City Council - Regular Meeting

Come in, take a seat. We'll kind of give you the run of show for tonight, tell you what's going on. But first off, my name is Jason Kravitz. I'm part of the working group that was established by the council. Council Member Garner selected three people, and Council Member DeHart selected three people for the working group. And our goal for our next seven public meetings that we're going to have is to get your input. In the end, we're going to deliver a report to the council of thoughts and opinions from the community on whether essentially you want to stay with the same system that we have now with a rotational mayor, or if you want to put something on the ballot and have an elected mayor. With that, you'll hear no more of our personal opinions or comments about this because we are note takers and we're just here to observe and take your questions. We do have two interpreters with us tonight. So if anyone needs the services of one of our interpreters, please feel free to move up front. We'll make space for you up here. Also to kick this off some ground rules, so we just asked tonight for civility everyone be nice It's hot outside. It's summertime, but it's cool in here so better heads prevail is what the saying is right, okay, so If you want to speak tonight We do have some speaker cards that some of you have filled out also while this is going on We'll run around with speaker cards if you decide you wanna speak afterwards. But the way the flow's gonna go tonight is Councilmember DeHart is the moderator for this one. We're gonna switch off for each public meeting. And we do have two speakers tonight. Councilmember DeHart will have our two speakers get up. They'll speak for about 10 minutes. And then after both of them are done, then we'll have a Q&A session with hopefully a lot of you. If we have a lot of speakers, we'll probably limit the time to about three minutes, but if I don't have too many speakers, we'll probably go a little bit longer. This young lady right here is our timekeeper, so when you see her looking at her watch, that's what she's up to. But we're on until 8 o'clock tonight. If you want to stay past, we're here. If you want to get out here in a timely manner and watch TV, then we'll get out of here at 8 o'clock tonight. So with that, I'd like to introduce Councilmember Ron DeHart from District 3.

That lady was in the wrong place and she reminded me one time I had come for a Leather Pride meeting and I sat down and the conversation was going on and going on. this is not Leather Pride. And I whispered to the person sitting next to me, they said, no, this is Narcotics Anonymous. So I quietly got up, and she's looking for the talent show that's happening tonight. So yeah, thank you all for being part of this process. It's gonna stretch out until the end of October. We encourage you to come often if you want to just listen and hear other thoughts or share your thoughts at each meeting. We heard a little bit about what the process is gonna be I'll share what this working group has been tasked with, and it's very simple, but I'll share that after I cover a little housekeeping. So we're a small town, small community. We want to have a friendly conversation. This isn't right or wrong. This is just coming together and sharing our thoughts. So we want to be fair to the person who's speaking and respect what they're saying and listen and absorb different points of view. And that's the core of this process. So what the working group was tasked to do was cover five things. And the first one they've accomplished already. because it was to establish a timeline and establish locations and event dates for community conversation. So they've accomplished that. There's seven meetings in every district throughout the city. One in Spanish for those that are more comfortable in the Spanish speaking group. And they have met seven or eight times now So they have been working, even though we might not have been hearing what this group is doing. They've been meeting this, I think it was the eighth time, and they're not always short meetings. I heard there was several hours, it was one night. Second task is to ask the question. Very simple question. What type of government or mayoral structure do you want to see in the city of Palm Springs? Very simple. Very simple question. What do you want to see in the city of Palm Springs? Third, after they've had these listening sessions and they've taken part and had conversations with people throughout the city, They are tasked with gathering the information, assimilating it, and work with the attorneys and look at the models or the ideas, the suggestions on what you want to see. What type of mayoral model do you want to see? They are tasked to work with the attorneys to make sure that the model that you all are discussing It is legal in the state of California. It meets all the requirements of the California Voting Rights Act and that there's no Challenges that the city attorneys may see legally that the city could face So that's part of their task is to vet They are also, as they're having these conversations, they're to gauge what your appetite is to even have, if the decision is you wanna have an elected mayor and you're gonna come up with what that mayor's supposed to do and responsibilities, you wanna see that mayor have, okay, do you affect that by a ballot measure? Is that something that the community wants to see? Or not? Is there another alternative to making the desire from the community happen? So that's what they'll explore. And the last thing is figure out how they're going to inform the community of all this assembled information that they've gathered. and how are they gonna regurgitate it in a report to city council. So city council can then take the information that they've gathered from throughout the city and look at what is the citizenry of Palm Springs asked for and then make some decisions. What do we do? What do we do if they're asking for something different? So that will be up to council to address after this team is done with their work and with your input. So to start us, I get to introduce, did we draw straws or? Flip a coin? Or alphabet?

Yeah. You know what, Ron? I made a big faux pas. You forgot to introduce the group. I sure did. OK. Can I do that?

Yeah, please do.

As soon as I sat down, if anyone knows Miss Jeannie Foggs, she goes, you didn't introduce us. I'm like, ugh. So on my left, on down the row, we have Melissa Delores. Dieter Crawford, George Nichols. Do you all know the next person here, Jeannie Fouts? And then at the end of the table, April Rojas. So this is our six folks, the working group. I will stop talking again. If we want to do alphabetically, Lex would be our first one. Lex, come on up.

So this isn't good, bad, evil, not evil, pro, con. This is a conversation of two people sharing their thoughts and opinion on how they're looking at this question that we're facing. So Lex, the microphone is yours, and it's very hot, as you've heard.

Hi, all. Good evening. Okay, I think that's better.

And how does she know when her time's up? Great. Each person gets 10 minutes, not combined.

10 minutes of our two speakers.

Great. My name is Lex Ortega. I actually use they, them pronouns. I was born and raised in Palm Springs. This community shaped me. Grew up on the corner of Vistachino and Sunrise and came back to Palm Springs after I graduated from Stanford as a first generation college student. in my family, and I still live here, and I am committed to this community. And back in 2018, was given the opportunity to serve on the City of Palm Springs, Coachella Valley, sorry, City of Palm Springs California Voting Rights Act Working Group, where we talked about these issues. That was in response to a letter from the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project around what voting rights look like in California. So as part of that working group, we had over 30 community meetings. We published a 27-page report that I have here. You can find that online. There's an ordinance, number 1971, one of the reasons why I was invested in the work is because I've seen this city I just turned 39 this year so I've seen the city grow and shift and I've reflected on my own relationship to city governance here and I can tell you when I was growing up at Mountain Shadow Drive in Palm Springs and also in Golden Sands neighborhood mobile home park where many of my aunts lived and where we would go after school to be taken care of by family friends. Never had city elected officials or people running for council ever knock on our doors, ever. No recollection whatsoever of that. In fact, the first time I remember sort of even being hyper aware of city officials were two folks, and they happened to be mayors, Willie Kleindienst, Will Kleindienst, and that was only because I went to school with his son. That's it. But the most impactful was with Mayor Ron Oden. And I knew him and of him because I saw him at Toucans. He would go dancing at Toucan's. And I thought, wow, that's amazing. This is a person that is accessible to me as a 20-something person who's working and living and trying to make a life in Palm Springs. And when I looked at mayors after those two in particular, Steve Pugnet, Robert Moon, I realized that the city worked for a certain group of people, and that group of people wasn't me. My family is mixed generation Mexican-American. My dad was born and raised in Mexico. My mom was born and raised in Washington State, and they came here and they had me here. I'm a member of the LGBTQ plus community and never felt like my voice mattered in what the city was addressing. And when the opportunity came for us because of this letter to discuss sort of what we want the city to look like, I held those realities for myself. And then we conducted over 30 different community meetings. I remember one meeting at DeMuth Park, very similar to this, We had an open forum and there was a person who said, I live in DeMuth Park and residents of color, they just don't care. They don't care about the city. They don't, we do our best and our best and they just don't come out to meetings. And this was a member of 1PS at the time. And there were several members of the working group similar to this, a very diverse working group. And I sort of had to point out that there are real barriers to access to spaces like this. This is a meeting that's happening after work hours. I work until 5. My dad sometimes would work until 7. He goes actually to 12-step meetings. So sometimes he's actually not available. And prior city council meetings sometimes were held during the day. Those changed. And I've seen in the six years since or now the seven years since those initial conversations how city represent Representation has shifted and we've now had two elections Where that were very very close in certain districts district one in district four and the reason why the people who won in those districts one was because they knocked on doors and They didn't buy TV ads or put ads on buses. They won because they actually talked to residents. And if we move back to a directly elected mayor system, I can guarantee you a mayor is not gonna knock on my door, certainly. I live in Dumouth Park now. And I'm surrounded by folks that are gardeners. I see all the gardener trucks out there. Many folks who are bilingual, they're certainly not going to knock on our doors. A directly elected mayor will have to get the votes of a majority of everybody in the city. And the best and easiest way to do that is a TV ad. I don't know about you, but I can't talk to the TV. And will that person pick up my phone call? But with the rotating mayor system, we have folks that come from different parts of the city that have different perspectives. And I understand that there are arguments around what does it look like for relationships and questions about the actual government structure. Fun fact, the mayor is a co-equal member of council. They have no additional power. They have ceremonial duties. but they don't have additional power. I know Hank Platt is here. He wrote an op-ed. He referenced other cities like Los Angeles, San Diego. Guess what? Those are city governments that have strong mayors. That is not what Palm Springs has. The city manager runs the city. Hank also mentioned San Jose. Okay, great. San Jose also is a much larger city but has 10 city council districts. Then Hank also mentioned Desert Hot Springs. Desert Hot Springs doesn't have the same racial polarization that Palm Springs does. In fact, we are flipped in terms of what racial makeup looks like in Palm Springs as it relates to Desert Hot Springs. That's why they aren't at threat of violating voting rights. And ultimately, that's what it comes down to for me, is who has access, who is represented. And I'll just read really briefly, because I have just a couple of more minutes from our conclusion from the working group report. With our charge from the Palm Springs City Council, the CVRA working group embarked on a process to hear from as many residents as possible, particularly residents from communities that have historically marginalized and excluded from electoral politics in Palm Springs and institutional methods of outreach and engagement. Through this process, we form the beginnings of a broad and diverse coalition with specific communities that have contributed deeply to the history and economic success of the city, namely Latino, Filipino, and African-American communities. It is the opinion of the working group that this process must continue. And I just want to say, you know, I read some comments on the sheets in the back there and somebody had mentioned, self-disclosed, you know, I'm a white gay man and my opinion matters too. Absolutely. Definitely does. No one is denying that. And me, in particular, as a queer person who has benefited from a wide variety of racial identities who have come before me, I recognize that. And I think part of our charge as a city is how do we make sure we make more space for more people, especially the folks that come after us? And so those are some of the reasons why I personally support keeping the system. I'm happy to chat with any of y'all. I live and work in Palm Springs. I'm hopefully going to be a homeowner soon, we'll see. But yeah, I care about this city. I know everyone here cares about this city. And there are some of us who have been here for our lifetimes. and hearing from folks that have differing perspectives is essential for what good governance should be. I still have more time, so I'm gonna take up my time. Hey, I love that. What else? We have a full staff report that talks a little bit about the differences between the four district and the at-large mayor. There's a few different options for us. If folks are really concerned about relationships, I'm curious, what is it like to have a two-year rotating term, right? There are different options other than at-large and district. And so I want to just encourage folks to be mindful and be thoughtful. We are at a time in the history of this country that things that we held as sort of a more perfect, moving towards a more perfect union are now going the other way. And I want to make sure that Palm Springs is at the forefront for everyone. And there have been systematic and systemic ways that folks have been excluded from the process. And this is just one of those ways.

And for the next segment, we will hear from Rich, Rich Gordon.

Okay, thank you. Good evening and welcome. First of all, I'm Rich Gordon and I currently am serving as chair of citizens for an elected mayor. I want to thank you for being here. I want to thank the city council and the working group for initiating this series of community dialogues and communication. And I also want to thank those people, my collects, who served in 2017 and 2018 on the CVRA working group. They led us to a system of governance that includes district elections for our council members. And we believe that that is a system that has served this city well. whether it's because of the districts or changing demographics, we now have the most diverse city council in our history, and that's a good thing. Districts provide greater service to residents. If you've got an issue in your neighborhood with a pothole, some problem with your park, there was a break-in, you've got a council member that you can go to directly who is accountable to you and works for you and represents you in the city in that district. Council members under this district system are able to focus on local concerns. Our proposal is that we maintain these districts, but add a citywide directly elected mayor. This would allow our council members to maintain their focus and remain accountable to the voters in their district. It allows the mayor to focus on citywide issues and be accountable to all. A rotational mayor is actually elected by the council, not all the voters. Every four years, I have a mayor who I didn't vote for. We believe that the voters, all voters, all citizens, should be able to select the most visible leader in our community. We also take a look at this and we don't believe that it dilutes voter voice in any way. In fact, we think it actually enhances voter voice because voters get two choices. They get to choose their council member in their district and they get to choose their mayor. We believe that it's important to have an elected mayor because we think major projects in this city need to be steered to completion. We have got holes in the ground where hotels were supposed to be. We have bridges that take two years to get completed. We need a mayor who takes a project from planning to execution and who can engage with consistent oversight. And we've got some big projects ahead. We've got a master plan for the airport. Our convention center needs to be remodeled and revitalized. We need to get bridges built over Indian Canyon and Vistachino. So with these big projects, we need someone who will help build intergovernmental influence for us, because we can't pay for all of this stuff ourselves in this town. We need somebody who can be consistently in Washington DC and Sacramento advocating on our behalf on a consistent and dedicated basis. We need them to bring back the resources that we need We also believe that a mayor should be our spokesperson, someone who represents this city's brand. Tourism is our economic engine. We need someone to work with the hospitality industry and the business community to promote Palm Springs. We need someone who is identifiable clearly as our mayor also so that all of us don't have any confusion about who is leading our city. We need a mayor that can bring sustained leadership with a clear public mandate. In other words, a mayor who will bring a vision. They should maintain a long-term focus with a single point of accountability and drive innovation as has been done with citywide elected mayors in the past. Ron Oden was mentioned. Some of the things that Ron did to improve this city as a directly elected mayor are immeasurable. Now, those who oppose this concept that we have will tell you a number of things why this doesn't work. First, they'll tell you it's not legal. But actually, 20 cities in the state of California have this model. Lawsuits that have been filed have not been filed about district elections and a mayor. They've been filed in places where people refuse to go to district elections. We didn't do that. We went to district elections. Our city attorney says that no other city has gone from districts and then added a mayor. Well, actually, they did that in 2016 in Costa Mesa. In 2022, they did it in Santa Cruz. And two years ago, in 2024, in the city of Hayward in Northern California, In response to a threatened lawsuit over the California Voting Rights Act, the city council and the city of Hayward went to a system of district elections plus a district-wide mayor, a city-wide elected mayor, and that was agreed to as a settlement for the threatened lawsuit. So there's precedence. there's always legal risk in anything we do in this country, but given the history that we see in other cities, we believe that our proposal, maintaining the districts, citywide mayor, reduces that risk to a bare minimum. Some will tell you that it's too expensive, that we're gonna add cost, but we don't think there's any additional election cost. These elections will be held as part of our regular municipal elections. A mayor who takes a salary and full benefits costs $88,000 a year. A small amount of our budget. A pittance of the city budget when actually what we expect is a return on that investment through money coming back from Sacramento and Washington DC. We don't think there's a need for additional office space or staff. And we would remind you that any cost that would be related to having a directly elected mayor would be subject to council approval and oversight. The other thing that we've heard is that it will take big bucks to run a campaign for mayor. We would say that viable candidates will attract funding. And we believe that any current council member could run and be elected mayor. Our group does not support any candidate. And we will not endorse a candidate for mayor. We endorse a governance change. And we look at cities like Stockton and Long Beach where they've had district council elections and members of those districts then went on to become mayor and even run for higher office. And so we think that actually the district elected city council member will gain the visibility that would allow them to become an even more viable candidate for mayor. From our perspective, it's also clear that, as was said, we have a city manager. We understand that administrative duties lie with the city manager. We want a mayor who collaborates with the city council to ensure that the city manager remains focused on the council's goals. The best way to do this from our perspective is that we should put a measure on the ballot. A charter change to have a directly elected mayor should be put on the ballot here in Palm Springs. A public vote is the ultimate form of community engagement. In conclusion, we believe that districts have served us well, that an elected mayor would complement our present system, it would allow us to evolve our governance to meet 21st century demands and needs, we have examples of cities where this has worked, and we would have the best of local impact in our district representation and sustained leadership at the citywide level. Let the people decide, put this on the ballot.

Okay, folks, so at this point, Councilmember DeHart is going to host a Q&A between our two speakers and all you lovely audience out there. I do have some speaker cards that will call out names, and then we'll run around with the mic, and then also I have some blank ones if you'd also like to speak.

Are they in any order? No.

Well, as we received them, yes. If you filled out your card first, you're on top.

All right. Thanks to Lex. Thanks, Rich, for your presenting. Okay. So I'm gonna call, and I'm told that the cards are in order as the working group received them. The mics may not be working, Dieter? So we'll get it going and work on the mics, but we'll have, the speakers will come up here and speak from the podium, okay? So the first up that we've got is, oh, it's PJ. And after PJ, we have Paul Henriksen.

Hello, I'm PJ. Really, I don't have a lot to say now. He pretty much covered it all. What I wanted to say, I am for a mayor. I've been here almost 24 years, and the city council's done a great job of being mayor when we needed it. But our mayor's before and I know people have bad taste with Steve on certain issues But the truth is when there was mayor's it was really good. I used to come here in the 70s and also when I lived in Long Beach and Palm Springs, I loved that's why I moved here. I think that's why a lot of people move here and Then it seems like everything is changing and I know growth is good But it shouldn't be up to five people to make decisions of Palm Springs and that's how I feel and a mayor should be in charge of the city and they should be in charge our police officers in our fire department and not our city manager. But I definitely think we need a mayor. And city council, great. Personally, I think city council should run their run and then take time off and come back again. I think we just keep doing the same thing over. But I am for mayor.

Okay, Paul, you're up next. And then we've got Steven Dixon.

Hi everybody, Paul Henriksen. I'm opposed to changing the current structure My husband and I, we were co-chairs of neighborhood formation support. And when we went to districts, there were 37 plus meetings like this, and they were very constructive. And I learned a lot during that process. I actually went 180 degrees. I started out in that process really kind of wanting to stay with what was familiar. learned so much from so many people during all of those meetings it changed my opinion 180 degrees we're enjoying the benefits of having five equals and I want to focus on those five equals for a moment and that is That's the guardrails to democracy. When you have five equals, and not another to throw that five off balance, but five truly equals, and they're each unique, and each one of them, as we've gone through rotation, has brought to us their unique interests, abilities, and personality to the table for all of us to benefit. When I think about going back to having an at-large elected mayor, I hear some of the comments about it'll bring accountability, this, that, and the other thing. Well, it's not lost on me, and hopefully it's not lost on you, that we had once an at-large elected mayor who also brought the FBI to City Hall. I think is important to remember. Does an at-large mayor genuinely bring accountability? I'm not so sure it does. And rotating equals that are truly equal and not throwing another party, we have enough leadership in this city. I think adding a mayor is a solution looking for a problem. I don't see, and I've really thought hard about this and heard what others have had to say, and I'm having a lot of trouble being convinced that we should go back to what I used to think was a good idea. I don't think it's a good idea. I don't support it. Why those guardrails, I feel, are important. Sorry, I'm winging this, so... Oh, well, I guess the hook has hit me. So thanks. I didn't realize. I should have been paying attention. And I just wanted to make that clear.

I didn't want to interrupt you, but. Okay. My time is up. The other person also got three minutes. We were watching the clock on that one. So, yes.

Thanks so much for listening.

Thanks, guys.

All right. Stephen Dixon. And after Stephen, we've got Garth Gilpin.

I'll be giving you a 30-second warning by just saying 30 seconds, everybody, so just know, but you do have three minutes.

Hello, I'm Steven Dixon. I live in District 3. And I appreciate everything that's happened so far and everything that's been said. I think Rich and Lex did a beautiful job presenting their points of view. I definitely would like to go back to having a full-time mayor representing the whole city. And actually, this last gentleman just gave me a perfect segue about accountability. In 2022, the Universal Basic Income Grant was approved by the City Council of Palm Springs and was funded with $700,000. No one can understand or account for that money. The program just disappeared. The gentleman who received the $700,000 did very well financially on his own. And I feel that that is one of the most important aspects of a full-time mayor is to have the accountability. What happens is if you're only there for a year and your program is going for three years, then you have different accountabilities going along. Whereas if you have a four-year mayor, that gives you a chance to have something introduced, executed, and completed and evaluated. and that i'm just i was really shocked when i realized that that 700 000 disappeared and i don't think i heard or read anything about anybody saying well that was my problem that was my mistake and and i just think that that was really very upsetting and that's pretty much what i wanted you to say i just believe that the accountability issue there are many issues There are a lot of positives to both forms of government, but I just felt that the accountability thing was really lacking in our last term. Thank you.

Are the mics working now, I'm being told? They don't work still.

Okay.

Good evening.

My time started? Yes, sir. Good evening, I'm Garth Gilbert. I'm a permanent citizen here. I stay during the summer most of the time. My big complaint, I'm for a mayor. My big complaint was the, Lux, is that your name? I have not had the pleasure to meet you, but you complained that nobody knocked on your door. And I want to say to everybody in this room, if we don't have a mayor, that for the next four out of every five years, nobody will knock on your door and ask you to be a vote for mayor. It's not fair to have someone run our city when you have absolutely no input as to who they are, where they are, what their programs are, and it's a shame. And I'm sorry you feel that way, but nobody's knocked on my door either, and nobody's gonna knock on any of these doors four out of five years. Thank you.

Thanks, Garth. John Lano. And then after John, we have Kurt Watts.

Thank you, Ron.

Thank you, Lex, and thank you, Rich, for speaking on both sides of this issue. I wanted to share my perspective. I'll go on record saying I am for a citywide elected mayor for a couple of reasons. It's somewhat more personal to me. For me, it's three big reasons. One, we have major holes in the middle of our downtown that have been there for years on end, and every year a different mayor is going in front of those developers, and it happened yet again this year, and it's no reflection of the person who's currently in the mayor's seat, but she didn't have the context of the year before where she could say, I'm holding you accountable. We need the same person year after year holding these developers accountable, or we start taking back that land to develop it. That's one. Number two, this is about helping this city evolve and get stronger as it modernizes. And that is what we're seeing with the airport plan, with the convention center. We've talked about those bridges. Let's be very specific about those bridges. It's going to take $180 million to get that Jean Autry Bridge completed, probably closer to $200 million. The whole city budget is $181 million. The math ain't mathing. We need somebody to go to D.C. and Sacramento and get more than our fair share for this world-class city. We have a Palm Springs brand that we owe it to. The last piece for me, personally, it's all about making sure that there is collaboration among the entire city council and a voice outward to that brand. I think about what's happening right now to our Canadian friends and the national scene that's reflecting on Palm Springs. A banner and PSP airport is not going to bring them back if they're not flying here in the first place. And so we just need a loud voice to help speak for all people. The last piece I'd just like to bring up is referencing back to that 2018 CVRA settlement. If you really dig into that, you start to learn two models were considered. Four districts and an elected mayor, or five districts with rotational. If we had gone with the four districts and the elected mayor, there would not have been a minority majority district. Palm Springs did it right by showing for representation and putting the five districts in place. However, there could have been one more alternative, which was the five districts with an elected mayor. We as citizens did not get the chance to vote on that. That is what they did in Santa Cruz. They voted overwhelmingly for the six districts is what they had an elected mayor and voted down seven districts and a rotational mayor. So, again, I think we've done an incredible job with the districts. The proposal says keep the districts. All it says is put in front of our voters the right and the opportunity to decide on the issue of an elected mayor. So thank you. Thank you.

All right. After Kirk, we've – oh, Dominic Moonhart in the back.

Good evening. Kurt Watts. I'm a 24-year resident of Palm Springs. And during my time here, not only did I previously, when I first came here, worked with the city of Palm Springs as a redevelopment administrator, but then also worked in two adjacent cities, both City of Rancho Mirage as their economic development director and City of Cathedral City as an economic development director. Simultaneously, I worked extensively in projects here in Palm Springs as a citizen. I was a member of the Measure J Commission when it got started. I attended 1PS as a representative of the Sunrise Park Neighborhood Association as their president and other positions there. So I've been very involved as a citizen within Palm Springs as well as getting some very extensive involvement in other cities and how they've worked. You may or may not know that in Coachella Valley, there are three other cities that have the direct elected mayor. I don't personally aspire to be Desert Hot Springs or Coachella. La Quinta is one of them. I look at cities like Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, who I think are well-run cities. They have basically what we have. And I agree with the prior speaker who said, I think, well, I'll just say right up front, I thought this issue had been put to bed in a very good way when we changed to district elections and had rotating mayors. That's what Branch Mirage has. That's what Palm Desert has. And I think that from what I'm hearing people think a direct elected mayor is going to do, I think you're going to find that's not reality. A direct elected mayor is not going to be able to compete in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. for the kind of funds that people are thinking they're going to do. Development projects, I was in private development, so I brought that to the table as well when I started working on things. Very complex, and I'm not sure what you think a mayor, who just by virtue of being directly elected, is going to be able to do to force a developer to change the landscape and force property to be taken back. It's a very extensive project to be able to take someone's own property because they're not performing the way you would like them to perform. So I would encourage people to try to take away the emotions of any issues that you have. One question that I hope will be answered later in the decision-making or Q&A is, it hasn't been explained to me yet, if we have five council members who are elected, is this mayor who is directly elected... 30 seconds. Thank you. Is this mayor who would be directly elected going to be a sixth vote? Which means you can have ties. Or what happens if the council, as representing all five districts elected by their constituents, if they take a 3-2 vote and it's different than what the mayor would like to see, how do you resolve those discrepancies? That's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, after Dominic, we have James Gianelli.

All right, hello. I'm Dominic Moonhart. I was born and raised in Palm Springs, just like Lex, but I am in support for an elected mayor, a two-year term mayor with a sixth district, that district, two minority-majority districts. The reason why I support this is because I am a former student at Fullerton College and I witnessed firsthand what has happened in a five district rotating mayor in the city of Fullerton. It has been overrided several times, which can happen in Palm Springs. It's irresponsible for us to not think that the rotation that we have now is overrided, can be overrided by the council, to have one person hold that seat. And the person who lives in a poor side of town, in a poor district, can't do anything to recall that person. So I propose that we have a charter amendment to have a two-year mayor term with six districts, have the two districts, at least two of those districts, be a minority-majority district. I am not in favor of having five city council districts with an elected mayor with voting power. It makes no sense. It's a deadlock. It just doesn't make sense. And so I appreciate that this forum is happening. One thing that I am a little bit frustrated is why is there only one Spanish meeting? I would prefer to have at least two more, one in the north and one in the south side of town at least. Because one Spanish meeting and six English meetings, that's horrible. I wanna see at least the Latino community come out here and understand what's going on. And I would like to see more Spanish meetings. So that's my question to the working committee. Why is there only one Spanish meeting? Again, I support six districts, two of them as a minority majority district. an elected mayor, a two year term mayor, so we can all at least vote once with every two years, at least for something once every two years, and then every four years we can vote twice, one for a council member, one for an elected mayor. I truly don't want to see what's happening in Fullerton happen in Palm Springs where the rotation could be overrided. Now, currently I have full confidence of the entire city council, thank you, of the entire city council to where that won't be overrided, but there have been close elections, and what if those close elections went the other way around, and what if we did have the rotation overrided? It is a concern, and it can happen here. It's irresponsible for us not to think that it will not happen here, because that's what happened in Fullerton. They said it'll never happen here, and it ended up happening. So six districts, an elected mayor, two-year term mayor. Thank you.

Thanks, Dominic. All right, after James Ginelli, we have Gail Vasquez.

Hi, I'm James Janelli, and I'm a Grateful Recovering Gay Man in Palm Springs. I lived here, and I live in Desert Hot Springs currently. I have another home in 29 Palms. I know Lex, and you have a lot of similarities with Todd Gloria. So I helped Todd Gloria get elected to office in San Diego. I left Los Angeles in 2000, helped Toni Atkins. She's now still our senator. I worked for the LGBT Center as a development officer when we were doing NOAA on 8 campaign. I helped Jenny when she was running for office. I'm 64. You're 34, right? I've been coming here for six decades. My family owned a place up on Snow Creek Road at the beginning of Palm Springs. I've seen a lot of change here, good, bad, and indifferent. I think that cities do the best they can with the tool sets that they have at the time. Living in Los Angeles, I saw a lot of corruption. I also want to thank the police department for coming here, our first responders who give us a safe place to live every day. That's a difficult job. Difficult. That and the fire department too, right? They're our resource, you know? I helped Ron. Ron's known me for, I've known Ron for 24 years. He asked me if I'd help him run. I said, of course I would because he's the right person for the right job. The leader sets the tone. The chief sets the tone, right? We have to have accountability and responsibility. So you get things going and two years is not enough. We already heard that too. It takes four years and hopefully then if the person's good, they get another four years. This country has gone through a lot, you know, the political structure and everything is in fray, right? But the thing is, is like, you know what? I've called Ron several times. Ron, what is going on with the goddamn road, right? I'm talking about Vistachino. I blew my tire out. But those interactions that we had, the roads start getting fixed. We still have roads. I call him, I take a picture, right? And because it happens that way. It just does. And I think that, you know, this community, has a strong foundation that could be built stronger. But you cannot get projects going and then have two years and you're out when you're not paying the council members enough that they have to have two jobs and they're working one job and working another. That's the other issue. Listen, I was making 70,000 back in 08 as a development officer. 30 seconds. In AA, we get a minute. No, I'm just kidding.

You've had three. I get confused. I get confused.

i get confused no i'm just saying if we want real transactional information here to move in a positive way for the greater good of all we have to have stability in our mayors and our chiefs and our police department all of those things have to happen there has to be accountability because i know projects that got started this is a different environment that's your time babe so anyway thank you for your time thank you thank you i can go on

And he's not kidding you that he calls all the time. There's a tree branch that's down. There's a manhole cover that's a little loose. There's sand blowing on my car. That's what we're here for. So after Gail, we have David Friedman.

I'm Gail Vasquez, and I live in Indian Canyons. I think that's District 7? 5. But I want to just pick up a little bit from where he left off, but I want to add something that's critically important. When we have bridges that go up to Desert Hot Springs or across Vistachino or to different neighborhoods, we're disenfranchising an entire nationality of people that don't get... personal service I know that I think I come from a similar background as you do my father was from Chihuahua my mother is Irish and I'm first-generation American and I just have to say that we really need that I mean one of the key focuses is you can have an accountable mayor you can have a strong mayor that has the connections that can get us the funding that we need to build the city the infrastructure that is washed away over and over again and we have to have those connections to exist and one of the most important things is that we also include the entire community all the communities of the Coachella Valley we have a rich strong heritage of creativity and diversity whether it's preferences in your relationships or whether it's the community and our nationalities and how important and critical it is that we support it. We can't keep every time someone needs an ambulance in Desert Hot Springs and it's raining, too bad. They can't get up there. So I think that if we vote correctly, if we inform the community correctly, I think we can have a strong person with a broad background and that can bring the money and the resources that we really need. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, Gayle. After David, we have Ted Iwan.

Thank you. I'll be brief. I'm from New York, and so I will probably be speaking in my New York Minute voice. Try to keep that a little slower, but within the three minutes. I have owned a house in the Indian Canadiens neighborhood, now District 5, since 2007. and have lived full-time in the city since July of 2014, so 12 years from now. I was previously a lawyer in private practice, and as a result of my legal experience, I was appointed to the Sustainability Commission. And following the FBI raid that other speakers have mentioned, I was appointed, along with about 50 others, by city council to serve on the what we call the Governance Transparency and Ethics Task Force to deal with the FBI raid and the consequences of having a mayor who perhaps should have done things, did things that he perhaps should have done. I realize that he was acquitted, but once again, I was, along with Mr. Hendrickson, we were supposed to be a city hall for a 1PS meeting the day of the raid, and obviously that was canceled. It brought a lot of issues to the city. In addition to that experience of trying to deal with the fallout and creating guidelines, Mayor Moon had an issue with, and I believe a council member, Jenny Foote was council member at the time, uh, with a, uh, with, with a microphone and the nanny cam that he put in his office. And I was asked by city council to, um, supervise an independent, uh, investigation into whether that violated various issues of California law in particular, the Brown act and the penal code prohibition about, uh, recording, uh, non-consensual recording. So we've had two directory, uh, directly elected mayors. who have clearly brought legal issues in front of the city. I worked, admire very much the work that this CVRA group was doing in 2018. I was one of the submitters of a map along with Mr. Crawford whose brilliant map was adopted largely and I had some input on the south end of the city for districts four and five. I agree with previous speakers, a directly elected mayor is not necessary we can have accountability that's the role of the city city manager it's not been clear what the role would be and i would like to remind everybody that the 50 million dollars to for the bridge over indian canyon uh on indian canyon over the wash that came uh when council member garner was mayor at the time of hurricane of the hurricane, so we do not need a directly elected mayor. I believe our council members and the city manager are fully capable of doing what we've named them to do. Thank you.

Okay, after Chad, we have Frank Bucci.

Hi, everybody. I'm Tad Iwan, and last time I got in front of a microphone was the Palm Springs Gay Men's Chorus. I could sing what I have to say, but I don't think you'd appreciate it because my voice is a little... And if I seem a little tired, I'm trying to get on the ballot to run for city council. So I'm in District 2, and I appreciate the districting that we have in our city because I tried this a few years back when there was no districting. And let me tell you, that was almost like an impossible feat for someone coming out of nowhere just to try to run and get on the ballot. Because at that time, anybody could nominate you in the city as long as they were a voter in the city. But you had to get 200 names. Now you only have 80. And the comments I heard about, oh, you know, if people don't come to your door, you know, they're not going to, you know, recognize you or appreciate it if you don't come. Let me tell you, it's 115 degrees out there, and I've been trying my Just to get some some names and it's it's really difficult in this heat to knock on doors. So Anyway, I digressed so I just want to say that I am in favor of a mayor I've come from situations in towns where there's a leader who is responsible for building consensus. And I think that's very important in a town like ours because we have a lot of opinions and we all want to be heard. And I think a mayor will help us as a good leader and a dynamic leader, build consensus and build our brand. I mean, in the last 10 years, this city has changed phenomenally. I mean, we're recognized internationally as Palm Springs, the place to be, the place to go. It has a history, I'd like to keep it small, but it's not gonna happen. It's growing in leaps and bounds. And I think to build a brand, and to build it the right way, we need good leadership, we need dynamic leadership, people who can talk not only to the people, but to other politicians and other areas like in the government, state, federal, to get things done. So thank you very much for your time, and I appreciate your service back there, guys. Thanks.

Okay, after Frank is Jenny Westman.

Hello everybody, my name is Frank Bucci, I live in District 2, and I'm gonna try to revitalize the Vista Norte District for the 1PS, so if anybody's in District 2, let me know. So I wanna kinda talk about, we had this evolution a few years ago, we did the, with the Voting Rights Act. We've kind of have evolved, and now that we've been running with five districts, we're learning from the issues that we've been dealt with. And so I think there's a time for a change. And I think of having a full time mayor would be a big benefit. No disrespect to the council members. They give their they signed up for a part time job and give full time and a half. And we all see it. And no disrespect. but we see it wears you down. That's not fair. That's not fair to them. That's not what they signed up for. But they give their all and we really appreciate that. We'll make sure you guys understand that. We do know that. But I think if you have a full-time mayor, I wrote an op-ed piece a few years ago that got published in the Desert Sun talking about the importance of the mayor and the reason for it being a strategic visionary position, and that's why we need it. Somebody that's elected for four years, operational, can do a district four and five, so we have three one year, two years later we have three more. It makes for a nice, coherent, consistent process. But I think what we have to consider is that we need a leader that sees more than just this year. And what can I get done this year? We talked about the big projects and getting to Sacramento. They're part-time. They have businesses that run. They have families to manage. They have other things that they're supposed to be doing, but they're in Sacramento fighting for us. We need a full-time mayor in Sacramento fighting for us to get us the money and in Washington to get us what we need. So that's why I really think we can benefit much financially as a community by having a full-time mayor. doesn't vote, keep the districts, the districts work for us, it's proven it works for us, they vote, maybe the mayor breaks a tie if one of the members can't be there, operationally we can figure out those details later. But I'd like to say we really could use a mayor in this town to support the five council people that we have that pay attention to what we need in our region, thank you.

You know, did you all notice that Frank looked directly at me when he says the job wears you down? I don't know if he was trying to give me a hint on something there. Okay, Jenny, I just have a first name, Eric from District 1. You're after Jenny here.

Hi, everyone. I'm Ginny Weisman. I'm the founder and executive director of Pet Ministry P.S. for the past 17 years here. I moved here from Chicago 18 years ago this month, and my joke is I finally thought out. So I do not complain about the heat, and I live here year-round, and I love it, and I am in District 3. I came tonight because I'm on the fence about this issue. I started a project six years ago trying to build affordable housing for seniors and pets, and I've talked to every council member, every mayor, starting with Jeff Kors and former council member Jenny Fote about this, and we're still trying to make this happen. But in the meantime, I've gotten to know everybody. And I've really been coming from a city like Chicago. I could have never even come close to meeting the mayor. In fact, I wanted to tell him just enclose the city when they were talking about enclosing the sporting arena, the Soldier Field. Make it a perfect city then. But anyway, the point I'm making is that I talked to all the council members for the last six years. And I kind of like this equality issue that we talked about. Because when I was leading food tours in downtown Chicago, the question of people out of town often would be about Mayor Pune and what happened, why did the FBI show up in Palm Springs? And my question at that time was, who was doing oversight over the elected mayor? And it seems when there's an equal city council, there's oversight over each other. And there wasn't an oversight, I didn't know until David mentioned it, the Mayor Moon story, who was doing oversight when he was doing that to his office. So I'm getting a very interesting perspective tonight of both sides of the issue. I'm still leaning towards having the mayors rotate. But I have two questions that I think I know the answer to, but I'd like a confirmation. When someone's elected to the city council, how long is their term? Four years. Four years. And are there term limits? No, because I know you were on the council for a long time.

Okay, so here's... And that was a good thing.

Yeah, and I still haven't seen Ginny. We're both Ginnys. I haven't seen Ginny in a while, but when I do see her, she's in front of the mic at the city council meeting, right? Because she's on the Palm Springs Animal Shelter Board, and she's on the... Okay, so my question with that is... So now we've had everybody but David Reddy on the board as a mayor. So if everybody who was an incumbent is elected again, with Council Member Behart, Council Member Bernstein, and Council Member Garner, and now Naomi Soto, who's still got a lot of time on her, and then David Reddy is only on for a year, then do the people who have already been mayor rotate back into mayor? Yes. They do. Okay. Thank you. Well, that was my question, but thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. After Eric is Ruth Deborah.

Hi. Good evening. My name's Eric, a new resident of Palm Springs, so nice to be here this evening. Happy to share what I'm about, my feelings and feedback, and the reason why I'm about to share what I share. Just save... more time now, but what we're, there's a lot of conversation tonight on both sides and it's this kind of idea and conversation around what brings a real capacity for democratic freedom, right? And it's all this talking about what the mayor does, not so much what is the power of your vote, what is the power of our voices, right? We could easily elect a mayor who sits there and does nothing. right, you talk all about this money and all this stuff, but they could just sit there doing nothing, not even show up at meetings, and what does that mean, right? So I'd like to just throw out a few considerations and something to think about, and these may be some challenging big words that people have preconceived notions on and stuff like that, but it's really what you wanna put out here into this conversation, if you really wanna have your vote matter, Your voice matter. That's what this is about. This is about what the mayor does or what the mayor is going to get out of the county, the feds, or whatever. It's your voice. It's our sovereignty. It's our freedom that we're trying to discuss. And so it's issues like rank choice or having a primary and a runoff. for your candidates, it's also about having six, eight, or 10 districts to have representation from as well. You shouldn't just be limited to this idea of five, because the more that you have, even in a smaller community, the more vote and voice you have at city council, and you can get those things done. Also, public financing and term limits are things to really think about what this process is going to look like no matter what you choose for your mayor. These are things that strengthen our voices, strengthen our votes, and make everything better at City Council with both what Rich and what Lex are saying and what everybody's saying up here. And that's really what we need to come around and think about doing and putting forward because it's accountability, fairness, sovereignty, and stronger democracy. So just my thoughts to really put into that because I've seen in a lot of other cities, you get somebody elected mayor on 21% of the vote. Good luck with that. Everybody in this room is going to be mad unless you're going to be besties with that mayor and get in your way. And nobody wants a faction like that in control. Thank you.

So after Ruth is gonna be John Pacheco.

That was up a little too high. Hi, I'm Ruth Deborah. I've lived in this city for 23 years. I'm an out and proud old lesbian. And I am very much opposed to us electing another one single mayor for four years who, from everybody that's speaking, must be some sort of magic mayor because he can just, and it would be a he, I'm sure. Because we have not elected a woman as mayor. But with the rotating mayor, we've had women as mayors. And that makes me happy because I see my face in the mayor. we've had a grand total of one mayor of color before we went to districts now we rotate we do have a majority on our city council of people of color now this is great this is what we want we talk about the diversity of this city but we need to show it There is absolutely, we've done really, really well in selecting and electing our city council members. We didn't do so well with the mayors. You know, we really, we screwed up a little bit, quite a bit. But, yeah, I mentioned Mayor Moon, and I remember going to city council and asking him to resign. But that's another issue. I want to see this diversity continue. There's absolutely no reason why there can't be continuity from one city council member to another. You act as if they don't even talk to each other. Of course they do. They're working together. They're going to continue. There is going to be continuity, and not just one magic mayor. Thank you.

Okay, after John, we've got Greg Matsunomi.

Hi, everyone. I'm John Pacheco. I live in District 1. And I don't have strong opinions one way or the other on this topic, at least as of this evening, just coming here to learn like the rest of us. But one thing that occurs to me is I wonder if in our current model if we should be considering any separation of powers issues with the notion of having a council member simultaneously serving as a local legislator and as a mayor. And the context for my wondering about this is I lived in San Francisco for over 25 years, lived in the Bay Area for most of my life. And I was living in San Francisco at the end of 2017 when our elected mayor at the time, Ed Lee, passed away in office. And under succession in San Francisco, they have a hybrid city council and county board because it's a city and county of San Francisco. And under succession, the president of the board at the time was London Breed and she became acting mayor. And very controversially, she decided, well, I have to run for a full term. Ed Lee's term was about to end as it happened. And so she decided, to much local controversy, that I think I will serve as acting mayor, but also hold on to the board president seat. And that created controversy. A LOT OF CONSTERNATION WITH HAVING SOMEONE SERVING BOTH AS THE CITY'S EXECUTIVE AND AS A LEGISLATOR AND THE KIND OF POWER THAT COULD CONSOLIDATE. OF COURSE, PALM SPRINGS IS NOT A MAJOR METRO LIKE SAN FRANCISCO, BUT I WONDER IF WE ARE AT RISK EVEN IN THIS CURRENT MODEL FROM A SCENARIO LIKE THAT PLAYING OUT OF JUST THE RIGHT OR WRONG CONDITIONS AS THEY MAY BE WERE TO PRESENT THEMSELVES AND IF WE HAD someone serving both as an executive, even in a one-year model, while also having a voting right as a council member. All right, thank you.

Okay, after Greg, we've got Jeff Pluse.

Hello, I'm Greg Matsunami. I believe I live in District 3. I just moved, so I do have to confirm that. I only have one quick question, and I'm thinking it's probably more to the working group than it, or maybe it's to Rich. But the number, because I also came like the prior gentleman. I came here to learn. I don't really have a position yet on yes or no. The one number that got tossed out that I'm having a lot of trouble believing is the 88,000 number. So I do believe that there's a cost to this position, but it's not just salary. There has to be an office, there has to be a staff, there has to be a budget. So I'd like, I don't know if there's an economic feasibility study or something that happens in this process, but before I vote, I would let, oh, you do have an answer?

Yeah, so if you go on Engage Palm Springs on April 8th, can you tell me?

In the microphone, push.

Sorry.

If you go on Engage Palm Springs, the city council meeting from April 8th, there's a staff report in there that has all of the information for you.

Oh great, because that would help me understand too, you know, what is the cost of this position and then we as, there's always budget shortfalls, right? So how are we gonna make up, if we're gonna add this cost to the city budget, where does it come from or how do we raise? I know you said we can get some additional monies because of this role, but I'd like to see some of that analysis. That's all I have, thank you.

After Jeff, we've got Charlie Brown.

Hi my name is Jeff Pluth I'm as of two three days ago an actual resident of Palm Springs and instead of doing the commute to Colorado but I still get up there this is fascinating to me the fact that everybody has set up and made themselves available is encouraging I would yeah thank you for that the thing that I'm caught up on and this is probably because I'm a new person is what's the genesis of this being a topic Did something happen or is this just the next evolution? And the other thing is, as we grow as a community, we've talked a lot, I've heard a lot of talk tonight about the years somebody has been in Palm Springs and it's vast in some cases. Nobody has said things about the future. And that's a little disheartening to me. And as whatever this turns out to be, let's be sure that we're hiring, quote unquote, the position, not the person. That's basically it.

Thank you. Okay, after Charlie is Christensen.

Good evening, everyone. Charlie Brown here, District 3. I also came into this meeting without a dog in this race. I came in very neutral. Lex, great job when they were speaking. I'm like, that's right, I'm with her, them, they. And then when Rich got up, I'm like, that's a good point, too. I'm with him. And everyone has such amazing ideas that there is a true investment. But out of all the adjectives that I heard tonight, one resonated with me and that was the word visionary, right? Having a vision. And I think that sometimes holding a person accountable for our city, having someone be the spokesperson for our city sounds great, right? Because it's the go-to person. But then at the same time, look, diversity is so needed, right? And for a long time, I sit in this community and look for people like me. You know, look for people that look like me, talk like me, and we are a minority. So I do see both sides. I still don't know where I'm going to go. I would like to see the fiscal ramifications of what this would look like. I don't think 88,000 seems like a number that would be reasonable. but I'm sure, I'm an accountant by nature, I'm also a housing advocate, so certainly budget revisions can be made for this to be allowable, but our city is great, but sometimes I think that in order to go from ordinary, right, you need five little words or five little letters to become extraordinary. And I think that meetings like this where we get to collaborate, present ideas, that that is moving the needle in the right direction. Now, I don't know if that moving the needle is having an elected person or the rotating. I'm not sure, but Seven more meetings, and thank you board for providing this. I think will help me make my decision on which way I want to go. But thank you so much, and let's get this done.

So after Chris, we've got Lori Allion back.

Good evening. I'm Chris Christensen. I've been a resident of Palm Springs for about 19 years in District 4. And so I love the process with this. I've been a big fan of the public community meetings and that, and this is huge, to have put together this type of committee. have these types of town halls, community listening forums, feedback sessions and that. Very helpful for me because sometimes I tend to be a little bit on the fence because I see pros and cons to either side. However, at this point, I am a firm believer that the current process is working with the exception of, I would recommend, and I heard that earlier, where allowing the mayor to be in a two-year rotation cycle. It allows that person to gain that strength from that first year going into the second year. And I've seen that work in other types of situations because it also helps create the continuity between the council members as a whole. Because they are working together, not just for council members then that have a mayor that's overriding or overarching. And I just think that's a better process that I see and believe in and that it helps keep that diversity and that continuity continuing throughout and governing our city and the residents that we have. here to serve, and I appreciate this process. I love it. I'm glad that you're doing so many more of these community sessions, so thank you.

And after Lori, we've got Don Soja.

Hi, Lori Allayian, and because we seem to be proudly announcing how long we've been here and some of us how old we are, I've been here for 32 years as a full-time resident and I'm 67 years old. For listening to everybody tonight, I agree with bits of everything, bits of pieces that everyone has put forward. In particular, what concerns me and the reason I would advocate for maintaining our current system is that the city did go for its first, I believe, 78 years without ever having woman elected without having as mayor without ever having a Latino elected as mayor and only ever one non-white man elected as mayor yes theoretically going to citywide direct elections would allow us to elect anyone as mayor it doesn't we just don't do that So I continue to maintain that the right thing to do is to stay with our system now, which is producing great diversity and bringing in people with interests in different areas of the city on an ongoing basis. I hear a number of people say, we need a mayor. Well, doggone it, we have a mayor. It's a different mayor each year with a different perspective bringing different things. As it says on the side of City Hall, and it has said since it was first built, the people are the city. It's not the mayor is the city. And I think it's important for us to remember that we set up our charter, we set up our whole system of government around having the people, collaboration, working together to run the city. Beyond that, what I'll say is I kind of want people to right-size their expectations. If we go to a direct elected mayor, what I hear is this person should be visionary. This person should be excellent at getting projects completed, even when the property owner doesn't want to build the project, the mayor should be able to force them to do that, which I think is antithetical to our Constitution. The mayor should be excellent in marketing and tourism, bringing people to the city. They should also be auditing all of the grants so that we don't have a Queer Works debacle go on again. I don't know that you're really going to get one person who can do all those things, because frankly, in America these days, we've elected some real boneheads. The end. Thank you.

Perfect.

OK, after Don, we have Halyns Acosta.

good evening everybody my name is don soja i am running for palm springs city council district number one i am here tonight to listen to all of you and to learn from all of you as far as how you feel on this topic i've lived in palm springs full times for over 19 years i visited palm springs since 1973 yearly multiple times I've seen our city grow, good and bad, and I am here to listen to you, to see what you want before I make my decisions on how I feel, and I am so glad for these meetings, and I thank everybody for having them. Thank you very much.

And Haylands is our last speaker.

Hey everyone, my name is Halen Sacosta. I am in District One. I have been a resident of Palm Springs since 2018. Before then I was a resident in Coachella. Born and raised in the Coachella Valley. So I love my Coachella Valley. I am here to learn. I am young and I got tired of sitting on the sidelines. with politics and with our government. And in 2025, I decided to join organizations that would get things done on the government level. Like I mentioned, I came here to learn. When I joined groups that allowed city councils to talk as speakers, I was surprised that Naomi Soto was the pro tem mayor. Why? Because Palm Springs is predominantly white and we have retired folks, which I love. I want that for me, too. I want to retire in Palm Springs. And I was really inspired and motivated to know that someone that looks like me, that is a woman, is mayor. I was under the assumption that all of you elected a Latina mayor to be your representative. I was misinformed. I grew up in Coachella where we elect our mayors and that's how I thought it was for every city. When I learned that it was a rotational mayor, I thought that was a good thing for the things that Lex said in your argument, in your speech, because like you mentioned, it brings diversity. If Naomi would not have been elected in her district, would she have been elected a mayor, yes or no? 78 years of evidence shows that most likely not. I, which is why I admire the fact that we are now in a different time, as someone has mentioned in the audience, and we are now have a progressive environment where everyone can be elected in their districts and be a representative of the city that they live in. That's what I want. I want to be here when I retire, thank you.

Council Member DeHart, I believe her public comment ran smoother than the council meetings. And we had a hot topic tonight. Okay. Maybe that's because Brenda's sitting back there. you know in essence of time I'm gonna offer this up I haven't asked our two speakers this but if Lex and Rich are available to stay after to meet with you on the side to give their views of this topic our working group thanks you for coming tonight our job was to get your input which you've been seeing them take all kinds of notes for that council member garter she's been hiding back wave your hand she's been here too listening to you our next meeting we go dark in august but our next meeting is september 16th um all the dates are on the city website and uh we look forward to seeing you again we yeah go ahead gene i just want to make sure before you leave the room

I don't think these are working. Are they working? Oh, that's amazing. That's a mistake. That's a mistake. I got a mic. Before you leave the room, and I've taken pictures of all of you, please, you need to put It doesn't matter if it's a yes, no, a thought, maybe, I'm still considering. Put something, there's a board there for one side or the other. There's ones in the back. Please give us your thoughts because that's our purpose here is we have no other purpose except to hear what you want to say. And some people I know didn't get up and speak. Thank you. But we do want your thoughts. And so please sign up on the boards, thank you. Thank you.

Yeah, it's gonna be September 16th is our next meeting. No, our next meeting, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna go on a rotating schedule around the districts. So this first one we call the citywide meeting, but anyone's welcome to any of our meetings. We just wanted to make sure to touch all the districts. So the next one's September 16th, District 5 at Cahuilla Elementary School. Everything's listed on the website. We had over 100 people here tonight. This is more than I thought we would get. So thank you. Sacrificing Lex and Rich to you in the back. Thank you all for coming.