City Council - Special Meeting

Amen. Okay. Serving as mayor of Cathedral City has truly been one of the greatest honors of my life. Over the course of my term, I've had the privilege of attending more than 200 community events. Each one a reminder of the heart and spirit resilience that makes this city so special. Every handshake, every ribbon cutting, every conversation has deepened my appreciation for the people who call Cathedral City home. I've also had the honor of representing our community regionally, serving as the chair of the Riverside County Animal Shelter, Sunline Transit, Seag Energy and Environment Committee, and the Coachella Valley mosquito and vector vector control. Y'all owe me for that one. These roles were more than just titles. They were opportunities to advocate for better services, stronger infrastructures, cleaner energy, and a healthier future for our valley. But among all of these responsibilities, the one that means the most to me has been serving the people of Cathedral City. Along with city council members, our manager and our department heads and staff, you placed your trust in us to lead, to listen, and to work tirelessly for progress. And I carry that trust with deep respect. Together we faced challenges, celebrated achievements, made bold decisions to move our city forward, and sadly said goodbye to one of our own. Thank you for allowing me to

serve. Thank you for your partnership. Oh, look. I knew your passion and your belief in what Cathedral City can be. It has been an honor. Thank you so much. Now, let's get serious. Now, we have now we have to really get to business. Where are we? That's three o'clock. Well, I'm just gonna give it I'm just gonna do it. Oh, here we go. So, we're going to start with roll call. Mayor Proim, I'll go ahead and take that one. Mayor, thank you. Council member Lamb, Council Member Gutierrez, Mayor Proim Gregory, here. Mayor Ross, thank you. I'm here.

We have an agenda finalization. The legislative action. It is our well we've done our roll call. So it is our legislative action to appoint a mayor and mayor prom and this is to appoint Raymond Gregory to serve as mayor and Ernesto Gutierrez to serve as mayor prom pursuant to section 2.04.180 of the Cathedral City Municipal Code. Are we going to do them both? No. But you want me to read them both? Are we going to talk about the whole or do you want to do city manager and come back? Let's do first. There are no changes to the agenda. And now if we can have Mayor Pro Tim Gregory and council member Guttes please make their way to the

lect. Apologies. Okay, here we go. So, we will need a motion. We have a motion by Council Member Gutierrez and a second by Council Member Lamb. Please vote. Now and motion carries all eyes.

Thank you. Then so we will be stepping down in front here for the appointment and the oath of mayor and mayor prom. So please all council I don't know if that one's working with the temp mic situation. the Constitution

of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of California of the State of California against all enemies against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic and that I will bear and that I will bear true faith and allegiance true faith and allegiance to the Constitution to the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of California of the State of California. That I take this obligation freely That I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion and that I will and that I will well and faithfully well and faithfully

discharge the duties discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter

upon on which I'm about to enter. Congratulations. You'd raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name.

I, Raymond Gregory, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend that I will support and defend the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of California of the State of California against all enemies against all enemies foreign and domestic foreign and domestic and that I will bear and I will bear true faith and allegiance true faith and allegiance to the Constitution to the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of California of the State of California that I take this obligation freely

that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation. without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion or purpose of evasion. And that I will well And that I will well and faithfully and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations. I'll have you sign and then we'll take some pictures. Okay. Get some photos. Thank you. I don't know.

If if we had curtains, we would have closed them and then opened them. And so just use your imagination. You're not You're not.

All right. Thank you so much everyone and thank you for coming. I I'm going to make a few remarks and then allow Ernesto to make a few remarks if you want to. Um, so I just want to thank of course every especially my colleagues for your faith and support. Can you hear me? Just it's on. So all right. So the first thing I want to acknowledge of course is that um we are a team and we work together but something is absent today that should be here and that's our colleague Clark. So, there will be much more to come about Mark, and I'm not going to try to make remarks about how much we will miss him. Um, but all of you who know us know that we will miss him. So, I wanted to just acknowledge here at the beginning of the ceremony that that in some ways he's still with us, but he we are missing our absent council member. So, thank you. So, first I want to thank my family. um they tend to sometimes get left out, but you saw my husband Eric Ornelis and of course I could not be on council and certainly not spend this year as mayor without his support and the sacrifices that he makes and will be making um as the as the year goes by. Um and uh he is my rock and you'll see him at many events with me and uh I cannot express how much I appreciate. So thank you Eric. So also with us the rest some other of my family members are with us today. My son Brian is with us and his wife Delaney. And uh thank you so much for everything and I know they support me in many ways also. And uh I I really do appreciate all that you do and your support. So who I really need to thank though is the staff because they are the ones here

in Cathedral City that do the work. They do the real work day in and day out. We try to make sure they have what they need, that they have the proper environment, but they're the ones that do the work. So, thank you all the staff members that are here with us today. Thank you all that are here in the building or out in the field doing the work for all of us. Uh you really are what makes Cathedral City work. And of course, I want to thank the residents. So, the residents of Cathedral City are who we serve. you have faith in us to watch out for you and to make the best decisions that we can with the limited resources that we have. So, I want to make sure to acknowledge and thank all of you and of course especially the residents in district 5 who have twice elected me. But as mayor, of course, or as all council member here, we represent all of Cathedral City. So, I want to thank all of you. This promises to be an interesting year. I've been asked several times, well, what are my goals to be going to be for this year? And frankly, my goal is to try to um help the city navigate and continue on our current trajectory of progress and professionalism. And you know what I mean. If you look around in Cathedral City, we are on an upward swing. And again, it's not necessarily something we as council do. It's we set try to set the environment. It's really staff and the residents who are making this happen. So I my job is to continue having that happen. There are challenges ahead of ahead of us. We do have a federal government that has not made it any secret they're bent on interfering in local affairs. They've been making it difficult for us to have confidence in some of our decisions, to be sure about our finances, those types of things. And frankly, we have a state government that

sometimes is more friendly, but is often imposing measures that are difficult to implement. Um, there are public needs out there. Housing is an issue. Homelessness, jobs, perceptions of safety. We have great public safety departments, but there are always perceptions that need to be worked on. There's dust and air quality issues. So all of this is happening out there and at a time where frankly we are seeing some economic softening which is concerning when it comes to the resources than there are storm clouds on the horizon but we know we're going to get through it. Another challenge of course is we need to finish selecting a replacement city manager. We have an excellent interim city manager, but one of our main duties coming in is to try to select the next city manager that's going to lead the city even into more excellent and higher places. The our past city manager, Charlie McClendon, was with us for many years, is is one of a kind, so very difficult shoes to fill. pretty soon, although I tried to get him to stay another 10 years. The police chief position will be open. He is he will be leaving us later this year. And the city clerk position uh will also need to be filled very soon. And of course, the sun surprise is our need to fill a council seat. And we need to find someone who can join the team and hit the ground running. someone with a positive outlook and someone will continue the positive work that Mark Carnival started. There are many great things in progress though, many great things on the horizon. Recreation services um have improved and we've got our uh relationship with Desert Recreation District going and it's becoming more formalized as they roll out in the parks

and they roll out their programs. Many great things to look forward to there. We have some funding thanks to our residents for a community center. It's we need to find out well what can we afford? Where should it be? Those are things in progress and great opportunities that are on the horizon. We have our renewed ability to repair roads, address more road repairs than we ever have before and work on re reh and and redirecting road crews to rehabilitation. That's very exciting in Cathedral City when you look look around at the roads getting done. Never going to be enough, but we've got greater opportunity to do that. We've got a great economic development manager with great initiatives going uh reaching out to businesses. That's again, we're on the positive trajectory there. And we've got uh developer activities going on. Look around. you'll you'll see dirt turning, but there's also lots of plans and permits being processed all the time. So, um and with that, we've had a positive reset thanks to the council, but with staff's um u assistance, we've reset our our fees, our development fees. No one wants to pay more fees, but we find ourselves financially constrained here in Cathedral City. So, this is a great opportunity to to us to be able to really build out the city in a way that it it needs to be built out. And we're looking at a modernization of the development code. Um staff has brought this forward and there are consultants that work with staff and some subcommittees. I know Mayor Prom is working on that too. That is the kind of behind thescenes thing that really uh promises to transform the face of Cathedral City. We've got a streamlined event process. We've got great events uh better each time we have them and fun new ideas for things to come. We have

expanded opportunities in the fire department. We have um new structures in the I'm a lover of policy and protocol and we have many great things going on there. There's um training that's been approved, the type of training that we've never seen before that's going to further professionalize the fire department. We have a new ambulance. Again, thanks to the fire department and the voters that helped fund that. There's way too many to mention, but I wanted to just touch on a few. It's not all dark clouds on the horizon. We have many, many opportunities to come. My goal is to keep us on the positive path that so many have worked on and sacrificed to achieve. and of course to be ready for what comes the opportunities and the challenges and to move forward with pride, service and excellence. Thank you very much. And now I'll call on the mayor prom if he has a few words to share. Hope you heard what I said. Every event that was out there, she attended it and she attended it with a smile. And it wasn't just her. who was also her husband Bob who was also there. Sometimes you only think about sometimes you only think about the council members, the mayor, but behind the scenes there's someone that supports them, someone that helps them. In this

case, Bob has been the big success. And uh also I want to congratulate our new mayor Raymond Gregory. We are definitely in the best we can be. He is not just just a smart intelligent individual but he means the best for our city. I've never felt so uh so excited about having someone to be serving with as as a council member and as a mayor as he's always one of the guys one of the hardest working guys and also as a council member and he puts in the time whether is going to events going to the park any event. As a matter of fact, today he just got back from Riverside when he was out there for a couple hours. He does that every other week. And it just it takes a lot of work. And like I said, it's not only him that does this work that he does, whe this past Monday, we attended the Boys and Girls Club, which was an excellent event. We have Scott Robinson back there. and everyone out there did an unbelievable job. Um, it took us quite a few hours to be out there. We enjoyed it, but what I'm saying is it takes time and we signed up for this and we love to give back to our community and to assist not just but also senior center. Whatever we can help with, we always do. But it takes time and a partner that is actually understanding is a great partner to have. So I

mentioned a lot of great points, a lot of things that are going on in our city, a lot of great things that will go on and we have accomplished and I would like to actually help them achieve all those things that are necessary also that will be beneficial. and it's an honor to represent and continue to represent our residents. This will be coming up. It will be my eighth year and it has been absolutely joyful, fun and interesting and an honor to serve all of you guys and hope I continue to do that. And uh to finalize this also uh I want to thank uh Markali who's no longer with us his family who are going through so much at this time coming up this next Monday we'll have the celebration I hope you can join us having several absolutely incredible speakers All right. All right, the next item on our agenda is a special presentation, a special recognition of outgoing mayor Nancy Ross. So, at this time, we will honor Mayor Nancy Ross for her noteworthy leadership, and unwavering dedication to Cathedral City. Over the

past year, Nancy has guided our city with grace, vision, and a deep commitment to progress. Her tireless work has left a lasting impact. from strengthening community ties to advancing key initiatives that will benefit generations to come. On behalf of our council and our residents, thank you, Nancy, for your service, your heart, and your legacy. And I'll turn it over to staff to continue on.

Thank you, mayor. Appreciate it, Mayor. Mayor Pro Tim, congratulations. Um it's uh obviously uh an honor to serve with all of you, but we also wanted to make sure as staff, as you've just queued up and mentioned, um to thank um outgoing Mayor Ross for her outstanding service. And uh we put together a video tribute that hopefully we can't get everything in there. Obviously, it would be it would be an all day affair to see how much you did over the last year. Um but uh hopefully you're happy with this and we just wanted to pay tribute to staff and this is really from behalf of everybody, not just communications and events. and I will andfully and faithfully discharge the duties discharge the duties

upon which I'm about to enter. I know. He and you're doing a heck of a job in these hard times. I really really appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you. And that and that perhaps can be my segue. Um I'm the mayor this year. I'm having the state of the city and I would like you to be our person of the year. Are you serious?

Very serious. Representing Pride Food Bank. We'd love you to come be there that day. But when we talk about about different businesses, different people. There just was only one that goes to the top and that's Oh my gosh, Naisy, thank you so much. That means so much to me. May this field of valor remind us of the cost of freedom, the strength of community, and the endearing spirit. my great friend, Cathedral City Mayor Nancy Ross. Final week of Taste and Sound in Cathedral City. Already have more than 500 people. Talk about this amazing event.

It is such a community gathering place for this great music. We always have a food cart here and lots of places to sit and the camaraderie and the music and under the stars. How could it get any better?

Weather is beautiful. The Dreamboats performing tonight. This amphitheater years in the making. It's here. Has it lived up to everything you hoped for? It has. But I I have to say the dream boats, they are dreamy. Thank you everyone. As if you uh have seen our schedule, you know we're working on replacing the electronics here in the council chamber. U maybe you saw a few reasons why. So another good move by staff to get that going. So

all right. So this will be the opportunity if anyone else on the dis has a few words they want to say. Council member Lamb.

Yes. And uh thank you so much for giving me this time because I have been on council since 2019 and um that following year was co and it was incredibly different experience. It was isolating and we had the mask and the zoom calls and that's the way we we operated. Um and what I can say as a person in a big like Cathedral City working with all of you and working with the resun. Thank you to Ryan and all of you because whenever I have a a problem or a question, I can call any one of you. I call any one of the staff. I get text messages back right away. I'm always given assistance to better serve the residents. So, I am so appreciative of that. And there's no question that having the experience being a mayor in that role, as ceremonial as it is often and it and it is because the staff does work. Um we are out there in the community elevating our city. Um and over the years it has changed. It has totally changed. Um Linda Evans, who's the mayor of Lita, always teases me. They've got a magazine all about Lita called The Gem. And I said, "We are the hidden gem." and no longer we are no longer the hidden gem city has arrived and I want to thank all of you from the um interest and impact the residents make by coming to when I'm walking my dog I get to hear about you know pothole here and how about a street here and oh my gosh these ballards on Perez are wonderful you know I ride my bike down there I mean I get to hear about Cathedral City positive impact that the residents are experiencing

every your efforts. So, I couldn't be prouder. I've always been as as much of a loner as I am, I've always been attracted to working with people and a professional and I can't imagine a more exhilarating experience and I couldn't be proud to work alongside you. So, thank you so much. All right, council, if you would join me down front, we have a formal gift to present to outgoing Mayor Nancy Ross. And then we'll allow anyone out there to have a a moment to make some comments after that. Thank you so much again for all of your heart service and resise. They said this was my

the good news is this was my first failure. Thank you so much. Oh my goodness. Wow. That's That's beautiful. size doesn't matter.

All right, we're gonna go back up. All right, this is the time on our agenda for public comments. It's restricted to public comments on things that are on our special meeting agenda. So, if you have other public comments, we'll have opportunities for you at 3:00. Um, does anybody have would like to make a public comment on any of the items on this agenda? raise your hand or come on up. Don't feel like you have to. We can move on to the party. All right. If there's no public comments, then I will adjourn this special meeting and uh and we will be having a little reception here in the lobby. So, please join us.