City Council - Regular Meeting

e got a full crowd. Thank you all for being here. I hereby call the Palm Springs. I hereby call the Palm Springs Regular City Council meeting of April 8th, 2026. To order, ask if you could please stand and join in the Pledge of Allegiance. And Mayor Pro Tem, will you help lead us this evening? You can channel your inner eighth grader. Thank you. Let's 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. I acknowledge that the land we gather, live, and work on today, currently known as the City of Palm Springs, is the original homeland of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the sovereign band of Agua Caliente. People have stewarded this land throughout the generations and continue to steward this land for all future generations. We honor and respect the many diverse indigenous people still connected to this land. City clerk, can you please conduct a roll call? All members are present. Thank you. We have one presentation this evening, and we're going to get started with J.R. Roberts, who's going to give us an update on the Plaza Theater. J.R. Roberts Plus team. We have a presentation that requires you read my mind. How's that better? So, mayor, how about all of these nice people coming out just for a Plaza Theater presentation? So esteemed council members and staff were here to just literally give you a five minute update on the Plaza Theater. We're four months

in now, and we thought we'd throw some numbers and some other things at you. So we'll start. Yeah, don't hold me to that. One, two, three, four. Hey, hey. Yeah. Neon marquee buzzing in the desert heat. Velvet ropes curling down the busy street. The postcards peeling on the ticket booth. Glass o gold letters saying welcome back. The building served as a major cultural and economic driver for the city. Tonight's a very important night for the theater. We'll kick off the start of the restoration. Kurt will soon rise again. Feel that beat from the back row up to the balcony. Every heart beat stops in sync with the brass and the tap shoes on the brink. When that curtain starts to rise. All the years start dancing in the light. Stage. Murmur hush so sweet. You can hear the old boards underneath your feet. Then the band hits loud, brass cuts through and the whole room jumps like it's brand new. The plaza feel that from the back row up to the balcony, every heart beat. It stops in sync with the brass and the tap shoes on the rink. That curtain starts to rise all the years start dancing in the lights. Palm Springs Plaza, one, two, three. That Plaza

beat won't leave. Yes it's true. We come with our own jingle now. So we. So let's see if we can advance this. There we go. I don't know if our remote's going to do it. Let's see. Here we go. Kind of in slow mo, but okay, here we are. So I brought with me today a number of our board members, of course, you know John Bolton, who with Oak View Group, who manages, oversees and programs the theater. We've got magic. Mark. We call him Mark Hamilton, one of our great board members, and we have Cathy Wernick, we have Judy Blanchard, and of course, we have our vice president, Kevin Corcoran, who you all know. So is this flying ahead on its own? Maybe they could stand behind you so the audience watching can see who they are? Yeah, yeah. So okay, so this has taken on a life of its own. So I don't think we can back this up either, can we? This isn't really working. Is that what it is? Thank you. Just trying to get back to that first group of numbers. Go back a few more for me. There we go. That's where we are. So. So we're four months in and we thought it was time that we just came and told you what we're doing and give you some numbers. I'm happy to say that we're through the construction period. As you all know, it went pretty well considering what we were up against and the challenges that we faced. But we're here and we're

four months in, and I'm going to let a few of the other board members and John Bolton takes, take you down the adventure of some more numbers and some more results for you. Okay, John, hopefully that will stop. Good luck with that. Yeah, I'll let you go. Yeah. Clicker's not working. Could you advance for me? I t they need to go back to right there. If we can freeze right there, that'd be great. So I'll be brief. Obviously, you know, we've been busy since we opened December 1st. The first four months, we did 120 events and 121 days, attracting over 60,000 people to the theater. And that 120 number 120 event number is significant because we originally our projections were that we would do 120 events a year, and we're happy to report that we did that in four months. And you might think, well, what's what's, you know, what's ahead. And as we look, I mean, obviously our goal for the theater is to be a year round facility and not just be in season. And so between now and the end of the year, I'm projecting another 80 events that we'll have throughout the summer. So really, really exceeding our expectations. And, and that's because of, of all the people in our community who have supported the theater through ticket sales and by coming and being part of those 60,000 people. We also have donated more than 2000 tickets to students in the Palm Springs Unified School District, as well as non-profits throughout the entire valley. And if you can click to on, I'll just. Briefly remind everybody, obviously, we're very excited to have national touring shows come to the Plaza Theater, but also we're proud of all of the local groups who our friends and families and neighbors who have the opportunity to perform and sing on the stage as well.

And those are represented here. We've obviously announced a few more others recently, the Desert Shakespeare Festival, our classical summer series with Coachella Valley Classical Voices and several other local groups that will be performing this summer at the at the theater as well. So Mark Hamilton can go to the next slide. Mark Hamilton I'm the treasurer. I'm going to talk a little bit about what's going on with the math side of things. One of the big things, when we came to you so many years ago, it feels right now, was the economic impact on the downtown area. And with 60,000 guests coming through, it is well exceeded our expectations. And having 60%, nearly two thirds of the guests coming from out of town also exceeds our expectations. I just jump in really quick. When you say out of town, do you mean out of Palm Springs or out of the Coachella Valley? Out of Coachella Valley? Okay. Thank you. And we have a bunch of programs that we've kicked off going forward to continue building the enthusiasm and the traffic in, in, in our theater, we've had 218 guests that have bought more than four performances. They've bought a total of nearly 2000 seats so far. And we're duties actually running a special event. Thank you for those folks in the coming weeks. And we have 60 something 68 coming for for a cocktail party to say thank you to our frequent fliers. Of course you're invited to. We've rolled out our annual membership programs, and we're seeing a really nice uptick of folks that are subscribing to annual memberships that starts at $100. And I'm happy to talk to people that want to

participate at a much higher level. And we actually have exclusive programs for people that want to participate at the higher level. And we're having great luck with people sponsoring shows. So a number of the shows that we have coming in have been underwritten by our guests. So. Next. One more. So we wanted to say thank you to each of you who had the confidence in us to support us when our bids came in to $27 million and we didn't think we could get this done, you, as City council people stepped forward and you supported this effort. And we are so proud. After four months of what we've achieved together, the conclusions you see up here in terms of exceeding our goals, accessibility, the theater, the quality of entertainment, it's just extraordinary. And I think the feedback we're getting from our citizens has been amazing. But the thing that I think is the biggest surprise for us is an intangible, and that is the spirit of community that happens when people attend shows in our theater. There's just something whether they're going to see Herman's Hermits or some other talent to see 700 people in this energy that we've created in this theater, this intimate setting, which makes every artist, every performance, just shine. It's something very special. It's something we had hoped for but has exceeded our expectations. And I think as board members, that's the thing we're proudest about. Above and beyond the numbers and the economic impact we talked about today. I also want to just do a shout out to our partners. These are the businesses who stepped up initially with us and said they wanted to be part of the Palm Springs Plaza Theater story. We're proud to announce that those businesses are thriving as sponsors of us, and we've asked other small businesses and hotels to step on board. We're

bringing 60,000 people to their doorstep. We have to find ways to continue to market and to encourage people to spend money in retail and our hotels and our restaurants. And we're working on that with other small businesses and hotels in the city. So we're happy to share this information with you. Again, thank you for your partnership with all this. And our final slide is really the message we have now and that we're just getting started, as John says, what we're looking forward to in terms of new shows, new opportunities, additional people coming to Palm Springs. It's just great news for our city and we're very proud of the results and we hope you are too. Any questions? Yeah. Councilmember. Yeah, Kevin, you mentioned, excuse me, partners and inviting other small businesses to come to be a partner. What does it take to what's required to be a partner? John, do you want to answer that? And then I have some ideas too. Yeah. I mean, we, we welcome any business that wants to be a part of what we're trying to do. Sorry. Thank you. Yes. So we we obviously welcome any business that has an interest in participating with us. Obviously Kevin pointed out some of those. But you know, they they vary, you know, the sponsorship proposals vary based on their interests, our interests and trying to really create a win win relationship between the two entities that has a theater in that business. I would add to that, that all of our partnerships are specific, and what we're always looking for is not only financial partnerships to sustain the theater, but how we can benefit the people that we're working with, how we benefit the businesses and the stores. And we could have brought in, well, we could have filled this room with people who were working with who were very happy, but we thought it might go

on a little longer than seven minutes. But ultimately, from our perspective, and certainly in my experience, this is the best public private partnership that I've ever been a part of that has a city and a community supporting something that's important to them. And we're very, very proud and happy to be a part of that. And we're very happy and proud that you trusted us and became part of that as well. And that's all we really had to say, unless you have other questions for us. Yeah, I think there's a couple more questions. Council Member Bernstein, I have a question. Just a comment. So I just wanted to thank you. You know, you're right. It is an exceptional public private partnership. A lot of it has to do with you and the rest of the board, who I know continue to work hard and raise money and work to make it all that it can be. So I want to thank you. And I have bought more tickets more than for shows. So yeah, I think you're on the invite list. Okay. Thank you. So just thank you all and I appreciate it. And I'm, I'm very happy to see the summer bookings there because I think that's something that, you know, people don't realize we didn't always have the Plaza Theater and we will have now. So we'll have a cool place to go, literally and figuratively, in the summer. Gardner. Thank you. Thank you all so much for your work on this. And I know that there's a lot of plans for the future, and I don't want to put you too much on the spot, but can you talk a little bit about what you what your plans are in order to make some tickets more accessible to folks of lower incomes and more tickets to students? If you can just talk a little bit about that, because I know you've already started that, but I know you have bigger plans. What can you share on a cold, dark day? When Scott Styles asked me to lunch and I had no idea why and he had you, he had been sent as your henchman to ask us to take on the Plaza permanently and operate it. What that meant to the

foundation. You know, we're an all volunteer foundation was that we would be there forever, and that the only way that the Plaza Theater will make it is with, first of all, support from the community and continuing ongoing work from our great foundation and of course, Oak Group. And John, so what is the future look like? Honestly, we're raising money all the time. That's all we're doing. We're building partnerships, we're bringing in subscriptions. We're doing everything we can to make sure that the community understands that the theater is a gift from us, from you to them. And in order for it to work, they will have to support it. They will have to show up, they will have to support it financially. And we're here to do everything we can to make that happen. Specifically, I could run things down, but it's really all comes down to that. That's what we're doing every single day is coming up with ways that we can raise money and, and build partnerships to keep the theater going. I'd also say that many of the people that were reaching out to have particular interests in supporting particular type of programing, and so we're encouraging them to support educational programing, programing for families, programing for families during the summer, their donors we're talking to who have that specific interest to target their funds towards that. And we're encouraging and nurturing those relationships to make sure we can not only get the programing, but also underwrite the cost of tickets. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. It's great to see all of you. And, and I would just note that I think we've all can agree that, you know, the Plaza Theater renovation is important, if not actually critical to the downtown renovation. And it's been a significant made a significant impact all the

years it's been vacant. And, and the interesting thing is looking at you there now, these things don't happen without you and I, I know all the meetings you've been to, putting it together, meetings and meetings. Then all the continued volunteer time, fundraising, making sure you know this baby that we've all birthed. But you were right there really birthing it continues to thrive. So anyway, it is a partnership that was mentioned. Thank you so much for doing it. And I think the future is great because this is all part of Palm Springs brand and our identity, and it's what we'll continue to make downtown. Great. So anyway, thank you for your efforts. It'll probably seem like a an echo, but truly grateful for your continued support and commitment to making sure that we're fundraising and making this beautiful space an accessible space, really for all of our residents and all of our visitors. I was wondering if you could kind of expand a little bit on that 66% of out of town. We have such a unique population here and that we have so many part time residents and snowbirds. And so can you share a little bit if there's any thoughts on how we can understand? Does that 60% include our snowbirds or kind of how do we how can we maybe like explore that in the future to, to understand really potential hotel room nights and visitors versus our part time residents? I think like most businesses, hotels, venues like ours, we rely on the information that the ticket buyer in our case gives us. And so when we what we look at is where people are coming from, where they're buying their ticket, where their address is from. And that's really the only way that we know if they're in the metro area of Palm Springs or outside of that area. So you could have someone that lives in Chicago that buys tickets and comes to Palm

Springs because they have a second house here, or they could be just coming to visit. We don't really know that. All we know is the the valid information that the ticket buyer gives us when they come to make that purchase. So that's what we rely on. And that's, that's how I think all of us determine where those people are coming from, because otherwise we don't really, you know, ask, hey, do you have a, you know, there's no way for us to really exactly know that other than the address that they give us when they purchase the ticket. Just like if you check into a hotel, you give your address. That's the same way that happens with us. So have you thought of or maybe in the future, any kind of like guest surveys or anything afterward in the same way it's like, how was your stay? And kind of, yes, after every show, ticket buyers get a customer service feedback through our program called Riptide, we have customer service feedback on every person who responds to our survey. But yeah, if you buy a ticket, unless you have bought multiple in a certain period of time, we only hit you once in like a 60 day period. But we do have all of that customer data and feedback. And at our board, our staff gives an update to the board at every board meeting about what those kind of the journey and experiences for our ticket buyers. Okay. Thank you. I would only add to that that actually we look forward to your metrics. So the city has the ability to measure growth and profitability in different parts of downtown. So given that the theater pretty much has a program every night of the week, once we get further along, we can start doing comparisons from prior to the theater opening. Looking back at the days from the Follies, the time the theater was closed, and where we are today, and the metrics will probably become a lot more clear on what those true financial impacts are from many of the projections that we

made originally about our impacts to downtown came from what the Follies was already doing, and the Follies was on, only ran, I think, for four days a week. We're running pretty much seven days a week now with very full audiences. One question I didn't answer earlier that I think was asked of me is, what are we going to do for going forward and making the theater accessible? One of the things that we are very much focused on in our fundraising is subsidizing programing so that we can get kids, so that we can get other people, so that we can have $20 tickets in the theater. And we're doing that and we're achieving that. And we had a number of days recently where we filled the theater 2 or 3 times with 700 kids each, which was an amazing thing for us. There are 700 kids in our city. Yeah. Well, well, let's say there are 700 kids in the theater with a whole bunch of busses out front. So they were coming from school districts everywhere. But I have to say that probably for all of us, one of our most gratifying days was having those seats filled with little ones. It was really cool. And we want to do a whole lot more than that. And that's been part of the foundation's mission from day one, is to make sure that everybody can afford to come into the plaza and see shows and be entertained. Thank you so much. Thank you all for joining. I appreciate the whole board for coming. Thank you. Moving on to proclamations. We had two that were have been recently done. First, we have Karen Devine Day proclaimed on March 27th, 2026, she received the 486 star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in recognition for her distinguished career spanning nearly 35 years in broadcast journalism here

in the Coachella Valley and her strong commitment to community service. So big thanks to Karen Devine there. We also had Kim Waltrip Day that was proclaimed on April 3rd, 2026. She received the 487 star and recognition of her accomplished career as a film producer, director, and overall contributions in arts and local and the local film community, as well as her ongoing service and community initiatives here in the city of Palm Springs. Our next item is the acceptance of the agenda. The City Council will discuss. The order of the agenda, may amend the order at urgency items, no abstentions or no votes on consent calendar items or request calendar items to be removed for separate discussions. Are there any items staff or council member would like to remove from the consent calendar? If you can note if it's a separate discussion, a question or recusal, anybody. Recusing on one see, see? Okay. See? Yes. Councilmember Bernstein, I just have a question on one O. Question O. Yes. Okay. That's amazing. Thank you. I would I would like to entertain a motion to accept the agenda. Do we have a I have a motion by Councilmember Garner, a second by Councilmember DeHart. Just waiting on Councilmember Bernstein and ready to come up. You can also vote right here. No, you were slow in. Here

we go. Thank you. Wonderful motion carries. At this time, I invite City Attorney Ballinger to provide a report on the closed session, please. Yes. Honorable mayor, members of the city Council, members of the public. The City Council met in closed session to discuss items that are listed on the agenda, and there's no reportable action. Thank you. Next item is public testimony. This time has been set aside for members of the public to address the City Council on Nonpublic Hearing agenda items. All of our items are none. Public hearing agenda items two minutes are assigned to each speaker. You are asked to please begin your time by telling us what agenda, item, or items you are speaking about. If there's written comment that you would like to distribute, you're welcome to hand it to the city clerk. We have many speakers tonight, so I'm going to ask that I will let you know who the current speaker who's next on deck. And we're going to try to keep it going as quickly as possible. I will be holding the two minute boundary for every public speaker. So fair warning to everyone now. First speaker, give me one second. Is David Vignola, and on deck will be Lex Ortega, please. Reset. 151 oh, okay. Great.

Good evening. I'm speaking on three C. I urge the Council to move quickly in, considering the transition to the direct election of a mayor by putting the question before the voters in November. I believe this transition, if approved by a vote of Palm Springs residents, would actually strengthen the ability of any protected class to influence the outcome of future elections and would bolster the democratic process by having a mayor elected by the majority of the voters. I'm strongly opposed to the City council maintaining a rotational mayor, but extending that term of the term of that service, as it would do little to remedy issues with the current structure and could unfairly elevate an individual holding that position. I also oppose the city's engaging the services of a professional demographer to determine whether adding a directly elected mayor is in furtherance of the purposes of the Cvra. This likely would be costly and is less transparent than putting the question before the voters. Although transitioning to a directly elected mayor could be challenged under the Cvra, I believe the changing demographics of our city and the benefits of having a directly elected mayor for a term of four years far outweigh the risks of possible litigation. I also have faith that the council could decide the appropriate staffing for a directly elected mayor position, and reject this as a reason not to support this transition. Our city has grown significantly since I moved to district five in October 2018. I believe having a dedicated mayor representing the entire city directly elected by its citizens elevates our city, allows for greater collaboration and attention from our federal and state partners, and provides enhanced accountability throughout our city government, which is vital as our city grows by adding a citywide

perspective to council discussions. Your time is up. Thank you. Next we have Lex. After Lex will be Kathy Wermke. I'm a Palm Springs resident and I just came from my apartment in district one to this meeting. The street I live on is a street full of apartments and duplicate duplexes. It is a street that is packed with communities and cars at night and empty by 8 a.m. Because my neighbors are working class, predominantly Latino folks, my street isn't a street where A would be at large mayor candidate would go to for big donor house parties or to engage neighborhood leads through 1PS. It's the kind of street that was historically ignored by mayors and city council members, which is why we got sued by Southwest Voter Registration Education Project back in 2018 in the first place. That led to the formation of the California Voting Rights Act working Group, which I co-chaired and why the city ultimately entered into a settlement agreement in that case, because even the city's officials found proof that the at large mayor's election had the most racially polarized voting in the city. This is a civil rights issue more than anything. And the people who don't see it that way, perhaps like the person before me, likely have never been part of a minority voting bloc as defined by the Cvra. If we want to see the cost of ego over evidence, look at Santa Monica. They are currently mired in a legal battle against amicus brief filers and civil rights titans like the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the Legislative Black Caucus, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, California Latino School Board Association, California Association of Black School Educators, UCLA Voting Rights Project, and many more. For eight years, we have seen the results of our labor. Our current city council is the most diverse cross-section of leaders in our city's history. This did not happen by accident. It happened because we held dozens of meetings in English and Spanish to ensure every resident had a voice. In our current system, there are other options on the table than what a small group of residents are attempting to ram through with the ballot proposition, including two year rotating terms, ultimately changing this

now to include any at large elements isn't about better government governance. It's about catering to strong egos who want to be talking heads rather than public servants. We are already seeing that federally we should be a sanctuary for democracy, not a local mirror of those same federal tactics. Thank you, thank you. Next we have Cathy after Cathy will be Jeff course three. I'm speaking on three C I'm Cathy, I live in district one. I had the privilege of voting for the first Latina to serve on city council in a district. That was crafted to be majority minority. That person also Grace Garner became our first Latina and only Latino mayor in our 80 year history. I. I was one of the co-chairs of the Citizens Voting Rights Working Group. We have some other members here. If they would stand up and I know Steven is having a hard time standing up because he's got a broken hip. But we've been anyway, we engaged in a significant process of hearings, forums, workshops and outreach events that included more than 400 individuals and residents, and we even held meetings in Spanish. We made a detailed legislative and factual record in 2018, which I have to say, I'm very sorry to say, was not included in the public record for this meeting. And we we basically looking at the demographics of the city and the issues before us proposed a fully by-district system, with the mayor selected by the City Council because it best advanced the civil rights purposes of the California Voting Rights

Act, which is one of the strongest civil rights acts in California. And it was important that we did that because the city admitted to and also had a long history of racially polarized voting, the most polarized of which is in has been historically in the mayor's race. My personal belief is the district system has worked well. We have gone from having two people of color serve in the 80 years of the City Council's history to having three people with a minority background. You're out of time. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Goodness. Next we have Jeff, cause after Jeff CRS will be James Williamson. I'm speaking on item C3C at a time when voting rights of minorities and women are under attack nationally, Palm Springs should be doing everything it can to protect voting rights, not limit them. Electing a six council member who will also serve as a ceremonial mayor in an in an at large election, will violate the city legal settlement that we entered with a Latino voting rights organization and violate the California California Voting Rights Act, allowing for legal challenges that could last years and result in the city paying both parties legal fees. Santa Monica has been in litigation for a decade, still ongoing, and has spent tens of millions of dollars fighting a cvra lawsuit, the Cvra and the city's settlement agreement specifically say that a remedy that combines at large members and district based members is prohibited, period. In addition, California courts have made it clear that the law applies whether enacted by the legislative body or the voters know California government entity of any kind has ever won a Cvra lawsuit. If Council or the voters decides to add a sixth at large council member who serves as ceremonial mayor, the city will find itself shockingly

on the other side of entities who filed briefs in support of the plaintiffs who are suing Santa Monica at the at the California Supreme Court. These include the California Attorney general, the California Secretary of State, California's Latino, Black and Asian Pacific Islander legislative caucuses, Democratic legislators in Sacramento, and civil rights organizations, including the Dolores Huerta Foundation, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, and many more. I cannot imagine our residents wanting the city to take any action that could weaken or overturn Californian voting rights laws, or to spend millions of dollars fighting those civil rights organizations and state leaders. They want this council to oppose it. Thank you very much. Thank you. James, just one second. We have Tobias Wolff, who's on Zoom. So we're just going to go in order. Tobias, if you can hear me yes I can. Great. We'll do two minutes. And then after Tobias James thank you very much. My name is Tobias Wolff. I'm a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a part time home homeowner and part time resident in Palm Springs. In district two, I had the great honor of serving as one of the co-chairs on the Cvra working Group that helped to support Palm Springs in the move to district wide elections. My role here today was to talk a little bit about the reasons why this agenda item three C would be illegal, would violate the California Voting Rights Act, and, perhaps equally important, violate the settlement agreement that the city has entered into. My friends and colleagues have already done a very good job with that. So I'd like to take a second and just talk in very real terms about what this is about and why it is a civil rights issue. The move from at large elections to district elections in Palm Springs, which has resulted in a period of extraordinary good governance in Palm Springs.

The major impact it had was to diminish the ability of a very powerful small group of residents of Palm Springs to exercise outsized influence and power over policy in the city, and this proposal is a civil rights issue under the Cvra, because what it would do is allow that very powerful small group of residents in Palm Springs to deadlock the council. That's the impact that it would have to add this sixth at large position onto the council. It would empower rich people in the city to deadlock the council over policy. This is not a technical issue. This is not a detail. This is at the heart of what the Cvra is about, and it's at the heart of what the community of Palm Springs decided to move away from when we established district wide elections several years ago. Thank you very much. Thank you. Tobias. Next we have James Williamson after James will be Adobe. Good evening. I'd like to start by reading into the record a statement from Senator Barbara Boxer. I was so proud when Palm Springs became a leader in civil rights protection. After a past history that harmed many minorities. Now that the city is in full compliance with our state's Voting Rights Act, I oppose the effort to add an at large mayor, which undermines both the spirit and the letter of that act. When I was in county government, she she states the board presidency was rotated just as the mayor's position is rotated today in Palm Springs. I believe that system works very well and avoids unwarranted expenditures while leading to collegial power sharing. Now comment from myself on the process. When we engage our residents, we know from experience that we develop better decisions and solutions. The small group working in private over a nine month period that developed the proposed ballot measure, did not even hold one public meeting to get input from

residents. If the proposal, as they state, truly wanted to provide the community with a choice and our system of government, wouldn't they first engage the community to develop that choice rather than tell us what what they had decided was the best solution and allow us only to vote yes or no. That's why I strongly urge the council, the council, to please continue with the public process that Council Member Garner initiated. Take 2 to 3 months to hold public community meetings and find a proposal. And if a proposal for change results from that, then let's make sure that the ballot language is t misleading, that it does not violate the law, and that does not disenfranchize any members of our community. And above all their moves, our city forward and not back as the current proposal does. Thank you, thank you. Next we have Adobe after Adobe is Melissa Dolores. Hi, I'm editor Ruby. I live in district five. Much of what I was going to say has already been said much more eloquently by the people before me. But let's face it, right now, this is playing out before the public. K m I r news had this as their lead story for the last two nights, and we hadn't even started discussion here at the council. I'd like to reemphasize with James asked for that. We need to do a much better outreach with the community. We have to give people time to debate and talk about t. If this is how we're pushing it forward, not rushing to get this done. There was no staff report with this item three C in my opinion, the city attorney should at least be telling the public these are the terms of what we came to conclusion that led us to having the diversity and districts. And in my opinion, it's working very

well. If right now the feds are dismantling d e I across the board, they're trying to rewrite history. Their their doing away with it. Palm Springs brand is at the other end of the spectrum. We are known for our diversity. We have, in my opinion, done very well since we've moved to district in terms of rotating the mayor and visibility of the people that are on the council, not just in the Valley but nationally. On Meet the Press during the hurricane. You know, every time that I turn around, Palm Springs is at the opposite end of what Donald Trump's agenda is. What really worries me, and I only have 20s left. So if we just imagine we go to six council members, we end up deadlock and the at large position determines that. That's why we're deadlocked and doesn't move forward. What if that had been on reparations? The last thing is I have the the plaque that we were given. It's signed by Rhonda Hart, who was the head of the Civil Rights Commission. Thank you. Next, we have Melissa Dolores, and after Melissa will be April Rojas. Hello, everybody. I am here on behalf of the section 14 organization. On behalf of the section 14 Survivors Nonprofit Organization, we respectfully urge the City City Council to maintain the current rotating mayor system and not alter the position of mayor. The mission of the section 14 survivors is to improve the quality of life of survivors and descendants of Palm Springs. Section 14. This work is grounded in restoring our past and reclaiming our future through meaningful and equitable representation. The rotating mayor system was designed to ensure

historically underrepresented communities like ours. Section 14. Have a voice at the mayoral and council table. Preserving the system is essential to maintaining inclusive and accessible governance. Reverting to an At-Large system would represent would represent a step backwards for equity and democratic representation representation, particularly at a time when progress has been made towards broader, inclusive. Include inclusivity on City Council. The staff report highlights the city's 2018 transition by direct elections resulted by a threat of litigation under the Cvra, and the Cvra prohibits at large election systems if they impair the ability of protected classes to elect candidates of their choice or to influence election outcomes. Moving away from district based representation risks undermining these important protections. Additionally, the current system. The future. The changing the current system would increase financial responsibility of the state. I propose, instead of doing that, you go ahead and complete the promises that were made to section 14, like affordable housing assistance and small business assistance as well. Thank you so much. Thank you. Melissa. After next, we have April, April Rojas and after April is John Lennon. Good evening, council members. My name is April Rojas. I'm a full time resident and small business owner here in Palm Springs. I'm here to vocalize my disappointment in agenda item three C and the possibility of returning to an elected mayor. The city struggles with the perception of inclusiveness and diversity without actually practicing either in a truly impactful way. Returning to an elected mayor has the potential to prevent more progressive and diverse leadership, as well as

create legal and fiscal challenges for the city. The at large voting method used to elect mayors historically has not reflected the actual demographic of the city, requiring candidates to fundraise and campaign creates a barrier for more diverse and underserved candidates to run. The decision to return to elected mayors would need months of consultations and community outreach, seemingly much longer than the current timeline being presented for this initiative. We are at a moment collectively where we must protect the rights and interests of all residents of this city, not just the ones with enough privilege and resources to rush ego driven decisions about the future of our community's leadership. I encourage every member of Council to consider what the intentions behind this update are, and what impact it would have on the future of our city. Before moving forward with the decision to return to elected mayors. Thank you. Thank you. April. After John, we have Lisa Middleton. Hi. I'm here. Good evening, mayor and council members. I'm here on three C. My name is John Lennon. I'm a resident of district two and I'm here to support a directly elected mayor. This matter comes down to three core principles accountability, continuity and representation. First, accountability. Right now, Palm Springs residents elect council members by district but not the mayor. This creates a clear accountability gap. Our most visible leader is not directly answerable to the entire electorate. Second, continuity since since 2019, Palm Springs has had seven mayors. This turnover makes it difficult to build strategic momentum or sustain long term priorities. Other cities like Stockton and Santa Ana, have successfully transferred from a transition from a rotational model to directly elected mayors serving multi year terms with no legal issues, and research shows that longer mayoral term strengthen regional and state partnerships, improve economic development and ensure better policy follow through. Because the

leadership and priorities do not reset every year. Third, representation a directly elected mayor builds upon our district based system by also including a seat that represents 100% of Palm Springs voters. It provides a unifying voice on citywide issues like housing, tourism and infrastructure, and in addition, cities like Fremont and Bakersfield have proven that how a district based system can build a diversity leadership pipeline that lead to mayor seat wins. Finally, this change would not alter Palm Springs City. Palm Springs Council manager form of government. The city manager would continue to oversee daily operations. This measure simply gives voters the ability to choose who serves the mayor and represents everyone. This is a practical, widely used model, and it strengthens the accountability, improves continuity and gives residents a stronger voice. I just ask, in closing, respectfully, that you support moving this forward, and please let us vote. Thank you. John. Next, we have Lisa Middleton after Lisa is Christopher Broadwell. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you. Council. In 2018, I had the honor of serving on the Palm Springs City Council. At the time that we implemented the change from everyone being elected at large to a district based system. We had over 30 meetings within our neighborhoods in English and in Spanish, and I attended personally, almost every single one of those meetings. We learned a tremendous amount from those meetings. They were productive. They were engaging of the public. We had a very complex question before us, and that was how to take and move to something we had not done

before to have district boundaries. And what would those district boundaries be? What we have seen is that the work that went in to that effort to create those district boundaries has stood up over the test of time. And today, the boundaries that we have in place are almost identical to the boundaries that were drawn back in 2018. The question before us today is a different question, and it is not a complex question. It's a question as to whether or not we should have in Palm Springs, like nearly 200 other California cities, a directly elected mayor. One of the things that all of us know who have had the honor of being elected to office is there's nothing that can replace the experience of standing in front of your neighbors and your potential constituents, and talking to them and hearing their questions, and providing your answers as to what your platform is going to be. We need a mayor who has the support of the entire city of Palm Springs. Thank you. Thank you. Lisa. Next, we have Christopher Baldwin. After Christopher Baldwin, we have Lori Yellen. No, Chris. Next after Christopher. Okay, sorry. Thank you. I'm with district 5J5. Thank you for the opportunity to address the. The council never have so few people done so much for so many for so little reward. Thank you all for your contributions to the city. And I want to call out Scott Stiles for his engagement, his efforts. There's no place I go in town that I don't see him

somewhere. So thank you, Scott. I'll be brief. I'm here to speak in favor of the direct election for mayor. Our city council, as most councils has turnover, we. We lose valuable and knowledgeable members. I believe that a mayor elected by the people will allow for much needed business continuity and institutional knowledge, allowing for stronger and better governance. Each district has a voice in the selection of their representatives, yet voters have no say in who should serve as mayor. We vote for our assembly member, our state senator and our governor. It seems to work at a state level. I think it can work here. I fully support district elections. However, it's time for voters to have a direct voice in the selection of our mayor. Direct voting by citizens is the hallmark of our democracy. It is a hallmark of our democracy. I don't believe this proposal is intended to hurt or disenfranchize anyone in our community. In fact, it is my belief that any potential candidate for mayor, regardless of background, that conveys an inspirational vision for Palm Springs, could be elected. We do not need a mayor that can best. We do need a mayor that can best represent our city to meet our long term objectives versus the annual passing of the baton. I urge the Council to support this effort or allow voters to decide. Thank you, thank you. Next, we have Lori. Lori, thanks. After Lori is Steven Moses. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Lori Allen and I'm here tonight because I'm not sure why this forward thinking, collaborative city is even considering taking a giant step backwards. For 81 years, the city did not rotate mayors. All mayors were men and all but one

were white men. In the seven years since the City Council moved to district voting and rotating mayors, we've had four females and our first ever Latino mayor. Better than that, voter turnout has increased by 31.6% just during those seven years. The proponents of this change say that it would do three things improve accountability, increase the mayor's influence, and provide continuity and consistency. Since a recent direct elected mayor admitted to committing more than 20 felonies while in office, we can see that the direct election doesn't necessarily assure accountability and increasing the mayor's influence actually negates one of the beauties of rotating mayors, which is that it is the people who have greater influence, not a solitary elected official and greater continuity. I personally don't want to revert to a system that continuously and consistently delivers only privileged white men. As mayors today, Americans are learning what overreaching and self-aggrandizing leadership looks like. What it can do. It may work in some areas, and even in the majority of American voters today, but not in Palm Springs. Palm Springs deserves better. Our residents deserve the opportunities that come from collaborative governance, not from Kingmaking. Thank you. Thank you Lori. Next we have Steven Moses. And after Steven Moses, we have Peggy Trott. I'm fine. You take your time. My name is Steve Moses and I participated in that decision making process

that created the rotating mayor. I think we've heard enough good things about the rotating mirror that there's really no that it just doesn't make it and that the I'm sorry that the rotating mayor is the generally elected mayor does not make the. The necessary criteria. I'm going to sit down very soon because I've heard all the arguments. It. It would be nice to be having a directly elected mayor, but it would not be fair to do it. And fairness is important to voting. And hi to Tobias Wolff, wherever he is. Thank you. Steven. Peggy. I'm here to talk on three B write a different one. We're we're doing something else. We're here to ask. And hopefully well, it's an intent to form an infrastructure district. You know, I've got representatives from small hotels and, and large hotels. And as a lodging community, we want to support the modernism and expansion of our convention center and continue to drive tourism into this destination. You know, I've, I've been working with the city since Council Member DeHart announced his laser fast Convention Center committee, which was over a year and three months ago. So at government speed, I think we're going really fast. But the intent tonight is to let you know that we want to form our district here in Palm Springs. All of the lodging

establishments are behind it, and we certainly hope that we have your permission to continue with our efforts. And I'd also like to thank the city staff who have been really helpful guiding us through this whole procedure and just making sure that we stay on task, we hold our meetings, we do all of the things that we're supposed to do. So they've been very helpful in this as well. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. Do we have anybody who wanted to give public comment on 3A3B or three C that didn't get to sign up? If you can make a line on the side. Great. Selena, maybe Selena can start and then you can get the name of the next person just to keep it moving. Selena, can you just start with your name? Yeah. Good evening. My name is Selena Daniels. I'm the founder of Palm Springs Semantics and a former staffer at the world Bank. I've also been a full time resident here for over a decade in Palm Springs. I want to speak to process on three C. Because process is what creates trust, and without trust, governance loses legitimacy. A change to how we select mayors, not a small administrative adjustment. It's a structural shift in how power, visibility, and voice are distributed in the city, and changes like that should not come before a robust, transparent and inclusive stakeholder engagement process. They should come after it. Palm Springs has already done hard work to move toward more representative governance. That didn't happen by accident. It happened because communities spoke up and the city listened. So my question is, where is that level of engagement here? Have we heard from every district? Have we have we created space for working people, for renters, for communities of color, for Lgbtqia residents, not just to react, but to shape the

conversation? Because if we haven't, then we're not ready to redesign the system. The current rotating mayor model does something important. It ensures that leadership is shared across the city over time. It distributes civic visibility. It says every part of Palm Springs belongs at the head of the table, and many Californian cities operate this way successfully. This is not a broken system that urgently needs fixing, so I urge you do not move ahead of the people. Engage first. Listen first, then decide, because in Palm Springs, inclusion should not just be an outcome, it should be in the process itself. Thank you, thank you. Next we have Michael Hirschman and after Michael will be Bill Wiley. Good evening. I'm talking on three a the library item. And I'm just here to thank everybody. My heart is really full of thanks this evening as I look forward to the completion of the library renovation. And I just like to call out a few groups of people that I'm really thankful for. And they're not in any particular order. But of course, the council has been so supportive of this project and I and it's it's really driven the whole process. And so I want to thank Council for that staff, also city staff and particularly Gini Case, the city library director, who started the whole process, rolling with the grant she received from the state for the renovation costs. I'd like to thank the community of Palm Springs who supports the librarian so many different ways, and it really forms a nexus of community involvement that doesn't discriminate against different groups of people or classes of people. Everybody uses the library, and moving forward, when the new building opens or when the renovated building opens up, it's going to be so much more effective in doing that community

building. So thank you to the community. Thank you for the foundation for raising all this money for the capital expenditures. I also want to thank the friends of which, you know, I'm a part of. The friends have been very active in this whole process through raising money through book sales and other events. We support events throughout the city. One one picnic. We have a. We have booths throughout any given city sponsored event. Our annual meeting attracts 100 people a year. Members, friends, members. So I want to thank them as well. We also have a very robust social media presence thanks to some of our newer friends board members. It's grown exponentially over the time they've been involved. And I think Michael. Thank you. You're out of time. Okay. Well thanks again, everybody got a lot of thank yous in. Thanks. We have Bill Wiley after Bill Wiley. Jim Gray. Hi, everyone. Bill Wiley, I'm the president of the Palm Springs Public Library Foundation. And I want to address three A as well. First, thank you to the Council for your continued support of the renovation project for the main library building in Sunrise Park. And as you know, the foundation has been actively. Trying to solicit funding and donations from the community since the last week of October. One of the great things that we've been able to utilize is opportunities to name portions of the renovated building, and that has proven to be very successful for us, and we want to be able to continue that. So I want to thank Jeannie and Mr. Stiles and his staff for setting up the naming opportunities and anybody that's interested in these

opportunities can go to our capital campaign website, which is next chapter.ps library foundation.org, next chapter, PS library foundation dot G and take a look there and see if you would like to create a legacy for family friend or community member. And again, thanks a lot for everything that you're doing in, in, in regards to this particular project and overall library support. And we hope that you have an approval in mind with three a for the for the two large donations. And that's the last thing I'll say, which is thank you so much to our great colleagues at the friends for their very generous donation, and also to the generous donation from the Jane Eckenhoff estate. Thank you, thank you. Next we have Jim Gray. After Jim Gray, we have Bob Heimbach. Hello, Council members. I won't use the full two minutes. First of all, thank you very much for your steadfast support of the library. Mayor Soto, thank you for coming to our annual meeting. And it's lovely to have you to be our mayor. And we live in the same district. It's great to have you for for the year. Just really want to double down on the support that you've given us at the library. It's so important for our entire community. The library represents everybody, no matter what background they come from, what what philosophies they hold. The library is a space. It's a safe space. It's everybody's third space. Very, very important. And I want to close in saying, I'm super impressed by the library staff and all of their hard work, all the volunteerism that comes from the friends and everybody on the foundation board. There are everybody shows up to support this

resource that is important for our entire community. So thank you very much. Thank you. Next we have Bob, and after Bob will be Paul in Henriksen. First of all, good evening Council. Earlier today I sent to you a seven point document about my position on the mayoral issue. It's too long to read here, so give me a couple of minutes to summarize something. A permanent rotational mayor council allows the city to experience the strengths of each individual during their mayoral year. Regarding this rotational perspective, a new mayor every year protects against and serves as a guardrail to democracy. From where we sit today, believing that all candidates for office in Palm Springs are above and beyond reproach, the greatest protection we have is to preclude the following potential crimes personal gain interfering with the democratic process, violating public trust, bribery, fraud, graft, embezzlement and campaign violations. Taking action today to preserve and protect our current City Council configuration with a rotational mayoral ship is essential in ensuring fairness, transparency, accountability, active citizen participation, and adhering and adhering to the rule of law all to protect our democracy. Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you. Paul. Good evening, esteemed council and wonderful staff. Well, much of Paul Hendrickson, Upper West Side, much of what I was going to say has already been said more than once, so I'm going to wing it.

That's enough to make you go bananas. So good. As my husband mentioned about the guardrails of democracy, distributed power among equals. So five equals is one of the cornerstones of the of the guardrails for democracy when too much control, influence and power is concentrated in one individual and to the disadvantage of the other leaders in the city, that's when you strip away those guardrails. So you could be lucky, you could get a good leader. But the guardrails are for when. What if you don't? And that's very important. We have seen it in the past. Need I remind everyone? Headlines Palm Springs City Council chambers and City Hall get raided by the FBI. Brought to you by an at large elected mayor. We should learn from history and in in doing so, there's a lot of lessons there. We've been very successful with a an equal panel of five serving all of us. And it also gives greater access to the residents. Because of that, we don't have a vacancy of leadership in our city. We don't need to make room for another leader and add that to the city budget as well. We're doing really well the way we are. It's a more perfect union to go back to where we were and those guardrails were missing is a less perfect union. Let's keep a more perfect union going forward and for generations going forward.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in the room who wanted to speak on three A, three B or three C that did not? Michael Pitkin come on up, close it out for us. Just this week, Michael Pitkin, all financial grant items. Two women in a pit bull attacked me near Albertson's drawing blood. Vigilante deterrent. Citizens on patrol threatening 6040 split are all being knifed for store manager. Circle K, food for less, Ralphs and Tower Market all accused me with accusations. Fine food Bank. I've used their services for six months at Jamesdoe. Jessie Desert, Highland Unity Center manager, sees our. Garcia refused me all services. Jo community health worker who signed me up would not answer my account questions. Said their system is not to provide me any verifying documents and only the city of Palm Springs can provide me my account information. Two black female volunteers intervened. They refused their names, piled my food up in front of me, a quarter pick up bed amount which I could not carry. They ordered Mr. Garcia that I take it or they will have me removed. After a week of complaints, letters fine. Food Bank are now fined. Regional food Bank now admits there are three separate food programs and one proxy program, all of which I have never been told. I met with Parks Director Nicholas Gonzalez. He will not look at this contract unless he receives multiple reports from others experiencing the same. I do not consent to this L.A. County style LPs 5150 5250 style restraining order without My knowledge deterrence program and

Santa Monica, la LA County, Riverside County, State of California. Palm Springs, Cvac. Tribes. Notice of potential litigation. Thank you. Michael. For sure. No one else. Madam clerk, is there anyone online? No further speakers. Okay, we made it through the next item. Thank you. Everyone is the consent calendar. I would like to entertain a motion to accept the consent calendar. With the recusal from Council Member DeHart on C. We just have a question on O. We have a motion and a second. Motion by Council Member Garner. Second by council Member DeHart. Motion carries. Thank you. Item C. Your question. I don't know. I think he's just I'm sorry. C was the recusal. Oh, just a quick question to City Manager. It's a three year contract on this. Our years two and three. Do they come before council. Yes. Councilman Bernstein yes. On that particular contract, the years two and three will come back to council as we have to budget for those additional resources. Okay. That was my question. Thank you. Thank you mayor. Yes, and thank you. And Scott, you had mentioned all three years. The for the first year is is I c the 260 the the 264. Yes. Two 6264 now in years two and three, when I was looking through there, that's considerably less likely the 180 or something. 80 each year. And I just want to confirm that those would be different numbers that come back. That's correct. Thank you. Okay. All right. Let's move on to our business items. Oh that's right. No, it's just

a question. Right. Okay. It's it's a first. We voted on everything all at once. The next item on our agenda is item three A, which is the renaming of JC fry building and other specific areas of the Palm Springs Public Library. May we have a staff report, please? Good evening. Mayor. Mayor pro tem, members of Council. I'm Jean case, library director, and I have the greatest news story ever. We are here for the renaming of the JC building and other specific areas of the library. So on May 25th, 2023, the City Council approved a memorandum of understanding between the City and Palm Springs Public Library Foundation. The memorandum requires the City Council to approve naming opportunities for the Palm Springs Public Library system, valued at more than $100,000. The foundation. So first of all, I want to acknowledge I've got a great support system here tonight. I've got the foundation here at the friends, I've got a trustee, I've got Catherine Huff, who's with the trustee of the Jane Hoff estate. So we've got some really wonderful people in the audience. Tonight, the foundation officially launched their capital campaign just a few months ago, in October of 2025, and so far, they are just shy of $2.1 million raised in funds. So, yes. Thank you. Of of more than those 35 capital campaign donations. Two require the City Council's approval. The friends of the Palm Springs Library and the Jane Hoff donations. Other donations that you'll see in attachment B are the city manager, Scott Styles approval level, and he expects to approve those following this meeting. But you can read through those and see over a half $1 million in donations just

from those those gifts that are under $100,000. So we're really grateful for for all of that, the friends of the Palm Springs Library, they have been our nonprofit of record for over 50 years, and they have given us gifts over the years. I mean, even just in the last five years totaling half $1 million. So we know they're well over $1 million worth of gifts over the over the years, but they've pledged $250,000 for the opportunity to rename the JC Fry building as the friends of the Palm Springs Library building. I'm going to show you a picture on the screen. So this is how it was before construction began. This building was built in 1965 at a cost of $45,000. But where is that money now? You know, by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, they were the JCS. They raised between 7 and $10,000 of a final gift by doctor G fry. Doctor Russell Fry was an avid bridge player. And so he loved this building. This was a really nice community building. We are we've done an initial rendering. This is what the friends of the Palm Springs Library building will look like. That was the initial rendering. And I want to show you this last one because it's just gorgeous. This is what we're expecting this building to look like when construction is finished. And I think it's just amazing and going to be a beautiful little landmark for us on our campus now. Jane Lenhoff, you might recognize that name. Carl was her father. He was he and Carl and Edith were pioneers of Palm Springs. They had the first grocery store, hardware store, post office. He was the town's first postmaster, and he was a founding member of the library Board of Trustees. And he was on the library Board of Trustees at his death in 1972. So Jane Hoff's estate

has left several several gifts to the Inland Empire Community Foundation, and we. The Palm Springs Public Library Foundation is one of the named donors of an ongoing sustaining gift from them. Like I said, Catherine Hough is here today. We're so grateful to to her and Greg for for their generous gift to the library. And we want to do a naming opportunity for her for Jane Eckenhoff of Desert Landscaping, because she was such an outdoors person, wrote her horse all the time. And we just think that the desert landscaping, having a nice plaque as you enter the library would be a really nice honor for for her and her legacy. So finally, I just want to mention that naming opportunities provide a meaningful way for community members to support the restoration and renovation of the Palm Springs Public Library while establishing a lasting legacy. These contributions strengthen the Foundation's relationships with donors and help cultivate both sustaining and legacy gifts. And and just me as the Library director, I'm so grateful for our community giving us gifts large and small. Every dollar counts, and we're just so grateful for them and, and their gifts. And to you, the council and the city staff for helping us make this library renovation become a reality. So I ask for your approval in approving these naming gifts for the friends of the Palm Springs Library and the Jane Lindenhof Estate. Thank you. And I'm happy to entertain. Questions? Any questions? Comments? One, congratulations and thank you to the trustees and the Foundation and just all the supporters for your continued engagement on this. And any my kids see, like every bit of work that happens behind that fence

and it's just you drive past it and you can see that momentum. So thank you for doing this and continuing. And we can't wait to see that progress. Pass it over to Councilmember Garner. Thank you so much. Thank you to everyone who's a part of this. Like Michael Hirsh said, there's just so many thank yous. You could really go on and on. I almost want to read every single name and your attachment of the people who have donated. But I wanted to just highlight too, that there's a a lot of donors that are listed in our attachment, and there's a little information about each of them and why they decided to give this gift to the library. And they're just really lovely. So I encourage people to, to read them. And the question I had for Eugenie is, I, I think the, the history of the fry building is really interesting and important. And I'm wondering if as we move to it being the friends of the Palm Springs Library, which I also love that it's going to be named that if we could have a little plaque or information inside the building that said, you know, picture of what it used to look like and a little description of that history that you just gave us. I want to make sure that we're kind of honoring our past as we move forward. You know, what's interesting about this building is that it will house our archive, right? So this is where the history of Palm Springs and our library will live. So I think it'll be really fun to do to do some historic photos down the hall, kind of like City Hall has who those photos were curated by the previous one of the previous library directors in the city. But yeah, it's really fun. I think this would be a really great way to honor, obviously, the history of the library and, and this building. I think that would be a great idea. Thank you, I appreciate that. And just for anyone that does want to donate you, you have there's naming rights for everything, even the this aisles, the stacks of books, right? You could have your name on that or on the back of a chair. There's a lot

of opportunities at different levels. So for anyone that's interested and it doesn't have to be your name, it can be the name of anybody or, or doesn't have to be anyone's name. It could be something else. So just thank you all for your support of the of the library, my very favorite place in all of Palm Springs, and we're looking forward to doing some hard hat tours in the future. That should be fun. Can't wait. Councilmember Bernstein So I just want to, you know, thank you for this. And the people who donated, I mean, there are literally dozens of people here that have given $1,000 or more for the library. And this is the second time tonight we're seeing the community come and give financially to a city building. And that's when we saw the Plaza Theater before that. That's pretty amazing what it says about our residents and our community, and how much people want to give back to, to the city that that they enjoy. So thank you to the community. Thank you to all the hard work of the foundation, the friends, and obviously the library staff. So thank you very much. Thank you. And we're happy to come back as many times as we need to for more naming opportunities. Okay. Any other comments? Seeing none, I would like to entertain a motion. We have a motion by Councilmember Burns. I know. Sorry, I knew you were going to second by Councilmember Doha. Motion carries. Thank you very much, Jeannie. Next item on the agenda is item three B, which is a resolution of intention to establish the Palm Springs Tourism Infrastructure District. May we have a staff report, please? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Mayor pro tem ready, council members, I'm Christopher Mooney. I'm the director of finance and treasurer for the city. Thanks. A short

presentation for tonight's request to for the Council to approve a resolution of intent for the T, d or the Tourism Improvement District. So just some highlights that it take to get here. After we redirected, our city manager was directed to get the Convention Center improvement project ready to go. There were some committees that were formed shortly thereafter. One of them was the Tourism Improvement District Committee. And you heard Peggy Trott up here from PS resorts talk about all the members. Was a gentleman. Local hotels, small hotels, vacation rental owners, network. And and a lot of them are here tonight. And I personally just want to thank them from the city, a lot of their hard work. And we just really appreciate all of the work that they did to get here tonight. The committee met every other week. They ultimately came to completing a management district plan. This MDP governs how the t d works. The t d will include all hotels and all short term vacation rentals within the Palm Springs city limits. These businesses, it's important to know, will be self-assessing themselves. 1% of gross revenue that is going to fund the Tourism Improvement District, hopefully to the tune of an estimated $4.1 million. This will help pay for debt service that will issue to do the improvements to the convention center, any excess over the 4.1 million will go to a capital reserve fund to do future capital improvements, future maintenance to the convention center to keep it fresh and to not have do these big debt issuances every 2025 years. The t d group, which is led by Peggy and PS resorts, completed a successful campaign recently to get a minimum of 50% of the hotels and STR to sign a document in favor of establishing the T d tonight's action for the

council. We're asking the council to approve a resolution resolution of intent to form the Tourism Improvement District. This allows the city to move forward to legally completing the t d, which requires a couple of public hearings. But first, as you see in the next steps, once. If the City Council approves this this evening, the city has to notify or notice each of the businesses within the district by April 12th. So we're ready to go with that if it's approved tonight. And then the next or the first public hearing is May 12th. And this is the first hearing for the community to come and give public comment at the May 12th meeting. There is no action for the council to take that will be later on in a in a couple of meetings from from that May 12th date. That's some of the highlights. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions. If the Council has any. Wonderful. Well, thank you, Chris. And I think this is just such a reflection of the hospitality industry, recognizing the importance of our convention center coming together, collaborating. Another really impressive public partner, public private relationship that we have to be able to make this investments in a building that drives so much of our economy. And so for me, just to kind of my main question, just to underscore and confirm with the community, this is a self-assessment just on lodging businesses. Correct? Correct, correct. And can you just share a little bit about the. Essentially the they will self-assess and then those revenues will then help support the both the current plans and future improvements that we need. Right? Yeah. That's correct. It'll follow. The

collection process will be done by our team or my team. We'll collect the assessment every month. We put it in a separate fund apart from the general fund, all of the dollars will go into a separate bank account as required by the MDP, and the city will manage the funds along with the ownerships association that the MDP requires. Okay, wonderful. Any questions, Council member? Not a question, Chris, but accolades and kudos to Peggy Trott and the team on the working group. You all have done an incredible job getting us to this point. So thank you very much for doing that. And to the business community that is standing up to support and invest in the convention center and having that understanding of what that economic impact is for the city of Palm Springs. Huge appreciation for the business community, for hospitality community, for stepping up and making that ongoing investment. Council member hurt or sorry, Bernstein. Thank you, Council member. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I have been a part of this, this working group. And I also want to just second Council member DeHart, on the amount of work that's been done. It's it's tremendous. And, you know, so I just cited about the Plaza Theater in the library. And here again, we have the community coming together to figure out how to raise funds to support a city building and, and district. And that is truly unique to see this three times tonight. So thank you. I also want to just highlight this is actually, you know, becomes a tourism funded thing. So this is not on the residence. In addition to Peggy Trott, I want to thank Michael Green. I don't think he's here. And Kenny Cassidy as well as the rest of the committee because it took it took a lot of work and a lot. And the only way this could really happen was peers.

Talking to peers about it. And also just to reinforce, you know, this, this whole thing, it's not just the convention center, but the convention center district, which will be a whole new center in our downtown that residents and small businesses will benefit from as well. It's also very interesting that this is one project where from the very beginning, it was determined that there would be a capital reserve for future improvements. And that's not something that we often see with with our projects here. But this is designed very much so that for the next 30, 40 years, 30 years, I guess we will have funds in there to help keep it maintained properly. And then lastly, I just want to say, you know, when we did the the downtown revitalization, we saw a large public private partnership, a large investment in it. And as a result, t o t increased significantly. The city's budget increased, measure j increased. And I believe that this really has the potential to be to uplift our city in the same way that did to a very large extent, something that will experience for a long time, because this will really not only expand the convention center, but our whole downtown. So again, I want to thank the the whole committee who worked so really hard on this and, and continues to work hard on it. So thank you. We have a motion by Council Member Hart, a second by council Member Garner. Motion carries. Thank you very much. And thank you again to PS resorts and all the hospitality community help get us there. Next item on our agenda is three C titled A Discussion and possible direction

regarding the mayoral position. May we have a staff report please? Yes. Honorable mayor, members of the City Council, members of the public. The item before you is a discussion item regarding the mayoral position. And if I can figure out the PowerPoint, I will get started. As the council is aware, in February of this year, the council asked staff to research and bring back some options to the City Council regarding the city's mayoral position. More recently, on March 16th, the city received a notice of intent with regard to a possible ballot measure to create a directly elected mayor for the November 2026 election. That notice of intent was resubmitted on March 30th with some corrections, and then earlier this week, the city received a supplemental filing with regard to that ballot measure that changed some of the language. The staff report for you tonight lays out some of the options for the City Council legal issues, costs as well as the process of the City Council can decide what it wishes to do, if anything. So a little bit of background in terms of how the City of Palm Springs is governed today. The City Council is governed by a city council manager form of government. And by this we mean the City Council sets policy and the city manager carries it out. So if you think of a ship, the city Council kind of decides where the city is, an organization is going and the city manager and the city manager staff carry that out and sail the ship in that direction. The city currently has five council districts since 2018. Each council member represents a specific geographic region within the the city. And we'll go into the background of how we got there in a little bit. We have a rotating

mayor, and by that we mean the mayor's selected from among the five council members, and the mayor rotates yearly by district number that was put in place in 2019. Under the current system of government, each council member has a single vote. The mayor has the same number of votes, the same power from a legal perspective as each of the individual council members. No additional legal authority under Our current structure. How we got here. In 1994, the city council or the city voters adopted a city charter, which included a directly elected at large mayor. When the city was first incorporated in 1938, the city had seven council member districts. But that changed in 1994, pursuant to the city's charter. In 2018, the city received a letter from a an attorney who represented a group called the Southwest Educational Voters Association, and they cited the California Voting Rights Act and indicated an intent to sue the city under the Cvra. As a result of that process, the city moved to a directly elected mayor. I'm sorry, the city, the directly elected mayor was replaced with a rotating mayor. And that's what we have right now. Shortly after that, in 2019, the City Council adopted a resolution that formalized the process and turned it into a rotational process and formalized how it would cycle through each district each year. Actually, late last year, not in 2026. In in late 2025, there began some community discussion about possibly bringing back a directly elected mayor. And then, as I mentioned earlier, a ballot

measure has recently been filed to do that. There are three types of mayors in California as well as in other states. The first is the rotational mayor, which I just mentioned. It's the mayor is chosen by fellow council members. Some cities will have a process in place similar to what Palm Springs has, that clearly identifies how that rotation exists. Other cities just do it informally. They wait and see each year, whether they want to select a new mayor or if they want to stick with the with the existing mayor. As I mentioned, under the rotational mayor system, the mayor has the same voting power as other council members. They essentially run the city council meetings. They sort of tend to represent the city, you know, at ground groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings and those types of ceremonial events. And as I mentioned in Palm Springs, situation by council resolution, the position rotates every year, a different form of mayor position is the directly elected mayor position. Under this system, the voters themselves choose the mayor, and an at large system would provide that. All the city voters would select the mayor. In this type of system, different cities have different amount of power that the directly elected mayor can provide. In general law cities, there really isn't that much difference between the directly elected mayor and other council members in charter cities like Palm Springs. The charter can provide or the ordinances can provide for additional power of a directly elected mayor, for instance, maybe a veto power or something like that. And then the final third form of mayoral system is a strong mayor system. Under this system,

the mayor acts as the chief executive officer. So they don't generally have or if they do have a city manager, it's more of a city administrator. And the mayor takes on the city manager functions. This is usually reserved for larger cities. In California. We only have about five cities that use this model cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, some of the larger cities. In terms of what other cities in the Coachella Valley do, you'll see that three of the eight Coachella Valley cities have a directly elected mayor. None of these cities uses a strong mayor's system of government. The other five use a rotating system similar to Palm Springs. In terms of California. Overall, 97% of cities use the city manager system of government, and only five cities use the strong mayor position. So overarching. All of this discussion about the mayoral issue. We have the California Voting Rights Act, the California Voting Rights Act is a statute that was enacted by the California legislature in order to protect minority communities ability to elect candidates of their own choice. The Cvra prohibits at large elections if those at large elections weaken or dilute that ability. As I mentioned earlier, this is why in Palm Springs in 2018, the city of Palm Springs switched to district elections. I should point out at this point, I probably should have done it earlier. My colleague Jim Priest from Best Best Krieger is available to answer some of the kind of technical election law issues. He's an election law expert and actually

helped the city in 2018 with the cvra process. So why does this matter? Well, a directly elected at large mayor could be challenged under the Cvra because it reintroduces an at large element to the elections under the Cvra. It's arguably arguable that this at large election system could dilute the voting power of minorities, and that could constitute a violation of the Cvra. The city entered into a settlement agreement. As you heard from some of the speakers in 2018, and under that settlement agreement, the city agreed to move to this district based election system, which we have today in order to move to a different system under the Cvra, the city would need to hire a professional demographer to study and evaluate the risk of moving to something other than a purely district based election. If sued and unsuccessful, the financial consequences could be quite severe. I think you heard some of the members of the public mentioned the cities of Santa Monica. There was also city of Palmdale that lost Cvra case after an eight day trial, resulting in $4.7 million that the city of Palmdale had to pay to the other side. In the Santa Monica case, that case is actually still ongoing. But at one point during the litigation, when they were before the Court of Appeal, the plaintiffs in that case had already accrued $20 million in attorney's fees. In addition to the Cvra, there's also another somewhat of a twist, and that is a case that is pending before the US

Supreme Court. That is the case of Louisiana versus Cal. In this case, the Supreme Court is considering whether the Federal Voting Rights Act violates the federal Constitution, specifically section 14 and 15 of the US Constitution. If this case is decided in a way where the court perhaps strikes down or weakens the federal Voting Rights Act, that could actually influence the California Voting Rights Act, which, if weakened, would actually provide cities more flexibility and would cause the cvra to be less of an issue for cities. But until that case is decided, and it probably won't be decided until June of this year, it remains unclear as to how exactly the Cvra would impact the city's position and any move to a directly elected mayor would carry with it legal uncertainty and risk. So, keeping these things in mind, there are several options which we would lay out. There are obviously many different variations, but we've kind of distilled it down to these four options. The first option would be to simply keep the rotational system that the City Council has. Right now, this is legally the safest approach because it has been done based on demographic data and has been signed off on by at least one Cvra plaintiff. Under this system, the City Council could either keep the current one year rotation or the city council could extend that, or the City Council could eliminate the automatic rotation entirely and just decide on a yearly basis whether to whether and whom to select. As the council council mayor to run the meetings, the second option would be to adopt an ordinance similar to what

the Council did in 2018. Prior to that, the state legislature authorized city councils to adopt ordinances without going to a vote of the people to change the system of government in terms of district or at large mayors. However, in order to do this, the City Council would need to make a finding and and base that finding on demographic data that the change furthers the Cvra. So without this demographic data to support it, this path would carry more legal risk than keeping the rotational system. A third option would be for the City Council to put forward a ballot measure. This would let the voters decide directly whether to change the mayoral system of governance. This would be legally safer if it's supported by that same kind of demographic data that I just mentioned with the ordinance. So to be clear, just putting forward a ballot measure by the City Council without supporting demographic data would, at least under current law, still present the same potential risks under the Cvra. In order for the City Council to pursue this option, the City Council would need to adopt the ballot language by August 7th of this year to make the November ballot. And then the fourth option is, is sort of what is being proposed by the current ballot measure, and that is to let the voters decide directly. This would establish an additional council position. The mayor, and as I mentioned, with regard with regard to options three and two, without demographic data to support it, this path carries with it more legal risk. With regard to a a council ordinance or a council directed ballot measure, one option might be to add additional districts. The reason for

this is at least arguably under the California Voting Rights Act, by adding a directly elected mayor that dilutes the. The voting power of minorities, perhaps by adding additional districts seats on the Council, the Council could create another 1 or 2 majority minority districts. And that wouldn't have the diluting effect of of adding the directly elected mayor. It should be noted that this option would need to be thoroughly vetted from a legal perspective, and would have to be supported by, again, by demographic data. So I don't want to suggest that this is a panacea or that it's automatic. It would take it would take a bit of of research to see if this would actually help. In addition, if the council were to to adopt an ordinance to add districts under California law, we would have to hold multiple public workshops and hearings before the ordinance is adopted. So those are some of the legal issues in terms of non-legal issues such as cost and outreach. We'd like to to talk about those items. The council asked us to look at what some of the costs of, of moving to a different system would be. We've checked with the county registrar and the first number actually on the ballot initiative number. We received word today that these numbers were updated. And rather than 33 to $35,000, it would cost approximately $61,000 for just to add the ballot initiative. And then if the ballot initiative also included an election of of the mayor, that would cost an additional $105,000 to add it to the ballot. In addition to the election costs, city staff has looked at what it would cost to reconfigure some of

the City Hall offices, and we've estimated that that would be 125 to $150,000. There'd be some technology costs of approximately $7,500. And as I mentioned, when the City Council did the 2018 process, it engaged a demographer as well as legal counsel, and that was $100,000 at that time. And so it would be probably at a minimum, that same $100,000. Those are those are the one time costs, ongoing costs. Council salary is $82,000 approximately with a salary and additional benefits. And so by adding one other position, that would be an ongoing annual cost to the city. Some cities, when they have a directly elected mayor, they add staff to support the mayor. This is not required by law or automatic. But if the if the council followed that process, then staff estimates the cost of a legislative analyst would be approximately $146,000 per year with salary and benefits, technology costs would be about $1,500 a year ongoing. In terms of licenses and whatnot, there'd probably be other training and contingency fees of approximately $15,000 per year. In addition to these. And then the big costs really would be if the city were sued under the Cvra. If that happened, then the city could be facing literally millions of dollars worth of of legal fees, as we've seen with some of the other cities should be pointed out bears noting that no city has has won a cvra case. So under current law, it it the cvra is is really weighted heavily towards moving to, to district

elections and, and against at large elections. So in addition to the cost, staff asked us to look at the community engagement that might be involved as, as I mentioned, in 2018, the City Council directed that a, a community committee be formed and that was done. And there were nearly 40 community events in terms of working group meetings, community forums, outreach events, neighborhood meetings. And that was done all in both English and Spanish. So if the council were to undertake either an ordinance or a ballot measure, the City Council would want to decide whether it wants to consider that type of outreach, as it did in 2018. That concludes my presentation. I'm certainly available to answer any questions as well as staff in terms of any factual information. I don't think there's any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff, for this kind of very thorough laying out of. The work that has happened in the past. In 2018, our considerations for. Potential. Examination of of informing people and the litigation risks, it's very helpful. I have a few questions just to kind of confirm the settlement agreement we had. We had some public comments around kind of what was included in the settlement agreement in 2018. Can you just share with folks just if people wanted to find out more after reading this presentation, after today's discussion, where they can find that kind of information in history and the report of the voting

rights, voting rights working group, and just consolidation of all that 2018 work. Yes, that's a good question. So all of those documents are online and city staff is going to be putting together a web page. We'll work with the city clerk's office to make sure that there's a dedicated web page to include all of those historical documents. But the the settlement agreement, as well as the ordinance that was adopted in December of 2018, are all on the city's website. So if you go there and search, you can you can find those. If you have any questions, you can certainly email the city clerk or the city attorney's office, and we can get you those documents. Great. And. If you can put the slide up around the second to last one on ongoing costs. Can you talk a little bit? So the one time cost would be cost that we would do for timing before November. Ongoing costs would be obviously in perpetuity. But can you talk a little bit about if just the the part in orange of the lawsuit filed that is unknown, potentially for millions of dollars? Can you share a little bit just about what, how much we would incur now or how long that work might potentially be in terms of when a lawsuit could happen? What are we talking about this as a one year challenge, two year challenge? Or how long could this potentially be hanging over our heads if we went to trial and involved the Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court, as Santa Monica did, it could be easily a decade. Santa Monica's case was a multi

week trial. It was about three weeks, and that is probably why they spent so much money on both sides. And so it could it could easily be five years to ten years. You know, one of the things that would be unique about this situation is, at least to my knowledge, and my colleague, Mr. Priest knowledge, no city has gone from a fully district based election system to adding an at large mayor position. And so in terms of how the cvra or potential violation of the Cvra would be determined is, is kind of unknown. And so that uncertainty increases the, the, the litigation that is involved in, in proving and defending that type of a lawsuit. And so it could be very complex. And that complexity kind of breeds costs. Okay. And the Palmdale, you mentioned, Santa Monica was many, many years the Palmdale was that similar? Even Palmdale was about an eight day trial. The city of Palmdale lost. And that's why they paid over $4 million. The court found that they were required to move to district elections. But how would how long was the process of it going to the Supreme Court? It was a while ago. It was probably 2 or 3 years total between the trial court and the Court of Appeal. And then included on here is for the one time costs. There was quite a bit of comments around public engagement and kind of informing and educating the public. Is that reflected in these one time costs? If that was something that the city did want to explore, or do you have any sense of what that cost in 2018 when the city

did it? I don't think that was included in included in the demographic study. So we we would have to we could find that out. Okay. I have a lot more questions and comments, but I want to open up to my colleagues and we'll keep it going. Councilmember Garner, just to kind of go on what Mayor Soto said. What would happen if we were in the in litigation? Would everything just be at a standstill and we would have the system we have now say a ballot measure passed, but then we were sued. Would that just mean that we would continue as we are until it was decided? I hate to give you a lawyer's answer, but it would kind of depend on what type of remedy they asked for. If they asked for kind of a preliminary injunction, then that would stop any changes from occurring. If they didn't ask for that preliminary injunction, then it would switch to whatever system was voted on by the by the voters. Okay. So it just depends. I mean, typical. Yeah. I mean, for for instance, you know, in the Santa Monica case, they didn't ask for that preliminary injunction and they've just been continuing to, to, to vote their, their council members as, as, as they have historically. Got it. Okay. And then you've mentioned several times the demographic study. What? So with that demographic study, be that like about $100,000. And that would be similar to the what we did back in 2018 and again in 2020, $100,000 was, was both legal and demographic studies. And so I would anticipate it to be similar to, if not more than that $100,000. Yes. Okay. And I don't have it handy with me. What what the demographic and legal costs were from,

from 2020. And this would just be a demographic study to determine if us making this, this type of change would be reasonable under the Cvra, or if it would potentially open us up to a violation of the Cvra. Correct. In other words, whether we could either maintain a majority minority district or add one and not backslide by by adding an at large district. Okay. And if we didn't do a demographic study like this, what would the we would be at? I mean, it's just more risk is what you're saying this the city would be at risk of a severe lawsuit. Yes. Okay. But we would we would not have any evidence to, to refute it really. So we could still be at risk of a cvra lawsuit even if we did a demographic study. But if the demographic study showed that it wasn't an issue, then we would just have more for our case. Correct. Again, this is all hypothetical. Okay. Thank you, thank you. I think that's that's really helpful. I might actually going to keep passing it on. I think there's plenty to say. Council Member Bernstein I just have some start with some questions. So just to clarify, what are the specific roles laid out and responsibilities of the mayor? Under our current rotational system? It really is just to run meetings. There is one. Provision in the Brown Act that technically, a mayor can call it a special meeting of the council. That's really the only extra legal power that the mayor has, either in our system or even in a general law city. But other than that, it's it's really just ceremonial in terms of

running the meetings, attending ceremonial events, the mayor tends to function more as a spokesperson for the city council. So when they're pressing queries or something, oftentimes those get directed to the mayor. And we have the mayor speak on behalf of the council. But even that's not necessarily enshrined in law. It's just kind of more of a practice. So some of the committees that they're on, the finance Committee or Cvag or that's, I believe, our chartered does provide that. The finance committee is, is is set to be the mayor. Yes. Okay. And I guess we have some other things. So so we've heard that there was there was some issue to talk about accountability, about overseeing long term projects. But does the mayor oversee any projects? Not from a legal perspective, no. Okay. They just sort of champion or shepherd them so they can other individual council members can as well. Okay. So it's also there's been discussion about, you know, legislative relationships. And I know when we have our congressperson come, they typically meet once a year with the mayor and mayor pro tem. But other legislative trips is really open to anyone on council. Yeah. That's not again, that's also not enshrined in any kind of law or ordinance or resolution of the city. No. And I say this knowing because Councilmember Garner and I just did a legislative trip, and Councilmember Hart and I are leading the convention center, there was our mayor right now. So it's more of a first among equals is really what it is. Okay. And I want to talk just a little bit cost because the one the citywide election is would be every four years. That's an additional cost every four years. The the

citywide election would be every four years. The ballot initiative would not. Okay. Have is it common that you have a you have a election for an office that is being determined. That is not yet determined. In speaking with my colleague, Mr. Priest, who's online, he can he can certainly correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think we've seen that before. It may have happened here or there, but we're not familiar with it in Palm Springs, in California or anywhere that we've that we've worked. No. Okay. So is it possible we could do the if the ballot initiative were legal, could we decide that we don't want to have the election the same time until we determine whether we would have to spend that money? Council, if I'm understanding your question correctly, could this, for instance, the City Council establish a process that requires them to be separate. I believe the council could. This. The. This city is a charter city and that gives the City Council very broad discretion in terms of how council elections are conducted, and so I believe so, yes. Okay. Just asking because we could spend the money on a citywide election and the ballot measure fails. We've already spent that money. Right. Okay. I know this came up that you mentioned it in the line that, you know, we rotate by district. That's what council decided by five years ago or seven, 2019. Yes. And we could change that as a council to say that without going to the voters, just saying it's two years or every year we decide, or we could decide. We could decide to have a rest of your term mayor. Yeah, yeah. That was adopted by resolution. So that could be changed. Okay. And I just going back to the slide on what the other

cities, so most of the other cities, they have the oops, the two year. It's a, it's a two year term for the, for the elected. It's like two of them have two years and one has four year. And under California law, you can set it for either 2 or 4 years for charter cities, you could set it for anything. But for general law cities, it can either be a two year or a four year term. Okay. And do they have and we don't have just for clarity, we don't have term limits on either one of ours, not in the city of Palm Springs. I don't I don't remember if these cities do. I seem to recall we had another column in here where one of them did Desert Hot Springs. Was it okay? Has a limit of two terms. Another question how common is it to have an even number of equal voting council members? Again, in in speaking with my colleague Mr. Paris, I think it's fairly unusual, for instance, for general law cities, the government code establishes the numbers as five, 7 or 9. Again, charter cities have more authority, but at least for general law cities, those are the three options. And I heard in public comment that in 80 years of the directly elected mayor, we had one mayor of color. Is that I mean, do we know if that's verified? Yeah. That's true, that's true. And we had no women mayors. Okay, I have some more questions and comments, but I'm going to pass it on to Councilmember to heart. I I'm strangely compelled to this conversation discussion, and I think I'm just listening at the moment. I

yield to Councilmember DeHart. Yeah. Thank you. So, Jeff, we've heard some big numbers and lawsuits. And with Palmdale and Santa Monica, where were those lawsuits? Because they were electing a mayor at large. I know with Santa Monica, it was all at large. I don't know about Palmdale. Jim, do you know what Palmdale was before? Was it all at large? Hi. Good evening, Mr. Mayor or Madam Mayor? Member of the council, Jim Priest, Palmdale, as I recall, was entirely at large prior to the lawsuit. And then they transitioned to what they currently are. Yeah. So both of those lawsuits that we're using to talk about these massive lawsuits were for city council, not for mayor. Correct. So they were disputing city council seats, not a mayor's seat. So the the other thing is. You know, you you mentioned that no city has won a cvra suit. Now has any city who has do we know has any city who is has districts and elects their mayor at large, faced legal challenges. For that type of system? Yeah. From c r c for violating cvra I'm not aware of any that either were the. I'll call them four plus one just for the sake of

simplicity. I'm not aware of any that were four plus one and stayed at four plus one that were sued. Based on that basis. I don't know if if Mr. Priest is aware of any here. Go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. Was it officially a mayoral position? No, but what I can tell you is the city of Downey just last year had a four plus one structure where there were four geographical districts and then one, what they called a district that was actually an at large seat. The district was defined as city wide. They were threatened with a CBR day demand letter last year, and the council elected to choose, rather than defend any litigation on that. And now they are in a pure five district setup that will be implemented in the coming elections. All right. Thank you for that. And how is Santa Cruz? Do we know how Santa Cruz is set up? Because I we're hearing that there's no other city is like what's being proposed. I don't know how Santa Monica is Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz. I don't know how that is set up. I can we can certainly look at it. And, and I, I think it bears noting it's not so much how it's set up. It's the fact that we are. We would be changing from purely district to at large. In other words, as I believe my staff report indicated, there are some cities, for instance, Fontana, that had four at large positions and one directly elected mayor. Position, they were threatened by Mr. Shankman in 2017 or so, and they moved to a four plus one.

So it moved to district plus an at large mayor with the kind of blessing of of Mr. Shankman and his client. But it was also going from purely at large to district plus at large. Here, we're going from district back to partially at large. So that that's where the element of risk is, is in, comes about. Yeah, I think it would be helpful for us to look at Santa Cruz because I, I, I, it would be nice to see how that structure has survived. A follow up question around the. Just to make sure we're clarifying this as clear as possible for the community. So there are some cities that have four one right, that haven't faced legal scrutiny. But do you know if any that have gone from five districts back to an at large, and has any other city that has kind of gone in the direction of. Kind of moving away from at large to returning? Is that a process that you're seeing in any other cities? We haven't seen any go from fully district to an at large mayor, and that it's A41 or A51. Correct. Okay. Just on on that. So we have five districts. We have a minority majority district. And so what would be the issue of saying, well, we're just adding another at large. We still have our minority representation. Jim, would you like to address that? I'm so sorry. Could you repeat the question, Council member. So we have five districts

right now with one of them being a minority majority district. So we have addressed the issue of not having voter dilution. So what would be the issue if we're just adding a mayor without changing those five? Any of those five? Thank you. Councilmember. The concern of it would be that if adding a mayor results in vote dilution, as defined in the Cvra, that could be a violation. The demographic question is whether. In fact, it would. That. Adding that at large element would result in vote dilution. That would be a demographic, a factual question in any such litigation, the. The immediate concern may be that the district one representative becomes one vote of six as opposed to one vote of five. Is that enough to prove vote dilution? That's that's an undefined area of the law. We've seen no court ruling on that yet, but it is a potential argument. It is a potential risk. Okay. And and so along those lines you would need I think we heard in public comment. So if we have six votes and you could have a a stalemate why I mean. There's been arguments against having A42A supermajority required is is that something that would be seen as voter dilution or just a difficult situation with a stalemate? Well, that, you know, the stalemate could possibly be evidence of voter dilution that would be subject to proof in court. And again, that's why we would have to retain a demographer if we were in litigation to provide proof to the contrary, that, in

fact, it does not result in voter dilution and that it is a valid added mayoral office. But again, that would be subject to proof in court requiring demographic analysis, which which was a large part of the trial that Santa Monica was doing, was having demographic experts and looking at the demographic analysis. So we would need to do that to demonstrate that adding a mayor doesn't dilute votes. Yeah, okay. That's my question for now. Mayor Pro Tem thanks. I do have a question. I was just trying to think conceptually through this process. So right now, obviously, there's nothing before the council to act upon. You do have valid language that was submitted. So obviously that process is a parallel process. My sense is that the moment we're sort of like bystanders, the council explain if this process goes forward and it passes, you know, what's our role between now and then? What happens after that in terms of the legal issues you're raising? Well, if it goes forward and it passes, I think there's a potential that somebody would challenge the the new the new system under either the Cvra or some other legal theory, perhaps, as they did Santa Monica, and then the city would not be a bystander, then the city would be defending, defending the system that was put in place that would occur post the election, not prior. Or could it occur prior? I don't I think it would be unlikely that a cvra lawsuit would occur beforehand. I guess it's not inconceivable, but but if it were going to

occur, it would very likely occur after. Afterwards. Yes. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Can you share? There was kind of going back to some of the public comments around. Public engagement and education, around the Voting Rights Act and what the city has done. Does that have to be dependent on if it goes to the ballot, or can you just share if if that has to be the potential timing options to do that work? And, and where, what value that could be done in terms of doing it now versus doing that in the fall versus once we see what happens as mayor pro tem already said, it kind of reacting after the fact. Do you have any thoughts on pros and cons of different scenarios? Sure. I'll start with what would when public engagement would be legally required as as the staff report indicated, if the City Council were to adopt an ordinance of its own similar to what it did in 2018, in order to either just create a directly elected mayor position or to do that and add districts, then the state law does require, under the Fair Maps Act, that the City Council hold public hearings and public workshops and reach out to minority communities. That's that's legally required for that ordinance

to be adopted. It absent that type of ordinance being adopted by the City Council, the public engagement is really more optional in terms of whether the City Council wishes to engage in that public education process. And so it would really be up to to the council to decide whether and when to provide that type of of education to the public. Okay. Councilmember Garner, thank you. Yeah, we we went through a as we heard from the community, a very robust public engagement process when we when we moved to districts. And, and I know that there was, you know, comment made that this is an easier decision, but I don't I don't think that's the case. We have seen people become mayor that, for instance, we've had women be our mayor now that we didn't have before people of color. And I think that's been really amazing. But the other thing about it is that each district has had this opportunity to be represented and to be highlighted. And I think that we have seen a correlation of improved engagement with minority communities and the city since we transitioned to this this system. And I really anxious for us to get all that landing page because when you look back on our ordinance that we that was passed by the Council in 2018, it's the history of our city is really listed here. And that was a really important part of why the council felt that it was important to move to district

elections because of vote dilution in in our in our past elections and just the history of systemic racism that didn't just plague Palm Springs, but has plagued our entire country. So doing something that was really going to allow for these, these groups to have further engagement. And we see that now on our commissions. Our commissions are vastly more diverse than they were when I started. And the ability for us to highlight different groups of people is also because we have this rotation. So it's not really just a matter of whether or not other cities do this or not. It's what works best for our city. And what are the historical issues that we're looking at when we're deciding on if we want to make a change or not? And I know that one of the things that I, because I was also on the CVR working group, and one of the things that we learned was that there was the greatest voter dilution when it came to the election of the mayor. So moving back to a, a directly elected mayor could potentially have that voter dilution that we were working to prevent by moving to this other system. So I think that what I'm with my my larger point here is that there's a lot to discuss. And I think just by seeing how careful we're all being and asking these different questions is because there's so much more to it than just, do we want a directly elected mayor or not? It's how are the power structures going

to shift in our community? Who then has an opportunity to be the mayor? I know personally this, a directly elected four year position for mayor, would limit working people from being mayor because it is a big commitment when you're mayor. And I think we have all made sacrifices for one year. But making that those types of sacrifices for for years, and that's a whole other conversation with your workplace. And I don't and that's extremely privileged. And I don't know that a lot of people would be able to do that for, for, for years. And I know certainly I would not be able to. And so those are those types of concerns that I have when we're talking about directly electing a mayor is who is able to have this seat and who is not, and by extension, what are we saying to our community? Are we just telling them, you don't deserve a leadership position? Your voice is not as important. I think that there's a lot more discussion that we have to have with our community, and I would hope that we can do that instead of just having a ballot measure, because I think only having a ballot measure doesn't allow for that really critical conversation. Councilmember Bernstein, thank you. Yes. I have a question for the attorney. We had a comment in public comment about the Cvra specifically not allowing combined at large and district. Is that

accurate? And how would that apply to us? Because that's what we're looking at that our settlement agreement, right. Or the CBR. Can you clarify? Maybe. So again, I'll let let Jim interrupt me and correct me if I'm wrong because he's he's dealt with this a lot more in a lot more cities than I have. The, the Cvra says that you can move to a district plus at large as long as there's no vote dilution. And so that's what a number of cities did that were purely at large. So, you know, in the late 2000 teens, cities who were purely at large or maybe had at large, plus mayor moved to district plus mayor. So as long as there's not vote dilution by going to that district plus at large, then the Cvra is not violated here. We're going though from just purely district based to district plus at large. And so we're kind of backsliding from the perspective of of the cvra, at least in terms of potential vote dilution. And we had already said that we had had racially polarized voting for mayor. I looked back, I looked back at the 2018 ordinance and the language said that there was probably vote dilution, possibly vote dilution and probably vote dilution. So there hasn't been a court determination that there was vote dilution. But the legislative recitals to that ordinance from 2018 said that there was probably vote dilution in in the city's past. Okay. And I just, you know, want to address something that Mayor Pro Tem mentioned that we can our role is really just to sit back and, and see what happens with the ballot measure. But I disagree with that with respect. And mainly because, you know, a lot of people have said they like the idea of electing a mayor. I

mean, councilmember has been very vocal about it. And so, you know, but we have never engaged the public to actually hear how our system has been working since we started it in 2019. We heard a lot from tonight that people said, it's working great, but, you know, these are a few dozen people and we haven't really gone out to 400 plus people or whatever it did last time. And, you know, this is again, we have a lot of rotating mayors in our rotating council members and mayors, mayors in our valley. And, you know, and some people have said, you know, that's confusing. Some people have I've heard from council members in other cities that they said they didn't particularly want to be mayor and were sort of rotated in it. And other people who really embraced it, you know, and I mean, I liked being mayor, but, you know, as we've seen is we've had representation. And that's I don't think that, you know, it's, it's a little bit more than hearing also different voices is what our brand as a city means. And, and the fact that we, we currently have three Latino people on council that, you know, we had not had a person of color other than one person in 80 years. We had no women. I think it matters to our brand of what we are as a progressive and inclusive city. So but I think, you know, again, people like this idea of a directly elected mayor. And while it has no more responsibility, they like the idea that they have voted for that person. So I do think and there is there is valid reasons for saying I voted for the mayor or I that is there or had the option to vote. And so we talk about public engagement really is something that is key. And

we have one option that's on the ballot right now, which may be the option that everybody wants, but we have seen and heard tonight. It's not the only option. It specifically says we have a four year mayor that starts this year, and there's not an option to have a two year mayor in there. It specifically says it's AA6 council member. There's not the option to potentially add other districts, which we saw as an option. It doesn't mention the option of having a of of going to a four plus one. So there are options that we can do. And I think to the extent that it's legally possible, we should look at whether there are other options and understand what the issue and likelihood would be of a lawsuit that comes from it. And I know we've had people talk about not having lots of consultants and lots of public engagement, but you know that that is what our city is good at, and we are a better city because of the public engagement that we have done over the years. And sometimes people don't like it, and sometimes it makes our council meetings very long. But I think if you look back at the decisions that we have made as a as a city that have had a lot of public engagement, they have almost always been better. And I don't think that we should we should discount that. And our role as a city is not just to sit back and see what happens, but is to engage our public and to ensure that everybody has a voice and a say. And I realized that with the ballot measure, people think that gives everybody a vote, yes or no, but it gives a vote yes or no on on one option. And again, that may be the best option and people may love it, but that has done done so without a lot of public engagement to come to that point. So, you know, what I would say is, is, you know, we also have an issue just by the way, when we go to

2030, we're going to have to look at districts again anyway when we have our new census. But to me, it seems like we need more public engagement. This is our first discussion on it. We've already heard a lot from the public on it. We hear a lot about potential of lawsuits. I think the public should be aware if if this is something that's likely, or maybe the cities that we've seen have had lawsuits is is not related to us at all. But this is something that the public should be able to make valid decisions on when they are voting or if they want to put another option on it. And council may have the option to do that. So. You know, I have some more comments, but I, I, I'm thinking that, you know, that we have seen that this is not an easy answer. And, you know, we have seen that we should be playing an active role because clearly there are some residents who like this idea. There's a lot of people who have raised very good, you know, very strong issues about what this does to to representation and what it does for legal liability issues. But we have not given the public any option to actually really engage and ask questions and talk to staff and city and each other about this in public meetings. So I just want to address what Mayor Pro Tem said. That said, I think that is what our role is to see how we get that public engagement. I have a couple more comments, but I'm rambling now, so I will defer. Councilmember to heart. We all of this has been, you know, and the public comment tonight it it has been, you know, excellent opportunity to, to share dialog and, and hear, you know,

perspectives. And this is the conversation that has been happening in the community. We've had these conversations, many conversations like this. So I think this conversation is going to continue. And I think I appreciate everything that, you know, my colleagues have brought forward tonight because this is an excellent conversation to continue to happen and go on, go forward. And with any initiative, it's driven by the public, it's driven by the people, and the people will decide. And they've been pretty loud up to this point what what they want to see. And the my role has been standing up for what the public has been telling me for a year plus. And I'm not I'm not supporting the effort because Rhonda Hart is the sole individual out there that has an ego bigger than the sky that wants to have this, this measure or that Rhonda Hart wants to run for mayor. You know, I'm not running for mayor. That that is not what this is about. This is about. People in the community for a year and four months of raise this conversation about being able to elect their mayor. And I'm, I'm, I'm bringing the conversation forward and and it's coming forward in the form of an, an initiative. And we're going to see a lot of conversation continue to happen from this point on. And I think that will help drive the outcome of the. What happens at the ballot box. The community is going to learn, we're going to educate. Folks are going to have conversations. There's

going to be neighborhood meetings and friends houses, and these conversations are going to take place. And then the decision will be made. How how people truly feel about it. So I appreciate the opportunity that we have to be able to hear, you know, all the sides and and I just caution the, the fear about lawsuits, the cvra suits that have that we're talking about these multi-million dollar settlements, their suits over city council seats. We, we, we don't have suits over. CVR. We don't have suits for an at large elected mayor. We have suits over dispute over city council seats and city council representation and and bringing districts to that voice to districts and throughout the city. And that's happened up and down the state. And it's not just one city. It's not just two cities. It's a lot of cities have the districts in place. And a city wide mayor. So the fear of legal shutdown is, is, is, I think, maybe a scare tactic that hasn't proven out throughout the city, I mean, throughout the state. So appreciate the conversation and look forward to ongoing conversation and, and council's oversight. I have some two. Oh, okay. City attorney, if we could go to the slide that said path

one, keep rotational and path two council ordinance. Just have a couple of questions on that. So you call it path one keep rotational. And right now our rotation is that we change every year by district number. But the foundation of that is that the mayor is one of the five council members, right? Is is that more important than the rotation or is it the rotation? If we were to change the selection of the mayor within the five, would that still be a legally safe approach that is based off of the demographic data and signed off by at least one Cvra plaintiff? Yes. It would still be the legally safest approach. I think CVR, a or other type of legal challenge to to simply changing the method of rotation, the time period. I think those types of challenges would have a hard time succeeding. Okay, so I would recommend maybe like if, when because we're going to be talking about, about this, again, maybe changing the name of this path one to instead of saying keeping rotational or saying something about selection within five. Because I think within this path one and some of the comments that have come up, there's a lot of different ways to do this, possibly extending the year term, possibly if we want to have terms within that, or there could be continuity within the mayor. If the council chooses a council chooses a mayor to represent the city. Let's say it's a two year term. There could be and that's reappointed another two years that could meet

possibly the goals of some of the continuity concerns that community members said. So I'm just wondering if we might want to just reexamine some of these paths, because it sounds more narrow than I think. What is possibly what is possible within path one. So that'd be one recommendation, because I do think there's a possibility. I'm very curious as to the interest of if that's something that the community would be interested in exploring more. Around. But before we get too much in the nuance, I just want to say like a big thank you to all to everyone who came out and provided public comments, the fact that we have so much engagement, so much engagement, so many written public comments, it just is a reflection that residents really care about our city. There's a lot of ideas, a lot of energies around what how our local government should operate. Cities would love to have this level of community engagement, and we are blessed with an abundance of community engagement, and it's a responsibility to listen to it and to respond to it and to engage in dialog. And so I'm grateful that that's our starting point. But it is true, as the public comments reflected in Palm Springs specifically, right? Not what's happening in other cities, but in Palm Springs, city wide elections did not and do not result in diverse leadership. And this was especially true for the role of the mayor. And so if all of these discussions in 2018 about the various structures, how can we make sure that there's. Really protected Voting Rights Act and, and based off of all of that feedback is our current setup. I think that's something that we should that should really drive what we're doing,

drive our understanding of how we're in compliance with our the Cvra and the settlement agreement that the previous council spent a lot of time making sure would reflect the city. Diversity is part of our Palm Springs moral values. I think we should be proud of that diversity and that it's been represented since 2018, based off of those decisions of that previous council. And as my colleagues have said, that the current rotation has reflected on leadership from across the city. And so I think part of that community engagement that we should be doing moving forward is really looking at what does how do we maintain those values, empower that value. So it's reflected in how our body votes? Or are we interested in going back to a time where women were not ever given a chance to be mayor and people of color very rarely. So there's a multitude of considerations. And I think, again, deep gratitude to all the public comments that were shared for me, some of the things that I'm most interested in having an opportunity to talk to the public more about is the role and importance of the community education that was done in 2018. Maybe we need to do this every ten years, I don't know, but there might be a need for that, and maybe that landing page could help be kind of foundational to that. And I think it is the responsibility of of council of the city City Council to think about the legalities, to think about the nuance of how we make sure we reduce our risk as much as possible. Those technicalities matter, and those technicalities can put us dismissing or not considering them fully and not doing our full due

diligence puts us at grave risk. Possibly. And so I don't I don't think it's a scare tactic. I think it's part of our responsibility to examine it, to talk about it with the community, to educate and and then see if that what changes or considerations we can do that are still within the the intention of the California Voting Rights Act and that we're not trying to skirt around it. We're not trying to skirt around the requirements that the state has put on us, but it actually drives what we're doing. Yes. Councilmember Bernstein, I, I just want to clarify, I mean, I'm not opposed to something a change in our form of government, if that's what our voters want and have really vetted it through and understand that there is not a legal risk. I'm not saying the At-Large mayor is the right one. It could be what the mayor has suggested. But, you know, I know that there's been a lot of conversations, but it has not been community, real community engagement like we had in 2018. There's no been organized open forums to discuss this for the public and certainly not inclusive ones. You know, we can always have our own circles of people who have this discussion that we report a mayor and, you know, I can invite 20 friends over and they'll agree with me, you know, or 50 friends and they'll agree with me and maybe one won't. But that doesn't mean that's not a public discussion where you're having you're having real engagement for it. We need to understand how that really affects our community. And I think, you know, we do have this incredible public engagement. And I, before I go on, I want to address because there was a public comment about, you know, the right person, anyone could be mayor. Well, you know, that didn't happen for 80 years except for one person. So it is very difficult to, to do that and have that right

representation with that large mayor's. But I think we need to really tap into the wisdom of our residents, you know, and not just one small group that's come up with it with an idea and, and, and one option. And we have to go through the process, you know, because when we do, you know, it really, it really hammers out disagreements into workable solutions and, you know, solutions that endure the test of time. And it can be hard and it can be frustrating and sometimes it can take time. But we're not a city that bypasses public engagement. You know, we've seen how the public process and public engagement works. And we need a process that ensures we all have a stake. So my view is that we should reengage maybe not 30 meetings, but public meetings to find out is this ballot measure the best option? Is there another option? Do we need to change what we have? And is there a legal issues that we need to address? Because the public, before they vote, they should know what the options are and what and what the legal ramifications are, and we should help engage that public thing. And maybe, you know, as we heard from some people who want the directly elected mayor, that that's that's what rises up and we figure out that there's a way to avoid a lawsuit, but we don't know that yet. And, and we would be remiss as council members if we sat as bystanders and let something go that we know could potentially result in, you know, millions of dollars or not. But we need to find that right answer. So my view is that we need to have this public engagement and we should get maybe the Cvra working group comes back together. I actually don't know who they are, where they are all now, but maybe we create a new one. They're on council. They're you can't do it. And we heard a few, I actually don't know how many there were, what the process was, but we can certainly create another one, a working group, and it should be open to all to come up with what is the best form of. City. Sorry

about that. So that would be my vote to move this forward and and, and see what really works best from our community. Councilmember Garner thank you. The CPR working group is is all here. Every single one except one, one person. It's pretty impressive. But obviously we heard from CPR, working CPR, a working group, and they have one recommendation. So I think that if we are going to do this in a in a move forward with the discussion in a equitable way, we're going to have to recruit some new members that might have some differing opinions as well to, to be fair, and it doesn't have to be the exact same group. It could be some some people and new people, but I do think, you know, that these conversations are happening within our community. Certainly, I know that I have them. And there's there's so many other things to consider in this process in terms of just how it would work, the impact of adding additional people to the dais when our meetings are already very long. And and then again, you know, I was really struck by kind of who. Who came out and was upset about this and kind of the age range, the demographics of who was opposed, the groups that were opposed. And I, and I saw a lot of people from district one, which I thought was

interesting too. I know that for district one. Especially for folks who identify as people of color. There's a real concern about being heard. And with this change to district elections, it was this opportunity to be heard in a new way. And we're we've really seen that engagement because of it. And so I want to be able to make sure that we're hearing from those residents who are finally feeling like they're being heard in this room and making sure that we're engaging with them, too, which is part of why we did those outreach events in Spanish. And yeah, we it's very easy for us to be in echo chambers. So I think we do need to have those diverse rooms of people talking about this so that we, we really can understand the impacts on people. City attorney and city manager, what do we, what type of direction do we need to give to you in order to continue having conversations on this issue, engaging the community, getting feedback, answering questions. I think really at the end of the day, there's just a lot of people who have questions. And how do we kind of go about making sure that we can answer them in a, in a fair way? Thank you. Councilmember. Let me take a little stab on it. We were just talking about it as we were listening to your comments, obviously, from the city staff standpoint, you know, it's not our job to be involved in any of the policy

decisions here. We want to help Council with carrying out any, you know, policy directives that you have. To us, obviously, as I listened to talking about a working group and establishing that and having lots of community engagement, that's it's a lot of work, but we want to provide the support to council as you may need support to do that. I don't know if that looks like some sort of subcommittee of city council that helps put a working group together, if that's what you want to do. It sounds like there's a number of community engagement meetings you might want to have around the city, to engage people to come, and council members hosting those listening sessions, or whatever you might call them. The city staff can help with, you know, things, you know, like community surveys or things like that that we might want to do on social media. So there's a whole number of things that we can try to be helpful, helpful to the council. But clearly we need, you know, your direction going forward as we from our standpoint, it would be helping to educate. We're certainly not here to advocate for one position or another. So that's that's sort of my thinking in terms of trying to get some direction, you know, as a council led initiative, it seems to me. Yeah. I mean, in terms of this, this sorry, Councilmember Bernstein just said how many staff were involved last time? There were there were plenty of staff members that were involved, but it was mostly led by a consultant who helped with outreach and the CBRE working Group and the subcommittee as, as as former council member

Middleton stated, the subcommittee of. Of Jeff Kors and Lisa Middleton. They were at. I mean, between the two of them. Sure. Certainly every single meeting. And so. But there were not as many city staff members present. It was mostly community members. CBRE working Group, the city clerk was there at most of them. I will say that. So I don't know. I mean things a lot of a lot has changed since 20 2018, so I certainly don't know what that would would necessarily look like exactly from a staff standpoint. But I do think that. This is something that could be mostly community led with, as it was last time. I think there's I did, I did want to make note. We talked about it earlier about the, you know, making sure we have a proper landing page set up with there's a plethora of documents that you that apparently we have from 2018 and prior to that, and I, I know we want to get together and we want to have a dedicated landing page where everybody can go to all those documents. And so we'll make sure that's very transparent and people can easily find them. And it might even be just a dormant page because it did exist. Yeah, it did exist at one point. So it should be fairly easy to get back up. Also, it's probably going to be a little bit more complicated this time to have a community meeting, because at that point, you know, you were looking at how to go to districts and the different options. And now we're looking at whether we have a directly elected and legalities of that and or different type of rotational or staying the same. So you've got different, different views on that. And again, we don't want to just have a group of people who want to keep things exactly as they are. And we don't want to

have just go to a group of people who want to go directly elected mayor. We need to have the options, but most importantly, we need some of the answers to questions. And you know, you ask anybody, do I want to elect my own mayor? Probably a lot of people will say, yes, but do they want to lose any kind of representation? Do they want to, you know, other things, minority? Do they want to threaten a lawsuit, have a lawsuit threat? They probably would say maybe not. And so I think we need to figure out a way to do this, that we get diverse voices, you know, in different pro and con to actually talk about this and come up with the best solution. I don't know exactly how to do that. Yes, Council member, we're going to be here all night long going up and down the road here. But it's good conversation. So I, I think it's it's it's alright. You know, I think what's exciting about the conversation is the, the more the community will learn and the more that we, we discover the cities that have districts that, that added the mayor at large that the, those cities and these are south of San Francisco. Cities have have proven to be creating opportunities for the people who've benefited from the district's system. So I don't know, the, the, the, the city, but it's here not far from us. But they elected their first female mayor who came from serving as a council membere districts bring

opportunities for the community to see the leadership that everybody brings to the table. Another city in the Southland, first African American male mayor elected. Coming from a district council member seat. Another one first Vietnamese mayor coming from a council district seat in a 55% predominat Hispanic community. So the opportunities that districts have created are they're they're unending. And and the benefits of the districts and all the work that the city and our community residents put into establishing districts have proven effective at works. And no one's questioning the district's. We're we're let's look at those opportunities that are created to allow those who've been elected in districts to serve your community as mayor, because they've got the exposure, they've got the notoriety, and the community has had an opportunity to see their leadership. So the opportunities are there. And I'm excited about, you know, what may come from that. And City Attorney, I just I want to applaud you on your PowerPoint presentation. When I heard you were making one, I was saying, oh my God, you did it. You you did a good job. So thank you. Thank you for putting that together, I

appreciated that. Yeah. I guess my question. You're up part three. Says City Council must adopt the ballot language by August 7th to make it to the November 2026 election. How are we feeling? What kind of how much work do we need to get started on right away? If this is in terms of the landing page or public engagement, like what is feasible public engagement process? If we did want to do something like how much can be done by this summer? I mean, it really depends on how much resources are thrown at it, right? I mean, lightning speed maybe. Yeah. Right. You know, for 4 or 5 months. For how much public engagement we want to do this summer or before people are voting. I mean, I would move, I would say that we should get started as soon as possible and probably limit it to a shorter amount of time. I mean, we have a certain amount of time when about, you know, signatures are being collected on the ballot. And if we want to put something else together in August, I think it's our deadline. Like we should sort of set a date by which we want to try and do this and get a group together as soon as possible and answer questions. I mean, I think if we can start it soon enough and get together a group, then that's what I would say we should do right away. And, and start with some community meetings and engagements. I know one PS has already asked that it be on their agenda, so this is obviously a big topic. We're going to have this.

We're having this meeting tonight so people are hearing it. So how do we start this right away with the community engagement. And that's what I would say that we start come up with our decision right now on how we're going to do that. I don't disagree, I. Mean we can perhaps one one option similar to what happened in 2018, is to select an ad hoc subcommittee of just two council members to work with staff to, to, to come up with a working group and kind of come up with ideas. Either report back to the council at a subsequent meeting or just start getting started. Okay? I do and, you know, council, just as much as I fear recommending this, it's almost feels like it's something that should be on the agenda. Every council meeting between now and, you know, going forward, getting the if we're really talking about doing that, this, you know, it's it's going to be a it's going to be a lot of work to do it right and to get everybody involved. So city staff will be available to. If there is an ad hoc working group to immediately, you know, we will dedicate whatever staff, you know, Council deems as necessary to start scheduling meetings. And, you know, we can help with notifying working group members that the subcommittee might want to put together and trying to get that set up, starting to think about outreach, community meetings. We can talk about how we can, what we can do with social media and other

things. So we'll we'll be available at your eight year direction. Councilmember Garner, did I hear you interested in being part of that? Yes, I would also. Okay, we got two. Thank you, Council member. Sure. To start. Okay. We are looking forward to coming. Hearing your incredible plan that you'll come back with in two weeks. So. Yeah. And. I mean. You don't have to meet every week. I'm just suggesting that hearing what you're trying to accomplish between now and November, we probably the the ad hoc committee, we'd probably want to get together with you pretty quickly. You would probably want to do some thinking about this working group and, and really together, giving us some direction on outreach of how many people you want to put together. And then we'd probably, you'd want to get together with pull that group together pretty quickly, start having some discussions. It sounds like about what is their advice about community engagement? What should the strategy be? How should we set things up? You know, all of that. So. That's where we'll be looking for your direction. Yeah, that's a discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Not not necessarily that it has to be, you know, but I would think you'd want to get together as your ad hoc committee real quickly. Okay. Any other discussion or direction that we want

to give? To you? I see there's consensus. You know, you can do it by motion, but it seems there's consensus among the council to to select that committee. Okay. All right. Well, thank you, council members. And thank you to the public again for the robust discussion. Next item is public comment on non agenda items. This time has been set aside for members of the public to address the City Council on items of general interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. Although this Council values your comments pursuant to the Brown Act, we generally cannot take any action on any items not listed on the agenda. Two minutes will be assigned to each speaker. Hold on one second. I have David Powell as first on our public comments. Mayor, Council. David Powell, executive director of Desert Business Association, the LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce. You don't get to see me too much, at least not in here. But you get to see me a lot out and about. I wanted to do two things. One is announce that DBA has is doing its annual business and community awards, our impact awards on Monday, May 4th at the Palm Springs Convention Center. We have chosen our recipients. Our business of the year is Tony Bagels business person. Sons are Michael and Ernie Westman from GED magazine. Our community service organization is the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City and our outstanding community service leaders. Julie Warren from Palm Springs speaks the LGBTQ archive of the Desert and Palm Springs Library. In addition, that night will be giving for LGBT youth scholarships through safe schools desert cities. I have to send something to staff tomorrow to get that

on your calendar. Hopefully all of you will be there. The city is one of our sponsors. Second thing next Wednesday is the Local Government Vendor Fair, which you all know at the Palm Springs Convention Center from 830 to noon. I've been working through economic development, and one of our partnerships with the DBA has with the City of Palm Springs, and particularly with the economic development, is to work with you to promote and prepare the attendees and our small and diverse businesses throughout the Coachella Valley. For that vendor fair, we did three workshops three, five weeks ago. We did a business plan workshop. Three weeks ago, we did one about capability statements, and today working with Tabitha Richards and the procurement group throughout the Valley, we had a great workshop explaining contracts and the system to work with local government and procurement. We had about 1518 people there, some good questions, and all of this was to support next week's vendor fair. And my recommendation back to procurement staff and this working group was to have it's like 2 or 3 times a year to help develop our small businesses throughout the Valley, and particularly through Palm Springs, since you're the ones predominantly supporting this. And let's see what we can do to really get more contracts with the city, more contracts from small and diverse businesses and local businesses in there. Thank you very much. Eight 840 is not too bad for thanks. Next we have Michael Joseph Pitkin. Michael Joseph Pitkin. I moved to Palm Springs in 2021 after data breaches, gaslighting, gang stalking.

At 711, I moved to Santa Monica. Six months. I have used every gate and Bipoc HIV service organization in LA, not to mention other states. I have provided these community agencies in 20 years over $1 million. I was using apla over 20 miles away for medical care. I wanted to try Saint Joseph's in Venice, a few miles away. I set appointments, went to their paperwork orientation, filled out my medical HIPAA history, signed and dated. For some reason they would not enroll me. I said, okay, I will hold on to these papers until you are ready. Two giant black men blocked the exit door. They then wrestled me to the ground trying to pull the papers out of my hands. They kept me hostage. Hostage taking carries a 200 year prison sentence. Eventually, I ripped out over ten pages of medical history and my signature and ate it before they let me go. In Santa Monica, I was beaten five times, two times by Bipoc 711 clerks hitting me in the back of the head. One accused me of not paying when I did, another hitting me in the back of the head when I was laughed at by a crowd of Bipoc in the store, as I could not get the coffee cups unstuck and accidentally spilled on the counter as I left to file a police report, a black man chased me and karate kicked me, cracking my hip bone spilling blood. An automatic hate crime. Santa Monica, la La County, Riverside County, state of California, Palm Springs, Cvag tribes. This is notice of potential litigation. Thank you, Mr. Pitkin. Madam clerk, do we have any other public speakers online? We have no speakers online. Okay. Next item is the City Council and city Manager. Request for upcoming agenda development. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Members of council. Just a

little preview. Look at upcoming meetings. I do want to point out at our next meeting on April 22nd, we will have our presentation will be from the Blue Zones, Palm Springs update and the work that they're doing. You'll see that we've got a couple. We've got four public hearings. One is a historic designation, Riverside Drive, the Cdbg annual action plan hearing. Number one, you've heard a preview of that previous. And then we have a couple hotel incentive agreements that are anxious to get before you, the Cacti Hotel and Terra Palms Hotel, and then an annual report that HR will give us on report of employee vacancies that's required by state law on May 12th. We do have our presentation was is going to be an emergency operations update. And the work that is going on there with volunteers and other folks. We have another hotel incentive agreement with Alcazar. And then and then we'll have a discussion on the tribal warehouse project, which you directed us to bring forward a month before the special meeting that we're going to have with the with the tribe on June 3rd. So our planning staff is working on that. That will basically, as we've had discussion, it will basically be planning talking about what we would be asking for if this was a typical city project and reporting out on some of that. And then we hope that some of that discussion will lend itself towards the joint meeting that you want to have with the full tribe. As you'll see on June 3rd. I do want to

mention on going back to May 12th, as I heard the finance director mention, we will have the second t d public hearing on May 12th as well. So that will be coming back. I believe. That's all I have, Madam Mayor. Well, our new agenda item of the mayoral discussion as well, right, that we just agreed on. I know that's like bullet number 12 for April 22nd, but for May 12th, no. April. So. Okay. Yep. Okay. We will do that. Yeah. Councilmember Garner, I just wanted to flag that we had previously discussed having kind of quarterly updates about the navigation center and, and all of the work that's being done there. So I think we're, we're coming up on another update. I, I'm mindful of the schedule, but I do want to make sure that we're still kind of being consistent with with that. And because we do have a new CEO for Martha's Village and Kitchen, it would be good to. Yeah, I think yeah, I agree Council member. I think the timing is really good. As council members know, they have a new executive director that some of us have met with. I've also heard some really good news just the last couple days that the they were they were working to stand up recuperative care beds at the Navigation center. The last report I had gotten was that they had worked with the county to stand up three recuperative care beds. They've now stood up. 17 so that's important because it could be a really important revenue source for the Navigation Center for operations and maintenance going forward. So we really, it'd be really timely to report out on that. Our work with Martha's Village

and Kitchen as well. So we'll, we'll get that scheduled. Thank you. But more important than the financial benefit is the the impact it can have on our community's health. That's. And we, I think we were due for Martha's presentation. It was April May sometime that we did have a discussion before. So I think their annual presentation is, is this it's in this time period. So thank you for bringing that up. Councilmember Bernstein yeah, just to that point, we had a discussion about other presentations and we've had other council agenda items. And I think last time we talked about at least distributing to council what a lot of these upcoming items are so that before we keep adding new things, we know what's already on that might be forthcoming. We see this list, but we don't know the items that we've talked about further out. And it would be helpful if you could give this list internally so we can have a sense of, you know, which people are going to give presentations, which agenda items will come down the road. Yeah. Thank you, Council member. We will we're very cognizant of the last discussion we had with the we talked about this, I think it was seven groups that had primary, primary, large funding amounts given to them. And council's wish to have those groups especially come forward with presentations. So we're kind of working on that through my office. We'll send all of you a little a little recap of we've got to get with all the organizations, a lot of them. It's different times of the year. Better for them to present, maybe away from some of their busier times. So we're trying to we'll, we'll work on that and get you a schedule as well. If there's upcoming agenda items that three or more of us have asked to come back at some point, just not not a date, but a list of what those. Yes.

Yeah. Maybe like underneath the dates, there's just upcoming agenda items that have been identified. And because then we can maybe pull up, pull up from the or delete them if they're no longer necessary or whatever. So okay, I had a couple other comments, if that's well tied to that a little bit. I just want to flag the STR remaining updates was also one that was identified as something that needs to come back. Yeah. And Madam Mayor, I'm glad you brought that up because we've been kind of struggling with that a little bit. We know that there's we've talked to the Vron folks and other folks who are anxious to bring that back. I want to make sure that we're really aligned with you on this, our kind of understanding with the short term rental report is that there were a number of administrative, pretty basic things that could be brought back, cleaned up in the ordinance. I think that's what Vron is asking for. There's some issues that are a little more. That probably would require a lot more discussion. I'm guessing things like density and everything. How many? So our thinking is that we would bring back that short term rental report along the lines of what Vron has been asking some of you really just focusing on some of the on those administrative cleanup things that that have been discussed, and then some of those bigger issues, maybe for another day. So if I'm aligned with you on that, that's what we'll plan to do. That was my understanding. Somebody asked for us to do that to, to at least get the administrative pieces taken care of, and we can get that off our plate. And then we have to address the bigger issue down, right? You know, we just separate the two. Very good. Thank you for bringing that up. We I think we can get that

get at that pretty quickly. So we'll thank you. We'll work on that agenda items. I think Councilmember Bernstein. And then I'll go. So I want to just mention a couple upcoming things. So the vendor fair, which. Oh, sorry, wait, is this events or agenda items? Events. Okay. Mayor pro tem, can we talk about. Yeah. And I presume Scott, on that list of upcoming the traffic signal synchronization issues. Scott. The traffic signal synchronization on that list of upcoming. When you put that on there, if you could remind you that. And then also just a question I saw in the desert sun yesterday that there was a major change in the airport capital policy. And I didn't know if that's if that can be a presentation to council. So we can become get informed on that. Yeah, we, we, we saw that. And I, you know, it was a news article that was written and our master plan is still in place. Obviously we've got it's, it's long term planning, just as we've said all along, a lot of these projects have to be guided by long term revenue projections. The number of travelers that we have is our population ramping up. We had what I think was a really good community meeting to talk about some of this. Mayor Soto kicked it off and was part of that. But from our standpoint, we're proceeding with master plan. But as we should, as I believe we should be proceeding cautiously. And and, you know, we're not going down the road of talking about issuing huge amounts of debt if we're not confident that we can, you know, retire that debt in an appropriate way. So I think we can have more conversations about that. And if we need to be more clear about it, we

certainly will. Thank you. Can we maybe put the deck? Maybe. Isn't there an airport landing page on Engage Palm Springs? Maybe we can put Tuesday's the Monday's presentation there is. And we asked for that the that entire presentation to be recorded. And we're going to post that both on Engage Palm Springs and at the airport's landing page if they haven't already done it. Okay. Wonderful. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Thanks for your patience. Events. Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I wanted to just follow up on the vendor fair, which is next 15th, I think, right at 9 a.m. at the convention center. And it is open to everybody. And I think the city, I think we we've done this for a few years. It's it's all nine desert cities, I believe, plus a number of agencies like C, o, D and how they can do business. I think there's literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts that go out there. And it's not just major construction items, but it could be for security, for consulting, for design, for PR, for holiday decorations at the airport. I mean, there's all kinds of things. And so I would encourage our businesses to go and, and see what it takes to do business with our city. And we have our different agents, our different departments are there to help. It's an informative thing. Again, it's free and it's open to all businesses and residents. Really the convention center, I think the past years we've had five, 800 people show up and found it very useful. I also want to mention that three years ago, I challenged our Public Arts Commission to get more art in the park, and we have dedication of four of them this week, including district two. We have Gateway Park and Rancho Vista Estates, and we're going to have April 14th at 6 p.m. a reception and then Victoria Park on April 15th at 8:15 a.m. and then there will be a citywide one at City Hall, I think, at 10 a.m. But for those

neighborhoods, again, Gateway Park, April 14th at 6 p.m. there will be an artist reception and Victoria Park. April 15th at 8:15 a.m. And then lastly, I just want to congratulate the new Agua Caliente Tribal Council, including the new tribal chair or returning tribal chair, Jeff Grubb. Thank you. Was that a self kudo? Yes it was. You know, you got to be your own cheerleader. So I, I just, I, I'm not sure if this is an agenda item, but I, I don't know how council can talk about it, but there's concerns been raised about the equity cannabis grant funding and the distribution and our process. And I've had two conversations now, and Jeffrey and I had half a conversation with a business person last night. To, to understand better, understand how the equity money is being funded and what our process is for follow through and verification of how those funds have been spent. So that's the concern that's been raised. And I don't know if if that has to come back to council or can it be a conversation that a couple of us can have with the city manager? You know, but we need to have that conversation. It's it's not the concerns not going away. I'd be open to like a subcommittee to talk about it directly. If there's interest in that. Okay. So Council Member Bernstein and I will follow the conversation up. Yeah, because it it wasn't too long ago that it was presented here. So it might be helpful if you all can identify what those issues are and then identify what needs exactly to come back.

Okay. Thank you, thank you. And. Because it is still before 9:00, we the do not let me finish the. The city is a sponsor of the Maryland 100. The Centennial celebration on May 30th. And that we're. The city is going for breaking the Guinness Book of World Records of having the most Maryland look alikes dressed in one place at one time, and we are well on target to exceed about 850 look alikes right now. And Council Member Bernstein, when you get your registration in, you'll put us over the list. So I think that's going to be a lot of fun. And everybody's invited to register. And it's at PS pride.org/100. Thank you mayor pro tem thank you. Just just quickly mayor just one this week at CV Coachella valley association of governments transportation meeting. Just some good news. We advance the $2 million CV contribution to the Palm Springs Bridge at South Palm Canyon. It's sunny dunes, so that will finalize that $17 million price tag. So that's some good news. Okay, okay. Oh, one more. Okay. Councilmember Garner, thank you. I just wanted to let the public know that Mayor Pro Tem Reddy and I are going to Washington, DC for a lobby trip to continue on the legislative work that we've been doing. So we'll be gone next week and meeting with members of of the of Congress there and other other federal organizations. So that's very exciting. And we will report back. And the there also, I wanted to, I wanted to highlight those art dedications because there's going to be art dedications

happening in every district. They're. They are going to be happening while Mayor Pro Tem and I are gone, but I encourage people to get involved and go to those. I think there's going to be a lot of fun. And then one thing I wanted to mention is Coachella weekend this weekend, next weekend, and then Stagecoach. So there is going to be, you know, increased traffic coming into Palm Springs. But oftentimes on the weekends, our, our, I'm sorry, our while our hotels are full, our restaurants and our businesses are often pretty empty. So it's a great time for locals to go downtown and support our small businesses and restaurants. But for district one, specifically in the northern part, Mountain Gate, Palm Springs Villas two and Desert Highlands Gateway Estate, there's a lot of traffic that cuts through. So last year we put up signage so that people would know that this is local traffic only, and we're doing that again this year. So it was helpful. It's not, you know, foolproof, but it did definitely decrease the amount of traffic that cut through the neighborhoods to just and make sure that anyone that was going through there was mindful. And so that signage is going to come back. And I think just to add to that, just on awareness, there's more walkers walking to the shuttles late at night where it's very dark and just so general precaution is warranted for the next few weeks. Okay, okay, I'm going to make it before we get to nine. So next City Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, March, Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 at 530. This meeting is adjourned at nine. Thank you.