd want to look at that. We also want to look at the arguments for having something like this. And we also want to research does any other city have a um ordinance like this. So, I was going to say it's no if if council wants to have a discussion on that, it would be uh uh no problem to prepare a study session item, but we're probably going to need several months um in order to do that research. So, if that if that's all right with you all, I'd suggest the November December time frame to try Yeah, I would say it's okay. I just Yeah, maybe in the same priority level as like our annual, you know, our annual goals, you know, we put we kind of schedule those out over the year. So I would say that's not an urgent item. I'd be okay with discussing it in the long term if we can if we can fully research and I like the light years in sound good too. Yeah, that's perfectly fine. Great everybody. So at this time we are going to go back into close session and we will join you um in a bit. only 304 just