City Council - Regular Meeting

It's going good afternoon everyone. It's a beautiful day in the city of India and I'd like to call the meeting to order. Today is of all days April 1st. So So the meeting's canceled. No. Um, may I have roll call, please? Council member Miller, present. Council member Witron, present. Council member Ortiz, present. Mayor Prom Ferman, present. And Mayor Holmes,

present. Thank you very much. Everybody would please stand for the invocation. Pastor Tony Williams, Love of Christ Community Church. Let us pray. Dear Lord, we just come before you this evening, Lord, just thanking you, Lord, that uh you've given us life, you've given us health, you've given us strength, you've given us a wonderful city governed by great people who steward well. Lord, I ask for your continued wisdom, for your continued presence, for your continued help to guide us in proper ways. Father God, let us let everybody have a seat even though they might might not be here, but there's hearts and minds that are big enough. There's reaches an understanding that's big enough. From the least of those, Lord, who struggle to the best of those who live well, let us all be represented here today. And Lord, we understand that we steward. We own nothing. But you've given us the opportunity to manage. So let us do it with the right heart, with the right spirit, with the right intentions, and absolutely with the right results. Once again, we thank you Lord. Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. And now the flag salute. I'd like to invite Alejandro Gomez Lavarga from Dr. Kerion Academy. Let me read a little bit about you. Alejandro is a fifth grade student at Dr. Kerion Academy who excels both academically and athletically. He participates in math field day, fuel up to play 60, mileage club, and esports club and competes in basketball, soccer, track, and field. My goodness, one busy person. Outside of school, do you drive outside of school? He enjoys spending time with his grandfather, helping cultivate medel dates on their family farm. How wonderful. And caring for their animals. Go ahead.

Right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge of allegiance to the United States. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen.

Thank you. Don't go away. Thank you very much. Okay, let's see what do we have. City attorney report on close session

here. There's no reportable action out of today's close session. Okay, presentations. First one, 5.1 certificate to the Shadow Hills North Golf Course. Please everybody come on up and team India let's go down and uh give them this wonderful praise and accolades.

I represent the ownership but general our general manager and I'd like him to introduce the team that takes care of the north course if if you've got a minute. Yes, absolutely. Put you on the spot. Yeah.

All right. Uh thank you obviously for having us here. U brought a couple members of our team. Uh our superintendent that manages the north course for us. So all the landscaping, everything that that looks like on a daily basis. This is Ariselli Castro. She's actually due today, but she came in just for this, so she's holding it off for a day. Uh Todd Olsen, who is the main man at the front desk. He checks everybody in, gets everybody through their rounds. Um so he kind of runs everything for us on North Chorus from there. And then Amber Pennington, who additionally was our employee of the month this month at Shadow Hills, um is runs our beastro and all the operations for food and beverage over there. So, and then can I introduce Barbara?

Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah. president of our board. Uh this is Barbara Preslock. She's Jame. Um she doesn't want to stand up. Stand up and wave to everybody. Barbara. And then I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one of our prominent uh members over there who really has helped spearhead a lot of this um for us is Geanna Mims, who doesn't want to be mentioned either, so thought I'd throw her in there. But fantastic. So nice. Thank you all for having us. Absolutely. Did you want to say or No, we've got Okay. Oh, well this is awesome. Fantastic. Check this out. Shadow Hills Golf Course, India, California. Nice, nice, nice, nice. Yeah. Is that good? So, cool.

All right. Would you like to say something? No.

Thought my voice was loud enough. This certificate is proudly presented in recognition of outstanding excellence and achievement of being ranked fourth in the nation. I mean that is incredible and cool and awesome at every level this year from over 800 par 800 par three courses in the country. This is fantastic. That's amazing. Congratulations um on this remarkable accomplishment. Congratulations over and over.

All right, we got to do picture.

All right, you guys. Come on, you guys. Got to figure out how do we how we Very very okay. Huh?

Okay, everyone. Thank you. Uh, next item on the agenda, item 5.2, presentation by leadership Coachella Valley. I see the team. Come on up. Well, good afternoon, mayor, council members, staff, and members of the public. My name is Ryland Penta, and I'm honored to be uh first professionally a employee of the city of Palm Desert, but most importantly, in my opinion, a board member for Leadership Coachella Valley alongside Matt Mroy. Uh today we also have Lindsay uh Kinkle who is one of the current program participants who is going to talk about the class project shortly after our presentation. Um this leadership Coachella Valley is turning 25 years old this year and we've now done aformational update to the council and we just wanted to provide some context of what's happened in those 25 years, how we've grown, how we've shaped what we think is a great part of the networking and leadership capacity of our region. And I'd like to think that we punch a little above our weight in uh demonstrating how to grow and build a bigger better Coachella Valley. So, um while we're waiting on the slide, I'll just let you introduce yourself. You probably know Matt already. Yeah. Matt Mroy, a board member and small small business owner, local small business owner. Lindsay Kinkle, class of 2026, leadership Coachella Valley and I'm a local reiter and writer.

Fantastic. Welcome.

Power through the slides. Um, Coachella Valley. Um, I know several of you have participated in it. Some of you have been to our events. It is a, uh, program that brings together about 40 to 45 participants every single year. We uh do sessions across the valley in all nine cities and unincorporated areas. We do different sessions on unique topics which are listed here. Um they include art and culture, sustainability, media, uh education, economic drivers, government and justice, philanthropy, healthcare and wellness, history of the valley and housing and food challenges. And what we try to do is give a breadth of information across the region because we have 45 people that are from all walks of life and all fields professionally. And so it gives a great sense of where they can contribute, how they can help shape and grow this valley together. The way this really helps develop the valley is it builds place leadership uh place-based leadership. uh individuals will get to know how their skill sets can contribute to a larger image, a larger uh impression in the valley. It builds that regional awareness. We have individuals that get out of maybe their local community and go to Mecca, go to uh near Banning and Bulmont. It really shares kind of the uniqueness of our entire community. It creates lasting networks. I know some of my personal and professional friends came from leadership Coachella Valley and now of course as a board member that's even gotten bigger. uh it drives economic development. We do what we call connect and reflect after every session and we'll pick a local business to host that in. And so that helps drive new individuals into these coffee shops, food establishments and bars as well. And it also encourages volunteerism. Lindsay will talk about the current class project, but over the years uh every class has contributed to some uh lasting impression of their group. So

that has helped uh give kind of a better sense to how volunteerism really affects our region. I'll pass it off to Matt.

Yeah, I just want to I'll give you just a quick update on some of the numbers. So over the last 25 years, we've had over 940 participants go through and and graduate the program. 150 plus of those individuals came from local public agencies. uh over 90 of them from the uh the different school districts here in the valley and over 200 individuals from local nonprofits. Some ways that LCV strengthens the community um and here in the city of India is uh just by creating more informed residents, a stronger regional collaboration, increased civic trust and participation and a deeper bench of community leadership. Um, and we just here today to just ask for everybody to continue to stay engaged. And should the the council or or anybody here have anybody that they feel would benefit going through the program, we would love to have you refer them to us, application opens in May for for the next uh next year.

Yeah. We'll turn it over to Lindsay to tell you a little bit about what they're doing with their class project. So, every year the leadership class is tasked with a class project and my class elected to fund raise for ABC Recovery Center, which is what right down the street in India. Uh the recovery center received a grant for about $30 million to build seven new buildings, 44,000 square feet of space, and 120 new residential beds. But the grant only covers the buildings themselves, nothing inside. And so, we're fundraising to help furnish the beds. We're doing a courtyard with trees, um a welcome center, and then a a memorial honor board in the welcome center. So, we are really excited and really passionate about this and we're hosting an event on April 30th and it's at ABC Recovery Center and everyone is welcome to attend. Ticket information is on the ABC Recovery Center website and people who come will be given tours of the new facility. So you get really a handson feel for what they're doing over there and it's amazing work. Recovery centers are not all built alike and they are truly in a league of their own. Um so come out, get a tour. Um we have silent auction, music, refreshments, and it's going to be a really special evening.

And that's April 30th. April 30th from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. And we're it's an ambitious goal. We are trying to raise 30 $37,500. So, how close are you? How much have you raised so far? About 5,000. So, we still have a way to go, but we're confident we can get there. Great. Fantastic. Yes. Any questions, anyone? I'd like Yeah. First off, thank you for coming. A member of the class of 2016, the best class ever. 2008.

It's it's an inside joke. We say that every time. So, I'm glad the other 24 uh classes are right behind us. But thank you for what you do. It's it is an amazing organization and a great work to way to network. Some of my best friends come from leadership Coachella Valley. Uh I we have the distinguished we I was the first uh class speaker to ever give my time away. So, it was Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez and Sean Webb from Reed with me and myself. We all split the time equally because we came with all one vote of each other. So we I just said I it was Linda from uh Palm Desert Area Chamber of Commerce. She says you can't do that. I said I'm the class speaker. I can do whatever I want. So we divided up three ways and we were was talking but it is amazing organization. Thank you what you're doing. I happen to be on the ABC board. So I we we do appreciate what you're doing for it that Chris told me that you guys are working towards that goal and we thank you and the causes that you guys continue to do for this valley even the the alumni is amazing. So thank you for what you do.

Yeah definitely. and and it it spans I mean it's just so I was a little bit 2008 so I know that was a long time ago but huge impact and as you watch everyone as we go through the the and experience the greater Coachella Valley it's eye openening and it's really wonderful and it really gives you sort of a sense of the valley where the needs are um and and how we can be successful in moving forward so thank you it is it is awesome any other no I thought it was here. You go. Excuse me. Uh, my compliments to your achievements and your accomplishments. I remember when it first rolled out and it's obviously developed really well. Has you and your predecessors ever thought of doing a modified version for high school kids in the valley? Like a one-day camp? And the reason I'm saying that is our youth of our community understand certain things as they're developing opportunities or maybe their careers or their education. I think a lot of our high school kids who are very in tune and we have a group here that would benefit from a one-day camp and I think you should look at it um because it would inspire them. our internships and like our youth advisory councils. Uh the school district desert sands also has a body that represents a representative from each one of their high schools. I think that those leadership skills may benefit from getting pieces of what you do to inspire them and getting involved. Something to think about and I think it'll be I think it would be a great opportunity because of what success you've had with the other part of our population.

That's member Ortiz. Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for all the education you're bringing to leaders throughout the Coachella Valley. I think the more that people know about the Coachella Valley and what's going on out there, the more they can help, right, and fill in the gaps where they see the need such as what your class is doing at the ABC Recovery Center. And we're really excited about that as well. You know, it's uh much needed services that are going to be coming to our community out here and that help is is going to be great. So, thank you so much for what you do in educating our leaders and also in helping out uh at the ABC Recovery Center. Thank you so much.

I like to echo all the sentiments especially uh council member you know back when we had a program called campus connection and it was kind of the same thing but what it did it established these networks and some of us are still friends and colleagues now. So, I I would love to see uh leadership uh uh do that. But, um aside from that, I love what you guys are doing. And it also speaks to the fact that being a leader in the community is not just a title. You don't have to be elected. We're all leaders in our own right. So, um those traits and things that you're showing folks in the valley are invaluable. So, thank you.

All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Come back anytime. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. Item number six, youth advisory council. Noid. I Oh, I'm so sorry. 5.3. How can my friends at IID 5.3 presentation by IID on application process for solar customers? Welcome. Hi. Good afternoon.

Lauren Olivo, manager energy business and regulatory compliance for the district. I'm here today to walk you through ID's requirements for customerowned solar generation. So today I'll be going over ID's online application portal, power clerk, as well as the interconnection process and net billing compensation program. I'll touch on some title 24 requirements and some general statistics. In order to promote transparency and improve the customer experience, IID implemented its power clerk portal in 2024, which is an industry standard online interconnection platform. This system allows both customers and contractors to submit applications, track project statuses, and communicate directly within the portal. It ensures visibility throughout the entire process so users always know where their project stands. Power clerk has also helped to streamline application review and documentation management, making the process more efficient for everyone involved. The interconnection process begins with submitting an application through IID's power clerk portal along with all required project documentation to ensure a timely and effect efficient review. This includes a oneline diagram, site plan, bill of materials, and overall system information. For systems over 10 kilowatts, IID requires a rule 21 application. Providing complete and accurate documentation upfront is critical as it helps prevent delays and allows IID to properly evaluate system design, safety, and compliance. During the review process, IID verifies customer information, system size, and design details, which are typically based on customers 12 month past consumption. IID also conducts a site inspection to confirm equipment placement, safety,

clearances, and identify any problems out in the fields. For larger systems over 10KW, IID performs system impacts to verify no mitigations are required to the ID grid. If upgrades to the main service panel or panel rates are required, the customer must schedule a temporary disconnect with IID. Once the project passes final inspection, an IID receives the authority having jurisdiction release typically from the city or county uh along with the meter payment. IID schedules its meter exchange. At that point, IID installs a birectional meter and issues permission to operate in which the customer is authorized to turn on their system. IID originally operated under the net energy metering or NEM program in compliance with CUP code 2827 which required utilities to offer NEM until a statutory cap was reached. IID met that obligation in 2016. At that point, IID transitioned to a successor program known as net billing to continue supporting customer generation while addressing cost impacts to the broader customer base. Under net billing, compensation is based on avoided costs specifically tied to the cost of utility scale solar procured by IID. At the time of the transition, the compensation rate was based on IID's lowest cost of solar procurement. Since then, the cost of utility scale solar has continued to decline due to improving technologies and federal incentives, which further supports maintaining a costbased compensation structure. It is also important to note that higher compensation rates can create cost shifts where customers without solar effectively subsidize those with behind the meter generation. example of how net billing works. Let's say the customer consumes a thousand

kilowatts a generation and generates 500,000 and sends it back to the IAT grid. The customer is built for that thousand um thousand kilowatts consumed and credited the 500 kilowatts at the compensation rate of 6.98. Each system size is based on the customer's past 12-month consumption usage. So, California title building requirements require solar installation of new construction buildings. This includes single family homes, multif family buildings, under three stories, hotels, and commercial buildings. Solar systems must be sized to offset projected energy usage. Battery storage is optional, but allows for a reduction in required solar size. Here's just a breakdown of valleys. So Imperial Valley we have about 61 megawatts of interconnected generation. All in Coachella Valley area we have 111 megawatts with approximately 8,970 solar systems interconnected to the IID grid. And prior um before I open it up to any questions I would like to thank the city of India's uh staff. Your inspection staff works very well with IID staff. uh they go above and beyond to help our mutual customers and if you can please thank Mr. Rubin and his staff for me that'd be great. Okay, thank you very much.

Happy to answer questions there. All right, any comments or questions? Thank you. Go right ahead.

So, thank you for your uh presentation. Um I actually requested that she come. we had her present for the Coachella Valley Power Agency and uh reason being is there's a lot of misconceptions and uh misinformation that's out there about solar in respects to IID and the interconnection and uh I I wanted the public to understand the process of uh solar with ID especially in our valley and uh one of the questions I had it was answered the last meeting but I'd like you to answer it for the community is um what what are some of the challenges you see in the application process that are which usually delays the connection with solar

of course so what we see typically is solar installers not checking with ID's compliance or regulations and having to go back and change plans with the cities or the authorities having jurisdiction installing systems without utility approval is a big one because if you oversize your system and we decline your system size based on your consumption then you have to go back and actually remove those panels. So, and it could just be administrative errors down to inputting an email incorrectly. So, we see a vast majority of issues across the board. A big one is also um contractors just install and disappear. That one is a big one that we see as well. Wow.

Yeah. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Any other questions? Very very informative. Go ahead. Thank you for the presentation. Uh you just mentioned, you know, sometimes they install systems that are too large. Yes. Why is that an issue for IID?

Because we allow you to to install up to 100% of your 12 month pass consumption. We don't allow you to oversize. Now, if you have future plans, let's say you are going to purchase an electric vehicle and you have um you know it on hold, we can go ahead and take those into account. Uh but in order to not subsidize other pay uh nonsolar rate payers, we don't allow you to go more than your 100% of consumption. Gotcha. The other question I had was for the solar required on new buildings, what percentage is needed as the requirement? It's supposed to be 100% of the the square footage. 100% of the square footage.

It's a calculation we have. We my staff has it down. It's a calculation based so we can get that over to you but based on the square footage um it tells you how big the system size is required. Okay. And that's a state set number. Okay. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Yes. Great information. Thank you very very much. Appreciate it. Now the youth advisory council. Yes. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening Mayor Holmes and council members. My name is Hain Ruiz and I'll be grateful to report on the Youth Advisory Council's involvement since our last city council meeting. Last weekend, six of our members attended Riverside County's Friday night live active youth conference at Camp Pali in Running, excuse me, in Running Springs. The 3-day conference was an amazing opportunity for them to meet other students and connect as a team. They attended some interesting sessions about the dangers of smoking to teenagers as well as how to be better leaders for our community. In addition, the group created a PSA on the dangers of unhealthy relationships that we will be sharing at the end of my report. While some of us were at camp, the rest of Yak completed our monthly Avenue 46 street cleanup. During the cleanup, we noticed that dog waste continues to be present in the area. Um, we appreciate the ongoing maintenance efforts by the city and are glad to support with our monthly cleanups. We would like to install trash recepticles with dog waste bags as a possible option. We believe this would help support residents in maintaining this space. Any further guidance or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. To continue, we would like to extend an invitation to the council and the India community to our annual mental health hike on Saturday, May 2nd at the Badlands Hiking Trail. Our walk will begin at 7:00 a.m. This is one of Yak's favorite annual events as it gives us the opportunity to raise awareness and promote positive mental health practices as we um the youth of the community enter a particularly stressful session of exams. That completes my report and next up is our PSA video.

Got it. There it is. at the India Youth Advisory Council and our video is about creating and ensuring you have a healthy relationship. I wanted more. Did you use your French? Hell yeah, I did. Who are you texting? Who is that? I don't know them. Who is that? I can't believe she'll go on the zipline without me. Nico, have you talked to Himea? No. I'm kind of worried about her friendship with Enrique. Enrique.

Hey, man. You want to take a picture? Oh, yeah. Sure. Excuse me. Wait, your turn. Jesus. He has just been so mean to Himea lately. And I don't know why. And I don't know why he's being so controlling, too. It's just weird. Have you noticed that Himea isn't paying attention to me lately? Right. Have you noticed? Have you noticed that Himea is always hanging out with Isabella? I think he's being super toxic towards Himea. I don't think they should continue their friendship.

Come with us. We want to talk to you about Ha. We can't be friends no more. Never be afraid to end a relationship that isn't healthy for you.

Very good. Yeah. It's cool.

Ah, shucks. Doesn't work anymore. Okay. Thank you so so much. Um, let's see. City manager reports and information. Thank you, mayor. I thought just in advance of the uh festivals coming up and the more than doubling the size of the city for three weekends in a row just to thank the community for their patience and acknowledging the great work that's done by our first responders and so many other staff members that are involved in making sure that those festivals come off in in a in a beautiful way and that India's uh represented well. So again, just thank you for the patience as we welcome a few hundred thousand people into India over the next month. But that's my report. Mayor, thank you.

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Yes, festival season is here. Let the fun begin. All right. Uh let's see. City city council conflict of interest disclosure. Um I have a conflict of interest on item 10.8. So I will recuse myself or at least not vote. Is are there any other conflict of interest? No. Okay. Just me. Um, next item number nine, city council report on meetings attended per government code section 532323D. Uh, council member Glenn Miller.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The only uh committee that I had was active was Sunline Transit Agency. The highlights of that meeting basically were uh the three-year audit. We do an audit for three years worth of routes and uh overall view of how the bus line works. and that was conducted and passed making sure that met all the requirements for the state of California and the federal government for the funding that we get from them. And then also we updated all our policies once a year we go back and because of new rules or new uh legislation the the policies need to be updated. So we updated all our policies. So that was it for Sunline Transit Agency. A couple events went to is the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission did their 55 year uh uh anniversary and it was a gala. Mayor Pro Tim uh Wayman Ferman is on the board. They did a great job. A lot of the council was with at the organization uh to be able to celebrate with them and and if you haven't been to the rescue mission, they're a great partner with our police department in our city to help get people off the streets, but at the same time actually working with these individuals to get their lives back together. and they have a graduation of over 70some individuals that graduated from their uh academy I guess what I want to call it but it's really a life class that they actually got themselves off the streets got themselves into stable housing stable jobs and was able to uh turn their lives around so that's the great work of the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and everybody that's on their board and their staff so my congratulations to them and Darla Bquette they honored her the past executive director for all her work that she's done uh also O want to uh congratulate Raquel Harris who is the senior inspiration award winner. She did a great job. Once a year the uh county of Riverside in the fourth district vmanuel press gathers all the cities in the county together and they honor one individual senior citizen from each city and two from the county and ours was uh Raquel and she did a great job of

helping at our senior center and all the things she did. It's amazing that a lot of these individuals that are retired come back and continue to give back to the community. And then lastly, I was at the Read with Me. Uh they have their new office. If you don't know about Read with Me, it's a organization that gathers individuals that want to volunteer and they read books to elementary school students. Uh different books through throughout the Coachella Valley. There's over 550 volunteers and they read to every school in the Coachella Valley almost except for a couple here and there that aren't able to be able to get to uh basically easily but they go from the Sultan Sea all the way to Desert Hot Springs and for every elementary school and every class they read to the individual kids there and give them opportunities to do book that's uh books and that's Sean Webb uh who I talked about earlier was leadership Coachella Valley uh and his whole team are doing an amazing job and Then lastly, I'd like to if we could talk about uh a couple things. First off, uh I I'm not excited. I don't know about all of you about the lights from CAG, the actual sink. Uh we're having a lot of issues uh with individuals that are running red lights because they're not being able to time them because the lights are being too long in certain areas. And I know uh CAG is working on this to be able to um time it so that some of the larger streets, Jefferson, Fred Wearing, Highway 111, the people continue to go and they've got a a green light for like 5 minutes. The problem is that every street that turns into it then is backed up for 5 minutes. And I've never seen traffic coming into either the city and I drive this whole valley like on Fred Wearing and Jefferson where it's 20 cars deep and they all get through mostly on on the light, but people sit there and wait and wait and they eventually just run the light and it's getting worse and worse. I think it's something that we need to look at to make sure. We've had quite a few accidents lately, especially on Jefferson and 111, couple on 48th and India Boulevard where people are running

lights because they're in a hurry. We need to slow down and we need to also look at these lights because I really do believe that people are frustrated. We turned this over because CAG wanted to have control over lights of the whole valley. They got a grant from the federal government and state government and I don't think they were people don't take a grant that they don't want. But I think we we jumped in this head first. I think we need to look at how we time these lights. What's in the best interest of our residents and and our our city. I'm not saying we get out of it, but they have cameras everywhere. And I I just don't believe that people are are are happy with the way that's setting up. And I think that we're going to continue to have people run lights and people are going to get hurt unless we do something about it. So, I'd like to see if Tim can work with CAG to see what their ideas and thoughts are and making sure that our lights work for what's in the best interest of our our individuals uh for our residents. And then secondly, on the second part of that, I think that we need to go ahead in time to look at what we have going on with our public safety. Our motor patrol officers are at the schools, but they're not able to look at these red lights and where people are running them to be able to get there. So, we're watching the schools, which is very, very important, don't get me wrong, but by the time they get that, they're only out in the streets for a couple hours, two or three hours to be able to actually slow people down and start writing tickets to people that are running lights because one life is one life too many that we lose. So, that's my two things I'd like to look at. And so I know when the budget comes around, we need to look at maybe some more motorcycle cops or we need to think about having a highway patrolman who are very uh good at looking at uh traffic incidents and thing and let them loose on Jefferson Highway 111 India Boulevard and have them patrol it for us and then write tickets to what it is. I'm not big on writing tickets, but people need to slow down so people don't get hurt.

Yeah, there needs to be some mechanism. Any other comments? Um especially on CV. Okay. Well, I I I know I I I totally agree and I think we could look at that. We do some surveys around the valley to see what what intersections um are are troubling. Um I know we have some major ones that we really need to look at. And I I also support the targeted enforcement. Um if someone's going to get a ticket, I'd rather have someone get a ticket than lose a life. Um and also uh thank you to Chief for some of the uh traffic enforcement that we're seeing out there. And um one thing I I get questions from the public uh why do we uh announce it when we're going to do traffic enforcement or we're going to uh have some stops. Um we rather folks not get an accident or rather not drive impaired than actually write someone a ticket or arrest someone for driving impaired. And that's the goal behind uh putting it out there. So um part of it is educational and um you know behind that education uh we will do some enforcement and sometimes the enforcement is is what gets people's attention. So um I support that as well.

That's a member

and I agree with both council members and I think the thing is that again I'm not going to speak for the chief but I know the chief is trying to build that team. You have to realize at one time our team was seven people and because of certain changes the growth that we had 17 years ago we had but things changed. We're back at 100,000 plus. The city's growing a lot of things have developed since co people aren't as patient anymore. Speed's a factor. Moving violations is a factor. And I I agree with what council member pro Tim Weman Ferman said is that there's just a point in time that we need to beef up our team. The only way to do that is to look at our budget and allow the chief to expand that team because that team will not be just be doing enforcement. It will be dedicated staff to dealing with traffic issues by bringing another agency to assist us in the interimm time because it takes 22 23 months before you have a full-fledged peace officer working the streets between you do that. But if they're able to increase that team, it helps us because we're currently maintaining the day-to-day services. This is a team that deals with just with traffic. So, that's one. The education, we've been doing a great job. Um, but there's just a point in time, it's kind of like the old saying, stop slamming the door eventually here on timeout because they're not listening. And if we can save one life, we've done our best. So,

thank you very much. I have so many challenges with CVYNC. I think since that was implemented, the concept is wonderful, but it's just not functioning quite the way I think we need it in in our city. And I think we might those of us on Cabag transportation Oh, gee, that's me. Need to um need to to to be more vocal about that, which I will definitely do. Do do we want to invite Seabag to do some kind of presentation or something or

We can I I've talked to them directly. I've been to their their their hub where they moved all the cameras. They took them out of where they were in Palm Desert and moved them to the corporate yard in Thousand Ponds. That's Ranch of Mirage's corporate yard. And you go in there, I mean, they can they can read your what you're reading on your phone. I mean, that's how good these cameras are. But I just don't think they have the wherewithal. They're worried about bringing people down the main lanes. We can tell them what we want, but I really think we need to have it in in writing what it is because when I talked to them, they changed a couple of the ones that people were complaining about and then it goes right back to what it is. Cuz they don't tell us when they're going to change times. They don't tell us if it's three minutes, five minutes. It's whoever complains about it, they they work work. So if like India Wells complain about the tennis garden or something, they will speed that area up, but it affects all the rest of us. So I think we could bring them in, but I think we're just going to get the same song and dance that we got before.

Well, maybe there we could ask for, you know, some kind of city approval if they're changing any lights that affect our residents. Yeah, I just see it as I I think we're idle and I think we're staying there longer. I do agree that if you hit the lights perfectly and you're going from point A to point B and you hit them right, if it does it, you're going to go, but anybody that's turning into them, you're you're waiting next to. So all those cars on every street, there might be one main street, but you got 40 different streets turning into it that are all backed up waiting unless they're turning right, you know, to be able to jump on the road. If they're going to go left down and turn on the other way, you're just sitting there. So it doesn't make much sense. those changes that you're talking about is this, you know, you change it once for the next couple or is it real time changing like on the hourly basis?

It it it changes at night. They tell me that and it varies depending on them that it automatically goes back to sensors after a certain time, but during the day it's all on time. So you'll look down like I'll get ready to turn into Dumbar where I live at at Heritage Palms and you'll look all the way down to Fred Wearing and there isn't a car coming and your lights just red and you're sitting there. Then all of a sudden 20 cars go by and then the next thing you know you're still sitting there and then you look down in there and then all of a sudden out of the blue it turns. So what's people are doing and is they're just sitting there. They're waiting. They're looking both ways which I don't know if it's legal or not. Nobody's coming. They just turn left and what's going to happen is somebody's not going to make it and we're going to lose somebody's life because they're just not doing it right. I understand the philosophy behind it, but every city in the valley is not the same and we can't be treated all the same. It's just like our our needs are different. So, I think we need to do we can do it, but I'd like to have Tim uh work with them to see how it is and how it correlates with us and then we need to modify it so it's in our best interest.

Well, I think the other thing that we need to also look at is it's the cities. We're literally in downtown and interstate 10 and our city depends on the north and the south. So the volume of traffic during the day during our um the analytics are there with their system. So we could ask for as councilman Gutron says if we could say Fred Warren and Jefferson what are the what is the timing what time of day how many cars came through they do have those analytics. Good then that's what we need to do. Okay. Thank you. Uh and Council Member Gutron, you're up.

Um well, I had the opportunity on Friday, March 20th, uh with you, Mayor, and also uh Council Member Miller to attend the U. Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce event at Micario's. The event was unique because they had all their our state and federal representatives there talking about what they did and accomplished in 2025. And so that was the purpose of the round table. It was interesting the dynamics. It was a well attended event and it looks like Mariel's is doing really well at the same time. So that was really good. I appreciate their efforts. The other one I had the opportunity uh currently seating as the president for the Coachella Valley mosquito and vector control. I attended the AMCA, which is the American uh mosquito control association and is a national meeting that was held in Portland. I walked away being extremely proud that our district that serves the entire valley, it's under the Department of Health that we're up in the top 10. It is really interesting to know and you don't really realize it that how the health and welfare of our communities are regarding that little mosquito. It is just amazing. Um it's I know that Councilman Raymond Ferman got a real interest because he's been promoting it on social media about the water and so forth. Uh Glenn was able to help him with some funding opportunities. I I think it um our taxpayers in our city pay a whole lot of agencies. They pay for our needs. They pay for all those other districts, special districts, sanitation, desert wreck, and vector control, but their dollars being well spent. I think they all have a purpose, but I think it's important for the public to know that we have a place there representing this city and to know that their dollars, their tax dollars are being for the

well-being of the health and safety of their friends and family. Um, the other one is, um, I had the opportunity to listen to people. The city manager covered it well regarding the upcoming festivals and I just want to make sure that the publics that are directly impacted from the festival area. You know, we could probably go a mile radius of it's not just the traffic, but it's everything else. A lot of afterparties in our city. Um, they I just want to remind the community and I know that Jim Curtis, our marketing team, the chief of police, the fire, the staff, the information is there. It's important that to remind every single one, you're also entitled to your quality of life because you're not participating in the concerts. We still need to remember that we have been paused. The ballots still remain in the custody of the sheriff's department and we hope the California Supreme Court will mandate that these be returned to those who are legally allowed to handle them at the county registars's office soon. Aside from that, I attended a youth boxing tournament at the Diaz training camp. They had 19 fights including fighters from the Coachella Valley and all around Southern California. I want to congratulate all those who participated for their great performance and thank you to the DS team for hosting this event for our youth and their families. Uh I also attended a ribbon cutting for 760 Barberhop which is next to Cardonas Market off of 111. Uh we congratulated the new young business owners there, a local husband and wife, Abraham and Ital. Uh go check them out if you're looking for a haircut. That's all I have. Thank you, Mayor.

Excellent. Thank you, Mayor Prom.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. Um this past week I had the opportunity to uh attend the Valley Rescue Mission 55th annual uh gala at Awaken Casino. Um it was a great event uh that was put on by the the mission. Um and I I want folks to understand some of the efforts that go on behind this fundraiser. uh from shelter uh meals to recovery support uh job readiness, education and wraparound services that the mission continues and those are critical services in our valley. And so thank you to the staff, volunteers, board members and our executive director uh Amanda Galindo and everyone who gives their time, donations, and support to the rescue mission who make this possible. I also attended the CVN event that was held downtown at the Coachella Valley History Museum. Uh CV CAN was a weekly event in the valley around cannabis policy uh wellness and community awareness. Um during this event I um participated in a short podcast interview where I shared my personal evolution in respects to cannabis and the importance of uh responsible regulation and how we worked as a city to create policy here in India. Um, it was an honest, meaningful conversation and I believe our city took a thoughtful and balanced approach in how we chose to regulate cannabis here locally in our city. So, I commend our council and our staff for working on that. Also, I um had a visit greater Palm Springs meeting. Uh during the duration of that meeting, we received a uh update from destination stewardship plan, which is a long-term roadmap for tourism and how we can continue to benefit our communities while protecting the quality of life of residents. And the conversation was focused on making tourism works not only for the visitors, but for the residents as well. So, it was a great conversation and it's

still a great uh effort that's ongoing. And during the meeting, the board also participated in the survey and discussed uh items and key priorities around the matter of our communities, including uh workforce development, workforce housing, uh more indoor recreation and activities, uh familyfriendly amenities, transportation improvements, light rail, uh livable wage paying jobs, and creating more opportunities for upward upward mobility and employment. And those are for the folks who are supporting our tourism. And so that was a a great uh presentation and survey from the visit greater Palm Springs. And also during the visit greater Palm Springs, I spoke on connecting the Control Valley Re Rescue Mission with Visa Greater Palm Springs to start to create some more pathways for our folks who are in recovery or who are fixing themselves or who are graduating out of programs to create those pathways in hospitality and tourism and in our valley as well. they have really great mentorship uh and uh education and just connections throughout our valley in respects to u hospitality and tourism. So I was able to make that connection with the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission with folks in our community and those are some of the things that um go on behind the scenes um when we're working with unshelter folks. Sometimes we see people in the community and we think uh they will take care of it. they they will take care of it. And in reality, they is us, they is the community, they is this DAS, they is uh Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, and they is visit Greater Palm Springs. And I also want to commend Visit Greater Palm Springs for supporting these efforts. um they've been very um instrumental in supporting affordable housing um uh energy in our in our community because all of these things come together to support our

tourism and tourism is important in our community. Um the more tourism that we have and that revenue we could generate, it takes taxes and dollars um you know and puts them back in our residents pockets. And so um it's a fine balance with with our tourism. However, um it's very important. I also attended the senior inspiration awards. Um our NDL recipient was senior center class instructor Raquel Harris. Um this moment was very meaningful. She's a great person and I know this because I've known her since I was a kid. Um I I seen her name and I didn't recognize her till I got there. and to see her all these years later um you know still doing the community work um and being recognized by our city um it was uh amazing you know she was a dear friend of my mother and so it was great to see her again however she's still serving our community so it was great to see her get recognized on the stage by the county so hats off and thank you Raquel Harris and uh where else did I go oh and I also had a fair board uh meeting so fairboard is really part of council, but I'm also on the advisory board for the uh fairgrounds and and I wanted to bring that back this report because um we discussed a lot of things at the day festival and a lot of folks, you know, have a lot of questions about the fair and day festival and preserving the traditions and history and how we're going to move forward. And so um there's a lot of discussion behind getting our youth more involved. Um, I brought the idea of having some youth ambassadors, even maybe possibly working with our yak and uh other youth uh around the county, but we still have other traditions. The things that we had this year like the rodeo, the monster truck, monster truck shows, the animal auctions, uh the luring luring of the American flag. Um we also honored um a longtime fair board member Nick Negoian with the memorial

plaque. But, uh, one of the things that, um, hurt us this year was a lot of information and misinformation that went out about ice that was going to be there. Um, that hurt us and and and attendance and wrership with the rides. And so, um, there's, you know, needs to be more education about how the the Riverside County Fair National Day Festival is here for everyone. Um, there's no ICE enforcement at these events. Um, our police and our sheriff's department support the events along with private security. uh there was no ICE reported at this event. So, it's real important that when we're talking about things like that and uh in our community, we really get the information right because it does affect uh some of our uh programming in the city. However, we're looking forward to next year uh still moving upward trajectory with the fairgrounds and and we're committed to uh building that tradition and keeping the legacy alive at the the fair. And so, that concludes my report. Mayor,

okay, it's okay. Go ahead, Council Member Gutron. Excuse me, Mayor Mayor. Um, I want to make sure we don't ignore our youth advisory council, but they did ask about the poop cans for the dog poop at the parks. Um, they've identified a problem and they were looking for direction. I believe they have a solution, but since they have a project they want to take on just like they did the vapes, now they want to take care of our parks from people having their pets go to the bathroom,

right? I thought we had talked about um the great job the city was doing um keeping them clean. I mean, do we need to look at having, you know, those particular specific cans for for animal waste that we see elsewhere? Yeah. Which parks was it that you guys noticed? Avenue 46. Yeah, it was down Avenue 46, which is the Yaks um street that we adopted. Um we had um Yak ourselves. We can purchase these um the dog waist bags as well as the receptacles um and we can place them as well in coordination with the facilities along the street. Okay. Yeah. All right. Is that

So is there something else that maybe we could do like maybe ask the city manager have the social media team? Maybe you guys could do some social media outreach to remind families and guests that are using the public parks to you could use them but pick up after yourselves and kind of that kind of message. Yeah. Yeah, that's something we could definitely look into. I would leave that up to the consensus of the council but I mean I'm just sorry I think we needed to get back to you. Yeah, I well I think it would be fun to do it for you guys to do a public information thing. I think we can get together with a city manager and determine where they how many and where they can be replaced where they can be placed appropriately. How's that?

Or or loop it into whatever maintenance we currently have. Right. Make sure make sure that those are being picked up as well. You said you have the funds already for the trash cans. Yes, correct. Awesome. Get back to us with the report to see how you did. All right. All right. All right.

Good stuff. All right. Thank you. Okay, you know, we all attend many of the same things. We all sort of support this community in a big way. Yes, I was at the rescue mission gayla, but I was also at the graduation. And that is just so meaningful to see people that that that really had, you know, down on their luck, real challenges with life come into the rescue mission and and through really a tremendous team of people work toward lifting themselves up uh to the point of graduation and being able to get back out into society and to and to work and to to communicate and to create relationships for a successful future. That graduation is is really a phenomenal thing. It's twice a year, a spring and and a um winter graduation. And it's very very meaningful um to listen to the stories of some of these people and how far they've come in in terms of um making a better life for themselves and very often their families. I was also invited to attend the Alzheimer's uh event that was gosh that was packed. There were probably at least 400 people there. Um, mental health comes in many forms as I as I realized through this Alzheimer's event and how just how big it is here in the valley. Um, just huge numbers of of people with Alzheimer's of all ages and what they're trying to do to um, educate. Uh, had fun at AC Houston Lumber. AC Houston Lumber has been around for years and years and years. And there was a general manager by the name of Michael Claybornne who has been there for 41 years. spent his entire life in India. Proud to say I'm an India Raja. Born and raised in in India. Worked here all my life. Love what you're doing in India. Loved growing up here. It was a wonderful small community and um and and now so wonderful to see it grow. So that was really a fun little event and conversation and they um for his retirement, you know, the entire AC Houston team uh really, you know, gave

him lunch and and and celebrated the 41 years he was with him. A couple of ribbon cutings, Gracie Bora Jiu-Jitsu up in North India that was very well attended. Family again, husband and wife involved. This is their second one. And um and they said, you know, no one and they'd order opened them up in Hawaii and in other parts of the country and never had any city ever approached them to uh to do a ribbon cutting or talk to them about how they could help them market their business. Kudos to our staff for doing such a great job um with these ribbon cutings, with helping our small business community, with engaging them and embracing them. They couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was to be in India, how wonderful the people were and um and and what a great opportunity it was for them. So, thank you again. 760 Barberhop, again, another husband and wife. Uh it was just nice pool table. Those of you want to get your haircut and while you're waiting, play some pool. Uh but it was super super nice. They work day and night for a month to completely renovate um an old uh building, an old storefront. So it it's super nice and that whole area there is really starting to look nice. It's by um the restaurant that we had Guadero there on uh in Saves right next door or two doors down because I know he came over as well. So little by little that that plaza is really lifting up. Um nail salon that just came in recently. So that's really wonderful. uh also attended SE senior inspiration awards. It's just amazing how people that that have given their life that that have worked so hard and whatnot and want to just continue to giving back helping out their fellow people whether it's through with kids or kids in high school or or seniors or whatever. As you've heard, Raquel Harris was was ours. But I tell you what, um hats off to every single volunteer in our community for having that desire to help others. And um and I

just we wanted to mention and I will close in the honor of someone named Marcos Lopez. For those of you that have been a while here a while, Marcos Lopez um was a council member and a uh and a mayor. I know that when I first came to town in 2004, he was the first one to greet me uh at my business and say, "Hey, welcome. You know, this is how India works. This is what you know on and on and on." It was really a wonderful interaction. Um and just a little bit of background. Thank you, Council Member Gutron, for providing this. Um, he really was a a local barber and and uh you know what, when you you have that small business bug, you just don't stop. It's just something that happens. So, he opened up Taco uh Taco Mark, Mexican food restaurants. There are three locations in India. And um and then everybody probably knows him as the owner of La Piñata that was open for years and years and years. Um, now he's credited for organizing and contributed the world's largest tamalei in 1991 in the Guinness Book of World Records. We've we've always had fun with that. Um, here right here at the Indo International Tamalei Festival. So, he was 90 years old. Um, we will be made aware of the services and and uh just wanted to acknowledge the tremendous effort that he put here in the city of India. And that ends my comments. Let's go on to the consent calendar. As I said, I have to recuse myself on item 10.8. Does anybody wish to pull anything or do I hear a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent calendar 10.1 through 10.9 with the recusal for 10.8 for Mayor Holmes. And I'll second that. Okay, let's vote. Yeah. Is it? You got it. Is it coming up? Oh, yeah. We got it. Everybody voted. We're good. Yes. Fantastic. All right. Thank you very much. All right. On to item eight. Um item 11. Well, is you recuse yourself from the 10.8. So, don't pardon.

Don't we have to vote on 10.8 now? Oh, you have to vote on it separately. You know what? I always uh you know what? want to rock and roll with it. Go right ahead. You handle it. So, I'll entertain a motion item 10.8. I'll motion approve. Uh, mayor, uh, we can vote on the whole consent calendar. Just note your recusal. Yeah. Yeah. We we don't need a second. Uh, we don't have to vote on that. No. Okay. Thank you, though. Far too complicated. Okay. Why you make the big bucks. Thank you. That's right.

Okay. Um, item number 11, public hearings 11.1. Uh resolution number is 10556 and 10557. Um consideration of planning commission recommendations to approve tenative trackm number 34120 for the subdivision of approximately 7.61 61 acres into 50 residential lots and planning review discretionary for the Australia Estates's development and architectural design of 50 detached single family residential homes in the suburban neighborhood high general plan designation and suburban neighborhood 8 zoning district located east of Jackson and north of Avenue 50. Um, so this is a public hearing, but first I'd like to ask uh Brian Halverson for his

Thank you very much, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, members of the council. It's my pleasure to uh present the Australia Estates Housing Development. We'll try to get the slide to move here. Okay. So, just real quickly, even though that description was pretty lengthy, I'll just kind of go over a few things for the project summary. Obviously, we have a map before you this evening, a subdivision map, as well as planning review discretionary of the actual homes that the developer is wanting to to build. The applicant is here tonight, so we thank you for that. That's Yang Hu and and his um his partner there with Pearl City Engineering. Um I'll bring up a map in a second, so we're all familiar with the location. They're off of uh near Jackson and 50. This is a 7.61 acre property. Of course, you know the proposal, which is uh 50 single family homes. You already repeated the zoning, so we'll move on to the next slide. So, in yellow, that's the proposed, it's a vacant site over 7 acres. You can see this borders real closely to the city of um Coachella. Um but you can see LG Market there off of Jackson. I actually always go out to the field and look at these sites before I present. Um so you can as you're there you can see across the street uh there's a um nursery there. Uh there's single family residences uh just to the west and then of course of course the Dina community is under construction right now. They're making um some good progress with that. Uh this is what you saw today. If you were to go out to the site it's vacant um and not much going on but maybe some homes soon. So we're excited about that. Oops, let me go back. So, this is the tenative track map. Obviously, u you have it in your packet. They're proposing uh 50 lots. Just a

couple quick stats about that map. Um the average lot size is ranging anywhere from 400 to 6,896 ft. The minimum lot size is 400. So, they meet that. These are these are smaller lots approximately 40 feet in width and 80 feet long. Um and that map will eventually if things go well tonight we'll come back to you uh for the final map. This is just a project site plan. So what this shows is the homes overlaid on those proposed lots in the subdivision map. So you can see uh those homes that are going to be laid out the 50 homes which includes uh a small area for a private park within the the community as well as an infiltration uh basin that you'll see a little bit easier on the next slide. So this shows some conceptual landscaping along the community and also shows um a conceptual rendering of the house that'll show a little more of the how the houses will actually look. Now, those houses will all be mostly four-bedroom homes. Um, and just a couple stats on those homes. They're all two stories. Um, the average uh size is about 2,300 square ft. It's my understanding there's one three-bedroom, but most of these are four bedroomedroom homes. Um, there's some park amenities that will be included on one of the lots. Uh, playground equipment, walking paths, shade, um, seating areas, and trees. These are the proposed elevations that are being reviewed by the council tonight through the design review, discretionary review. Um, you can see a rendering off to the left there. These homes, there's five different models. So, that'll be good for the future people who want to buy these homes. There's a variety of detail the homes, window sizes, direct uh decorative doors. Um, there's uh stone veneer on

some of the models as well. So, it's a good collection of five home types. So, uh staff's review is um it is compliant with general plan, the unified development code. It also complies with our subdivision regulations as well as the subdivision map. There is one qu u additional uh condition of approval I'd like to add tonight. Um if the council agrees, uh the landscaping along the streets is very very important. And even though they did show a rendering of some landscaping along Avenue 50, I think it's appropriate to add some additional trees, shade trees, and larger trees that face um Avenue 50. Um if I was to go back and show you, um you see like a little strip there, but there's not a lot of detail about how that landscaping will look. So staff is requesting uh additional shade trees, larger shade trees along Avenue 50. So when you drive down Avenue 50, you'll see a nice presentation along our street. So other than that, um the environmental review, we did a program EIR um for our general plan. And so this this uh review is already um considered as part of that environmental review, the program EIR. And tonight um we're asking the planning commission is asking if you will um to approve resolution 10556 for the ten of trackmap which is uh track map 34120 and then of course uh another resolution for the planning discretionary review for the Estrella estates residential development. And that does conclude my presentation. I'm available for any questions if the council has this evening.

Before I open the public hearing, does anyone have any questions of staff? I'll wait until after the public hearing. You want to do that? All right. I'd like to public hearing is open. Is anyone like to speak on this item? Okay. I see Yep. Mike Wales 51165

is I would really request that the city make better attention to what you approve and consider on the developers to make sure they actually deliver what's in the PMP. And this is more a reflection of what's happened at the Trilogy Polo Club where there was a lot of things in the PMP that was required to make it a better lifestyle in the future for residents that have never been followed through by the city staff wall height mitigation for sound. And so with the what you're looking at this proposal specifically to your landscape is I would suggest you need to be better attentive to the details. So, if you're going to pay all attention up front now, make sure that's what the final delivered product is and hold the developer to that standard. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. All right. There being no further comments, I'll close the public hearing. Would the developer like to speak? No. Okay. All right. What is the pleasure of the council? One question that I wanted to ask is, you know, right now with the housing issues that we're seeing in the community, I've been trying to think of ways that we can ensure that new housing is going to families, right? And this is still pretty close to the festival. So, I still want to make sure that people can make money off of the festivals and rent their homes out and make some extra money. But I also um you know the year-long rentals I think are not a priority for me at the moment because of the need for housing in our community. So I wanted to see if uh you know and see what the consider if uh the owners would also consider this if we could put some kind of restriction where we don't allow full-time year-long short-term rentals, right? But we could still allow, let's say, 30 days a year for short-term rental so that those families that are living there can still make money off the festivals. We still have, you know, the uh lodging space during the festivals for people to go there, but we're still focusing on full-time residents and families as we're building housing. You know, my concern is that sometimes we're building all these homes, but if they're being bought by, you know, large companies and just rented out, we're missing out on that local revenue and we're missing out on the housing for our families. So, I wanted to see if uh the council would consider that and if the developers would consider that as well.

Comments. Here we go. Just I mean, can you just go back and and clarify what the consideration is? uh if we could put some kind of restriction on the short-term rental days for this development. So, let's say you'd be allowed 30 days throughout the year to rent the home out, but you know, other than that, it it wouldn't be, you know, 365 days rentals. I understand. It would be limited to 30 days a year so that we ensure that these homes are going to families. Wouldn't that be in our CCNRs? I was going to say, yeah. Well,

uh, so I I had a couple thoughts on the enforcement side of that. Um, you know, in terms of a condition, uh, we could put a condition of approval on both resolutions. Uh, that requires, uh, no more than 30 days in any calendar year, uh, you can operate as a short-term rental. Uh my recommendation would be to include in the subdivision resolution uh a condition that every residential parcel have a restrictive covenant in a form approved by me and the community development director that has that restriction on the property and it is included in the CCNRs so that it can be enforced by the HOA. A lot of HOAs within the community have similar restrictions or they don't allow short-term rentals at all. And so having that in the CCNRs as the primary enforcement mechanism and then the restrictive covenant back to the city for the backup would be how I would recommend enforcing that if the council wanted to go in that direction. I I just my my concern is I I don't want to get into one of these situations where we have now where HOA says something and we say something else and we have residents that live there um don't agree. So I mean who who is going to enforce this? Is it or what's the bottom line? Is the bottom line the HOA or is it going to be the city?

Both parties. So, so I generally write these and I've been working with our planning staff to make sure that uh our city regulations are in line with the HOA regulations and that both parties have the ability to enforce because I think that that is where we we ensure consistency but we also ensure that our resources are being used wisely. So that we can we can set it up that way if that's the council's direction where uh it would be both a requirement of the CCNRs but also a city requirement imposed on the property and both parties would be able to enforce it.

Microphone.

Thank you Ortiz. I thought you were giving me Google eyes. Anyways, I appreciate the signal. Um my concern and again it's probably not going to go well with Brian. It wasn't going to go well with the with his predecessor and the challenge is I because of personal experience and dealing with it. I dealt with it at Terago when it was an open community and it was a private community and I have a hard time swallowing. I know the differences and I talked over it with the city manager is if it's going to be an HOA then you're going to gate it. If it's gonna not gonna it's going to be an HOA not gated it's one gate you have a challenge with the checks and balances for the community that there's an expectation by public service to handle their HOA problems and Talago had to take out a loan three years after it was in place four years and became a big controversy lawsuits were flying and then we hit them hard with the meeroos now that's not a meeroo here but the problem was with cost we also had the same problem that we had with another development which is on Jackson. And we basically gave them the option, it's up to you if you're going to gate it. If you are, it'll be an HOA. If it's not, it'll be an open community. Now, obviously, if it's a gated community, they're going to be responsible for their streets regardless. Even if it's private, but the checks and balances stop at the gate. And the gates are only as good as how strong the HOA is. Like I was mentioning earlier, there's a lot of civil issues going back and forth that that public safety has to get involved in it and access and control is a problem. And I don't want these residents 10 years from now where they're going to have a problem or five years from now. So it's it's it's proposed to be a private community with no gates,

right?

But there will be challenges and I guarantee you they will be. These homeowners will buy and they'll expect the enforcement of actions that came in ingress to be done by by public safety. Now, if they're trespassing, that's the one thing. Now, you bring the element of STRs and the access control with today's technology. They have access codes limitations and how they manage them and their CCNRs, how they're going to be enforced. And again, we've tried this three times before and it was an absolute failure. I guess from my perspective, every community doesn't need to be gated, but isn't there a mechanism, city attorney, such that um you know, people have to get a permit, business license, whatever, if they're going to do short-term rentals

and don't make it an HOA, then leave it a complete open community. Take the element of the HOA out. And doesn't the HOA give us or give the the HOA a little bit more control? It won't if it doesn't have that access and control. It works in other communities well, but like I was told back with Terraago by the same commission and it ended up biting us later. I I was part of that, but I want to hear what the city attorney has to say.

Certainly. Um, and you know, this has been a a good conversation that I've been having with planning staff uh about how to best leverage the CCNRs, the HOA model, having that integrate and be a force multiplier for code enforcement and not necessarily um getting in each other's lane. uh or having conflicting regulations. Uh I I think the council member's point is is well taken. I think that when you have that physical barrier, uh it it also works as a sort of mental understanding that when we pass the gates, this is our responsibility as a community. Um I I have worked with several ungated HOAs throughout my career. Um, sometimes they're underfunded. Sometimes they aren't taking care of the infrastructure that they're required to do. And the residents inevitably start coming to the city and saying, "Our streets aren't taken care of. Our landscaping is not taken care of. Why aren't you helping us?" And we say, "Well, you're an HOA. You have those responsibilities." So, I've worked with staff. We've added some additional language to CCNRs going forward that will enable the city to actually enforce those CCNRs and levy. It's similar to a tax lean, but it's actually a special HOA lean if we have to. So, we do have that backup ability in the future. I'd rather not use it. It's a lot of it's a lot of paperwork. It's a lot of uh you know, use of city resources. We would be compensated. Uh but I I think I see where the council member is going on this and I I would agree that from a purely um you know contextual framework when working with folks. I think having that clear delineation of where the responsibilities begin and end is helpful

and it makes it easier if it's gated is probably the go Brian what is the um wording in our general plan for I remember we were discussing when we did the general plan back about gated communities and not going towards gated communities. It was one of the things that bring uh communities that are more open so people could be there. What is our wording in our general plan on gated communities?

Yeah, I wanted to pull that up if it can pull my presentation up one more time that basically discourages gated communities and I'll just put up that policy real quickly. I do want to emphasize and maybe the applicant um can expand upon this. If they were to make it gated and that design as we all know requires a turnaround, it requires a little more space uh for queuing etc. They would actually lose some lots. So they wouldn't be able to do the 50 lots. So I want to make sure they at least know that. Um so the policy um is at is at the end of my presentation. I just didn't know if we want to pull it up. So it's land use element policy LU7A. So discourage the construction of new gated communities when gated communities are allowed require frequent pedestrian and b uh bicycle connections between the gated community and surrounding areas at distances no more than 600 ft. So the idea is not a prohibition but discouraged if in fact the city council wants to make those neighborhoods, those new developments a little more inviting, you know, a little more um, you know, more connections and things like that. It is something that's more of a trend, but at the same time, we do understand that the safety is is perceived once you have the gates and the the HOA does, you know, kind of take over that domain, etc. But that that is the policy that's in our 2040 general plan.

And and I think we were doing that because we thought that it would bring in more development that would be feel more open to the community. But a a gated community is is a gated community. The idea behind having that is that people want to live behind that gate because it gives them an encompass of a closed area that exactly like Mr. Gatron said, they're responsible for. City's not responsible for the road. We're not responsible for this. We're not responsible for that. And if that's what the developer wants to do as a gated community, we shouldn't discourage it. I don't I don't like this. I didn't like it back then. I don't like it now. I think the market should bear what it does. But when we get those areas that are having streets, they're responsible for the streets. They're responsible for everything else. We've seen that on a couple of streets we have over by my district over off of Jefferson where people think those beat up old streets and the bad landscapes ours. And what happens is they want to know when we're going to fix it, why we're not fixing it. But it's not our responsibility. But trying to highlight that to the community or people that drive by it every day is very difficult. They're like, "What do you mean it's not your street? What do you mean it's not your landscape?" Well, why would you let it look like this? When we have to go back, we got to go back, have them ridden up. Got to get the prosecutor involved. We get code enforcement and all that. It's another area, another streets that we need to take care of. That shouldn't be our responsibility. And I understand the gated community part of it. And it's not like you're safer in that, but you know who's responsible for it. The city has over, I think, 200 miles of streets. Do we really need to add more to it? And then if people drive in there and they park there, who's going to tell them to get out? How do you know that that person that comes in there is not welcome or is not a guest or something like that? You can't just go by and go through. You have a gated community, you have to come through. You know who who gives you the code. You know who goes through. You know if they get past that gate, they were able to get through because somebody let them in. On an open community like that, that's an HOA where people have authority. Somebody drives in there and parks, let's say, to go to the concert or something. How do you know that that's not somebody that's got responsibility or they're somebody's brother or their friend to somebody else? You can't just start towing cars. I think it creates an issue that we don't need to have. And I

think we need to get not only get rid of this and make this a gated community. I think we also need to take this out of our general plan and have our general plan amended that has nothing to do with discouraging the construction of whatever it is. It should what the market bears. If that's what we're going to sell in this community because that's what they want, great. if they don't want an HOA. Even the the the low-income housing, affordable housing we have on Jefferson has a gate in some of the areas, you know, it's just it doesn't make any sense to me. Excuse me, madam ma'am. Okay, go ahead. I have a one question, Ryan. Delphina, that's just north of it. Is that a gated community? Yeah, I actually took a picture. Yeah.

So, there it is. It's on the right. The Delfina um project is gated. Now I wanted to show opposing picture. So to the left is the Del Soul development that's open to Deloul and then Delfina which is a a very recent development is gated. The deloul is where? Across the street in the city of Coachella, right? No. No. No. This is in the city of India. It's a literally to the north across the street. It's not a HOA. You know, I didn't do that research beforehand, but that's your question. I already know the answer. I just want to know if you know. All right? Because you're the one that's planning these out. I know the area extremely well.

It's not an HOA. This one is an HOA, but it's because it was designed not to be an HOA. That's my whole point. My whole point to my discussion is if it's not going to be gated, then don't make it an HOA. It's less headaches for us. When everybody's gone, we're still dealing with it. It's less headaches. I've given three examples where our city's gone through it. It works well in other really wellplanned communities because it's surrounded by that environment. There's nothing to support this around it. The dynamics are extremely different. Yeah.

You're trying to squeeze a size eight and a size five shoe because it looks good on data, but the reality of life and actually beings and families being there, it doesn't spin out later. If I could just add one just to add to that just very quickly. So this proposed development will have open space. It will have um some common landscaping. There'll be amenities. It is private streets as well. So if there isn't an HOA, maybe city attorney can correct me if I'm wrong, but there needs to be some sort of mechanism in place to address those common areas, common landscaping. You have walls, you have the amenities within the open space, which isn't a city park. So there would need to be something in place to address that.

Completely understand that. Completely understand that because we have planned communities in our city that are not HOAs with those amenities now and they're down Avenue 48 and they're up on the not so much on the north end because that was at the time when those developments were being done by the developers. But we have them on 48. We have them off of Madison as well and we have them off of Jackson. But there again, it's up to the city to maintain them. I I would say that the likely alternative structure and I don't know how well it's been studied at this point uh would be the creation of some sort of assessment district uh to take care of those common areas, the landscaping. Um I'm guessing that we didn't get an engineers report or any of that stuff put together because we went on the HOA route on this one. Uh but if you know if it was the the council's direction that uh you wanted to pursue that alternative, we could certainly look at that. Let you know there's Go ahead, Council Member Ortiz.

So, I think we have two questions that we're going through right now, right? Well, one is would we go with an HOA that is gated versus

or an open and no HOA? And the other one with the restrictions on the short-term rentals, but I'd like to see if we could open the public hearing back up to see if the developer has any comments on those two uh questions that we're considering at the moment. Well, and I I think is there not another question in there that says if an ungated community with an HOA, which creates a different level of complexity, but I agree with I'm going to open up the public hearing and see if they would like to come up. I mean, that's part of the general plan, you know. So, if we want to go through and and decide that we don't want any, then then maybe we need to do a general plan amendment. Thank you. Welcome.

Have a HOA is those common areas, but we like the presentation where perhaps we could do a tax assessment and not have an HOA. That would actually be ideal. Okay. Okay. Any any thoughts on the uh short-term rental the common area light and landscape district we have kicker into it but you we've tried to get away from lightning and landscape districts if we can but but on a 30-day I agree with Mr. Ortiz, is there an issue with the limiting the short-term rentals to 30 days in your CCNR?

Because um the project we're building it for families. That's why there are four bedrooms and because we're expecting like the generations to want to live together. So in the design there are the main four bedrooms for that for the generational living. Very good. Cool. Yeah. Have the families in mind. Okay. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, so what I'm hearing is assessments but no HOA. Okay. So, how do we do that?

I I might just want to jump in just from perspective. I think Council Member Miller brought it up uh just just recently. The the the assessments will be a management issue for the city to address and to make sure that we're out there maintaining these things. could very well be like another LLD, right? So, just know there's a layer of complexity that kind of shifts the burden back to us.

Um, I'm personally a fan of the gates for a number of reasons for the delineation that's been discussed. So, I would recommend the gates and we have some communities here and we've seen them elsewhere where rather than lose lots, there may be a lot or two that is outside of the gate and that's done to provide a queueing or a throat to allow for some stacking of vehicles. So, that could be an accommodation so that the applicant does not lose the lots and the homes we're trying to create. If we do get to the the discussion and your decision relating to the limitation on the short-term rentals, it would be much easier for staff to make sure that there's a window. We've gone through this before when this was brought up uh previously. If it's a rolling 30 days, it will be an administrative nightmare for us to know throughout the year. Okay, did you do 29 days? Did you do 28? Did you do 31? what days were they? Um, so while I know that there are and we hope for more festivals in the fall, one idea would be a 30-day window from April 1st to May 30th for example. So if you consider that that might assist us quite a bit on the administrative side and I would recommend personally again maybe trying to shift the administration to an HOA rather than to any assessment that the city has to be responsible for. We have 52 LEDs, LLDS, might be 57 or more than 50 and they are a bear.

They are a challenge. I do I do acknowledge that. By the way, I want to close the public hearing. Thank you. Yes, ag and I think I think the the city manager is correct. I think we do do I I have no problem with the 30 days, but I think we do it in two months schedule because we are going to have more concerts and I think in October, November, smaller that. So maybe we do it from, you know, May April 1st to May 30th and then from October 1st to November 30th and that so that's in that time frame. So they can rent it in between those times maybe for festivals only if they want to.

I I think if uh the council's direction was that you wanted this to be limited to the time periods when we are having festivals, I think we can incorporate language that incorporates the permits issued under the development agreement. uh so that you know we would still have a a defined time period but you know those days can change um so I I think that we could give that certainty uh and it would be based purely on the festivals under the development agreement I think we can include a reference there

and and if we go to that I think we also need because of our issues we had a trilogy in that it needs to be in the CCNR is that there those are those time frames that available and people understand that these things are doing it and that we put a a notice out to all the area that's around that area letting them know what this could possibly be. So there is no there is no gray area.

So so the language I had I was starting to draft the um requirement uh would have required uh the declaration to be recorded on every parcel runs with the land binds successors identifies the city as an express beneficiary with enforcement rights requires disclosure to all future purchasers. So there would be disclosure they'd sign it. We'd have that documentation and provide that no amendment or termination be effective without prior and they'd have to get that. But they also we also need to when it goes through when it comes to does it going to go back to the planning commission or should it stay with us if we change this? Right. Right. Now this stays with you. So if you want to make amendments we can make those amendments and then you could make a decision uh today if you wanted to.

Right. Do you want who would like to make any other thoughts or does somebody want to make a re recommendation? You had you had it all kind of settled. I'm just thinking if if we are not I if the client is not um wanting the gate the gates or the HOA like I mean there's going to be neighborhoods that are being built without gates, right? So how are we going to manage those? Well, and I guess are we not going to do any more LLDs or Well, that's the challenge with with the LLDs. I mean, I'm not a huge gate person. However, I think uh it it works better. LLDDS have been a challenge for us, an administrative nightmare, and a financial challenge for us for years and years and years.

But what are we going to do when we build non-gated communities now? So, so, uh, I I'll take a crack at that one. Um, the two pathways for modern residential development are assessment districts or HOAs. Um, if you don't have either of those, then the general fund is required to fund that landscaping maintenance for what are no longer common areas. Now it's just sidewalk that's owned and operated by the city and comes with all the liability that that that you assume with that, too.

So, I'd say that that's why you've probably moved towards the HOA model here. A lot of communities have. Um, but you know, ultimately I think most city councils are looking for a non-general fund source of revenue to fund that ongoing maintenance obligation, either an HOA or an assessment district.

Yeah, I I think we need to have that option open for this community and other communities coming in that if they're preferring to not have a gate and not an HOA, then we need to have that option open. So, I would push more on the assessment district because that's what the developer is preferring at this moment. I I know it's it's more work for us, but it's new housing coming in for families, right? 50 new homes. I don't think we can restrict to just HOAs and gated communities at this moment. Go ahead.

But, you know, when you were looking at safety, too. I'm not talking safety in terms of, you know, burglaries or that. I'm talking about if you have kids on there, you don't want people driving in and out. The gate slows people down and makes them responsible. If he's talking about truly having families there, then you know that that the gated community will be safer for those youth too to be able to play in the front yard, play the other thing and do stuff because the people coming through there either live there. I have responsibility there. When it's an open street and people want to go drive down it, they're they're going down a street they don't know anything about. When you have that gate there, not only does it protect it, but it goes out. I don't want to take over any more light in a landscape district. One, we do a terrible job with it because we don't have the funding. And secondly, we don't have the the manpower to be able to do it. the gated community and the HOA as they come forward I think are are best for this project personally and I honestly do believe that we should change the general plan to to not have anything about discouraging and and not having gated communities whatever the developer looks at we we we're always going to look at it but we got to do what's in best interest of the residents to me if you're going to have real true families there you want that gated so that you don't have it that's the other part

we have plenty of we have plenty of neighborhoods that aren't gated that are safe in our communities I'm not saying they're not but I'm talking about When you're in an enclosed area like that, all you're doing is one street going up and around. It's not like a long stretch of individual or people can see things coming. It's coming up and going around. I I think it needs to be gated. My personal self, I I don't think so. If the developer is asking for it not to be gated and not to have an HOA, I think we should be open for business in that sense. I guess we can take a we can all we can take a vote on that. Did you want to contribute?

Yeah. I I think part of the the spirit of of of putting that in the general plan was to create affordable living situations for people in the inner city. Um a development with the HOA and gates and really not going to go in, you know, where some of these areas are, you know, where we have shopping, where we have schools, those kind of communities. I think some kind of communities better well fit with uh gates. Um, this is off of Avenue 50. It's a major road um going into that area and and I see where that's going. It's not around schools, not around parks. There might be some parks in there. It's not around um retail. Um so I I think a gated community would fit there. Now, if it was in the middle of our town somewhere, I think that's where we we um came with that that concept, right? It's more welcoming, more open. Um, and from a more personal um, account, you know, sometimes, you know, we do have some bad actors out there and um, and we're working on that. We talked about that earlier with traffic and when you do have a gate, it it it kind of blocks some of those folks from coming in there and, you know, just driving through and creating issues. Not to say that the issues take away all the uh, the gates take away all the issues because we do have some in our gated communities. Nonetheless, I think some of the areas um you know kind of dictate, you know, so for this, you know, I respect the developer, but I think they would they would have a better chance of selling those properties uh faster and easier if it was a gated with the HOA.

And I also think you have to take into consideration what you brought up, council member, is is the the cars, right? Especially at a couple of times a year. So, you're going to have people that are just going to be parking everywhere that you can't regulate and you can't control um because it's a neighborhood street without a gate. So, so come particularly come festival season or anywhere around there when somebody has an event or something that's going to be open. It's going to be wide open for people to park. And again, if you are creating this really wonderful family environment, u then you're going to run into challenges with people looking for parking spaces, kids paint playing in their own front yard, so on and so forth. So, you know, I

with an expansion of a gas station next door, I I would prefer a gate. I would Yeah, exactly. I would agree with that. Council, can I just add one small point to the discussion if I could? So, the way this project is designed, they will be private streets. So they're not designed as public streets. So they don't meet the dimensions that are required. So the city would not be maintaining private streets. I just want to, you know, remind you um that that's the way it was designed is not public streets. So they don't and they would have to redesign the project if they decided to do public streets. So just want to bring that that point to light. Which means public streets means non-gated. Is that what you're

not necessarily? It just means the city would not be maintaining private streets, right? So that has nothing to do with the gate. You put a gate up, it's a private community. So they can have the streets just like they are. They don't have to redesign it except for how they want to stack the cars with the gates. Well, someone wish to make a recommendation. I'd like to make the motion. I I don't know how to word it, but with the restriction on the short-term rentals to the times of the festivals and then with the HOA and gated community there. So, since I think you know, you made a good point with the gas station being next door, this is going to be families. I think that makes more sense on that end.

Uh, council member, I I I don't want to read the whole condition into the record here. Uh, just trust it. I'll send it to the city clerk, but I defined the festival period as 5 days before the first event day of a festival under our development agreement that exists and 5 days after the last event day of a festival. So that gives a a decent size window for and there's a maximum of five festivals per year under the development agreement. So that I think would limit it and it would be a very defined set of time for staff and then it prohibits the property from operating as an STR at any other point. Okay. Okay. Do I hear a second? I have a motion. Do I hear a second? I'll second. I was Okay.

And if I could, Madam Mayor, I would also like I don't know if we can do this. Stephen, you have to tell me if we can. I would like to look at our our general plan to put that into it to be able to take out that wording that we encourage. You know, it's should be the market of what goes through. This is a prime example. I think this resident, the developer that came through looks at that and sees the general plan. It shouldn't be discouraged on whatever it is. if that's what it needs to be. It's an open area. It needs to be an open area, but I'd like to see that word. I don't know how we get to the general plan and taking that out.

So, if the motion maker wanted to add that uh to the motion, it could be included. It could be a separate motion. Uh but I I think that when I'm reading that section of the general plan, I see it as encouraging connected communities instead of having like a fortress. They want to have that ability to be walkable. And so I think that we could state that general plan uh policy in the positive which is we want to encourage a connected community uh without you know discouraging the having of gated communities uh through HOAs. We can certainly do that if you'd like. Could we bring that could we bring that as a separate item next meeting? Okay. Yeah, I'm good with that. You have a discussion on that in a second.

We add the landscaping uh recommendation as well if the council agrees with the as part of this motion. Yes. Yes. Thank you. I'll agree to this. All right. Let's go. A good conversation. Okay. All those all all in favor? All all of us voted yes. I couldn't quite get that out. Thank you very very much. All right. Item number uh 11.2. Yes. May I request that we have one of our uh public comment speakers go now? we have a service for him to um provide his comment through ASL. Okay. Thank you so much.

Richard Milan Bar. Ah, yes.

Could I request a minute and a half since I'm using an interpreter and you do have Excuse me. And you do have double the time so you have six minutes. Thank you.

Uh good morning council me Oh I'm sorry. Good evening council members. Thank you for the opportunity to uh opportunity to speak today. My name is Richard Miam. But before I begin I wanted to to note that myself I am deaf and heart of hearing. I'm de without my hearing aid and I'm hard hearing when I put them on. Uh the reason I'm here today is I would like to begin by reminding everyone that April uh April is deaf history month. A time to recognize the rich culture history p uh contribution of death and heart of hearing individuals throughout our communities. It is also a time to reflect honestly on whether our our cities are truly accessible to everyone. Accessibility is not just a value we talk about. It's a civil rights. Recently, California Office of Civil Rights was closed and discrimination uh complaints from our state must now be processed through the Seattle office as a result. It can take up to a full year just to receive a response. This means that when accessibility barrier occurs, death and hearted hearing individuals are often left without timely support or protection. India proudly called it calls itself the city of festivals. Every year thousands of people attend concerts, events and community gatherings that take place weekly. These events celebrate our culture and bring people together. However, for deaf and heart of hearing

residents and visitors, uh access to those event is often limited by a requirement to request an interpreter two weeks in advance. But the American with Disability Act, ADA, does not require interpreter to be request weeks in advance. The law requires effective communication with their means providing uh quality interpreters in a timely and reasonable manner. Many organizations suggest advanced uh notice uh of 72 hours to a week to secure service but real life does not always work that way. What if someone declares to attend an event that we would have to to participate in their own community? Um, under the current system, they are effectively uh executive not because access is impossible but because the system was not designed with that in mind. Uh if Indoor Troy wants to be the city of festival, it must also be a city where everyone can participate equally, including deaf and heart of hearing community members. Access is not a special request. Access is a right. So thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mayor. Very, very good. Thank you. Uh okay. Next item, last item actually 11.2. Mr. Ensorian, compliance with new legal obligations re regarding public hearing on city vacancies, recruitment and retention efforts has to do with assembly bill 2561, government code section 3502.3.

Uh thank you, Mayor Holmes. Uh city council members Andrew Ansurion, director of human resources and risk management. It is my pleasure to present to you the status of the city vacancies, recruitments, and retentions for fiscal year 2526. Uh here's a brief review of the agenda. We're going to talk about the vacancies by bargain unit, which is mandated by law. We'll talk about some of the recruitments, workforce data, and retention efforts that the city team has embarked on in the last fiscal year. Um, I think you're all familiar with the city's newly adopted mission statement, but I wanted to also share with you the HR department's strategically aligned mission. I highlighted some key words in that statement because these are words that my team and the department heads um feel are very important when we are conducting searches to fill vacancies. We want to find and keep the best and brightest people who are not just willing, but they're eager to enhance the quality of life for people in our community. And that's something we live every day in my office. Uh here's my team. Without them, nothing goes. So I we do a lot. We have a small little powerful team. And apparently I was out that day and they thought getting ice cream and taking a picture and sending it to me would be clever. Um, this is what we call our human resources periodic table. I included in the slide deck just in case you uh need a little reminder of what the HR department does. Each one of these squares represents a functional area that my team is responsible for. AB2561 is a legislation that was enacted effective 20 uh January 2025. It requires all public agencies to report their vacancies by bargaining unit. And this next table pretty much

satisfies that requirement. And what you'll see on and this is very similar to the table that I provided last year. It's just the data is all updated. Uh on the left column, you'll see all of our bargaining units. And then you'll see the number of authorized full-time positions by those units. That was adopted through the budgetary process. and then the current number of vacancies by those bargaining units. And then the final column is a percentage of vacancy. The reason why we have to put the percentage in there is because if you hit 20% vacancy in one in any one of those bargaining units, you have to do some additional reporting. Fortunately, we uh do not hit the 20% threshold. And um we are continuing to do recruitments across these across all these areas. Um for for example the at will uh row there at the very bottom shows one vacancy that's been filled since I produced this presentation. So this is a constantly dynamic table and the data is constantly changing based on our recruitment efforts. Number of recruitments citywide. I uh this this table represents recruitment activities going back to year 1617. You can see um we've been pretty busy the last five years. Um we're currently at 45 recruitments this year. Keep in mind we have four months left in the recruitment season. So I would expect that number to be close close to the average roughly around 55 by the time the season's done. But we've been busy the last 5 years and we've transformed our workforce in the last five years and we have a lot of super talented people on our team now and we hope to keep them. Um, we also like to track the number of days to fill a position. The public sector gets a bad rap for taking a long time to fill positions. Um, I I'd like to think we we work extremely efficiency efficiently with our

department heads and uh other recruitment teams throughout the city and our average this year is 27 days to fill a position. Last year it was 24. So we did go up three day three three full days. Recruitment investments. This is just a a a pin wheel here that shows you the various ways we go about recruiting. We use your standard job po, job boards, professional organization, outreach, internships. We use consultants. We'll use temp agencies, referrals from other employees. So, there's a there's a variety of ways we try to attract people. And um some work better than others depending on the occupation. I believe um uh a couple a couple months ago, I believe a question came from a city council member about what are some of the hard to fill positions. And forgive me, I forgot which council member, but here's a listing. I pulled this from our applicant tracking system. This this uh blue uh graphic here shows what I would call hard to fill positions. These are positions where we receive a small number of applications every time we do a recruitment. All of these um these job jobs you see in the blue square, they average around nine applications per search. That's not very good. That's a pretty low number. There's a lot of reasons why those numbers are low. Uh some of those positions are in the planning and engineering fields. Uh many of those uh positions require unique uh educational backgrounds and not many students are going through higher ed obtaining um education and degrees in those areas. So that's one of the challenges. Engineering is just a challenge nationwide because we're competing with the private sector in those areas. Um but one that jumped out at me was equipment operator. that that kind of surprised me. And um I think we are going to work on some solutions on how

to build apprentice programs going in the next year and how maybe we can um uh create a an apprentice program that will take youth from our communities and get them into some of these um areas where we're having a difficult time in water and maybe in the street maintenance area and get them apprentice program so we can hire them within one or two years of getting some specified training. There are some models from the city of Phoenix, city of Charlotte who are having who have some advanced programs in these areas and we might model some of those as well. Um, I shared this graphic last year because I think it's very important. I think council member Gutron referenced it tonight. Hiring a police officer takes a long time and I think it's very important that the public remember that and be reminded that uh Chief and his team go through a very rigorous process in vetting candidates and training candidates and sending them to the academy and conducting extremely thorough background uh background checks and a lot of people fail out throughout the process. But it takes about 18 month months from screening to actually getting a sworn officer on the streets. It's a lot of investment and a lot of time and chief of this team have been doing a great job in the last couple years. Here's a great success story and chief you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe according to the data this was the first time in five years our dispatch center was fully staffed. True. True story. Okay, good. Thanks, Chief. Um a lot of reasons uh having a nice beautiful facility. Thank you city council was had what played a part in that. Um some cultural change some leadership change some investments in training and onboarding some creative recruiting and they brought in a consultant to help them revamp some revamp some of their systems and processes. So I think there's a multiple

reasons why we're seeing this success in staffing in this area. This this unit has been a challenge to staff throughout the years. It's a very challenging work environment, but I think Chief and his team have made some uh substantial progress in making it a more of a more of a desirable career option. Um, I try to include the uh generational slide every year because I'm trying to demonstrate uh or trying to trying to analyze if we're getting younger or older as a workforce and we are inching towards a younger workforce. The column in orange is our Gen is this year's current data. And if you look at the far right, that's the Gen Z generation. That's our emerging workforce. And we've jumped up 3% with that that younger cohort. Um over the next 5 to seven years, you're going to see some significant changes in these in these columns here. You're going to see Gen Zers retiring and the great majority of the workforce is going to be genzers and millennials. I believe this was another question a city council member had a few a few months ago. Um I think the question had to do where do our work workers live? Where do they where do they reside and and I pulled this straight out of our our database here and the great majority of our workers um reside here in uh India. 50% of our workers live in India. If you combine Coachella, India, Lita and Palm Desert, that's about 80% of our workforce is spread out among those four cities. So I I was a little surprised that it was 50% in India and pleasantly surprised. This is a very important slide because we've seen a very very noticeable change for the positive here. This is our turnover or retention data. Um if you go to the three columns on the

far right of that graph there um you'll notice our in 20 in 2023 2024 our overall turnover was 15.2 which is okay and then we had a nice little drop the following year to 13.7 but now we're down to 10.18. So we have a really really solid retention number right there. And what's even more interesting is if you go over to the three first three columns where it says voluntary turnover, we had a substantial drop in voluntary turnover. And voluntary turnover is just your general resignations and retirements. We dropped significantly in that area. Now voluntary turnover is different than involuntary turnover. Involuntary turnover is usually due to a performance related reason. But this is a very positive sign. Uh national averages right now are about 13 to 15% across certain industries. So this tells us a lot about what's going on in our culture and our organization. People are like working here right now and we hope it stays that way. Some retention investments. Um I'm not going to go through all these but the ones in the green I do would like to highlight. Employee surveys. Um, we like to conduct employee surveys here for a couple reasons. Well, one reason, if you remember, in our strategic plan, there's a performance metric number seven under organizational excellent that asks staff to report out what the percentage of staff who report a positive work experience. Well, the only real way you can get that is through some type of survey instrument. Um, the next reason we like want to hear from the workforce is we value their their opinions. we find their opinions and voice important to help us advance uh changes in the organization, help us find hot spots

that we weren't aware of or maybe areas that we need to celebrate. So this year we did what we called uh the employee poll survey. We surveyed the entire workforce including police department. Um we had about a 49 let's see a 49% return rate uh for this survey. And I want to just point out two data points. When staff were asked working for the city of India is a positive experience, 82.4% they agreed with that statement or strongly agreed with that statement. That that's that's an exceptional number. That that really tells us something is going right here. It's a good culture. It's a high performing workplace. Something healthy is going on here. This is a very good data point that the city council should be proud of. The next data point I want to share is something called the net promoter score. This is something used in private industry, particularly in the retail industry, but you can use it for employment purposes. This question is, how likely are you to recommend working for the city of India to a friend or colleague? And that question is important because some of our best recruiters are not me or my staff. It's our employees. Our employees are probably our most effective ambassadors for selling people to come here to work because they not only sell the city as a place to work, but they usually refer really good people because they don't want to they don't want to refer refer someone who's not going to perform well or embarrass them. So, our score was a 40, which means um the city has a solid foundation with a positive level of employee engagement and loyalty with room for improvement. So, we're hoping that number goes up, but that's a really good sign that people um in our workforce are recommending this place to work. The next area I'd like to emphasize with

regard to retention is a is a is a program called India University. This is a program where we've decided to create little micro onsite training programs to help our staff with their personal, professional, and financial well-being. We have 15 programs that we delivered this year. We're not all done. We still have a few more to do, but you can see the topics listed up there cover wide variety of topics. And these are very well with tended. These are free. Um they're delivered by either staff or or people we work work with uh through our insurance companies. And uh we're going to continue to expand this program because it's been a it's been very wellreceived. And this is this is something that uh let's see if there's any attendees. Yeah, there's one attendee in here, one speaker. Um this is our our this is a really important program we started about three years ago called future leaders of India. This is a leadership training program designed for aspiring leaders if who currently work at the Cindy of India or leaders currently in leadership roles. Um you can see some of the topics we cover there. This is totally designed by staff. This is delivered by staff. This is done onsite. We've had about 80 graduates over the last three years. This year we did partner with COOD to deliver one program. Um again, this is a program we hope to continue. It's been very wellreceived. Um and the whole goal is to help prepare future leaders um in our city to close the skill gap if they have any deficit so when they do get into a leadership role, they can be successful. And the last program we started last year is our internship program. Um, this one's a super successful program. We've had internships in city clerk's office, city manager's office, IWA, PD, uh, planning, sustainability, HR. Every

department pretty much has had an intern in the last two years. Last year we had 15 interns. These are paid professional interns. They're given bonafideed work tasks. They're given supervision. um they work for 12 weeks for 20 hours each week. This year we've currently have uh completed 14, but we're on pace to have 20. Um from this program, we've actually hired five employees from our internship program. So it is a pipeline strategy. Uh that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that the city council may have. questions. Just two statements.

The heavy equipment operator obviously for public works.

Have we looked at any of the valley contractors where they're only working by season that might have that skill that we can go after? Uh we have a lot of heavy equipment operators that work in that industry and sometimes either construction goes down and they're working, you know, a lot of the big heavy equipment we now have. a lot of the ones that have require commercial licensing and so forth. Maybe hitting that area would be a good idea. Uh I know that even the county has one because it's a desolate area in civic center. They have a a skip loader and they're always advertising it because it doesn't last long. So I may be thinking about hitting

I think it's a great idea. I I might put it put it on my topics to discuss with Mr. Pena.

There's a zillion of them out there that might want a good stable job. Um, and the other thing is the internships. I've seen a lot of good skill and I see the retention that's going into is there something more structure that would be inviting that we can do to continue to do that? I know that uh council member Ortiz and I having discussions with Cood, they were willing to look at areas that they might not focus on, but they might see an opportunity. We were just talking about a business opening in downtown today where they're willing to work and partner with our on-site campus in city of India. So we're always open to partnering. So if you let me know what how I can get engage we need to do is kind of help design it so we can since when we're having those two on twos that we can say our HR is looking for this for our department. If you think there's something we can be of help again every angle we can work on. Um anyways thank you so much. You're welcome.

Any other comments? Yeah, if I could. Yeah. Quick.

Andrew, thank you for the presentation and all the hard work you and your staff are doing. So, I I always noticed it's always planning. It's always engineering is always seem to be the difficult one. And public safety obviously because it's a long hall and you you got a lot of police officers and we had that period of time when police officers or public safety as a whole wasn't being respected which kind of threw us behind a little bit. But how do you get the engineers and the planners and what always happens is that somebody else comes and gobbles them up because we just keep fighting among because they get a raise to get up to the next level. How do we work with either our local students because we have that relationship? We have three high schools here. We got a college, we got law college. How do we get planning and uh in the other opportunities that we're looking at like engineering to be more focused on here? I mean, I I don't want to take away anything from our other uh staff that's already here because you don't want to give somebody to that, but shouldn't we be growing them somehow like Calpaly or something and helping pay for the school? Isn't there a way to be able to do that? Because if not, what happens is we train them and then they get a next bump up at the next the only way they can get a raise is go to I'll just use the city of Coachella because they get the next step up which we can't just give them here because that's not how public service works. you know, that goes through steps and that you just because somebody gets up, you just can't raise them because they're going to leave. So, they go somewhere else,

but it seems like we just keep taking rotating these people back and forth. We even have some people that come back. How do we get them to come and stay? Because those are good paying jobs. Engineering, planning, planning is our our lifeline for continuing the city is because the planners are the ones we have to do and they're way under staff. And then engineering is a well-paying job no matter what it is. I know the private sector pays a little bit better, but the public sector with the retirement, with the guaranteed work, you know, there isn't no really up and down. There is a little bit, but we don't let those go. How do we how do we get there?

Can I I can I make one comment? Um, well, with the engineers, we did strike gold in the last 24 months. Um by implementing this internship, this really strategic uh concentrated internship program, we were able to get two interns um in the engineering area. Subsequently, they got hired. They're two of the five. So, we hired two junior engineers from our from our internship program. Planners, I think your point's well taken. We could consider doing some strategic educational incentives to build our own planners. We could do that. And I've seen I've seen organizations do that

and they they obviously need help. I mean every everybody does that but you know with planning bringing in more development then brings in more money which then we can bring into the other communities that finance will need more help. You know city attorney all the other public safety it really is the lifeline of bringing in economic development is what brings in the jobs what brings in the money. When they're staffed and they're down behind that it slows everything down. As hard as they work they only have so many hours in a day. And when there's five of them or six of them, they got 48 hours to be able to work. And I know they work more than that, but it really is the lifeline of bringing in new jobs that then brings in revenue for the rest of the the uh organization to grow. So I think there's a couple strategic moves and public safety. I don't everybody believes in that. You know, safe clean city is, you know, what you definitely need, but we definitely need to get planning and engineering somewhere on board where we can we can get those people to come and stay.

That's it, Madam Mayor. Sorry. Thank you. I actually liked the information that was on this presentation. Yeah, you're absolutely right. We're doing a lot with intern programs, working with the colleges and whatnot, but when you see some of the and I just took a couple of shots so that I could um reference them, some of the changes are significant um based on on where we've been in years past. So, thank you everyone for the amazing effort and the leadership here at the city of India because because it's become a really cool place to work and uh and we want to keep that momentum going. Okay. Yes.

Yeah. Know, I just wanted to say it looks like we're going in the right direction, right? The numbers show that we're making those improvements there. Uh but going back to Mr. Miller's uh um comments there in this next bud budget sess session I would like to see some recommendations on you know those training programs what is it that we can fund for you guys so that we can uh build those planners whether it's from within or in recruitment but offering some kind of training programs uh incentives like that so that we can start getting those positions filled

and we have a college right down the street right yeah definitely for sure thank you great comments thank you so very much I don't think that requires Any action? Let me go back. Um, or does it is that like a receive and file? I can't get mine going here. Just file. Okay. Council member Miller, you had a comment or request regarding an earlier. Yeah, we discussed the general plan and make an amendment to it. How do we go about doing it? You said it was a second vote. I I would like to have the wording so it it takes out, you know, disencourages. I uh I emailed you some draft language. Okay. Uh if I didn't see it,

I can I can I can read it out loud if you'd like. And if the council wanted to direct uh staff, we'd have to go through the planning commission first for their take and then bring it back forward to the council.

Um the language that I I drafted here on the fly, and I did not run by the community development director, so you can poke me if I'm getting it wrong. Uh land use uh- 7.8 ate gated communities. What I'm suggesting is allow the construction of new gated communities while encouraging design that supports complete neighborhood objectives and compatibility with surrounding areas, including frequent pedestrian and bicycle connections between the gated community and surrounding areas. Gates, walls, and entry features should be designed to minimize barriers to circulation, access to key destinations, and integration with adjacent neighborhoods. So that language takes out the discouraging. It allows. It doesn't encourage or discourage. It simply allows it while integrating that goal into the overall framework of of policy number seven. Uh which is this connected Indo.

Ryan, wow, that was pretty good on the fly, I must admit. Um I like it. Um, I think it could work and we can, you know, bring it back to the planning commission and actually have a planning commission meeting next week and during my report staff items, I will bring up uh this particular general plan policy that it's proposed uh to be amended and get the wording from our attorney. So, thank you. Yeah, I'd like to make that motion. Absolutely. Do I hear a second? Second. And let's go ahead and and vote. uh council member

to take action, but we'll bring it back. Just do this. So, it's a consensus. We're putting this on a future. If you all nod, we can do that. Yeah. No, resend what they just said. Okay. All right. Uh any if there aren't any other comments, I'm going to go to the request to speak and I'm going to start with Daniel Watson. if you'd like to come on up.

Thank you. Thank you for the invite, mayor. My name is Daniel Watson. This is my good friend, Don Duran. Uh, mayor got a little taste of a program we have here out. It started in the Coachella Valley, started in India in December of 2013. It's called Kelsey's Heroes. It's a special needs sports program for children of the desert with uh special needs. Um autism, cereble policy, and then everything in between. Um the program has really grown. It started its roots in India. We play the bulk of our sports in India. We're currently involved in a baseball program, um bowling, swimming, um basketball as well. Um the mayor got to come out throw the first pitch uh at one of our or actually catch the first pitch.

Catch it. Yeah. And I got it. Yes.

Did catch it at our uh opening ceremonies this year. Um I wanted I've never been here. I wanted to get in front of the city council. I do have some literature on drop off for the mayor with her approval. I'd like to be able to get it to the whole um city council. I could spend an hour kind of how the program started and where it's been and where it's going. Um, I am inviting you all out. Uh, we are involved with the Padres's. Um, the Dodgers. Dodgers had the All-Star game a couple years ago. They invited our kids out to the All-Stars. Uh, we've had our kids throw first pitches out at Dodger Padre games at Petco Park. We're involved with the Palm Springs Power. Um, we're even involved with Golden Voice, which is a huge um, money system here for the community. Um I encourage you and if you can find some time uh the weekend before Coachella Fest which is this weekend every Friday the weekend before for the last eight years nine years

eight nine years all the executives and managers from Golden Boys come out and play a um a pick a baseball game with our special needs kids at Davis Field on the main field. It is an amazing event. Every year they um play, they videotape, they put together a um um a montage with music and it's on the front of my web page every year. It's it's amazing to see the fun. Um it's a chance for you to come out and see this program and you will be deeply touched by these children. Uh most of these kids uh have sat and watched brothers, sisters, cousins, everybody play ball and do things and they've sat in the in the background. This program is about them and for them.

Very nice. And what time do does the game start? Uh they'll be Golden Voice will be there about 7. Um we'll mingle and talk and probably start playing about 7:30. I know you know a lot of those guys. Uh it's a different environment. It's a fun environment. Um, there's other things we do too and I'll get those out to the mayor. Um, I even asked her about having maybe a we play every Friday night maybe having a Indo city of Indo or the chamber night or invite the police and come out and play a little game with it with those kids as well. So awesome. I'm open to whatever comes. I'd like to give you Can I drop this off? And actually, you would give it to the city clerk and then she will get it to us.

Yeah. Do I have a couple more seconds? Sure. Okay. Um, and we've the program's grown so much that we actually have different age groups, different uh abilities. Um, we have little kids from they're 3, four, five, six. We have our teenagers and we even have an adult uh league as well as adults.

And actually, since I I know I'm already over in time, we've helped start uh about 14 other of these programs throughout Southern California as well, myself and Don. and we get together twice a year um beginning of May and end of May and we have them all together and we do a called jamberee and then the second one is a world series and these kids play each other two games they all win a world series ring world series banners and it's an amazing event amazing time thank you thank you for doing that look forward to the information appreciate it thank you cool very yeah okay uh next request to speak Dick if I'm saying this All right. Mahhat.

Yes. Mayor, city council members, professionals. Uh, good evening. My name is Dick Mahani and I live in Trilogy Polo Club largely 55 plus senior community. I want to say a few year a few words about some of the out of control activities that are happening from the Los Palos Zenda short-term rental. I know you've heard about them um but lately for example recent events which occurred last week during spring day break. Uh before I say anything else, per terms of a lawsuit uh settlement agreement that I have with a property owner there, my following comments are not related to his property. Private gates for that neighborhood. Um I purchased my home in 2015 when the neighborhood was mainly residential and equestrian ranches. The property direct bordering my backyard was a beautiful equestrian ranch and uh we loved hearing the horses. We thought we had found paradise in India. Over the years, several of the equestrian properties were sold and converted to full-time year-round short-term rental properties. Last week, the property directly behind my uh behind me held large, unruly, chaotic spring break parties from Sunday through Wednesday without permits. some into the wee hours of the morning. On Sunday, a group of six people arrived in the afternoon and didn't have the gate coat. Um, they loitered in my sideyard. One person urinated in my yard in broad

daylight. Many times we hear the noise and partying inside our home with our doors and windows closed. Often not even possible to enjoy our patio. I resort to wearing noiseancelling earphones just to sleep. On Monday, between midnight and 4:00 a.m., I counted 140 young people as seen on my security camera. They came from the property directly behind my home and were congreating congregating alongside my home waiting to catch a ride share. Um, Tuesday was nearly as bad and the security camera captured two more people urine urinating in my yard. Three IPD units arrived before midnight, but nothing changed and party years continued until nearly 3:00 a.m. In the aftermath, we had at least a dozen alcoholic beverage containers thrown in my yard, and even worse, several glass bottles were smashed on landscape boulders in the road. I now have glass shards mixed in my landscape gravel. Why was the chaos not shut down, but allowed to continue? My wife and I are very concerned about our safety. We can't peacefully enjoy our retirement. Um although we are glad that the festivals bring excitement and revenue to India, we fear what may occur in our neighbor our neighborhood during the upcoming festivals. This year round activity has become very disruptive and has negatively impacted our quality values uh property values of our home and community. STR transient occupancy taxes are significant to our city and we're fortunate to have them. However, when residents are subjected to the noise, um chaos, property damage, safety concerns, that's simply not acceptable. Every weekend, my anxiety increases, wondering what will happen next weekend. I know you've heard suggestions from some of my neighbors on possible improvements to better accommodate um STR activities. I ask you to please be more aware of these events and do the right thing to do something to help restore our quality of life. Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much for your comments. April Saunders, council members, I want to add that these parties were underage kids. They were drinking. They were throwing cans bottles all over the neighborhood. The police would like to know. And so why was this party not shut down? It's 11:30 at night. These kids were out past curfew. A lot of show up. They started throwing full beers and bottles over because they didn't want to get caught. They jumping the fence. So I'm just asking no TU. There's over a hundred people each night. Please enforce your own codes. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Richards is in. Good evening.

First of all, I'd like to thank the police department. We had a medical emergency in the ZLP area uh just the other day, and if I ever need a medical emergency, I want that crew there. They were there. They were on it. and very impressive. The problem we had is they couldn't get in the gate and there's a lot of confusion not only on the trilogy gate but also on the ZLP gate. We were informed that the police officers had knockbox access. Uh chief told me tonight that they don't only the fire department has that. We were told that they have optical scanners on on the light headlights but not all vehicles have that. Not all gates have it. So it seems to me when I had just happened to be standing there in my driveway when the units arrived and there were four or five police officers asking me if I knew the code and and he had a life and death emergency situation on that one and you know two two and a half minutes which Mr. Mahaney was able to record. Uh there was a lot of mass confusion and it was kind of scary. The solution is simple. call Albert Management and get the police department and all public safety agencies a secret code and never change it. So they change those codes so often because of all the rentals and everything. All you need is your code. It will never change and you can get in instantly and everybody should have it on their dashboard or whatever, but that will solve the problem instantly. So you don't have to rely on technology. Just remember the city of India has one master code to get in any of our gates. Uh the other thing is that I wrote all of you a letter a few weeks ago and the subject is when we're confused about enforcement. If you look at what happened which April and Dick just mentioned happened uh Friday excuse Sunday, Monday and Tuesday overund people, young people drinking. Uh that's it's not not about the finite things we deal about the code and the STRs and the

TUS. This is just blatant disregard for anything. And it's almost like monopoly. We would like a situation where you don't pass go, you go directly to jail. This unit has an STR, but how can they have an STR? There are certain I said, let me give you a situation in all four where there is a situation where that permit should be revoked because three nights in a row you give them a warning. What does that do? Find them, you get the money. we residents still have to to live with that. So, does the police chief have the authority to shut something down? It's almost like uh an illegal assembly, which was they were underage. Some of them looked like even junior high. When the police cars came, I happened to be see I saw them jumping over the wall to avoid the police. So, there's scattering through our neighborhood. And there's got to be a way to stop that. And we as residents, we don't know what the enforcement policy is. We know it goes from warning to citation to replication. But the question is, are you really enforcing it? We don't know that. And we would like to see statistics published. How many warnings did you give this month? How many citations? How many replications? We have no idea. We know you're trying to do your best, but we have no way of proving that enforcement is actually taking place or what authority the police chief has to shut it shut it down. And I must also compliment Chief Tully. He's tremendous to work with. You send him an email, he responds. So, we're having a great communication relationship with him and it's it's excellent. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Zizen. Is city attorney any comment required? Uh, I I I don't think so other than we're obviously aware of the situations going on. We've been having significant conversations between the police department and my office to address the issues that are occurring there. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for coming out. Appreciate that. Okay. Did you want to Did you have come? I wasn't sure. Just, you know, don't move. All right. Well, that being said, it is it is 7:31 and in honor of Marcos Lopez, this meeting is adjourned.