City Council - Regular Meeting

If it's just a minute, we're waiting for Mayor Pro Tem to reappear, which he will do in a moment or two. Outstanding, I'm sorry, sir. We'll have to fix this next time. All right, good evening, everyone. I apologize for the delay. It's 5.06 p.m. Today is July 15th. This is a regular session of the Indio City Council, and I'd like to call the meeting to order. May I have roll call, please?

Council Member Miller? Present. Council Member Withron? Present. Council Member Ortiz?

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Furman?

Present.

And Mayor Holmes? Present, thank you very, very much. I'd like to have the invocation, Pastor Tony Williams. Will you stand? If you so desire. Nice shirt, yeah, special.

Yeah, I'm probably gonna need a few more, because Brian gave this one to me, so you new people that want to get in good with me probably need to give me stuff. Let us pray. Dear Lord, we just thank you for this day. We're grateful for life, health, and strength. Lord, I ask that you govern this city council and this meeting with your wisdom, with your presence, and with what you ultimately want to be done in our city. Let us be mindful that we steward, Lord, and that we have people who are down and out, people who don't have physical representation. But Lord, let us be mindful to take care of them as well. Lord, once again, we just thank you for this day. We thank you for the council. We thank you for this meeting. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much. Next, as long as we are standing here, we're going to do the Pledge of Allegiance. How exciting. Aaron Rodriguez from Madison Elementary. Aaron just wrapped up second grade at James Madison Elementary. Over the past two years, he's tried a bit of everything through ELOP. Ukulele, that's cool. Hockey, baking. and his favorite, Hot Wheels Math. He's always up for trying something new. Outside of school, he trains in wrestling at the Universal Training Center. Aaron dreams of attending college and pursuing a career as a film producer. Awesome. The floor is yours for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Put your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Amen. Okay, don't go anywhere. Great job.

Put your hand over your heart.

Well, you've got the super duper cool with special powers backpack just for you. Thank you. You did a great job. Sounds like you're having a lot of fun. And I just think you need to keep going and having fun and staying in school. We got some pictures that we need to take here. So why don't you turn? Okay, item number four, city attorney report on closed session.

Good evening, mayor and council. For both items under 3.2 on the closed session agenda, the city council gave direction by consensus. That concludes the report.

Okay, fantastic. Next presentations, item number five, 5.1, presentation of 2026 summer interns.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, city council members, Andrew Ansurian, director of human resources and risk management. Mr. Nix, could you hand me the remote, please? Thank you. It is my pleasure to introduce to the City Council and the public the City of Indio's summer interns for this year. If you know, we started a very robust program about three years ago that has grown to new heights every year, and this year has been our most successful year. due in large part by an HR team member, Yvette Villasenor, who's the program lead on this program. Ms. Villasenor will give a more comprehensive report on the internship program in the fall, but we thought it would be a great opportunity to introduce the city council and the public to our interns for this summer. And interns, as your name comes up on the screen, would you please come up to the podium? Ashley Alejo, she works in our Economic Development and Marketing Department. She's a senior at Desert Mirage High School. Camila Cantuflis works in the City Clerk's Office. She's a junior at La Quinta High School. Jennifer Escobar Garcia, she works in our Community Development and Housing Department. She's majoring in Urban Planning.

You guys, come right up here.

She's majoring in urban planning and she attends Arizona State University. Jennifer Salinas, she works in our police department. Her major is crime and intelligence analysis and she's at Cal State University Fullerton. Angel Flores works in our finance department. He's majoring in accounting and he goes to Cal State University San Bernardino. Emilio Hernandez works in our fleet division. He has an HVAC certification and is at College of the Desert. Taylor Leon works in our Senior Center. She's majoring in Liberal Studies and Child Development, attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Okay, we got stuck there. So I will. Do it manually. Ruben Rodriguez, there he is, works in our Water Utility and Maintenance Department. He's majoring in GIS and attending College of the Desert. Bianca Tariquez works in our Water Utility and Maintenance Department. She's majoring in Political Science and she's attending the University of San Diego. Gonzalo Marcelo Zacharias is in our IT department. He's majoring in Information Systems Technology and Cybersecurity, and he's attending Cal State San Bernardino. Elisa Lopez Ramirez works in the HR department. We've been keeping her very busy. She's a wonderful addition to our team. She's majoring Business Administration with a concentration in HR, and she's attending Cal Poly Pomona. That concludes our interns who are working with us this year. We appreciate them joining our team and I really appreciate our department heads for welcoming them into their departments.

You didn't like my voice, it wasn't loud enough. We're so happy, super, super excited for you. We are also often in City Hall, so you'll see us running around. It'll give you some of the greatest experience of a lifetime. Team Indio, the staff here is extraordinary, and so we wish you the best. Learn lots, have fun, and just go forth and be successful in all that you do. Mayor Pro Tem.

yeah thank you thank you guys for all your work i think this is amazing and i'm so jealous i wish when i was a little a younger person running around here i had the opportunity to intern and learn from brilliant staff that we have here in the city and it's also opportunity to keep your name floating around city hall so when these positions open up and you go off to school and come back or do what you're going to do you come back and you work here because the work that you do provides more services for our community so thank you guys

Go ahead, Ben. No, no.

Well, I'm excited because not only are your studies are important to you and your goals, but you're going to receive an experience of practical experience from people that have gone to school, have dedicated themselves in public service, and it will inspire you because the practical experience really gets you ahead a long way. So best of luck in your experience in the city of Indiola.

And I think Ben said it right, concurred with that. There's nothing more better for an individual to do is the actual work you do that you want to do. So books are great, but usually in my business and in golf courses, once you get to that story where you see it in a book, that's when you're unemployed. So, but for you, remember where you started, where you remember where you come back and come back to the city of Indio and help us to be even a greater city. You'll be our future leaders.

Thank you, council members, and definitely I had the opportunity to meet with all of them when they started about a month ago. They've been doing fantastic work. You can see it's across all the different departments. And as the council member said, we actually have someone that started as an intern that's working in the booth full time here at this council meeting. So it is a great opportunity to start with Indio and possibly continue a career. So we thank you guys, appreciate the partnerships with all the different universities and college programs that you attend. Oscar?

Hi everyone, thank you for joining us today. And we really appreciate you joining us for the summer to serve our community here. We hope that you're learning a lot from our staff here. I'm sure they're learning a lot from you as well. And we just really appreciate your work. And as they mentioned, we hope that you'll stick around to continue helping us serve our community here. Thank you very much.

Great work.

Okay, next item on the agenda, City Manager Reports and Information, item number six.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. We have some wonderful events coming up at the end of this summer and the fall. So actually right now, we have registration open for our third annual Veterans Day 5K run, and we're actually adding a 10K run for those folks that are much faster than I. And again, this is a good fundraiser for the Hunter Lopez Foundation. It's going to be at the Empire Polo Grounds. We're really looking forward to that. But if you're interested, we have an early bird registration that is available online now. Also, we're gonna be reaching out to the public very soon, working with our community services commission to get a survey out on what we would like to see on phase two of the sports park. So a very successful completion of the first phase of our wonderful sports park. We're working on some grant applications to continue to improve that park and do a phase two. So part of that application is our community outreach and also hearing from the community and those folks that use the sports park now, what else would they like to see? So we're gonna have that released very soon online and out to the community. Also at the beginning of August, the first Thursday in August, I believe that's August 6th, we're gonna have Wicked at the center stage. So that'll be our monthly movie. And then also a new event coming in the fall is a wellness event that we'll have at Center Stage. We're planning that for Saturday, October 17th. More information to come on that, but definitely promoting community wellness in the line with our strategic plan and community well-being. And that is my report.

That is fantastic. Lots going on. We don't stop. We never stop here in the city of Indio.

All right.

Okay. The next item is conflict of interest disclosure. Do we have any conflicts of interest? Anyone? Well, I do, as usual, unfortunately. Consent calendar item 9.5. I need to recuse myself on item 9.20. And I have a conflict on the public hearing 10.1 on the Terralago part. So those are my recusals.

So where's the 9.2?

I'm sorry, it's 9.5. It's 9.2. That's interesting. 9.20, correct. And then under public hearings, 10.1. Next item is city council report on meetings attended for government code section 532.32.3D. Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. A couple of my commissions were active. The first one was Sunline Transit Agency. We did budget, kind of like everyone else, their budget year is July. So we did the budget for not only Sunline Transit, but also for the cabs and the taxis, which is the taxi committee. Both the budgets were passed, but just a little notes on kind of what Sunline does. We'll start with the cab companies. There was four cab companies, down to three now. One of the ones, Folded Yellow Cab, did. So we have three cabs. A lot of their business is getting hit by Uber and Lyft and different ride sharing. Their main source of income has always been the airport, will always continue to be the airport, but they charge a higher fee. So there's 77 drivers between the two of them, and they did about 98,000 rides last year. So their budget's $249,000. It's the same as last time. The only money that goes into it is the money that the actual cab companies put into it. So it stayed steady, so they're continuing at the same pace they were. On the bus budget, it is a little over 57 million for the regular budget. It's 16 million in capital improvements. So the budget was approved as is. The territory for Sunline Transit Agency, just so people kind of understand what we're looking at, is 1,120 square miles, fixed rides, which are all the buses you see have the regular routes. There was 2.7 million passengers, and it did a little over three million miles worth of rides from Sunline. Most of the buses now are hydrogen cell. They're on their 14th generation. Hydrogen cell's very expensive, and the rest are C and G, and there are a few electric, but most of them are going to hydrogen. SUNDIAL, WHICH IS FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE DISABILITIES, DID 100,000 RIDES AND 1 MILLION MILES, AND THERE'S 380 EMPLOYEES AT SUNLINE. SO THAT IS SUNLINE, YOUR BUS COMPANY THAT IS OUT THERE THAT WORKS WITH US IN OUR SCHOOLS. some issues coming forward depending on what the federal government does and I said this last time we're still a little concerned on the school routes that money came from the federal government to be able to utilize buses in those areas so we might have to change something or look at other funding to bring back for Sunline, but I will keep you abreast of that. The other was CVAG Executive. A couple of things. The budget was approved, 32 million. It really wasn't too much worried about the budget. That includes everything, including one of the issues was CVAG is redoing their offices. They got another office next to it. We don't own the building. It's at 111 on El Paseo. And they are asking for $625,000 to expand the building to be able to make it more efficient for them. But we do not own the building. It was approved, but there was some conversations on that. So Sunline will be using $625,000 of our money to fix a building that somebody else owns. There was only $20,000 worth of improvements. And then a couple of the other items was there were some concerns CONCERNS FROM SOME OF THE OTHER CONCERNS FROM SOME OF THE OTHER CITIES. CITIES. WHENEVER WE DO A BRIDGE PROJECT WHENEVER WE DO A BRIDGE PROJECT LIKE MONROE STREET, THERE'S A LIKE MONROE STREET, THERE'S A PERCENTAGE FOR EACH CITY. PERCENTAGE FOR EACH CITY. HOW MANY COME FROM INDIAN HOW MANY COME FROM INDIAN WILD, HOW MANY COME FROM THIS. WILD, HOW MANY COME FROM THIS. YEAR ROUND IT'S NOT LIKE YEAR ROUND IT'S NOT LIKE EVERYBODY COMES THROUGH TO EVERYBODY COMES THROUGH TO COME INTO INDIA WHEN A LOT OF THE COME INTO INDIA WHEN A LOT OF THE CONCERN WAS SOME OF THE CITIES CONCERN WAS SOME OF THE CITIES FELT THEY WERE PAYING TOO It all comes by flock cameras and people going through and doing other stuff. But everybody forgets the courthouse is here, and the jails are here, and every county service is here, and then the concerts and anything else they come to in Indio. So Monroe Street Interchange, which is up to $180 million, our portion after they did it actually went down a little bit. It was supposed to be around $15 million. Now it's about $14.4 million. Everybody signed off on it. The money's there, and they're estimating, like I said, that the Monroe Street Interchange will be about $180 million. Hoping it comes in less, but that's what they're looking at. And then the last part of Sunline is we all were at the General Assembly to change over to where all the cities, the tribes, and any of our other partners get together to talk about the past year. Joey DeConnick, the great mayor from Blythe, good friend, is chairman of the board now for CVAG executive. And Linda Evans is the vice chair. So those are my two committees. A couple other things I'll leave real quickly is thank you for the groundbreaking to our staff and that for the Indio PD. We have our second portion of the PD department going up for our headquarters. All of us were there. I'll let Mr. Guthron or the rest of the council talk about it, but it is another milestone from our using Measure A and Measure X money to give back to our community to build what we told our residents we were gonna do is take the money and build one-time projects. Monroe Street interchange, this building's another one. The library, we go on and on of the funding that came from our residents that has been invested back in them. And every time you look at a new paved road, it's the same thing. So great job on behalf of staff. It's about 45 million. We were there for the Walmart reopening. Walmart neighborhood store there on Jefferson and Fred Waring was the first neighborhood store, first Walmart to be remodeled on the whole West Coast. And if you haven't been into it, it's a great addition. They've really put in some quality items in there and removed things around to make it more easy for people to get in through. And they listened to the community about putting in certain items that people wanted and they were able to stock those in there and move things around. So Walmart, we want to thank them for their investment. And then the last two things is the Independence Day. I want to thank our staff. If you didn't get a chance to go out to see the drone show and listen to Radio Ready and come out at the Empire Public Club, please come out next year or one of our events. They're free for you to all to come out to. We really do it for the community. Staff did an amazing job of putting it together. There was probably at least 5,000 or 7,000 people there. But it was families and everyone else. The only thing I would recommend, and I'll say this as I really do think, and I know people, it's a bad word when you say fireworks. I think drones are too difficult for us to do two shows with. So I would recommend personally we do the drone show first and maybe fireworks to end it. Do a combination. So, because if the drones don't go back up, a lot of people waited and then the drones were, you know, because of the actual wind and that. So something we should think about maybe doing if we could do. but hats off to our staff and then the Empire Polo Club and everybody that helps us with that. And then the last, I went to the Passport for Leadership, which is the visit Greater Palm Springs. They have a group that gets together, kind of like Leadership Coachella Valley. They're all high school students and they go through and look at what it is to work in the hospitality industry, where it comes from. They went out to farms everywhere else. There was 14 of them and they all got a graduation a certificate and were able to get up and speak and talk about what they learned. And it was eye opening and refreshing to a lot of these young kids that now are looking at opportunities to do hospitality or agriculture here in the Coachella Valley. And I was able to represent the city on behalf of the mayor and give them a certificate from the city of Indio. So madam mayor, that's all. Thank you.

That's quite a bit. That's fantastic. Excellent. Council member Gautron.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Basically a little bit more on June 25th on Thursday was the groundbreaking for the Indio Police Department's headquarters building, which is phase two. I also want to give a little credit to Councilman Mayor Pro Tem Wayman, because he wanted a vision to have a public safety campus. I don't think it was quite what we envisioned, but it's better in many ways. One, it was already land that was available that our city fathers in the early 70s purchased this 8.4 acres. And I think the envision that things would grow. It was gonna be that second half of that property was actually, it was considered for some of our churches to relocate, and it just wasn't gonna work out, but I feel that maybe it was the churches that gave us the good luck because every single ounce of that square 8.4 acres has been used for a beautiful facility that's going to serve the community for more than 20 to 30, maybe even 40 years. Phase two, phase one was obviously the new headquarters for our fire service, our property evidence, all our support services and our detectives, and also a building for our 911 dispatch which is, far from none, probably one of the best in the Eastern County and has future growth. But having the headquarters is obviously operation for patrol, the administration and our records bureau and other things that need to be needed for the use of investigations incidences that need to house certain aspects of the process in the police department. But I know that the chief and the staff and everybody's really proud of this accomplishment and we should see that get done soon. Things are rolling now. And there's still a little bit of room for growth if things come up in the future. So, It's good, it's a good feeling like everything else we're doing in Indio. July 4th, I do agree that it was a beautiful venue. If I recall, it's our third year there and we keep adding and growing and staff is doing their best to make it a beautiful experience. For the children, there's activities. For the seniors, there's something to listen. For the active, everything's there. I saw people using trays that you normally use for lasagna full of food. It was an individual plate. I saw nachos, tacos, everything. So the food side of it, the beverages of all kinds, that was just slammed. I think it was a great experience. I think every year it's improvable. I do agree that the drone show is nice, creative, and safe, but there's not enough juice. Literally, there's not enough juice. It was a good presentation. There was a little bit of lag time in between, but I think we need to, again, it's improving. We're already doing good, and there's always going to be room for improvement. So it's not a negative. So thanks to the staff and thanks to the community that came out. On July the... On Sunday, I attended, on the fifth, the opportunity to welcome Giovanni Acosta, the new father for Our Lady Perpetual Health Church. And obviously our community is very supportive of our faith-based community. between programs that the police department have and other organizations. And obviously we're always very grateful to having even Pastor Williams represent the church and other pastors, but that's our community. You have some of our congregations, it starts everything from 20 to two or 300, even close to 800 in our members. So that's part of our community. But seeing Pastor Eloy Trujillo is moving on The Archdiocese has moved into Banning Beaumont, and Father Juan will continue to be there for the next three years. But the volume of people that are showing up for the pastors is just unbelievable. It's standing room only. And those are our people, our community. So it's just nice to see that type of support coming out. And thank you to everybody that... gave a good farewell to Father Eli Trujillo. So I wish him the best. I was able to attend July 10th on this past Friday, the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce in the City of Coachella at the Santa Fe Restaurant. The speakers were Mayor Frank, Figueroa from the city of Coachella and Assemblyman Jeff Gonzalez. It's really nice to see, you know, regardless of what you see in the news, there's still people there. And just like in our communities and the rest of the community. So I wish them the best in their challenges. Frank is doing his best. I am very fortunate to work with him on the vector control. He's good at his finances. He's good at numbers. So my hat's off to them moving forward. And we also had the opportunity to meet their new city manager. And when speaking to Jonathan, they both have something in common. They both just started in these positions, so we have to be good neighbors to La Quinta. We have to be good neighbors with the city of Coachella. That's our neighboring cities. Even though we work well with all the cities, as we, all of us here, have some sort of representation throughout the entire Coachella Valley. But it's nice to have a good neighbor in those relationships. And then just as a quick update, I think it's important that I represent the city and the Coachella Valley Electric Control District. I know some of the members of the council have visited. It's a facility that's growing. The founding fathers that moved the facility from Thermal to Indio, that is a well-known national organization in our city. And they work under the operation of the health, and obviously initially started with gnats in 1927 because there was a gnat crisis throughout the valley and then that grew into the mosquitoes and that's grown into the fire ants and other things and most lately an infestation of ticks on the further east end, southern end of the Coachella Valley. Their efforts, they have a state of the art lab, they have state of the art equipment and Those are our taxpayers, but that investment is coming twofold. And they reached a point where they need to grow. And I thought it was important to say that they're doing well. And the most important thing is, their 100 year anniversary is coming up. As you notice, all our public agencies, Lanny Sanitation, ourselves, our birthday's coming up. So this is another public agency that their headquarters in the city of Indio, and they're gonna be 100 in 2027. I mean, in 2027, excuse me. Other than that, thank you, Mayor.

A lot of great information and narrative. Thank you so much, Council Member. Council Member Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor. I recently met with two nonprofits who provide services to our immigrant families, TODEC and Inland Counties for Immigrant Justice. We discussed how things are going locally regarding immigration enforcement, where we still see nearly daily targeting of our families in the Coachella Valley. I just want to share how sad and unacceptable it is to see how cruelly our federal agents continue to treat our neighbors both on the streets and in detention, especially the recent killing of two unarmed fathers in Maine and Ohio. I encourage all of us to continue to speak up against these inhumane practices and continue to build policy solutions to address the impacts of what our federal government is doing our communities. These should include pushing for de-escalation of these violent and dehumanizing tactics, demanding transparency on immigration enforcement, and demanding human rights be protected and due process be provided to all of our community members. On this subject, I would like to suggest that we reiterate our request for transparency from the Department of Homeland Security. We have not heard back after six months of requesting basic transparency regarding immigration enforcement operations in our city. I would like to request that we send a follow-up letter requesting that data on immigration enforcement in Indio for 2025, and also add on the previous six months from January to June of 2026. requesting again a response or a timeline for processing of that response. We also would like to add an item to our next closed session to discuss legal options for enforcing our, options to enforce our rights to receive this information since we haven't heard back in six months. and potentially request support from our federal representatives in the region, including our US senators, our two local Congress members, our California Attorney General, and maybe request a meeting with the Department of Homeland Security. Would the City Council be open to that? I can repeat, I know there was a lot, so I can repeat.

What do you want, sir? Let's start with the letter. I'm not surprised that we haven't heard from them. I certainly don't have a problem with pursuing another letter.

I think all the requests are fine and they're not gonna cost the city any money. It's not that much time and it's for the betterment of people who live in our community. So I support everything that you asked for. And also I'd like to ask, if this is part of it or we can ask for it for local immigration numbers because that would probably be a little easier to get than from the Department of Homeland Security. That's probably something we could shoot an email and they have local numbers for us here, but Homeland Security is probably it. Local numbers from like the Border Patrol? Border Patrol, immigration, yeah. Gotcha. But those wouldn't include the ICE numbers, right? It wouldn't include ICE numbers, but it would give us an idea of the activity that goes on here. For instance, we know what our police and fire do. Those are first responders and law enforcement. we're entitled to the information by local board patrol as well.

Yeah. You okay, all good, yeah?

Microphone. Council member, my recommendation would be, this is the second time we've done it, I think that if Council Member Ortiz wishes, get another council member and go see him in person.

Go see who in person?

Whoever you need to, deliver the letter in person. That would be my opinion because I just, I'm the type of person I want to see results, but I'm not going to keep begging. So since you're in respects to you, you have the cause, pick somebody to go with you. 6 o'clock in the morning.

Yeah, I mean, we've done that, and I don't have a problem doing it again. When Councilmember Miller was mayor, I mean, the mayor, myself, and police chief, we met with Border Patrol, and it's okay to revisit that as well.

It's not the police municipality because this is a non-police issue from the city of Indio?

No, it's not a police issue, but we have relationships established where... If you have a report already with that agency, it'd probably be a little easier to have that conversation. That's what I mean.

My thing is we have a good report, and we're not listening from the federal level. So that's what I'm saying. Knock on that door.

All right, well taken. All right, we're good, certainly. Thank you. We'll move forward with that. Appreciate the support on that.

I also want to thank the mayor for helping us invite TODIC for a presentation to the city council so they can share more information about the services they provide for our immigrant families. and how they're coordinating with other local organizations and state agencies to provide support for those families. They will hopefully be joining us in August at our next council meeting to share some of the work they're doing and so we can discuss how we can better serve our immigrant community. I have a few other reports. I want to thank our city staff and county staff for their collaboration on the new Indio Business Connect classes for our small businesses. If you have a small business and want some help with permitting or business planning, there are some great classes and services available for free. through our Indio Business Connect programs and our partners at the local Small Business Development Center, which has an office at our EDD building on Monroe and Fred Waring. So please reach out if you need assistance. I know a lot of people are looking at building up their small businesses or side businesses with how expensive the cost of living is getting with rising prices all around. Earlier this month and this morning, I met with our representatives from Bird Tech who manage our waste services to discuss the rate increases we'll be discussing today. And we went over some of the market changes in the past few years that have been increasing costs, including expansions in medical leave, wage increases for workers, and increasing fuel and energy costs. I also attended our 4th of July event at the Polo Grounds. I want to thank our staff and partners there for continuously growing this event. to the over 6,000 attendees that we saw this year. I heard a lot of compliments about the event and the drone show was great as well. So thank you very much to our city staff for helping with that. Lastly, I recently met with a local advocate for our deaf community, his name was Richard Barra, to talk about our interpretation services for meetings and events. He made some great points on how we can make it easier for deaf residents to attend our city meetings, increase participation for that community at our local events, and so that we can be ready for emergency situations at our local events. I would like to request that our council direct staff to work with our community services commission to see if we can get some recommendations for them on improving both interpretation and translation services for meetings and events with special attention to emergency services at the city and at our local meetings and events.

Okay. Yeah, it's needed. Yep.

Yes, we can look into that and work with the commission.

Our 911 system has the ability to do some help, but you're correct on the rest of the side of it that we don't have that.

One good example they mentioned was that recent emergency we had at the polo grounds during the concerts when everybody had to leave and they had those huge signs, so it was very clear to everybody. But they were saying at some events, you don't have that kind of signage or messaging. So how do we plan for people who are hard of hearing to know what's going on during emergency situations? I thought that was a really good point.

Yeah. We also have, obviously, at the direction of city manager, Scott Viziac for the EOC type and disseminate emergency messages. But I think you bring a valid point. And so does the resident that contacted you. Yeah.

Thank you. All right.

Very good. Excellent. Mayor Pro Tem.

Good evening. I did have one committee meeting and I had a few events and a few quick Zoom meetings. I'll start off with Vigil Greater Palm Springs. Really good meeting, even though it's summertime. We had an update on air traffic into Palm Springs Airport. And even during the summer, you know, we had some really good flights that are coming in and also an update on numbers coming from Canadian visitors. We're getting more of our Canadian visitors back to the Coachella Valley. So that's something that's a positive for our tourism industry here in the Coachella Valley. Also, we had an update on the NCAA Aquaculture Series and CV Lakers coming to Aquaculture Arena. So that's a plus for our destination as well. So the NCAA Aquaculture Series will start on November 21st, 2026. And Visitor Greater Palm Springs has a lot of information. So it's a lot of social media, a lot of marketing for our Valley and just... this morning, the mayor and I, we participated in a conversation with some of their consultants on how we could continue to brand and build our city as a destination. And it was a real great, robust conversation on how we highlight some of the amenities we have in our city you know from our outdoor open green spaces our art and public places our downtown area how it's grown some of our traditional areas like shields uh ranch and some of our newer developments like the citrus you know so um and of course our our festivals so um really good conversation this morning with some of their uh consultants i also had a quick league of california's meeting with the riverside county division and it was a brief one just to talk about where we're going to have some of our future meetings and of course i always advocate for the coachella valley and indio specifically but also blythe i think black is a good partner we have to continue to advocate for them too especially that being the border city we have to continue to support them as well and so i also attended the walmart neighborhood walmart ribbon cutting Another great event. Thank you, Pastor Tony Williams from Love of Christ Community Church for being there and blessing the event. And thank you to all the vendors that were there. A lot of good vendors. And thank you to Walmart for bringing that neighborhood Walmart in our city. And like the council member mentioned, it's the first one on the West Coast to get this kind of remodel. And it's right in the neighborhood, in the community. And I think we need to continue to focus on bringing smaller grocery stores into some of our older traditional neighborhoods like North Indio and some of those areas. So we'll continue to do that. I ALSO ATTENDED THE GRAND OPEN AND RIBBON CUTTING FOR THE 417 RECOVERY CENTER HERE IN DOWNTOWN INDIA AND THEY PROVIDE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES FOR TEENAGERS AND THEY ALSO HAVE AN OFFICE IN PALM DESERT AND THEY DO SERVICES FROM FAMILY SERVICES, INDIVIDUAL GROUP COUNSELING BUT IT'S FOCUSED MOSTLY ON TEENAGE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES SO THAT'S RIGHT HERE ON OASIS STREET BEHIND So congratulations to 417 Recovery for expanding into Indio. I also participated in the Theresa A. Mike Fashion Show this year. I think I've done this fashion show about 15 times the last 15 years. But it's a great event that supports a local charity here in our city, the Theresa A. Mike Foundation. She's part of the 29th Palm Spanish Mission Indian Tribe, and she lost her life at a young age to cancer. So I'll always continue to advocate for this foundation and cancer as well. And before I conclude, there's been a lot of talk in our community right now with shelter people in our communities, especially during these hot summer weather. And I'd like to ask if the chief could, in a future meeting, have a quality of life team come and just do an update on the services.

A low anxiety environment and one where they can talk and go through a process of understanding what's going on, how to fix it, and how to, again, live life so that they're happy and successful and they can get through school and have positive friendships again. and family relationships. I think we all kind of attend pretty much the same thing because you have one very, very engaged council here. The IPD headquarters was something just absolutely terrific. The headquarters phase two of that facility, I can't wait to see it coming out of the ground. I drive down Jackson, gosh, probably three or four times a week and it's really great to know what's going on and to know that you, are going to have a brand new police headquarters. Walmart neighborhood, that was just a terrific market. That was just a great lesson in bringing the community together. And every aspect of that community came together. It was really terrific. And thank you as well to Walmart because they gave back as well to, and they gave, what's the word I'm looking for, dollars, contributions to Shays Warriors, to the Animal Center, the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, I'm sorry, Animal Center. Sorry about that. And the Boys and Girls Club as well. A couple of baskets full of backpacks. And they indicated, and I'll say this to staff as well, they want to be involved with the community. So if there's ever any opportunity for them, they encourage, let's reach them, and they will be happy to to be a part of our events and anything we may need them for. So really a wonderful general manager there and great event. We had our first Pride. That was in the last month. So many things are going on.

We had so many things going on.

At some point, pardon me if I'm being redundant, but we had our first annual Pride event. It was great. It came off wonderfully. Great music, great people, great crowd. I'm sure, like everything else in Indio, next year will be even bigger and better. because we put some very tight controls around digital signage. We wanted to make sure that where it'll sign, that it followed some very specific guidelines, but we really didn't want digital signs randomly throughout our community. So I was surprised to see that sign go up because it didn't come to council. So I wanted to ask...

I think it did come to council recently.

It went to council?

Yeah, but we provided some kind of guidance on it, but I don't recall what that guidance was.

I don't remember. It went to the Planning Commission.

It did go to the Planning Commission. It didn't go to the City Council. Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah, so under their current guidelines, it would go to Planning Commission, and it met the guidelines for the size of that building for signage.

I think you stand corrected. I think my appointee asked for some history. Sure. And the only thing I said is, It depends on how it looks, and they're adding landscaping to give it that look. And I do agree with you on what you're saying, but I think it was that look.

And my question to Council is, do we want to take back ownership of reviewing digital signs, particularly on Highway 111, but digital signs in general? Because they can be very, very effective or not, right? And part of that, again, I'm gonna just constantly pull us back to Highway 111. It's been a while since we've looked at the specific plan. You know, we have one chance at Highway 111, one chance to make that really a banner street with homes, with stores, with the kind of boulevard that really represents our community. And I would like to see if it's okay with everyone, if we can bring back a review of the Highway 111 specific plan, inclusive of that, is the digital signs and our ability to weigh in on those.

I remember I agree with Oscar on the part was because we did discuss, Mathis Brothers came to us to talk about digital sign because they wanted it. I think we did discuss it when we were talking about signage. To me, I don't have an issue bringing it back, but I mean, Mathis Brothers is one of our largest tax revenue individuals, and they came to us. I think if the Planning Commission comes and puts it up and we give them guidelines, I think they're going to know what we need. If we don't like it, then they can appeal it to us and we can look at it. But I think the more we start taking back from the Planning Commission, the less we need the Planning Commission.

You know what? Planning Commission plays a role, but I think, and that sign is beautiful, right? I don't, it made me ask the question. Again, this is our community. When I was on that little team, I remember at the time, is we just wanted to make sure, I mean, at least let us review, I think we should all review the guidelines for it. And I still, I'm going to say, particularly specific to Highway 111, I think we need to, to take a look at where they are placed and be part of that decision making. I'm glad they went to the two of you, but it didn't come to the rest of council.

My opinion is if it comes to question, everything that we have in our books is pretty much can be reviewed. So if we need to review it, I think we need, I know that it's part of our strategic plan is the 111 corridor because I remember mentioning it. So if we're going to do something, let's really look at that whole venue because there's been other things that have come up that have had Concerns because things have changed we've concentrated all over the city of india But we still have that void that we've had since the 80s From clinton street all the way to all the way to jefferson.

I couldn't agree more And and one of the things that I brought it up to john at lunch today when we were at a meeting is I came from india boulevard and remember that that used to be our auto dealership And we don't allow automotive uses on highway 111 anymore unless this thing But there's all those empty auto dealerships that are there that are never going to be able to go back to what they do. I do think we need to go back to Highway 1 and look at the plan, and we need to start focusing on that along with downtown. Because what comes in from Indio Boulevard or Highway 111 will then funnel into downtown.

That's right.

So I mean, if it's not inviting to get into, people aren't going to drive past it unless they know what they're going to. So I think if you really take a look down from Jackson Street down to Indio Boulevard, there's multiple vacant buildings that used to be either auto dealerships or gas stations or whatever. that are sitting vacant that could be prime projects for business. So I agree with you on the 111.

All right, do I have consensus on reviewing the Highway 111 specific plan?

Yeah, I think that, I do support it. But I think it's an opportunity when we have our retreat with our commissions and we all could have that conversation. So we don't run the risk of taking responsibility from Planning Commission. However, we could still go over some of the plans of Highway 111 downtown or whatever we need to review. So yes, I do support that.

I think if anything for the input is I do agree with the Mayor Pro Tem that the Planning Commission, our community services give input. and then come back to this panel.

And come to us. Let them take the first crack at it and come back to us.

From the community services, community services from the community's viewpoint, and since plan commission is policies and procedure, then both bodies can come back and we can look at it, see what the city manager thinks of that.

I specifically remember because I, I wanted a Jumbotron in the city. I want to tell the story of the city. I want people to visit. I want people to know what's going on. So I wanted a Jumbotron. And I was told, wait a minute, here's your Jumbotron. Mathis Brothers took care of it. So that was how I remember. But however, if someone, I'm always open to a discussion to review something. Nothing's written in concrete. So.

I remember a conversation we had with the mall property and is there going to be digital signs on Monroe and I remember it was a strong conversation and I guess I just want to make sure that we are applying it uniformly across the board.

I agree with the we can review the guidelines again I wouldn't want our council to get that far into the details you know that I think I had that conversation with my planning commission I trust him to make those decisions I think We have other bigger things that we gotta take on here at the city council. That's my thought on Sephora.

And that's fine, and I like the idea of a retreat. So I think we have, at least the direction to be able to go ahead and take another look at the Highway 111 specific plan.

Definitely, council members. That is actually one of our, as mentioned, action items for the strategic plan. So our community development department's already been working on an update to both the Highway 111 plan and the downtown specific plan. So we can provide an overview to the Planning Commission first, talk about what's working, some areas that might need improvement or adjustments, have that discussion with Planning Commission. AND IF THERE'S COUNCIL CONSENSUS WE CAN ALSO BRING THAT UPDATE TO THE COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMISSION AND THEN BRING IT BACK TO THE CITY COUNCIL WITH THEIR FEEDBACK.

SOUNDS FANTASTIC. THAT'S GREAT. MAYOR POTEMKO YOU HAD A COUPLE OF COMMENTS?

YEAH. WE'RE OKAY WITH THE DIRECTION THERE? YEAH. I'M GOING TO SWITCH GEARS REALLY QUICK. I APOLOGIZE I FORGOT ONE OTHER THING TO ADD. for the chief, I'd seen Lieutenant Leyva back there and it reminded me of something, is we've had a challenge and our world was speeding, right? And when I have issues or challenges or concerns, I'll text Lieutenant Leyva and we'll talk about it or the chief, but something that's even more viable that we all could use, that I use, and you don't have to be an Indio resident to use this, but I think every Indio resident should have this on their phone, my Indio app. I use MyNDO app all the time, so I don't have to reach out to them. So if there's something going on in the city, whether it's speeding, whether it's a code enforcement issue, whether it's a challenge downtown, whether it's unsheltered encampments near your home, you could utilize the MyNDO app. Please, before you leave tonight, if you have the greatest phone in the world, which is an Android, or if you have the sad phone, what is the Apple, please download the MyNDO app and utilize it because it gives you a receipt, it tracks the request, and you also get an answer back. And I just put one in for speeding over on Avenue 48. I got a response back that it was transferred over to NLPD. and they're looking into it. So please utilize that MyIndio app. Sometimes as council members, we get emails, and by the time we get to an email and respond, and then contact staff, time goes by. You could do that right there from your phone. So sorry, Mayor, I just wanted to put that out there.

I think that's great and fantastic information, and I think we can get that out. The more we get that out, the better. So thank you very, very much. All right, that council report, let's move on to the next, which is a consent calendar. Does anyone wish to pull anything, or do I hear? I do have two items. I do. Yes.

Okay, what are those two items? So I would respectfully like to pull 9.27. And there's one more that I had written down. And that would be 9.20. Excuse me, I stand corrected. I'm looking, I apologize. There's so much on here. I was looking for the new resolution that Stephen is going to be presenting, but I think that's under public hearings. Stephen?

For the business.

The business? 9.6.

9.6. Are you talking about second reading for the commercial vacant? 9.6, Council Member.

I had asked the city manager to bring that to educate because we're going to be educating on that ordinance.

No, I understood that. Okay, so anything else?

9.25. 9.25? All right.

And Mayor Pro Tem, anything you need to pull? No, I've . Never. All right, let's talk about 9.6.

The purpose of me asking our city attorney to kind of explain that process is because it's gonna be an education to a lot of our property owners. We reached a point to introduce a policy that we mentioned to assist in the city's quality of life in maintaining this property. So, Councillor, I'll leave that up to you.

Thank you, Councilmember. As the council is aware, the purpose of all of our municipal codes is compliance. It's not punishment. So I've spoken with the city manager, spoken with our code enforcement team. There will be an educational effort that will be underway, getting our commercial building owners and our businesses aware of the existence of the ordinance and what the expectations are. If we do have a property that is in violation, we're going to be providing them notice of that violation and a reasonable opportunity to correct it before we initiate administrative citations or civil penalties.

Any other questions? That's just the information so the public can hear it. Terrific.

In discussing with the city manager and staff, it's like everything we do, and I think the Mayor mentioned, we have to educate. So I'm a strong believer in education and then we have to do something about it. And we're gonna have the tools because we're gonna be treating this situation like we do for closure homes. Because literally these facilities are being abandoned and my philosophy has always been, if you're gonna invest in Indio, maintain your property. We're not dealing with a resident. We're dealing with an investor that came in. And when it's harboring all our challenges, like what we've witnessed online lately with what's happened between the city of Coachella and Indio, mentioning the quality of life, which I WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN BRINGING THAT TO THE DEPARTMENT BECAUSE WE COPIED THAT FROM THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO. AND THANK YOU TO THE COUNCIL AFTER THE RECESSION REINSTITUTED THAT PROCESS. BUT THAT ALONE DOESN'T WORK. THEY NEED MORE TEETH TO ADDRESS THESE VACANT BUSINESS BUILDINGS THAT THEY'RE JUST BOARDING THEM UP AND THEY'RE BECOMING A NUISANCE AND THEN Another thing that was brought to our attention is now these facilities, because they're not maintaining them, have become a fire issue. And so it's just all these resources are being done by the city to the point the city has to set aside monies to secure someone else's property. And if you can't maintain it, and there's a workable solution if they need a plan to help work to secure it, but when it's been that way for months and we're getting complaints from our community and from other businesses that are being affected, we had to implement this. So the other thing with education is that we're also may have to add an opportunity where the MyNDO is also promoted so residents can, it's a really easy system, they can take a photo, it GPSes it and it moves forward. And then the resident or another business owner gets results on what we're doing. And I think that I really appreciate the Council taking this on because I mentioned it, but at the end it's to benefit the quality of life of our city. that everybody, regardless of their background, needs to benefit from the good.

Thank you. All right. You bet. Thank you for bringing that up. Next item. What was the next one? 9.25.

Yeah that one I just wanted to see you know from the chief I know I'm a little concerned on the price amount of it I know we've had a lot of big ticket items here recently and adding this other one I know we have we're sharing one right now with Palm Springs I believe yes and we have that available to us so I'm looking to see how urgent this is for us with with the high price tag on here.

Absolutely council member mayor mayor pro tem and council let me explain uh Item 9.25, it's actually two agreements. The first agreement is a training course that consists of three weeks in total spread over three months. It is gonna encompass over 25 people in the department. If you remember when I became chief, I promoted 10 sergeants and four lieutenants almost immediately, or three lieutenants almost immediately. CURRENTLY THEY HAVE JUST OVER TWO YEARS EXPERIENCE. THERE IS NO LAW ENFORCEMENT IN CALIFORNIA POST POLICE OFFICER STANDARDS AND TRAINING. THERE IS NO LEADERSHIP TRAINING THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY UNDERGOING HERE IN THIS AGREEMENT. So the first agreement is $45,000 for that training course. It is designed to improve the leadership, management, and supervision of our middle management across the entire organization. So we have noticed some growth that is needed in that area and liability that we have incurred because of that. So I want to improve that area

that aspect of the mail management. Sorry, I had the wrong number. It was 9.26. 9.26. I had the wrong one on my notes. Oh, absolutely. Sorry about that. Apologize.

That's terrific. Yeah, absolutely. Yes, thank you. All right. All right. 9.26, it's yours as well.

I will quickly adjust to 9.25. I had the wrong number on my notes. Yeah. Let me see.

With that item, the Bearcat item, I have Lieutenant Longoria, who is in the audience, that will come forward and present that item.

Good evening, City Council, Mayor Holmes, Mayor Pro Tem Furman. I'd like to discuss and answer any questions regarding the Bearcat. I understand that it's quite a high ticket item. We've, first of all, my name is Eric Longoria. I'm a Lieutenant with the Indio Police Department, and I'm currently also the SWAT Commander for the Regional SWAT Team. We share that SWAT Team with the Cathedral City Police Department and the Palm Springs Police Department, and we currently do share a barricade with the Palm Springs Police Department that we've purchased, or they purchased quite a bit long time ago. We've been a part of that SWAT team since 2010, and since then we've been utilizing their piece of equipment for our festivals, for any operations that we have here in the city of Indio. And so now we're looking at purchasing long overdue equipment that's needed. I'd like to focus on, there's several reasons why we need the piece of equipment, but really I'd like to focus on three. One, it provides protection for our police officers and SWAT operators as they go out and handle high-risk situations, whether that's a barricaded subject, an armed situation, hostage rescue type situation. And it can also act if we have any active shooter type situations. That would be the piece of equipment that would respond out to that. We also utilize it for the special events. As you guys know, we host Coachella Fest Stagecoach and the Tamale Festival that are events that are attended by over 100,000 attendees. It's one of the largest in the nation and one of the largest in the world for that matter. This acts as a emergency response vehicle that we have specially trained operators in there that are able to respond to the event that we have some type of critical incident. And then the last, Really wanna just say it's a visual deterrence. And what I mean by that is when we respond out to these situations, when our officers respond out to dangerous armed subjects who have shown that they'll commit violent acts, as soon as that thing drives up, It acts as just a deterrent that they no longer want to play. They'll come out. It allows for a peaceful surrender, and that's really been effective for us in the work that we do.

For the Palm Springs Bear Cut, did we provide any of the funding when that was purchased?

No, that was purchased by them the first time and then the second time also. And one thing I would just like to point out is this is not to purchase now. There's a couple reasons why we're bringing it to city council. is one, it's considered a military equipment item. And then also just for this to be built, it takes around 18 months. So it wouldn't be in this fiscal year, it would probably be either in the next fiscal year or the fiscal year after.

We'd be sharing this with other cities, organizations.

So it would be part of the equipment that we share with the other police departments, Cathedral City Police Department and Palm Springs. However, they will have one on the west end. This would be the first time. that we have one on the east end. We have, well, I'm sorry, the Palm Springs has one on the west end, and then the next one after that would be Paris by the Sheriff's Department, which is quite a distance away out. So we'd like to have one on the east end. It acts as, if we needed to rescue personnel, whether it's from the community or one of our officers, it would have an immediate response, not only in a situation of a shooting or something like that, but also natural disaster, it would work in that effect where it could really help out if we needed it.

Okay, thank you, appreciate it. Mayor. Chief Bryant-Tully, if I may, I wanted to also add where the funding comes from for this item. It is a non-general fund purchase. We receive state funding on a regular basis annually to supplement our public safety services for the city of Indio. So this is a fund that actually comes from the state and so that we can acquire capital assets to ensure and provide additional safety and security items for the community.

Chief, in describing it is SLESA funds, correct?

Yeah, basically yes.

And the council has approved SLESA funds and what is SLESA funds used for from the state?

They're used for a number of items. They are used for our computer-aided design record management system. They're used for our Motorola radio systems, our dispatch radio systems, making sure that we have upgraded technology so that we stay connected and provide that infrastructure for providing public safety across the community.

And how many years, To your best of knowledge, have we been fortunate to receive SLESA funds from the State of California?

Since I've been here at the City of Indio every year, we've received substantial funds to supplement and provide those additional items.

In 2016, my other question, LT. In 2016, there was a critical incident why we had Coachella Fest, correct? Yes, sir. And during the Coachella Fest, is it correct that As we do every year, as we contract with other law enforcement services to supplement our operations with the concerts, specifically the Big Three concerts, their equipment would be deployed in the city of Indio from the regional SWAT team, correct?

Yes, sir, and that's a great point, Councilman Butron.

If I may ask, What happened in 2016 that that equipment had to immediately be deployed away from the city during 125,000 people in the city of Palm Springs?

Yeah, so during that incident, that's when Palm Springs Police Department was dealing with a critical incident in which two of their officers, were shot and killed. We responded as a SWAT team. We had to pull our armored assets away from the festivals and respond out there and help assist with that situation. Several of our officers, including myself, responded out. in that piece of armor and it allowed us to be in a protected vehicle, ballistically protected, and ultimately hold our ground there and handle that situation. We did get some assistance after that with the Sheriff's Department, but yes. To your point, that piece of equipment was taken away from our special event, our festival, to deal with a, rightfully so, to deal with the situation that they needed in Palm Springs.

And Lieutenant, if I recall, once that situation was stabilized, the equipment returned, but then again it was deployed in the area of Bermuda Dunes where they had our officers confronted an ongoing investigation at an apartment complex and we had to remove the vehicle again from the venue.

Yes, there was another incident in which actually it was our officers that were investigating a, I believe it was a hit and run crime if I recall correctly. They had to respond out to the Bermuda Dunes area and during that event, A officer was pulled, or I'm sorry, a firearm was pulled on one of our officers and our officers, there was a officer involved shooting. Our officers had to, our SWAT team had to respond out there. Ultimately, it ended in a peaceful resolution. But yes, that was pulled away again from our event, which It's crucial that we have that piece of equipment at the festivals while that's going on in our city.

And that was my whole point for the question, is that we have basically the planet as our guest in Indio, California, and when these situations occur and we're real festive, The unfortunate fact is these situations come up and we're basically inoperative in enhancing our safety, not just for the officers but for the public. So I've been hoping that the day would come and my gratitude is to the chief to taking advantage of the state public funding and reallocating it. They've done well because of the support of the council to get equipment, but that is a piece of equipment, but it's gonna help save lives in time of need. But good point to bring it out, Council Member Ortiz, because I think it's important we educate the public why these movements are being done. Thank you, LT. Thank you.

Mayor Holmes, if I may, I wanted to clarify Councilman Gattron's question on SLESA funding. This is a public safety sales tax, half cent sales tax that we receive in order to provide these services and equipment.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you for the clarification. Appreciate it. Go right ahead.

Excuse me, Chief or Lieutenant, maybe you can answer. First of all, I think it's a great purchase. It's always great to have the tools when you need them. You don't want them not there when you need them. So I think it's a great purchase. And I think, you know, also having these services available when we have our visitors here and our residents as well. It's always great to be prepared. Only a couple questions I have. What's the life cycle of the vehicle? And storage and maintenance, if you could touch on those.

The life cycle is approximately 20 years. We've had, I think the one from Palm Springs, I believe it's about 25 years. And then with the new building, we're trying to see if we can have some type of a shaded structure that we'd be able to keep that, to kind of keep it away from the heat, from that environment. But I don't know if I'm missing anything.

The maintenance.

Maintainance, it would be a city asset. So maintenance, we would ask that our city yards assist us with that maintenance. I believe there are special things that would have to be sent out, but those don't come along very often. Okay.

That's great. A lot of great information. Go right ahead.

Jonathan, do you think maybe when we're doing the parking structure, you know, we're doing the shaded structure, Maybe we can take one of the sections and build it into a thing where they can put that in. I mean, it's a very expensive piece of equipment. It needs to be probably locked up and protected even though it is. Probably should be a good opportunity if we're doing it to take one of those areas from one of the maybe the solar panels for the shade structure and put it around it and we can lock it up to make sure. It doesn't need to be expensive, but I think it's something that he's absolutely right. Not only should people not be around it, not that it's dangerous, but but also that it should be protected, that kind of asset, because it's only gonna go out when we need it. So it should be then something covered. I don't think we have anything else.

If I may, the mobile command unit that we purchased in 1997, part of it was the elements direct heat. So you bring up a very good point. That asset is scheduled for some sort of replacement with grant funding. In order to keep the life cycle good on these vehicles, they have to be protected from the direct sunlight, just like they do the fire apparatus. Terrific. Jonathan? Something to think about.

Yes, definitely. As we were planning out the new headquarters building and working with the chief and the team, we're making sure that the new shade structures in the new parking lot are tall enough for this vehicle and also for the mobile command vehicle that was brought to the council last meeting.

Way ahead.

Yep. Great. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. And let's see one last thing here. Council member 9.27.

So the reason I bring this up is because I asked a question with the city manager and I asked the city manager if, Andrew would give a report and the reason is because apparently this is a recurring contract and I just wanna make sure, like with all our vendors, where are we at and when's the last time it's been vetted or bidded, just like we've asked in the last couple of meetings with some other vendors that we deal with.

Thank you for the question, Mr. Catron. Andrew Ansurian, Director of Human Resources and Risk Management. This is for legalized special services in the arena of HR and personnel matters, specifically things like disciplinary consultation, other labor law consultation, but this year is primarily focused on the negotiation process that we'll be entering. We have a full year of negotiations this year with all five MOUs expiring this fiscal year. We lean on this particular firm for those services in guiding us through the negotiation process on behalf of the city. To your question, Mr. Cutrone, which is a good one, we have not gone out for bids since I've been here, and that's been about five years. But if the city council wishes for us to do that in the future, we'd be happy to do that.

So if I may, Mayor, is that that's what I'm reaching. And again, I learned this experience from dealing with Ruby and our finances. It's recommended about every three to five years to any vendor to be vetted and go out to bid to make sure that our investments and we're on track. For all I know, it could come back to this body and everything's okay. If it was a source vendor, which this is not, that's my understanding, then my feeling is that this body has an obligation to follow those rules, especially since they've been recommended by the California League of Cities and other organizations that provide liability, risk management, and so forth. And I think that any service that we have over a five-year period, or soon to be a five-year period, should go out to bid.

Great, I concur.

with that. I don't want to go out to bid in the middle of everything we're working on this year, but I think the following year would be a good time to put that practice into use.

Sorry, I think the City Manager could look at this at a later date, but like the Mayor mentioned, not during or close to when we're already going to start working on it.

But I think if we're gonna do it, then we need to set a policy so it's not something that goes back and forth, that if it goes between three and five years that we go out and have a look at it is, whatever it might be, it might be five years because of that kind of contract, three years on another, and it could be the same firm, but if we're gonna do a policy, it shouldn't be hit and miss. We do it for everyone.

Well, that's why I said the city manager could bring it back.

Yeah, absolutely.

And just for the record, this is the fourth time I've brought this up, and eventually we gotta do something about it.

I definitely hear you council members as mentioned and some of our other contracts whether it be security, landscaping, janitorial, HVAC is also on the agenda. We need a competitive process for that. And so the request from staff at this point is to continue with LCW and then we do that RFP process during this next fiscal year to sharpen our pencil and sharpen their pencil and see what other services might be available. And as mentioned, if they're successful, they're a good proposal for the city of Indio, then we may also recommend continuing with them. But our recommendation is to continue with them for the continuity to get our MOUs done. They're labor negotiators for us for several years. I think there's continuity working with our employees and having consistent firm work with them. But again, we can explore that RFP process during this next fiscal year and then bring that back to the council.

I think that's perfect. Yes. I'll make a con... a motion to accept a consent calendar as presented 9-1 through 9-27 with the recusal from the Mayor on 9-5 and 9-20.

I'll second.

Get to it.

That's because I don't have the ability to vote. So, yes.

Okay, so it's 5-0? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew.

Okay.

Let's see here. I'm just gonna have to use my notes. Thank you for the paper. Public hearings. Item 10.1. So there are like several paragraphs, so I need to read all of those paragraphs, City Attorney, all of that verbiage, because we'll be here till about midnight.

You do not. It's posted on the agenda. You can simply reference what is posted on the agenda.

Okay. Thank you so much. So the first item is 10.1, public hearing, resolution number 105.92, and I'll read the first sentence regarding the levy of a special tax for city of Indio community facilities district, and it goes through all the different facilities districts. And so let's see. I have a conflict on just the Terralago district only. Staff report, would you like to come up and speak? Ruby, yes.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Temp, and members of City Council. Ruby Walla, Director of Finance for the City of Indio. The item presented to you this evening is related to the annual authorization for the special levy, special tax levy related to the community facilities districts, commonly known as CFDs. and what we're seeking is approval by resolution to proceed with that special tax for the CFDs administered by the city. We have two that are specifically for public safety, 2004-1 and 2004-2, which are presented increasing by the allowed 2% increase, and that is raising and going up $10.91 from $545.64 to $556.55. That's $556.55 per parcel that is participated and annexed into this CFD community. This special tax levy contributes about $5.6 million to our public safety costs, which is inclusive of police, fire and ambulance services which in the current budget year is set at 71 million so it pays a portion of that to offset the city's cost in addition to your staff report the other cfds mentioned are those that uh developments new developments that bonded for infrastructure improvements and this let these resolutions establish those lefties to pay for those debt service obligations As presented in the staff report are just estimates of what those revenue estimates are to satisfy those obligations. That concludes my report and we are just seeking for City Council to open the public hearing, take public comment, close the public hearing, and then proceed with approval at City Council's discretion.

And I will do that, but first do we have any questions of staff before I open up the public hearing? All right, opening up the public hearing. Are there any comments for anyone in the audience? Any questions? Anyone wishing to speak? Going once, I see no one. Close the public hearing. Any comments, council?

I'll motion to approve.

And so I have to keep myself out of the Terra Lago area, number one. I'll second.

Motion to approve with the recusal of... Mayor on, which number?

10593.

Thank you. 10593.

And second. I second. Second, all right. And so I'll vote yes, no I can't. There we go. I'll vote yes with the exception of 10593. I can't do anything with it. It's just not happy with me tonight. So item 10.2, resolution number 105.96, approving the engineer's annual levy report and resolution number 105.97 with regard to levy and collection of assessments, again, of the 52 landscaping and lighting districts. That is Miguel Pena.

GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING The city administers these districts under the Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972. Each year, the city council conducts a public hearing to review and confirm the engineer's annual levy report and authorize the levy and collection of assessments. THE ENGINEERS REPORT HAS BEEN ON FILE WITH THE CITY CLERK SINCE JUNE 17 AND AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC INSPECTION. EACH OF THE 52 DISTRICTS IS INDEPENDENT WITH ITS OWN BOUNDARIES, IMPROVEMENTS AND ASSESSMENT. PARCELS ARE LEVIED ONLY FOR THE IMPROVEMENTS THAT PROVIDE SPECIAL BENEFIT TO THEM AND THE ENGINEERS REPORT CONFIRMS THESE IMPROVEMENTS DO NOT PROVIDE MEASURABLE GENERAL BENEFIT TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS PROJECTED ASSESSMENT REVENUE IS $1,916,969 AND TOTAL GENERAL FUND CONTRIBUTION IS $294,939. Once the public hearing closes, staff recommends that the city council adopt resolution number 10596, approving the engineer's annual levy report for fiscal year 2026 and 2027, and resolution number 10597, ordering the levy and collection of assessments for all 52 landscape and lighting maintenance districts. Staff also is recommending a general fund contribution for fiscal year 2026, 2027. Upon adoption, the final assessments will be filed with the Riverside County Assessors by August 14th, 2026. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Okay. Any questions of staff?

If I could, ma'am.

Go ahead.

Miguel, on these, how many of them are insolvent because we didn't put a CPI or anything on them? How many, I take it the 300,000 is what we're putting into them to maintain the ones that don't have the proper funding?

There are 20 of them currently.

And I've talked about this before, Madam Mayor, and I think this is something we need to do. These individuals, it was on the city to actually put the CPI in there to raise this up, and then we never did it. So these properties, you're never going to get the HOA tips to go ahead, especially because none of them are really gated. They're just HOAs that we took over and we did the lighting and landscaping when the city was coming up. So we, as a city council, previous one, obviously, went ahead and approved these things, not thinking about the future. But some of these lighting and landscape districts, all we're doing with the 300,000 is bandaging these things. Some of them are pretty bad. You look at the Santa Fe homes, the walls coming off, you know, you had stucco on it, the plants are overgrown, they're dead. And all we're doing is putting a bandaid on it. It really is incumbent, I think, on the city, and I think either Measure X, Measure E, conservation money I really do think to beautify our city that we really need to look at them and figure out what we can do to fix them up in a one-time deal with fiscally sound system so it doesn't cost us a lot of money but upgrade them so they have to be maintained at a proper thing with drought tolerant plants, hardscapes, and other things that are going to not only beautify the city, but also get these back on track. So we're not going, because next year it's going to be 350,000, then 400,000. Let's bite the bullet, clean it up and make our city look better and use measure X or measure E, whatever the city feels is proper to do it, because there really are residents and that's what their money's for. Their tax money's coming back and I don't want to do it, but they're never going to get fixed unless we do something.

And I think we've had that conversation and I would agree. And we're doing so many things throughout our community. We're planting flowers everywhere, we're painting walls and whatnot to find some low maintenance way to beautify an area, Council Member Goudron.

I guess that I've seen these developments be developed over the years and they're, again, I think we owe it to the public when we say HOAs, It's the organizations of neighborhoods that were created by developers that they're not gated, but the landscaping has become the responsibility of the city. As opposed to real homeowner association organizations that they're required to maintain their perimeter, which is what you see in the common area off the public streets. But these communities, and Miguel, do me the favor of There's 54 districts?

52.

52 districts, and out of the 52, 20 of them are bad. So out of 20 of them, when they've gone out to those residents to say, you have a maintenance issue, we can't keep up, They've said, no way. And so, but we do give credit to the ones that have made responsibility to maintain them. So those 20, I think it was my understanding that there was an acknowledgement of this before, and there's supposed to be a plan. Miguel, do you have a plan that you're working with the city manager to address those 20 properties?

Yes, as Councilmember Miller mentioned, we are working on a plan and we're reviewing opportunities to invest, have one-time investments in these LLDs to bring them up to speed to have low maintenance and where they don't exceed the annual assessment.

So this way of managing it has been since the late 1980s. Right. And I know that we have been going, as a matter of fact, I received a call yesterday because this service team that works out of the city manager's office was painting a wall. And the HOA says, how are they painting that wall? We had to pay for ours. And I said, because that's in this situation where It's in that area. And so that's really still a tax owner property, but their tax dollars are being reinvested to take care of it. So I think we owe it to ourselves to, instead of every year we talk about it, this year you should really consider to say, Miguel, move forward, city manager move forward, come back with a plan for those 20 properties, and then what can we do?

i think we already had correct me if i'm wrong we already have that plan correct if i may uh mayor council members you guys are correct during our uh budget workshop and our budget hearings you did provide that direction to us to look at that uh mr pena and i have met with our team uh because there are so many communities that have this issue 20 of them we are looking at our on-call landscape architect to help us with those designs looking at the zero scape drought tolerant desert scape that has that lower maintenance lower water use that could fit the levee for those communities so we're looking at that well most likely as mentioned this has existed for a while so it will take us a while to implement as well So we're trying to look at it strategically, come up with a plan. It's going to be more of a, as Councilmember Miller mentioned, probably more of in the capital project type of range. So bring that back during mid-year and probably tackle them if there's 20, maybe four or five at a time over a certain number of years until we get this right sized.

And I would recommend since a lot of them are working families and they really are trying hard that we should take advantage of our community services commission to give opinions on ideas and designs. So our staff's working really hard, they can at least get some input. because it's in the common area and the view of the public, just like we've done art in public places and just like we've done everything else because residents are always mindful, well, what input were we given? Well, we were given the community services. They're supposed to look at things in the common areas. Again, it's just something to think about because that's where they're there.

And I guess my question would be, so community service is gonna do landscape design. I guess that feels uncomfortable to me.

only and but I'm one person here so I'll get everybody else's thought because I'm thinking we need a landscape our landscape architect or whatever to consider doing that I mean I think if we're just going to get suggestions on you know improving that plan and getting it getting the communities to work with us on that plan I think I'd be okay with that part of it coming to the community services coming to the commission yeah Just on the feedback on what they're trying to design in collaboration with those communities.

Yeah, I think we agendize it on the community service commission and it gives the community opportunity to come before the commission to address their opinion, right? That's all I'm saying.

And the other part that needs to do it, because we are only going to do four or five, we need to really make a schedule so that people know why we're doing this ones and why we're doing them there so that, hey, you're going to be here this year, you're going to be next year, or you're going to be here in six months because this is what we're doing so that everybody knows that we're going to do them and nobody's played favoritism. It just might be they're in locations next to each other would cost less to be able to bring all the product in and do a certain area on that. So. as long as we do a schedule with it too to make everybody know that way the communications out there. Yes, we're gonna fix them, but this is what it's gonna take.

And I agree with you. I guess I saw that as staff's role, not the commission's role to create the schedule and to go into that level of detail. I guess from my perspective, what I see is the staff connecting with the architect or the design and come up with whatever designs. And then if you wanna bring it back to the commission for some thoughts and open it up to the public, but.

Mayor, I believe you summarized that correctly if I'm hearing. We would work with our landscape architect, come up with a plan, come up with a design that's consistent, that's applicable to these different communities. And then at the Community Services Commission, that would create that public opportunity for these neighborhoods to hear about what improvements we're going to do to their specific neighborhoods. Okay.

Sounds good. It's good for them to listen and give input.

Sure, okay. All right, now it's time, I'm gonna open the public hearing. Does anybody, I don't have a request to speak for this item. Does anybody wish to speak? Any comments, questions? Okay, I'll close the public hearing. And at that point, I have a motion. I'll motion to approve. I'll second. And I have a vote, I have a vote. Hey, hey, there we go. All right, we're good, passes is 5-0. Item number 10.3, resolution 10598, approving solid waste service rate adjustments effective July 15th, 2026 and authorizing future rate adjustments. Sarah Toyota.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Sarah Toyota, Environmental Programs Coordinator. This item is the public hearing portion of the annual solid waste rate adjustments. This year, we're asking for the residential tax roll increase to go from $26.38 to $28.99. 95% or more of the residents are on the tax roll. For those that are on direct bill, those would increase from $31 to from $31.94 to $35.01. And then the commercial trash rates would increase from $147.81 to $163.41. That's all monthly. All of these rate adjustments are subject to Proposition 218. So in accordance with that law, we sent out letters with information with the rates, with protests, and also about the public hearing. As of this morning, we have received eight letters of protest. So at this time, staff is recommending that City Council approve the Resolution 10598, approving the solid waste rates and the future adjustments. I am happy to answer any questions you have, and Burtak is in the audience as well.

Terrific. Any questions of staff? No.

Hmm?

Comment?

Okay.

We're good? You have a comment? I just have a comment, yeah.

Right, go right ahead. Seeing the increase, just because of what our community's going through right now with the economy, and there's just increases all around, right? And so I did have some meetings with our partners there at BirdTech to understand really why these increases were happening. We talked about some of the medical leave, rules coming down from the state that is a little bit more expansive now that has allowed people to take a longer medical leave for their family or close friends or other people that they need to they want to help out with also you know we looked at some graphs on current on the wages over the past couple of years and we see that a little bit of a spike you know after the coveted years again some of those rules coming in when the minimum wage goes up it also affects some other wages that some of these workers are in those classes. So we have seen some of that increase as well. And then along with, of course, the fuel costs, right? These trucks are very heavy vehicles and the fuel costs are also impacting there. So I do think it is a reasonable request that we're seeing, unfortunate, but reasonable request on behalf of Upper Tech.

I recall it's been quite a while since they did an increase. So it's all falling in with the current economical challenges.

When was the last increase, do you recall?

We did increase the rates last year. We did an L rate increase. Generally, the way the rate structure is set up, that there are inflationary costs that are captured each year. So generally, the rates do increase each year.

But I mean, prior to last year, when was the because it wasn't that long ago.

They increase over the last three years, they have increased by at least around, usually around two dollars.

Yeah, there's like a CPI number that it's tied to, right, that's increasing that, but then also the other part of this item is that we're seeing that they're switching it over from the regular CPI, which is shown to have us falling behind, and they're tying it now to the CPI that's more often used with water departments, trash services, and sanitation services.

Yes, for a very long time the PPI, the inflationary adjustment has been tied to an all goods PPI, which is very general. And lately, with the changes in the waste stream and batteries and everything, they cause fires in trucks and in facilities. That increases insurance rates. Things like that aren't captured in the all goods. They're very specific to the trash industry, really. So we're asking as part of this to move that inflationary predictor to the water, waste, and sewer CPI that will capture that more accurately so that we don't have to have these types of adjustments or anything that it will be more, it will stabilize the rates.

Yeah, and a lot of this is coming from Riverside County as they're adjusting their rates. As they're going up, they're charging more for it to go. And as the county has to implement all the state's new regulations for, you know, now it's your food waste and compost and that, it just raises and raises and raises, so.

Yeah, I mean, it's easy to understand all the different components that go into this. And when you talk about wage increases, we talk about vehicles, we talk about all the different, now I'm going to have six trash cans out in front of my house, but that requires people that need to separate and so on and so forth. Okay, thank you. I'm going to open the public hearing. And I do have one request to speak, Rafael Barbosa.

I apologize ahead of time if I'm violating dress code. I didn't read that section of it. Also, I apologize for people in the back that I'm giving my back to. There's a sheet of paper that I passed. Did everybody get that?

Yes, I would. This is just, yes.

I have a rental property, and if you can look at this statement, is I came to, in May, I came to pay my license renewal fee. Okay. And that's okay.

Okay, if I can interrupt you, though, this was specific, it says item 10.3 to the rate adjustment for solid waste.

Oh, no, no, no.

Ah, sir, if I can.

I thought this was just the opportunity for me to speak to that.

You'll have that. It's coming at the end of the agenda. If you can hang tight, I will call you back up, sir.

I apologize.

Thank you. No, no apology necessary. All right. Okay, does anyone else wish to speak on this item? All right, with that, I'll call it a public hearing and ask for a vote.

I'll motion to approve. I'll second.

All right, go ahead and vote. Motion passes 5-0. Now we're up to 10.4, adoption of resolution number 10599, ordering the vacation of a portion of Madison Street at the northwest corner of Madison and Highway 111. Yes.

Good evening.

Mr. Raya.

So, yes, Mayor, Council Members, Juan Raya, City Engineer, this item before you this evening for your consideration is Resolution Number 10599, ordering the vacation of a portion of Madison Street at the northwest corner of Madison and Highway 111. As part of the city's Madison Street widening project between Avenue 48 and Highway 111, it was determined that there was access right away that is no longer needed by the city, very specifically along the frontage of the 76 gas station, so much that it currently extends into their parking lot, a total of 11 feet that is being considered for vacation. The vacation process has been in compliance with the California State Streets and Highways Code, which included the resolution of intention that you approved at the June 17th council meeting, posting notices, signs at the site being considered for vacation, posting a public hearing notice, and reaching out to all the utility agencies to ensure that they didn't have a need for retention of a public utility easement. Thus far, IID did respond that they needed us to retain a public utility easement, so that will be incorporated into the resolution being considered. So I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.

Interesting. 11 feet. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Raya?

No?

Okay. Let me open up the public hearing. Does anyone wish to speak on item 10.4 with the vacation of a portion of Madison and Highway 111? I see no one that wishes to speak. I'll close the public hearing and ask for a vote. I make a motion. I'm sorry. You make the motion. Council Member Gautron makes the motion. I'll second.

Does this include the IID easement? Do we have to add that to it? So this would include that?

No, it's in there. I think it's already in there, right? Yes, it includes the easement for IID already.

Yeah, it's in there. All right. And who made the second? Mayor Pro Tem? Yes. Mayor Pro Tem made the second. Let's go ahead and vote. All right, next item, 10.5, resolution numbers 10600, 10601, and 10602, review of planning commission recommendations for the Madison Point phase one project. I'll read the whole one on this. To approve the development of three buildings on a 3.71 acre consisting of a Starbucks with a drive-through, a commercial marketplace with an L3 energy ultra-fast charging station with commercial battery storage and a multi-tenant retail building. Let me go and see who is going to deliver this. Gustavo, Mr. Gomez.

Hi, good afternoon, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and members of the City Council. My name is Gustavo Gomez, Principal Planner with the Community Development Department. And the item before you, item 10.5, is the Madison Point Phase One project, which was continued from the May 20th City Council meeting. I'M GOING TO GO BACK AND SEE IF I CAN GET THE CLICKER TO IF I CAN GET THE CLICKER TO WORK. WORK. JUST A QUICK BACKGROUND ON THE JUST A QUICK BACKGROUND ON THE PROJECT. PROJECT. THE PLANNING COMMISSION DID THE PLANNING COMMISSION DID APPROVE THIS PROJECT BACK IN APPROVE THIS PROJECT BACK IN APRIL 8TH OF 2026. APRIL 8TH OF 2026. AND AS I MENTIONED THE PROJECT AND AS I MENTIONED THE PROJECT WAS CONTINUED TO ALLOW FOR WAS CONTINUED TO ALLOW FOR ADDITIONAL REVIEW FOR THE ADDITIONAL REVIEW FOR THE BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE THAT'S BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE THAT'S PROPOSED AS PART OF THE PROPOSAL PROPOSED AS PART OF THE PROPOSAL OR AS PART OF FIRE SAFETY, AIR QUALITY, OPERATIONAL NOISE, AND WE JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT WE GOT DIRECTION, STAFF GOT DIRECTION TO LOOK INTO THESE CONCERNS AS PART OF THE PROJECT. For those of you who are just tuning in, so the project did apply for three entitlement applications. I will go through these slides pretty quickly, but the project is proposing to develop three pads, two along Highway 111 and one on Madison Street. So one of them is a commercial multi-tenant retail building, a coffee shop with a drive-through, and then there's a general retail with an EV charging and the battery energy storage system. So as part of this approval, it also included the architecture, pedestrian circulation, landscaping, and then the sign program as well. So here are just, this is a very, there's a lot going on, but just want to reiterate that some of the, all of the elevations, the pedestrian circulation, the landscape plan are included in the staff report as well. So the project also included a conditional use permit to allow for one drive-through restaurant for the Starbucks coffee shop. And it also included a limited land use as part of the proposal. Lastly, the project also includes a tentative track map, which would subdivide four existing parcels into eight lots. So the total project size is 20.2 acres, and it would be comprised of seven numbered lots and one lettered lot. So as discussed, the project was continued and since the May 20th City Council meeting, staff has been hard at work meeting with different agencies, meeting with internal staff regarding some of those concerns that were addressed. So I will go through All of these in more detail, but essentially staff met with IID. We met with South Coast Air Quality Management District. We worked with the fire department. We consulted with our building and safety division and also collaborated with the applicant on some of those items that were brought up. So out of those discussions, five new conditions of approval were added to the project. And I will kind of paraphrase or give a high level overview of what those conditions are. So the first one is from the building and safety team and essentially it provided more or clear direction regarding the five megawatt battery energy system that is being provided and to ensure that it's gonna meet the 2025 California building codes, the 2025 California electrical codes and that any structural design for equipment, pads, walls, and associated support structures all will have to be prepared by a California licensed structural engineer and any electrical component would have to be by a licensed professional electrical engineer as well. In terms of fire and life and safety, we did add a new condition that the applicant shall submit for review and approval, a detailed code analysis, including the National Fire Protection Association Code 855, which is the standard for the installation of stationary energy storage systems. And then in addition to that, they're also requesting for a hazard mitigation analysis as part of their THEIR CONDITION. In terms of noise, the applicant is required now to submit an acoustical analysis prepared by a qualified acoustical consultant and this is to meet or demonstrate compliance with the City of Indio's noise ordinance and also with the general plan program EIR. Any mitigation measures that are identified shall be incorporated into the project and shall be reviewed by the city. In terms of emissions, we did get a condition for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, so the applicant is now required to obtain all the required permits for the linear generators, and also to ensure that all construction and operation of the equipment shall not commence until all of these permits have been obtained by South Coast AQMD. In terms of licensing and credentials, the applicant is now, she'll make sure that the insulation, the erection and the electrical connection associated with the battery energy system is performed by a California contractor's state license board and at a minimum have a valid C10 electrical contractor's license. So the recommendation tonight would be to approve resolution 10600, 10601, and 1602 for the planning review discretionary conditional use permit and the tentative track map 34804 for the Madison Point project and also determine that the project is exempt from environmental review pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15300 for the infill development and also section 15183 that the project is consistent with a community plan in zoning. That concludes my staff report. Staff is here to answer any questions. The applicant is also online and

we're here to answer any questions great sounds good thank you does anybody have any questions of staff please first i want to thank gustavo and the rest of our staff for working on this project with us to ensure that we have a safe project with these new technologies that are coming into our city including you know battery uh storage system uh you know we've seen a couple of issues in other parts of the state where there's been a lot of fires that you have to kind of wait it out. You can't, the fire department isn't able to put those out and they've caused some issues for some of the families around the state. So we wanted to make sure that this is gonna be built with safety in mind, right? With the top notch safety in mind. And so we have discussed some of those new protections that we've included into this project. I wanna thank the developers too for working with us on this to make sure that we're providing that safety for our residents. The linear generator, that's a really new technology that's come out, that comes out of Stanford and Menlo Park. It's being produced here in California. And that is a new generator that's able to work with both natural gas or hydrogen power. And when you're using the natural gas, it actually doesn't emit a lot of the smog that we see with other generators. So it's been able to pass through recently the air quality management district's requirements for clean air and so this new technology will potentially allow us to grow not only us but other people in the community to see this new technology that can potentially allow us to grow in areas where we wouldn't see power infrastructure for many years. This would be another alternative that we can start looking at in providing power for development in those areas where we don't see infrastructure coming anytime soon. The sound concerns is one of the things.

It's a sound concern.

Oh, sorry. Sound concern was one of the things that we wanted to look at because of the generator. We haven't seen this technology, so we don't know how loud it is. And so we were able to talk to some of the developers and some of their partners who have seen this in operation in other areas. They ensured us that it is not a very loud and so now we're gonna be including some of those studies on noise as part of the permitting process to ensure that this isn't gonna bother any of the neighborhoods around this development. But yeah, I'm just really excited for it. The one thing that I wanted to ask was, I know we talked about licenses for the contractors and licenses for the workers. Does that contractor's license, how is that gonna translate to certified workers on the job site?

you know, perhaps I could refer this question to the applicant to see, so we do, we did have a condition to make sure that at least, that at a minimum they do have that electrical certification, but perhaps maybe the applicant could reach out to, or speak on the staffing that is involved in the installation of, they are available online.

I think he's here. We have somebody here.

You've got to turn it on. You've got to get it turned on.

There you go.

Yeah.

It's green. I guess that's good. Paul DePilatus with MSA Consulting. In regard to that question, we do have a member of L3 Energy on the team's call that could answer that probably for you. So I don't know if we'll have that answered now or let me present and then add that as part of the latter program.

Let's go ahead and go into that now. Okay.

Please. Jim Fitzpatrick is on the line. I don't know how we allow for him to talk. Oh, there you are, Jim.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Can you hear us?

Yes, we can.

Excellent. So thank you to Gustavo and staff for another excellent presentation and working with us since last we spoke to gather all of the necessary information to demonstrate that this project will be safe. for the council, the staff and the residents to accelerate their understanding. The good news is I do have two experts here with me tonight. I have Nathan McDonald, who's the CEO of L3 Energy, as well as Davion, who is our battery expert and are available for questions. I think Nathan wanted to answer Council Member Ortiz's question on licensing.

Yeah, absolutely. And, and not only answer the question on licensing, but also, you know, the, there was a comment made that I think is, you know, very, very apropos for this by council member Ortiz. And that is, you know, in the past, we've seen some issues with batteries and, and because of those issues that we have with batteries, the new code has, you know, codified ways that we can make these much safer and, and, and sure that, that, that was implemented into the code. So that as we move forward into hazard mitigation analysis and, the various things associated with that, like a failure modes and effects analysis and working with the fire department and fire marshals and fire authorities, that we can implement measures where if there is issues that we can get a standard quick shutdown, and if something does go further than that, that there is ways that the fire authorities and fire departments have known ways to deal with it. In answer to the question regarding the employees, Davian, are you online? Okay, so Davion is one of our operations people here at L3 Energy. Could you give a background of some of the certifications that you have for operating large-scale energy storage devices and with the installation and maintenance for those?

Yes, a lot of the training comes through the NFPA. So it will come directly through the NFPA 70E electrical safety. uh, training NFPA electric, uh, NFPA 70B, uh, electrical maintenance, uh, training. A lot of this training is provided, um, through the, through the agency, um, and allows us to operate, maintain these pieces of equipment. Also, a lot of training can come through the manufacturer of those specific pieces of equipment. So a lot of the installation or commissioning team will have, you know, experience through on-the-job training, but also as well as manufacturer-specific training, and then on to NFPA 70E to have that electrical safety background. Sorry, what is NFPA? National Fire Protection Agency. Okay, thank you.

And NFPA is responsible for the new code in the California Fire Code, which is the 855, which encompasses many things that have to do with the safety of batteries and learning from the fires that did happen in the past. You know, literally those batteries that had those issues could not be installed today under new code. And so it's really opened the door for us. And we've had many of the people who work to codify that code on our team, like Bob Davidson of Code Specialists. And I have hired him to work for cities before to make sure that the cities understand the code. And so with all of these things in place, there's a whole process that we go through in the hazard mitigation analysis to be sure that not only is it safe, we're putting all the devices together correctly, the arc flash analysis, the safety engineers have to sign off on it, the fire plans, the integration with the fire authorities. There is a very... A very solid system that's been put in place to make sure that we don't suffer from those from any fires from battery energy storage in the future.

And then for the electricians on site, will all of them have that level of certification or a certain percentage be required to have that sort of these certifications?

Yes, each and every electrician should go through all these specific certifications to be qualified to do the job. They would be considered qualified electrical workers. So they will go through a number of different trainings to be able to perform these type of procedures.

And then Gustavo, on our end, because I imagine there's gonna be more of these projects that are gonna be coming in in the future, is there a mechanism that we have? I know we have somebody who works on verifying like the payments, like the, what's it called? the level of pay that we have because we're government prevailing wage. We have somebody that checks prevailing wage. Is there a way that we could add in somewhere in our mechanism of these checks, a check on the certifications, not only for this project, but projects coming in the future to ensure that we have those certifications for the electricians on site?

Yeah, definitely, I think we could work with our building and safety team as part of the plan check review or any permitting process, we could ask for those certifications. Another thing is that we did get direction from the city council on working on a policy for these types of systems, so staff is working on that and that's something that we could also include as part of that.

Thank you, that's all I have.

Questions as always, go ahead.

I have one question, it's not for the developer, it's more for our fire. Has our fire signed off on this, and do we have the proper equipment to handle a incident if that were to take place?

Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and Council. Brian White, I'm the Fire Chief for the City of Indio. with me tonight is Matthew Griffith your fire marshal and then we also brought our fire safety engineer David Myers to if there's any technical or specific questions on the life safety components to address your question sir on the equipment yes we do so our fire engines are capable of producing the GPM required if there was a thermal runaway so that we could successfully attack that fire as well as the water supply system here in the city of Indio so IWA has a tremendous capacity within the system. There's plenty of water, there's plenty of capacity, and we have the technology and the equipment to successfully attack a fire if there was a thermal runaway or a fire.

Right, thank you.

Okay, any other questions before I open the public hearing? Excuse me, I'd like to open the public hearing. And I, did you want to give a presentation at this point? Why don't you go right ahead.

Yeah, so since our last meeting two months ago, as staff mentioned, we've been working behind the scenes with staff to address the issues that were raised by the council. I think most of the safety issues have been addressed regarding the linear generators and the battery storage system. The only other issue that was kind of discussed at the last meeting was some language that would put some context to the IID conditions. And I think there were some thoughts that were discussed here in the meeting. We met with the city manager and staff during the two-month interval then the the owner submitted a letter that suggested some some preamble language to those conditions and I don't know if you all received that or not but it basically suggested that you know this preamble be added to the IID condition stating the following conditions numbers 44 through 57 are imposed on behalf of IID and they may be eliminated or amended by IID without the need for any further city approval. So in discussing those with staff, they can't change them, but those of us in this business know that there is flexibility to deal with the agencies after the fact and refine those conditions and things like that. Where we run into issues sometimes is if it's a lender or a banker or an investor, they read those conditions very literally. And so having this brief introduction before them would sort of give at least a tip off that, again, the practice is that these are the agency's conditions and they can be adjusted as the design is refined. So we would just ask that the council consider adding that as a little preamble for those certain conditions. And that's all I had to add.

Is that currently in our report?

I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS OR NOT, THE LETTER WAS GIVEN TO STAFF. THAT'S WHAT I WAS WAITING TO DO, YES, OR JONATHAN, ACTUALLY.

SO THE LETTER WAS DISTRIBUTED TO THE CITY CLERK EARLIER TODAY. I DON'T KNOW IF THAT GOT HANDED OR PASSED AROUND TO THE CITY COUNCIL.

I KNOW WE ALL GOT IT, BUT ULTIMATELY STAFF NEEDS TO SEE IT AS WELL.

WHAT'S STAFF'S RECOMMENDATION THERE?

FUNDAMENTALLY, IF THE DEVELOPER WANTS TO HAVE THAT FLEXIBILITY ON THE CONDITION, I MEAN, WE PUT A LOT OF CONDITIONS IN HERE TO GIVE THEM SOME CERTAINTY. I MEAN, THE DEVELOPER IS ACTUALLY SUGGESTING THAT IF IID LATER CHANGES THE CONDITION, THAT THEY WOULD BE AMENTABLE TO THAT. SO IT'S REALLY UPON THEM. AGAIN, WE DON'T CREATE THE IID CONDITIONS. THEY CREATE THEM AND SUBMIT THEM TO US. the standard conditions that are applied to most projects. If something changes down the line due to technology changes or some site conditions that we're unaware of when they start construction, they're basically saying that they would be amenable to some adjustments to those conditions.

Yeah, and I think L3 is just interested in being able to explore sort of innovative energy solutions with IID as well. So if you're amenable to adding that, we would like to do that.

Mayor, the only request city attorney's office would have would be that any amendment to those conditions of approval that are approved by IED be approved in writing and a copy be sent to the city engineer. Absolutely, yes.

Everybody okay with that? Good, good, all right. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Did you have a comment?

I just wanted to tell the applicant, I know they've been working on this for a long time, and there was other things that were scheduled before the economy challenges that went through. I just appreciate that they took a lot of our remarks back. Would they go through a big long process and some don't wanna negotiate anything? And I give them a little credit for at least trying to work with us.

Very good, thank you. I have a couple of requests to speak. I will open the public hearing. First request to speak comes from Jonathan Becerra.

Good evening, Council. Thank you guys for your patience tonight. Thank you, staff, for your work. My concern about this project is going to be about the noise. It's similar to the environmental issues that were brought up the first time it was come around. A lot of us who do organizing around the data center topic are also familiar with the low hum or the adverse effects of this constant kind of humming noise that comes from these types of generators. So if we can't mitigate that through environmental review, I still think this should be not exempt from environmental review. I think there's kind of becoming more nuance to the environmental impacts that this has. But I think we should put protections for the working families in that neighborhood. I have a lot of people who I have either grown up with or talked to on the side about this particular project. A lot of things that keep coming back to me during that canvassing is the noise, is the high capacity batteries, also the news that we hear from Orange County, the fires in LA as well. If we're prepared, it sounds like we're speaking to that through the fire department. But I think there should be some working class protections. In the same way we are able to report loud parties or loud events in downtown area, I think there should be a mechanism for residents to report loud decibel readings that they hear around their house and be able to punish those noncompliance through fining. I think that's a way to kind of keep developers accountable to the actual people in that neighborhood who would have been here for generations. I think that's something to explore. I'm not sure that's something that's been done, but it'd be something worth considering because we are fighting against the future here, but we have to be very careful with the adverse effects of these kind of scale, hyperscale kind of developments posed to the residential area. So that would be just my recommendation, which is not exempt us from environmental review and to create mechanisms for working class families to either report loud noises and fines to be included into that reporting. Thank you.

All right, thank you for your comments. And also for item 10.5, Ms. Cabral.

Good evening, Mayor Holmes, Council, staff.

I will make this quick. I wasn't actually planning on speaking on this item, but to Councilmember Ortiz's question, which I don't know was entirely answered maybe in the direction that you were hoping it would get answered. Any contractor in California operating underneath of a C-10 license is legally required under California labor code section 108 C to utilize state certified electricians regardless of whether they're an apprentice or a journey level and that goes back to the business and professional code section 7058 so that is a requirement for all of their employees there is no exception whatsoever if you're operating underneath of either a C-10 license which also incorporates a 7. which is low voltage so you should be able to ask for all those certifications to make sure but regardless of whether you get those certifications the prevailing wage for those positions is underneath of the electrical requirement but the contractor themselves is not exempt and there is actually legal statute for that there was a legal case that went through excuse me the court system to that effect that yes they're not exempt and they can't have an employee that's doing electrical work that does not hold a state certification. So hopefully that answers that question.

Very good information. Thank you so much. All right. Anybody else wish to speak? Yes, sir. Please state your name. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jack Stocky. I live in India like everyone else, I assume. I have two points I'd like to address. One, in the slide presentation, there was a slide with a set of conditions, constraints, and requirements that you want to impose, I would encourage you to condition your approval on the incorporation of those conditions and constraints and requirements, which the slide about approvals did not address. My second question has to do with what kind of battery is in the battery storage system? Is it a lithium battery?

We can, let us address that at another time. This is just for you to give us comments, sir, if you don't mind.

Okay, well, if it is a lithium battery, you ought to think about having an appropriate fire suppression system automatic required as well.

Okay, thank you for your comments. Is there a staff person that can meet with them separately? All right, do I have any more requests to speak on the subject? Come on up.

I'm here to support what this gentleman just said. Please state your name. My name is Chrissy Glossner, and I'm here to support what this gentleman just said. I was a witness to an apartment fire with a lithium battery from one car. And it burned four cars to the ground. And the fire department in Burbank was not able to sufficiently stop that fire for quite a while because they did not have, and I shouldn't cast any shade on them, but there has to be appropriate fire prevention. So I just want to announce that.

Thank you so much. All right, comments are taken into consideration. I appreciate that very much. Does anyone else wish to speak? All right, I'll close the public hearing and ask for a vote.

Well, I think I want to address some of the concerns before we go there. I do want to see if our fire department can talk about the type of battery and the fire suppression system that would be used in this case.

Yes, sir. So again, Brian White Fire Chief for the City of Indio. It's really a two-part question, and we're looking at two separate components. One is the response on the operations side, which is under my wheelhouse, and then the other is the life safety, the planning, the engineering, and some of those systems which would fall under the expertise of the Office of the Fire Marshal. So I think to best address that specific question, sir, I'd like to bring up David Myers, who's our fire safety engineer, and and he can talk about some of the technical specifics on those systems that you're inquiring about.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and council members. David Myers with Riverside County Fire Department, the fire safety engineer. And I will say that anytime we get a set of plans for battery energy storage systems. We look at every aspect of the code. We look at the current fire code, currently 2025. We look at NFPA 855. We actually look at the most current version of NFPA 855. We ensure that the batteries are UL 9540 listed. We ensure that they've gone through large-scale fire testing. If they have fire suppression, they have to demonstrate during the UL 9540A testing that the fire suppression system can actually extinguish the fire. And they also have to do a failure modes and effect analysis and a hazard mitigation analysis to determine when things fail, what will actually happen. Some of them have fire suppression systems. Some of them don't. It all depends on the type of battery and what the result is when it goes into thermal runaway. Some of them, they'll actually test. One of the major manufacturers, they test it for the larger ones. And they actually have devices inside to cause it to burn when they go into thermal runaway. They actually want it to burn and consume itself. So as far as like these batteries, I haven't seen the actual plans on them. I'm guessing they're a lithium ion type battery. But again, we always make sure that when they submit them that they're doing it to the latest technology and following our safety standards. And we ask for a full report for the testing of the batteries.

Very good information, yes, thank you. Any other questions of?

Yeah, on the noise concerns. I know we had talked, I personally talked to the developers on the linear generator side. You're okay to sit down, thanks. And I know, you know, they mentioned there wasn't a lot of noise coming from it, and it would additionally be enclosed to make sure that there wasn't any noise coming out. But is there any concerns on the battery system? And I guess in general, what is the, What does the report look like beforehand to make sure that there is no noise that's gonna be impacting the neighborhood? And then what is our method of addressing any concerns that might come after it's built?

So yeah, so that's a good question, Council Member Ortiz. So the staff, when we reviewed the noise, we obviously met with AQMD. They gave us the thresholds or the noise levels that are emitted. from the linear generator and from the BEST system. The other thing that we staff looked at is that we wanted to, or as part of the conditions, is to make sure that they stayed with or under the noise ordinance for the City of Indio. And then we also do have noise levels, like exterior noise levels that are supposed to be mitigated as part of our program EIR. So we included that as part of our condition. The applicant is also proposing to do a block wall. And then as part of phase two, we will work with the applicant to make sure that the residential component is away from the best system.

I think maybe if you could speak on it, maybe I missed it. What protection do we have as a city to address this? If this is an issue after the, if the development passes, if there's an issue with the sound, what protections do we have that we can still address this?

Well, they wouldn't be meeting the conditions of approval, so the project, whatever system that they are proposing, we wouldn't be allowed to operate.

Yeah, well, I mean, it can meet the conditions of approval, but that's on paper. once development is there, and not everything is black and white. There's things that meet those conditions, but when it's developed, it may not be suitable for a community. So what do we have in place to go back to the developer and say, hey, this is not suitable, can we fix this?

This might be a better question for me to handle. So draft condition of approval number 73 requires that they perform an acoustical consultant analysis to ensure compliance with our noise ordinance, Chapter 95C, noise control. And so... to your question of, well, what happens afterwards? Well, we would enforce ordinance number 95C, our noise control ordinance, which is generally applicable to the entire city. And so that is the ordinance, which there will be an update coming forward that we've talked about. We've had the workshop on it previously. but it incorporates the general plan noise standards into our municipal code in a way that is enforceable.

Thank you, attorney. So almost wish we could see a prototype, right, kind of thing. Can we bring up the slide that shows the development and approximately where this is going to be located?

Of course, yeah, if we could get the presentation up.

If I may add, while they're looking at the presentation. Go right ahead. Mayor Pro Temp, and the Mayor, Councilor, as we've done with everything else, and we've been very proactive since we've had Loudon Music, the 95C would have plowed anything loud over 15 feet. So once that violation occurs, and they're not complying, the Enforcement Act of our updated fines, and it would go to the city prosecutor, to address it, and those fines are pretty strict.

Yes, so we have a wide variety of enforcement tools available to us from very high, and this is the upcoming ordinance I'm speaking about, very high per minute fines for those sort of temporary penalties PARTY HOUSES TYPE THINGS TO PARTY HOUSES TYPE THINGS TO ORDERS TO ABATE OR EVEN AS YOU ORDERS TO ABATE OR EVEN AS YOU MENTIONED PROSECUTION BY THE CITY MENTIONED PROSECUTION BY THE CITY PROSECUTOR. PROSECUTOR. SO WE DO HAVE ALL THOSE TOOLS SO WE DO HAVE ALL THOSE TOOLS AVAILABLE TO US. AVAILABLE TO US. WE WOULD LOOK AT THE PARTICULAR WE WOULD LOOK AT THE PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCE. CIRCUMSTANCE. WHAT I WOULD ANTICIPATE IS WE And in order to abate, and we would work with the property owner and the operator to design a mitigation process, probably some acoustical shielding or maybe some operational requirements to bring them into compliance. That's likely what would happen. We've had similar issues, as the council knows, with other types of issues like water pumps.

Well, that's what I wanted to help. I remember Tim because he brought up a valid point. It's all good on paper until reality, but I guess the reason I'm asking these questions, I know what we do, but I want the public to hear because some of the public has asked. And we've had everything from lawnmowers at four o'clock in the morning, we go after them with 95C. We've had everything from semi-trucks parked on the side of the road with 95C. So as long as they use the Indio app or the non-emergency line, they do get addressed. because we've had the music coordinates and anything that's loud in Indio, it doesn't matter whether you're listening to Beethoven or you're firing up your car, if it's loud, you should be reporting it because it's a zero tolerance city because of the concerns of the residents.

And so I think we have the tools in place. And council member, I think that that's one of the most important messages that you and the other members of the council have gotten out to the residents, which is next door in Facebook, that's not how to report problems you're having. the city's apps, the city's communication, then we can actually identify it, track it, log it, investigate it, and enforce it. And those neighborhoods and individuals who utilize those tools have seen a lot more success in resolving the issue.

And so before we even get to there, is there some way for us to, have these been built elsewhere? Is there some way to, at the front end, say, you know, this is the decibels that we would consider loud or inappropriate or whatever the case may be. Is there some way to head this off at the beginning instead of waiting until it's installed and it becomes a problem?

I think we've gotten some of that info from AQMD, right? They've already sent that over, some of those noise measurements.

But there's nothing AQMD that does, it's simple. If AQMD is allowing this to happen with all the rules and regulations they have in place throughout California, they are not going to allow a microgrid or a pump like that or a motor or anything else to go in unless they've already done that work. Because you know how conservative they are about making sure that that doesn't become a problem and anything from dust control to that. If they've approved, I think it's pretty well. And I think if our developer is willing to put this in, that's gonna be his power source. If he can't get it in, then he's out. So I mean, I think he's probably thought this through before he went forward.

Can we go back to the picture, the slide?

If we could get this slide up one more time. So just for context, so running left to right is Madison Street, and then north-south is Highway 111. So off of Madison Street, there's the P4 building, so the enclosure for the best system will be located just behind that. Okay.

Mayor? Yes, sir. I just want to add one thing to consider as we're developing also these new policies on noise, that some of these new systems, you know, I think sometimes we hear noise complaints more on there's a party or an event that's going on, it's very loud and it's coming in, but some of these systems might have very low but consistent noise, right? a low hum but it's consistent 24 7 so we want to make sure with these new policies that we're able to address also those kind of low level noises that might not be you know bumping on your wall or anything but they can still be a nuisance to people if it's going 24 7. okay

I think we've made all the points. I think we're doing everything we can to mitigate this at the front end. So I appreciate everything staff and the developer is doing. Now, can I have a vote? Do I hear a motion?

Make a motion to recommend. 10601, 600, 601, and 602.

All right, do I hear a second?

I'll second.

All right, let's go ahead and vote. And the motion passes unanimously and thank everyone for the level of detail provided to us in our questions. We have our residents in mind. All right, next item. Item number 10.6, introduction and first reading of ordinance number 1842 with respect to the Citrus Ranch specific plan. Mr. Halverson.

Yes, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the council, it's my pleasure, Community Development Director, Brian Halverson, to present this item. Seems like a long time ago, but in 2007, the Citrus Ranch project, the specific plan was approved. After that, nothing happened. The project was not built. That project is a master-planned development of over 3,000 dwelling units. It also includes a golf course, as well as a hotel. There's been a request, and that's what's before you today, to amend the existing DA. That existing DA is attached to your staff report. As you know, with development agreements, there are certain benefits for the community. There's also terms that are included in the development agreement, and that's what is being considered this evening is to amend those terms of the original agreement. So I just wanted to real quickly summarize what's being requested. They want to add an additional term of 20 years. As it is written now, there's one additional 10-year term, and they want to add an additional 20-year term. In addition, the existing DA does have certain requirements before you can apply and receive that additional 10-year term. In the DA that's attached to the staff report, it talks about a C of O for at least 50% of the dwelling units. That would be over 1,500 units if it was half. So there's a proposal and a consideration that's proposed would like to, again, add an additional 20-year term, and then secondly, as attached in Exhibit A, it talks about before that 20-year term could be requested, they would need to expend at least $10 million or more to install any infrastructure, including not limited to power, sewer, water, roads, fire station, and then instead of the 50% of the dwelling units, they would have to complete the construction of the golf course, the clubhouse, and at least 200 residential units. So in short, that's what's being requested to amend this DA. That includes my input and my presentation on this item, and I'm available for any questions on this revision.

Any questions, counsel?

The only thing I'm a little hesitant on is including the golf course in this. As we're seeing the conversations going on around water, I think it's somewhat irresponsible of us to keep building golf courses in an area like this. As we're seeing the continuous cuts in Colorado River water, the uncertainty right now in Arizona, in New Mexico around water as well, I think we need to start changing gears a little bit and look for other recreational opportunities that we can include in housing developments that aren't gonna be so water intensive.

We can look at recycled water, that would be part of this. I mean, I hear you and I see this as part of the overall plan for this type of community, but okay. Any other comments? No, all right, with that. I will open the public hearing, and I actually have a request to speak from Mr. Bernheimer. That's right. That's who Rob is.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Rob Bernheimer. I represent Robeson Communities, who's taking a hard look at acquiring the Citrus Ranch project. I stand before you kind of interestingly because I did the original development agreement back in 2007 for this project and maybe Glenn you were on the planning commission back then and we worked together on that but I don't think the rest of you were involved back then and then of course 2008 hit and the crash and the property was lost by that developer and it's changed hands a couple times. For those of you who aren't familiar with Robeson, they develop pretty high-end communities surrounded by golf courses. So golf course component is a critical component of doing this. They want to put in a higher level of home than I think the city has seen in the past. And to do that, you need sort of that outdoor amenity. With regards to the proposal that's in front of you tonight, here we are in 2026. That DA is going to expire in six years. You're not going to build this project in less than 14 or 15 years. It's 3,000 homes, even building 200 a year. You're talking about a long term. And because of where it's located, there's a huge commitment to capital for water, sewer, and electricity. Just big numbers. A couple hundred, you know, we're talking well over 100 million in infrastructure to get this project going. And a lot of that has to be done on the front end. So the developer doesn't want to continue to even look at this property without knowing, hey, when we start putting the major dollars in here, we need the runway to be able to sell the homes and get our profit back. If you approve this tonight, We're still working, the team has a saying, if we can't turn on the lights and we can't flush the toilets, we're not buying the property. And turning on the lights is a challenge, as you know. Sewer for this project is really complicated. We're in CVWD's territory, but to get to CVWD's plant, we would have to put in 24 miles of pipe and a lift station for 1,200 feet. Makes the project economically infeasible, that's why A COUPLE MAJOR HOUSING DEVELOPERS HAVE PASSED ON BUYING THIS PROPERTY IN THE PAST. WE ARE CURRENTLY WORKING WITH TWO OTHER SEWER AGENCIES TO FIND A BETTER SOLUTION AND CVWD HAS TOLD US, YES, WE KNOW THAT THIS IS NOT A GOOD OPTION AND WILL CONSENT TO HAVING ANOTHER SEWER AGENCY PROVIDE SEWER FOR THIS PROJECT IF WE CAN WORK SOMETHING OUT. It's gonna be a month or two until we can figure out whether we get sewer worked out or not. We're doing some studies, those are ongoing right now. But we can't buy the project with a six year term left on the DA. And then if we get the DA extended and we're working on the solving the sewer, there's going to be a few things in this project that we're gonna need to change down the road. And so we're gonna be back in front of you again to amend the DA on more specific items. But we want to know that, hey, the city is excited about maybe Ropeson coming in and doing this, and you'd be willing to grant that term extension. And I'd point out one more thing. This extension would only kick in if Ropeson closed escrow on the property. So if you approve it, and ultimately we can't get the sewer worked out, and they don't close escrow on the property, the amendment would not go through. That's a condition for it. Trevor's here from the Robeson communities, and I know he wanted to say a few words, but I wanted to give you that background and why we're here tonight. And they're really excited about the potential for this project, if we can get some of these infrastructure things worked out.

Thank you so much.

Mayor Ohms, Mayor Prokutem, council members, Trevor Barger with Robeson Encore and can't tell you how impressed we are with Indio. Mayor, just as you said, the buzz and the energy is obvious when you come to visit the community and it's really impressive what you've created here. We didn't know about the project in 2006. We only found out about it at the beginning of this year and we've been working the entire Time with your incredible staff who are very clever about being able to find ways to make this work and move forward. And we appreciate all the effort they have worked with us and with the other agencies to really find win-win solutions. Councilmember Ortez, as a lifelong Phoenician, I appreciate your concern about the water. We have it as well. I have been a part of developing many, many master plan communities in Arizona with very low water use landscapes, which do include golf courses, which are on effluent water, to make that possible so we can return it to the aquifer as part of the overall system. And we treat water very seriously in all of our projects about how do we find a long-term sustainable way to make that really work for us. So thank you for the opportunity. I hope you consent to our proposal because we'd love to be in a 20-year agreement with you.

Thank you so much. All right. Yes, go ahead.

So can you explain a little bit more on some of those projects, how they conserve water? in some of these desert areas, or how you would plan to conserve water in this development?

Absolutely. Some of the things are actually very simple. We had the housing ministry from Saudi Arabia out, and we toured them around some of the communities in Arizona. And after the first three hours, they were saying, our desert is like this desert. How do you do this? And I picked up the drip system. And they said, every single plant, like every single plant. We know how much water goes to the plant, to a tree, to any of those sort of pieces. And our communities like DC Ranch is one of the communities I worked on with a different developer in the Phoenix Valley. It's won lots and lots of awards for its preservation. It takes a natural vegetation that is drought tolerant in our region and uses it as the major plant source for that. And we can create a very lush, appealing, appearing landscape that really is very high water tolerant in those areas. It can go through several years of drought even. We have large landscape areas that are on no irrigation whatsoever. that we get to shut off after the first three years and it reestablishes. And then we are always looking at ways to reuse water. So we try to trap water and slow it down so it has time to soak in. We send water from the neighborhoods into the neighborhood parks and recess the neighborhood park a little bit and plant the trees along the edges so they are in the areas where they will get a regular water from the system when it occurs. And we look at ways that the residents really understand kind of where the water is and comes from in those systems and being able to return that. In extreme projects, we even look at things like using the condensate from air conditioners to be able to add drinking spots for wildlife and things like that.

That's great to hear we have some of those programs going currently here we propose we encourage a lot of native planting here as well to conserve water but more on the grass side how do you deal with I know you know usually these grasses need a huge amount of water how do you deal with specifically the grass on the golf course?

Well, the grass on the golf course does two things. So my historic family comes from the Midwest where everything is long, but it rains constantly. And so even in DC Ranch, when we found that we use grass very sparingly in the parks, in the golf course, in places where it's actively used and actively a part of play and recreation and activities, then it relieves the demand that comes from the individual homeowners to have to do the same in each individual house. And so you can take the grass out of kind of this idea of everybody has to have their own kingdom of grass. And you're locating in places where it will actually get used on a regular basis by the residents of that area.

Gotcha.

Okay. On the type of grass, we deal with the water timing, the water quality, the type of soil under the grass to be able to drain through. So you get a good, very good growing grass, but at the same time, the drainage back into the aquifer system. Okay.

And then are you able to design it in a way that kind of minimizes some of the square footage of grass throughout the golf course?

Typically the golf courses we do are about 90 acres of turf and a 200 acre golf course to give you an idea Okay, so it's not a continuous grass match for the entire course in this community Nine holes of the golf course go through floodways that will be created through the site And so in those areas were already taking advantage of sort of the the water that will come through those areas and downpours and then in the other Nine holes, it is a little bit more of a hillside setting, so it becomes targeted golf. We really have only turf on the tees, the greens, and a little bit of the fairway.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. You're welcome.

Yep.

Definitely thought this through. That's pretty interesting. Very, very interesting. Okay. Does anyone else wish to speak on this item? Come on up. And please state your name for the record.

Hello, I'm Allison, and I did not plan to talk on this. I actually wasn't aware of this project until listening to this right now. I'm a lifelong resident of the Coachella Valley, particularly here in Indio, and hearing the scale of this project is concerning. I'm here to talk about the data center policy, which I think the scale of this project also has quite a few concerning like elements to it. So I'm not prepared, so I'm gonna babble a little bit here, but we know, like it sounds like this project is going to be focused on luxury developments and other types of things that are going to drive up costs for residents. We've been seeing that across the valley here in Indio. and just the environmental impacts of development, especially in the area where it's being proposed to be developed, infringing on developed desert, and I just think, I just wanted to note my concern on the scale of this project, I just don't think after 20 years later, this project no longer aligns, I think, with the direction the city should be going in this climate crisis, in just the area we are now. And I would just like to see the city think about this more deeply on the impacts, the long-term impacts of, a scale a project of this scale especially focusing on with a focus on golf courses and luxury developments i just it's not the direction i would like to see my city go thank you thank you thank you for your comments all right yes and we ask everyone to to do we need to fill out a request to speak when you come up and you haven't filled it out if you would be so kind as after your comments

if you could grab a request to speak from the city clerk. Thank you, go right ahead.

My name's Alex Seckenberg and I'm a resident of Indio and I was also not planning to speak on this and it's the first I'm aware of it. I just want to second what the woman before me just said that I find it concerning and especially hearing what those gentlemen were saying about how difficult this sounds and how long of a process it is. And I just want to say thank you to Council Member Ortiz for bringing up the concern about water use because That is really important. And I hope that all of the council members take that into deep consideration for any project. And so thank you for that. And thank you for asking for some clarification on that.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. She needs, yeah, there. All right. If there are any other comments, I will close the public hearing and ask the council Further comments?

I don't have no comments. I'll make a motion to approve. You want to make a motion? Motion from Mayor Pro Tem. I'll second.

Do you have a second from Councilmember Miller? Let's go ahead and vote. All right. Motion does pass unanimously. Thank you very much. And the last item on the agenda is item number 10.7, what we've all been waiting for. Extension to Ordinance 1838, receive and file a presentation and Planning Commission recommendation on data centers and provide direction on the preparation of amendments to the General Plan and Unified Development Code banning data centers or consider an alternative regulatory approach. Mr. Halverson.

Yes, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. Brian Halverson, Director of Community Development. If we can just pull the presentation up. So I do have a lot of slides, but I'll go through these pretty quickly. This is the same presentation that the Planning Commission received. So as you know, right now there is a moratorium, a 45-day moratorium that the Council approved. The community development department has not received any applications at this time for data centers, but obviously this is a community concern and that's why we have the moratorium. So in that moratorium we do define what a data center is in short you know it's kind of long but in short you know equipment infrastructure that is used to power you know iCloud systems and Internet all kinds of different things are contained within a building all that infrastructure is in a building to support basically processing of data information. Right now under this MORATORIUM, NO ONE CAN COME IN WITH AN APPLICATION, IT'S PROHIBITED, SO THIS TIME PERIOD HAS BEEN A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO STUDY, CONSIDER AND ADOPT POTENTIALLY AMENDMENTS, ALTHOUGH LATER IN THIS PRESENTATION I'LL EXPLAIN SOME OF THE PATHWAYS THAT WE COULD GO AFTER THIS PRESENTATION, CONSIDERATION OF THE WORK THAT WE'VE DONE SO FAR. So currently right now, if someone wanted to come in with a data center, it would need to be in the Workforce and Employment Center District. That's a general plan district. It's also the light industrial zone of the city. We'll see if, whoops, I went back a little too far. See if I can. So in our existing zoning regulations, I already mentioned this, but we don't define it. A data center is not listed in any of the land use tables that are in our code, and we certainly don't have that in any of the project master plans, specific plans, and we have a lot of those, as we know. We just talked about the Citrus Ranch specific plan this evening. So I know this is a small map, and I think I showed a small map in a recent presentation, but the reason why I'm showing this is graphically it's kind of good to see both on the zoning map and an aerial photo of the map showing where those destinations, that workforce employment and the light industrial districts are situated in the city. As you can see, a lot of them are north of Interstate 10. It's over 100 parcels, but a lot of those parcels are smaller. And this particular mapping exercise just showed those parcels that are at least an acre or larger.

Brian, what were we talking about here? Is there colors?

Yeah, so what I have before you, Councilmember, is on the left, that's the zoning map. That's the City of Indio zoning map. On the right, it's just an aerial photograph showing the parcels that have that destination that I mentioned earlier, the Workforce Employment District. So just two maps to kind of see a real quick view of where those districts that would even allow a data center are. So that's what we have and show geographically that most of them are located north of the 10. So there's several types of data centers. The ones that we looked at and we studied and discussed with the Planning Commission are three types. There's an enterprise, there's a co-location, and then the one that I think gets a lot of attention is the hyperscale data center. You can see here that all of those list the type of power use, the water, some of the building footprints. And so you just kind of have some stats. You can see these are high energy use. These are buildings that are quite large. I kind of liken it of like a super Walmart, but then it can go all the way up to the size of like a manufacturing plant if it was a hyperscale data center size. So speaking of the larger one, which is a hyperscale, they can sometimes be composed within four to 12 buildings. You can see the footprint there, 200,000, even up to 1.5 million. The power use range is shown here. It's very large, up to one gigawatt. And then you can see also the water use ranges of this type of campus environment, which is extremely large, equivalent to one to five billion gallons per day. So as we've been studying this topic, we've looked at noise, we've looked at temporary versus permanent jobs, the heat island effect, e-waste, and also, again, we just talked about a development agreement. We looked at that as a potential topic as well. So this is just a graph that kind of shows what we can expect, what are the trends when it comes to data centers. You can see Virginia, Texas, and then California is there third. So this is just a projection. And you can see if you follow those lines, you can see approximately 300 are expected in the coming years up to 2030. You might see that many up to 300 data centers in the state of California. So where are these data centers located? Here are some of the cities, Santa Clara, San Jose, Fremont. So you're looking at Northern California. And then what type of corporations? It could be Google, Meta, Microsoft. I think we've all either read or seen some of these data centers, where they're being located, what companies are interested in them. So as part of our research and as part of our due diligence to study this topic during the moratorium, one of our planners, so thank you, Gustavo Gomez, went to the National Planning Conference and someone was presenting on that item. I know this is a little difficult, but that's why, to see, I did attach it to your staff report, but again, it's describing energy use and water use of data centers, and again, it's very large. I want to thank the Sustainability Commission. They spent quite a bit of time researching, discussing. You can see all the times that they met, several meetings, and it also highlights some of their concerns. No surprise here, water, fire risk, electrical grid capacity, air quality, and decommissioning. And attached to your staff report, there's actually a recommendation from the Sustainability Commission recommending that there should be a complete ban on data centers. And that's the chair wrote that. And again, these are the topics that they explored as part of the Sustainability Commission discussions, zoning and water, energy use, air quality. There's just a list of all the topics that they kind of dove in and thought about and considered. So tonight what I'd like to present is some options for the council as far as next steps on this topic that is a lot of people are concerned about. So what we did is we did draft, this is just a very rough draft of a general plan policy that I'll show you in a minute. Also an option is to mend the Unified Development Code to just flat out prohibit data centers in all zones. We're also asking tonight to extend the moratorium because it's going to expire in just a few days. So this is the proposed general plan policy. I'll read it very quickly. It says prohibit development proposals within workplace and employment districts that involve high land consumption, water demand or energy use, or such projects would strain local infrastructure, impact utility services. The add and air quality was added by the Planning Commission when they received this presentation. reduce land availability for employment generating uses or conflict with the city's sustainability and resource conservation goals. That's a draft general plan policy that our staff put together. As mentioned, we would also need to, if we go in this direction, amend our code, it's our zoning code, Unified Development Code, to do some of these things that are listed, for example, defining it, prohibiting it in all zoning districts. And one thing will be a little tricky is also the specific plans and project master plans that we have, we'd have to address those. Alternative options, I think it's really important to look at both sides. So you could, as part of that code amendment that I described, there could be certain permits that are required like a conditional use permit, a development agreement could also be required to ensure that if a data center ever does come to the City of Indio, that the community benefits would be high and would be hopefully address some of the concerns. And then lastly is impose development standards or objective design standards. So you could limit the size of a data center, for example. Best practices could be adopted. There's a whole host of studies. You could require any data center to come in to do certain studies. And one thing I didn't really elaborate on, which I think is very important, is any large project of this size would have to do an EIR. confidently say 100% that an environmental impact report would have to be done for a project like this. That is crucial. So as you saw in the staff report and many know, when the Planning Commission received the same presentation on June 24th, 2026, they received public comment. There's also some comments received, part of your staff report tonight, as well as comments that came in after, but the Planning Commission unanimously recommended a complete ban on the establishment of any new data center. So tonight, we are also, the council's considering an extension based on the input from the Sustainability Commission, Planning Commission, and all the things that we've done as far as research and the options we've presented. That, in your staff report, is a 90-day extension. So here it is, as I just mentioned, the extension received staff's presentation. and the Planning Commission recommendation and provide direction on preparing a permanent unified development code amendment banning data centers or an alternative regulatory approach which I did give you some options. It's not all the options but some of the options. That does conclude the staff presentation on data centers and we are ready to listen and receive comments from the council.

All right, thank you, Brian. I'll take over the meeting as the mayor stepped out. Do we have any questions or comments for staff? Just a quick one.

So Brian, on the differences here, we talked about gas stations, other things, and there was like, you can't just right out ban things. Is this possible to be able to ban this thing without any concern? I mean, when we were talking about gas station, it was like, oh, you can't just say you can't use this project. So is there any issues with that?

No, I don't believe there is. You could go into the code and you could specifically prohibit certain land uses.

Because I know they used to, like Indian Wells doesn't allow drive-thrus, it doesn't allow gas, it doesn't allow liquor stores. I mean, that's just the way they're fast foods. So we're able to do that without any concerns of processes.

No, I don't believe so. Steven, if he wants to add to that, but no, I don't believe so.

So long as the prohibition is supported by appropriate findings, it's defensible.

Okay. And then secondly, what's the difference between a data center and like an innovation center? Because like some of these colleges and that have innovation centers, how big is a data center where, you know, when you have a project, because some of the buildings that will come in, let's use BuzzBox, a lot of their stuff is computerized, they have a compound system area there that, because people come in from the outside to digitally do everything, so when is it an innovation center, or if you have a college or somebody else that wants to do a large area to teach students how to utilize IT, where does it cross the line between data center and innovation center or schooling?

Well, I think Councilmember Miller you've highlighted the importance that the code does need to specifically define it so that you can ensure that something like that a training center or a building that has like an IT hub or something integrated into it as part of University or or you know Some sort of manufacturing use etc would still be allowed so that's why it is crucial to define that because right now we just don't have that and

Okay, yeah, that's what I was getting at, because there are some businesses, larger businesses, that do have that. Nowadays, everything is digital, it's IT, it's all driven from computers out of other areas. I've used BuzzBots as an example, because it's high technology, so when they're doing their boxing of all their products and that stuff, if they have any issues and that there really isn't a technician that comes down very often to fix anything. It's all done by computer, changed into the things and moved over to either the new product or everything else. And so, you know, I just want to make sure that we're not missing out on opportunities to bring in well-paying jobs and opportunities for businesses to come in. But at the same time, I can understand the data center idea. I don't think there's a I need me personally to bring in a huge data center here in the city of Indio. We're limited on land. We have limited power and limited water that we would probably use for that. But I just don't want to limit businesses from being able to locate to Indio that could bring well-paying jobs, benefits, and medical.

In regards to jobs, I just wanted to state that the biggest influx of jobs for this type of use is when they construct it. Then after that, it really goes low, anywhere from 50 to 100 or less. So that's really the big thing. IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA CENTER. IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA CENTER.

OUR DEFINITION OF DATA CENTER OUR DEFINITION OF DATA CENTER IN THE MORATORIUM THAT WE IN THE MORATORIUM THAT WE HAVE DOES HAVE EXCEPTIONS FOR HAVE DOES HAVE EXCEPTIONS FOR SCHOOLS AND INDUSTRIAL COMPUTER So you'll recall I drafted this pretty quickly. I think I addressed those issues, but that doesn't mean that we can't clean it up and bring it back when we have a permanent ordinance in place with a little bit more finesse and detail.

Thank you.

Finesse and detail is always good.

Yes, sir. My only thing is I want to make sure that with now with the direction of Jonathan Nix that we don't miss a beat when we do these because we've had two occasions recently that we're at the 11th hour because the next thing you know, The date's already here. I don't think that's fair to the community or the public that we set these milestones and we find out we missed an opportunity or we didn't get on deadline and then we have to get recreated. And I know there's a new city manager, but I feel that we need to do something so we don't replicate that issue again. That's my only concern. We set these benchmarks, then we need to have reminders that these benchmarks are coming soon.

Any other comments before I open the public hearing?

Yeah, I do. I have a question. Of course, there's been a lot of coverage on this, and something I don't think I've heard, or maybe you covered it, but a lot of cities, including Indio, have sphere of influence, right? So when we pass these moratoriums and prohibitions, Does it include the sphere of influence? Because our sphere of influence that we have that's basically north of the freeway currently, correct me if I'm wrong, is that county property? So I don't know what the county's doing, but when we have sphere of influence, is that part of the policy that we're passing?

I'll handle that one. No. The sphere of influence exists to identify the probable future boundaries of the city, but the city does not exercise its police power in those areas. Those are exercised by the county of Riverside as an unincorporated area.

That's concerning. Okay. That's the only question I have.

It's concerning?

Well, it's concerning because if we have a sphere of influence and we want to annex that property and the county or anyone else who has influence over that area, if they get applications or they don't have nothing in place, we lose that land. And I don't think in my lifetime God's going to make any more land, but if we have a sphere of influence, I like to keep that, right? So I don't know what the county's doing. That's not what we decide here, but that's why I had the question.

yeah but it's also a sphere of influence the county has the priorities over it which is true we don't have to annex it but also if if we if that area wants to be certain things they want to keep it rural and that they have the right to vote to not have us take it over too so exactly it's just not city of india has a sphere of influence the the property owners have the right to yeah but i'm saying we don't want to go in yeah if we if we want to annex it right say so say that yeah so say the county does not have

you know, a moratorium in place and they do get an application and they pass that, we'll lose that land because we don't want that here, right? So that's why I say it's concerning because we don't have influence over that to make those decisions. Absolutely.

No shortage of strong opinions on this subject. Okay. If there are no further comments, I'll open up the public hearing and we'll get started. All right. Public hearing is open. I have several requests to speak. And the first one is Elizabeth Humphreys.

Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Humphreys. I am a resident of Indio, and I am the president of the American Data Center Research and Education Foundation. Firstly, I want to thank you for passing this moratorium and putting your constituents first. And by protecting them through that moratorium, I would also like to recommend that you do proceed with a complete ban. I'd like to take this opportunity to rebut some of the arguments that you might hear from the lobbyists that are supporting data centers. And the first ones of that, which have already been mentioned here tonight, are jobs. So the job argument is one of the most that is proposed in favor of data centers. They say that these data centers are going to bring a lot of jobs, but good jobs first found that on average, a hyperscale data center only employs approximately 50 people. So that is a fraction of the number of employees of a very similar sized warehouse. They also in that same study found that a local taxpayer population ends up subsidizing a hyperscale data center on average $2 million per job created. And those are not local jobs. So you're basically asking your constituents to subsidize other people's employment. You've probably heard about the heat islands that these create. The most recent study showed that it could be up to 16 degrees in the most extreme cases. And you might hear that other large warehouses and concrete also increases heat. But the difference is, and that's the reason why we want to put trees in parking lots and things, because concrete does increase heat. But the main difference is that concrete is isolated to that area, whereas with hyperscale data centers, the heat created by these servers has been shown to increase temperatures by up to a 6.2 mile radius. So based upon where these could go in Indio, that basically includes all of Indio, and that also includes the Polo Club. There's also been a number of arguments for closed loop. There's been several instances across the country where closed loop systems that use less water have failed. Most recently, Amazon had to pay out $20.5 million for a lawsuit settlement for their water contamination up in Oregon. Then we've also seen our neighbors in Imperial County were told that the data center proposed there would not be using water, would not be using clean water, and they just were sued for access to the Colorado River. So the balance of power between these major tech companies and these huge developers, this is not a normal type of developer. And the balance of power is what makes them so detrimental to communities. So I would hate to see all this wonderful growth that Indio has had over the past few years just demolished by having one of these in our community. So please vote for a complete ban.

Those are back on. Thank you. All right, you guys. And the next person is Alison DeFretto.

Hello again, first I'd also like to start off by thanking the council for preemptively initiating the moratorium and policy research regarding data centers. I really appreciate that step forward to protect the community. And I'd also like to think the work the city staff has done, especially like to support the permanent ban as well. And for the planning commission for recommending it. I just like to support what Elizabeth just shared about all of the negative impacts of data centers. And I'd like to request that the council continues this momentum by voting to direct city staff to move forward with the permanent ban. I do not want to see any alternatives like such as the conditional use permit or the development agreement or the imposition of development standards or objective designs that the city staff have put forth. I would like to see an outright band. because I think that the last place data centers belongs in the desert. I think Elizabeth highlighted quite a few important consequences that data centers that could be amplified in a desert environment like ours, particularly the heat generation or heat island effect, but many others as well. um i do not think that they belong in the city of indio and again i'd like to encourage the city city council to move forward with a permanent ban in all zones and i just also want to mention that if you move forward with a permanent ban which i sincerely hope that you do i'd also want to urge the council to consider initiate initiating additional studies for policies that prohibit future large-scale projects like the Citrus Ranch that we just heard. If we're concerned about data centers, for the scope, I do think that we have to look at all large projects and those impacts, environmentally, socially, so I'd just like to end there. Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments and thank you everyone so far for sticking to the three minute time limit. I appreciate that. Next person is Jonathan Becerra. Let's keep our, how about we keep our clapping to the end? That enthusiasm is wonderful.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council. I want to, my name is Jonathan Becerra. I am a local organizer and lifelong resident of the city of Indio. Someone who's been working on the data center movement in the city of Coachella and here respectively. I'm here to voice my full support for a ban on data centers in the city of Indio. I hope that the city council approves the general plan policy updates and approves defining and prohibiting data centers on City of Indio land and to reject any alternatives besides banning data centers. I think we can hear a lot smarter people than myself articulate the concerns we have as Indio residents and as organizers in the Coachella Valley. One thing I just do want to point out to highlight is the things we don't know. We're hearing a lot of information on things we do not understand fully about the adverse effects of data centers on the communities that are surrounding them. I'm hearing things coming out of Texas about hard members and kids from proximity, cattle not being able to breed properly. These are things we do not understand at full scope. And I think just in the terms of what is the supposed positive from this, which is not many jobs, basically putting more money into the richest 1.1% of the people out here, this does not give us any good in terms of the residents of Indio, opportunity for Indio. So I just really hope that we are in vehement agreement here in this room tonight to ban data centers in the city of Indio and I thank you for your time.

And I thank you for your comments. Next request to speak is Jamie Madden.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem and council members. My name is Jamie Madden. At India's recent planning commission, staff presented bulleted points regarding data centers and inevitably voted to ban data centers. Please follow their lead. I have been to several other different city meetings and watched countless online planning and council meetings across the nation regarding data centers. And one theme I consistently hear from council or planning members is that we don't know or don't have enough information. To this I say, not knowing is willful ignorance. So the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. So we have many examples in different cities across America that are experiencing obvious and extreme negative side effects. So these examples are, and one of them was mentioned by Elizabeth, Eastern Oregon, which has a high cluster of Amazon data centers. Amazon was recently ordered to pay $20.5 million to 45,000 residents after contaminating drinking water with high levels of nitrates. Hood County, Texas, residents complaining of 24-hour high intensity machine noise causing distress, nausea, dizziness, mental health issues. Fayetteville, Georgia. Black Rock ended up, had two illegal hookups to utilities and secretly siphoned away 44 Olympic-sized pools worth of water from residents, which caused residential water pressure. So I noticed that in one of the previous presentations, the fire safety representative had indicated that we have plenty of water to take care of any potential fires and whatnot. But what if we put our shoes in Fayetteville, Georgia's shoes, right? put ourselves in Fayetteville, Georgia's shoes, and go to access water to put out a fire, and then it's bottomed out because the water pressure is not there, and because a hyperscale data center has siphoned our water away without our knowledge. In Lake Tahoe, 50,000 residents were told they have to find other means of electricity as the data center, which is 75 miles away from them, had priority over the energy. So there was an India resident who also owns property in Lake Tahoe who had given comment at the planning commission because he had been one of the affected residents. Cheyenne, Wyoming, so Meta AI Data Center, Project Cosmo contaminated the city's wastewater with multi-drug resistant organisms So the city fears that the reclaimed water was sprayed on city grass. So Madam Mayor, I know that you had mentioned in a previous agenda item that you love walking your dog at the park. So could you imagine that you walked your dog at the park that had contaminated water sprayed on it with multi-drug resistant organisms?

And I just need to ask if you could wrap it up, coming up right up to those three, that three minute line.

I'm so sorry. I will just say, we understand a need to make informed decisions and we honor, you know, anything, any decision that you make, but please don't let the community down.

Thank you very much for your comments. Savannah Rogers.

Hi. First, I'd like to apologize for being underdressed. I had to rush over here from Cassidy. So I live north of the freeway in North India in the new Espana development. And I'd just like to highlight that there's a lot of new houses being built. I don't know the exact numbers, but there's a lot of new families moving in with young children. So the idea of putting in a hyperscale data center north of the freeway really worries me for the young children there. But I'd like to offer the perspective of younger citizens of India. A lot of us have concerns because our parents plan to retire here and live the rest of their retirement in the rest of their life. I volunteer at the Cat City Senior Center and I've noticed that our seniors are a lot more sensitive to the heat so the idea of the temperature going up 16 degrees really worries me. Just the other day we had an older woman who I'm close with unfortunately have a medical incident and have to go to the ER. I know a lot of people that are pro-AI and a lot of people that are anti-AI, but I don't know anyone that's pro-data center here. Respectfully, I don't think anyone would want a big, ugly, loud building in their beautiful valley. To conclude, I am really nervous for my parents. They can only afford to live here. They can't move. They have lots of medical issues, and so do my grandparents. And I think there's a lot of people here in a similar situation, and I would ask that you please ban data centers.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Pastor Tony Williams.

Hey, don't be so quiet. I'm not going to preach a sermon. I know when. Come on. Come on, Glenn. I'm just glad to, first of all, just to be a part of such a wonderful city. I mean that. You guys vet things to no end, and we really appreciate that as members, as someone who proudly can say I love the city of Indio, and I'm Indio's favorite son. I always have been. Regarding data centers, data centers, voracious, insatiable are words that describe what water is needed for those, what energy is needed for those, and also what massive amounts of lands from 200 to 500 acres and even in some cases even more. There's emissions green green gas pollution that's on a scale that we don't know and we have not calculated and we can't actually measure properly and These emissions are unnatural That's interesting because the regular emissions that we deal with they may become more but at least they're natural so the earth can kind of deal with them even as it's a kind of complicated, but these are unnatural emissions and and they could potentially threaten our delicate desert ecosystem. Noise emissions as well will be on a continuum and we don't know what they'll do. Unknown health threats from these emissions that could wield major negative consequences. And there's a lack of permanent job creation. At max, my research tells me between 20 to 150 permanent jobs. And these are specialized jobs that mostly will come from outside of our community, which lowers our actual appeal for our local community and doesn't increase our job creation. And my dad says something that God let his soul rest in peace. My dad told me something when I was young. He said, son, something about the land. He said, the good Lord ain't making any more. So we have to be very cognizant of how we utilize and steward our land. And then I would just ask, and I don't want anybody to answer, but is there really a need for this? Is it necessary to have data centers in our community? And for me, I support a permanent ban. And I thank you all for hearing my stance. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Definitely. And last request to speak I have is Sherry Cabral.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the Council and staff. My name is Cherie Cabral with the Western Steel Council and the California Construction Labor Management Trust, which is a coalition of labor and environmental and energy. I want to speak on a couple of things. First of all, I've heard a couple times now the reference made to the Eastern Oregon side of things, and I'm going to stand here and very proudly say that is the community that my family comes from. It is a community that has a higher than average poverty level for all of Oregon. It has an endemic and systemic poverty level that has been going on for 50 years. And the data centers that have been built there have fundamentally changed that community. It has year over year dropped the poverty level by 8%. It has increased the average annual median wage for that area by 105%. And to a population of 5,000 people, there's $46 million a year that come in in economic revenue into the city. That has meant new fire stations, new streets, new schools, new opportunities. It has meant that people that have historically left that area, which included my uncles, my mother, my grandparents, have actually now been able to commit to making that place a home. Because before there was no opportunity and now there is. So I would like to say that I think as anybody who's in the legal profession knows that an entity settling a lawsuit is not an admission of guilt. It's simply a business decision, unfortunately. With regard to the moratorium or proposed moratorium, I'd like to respectfully say that I think the council perhaps should take a regulatory approach as opposed to a moratorium approach. I think that enacting a unilateral moratorium effectively says that no facility has merit and I don't think that's the case. It fails to consider that there are different types of facilities from very small 500 square foot facilities all the way up to the big hyperscale facilities, which clearly by the map, India doesn't have the space to be able to do that. And from what I have seen based on the data that was presented, fails to actually consider a number and a substantive amount of the current peer-reviewed literature that exists on the subject matter from heat, water, power that is coming out of places like MIT and ASU. A few of those examples would be Watten et al., Lay et al., Cruises, Dr. Saylor from the ASU, and Karimi et al. So, I mean, I'm happy to provide some of those to you, but those are the peer-reviewed studies on the engineering side of things looking at things like the thermodynamics, the distance that heat travels, that heat is incredibly dependent on the atmospheric conditions and also the hydrological conditions of the space. And it has a defined area that it travels to depending on the wind direction. It is not a ubiquitous across the board increase. And it actually, the most recent statistics show one to three degrees. And this is coming out of Phoenix, Arizona, which has an environment that's much like this space. Thank you for your consideration.

And thank you for your comments and information. Okay, that is my last request to speak on item 10.7. Council.

Staff, or if Stephen can answer this for me. If this were to pass, we'll pass a 45-day extension, correct? And if we were to move towards a ban, procedure-wise, how long would that take?

So the initial interim moratorium was 45 days. The extension you have before you is 90 days, and that is to allow adequate time to go through the process that you described. So if the council directed us to draft a prohibition on this use in all zones, we would craft that ordinance. It would go to the Planning Commission for consideration. We would anticipate that happening probably in August. And then following their recommendation to the Council, we would bring it to the Council likely in September. You'd have first reading, second reading, and 30 days after that it would go into effect. So I would anticipate end of October, beginning of November is when it would the full prohibition would take effect. If for some reason any of that schedule slipped, we would likely bring a further extension of the moratorium just to cover that small gap in time, and that would likely come with the actual prohibition itself. We would bring an extension of the moratorium just to cover that additional time period necessary. But I would anticipate end of October, early November.

Does that answer your question?

Yeah, I just wanted to note, because there's procedures to all this. It's so much time. Yeah, that we have to do. I just, you know, I think we all have to understand any kind of development, whether you're planting a tree or building a parking lot, has an environmental impact on that area. But from the research that I've gathered, from these large scale projects. That's the impact I don't think our city or community can sustain. And so I'll leave my comments there and I'll let the council go from there.

I'm just gonna jump in here because I agree, we are on such a positive trajectory with our community in every aspect. I think a data center and the resources it uses, the square footage it would take up, there are just so many so many things that I think just does not fit within the mindset and footprint of our community. Council, any other comments or do I hear a motion?

I wanna first acknowledge the concerns we've heard from the residents in this city and throughout the region. And I think the current science agrees with a lot of their concerns in a time where the data is telling us that we need to drastically reduce our water use in the West of the United States. a time where we're seeing increased impacts of fossil fuels on air quality and climate change, and a time where we're seeing a huge uncertainty around the labor markets due to artificial intelligence, these developments don't fit the needs of what we hope for in a healthy environment that supports a local economy. We've also seen many communities throughout the US bring in these projects. and later end up dealing with unexpected and critical impacts to public health and to the environment due to a lack of transparency and lack of understanding of these technologies. And we have a great staff, but I'm still not confident that we understand data centers enough to mitigate these issues ahead of time. I, as a chemist, am still learning new information about their environmental impacts. One impact I recently learned about was the common contamination of PFAS or forever chemicals that have been contaminating wastewater and groundwater supplies in other areas. I do acknowledge the potential benefits in construction jobs and tax revenues, but I don't think that these outweigh the risks of drastically increasing our consumption of water and fossil fuels, potentially contaminating our air and our water supplies and potentially exposing our population and wildlife to the impacts of constant low frequency noise and other environmental impacts and currently unknown impacts. I also think about tying up our resources for potential future needs. Agricultural needs may need more water in the near future. Hydrogen power, if it grows as an industry, will need a lot of water and energy to produce the fuel needed to decarbonize our transportation industry and provide a cleaner air for our communities. So I urge us to be conscious of what our future needs may be, as well as the current uncertainty of water in the western region of the United States And so because of these concerns and many others, I would like to see us move forward with prohibiting data centers in all zones. And in the future, if we see that these issues are properly mitigated with the advancement of these technologies, we can reconsider this policy in the future. But with that, I will motion to approve the prohibition of data centers.

I have a motion by Council Member Ortiz. Do I have a second? It's an extension. It's an extension of the moratorium.

The extension of the moratorium and then the prohibition to follow.

Eventually and do I hear a second? Tim have a second. Let's go ahead and vote As long as it's in the details that staff's gonna bring back right and this passes unanimously, yes We're not gonna let our community down Okay, thank you all for your time, your passion, your energy and your research and taking the time to speak. I do have public comments from a few folks for items that are not on the agenda, so thank you. Rafael, I'll bring you back up, it's your turn.

Council members, in light of All these important issues, mine is off the chart. But I hope you really consider banning Anyway, I'll just put it maybe into a question, and kind of it's already been touched on by Mr. Guitron, Councilmember Guitron, and the gentleman to my right, and it falls under beautification slash safety. As a property owner, rental property owner, when I came to pay my license renewal, I was slapped with $100 annual, I'm reading it now, annual rental inspection fee for annual beautification. And a question that I have, a concern is, if I'm properly maintaining my property, why do I have to pay this fee? If I'm properly maintaining my rental, why do I have to pay this fee? Granted, there's a lot of property, vacant lots, Ported up buildings that need a lot of TLC. Why, if you're doing your job properly, why do you have to pay this fee? Now, if Council, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem, if you're really serious about the beautification of Indio, and I know you are, and so am I, why isn't this, Ordinance program applied to all residents of Indio, including vacant lots and boarded up buildings across to all residents of Indio, not just for rentals. Just a comment. When can I get my $100 refund? It's just, it doesn't make sense to me when, again, I provide a lot of TLCs for my property. I have a gardener who comes every week and I take care of my property and then I get slapped, like I'm being slapped with $100 for taking care of my property. Does that make sense?

Questions, comments? Actually, this is a point in time where we get to listen to you. So I have your contact information and we can, let us circle back around and have that conversation with you.

Thank you for your time, appreciate it.

All right, thank you for your comments. And thank you for taking care of your property so wonderfully, we appreciate that. Okay, Barry Fisher, next request to speak, Barry Fisher.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, and City Council members. My name is Barry Fisher, and I'm an India resident. I'd like to begin by thanking the Planning Commission and city staff for the tremendous amount of work they invested in reviewing the OASIS project. They carefully studied the proposal, listened to public comments, The public asked difficult questions and gave residents every opportunity to express their concerns. That is exactly how the public process is supposed to work. Many of us spoke about two issues that continue to concern us most, air quality and traffic congestion. These are not just planning issues, they directly affect the health, safety, and quality of life of the people who call Indio home. After weighing all the evidence and hearing from the community, the Planning Commission voted to recommend denying the requested zoning change. I hope the Council will give serious consideration to that recommendation and reach the same conclusion. I want to make one point clear. We are not opposed to growth. We understand that a growing city needs investments, jobs, and responsible economic development. But growth should improve our community, not come at the expense of the people who already live here. I hope the developer will listen carefully to what the community has said throughout this process. I encourage them to return with a proposal that better addresses the environmental concerns, traffic impacts, and compatibility with the surrounding community. I believe there is an opportunity to create a project that benefits both the developer and the residents of Indio. Thank you for your time, for your service to our community, and for your thoughtful consideration of this important decisions and all the other work that you do.

Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Next request to speak, Jerry Conrad.

Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, City Council, good evening. My name is Jerry Conrad. I'm a former past president of Sun City Shadow Hills Board of Directors and currently I'm the chair of the CDAC Committee which is the interface between our community and the City of Indio. And I would like to talk about this warehouse projected project that the Oasis at India was proposing. I know that there's going to be some changes, but I'd like to have a little comment on that. The vast majority of residents basically, from my understanding, do oppose the idea of major warehouses. We do understand that there will be businesses, small businesses, housing, and we do support that. So the committee, the board of directors, the residents have no issues with that aspect of this proposal. The possible building of 1.5 million, 1.8 million square feet of warehouses That's the equivalent of 26 to 31 football fields of concrete. You take 1.8 million divided by 57,000 square feet, which is the size of a football field, you get that number. The heat sinks, everything that we've heard before with data centers will occur again. The pollution, the issues that the Planning Commission decided that they could not support, the reasons were very clear. Commissioner Slater was very good at what he said. His summary is incredibly clear. I recommend that all council members listen to his summary from May 27th. In quick summary, the pollution, it's causing by hundreds of daily diesel trucks coming and going. We're talking DPM, diesel particulate matter. It's a known carcinogen. AMA, American Cancer Association, everybody knows that diesel is not good for the human body. The EIR explicitly stated that the greenhouse gases cannot be mitigated by this development. There's nothing they can do about mitigation. The local traffic, trust me, it's gonna get awful. You're putting all this money, $180 million into the bridge, trying to get it over the I-10. And you're doing it for a good reason. The city's gonna spend $14 million. And unfortunately, at the end of the day, What's going to probably happen is we're going to have worse traffic if this project is approved, if you decide to allow for the rezoning. We are absolutely against rezoning for the large warehouses. When this Monroe project was, the Monroe overpass was put forth, this oasis at Orindio was not even on the map. They had nothing, no input. So this new overpass will not mitigate much of the hard traffic of these large vehicles. I'm sorry, but when the Indio has a reputation of festivals, of doing what's right for their population, and you do, and you have, Stagecoach, Coachella, et cetera, the idea of having these warehouses greet visitors on Monroe is absolutely antithetical to what you've been wanting to do.

but you're over the three minutes. I certainly must be.

I just hope that you're aware that the Planning Commission did a great job, and I hope you maintain what they've done. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. And one last request to speak. How did you know it was going to be you? There you go.

I was going to take your time. Are you going to take me?

Say thank you to Mr. Whitron. I was... live in Virginia, in the plane, and he told me my house was on fire. Thank you, thank you, and I got to thank you, the fire department, for the good job you did. You protect my motorhome. It didn't burn. Thank you, Ben. And he was, I didn't cut you. The plane was going up, and then I wasn't able to talk to you. So I just want to tell you thank you, thank you very much for getting everything together. Thank you for having the police there protecting the street. And thanks to the fire department. Oh, and I want to tell you something about the water. Virginia is one of those places right close to my son's house. The water pressure, I will heat. The only reason I'm going over there is because my son is there, but no water pressure to take a shower. So that is it.

Excellent information. Thank you. Thank you, Al. Much appreciated. Okay. Another four and a half, five hour meeting tonight. It is 845. I would like to adjourn the meeting in remembrance of Dick Oliphant. Thank you all. The next meeting is in