City Council - Regular Meeting

It's a lot of fun.

Hello, everyone. I apologize for the meeting getting late started. We were having some pretty significant discussions in closed session, so let's get this show on the road. It is 5.23. I'd like to call the order of the Indio City Council meeting. Like I said, it's 3.34. Roll call, please.

Council Member Miller. Present. Council Member Withron. Present. Council Member Ortiz. Present. Mayor Furman, Mayor Pro Tem Furman.

Present.

And Mayor Holmes. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. Next we have the invocation.

There he is. Pastor Williams, thank you.

Let's pray. Dear Lord, we just come before you today, Lord, knowing that the city has to take care of business. So Lord, give them wisdom as they endeavor to do your work. And Lord, let us be mindful that there's people who won't be at this table that need to be taken care of. And Lord, as we just thank you for everything that we have, We understand that it's hard work at times, but it's worth it. And Lord, we just want you to take care of us, protect us, keep us safe, provide for us, and as our kids go back to school, Lord, let them be in healthy environments, let them be safe, and let them learn and socialize well. Lord, we turn this meeting over to you because we know you have infinite wisdom. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, and thank you. Amen.

Okay, we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance next. I know, huh? We look forward to that. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Student, I guess because school just started, but no student today.

Okay, city attorney, report on closed session.

Thank you, Mayor. For item 3.4 on the closed session agenda, for two of the potential cases, the City Council gave direction by consensus. That is the end of the closed session report.

Okay, thank you very much. Item 5, so this is the best part of the whole council meeting, the presentations. Item 5.1, presentation of certificates to ZTCV 11 and under baseball for the Slump Buster Baseball Tournament Championship. Would all you guys like to come up and do you want to meet me down there and we can give certificates to everyone? Okay.

Hello, hello, hello. Okay. There you go. It's better. Hi.

Welcome. Yes.

You guys got to face the camera. The camera is over there. This lovely woman is over there. Come on. Come on.

Descend a little bit. There you go.

Awesome, fantastic. Well, this is a really cool evening for all of you guys. Absolutely wonderful, and if I don't get out of the picture, she'll kill me. This is very, very, very exciting. You guys had a great season, didn't you? Yeah, did you have fun? Did you learn a lot about team and leadership and everything? It's pretty fantastic, and we here at the City of India want to recognize the great, great, great job that you did. So we have some certificates for you, and let's give them out.

Do you want to give some of them out? Sure.

Go right ahead.

We have Johnny Ricciotti. All right. All right. There you go. Let's give him a round of applause. And then next we have Atticus Ramirez. There you go. Oh, good. Desmond Owen.

Okay, cool.

Santiago Ibarra. Not here? All right. All right. Robert King Hartfield. Benjamin Mateo Sanchez. There you go. Congratulations. Angel Vasquez. There we go. Gael Gonzalez. Garrett Fournier.

Troy Morin.

Isaac Samaniego. There we go. Jonathan Barlasco. There we go. And last but not least, Coach Gilbert Sauceda.

OK. Fabulous. Wonderful. All right, you guys. I'm going to give this to everyone. But Coach, would you like to say a few words about this amazing team and this amazing young man?

Not a big talker, but we'll figure it out. We're a home-bred organization out of Indio. We've been together for about five years. Got about close to 200 kids in our program. that are solid in our program, that we have kids that are in or out of our program since they're in high school. So we're about 400 deep in the youth movement. A lot of things come into the city of Indio that we're doing. We're building a baseball facility right across the new sports park. It's gonna have a homeschooling program and doing a lot of stuff for the youth. I was mentored by some good people, and one of them here, Tony Williams, and his brother, Quinton, grew up in the boys club. had a lot of people that had a lot of success and just trying to build that avenue for kids and continue it. So got one right here that's gonna be the future. Thank you.

Fantastic, thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, would you like to say something?

First of all, I just want to say thank you to Coach Salceda. I know he's been working at this for a long time. I've taken a lot of calls from him over the years, but I remember him having this dream years back about growing this huge baseball program here in our city and representing our valley very well. So congratulations to you, Coach, and thank you for your commitment to our kids. Secondly, and also importantly, thank you to the parents. This is a big sacrifice. Thank you. Thank you. A lot of time and effort that goes into this. I'm pretty sure you all know. A lot of late nights, a lot of tired nights, a lot of injuries, and sometimes some tears and sometimes some applause. So thank you to the parents. And most importantly, congratulations to all you young guys for playing baseball. And keeping baseball alive in our community, I think, is one of our sports that we need to keep supporting in our world. And you guys are doing it. But the thing that's most importantly, I think, is giving our youth a space to grow and grow safely and keeping them off the streets. And I think over the years, there's been a lot of work and effort into our youth. And that's why we see Indio growing to be the safe community, because we're giving our youth something to do. Thank you to you guys, and congratulations. Looking forward to seeing you guys again. Looking forward to seeing you in high school and in the major leagues, right? That's the goal, right? That's how it works.

Yeah, absolutely.

William and the Mayor have said a lot, but the success of the children is the success of the parents. Each one of these young kids have a parent that cares about them getting involved. The kids make it happen, but the parents, my thanks is to you being good parents. Having that family, that adopted family, whoever's involved, grandmas, uncles, cousins, best friends, their success is because of the community support. Indio's very fortunate. 25 years ago, we didn't have a variety, but baseball's always been there. There's a long history for baseball. We have great, not just boys, but girls in wonderful softball. They're seeked by scouts all over the southern states because they need them. So it's something to really be proud of, and you're an example of success. Thank you for doing what you're doing, but my thanks is also to the parents.

I just want to say congratulations to all of you. You guys put in the hard work, went out and got that championship. We hope to see you again here with some more championships in the future. I also want to say, you know, keep up the hard work. Also make sure you keep your grades up so that you can keep playing when you get to high school, get into a good college, and like Mr. Furman said, hopefully make it to the major leagues one day, right? And congratulations again to the coach, too. Thank you for all your work. Please, to all your coaches and volunteers, give them our thank you on behalf of the city. All right, congratulations.

to the parents and the coach. Coach, thank you for not only going for the Boys and Girls Club, but also giving back to the community. You guys should cherish this, not only the relationships you have, what you've won, but just the building of friendship and that long-term friendships are even more important. But congratulations on the win. We look forward to you winning some more, and thank you for representing NDO.

seeing you next year but I think there's somebody here that wants to say something okay he'll be up here in no time absolutely he'll be up here in no time all right all right you guys team we have to kind of get together keep these in front of you so we can get a picture let's get tight let's get cozy I'm gonna hang out with this cute guy

Everybody say Indio.

Indio.

Come on, louder than that. Indio on three. Ready? One, two, three.

Indio.

Perfect. All right.

Okay, next item, next presentation is TODIC, if you want to come on up. Welcome.

One, two, three, yes.

Okay, thank you, and good afternoon, and thank you for having us today. My name is Sandra Reyes. I'm program manager with TODIC Legal Center, community-based organization serving the community that we serve is immigrant families, farm workers and Latino communities between almost over four years. Our services are focusing to educate these families and provide immigration legal services and other type of resources. So today I'm here to strengthen our community engagement and provide some updates because we know nowadays we are having difficult times in the immigration area. I want to start with, next slide. Maybe this, yeah. I prepare some updates about how we are looking from the field in this expanded immigration enforcement. Nowadays, we have not this big operation like raids. Nowadays, we have routine enforcement practices daily. All the operations, the tensions are daily in our streets. Individuals are usually frequently detained during ICE check-ins. immigration courts, hearings, UCIS interviews, and the community rates and enforcement are in between our streets. These practices often encourage the racial profiling and may result in the detentions during everyday activities when the community comes to or market or local markets or including that way they are traveling from home to work and The data said that these detentions are targeting on non-criminal immigrants. As of April 4, 2026, the 70.8% had no criminal conviction. This is the data from federal level. And nowadays, as well, we are looking at UC's role in the enforcement. UCS is the area that provides the adjudication of these immigration reliefs. And nowadays, they are doing delays in these adjudications or holds for these immigrants who are looking for any type of relief. And at the same time, most of the processes that firstly is start like obtain immigration relief then pass to a very defensive process because they they there are many communication between usas and dhs ice and homeland security enforcement areas And at the same time, we are looking at increasing in the tensions using the technology driving, because we are looking at increasing the biometric data collection, border data sharing, and use of advanced technology and AI. For that, we are... We are encouraged that the importance of the legal advice, and you know immigration law is highly complex, and every case is unique. Outcomes depend of the variety of factors for each family, including if what was the person's immigrant history, what are the specific family circumstances, criminal records, if any, or what is the current status, and other case-specific detail. For that, we remind or remark that this legal advice is only intended to provide by immigration attorneys or representatives from the DOJ. because it's very complex to understand the law and nowadays the immigration law is changing constantly. It's important to obtain an immigration diagnosis to make an informed decision and the immigration diagnosis includes different types of the topics to evaluate case by case and obtain an analysis what possibility of adjustment or immigration relief this family could obtain. At the same time, it's important to obtain risk assessment and steps to follow because there are no risk zero. It's important to have all this information and have this case by case individual legal advice to make informed decisions in the families. We are strengthening our communication with our systems to provide assistance for immigrant families with our emergency line 24-7. The number is 951-388-2008. Between this line, we could provide and connect with free legal assistance for these families who have been detained or in risk of detention. At the same time, between this line, we could connect with other types of resources free like food distribution, mental health assistance, or other services between the social services area to try and to support the families who has been in risk or has been impacted by immigration. At the same time, we encourage to obtain a family action plan because each case is different and the family action plan is a tool designed to help and better understand or to be better prepared in a case that one member of the family was detained or was impacted for this enforcement. All the services are for free, are here to try to support our communities, this is our mission, our values, and that's the services that we're trying to provide to the communities that we serve and the communities that we come. And at the end, I want to thank you to Indio City and Indio Department of Police members because for the collaboration, our collaboration is our greatest strength. We think together we are building the stronger and more connected Coachella Valley through different types of resources as community engagement, emergency intervention, legal consultation, resource dissemination, and together we are stronger and together we are here for a community that has been impacted. So thank you. At the end is all the first point of contacts if some of the audience is in need to these free services. And we are here to support in the better way that we can. We are here for you. And thank you for this opportunity.

come back come on back thank you very very much for the presentation lots of great information appreciate everything that you're doing I just wanted to ask my fellow council members if they'd like to say anything sure I'll start you know just clarifying you're saying that you're not seeing the big immigration raids anymore that we were seeing in the beginning but they're still happening on a daily basis right smaller operations targeted

Daily we have over 20 detentions only in Coachella Valley. That's the data that we receive in our emergency lines, but we have other type of data from other spaces that could be bigger than that data.

Gotcha. And then you're saying you're still seeing those people being taken even in their immigration appointments or court dates, people going through the legal processes, you're seeing them taken at those points as well?

Yes, yes. At ICE check-ins, the court hearings, immigration court hearings.

To grow in this partnership with you to continue protecting the human rights and constitutional rights of our immigrant families. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for having this opportunity.

I just want to say thank you for your work and thank you for this presentation. It's important that we continue to support people like you who are fighting the good fight in our community and for people who are the backbone of our community, who helped build our community, right? And so thank you for that. Just to let you know, we're still continuing our effort to obtain information from our federal government. Over the last couple of days, I've been engaging with Congressman Ruiz's office, and I'm going to be working with them directly to continue to find solutions that could get us to a better ending of what's going on. And we do have an uphill battle with our federal government because they're breaking laws every day. right and we understand that so we have to continue to fight especially in those tired days to support people in our community so i just want to say thank you for your work and you have us in a partner thank you council member gutron there we go i just want to say that you're an organization that's valuable in any community

You bring the assistance of trying to connect, trying to educate. Outreach is probably the biggest thing because most of the community is still challenged with what's going on and they need clarity and they need answers. and the organization like yours and many others like yours are providing that opportunity to get the help, just like Council Member Ortiz mentioned, you're helping to connect families again, or educate them, and that's a big help.

Thank you. We came from these communities. The hearts from the communities is our own hearts. So we are trying to do our best. And thank you again to all our collaborators, all the members that collaborate with us to try to to provide better resources and better support for our communities. So at the same time, I'm grateful with you and to having us today to discuss this important thing because this is a reality. It's a reality from our communities. We are looking at these detentions. We are looking at families suffering.

The first one is Edward Robles. You want to grab the proclamation and I'll read, I'll read it. All right, today we proudly recognize Edward Robles, an eight-year United States Navy veteran born and raised in the Coachella Valley who served aboard several Navy ships, including the USS Bellevue Wood, USS Essex, and USS John C. Stennis. Following his military service, Edward dedicated his career to serving fellow veterans. He founded the Student Veterans Organization at College of the Desert and later served as a peer support specialist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A life of service. In 2017, he founded Mission Veteran, a nonprofit providing educational, recreational, and supportive services to veterans and their families. He continues to advocate for veterans through advisory committees, the Coachella Valley Veterans Expo, and his work helping veterans achieve home ownership. Edward has earned a bachelor's degree in business administration, and most recently, a master's of business administration management. Congratulations. Edward has devoted his life to ensuring veterans and their families are treated with dignity, honor, and respect. His continued commitment to service embodies the values represented by Corporal Hunter Lopez and the spirit of Hunter Lopez Day. On behalf of the city of Indio, thank you for your military service.

We'll start with Council Member Guthrie.

It's always an honor to recognize our veterans and especially obviously homegrown ones. You know, it's a special day to take that time and never forget the sacrifices that are made, whether during time of crisis, war, or even the time of disasters, the military's there, not just for our country, but throughout the world, and we're very proud of that. We show that pride by recognizing Not in this fashion. We have the opportunity for veterans to take advantage of our banner program, those that wish to be recognized. We have a lot that don't. They're very humble about their service. They don't want the notoriety, but to know that they're there. The City Council's now made an investment in having a Veterans Memorial that's currently underway next to our 9-11. So we have much to show that we're proud, but we're more proud when we brag. Thank you.

And Edward, you know, I've seen you at all the expos. You're at everything, and you are an epitome of giving back to the veterans. Not only have you served our country well, but you've come back and even done more by giving those that need the support with you the help that they need. So God bless you because, like I said, you are the epitome of exactly what we need in this community as a man that not only serves but continues to serve. God bless you.

Oh, man. First of all, Eddie, I just want to say thank you for your service, brother. We really appreciate you. And secondly, thank you to your family. I know your wife's here and your boys and your extended family, your mom. Thank you all for letting Eddie live out his dream of serving this community and his country. And when I tell you he serves, he serves. That was just a snippet of what Eddie does. And I just want to share a quick story. I was at a meeting in Palm Desert, and I was just walking into a building, and there was a veteran out there. He was in crisis, and this was not too long ago. And I was like, okay, what do I do? The first person I thought about reaching to was Eddie. Eddie took my call. I connected Eddie to the veteran. Eddie got him to the right office he needed to go to. The gentleman reached out to me and said, thank you for your help. I said, you know, that was Eddie. Eddie is the kind of guy that would drop everything and get the shirt off his back for someone. And it's actually great to see the growth and progression you have made. I know your family is extremely proud of you. And it's just an honor to be able to present you with this proclamation. So thank you.

heroes in our midst, oh my gosh, yes.

Council Member Hortense.

Yeah, I want to say thank you for all your work out here in our community. We hear a lot of stories about the struggles that our veterans are going through, especially our young veterans, so having young representatives like you that can reach out to them and relate to them is a really powerful thing that we have here in our city. One of the best things of being a council member is seeing those impacts that you guys have especially seeing the veterans community right and how they stand up for each other here in our community and serve each other and continue to serve even after service right so that's been a huge benefit for me as a council member seeing all those good stories happening within our veteran community and you're one of those leaders leading that fight and seeing the great work that you're doing too i'm a big outdoors person right and seeing the work that you're doing to ease some of that uh pain from those struggles right uh work through outdoor recreation through the music programs. It's a really innovative way to help that we hadn't seen here in this valley and so we appreciate all your work. Thank you.

I prepared something, is that okay?

It's an honor because this is where I grew up. I've received proclamations before, but this one's special. This is my hometown with people I grew up with here. It's more about thank you, and as I'm hearing these things, I am acknowledging, I forget sometimes how much work is done, but I want to say thank you to the mayor, to the city council members, veterans in the community, my family for being here, um the proclamation is very valuable but the mission is bigger okay the um it's a reminder of the responsibility that we have um because veterans are not just a statistic they are our brothers our sisters our fathers our mothers our neighbors our community leaders they stood the watch so everybody could rest and when a veteran comes home Our responsibility doesn't end when the uniform comes off. That is when it begins. And Mission Veteran was a nonprofit I started, you know, to support not just the veteran but the family members. So I see my fellow veterans and our family here and the strength that they bring and our healing. And the message is that changed life changes lives, that no veteran should have to navigate life alone. That means housing, that means employment, mental health support, recreation, connection. But more than anything, it means creating a space where veterans can look at each other and say, you understand me. I am not alone. Our vision in the Coachella Valley as we're growing the nonprofit is creating a veteran community where recreation is a part of healing, where veterans can fish, ride, create, learn, build friendships and spend time with family and rediscover purpose. The vision is bigger than Mission Veteran. It's bigger than myself. It's bigger than any one organization. It belongs to all of us. So to our city leaders, continue opening the doors and helping veterans create focused resources. Thank you guys, you gave me a grant recently. That supported our music program and allowed us to take 12 veterans deep sea fishing. We just had some tuna last night and it was great. Sushi's on me. But to our business developers and our property owners, invest in the people who serve. To nonprofits, schools, faith groups, health court providers, and civic organizations, let's stop working in silos and start working together. And to my fellow veterans, don't wait for someone else to build what you need, help build it. Bring your ideas, your experience, your skills, and your stories, and bring another veteran who needs to know that they are not alone. Because I believe we can build something in the Coachella Valley here, a model for what veteran care should look like, not just survival, but thriving. So I'm going to stop there, but thank you guys so much. My brother being recognized today as well. Lucas Bion is part of this fight with me and part of this journey with me. And it's an honor serving with you and being honored with you today, brother. And thank you to my family for being here. And thank you for everybody for the recognition. I truly appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Thank you, brother.

Okay, and the next honoree is Lucas Alfredo Figueroa Opinion. Come on up. Today we are proud to recognize Lucas Alfredo Figueroa-Pinon, a United States Air Force veteran, father, public servant, and lifelong Coachella Valley resident. Lucas served in the Air Force Security Forces performing military law enforcement and force protection duties and deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2012 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Following his military service, he attended College of the Desert, advocated for veteran suicide awareness, and continued his education at UCLA, where he also worked at the Veteran Resource Center, supporting fellow veterans. Lucas went on to serve as a congressional aide focused on veterans, military affairs, and public safety. His legislative work included advancing the Honoring Our Pact Act, expanding healthcare and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances, and helping establish the Corporal Hunter Lopez Memorial Post Office Building in La Quinta. He has also worked on legislation strengthening public safety at major outdoor concerts and festivals. Today, Lucas serves as Director of Special Projects for a member of Congress, where he continues advocating for veterans and military family while overseeing federal appropriations, grants, and field operations. Lucas, on behalf of the City of Vindio, thank you. for your military service, and for your continued dedication to veterans, public safety, and the Coachella Valley. We are proud to recognize you and grateful for all that you continue to do for our community. That's pretty amazing, thank you. Yes, actually, would all of you like to say something first? Yes, there you go. Recognize.

First off, thank you for your service and all that you do, but also for your amazing work with Dr. Ruiz and working with the congressional and helping all those in support. I know you were very instrumental in the burn pit legislation that came back to help those veterans that came back with all that disease and cancer and that. That took a lot of work to get that through Congress, and a lot of that's you, so thank you for what you do for our veterans.

Well, Mr. Pignon, or Airman, so first I liked you because my son's in the Air Force, still serving in Japan, so that was in common. Then I knew your uncle because I met him 30 years ago. I said, and you asked me why, and I said, because I know your uncle. So... who's also a Marine veteran. So all I can say is thank you for giving back. Thank you for not forgetting. Thank you for helping our people. You can come back and you could have done anything you wanted, but you chose to continue to be a public servant and doing the accomplishments that doesn't just affect you because of your past, but knowledge of what needs to get done. So thank you.

Another good partner. First of all, Lucas, thank you for your service to my Blythe brother. But more importantly, you're always there to serve. I don't know how many times I've called you for issues that we have had in our community and the work has never stopped. And I don't think you forgot your oath that you took in the military and that you wear that on your sleeve. And that's what we appreciate about you. And so thank you for always stepping forward and putting service before yourself. And the work is right there in black and white. We know what you have done working with the congressmen and we appreciate it. And we're looking forward to continue that partnership because I just called you the other day. So thank you and congratulations.

I want to say congratulations as well. Thank you for all your hard work. We know that when we send over veterans to our Congressman Reese's office, we know they're going to be well taken care of because you're there. And we know the work ethic that you've put in, the importance that you put in on veterans' issues and your expertise. You know, you've been doing this for a long time. And I'm thankful because you always give me great advice when it comes to veterans and their families. You've personally helped me with a lot of my friends and their families. getting the services they need, showing up to funerals, giving some great advice on dealing with all those really tough issues. So I just want to thank you for all your hard work and congratulations. Thank you.

You make this a better place. We have so many local heroes in our community that just have from the heart that sense of local service, of helping one another, of lifting one another up. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm deeply honored. I'm not big on receiving awards or recognitions, but for me, this is being accepted on behalf of our veterans, brothers and sisters in our community, because without people and pillars like Ed and Luis who are in our community doing this fight on a daily basis, they're saving lives, they're saving families, they're keeping roofs over heads, over individuals that no one will know their names. but we know they served in our military and we're so proud and thankful to call them our brothers and sisters. Briefly, I want to say I got on this path to serve our veteran community when I lost my good friend at College of the Desert. We were in a class together, and we were in a group project scheduled to present at the end of the semester, and he stopped answering my phone calls, my text messages, and I went on to present on behalf of me and him in our class, and I told our teacher, please give him full credit, and she said, have you heard from him? I said, you know, I haven't, but, you know, I'm close to the family. I went on to see our counselor, Donnie Prince, the amazing one and only, And she said, you should go talk to Dr. Clerk, Mr. Tony Clerk. And he told me that the funeral occurred two weeks prior. And I didn't know, I wasn't aware. And it broke my heart. He was a close friend. He was a father of two. He was a husband. And they said, we received this flyer to do an internship in the Congressman's office because he's looking for veterans to do research on veteran legislation. I showed up my first day and they had me presenting to VFWs and American legions on their exposures to toxic burn pits overseas. And that was in 2017. And it stuck with me because I found my passion. I found a calling to be able to help our brothers and sisters in arms and be able to be there for one another. And it's a 24-7. I'm not going to call it a job, but it's a passion that we're there. It doesn't end. And it's not for the job that I do, that I get paid to do. It's because that's what we want to do. I went on to UCLA, and my first day at campus, I went up to the director of the Veteran Resource Center, Dr. Ives, and I said, I want to help support your mission in supporting veterans here on campus. She said, we have a high dropout rate for our veterans here in our community because, one, housing costs, two, there's not a lot of peer support, and three, they're in classes with 19-, 20-year-olds when these guys were just overseas in combat. And so for myself, I had that same experience, but it motivated me. I wasn't the best student, but I was a great friend to everyone there. I worked as a coordinator at the Veteran Resource Center. I organized trips. We went on to become the number one public university in veteran issues throughout the United States in 17 and 2018, and I was deeply honored to play a role in that. The Congressman called me after I graduated and asked me if I could be a part of his team to handle veteran and military affairs issues, because he wanted to take the PACT Act across the finish line. And with my experience and being at the location of our constituent in Cathedral City, Jennifer Kepner in Afghanistan, I played a key role in connecting that story to our district. And I was proud to play that role. I was in Washington DC when President Biden signed the legislation. And it forever changed my heart to know what a congressional office does. When I did the internship, I didn't know who my congressman was. I didn't know what a congressional office was. I wasn't aware of politics and what that did day to day. But I was aware of the mission to supporting our veterans and our military families that need our support in our communities. And it's been a huge, huge role in my life. And it saved my life. It's given me the responsibility that I have experienced overseas in Afghanistan. to be there for one another and have people like Ed in my life who are able to support me when I'm in need. I have people like my support system here, my family, thank you for being here. My amazing wife, Gloria, thank you for supporting me. I know it's not easy. We all have, you know, our battles we take day to day, but at the end of the day, we're there for our community. And for the city of Indio, this is extra special. Hunter Lopez Day, is very special to me because Alicia Lopez, Hunter's mother, was my investigator for Riverside County Sheriff's. She hired me to be a deputy sheriff for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, and I learned about Hunter through her, through our interviews, and she said, you're doing what Hunter wants to do. You served your country, military, police, and you want to go get an education and come back and serve your community in law enforcement. And those words always stuck with me. When we got the news that Hunter passed away, I was heartbroken. I cried. I lost my little brother at 23 years old in 2020 when he was 23. And I wasn't able to mourn. You know, we weren't able to have any services. And When Hunter passed the following year, that same heartbreak came back because he's also a veteran. He was also an active duty service member. He also played a role in combat overseas. And so we still carry that loss. So suicide prevention is a huge issue for us that I'm trying to do day to day. 22 everyday team events. It's a pride. It's a mission, like Ed said, but we're constantly going to carry this every day across finish line as much as we can. So thank you so much for recognizing Hunter Lopez Day and for supporting individuals like Ed and Luis today to help do this together. Thank you so much.

Okay, our last honoree is Luis Bernal. Today we are proud to recognize Luis Bernal. Now I want him to make sure he comes up here.

He's not here, oh no.

Okay, we're gonna recognize him anyways. We are proud to recognize Luis Bernal, a United States Marine Corps veteran and valued member of our NDO community. Luis honorably served in the Marine Corps from 1983 to 1989 as a machine gunner and machine gun team leader. During his service, he completed three Western Pacific deployments as part of a peacekeeping force serving throughout the Pacific and Asia. After his military service, Luis worked with the City of Los Angeles Park Rangers before making Indio his home in 2007. Since joining American Legion Post 739 in 2017, he has continued to serve our community through blood drives, color and honor guard ceremonies, and flag presentations throughout the Coachella Valley. In 2019, following a below the knee amputation, Luis joined the National Veterans Wheelchair Team of Loma Linda and discovered a renewed purpose through wheelchair sports and the National Veterans Wheelchair Games. Today, he inspires fellow veterans, amputees, and wheelchair users by demonstrating the life-changing challenges do not limit what is possible. Luis, and so on behalf of the city of India, we thank you, Luis, for your military service, your resilience, and your continued commitment to serving veterans and our community. And if any of you have ever seen him, he is absolutely dynamic. He is there wherever he goes. He energizes a room. Absolutely, he is. His focus and his goal is to serve and to help other veterans, particularly others that have been wounded. Yes. So this is the proclamation for Luis Bernal.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.

Okay.

Thank you everyone for coming. All right, item number six, city manager reports and information.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. Just a few updates for tonight. Just an update on our Indio Sports Park Phase 2 survey. We received 554 responses. And we presented that to the Community Services Commission at their meeting just last night. And along with that, we're applying for a grant application to continue to expand the sports park. Sports Park's 30 acres now. We have another about 10 acres to develop. So we're working on that. And also the council, just to remind the community, allocated a million dollars to do some additional improvements. I called phase 1.5 the sports park. So we did talk to the community service commission about that, looking at things like adding additional lights for the field so that we can have more field use in the evening out there, some shade structures throughout the park, including over the dugouts, and adding another restroom building. So we presented that to the community service commission with some options. They made some recommendations, and we're looking forward to bringing that back to the council at the next meeting. Also, coming up soon, December is around the corner, our Indio Tamale Festival is on December 5th. We've already had 74 responses to our survey and it's open right now. If anyone else was providing information on our Tamale Festival, and suggestions and vendor applications are currently being accepted. If you want to sell tamales, you're a nonprofit, a business in Indio or around the region, please join our tamale festival, go onto our website and sign up to be a vendor. Tomorrow, the city of Indio is hosting a public meeting at our Indio Business Connect Center for feedback on our Riverside County's multi-jurisdictional local hazard mitigation plan. And it's tomorrow at 3.30 at the IBCC. This plan helps identify potential hazards and develop strategies to reduce risk, minimize losses and strengthen preparedness across Riverside County and our local communities. So please join that. If you're not able to come in person, we have a survey available online where you can provide your feedback. Also, before the next council meeting on Friday, September 11th, we're going to have our remembrance ceremony. It's scheduled at Miles Park at 9 o'clock, and we'll be unveiling our new 9-11 memorial. Also available now is our Experience Indio Shop Local app. It's officially launched. It's a business directory of all the businesses in Indio. It has activity guides and lots of fun activities to explore. You can download that at the App Store on Apple Store or Google Play. Also at the Indio Business Connect Center, we have a few upcoming business classes and workshops for business counseling, mobile food facility workshops, and It's Your Time entrepreneurial training series. So this is for free for any current business owners or aspiring business owners. Please come down and you can follow us on our social media for Business Connect. And that is my report.

That's quite a report. Thank you very, very much. Lots going on. Tamale Festival, the new 9-11 function event. Gosh, I can hardly wait. Please, everybody, Tamale Festival's coming up in December. And thank you for the lights. We've got to take care of our fields and make sure that... The kids have lights because they need to play, obviously, because we need to give out more certificates. Okay, item number seven, City Council Conflict of Interest Disclosure. I have some conflicts of interest starting with items 9.12, 9.13, and 9.11. Does anyone else have any conflicts? And with that, does anyone want to pull or do I, I'd like to entertain a motion.

City Council.

No, I just passed right that. Thank you, Council Member Gautron. I appreciate that very, very much. I was jumping in on that. City Council report on meetings attended for government code section 53232.3D. Council Member Gautron. Thank you.

Tuesday, July 28th, I attended the retirement of Sergeant Jeff Bottoms, a 25 year veteran of the police department. It was a well attended event. His service was good to the community. He originally, he came from Raleigh, California as a lateral transfer. but raised in the San Diego area. He served with good dedication, he did a lot. His number one specialty was working traffic and handling a lot of our traffic oversight and traffic investigations, education and enforcement, but also helping the chief's office with our traffic plan programs during the concerts. So it was nice to attend his event and it was well attended. On Wednesday, I attended the special meeting with the rest of the council sitting down and setting goals for our new city manager, Jonathan Nix. And those goals obviously are to see what's gonna happen in his first year. And it was really nice to see the energy of the council and the interaction with our city manager and his goals and setting. And I think we're all gonna, in the end of those 12 months, we're gonna see a lot of good accomplishments. And I'm looking forward to that. On Monday, August the 10th, I attended the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, and I'm the Indio representative, and they did a beautiful report. If you haven't, it's also online, and the brochures bring out a lot of good data. All of us are part of different commissions and committees, and they all bring something to the table, but obviously their goal is to conserve our beautiful deserts, and it doesn't come cheap. And one of their biggest challenges, I think there was just a report just yesterday that was viewed on TV about the damages to our beautiful desert by illegal dumping. Illegal dumping, illegal campsiting, and I think we need to, like all the other nine cities in the county areas, do our part I think we do our best because we do have a lot of undeveloped territory of the desert, and we need to be mindful that we need to respect those areas. Another thing that was really interesting, it was a CV link, is dealing with some of the things that we've been seeing on social media and comments from the community are well taken. make sure that they're reported through the proper channels so we can keep track of those activities where they're not respecting all that investment that's been done with CVLink. There's obviously some other challenges. I voiced a concern that I know that the CVAG Law Enforcement Committee Everything in LINC is that we need to understand a clear unified standard of rules and regulations. Between the nine cities in the county we need to kind of firm it up because the privilege is for the public to use it for walking, exercising, bike riding, non-motorized vehicles. In other words, they're not another roadway for jeeps and off-road vehicles. It wasn't designed for that. Also wasn't designed to camp out and be out there all night and the use of adult beverages and so forth. So those are things that need to be firmed up. And I expressed that, that we really need to lobby or we're gonna lose everybody invested so much time and effort for. And we wanna protect that because it's something another, opportunity for not just our residents, but people that come throughout the world to visit our communities, another path that they can see. So that's my report with that. The other one is I had the opportunity to attend another retirement of Sergeant Lisa Corton. She came from the Claremont area, San Bernardino area, 31 years ago. She served great, but besides just being a member of the department, she did her best to do outreach. She did her best way beyond the expectations of our community policing values that have been instituted for the last 20 years, is by her doing, helping with toy drives, her infamous Halloween decorations and having a Halloween place for the families and where she lives and surrounding areas. Always giving the best effort and she gracefully retired with a lot of respect and a lot of honor, so my hat's off to her. The last one for me is I had the honor of attending our city police department's 96th anniversary. As we all know, the police department was established four months after the city was established in May 16, 1930, but the police was August 18th. And so what can we say? My message to them, and I had the honor of the mayor being there as well, was everything you have can only be done by you. Everything that you have with stations and equipment can only be done by them. And I think they clearly understand their mission. It's not just protecting, it's giving. It's giving their heart and time to making sure that our community's safe. And these are the times that we humbly recognize that in that occasion. So it was a really proud moment. It was a proud moment for me. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

A couple of my committees were active. One was Sunline Transit Agency One of the bigger issues that we have right now is the shelters, the bus shelters throughout the Coachella Valley, including Indio, what we're gonna do with them, how we make them safe. We're looking at ADA issues and also shade issues on it. And a lot of it came from the unincorporated areas through people coming not only to Sunline, but to the different city councils to talk about people being out in the elements for long periods of time and not being able to utilize the bus. So they went back and re, looked at the bus shelters themselves there's 573 throughout the Coachella Valley of some kind of stop out of India we have 90 of them here 57 of them are covered 33 of them are not and so how do we go around to not only put these shelters in place so they're utilized what they're doing are they in the proper space and what do they look like do we add benches do we have shade covers can we do it because most of the shelters are not owned by Sunline they're actually properties of Sunline to take care of but they're on the property of the city of Indio so that's what they're looking at is how the jurisdiction goes even though they're there to clean them we had to give them the right to be able to take the sidewalk or take the other places that they are. So that's gonna be coming back and forth and how we get to it. And there are some cities that wanna do their own kind of bus shelters like we did in front of Mathis Brothers where we did that design. Some people wanna be able to do that. So there's more to come with that and I'll let everybody know. And exactly if you see some bus shelters that are places that stop that might need to be in place, let us know and we'll add those to the list to try and get them on that priority list of shelters. The other one is the East Valley Reclamation Authority. The mayor and I were on that. It's really the 2026, 2027 budget. It's our reclamation board. We have a JPA with the Valley Sanitation District. What we're looking at is how we can utilize the recycled water that we're not, now we're cleaning and putting back into the storm channel, how we can use it for other issues and other resources like the Eagle Falls Golf Course. So our budget we approved this year is only $570,000, but we're looking through grants and looking at how we can also do organic waste through AB 643, which is a Wilson bill to kind of shore up the loopholes and the organic waste to be able to utilize it for either fertilizers or for mulch and composting and stuff. So they were sharing that up and trying to see what we could do to make sure that that is... brought into when they start to recycle the water to take some of that organic waste and utilize it. So that was a big portion of it. As Mr. Guthran said, and we want to thank the chief and our Indian Police Department, the men and women for 96 years of excellence for what the work they've done and all the new ones that were there. We had cadets, we had long-term veterans, we had our staff, but a lot of it's led by our chief. And I know he's a humble man. And I apologize for not recognizing you there, chief. You're doing a great job supporting our troops and leading this this agency and there's so much going on. This city is growing and you've been able to bring new police officers into our fold and sheltering in two new buildings. Yeah, we might be the ones that are helping to make sure you get that, but you're the one that's making sure it gets done. So thank you to your team. Let them know how grateful this council is and our residents for the work that you do. So thank you. And then lastly, I was fortunate enough to go to Andrew Jackson and Linda B. Johnson Elementary Schools today. First day of school. It's a short day. Please let everyone know that the kids are back. The families are there. Please slow down, especially around schools. I know the state of California just passed a law that you can take the speed limit in school zones from 25 to 20 or 15. It might be something we want to look at. It's a jurisdictional thing. So if the city decides they want to do it, they do not have to go through the process of changing it. It's already been done through the new assembly bill that came through. So, but please, there's a lot of kids. The two schools I was at that we welcomed the families in, there's over, in those two schools, over 1,350 kids, first through sixth grade. So we need to make sure that we're slowing down and keeping an eye out for those families. And that's it, Madam Mayor. Thank you.

Thank you so much. What's going on in the city of Indio? Council Member Ortiz.

Thank you, Mayor. Last week I attended the SoCal Water Conference held by the Building Industry Association. They had a few panels featuring some of our local water authorities. Some of the interesting things I learned there was, one, the warmer temperatures are causing snow sublimation, which means the snow is evaporating before it ever melts into our river systems, which means less water for our lakes and water reservoirs. One simple question that was asked during one of the panels was, does California have enough water? Everyone on the panel said no. One panelist clarified that on average we do, but it doesn't always fall where you need it. And we don't have the infrastructure to move it around the state as well as we would want to. And it varies very widely. So it's very inconsistent, which causes a lot of shortages. They also mentioned that the drought of 2022 was not an outlier and they expect those hard droughts to increase in frequency. One panelist said that by 2040, we're on track to be 10 million acre feet short of what we need. So we need to see some drastic changes. And from that came some conversations around desalination and storage and some of these other strategies. Right now, the price per acre foot, depending on whether you're in a rural area or a city you're farming, It varies very widely from like $20 to $2,500. But desalination would cost $8,000 is their estimate. So it would bring our prices way higher for water. So the focus there was really on increasing storage throughout California to be able to provide water during these shortages. Storage, they're estimating more at $600 to $7 per acre foot. So it seemed a bit more reasonable. I also had a meeting with our investment committee. We discussed the recent changes at the national level that could impact our investments and our overall national economy. These included changes in leadership at the Federal Reserve, the continuation of the conflict in Iran, recent changes in interest rates and volatility in bond rates. Ruby was able to give us a review of our current investments, which are going well and still providing strong returns. I do have two requests for our council. First is requesting a public discussion regarding our license plate readers or flock cameras. We've all heard the concerns about license plate readers and how the data is used in our city and who that data is shared with. I've been talking to our chief of police for the past few weeks. so I can learn more about the technology and help communicate what I learned with our residents. I think one of the most common concerns I've heard in our community is that these cameras would be used to target non-criminal immigrant families. And I want to first ensure our residents that we're not currently sharing any of this data with Immigration Enforcement or any other federal agencies. What I've learned so far is that we have 72 cameras throughout the city that provide access to our police department, as well as other police departments and law enforcement agencies throughout the state. We do not have this open to federal agencies but they can request access and we would only grant that access on an individual basis if they were truly looking for a dangerous criminal within our city. All requests and searches in the system are reviewed weekly by our lieutenants and they also audit them monthly. Something else that I learned is that we don't use the license plate readers to generate investigative leads. The way our police department uses it is to search for certain vehicles or license plates after a crime has been committed. One example was the car that crashed into Burger Box a few days ago. That truck was tracked down using these license plate readers. Currently, the top four categories for searches within our department are number one, stolen vehicles, number two, hit and run incidents, number three, weapons charges, and number four, assault and battery. And so from talking to our team, it sounds like this technology has really increased their abilities to track down suspects within our city and has improved our efficiency and effectiveness at solving these local crimes. It has also improved the safety of our staff, for example. being able to check if a suspect who may be armed is home or not before a search warrant is executed. And so I do think this can continue to be a useful tool for us, but I also think that we should have a public discussion about this technology, how it's being used, what the cost benefits are, and how we may be able to improve our policy to better serve our residents and mitigate any concerns. And so with that, my first request would be, support from our council for a presentation on license plate readers from our police department for a future city council meeting.

Absolutely. That was something I'd ask for as well. Yeah, definitely. And I want to add one more thing, if I may. There's a lot of conversation about that this information is kept and accumulated for months and years, etc., We keep, correct me if I'm wrong, Chief, that information is in our database for 30 days only?

Yes, it's only maintained for 30 days.

Okay, thank you. Council, how do you feel about a presentation on this?

Well, before I retired, and then currently, especially currently, I had the privilege of looking at it. And it is unfortunate that some agencies do not have the tools in place with guidelines and policies, but I can assure you that it's only been a help for us. So I agree with Councilman Ortiz, because I'm a big promoter, how would the public judge us if they don't know what we're doing? And you could call it transparency, I think, We get a catchy word and we burn it to the ground. I think it's just earning the trust because that's what public officials do and public servants. So if we can educate our community, the crimes it's solved so far, homicides, the crimes it's solved so far, violent crimes, and even most recently, the incident happened to a burger box that wasn't just recognized locally, it was recognized in Los Angeles. So it was a big deal, but it's holding, the tools are only there in place to be used in the interest of the people, and these tools have been solving crimes. Homicides is something important. People, loved ones want closure to people to be held accountable. So I support that we take the time to present what we've been doing, and the community gets educated in Indio.

Okay, thank you, Council Member Miller, yeah.

I'm open to the discussion. I think we should have that discussion. I think it's a great tool for not only ourselves, but for our police department to be able to find individuals as we have crimes that are going forward to utilize it in the right way. So if we can educate the community on how we're using it to make sure they know that we're using it properly, I'm good with that.

I couldn't agree more. Okay, there you go. All right.

And I also support it. I also met with Chief and Lieutenant Shannon and actually went through the system, and I see now it actually operates in some of its capabilities and some of its limits, and also what the Chief and Lieutenant Shannon could control with the system and the safeguards that are in place. That being said, I think it's important that we bring that in front of the public so the public can see actually the capabilities and limits and also bring honesty to the conversation. There's a lot of misinformation out there. And unfortunately, you could post whatever you want on social media. But I also believe going to the source and getting the truth and also giving the public a space where they could voice their opinion on it as well. So I support that one.

Terrific. Thank you. We'll get that scheduled in the near future.

I got one more request.

Yes, go ahead.

Second request is I received a request from some of our local business owners in the cannabis industry to look at regulations and see if there's any updates needed. I think it would be fair to look at how our fees are correlating with our costs to run those inspections, renewals, and permits after a few years of implementation. and then also considering the deliveries to expand services, especially for those who find it medically hard to travel, I think we should take a second look at that.

I'm okay with evaluating it because there's other information that the public doesn't know with some of these businesses not complying. So I think it's important, again, it goes back to the education.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah, we need to not do this in a vacuum.

I'm good. You're fine, you're good, yeah.

I definitely support it. The industry's changed a lot since we implemented this, but the city of Indio has done a good job of implementing our cannabis ordinance. We have five dispensaries in our city. Many of the public doesn't even know we have them in our city, and that shows the professionalism of some of the operators and also a great job the city has done. But we've done other evaluations in the past with other things, so I definitely agree with looking at this as well.

Yeah, I think anytime we can take a look back and review and let the public know the status, the update, the process, I think it's a benefit. That's what we do. We're a public entity. So thank you so much. Any other comments, Mayor Pro Tem?

Yes, I'll give my report. Since our last council meeting, all my boards and committees have been dark, but I had the opportunity of attending some community events. First of all, I attended the retirement celebration for Sergeant Lisa Corton, who served in the Indianapolis Police Department for 31 years, and she worked her way up to the ranks as a sergeant. Lisa was tough, she was dedicated, and she was also a pillar in our community for many years. Although she's retired, she's not going anywhere. You'll probably see her at Walmart looking at hot rods and also her home because like it was mentioned earlier, she has one of the best decorated homes during Halloween. So I just want to say thank you to Sergeant Elisa Court for her service and she'll be missed at our police department. But like I said, she's always going to be in our community. I also attended the police department's 96th anniversary celebration. I want to say thank you to Chief Tully for his leadership in making NDO PD a premier law enforcement agency in our state and country. And congratulations to all the award recipients. Your dedication does not go unnoticed, and we appreciate everything you do to keep our families and our community safe. And I already spoke on the flock camera system. I met with Chief Tolley and Lieutenant Shannon. Thank you for meeting with me and thank you for educating me on this tool that we have in our community. Finally, there has been a lot of discussion regarding local spas that want to offer massage therapy in our city. And I understand the intent behind our current ordinance. And I agree that we must prevent any illicit activity in our community. However, I believe the ordinance is outdated and should be reconsidered. We have legitimate spas and wellness businesses who are unable to provide massage therapy because of some restrictions. And we haven't, we've even lost some businesses because of this ordinance. And so I'm advocating to look at this and reconsider that we keep the ordinance the same, but we add legitimate spas alongside chiropractors, physical therapists, doctors, and similar professional settings with appropriate operating business hours, zonings, licenses, safeguards. And I like the request that the council bring this matter back to the so we can have a discussion on amending our ordinance.

So.

Thank you. I concur with Mayor Pro Tem Furman on that. And I think a lot of it has to do is we need to go back The city is growing as we put in new housing tracks, we put in new businesses. A lot of these things have distance requirements, kind of like we had a gentleman that wanted to do a tattoo parlor, but it can't be within so far of alcoholic beverages, but right next to it is a marijuana facility, And it was just the way it was written. So I really do think, I don't know if we want to go over the whole opportunity, but I agree with Wayman because the way you're looking at it is you're talking about chiropractic and they do massage as part of that. And it's not an individual set up massage. When we first did this, we talked about straight up massage parlors, not massages that were in along with other kinds of wellness activities. So I think we should probably look at that, but also some of the other ones that we have as the city's grown, some of these requirements that we have now don't make sense in where they are. So I think that's something we need to look at and have our planning commission look into seeing if there's some things we need to change. And I don't know if it's a good policy to do one at a time. This might be it, but there's quite a few more if we really looked at it as we look to grow. And as we do more things, maybe we need to change some of our policies from our new businesses.

I think maybe a global approach. Council Member Gautron.

No, I agree with Mayor Pro Tem. I just, my thing is, There is a reason why it was done before, because of the illegal activity. The illegal activity still continues. I'm not gonna name cities, but there's cities currently challenged frequently during the peak of our year when all the resort people are here. And it is even involving human trafficking, minors, and that's what we don't want to do, but I do see the viewpoints that Just because we put it in place not too long doesn't mean, policies are made to come back and be reviewed. I just don't wanna get in the business that other cities are challenged with because we're one big city, but as we said earlier about our schools, we have 24 schools in our city, including the community college. We have a lot of youth. We have more youth in one neighborhood than some city has in the whole city. So our protection views are still families. But I do agree with Mayor Pro Tem that we should review. But I will be with a cautious eye because we have a lot of families and they're affected by what we approve.

I couldn't agree more. That was the first thought that came to mind is the reason why these ordinances and codes and whatnot were developed. It was so that we could protect our community. But I think the city has grown and evolved. I think there's a huge trend toward wellness and massage therapy, particularly in a business that that provides other services and facials and whatnot is a critical component to their success. So I would like for us to see not just that, but as Council Member Miller suggested, maybe we take a global look because there's several things that I think decisions were made. We made them several years ago. I think it's time to take another look and see if they need to be amended or reviewed or reversed as the case may be. Council Member Ortiz, do you want to weigh in?

I do think we can take another look at it, especially if we're having those time restrictions that are gonna help us mitigate some of the negative impacts, right? But I do think it seems to be a growing industry in our area, especially with our aging population as well. It's a much needed service and it's strong revenues for the city here. I think it's worth the conversation there.

And also, I mean, we've had schools that provide the service of licensing folks to become massage therapists, and they can't work in our city. And I think with the proper conversation, the proper safeguards that our staff could bring to us in working with the community, I'M NOT ADVOCATING FOR UNRESTRICTED I'M NOT ADVOCATING FOR UNRESTRICTED MASSAGE ESTABLISHMENTS. MASSAGE ESTABLISHMENTS. I'M ADVOCATING FOR SPAS I'M ADVOCATING FOR SPAS ALONGSIDE CHIROPRACTORS, ALONGSIDE CHIROPRACTORS, PHYSICAL THERAPISTS, DOCTORS AND PHYSICAL THERAPISTS, DOCTORS AND THOSE KIND OF PROFESSIONS IN THOSE KIND OF PROFESSIONS IN OUR CITY. OUR CITY.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

THAT INCLUDES MY REPORT. THAT INCLUDES MY REPORT. THANK YOU, SIR.

THANK YOU, SIR. CITY MANAGER, WHEN CAN WE CITY MANAGER, WHEN CAN WE BRING PARTICULARLY THE TOPIC OF

We'll strive to bring that back during the September meeting. I definitely hear what the council members are saying. We want to make sure there are regulations in place, but we do want to be business friendly for very legitimate businesses that want to provide services in the city. So adding a little more flexibility in our code. So I've talked to our planning staff about that already. And so we'll strive to bring something back with some options at our next meeting.

And then we'll, at some point in the near future as well, take that global look in some areas. You mentioned the tattoo shop. I think there's probably a few things that we can take a look at or revisit.

Yeah, I think we definitely heard the tattoo shop restriction. So we'll bring that back with the massage one. And then we'll look to see if there's any other similar uses that have similar restrictions that the council might want to consider.

Two is we look at some of these hard to fill businesses, like we have a couple downtown, we have some on India Boulevard and that, where some of those are perennial places that are closed because they're very difficult to put in. We need to look if we need to change some restrictions that will open those up because there are that restrictions. A lot of them can't be near churches, can't be near, I didn't understand the alcohol part, You know, maybe because he got drunk and go get tattooed after that. You know, I don't know. But I mean, there was a reason for it. But there are some really good strip malls that have perennial areas that are completely empty. And it's because of the restrictions in place because they're too close to houses now or they're too close to other businesses. Like you can't have two, you know, some of the liquor licenses as we have over consumption. We have to approve it to be able to do it even though we want to do it. It's the same kind of concept. So does it have to go back to the planning commission? I don't want to overstep. I want to make sure there's a process. But does it go to us or does it go back to the planning commission for them to have a better look at it? Because I want to make sure that we're doing it in the process, that it's in place, that they have their go at it too.

Yeah, typically when we're, good points, Councilmember Miller, definitely here, you know, if creating some guidelines in there, just the PCN process is a good one where if there's a high density of alcohol, there is a process where we can bring that to the commission and the council and say, hey, there's good reasons to allow this business here. So there could be similar processes. on some of these other uses. Typically when we do a code amendment, we do bring it to Planning Commission first, then bring it back to the Council. So I would recommend following that same procedure so they can weigh in and provide you guys some recommendations.

Terrific, thank you. Okay, my turn. You know, we all attend many of the same events. We are all really dedicated to this community and we love being at these events. Congratulations, 96 years for our Indio Police Department. Thank you, Chief, for being our fearless leader. And thank you to the troops in the rank and file. You have built such an amazing organization, an organization where people and families feel comfortable talking to the police department, engaging, playing sports with the kids. You're out there. You're out there. I know there was a posting today of all the guys and gals that are out there in our high schools. just really trying to keep things safe and developing those relationships. So congratulations on the 96th anniversary of our own Indio Police Department. And congratulations to Jeff Bottoms as well, Lisa Korten. I remember some of the things Lisa Korten, she used to sit across the street at the karate shop years and years ago. She just was so focused on kids in the community. She was an amazing person as was Jeff Bottoms. So congratulations on their retirement. A couple of other things you mentioned, Valley Sanitary, the city manager team building, you know, what folks and to people in the audience, the city's achieved a lot over the last few years, but just wait and see what the next year and beyond are going to bring. The city of Indio is really in a very oriented, action oriented. We want to provide our community with all kinds of amenities with structure, of course. And so we're on fire and we're not going to stop. So we got the city manager here to make that happen for us. With the City Manager, I attended a meeting at the Volunteers in Medicine, and for you all that aren't familiar with that, that fills a gap. There's a lot of people that don't have insurance, that don't even have Medi-Cal, and Volunteers in Medicine really reaches out to people that need help, that need support. They don't do surgeries or anything like that. They have agreements with many other organizations, but this is a place where people can come and get checked out. This is a place if the hospital releases someone after they've taken care of or they can, volunteers in medicine can assist in taking care of people and perhaps moving them on to other facilities, connecting. They do eye, they do medical, they do a lot of things. They do a lot of diabetes as well. I think Council Member Guthrie, you said on that board, for a period of time, so they're a huge asset to the community. It was great to introduce volunteers in medicine to our city manager. You know what, I received a call, this is what is so much fun about being a council member, from someone who is so excited. The latest trend is book clubs, book events, and we're getting our very own a bookstore in Indio. And I don't know about you guys, but I think that's super exciting. And to that end, in fact, I was just reading that Las Vegas is doing a big, huge book event. I know Rancho Mirage does a book event. It's where you can have a festival around with authors and writers. And it just really explores the avenue of reading and books. And we're getting our new bookstore in, and I get to talk to staff a little bit, and perhaps then we can have one of those book fairs coming up when that business opens up. Let's see. Food Truck Friday Backpack Giveaway. So every year, and this year, Costco gave us a couple of pallets of backpacks to give to the local community. It was so cute seeing so many of these little kids and they're so determined to get the perfect color and the perfect backpack and they had pencils and crayons. But it was a sad story as the people that started this, really their son unfortunately was killed by a stray bullet. And this young man had a spirit, eight years old, of helping others ever since I guess he was a little boy. And so they wanted to honor his memory. by giving back to the community. And this is one of the ways that they do that is with this backpack drive. And it was hugely successful, as I said. It's always fun. It's always fun when you see kids. You know what? They're just, they're life. They really represent life. So that was a lot of fun. And let's see. I think that ends my comments for the evening, sir.

I was gonna bring it up, but since we've been requesting things to have staff look into and come back, with your permission, may I explain what I wanna present? Please. Thank you. Again, it's something positive. It's something that, actually, I didn't come up with this. I've been seeing the news and how cities are handling requests from the community, and I thought maybe it's something for the council to think about. And again, it's something for our staff to come back. And what I would look at is creating a lobbyist registration system so residents can see who's trying to influence City Hall, who's coming to the city, who's presenting something. And the residents would have the access to information, developers, business owners, and consultants, and other well-funded interests, requiring professional lobbyists, to register and would make CityCall more open and transparent. The city of Los Angeles is one city that started this, and there's, I believe, another one or two cities that are doing this. And the lobbyists would register to close their clients' activities, and Indio could create a system that fits for Indio. That would be the goal, if it would be adopted or looked at. The goal's not to burden our residents, It's for neighborhoods to focus on what professional paid lobbyists are doing in our city. Residents deserve to know who's influencing, who's coming out. That's the whole purpose and decisions about our neighborhoods, our businesses, our parks, our developments and public services and our quality of life. When residents know who is involved, they represent who they're representing, and they can better participate in Indio's decisions. That's my interest is that Indio should serve its residents, not just those who have access with influence. That's what I'm getting at. And being on the council for 17 months, there's certain occasions where those things have come up. It doesn't pull away from those that have the heartfelt, the needs, the protections that we have is those professionals that are coming in and saying, hey, I have the dollar, I have the influence. The public needs to know who's coming up because they don't know what the challenges that we're faced with and the limitations that we have. And so I would like at least to have our staff look into these policies, so see if we have an interest in adopting and looking at it. I think that's a valid request, team.

Question on that, how do we dictate to somebody as a professional lobbyist?

That would be what the policy would look like. The city of Los Angeles did it. I would think that if we look at what the other cities are doing, I think it would answer those questions. I don't wanna answer something that professionals have already in public government have already established. I want us to look into it and yes, answer those questions. How would we identify them? I wasn't asking for a full blown discussion but I mean, there's been a few requests done tonight and I'm thinking, why am I waiting? I mean, it's fact finding and coming back to the body and saying, would this work? Yeah, a deeper dive.

Yeah, I'm fine.

One question. I like the idea. I'm just wondering, when do they report? Like if they're coming into City Hall or if they're speaking in public comments?

Public comments when they're coming in or talking, you know, having meetings. We don't know what they're doing, but they're professionals. They get paid to do lobbying. That's what they do.

But if they came in to talk to staff, like permits and stuff like that, would that be documented as well?

I think that's part of the policy we need to take a dive into.

Yeah, I'm open to it.

I didn't create it. I looked at it on face value, and I'm thinking, this is interesting. And I made notes of it, so excuse me that I was reading, because I really thought, well, my colleagues are bringing stuff up Why am I waiting?

I think we all respect when we bring up things. I'm always open to a discussion. I think that's a lot of work. I mean, what if it's a developer that's coming with an item? Does that developer bring his lobbyists and they have to register in our system that they're working for this developer if the developer's here? So those are questions that could be answered if it's agenda.

Well, because people come here. Like, you know, we have a presentation of a nonprofit. That's easy to figure out. But when they're getting paid to influence us and, you know, having meetings and lobbying us and talking, it's a professional individual. The public doesn't know when they're up here speaking that they're the professional. We have no clue. The public's eyes when they're talking to us, oh, it's some resident. They go, no, it's not. They just got paid by a developer that's trying to influence something on us.

Hmm.

I mean, that's the concept. That's why it was created. And I'm thinking, if it's adopted in California by cities, could it be good for Indio? Don't know until we look into it.

We can get some information on that, I think, at least at the basic level.

Yeah.

understand the concept but there's so many people like if you have the cannabis industry and somebody comes up and speak are they really speaking for the cannabis industry speaking for themselves you have other people that the developers come out here that are helping them with the process because you know we ask them if the developer would like to we already ask it's the developer and do they have the representatives here i understand where you're coming from but I mean, that could be anybody. If you're saying anybody gets paid, it could be anybody that comes up here that comes up, well, I got paid to speak and that. I'm just trying to think about the work. I understand what you're doing, but most of our major stuff, people, they come up and say, who's doing this project and what consultants are they? I work for this. I'm our water guy. I'm their engineer. So I understand that part of it. Are you only talking about when they come to the podium?

I think that what I'm trying to get at is if you're working on a project to consult, to develop, that's one thing, but you're lobbying for votes to influence, it's another thing. But there again, what I'm asking is can we look into it and if they come back, it doesn't work out, we still have the decision. I mean, we've done more work for less issues, but I think it's important. That's what I'm getting at. If the facts are not reasonable, then you can't. I'm thinking that there's a reason why it's being done. I know the reason. I don't want to get into further dialogue in the interest of time, but you bring a valid point. I mean, we can smucker, we cannot, but if it's working for some, why can't it work for others?

And I guess I would want to see why it's working, so that's part of the information.

Yeah, that's why it needs to be adjourned.

Yeah, that's why it needs to be adjourned.

I agree, but if you're looking at someone, just because they've done work for somebody doesn't mean when they come up they're going to be working. You can't always assume that they're working for somebody. It could just be that their own interests are that too, so. I don't want to stereotype somebody. If you're talking to big time lobbyists, yeah, we're going to know who they are. They come up. But if you have somebody that comes up and they do say they're in engineering and they come up and speak for people, next time they come up for engineering doesn't mean they're speaking for somebody. They could be speaking for themselves. So do you ask them if they're doing it? You just can't assume they're a lobbyist coming up talking about it. I just want to make it only as all of a sudden somebody said, well, that guy spoke at the other thing and today he's not speaking. So was he speaking for somebody or what it was? I don't want to get this thing where it's convoluted in that. So I understand what you're saying, but I want to narrow it down to where we're at.

Sorry, I understand it, but we can't have a full-blown discussion on the items. So how about this?

We can do like an overview. Maybe the city manager can look into this and just provide us with an overview. Let's start with that. That's okay with everybody. Just a brief, brief overview of what this looks like, what this is, and if it truly might benefit or not at some point.

If I'm hearing consensus from council, we can schedule that for a future meeting. But looking at these requests, just maybe a little bit of direction from council. It sounds like there's more of a prioritization on the flock camera issue. Right. possibly looking at the cannabis fees since we do have some of our operators here. And then also looking at these local businesses and the spas and that kind of thing and being a little more business friendly. So we'll look at those issues, try to bring those back, and then we'll shift some resources to look at this issue as well.

Absolutely. We can just put that on the list and we have some other priorities, but it's something to consider. Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

All right. Any other comments? I neglected, and based on something you said, Councilmember Guitron, I wanted to just provide you the audience as well with some information. I sit on the Cotella Valley Conservation Commission, and I received this email a couple weeks ago. The Urban Conservation Corps received a preliminary word that they received funding for off-highway motor vehicle restoration grant in Upper Mission Creek and Big Morongo Conservation Area. As Councilmember Guitron said, There's a lot of beautiful open lands here, and a lot of it is marred by people by a lot, not a little, tons and tons and tons of illegal dumping. And so the grant funding will support 9,600 hours of crew time, in this case primarily on conservation lands, including restoring eight miles of unauthorized routes, three miles of fencing, boulder placement, trash removal, seeding, native plant installation, weed removal, and signage. And then if you add Prop 4 funding to this, it could be about $250,000 a year for three years. So trying to stay ahead of some of the challenges and the illegal dumping on our open lands that we have. So I just wanted to add that. And so on that note, I'm gonna move ahead to the consent calendar. but I do have a couple of requests to speak in advance. So I have two requests to speak, and it's on item 9.6. I'm gonna invite Jonathan Becerra up. Just a reminder to everyone who speaks, you have three minutes.

I AM A LOCAL ORGANIZER AND FOR TRANSPARENCY PURPOSES I AM A COUNTY DIFFERENT CITY COUNCIL HOWEVER I AM HERE IN CAPACITY AS AN ORGANIZER TO OPPOSE OR AT LEAST DELAY THE CITRUS RANCH EXTENSION. THERE ARE SOME ENVIRONMENTAL that a lot of this information was done and assessed in 2007. I was a junior in high school. That was almost 20 years ago. I think the data in which we are justifying the extension for this project is extremely out of date. Also, it's gonna be a major investment of tax dollars to get sewer and water out there. So I think it's our due diligence as a city to make sure that the tax revenue from this project would even make it worth it. I don't see that math in the 200 page report that I read online. So I think those two reasons, the environmental concerns and the lack of transparency in the taxation evaluation for this is enough to at least delay the extension of this project. So I hope to take that into consideration and table this for now. And thank you for your time. Thank you very much.

Okay, the next request to speak on the same item is 9.6, is Alison DeFretto, if I pronounced that right, I hope.

Hello, thanks. Yeah, I'm here similarly to Jonathan to ask the city council to require that the Citrus Ranch project submit a subsequent environmental impact report or EIR, as I'll refer to it, before you vote to provide the project a 10-year extension. I don't agree with the city staff's recommendation that this project does not require a subsequent EIR. In fact, I believe this recommendation is irresponsible for a project of this scale whose original EIR is almost 20 years old. The city cannot and should not ignore that 20 year gap, a gap that almost guarantees that baseline environmental conditions that the original report is based on have changed. And significant environmental changes include like the current state of water availability, increased air pollution, increased traffic and changes to traffic patterns and infrastructure changes. I think Councilmember Ortiz earlier talked a lot about or mentioned some good points about the impacts of water in California that I think this project we should investigate further at this time. And there have also been changes to CEQA or the California Environmental Quality Act standards during this time. So under CECA these changes along with the developers request for an extension would qualify I believe as significant changes impacting the project which gives the city the right to request and responsibility to request a subsequent EIR or some kind of addendum to it. You know, it's a tremendous project. It's over 1,100 acres. That's equivalent to almost 900 football fields. It includes a 233-acre golf course, to which many community members that I've spoken to after learning about this project has responded, not another golf course. We don't need any more golf courses. And this project also includes over 3,000 homes, which at least from data available from the census, that's almost 10% of the current Indio households. huge. Like a data center, this project will likely use significant water. This project will likely use significant power, put a significant strain on infrastructure, and all of which will eventually have significant impacts on the environment and the people of Indio. So if we're banning data centers, we must also deeply scrutinize large-scale projects that impact or have potential significant impacts on the environment like this project. And because of this, I'm asking you all to do the due diligence to request a subsequent EIR before an extension of those projects provided. A subsequent EIR will, as I mentioned, help us understand the impacts of the project today, not almost 20 years ago, and give the public a chance to weigh in, like as they should with a project of this size. I think it's the right and responsible thing to do. Thank you.

Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you. Perfect timing is what I was trying to say. Down to the last second. Okay, Frida Esquitel.

Hi, Council. Good afternoon. Yeah, please do a review. It's been 20 years, and I feel like it's only right. It's cool to hear council members and the mayor say this is a public entity and they're public servants. So I think it's only right after 20 years for there to be the proper channels investigated. Don't have much else to say besides highlighting the emphasis of the lack of water in California. I think that that's something since a long time ago we should be concerned about. I hate to talk in like apocalyptic terms, but I feel like we see that already, right? So thank you, that's it.

Thank you, thank you for your comments, of course. Okay, that is my last request to speak on anything on this consent calendar. Does anyone wish to pull or?

Mayor, I do. I want to stay on 9.6 for a second. I don't know if the city manager wants to address any of these things. I don't know if it's in our realm to request these things at the same time as passing an extension. I don't know if the developers here, if we could get a report on this. I think that would be suitable.

Maybe we can just pull the item? I'll pull it, yeah. How about we can just pull item 9.6? That's probably a better way to do that.

Can I just do 9.12 and 9.14?

I'm sorry, 9.6, 9.12, and? 9.14. 9.14? 6, 12, and 14. 6, 12, and 14, I didn't see a nine. That was three things, right? Yeah, 6, 12, 14. Anything else, sir?

I just agree with Councilmember Ortiz on 9.12 and 9.18, please. 9.18.

Okay, let's see here how we do this. Are any of these what I have to, okay, so I have to recuse myself on 912, and that's it. Do you wanna do, yeah, let's take a look and have that discussion about 9.6. We'll pull 9.6, your comments are. Go ahead.

I'd like the presentation, but I'd like to hear about the water. I know there's some concerns that we received about sewer. So can we talk about some of those concerns with this presentation?

Yes, I'm going to have Community Development Director Bryan Halverson speak about that. And we also have the developers representative online as well.

Yes, thank you, Brian Halverson, Director of Community Development. The applicant is available to tune in via Zoom, but I just wanted to touch on a couple things that was mentioned by the public. So the second reading is only for a couple different things. One is extending the term. Right now what's on the table is one additional 20-year extension after it expires in 2032. As part of the proposal, There's also changing the timing of when an extension can be requested. It was very aggressive where at least 200 units would need to be completed before you can even apply for an extension. I want to focus on also the fact that the DA has not expired. This is just giving more time to develop the project. It is a very large project. The CEQA still stands. They did an EIR for the project. So all of that, as well as the mitigation monitoring program that's in place, all the findings that the council made back in 2007, even though it was quite a bit of time that passed, The EIR does not go away. And right now, these are minor changes to the DA. So I just want to focus on the fact that it's not an amendment to the specific plan. It's only the DA terms. So that in itself hasn't triggered additional CEQA.

Okay I see Steven our attorney.

Yes and I did just want to draw attention to the language of the final EIR for this project including the mitigation monitoring plan specifically section 3.16 related to utilities there was a lot of discussion about water and the issue that was the impact that was identified in the EIR was that without adequate mitigation the Citrus Ranch specific plan COULD CREATE SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS ON WATER RESOURCES COULD CREATE SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS ON WATER RESOURCES DUE TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF DUE TO THE LARGE AMOUNT OF WATER NEEDED FOR DOMESTIC USE WATER NEEDED FOR DOMESTIC USE AND THE MITIGATION THAT WAS AND THE MITIGATION THAT WAS ORDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AT ORDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AT THE TIME AND THAT IS INCORPORATED THE TIME AND THAT IS INCORPORATED INTO THE PLAN IS THAT PRIOR TO INTO THE PLAN IS THAT PRIOR TO THE ISSUANCE OF THE FIRST GRADING THE ISSUANCE OF THE FIRST GRADING PERMIT THE DEVELOPER SHALL PERMIT THE DEVELOPER SHALL PROVIDE A VERIFIED FINAL WATER REQUIREMENT WAS CREATED LATER BY STATE LAW AND THAT'S TRUE STATE LAW WHAT DID INCLUDE THAT REQUIREMENT LATER BUT THE CITY OF INDIO ACTUALLY IMPOSED IT AS A MITIGATION MEASURE BACK IN 2006. SO I CONCUR WITH THE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR THAT THERE IS A GENERAL REQUIREMENT OF FINALITY WHEN YOU DO ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW THERE ARE SPECIFIC NARROW INSTANCES WHEN YOU WOULD REOPEN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW WHEN YOU WOULD REOPEN ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW WHEN THEY'RE SUBSTANTIALLY CHANGING THEY'RE SUBSTANTIALLY CHANGING THE PROJECT YOU'VE HEARD THAT THE PROJECT YOU'VE HEARD THAT THERE REALLY AREN'T ANY CHANGES TO THERE REALLY AREN'T ANY CHANGES TO THE PROJECT THAT ARE BEING PROPOSED THE PROJECT THAT ARE BEING PROPOSED OR WHERE SIGNIFICANT SUBSTANTIAL OR WHERE SIGNIFICANT SUBSTANTIAL NEW INFORMATION HAS COME TO LIGHT NEW INFORMATION HAS COME TO LIGHT SO RESPECTFULLY WE'VE DONE THE SO RESPECTFULLY WE'VE DONE THE ANALYSIS MY RECOMMENDATION IS THAT ANALYSIS MY RECOMMENDATION

The applicant, Representative Rob Bermheimer, is on Zoom.

He would like to speak. Okay.

Rob, can you hear us?

I can hear you. Can you hear me?

Yes, we can now. Please proceed.

Great. I just wanted to, I agree with everything the city attorney has said. And as we said at the original hearing, this is just giving us more time to build the project because we know we can't build it in the time left in the DA. And Robeson, or I should have stated my name, Rob Bernheimer, I represent Robeson. I'm their land use attorney. they're not gonna buy this project without an extension and they'll stop all due diligence on this without an extension because they know they can't build it in the time that the DA has left. So we have to have the extension. We have independent CEQA attorney that's not me that has analyzed this and provided an analysis to the city showing that no additional CEQA work is required when you simply extend the development agreement term. That's not something that's triggered by CEQA. And 1 of the comments suggested that the city will be investing substantial amount of money in infrastructure improvements. I wish you were investing a bunch of money in infrastructure improvements, but unfortunately, that that cost falls on the developer. and so the developer is going to be investing tens if not more than 100 million dollars in infrastructure cost if this project does move forward and those will tangentially benefit the city because once we put the infrastructure in now the the city can use it going forward but those aren't city dollars that are going into the infrastructure and i just wanted to correct the public's comment on that thank you very much okay mayor portem you're good

Okay, any other, all right.

I did want to clarify as well, like this will still go to Planning Commission, right? If there's a design proposal.

So currently it does not, obviously we went straight to city council. Now they are, if they come back with amendments to the specific plan or so more land use related, then it would go to the planning commission and then to the city council. But as we mentioned tonight, they're not actually amending the specific plan, only the DA.

But if they were actually, before they were actually going to start building, they would need approval from the Planning Commission.

Yeah, they would need to go through the typical entitlement process.

So this would still be reviewed by the Planning Commission before it ever gets approved.

Yeah, any development in the future with those entitlements would need to be consistent with the final EIR that was done for the project.

Thanks. And I have talked to some of our staff as well about some of the environmental concerns in this one. I felt very strongly about the water issue. The developers did seem to be willing to go above and beyond for us in water mitigation. And I do hope that that will be highlighted during the planning commission, working my planning commission on ensuring that that happens. But the other environmental concern, which I do think is valid, is on the wildlife. We do have some endangered species. This is close to our conservation plan area. And so if we wanted to do an additional environmental review to check for endangered species and other wildlife movement, because it has been 20 years, at what point would we be able to require that additional step?

So as part of the EIR, before they actually start doing grading out there and after they get additional entitlements, they would need to go out and do a cursory survey to see if any of the existing conditions have changed out there. And as part of the mitigation measures for the project, they can't go out there and remove vegetation, et cetera. until they meet the mitigation requirements, for example, nesting season, other requirements so that they don't remove any species that may be out there. So they are required to go out there and do that review before they actually start grading. That's a ways away, but there are requirements built into the EIR.

Okay, thank you. Just one more follow-up. Thank you for clarifying that this is for extension. And also, I just want to ask the developer, you spoke about the infrastructure that's going to be built in that the developer is footing the bill for. Does that include the sewer as well?

Solution to the sewer problem at this time. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, we still don't have a problem, a solution yet to the sewer issue, but yes, sewer. Water we have to, we have to add some capacity for water. We're going to have to end up with a new electric step station. or expand an existing substation and you know every one of these price tags is tens of millions of dollars each so we're talking about quite a substantial quite a substantial bit bit and to council member ortiz's question about the conservation areas this project was approved at the same time that the mshcp was approved in the coachella valley so there the the mshcp was front and center in this development of the entitlements and the development agreement And so the MSHCP actually has built in it edge effects. So when we go to construct on Citrus Ranch, we have to be sensitive to the neighboring conservation area. And there are certain additional requirements when you do near the edge of a conservation area. So that's already built into the mitigation requirements of this project.

Excellent. Does anybody want to define for the audience MSHCP multiple species habitat conservation plan? Thank you for the last two words. Okay, next item that was pulled is item 9.14. Mine was, yes. I'm recusing, so I'm going to go through 914 and 18 before I turn. Sorry, you were looking at me.

On 914, just looking at the promotional things that we've been buying, and this is just a personal preference. I don't know how council feels about it, but I'd really like to see us go a little bit more sustainable. I know a lot of the things we use, it's just a lot of plastic for me, and I'm very... careful on those kind of purchases so I think I noticed a lot more than a lot of people but I just noticed a lot of our purchases aren't really anything that's sustainable or recyclable anything like that so if we could just be a little bit more conscious on those purchases to get stuff that's either reusable or sustainable itself using sustainable materials I think would be nice okay sounds good all right uh 9.18

Yeah, again, I had mentioned this to the city manager, and the city manager is doing his best to troubleshoot the services that we had with DRD. And what I voiced to him is, it's great that there's gonna be a registration element more, more organized than it's been, because both the general manager and the city manager have had the discussions. But one of the outcry was is the connection with the Desert Recreation District. They do a lot of communicating now, but there's no follow up on when they're out there and their activities. Yes, we do have other services, but if I'm the one that's taking the reservations, and I'm building that relationship, what is the continued outreach with these organizations. So baseball, all the outdoor sports, baseball, football, anything that they're doing, they need to make contact. They need to build those relations because DRD is organizing it. So I asked the city manager to kind of educate us and then what his goals are with that.

Absolutely. Council Member Boutron, thank you for the questions. So we did talk to Desert Recreation District. They are a good partner with the City of Indio and the Valley here. And they are having a dedicated person with this contract amendment that would communicate with the leagues, handle the registration, and help them doing all the scheduling. I think maybe what Council Member Boutron is referring to is they don't have a field person that would go out to the fields. So that component isn't part of this amendment. That is something that we're going to be looking at as we had a discussion at one of the past meetings about our current security contract versus maybe using DRD to help with that or using some city staff to maybe do that. So that's part of the analysis that we're going to do when we do our RFP for security services because we're kind of using CERNA security in that capacity to do some of the park monitoring and facility monitoring. So that's going to be part of that analysis. I do recommend moving forward with this partnership amendment with DRD so we can have all the scheduling done for the fall season. This also, we did meet with AYSO. I had a very good conversation with them, and this does address the concerns and incorporates a city of Indio policy that there is prioritization for Indio leagues, Indio teams versus outside teams.

Very good. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. But on this thing, I think we've gone back and forth on this. I personally think I'm all for this. But I really do think that as we do our new master park program, we need to take the parks out of the city's hands. We need to put them into DRD, let them take care of it from point A to point B. DRD or someone else. We have other things we need to worry about. They're professionals, just like we have other people do it. That way they're making sure the grass is mowed at proper times, they're responsible for the programs, they're responsible for the security, they're responsible for the restrooms. I really do think that we should look at what we can do to take these parks as we get the new skate park going in, as we do the new other park. It's a large animal and you can't do that with one individual or somebody running the program and us running the landscape and other people, they need to go to one person and it just gets us back and we can start looking at economic development and other things like public safety and that I think we're a part of. So that's my comments. I'm good with this, but I think we need to look at a bit.

Or parks that when I grew up, there was a whole parks and recreation department in the city I grew up. So yes.

The thing is that AYSO has gone beyond to the point of working with staff. So all the goalies, I don't know if you know this, all the goalies that were set up at the sports park, The AYSO volunteered to put all those in. And AYSO raised money to replace the goalies at the soccer park. AYSO did all that labor work, but they did it because they're working in partnership with whatever minimal staff that we have. And even though security is doing their part, but that's not the role of a security person. That's what I'm getting at. We're losing the TLC that we need to give our residents to enjoy their parks here. And we're just fortunate that we have a very robust volunteer group of AOA So parents with 1,200 to 1,300 children, plus the baseball programs, but there's other programs that are there that don't have that same privilege in the sports park. So we need to establish that relationship because we're no longer that small little city and the other cities in the valley that have that structure like La Quinta and the city of Coachella and the city of Palm Desert, There's a structure, and maybe we cannot afford DRD to do all of them, but our main parks that have a lot of family, not the passive parks like Miles Park, South Jackson Park, the soccer park, Patton Park, and North Jackson Park, and now the sports park, there's families. And they have no connection at eight o'clock at night And this routine service, whether it's our police department and security doing property checks and opening bathrooms, I don't think that's a relationship. That's my point.

Okay, thank you. Some good points made by everybody, yes.

And thank you John for bringing this back to us and thank you to DRD for this partnership. This is huge and I think this is just a step in the right direction and part of the process. We have a great system here in the city of Indio A lot of other teams and organizations want to come to Indio. So we're just going to get better. And thank you to our security and our police and our ambassadors who we've had in the past who check on our parks and who continue to do that work because that's the reason why a lot of folks want to come to Indio. And this right here is gonna set the table for our sports park. Our sports park is gonna be huge in the next couple of years. It's gonna stimulate the economy in that area. It's gonna bring more retail, possibly hotel, more stores, and it's an expansion. We have already talked about allocating dollars for it. So this is a step in the right direction. And Council Member Miller is right. unless we absorb an organization into our city, that's gonna run our parks. I'm moving towards having DRD take over our parks program, but our city manager is an expert in this. He's done this before. So by him bringing this item to us and working on this, I think it's a step in the right direction. A lot of the community is anxious to get on our sports park and we still have more improvements to get on it, but we wanna get open and we wanna open it right and we wanna continue to invite people from all over our state and other states to come to Indio to play sports here. We also have a big lacrosse tournament that's here. We're going to give them an opportunity to use our fields, and it's going to help alleviate some of the pressure off of Davis Field and Patton Park and some of these other parks. So I think this is great, and I think it's a step in the right direction. So thank you for bringing this to us.

Okay, and on that note, I am going to call for a vote or a motion on everything except 9.11, 9.12, 9.13, because 9.12 needs to be discussed.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second. Okay, let's go ahead and vote. And Mayor Pro Tem, I will turn the gavel over to you. Let's see, is everybody, yep. For 9-12 and for the others.

So 9-12. We're good. Yeah, we'll pass, yeah.

Okay.

So that passes and we'll wait for the mayor to exit the building. Take a break. Short break. But the way the night's going, I don't know. All right, so we'll move to item 9.12, amending number two to the Downtown Building Beautification Program. And Miguel Ramirez-Cornejo will be taking care of this.

Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem and members of the Council, Miguel Ramirez-Cornejo, Director of Economic Development. Tonight we're asking for an amendment to the building beautification program to combine both downtown and Highway 111 beautification just into one program. The funds are already allocated, but to combine it into one, so if one section of either Highway 111 or downtown starts using more of those funds, we don't have to come back to redo a budget adjustment. It's already in the one pot. And also to add... THIS EMERGENCY KIND OF CATASTROPHIC GRANT THAT ALLOWS FOR SOMETHING LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO BURGER BOX FOR US TO ACT QUICKLY AND PROVIDE A RESOURCE SO THEY CAN GET BACK TO OPENING AND GENERATING REVENUE SO THEY CAN SUPPORT THEIR FAMILIES AND PROVIDE JOBS.

THANK YOU.

The only reason I had asked to bring it up is to educate our business community of what you're doing. Obviously, I'm hoping that they see what you're doing here, they see what you've been doing on downtown. The times that I take, on the Highway 111 and some of the businesses, I didn't know there was a facade improvement program. Do I qualify? And I understand, even if you post it, even if you send emails and beautiful newsletters, some of these business owners get really busy, and they don't have the staff to keep track of it, so it's repeat, repeat, repeat. So I just wanted to take the time that you and staff, with the city manager's support, are expanding a program that benefits not just the known businesses, but our hometown businesses, our small businesses, that some of them qualify for things that they didn't own. So the more outreach would be good, and a really clear understanding of how it benefits their business.

Yeah, absolutely. And we do have our senior management analyst, Yanell Ramirez. She goes out and knocks on the doors and drops off the flyers and say, here's my business card if you have any questions. Sometimes the owner's not available, so she does drop off. And we do that on an annual basis. So, all right, you haven't, you know, you hit this one. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. So we've had approximately 600 contact points for businesses within downtown and Highway 111. Some of those are repeat. Some of those it's Hey, let me find out a little bit more. And then once they find out about the program, we do place a lien on the property for five years. And it's forgivable. Every year, 20% is forgiven. And that's just to ensure that someone's not going to take the cash, fix it, flip it, and sell and move over. We want the businesses to succeed here. And we also expanded it once before to... to increase for our legacy businesses. Our businesses that have been around for 20 years plus, they get up to $100,000 in this grant. So it is something that we're trying to figure out different ways on how to communicate. And sometimes because of that lien that we place, the business wants it, the property owner doesn't want it. And so sometimes that gets a little tricky. And we even said anything under, I believe it's $10,000, we won't place the lien on the property just to, you know, you need a window replaced because it's broken or you need a door replaced, we can act quickly on those.

I just believe that if you haven't thought about it already, your staff and your team go out and do a lot of outreach and marketing, but so does our water department staff, the reader meter readers, our code enforcement staff, and our building and safety. When they're out in the field, they can say, just a little thought I tell you, I'm here to check this, you might wanna look at this, because it looks like you need a little TLC. Maybe educating them, hey, when you're out there, refer them to us. You know, maybe that'll help. Because now you've multiplied your force to be out there and educate.

Yeah. So I agree with the concept behind it. How much money are we talking about for one year? Combine the two of them.

So we have a total budgeted, between the two as it stands, $500,000 for downtown, $500,000 for Highway 111. So combining it, a million dollars.

So we have a million dollars. But I don't think it should be limited to that. It should be India Boulevard too. I really believe that some of our older neighborhoods and some of our older ones should be able to utilize that money. But when it goes out, not only as we're looking at the new program we put in place to talk to our businesses that are dilapidated, some of the ones are to make sure they have the alarms, the lights, the landscape, everything's there so that not only does that get broken into, but they're also clean and neat so when people go by, it doesn't look like it's an abandoned building. but we also need to have that process in place so when we're handed to them for banners are up or the flyers or the whatever it is that you have the water department for grants for conservation everything is in a package that they hand it to them so that they might not need it now but that goes out to other people and individuals and there's a lot of businesses that have multiple businesses here the hotels are a prime example like the patels have one in two down on Indio Boulevard, one on Highway 111. But I think having the different programs, code enforcement, when they do it, they shouldn't just give them the ticket, they should also give them this saying, here's an opportunity for you to do it. And then explain to everybody what's going on. But I've heard a lot of good things about it, but at the same time, they think it's cumbersome and they're not 100% sure if they can utilize it or not. And that's why I think it should be a geographical area. That's why I think Indio Boulevard should be a part of it. It should go all the way down to Coachella, because you could all the way come back up and through and then stop either on Monroe Street or wherever it is in that boundaries and see what we go from there. But there's so many businesses on India Boulevard, especially if you go back this way towards Coachella, could really use a facelift and upgrade. So I hate to leave it to that one part.

Miguel, do we currently, is there an issue with getting the funds out or are we kind of on a good pace?

Yeah, we do do a lot of handholding once someone submits an application because they do have to get contractors that pay prevailing wage. And sometimes it does that, you know, to fix windows, it's $50,000 and all the improvements I want to do, there's not enough for paint, there's not enough for this. So sometimes they either decide not to, as I mentioned previously, sometimes a property owner doesn't want to sign on the agreement because they're like, no, I don't want, we have a three-year lease. Why am I going to commit to something for five years? I just don't want to do it.

So the $1 million, is that per year, or is that the total fund that we have?

Every year we do come to the council during budget season to request those funds, and every year so far has been allocated $1 million.

How much do we have currently in the budget?

So right now, we have four projects that are under construction representing still have to be paid out $166,000. We have four applications that are currently in the process before we send out the approvals. But like I mentioned, Janelle works with them on the phone, in person. Okay, this, we need to collect this information. We are flexible in our program that if they don't, because initially when we launched this program, it was reimbursable. Some people don't have the cash to pay up front, so as long as the contractor signs off and saying, hey, you will get paid after, then the city will pay you, and the property owner also signs off on that form, it's a waiver, then we could pay them directly.

How much do you have in the fund total now?

Well, minus the $166,000. I'm not great at math. I'm looking at Ruby because maybe she'll help me out.

Because did you start off with $1 million this year?

With $1 million, correct.

July 1. You were able to wipe out the funds from last year?

From last year? No. Last year we used about almost $400,000. Okay.

So we are getting them out at a good pace so far. So when we budget for that and it's not all utilized in one year, does that carry over?

It does not carry over. We do have to have that budget allocated every single year.

Okay. I think, I mean, for this is to rename and consolidate, right? And so, which I'm okay with, but what I hear is because of the complexity of the application process, can we analyze a broader scope and make it bigger in the future? And so we can look at that to see, can we expand this, you know, Who knows, but we do have a lot of our old businesses that need some assistance. However, it could be complex to go through this application process. So I'm okay with renaming it and consolidating. If it passes, however, can we look in the future to expand it? And maybe we might get more applications to go into the program.

It is something that we can do, and Council Member Guitron brought that up during the budget discussions as to, hey, let's look at expanding it. It remained as is, so if it's Council's direction to look at what other areas we can include, that's something that we can do.

Because I remember when we first talked about it, it was because we wanted to focus on those certain. Yeah. The town. The certain areas, right, targeted. But if we're going to go a little bit broader, you know, our funds are probably going to go out pretty quickly.

Right now, essentially. Yeah.

$100,000 last year. We have $838,000 left this year if we just spent $162,000. So, I mean, it's not like we're, and we can always replenish it. If people are using it, that's a good thing. Because while we're doing investing, but if you go back down the other way, like Silva's Radiator and that stuff, if we can do their parking lot or maybe do like they did at Burger Box where they did the retro paint on the top where the gas station used to be. and we start working our way down towards Coachella, maybe the rest of them start to invest.

But what if you use up your funds out there and there's no more for downtown? What's the priority? We're not getting applications.

Is it better not to use it somewhere in our city that needs it than it is to let it sit there and hope that somebody uses it because it's there because somebody downtown might use it?

Oh, you know what? I'm getting confused because when you said the $400,000, I was thinking the $500,000 for each one. So you're saying there was still $600,000 left. $600,000 left.

We want to get that out into the public.

But the other thing that staff's done to get creative is we have some businesses that have over 50 years in existence, and they've been able to troubleshoot a legacy. And so it might be a fix at this price, but they fairly looked at what's the investment that this business has been open and into. That's why I came back to staff. Can we expand it? So what the efforts they're doing now is expanding that we've done a good job in certain areas, and you can see some of the businesses have taken advantage of it. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention them, but we have businesses on Oasis that benefit, on Indian Boulevard. that even the new businesses that we have downtown, something's been incorporated. But we have other businesses that I found out they didn't even know, and then Miguel said, well, can we go to 111 Benindio Boulevard? So this could keep going. The thing is, the process does require it because it's a gift of public funds, but there's a process where it's not really a gift. That is that the business needs to be open for five years with certain regulatory goals, and then after that, their business hopefully is more busy and we get back the return. So, thank you for educating me.

Is this it?

I say we expand it.

Yeah, I don't know if that's part of this. I think we bring that back. No, that's what I'm saying. Give them direction to bring it back. Right now it's just to consolidate and rename it, but to analyze it and bring it back and come up with a new boundary for the program because I think if we're not utilizing the funds in the program, we might as well expand it and get more applications in to do it.

Mayor Pro Tem, if I may, I think it would be good checking at mid-year. We can look at how much we've spent on Indio, or sorry, downtown, Highway 111, emergency services for other businesses throughout the city. That's what we're recommending. And then we can also bring back an analysis of, you know, possibly doing Indio Boulevard, maybe some other areas.

And who classifies an emergency?

Go ahead, Miguel.

It would be something catastrophic like what happened, so an accident happened, a car crashes through, someone gets their entire storefront, all the windows smashed in, those types of things. It's not for the small things, it's an emergency. It's something that completely shuts down the business.

And who decides?

Right now, the way we just designed it, it's up to city staff at that point. To avoid having to come back and waiting a month and sometimes

AND THINGS LIKE THAT COULD GO ON AND SAY THIS BUILDING IS ON AND SAY THIS BUILDING IS RED TAGGED CAN WE HELP THEM. RED TAGGED CAN WE HELP THEM. AND SOMEBODY WHO SIGNS OFF AND SOMEBODY WHO SIGNS OFF THE CITY ATTORNEY AND THE CITY THE CITY ATTORNEY AND THE CITY MANAGER?

MANAGER?

CITY MANAGER SIGNS OFF AND I CITY MANAGER SIGNS OFF AND I BELIEVE CITY ATTORNEY ALSO BELIEVE CITY ATTORNEY ALSO SIGNS OFF ON THOSE. SIGNS OFF ON THOSE.

WE APPROVE THE GRANT AND WE APPROVE THE GRANT AND REGULATORY AGREEMENTS. REGULATORY AGREEMENTS. THE DEFINITION FOR QUALIFYING THE DEFINITION FOR QUALIFYING EMERGENCIES IS INCL That's the idea.

But, Councillor, currently the city manager under his privy, he has authority up to 75? 75,000, yes. So it's all here?

Procurement of goods and services, yes.

All right.

I'm good with it. If there's no further, I'll entertain a motion on this item.

I'll make the motion.

I'll make the motion for 9-11, 9-12, and 9-13. Yes. I'll second that. All right. Thank you.

Motion carries 4-0, 1.

Mayor back. Can we get the mayor in?

Yes, it is. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. And now I'd like to move on to item 10.1, administrative items. The first one, report of investments for the quarter ending June 3rd, 2026. Ms. Walla.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of City Council, Ruby Walla, Director of Finance for the City of Indio. I have a brief presentation for you this evening just to go over our quarterly investment report ending June 30th, 2026. JUST TO GIVE A RECAP OF THE INVESTMENT COMMITTEE, WE MEET QUARTERLY. THE COMMITTEE CONSISTS OF TWO COUNCIL MEMBERS, COUNCIL MEMBER GUTRAN, OUR TREASURER ROB ROCKWELL, MYSELF AND STAFF TO REVIEW THE INVESTMENTS HANDLED AND MANAGED BY CHANDLER ASSET MANAGEMENT AS WELL AS A CONSOLIDATED PORTFOLIO LOOK AT WHAT THE CITY HAS ON CASH ON HAND AND ITS PULLED INVESTMENTS. So the committee met on July 29th, 2026, post the June 30 close, and Chandler gave its presentation. They provide an economic update just to give the committee an update as what the economy is looking at, what the market's looking at, and then we dive into what the performance looks at specifically for the City of Indio, followed by a staff investment report, again with that consolidated approach. So what are the results in summary? Our total portfolio is $277 million, with $119 million of that being managed by Chandler. Quarter over quarter, we increased about $40 million, and that is due to just the timing of our cash that we received primarily in that quarter, significantly property tax, sales tax, and so forth. Also with that, our life balance is acknowledged at 124 million and that was a discussion during our meeting in terms of we are meeting our limits in life. And so we're looking at how do we continue to diversify our portfolio? What are other opportunities? Currently, as you see there, our portfolio as managed, consolidated, we are earning about $2 million per quarter, ranging in the last four quarters from $1.5 million to $2 million. So we're seeing a good rate of return. On there, we currently receive $3.92, a little under 4% on late. And then we also have our managed portfolio at 4.33%. Clearly exceeding our benchmarks at 4.16%. Chandler continues to provide us those results that we continue to exceed those benchmarks. And of course, we stay with the objectives of the investment policy to ensure all the safety, liquidity, and get a return on our investment. And so with that strategy, we also discuss what are we looking at long-term We do know we have a robust capital plan. We have ongoing operations. We have a balanced budget. And looking at our project projections, we did identify a series of funds, so about $20 million that we elected to invest in our long-term investment strategy. So we're moving that. So we'll continue to see Chandler's investment portfolio. You'll see that go up to $140 next quarter. And with that being said, that concludes my report and I'm open to any questions you may have.

Mine was just that after Ruby and the team, which has done a really good job, I've been impressed on the reports and the details and more informed than I ever thought I would be. But the interesting part is the Chandler who went through an updated RFP and came above the other potential candidates, they still rose to the occasion of doing a good job and their attitude wasn't like, we have it in the back, they still worked for it. but the professional relationship and the TLC that they're giving us, and also that we're fortunate the vendor's representing closely out of San Diego, and that's a really big benefit, so I expect our following five years to be a success with their assistance.

Yes, or more.

Any other?

And I agree, I think we're doing a great, our staff's doing a great job, our, Chandler's doing a great job managing the funds for us, and we're also receiving a lot of good education on the side, right, of all the impacts that these federal decisions are having on our economy and what to watch out for, so I really appreciate the extra education that we're getting from Chandler as well. Thanks.

Good information. Mayor Pro Tem, any comments?

Thank you, Ruby.

That's my comment. Yes. Thank you very much. Now, this is a receiving file? Yes, it is. Okay. Then we'll move on, thank you very, very much, to item 10.2, receive a presentation, project update, and input from the Planning Commission on proposed land use and annexation concepts for the East Indio Employment Corridor. Mr. Halverson.

Yes, Mayor Pro Tem Brian Halverson, Director of Community Development. It's been a while since we've given you an update on our annexation project. I was looking back and it was around July of 2025. We were in the old city hall. So here we are over a year later, we finished phase one. We're now working on phase two, making a lot of progress. We're gonna go ahead and give you an update. This same presentation was actually given to the Planning Commission as well, so we'll go ahead and give you some input on the feedback we received from the Planning Commission. And then our consultant, Rachel Lindt, with Dudek Consultants, will talk about the next steps, which is very exciting as the city will begin to expand one day. So I'll let Rachel take it away.

Thank you, Brian. And good evening, mayor and members of the council. My name is Rachel Lint, and I am a senior planner with Dudek. And tonight's agenda, I'm going to walk us through a high-level project overview, as Brian indicated we presented a year ago, and so just going to provide an update. I'm going to outline land use and annexation concepts and go over next steps, including the LAFCO annexation process. In terms of the purpose and need for this project, the original project originated from the city's desire to strengthen its employment base and diversify its economy. Today, industrial zoned land in India represents only 1.6% of city parcels, and at the same time, approximately 84% of India residents commute outside of the city for work. In June 2024, the City Council directed staff to evaluate the lands within the eastern sphere of influence, which you see on the screen outlined in blue, to determine whether additional employment generating uses could be accommodated. In terms of the project area, it consists of roughly 4,600 acres of unincorporated Riverside County land, and as I mentioned, it is within the city's existing sphere of influence. Given that, the area has already been identified by the city as a location for future city expansion, and so any boundary change would require approval through Riverside LAFCO, which oversees annexations and other jurisdictional changes throughout the county. In terms of the project vision, it's really to expand industrial employment opportunities, create jobs, strengthen local economy, and attract additional investment in India. And as Brian indicated, we are undergoing this project in multiple phases. So phase one really focused on opportunities and constraints, where we were last year. Phase two, where we are today, really focuses on the annexation concepts and feasibility, which we'll be discussing more today. And then phase three would involve the environmental review and the LAFCO application. Before discussing the concepts, I want to just briefly summarize where we are in the process. About the project area, it's predominantly vacant open space with limited agricultural uses. It has a quarry operation and a small amount of commercial and manufacturing activity. One key challenge and I know it's been brought up in other presentations today as well as the area currently lacks urban infrastructure related to water wastewater and power and so as a result any future development would require substantial infrastructure upgrades and extensions as well as careful coordination with service providers. During phase one, Dudek evaluated roughly 3,300 acres of the eastern sphere of influence and due diligence was conducted in terms of environmental and infrastructure analyses. A market study was conducted, economic development agency outreach and concept development. And the purpose was really to determine where development opportunities could realistically occur and which land uses are most feasible. The result of that analysis found that the area between 40th Avenue and Fargo Canyon Road that you see outlined in the dashed black is the most suitable location for development because it contains the lowest level of constraints. The market analysis also indicated that industrial and employment generating uses represent the strongest market opportunity. And so based on these findings, city council directed staff to proceed with phase two and expand the project area for analysis purposes. In terms of phase two, as I noted, the project area expanded to 4,600 acres, and as such, we've been conducting a range of additional studies to look at that additional area that was added, environmental studies, hydrology, agency coordination land owner outreach, and we had our first public open house alongside a community survey. And so based on those findings, we have developed four annexation and land use concepts for review by the planning commission and city council. As shown here, the project is currently in the concept evaluation stage. Following council direction, the project would proceed to environmental review, the LAFCO application, and then future public hearings with both the planning commission and council. So moving on to the concepts developed through the phase two effort. In terms of high level, each concept preserves significant open space that is really one of the hallmarks of each. And each incorporates employment generating uses aligned with the vision. And this includes industrial office and business park development. So where they differ is in terms of the size of the annexation area, how much of the eastern sphere is the boundary and would be brought into the jurisdiction, whether housing is included, whether conservation and federal lands are annexed, and then the amount of land allocated for development. In terms of the evaluation criteria that we looked at, we looked at environmental considerations, infrastructure service requirements, fiscal and economic performance, safety and development constraints. The goal was really to understand trade-offs at a high level and identify the concept that best aligns with cities' long-term objectives. Hopping into concept 1A, this concept annexes the entire Eastern sphere of influence and focuses the development core that you see outlined in red exclusively on employment generating uses. Some key benefits are approximately 5,000 jobs, more than 4.4 million square feet of development for industrial, Strong annual fiscal returns and significant long-term expansion opportunities given that it's the entire annexation area The trade-off is that the city would assume responsibility for a larger area and then Part of that is a designated conservation land that you see in the southern portion It's it's a hatched area that you see and so as part of this there would be more coordination and the city would take on reviewing land use applications within that area and Moving on to concept 1B, it's very similar to 1A, but it introduces housing. Specifically, the intent is to support workforce housing. You see that in the orange polygon within the project area. And part of this would produce 500 housing units while generating substantial employment opportunities given that a bulk of the area is still allocated for the employment generating place type. This produces the highest overall tax revenue, but the downside is that there is the highest infrastructure costs associated with bringing more residents into the area. This would require the city to provide municipal services to serve the residents associated with living in the area.

Question. Yes. So you mentioned this as being like workforce housing, right? But if there needs to be that kind of investment into the infrastructure of it, we wouldn't be able to depend on developers, right? It would just bring the cost of the housing too high for workforce? Or how are you envisioning that still being workforce housing with the needed infrastructure?

Can you repeat that? I'm trying to kind of understand the relationship with the infrastructure.

If we're looking at building workforce housing, wouldn't the infrastructure needed to develop that housing make it too expensive to be workforce housing? Would we end up with the situation?

Oh, I see. In terms of the affordability level, yeah. Yeah, I think that... At this stage, given that it is a very high level planning study and the result of the annexation is really just identifying a general plan place type and associated zoning, the LAFCO application requires something that's called pre-zoning. It'd be the city's intent to zone the area in such a way. And I think that as part of that, there could be policies written to kind of characterize the intent for affordable housing. But given that this project has a 20-year horizon and affordability levels change on a yearly basis and it's a very dynamic environment, I think that... you know, legislation could change in terms of affordable housing and how that could be supported financially and things like that. But I think the intent is really to think about housing that could be for the workforce in this area and then to think about, yeah, through development, if it can be

Got it, yeah, well, I guess, you know, if you did have some development that's already providing some of that infrastructure out there or requiring some of those developments to provide the housing on the side, right, or some kind of ties to that development.

Yes, Council Member Ortiz, interesting that you asked that question and not that we're gonna talk about it again, but if Citrus Ranch goes in across the street, as you know, there's going to be a lot of investment in infrastructure. Both sides of Dillon Road, east and west, could benefit from that. And again, we're not talking about that project per se, but it's kind of interesting that this proposed growth area of the city is across the street from another area that's already been approved for growth, housing, et cetera. So I just wanted to highlight that because it is a heavy lift. Yeah. And that type of analysis hasn't even been done yet as far as will it affect the cost of housing. But tonight we're looking at these four concepts to see which concept the council prefers.

Got it. Thank you.

Okay, so moving on to concept 2A. 2A reduces the annexation area. You can see portions in the north and south of the project area are cut out of the annexation area. And so these are specifically the designated conservation lands as well as southern properties, including a vineyard and other agriculture. It achieves nearly the same employment and fiscal benefits as Concept 1A while reducing long-term management and coordination responsibilities. However, it does produce less opportunity for long-term expansion. And the last concept, concept 2B, it's the smallest annexation footprint and the development core. You can see within the center of the project area, the development core has roughly reduced in half. It avoids many environmental constraints and has the lowest infrastructure and operating costs. However, it does produce the fewest jobs, the lowest tax revenues, and the least opportunity for future expansion. And so overall, just stepping back, the concepts range from maximizing long-term opportunity on one end of the spectrum to minimizing some risk and cost on the other. So we met with our technical advisory committee meeting, or excuse me, our committee two weeks ago, and they generally favored concept 1A, which is the full annexation concept, and participants felt that the comprehensive annexation would provide the greatest long-term value and flexibility for future economic development. They also felt that housing needs may be better addressed through other areas of the city, for example, infill housing, and that existing staff have experience working on development within designated conservation areas so that understanding is within the city's wheelhouse now. And then last week, as Brian mentioned, we presented to planning commissions, so they similarly expressed general support for concept 1A, many for the same reasons I discussed. And commissioners emphasized the opportunity to maximize long-term economic development potential. Some commissioners supported concept 1B because of the housing component. And then one commissioner identified concept 2B, which is the smaller annexation area, which is a little bit more of a conservative approach. But overall, there was consensus towards concept 1A. A little bit about the LAFCO process. LAFCO is the agency responsible for reviewing boundary changes, including annexations, and so their role is to really ensure orderly growth, efficient service delivery, and consistency with regional planning. And so any annexation would require LAFCO approval. In terms of the process, it's roughly nine steps. We're in steps one through three, and it involves environmental review, service planning, fiscal analysis, tax sharing, negotiations, public hearings, and LAFCO review and approval. And there's public agency and public input along the way. So city staff is seeking council direction, as Brian noted, on the preferred concept so we can continue with the next phase of work. And so following council direction, the city, or excuse me, the project team would initiate the CEQA analysis, analyze fiscal and infrastructure analyses, continue outreach with land owners and stakeholders, prepare the LAFCO application, and then return to the Planning Commission and City Council with the general plan and the pre-zoning actions as part of a resolution. So with that, just wanna thank you for your attention and I'm happy to answer any other questions that you all have, thank you.

Great presentation, thank you very much, very comprehensive. Any questions, comments, go ahead.

First off, thank you for the presentation. On any of this property, considering there is any tax revenue basically on it for the County of Riverside, is there anything in there that the County of Riverside's gonna wanna share with us as we do any of the infrastructure?

Well, I will say that since I've been through this process before in another city, the tax exchange agreement and negotiation is a little bit onerous, and the county is always trying to get their share, of course. So that would be through the LAFCO application process, and then before the full annexation, we would go through that negotiation with the county. So, yes, they're going to want some.

Okay.

Yeah, because we did that when we did the auto dealership. We moved it over there and they got a piece of the auto dealership for a long period of time, but they also left us with all the unvacant land and roads up in the back top that they didn't do anything for. So I favor the larger annexation, but we really do need to do some hard negotiation with the county to make sure we're going to invest that kind of money, not only through the city, but through our connections. that they're minimal of what they get, considering they're not gonna be providing us any services. We have our own police department, we cow fires our own fire department, and we'd be doing all the rest of the stuff through public work, so really need to negotiate that so they're not getting a bigger piece of the pie. It's gonna be very difficult as it is to do that, but if we have to start sharing funding with them, not gonna be good. Thank you.

Sorry, Council Member. You're talking about sharing in what?

Like when we did the auto dealership for this to allow us to annex that area, they got a percentage of all the sales. And so they can keep a larger portion of the property tax or any of the sales tax, depending on what they negotiate. So what we wanna make sure is that they're not considering we're gonna spend all this money and it's coming from us. There's nothing there now. there's nothing for us really, if we do all the work, for us to share with the county of Riverside. Because they don't provide us any services. There's nothing they really do for us other than animal control and everything they do provide for us, we pay for. Courts we pay for, animal control we pay for, police, fire. But, I mean, we paid a pretty good penny to get the auto dealership, which is a good deal for us, but this land there is gonna, might create certain jobs that'll take over a period of time, but they start collecting our money from day one, so.

Okay. Interesting. Good comments, good feedback.

No, and I like the 1A as well, seeing especially the high numbers of our residents that travel outside of the city for work. I think it emphasizes the high need for local employment here, especially on the industrial side where we don't have too much going at the moment.

Yeah, I would also, I like 1A as well. The more employment opportunity we can bring in the city and keep in the city, the better. I think it just, the benefits are exponential. All right, do I hear?

I still have some comments.

Okay.

We're not getting out of here yet. First of all, thank you for the presentation. Actually, I think this is great, and I do favor 1A as well. And I think this gives us opportunity to make decisions that will affect us positively in the future in respects to growth. And also, it also gives us an opportunity to take some of that industrial out of our city. It's a hot topic right now. We don't know what it's going to be in 15, 20 years, right? So it gives us an opportunity to move some of that stuff out there. And we talk about affordable housing, I'm more in favor of keeping affordable housing in town. Reason being, there's affordable housing, but I prefer affordable living situations. If you put folks out there and call it affordable housing, chances are the utility is going to be a little higher, especially in the future. Also, you have to take into consideration schools, places of worship, retail shopping. That does put a strain on folks and then puts them back in their vehicle to get back into town. So now they're spending gas money or charging their electrical cars, right? So because we don't know what the future is going to look like at that time. So I'm more in favor of keeping our affordable housing inside and housing in general. I think we should use this for the intended purposes of bringing more diverse type of employment to our city. So I'm in favor of 1A as well.

Do I hear a motion or a direction, want to give some direction?

I think that, do we have direction of consensus on the?

I think we have 1A.

So it sounds like we have a consensus, I believe for 1A, so we appreciate that input. It's going to help when we eventually go to LAFCO to show that we have looked at a variety of concepts instead of just focusing on one and saying this is the only one that we've looked at, so thank you for your input.

Thank you for your presentation, very comprehensive, really appreciate that. Do we need to vote? I have no...

It's just a public hearing consensus, I thought.

So it was just to give direction. We can take direction by consensus, but if you'd like to have a vote, Council Member, we can do that.

Okay, next item. Now we move into item 11.1, public hearings. Introduction and first reading of Ordinance 1843, approving a fourth amendment to a development agreement with Pacific Indio Properties. to extend the term of the agreement that applies to approximately 241 acres of land extending north from Interstate 10 to Avenue 42 and east from a boundary between Clinton and Monroe Streets near Jackson. Again, Mr. Halverson.

Yes, thank you, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, members of the Council. So tonight, there is a request from the applicant Pacific Indio Properties to extend the term. I'm sorry. Yeah, Pacific.

Sending a project for the Pacific.

THAT'S NOTHING TO DO WITH OUR CITY ATTORNEY. THIS DA HAS BEEN GOING ON QUITE A WHILE. I JUST WANTED TO MENTION SOME OF THE TIMELINE. BACK IN NOVEMBER OF 1991 WAS WHEN THE DA FIRST WAS ORIGINATED. THERE WAS A FIRST AMENDMENT BACK IN 1997, A SECOND AMENDMENT IN 2010. Now we also just recently did an amendment last July, a third amendment. So tonight there is a fourth amendment, and let me explain why we're here tonight. So as you know, the Palm Shopping Center is going through a lot of development. We've seen Raising Cane's, we've seen In-N-Out, we've seen Sumo Dog. So that area is continuing to develop. And this DA has built in development standards and built in administrative review for some of those projects. So the developer has found additional pads that are gonna be developed. And in order to take advantage of the benefits of the DA that has been going on for quite a while, they need an additional five-year term extension. So that being taken into consideration, that is the request this evening for the development agreement. The request itself, since we've talked about CEQA tonight, is exempt from further environmental review based on Section 15168C2, which is a common sense exemption. Other than that, I am available. It's a pretty basic request of an additional extension, the fourth extension to this DA. I'm available for any questions regarding this extension request.

Pretty basic. Anybody have any questions? Or do I hear a motion? Oh, it's a public hearing. Yes, of course. Let me open the public hearing. I do not have any requests to speak. Does anyone in the audience? Would anybody in the audience like to speak? Go on once. Come on up. I have the request to speak for you specific. This is specific to this item. All right. I see no one wishes to speak on this item. I'll close the public hearing. What is the pleasure of the council?

I'll make a recommendation. Council Member, I stop. Sorry. No, I just want to thank Brian for bringing this to us and also say that Pacific Indio Properties has been a good partner with our city. And this is something that we talked about earlier with the DA, right? We're extending this so they're able to bring us more restaurants and other stores and retail to that area. And part of this is because we've worked on our power infrastructure in the city. So there's things that are out of the developers' hands. They want to develop, but there's things out of their hands that prevent that. So now we're and moving in a good direction. So they're able to do these things. So to bring sumo dog raising canes in and out. So I think this is great that we're extending it, and I'd be in support of it. And you can make your motion, and I'll second it.

I'll make a motion to approve the Fourth Amendment Plan 004 to develop agreement with Pacific Indio Properties extending the terms of the agreement by five years.

I'll second. Second. I have a motion by Councilmember Miller and a second by Mayor Pro Tem. Let's go ahead and vote. Oh, there we go. There we go.

We're good?

We're good? Motion passes unanimously, excellent, excellent, excellent. Okay, and let's see, I have some requests to speak. And one, I guess we lasted one a little longer, Edward Robles. So we will catch him the next time. Tanya Orozco.

Councilman, my name is Sandra Roscoe. I'm the regional commissioner for AY. So I just wanted to take the time this evening to thank you again for listening to me the last time that I was here. Like Mr. Nix had mentioned, we were able to sit down and collaborate. We've actually met a couple of times. And the new MOU with DRD does address the concerns that we had. And I do want to thank you for that. I think kind of the theme that we had this evening was THE NEAT THINGS THAT HAPPEN WHEN WE ARE OF SERVICE, RIGHT, FOR THE GREATER GOOD WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER, AND THE COOL THINGS THAT HAPPEN LIKE, YOU KNOW, THE AWARDEES THIS NIGHT TALKED ABOUT. AND I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I REALLY VALUE THE FACT THAT YOU have taken the time to talk to me, but you've also put things in action to make things happen. It's important for us to, I think, lead by example, and I, for one, am very appreciative and grateful for you allowing me to collaborate with the city to get some of this and it's tangible solutions. What I want to say to you though is that I want you to understand that the changes that have been added to the MOU aren't just going to exclusively benefit AYSO. The wording there is actually with the intention to protect and serve the community at large. That wording there is key and I'm grateful that Mr. Nix does have that prior experience in Parks and Rec because he also brought a lot of things to the table as far as the things that he shared. So I just want to say thank you very much. I am looking forward to further collaboration with you and projects. I have some ideas, I've discussed them with some of you. And with Mr. Nick, so I'm excited to see you soon and hopefully share in some of those projects that we have in mind. I think it's going to be a good collaboration. But again, just thank you for your time. And, you know, I admire and I'm very proud to be part of this community that, you know, leads by example. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you for leading by example and your commitment to the community and the kids out here. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments.

I just wanted to say thank you to you and your parents, the Rosseños, obviously Mr. Cano and everyone else. It's no wonder children that have activities because of your parents and aunts, uncles, cousins, and everybody else making sure it happens.

I have a couple projects coming up, and I'm eager to share those with you as soon as I have a little bit more time, but it's going to be very exciting, and I think that you'll see that it's things that I personally think that are just going to benefit. It's not just about continuing to be of service to others, but providing avenues so that the youth that we have here, not only is just benefiting from the recreational programs, but they also begin to kind of look at who they are within the community, and then they themselves give back. So I think that that's important, but thank you.

Have a good evening, thank you for your comments once again. Tyler Peterson, next request to speak.

Good evening, Council. Mass surveillance is the foundation that the house of fascism is built on. My name is Ty, I'm a member of this community and I'm willing to fight for it. I would formally like to ask the council to terminate their contract with flock safety effective as soon as possible. In addition, I would like to propose a ban on automated license plate readers altogether. They are a cancer and the first domino to fall in a series that will usher in the end of privacy altogether. The beginning of a police and surveillance state. In other words, not freedom. Every day you leave those flock cameras up, you're putting your community in harm's way. Mass surveillance is the end game, and I can prove it. The AI has the capability to isolate, follow, and track license plates on the hot list without tracking any other vehicles or plates. But it doesn't. It tracks everyone anyway, focusing on pre-crime and violating our Fourth Amendment rights. If it only solved crimes, I wouldn't be standing here today. I would be spending time with my children on their first day of school. Have you read the contract? Have you guys read the flock safety contract? Because I read the contract. The flock safety contract states that It's a subscription model and it states that Flock can update the software at any time, meaning facial recognition and phone tracking are both in play. It says they can pull and distribute footage at their own discretion if they have a good faith belief that it's necessary. But Flock does not operate in good faith. And this is not from social media, this is straight from the contract. So whenever you have your presentation, I would like to ask that you bring an attorney who can explain to me and explain to us like we're five years old how the language in the contract does not state that you gave up all of your power and all of our power and all of our rights. So whatever you say you do or do not do with the data, it's a moot point. If the corporation owns it, you don't own it. You rent the corporation from a billionaire without a soul, a billionaire with no moral compass. Yeah, and I would also like to request some data on all the solved crimes. All the solved crimes, what good has it done? We don't see, the public doesn't see anything like that, okay? And the crime statistics before you decided that this was a good idea. Was the crime so bad that we needed to do this? There are so many weaknesses in the software that journalists have called it a Netflix for stalkers. Los Angeles had a 32% misread rate in a two month period, which resulted in 161 felony stops. They canceled their contract. One innocent woman spent seven months in jail because AI indicted her. This AI is untested and bad at its only job, and you have volunteered your community to be the guinea pigs for it.

You are our only- Your three minutes are up, sir. If you could wrap it up, I'd appreciate it.

You are our only layer of protection against the AI oligarchs and the federal government who have a mutual interest in silencing us, and you are doing the opposite of protecting us. It's time to correct the mistake and set an example for the rest of the Coachella Valley. Show them that when we make a mistake, we are humble enough to admit it and move forward with everyone's best interest in mind. Because the people aren't going away, I'm not going away, you can get used to my face.

Sir, your time is up.

Thank you.

Okay, next request to speak, Jonathan Becerra.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, fellow council. Thank you guys for being so patient. My comment is based on a lot of organizing and canvassing I've been doing in the District 4. We've talked tonight about roughly about 5,500 acres of new development in a different part of Indira that hasn't been developed. And while I walk about... So far about over 400 households just in this campaign season. A lot of District 4's infrastructure feels like it's getting left behind. I just recently did a campaign video for myself walking the same route from Kennedy to the rec center and that sidewalk hasn't changed since then. That adjacent neighborhood still needs sidewalks. Shields Park still doesn't have a restroom which is one of our main corridors to the CV link. I'm very understanding and empathetic to the other parts of our city that are getting a lot of love and attention. I feel district four is currently being left behind. And I would ask that you guys do a study and engage with the residents of Indio the way I am and talk to them. and speak about just like these hundred little street level projects that I think would benefit the livelihoods of a lot of old families and a lot of our residents here in the city of India, specifically in District 4, which has our high school, multiple elementary schools, multiple thoroughfares. I mean, these are the places where a lot of us are raised in this city, the teen center, the senior center. A lot of these roads can use safety updates, which raised elevated reflectors to kind of re-alert drivers, lit crossings. I mean, there's a lot of just great input I'm getting with the families that I'm canvassing with that are just really street level and just really APPROPRIATE TO CONSIDER BEFORE WE CONSIDER THESE KIND OF MAJOR OTHER DEVELOPMENTS. I'M NOT SAYING WE SHOULD STOP THEM. I'M SAYING WE HAVE A LOT OF ATTENTION TO FOCUS ON IN DISTRICT FOUR BEFORE WE ENGAGE OUR GREAT STAFF TO THESE OTHER PROJECTS. I REALLY THINK IT'S WORTHWHILE TO LOOK AT DISTRICT FOUR, LOOK AT THE STREET LEVEL ISSUES THERE BEFORE THIS NEXT ELECTION BECAUSE REGARDLESS OF WHO COUNCIL IS, These issues have been there for over 20 years, some of them. The sidewalk across from Kennedy Elementary School has not changed since I was in elementary school. The school itself has gotten a new building since then, but that sidewalk across the street hasn't changed. And this is what our voters are seeing in the same instances that we are seeing these kinds of major developments being talked about, about luxury homes and major developments and annexing whole different parts of Indio. We're also having to look at the same non-sidewalk across from an elementary school I went to. So I would just ask for, or actually I would offer reflection on District 4. Please just consider spending time with those voters, engaging with them, doing some great outreach, which we are capable of doing. But there are a lot of worthy projects in District 4 that are worth our attention and time and money. So I thank you guys for your time. And also, yeah, that's my time.

So noted. Thank you, Jonathan, for your comments. Several of us took a few notes. Okay. All right, folks. Kenneth Churchill.

Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. My name is Kenneth Churchill. I am the owner of West Coast Cannabis Club. I'm flanked here by John and Gobi, owners of Culture and Desert Kush in Indio as well. Full disclosure, not a lobbyist. Just a good old local boy trying to do the best with my business. I'm here to speak on behalf of myself and our industry. We are here tonight committed as local partners who want to protect high-paying jobs, keep retail dollars inside of Indio, and continue to support our community. We're going on five years now since the end the city of India established its initial cannabis regulations and in that time the state of the market and frankly the entire economy has changed quite drastically. Prices have dropped, our operating costs are up substantially and heavy local fees are saddling what should be healthy businesses with debt and putting our entire future at risk. Indio dispensaries are surrounded by competitors who have massive advantages on us. Catalyst on Washington and the 10 is in unincorporated Riverside County, and the county has a 0% local tax. So Catalyst obviously uses that as an advantage and undercuts us on prices for all of our products. Red Falcon at Spotlight 29 additionally also has obviously a 0% local tax. Not to mention, since they don't have to follow state regulations, they're open until 2 a.m., and they even serve alcohol out of their dispensaries. Not that we're asking for that, we're just offering the fact that we're dealing with a disadvantage. With every city in the Coachella Valley voting to lower their cannabis taxes over the last few years, the city of Indio now has the highest local tax in the entire Coachella Valley at 7%. Overtaxing dispensaries simply drives consumers to other cities and back into the black market. As a dispensary, we can't just raise our prices in order to be able to pay our bills. The market has already established what the prices are on these products, and it's on us to work around it. The goal behind lowering cannabis fees and cannabis taxes is not to allow us to keep the difference, it's to allow us to pass that on to the consumer. It's to lower our prices and allow us to compete against the dozens of dispensaries that are in these neighboring communities. Tax rates aside, I believe the biggest grievance from us as owners is the annual renewal fee which comes in just shy of $24,000 a year. To put that into perspective, the cities of Palm Desert and Desert Hot Springs do not even have a cannabis renewal fee. It's simply a business license and cannabis pays the same fees as everybody else. The city of Cathedral City has a $4,500 fee. Again, at Indiog, it's $24,000, which, for the record, is more than the quarterly taxes for most of these businesses. We are not asking for special privileges. We are just asking for a competitive framework so that Indiog businesses can survive. Lowering these costs of businesses will protect dozens of high-paying jobs, and frankly, closed businesses can't pay taxes. We respectfully request that the council direct city staff to place a cannabis regulatory study session on an upcoming agenda and most importantly, allow us as the operators who've been in this industry for a decade plus to have some input on that process. Thank you.

Thank you. Some good information there. We all consider that for sure. Last request to speak, Michelle.

Hello, everyone. My name is Michelle, and I serve as the Coachella Valley Organizer for the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, also known as IC4IJ. First and foremost, I'd like to thank the City of Indio for the efforts you all have taken to acknowledge and protect our immigrant families by giving immigrant-serving organizations like TODEC a platform to share the crucial services that they provide. My intention tonight is to echo the urgency presented earlier. IC4IJ is a regional coalition of over 30 organizations that work together to improve the lives of immigrants in San Bernardino and Riverside County. As a standalone organization, we engage in policy advocacy, legal services, community organizing, and education. We also manage the rapid response network for both Inland Empire counties to report immigration activity or if a neighbor or loved one has been detained. Please give us a call and we will help. Our hotline number is 909-361-4588. And if anyone has the capacity and wants to become a volunteer, you can text volunteer to that number as well. As I mentioned, we are a coalition as this work cannot be done by one single organization in the region. I urge the city to continue collaboration with organizations who serve as trusted messengers to our community and to invest further in protecting the immigrant community here in Indio. I am not a resident of Indio, but I am here on behalf of our migrant community who call Indio their home, who continue to live in fear every day due to rampant enforcement that has quieted down in regards to their showmanship, but has not stopped. As the city with the greatest population, it's also one of the cities whose residents have been greatly impacted in regard to immigration enforcement. Please continue to be advocates for our neighbors who are an essential part of our community, yet continue to be dehumanized and targeted every day. Thank you. All right.

Thank you very much for your comments. And I have no more requests to speak. Okay. Going once, going twice. It is 827. I adjourn the meeting. Next meeting is in September.