City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I hereby call the Palm Springs Regular City Council meeting of March 25th, 2026 to order. This evening we have Jacqueline Reyes from Vista Del Monte Elementary, a fifth grader who will be leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Jacqueline, can you join us at the microphone that's lit up by the clerk, please? Read. Please stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. Thank you. Jacqueline. Your name looks good on the screen. 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, please conduct roll call. Let the record reflect that all members are present. Wonderful. Mr. city Manager, I believe you have an introduction for us today. Yes. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I did want to. I know this is someone that the City Council has been introduced to and knows, but I did want to introduce to the community Karen Totoro, who is the new

general manager of our Palm Springs Convention Center. Karen was appointed on March 16th of this year by the Oak View Group. We're very excited to have her on board, and I just wanted to invite her to come to the podium and just say a very quick word or two so that the community was familiar with who she was. Thank you. Scott. There goes my three hour speech. And let me let me just I'm sorry I jumped too hard, but so Karen has a wealth of knowledge in the convention center business. She is recently worked at the Huntington Place Convention Center in Detroit. She for, I think 4 or 5 years was the chief operating officer for the San Diego Convention Center. She's worked as a general manager in Atlantic City and has a long history of of experience in this area. So sorry, Karen. Thank you. No thank you, Scott. Madam Mayor and council members, just on behalf of Ovg and myself, we're just so excited to be here and be part of this community and look forward to lots more success ahead. We're already working on potential new revenue sources, and we're also looking at ways to really connect the community and the convention center a bit more. So lots to look foith all of you. We appreciate it. I'm joined today with Davis Meyer and Colleen Pace, and they're going to also be presenting. Don't worry, you've got our packet in advance. We're not going to be going through that whole entire packet. This is a much shorter presentation. One of the things I did want to point out that's not in the packet or in this presentation is the fact that just as a little bit of a reminder that Gary Forsythe, who's the director of Palm Springs Tourism for Visit Palm Springs, is part of our staff and the agreement we have with Ovg in the city and so forth. So it's been a great collaboration, I think some great opportunities to share resources and knowledge and information. And it's been just a great partnership and just kind of wanted to remind the the city council

of that relationship and we appreciate it. So with that, is there a clicker here? So a little update about economic impact. It's no surprise to anybody that tourism still remains the number one driver for the economy in our valley. This is an overview of the entire destination for the Coachella Valley. 9 billion for the economic impact. I think the important aspect that I like to remind everybody is that if tourism did not exist at the level it did today, the residents of our community would have to pay much higher taxes in order to fund such important resources as police, fire, infrastructure, education, all the other different amenities that are so important to our destination. The next slide highlights specifically for Palm Springs. And we're you know, we're seeing nice growth over the last few years. You can see that visitors spending 1.9 billion on average, it's 5 million per day. So if you can imagine the visitors that are coming in, it's very important for our destination and our businesses. And then you see the impact that it has on both state and local taxes. So quite significant for the destination and certainly quite significant for Palm Springs. So ten years ago, we embarked on a ten year strategic plan for the tourism industry. And that plan is coming to an end this year. And we went out and searched for a new partner to help us develop the next ten years. And so Hunting Partners is kicking off this month. They'll be at our board meeting on Friday. They'll help us deliver a ten year plan for the destination, more specifically this time, which will be a little bit different. And we're also going to generate nine city specific plans. So they're excited to to work and collaborate with all of you, the business partners within the community and certainly across the region as well. But by the end of it, you'll have a specific Palm Springs kind of tourism stewardship master plan that will be developed by yourselves, the stakeholders, city staff, and so forth. So it's not going to be a document we're going to give to you and say, hey, by the way, this is your master plan. It's going to be developed in tandem with all of you. So at the end of the day, it's something that we

really want to make sure that you feel proud of, that you own, that you feel is measurable and achievable. And that's one of the things that we're going to do going forward is to make sure that the overall plan for the region is measurable, is, is something that we can achieve, and we're going to track that digitally online as well as we're as we're hopefully accomplishing these goals and objectives over the next ten years to grow tourism. And one of the things that we've expanded our responsibilities as well is about a year and a half ago, the JPA basically came to us and said, can you apply the same marketing and acumen that we're using for tourism to overall economic development? So we engaged in economic development director Shawn Smith and Davis Meyer, and then worked together to really start to promote the Valley on a broader basis nationally about the opportunities that exist in our destination that's never been done before. Everything is really done, been done at the local level. So that's really a new responsibility for us, and we're excited about that and been working closely with Wayne Olsen and the team, obviously, to understand the goals and aspirations for the City of Palm Springs, the strategic process that he just went through. We're certainly aligned with that as well, and we want to make sure that the world knows kind of what's happening in our destination. So just a little bit update on that as well. The key initiatives for 26. Every two years, we sit down with the board and the JPA and go through some of the things that are important for us. So some of the key research initiatives are a sentiment study, which we're doing right now with the residents. Imogen awareness study, visitor intercept study that just ended in 2025. So we're getting the full report on that. And then every year we do the economic impact studies, which I just shared with you. We continue to monitor meetings. We do a restaurant week survey. As you know, we're talking about restaurant week here in a little bit. And then we have new dashboards coming. So you have real time access to data on any given time. And we're going to expand those in the future as well. So some of the areas that we're really working on is priority of focus is increased demand. When we talk to our hoteliers and restaurateurs and stakeholders and retailers and so forth, certainly the summer is really a key priority for us, and we continue to drive. And you'll see through the presentation, trying to drive awareness

and visitation during the summer and shorter time periods we're trying to develop. We are developing a sports strategy to track new sporting events, certainly for the convention center and across the Valley. Regional collaboration. You know, we talked about that with economic development, workforce development. Lauren Bergmann's in our office is working closely with our she's our executive director of our foundation, working with the foundation and economic development. We've really been able to launch us on the tourism side. Now we want to expand that into other sectors like healthcare, ag tech, and so forth. To understand working with C, O, D and Cal State on how we can work that workforce into the community and get those students to get the skills that they need and be able to stay here and maybe even attract businesses as a result of that as well. And then stewardship continue to work on sustainability initiatives, cultural heritage, accessibility and community engagement and advocacy. So air service, we work with the airport closely to try to drive new routes and new demand into the destination. Also marketing nonstop routes and second stop routes into the destination. But one of the things that we can do, the airport is governed by the FAA and we're not. So we have more flexibility to enter into agreements with the airlines, whether it's a specific route, minimum revenue guarantee or a marketing agreement, whatever it may be. So here's just a list of some of the the nonstop flights and expanded air service for 2026. We see the seats coming in the Washington DC flight. That was an agreement that we entered into with United two years ago. And I think that has played some really nice dividends to have nonstop service to Washington, DC. That's where a lot of the national associations are, and certainly a lot of advocacy. As a result of that flight from last year, they noticed a lot of people from the northeast were connected on that flight coming to Palm Springs. So this year they added the New York flight. So that was really a nice opportunity for us as well. So kind of launching off of your initiative from a year ago, letting the Canadians know how much they're appreciated. We're taking this valley wide, so we're working with all of the stakeholders across the valley to make sure that we let our our friends to the

north know that that we love them, that we appreciate them and that we welcome them and that we're certainly a welcoming and inclusive destination. So we're doing the partner toolkit with all of the businesses where they can put sling slings on their windows and have other tools and resources as well. And we'll continue to do this, I think, going forward into the future. It's a very important market for us and hopefully we can garner their their visitation back in the future. So with that, I'll turn it over to Davis and she'll talk to you about the second half. All right. So we also look at the economic impact of short term rental visitation on the Valley. This is the numbers from the Coachella Valley overall really important lodging segment for our destination. It's about 20% of all of our overnight visitation, 1.1 billion in total business sales or economic impact across the valley. And then when we dig deeper into City of Palm Springs, specific for this segment, about 309 million a year in visitor spending, over 1300 part time and full time jobs. Dependent on these short term rental visitors, the percentage of of overnight visitors a little higher in Palm Springs, specifically, it's closer to 30% of the overall overnight visitors and over 44 million in state and local tax revenues. We also monitor sentiment, resident sentiment for short term rentals. Really wonderful to see. I think a testament to the city of Palm Springs, really pioneering work in short term rental regulation and enforcement. 89% of voters in Palm Springs reported feeling positively about short term rentals in the city of Palm Springs. We did the same survey in 2023. It was at 82% then. So wonderful to see that continued support growing for short term rentals in the community. In terms of economic development, Scott touched on this a little bit. We've been working to market and promote the region for diversification of our economy and for business attraction. We have been working

closely with Wayne and the City of Palm Springs on a lot of these initiatives, again, aligning with what the city's priorities are. We also worked with the county on a Coachella Valley Regional Economic Development strategic plan that rolls up into the county's economic development strategic plan. And so we're working with all of our cities now on, you know, what elements of this plan does it make sense for us to really lean into? We're going to be looking at an industry advisory group this year for valley wide initiatives, as well as a business retention task force, working with all of our cities in the county on this and really fully implementing the sales and marketing plan for economic development. Our economic Development Director, Shawn Smith, is currently at a site selector forum right now, bringing lots of business back to the Coachella Valley, hopefully, another economic development initiative and tourism initiative is this push for an indoor amateur sports facility. We did a feasibility study a couple years ago looking at, you know, does a sports facility in the Coachella Valley make sense? That feasibility study really said yes. Indoor sports. There's a great need. We are well positioned for a super regional facility, attracting people from LA, Orange County, San Diego, as well as Phoenix and Las Vegas, and something that could really drive visitation in the summer months and in the off peak periods for all of those indoor amateur sports that are so popular and really driving tourism in a lot of other destinations. So we're continuing to, to work on this, digging down into the funding options that might be a potential and really looking for the right location and the right partner to, to make this a reality. Moving into workforce developm. Scott also touched on Lauren Bergmann's on our team, and the rest of the team really help work with all of our our school districts out here, all three school districts, as well as the higher education institutions on a lot of these workforce development initiatives. One of the things I think that we really love to see grow is that 184 Leadership Institute graduates. This is a certificate that we've worked on with College of

the Desert's Pace program. It's a certificate that helps folks who are going into their first supervisory roles and first management roles to really succeed in those roles and, and grow here locally in their careers. As we move into 2026, we, we piloted a visionary leader certificate program with College of the desert. This is for folks who are, you know, we want to see moving into those general manager and director and CEO roles here. So a little more in-depth certification and we'll launch our first cohort of those graduates this year. We're also working on some other new youth engagement and leadership programs, restaurant Week chef student dinner that will take place in May, pairing some of our culinary students from the local high schools with homegrown chefs for a foundation dinner. And we'll continue our passport leadership, which is a summer leadership development program for high school seniors as well as Student Hospitality Day, which is for high school sophomores to explore careers in hospitality here. Thank you to the City of Palm Springs for your support of autism certification. This has been another initiative for our organization. We are a certified autism destination thanks to a lot of businesses who have become trained and certified in autism awareness and sensitivity. Lots of great businesses in Palm Springs that have gone through this and through the foundation. This year, we also have a grant program available to help support businesses in becoming autism certified. So there is a cost associated with training and getting your staff certified. So we do help supplement that and would love to see cities also create grant programs to, to bring more businesses on board and get them certified. Restaurant week is one of those initiatives that we do that's both a visitor attraction, but also a great local marketing and promotion of all of our wonderful restaurants and culinary experiences here across the Valley. Last year, we had some record breaking participation from restaurants, 121

restaurants across the Valley participating. We had all nine of our cities sponsoring and supporting the event. And so a lot of these impressions and advertisements that you see are both out outside to visitors to, you know, bring them in during June for culinary experiences as well as locally to local residents. I am excited. PS resorts is sponsoring half of the restaurant registrations for Palm Springs restaurants this year for 2026. So instead of $400 for Palm Springs restaurants, it's $200 to register now for Restaurant Week. So looking forward to growing that participation, getting more restaurants involved, and really continuing to promote this during that first week of June to bring folks out, folks out to our restaurants for culinary experiences. And then lastly here we piloted Spa Month last year for the first time in September. We're going to do that again this year, in 2026. This is similar where spas can offer day passes, a special discounted service or treatment or events, things like sound baths or other wellness experiences to participate in Spa Month. And we aggregate them all on a landing page where visitors and locals can learn more about them, get out, and participate in some wellness experiences in the month of September. So we'll be bringing that back this year, and I will now turn it over to Colleen. Pace just realized I'm much shorter than Davis walking up here. All right. Convention sales on the convention sales front, as we know, it's a very important part of our tourism ecosystem. So for Visit Greater Palm Springs, our team was able to book 262,000 plus room nights, which equaled 428 meetings, which supports over 82,000 jobs and $238 million in economic impact. This is the highest number we've seen since 2018, so we're really proud of the team for having a really successful year. As Scott mentioned, we really

prioritize the shoulder and off peak times. So this year, this past year, in 2025, we created goals set against the team for these time periods. So you can see that's May and September summer in Q4, as identified by our sales leaders within the community. And you can see here the performance that we booked compared to the goals that were set for each of those categories. So again, did a great job booking into those need periods. For Palm Springs specifically, this is how the need periods fell in terms of all the Palm Springs bookings. So you can see about 13,000 room nights, 37 in the summer and about 17,000 for Q4. And for Palm Springs specific of that 262,000 that I mentioned before, 107 plus almost 108,000 were booked into Palm Springs specific hotels. You can see here the number of bookings leads that were generated as a result of those. And the estimated t o t. This is a 262 plus percent return on investment for the city, as well as an $89 million economic impact. So for 2026, on the sales and marketing front, we work closely in collaboration with the hotel partners, the convention center, again, on those off peak and shoulder need periods in addition to the peak time frame, we also work on partnerships and collaborations, strategic partnerships like you see here, all of these logos, these are all these really important strategic partners and third parties that help us reach our meeting planner audience and a variety of ways, both direct sales through media and marketing initiatives, newsletters, webinars, and different types of formats like that. We are also compiling a customer advisory board. We haven't had that since before the pandemic, and we've decided to structure that like a mentor mentee structure. So we'll have season planners with young planners. So we're able to really reach that younger planner that's coming into the market and make sure that we're

addressing some generational differences in booking patterns and behaviors. Moving on to marketing. So here you can see for 2025, all of the campaigns that were either seasonal or always on throughout the year. There's 16 campaigns here. You can see they range everything from our brand campaign, Escape Your Ordinary, which we launched last year, to our summer campaign, again, focusing on our our need period. And they really highlight all of the unique pillars of the destination, which you can see here. Health and wellness, outdoor experiences, arts and culture, dining, cultural and heritage, and LGBTQ. Plus, for that time period in 2025, we had 30.8 billion impressions across all of our multimedia channels. So that's everything from TV, digital, social media, all of the things that we do to really promote awareness and conversion into the destination. You can see how that translates into TV spots, social media followers and video views. Again, this was a record setting year for us, so we reached more people than we ever have, which we're really excited about. And one of the ways we do that is through creating great content. So this is a new series that we've launched called the Escape Series, which highlights all the unique experiences you can have in greater Palm Springs. This is one episode that I wanted to share an example for that. Is our volume. Would be. Yeah, it should be volume. Yes. You want me to sing the song? Yeah, I can. all f the, the fun and exciting things you can do in our

destination. And it's not as exciting without volume, but you can see the museum. Go to the next video and see if this one works. The best days start with no plans. So we go from exciting and exhilarating to kind of chilling, starting with no plans. All the things you can do to just relax and rejuvenate in greater Palm Springs as well. I won't, I won't go through those all. Okay, so on to event support. So we prioritize event support. These are all the events or not all some of the events that we've supported in Palm Springs specifically, we're always really happy to provide the support in a variety of ways, including our billboard. These are examples of some of the billboards that run in LA and San Diego, but we also support that through content on our website, our events, calendar, social media, and other ways. So events coming up that we're getting ready to support, like the Maryland event coming up as well as Xoxo. So all of these events are really important to generate demand. So we're excited to continue to add more events to our calendar. So thank you for that. And then I'm not sure if the audio will work on this either, but there are some social media examples for Palm Springs. Let's just see if this looks like audio is not working. So you can see some of the. This is a modernism. Here's one. When the flag was raised. This one is at the convention center and it was about the sustainability efforts of the convention center. So this was a really great one to have on social and LinkedIn. And for the convention center specifically, and then Palm Springs Surf Club. We just recently hosted the

Ambassador Summit with Expedia and Expedia, Vrbo. And with that, we had 35 ambassadors, 34 plus, Ken, because Ken was one of the ambassadors that attended. So this was just in February. We got a lot of great content from this. It exceeded our expectations in terms of reach. And so here are a couple of examples of some of the posts from the ambassadors that were from all over the world. So they stayed at the Parker, and this was their welcome amenity at the Parker. Now they did these custom record vinyls with everyone's photo on them. So they're really surprised to do that. Then we were able to do a presentation to them to showcase the destination and share all the unique qualities that we have. Then they went out and explored everything. So it was a really great event. And then at the last kind of minute, a little bit before they decided to partner with Mattel. And so Ken ended up being one of the ambassadors and did some really fun posts that also got shared on the Mattel channel. So we were able to amplify our reach through Expedia, Vrbo, and also Mattel. So for 2026, I mentioned the Expedia Ambassador Summit. We're also getting ready to go to the TEDx conference, which is in Vancouver in April. This is the second year that we've been the exclusive travel partner for them. So we have branding throughout the conference and exposure to their audience, which is really great for all of the targets that we have, including leisure, convention sales and now economic development. So we're also this year sponsoring the Restore Lounge, which is the health and wellness lounge that they have, where people go in between sessions to really rejuvenate. And that's going to be custom branded for greater Palm Springs. So we're going to have some special products there, like some things from Spa Set. As an example, just share some of the indigenous products that we

have in the destination, as well as the unique spa that we have. We're also focusing on the World Cup. So we have aggregated and created a custom landing page with media that supports that, with offers from all of our hotel partners, attractions, restaurants for people to plan either pre and post visits, but also just taking advantage of the global spotlight that's on California during that time to really increase awareness to this audience and get them to come visit, whether it's pre or post or at another time, focusing on Canada. So Scott mentioned that's a big priority for us to continue to maintain those relationships, and we're continuing to market and also do PR, excuse me, and other things in Canada. So that's an important priority for us as well as Germany. We've expanded our UK marketing to now include Germany in addition to the UK and Ireland. And then we just launched our Chinese China social media channels at the end of the year as well. So that's a new market for us as well. For 2026, we're also we launched a new campaign called Where You Shine, really capitalizing on the individual that you can be when you're in greater Palm Springs and you can be yourself. It's safe, it's welcoming, and it's something unique that we have to offer people. So it's really where you can shine in the destination. And so that's a new campaign that we've launched, as well as creating a new campaign for the summer called Play for Days. We're actually producing that right now. We're in production today and tomorrow for the new summer campaign. We also created our co-op program for summer visitation as well. We have many visitation. Palm Springs partners that are a part of that include the preferred Palm Springs small hotels. So I wanted to share an example of that if you don't have sound, but I can just kind of share a few seconds of that with you. So this is something we do in partnership with our partners. We subsidize the cost of this, and we create

a 32nd spot that they're able to choose to broadcast in five markets, both on CTV as well as broadcast TV. And so this is a great collaboration. We also run this across social, YouTube and other added media benefits there. So this is one example. And then we also do that for Visit Palm Springs as well. And this is the spot from last year that we did with Visit Palm Springs. You can see some beautiful shots. This was about sort of a solo getaway. At the Thompson. But then she meets up with some friends. For PR communications. We had a great year for Earned media as well. We had 7.2 billion in total circulation, earned media score 11,813. That was another record setting year. The way that we do that is we measure the quality of our earned media. It has different measurements. Partner mentions, URLs, backlinks, those are all added points that you get to really show the quality of the piece of media that you've earned. And so we had a great year for earned media. We have a few examples here for food and wine and LA times specific to the city of Palm Springs. There are a few more examples. And then just a reminder for PR and trade we have representation globally. You can see here who we have on a full time basis, as well as for ad hoc or part time. We added India recently to our market to really attract the luxury market. So that's a new PR agency that we've brought on board to work with us full time. And so we have great representation all over the globe for that. And with that, I will turn it back over to Scott. Sorry about the no volume. That's a bummer. So we'll

wrap up and just see if, if you have any questions for myself or the team. Well, thank you for all three of you for coming and for your diligent service for Palm Springs. But the whole region and really making sure that we're represented well across the globe. I had a couple questions around some of the workforce stuff that Davis was mentioning. So loved all the kind of analysis and support around supporting students and kind of incoming workers. I was wondering if there was any exploration or in the past around kind of mid-career transitions, keeping people here within, you know, mid-level, I guess, and how we're thinking about retaining workers, even if it requires a transition. Yeah. And I think we kind of dipped our toe into that with the Leadership Institute. That was really an opportunity to give individuals that have kind of grown up in the destination. Maybe they didn't get their four year degree. They're now in jobs, but they're not able to get into leadership roles or there may be an assistant manager roles. So the leadership Institute, where we have 180 180, so 184. So that that was a program we developed with c, o, D that gives them those soft skills, that ability to become leadership level. And then the visionary leaders is the next step up. So that would be like course number two for them. So that's the goal is to really give them the skills, the opportunities that they don't have to leave the Coachella Valley. And they can also stay here and, and grow within their jobs or position themselves to get better jobs, obviously. And those are primarily like hospitality jobs, right? Or those not necessarily know anybody is eligible for the leadership Institute. So great. It's available for the we kicked it off with hospitality and that's kind of who we promoted it to, but it's expanded beyond that. So if you have people that are working in other industries and they have somebody that has the right, I guess, temperament and

desire and so forth that want to go into that, but they don't have the skill sets, and we're doing that through the foundation. So it's not costing the individual anything. And we do grants and work with the businesses as well. That's great. And then the only other thing I would ask maybe in the future, I would love to see kind of our analysis of our employer mix. So see a lot of very warranted attention on our workforce and our workforce development. But what do we look like in terms of large employers, employers that have maybe, you know, small employers of less than ten employees versus major employers of over 500, just understanding that in the region and how that compares, just so we understand how the strategies are most relevant to the employers that we have. So thanks. I'll pass it over to my colleagues if anybody has questions or comments. Council member Tariq. Hey, Scott, thanks. This good presentation. I questioned for Davis. So you you had a really interesting slide on the vacation rentals. So the vacation rental sentiment, how was that survey conducted and how who, who participated in it? He, we do work with J. Wallen to conduct that survey. He pulls the voter records for residents across the Coachella Valley. And so it is done, you know, to statistical significance, similar to how other sort of voter polls are done. We wanted to get a real sense of, you know, folks sentiment with with regard kind of politically to, to vacation rentals when we were doing this poll. So, so we, we did work with him on that. There's some more detail in the studies. They're available on our website that have the number of participants in each city. And for each

segment. Yeah, no, that's perfect. I just hadn't, I didn't, I was curious what, how is it administered? So that's fantastic. Thank you by phone and like text reply I think is how folks could take it. Perfect. Thank you. And all of our reports are up on our website. So all of our research, our reports are up there under the partner portal. And one of the other things that I failed to mention at the beginning is people probably wonder how we're funded. The majority of our funding comes from a business improvement district on hotels with 50 rooms or more and vacation rentals, and then from private funding and then from JPA. And then we have some voluntary funding from Agua Caliente tribe as well. So but the majority of it is from the Business Improvement District. You mentioned JPA and the presentation. I suspect people in the community don't know what JPA is. Yes, we are a Joint Powers Authority that were formed in 1989 by the cities across the Coachella Valley. The city of Coachella joined us about two years ago. So we represent all nine cities and the county. And it was we were designed as an organization to grow the tourism economy. That's how we were really put into place. And in 2009, the board at the time and the JPA entered into the Business Improvement District. And when they did that, they reduced the funding requirement from the cities. So they reduced that by about 75%. So you could see that your funding last year or this fiscal, last fiscal year was about $950,000. And that's based on a percentage. So it's based on performance based. So we work with the city to look at what the collections are based on, conventional and non-conventional tells, and that that funding is provided to us. But the majority of our funding, about 83% comes from the bid, the Business Improvement District. Thank you. Yes. Councilmember Bernstein, thank you. So thank you all for this, you guys. You sure do a lot. So I appreciate it. And you covered the whole thing in record time, but I know there's a lot what I wanted to just mention, this goes somewhat to the mayor was talking about in terms of workforce development. Talk a little bit more about the Economic development

Initiative. You mentioned it briefly in here, but because that's not just tourism, that's that's all economic development. Correct. It's it started out as really diversifying the economy, doing a marketing promotions, PR type initiative to really tell the story beyond tourism to those site selectors and individuals and companies that are looking to expand or start a new business. Since then, we're now starting to expand kind of our responsibility into the fact that Sean is now going to these conferences and the trade shows and so forth. So we're getting a little more hands on in that aspect as well. But really, the core of it is there was really never a marketing or promotion of the region for that, specifically targeting through through different digital media channels and so forth and different outlets that are going to really, I think, create awareness, which was never done before, similar to what we do on the tourism side. But the tourism side, we're really targeting leisure travel, trade and obviously the, the group segments as well. So economic development, it's a little bit different there. Site selectors, people that are looking around on behalf of these companies that are looking for locations, we're targeting them. We're targeting them through LinkedIn. So there's lots of different aspects. And we continue or expanding kind of what our responsibilities are with the, with, with cevap, you know, going away about a year and a half ago or so forth, we're finding that opportunity there. So we're just, we have to figure out how to fund all the other aspects of those responsibilities. But right now we're focused on the areas that I just talked about and also just partner with individual cities. We just kicked off our economic development subcommittee, which has our 103 action items over the next ten years. But some of them include things like a website and things that maybe we could partner with, visit Greater Palm Springs to make it more effective. Yeah, we have a TAC and wanes on the TAC. It's a technical advisory committee with economic development directors from all of the cities they meet on a regular basis. Sean shares with what we're working on, understands what the priorities are for the different cities. How can we help make sure that we're attuned with what what's happening, where the opportunities are, and make sure that we ensure we can share that with people that are looking at the destination and they

understand fully what the opportunities are here. Okay. And lastly, I just wanted to mention because Gary, you know, director of tourism, just kicked off his first tourism advisory committee meeting and along with Colleen and the team, and, you know, this comes up a lot in our community about we appreciate all the expertise and, and things that visit greater Palm Springs could do that we can't do ourselves. But we do have our own stakeholder advising how we market Palm Springs as well as the whole region. And so you have you have helped us maintain our own brand identity while becoming part of a bigger brand. So thank you for that. You're welcome. Yep. I think it's a great model and it works great. And it's just a great collaboration. So thank you. Yeah. One other thing I'd mention is we have a team of 67 people. So I want to make sure that it's not just the three of us. There's a team of 67 that work hard at a very passionate about what we do. Most of them are based here, but a lot are remote. We Southern California. So they're especially we want to be in market where the customers are from a sales perspective. And when we have sometimes great employees that have to get transferred because of spouse or something like that, we look at opportunities to retain them. So it works quite well. And we're very fortunate to have a great, great team. Great. Thank you. And just one last thing, because we're talking about a lot about our convention center modernization, which is probably going to be our biggest project in our city ever. And if you could just talk a little bit about, from your point of view, the importance of, of that whole project. Yeah. The convention center is the economic engine for tourism in Palm Springs. So modernizing it and doing the right updates to it are critical. I've been here for 15 years, and we were starting to lose our competitive advantage over other destinations, as all of the other cities that we're competing against were all going through modernizations over the last few years. We were one of the last cities now to do that. So it's critical to to the product and for the customers, we hear that from the customer. So thank you all for for working on that and making it a

reality. It's it's just one more. Everything's been said. But Scott, thank you. Just thank you. And to all the staff doing a great job. Thanks. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to proclamations. On March 10th, 2026, Dolores Robinson Day Dolores was recognized for her groundbreaking work in the entertainment industry and her meaningful contributions to elevating and representing the Palm Springs community on a national level. It was a beautiful walk of stars, and thank you for the chamber for that, that work. Next, we have our acceptance of the agenda. The City Council will discuss the order of the agenda may amend the order at urgency items, note abstentions or no votes on consent calendar items or request consent calendar items to be removed for separate discussion. Are there any items staff or council members would like removed from the consent calendar for separate discussion and or vote? If you could note if it's removed or or separate discussion or a comment only Council member garner one H for comment. Council Member Bernstein I have one E for comment. I have one. Hold on. Oh, I have E as well. And I have a question for J. Anything else? No. Okay. I would like to entertain a motion to accept the agenda. Do we

have a second? Hold on. Let me get my panel up. We have a motion. We have a second motion by council member, second by mayor Pro tem ready? I'm the mayor and council member. Garner. Perfect motion carries at this time. I invite City Attorney Jeff Ballinger to provide a report on closed session, please. Yes, madam mayor and members of the City Council. Members of the public City Council met in closed session earlier this afternoon to discuss the items that are listed on the agenda, and there was no reportable action. Thank you. Next item is public testimony. This time has been set for members of the public to address City Council on Nonpublic hearing agenda items. Only two minutes are assigned to each speaker. We ask that you begin your time by telling us what agenda, item or items you are speaking about. Please note that the testimony for public hearings will be taken at the time of public hearing. Any general public comments on subjects that are not listed on our agenda will be taken later in the evening. There's a written comment you wish to distribute. You can hand that to our city clerk. Our first speaker today is David Paisley. My name is David Paisley, and I'm the deputy director of Oswego Land Trust, and I am also the senior staff there. And the staff responsible are supervises, the staff and volunteers at Prescott Preserve. I'm just here really to say thank you. Thank you to the Palm Springs Fire Department for an amazing response. Thank you to code compliance. We have a great partnership to make sure there's defensible space at Prescott Preserve. And also just to really thank the 75 volunteers that really came out and just cleaned that site up in three days. The fire happened on Sunday. We evaluated it on Monday. By Friday at noon, the trails were open and the site was cleaned up. So I just really want to thank everyone involved in a

really tragic event. But we really cleaned it up very quickly and I'm here to answer questions when we get to that agenda item. Thank you. Next we have someone on Zoom, Mr. David Bell. Oh, I don't ♪have&-rM, but we can do okay. We'll do David Bell and then Michael Joseph picking. Mr. Bell, can you hear us? You can hear us. You can unmute and your two minutes can start. Mr. Bell, you can unmute yourself. Okay, we're going to. Can you hear me? Yep. We can hear you now. Okay. Mayor, members of the city Council. I'd like to address the three B, the city is proposing to amend chapter 1182 130J of the Palm Springs Municipal Code. Since 1988, Palm Springs has required a storage yard in the city to be a rotation tote for the Palm Springs police currently has two tow companies that have rigorously complied with stringent environmental standards. Under this proposal. Proposal, proposed amendment is to waive environmental review through a secure exemption. Furthermore, this amendment accepts any tow yard within ten miles of the city limits. Emergency personnel will be tied up waiting for out of town towing services. All this while the Palm Springs taxpayer puts the bill. Tow yards north of the washes will create a logistical nightmare for customers needing access to their vehicles. The washes have to be closed for blowing sand or flooding.

Traffic is constantly backed up and exiting or entering desert Hot Springs is imperative that traffic collisions be cleared in a safe and expeditious manner. Look no further than our neighbor Cathedral City, which tragically lost an officer directing traffic at a traffic collision. On a prima facie level, the city appears to be creating two factions the current cooperators and the prospective new companies. In my opinion, the city should have an open roundtable discussion on this matter. This would include members of the public, the stakeholders which are the current tow operators, the prospective new tow bidders and the contract facilitators from the city. This will help us get to a place of what is best for the taxpayers and citizens of Palm Springs. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you, Mr. Bell. Next we have Michael Joseph I see on my list now. Thanks for waiting. Michael Joseph 1C1D. Any items of financial that are examples of fraud in Palm Springs, the state legislature in 2024 mandates every restaurant and grocery store to donate their almost expiring items to agencies that. Feeding the homeless and poor. I have heard Martha's Village and Kitchen uses Del Taco and El Pollo Loco. I do not know what Coachella Valley Rescue Mission uses. Jewish Family Services of San Diego used Starbucks, McDonald's, egg Mcmuffins and Vienna sausages. I used these every day for years while in the desert for five years. Had coffee, Danish beans, rice and zucchini. I personally do not feel it is unreasonable for non-citizens to have such blessings. Why I bring

this up. I was grateful to receive such food to survive and being unhoused at the same time. I watched as prime real donations were stacked up and delivered to their supporters and non-citizens, not individuals the law was intended for at any of these agencies offered me, as a United States citizen, any of the prime groceries. I may have used some. As it is difficult to cook without a kitchen. La California, LA County, Santa Monica, Riverside County, Palm Springs, Cvag tribes. This is notice of potential litigation. Thank you, Mr. Pitkin. Do we have any other online speakers? We have no further speakers. Okay. Next item is the consent calendar. I would like to entertain a motion to accept the calendar as presented. We only have comments. Mine is just a question. We can include it right in the consent calendar. Okay, so no items removed. Do we have a motion? We do. We have both the motion by council member DeHart, second by council member Bernstein. Motion carries. Wonderful. Okay, so looking at. A second, let's start with item E Council member Bernstein, you have. Yes comments. This is just on the the road paving schedule and I've mentioned this a few times, but it would be great if we could use some advanced technology to let residents easily find out about when the road is being repaved and ask questions. If you look at the map, sometimes there's like a gap between two roads being repaved. And why wouldn't the middle

one be paved too? So we get these questions a lot and there's a lot of technology. There's apps, AI, chatbots and things that I think we could save a lot of council time and probably staff time answering the questions that we all get very often from our residents about the road repaving. So I mentioned it before, but I would just like to keep it top of mind. So thank you. I also had a comment on this item. And just to flag for the community and the public, we spend $9 million a year on our street paving. And this is a really I appreciate the staff report in particular. I thought for some reason the map really landed for me with this staff report in particular. And so I think it's a really easy way to see if your street is on schedule to be paved, and also to understand the scoring of each of our roads and also how that impacts if you're going to get a slurry seal or a full repaving. And so if you're still trying to understand what that process is, this was a particularly helpful staff report to understand that, okay, next we have H. Councilmember Garner, thank you. So for the public, this one, H is for the purchase of one main line CCTV camera for camera truck for our wastewater treatment plant. But then the what I want to just flag for for our council is that what happens to the old vehicle is that it's sold at auction. And there's a ton of different. Every time we replace a vehicle, we sell the old one at auction. But sometimes there's opportunities where we could potentially sell or donate these vehicles to other municipalities who maybe can't afford to buy brand new. Because some of the, well, we we try to replace these vehicles before their life fully

runs out, which is good policy, but it still means that there's some opportunities for use in other ways. So I just wanted to flag that, that I know from staff that in this particular case, this truck couldn't be used for another municipality. But I do think it would be good for us moving forward to just consider those opportunities. And I know we have in the in the past, but it's been quite some time since we've done it. And I think it's just important for us to be supportive of of other regions in our, in our valley or even beyond. So thank you. I had a question on item J. Thank you, Christopher, for coming up. The staff report had some context around the fiscal impact on our Mills Act properties, and I was just hoping you can just one that's really helpful information. It's helpful information to understand its impact on surrounding property values and why we, we value and protect so much of our historical properties. It'd be helpful if you can just share a little bit of our historical designation and how that relates to how many properties are roughly actually Mills Act properties and what that process has looked like the last few years. Absolutely. Chris Hadwen Planning Director Thank you, mayor and members of council. So currently, we have 524 historic properties throughout the city that would be eligible for a contract. Of those, we have 177 that already have existing contracts, and 14 are currently in the application process, including the two before you tonight. Looking back, since about 2020, we processed about 12 of these applications per year. So, you know, there is a fair, fairly high volume of those. I would say not every single one of the class one and two structures. So the 524 are pursuing mills that contracts. Nor would would we necessarily work with

them to do so. The intent of the Mills Act program, as outlined in your staff report, is really to provide a tax rebate to those historic properties that want to use the rebate money to do ongoing maintenance or restoration of their properties. So we do the historic preservation Officer, Sarah Yun, does work with those applicants to make sure that they are identifying projects and implementing those projects over a five year period, and we do periodic inspections to make sure they're using that money for that purpose. Looking at fiscal impact. So and this is a very imperfect back of envelope estimate, because the county is fairly guarded about their methodology in terms of how they grant the rebate, we understand that it ranges from about 40 to 70%, depending on the circumstances around the property. And looking at our median assessment of $4,250 of annual property tax, you know, we are looking again imperfectly at a potential rebate of 1700 to about $3,000 per year. So if we sort of translate that, that looks at the 12 that we're granting annually, it's about 20,000 to $35,000 annually that we are reducing the property tax base to the city of Palm Springs. And I believe the question was asked, what does that look like over, say, ten years? Well, multiplying that by ten years, it's about up to $357,000 over the next decade. If we continue on the path that we are, in addition to the 300 to 500,000 for the contracts that we've already issued. So, you know, it does add up. But again, as outlined in your staff report, it is intended to keep these historic properties in good shape to keep them historic. And we do believe that that has a positive benefit on the surrounding neighborhood. By keeping these historic properties in good condition, we are going to come back to you with a broader discussion about the zoning code update. And one of the items we'd like to talk to you about is the historic preservation ordinance and making sure that it's working as intended. So

we're doing some work now on what that conversation will look like, but we'll have more to say at that time. Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Next we this is all of our items, right? Yes. Next item is item two a, an application by Lucien Wolff for historic site designation of the Edmund Goulding residence, located at 1752 Ridge Road, A APN 513352002 case HSP 171. May we have a staff report, please? The photograph shown here is the rear f the primary structure taken at the base of the site. Looking westward, you can see that it's on a very rocky site. You can see the mountains in the background and the rock terraced garden integrated with the landscape and the backside of the two detached structures that you see from the street, the design of the home and the building materials blend pretty seamlessly into the natural mountain setting, and the terrace surfaces were initially landscaped with vegetation that enhanced the landscape design. According to the detailed report prepared by Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, the history of the site includes early residential development trends, architectural styles, and was found to be a site with a pattern of events associated with the early LGBTQ community. A significant individual owned the property, and early developers and designers contributed to its construction. Based on the detailed findings in the report, the HSP determined that this particular site met criteria one, two, three,

and five. The second part of the evaluation is related to the integrity of the site. Based on the seven integrity findings, the location of the structures and various landscape features are intact, and the design of the buildings represent early residential development in Palm Springs, and although the condition of the buildings are in need of repair and upgrades, many aspects of the site, including those including the overall design, is intact. It was determined that there is sufficient integrity present to exemplify how Criterion's one, two, three and five are met. So, with a very complicated layering of historic significance that was uncovered with the research, the owners decided to pursue historic designation in accordance with the Historic Preservation Ordinance and plan to bring the site back to life if designated, the restoration and the new development of the site would need to adhere to the criteria as compatible and compatible alterations with the historic resource. Based on the findings, HSB recommends that the City Council designate the Edmund Goulding residence as a class one historic site. The applicant representative and the owners of the site are also here to answer any questions, and I'm here to answer any questions from City Council. Thanks. Any questions? At this time? Oh, I'm sorry, you do. Okay, Council member. So it looks like from some of the pictures like it's in need of repair. Is that right? I mean, yes, they it's recent owners who bought it knowing the condition. Yes. The recent owners have actually been looking for this property to be to go on the market. So they've

been kind of eyeing this property for some time. So they understand its current state. It has been vacant for quite some time. So they understand that it is a project that is in need of repair and some work. So that was the intent when they purchased it was to do this. Correct. Okay. And it will be restored back to the original as much as possible. Is that what the so the applicant, the owners have the intention of restoring certain aspects of the historic resource. They also have plans to make certain additions and alterations to the site as well. And all of that would have to comply with the criteria for alterations for historic resources. So they have a project in mind. But, you know, after conversations with city staff, they understand our procedures and the the importance of the designation process before embarking on any changes. Okay. I have a comment, but that was my own question. Thank you. Any other questions? Oh, at this time, I would like to open the public hearing. The public is invited to speak on this matter for up to two minutes. Our first speaker is Lucien Wolf. So my name is Lucien Wolf. And yes, I purchased the property knowing full well that it needs to be restored. It is just one of the most spectacular buildings. When I had the meeting with the Historical Society, I said it's one of the most important structures built in the 1930s because Edmund Goulding was head of MGM and then of Warner Brothers,

and anybody who is anyone at that time went through that particular building. It's one of the first biomorphic pools, and apparently the pool is one of the biggest pools in a residential house other than in a hotel or a spa of sorts. I'm planning to remodel it in some ways. I specifically want to keep the original architecture, which I think is there's nothing to remodel with that. So we've been in touch with the city as to what should or should not be done to the building, but I'd like to see it as a structure that welcomes. Different charity events, welcomes the public into the building. We've got to make certain changes. There's no restroom and the upper level. So if we entertain the upper level, I've got to do things like put in a. Powder room, we've got to expand the kitchen. The bedrooms are very small. We need to get to the bottom level where the pool is. Steven Kellen, who did the report, said that the funicular that went down to the pool was only put in in the 1960s, so we need to figure out how to get from the upper level down to the lower level, so that if we are entertaining on the lower

level, how do we do that? We've been in touch with Ken Lyons and Sara Yoon to try to see what is involved. Ken was very specific about keeping the original architecture, and anything we add to it needs to be of a different material and look different to what was original. Thank you, Mr. Wolff. You're you're out of time, but thank you for your public comment. Okay. Next we have Mr. Steven Keelan. Good evening. Excuse me, mayor, city Council staff. I'm really just here to answer questions. You've, you know, read the report and seen the excellent staff report. It really is one of the most historic places and more interesting houses here. You know, there's so many mythological movie star sites around town that are not true. But this has it all. It has. It's the house where Greta Garbo stayed the night the Plaza Theater opened in Karmiel, and whether she attended or not is up to debate all of European nobility. It was really just such an important, interesting house in the history behind it, and the owners really want to do the right thing with it. So I really just here for questions. But if you. I hope that you'll approve this. Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have any online speakers for this item? We have no online speakers. Okay. Thank you. The public hearing is now closed. Are there any discussions or additional questions from the City Council? Council member Bernstein just I just have some comments. So first of all, I want to thank Mr. Wolf for for buying this property and restoring it or being committed to restoring it. It's probably takes a lot of work, but I appreciate that commitment.

So thank you. And to Stephen Keelan for another great report. It's just fascinating histories of Palm Springs in, in these. And it's it's so interesting to hear about this very early embrace of arts and culture and the LGBT community and how started back in the 30s with this. And he sounded like he had fun parties at his house, but but these reports are great. And I, I don't know where they are kept, but I always say there should be some book of these reports because they're great stories about the whole history of Palm Springs. So thank you for doing that. And that was it. Thank you, Councilmember Garner. Just a small thing about the photos that you used. There's some really great photos for anyone that wants to look up the staff report from 1939, and the home owner is greeting his guests. His guests are in full suits and he's in shorts topless, which is very Palm Springs like. We're all so much more casual than anyone else that that arrives. Yeah, with the dog. So I guess we've, we've been in this very casual state of mind for a very long time. But thank you for a really lovely report. Yes. No, just again, again. Thank you. This is the top of the Mesa neighborhood and it certainly will enrich that whole area. So thank you. We have a motion to approve by Mayor Pro tem ready a second by Councilmember Bernstein. Motion carries. Next item on the agenda is item three A, which is a review of the Prescott

Preserve fire. May we have a staff report, please? Oh, yeah. Thank you. Good evening. Mayor, mayor. Members of council. I'm Paul Alvarado, Palm Springs fire chief. And with me is Fire Marshal Tito, as well as Director Goodheart from it oversees code compliance. And tonight we're going to provide an update to the report we provided to council in February on the after action report of the Prescott Fire. So since that time, we've had the opportunity to speak with people that live in the Mesquite Country Club. My staff and myself have done numerous site visits to the condominiums, as well as the vacant country club itself and the Prescott Preserve, and really getting an understanding of what the concerns are from the residents, as well as plans for moving ahead. So proud to present this tonight. Just a quick overview of the Prescott. It's approximately 120 acres previously the Mesquite Golf Course and purchased in 2022 by the Land Trust, become a nature preserve and the incident that occurred on February 1st occurred between the streets of Farrell and Compadre Road, adjacent to the ponds. At approximately 2:17 p.m. on February 1st, Palm Springs Fire Department responded to a reported brush fire at the Prescott Preserve. First arriving firefighters reported fire involving multiple trees and

potential for fast spread. A second alarm was quickly requested and the fire was successfully contained and extinguished. Cause of the fire is still undetermined, although human caused and origin could not be ruled out. There was a person seen leaving the area just minutes before the fire started. A total of 36 firefighters responded to the incident. Mutual aid was provided by Cal Fire and Cathedral City Fire departments, and proud to say that no civilian or firefighter injuries were reported. I'd like to call up Veronica Goodheart to go over the city's code compliance and inspection program for this property. Good evening. Council code compliance began working with the Prescott Preserve in the spring of 2024. We do have a dedicated code officer who visits that property weekly. She also has a very good working relationship with the staff and their volunteers, and can pick up the phone at any time to have immediate concerns addressed. They do provide. Prescott does provide us biweekly updates of the work that they are doing to the preserve to maintain defensible space and address any concerns that arise. Since the last update, we have met with several of the Mesquite homeowners, and we have agreed to work with them and provide information to them from those weekly updates. So we are giving them real time updates of what's occurring to maintain the property. We've also gone out to the property with members of the fire department and walk the grounds with them to address their concerns. So this really has been a great opportunity to continue that communication with them. Thank you Veronica. So speaking of challenges to look at this fire, this fire highlights

the challenges of a fire and a heavy natural fuel in the urban environment. We had palm trees with heights that exceeded 50ft and the potential for amber casting causing long range spotting that occurred that day. Even with a five mile an hour wind out of the southeast. Successes that day. This fire was contained and extinguished and very hot and dry conditions. The Palm Springs Fire Department had a fast, rapid response, and this is due in large to pre-planning and training at this site as well as previous incidents. Here we also have an effective mutual aid system here in our valley as well as statewide that we'll talk about later on. Lessons learned wildland fires occur occur year round in Southern California. Rapid fire spread should be expected in hot and dry conditions. It's important that we request additional resources early, as well as specialized equipment for these types of fires, and adding ember resistant vents to your existing homes is a proven way to improve a home's resistance to wildfire embers. I want to speak a little bit about what our code, our fire prevention team, does every year to the Mesquite Country Club. There are five different phases, and every year our team that's led by our fire marshal goes out and does an inspection and things are looking at particular are gate access for fire department vehicles verifying fire hydrants have been maintained and are easily accessible by firefighters. Verifying fire extinguishers are maintained annually, as well as general storage and compliance. And I'm proud to say that overall, my fire marshal reports that Mesquite Country Club is very well maintained. Very few fire hazards hazard violations have been found

over the past couple of years. A few to name were obstructed extinguishers and exposed electrical wire that were quickly remedied. Want to speak a little bit more about the additional safety measures of the amber resistant vents? So the HOA maintenance team is going to bring to the board a recommendation to add these vents. And what these do is they protect openings of the attic and any other openings from embers going into the open attic space. So these homes have stucco walls and concrete tile roofs. But if an ember does enter into the attic space, it's exposed lumber. And when you see fires with wind driven fires and you see fires in homes burning miles away, that's typically because embers have blown that far and made access into attics or underneath homes, and started fires and burn the houses down. So I highly recommend that they do move forward with this recommendation. And these are available at local hardware stores. And the prices range anywhere from $69 to just over $500. I just want to touch a little bit on the Palm Springs Fire Department, participation in Pre-positig back during Tropical Storm Hilary when we had crews from Oakland, California respond down for Swift Water Rescue, knowing that we were going to receive high amounts of rain in a short period of time. So I'm proud that to participate in this system and our firefighters gained invaluable experience, as well as responding to different locations throughout California and bringing it back home. That's the end of our presentation. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Fire Chief. Really appreciate it and really appreciate all the time that you and Veronica and all your teams have done to engage with

the Mesquite Country Club owners and residents and really help them identify how to share information, right, with the board. And also. Kind of on a timely basis on any actions or observations or just the state of the relationship and engagement with Austin Land Trust. I think more information is always better. And so any opportunities that we can expand that is wonderful. And I guess my, my only other question would be not a question, but maybe something to explore as if there's any other HOA that in the future express interest for some of that, you know, they're just one HOA and there's other ones that might be interested in that, that that would be something that we can it's a great best practice that we can share with more surrounding communities. So I just want to say thank you. And then around the the vents, I think that's also another best practice. When you mentioned it in that community meeting where residents didn't know, some people may want to invest in themselves, the board might want to do it. And so just again, you being able to share your best expertise with residents so they can stay safe and keep their neighborhood safe is always great. So deep gratitude on on those next steps. Any thoughts? Questions from anybody? Yes. Council member. Yes, chief. Thank you for coming back for an encore presentation. We appreciate that. And I know the residents in the neighborhood surrounding the Prescott will be very, very happy. Just simple, easy question. On the prevention efforts slide, we say we verify fire extinguisher maintenance. What fire extinguishers are we verifying? You know, let

me have our subject matter expert come on up and explain that. Oh my God. Subject matter expert. Wow. How about that. Thank you chief. Sorry. I'm going to lower this a little bit. Good evening mayor. Members of council Taylor Teeple, your city's fire marshal. So what we verify is basically the fire extinguishers throughout the the hose complex. So they're required to have A2A ten b c fire extinguisher. And it's supposed to be serviced annually. So that's basically for occupants to use for simple, simple trash can fires, things of that nature. So I'm, I'm not clear. It's you're looking at residents or you're looking at common area. Common area. Okay. Thank you. Great. Any other council member? Bernstein. Thank you. So you you met I know following the fire with Prescott Preserve and the residents did was Oswin Prescott Prescott involved in this report or the follow up recommendations or. You know, I've had the pleasure of working with Oswin in 2024. We met and that's when we really established expectations. And I know Director Goodheart has been doing the same. So prior to this after Action Report, I think the mitigation and prevention efforts that we have put forth is really what this report is all about, because this speaks to what we did before the incident. And then of course, the response efforts. So to answer your question, yes, we've been in lockstep with Oswin to make sure that that property remains a preserved, but it's as safe as possible for the surrounding residents. And it sounds like, is there anything else that they could be doing? It doesn't really sound like it. I think we just continue with our ongoing communication and expectations. I think it's important that after wind events, sometimes you could have foliage that drops from palm trees. And I think it's important that our residents have an ability to call, make a quick phone call and have that cleaned up quickly and

not leaving debris piles in place for prolonged periods of time. So my team is happy to answer those questions. Go out and make sure that maintenance is done and maintained. So I think it's just an ongoing relationship. Yeah. And we have obviously we have other high fire areas with in a little Tuscany and other ones where it takes partnership between the residents and the fire department to, to keep it safe 100%. It's a, it's an ongoing maintenance expectation that we have for our residents in those areas. Right. And are we expecting just out of curiosity, this is a very wet winter. And now it could be very hot summer. Is it that. Well, what I'm looking at is we're. And this fire occurred on February 1st. It was 85 degrees. Normal temperatures during that time of year, about 72. Here in Palm Springs, we just experienced record highs here over 100 degrees. I'm not anticipating that it's going to be a cool summer. So we're getting ready. We're going to start our brush mitigation here in the city beginning on May 5th. And we're actually going to start in Little Tuscany and work our way south. Make sure that all city lots in the very high fire zone are cleared of brush 100ft from residents. Okay, no. Another comment. I just want to thank the the volunteers. I mean, to have it all cleaned up in three days is pretty amazing. And we're lucky to have that many residents who are so dedicated to keeping our city safe and cleaning up and volunteering their time and effort. So thank you to to all of them for doing that and for their commitment to preservation our city and to our fire department and code compliance for, for making this all possible from a city point of view. Thank you, thank you, Councilmember Carter. Thank you all. I really appreciate all of your efforts. There's so many people who had to work on this. I think just the one thing I just wanted to highlight is just making sure that the Prescott preserve and continue to work with the residents that are around there and make sure that they're

informed about anything that they may any event that that has occurred or. Really just keeping them informed about anything that might change on the site. I think that really helps for them to just know what's going on and who they can contact directly at your site if there's any issues that they see. So I appreciate all of the partners kind of working together with the surrounding neighborhoods. Thank you. Thank you. So this is a staff recommend that the City Council receive and file the review of the Prescott Preserve fire. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is item three B, which is which is an introduction of ordinance amending section 11.821 30J. One of the Palm Springs Municipal Code regarding vehicle storage facilities for non-consensual toes. May we have a staff report, please? Yes. Honorable mayor and members of the City Council. I'll be presenting the staff report on this item. We also have Captain Torres in the audience to help answer any kind of operational questions that might arise with regard to this proposed ordinance. The agenda item before you is a proposed ordinance to amend the city's municipal code with regard to what are called non-consensual toes. Those are toes that are instituted by the police department. When the driver of the vehicle is detained, incapacitated or otherwise physically unable to drive their vehicle, the city's current municipal code provides that when the city seeks qualifications from bidders or tow operators to provide proposed qualifications to serve as a tow operator to the city, those tow operators have to have a storage facility located within the city of Palm Springs. The city underwent a request for qualifications process this

last year and as a result, found that only one tow operator was qualified to provide those services. And so in order to open up the universe of proposed tow operators, city staff and the city Attorney's Office is recommending that we revise the ordinance to allow for operators who are located outside of the city, specifically ten miles outside of the city, to also propose to provide these services that will open up the universe of of tow operators and allow for an expanded list of tow operators so that in the event of an emergency or the need to call out to operators, maybe at the exact same time, the city is able to rely on multiple tow operators on the city's rotational list. We heard earlier tonight one of the public comments, and we received a letter to the same effect that this ordinance somehow reduces or impacts environmental standards or environmental review. That is not the case. All this ordinance does is expand the universe of potential tow operators that might be able to provide those services to the city. It has nothing to do with environmental standards or environmental reviews. So that essentially is what the ordinance does. We're available to answer any questions. Otherwise, we would recommend that the City Council conduct a first reading, waive further reading of the full title of the ordinance and introduce the ordinance tonight. Any discussion or additional questions from City Council. Councilmember Garner, just a quick question. I think from what I could see, that would really mean that tow operators could be in DHS or Cathedral City, but I think anything beyond that would be too far. Is that accurate? That's my understanding, yes. Okay.

Great. Thank you. Council Member Bernstein, do you have a question? I ask a question. Is that right from the city limits can't go any farther than that. It's ten miles from the exterior city limits. And the ten miles is measured driving distance, not as the crow flies. Okay, so it couldn't go up to Yucca Valley or. Right? Wrong. Okay. And and the question is also we heard from public comment that somebody invested a lot to make the property within Palm Springs. They have to be a certain size to meet our requirements. Is that right? Yes. Our ordinance currently provides that the facility needs to be, I believe, 15,000ft in order to to qualify. And if we lowered that requirement, would we have more potential applicants in the city? I believe so, I believe that as part of the RFP that RFQ that the city put out last year, there were two that staff understands would that are located within the city that have smaller facilities, smaller than 15,000ft. I think 12,000ft is what the estimate was from city staff. So why why wouldn't we just lower the square footage requirement and have three within the city potentially legally? You could do that. I would probably look to our police staff to to find out how that might impact this city operationally. Well, mayor. Hello, Council. My name is acting Captain Mike Torres. The reason for that is going to be we're going to be needing certain equipment for certain type of tows, and we want to make sure that we have proper equipment available for our staff in case they encounter specific type of larger RVs and commercial vehicles. Okay. Can the current operator handle RVs and the current ones we

have on staff currently do, but without speaking about one can and one cannot. Okay, okay. All right. So we need to have the larger ones to be able to handle that. Correct. Okay. And can the current operator handle all of the towing? Is that all we need to go out to get another one? And the current operator. Well, there's, there's two currently right now, they, they, they, one can handle the larger ones and one can handle the smaller ones. A commercial vehicles can they handle all of the towing in our city's needs is my question. Well correct. Yes. Okay. And, and the it also raised questions about this would be harder for police to go out of town to have to deal with that. Is that something that you think is that's not a concern of ours? Okay. All right. That's my question. Thank you. Thank you, thank thank you mayor. Quick question. So in the ordinance we're not changing the minimum square foot that it was 15. It remains 15. Correct. Okay. It's just that the ten miles and there's nothing in here preventing the current contractors from continuing to bid. Absolutely not. This this does not limit bidders or proposers. This expands the universe. Okay. And, and, you know, just traditionally, you know, I guess the ten mile radius was to prevent officers to have to be out of service for extended periods of time or even people to, to have to, to travel too far to, to get their vehicle out of out of storage. But I heard from the police that that's just not really an issue as far as you're concerned, weighted against your ability to get the larger vehicles. Okay. I

think that's what I heard you say. Correct. Okay. Correct. Thank you. Okay. No other questions at this time. I'd like to actually let me entertain a motion. Oh wait. Hold on. We're doing three B speakers. Yeah. We have some speakers that showed up late that would like to speak on this item. And maybe if you could take that public comment, if that's okay before we vote on this item. Okay. Sounds great. Well, keep them at the three B first speaker is Paul Hendrickson. And after that would be Bob. Bob. Good evening mayor, mayor, pro tem, city Council and wonderful staff. I am here once again to give a great big thank you to all of you for bringing about map change in our city. So GIS data. For years we've been so far behind and there have been quite recently some significant improvements to our GIS data, especially with te bike routes and bike lanes in our city that were missing for so long. So it's really nice to see that there's still some room, some work to do on it. For example, our, I guess you could call it a crown jewel of biking. Right now here in Palm Springs is a CV link. That data hasn't yet gotten there. It may be on the way. I know I spoke with John Josh Zimmerman and he said if I understood him correctly, he has the C GIS data for CV link bike lane data. Paul, this is for the vehicle tows. We wanted public comment, not

for B. I was confused by that too. So this would be after three B okay so we are going to do it. I nodded I'll be back. I was like, I know you're going to bring it back, but we're really far along in. Okay. Great. Thanks. Are you here for the the toes or also for the suit? Okay. Number two. Okay, okay, so we're going to come back. We'll have a we'll have an additional opportunity for public comment at the end. If you could just sit with me. I really thought you could bring it back, but wow. Okay, we are looking for thank you Council member. Do we have a motion and we're looking for a second second by council member Gardner. Motion carries. Okay. Brenda, would you like to read ordinance? Ordinance. Sorry. Ordinance amending section 11 8213J. One of the Palm Springs Municipal code regarding vehicle storage facilities for non-consensual tows and schedule the ordinance for adoption at a subsequent meeting. Thank you. Next item is public comment on non-agenda items coming. This agenda has been set aside for members of the public to address the City Council and items of general interest within the subject matter jurisdiction. City values. Your comments. Pursuant to the Brown Act, we cannot take any action on items not listed on the agenda. You have two minutes, Paul. Can I get a redo? Bob reminded me to take my hat off once again, thank you so much for everyone being involved in getting some of the GIS data updated. It's really important, especially as

the visitors, the residents in the city interdigitate through technological platforms more and more all the time and how important that is. So now our granddaughters come to visit, borrow our bikes, they use their favorite app, and it's pulling the bike lane data off of Google Maps. So this is really significant and important. So the CV that. So I just wanted to give a big thanks for that. Also noting that there's some work on some of the speed limits as well. Some of them are the old speed limits before they got adjusted, and a lot of vehicles now are starting to interdigitate technologically with the city. And so their, their vehicles are getting wrong data. Myself, I drive down the street and I look at that and I realize, oh, it's wrong. Who else is going to whose car is going to get it wrong? So just wanted to bring that to your attention so that that doesn't slip slip by. But it's really wonderful to see that change happening. And secondly, sadly, the city of Palm Springs still has a letter F grade from the American Lung Association for a lack of policy related to safe housing and smoke free air, as well as other locations. I'm out of time. Thank you. Thanks, Paul. Next we have Bob Heimbach. Oh. Okay. We we'll go ahead. Okay. Simon says go. Good evening. Mayor. Members of the council. My name is Robert and I'm. I live in the Upper West Side. I'd like to add an aspect to the Visit Palm Springs presentation that was made earlier for you to consider. Two months ago, I was fitted with new hearing

aids and they're. They're high tech compared to the ones that I had previously. On the few occasions that I watched TV, I've had difficulty listening and getting the articulation between what people are saying. My aides now provide a clarity that I didn't have before. And the reason that is, is because I'm able to connect with Oracle. And Oracle is a device that helps you transmit more clearly. It's also a device that should be utilized in. Let me start with the city Council chambers, because it's a little difficult for me to hear clearly. I would also suggest that because we're going to go for international travel, that the airport also get it. One of the cool things about our forecast is that if you're in an airport, for example, you get the announcements and you can get it in the language that you would like. And right now it provides over 130 different languages for you in the airport. I would also suggest that in addition to the chambers and the airport that we go to the Plaza Theater, we go to the convention center, all these public venues where people with hearing deficits might take advantage of what our cast is all about. Let's see. I think that's it. So thank you again for your time and your attention. I appreciate it very much. Thank you so much. Next, we have Mr. Michael Joseph.

Michael Joseph Pitkin, another example of potential fraud in Venice, California. It is understood that for decades it was the unhoused destination. A couple individuals before 2024, Lau talked smart and final into donating their almost expiring food items to feed the unhoused on the beach. The black Church in Venice got involved and wanted the prime grocery items for their own parishioners. Instead, they took away the agreement between the store and the unhoused. Today, Venice has a new name, Silicon Beach, and they make Allied Universal Services get police to ticket anyone who is trying to feed the unhoused at the beach parking Palm Springs. You will love this. Venice built a massive culinary school and they were to train students to help feed the unhoused at Bread and Roses Cafe. When the politicians and celebrities are involved, the data hackers all text each other and it's amazing in the meantime. Otherwise the unhoused experience is not so amazing. California, la la County, Santa Monica, Riverside County, Palm Springs, sea bag tribes. This is notice of potential litigation. Thank you. Next item is the City Council and City Manager request for upcoming agenda development. Or actually is there any other online speakers? No, we have no further speakers. Okay. Mr. City Manager, what do we have coming up? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Members of council looking at the tentative upcoming meeting schedule. You will note that our presentation for the April 8th meeting will be from the Plaza Theater Foundation. And the work that they're doing. They're going to give us a report on how the theater is doing,

how it's performing, and give us a chance to ask any questions that we might have from our end. You'll notice that we have two hotel incentive agreements coming forward with Terra Palm and the cacti hotels. We also will. We've been working with the library on some of their naming rights agreements that they've been trying to do in conjunction with the Library Foundation as they move towards opening the newly renovated library. And we'll have a report for you on that, as well as council members will know, Council members DeHart and Bernstein have been leading our subcommittee work with stakeholders on the convention center renovation. We've been working with closely with the Tourism Improvement District on the work that they're doing, getting people signed on to the T. I'd. And we are hoping to bring forward a T d resolution of intention for your consideration at the next meeting, and then I know the city attorney has been working with myself, with the staff to give you an update presentation on the city mayoral election that you've asked us to bring forward and have a discussion on. I think the city attorney is working on a number of different items related to the charter, state law, local ordinances, and we anticipate it'll be a good discussion. That will also include. I think you asked us to build in some of the cost factors related to it. So we'll try to have a comprehensive report for you. On April 22nd. We'll have a presentation from the Blue Zones folks on the work that they're doing. We'll

be bringing back our Community Development Block grant, annual action plan. We'll have another hotel incentive agreement from Alcazar, which is it's a good sign that these properties and hotels are investing in the in their properties. So it's that's good news. And then we have an annual report from the HR department. That's a state requirement on employee vacancies. Looking a little farther out on May 12th, we have our emergency Operations Update presentation. I know Council Member Garner, you recently participated in some of the training related to that. And then looking out even further, at the end of May, we'll be bringing forward our Q3 financial update, which will be very timely as we go into the continuation budget update for your consideration. Also on the agenda, delinquent waste disposal charges. It's a public hearing, and we'll have a presentation from the caravanserai Group that's doing a lot of great work with small businesses in the community. That's all I have, Madam Mayor. Councilmember Carter, I it's it's nice to be doing this at 715 ish because I have I want to say there's something for everyone this weekend. And it's, it's pretty incredible. Starting off on Friday, March 27th is the Senior Inspiration Awards. It's an Indian Wells at the Grand Hyatt. And David Hyams is going to be receiving the award for Palm Springs. For anyone who wants to attend. Our Amdocs Film Festival is happening now through Sunday. On Saturday. If you were going to be around this area of City Hall, there is a note King's rally at 10 a.m. so be mindful of that in terms of traffic as well. There's

also a book festival on Friday that starts on Friday. It goes through Sunday. It's you have to buy a ticket for Saturday and Friday, but Sunday it's free. It's at festival theaters and Sunday is going to be activities for folks of all ages, including screening of a brand new TV show before it even airs. The brothers of the desert have their wellness weekend as well. So Saturday at the Riviera at 830. Throughout the entire day, Trans Pride is at Dartmouth Park from 11 to 3. And then if you're still not done with activities, you can go to the Palm Springs Animal Shelter Gala at the Air Museum on Saturday at six, and if you're still not done with activities, you can wake up bright and early on Sunday morning for the firefighters Easter egg hunt at Ruth Hardy Park at 9 a.m. it is a jam packed weekend. There's truly something for everyone. And remember that Palm Springs Unified School District goes on spring Break, so they're on spring break March 30th to April 10th. And if you are interested in the Tram View Heights specific plan, our last community meeting before that item comes to the City Council is on Monday, March 30th at 530 at James Odyssey. And yes, I am going to try to attend all of those events. Apologies if I did not mention yours. Thank you. Councilmember Bernstein. Yes, you forgot opera in the park. Oh my God. Free opera in the park on Sunday. So there is another one I did want to mention. You may want to chime in on this too. Council member Guy Gardner and I went to Sacramento last week. We shared updates on key city initiatives, challenges and more, covering College of the desert, affordable housing, the library, navigation center, homelessness, the zoning code. It was a great opportunity to share, share our requests and challenges and develop a. Strong

relationship with our legislators and also to hear their priorities and and requests from us. We met with Senator Ochoa, Assembly member Wallace, Assembly Member Corey Jackson, the Senate Local Government Committee, the Assembly Committee on the Arts, Entertainment and Tourism, the office of Senator Sabrina Cervantes. And then I think you met with the Office of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senator Stephen Padilla. So it was a jam packed single day. And in Sacramento, the other question I had for the city manager, and maybe this is at least internally, we talk about our upcoming agenda items. I know we've all made different requests that three or more council members have agreed to on future agendas. If we can at least circulate that on council to see if those still are relevant. I think there may be some from last year and I can't remember. So. Councilmember. Yeah, we we had a discussion about that earlier today as well. And we recalled circulating that list a while ago, but it's probably very timely to get it back to you. So we'll be working with Cindy Carnes in my office and make sure we have a comprehensive list. We'll circulate it to all council members in case we've forgotten. Anything that you really think needs to be prioritized or on that. So we'll we'll get that out to everybody. Great. Thank you. And then maybe things that can come off the list if they're no longer an issue. The other thing I wanted to just bring up for discussion of council, you know, I know we we were lucky today because it's a short meeting. We don't like to have super long presentations or lots of presentations, but we have presentations by we have visit Greater Palm Springs, which is great. We're seeing blue zones. We're seeing the Plaza Theater and Caravanserai. I, I would think that it might make sense, even if they're very short five minute presentations to have some of public presentations from some of the

organizations that the city, the major ones that we support, at least in terms of financial input. And so that really the public gets to hear about the great work they're doing. We talked about Modernism Week, the film festival. I think the animal shelter does do it. Pride, Mizell and Boys and Girls Club, the ones who would give significant art museums significant amounts of money on to hear about how well that money is spent. So I don't know what council thinks. I know we don't want to schedule a long meetings. I understand they could be short today. We could have had maybe another five minute presentation. So I will leave it at the discretion of city manager, but I want to see what other council members thought about having the major ones do a presentation. Yeah. I'm not I'm not opposed to it. I mean, we have all year and we can kind of have a plan on there's, I don't know, ten, a dozen and maybe a couple a month that might work. And I appreciate how you've been pacing these out as well. And there's a lot of things that don't have to be in a certain time. They could be any time throughout the year. Yeah. And council members, I might just add, you know, a lot of these events happen at different times of the year. And then we want to give the organizations a chance to get their reports together. And so there's, there's different times of the year, the year that are probably more advantageous or more appropriate for them to report out to us anyway. So on all of those organizations, we can certainly be in contact with them. And, and, you know, work with them on placing them onto the yearly calendar. And some of them I know, like, you know, my cell or something, I'm not sure if our boys and girls club, everybody knows all the great work that we, we support them that they do. So that was part of the idea. Even also in the timeliness boys and Girls Club may be a summer or June in preparation for the school year, you know, things like that. So just

I'm sure the timing will vary depending on the organization. So I just would want to caution that we don't go back to what happened in this chain, these chambers years and years ago, where it was just presentation overload. So doing it where there's maybe one presentation that is meaningful, you know, is important. And so I agree with that. Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Okay. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Two, two things. One, first, when Bob spoke about the aura, Bob Heimbach, just a question to staff, it sounded like something that might be easy to do if maybe we could look into that and you can just report back. It might be something inexpensive. Easy to do. Yeah. Yes. Mayor pro tem ready. It was actually, Mr. Henrickson actually made a presentation at the last Airport Commission meeting about this same subject. And I think a lot of the staff, when I talked to them, had a lot of interest, and it made a lot of sense to them. So I know I saw our assistant aviation director speaking with them, and I know they're interested in pursuing this and talking this, and I'll be happy to send council members an update as it gets some traction. You know, we're talking about the airport, the convention center. It makes a lot of sense in a lot of different venues. So it's interesting, it's intriguing, it's good technology. And if there's a way for us to implement it, I know we'd like to do it. Thank you. And then the second thing on, on your upcoming list, I think the last meeting we talked about, just an update on traffic signal synchronization, if maybe we could get that scheduled. I believe that was some council agreed to do that

unless I was dreaming from two weeks ago. So anyway, just put it in the queue somewhere. The upcoming mayor pro tem ready, I think. Were we talking about that in the context of communication with Cvag as well? Because a lot of the arterial synchronization throughout the Coachella Valley, we work really closely with CDC on all of that. So. Right. But that's just on the main artery. That's right. But and those, those aren't necessarily the problem spots. It's more of what our policy ist's just n the main arteries. And that wouldn't answer our city policy for all the rest of the traffic signals. So either both combined or separately. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. And I think my addition to this and I don't know if this impacts the timing is. There may be or there may not be, but the police department had a community meeting kind of really looking at pedestrian safety, traffic safety, kind of the education campaign, opportunities for engineering. Alterations or improvements. And so there might be overlap, there might be overlap, I'm not sure. But if we could just confirm that, especially for things that might be engineering investments that we might need to plan out over time. Yes. Council member. Thank you. Mayor. You know, this week we learned that Chief Mills is looking to the future and where that path may take him. And Kathy and I want to take a moment to express our unwavering support for every officer, every staff member serving with the

police department. It's important for them all to know that they're valued and appreciated from the top to the bottom. We've watched the department grow and truly thrive under the chief's leadership, and we're incredibly proud of the professional, community focused culture that you all have built together. And huge hat off to the chief for bringing that to the city. And while leadership may change our gratitude to the front line officers, your daily dedication, bravery and hard work remains constant. So many thanks to all the officers for everything that you do to keep Palm Springs safe. Know that we are behind you 100% and that we look forward to seeing the department continue to lead with excellence. Thanks, Paul. We agree, mayor and council members, if I could just chime on, chime in on that just a bit. I mean it. Besides all the leadership that the chief has shown in my tenure here, it's. We've also built a really strong culture within our police department that you don't see in a lot of departments around the country. He's built a strong bench of executive leaders throughout the organization who are really doing good job, and they've learned a lot from the chief, from his experience and a lot of different cities. And that relationship between the city manager and the police chief, I know. Mayor Pro Tem Reddy will agree with

me is really, really important, and the chief's been a great partner with me throughout. And so we'll, we'll we'll see how fast this house sells. Thank you. Thank you, city Manager. Thank you. Please, chief. Before we adjourn, we want to take a moment to acknowledge to public servants here in our city who have contributed so much. And I'm going to pass it over to Mayor Pro Tem, who's going to help us honor them. Thank you. Mayor. Yeah, this unfortunately, this past couple of weeks, two former members of the staff had passed away. And you see their Al Smoot and Jerry Terry. Jerry riddle. And I just want to take just a moment to talk about these two. They were they were amazing team members. And al was the airport director. And then he became assistant city manager. And then Jerry became who was deputy airport director, became airport director. She was the first female director at our airport. And it was an amazing thing to, to watch how. How they handled such big projects. So for example, the extension of the runway. So if you ever wonder why Pharrell Kerr's. It was to make the runway long enough so Air Force One could land here. And they were part of all that. The, the main terminal, the expansion, the regional terminal, the tower. So when they built the the longer runway, the shorter tower originally couldn't see the end of the runway. So it was a bit of a problem anyway. So, so they managed all this thing and then the, the road access, they called it spaghetti road at the time after 911 when you couldn't get from El Cielo to Ramone

the road changed. There's kind of this turning thing. It was a it was an engineering phenomenal thing that they put together because they had all these different components to deal with. So those are the kinds of things that they did. And it just goes to the point that all these great projects, all the things that happen in our city, only happen because of our staff. And so it's a shout out to the staff always, but it's a recognition of what they do. And, and these two right here signify that as much as anything. And I would also note that that al was involved in the downtown parking structure. And if you got into looking, his fingerprints would be all over the city. So we want to thank them for their service. And I just wanted to close the meeting in their memory. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mayor Pro Tem. And thank you to all and Jerry riddle for their years of contribution. With that, our next City Council meeting will be on Wednesday, April 8th, 2026 at 530, and our meeting is adjourned.