City Council - Regular Meeting

Council member Pittz present. Council member Pi present. Council member Voss present. Mayor Prom Gardner Wom and Mayor Manis present. Do we have any public comments on the two items on close session? Item one or two? No, we do not. Okay. Madame city attorney, would you announce the items, please?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, we have two items. Number one, conference with legal council existing litigation. Paragraph one is subdivision D of section 54956.9. Uh the case is Balin versus City of Desert Hot Springs, Riverside County. Case number CVP, this is correct, right? Uh CVP uh S2508140. The other matter is conference with legal council involving the city as a member of a joint powers authority person to government code section 54956.96. Discussion will concern information received in close session of the JPA.

With that said, we're going to recess to close session. Reven reconvene. I knew I had two words there. Reconvene at 6 p.m. Good evening everyone. Uh this is the city of Des Hot Springs regular meeting of the city council and the city council serving as a successor agency to the former redevelopment agency board for Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. This is our 6 p.m. regular session. Roll call, please.

Council member Pittz present. Council member Pi present. Council member Voss present. Mayor Prom Gardner present. And Mayor Mattis present.

Before we have our invocations tonight, we're going to take a moment of silence. uh council member um Mark Carnivali uh passed away. Uh he was a longtime city council member in the city of Kio City. He was also a very prestigious uh uh person in that community by owning Nicolima's restaurant and and doing other things within his community. So uh on behalf of our colleagues across the freeway, we'd love to take a moment of silence in his memory. Please bow your head. Thank you. Tonight's invocation will be given by Pastor Eric B. Johnson. Uh he is the pastor of Victory Life Fourquare Church in Yucka Valley and a resident of Desert Hot Springs and a member of our Desert Hot Springs Elks Lodge. Welcome. Thank you for having me. Let's pray. God of grace, Father of lights, from whom every good and perfect gift flows down from heaven. We acknowledge your presence and we declare it is good. We also acknowledge that you delight in integrity, unity, and you delight in compassion. And when we display these things, your blessings flow. So I pray today that you will grant us your wisdom, your knowledge, and your insight as we make decisions for the residents and the business owners that call Desert Hot Springs home.

May every word that we say and may every action that we do honor you and bring you glory in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, pastor. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. Miss Pi, will you lead us? Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame city attorney, would you report on close session?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of council, we do not have any reportable action. Thank you. At this time, the city council uh will may amend the order of the agenda, approve the consent calendar, remove items from the consent calendar for separate discussion and action, and add urgency items. Um, is there any items from the consent calendar that need to be pulled? 7, eight, or nine? Hearing none. Is there any public comment on seven, eight or nine in the audience? I see nobody coming forth. I'll move approval of the agenda and the consent calendar. Is there a second? Second.

Please vote. Mine's stuck. There it is.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. We'll move to public comment. If you want to speak in public comment on items that are not on the agenda, there's a blue card in the back and you can give it to the city attorney and they'll bring it forth. Um, at this time, pursuant to the Brown Act, any person may comment on matters of general interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council not listed on the agenda. Under the Brown Act, the city council shall not take action on or discuss matters raised during public comment portion of the agenda that are not listed on the agenda. All comments are redirected to the city council should be devoid of any personal attacks. Members of the public are expected to maintain a professional courteous decorum during public comment. Nancy Kim, you're first. Okay. Um, good evening, mayor, uh, council member and staff. My name is Nancy Kim. I came, uh, I'm here with my mother, Yangu, who is the owner of the APN number 641 271004, the property at uh, 13450 Palm Drive. Um, is El Matador restaurant. My mother is in her 80s and does not speak English. So I I handle communication on her behalf. And we are here tonight because we recently discover a $11,87246 nuisance abatement assessment added to her 2025 property tax bill. And this was the very first time we became aware that any citation or enforcement action had been issued when we received the um property tax bill in mail. And we never

received a single notice in the mail. And I only received a copies of the citation yesterday, Monday, November uh November 17th in the morning after requesting them from the city staff. Um I received it through the email. That was the first time um either of us had uh ever seen any of these notices. And when I reviewed them, I saw that um every notice was mailed to 12120 Henry Vans um Garden Grove, which is not our address. And that um address doesn't even exist. There's no street name Henry Vans um in Garden Grove. and our correct address um since this is going air I don't want to say

but um I don't want to give my address out so none of the notices or hearing information ever reached us and this is actually the second year this has happened. Um, last year 2023 2024 tax bill included 2,456 abatement that my mother also knew nothing about because those n uh those notices were mailed to the same wrong address. Um, at the time I worked with the city staff and former um city manager Frank Lucino and the city refunded $900. We were advised to update the mailing address with the county and which I did and uh Riverside County confirmed that the address change was received on February 21st, 2024 and I have a proof of the email I received from the county that uh they received on the February 2024 February 2024.

Kim, it's your three minutes. Um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to have the city manager's office uh give you their card so you can set up an appointment with them and you you'll need to discuss it with them and see if there's an appeal process for you. Okay. We can't make that decision here. Okay. I sent you the email last night. I sent it to the city manager. I sent it to about like eight people. Okay. Yeah. To resolve this. Yeah. I appreciate you. Okay.

Thank you for coming up tonight. Gerald McKenna. Good evening everyone. I'm Gerald McKenna. I'm a resident of Desert Hot Springs since 2006 and I love living here. Um I serve on the board of directors of the Desert Water Agency, but I'm here in personal capacity tonight. So what I'm going to say is not uh board of policy or desert water agency policy. I want to talk about uh you have an agenda item on the making water flow. That's what prompted me to come today. I'm not directly addressing that issue, but we have missed the city has missed a number of opportunities to introduce sustainable herb drainage solutions to desert hot springs. Palm drive and now Hassienda being very beautifully renovated and remodeled, but nothing's being done to help absorb the water that the rain that falls in the city. It just it runs into people's houses. We had uh the Valentine's Day storm. We had a tropical storm Hillary. We had a storm in September and every one of those some somebody's home was flooded. So, I'd like to see the city do something in terms of having more [clears throat] uh parking lots that uh are permeable to water, get that water back into the aquifer. We could do uh concrete block pavers at crosswalks. There's a lot of easy, not even expensive solutions to get that water to to percolate back into aquifer rather than run into people's homes. So, a nudge really to the city and to the city engineering department to the contractors. Let's let's uh abate that problem a little bit. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Dennis, is it Hannah?

Yes, I'm Dennis Hannon, mayor, council member. Thank you for having us up here. Um, rotaries or roundabouts. Uh, I know that we've had my wife and I both ride motorcycles. I know that we've had a couple of motorcycle accidents here in in town, particularly on Palm. Um I know there was on Hosienda, but I'm not going to discuss that. But down on Palm and and uh um Dylan in particular, um big intersection, lots of people going through it. Can Can we at least study putting in a rotary in there or roundabout? Um I went out I had errands to run this morning. This is not my normal routine. Traffic was backed up to Starbucks from the freeway and there was a big chunk of it that was stuck at uh uh Palm and um Dylan and we've had some problems there. I know that the rotaries work in cabazon. You know, there's a learning curve. I get that. But it flows traffic through. And when you're done with that, can we talk about two bunch palms and palm because it's just a mess. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. I have no other blue cards for public speaking. Would anyone else like to address the city council tonight on items not on the agenda? I see nobody coming forth. We're going to move from public comments to the city manager report.

Good evening, mayor, city council. Thank you. Tonight, uh we're going to start with Jeffrey Buckeye. I'm our administrative services director to provide some financial highlights. Thank you, Dory. Good evening, mayor and city council members. Uh for the financial highlights through October 31st, 2025 for the general fund and the public safety fund, uh we have revenues of over 4.6 million, which is at 20 12% of our adopted budget. Last year at this time, we had revenues of just over 6 million was at 17% of the budget, and two years ago, we're at 4.1 million was at 13% of the budget. Uh actually the reason for the revenues were higher last year is that we had higher development fees. So we had actually collected from um Amazon and some uh Amazon some other development for permits which we hadn't done which we didn't have for this year unfortunately. Um in expenditures last uh we have 7 12.7 million which is 32% of the budget. Last year at this time we're at 13.1 which is 37% of the budget and two years ago we're at 11.6 million which is at 34% of the budget. And that is my report.

Thank you, Jeffrey. Um, next I'm gonna ask our deputy city manager, Christina Newsome, to introduce us to a guest.

Good evening, mayor and city council. Uh, this month since the last city council meeting, it's been an exciting one for our animal care and control team. Uh, we successfully placed eight animals into loving homes through adoption and an additional 10 were transferred to our rescue partners. Um, we also hosted a wonderful adoption event at Tail Waggers in Palm Springs where our team had the opportunity to connect with the community and showcase our animals. So, in total, uh, we have had 18 animals leave the shelter successfully, which is a great, great number for our shelter. And here in front is Miss Lily Pup. She's a three-month-old female pitbull and cattle dog mix that's been with us at the shelter since birth. The man holding her is her daddy. Um [laughter] he literally bottlefed her for weeks to keep her alive, her and her brothers and sisters. So she's very special to us. Uh she is the feisty, playful one of her litter and absolutely loves meal time. If you're looking to bring a furry friend into your home, consider adopting her. Just reach out to city hall for more details and an adoption application. Thank you.

Mr. Martin, Mr. McKenna, are you guys looking for a pet? No. It's good for polit. Oh, it's good for politics, I hear. All right. Thank you. Anything else in your report? That concludes my updates. Thank you. All right. We'll go to city council report, Mr. Goss,

sir. Um, [clears throat] all right. So, I appreciate uh all the welcome the well wishes and calls and messages and everything after I had my back surgery on November 4th. Um, I truly now understand when our folks from Canada and the Midwest come out here for the snowbird temperature because the cold temperatures freeze up the titanium in their backs. I felt that Saturday and so I truly appreciate why they would could come out here for that. Um, let's see. I'm going back just a little bit, but on the 27th uh attended the uh the Desert Hot Springs Police Community Resource Fair we had the wellness center. I thought that was it was a really nice, you know, activity. A lot of people there, different vendors, um different services there and it was just nice to see um you know, kind of the Day of the Dead ceremonies and activities and the kids doing their dancing and stuff like that and the and how it was, but just the staff just kind of walking around and mingling and just kind of doing their thing too. Uh which was really good as well. uh you know so I think it was a successful event that we had and we should probably do more of those on the um the 30th uh attended the College of the Desert State of the District uh dinner event they had over there you know heard some interesting good information obviously AI is like the future and what they're doing and so we got to hear them talk a little bit about that I'm sure that we as a city government will be venturing down that path at some point if not already uh we had a on the 11th attended the Veterans Day ceremony. I think from what I can recall, I think it was one of our most busiest ones. There was a lot of people there that day. It was a lot of people and we had the nice fly over that came over just about the right time it's supposed to and did a few twirly twirls for us and stuff which was nice and it was a good mix of people and uh really

appreciated all that that we had. um 13th attended the SEAg Energy and Sustainability Committee meeting. Uh there'll be more coming on that in reference to the topic of dust control here in the valley uh at our upcoming meeting in January. So hopefully I'll have some more information to kind of report on that for us as well. Um, and then Friday the 14th attended the Greater Coachella Valley Chamber breakfast and it was just business community updates and leadership updates on what's going on in the valley and some of the different folks. What I did like to see is that there was a group of I think they were from the YMCA or or a young youth group that was there and it was like a government affairs youth group of just young kids that want to get involved in public policy and it was a table of about eight or nine kids that were there and they're just wanting to get more involved. So there's still hope for our nation there. That's the beginning of it right there. So it was nice to see that and uh that's all I have. Miss,

first of all, I want to say thank you to public works. Um, you took care of our rain right away. And I definitely want to say thank you. And if you want to know how quickly they were able to do that, you need to go to our app. It's free. It's my mind space dhs. We had the rain. We had uh Morango was a mess, streets were a mess, and before the night was over, it was all cleared. So, I want to say thank you very much to public works. And Gerald, I'm ready. The Elks Lodge. Um Kathy Gavin, she's on the left and she's veterans chair and Maria Jimenez, she's a trustee. They put on a thank you to veterans. They gave the veterans free dinners and their guests. It was uh $10. And on the right is all of the veterans that came and the police chief came and after he got his credentials and what have you. And then he turned around and the veterans had us to them. We didn't know that they that this would happen, but it was a surprise to them. And the chief walked around and shook hands with everyone and they were very happy to see him. And then he took food to the dispatchers and that's all I have to report. Mr. Ger,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. It's going to be interesting. I My reading glasses that normally live on top of my head are been missing. They're not on top of my head. So, we're going to have to stumble through this. Um, I will echo what Miss Pi said about our public works staff. They did an absolutely fantastic job. I mean, getting those streets cleared and opened right after the rain stopped. Uh, I know it can be challenging to get through our city in the rain and uh we unfortunately from time to time have to close a few roads, but they got them open absolutely as fast as possible. I couldn't have got it done any faster. And so I I know I've heard from a lot of residents who thought it was amazing and I will echo that and uh please pass on our thanks to that. Um along with the rest of the council attended our Veterans Day ceremony at Veterans Park. I have to say I was particularly moved by a quote that was given by our keynote speaker who I'm forgive me for forgetting his name. I don't have it in my notes here. But he said in regards to veterans, those who fight do not do so out of hatred of those in front of them, but for love of those behind them, which I think is an absolutely great way of encapsulating what it is our veterans do. Um, attended the Friends of the Desert Mountains annual dinner and auction. Well attended. Uh, there was a great gathering out in Linta. friends is one of the nonprofits uh partners we have that manage our conservation lands here in the city and they own actually own quite a bit of conservation land here in the city. Uh we had the SCAG housing committee meeting prior to our state of the city event. Uh we had a great update on planning for downtown revitalization. something we've been trying our hardest to do ever since I've been on council and uh we keep trying and uh uh I shared with our staff the presentations the one key takeaway and I think we do a really good job of this is

that don't be afraid to try something new and fail and we tried a lot of various things downtown some have worked some haven't desert nights on the boulevard seems to be working so far and we'll keep trying and you know and in the future we're going to have one heck of a great downtown. I I just know it. Um attended the Food Now art of giving event, an art auction, raising funds for our hometown food bank. And we had a number of Desert Hot Springs artists contributing works to the auction, which was also well attended. We had a Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy Board meeting, nothing of note for us. And finally, we had a Coachella Valley Conservation Commission meeting. We purchased some additional land along Mission Creek Wash and that adds to our conserved lands here in the city and hopefully hopefully will be part of a future CV link extension into DHS. And we discussed ways of getting CV link past the freeway and are exploring some innovative ways to do that. And uh we had a good update too as well on our homeless encampment cleanup. So Gerald, can you bring up those pictures? Um, you'll see here the dots, the purple dots are where we had identified encampments or or dump sites. All of the green land is CVCC owned land. U, next one. Um, and you can see some of the trash and things that we gathered up uh in uh just a couple of weeks ago. A mountain or two of tires. Uh some aerial shots of abandoned, not really abandoned, but disabled RVs. And if you look on the far left, that's the result after the end after cleaning it all up. You got another one there, I think, too. Yeah. And these these encampments that are out there in the desert are are just horrific. Um they're horrific for the people living in them. Uh they do great damage to the land. Um our water people know that because all of that fluid and

waste from the uh from the RVs leeches down into our water table. So, it's critical that we get out there and and and clean these sites up. Another one. I think there Yeah. So, there's there's your after picture after that last one. But the sheer volume of stuff that they have hauled out and sometimes these folks get creative. Look at this. This guy's got a living room with a couch and a roof and uh uh it's just this I don't know how they get all of that stuff down there, where it all comes from. and then we end up hauling it away and it's not a cheap undertaking but it's highly important. Anything is there anything else they're doing? I think that's the last one. Yeah. So, um we will continue those efforts with CVCC who's one of our largest land owners here in the city. It is also their responsibility to keep that land clear and uh and cleaned up. And uh but it is an ongoing process and uh it it it does take a lot of work but uh you can see the results um and sometimes it takes a little time but it is an ongoing process and we'll keep doing it till we get it till we get it cleaned up. That's all I've got. Mr.

All right. Good evening mayor and city council. This is my city council update for November 18th, 2025. On November 6, I participated in the state of the city event held here, obviously at our health and wellness building. It was a wonderful occasion where our neighbors heard updates and learned about the great work our city council is doing for our community. It was also a valuable opportunity to connect with our colleagues. We thank everyone who attended this important event. On November 11th, I attended the city's Veterans Day memorial at Veterans Park. This event is well was well attended and we heard from several inspirational speakers and we honor and remember our veterans not just on Veterans Day but every day. Thank you for your service. So switching gears on November 14th, Council Member Voss and myself attended the Greater Coachella Valley Chamber of Commerce event at the Tommy Bahamas Marrammont Resort in Indian Wells. The special uh guest speaker was California Governor candidate Chad Biano. He shared his vision for a better California answered questions and also took photos. I also saw many colleagues and other elected officials including representatives from Sunline Transportation. This event was a eat and learn with a delicious breakfast served while we engage with Mr. Biano. Speaking of Sunline Transportation, Sunline Transportation's Fill the Bus event is this week. Join us for Sunline's 18th annual food drive this Thursday, November 20th, and help us fill the be the bus to make a real difference in our community. This year, we're proud to support Well in the Desert and Lift to Rise. Our generous contributions will

bring hope and kindness to those in need. When is this, you ask? Thursday, November 20th. So, this th this Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., how can we contribute and what what items should we bring? Non-p perishable foods, turkeys, and all the trimmings, frozen meals, toiletries, diapers, and more. Where do we drop this off? Ralph's here. Um, actually Palm Springs, Smoke Tree Village, or Walmart in Palm Desert right next to Sam's Club. Let us fill the bus together. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And that concludes my update. Thank you. My report will be pretty short, but um it's always an honor to give the state of the city and all the progress that's coming. It's it's on behalf of the city council, but really it's about the men and women that work for the city des Hot Springs and all the hard work they put into it on our vision at a very high altitude and what we want to see produced over time period and it it really is an honor to to be able to give that message and for for all the hard work that's done. So, thank you to our staff. Um on the 7th I was able to attend the CV Link uh ribbon cutting for the Palm Springs leg. Uh there was multiple ribbon cutings over a couple days that week. Um most of the project is complete or almost completed. Um I was asked to say a few words on behalf of Desert Hot Springs being a uh hopefully a a route off of that uh link in the future and uh how we want to continue to support that program. And 11th we had our Veterans Day event. Again, another great event this year. I was able to uh memorialize the fact that Eddie Johnson, Purple Heart uh recipient for for injuries he sustained in Vietnam. Uh for all his work and caretaking that park, we're able to memorialize in a in a bronze plaque that would be posted up there at the park, his service and his name for what he's done for that park. So, it was a surprise. We we we surprised him with it and he actually wrote me a letter and said he I was very surprised and he gave

me a back scratcher with my name on it. I don't know what that has to do but thank you. Thank you Eddie. Um it's in my office on the back of back behind my desk. So um and then lastly just want to say thank you to public works and all the hard work that our staff did during the during the recent flood. I guess it's going to be a rainy season for a little bit. Uh they had said it wasn't, but you know that's weather, right? Uh, so we have some more rain coming later this week and the quick actions on roads being closed for safety and then reopened was was uh really well done. What I wanted to tell everyone is that when Hillary hit we lost three ma major main the affairs through our community. um our staff was able to go to bat, especially uh Danny Porus, our deputy city manager with FEMA and capture millions and millions of dollars to bring back to the community and raise Dylan Road and Indian Canyon Road up. And they sub they they handled this weather very well. And even though Little Morongo was closed, it did its job. It's it they wouldn't let us raise the road up, but we were able to put I believe it's like 16 ft of concrete straight down so that the road doesn't get un undermined anymore and had get washed out and it's closed for months while we repair it. Now it's just wait for the water to finish, scrape off the dirt and the roads reopen. And that proved that that worked during this event. So, thank you for all the hard work you guys have done. There's still a lot of cleanup to be done out there. Be patient. Our contractors are out there and public works are out there to get those roads cleaned up just in time for the next raintorm.

All right, that's all I have. We're going to move to the public hearing. We have one public hearing tonight.

I I just had one real quick thing and I I should have said something about the public works staff. They did a fantastic job. What I did want to make the comment on is on Hianda and the Mountain View area in my in district 4. Um, I got three three uh three emailed messages and one stopped me in the middle of the road message after the storm of how much they appreciated how quickly the red bud bumpy bump that we have right there was cleared off and then how mountain view and they understood the dynamics of what's county, what's city and that thing but that they were at least able to get through that area too. So it was nice cuz you know I figured for every one, two or three there's going to be more that are going to say thank goodness. So it really complements what the rest of the council said.

All right. We'll now open public hearings. Item number three, adoption amendments of the two 2025 fire code and wildland urban interface code. Mr. Clark.

Good evening, uh, Mr. Mayor and council members. This is the second part of the 2025 update to title 15 building and construction code of the Desert Hot Springs Municipal Code. This part updates chapter 15.22 22 California Fire Code and adopts a new part in the California Building Code Standards Chapter 15.23 Wildland Urban Interface Code. The fire code incorporates the following amendments. Clarified the required separation of secondary access for new subdivisions. Reorganized and added the requirements for sprinkler systems. Added monitor requirements for new commercial kitchen suppression systems, added compliance requirement for mobile food preparation vehicles, clarified and made consistent firework public display fallout dimensions, and required increased fire flow for any new subdivision in the Wildland urban interface. Uh in addition, there's a new part seven of the building code standards, the wildlands urban interface code. We call it WOOI uh for short. Uh this would become chapter 15.23 in our building and construction code. This chapter contains requirements for the construction of new homes in the high and very high fire hazard severity zone area. These requirements require ignition resistant materials for roofs, windows, and siding. For example, the city has only a small portion of its area in the far northern uh part of the city that is designated as a high fire hazard severity zone showing on on this map in the orange. Most of the city is the moderate zone shown on this map in the yellow or has no designation shown in gray. And then here is a zoomed in map of the area within the high severity designation.

Staff is recommending approval of the ordinance, updating the fire code, and adopting the wildland urban interface code with amendments. Once these are approved, the changes go into effect January 1, 2026. Cole Hetrich, Deputy Fire Marshall, is here with Riverside County Fire Department to answer any specific questions that you may have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Clark. Any specific questions for staff of the Fire Marshall's office? Okay, we're going to move to open opening the public hearing. Is there anyone that would like to make testimony or give testimony in favor, opposed, or neutral position? I see nobody coming forth. We're going to close the public hearing at this time. Is there any discussion based on any other thing? Okay. Move to a motion. I'll move that we adopt the amendments to the 2026 fire code and the wild land urban interface code.

There is a motion and a second. Why don't we just do a roll call, Cheryl? Oh, it's coming up maybe. Did yours come up, Daniel? No. Let's go ahead and do a roll call. Council member Pittz, yes. Council member Pie, yes. Council member Voss, yes. Mayor Po Gardner, I. And Mayor Mattis, I. Motion passes unanimously. The ordinance will return um on December 2nd for second reading and adoption.

Thank you very much. We're going to move to the administrative calendar. Item number four, award professional services agreement for the engineering design of bridges over water project. Our deputy city manager, Mr. Pors. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. And actually talking about rains, this project has uh everything to do about rains and flooding. This is a bridges overwater project. This project was uh moved forward a lot faster with after the tropical storm Hillary and I'll kind of explain a little bit. So bridges over water project originally started as a seven uh seven crossing project where we did the a regional study called the blow sand and flood risk assessment where seven crossings in the city of desert hot springs were identified as being uh flood hazards. Three of those seven were the ones were completely uh destroyed when tropical tropical storm Hillary came through. Um since then all of those have been rebuilt but as part of the the storm we actually had additional damages that are now very apparent and one of those is on Indian Canyon and Mission Lakes Boulevard where this project is for. So this is only for crossings at Indian Canyon and Mission Lakes Boulevard shown here where you have Mission Creek and Morango Wash both crossing both of those roadways. You can see here the reconstructed road surface was from Indian south all the way to the crossing and then you have the crossing shown on there. This project will will include new crossings and actually enhance the construction work that was recently done. So here's an area that kind of shows a little bit from before and after uh the bridges over water project. So on the left this was in 2023 uh June 12, 2023. On the right it's January of 2024. On the left the actual flood was actually channel life through Mission Creek due to the amount of flooding that occurred after Hillary. we had breakouts where the actual flood went through the path of lease resistance and completely damaged everything um around its path. In this case, it actually overfilled the the creek and actually went into areas where we did not have flooding before. Same thing with the intersection here. you have before the flood and then after the flood where before it was only two designated areas where it crossed Indian

Canyon and Michelin Links Boulevard and now turned into an entire road segment where the water crosses now um through Indian Canyon and down Mission Lakes Boulevard. So what this project is going to do is is proposing do improvements on both Indian Canyon and Mission Lakes with new crossings at those um roadways. It will enhance Mission Creek box coverver system. So currently we do have a triple box coverver that was installed at Mission Creek. This will help redirect some of the storm flow from Indian Canyon south into that box cover and away from the roads. The main purpose of this project is to maintain um Indian Canyon and Mission Lakes open during uh majority of our our rain events specifically so we can reach the our nearest hospital which is on Indian Canyon um on the Palm Springs side of the freeway. The this project scope of work again is the engineering design where phase one would be project management meetings, coordination, preliminary design, alternative analysis, environmental compliance, construction documents, and then final bid and construction support. We released a request proposal in August of 2025. We received five proposals in October. City staff and consultants that did not submit uh help evaluate and score our proposals. And based on our our proposals and scoring, these were the final rankings and the associated total cost. Based on that, NV5 Inc. was uh ranked number one and the total cost of 1,25,8840. This fiscal impact, the contract amount would be for not to exceed 1,25,884 with a contingency of 10% equal to 20 $12,580.440, 40 which brings the entire budget of1,128,47240. The design phase of this project will be funded through development impact fees for storm drain and the city has already previously secured three 3,350,000 uh dollars in grant funding for the construction phase of the project

through the community pro community project appropriations fund through congressman uh Dr. RA release in the last uh two years of the community project operations. The recommendation is to author the city manager to draft and execute a professional services agreement between the city of Desert Hot Springs and NV5 Inc. for the design of the bridges over water project in an amount not to exceed $1,25,8840 with a contingency of $102,58840 which brings a total project budget of 1,128,47240. We do have the proposal attached as an exhibit and we do have representatives from MB5 here if you have any questions about the firm itself. That concludes my staff report.

Thank you very much. We're going to open up for public comments first. Would anybody like to speak on this item? Nobody's coming forth to open up to city council questions. Mr. Carter, um I somehow keep hearing a Simon and Garfuncle tune in my head whenever we talk about this one, but you'll have to explain Simon Simon and Garfuncle. You're old enough to remember that, Mr. So, uh but I did actually have a couple of residents reach out to me during the flood this week and we're inquiring about this. So, uh I'm glad to see this moving forward. Do we have a an actual timeline on it?

We we do have a timeline. Um but we are uh have a different timeline for the construction phase which we are already in talks with NV5 about how we're going to reach that. It's an aggressive assignment to start construction um by 2026 but I know that it's going to be very difficult to reach that with the environmental document. So we're going to be very aggressive between 26 and 27 and start construction. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? Entertain a motion. I'll second that. Motion by Mr. Boss, seconded by Mayor Prom. See if it comes up on the screen. Are we doing the screen still? Are we still going to give it a shot there, Gerald? Yeah, if we can do a roll call vote. We do. Okay, go ahead. Council member Pittz,

I. Council member Pie, yes. Council member Voss, yes. Mayor Prom Gardner, I. And Mayor Mattis, I. Motion passes. Just say one thing. Thank you, um, Mr. the poorest for applying to the grants. All right, we're going to move to item number five, fiscal year 2425 year end budget adjustments. Mr. Buckeye.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. These are the fiscal year 2425 year end budget adjustments, which part of strategic goal 11 for continued to provide fiscally sound operations. Um our budget adjustments we are um adjusting last fiscal year revenues by 10 million 10.1 million and expenditures by 13.2 million. There's 10 million for the general fund which is to add the public safety fund and other funds transfer which we will discuss at the next slide. uh the storm uh streets signals bridges diff uh that is for the hosianda avenue improvement project and we'll be utilizing the um 900 some of the 987,000 um additional revenue that received over budget uh for the storm drain development impact fee that's for the emergency access study which this uh will be utilizing the uh $552,000 in revenue received over budget uh art and public places of $220 25,000 which is for the murals and desert X and utilizing the $2556,000 in revenues that we received over budget and for measure A this is for the um uh additional cost for the sidewalk and shoulder repair project which we will be utilizing about one some of the $1 million of the fund balance. Uh general capital improvement projects include a transfer from the general fund as well as uh reimbursements from grants. The health and wellness center fund uh is for inspiring inspiring minds program as well as little league and some senior center will be using a small amount of the fund balance. The 2.4 million for the ARPA fund that is the remaining amount we have in the ARPA funds and we are going to be using that for the police annex the police department annex building. Um, and then for the M $9 million for public safety is recording of the transfer in from the general fund. And then we have $200,000

transfer from the general fund for future equipment replacement for the general fund. In previous years, the general fund was combined with the public safety fund um under the title of the consolidated general fund for budgeting purposes. The revenues over expenditures in the general fund were netted out with the expenditures over revenues in the public safety funds for complying combined surplus or deficit. Um even though we would do a transfer from the general fund to the public safety fund at the end of the year, it was never budgeted. So starting in July, uh we are treating these two funds as separate funds in in the budget in order to comply with best practices and to be consistent with our audited annual financial report. So, as you can see from here, the f in the first column is the uh 2425 fiscal year budget that was approved by council from the mid-year bud budget adjustments showing a $10 million um ex revenues over expenditures. That $10 million would then be used to transfer the public safety for their um uh deficit. Um instead for the next for these year-end budget adjustments, what we are doing is budgeting that transfer to the public safety fund as well as other funds um which then totaling a a $27 million um expenditures which uh which with a estimated $77,000 uh surplus which matches what council approved for the midyear budget adjustments back in March. So, this is just a housekeeping adjustment because we are no longer consolidating the general fund to the public safety fund. Um, and then this $77,000 surplus is only um an estimated budget amount and is not the actual change in fund balance for fiscal year 2425 that will be presented to council when that will be reported on when we present the uh fiscal year 24-25 audited

budget um audited financial reports. So staff recommends approval of the resolution uh for the fiscal year 2425 budget adjustments. And if there are any questions, we'll open up to public comments first. Would anybody like to make any public comments on this item? See coming forth. Any comments from Yes, sir. Go ahead.

Jeffrey, appreciate that. Thank you. Uh thank you, Mr. Finance Director. I appreciate that. You know, I like to read periodicals in different news from the greater Southern California area and I'm reading in such as like the city of Orange is on the verge of do we file bankruptcy or do we do a utility tax and you know Westminster is looking at doing an additional tax over here. Anaheim is looking at doing one and that's just in Orange County. And then others have talked about you know in LA County should we disinccorporate? So, it's really interesting and although, you know, 77,000 doesn't seem like a lot to a lot of people, but it is a lot to us. And to just to be able to be on that side of the aisle and not even have to entertain these greater thoughts of cuts and stuff that we've gotten shows, I think the history of what this city has uh really done its best at, but it also has shown really what the direction of, I think, previous council and this current council through the strategic plan and staff are all working together in unison on the same page with this. And I think that's what's exciting about it is is there's no opposition or any of that type of thing. There's no, you know, I want this, I want that. It's like everyone's got this strategic goal and we want to make it work. We'll figure out how to make it work and we do make it work and we still provide the necessary quality services the residents want. And we just saw that over the weekend with the response of public works. I mean, I was, you know, you know, reaching out to Madam City Manager and Mr. Deputy um or assistant city manager and, you know, on different things and they were right on it, you know, right on it, you know, with that kind of thing. And it's so nice not to have to want to be in that kind of discussion that's happening today in a lot of other cities. So job well done and appreciate. Thank you.

Any other comments? Yes, ma'am. Go back. Um the first slide I think it is um the slide of the the listed budget adjustments I think. So where you have ARPA?

Yes. Okay, it looking [clears throat] at this may look like our our um budget and it shows a net change of a negative 3038. Um but as Bomer stated, there's fund balances and there's grants that that covers this. And for instance, what do I want to see? I think it's okay. There's been that's it. There's fund balances and there's grants. So, that's not exactly we don't have a negative there. And if you go through his report, the staff report, you'll find out we're doing fine and the fund balances and the grants cover that.

Any other questions or comments? All right, we're going to move to a motion. I'll move that we adopt the uh year end budget adjustments. Second. There is a motion, a second. Roll call, please. Council member Pittz. I. Council member PA. Yes. Council member Voss. I. Mayor Protemgarder. I. And Mayor Mattis. Hi. Motion passes unanimously. Item number six is an ordinance amending chapter 1.10 city seal and insignia of the Desert Hot Springs Municipal Code. Mr. Serriiano.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Give me one second. Okay, thank you. Uh, the city's official steel and logos are are used by the city for official purposes. The Desert Hot Springs Municipal Code provides that um that the official um city seal and logos that are currently in use, ensures that the current and previous official city seal and logos are used only for purposes directly related to the official business of the city, and prohibits unauthorized use of the current and previous city seal and logos to prevent fraud, deception, misrepresentation, and/or abuse. Um, while there are no language uh modifications being proposed, the ordinance before you revises exhibit B to incorporate the logos associated with the downtown revitalization. On the slide um on the screen, so on the left hand side, you'll see the logos that are associated with the downtown area and on the right you'll see the logos that are associated with the Desert Nights on the Boulevard event series. That concludes my staff report.

Do we have any public comments on this item? I see nobody coming forth. Any questions from the council? Entertain a motion. I'll move we adopt the ordinance amending chapter 1.10 on the city seal. Second. Motion a second. Roll call, please. Council member Pittz. I. Council member Pi. Yes. Council member Voss. I. Mayor Prom Garner. I. And Mayor Mattis. Hi. Motion passes unanimously. The ordinance will return on December 2nd for second reading and adoption.

No items were pulled from the consent calendar. We do have another opportunity for public comments from anyone that didn't get to speak at the beginning of the meeting. You're more than welcome to come up and speak now. Nobody coming forth. We'll close the public comments. And before during the meeting, just I want to remind everybody the city council will meet on December 2nd, the planning commission on December 9th, and the public safety commission on um December 11th. Well, we won't have a December 16th meeting, right? Okay. Oh, it says dark right next to it. I didn't read far enough over. Sorry, Gerald. But that said, no other business before the city council. Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much turkey, but eat a lot. All right.

Here, you know, always comes to me.