City Council - Regular Meeting

and the city council serving as a housing authority board and successor agency to the former redevelopment agency board for Monday March 30th 2026. This is our close session time. Roll call please. Council member Gardner present. Council member Pittz present. Council member B present. Mayor Provos present. Mayor Mattis present. I don't see anybody from the public attending so I would assume there's no public comments. Madam city attorney, would you announce close session?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, there's two items on forc close session. Conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation. Paragraph 1 is subdivision D of section 54956.9. The case is city of Desert Hot Springs versus ER investments. Case number CVPS2506127. The next matter is conference with legal counsel existing litigation under the same code section. Name of case is Rizzo versus City of Desert Hot Springs USDC. It's the case has been filed in Riverside. Case number 525 CB0167 RG K A JR. Thank you very much. We'll recess close session.

All right, everybody. We're back from the close session. We're going to reopen the meeting for the presentations. We have one presentation tonight and it's going to be given by the Visit Greater Palm Springs annual update. I'm just going to turn it over to you guys. You have the whole half hour to yourself. Uh, push the button right in front there. It'll turn red. There you go.

Aha. There we go. Well, thank you so much. Good evening, mayor, council members, and city staff. My name is Colleen Pace. I'm the chief sales and marketing officer for Visit Greater Palm Springs. Scott sends his regards. He unfortunately could not be here with the adjustment of the date. he was on travel to destination's international CEO summit um which is a group of CEOs from all over the world talking about travel and tourism. So he sends his regards um so I will get started here with our update. Um so our 2024 economic impact report is in and it is 14.5 million visitors who visited the destination in 2024. We're currently compiling 2025 which is usually complete sometime in May or June. Um, but as you can say, see here, the economic impact of those visitors was 9.1 billion. So, we're back to exceeding prepandemic numbers, which is very exciting. 7.4 billion in visitor spending that impacts state and local taxes as you can see here. Um, and for for $5,900 per household, that would be burdened on each household if it weren't for tourism. So this is a really great um indication of a very healthy and vital tourism economy. You can see 20.4 million per day on average spend visitors in our destination. And then we also did the economic impact specific for the desert hot springs, the city of Desert Hot Springs. You can see here the total economic impact was 165 million 129 million of that visitor spending which is 350,000 a day. And you can see here for local and state taxes that it saves for residents is 1,500 per household. We're in the process right now. We've hired and engaged an agency Hunden partners. Um they are have been selected to do our destination stewardship plan which is really our master plan. We did one in 2016. Um it expires this year in

2026. So this will give us our next 10 years of future proofing and planning for the destination. Uh this will also include an expanded scope of nine specific uh plans for each city. So one for Desert Hot Springs and we'll work in tandem with the city stakeholders and with council our JPA Gary Gardner um and others that will have input on this. So this will really be a collaborative process. It takes about 14 months. Uh we just had them at our board meeting on Friday um for sort of the kickoff with our stakeholders. And so we'll keep you posted as our timeline progresses and we reach certain milestones, but that is in process and again going to be complete in the next 14 months. We also every year prioritize key research initiatives that really helps guide our strategy. Um so here you can see some examples of the research that we do every year. Resident sentiment study which is very important to see what the local perceptions are on tourism and our community and their quality of life. our image and awareness study which really tracks the brand awareness and the reach of our marketing campaigns and our advertising. The visitor intercept study which we just completed at the end of 2025. We're going to be having all of those results in later this month actually um in the next few days so that we'll be able to share that and that really gives us insight real time insight from visitors who are here in the destination and what they do where they stay where their visitor spending is and what drives their decisions for coming here. We also again do our tourism economic impact study which is in process for 2025. We do a meeting study again to identify behaviors, motivations, booking patterns and different trends that are in the meetings and convention area. Restaurant week survey we do every year to really gauge the success of our restaurant week initiatives. And then rove dashboards. These are dashboards that we've created

that really consol consolidates all of our data points into one place so that you can have access to seeing things like visitation uh behaviors points of interest that people go to um star data which is the occupancy for the destination and other information. Our priority areas of focus uh increased demand obviously we prioritize shoulder and off- peak time frames. We're also developing a sports strategy to to attract sporting events and Davis will talk a little bit later in the presentation about an indoor sports complex as part of that strategy. Regional collaboration and economic diversity. So, we have taken on economic development. Davis will talk about that a little bit more in her in her presentation as well. But we really want to diversify our local economy. So we've expanded our efforts there and really uh driven that to uh enhance some of our marketing initiatives to reach some of these decision makers who move their businesses here. Um and then also stewardship. So strategies around sustainability, heritage, accessibility, and community engagement. Air service is a high priority for us. We have a consultant that we work with. We are able to do that. that we have less restrictions than the FAA. So, we're able to work directly with airlines and provide incentives to attract new flights into the destination as well as expand the routes into different seasons. So, you can see here some of the additions that we've had for 2026, some of the new flights and extended service. Um, one of the the highlights is the DC flight, which this is the second season that's returned to the destination. Um, that was new coming here and very successful for us getting that flight. And then you can see some of the other flights. Uh new seasonal service from Austin, from Charlotte, uh a Newark flight which was uh just launched this season. So, a lot of success we've had in in attracting new flights to the destination. We've also prioritized our Canadian

support. With everything happening in the political climate that we're in, we want to just show our support of our Canadian visitors. So, we created a toolkit for our partners. We created custom window clings. You can see the one here for Desert Hot Springs. We're happy to provide these to any business that would like them. We have those in our office. We can mail them or drop them off. We also have designed um social media post and different ways they can show their support for Canadian visitator visi visitors. All right. So, with that, I'm going to turn it to Davis and then I'll be back with you to talk a little bit about marketing. All right. So uh in addition to the overall impact of tourism in the Coachella Valley, we look at the impact of short-term rental tourism. Uh it represents about 20% of our overnight visitors overall throughout the valley. Um so valleywide uh it was about 1.1 billion in economic impact to the region uh from short-term vacation rental visitors uh supporting over 4,400 uh part-time or full-time jobs um and 126 million in state and local tax revenues. Uh we also break that down by city uh for the cities that have uh short-term rentals. And so uh you can find these reports on our website as well uh each year uh in 2024 for the city of Desert Hot Springs. The um visitor spending was about 29.4 million um from short-term vacation rental visitors. Um the overall tax revenues for both state and uh local taxes is 4.4 million. Um, and it's always kind of fun to break that down into uh that would cover the average salaries of 23 firemen, 22 police officers, or 52 teachers uh in the city of Desert Hot Springs. So, an important lodging segment for our region. Uh we also survey uh residents uh voters on their sentiment in terms of short-term vacation rentals. Uh we do a local campaign called One Coachella Valley short-term rentals long-term benefits. Uh and when we started this in

2023, uh about 77% of our voters were saying that they uh supported welcoming uh responsible short-term vacation rentals in their city. Uh we're up to 86% in the uh latest survey that we did in September of 2025. Uh so we continue to run that campaign, but I think this is also just a great testament to the work that our cities have done in their regulations and enforcement of vacation rentals uh to sort of balance that benefit for the the local economy. uh moving to economic development. So we have started uh working on our sort of sales and marketing for uh diversifying our local economy um on the sort of business attraction side of economic development. Uh we do have a a campaign, Thrive and Shine, uh where we uh very specifically target folks uh for either expanding a business here, moving a business here, uh moving here as a remote worker, uh or as a health care professional, um and several other sort of target categories. Uh we also worked with the county this last year on the Coachella Valley Regional Economic Development Strategic Plan. So the county updated their strategic plan. Uh we were able to work with them to do a sub plan just for the Coachella Valley. uh we'll do some webinars with the uh organization Natlesson Dale Group that did that plan. Um really diving into what the recommendations in the plan are and sort of how we can achieve those as a region. Um but we are working closely with our uh economic development partners at each of the cities on uh looking at that plan as well as uh on the marketing um on the sales activities. Uh Sean Smith, our director of economic development, just got back from a site selection uh in Atlanta uh site selection guild summit um this last week. Uh so really diving in and again uh trying to attract more businesses here to the Coachella Valley. Uh we are looking at an industry advisory board for economic development. Again, we're working closely with our city partners right now in the county. Um but also getting some of that feedback and input from our our local industries um is

important to this effort. and then also looking at a business retention task force. That was one of the recommendations in the strategic plan um and how we might be able to achieve that. Um and then you can find a lot of our our marketing and uh information on our uh greater Palm Springs economic development LinkedIn channel and at liveworkgps.com. Um another aspect that's important both for economic development and tourism is this indoor amateur sports facility. Hopefully you have heard us talk about this uh in other settings. We worked with the county on a feasibility study a couple of years ago uh looking at you know does it make sense for us to have an amateur sports facility here someplace for youth sports and amateur sports tournaments. Um the feasibility study said yes and it should be indoor to really drive that summer visitation um drive that off peak um business uh and be able to um you know promote tourism and and bring people out here when it is uh when it's summer. Uh there's a ton of demand uh across the country for these tournaments, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics, cheerleading, you name it. Um if it's done on a hard court. Uh and so there's some very specific uh details in the plan um in terms of about a 200,000 square foot facility uh with a a wide range of uses. Uh we have done an updated uh feasibility last year that really sort of reiterated yes, this is uh something that would be successful here um and could even be profitable. uh we've been working with uh cities, county, different partners, higher education partners to see, you know, how can we get this funded? How can we get this built here in our in our region and so we are um working with Cosmon and organization right now on sort of what a capital stack uh financing options could look like for that. Um and still just uh really looking to identify the best location to have this done, but hoping to have a groundbreaking uh you know in the next two years. This is really something that could be a gamecher for our region. Uh moving into uh some of our foundation and workforce development efforts. We had a really successful year last year. Uh a lot of growth in our workforce

development programs. One of the things I want to point out on here is 184 leadership institute graduates. Uh that's a leadership training program that we do with College of the Desert's PACE program. So it's a certificate that folks can get. Uh this is really targeted at folks who are moving into their first supervisory or management level roles. So maybe they didn't get a chance to go to college or uh you know get a higher education but they've been working in a specific business or industry and are are moving into their first supervisory roles. So this certificate really gives them the skills to be successful in those roles uh and to advance further. Um so we're excited to see that expand. We are working with them on uh the next iteration of that which is uh our visionary leaders uh certificate program looking at uh you know how do we train and upskill the next uh president, CEO, general manager, director uh here in the valley so we can grow our leaders here locally. Uh so we sort of piloted that last year with College of the Desert and we are launching our our first cohort this year. Um, some other new things for the foundation that we have coming up, we're doing a student chef uh dinner, really pairing um some of our local culinary students with homegrown chefs. Um, and that'll be May 6th at the JW Marriott where we can highlight some of those culinary journeys. Uh, continuing to work with College of the Desert on some of our leadership programs. We do a summer um passport to leadership program with high school seniors. We work with all three school districts uh on that program. We also do a student hospitality day uh allowing students, sophomores in high school to explore careers in hospitality here locally. Um and again, we work with all of the the school districts on that program as well. Uh thank you to the city of Desert Hot Springs for uh having your recreation centers autism certified. Uh becoming a certified autism destination was a huge win for our region last year. a lot of businesses uh really invested in training their staff uh in autism awareness and sensitivity. Uh we now

through the foundation offer a grant program to businesses. Uh there is an expense to get uh trained and certified and so we want to make sure that businesses know that this is an option if there's any you know hotels, restaurants, um other businesses interested in getting certified. Uh there's some contact information on there and more information on our website as well. Uh and then moving into just some of the partnership and promotion on visitgraaterpr.com. Uh businesses, it's free for them to list tourismfacing businesses uh on visitgraaterpr.com. We have 169 currently from uh the city of desert hot springs uh in various categories and um we really want to make sure that businesses know this is an option for them. Um they can post special offers, they can post to our event calendar as well, uh which is visitor-f facing and uh we promote those with various campaigns throughout the year to uh let visitors know what options they have when they're coming to the region. Uh jumping into restaurant week, 2025 was uh one of our most successful years. We had 121 restaurants, which was a record-breaker. Um and uh you promoted restaurant week. uh we uh really started to dive into this beyond the spe special prefix menus into more special offers allowing more uh restaurants, cafes, taco shops, things like that to participate that couldn't meet the price points of those uh higherend prefix menus. Um so we really appreciate the city of Desert Hot Springs uh sponsorship last year and this year. Uh that helps us promote the event locally. Uh most of our funding, as you know, comes from a tourism business improvement district. Uh and so those funds need to be used to promote events like this outside of the region to drive overnight visitation. Um but our sponsorships from cities uh allows us to uh promote restaurant week locally and also drive local awareness of our restaurants uh during that time period. So 2026 is coming up uh May 29th to June

7th. We have been uh working to get restaurants registered um and are are looking forward to another record-breaking year. hopefully uh it should be another great year and again really promoting those special offer menus that offer something a little bit um different than some of the the prefix menus. Uh and then lastly for me here uh last year was our first spa month. Um we had a ton of participation from Desert Hot Springs. It was really great to see the feedback from a lot of the spas and hotel years and desert hot springs just saying that it uh it really made a difference in the month of September and driving some additional visitation and um and and folks experiencing their spas. So we are going to be doing that again this year in September and that is similar to restaurant week. Spas can offer special day passes, special offers, uh special events uh like sound baths or yoga. Um, and we aggregate all of those on a a website and promote that out to both visitors and to locals to to get out um and experience some health and wellness in September here. And I'm going to turn it back over to Colleen. Thank you, Davis. Moving on to marketing. Some results for 2025. You can see here our 2025 seasonal and always on campaigns. There's 16 campaigns that you can see here. um everything from our brand campaign to restaurant week to our meetings campaign and everything in between. Um all of these campaigns are highlighting all of the unique uh pillars that we have for the destination. So you can see here health and wellness, outdoor experiences, arts and entertainment, dining and shopping, cultural and heritage, and LGBTQ plus. For 2025, our marketing results were very strong at 30.8 billion total impressions, which is the highest that we've seen. So raising awareness for the destination. You can see how that translates across all of our digital, social, and TV. We have 2.3 million television spots. We do linear TV as well as connected TV. We have 22

million convention sales impressions, 2.7 website users, 528,000 people that follow us on our social media channels, which we have 15 social media channels, and then 28.5 social media million video views. We also prioritize event support. So for Desert Hot Springs, you can see we were able to provide support for Miracle Hill Spring, which was a really exciting event that happened last year. This is a billboard that we ran in LA and San Diego. We also included the information in our blog, consumer newsletter, and our social media content to support this event. And then we worked with city staff to create a co-op as well for this. You can see here some of the results for this. Thank you to Doria for helping with that. Um, so these are digital ads and another billboard. We're able to provide this through our co-op program, which is subsidized. So, it's pricing that you could not otherwise get, but able to reach a lot of a lot of people. So, you can see here we had 554,000 uh in terms of our impressions, clicks, and um the billboard impressions were 6.7 million. Um, in addition to that, we do a TV summer co-op program where we film a 30 secondond commercial spot uh for our partners, our hotel partners or our city partners. This is something that we run in the summer from May through September. We partnered with Desert Hot Springs to do this last year, so in 2025. I wanted to share um the video with you just in case you haven't seen it. In the desert, adventure begins the moment you step outside. Surrounded by a landscape painted by nature itself, Desert Hot Springs is a city full of renewal and discovery. An escape as unforgettable as the ones you share it with. Plan your summer getaway at visit deserthotspr.com.

So, in addition to creating the spot, we also buy the media for that in five markets of your choosing. Um and then we support it with a lot of added value. So it goes on our YouTube channel, social media, in our newsletters and there's a lot of added value. So the value of this is 200 plus thousand. The cost is 25,000. So a great value for our partners. And then also inclusions in social media. Just have a few examples where we've included Desert Hot Springs partners in our social media with some of the corresponding views that we've had. Again, I mentioned we have 15 social media channels. So, this is by no means everything that we've done, but just a brief snapshot of some of the things that we've done.

There's something magical about a friend's getaway, especially when it's in Greater Palm Springs. We started our trip with the peaceful morning reflexology walk at the Azure Palm Hot Springs Day Spa, followed by lunch at Kestrel and a refreshing liquid nitrogen margarita. It was as fun to watch it being made as it was to taste it. Then it was time to unwind poolside at the Lintita Resort enjoying our cabana time in the adult pool and the water was so refreshing. That evening we discovered a gym in Oldtown Lita, the desert club where we had one of the best Caesar salads ever. The next morning began with coffee and sunshine. Then a visit to El Paso for lunch at Portivilla and a little retail therapy. Our lunch was so delish, a sushi delight. It was perfection. We wandered into a charming home decor store and then discovered a hat shop. We'll definitely be coming back to next magic hour at the Dreamy Sands Hotel and Pink Cabana Restaurant with espresso martinis outside. It was divine. On the last morning, I popped into the Avalon Hotel and bungalows. So chic. An iconic era of Palm Springs with its unique blend of charm and luxury. Greater Palm Springs, you're always a vibe. And with great friends, you're unforgettable. Craving an endless summer? This is your sign to switch on vacation mode in Greater Palm Springs. Start your day at the Palm Springs Air Museum, where you can see historic airplanes and even hop inside the cockpit. Next, grab a date shake at Shields State Garden and stroll through their beautiful gardens. Check into your accommodations at JW Marriott Desert Springs, a luxury desert escape. Day two is all about sunshine and pool time. Did you know you could take a boat ride here? Guests could hop on a boat and cruise around the resort's waterways. In the afternoon, head to downtown India and check out the colorful murals and local art at Happy Alley. On your last day, check out of

the JW Marriott and make one last stop at Cabbis PBLO Museum. This gem is known for its fourstory PBLO and tells the story of early desert life. Save this for your next trip to Greater Palm Springs. So you can see when we do roundups of multiple places um we do in the social media copy we tag all the partners that are included. This one is a little more specific to art. And the last one. Heat. Heat. N. So for 2026, just a highlight of a few of our goals. We sent our full goal document. I think it's 46 pages long, so you can read up on that in your spare time. But just a couple a couple overview for you. Um the new brand campaign Where You Shine is launching in our international and LGBTQ market. This is really to highlight the welcoming and inclusive destination that we are here in greater Palm Springs to really show that people can be themselves when they're here in a safe and inclusive destination, very welcoming destination. So we have that new campaign launching

internationally. We also launched our new escape series which is a six episodes video series um which just launched at the end of the year. really more like January of this year. Um, so we're supporting that with advertising to those videos which I'm going to share with you in just a moment. Um, actually just last week it won a few gold awards at the Atti Awards which is the advertising uh awards for our region. So we're really proud of that series. Um, we'll be doing a new social media series for the summer to promote summer travel. We're also promoting outdoor adventure and sports. really sort of capitalizing on our priority to attract sporting events to our destination and showcase all of the wonderful things you can do here. We're also building out a new summer brand campaign, Play for Days. You can see some of the mock ads there to the right. Um, this was just in production last week, so we're excited to build that out in addition to our co-ops with our partners, which we have 12 partners who are participating this year, and that will launch in miday. um as well as a vacation rental campaign that we do specifically in the summer as well. So, I mentioned our escape series. I thought I'd share an example of that with you here. When's the last time you forgot what time it was? Not because you were busy, but because you were present. This place has a way of doing that, slowing everything down. Maybe it's floating above the valley as the world awakens below you, wandering through gardens where every step feels intentional, or discovering an outdoor museum that holds centuries of stories within its walls. Perhaps it's even in the realization that it's time to stop worrying about everyone else and finally look out for the one that matters most.

Some places demand your attention. This one invites it. And once you arrive, you might forget what time it is, but you'll remember that these are the moments that matter. The ones that remind you what it's like to just be. And then for additionally for 2026, we just hosted the Expedia Ambassador Summit in our destination, which was uh 40 content creators. Uh here it says 11 million in combined reach. it actually overperformed and came in came in at over 17 million in reach. We just got the results back. Um it also equated to over 900,000 in earned media. So great return on investment for us. But these content creators came into the destination and experienced all things Greater Palm Springs. They also were at a vacation rental and posting uh their experience here. So got a lot of great exposure not only on the Expedia platform but also on all these content creator platforms as well as Mattel's Pa platform because Ken was one of the one of the content creators that Expedia partnered with. So you can see there the post from Ken. It was his first trip to Greater Palm Springs and so he was posting as well. So we got a lot of great brand lift from Mattel, from Expedia, Verbbo and then of course on our own channels. We also have coming up our sponsorship with TED. This is our second year that we've sponsored their annual meeting which is in Vancouver. Um it's in April. It's actually moving to San Diego next year. Um so we're excited to have it in our great state of California and hopefully attracting some pre and post visits from those attendees. Um but we are the exclusive travel sponsor for TED for the second year. In addition to that, we are hosting the and sponsoring the Restore Lounge which is the health and wellness area of the conference. is the most highly visited area as you can imagine. There's a lot of intense content at Todd

and so TED so people come there to kind of take a break from the content. Um so that content will um this will be restorative for them when they visit the Greater Palm Springs Restore Lounge. We also are in the process of creating a custom content video content with one of the TED curators which will be hosted on the TED channels reaching their audience expanded beyond the conference. So we're excited about this expanded partnership with TED. Um in addition to that we have FIFA World Cup strategy and Olympics. We are aggregating a list of offers during and pre and post for World Cup. Um that is a web page that we have dedicated for advertising that we're driving people to to see all of the offers from our partners. Um so we'll have media content, itineraries, social media ads. So this is something that our partners can really engage with to capitalize on the global spotlight that's on the state of California. hopefully capture some of the pre and post visits as well as some return visits for our destination. Uh focusing on some of our international again Canada high priority for us. So we're continuing to market in Canada. We have not stopped our marketing there. We do that via brand USA and um visit California co-ops. We also expanded some of our international reach into Germany as well as launched our new social media in China at the end of last year. Moving on to PR. We had a very successful year. We had 2.7 or 7.2 billion in total circulation.

I don't mean to cut you off, but how much more do you have? We only just a couple more. We only had a half hour and we're already at a half hour. So, okay, we're almost done. Um, so I'll be quick. So, 7.2 billion in circulation uh for our earned media. So, this is media we don't pay for. It's what people write about us. Um, and here are some examples of some of that media. And here are all of the offices that we work with globally. So we have PR representation and trade in all of these either on a full-time basis, part-time or ad hoc projects. We added uh India this year to really attract some of the luxury travel from India. So that's something new for this year. And with that, I will have any take

comments or questions, but we do need to open the open session. So, I'm just asking you.

No, I was just going to say uh as the uh as the representative for the city on the visit Greater Palm Springs board, I can't say enough about how fantastic this organization is. You've all heard me whenever we've had our council comments rave about the amount of work these guys do. You just saw it for yourself. The results speak for themselves. Um I I continue for the seven years that I've been on that board just to be impressed every time and it gets knocked out of the park. and you guys do a fantastic job not only for us but for the uh for the whole valley and it is a really good uh example of regional cooperation with all nine cities. Everybody plays a part and you look at the videos you'll see every city in almost every video and I think that is a fantastic way to do this. The only thing I've can can't quite figure out is how do I get a job in one of the lucky folks who's a social media influencer who gets flown around to sit in a spa all day. still figuring that out.

Can you Can you tell me how I get that job? I'll get that job. It's a good question. Quick comments. Anyone? All right. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Absolutely. All right. We're going to now go into our regular session. I will open the meeting of the city desert hot springs. Uh this is an adjourned regular meeting of the city council. on the city council serving as the housing authority board and the successor agency to the former redevelopment agency board for Monday March 30th 2026. Roll call please. Council member Gardner present. Council member Pittz present. Council member Pi present. Mayor Penvoss present. And Mayor Mattis

present. Our invocation tonight is going to be by Juan Kamacho, leadership pastor of Grace Church. Thank you for being here tonight.

Good evening, council members. Uh, as uh mentioned, I'm Juan Francisco Kamasha. I'm with Grace Church and we have uh a good uh giving to the community as far as food comes along because there's been a shortage of food as you may know. And uh we were lucky enough to have uh got touch our our secretary to start this program with a pantry because we do have food distribution once a month. But the thing is that it's not enough. There's people uh starving every day. And uh I invited uh my sister Doris here to read the letter that uh we have put together at Grace Church. Good evening. I am I am truly honored to share a little bit about Giving Grace Emergency Pantry, a 100% donation-based ministry established at Grace Church just three and a half months ago. This ministry began with a simple but powerful realization. Our administrative assistant noticed that there were no client choice pantries in our city. At the same time, our office was receiving frequent calls from individuals seeking food assistance, often just after distribution had passed or while the next one was still weeks away. It didn't feel right to respond with, "Please wait." She knew something needed to change. With the full support of our church, Giving Grace was born on December 15, 2025, just in time for the holidays, when the need is often greatest. In just a few short months, this pantry has grown beyond anything we've imagined. We've served nearly 200 families returning, many returning multiple times each month. Our reach extends across the valley, even as far north as Northshore, thanks to

incredible volunteers who are willing to go the distance quite literally. In many cases, that distance is traveled specifically to aid those who for different reasons and circumstances are not able to drive physically to come to the pantry. While it can be a little tricky to remain 100% client choice in this situation, we do our very best and the families we serve truly recognize and appreciate that effort. Giving Grace has quickly become a trusted resource in the community. When someone asks where they can find food, they are often guided to us or personally connected by our coordinator, Abby. But what makes Giving Grace truly special is not just the food. It's the dignity. It's the ability for individuals and families to choose what they want and need even in difficult times. It's about easing the burden for those facing uncertainty and offering not only nourishment but also compassion, connection, and the chance to feel seen and heard. Everything we provide is made possible through generosity. Every item, every shelf, every bag has been donated. As a fully donated base pantry, we are deeply grateful for every contribution. As we continue to grow, so does Snee. Your support helps us keep the doors open, our shelves stocked, and our community cared for. Thank you for considering being part of Giving Grace. Together we are not just feeding people. We are offering hope, dignity, and most importantly giving grace. Thank you.

Yes. So our monthly uh amount that we need to keep running a month is about $500. Pastor, I'm going to ask you that if you're going to be asking the city council for any donations, probably should do this during public comment. Okay. We're just asking for the implication tonight. Okay. Always. Thank you very much. and we'll we'll have public comment really soon. So, if you guys wanted to sign up for 3 minutes, you could do it during that. Okay, we'll do. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Hand

over your heart. Begin. I pledge 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. All right, we move the city attorney's report. We have no reportable action. Thank you. All right. During the approval of the agenda, which is the next item, is there anyone that would like to pull any items from the consent calendar?

No, sir. I'll make a motion. Um, let me take any public comments on the consent calendar first. Would anybody like to make any public comments? That's items 7 through 12. All right. No public comments. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda and a second? There's a motion in a second. All um vote. I think that's working. Gerald's going to give it a shot this time. Please vote. Motion passes unanimously. All right. At this time, we'll move to public comments. Anyone that would like to speak in public comments can do so by uh either filling out a blue card and giving it to the city clerk or just coming forward and stating your name.

Anyone? Pastor, do you want the the three minutes now?

Yes. So, like I mentioned earlier, the the monthly sustainability to keep the pantry going a month is it's about 500. Our goal is to raise at least $6,000 to keep the pantry going for the rest of the year. Now, that may increase with the need, but uh that's our goal for this year, about $6,000. and that would help uh get food that people need is eggs, milk, uh dried foods, canned foods, and that's what we've been helping with. We also are are doing prepared foods where people need immediate nourishment, we are able to do that as as we can. So that is our our need uh so far.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Anyone else in the public like to speak in public comments on anything not on the agenda? Awesome. Move to the city manager's report. Thank you. Good evening, mayor, city council. Uh first up tonight, uh we're going to ask Jeffrey Buckeye, our administrative services director, to provide a few financial updates.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. uh for our financial updates for the general fund and the public safety fund through February 28th, 2026. Um we have revenues of 19.5 million. Do we have the There we go. 19.5 million which is at 50% of the adopted budget. Last year at this time we were at 17.9 which was at 50% of that amended budget and two years ago we were at 16.6 which was uh 51% of the amended budget. As for expenditures, we have 25.1 million, which is 64% of the adopted budget. Last year at this time, we had 22.5, which was 63% and two years ago, we were at 22.1 million, which was 64% of the amended budget. And that is my report.

Thank you, Jeffrey. Uh, next, Christina Newsome, our deputy city manager with an introduction of another POP. Good evening, mayor and city council. For the month of March, we had six adoptions, six rescues, and the successful return of nine animals to their owners. We also participated in several adoption events. You can come up, John, including Desert Nights on the Boulevard, the Bianca Ray Foundation, and Cars, Coffee, and Kines's at India Tap House. So, tonight we have Cosmo with us who's coming up to the to the podium. Um, Cosmo's actually been in this shelter for over 450 days. He arrived at the shelter with his brothers and sisters, and while one by one have all found their forever homes, he is still waiting. Cosmo would thrive in a home with children aged 12 and older. Please help us find a loving home for him. You can call city hall to inquire about adopting Cosmo to date. Thank you, John.

Thank you. That concludes our updates. City council's argue on who's taking them home. As the mayor, I'm going to tell. All right. With that said, with the mayors and council members comments, Miss Pie. Okay. Um I'm going to talk about do the right thing. This one was done by Ma. No, the honore was Matthew Bailock. He's a Desert Hot Springs High School. Merritt is an exceptional young man and extremely involved in school. Not only is he an ath athlete, football, track, wrestling, but he is also part of the United Student Body, Golden Eagle Sports Academy, Riverside County Friday nightclub, and can be seen behind the camera as part of our yearbook staff. He is truly taking advantage of everything Desert Hot Springs High School has to offer in the hopes to set himself up for college once he graduates. Due to come due to recent financial hardship, he is really working hard to pave a road for himself to attend a 4-year university to study. Oh god. K I N E S I O L O G Y

Thank you.

And to become an athlete trainer as an 11th grader for him to have created a plan is remarkable as remark as a remarkable plan for a remarkable young man. He is most definitely worthy of receiving the Do the Right Thing Award because he is doing the right thing for his future. And then I guess I'm going to cut this a little short. The next one is uh Kathleen Gerroski. She just recently won at the California Association of Public Cemeteries. She just recently won an award for her work. Um, and it was the male gi uh I think it was the male given award and she has had a lot of um inspirational uh things. She was uh C CAPC president in 2009. In 2012, received the CAPC cemearian of the year award and in 2020 received the CAPC Ruben Simon's Wayne Award. and she's been uh a general manager of the Palm Springs Cemetery District for I think about 25 years. Um and so she won this. It was recently at the March 19th through 21 the conference there. And so this is women's history month and that's part of women history

month. The other thing I'm going to talk about, it is women's history month. And I while I was thinking about this, I decided we have history here with our staff. Um, your person, you your person who's in planning. I've watched her come along and I watched her as she progressed and she does a really good job. There's a person named Lai, I think, Donnie, who um there was a uh a resident who was trying to get uh a stir house for her mother and she just couldn't do it. But 3 months later, she found a way and that made a good history for this woman. Um, Christina, all I can say is you're very good. Very good. Um, I was talking to Dora the other day um about culture and uh I told her there's a person who does HR and he said culture eats br eats strategic plans for breakfast and she has created a culture uh with our staff that makes her an exemplary city manager and then I want to talk about a police officer.

There was a person um desert son asked me a question about do I want someone that looks like me and I told him no I want the police officer to pick the best police officer. Um, I come from Los Angeles and I often times got caught driving black in LA. He asked me again and I told him, I just want the police officer to hire the best person. And then he asked me again and I said I said I told him this. So I described to him at my church um the chief at that time did a town hall meet meeting and African during Q&A an Africanamean woman walked up to a Caucasian police officer and said you have helped change my daughter's life. Not only did you pick her up when she was truent, you came back again and you I'm sorry. You came back often. That is why I want the police chief to hire the best person. And because of that in 24 that police officer changed my history and that's my story on Women's History Month.

Mr. Boss. Yes, sir.

All right. I have a story book. Just kidding. You know, I like to talk, so just leave. Deal with it. Okay. Okay. So, uh I'm going to start from the be or from the the more recent. How's that? So, Saturday I went to at Palm Springs Air Museum. The Palm Springs Animal Allies had their fur ball u gala thing which a big fundraising event and it was really nice. I didn't realize it was a masquerade event. So, I was there in a suit and tie looking mighty proper and everyone else was in masquerade gear. Nevertheless, Desert Hot Springs was proudly represented. And what was great about it is is that uh their um their display thing and the whole show that they kind of did and fundraising and everything really did a lot of great emphasis on what is with our vet hospital here and how they took it over and what they've done. Just a couple of statistics is that from from opening to date, they've seen over 4,000 animals now. um they have done over 400 spay and neuters over there and so they're looking to expand that into a 5-day work week and once the finances get a little more and what they get going over there. So it's been really great and we had a lot of good compliments there. So that was nice to be there as far as that. Um on the 26th I did parttook in the principal of the day for Two Bunch Palm Elementary School. Uh, I had four or five friends, people I know whose kids said they saw me. And so it was kind of cool there. Hey, what are you doing in my kid's school? Right. So there I was. It was really nice. Got to They tell you what, if you're going to get your steps in, just volunteer to do principal for a day. You will get 16,000 steps guaranteed. With that, uh 25th, I think it was, we had our cood 2x two thing. uh Muller, madame city manager, if she wants to elaborate on a little bit, but

uh I'm excited about some of the collaborations that we've chosen to do as a city, as a city council and part of our strategic plan with College of the Desert. I think we've got some exciting things from transportation to walking stuff to expansion of their schools to uh how we're handle, you know, dealing with the the people that want to become students there and what have you, but also uh venturing into the topic of housing for them as well. And so that was exciting to see there. On the 20th, I uh was a guest speaker at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce legislative update. Uh that went very well. I was excited to be asked to speak over there and really got to highlight Desert Hot Springs again uh over there. And a lot of people did come up to us afterwards and make comments that they've really seen some nice changes in our city, especially through our city council and city management team. and with our police department being fully staffed and the like. Um it was nice to get those comments uh that were part of that. And the Palm Springs Airport Commission uh we had that uh that went to that um RCTC which was a good one too. And I'll just call it cut it short and that's it.

Yeah. You said you had a book. I saw your notes there and I thought for sure I was going to be Mr. Gardner.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, Miss Pi brought up um, Women's History Month and it got me to thinking just as now while we were sitting here is that, you know, I think our city makes history every day with the significant number of outstanding women that we have in our city leadership from our city attorney to our city manager and our deputy city manager and our programs director and all of the other outstanding women that we have working in the city hall. I can't think of another city that has the number of women in leadership positions running the city that we have here and it's really cool. Um attended the Southern California Association of Government SCAG meeting in LA again. Uh I serve on the community economic and human development committee and our big focus is on housing and getting ready for the next cycle of the regional housing needs assessment. And some good news on that front. Uh for the last year or so, all across Southern California, but particularly in Riverside County, we've been building more houses than we have incoming migration, allowing us to start to make a dent and catch up in that housing deficit. Plus, our population growth projections are now flat through 2050 rather than increasing. So, that gives us a better chance to catch up on that housing deficit. Uh attended the one future Coachella Valley annual dinner with council member Pi and Mayor Prom Voss. uh city is a sponsor of one future and then they give out scholar college scholarships and wraparound services for disadvantaged students. Uh council member pi chief Shaw and I uh got to be judges. Gerald, do you have that picture? Uh DHS high school's annual talent show this year. There's your team of judges along with the PSUSD superintendent, Miss Pi, myself, and a few others and the chief. Um it was actually a lot of fun. Um, and these kids have got talent. I'll tell you what, it was hard to judge them. And if

you ever watched the old TV show, Pose really wanted to give them tens across the board. And this, by the way, came from another thing. Miss Pi and I also attended the Brothers of the Desert Wellness Summit this weekend. Brothers is a social support group for gay black individuals in the desert. And their annual wellness summit is an all day experience with lots of classes on mental and physical health issues and quite a number of DHS residents were there. We had two tables with people at lunch and that were all Desert Hot Springs residents and several of them serve on the board. Well, it's really kind of a neat event. Uh I think we all attended the Desert Hot Springs Little League opening day. always a lot of fun. And the the uh stings from the hand slap from the kids walking the baseline usually dissipates after a day.

Fist bumps.

Yeah. Well, it's after about a day of after 300 kids have slapped your hand. It kind of you're numb and then it comes back after a day. Uh, but I'm very proud that we're among the rare cities who actually sponsor our town's little league and our staff here throw so much of their heart and soul into making that a great experience for for the kids in the city. And lastly, a visit greater Palm Springs JPA board meeting and you saw the highlights of that when they gave their presentation. Uh I'm excited about the destination master plan that'll be helping us guide tourism and marketing developments for the next 10 years and their economic development programs. Uh and uh I really like the part with the nine individual programs and so uh they'll be meeting with our staff coming up shortly and we'll be working as part of that and uh have a have a great tenure uh plan for the entire region plus the city with the uh when the end results of that. So it's all I've got. Oops.

All right. Mine is very short tonight. So, good evening, Mr. Mayor and City Council members. This is my update for March 30th, 2026. On March 20th, I attended the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce, first quarterly breakfast state of the district. This event was held at Macaro's Grill in India, where attendees enjoyed a delicious Mexican buffet. But we also heard from various state representatives, local leaders, and our own mayor pro Tim Dirk Voss who spoke about the many exciting developments taking place in Desert Hot Springs and throughout the Kachala Valley. On March 25th, I attended my monthly Sunline meeting. During that meeting, several community members did share concerns regarding customer service issues as well as the need for expanded bus routes across the Coachella Valley. We also continued our discussions on reimaging reimagining Sunline for the future. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. That completes my update.

Well, that was easy. Well, first of all, thank you to everyone uh in the public for allowing us to move our normal meeting from the third Tuesday to this Monday here. um I had a planned vacation and we were just going to go ahead with the meeting, but due to some other uh necessary um items that we wanted to discuss as a full board um we moved it to this day and we couldn't have it last week because Mr. Pitts had a birthday and he turned 29, right? 29. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to try to convince them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, h happy birthday. Oh, thank you.

You're welcome. did attend the little league uh season opener. Most of you know I've been volunteering for theirs many years and I'm always grateful that the city can come out and all the council members that come out for that. Uh our program still thrives here in Desert Hot Springs and as stated it's one of the only or I think there's only two in the nation that are run by cities uh across the nation. So thank you to everyone that participated in that. I did attend on my vacation. I had to zoom in for the Coachella Valley Association of Government's um executive committee and there was quite a few things discussed but nothing directly pertaining to City Desert Hot Springs. I won't bore you with all those details. Um and then um lastly, we did enter uh I think all of us were there um for the senior inspiration award and Daniel

Coward. Thank you. a cowl cowl cow. Okay. Uh he was our inspiration this year. Um if you haven't ever met him, um you probably wouldn't unless you went to the senior center, but if you're ever by the senior center, please stop in and thank him for his time. He is the the guy that gets everybody around. He's the bus driver. He's the one that volunteers. But we got to talk a little bit about his history while I was sitting there with him and his family during lunch. And he worked for the phone company I I believe like 25 years or plus. um back when we had phones and they're weren't this. They were actually the ones on the wall. So um he did that for many years and then he retired and uh loved to fish up in the Bay Area but then ended up here in the desert where I think he was closer to family and Desert Hot Springs was his city that he's been at and he's been volunteering with the senior center for many years. So I wanted to say thank you for all his hard work and he was the inspiration for Desert Hot Springs this year. All right, that's all I have to update on. We're going to move to the administrative calendar. Our first item, we will be serving as the city council as a housing authority. And this is item number three, donation of five vacant residential real properties uh to Habitat for Humanity, the Coachella Valley for the development of lowincome housing. APN 638-152-006 APM 639-191-48 APN 641- 092-34 APN 639-221-017 APN 639-182-051 Mr. Buck

yes thank you Mr. Mayor uh as a part of its focus, the former redevelopment agency um of the city of Desert Hot Springs had acquired property throughout the redevelopment area to help with blight and provide low in low to moderate income housing. However, at the time of its dissolution in February 2012, several vacant uh residential properties were then transferred to the newly formed housing authority that h the housing authority acts as a successor agency to the low to moderate income housing funds from the former redevelopment agency. On July 2nd, 2025, the city council declared nine vacant residential parals as exempt surplus land and HCD approved the declaration of six of those parcels. Um there are five of those parcels in the main part of the city that the housing authority would like to donate to Habitat for Humanity uh to build lowincome housing. Those properties are uh we have one property located on Avianita Kadina between number 66263 and 66287. Uh the second property is on the corner northwest corner of Cactus Drive and Fifth Street. Third property is at located at um on Hosienda Avenue just east of 66358 Hosienda. Uh the fourth property is at located at 661554th Street. And the final property is located 661846th Street. These are all uh less than half acre properties and um been declared as excess surplus land and need to be used we'd like the city like to use them for lowincome housing and we felt that des habitat for humanity would be a good choice to donate these properties to and provide such housing this time. Does anyone have any direct questions before I open up for public comment? Dave Tracy, would you guys have anything

to add? put you on the spot right away. You guys want to introduce yourselves?

Um, good evening, Mr. Mayor, council, and staff. My name is Tracy Tremble. I'm the president of the board of Habitat for Humanity of the Coachella Valley. I'd like to thank you for your consideration of donation of these lots to us this evening. Um, many of you may may remember a couple of years ago, we completed construction on two single family residential homes on infill lots such as these in the similar neighborhood and were able to sell these homes to lowincome families that otherwise would not have been able to afford to purchase a house in this economy. So, your donation, if you approve this of these five lots tonight, will give us a good pipeline to build more homes in the city of Desert Hot Springs for deserving families. We are currently working on finalizing architectural plans to hopefully start three homes before the end of the year, the fis uh the calendar year, probably not the fiscal year by the time we get through everything. But um if you you know choose to donate those to us tonight, we would really really appreciate it. I want to thank the council for their support. Um we have a good working relationship with the city. We do a lot of work um with homeowners existing in your in your city to help them keep up on their homes and and provide emergency services. So, we'd love to continue that partnership and a special thank you to Doria and Jeffrey for all of your support and and collaboration as well.

Good evening and thank you for your consideration. uh your staff and and and council, you've been a wonderful partner with Habitat for years. And uh you as um Tracy had mentioned, we uh while we're while we're trying to build our affordable houses, we also work with communities, and we do that strongly with Desert Hot Springs. And uh we help about 10 families a year, all with free services. We might put a roof on somebody's home, uh help rewire a home, replplum, do uh emergency services, and also with uh families that have been um homeless that get housing in the area. And then we're able to provide them with uh services to to help fill their apartments or homes and to get started until they uh get all get their life together and able to to provide um um furnishings and furniture for themselves. We're able to kind of set them up in their homes and to get them started. But we're a partner. We just love the the relationship and you guys are just wonderful to work with and thanks again for your consideration.

Thank you guys. Doing great work. Is there anybody in the public like to make any public comments to this item before we open up to council debate. All right, I'll open it up at this time for the council. Now, um I can't think of a better organization to give surplus property to that will help our city grow and help those in need with uh with housing costs. And so I uh really appreciate what you all did a couple years ago with those other houses, the brand new ones. So I'm excited to see what comes here and I'd be happy to make the motion to approve this. Is there a second? Second. Any other comments?

Um you guys are good and the people that get the homes, they keep them up. All right. Do you want to Did you press second on the screen? I'll please vote. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. We're gonna move to item number four is the 2025 housing element annual progress report. Mr. Clark,

good evening uh mayor and council members. I will provide a few highlights of the 2025 APR. Overall, the city had a good year in new housing production. We beat every category in the number of entitled, permitted, and completed housing units from 2024. Of note is the number of completed units, which is 145 units above 2024. There was also a high number of infill units permitted, accounting for 75 of the 248 units, and it sounds like there's going to be a few more after this evening as well. Most of the growth came from four tracks under construction with Eagle Point and Rancho Discono nearing buildout. Skyborn Village is about 60% buildout. The vast majority of the new housing units entitled remain single family uh units at 211 followed by ADUs at 41 and small multif family developments at 38. To date, the city has permitted 704 housing units in the sixth cycle of the regional housing needs allocation with the vast majority being moderate and above moderate income housing. However, the city has also uh entitled uh three affordable housing developments with a total of 476 units of the 114 allocated by Reena with Parklane Homes getting the closest to construction pending funding. Some of the major activities completed in 2025 was the midcycle update of the housing element which HCD has accepted and the award of a 36.3 million uh in ASIC funding for Parklane homes but will also contribute to downtown infrastructure. So with that the recommendation is city council adopt and submit the 2025

housing element annual progress report to HCD. Happy to take any questions. Thank you for the report. Any public comments on this item? Nobody coming forth. Any comments from the council? There's a motion by Mr. Voss. Is there a second? Second by Mr. Pitz. You want to move them and second on the screen? Please vote when it comes up.

Motion passes unanimously. Item number five is a fiscal year 2025 2026 midyear budget adjustments. Mr. Buckeye. Yes. Thank you, mayor. So the are uh this year we have the midyear budget adjustments for fiscal year 20 256. Uh this covers strategic goal number 11 for the fin um finance and operations um to continue provide to continue to provide fiscally sound operations. Uh mid-year bud budget adjustments are used for day-to-day operations, adjustments in revenues and expenses uh that are throughout the year that are based on actual information uh changes in local revenue out of the cost uh emergency repairs and other maintenance and changes in capital improvement projects and and unanticipated events. For the general fund, our 2526 midyear revenue adjustments come to increase total revenue by $76,000. Um most of that comes from the uh uh measure P transaction tax by almost a million dollar. That's million dollars that's actually been doing very well for the city. But we have some other increases in uh property tax, grants, reimbursements, and miscellaneous revenue. Unfortunately, we also have some decreases in in uh revenues. Our transient occupancy tax is not as trending as high as it was anticipated. So u anticipating reducing that amount and our development revenues and which are uh plan checks, permit fees, items like that are also not um coming in as as we had projection but projected. So I'm proposing a $500,000 de decrease in that revenue. For expenditures, we are uh expecting uh $782,000 in increases in general fund expenditures. Most of that comes from personnel services. Um but we've uh there are some from legal services. We also have done some uh additional uh

costs for economic development. And then during the many several rainstorms this past year has more cleanup than we anticipated. Uh we had also tried to reduce other costs to keep the actual increase of total costs down. So you can see a decrease in some operating cost and some contract services for some items that we feel realize you didn't need to purchase or we can uh um delay the like the contractor of the program. Um for midyear for other restricted funds uh we have several funds actually there is an error the um streets traffic uh traffic signals bridges uh increase that's actually $534,000 uh for some reason I put in the fund balance right there but that increase is only $534,000. Uh most of these uh increases are related to capital improvement project uh for for the um for cost um the increase in excuse mere increase in costs and uh change orders. Um then we have some for the citywide LMD and the LMD fund drainage assessment funds. There's increases for also due to cleanup for the rainstorm. So the total actual increase is only about uh $9 million. And um for also in addition for the general fund, I'm sorry I forgot to mention this. While we have $76,000 increase in revenue, $782,000 expenditures that leave gives us we are using um that'll be you know reducing our addition to of fund balance by $76,000 to only u anticipating addition uh adding to fund balance for this fiscal year of $47,000. Right. That is my report. And have any questions?

Open up to comments from the public first. Anybody like to make any public comments? All right. I'll go to council. Who would like to start? It's good. You're fine. Mhm. Jan's fine with it. That means that's all.

All right. Um, just one question. Jeffrey, you said at the end there it's a $9 million. Can you explain that again? Yes. So the my slide oop yes my slide said there was an increase for restriction funds of $12 million but because of the error I put in the fund balance rather than the actual cost the increase in cost was only 9.2 million. I understand now. Thank you. All right. Um is there a motion? Second and please vote when it comes up.

I second it. I can't vote. That is yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. All right. Our next item is discuss discussion item consideration of an ordinance regulating the sale and distribution of products. I'm going to take a moment to explain our process here in Desert Hot Springs as I think that's it's important to understand this. Some of you might be here to speak on this item and this is just a consideration of the city council to bring the item back as if we choose as a majority to hear this item. We would then give staff the direction to go and do the research and bring back a recommendation based on the council members that want to bring this forth. Um what has happened in the past before I was mayor uh we did not have a good process when two council members especially if they were in the majority were able to put items on the agenda make a motion right away a second right away and then discussion wouldn't even really take place for the item and you could push something through. So, we actually we added an extra layer. I don't know back

18 we add an extra layer to give everyone the opportunity to be able to research items and give individuals that want to put items on the agenda the time to first of all as the mayor I can put anything on the agenda. The city manager can put anything on the agenda. But if we but if a council member wants to put something on the agenda, they get support from another council member and then they bring forth their reasoning why they want to see that item on the on an agenda for discussion and a possible debate in the future. So I just want to make it clear this is a brief opportunity for the two council members that had an opportunity or want this item to be heard in the future to give us the reasons why we should hear it in the future and then a majority of the council will make that decision. If you're here at the public to make public comments directly for or against this argument, you're more than welcome to make all the comments you want, but there will be another chance at this if the majority of the city council decides to bring this forth in the future. With that, I'll open the item. I know that Mayor Prom uh Voss and Council Member Pittz uh co-sponsored this to be as a discussion. I will leave it up to you guys to convince us of why this is an item that should be put on a future agenda and have staff do the work on it. Sure. Appreciate that, Mr. Mayor. So, we did request this and this is really this is this is an issue that is not a matter of of of if, it's more of a matter of when. Um, inevitably we're going to end up having to adopt something like this in the future. And the way that what's happening now is you know a lot of cities including the county of Riverside and others have adopted this and they've been able to separate from naturalratom to the synthetic which is the I think is a key difference and here's the thing um you know the synthetic synthetic is basically a form of opiate and you can walk into a market

today we have three markets in our city right now that I can walk into right now and I can buy the opiate synthetic form form that's here. And so since anybody else who's 18 or older or whoever they choose to sell to at the counter, we don't know. There's no regulation on this. And so what happened is is through the California Narcotics Association and various sheriff associations, they decided to we need to get ahead of this and not let it continue to go where it's going. We know that there's and and the model that cities in our county have already adopted is one that Riverside County is adopting. I'm simply asking that we just mirror the exact same thing that they've got. This is something they've done in Orange County and Huntington Beach and Fresno County and others and just to try to get ahead of that. Uh I don't know a whole lot about it. Frankly, I really don't. However, it's pretty scary when I was reading some of the things that were done and how easily accessible and some of the comments that I've got and things that I've read where my husband died who was in pain because he was taking this synthetic form and you read more of those. I've seen the positive comments of the natural and again the ordinance basically the intent of it is is just to require 21 and older and that's all and it even says it in the letter from the California California Narcotics Association. What I would like to do is just to make sure that Desert Hot Springs isn't behind the eightball, but instead we're right there with what the other cities are are going to be doing. Because again, this is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when we're going to do this. Cuz if we don't take it do this now, the police department's going to be coming back to us and saying, "We need to do this because we're having a problem." And I think because there's no regulation at the state level or they're working on it, we know how the state operates, cities and counties decided to take this into their own hands and say, "Let's get ahead of the game uh and do this." And what's been out there now I've seen

seems to be a functional working example of a code and I'm simply asking that we adopt that code. It's pretty universal throughout many cities and agencies in SoCal. Mr. Pittz.

All right. All right. I just have a couple of comments um about it. So per the discussion that we're having tonight, our intent um if we decide to go down this road would be the regulation of uh within Desert Hot Springs, which is rooted in a commitment to public safety. These proposed measures are designed with our community and especially our children in mind. Currently, products can easily be purchased by miners at various smoke shops throughout the Coachella Valley. Increasingly, the risk increasing the risk of misuse and potential harm. Some studies even suggest that kum may be subject to abuse and in certain cases may be mixed with dangerous substances such as fentanyl, heroin, and others. Ketum kum products are not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration. obviously the FDA. So, which raises concerns about product quality contamination and the potential presence of synthetic or other harmful compounds. Some products on the market may contain harmful additives or manufactured with semiynthetic synthetic ingredients. For these public safety reasons, I support again, if this is the way we're going to go, formally adopting Riverside County's ordinance or something similar to that, which would be regulating the cell in distribution of cratum and its synthetic properties. Key provisions of the ordinance ordinance concentration limits. The ordinance would prohibit the sale distribution or possession of katum or 70 uh products that exceed 2% concentration uh threshold. So what is 70? 7 hydroxy or 70 is a potent psychoactive

compound found naturally in trace amounts in the uh cratum plant. Unlike traditional leafbased products, many S um 70 products are semi-synthetic lab concentrated substances often sold and Mayor Pro Tim just spoke to this in um concentrated substances often sold in sold in smoke shops, gas stations with significant elevated potency. Age restrictions. The sale of any crayon based product to individuals under the age of 21. We go move forward with this would be prohibited. Synthetic products. The ordinance bans the sale of products containing synthetic or semiynthetic crayon compounds. And just we've received and thank you by the way for all those that have sent us emails and communicated with us. Either way, we appreciate that. We appreciate that. we've read them. But this afternoon, we actually received another email from Ryan Sherman, who is with the Riverside County Sheriff's Association, and basically writing to support the city's position if we do decide to move forward with some type of an ordinance because of the public safety piece of it. And with that, I yield back.

Thank you. I'm going to open up the public comments first before we take council comments. If anybody would like to speak on this, you may come forth. Once you get up to the microphone, if you just state your name, there will be a timer of 3 minutes up on the screen. Is your responsibility to have your comments done within those three minutes. Thank you very much.

Dear members of the city council of Desert Hot Springs, my name is Matthew McAllen. I have a master's in psychology and I have been studying for the past 10 years. I respectfully urge you to consider a balanced evidenceinformed approach toratom policy. one that prioritizes regulation over prohibition, education over fear, and public health over reactionary measures. An estimated of five to 15 million Americans currently use. This is not a fringe population. It includes veterans, parents, construction workers, small business owners, and seniors, ordinary individuals seeking relief and improved quality of life. This individual should not be stigmatized or treated as criminals. It is essential to begin with clarity. A critical distinction exists between raw natural cratom leaf traditionally prepared as a tea and synthetic or adulterated products. Raw cratom leaf is a botanical belonging to the coffee family with a long history of traditional use in Southeast Asia. The primary risk associated with does not stem from the plant itself but from contamination synthetic analoges and the absence of regulatory standards. This underscores the importance of literacy. Freedom literacy involves understanding the difference between raw leaf and concentrated extracts, recognizing adulterated products, and empowering consumers through accurate information. It supports the implementation of responsible safeguards such as clear labeling, age restrictions, and quality control standards without resorting to criminalization. I strongly support restricting cratom cells to adults age 21 and over. This is a reasonable and protective measure. However, prohibition will not eliminate demand. It will eliminate safety. Many individuals rely on credum as a means of managing chronic pain, anxiety, and depression. A significant number of these individuals have limited or no access to effective medical alternatives. Some have been discontinued from prescription

treatments. Other cannot tolerate conventional pharmaceuticals. Many are actively seeking to avoid more harmful substances. removing access to plant-based option that individuals find manageable and functional risk driving vulnerable populations towards more dangerous alternatives. An outcome that would undermine public health objectives. We have seen this dynamic before. In 2016, the US Drug Enforcement Administration proposed emergency scheduling of the response was unprecedented with one of the largest public comment submissions in FDA history. Veterans, patients, researchers, and family voiced their concerns. The proposed ban was ultimately withdrawn. This demonstrates the importance of informed participatory decision making and the real world impact of cratom policy on millions of Americans. I'm happy to assist with research. Um and I was there at the hearing in Palm Desert and uh the hearing in other cities and uh so the main thing is you know just recognizing that there's a difference between the plant and the extracts.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker. Hello, my name is Stephen Macintosh. I'm a chronic pain patient and I would echo everything that the prior gentleman said. Um, you've uh the mayor prom discussed the California nar narcotics officers association that makes a clear distinction between 70 products which are dangerously synthesized and botanical products. Um, eight years ago, my pain management was stopped against my will. I saw the writing on the wall and I I was curious, would medical marijuana maybe control my pain? It didn't. But, uh, nobody ever told me I wasn't allowed to use it. Nobody told me that, uh, you know, I was just prescribed by my family doctor and they happened to do a test when they were doing normal labs that they do quarterly for me for heart failure and they um, stopped it Friday afternoon. Yeah, we're not refilling it. Sorry about your luck. Uh that sucks. Um and I I turned toratom after looking in after look trying to figure out what to do and it um I've been using it ever since to manage my pain. Uh without it I'm not capable of doing very much. And here you see I'm coherent. I'm walking around. I'm uh able to talk to you intelligently. Um and I my pain is not gone but it but it's well controlled. Um, I would the other thing I would rather than retread what the other gentleman said, which I absolutely agree with, is that passing a law like what Riverside County is doing is uh very beneficial to vendors in your community who who would be um trying to rem who want to be compliant with whatever the laws are and for consumers to know especially for visitors to understand what you know what they're allowed to have, what they can get. Um to have laws that are similar to other

communities, especially as travelers move between uh the desert communities, I think is incredibly valuable uh because having uh completely incompatible laws from city to city uh is a nightmare for consumers and for um vendors who are trying to to comply with local law. Um I I would again just uh strongly encourage a lot of um those in the community who use want good regulations. We want age gating. We want limits on uh synthesized products. We want to know what we're taking. But at the same time, we're extremely concerned that if we support those things, it we will get bad legislation in front of us that then we have to uh retreat from. And so I appreciate that uh the council's taking a measured approach to this and that um yeah I think I'll leave it at that. Thank you very much for your time.

Anyone else like to speak on this item?

Hello major and council members. My name is Alec Chlet. Um I'm an athlete, you know. I I love sports. I love boxing, track, all kinds of sports, you know, basketball andratom helps me a lot to recover. Uh helps me with my energy. So I know mainly like chronic pain uh persons take this uh plant. But it's not only for them, you know, it's it's only uh to normal persons too, you know, like normal athletes. Um and also help me with depression. you know, my mom just passed away uh recently and I did not want to take any pills or kind of chemical stuff. So, I turned toratum and it actually improved my mood, you know, and actually improve my sleep, you know, and and I actually like only the natural leaf. And I um encourage you to like do the research on the investigation and well, that's it. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any other comments on this? All right, I'll go to city council. Mr. Gardner, any comments?

Um, yeah. Um, couple of things. Um, and I appreciate my colleagues bringing this forward. Um, and the, uh, got a tremendous amount of emails on this. I think one of the highest amount of emails that we've gotten on a subject in a long time. Um, I do have some concerns though and I don't know whether the concerns should translate into do we keep moving this forward or if we choose to move this forward here's some things that we need to um to look at. And our second speaker kind of hit on one of those. One of the things from a public policy standpoint that causes me some concern is having our city do something on its own um is exactly what you brought up, a patchwork of of of regulations. Um I know right now that there is a bill that's passed the assembly is in the Senate. uh Cal City says it's probably got a pretty good chance of going that would put in that would institute um a statewide standards which would then kind of keep us from having to have that that sort of a patchwork thing because it would cover the whole state. But I I'll give you a quick example of of of the hazards of patchwork regulation when it comes to this uh picture if you will the uh intersection of 20th and Indian. One side we have a convenience store that is in Desert Hot Springs. We have one side we have a convenience store that is in Palm Springs. Well, Desert Hot Springs bans it. Walk across the street over to Palm Springs and get it. So, if we do that and the the business over in Desert Hot Springs hurts and the guys that were in Palm Springs who haven't adopted anything, uh, get that. Um, and as we read through all of the emails that we got and the discussion of various types of products, it in it it it it struck in my head that this is a very complex issue and

uh I praise our staff all the time. We have fantastic staff, but this is a very technical and almost medicinal level of expertise that our fantastic staff doesn't have. uh and so is this a better arena for uh people that do have that such as full-time legislative staff or even the FDA and federal staff. And then the last piece that from a public policy standpoint, whether or not we go into the the benefits or lack of benefits of in and of itself, is if we institute a set of standards here, are we imposing an additional burden on our fine police department who are going to have to go out and and differentiate between various different products and whether or not they're legal or not and the testing standards. And you know, the guy could say, "Oh, yeah. Well, this doesn't exceed that percentage." Well, maybe it does, but we don't know that until we get it tested, and then that takes up police time and resources. So, while I can see a benefit uh after looking at at some of the the horrible statistics and uh uh you know, I even saw my own home state of Utah uh passed a statewide ban just a couple of weeks ago on it, but they had testimony from people that were that were that were harmed by the um I believe it's the synthetic one, but again, I don't know enough about it to know. But I can see there is a real harm for abuse of this thing. But by the same token, there are as as pointed out by the people that came and spoke today, some great benefits, too. So those are some of the prep falls that we go if we start going down this road. And it might behoove us to sit back for a little bit and see if the state does institute a statewide ban before we start going and making a patchwork of things. That's my thoughts,

Miss Pie.

Okay. Me, too. just found out about this. And so I'm ask you to um how long do you plan for staff to work on this? Um if you mirror someone else's idea, um does that benefit us? Um, and as the gentleman said, it could be bad legislation. I would like to ask the police chief, what do you think? Not now, but what do you think? And if there is synthetic, how are you going to know that they have synthetic? Um, we can say we don't want synthetic, but is there a way of finding out? I'm not saying don't do it, but I'm going to ask us as policies to um step a little deeper um into it. Um it says that um the plan itself, not necessarily if you have um well, I just found out about it. I'm not going to talk about it. Uh but if but I will do this. If there are situations of halluc I can't talk. If there's

Thank you. How is law enforcement going to know what that is? Um and so I'm not saying don't do it. We just got to dig down a little deeper and um need to find out what other besides just one, what other communities are doing and is there um uh an interest in doing Coachella Valley?

Well, we're not going to answer any questions. What I'm going to do is make my comments and then we're going to see if we get enough support here. Um, I've seen enough from emails and from the public today that I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting enough to at least have our staff do the research, get all these questions answered, and bring it back to a future item where we can debate as a city council. Don't know if I support it yet. Don't know enough about it, but I think I've heard that here multiple times today. So, unless there's something quick you guys want to add, I would rather not get into a debate or get into discussion further without, you know, bringing it back. Could I just add something really quick?

Yeah. And not to obviously not to debate, but when the public was speaking, I was obviously taking some notes and I think this is important and I don't think I frame this when I first actually was making some comments. So, if we were to take a position on this, the city, I can assure you it's going to be balanced. No one is trying to ban it. I want to make sure that's that's stated. No one is trying to ban this. So, just from a public safety perspective, what we were trying to do was put some guard rails in place, especially for children who can, I guess, go in right now and buy this. That was really what we wanted to do. And of course, about the synthetic uh properties, that can be another discussion, but I just want to make sure because we've heard you and and we've seen the emails and I definitely I can definitely see,

Mr. P. That's your opinion, right? That's my opinion. That is my Thank you. The council might change. That is my opinion. The majority of the council might change the decision, but Mr. Vitz is very passionate about that. Mr. Voss, you want to wrap it up real quick? Yeah, I do. I I just want to point out so city of Lita, Palm Desert, Ble, India's in the process and Riverside County has adopted it. Lita has adopted it, Palm Desert has, Ble has, India's in the process. Us are, you know, considering in the discussion. So the wheels are kind of moving now that others are recognizing what's all involved in it. So I'll let you make the motion. I like to move that we bring this back for as it agenda item to implement.

Um there was a I'm sorry. Is there a second Mr. Pitts? I'll second. And just to clarify in the motion, how much time should we give staff to to research this? Is there a do you feel there's a you know time is this time sensitive or can it wait 90 days? No actually uh it's a good point. So let's uh about when you see what the legislature does too. Well, when does the legislature make their vote? Says it's in the spring. Spring. Excuse me. Since this is the subcommittee, can they talk to staff to figure out what the time limit is?

Yeah, that's fine. I mean, I don't think you I don't think there's anybody saying don't bring it back. I mean, there's a lot of questions to be asked. I would I would say at least 60 days worth of work has to be done here. So, that's fine. All right. There's a motion in a second. Uh and and Mr. Pittz, can you push second on the screen there? All right. Please vote. I'm voting yes. Motion passes unanimously. All right. Thank you everybody for following process. You know, this is just to make sure that we have a good process and it's very transparent to the public. Yeah. On this.

Go ahead. So, um, speaking of women's month, right? Is that what we're into? Okay. So, our illustrious Madame City Manager was chosen for uh woman of the year under legislator Greg Wallace's uh group that he got all the a lot of applications from them. Um she was not the winner. However, she was a winner in our eyes and is still the number one winner in our eyes. She made it into the top 10 and there was over like 120 applicants that were there and tomorrow she's going to get an award for being recognized as one of the top 10 distinguished women in the legislative district of Greg Wallace.

Very very good woman. Congratulations. That's it. Uh this is the final public uh comment period. If anybody didn't you have public comment one thing we didn't go ahead.

So um I uh neglected to do this during my my original comments but I wanted to thank uh uh Mr. Lans who was also serves on our public safety commission. He presented all of us with challengecoin commemorating the 150th special operations aviation brigade or regiment I should say and uh it'll go nicely in my challenge coins whack. And I wanted to thank you for that and taking the time to to do that and to honor your regiment. I think it's really cool.

Anyone want to speak in public comments? I didn't get to speak at the public comic period in the beginning of the meeting. All right. With that said, we will meet again next week at our regular first Tuesday of the month. Public safety commission on the 9th, planning commission on the 14th, and the city council will be back for its second meeting in April on the 21st. We are journed.