HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-01-09MINUTES
REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1992
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I. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Kelly convened the meeting at 4:00-p.m.
H. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Mayor Pro-Tempore Jean M. Benson
III. INVOCATION - Mayor Richard S. Kelly
IV. ROLL CALL
Present:
Mayor Pro-Tempore Jean M. Benson
Councilman Buford A. Crites
Councilman S. Roy Wilson
Councilman Walter H. Snyder
Mayor Richard S. Kelly
Also Present:
Bruce A. Altman, City Manager
Carlos L. Ortega, ACM/RDA Executive Director
David J. Erwin, City Attorney
Sheila R. Gilligan, City Clerk/P.I.O.
Ramon A. Diaz, ACM/Director of Community Development
Richard J. Folkers, ACM/Director of Public Works
Paul W. Shillcock, ACM/Director of Economic Development
Frank Allen, Director of Code Compliance
Pat Conlon, Director of Building and Safety
Paul Gibson, City Treasurer/Finance Director
David Millheim, Human Resources Director
John Wohlmuth, Environmental Conservation Manager
V. CONSENT CALENDAR
A. MINUTES of the Regular City Council Meeting of December 12, 1991.
Rec: Approve as presented.
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B. CLAIMS AND DEMANDS AGAINST THE CITY TREASURY - Warrant Nos.
WR1106, WR1110, WR1112, WR1202, and WR1204.
Rec: Approve as presented.
C. APPLICATION FOR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE by Linda Lee Lyon and
Sharon Frazeur for Backstreet Deli, 72-695 Highway 111, #A-7, Palm Desert.
Rec: Receive and file.
D. CLAIM AGAINST THE CITY by the County of Riverside for Indemnity Regarding
Antonio Navarrete (Claim #182).
Rec: By Minute Motion, deny the Claim and Instruct the City Clerk to so advise the
Claimant.
E. CLAIM AGAINST THE CITY by Walter C. Post in the Amount of $200.00 (Claim
#183).
Rec: By Minute Motion, authorize the Claims Review Committee to negotiate a
settlement in an amount not to exceed $200.00, subject to Claimant's execution
of a Release of All Claims.
F. LETTER OF RESIGNATION from Sheila J. Benson from the Sister City Committee.
Rec: Receive with sincere regret.
G. REOUEST FOR APPROVAL of Lease Agreement with Palm Desert Historical Society
for City Property Located at 72-861 El Paseo (Contract No. 00-594).
Rec: By Minute Motion, authorize the Mayor to execute a lease with the Palm Desert
Historical Society for City property located at 72-861 El Paseo.
H. U_QUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION to Advertise and Call for Bids for Advertising
Support Services Beginning July, 1992 (Contract No. 00-595).
Rec: By Minute Motion, approve the request and authorize the City Clerk to
advertise and call for bids.
I. REOUEST FOR APPROVAL of Change Order Nos. 1, 1A, and 2 for the Widening of
Portola Avenue and Haystack Road (Contract No. 00-553, Matich Corporation).
Rec: By Minute Motion, approve Change Order No. 1 in the amount of $7,571.18,
Change Order No. lA to transfer this amount from the project's contingency
to the base, and Change Order No. 2 in the amount of $3,138.64.
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J. REQUEST FOR ACCEPTANCE OF WORK for Contract No. 00-553, Widening of
Portola Avenue and Haystack Road.
Rec: By Minute Motion, accept the work as complete and authorize the City Clerk
to file a Notice of Completion for Contract No. 00-553.
K. REOUEST FOR AWARD OF BID for Landscape Maintenance Services for El Paseo
Street Medians from Highway 74 East to Highway 111 (Contract No. 00-590).
Rec: By Minute Motion, award the subject project contract to Jordan Landscape in
the amount of $17,760.00 (S 1,480.00 per month).
L. REOUEST FOR APPROVAL of Extension of Potholing Contract No. 00-475.
Rec: By Minute Motion, authorize the extension of Contract No. 00-475 with
Hendrickson Construction to October, 1992.
M. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL to Declare as Surplus Property a 1982 Dodge 1-Ton
Flatbed Truck.
Rec: By Minute Motion, declare as surplus property a 1982 Dodge 1-ton flatbed.
N. REQUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT for Engineering Services for Storm Drain
on San Luis Rey (Contract No. 00-596).
Rec: By Minute Motion, award a contract to BSI Consultants, Inc. for engineering
services with fees subject to successful negotiations by staff.
O. REOUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT for Engineering Services for Storm Drain
on Toro Peak Road (Contract No. 00-597).
Rec: By Minute Motion, award a contract to Sanborn/Webb, Inc. for engineering
services with fees subject to successful negotiations by staff.
P. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Change Order No. 1 to Contract No. 00-551 with
Matich Corporation for the Fred Waring Drive Improvements,.
Rec: By Minute Motion, approve Change Order No. 1 to the subject contract in the
amount of $6,250.02.
Upon motion by Snyder, second by Crites, the Consent Calendar was approved as presented
by unanimous vote of the Council.
VI. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - A
MR. DAN EHRLER, Executive Vice President of the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce,
noted that the Chamber had its 1992 Installation and Awards Ceremony the previous Friday
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and that he was present at the Council meeting to take care of "unfinished business" from that
ceremony. He presented a plaque of appreciation to City Clerk Sheila Gilligan for her efforts
on behalf of the community. In addition, he presented a plaque to Councilman Crites in
appreciation of his acting as Master of Ceremonies.
VB. RESOLUTIONS
None
VBI. ORDINANCES
For Introduction:
None
For Adoption:
A. Q$PINANCE NO. 662 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, ADDING CHAPTER 9.30T0 ARTICLE "V"OF
TITLE 9 OF THE PALM DESERT MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING
TRESPASSING ON PRIVATE PROPERTY.
Mr. Altman noted that this had been introduced at the last meeting and that no changes
had been made. He recommended its adoption.
Upon motion by Benson, second by Crites, Ordinance No. 662 was adopted by unanimous vote
of the Council.
B. ORDINANCE NO. 663 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING SECTION 10.36.010 OF THE
MUNICIPAL CODE RELATIVE TO ESTABLISHING SPEED ZONES ON
MAGNESIA FALLS DRIVE BETWEEN PORTOLA AVENUE AND DEEP CANYON
ROAD, EL PASEO WEST OF HIGHWAY 74, AND SAN PABLO AVENUE
BETWEEN SAN GORGONIO WAY AND COLLEGE OF THE DESERT.
Mr. Altman noted that no changes had been made since introduction of this ordinance
and recommended adoption.
Upon motion by Snyder, second by Benson, Ordinance No. 663 was adopted by unanimous
vote of the Council.
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C. ORDINANCE NO. 664 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, ADDING CATEGORY "J"TO CHAPTER 5.06
PERTAINING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT AND DEFINING OF BUSINESS
LICENSE TAX CATEGORIES.
Mr. Altman noted that no changes had been made to this ordinance and recommended
its adoption.
Upon motion by Benson, second by Snyder, Ordinance No. 664 was adopted by a 4-0-1 vote.
with Councilman Wilson ABSTAINING.
MR. HERMAN ZEMEL, 73-450 Country Club Drive, read a letter he had sent to the
Editor of the Desert Sun in support of the College of the Desert street fair. He also
questioned the business license fee.
Mayor Kelly noted that the fee pertained to outdoor sales throughout the City, not just
the College of the Desert street fair.
MR. THOMAS BRADY addressed the Council and asked for clarification of the
collection of this license fee. He said at the street fair when he pays for a space and then
is not able to use it for some reason, the College then sells it to someone else. He asked
whether the City would be collecting the license fee from both parties in a case such as
this. In addition, he asked what would happen if it rains and a vendor is not able to use
the space.
Mayor Kelly responded that all the details had not yet been worked out; however. he
noted the fee was primarily for administrative costs for processing the permit, whether
it rains or does not rain.
Councilmember Benson added that when the fee is established there will not be a $60.00
business license fee for those vendors to operate at the street fair; vendors would pay the
fee established in this resolution instead of the business license fee. Any vendor who has
a business license already would have that permit fee pro -rated and the appropriate
amount would be refunded.
MR. LARRY HIRSH, resident of Rancho Mirage, asked whether the City would be
enacting this fee if there was not a College of the Desert street fair.
Mayor Kelly responded that a new category was being established to allow for people
to sell at open air sales, and this was a tax associated with that. Upon further question
by Mr. Hirsh, he added that a person would have to take out a permit to operate at a
specific location.
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MR. MICHAEL BECKER, resident of Palm Desert, said he not only disagreed with the
fee, he disagreed with the process. He said the people had been told at the last meeting
that nothing would be discussed pertaining to the College of the Desert street fair, and
he felt this was done on the sneaky side when a proper amount of opposition was not
present.
Mr. Erwin noted that the resolution in the packets rescinded the previous resolution
adopted by the Council and would reduce the fee from $5.00 to $2.00 per space per day.
After further discussion, Councilman Crites moved to continue this matter to the 7:00 p.m.
portion of the meeting in order to allow for more input from the public. Motion was seconded by
Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
IX. CONSENT ITEMS HELD OVER
None
X. NEW BUSINESS
A. $LOUEST FOR APPROVAL OF MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU)
WITH CVAG FOR MOTOR VEHICLE FUNDS (AB 2766).
Mr. Altman noted the staff report in the packets and said Mr. Wohlmuth was available
to answer any questions.
Councilman Wilson moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize the Mayor to enter into a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CVAG allocating a portion of revenues derived from
AB2766 Motor Vehicle Registration Assessment Fee for purposes of PM10 Attainment. Motion was
seconded by Snyder.
Councilman Crites said he had no qualms about doing this; however, he said in the
Energy and Environment Committee there had been some cities indicating they were
going to keep all of the money themselves. He sad he wanted our resolution to indicate
that Council is willing to do this but expect the other legislative bodies in the Valley to
do the same, that Palm Desert would pay its fair share assuming the rest of the cities
follow suit.
Councilmen Wilson and Snyder accepted this friendly amendment. Motion was carried by
unanimous vote of the Council.
B. REOUEST BY PALM DESERT GALLERY ASSOCIATION FOR APPROVAL OF
THE USE OF KLIEG LIGHTS (SKYLIGHTS) ON EL PASEO FOR ART WALKS
FROM FEBRUARY THROUGH MAY, 1992.
Mr. Altman stated there was a staff report in the packets and noted that a member of
the audience wished to speak to this issue.
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MS. JACKIE BOWKER. President of the Palm Desert Gallery Association. stated she
had sent the letter requesting approN,al of these skylights. She said the Association had
a wonderful response when these lights were used previously and that they had been
missed. She added that the number of lights might vary depending on the amount of
funds the Association can raise.
Councilman Wilson moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the use of Klieg lights on El Paseo
as requested. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
C. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS:
1. Palmer CableVision Update.
Mr. Ortega stated that a report was in the packets. He noted that fewer
complaints were being received..
2. Update on Tri-Cities Sports Facility.
Mr. Diaz said staff anticipated having this before the Planning Commission the
first meeting in March and, hopefully, to the City Council at its second meeting
in March.
Mr. Altman added that at the last Cove Commission meeting the financing piece
was unanimously adopted and would be before the Council at its next meeting.
3. Status of Date Palm Grove.
Mr. Shillcock stated he had met yesterday with individuals proposing to develop
the site on Hovley. He said they had a site plan where they had done some
rough work. He added that changes were being made and that a conceptual plan
would be before Council for action either the next meeting or the one after.
4. Report on Progress of City Trails Committee.
Mr. Diaz reviewed the history of this committee and noted that it had not met
since June but would be meeting on Tuesday to review the suggested bike trail
plan.
Upon question by Councilman Wilson, Mr. Diaz responded that the bikeway
system would be included in the circulation element of the General Plan update.
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XI. CONTINUED BUSINESS
A. REOUEST FOR APPROVAL of Contract with T.I. Maloney, Inc. for Engineering and
Landscape Design Services for Ironwood Park (Contract No. 00-587). (Continued from
the Meetings of November 14 and December 12, 1991.)
Mr. Wohlmuth reported that in the last two weeks staff had visited six or seven parks
done by the two firms being considered. He said one firm had done quite a bit of work
in the Phoenix area and that he had just returned from visiting parks in Grand Terrace,
Riverside, and Moreno Valley. He said staff had found that the firms basically designed
to the area and that The Planning Center had done extensive work in the desert area,
including a Phoenix area park that consisted of 28 acres with about half left in its natural
state and picnic tables blending right in with the desert landscaping. He showed pictures
of parks designed by both firms and said that at this time staff was changing its
recommendation to approve a contract with The Planning Center instead of T.I.
Maloney.
Upon question by Councilman Crites, Mr. Wohlmuth responded that the entire staff
agreed with this new recommendation.
Councilman Wilson moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Approve staff's recommendation and
authorize the Mayor to enter into a contract with The Planning Center for engineering and landscape
design services for the Ironwood Park; and 2) move an additional $5,000 from the capital improvement
project budget to the design services budget. Motion was seconded by Snyder.
Mr. Wohlmuth added that he was also requesting additional money to cover the
difference in the price from $24,500 to $27,000.
Councilman Wilson amended his motion to include the additional money, and Councilman
Snyder agreed to amend his second. Motion .Carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
Mayor Kelly stated he was impressed with the work that can be done with natural
landscape, picnic tables, etc. without using grass.
XII. OLD BUSINESS
A. REOUEST FOR APPROVAL OF NEW TELEPHONE SYSTEM FOR PALM
DESERT CIVIC CENTER (Contract No. 00-588).
Mr. Weller reviewed the staff report, including revised recommendations in a memo
dated January 7, 1992. He noted that the current system was at its maximum capacity,
that no new lines or trunks could be added, and that the system could not be upgraded
He stated that three operator consoles had been installed within the last three years and
that there had been many outages during that time. In addition, there had been slow
response times by Executone and then parts were not always available. He said parts
were hard to come by, consoles were also difficult to find, and the cards kept going out.
He noted that the City had spent over $36,000 in repairs, adds, moves, and changes in
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the last three years He reviewed the process of selecting a firm to provide the
telephone system and recommended that Council approve a contract with Fujitsu.
Councilman Crites said he agreed that the present system does not work and that the
City needed a better one. However. he expressed concern with walking into a meeting
and finding everyone already choosing their telephones and with the fact that it took
eight consultants to show the system. He said he felt we were being sold a lot of stuff
that we will not need or use. He added that at this time his vote would be NO.
Mr. Weller responded that in addition to providing a basic system, there were a lot of
options available to be added if Council desires.
Upon question by Councilman Wilson relative to the staff recommendation to award a
contract to Mr. Tug Tamaru, Mr. Weller responded that it would be to help with the
installation phase of the system. Councilman Wilson asked whether Fujitsu would do
that for us and said we should have a comfort level with whoever is picked and get
someone who will install the system for us.
Mr. Weller stated that Mr. Tamaru would be helping with the technical portion of the
installation and said he himself was not familiar with the types of lines, etc. If Council
chose not to go with a consultant to help with the installation phase, he said staff would
go without it and that he would do the best he could. He added that the new additions
to the Civic Center did not include speakers and that this system would give us the
speakers to complete the paging system and would also include a new tuner, CD player,
and cassette tape deck.
With regard to recommendation #1, Mayor Kelly asked what the base cost was before
having the add the recommended $18,596.00, and Mr. Weller responded that Council
had already approved $85,000.
At the request of Mayor Kelly, Mr. Weller explained the voice mail system. Councilman
Wilson asked how many people would have the voice mail, and Mr. Weller responded
that the system was capable of handling everyone.
Councilmember Benson asked if the $85,000 included installation. Mr. Weller responded
that the $85,000 plus the additional $18,596 would include the phone system and the
paging and music, which would basically be comparable to what we have now.
Councilman Wilson asked that staff explaining recommendation #3, the Intervoice
Response Unit. Mr. Weller stated that this would take typewritten information and
convert it over the telephone. He said that it was anticipated in the Building
Department that people would be calling in after hours, and this system would give them
the ability to call in, access the computer, and set up inspections. Councilman Wilson
asked whether the voice over the phone would be an electronic computer voice, and Mr.
Wohlmuth responded that it would sound more like a human voice. He added that this
was another item Council could decide on at a later date.
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Councilman Crites asked for an explanation of Item #4, the LA Cellular CPTE 4. Mr.
Weller stated that this was a backup system. If we lose phone lines because they have
been severed, for example, this system would give us four lines to use. Councilman
Crites asked how often this situation arises, and Mr. Weller stated it had happened twice
in the past year that he knew of.
Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, approve recommendations #1 and #4 as
follows: la) Award the bid for the telephone system to Fujitsu Business Communications; lb)
appropriate an additional amount of $18,596.00 including a 10% contingency from the year 2000
Capital Outlay Account; lc) authorized the Mayor to execute an agreement (No. 00-588) with Fujitsu
after staff finalizes the agreement and the City Attorney reviews; 4a) award the bid to LA Cellular for
CPTE 4 (Emergency Cellular backup system); 4b) appropriate the amount of $9,130.00 including a
10% contingency from the year 2000 Capita Outlay Account; 4c) authorize the Mayor to execute an
agreement (No. 00-601) with LA Cellular after the staff finalizes the agreement and the City Attorney
reviews. Motion was seconded by Wilson.
Councilman Wilson asked whether the system being purchased could be upgraded to
include recommendations 2 (Voice Mail) and 3 (Intervoice Response Unit) at a later
time if Council feels they should be added, and Mr. Weller responded that they could
be added later.
Mayor Kelly asked whether it would then cost more than if Council purchased the
options at this time instead of waiting. Mr. Weller responded that it would probably be
a little more than if purchased now but added that it was his understanding that there
was a provision in the contract that if added within a certain the prices would hold at a
certain level.
Mayor Kelly asked if a clause could be written into the contract whereby if the City
decides within one year that it does want any of these additional options. the price would
remain the same as if purchased now. Representatives from Fujitsu indicated it could
be done.
Councilmember Benson asked whether this system would cover everything the City
would ever need. Mr. Weller stated that the system would expand to 400 lines without
having to spend any more money.
Councilman Kelly stated he wished to make a comment before the vote. He said he
would vote in favor of the motion and wanted to stated that his vote was based a lot on
the service over the years we have had this system. He said he understood the sales
pitch that we have a whole new system being sold to us but felt it was hard because he
had to base his decision on how he felt about that company's record. The record had
not been at all good with some of the things and ways that they had gone about
procuring the missing parts. He said the last time he was Mayor the first thing he did
was have a regular phone put in his office because he could not depend on that system.
He said even though Executone said they were making a whole different system, it was
difficult to forget what has happened. He said the telephone system was so vital to the
City; it is the tool we work with, it's the very thing we depend on. and without the phone
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system, it's like we're not here. He said he would rather spend a very small amour::
more to assure ourselves that we are going to get good sera ice and a state-of-the-art
system.
Councilman Snyder commended staff for the in-depth study and for working so hard :o
try and come up with what the Council asked.
Mayor Kelly called for the vote. Motion carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
XIII. REPORTS AND REMARKS
A. CITY MANAGER
1. Colieee of the Desert Concert
Mr. Altman asked that Council, by 4/5ths vote, add an item for consideration which
came up after the Agenda was posted dealing with a concert at College of the Desert
at Easter time.
Councilman Crites moved to add this item to the Agenda for discussion. Motion was
seconded by Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
Mr. Altman reviewed the memo from Mr. Diaz dated January 6, 1992, noting that staff
felt it would not be a good idea to have this event held during Easter week. He asked
for Council direction so that he could respond to the applicant, John Marman.
Councilman Crites noted that it was his understanding there were 15,000 people at the
4th of July celebration, not the 5,000 as indicated in the report.
Mr. Diaz stated that he had gotten that information from the Sheriff's Department. He
sad that staff and the Sheriff's Department were concerned with the timing of this event.
He said Palm Desert was committed to back up Palm Springs during Easter break and
asked how the Sheriff's Department would be able to take care of the people at the
College of the Desert event at the same time. He added that he did not believe the City
had any jurisdiction in the matter.
Mayor Kelly said he felt the Promotion Committee and Civic Arts Committee should
look at this before a decision is made.
Councilmember Benson responded that this was a College -sponsored event and that the
City would not be doing anything to promote it.
Mr. Altman stated that in the past when the College had events such as this, they came
in and discussed it with City. He added that the City was responsible for police and
said if Council shared staffs concerns, he would so advise Mr. Marman that the Council
would prefer the event not be held at Easter. Councilmembers Benson, Snyder. and
Kelly agreed.
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Councilman Crites suggested that the applicant be advised that the Council does not
have a problem with the concert but is concerned with the date chosen to have it.
Councilman Snyder moved to direct staff to inform the applicant that while the Council is not
against the event itself, it does consider the timing to be a poor choice. Motion was seconded by
Benson and carried by a 4-0-1 vote, with Councilman Wilson ABSTAINING.
B. CITY ATTORNEY
Mr. Erwin requested a Closed Session at the appropriate time in accordance with
Government Code Sections 54956.9 (a) (Big Horn Institute v. Palm Desert; Shearson
Lehman v. Palm Desert; Levald v. Palm Desert; Cox v. Palm Desert; Rojo v. Rancho
Mirage and Palm Desert), (b), and (c), pending and potential litigation.
C. MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
o City Council Reauests for Action:
1. Bureau of Land Management Acouisition of Land
Councilman Crites moved to, by 4/5ths vote, add an item to the Agenda for discussion
relative to the Bureau of Land Management acquisition of land. Motion was seconded by Benson and
carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
Councilman Crites reviewed proposed Resolution 92-3 and offered to answer
any questions.
Councilman Crites moved to waive further reading and adopt Resolution No. 92-3, supporting
Congressional appropriation of land and water' conservation funds to BLM for acquisition of lands in
the Santa Rosa Mountains National Scenic Area and Big Morongo Canyon ACEC. Motion was
seconded by Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
o City Council Committee Reports:
None
XIV. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - B
None
Councilman Wilson moved to adjourn the meeting at 5:40 p.m. to Closed Session for reasons
stated by the City Attorney, said Closed Session to immediately follow adjournment of the
Redevelopment Agency meeting. Motion was seconded b\ Crites and carried by unanimous vote of
the Council.
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Mayor Kelly reconvened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. with no action announced from Closed
Session.
Mayor Kelly noted that at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, January 10. 1992. the City would hold a public
briefing for the press and interested members of the community to bring them up t date on
the Wymer/ITF case. He added that it would be held in the Administrative Conference
Room.
XV. COMPLETION OF ITEMS HELD OVER FROM 4:00 P.M. SEScION
None
XVI. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - C
MR. JEFFREY FROMBERG, 2825 East-Tahquitz Canyon Way„ #D-1, Palm Springs, stated
he represented Mr. Stan Cody and said he had delivered a letter to everyone today relative
to the development agreement (DA-1) between the City and Cable and Rylee for the senior
apartment project on Catalina Way. He said it was understanding that final reading of the
ordinance terminating the development agreement would be done at this meeting; however,
he learned today that it was in fact adopted at the December 12th meeting and that it was too
late to ask for a postponement. He said he had spoken with Dave Erwin, Phil Drell. and
Carlos Ortega regarding this and was advised that what could be done if Council desired was
to adopt a resolution directing staff to negotiate directly with Mr. Cody prior to putting the
project out to bid. He said he would be requesting that this action be taken for the reasons
stated in his letter (on file and of record in the City Clerk's Office). He added that his client
had substantial funds invested in this project and that at this time there was no way he could
recoup those monies except by entering into a new development agreement with the City. He
said completed plans were had already gone through plan check and that they could have the
project in the ground within 120 days. He noted that Mr. Cody was willing to post sufficient
funds to assure the City that in the event he fails to fulfill his promise, he will walk away from
the project and forfeit those funds.
Mr. Erwin stated that this was not on the Agenda but that Council could, by 4/5ths vote, add
it for discussions as something that came up after the Agenda was posted.
Councilman Crites suggested holding this item until the end of the meeting. Council
concurred.
MS. GAIL SAUTER, 44-489 Town Center Way, said she represented "Citizens to Save the
Coachella Valley" in opposition to the Eagle Mountain land fill project. She reviewed
information she had just gotten from the BLM files, including the following:
National Monument employees have said this project as it stands cannot meet State and
Federal air quality standards.
While the current project plan states it is based on processing 20,000 tons of trash per
day, there was an article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune quoting an employee as
stating that it expects 85,000 tons per day.
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An alternative project is a hydroelectric plant that would provide $2.5 billion over the
next few years.
She said there was a large amount of significant information being withheld from the public
regarding this issue, and she urged Council to take 30 minutes and go out to the BLM office
to review this. She noted that an EPA letter to the BLM made it clear to them that
participating in a land exchange was against Federal regulations.
No Council action was taken on this item.
XVII. AWARDS, PRESENTATIONS, AND APPOINTMENTS
A. PRESENTATION FROM PALM DESERT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE TO MS.
DARLENE ROMANO.
Mrs. Gilligan noted that this was a presentation from the City and said Ms. Romano
could not be here tonight and had asked that it be placed on the next Agenda. Council
concurred.
B. PROCLAMATION IN APPRECIATION OF THE VALLEY PARTNERSHIP.
Mayor Kelly read the proclamation and presented it to Mr. Dan Watson of The Valley
Partnership.
XVIII. PUBLIC HEARINGS
A. CONSIDERATION OF AN APPEAL OF A DECISION OF THE PLANNING
COMMISSION APPROVING A REQUEST BY THE COLLEGE OF THE DESERT
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION FOR APPROVAL OF A CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT
AND NEGATIVE DECLARATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AS IT
RELATES THERETO ALLOWING CONTINUED OPERATION OF THE C.O.D.
STREET FAIR BETWEEN 8:00 A.M. AND 2:00 P.M. ON SATURDAYS AND
SUNDAYS ON A YEAR-ROUND BASIS AND ADDITIONAL DAYS AROUND
CERTAIN HOLIDAYS (Continued from the meeting of December 12, 1991).
(See verbatim transcript attached hereto and made a part hereof as Exhibit "A").
B. CONSIDERATION OF AN APPLICATION FOR MASSAGE ESTABLISHMENT BY
FUTURESHAPE SPA OF EL PASEO, 72-695 HIGHWAY 111, #A-1.
Mr. Allen reviewed the staff report, noting that staff's recommendation was to deny the
request based on the failure to meet the location requirements. He stated that the City
Code required a minimum of 1,000 feet from any residential areas or businesses sere ing
alcohol.
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Councilman Crites said he understood why at some point in the past such an ordinance
was adopted; however, he felt this particular case seemed to point out an ordinance that
does not seem to apply any longer.
Councilman Wilson stated that when Council passed the original ordinance, it was to try
and keep out big -city massage parlors. etc. However. when such establishments are in
sports clubs and medical offices, he said he did not think those standards should apply.
He said he understood that staff's position was clear and correct; however, the appeal
process allowed the Council to look at the issue to see if it warrants a variance. En this
case, he felt it did warrant a variance.
Councilmember Benson asked where the 1000 feet came from. Mr. Allen responded
that it was normal practice in city ordinances regulating massage establishments.
Councilman Crites said he agreed with Wilson that Council should consider a variance
because this is a legitimate operation.
Mayor Kelly declared the public hearing open and invited testimony in FAVOR of or
OPPOSED to this request.
MS. LYNETTE LASCALA spoke as the applicant and requested a variance to the
Code.
MS. JUDITH OSBORN stated she was a resident of Indio but had a Palm Desert
business license and massage license. She spoke in favor of this request and said she felt
this business would be a good setting to do an ethical service.
MS. JACQUELINE HELMAN said she was a resident of Palm Desert and also owned
a City business license for massage. She said she was President of the American
Massage Therapy Association which was established 47 years ago. She added that the
only way massage therapists could work was in a spa or on an outcall basis which
sometimes ends up with a different meaning. She felt the industry was becoming more
professional and said she would support the request for a variance. She asked that the
Council also reconsider the 1,000 foot requirement and said she felt it would be
encouraging to other legitimate facilities.
With no further testimony offered, Mayor Kelly declared the public hearing closed.
Councilman Wilson moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the massage permit for Future
Shape Spa of El Paseo. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by unanimous vote of the
Council.
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C. CONSIDERATION OF AN AMENDMENT TO ZONING ORDINANCE CHAPTER
25.24 PR PLANNED RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT RELATING TO DEVELOPMENT
STANDARDS AND PERIMETER SETBACKS FOR TWO-STORY SINGLE-FAMILY
DETACHED BUILDINGS, Case No. ZOA 91-4.
Mr. Jeff Winklepleck reviewed the staff report, noting that the current standards were
acceptable when a project proposal contains only single -story units; however, because
two-story were not permitted in the R$-1 zone, no standards had been set yet. He
added that the maximum height would be decreased from 30 feet to 24 feet to be
consistent with other residential zones that allow two -store units.
Councilmember Benson asked if there would be a condition added that two-story units
would have to be compatible with the adjacent neighborhood in which they are being
built. Councilman Snyder agreed, and Mr. Diaz responded that this condition could be
added.
Mayor Kelly asked if this would take into account the change in philosophy regarding
open space. He said instead of trying to spread things out, we should be bringing things
closer together and creating open space together in one separate location. With zero
setbacks, he felt there would be tremendous savings in heating and cooling and better
security.
Mr. Diaz stated that all conditions in the PR zone can be modified at the time of
approval of the project.
Mayor Kelly said maybe we need some way of letting developers know that we would
consider other types of developments and that it might conserve energy and promote less
vehicular traffic and have an excellent development where open space is in a separate
location in the project.
Mr. Diaz stated that developers come in and want to develop two-story, detached homes.
As part of the General Plan update program, the Council could have a policy or
amendment the ordinance to say there can be trade-offs for energy conservation. He
felt the City should at least call this to the attention of the developers.
Mayor Kelly declared the public hearing open and invited testimony in FAVOR of or
OPPOSED to this request. None was offered, and he declared the public hearing closed.
Councilman Wilson moved to waive further reading and pass Ordinance No. 665 to second
reading, amended to include a condition that two-story units are to be compatible with adjacent
neighborhood. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
D. CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FOR ONE-YEAR TIME EXTENSION TO
UPDATE THE CITY OF PALM DESERT ADOPTED GENERAL PLAN.
Mr. Diaz reviewed the staff report and offered to answer any questions.
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Councilman Crites commented that at some point early in the process he would ::ke to
see staff comment on the implications of the recent Los Angeles zoning catastrophe :n
terms of down -zoning in the community and what implications it would have for us.
Mayor Kelly declared the public hearing open and invited testimony in FAVOR of or
OPPOSED to this request. None was offered. and he declared the public hearing dosed.
Councilman Wilson congratulated staff and said he felt this was a good use of Planning
staff time during a recessionary period. He asked if the new plan would have an air
quality element as part of it, and Mr. Diaz responded that it would.
Councilman Snyder moved to waive further reading and adopt Resolution No. 92-2, requesting
a one-year time extension to update the adopted General Plan for the Director of the State Office of
Planning and Research. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by unanimous rote of the
Council.
E. CONSIDERATION OF AN AMENDMENT TO THE SPRINKLER ORDINANCE AS
IT RELATES TO REDUCING THE SQUARE FOOTAGE REQUIREMENT FROM
5,000 TO 3,000 SQUARE FEET EXCEPT IN SINGLE AND TWO-FAMILY
DWELLINGS AND REQUIRING INSTALLATION OF FIRE SPRINKLERS IN
CERTAIN GARAGE AND CARPORT OCCUPANCIES.
Fire Marshall Clyde Chittenden stated that this would basically lower the square footage
requirement in the existing ordinance from 5,000 square feet to 3,000 square feet. still
exempting one- and two-family residences. He said it would also include attached garage
space when computing that square footage. He added that similar ordinances had
already been passed in Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells.
Mayor Kelly asked the City Attorney if it was within Council's authority to require
sprinklers retrofitted in something like restaurants.
Mr. Erwin responded that it could be accomplished but would have to be done over a
period of time.
Mayor Kelly stated it seemed a lot of fires start in restaurant kitchens. These regulations
are being passed for new buildings, and some of these new buildings are far less apt to
cause a fire than a lot of existing buildings. He asked that staff look into this matter.
Mr. Altman stated that the Cove Commission would be looking at this situation.
Mr. Chittenden added that CVAG was already looking at a zero square footage
requirement for all occupancies; Rancho Mirage is still actively talking about a possible
retrofit ordinance for things such as restaurants.
17
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Mayor Kelly declared the public hearing open and invited testimony in FAVOR of or
OPPOSED to this request. No testimony was offered, and he declared the public hearing
closed.
Councilman Wilson moved to waive further reading and pass Ordinance No. 6126 to second
reading. Motion was seconded by Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
XIX. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - D
Councilman Crites moved to add to the Agenda for discussion the item from Oral
Communications - C relative to the Cable and Rylee development agreement. Motion was seconded
by Wilson and carried by unanimous vote of the Council.
Mr. Altman stated that Council did adopt the ordinance terminating the development
agreement and that the only thing it could do now would be to re-enter into negotiations
with the City.
Mr. Ortega stated that staff's recommendation was to give them a 30-day grace period
to negotiate; at the end of that 30 days they would be required to post a cash bond so
they could submit plans to the City Council. He said this recommendation differed from
the request that was submitted because Mr. Fromberg was not aware that the agreement
with Cable and Rylee had been severed by the Council action on December 12th. He
added that staff's objective was to get the housing built, and if they are willing to put up
the money, that is our guarantee to get something going.
Councilman Wilson moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the recommendation as stated by
Mr. Ortega for a 30-day grace period to negotiate.
Councilman Snyder asked if the City was required to go to bid, and Mr. Ortega
responded that it was not required to do so.
Councilman Snyder seconded the motion, and the motion carried by unanimous vote of the
XX. ADJOURNMENT
Councilman Crites moved to adjourn the meeting at 10:00 p.m. to Closed Session to continue
discussions begun at 6:00 p.m. Motion was seconded by Snyder and carried by unanimous vote of the
Council.
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Mayor Kelly reconvened the meeting at 10: 45 p.m. and adjourned to 3:00 p.m. on Wednesda` .
January 15, 1992, for the pursuant to Go\ernment Code Sections 54956.9 (a) and (b), pending
potential litigation.
ATTEST:
1
SHEILA R. GILLJGAN, CICLERK/P.I.O.
CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA
RICHAR I S. KELLY. . AYOR
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EXHIBIT "A"
Verbatim transcript of Public Hearing A regarding College of the Desert Street Fair - City Counc
Meeting of January 9, 1992
Kelly: Next item on the agenda, a Public Hearing; Consideration of an appeal of a decision of the
Planning Commission approving a request by the College of the Desert Alumni Association
for approval of a conditional use permit and negative declaration of environmental impact
as it relates thereto allowing continued operation of the College of the Desert street fair
between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays on a year-round basis and
additional days around certain holidays (Continued from the meeting of December 12.
1991). City Manager...
Altman: Yes, oops go ahead. (uncl)
Crites: Because of the potential of an appearance of a conflict of interest, I would abstain from
discussion on this matter.
Wilson: Same for myself.
Altman: Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, I'm going to ask Mr. Diaz to have the honors
making a presentation tonight on the issue.
Diaz: Yes, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council, before we get into the issue of the application
proper, I think that some background may be useful and the two questions which I'm going
to attempt to address is first of all what is a conditional use permit and why are we here
with a conditional use permit and secondly, what is a negative declaration of environmental
impact in terms of the requirement.-s of the California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA.
A conditional use permit is a vehicle that public agencies use to allow a use in a given zone
not as a matter of right but because of the potential effect of that use, cities and counties
say that okay, we will allow that use after a public hearing if we can implement or place
conditions upon that use that will allow that use to be compatible with surrounding areas.
This is as opposed to a use that is allowed in a zone by right; for example, in the R-1 zone
a single-family residential unit is allowed by use. A person can come in, build their home,
reside in it; we do not have a yes or no determination on that particular use. But in the
R-1 zone a church does require a conditional use permit and there an agency has the right
to say yes, yes with conditions, or no. When we say no that means that there are no
possible conditions that can be placed upon that use to make it compatible and that is a
unique situation with a conditional use permit and I'm going to try and tie it in to the
CEQA process and a negative declaration of environmental impact.
Within the CEQA process, as established in 1970, and then the courts through the Frienc
of Mammoth decision placed it upon private projects in 1972, amendments to that proce
have attempted to encourage the use of the negative declaration of environmental impa
as the way of reviewing environmental impacts of a given project or in this case a
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EXHIBIT "A"
conditional use permit. And the state indicates as said and the courts have agreed :"at
you can mitigate all potentially significant impacts on the environment, then a ne_ati\e
declaration of environmental impact, rather than a full environmental impact report. car
be certified upon a given project. And of course the big savings is time and mone\,. It's
not the intent, though, of using the negative declaration of environmental impact to avoid
issues and to avoid looking at issues and to avoid looking at impacts. In the particular case
we have before us it is a conditional use permit which staff believes that with the conditions
that have been recommended to you can be made compatible with the uses in the
surrounding area. And secondly, that with those conditions we can certify a negative
declaration of environmental impact as meeting the requirements of the California
Environmental Quality Act of 1970 as amended.
The staff report indicates that staff is in the precarious position of presenting its
recommendation to you which differs from that which was approved, the decision which was
reached by the Planning Commission' The basic difference is the hours of operation and
the period of operation of the street fair. The Planning Commission felt that based on the
evidence presented at the Public Hearing and within the staff report that the street fair
should be allowed to operate fully on both Saturdays and Sundays. It was staffs
recommendation that the environmental impact that the, excuse me, that the traffic, that
because of traffic that it should only be allowed to operate on Saturdays or have I mean
on Sundays or operate on limited hours on Saturdays and I think that that is a significant
or. The and this is basically the only difference between the Commission decision and the
staff recommendation. The staff's recommendation was based on the difference in traffic
counts that were taken, upon the testimony of the applicant in terms of the fact that
additional people are encouraged that it was not having an impact as great an impact on
the existing retail community because additional people were being brought into the city
so that therefore we should either eliminate the Saturday operation or limit the Saturday
operation. At this time on the revised report that you have before you we indicate that
Saturday operations should be permitted between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. or
noon.
Looking at traffic, which is one of the key issues, there are numerous mitigation measures
called for as conditions within the resolution before you and as conditions that will be added
through amendment. Those conditions include, of course, first of all the requirement of the
payment of the transportation mitigation fees as established in this area and adopted
through resolution by the city; a recommendation that on -street parking along Monterey and
Fred Waring Drive shall be prohibited on the days the street fair is in operation between
7:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.; that a parking management plan shall be submitted to the Palm
Desert Community Development Department for review and approval within thirty days of
the permit approval and said plan as approved and or modified by city staff shall be
implemented within three weeks of the staff approval; and that the City Council shall review
those conditions as far as the no parking and the parking plan within six months from the
date of approval to determine if modifications of those conditions are necessary.
There is another unique situation with conditional use permit in that a conditional use
permit can be brought back before you for rehearing and reevaluation, whether or not you
condition it, if we find that as approved we still have a public nuisance or a problem. We
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EXHIBIT "A"
can rehear the entire matter through another public hearing. This you don't necessarii
have in terms of a zone change or tentative tract map or a precise plan of approval but wit
a conditional use permit you do have that right. In addition you may wish to place a
condition on the conditional use permit, and it is at your option, that within a certain
period of time: three, four, six months operation, that the matter be brought before you for
reconsideration and evaluation if there is a problem. However, in discussing this with the
City Attorney that is not necessary in order for it to be done. In other words you can bring
the matter up before you again if there is a problem anytime, you do not need to condition
it in that manner. In looking at the application and at the staff report, staff feels that the
conditional use permit should be approved, that a negative declaration of environmental
impact should be certified because any significant adverse impacts to the environment that
may occur have been mitigated through the 1) conditions of approval set forth in the
resolution and the staff reports or 2) that are within the present code. And that would
conclude the staff report. If you have any questions...
Kelly: Before I open the public hearing, does Council have any questions? Then I'll declare the
public hearing open and anyone that would like to speak either for or against this item may
step to the lectern and give their name and address for the record. And let's, in an attempt
to not repeat ourselves, try to talk about new items if you have them so that we won't be
repetitious during the hearing.
Brady: Okay. My name is Thomas J. Brady. I'd like to ask the gentleman over there, what woL.
you do at Christmas time with the mall? Would you do away with Christmas toys so
wouldn't have a crowd of people at the mall or the day after Thanksgiving not have a sa. _
because of the impact of the automobiles.
Kelly: I'm I guess I (uncl)
Brady: What I'm trying to say is
Kelly: how that is relevant is
Brady: well it's relevant to your saying we're creating a traffic problem on Saturday, and you want
to cut it down. The biggest traffic problem we have is at the mall just trying to get a
parking space. We do not affect the mall as far as traffic that I can see. It's Christmas sales
and your Thanksgiving sales affect the traffic you have over at the mall.
Kelly: I think that you need if you want to make a point is to stick to what the street fair does or
doesn't do and not address all issues (uncl)
Brady: I spoke this afternoon at this hearing. I think the best way to say it is we need Saturday
and we need Sunday if we are going to stay in business. I think that is the easiest way to
say it. Thank you very much.
Kelly: Thank you.
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Bornstein: Good evening Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council. I'm Julie Bornstein. I'm
member of the Board of Trustees of the College of the Desert which is the applicant 7.or
the conditional use permit. As we all know we hare been here may of times on this :ss._ie
and I'm certainly not going to repeat some of the information that has been provided to yo.:
in the past by the College. There is simply a few points I wish to highlight in response :o
the staff report and then I will leave the matter for other speakers. .As you well know the
money raised by the street fair is absolutely critical to the College. It goes without sarino
that we are in tight budgetary times and the funds are yery important and are used not oni`
for scholarships but in our child care center and we are depending on it for financing the
multi -agency library with which we are working on the City with the City.. I bring this up
simply because of the conclusion of the staff memo which says that the ends do not justify
the means. And I would suggest to you that we disagree with that statement by the staff:
in fact, if I were still teaching in formal logic at College of the Desert, I would have to say
that the reasoning is a classic example of begging the question. The ends do justify the
means. I would suggest that individual organizations such as the Children's Museum. such
as the Deserts AID's Project, Coalition for the Coachella Valley Coalition for Housing are
treated differently by this Council because the ends that they provide the City do justify
change in the means in comparison to a private developer over a public purpose. The
College of the Desert is here tonight because we voluntarily submitted to the authority of
the City. We are State property, we are a public institution, we are a separate taxing entity
and a separate legal entity and I am elected to manage that with my colleges as you are
elected to manage the City with yours. We have voluntarily submitted ourselves to the
jurisdiction of the City for the conditional use permit as a good neighbor and we would
suggest to you that we have some disagreements with the staff report that I simply want to
highlight for your consideration in your ruling tonight.
In general, of course, we support the conclusion that the CUP should be issued. We would
highlight for you the need for the street fair to be open on Saturdays. It is absolutely
essential to the survival of the street fair that it be available to the public both Saturday and
Sunday. I have a feeling that there will be other individuals who will speak to that issue
as well so I won't belabor it. But for the street fair to survive and for the College to
improve the benefit from the street fair, Saturday is absolutely essential. We have had lots
of discussions with staff, with other members of the City, agencies and I believe that if the
street fair were to be restricted at all you could not restrict it any more then to close it at
noon on Saturday. Any earlier than noon would absolutely guarantee its demise but if you
left it open until noon we would hope that that is something that would allow the
compromise or the mitigation of the conditions that seem to be the concern of your staff.
But certainly closing it any earlier than noon we are certain will damage the street fair
beyond repair and make it then a true loss not only to the College but to the community
as a whole.
Kelly:
The second area I want to highlight are the areas of the fees that Mr. Diaz mentioned to
you, particularly...
Can I, we're going to take the fees up on a separate issue later in the agenda so we should
stick strictly to the street fair and (uncl) oh
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Bornstein: ...the TUMF fees.
Kelly: Excuse me.
Bornstein: That's alright.
Kelly: Go ahead, sorry 1 interrupted you.
Bornstein: I wasn't clear, I'd like to address it to the transportation mitigation fee. Again the College
has voluntarily submitted its plans for a pre-existing use, the street fair has been in existence
for eight years, the College's existence of course predates the city and we would suggest that
these fees are not appropriate and that we are not legally obligated to pay them. We have
of course checked with our lawyers as you have checked with yours and it may be that
we'Il end up in a situation of duelling attorneys, a sight that I for one would not like to see.
But I would suggest that those fees are not appropriate to be charged to us, we are a pre-
existing use, we are building no new buildings, it is a temporary use on Saturdays and
Sundays only, it is not a full-time permanent type of transaction as those fees are meant to
apply to. In addition to that again 1 would suggest that the fees as they are highlighted in
the staff memo, the TUMF fees, if all of those fees were paid by the College it would be
equal to almost our whole revenue for a year which would mean then that we would operate
the street fair for a year and have to pay all of our revenue out in fees to the variot"
agencies that are listed in the staff memorandum. So I would ask you in your deliberation
to look very carefully at those fees and understand our position is we do not feel that tht
are legally applicable to us as an applicant. And now hearing your comment I was going
address my third section of my remarks to the Category J fee which I understand you are
planning on taking up later this evening. I unfortunately have to leave and Dr. George
will be here and available to answer questions. 1 would simply suggest to you though at a
five dollar rate the fees to be generated would exceed the income of street fair for the year
and it appears not to be appropriate. I would ask you to look at the amount when you
make those deliberations later this evening. In summation I would simply indicate to you
that most of the conditions that are in the staff report are conditions that we can work with
and we believe will present no problem. The City and the College can work together in
terms of traffic, in terms of the off-street parking, in terms of traffic plans and I believe that
we can come to a conclusion that will satisfy the greatest number of people and most
importantly satisfy both the City and the street fair operation so that I'm not concerned
about those but I would ask you to please not close the street fair any sooner than noon
on Saturday and please consider the application of those TUMF fees to the College. I do
not think they are appropriate and I think it would effectively eliminate any benefit that the
community does in fact reap from the operation of this street fair. Thank you.
Kelly: Thank you.
Cohen: Good evening, my name is Neal Cohen, I live in Rancho Mirage and I'd like to address ti- -
traffic on Fred Waring during the street fair on Saturdays and Sundays and the peak seasoi
of the business in the desert. Personally I have driven down Fred Waring twice where I'
had to swerve and hit my brakes to miss people crossing not on the intersection of Monterc
and Fred Waring but just directly across the street. It's also happened to my friends v ho
eetvuLAX t-IA_.Nt UtJLRt Cl1'r CULNCIL MLEIING IANL':ARy" -). 199:
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EXHIBIT "A"
have families traveling with children in their car that they've also had the same
inconveniences and almost tragic mishaps because of trying to stop for people cross;rg the
street who just blurt out across the intersections and across Fred Waring. Also I co
consulting not just in the desert but through Los Angeles and Orange County areas.
got three clients down here. one :n Palm Desert and two in Palm Springs, they haN,e told
me that it cost them from the smallest to largest from tens of thousand to hundreds of
thousands of dollars to build their businesses. putting inventories in their stores and staff
these stores and they feel that they're betrayed by the City allowing this street fair swap
meet to continue because the investments they make is their full livelihood that they've had
to build up through their entire lives. And that these people who come in here who either
live or don't live in the community, don't make any investments in what they do, they just
take things out of the community. That the people who does have businesses in the City.
who pay their taxes add revenue to the City and help it grow to stand behind it are also
betrayed because the people at the street fair, the vendors of the street fair. do not
contribute to the City in any manner such as that. Finally, I didn't prepare to talk about
this but the woman who represented the College had said that she felt that it was the
Colleges business, it was important for the College to continue to have this street fair so
that they have revenues. It would just seem to me that the charter of any college is for
education and they shouldn't be doing anything else but directing their energies and efforts
into educating. I think that it's reprehensible for a college to do anything �in terms of the
talent and the abilities that they have and the energies to do anything but to educate the
people who go there, that's their obligation. And any deterrent from that, I believe leaves
an education not as strong as it would be if all the energies were put into ;t. Thank you.
Kelly: Let's try to be polite to the people that are speaking.
Zeilenga: Good evening Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, staff. My name is Richard Zeilenga.
I'm with the law firm of DeCastro, West, Chodorow & Burns in Los Angeles. I'm here
tonight to represent an association of merchants in this city which have named themselves
the "Concerned Merchants of the Coachella Valley". My purpose here tonight is to object
on their behalf to the issuance of this conditional use permit. Before getting to the
arguments I have just of a matter of housekeeping, I've provided the clerk with a letter that
we sent by fax today to the city attorney which has several documents attached to it, it's a
rather thick packet, which has been handed out to the Council, I understand. I want to tell
you that although the packet looks thick, those items that have tabs on them, each of the
pages that have something important has been highlighted so you can very quickly look at
things where the yellow highlighting is and you don't have to read through all those pages.
The second thing I want to say, is that I want to apologize for you receiving this document
this evening, as opposed to sometime earlier. We got, well my firm got involved in this very
recently, as a matter of fact a couple of days ago. Apparently there had been some
settlement discussions going on between the parties in order to resolve their disputes and
those settlement discussions broke down, I believe, in the last week or two weeks and so
they asked us to come and represent them tonight at the hearing and that explains why
you didn't get a letter from us earlier, so I hope that you'll bear with us on that. Just to
briefly summarize our position, our position is that the conditional use permit should not
be granted for the street fair at College of the Desert. In order to keep things brief I'm
not going to go through all of the fairness issues which I believe you have seen in various
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pieces of correspondence from merchants in the City talking about why they think that
unfair and the person that just spoke mentioned some things about how merchants in the
City are harmed by the unfairness of this position of these people being able to set up on
public property, so I'm not going to go into all of that. However, if the Council is inclined
to allow some street fair to go forward, we would strongly urge the Council to limit the
operation of the street fair to Sunday only and not allow it to occur on Saturday at all. The
reason for this we believe is that if you limit it to Sunday only, many of the environmental
impacts that we are going to raise and that have been raised in the City staff report will be
lessened substantially, maybe not completely but they would be lessened. And we believe
it would be a more fair compromise to only allow the street fair to operate on Sunday when
you wouldn't have the same type of intense traffic impacts that are talked about in the staff
report and you wouldn't have the same type of direct competition with businesses in the
City that have been established here and that are having a substantial amount of foot traffic
which would otherwise be walking on El Paseo or somewhere else in the City, diverted to
the street fair on Saturday. And so we would urge you to make that limitation if you decide
to grant the conditional use permit. Now the main thing I want to focus on this evening is
the negative declaration which staff has recommended for this conditional use permit. I
know from past experience that this Council is well -versed in CEQA, the California
Environmental Quality Act, and the rules and regulations that go with that and has had a
lot recent experience with it so I'm not going to spend a lot of time telling you about what
CEQA requires. What I do want to focus on is just the one standard that CEQA has an''
whether you can prepare a negative declaration or a full environmental impact report. An
what you will constantly see is a standard where it says if there is a fair argument, made t
a member of the public, made by a councilmember, whoever, if there's a fair agreement that
there might, the word is might, be a significant environmental impact, then you cannot
prepare a negative declaration. You must prepare an environmental impact report. It's a
very low threshold, it's a very minimum standard, and if anyone stands up here like the
gentleman that just did and talked about those traffic impacts, his personal observations of
seeing problems with people crossing those streets when there is busy traffic around the fair,
that is enough to create a fair -.argument which would require the preparation of an
environmental impact report. And that's the case even if there's opposite evidence,
opposing evidence which supports a different conclusion. This is one area where it's not
a weighing process where the Council says, "okay, well we've got some evidence on one side
and we've got some evidence on the other side and we've weighed it and we chose not to
prepare an environmental impact report". It's not the way this is. If a fair argument can
be made by one side that there may be an impact, you must prepare an environmental
impact report. And we encourage you to consult with your city attorney on that. The other
point I want to make about the standard that applies here is that the courts have said that
if there is a substantial public controversy on the impact of a project, in other words you
have conflicting assertions on both sides as to whether there is a traffic problem or isn't a
traffic problem, whether there is a problem with the economic effect on businesses in the
community or not, if you have a substantial public controversy and some minimum amount
of evidence is presented by the side opposing the project, that supports a fair argument ar '
the courts have said you need to prepare an environmental impact report. And yc
certainly have a controversy here. I know in reviewing the minutes of the Economi
Development Committee, I saw in there that Councilman Snyder had mentioned that L.
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was getting fifty/fifty reports on this conditional use permit and the fair. whether it should
or should not go forward and so you definitely have a controersy.
The first issue 1 want to talk about is the negative declaration and staff's report. Now Mr.
Diaz has mentioned to you that the staff felt that they were in a precarious position because
they were going against what the Planning Commission had said by saving they thought that
the fair should be restricted to Saturday only or Mr. Diaz says tonight and emphasizes they
said "or" maybe they should limit it to Sunday only but or on Saturday if you limit it till
twelve o'clock and just let it go from 7:00 to 12:00. Well if you look at the staff report.
where it talks about the substantial traffic problems that exist on Saturday and when you
take into account the fact that the staff did their traffic accounts in September and October
they say and they admit in their staff report that those are off season months and that it
might be much worse in December and January and February, you certainly have in the
staff's own report and in the comments of the gentleman that just rose some evidence in
support of a fair argument that there may be traffic impacts here requiring an environmental
impact report and not a negative declaration. And that is on page 4 of our letter, we have
a quotation from the staff report which discusses that and on that page the staff says, "the
basis of staff's recommendation was the belief that because of the normally heavy traffic
volumes which occur on Saturdays. the fair created an unacceptable traffic conflict and
congestion level with its additional traffic. This impact. would be relieved if the fair
operated solely on Sundays. And then the reports goes on to say or in the alternative "if
you limited the hours on Saturday" but we believe if you take into account that the staff is
looking at traffic counts back in off months, where you didn't have full traffic, and you
consider the other evidence that we have presented, the documents attached to this letter,
there is enough for a fair argument here that you may have significant traffic impacts on
Saturday and you need to do an environmental impact report. The way you wouldn't have
to do an environmental impact report is if you limit it to Sunday only. Then we believe with
the mitigation measures that staff has talked about and the fact that you have lower traffic
counts on Sunday, you wouldn't have to go through that whole process necessarily. If you
don't follow staff's recommendation of limiting it to Sunday only, we believe you will need
to go through an environmental impact report.
Now since all I have to do if this becomes a conflict is make a fair argument that you should
have done an environmental impact report, if it comes to the case that you choose not to
limit it to Sunday and I have to do that, I'm going to have to say to a judge or whatever,
I'm going to say look the staff said in their own report that they have terrible congestion
problems on Saturday so without me even presenting any evidence, I think there is a fair
argument there that they should have adopted an environmental impact report and I think
that will be enough for a fair argument.
The second issue I want to raise is that the initial study on which the staff bases its negative
declaration completely ignores the issue of what happens to the businesses in the community
from the economic impact of this street fair. Now under the California Environmental
Quality Act, you don't have to analyze a social or economic effect unless it has a physical
result. For example, if substantial business is diverted away from the local businesses along
El Paseo and you start to have businesses fail there and you start to have shops close there.
that is a physical result from an economic impact. And there are court of appeal cases on
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that where a new shopping mall is approved by a city, for example, and all the business froi
the old center of town is diverted to the shopping mall, in those cases the courts have sai
yes that is a physical impact which resulted from that shopping mall and you had to do a..
environmental impact report on that. Staff's initial study in support of their negative
declaration doesn't talk about that at all and when there's a failure to talk about an issue
completely or the initial study is completely silent on the issue, the courts have said by that
very silence they will infer the existence of a fair argument, the test for requiring an
environmental impact report. Given the letters that we have attached to there, people
saying in the newspaper articles which we have submitted for the record, for people have
said, "we've gone out of business because of this street fair", and said it has not been the
recession, we could have survived the recession but because we have all these people, the
foot traffic being diverted from El Paseo, that we're not able to make it, given that evidence,
that is enough evidence to support a fair agreement that there is a physical impact from the
economics here requiring the preparation of an environmental impact report. The absence
of any discussion of it by staff will cause a court to believe by that silence that they should
expand what they consider to be a fair argument and require an environmental impact
report.
Third issue I want to mention is that in the CEQA guidelines there is an appendix which
lists things that are normally considered to be significant impacts, A through Z. We believe
there are seven items in there, which I'm not going to talk about, they're in the letter, and
for purposes of brevity I won't mention them. It lists things like traffic and concentrating
people in one area on a repeated basis, air pollution and noise pollution, things that
believe are implicated here and we believe we've submitted evidence into the record, in tt
form of personal observations by citizens in the town, which demonstrates that there is son,
evidence that those issues are implicated and that there is a fair argument that can be made,
that there may be a significant impact here requiring preparation of an environmental
impact report.
The fourth thing I want to mention is that the College of the Desert we understand recently
graded three parking lots in order_ to address this traffic issue and staff has mentioned that
and said staff believes that because these parking lots have been created, this may reduce
the traffic problems somewhat, but staff also says in their memo that these parking lots were
never approved by the City, that they were just graded and oil was sprayed on the lots and
they don't comply with the curb requirements, they don't comply with the drainage
requirements, they don't comply with the asphalt requirements, they have no shade trees,
basically they don't comply with any of the requirements that this city has for parking lots.
And there was no environmental analysis done on these parking lots, they were just put
there by the College. Now when they come here and say that they are voluntarily
submitting themselves to the City for review, they can't then say, "you have no control over
that, you can't tell us anything about these parking lots we've created". Those parking lots
have had no environmental analysis on them in terms of those issues, drainage, using this
oil and spraying it on there, the toxic impacts of that, and to the extent that hasn't be
analyzed we believe it supports a fair argument that there may be an environmental impact
here and that an EIR may be required. And the fact that this fair has existed for a loi
time and the fact that those parking lots may have already been put there and so you s
what can we do about it now, that's not the standard under CEQA. Where something
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going on that is not currently approved and they currently don't have a conditional use
permit, the question is hove are they operating now without the permit that your:
considering. They didn't get a permit for those parking Tots. Where there is something tha:
is an illegal land use, it's considered under the City codes to be a public nuisance w
definition if it doesn't have the proper permit, and when you go to approve it now you need
to analyze it.
Finally, one of the things that I want to mention is that we have been informed or there
have been some comments that even it the City tells the College of the Desert and the
street fair that they are only going to allow you to operate on Sundays, we've been told
they've said that they're just going to go ahead and operate on Saturdays anyway because
the City has no discretion over us, we're our own separate entity, we have our own
jurisdiction. Well to that I say to you the fact they've come here and applied for the
conditional use permit and said on the record, the applicant said on the record tonight that
they are submitting themselves to the City, means that once you make a discussion, if you
decide to restrict them to Sunday only, if they then start operating on Saturday and go into
a court and say to the judge, "well your Honor the City has no control over us".they're not
going to get very far because they submitted themselves to this council tonight and the
judge will consider them to be barred from making that argument.
In conclusion we would urge you, urge you to follow that part of the staff's recommendation
which said that if you limited it to Sundays only, you would not have these traffic problems.
Mr. Diaz says tonight well maybe if you do it on Saturdays between up tilt noon that wilt
be okay, if you look in the staff report, the staff report says the maximum you should
consider is doing it on Saturdays from seven to noon. We submit that the evidence that we
presented tonight and the reset of the tenor of the staff report supports a fair argument that
you can't do that with a negative declaration. And unless you limit it to Sundays only we
believe you're going to have to go through the full environmental impact report process so
that all these matters can be analyzed and disclosed to the general public. Thank you.
Catalano: Good evening ladies and gentlemen of the City Council and Mayor...
Kelly: ...pull the microphone...
Catalano: Towards me?
Kelly: ...midis sure you're talking right into it.
Catalano: My name is Eloise Catalano. I've been a resident of Palm Desert for over twelve years.
I'm a citizen, of course, and a tax payer of this city. 1 have been a permanent exhibitor at
the College of the Desert street fair for six years. I've seen the street fair there for eight
years before the Town Center was ever built. Now, this last year I was very fortunate to
open up a brand new gallery on El Paseo, called Artists Gallery, because of my revenue and
my profits from the College of the Desert street fair. I pay my taxes, I can show you my
records of what I am saying is absolutely true. I will now be opening up a new gallery next
to Mamma Gina's on El Paseo. The reason I can do that is because my clients continually
come back to me at the street fair. I encourage my clients to then meet me at my El Paseo
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EXHIBIT "A"
gallery where at that time I had a working studio where I could show my clients painting
There is probably close to thirty to thirty-five galleries on El Paseo. My business is paintings
and doing a service to this community -- designers, decorators, I've done several hotels, I'm
very well established in this community. If I did not have my position at the College of the
Desert street fair, I would then have to not be able to pay my three thousand dollars a
month rent to El Paseo. I strongly urge you to consider the fact that there are quite a few
of us citizens that pay taxes and pay our sales tax and do a legitimate business. I have sales
receipts on everything that I do. I really seriously consider, would like you to consider, the
fact that you would put a tremendous amount of people out of business that are helping this
community to grow and to succeed in a family type of environment. People come to the
street fair with their dogs, with their children, with their aunts, uncles and grandparents, all
ages. We have several petitions from thousands and thousands of people that were ver\
very upset last year with the fear that we were going to be closed. These people will come
and talk to you as quite of few of us have and will tonight that are we consider ourselves
vendors at the College of the Desert street fair. I also until recently lived right across the
street from the College of the Desert, I lived on Santa Rosa Way. My nine year old son
crossed that street, Fred Waring, two to three times on Saturday and Sunday with no
problem because of course he was careful. I know there is traffic there but never was there
ever two to three cars in a row where if he waited within three minutes he could not cross
that street. And when he first started crossing the street, I made sure that I crossed him
until I made sure it was safe for him. It is not that type of a problem where young childre-
are going to be hurt because most parents will be assisting their children in and out of the
cars. I think it might be wise to get the cars off of Fred Waring and into the parking 1o1
I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want them parking on Fred Waring itself. But
with the parking lots that are available to the College, there's certainly no problem with
parking, none whatsoever.
Another vital issue I think is very important is that I feel that we've been unfairly judged.
I think that we need as an organization and we have organized ourselves as the "College
of the Desert Vendors Association", we need to be heard. Thank you Council that we were
able to group together and becdme a legal organization and we are going to be heard and
there are several of us in this room tonight that wish to be heard and want to thank you
for this opportunity for letting us speak tonight. Thank you.
Becker: Hello Council, my name is Michael Becker, I have been a resident of Palm Desert for
almost thirty years. When my parents moved me here from Palm Springs, I thought they
were crazy. This was the last place on earth I wanted to live. There was nothing here at
that time. In fact, we were the first house in our neighborhood which incidentally is across
the street. I too have had no problem with traffic on Saturday and Sunday and I still live
on Guadalupe, four blocks away. I also attended College of the Desert. After I left College
of the Desert I went to San Diego State University. When I returned, Palm Desert was just
beginning to blossom. Now there is little doubt that Palm Desert is a shining example of
a city in balance. We have avoided the uncontrolled growth of some of the other dese
cities and at the same time encouraged growth in the business community. This council al
previous councils are largely responsible for this balance and for the prosperity that is tl
City of Palm Desert. I am afraid, however, that now we are in danger of following a paL..
that has almost destroyed the business community and our most prominent neighbor. Palm
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Desert, even with its tine management. would not be in the prosperous position ;t :s now.
except for a hand full of businessmen in downtown Palm Springs. Their inability to accept
competition and change resulted in a mass exodus to the cove communities. Palm Deser,
with its central location and the helpful staffs from the building and planning departments.
became a haven for the many new and old businesses fleeing the repressive restriction of
the old guard in Palm Springs. If not for a hand full of greedy businessmen in Palm Springs,
Palm Desert might now be negotiating. to brine in anchor stores using tax free incentives
instead of enjoying the rewards of large tax generating businesses as we do now. Some of
these rewards include the brand new beautiful park that's built all around these chambers,
the new sheriff's sub -station placed here to protect our citizens, and. of course, cancelled
City Council elections because everyone is content in a climate of prosperity.
My family and I started regularly attending the College of the Desert street fair about four
years ago when my first baby girl was. born. On Saturday and Sunday mornings it was a
terrific place to stroll around with our new baby and enjoy some of the best weather in the
United States, if not in the world. We now have two little girls, both of whom have been
raised with the street fair as part of their weekly routine. Even with the tremendous growth
in our valley, there are still few places where you can take small children where they can
remain entertained for more than just a few minutes. One of the reasons we have always
enjoyed going is the friendly and non -pressuring attitude of the merchants at College of the
Desert street fair. No sales people follow us around there or the other extreme, no
minimum wage employees giving us uninformed or lackluster responses to our queries. We
truly enjoy the street fair as do thousands of other residents and visitors that attend every
Saturday and Sunday. They don't come just for bargain prices, they come for products they
can't get in any of the other retail establishments. They come for just -picked produce. they
come to waste a couple of hours in the fresh air and warm sunshine, they come just to have
a hot dog, but they come by the thousands. They are sent by hotels all over valley, they are
bused in by tour groups. Many come who might not otherwise travel to Palm Desert at all.
On any Saturday or Sunday the parking lot is littered with Mercedes Benzes, Rolls Royces
and they are right along side the Ford Tempos and Chevy Cavaliers. Has anyone asked the
people who travel to the street fair where they go after they leave? Has anyone asked how
many of them go over to the Town Center or to El Paseo? If they don't, then maybe these
shopping meccas ought to look inward instead of blaming College of the Desert. All the
street fair can do is bring people into Palm Desert, we can't make them stay.
This year my wife and I decided to join the merchants at College of the Desert, and we
opened a business. We took out all the necessary licenses, bought our inventory, and stuck
it out in the blistering summer heat that gave us the chance to rent an 8 x 16 foot space.
That works out to five dollars and twenty cents a square foot. We arrive on Saturday at
six a.m. in the morning, that's far later than a lot of our colleagues. It is normally 8:30 to
9:00 before we finish setting up our booth and setting out our merchandise. Then we stay
outside, rain or shine, hot weather or cold weather, until two o'clock in the afternoon.
Then we repack our things and we go home. That's normally about 3:30. Again, we're not
the last ones to leave. This routine is repeated on Sunday. To this point in the year, we
have not yet broken even on our initial investment, and some people claim that we have
an unfair advantage. To ask us to arrive even earlier for a four-hour sales day is an unfair
advantage. Cutting the hours of operation would end the street fair at the College of the
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Desert. If the hours are shortened on Saturday, many of the merchants will not bother
show up at all and then they will go somewhere where they can get in on Saturday an,
Sunday all day. Hence the end of the street fair. This is the real objection, objective here,
create enough restrictions and the street fair will disappear. Well I for one will not sit quiet
and allow this to happen. 1 am acting here as an individual voice, I am not a member of
the vendors' association, I am first of all a citizen of the City of Palm Desert. As such I
am most concerned with what is good for the City. No one has shown me that the street
is anything but a benefit to the City. I am second of all an alumni of the College of the
Desert. This program is of great benefit to an educational resource greatly underfunded.
As more students are unable to afford the fees being charged by our State university and
college system, the monies generated by the street fair become even more important. If
anyone has the right to charge more money to participate in the street fair, it's the College,
not the City. Street vending is not something to look down on. I know some of our more
elite merchants would like you to believe that we are selling junk or back room
merchandise, but this isn't the case. We're just hard working merchants, trying to make a
living like anyone else, and we have the right to do so. Many generations of immigrants
have started out as street merchants, people on the frozen streets of New York or
Philadelphia or any other American haven from repression and tyranny. Maybe some
members of this council have had relatives who've started out in much the same conditions.
Of course now in our new progressive society we try to forget our roots and pretend that
anyone with a good idea and a credit rating can open up a business. Have you talked to
your local banker lately? In this current atmosphere of layoffs and corporate bankruptcies
these street fairs are all that separate a lot of people from welfare or homelessness. T
explaining to your mortgage holder that it's not your fault you can't make your payment.
Let me give you an example by telling you about just one of my fellow vendors. He's a
hard-working member of society, he's worked his entire adult life, he raised a family, he had
a good paying job with the Sunrise Company, good enough that he started a new family and
put a down payment on a new home. But things didn't remain good. Tragically his wife
died, leaving him with a young daughter. Then he was laid off last year when Sunrise
stopped its construction projects. -He of course applied for every other company that had
a glimmer of possibility, but along with the soft construction market he suffers from
discrimination. And it's not usual kind you would think of, it's a more subtle discrimination.
You see, he's in his fifty's, not a good age to be seeking new employment when there are
thousands of qualified younger people seeking employment in the same market. So what
could he do? He had a young daughter to feed and clothe, he had a mortgage to pay, so
instead of letting the bank take his home and the County feed his child, he went into
business for himself. It hasn't been easy, he still can't pay all his bills but his little girl has
a roof over her head and food to eat. This is what a hand full of petty greedy merchants
would deny this man, a chance to retain his dignity in the eyes of one small child. I say to
the merchants of this city, look only to yourselves, no one can take your business from you,
you can only let it go. Many a merchant has survived the onslaught of large department
stores through improved customer service and an ability to fall into the cracks created by
the mass merchandise mentality. We're not your problem. you're your problem. Go to Ili:
Company and ask them to stop their melve-hour sales. Tell them you'd be mo
comfortable with a four-hour sale. see what kind of an answer that will get vou, see if t�
City Council is prepared to back you up on that one. To the City Council I say, you ha'
more important matters to concern yourselves with. You got a free pass in the last election,
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but I doubt there'll be a tree pass coming_ in the next one. Why not show the c:tizens of
Palm Desert you aren't just another bunch of politicians willing to buckle under to a tiocai
minority. Listen, I have friends who have businesses on El Paseo. l work with businesses
at the Town Center. I'm sure many members of the Council have been hearing from their
friends and political backers from El Paseo. However, this is supposed to be avgovernment
of the people, we don't need an elitist council, we don't need special interest groups in Palm
Desert. Please just let us do our jobs and leave us alone. I also invite any member of the
City Council to come down on any Saturday or Sunday morning. As I stated earlier I don't
open up I don't start setting up until six o'clock in the morning. Many of my colleagues are
there at five but if you want to come down and watch me set up in the morning, and 1
don't get there until six, we'll make it easy on you, you come down there, watch me set up,
watch me put out my merchandise, watch what time the people show up, and you see if it's
worthwhile to limit the hours on Saturday or to just set up on Sundays. I ask you to come
and check things out before you mak. any other decisions. I would also ask you to check
with the people who come to the street fair and ask them where they go in Palm Desert
or if they would even come to Palm Desert if it wasn't for the street fair at the College of
the Desert. Thank you.
Zemel: My name is Herman Zemel, I have been a resident of Palm Desert for eight years and I
am a permanent vendor at the College of the Desert street fair. With your indulgence I
would like to repeat a letter that I read to the Council at the four o'clock meeting at the
request of some of the people that are here now. This letter was published in the Desert
Sun on Tuesday. I read with interest and yes, disgust, a Desert Sun account of a Palm
Desert City Council meeting which was held on Thursday, December 12th. At that meeting,
according to the report, the Council voted to impose a special tax on the COD street fair
vendors of ten dollars a day.
Kelly: We're going to, that item is a separate item on the agenda and we're going take that up
after this item.
Zemel: I understand that, sir, I'm just reading...
Kelly: You'll have the opportunity to speak to that at that time.
Zemel: Just reading verbatim on the general matter of the street fair.
Snyder: But we'll take that up at a different time.
Zemel: Okay, and that's as far as I went with that particular point.
Kelly: Okay, go ahead.
Zemel: The legality of this action is in serious question and its discriminatory character also leaves
many questions concerning this entire proceeding. One of the questions that arises is how
a single group of merchants can be singled out for such a tax.
33
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REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 9, 1992
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Kelly:
EXHIBIT "A"
It was also reported in the same account that consideration is being given to regulate th
street fair activities to Sundays only from 7:00 a.m. to 11 a.m. This would effectively serve
to close down the fair, as most people do not arrive on Sundays much before ten a.m.
Again, a group of merchants is being singled out for discriminatory regulation.
Why are we not entitled to earn a livelihood as well as anyone else in business? Many of
us are social security recipients who are attempting to supplement the monthly stipend we
receive from Uncle Sam. We arise at 4:30a.m. on weekends and hustle all day after a good
workout setting up our locations.
If the El Paseo merchants think that we have such a good deal, why don't they close their
emporiums and take a space at the street fair? We are not their competition. We don't
sell fifteen hundred dollar dresses or six thousand dollar watches. Why don't they look to
their real competition, the factory stores in Cabazon.
Attempting to regulate or, more truthfully, eliminate us opens a new era in discrimination.
Why don't they protest the new shopping center being constructed at Highway 111 and Fred
Waring? Those merchants will be direct competition seven days a week.
The street fair has become a tourist attraction as well as a source of enjoyment for the local
citizenry. It is beneficial to the College in generating a considerable amount of muc~
needed additional funds for scholarships and special programs.
This is still America, the land of the free and the home of the poor. Aren't there enough
starving and homeless people without the rich and powerful denying the little guy a chance
to earn a living and not become a burden on the government? Thank you.
Is there anyone else that wanted to speak to this issue? Let me say one thing before you
do. You can come forward. 1 implore you to give us credit for listening to what you're
saying, we're all three of us veryattentive and listening and it's not necessary to repeat over
and over the same thing. Give us credit for having worked with this problem for a couple
of years actually and then tonight to repeat the same thing over and over it really doesn't
accomplish anything. But if you have something new and different and exciting, please tell
us.
Rider: I'm an exciting guy. Well I wasn't at the last meeting so maybe I will be repeating
something but...
Kelly: Just worry about tonight then, you'll do good if you don't repeat anything from tonight.
Rider: My name is Michael Reiter and I own a local restaurant in town called "Bigalow's". I am
not a merchant down at the local swap meet. I've just taken a couple of notes tonight and
I just came because I was interested in it. As far as there is three things I'd like to to
about. As far as traffic goes, we're a delivery restaurant, we deal with traffic every day a►
my drivers go down past there on Saturdays all the time and not one of them have e\
come back and complained to me about a problem that they had driving past the swap me..
or going anywhere. We do notice the changes during the season when it gets a little bit
34
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REGULAR PALM DESEP— CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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EXHIBIT "A"
busier and it takes them twice as long to go down Highway 111 or it takes us twice as lone
to go down El Paseo, so 1 know there is a lot of extra cars but from my view point and
the guys that work for me they have never complained once about the traffic down there.
The one gentlemen mentioned that he had to swerve out of the way a couple of times, that
happens everyday. I mean, it happens to me on 111, it happens on El Paseo, it happens
all of the time. I don't think just because there is a swap meet there and if there is I think
people should just be careful and watch what they are doing. They obviously they know
there's more traffic and there is more cars.
The second thing I'd like to bring up is the competition aspect of it. The City has approved
six new restaurants or five new restaurants in my area, when that happens I don't run to the
City and say close these places down. 1 have to come up with new ideas and ways to make
myself better for people to come and order my food not to run and say close this place
down.
I think it's up to the merchants on El Paseo and the people in the mall to come up with
some new ideas or something ror themselves. The answer is not closing them down: they
are just another competitive place in the City doing business just like they're doing business.
I have to compete with Carl's Jr., 1'.e got to compete against Keedy's who has been in
business for twenty-five years and everybody else that does lunch or does any kind of
business, I don't think it is fair that they should run and try to close this down.
And the third thing I think that is really very important, not many people have touched on
it at least I haven't heard it tonight. And that is the education part of it. The money that
comes from here goes to the College. We have people that come in and most of the people
that work for me are from 18 to 22, 23 years old, they come in and they fill out an
application and it's sad, it's really sad when these kids can't spell driver. When you spell
driver d-r-y-v-e-r and there are other things, they can't spell the names of the streets, they
can not they can't even till out an application for employment. And they're in high school,
some of them are seniors in high school, and I have guys that work at the College, they can't
spell. I think that the money that comes from there, and I know the merchants some of
them don't care that much about the education and they're there to make some money and
I understand it. But the people who started this and the people who began this are
interested in education, are interested in funds coming from other resources and I think this
is a gnat way to do it. I think it would be a mistake for them to cut any hours off of it at
all or ast one day out of it. Thank you.
Kelly: Is these anyone else who would like to speak?
Sacks: My name is Ken Sacks, I live in Thousand Palms, California. I've been a resident in the
valley here for twenty years. I am an alumni of College of the Desert, I'm also a veteran
of Vietnam two times. Everything I've always learned, everything that I've ever done was
always in a free state. I can't understand why competition or how they can get to you and
say we want to cut your hours. Sure it would be nice, they're not open on Sundays sure
they'll allow us to open on Sundays and not on Saturday. Why don't they close on Saturday
and allow us to be open. It just doesn't make sense. A gentlemen came up and said that
the College is not a fund raising organization. The Alumni Association is a fund raising
35
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REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 9, 1992
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EXHIBIT "A"
organization and all college's have it, that's the way they raise money for their colleges. H
also said that people have thousands and tens of thousands of dollars invested in their
business. I for one have tens of thousands dollars invested in my business and I'm not ready
to close it up under pressure from competition and I just think that this whole thing should
be just left as it is. The Town Center and El Paseo came after the College; the College is
the cornerstone of Palm Desert and it should be given a little more consideration. Thank
you.
Carlstrum: Hi, my name is Eva Carlstrum, I'm seventeen years old. I attend COD; I went to Palm
Springs High School; I graduated last year. I've been selling at COD for four years since
I was thirteen years old and it has been the best experience of my life. I've learned more
things there than I could have ever learned in school. I get up every morning, Saturday and
Sunday, like all the other people that sell at COD. I have to come home early Friday nights
but I still, getting up and working that hard, it's been such a good experience for me and
I've learned more than I have ever learned at school. I fill out my own taxes, I'm seventeen
years old and I fill out sales tax Corms. 1 don't think there is too many seventeen years who
even know what a sales tax form is. It's just all the people out there are great and I had
an article in the paper written about me and I've had more people come up to me and just
tell me what a great thing that they just enjoy coming out to COD and just a wonderful, how
wonderful it is. I have so few people, 1 don't think I've even had one tell me that they
dislike it for any reason whatsoever. It's just been, I think it's just been a wonderful
experience for me, I've just learned so much. And I also work for a radio station ar
without me working at COD I wouldn't be able to on the weekends, I wouldn't be able
attend COD the way I do because I'd have to get another job and I wouldn't be able to
work at the radio station like 1 do. It's just been a wonderful experience. I just wanted to
let everybody know at COD how much I enjoy it and how much I enjoy the City for letting
it stay open and I hope you do for both days because it's just been the most wonderful
experience of my life. Thank you.
Custen: Hello, my name is Ted Custen, l live in Palm Desert, California. I have certain points to
bring up...
Kelly: Be sure and talk right into the microphone there, no use talking to me if I can't hear you.
Custen: Okay, it seems like the point right now is the traffic concern which is the main thing is Fred
Waring Drive, which the College has put up red cones and made sure that there is no
turning into the College at these areas. No one has brought up the point of Monterey
Avenue which seems to be extremely congested and this is traffic that is basically going to
Palm Desert Town Center. I find that this is reverse discrimination, that the benefit of
curtailing the hours from seven to twelve, the only one who benefits from this type of thing
are the other merchants. So I think you should consider that in your, in exactly what you're
going to do because I feel it is totally, totally inconsistent with business and competition that
by cutting our hours down, the only ones that benefit are the other retailers that are st•
open. And the fact that they allow us to open on Sundays, that's nice, they're basica]
closed on Sundays so it makes no difference to them at that time. Thank you.
3o
. r • a .. l V
EXHIBL'I' "A"
Shapiro: Hi, my name is Scott Shapiro. I'm a resident of Palm Desert and I'm a '.endor at :he
College of the Desert, I'm thirty-three years old. I '..asn't going to get up and say anything
and I've just been sitting there getting madder and madder. I don't think I'd be able to
sleep tonight if I just didn't say this and it is new business and it's stuff that I think is real
important. As far as your, first of all I have a problem with soinebodv corning in from out
of the area and I just I have to say this as far as an attorney because it's such a hot issue
that I feel like the merchants on El Paseo and the Tov n Center don't want to get involved
with an attorney who's local because God forbid that the attorney should happen to be
victorious in possibly achieving their goals and closing the street fair. that they'd be
associated with having something to do with the demise of the street fair. And you know...
Kelly: I think that you ought to try to keep it to the facts of why it should or shouldn't and I don't
think (uncl)...
Shapiro: Okay, I understand...
Kelly: ...bad mouth somebody else that spoke or ...
Shapiro: ...welll'm not bad mouthing, I think he made a lot of good points but again because I'm
a tax payer and I live in the City, you know, I feel like you were being buckled or being
told what to do and threatening and that type of thing and I don't think that's necessary.
Because I'm not going to say what we're going to do as far as the vendors association. I
don't represent them but you know when somebody tells you what to do. it's like when
somebody comes into the College of the Desert street fair and tries to tell us how to run
our business. You know I don't want anybody to come into my booth and I'm sure a vendor
or merchant on El Paseo doesn't want to have anybody come in and say, I don't want you
to have dresses in this window. You know if they're not breaking the law, I don't think
someone should come into somebody's business and tell them how to run it. And the City
is being run like a business and I don't think somebody should come in here and tell you
how to run your business. If somebody wants to come in and do an environmental study
if that's the threat, I you know I don't know how much money the City has to spend on all
of these things but I could do an environmental study for free for you. If you've ever seen
the movie "Field of Dreams", if you build it, they will come. They're still going to come to
the street fair or the swap meet or whatever you want to call it and if you're going to make
it just Sunday, if it happens to double our business on Sunday which theoretically might
happen, I can't say that for sure, it might decrease. But if it did increase and we did get
all of the people who are coming over two days, yeah, you might have a problem on
Sundays. You know I'm being honest with you and I don't think I'd be able to sleep if I
didn't tell you that. I think, you know, having it the way it is, there's really not a problem
out there. If you have to do a study to Lind that out, then that's great. We have adequate
parking, I don't know if the parking is legal or not legal, that you'd have to take up with
the City or with the College, but we have adequate parking there. If we have to get cars
off the street then let's get them off the street, let's get a guy outside like you have at the
forum and let them direct traffic. We don't want to be a burden to the City. We just want
to go out there and do our business and not be a burden to the City. That's all I have to
say.
37
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JANUARY 9, 1992
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EXHIBIT "A"
Kelly: Does anyone else wish to speak to this issue? Seeing nobody, I'll close the public hearin; •
Diaz:
Mr. Mayor, there are some environmental issues that you may wish to have me address
before going into your testimony or after, whichever, and in your discussion for the record.
It's up to you folks.
In terms of some of the environmental issues that were raised and the issues of the fees
which where mitigation measures to those environmental concerns, there is a separate
appeal method for those fees, the transportation mitigation tee specifically, that is decided
by the Coachella Valley Association of Governments and they would ultimately make that
particular decision. As far as the issue of the ends justifying the means, that continues to
be the case here and in all zoning issues non-profit organizations, such as this one, do have
to go through the process and the procedure just as profit -making organizations do.
In terms of the parking lots in question, the parking Tots are part of the College parking for
students, they just happen to be used by the merchants. And, therefore, the City does not
have any control over those parking lots, those parking Tots have to go through the College's
procedure, whatever that may be with the Office of the State Architect or whatever that
situation is. The City does not have control over those parking lots. Because they are
available for the street fair on Saturday and Sundays to take the excess flow, the excess
parking, off of Monterey and Fred Waring Drive, they therefore are available and they c'
exist and they're part of the mitigation measures but they do not come under our contr,
any more than the existing parking lots that were there since the College was built.
In terms of the traffic and other conditions, as I indicated previously, with a conditional use
permit we do have a monitor, automatic monitoring setup that can come up at any point
in time if there is a problem. 1 think we have to give these mitigation measures, the non -
parking on Monterey and Fred Waring and that, an opportunity to work as well as the
parking plan to see exactly what happens. We anticipate an improvement in the traffic
situation as we have here. As tat- as the hours and mitigation, the hours of operation on
Saturday, perhaps the College can allow the vendors to have their booths stay overnight so
they don't have to take them up and put them down two weeks and have security there two
days a week and create that situation. That is a matter between the vendors and their
landlord, in this case would be the College of the Desert. But our mitigation measure in
terms of Saturday what we're recommending again is limiting the hours of operation on
Saturday to some extent. We continue to believe that an environmental impact report is.
not required. As far as the fair argument theory that was brought up and the public
controversy. There must be some e\ idence of public controversy other than just a statement
of public controversy. And as far as economic impact. again its economic impact not
environmental impact and there must be some evidence. One thing that was not pointed
out in looking at an environmental impact report, an environmental impact report also can
have a statement of overriding considerations if the Council chooses to adopt it. By that
particular document it means that the benefits derived from a particular action outwei€
the impacts on the environment and so, therefore, you can override that environment2
impact report. With a negative declaration of environmental impact you cannot do the
you must mitigate all potential significant adverse impacts on the environment. We ate
doing that; therefore, we continue to recommend to this Council that you certify a negative
38
REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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EXHIBIT "A"
declaration of environmental impact if you choose to approve this conditional use perm, '
And that's it.
Kelly: Does Council have any more questions of staff'' Comments?
Benson: I would just like to make a statement in that 1 am the one mat called this up to the C:t\
Council for review and I did so because of not being comfortable w ►th w hat the staff has
recommended to the Planning Commission and also as a benefit to our constituents to the
community that wanted this street fair to continue and also trying to mitigate the concerns
of our other business community which is one of the things that the City is run on. is the
sales tax. These issues concern me that the City, there was some problems that the Plann►n2
Commission did not address that should be addressed.
Number one was the traffic. They asked for a traffic plan; they did not address Fred
Waring and Monterey, which I felt should be addressed and which is taken care of ;n these
new conditions that we put on here that would limit the traffic because there has been
hazardous situations both along Fred Waring and Monterey. As to the hours of operation
that the Planning Commission had authorized, I felt there could be different ones and in
trying to benefit both the other business communities we recognized the street fair brings
people in here and there are thousands of them every Saturday. And 1 felt that if their
hours were limited from seven to noon on Saturday that those people can fan out into the
community and patronize the restaurants and the other business entities in the community
and it's up to those businesses to get the people in to their establishment. They are here.
I didn't think it was right to have the street fair close down and send those people to some
other community when the City of Palm Desert could benefit by them being in here and
that is the rationale for the hours that 1 believe that the street fair should operate.
Those are the reasons that it is before the Council tonight giving everybody else an
opportunity to speak again and also being fair to both sides of this community.
Snyder: This is one of those uncomfortable positions that one finds himself in; no matter which way
somebody votes or talks about, we're going to have half of you upset because you believe
strongly in what you believe in. The purpose of us having this facility here is to do just what
we're doing, to allow all of our people to come and talk to us. This is one thing about a
council, the next morning we'll walk down the street and meet the people with whom we
have atarde decisions about. This council has been a good council, this whole organization.
We've worked hard to make this city a pride of the valley. I think that we have made this
city the pride of the valley. We have done that by listening to our citizens; every time we
have a real problem that needs citizens' input, we go to the citizens to do it. I think many
of you know that we have many committees that we ask you to come and sit on and work
with us to come up with solutions that's best for our city -- how do we best come up with
an answer to make this a better city for our citizens, for our people who work here, and our
people who live here. I think our record shows that we have indeed worked on that.
On this particular subject, the three of us that are sitting here now have probably put more
time, more debates, attended more meetings. listened to more people of how this thing
should be done than any subject that we've been on in the last year. It is a subject that if
39
MINUTES
REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 9, 1992
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Kelly:
EXHIBIT "A"
we did not put the time and effort in it we could literally tear this city apart, we'd have fi
percent one way and fifty percent the other and some of you being rather adamant about
your position. If my position, my job, depended on my following through and getting the
right decision out of the Council, I'd be just like most of you are here. I would be here to
see to it that the Council makes the best decision they know how to make. We have met
with the people, we have asked Dave George to assist us, we've meet with him and his
people, we've tried to bring the merchants in, it's not just El Paseo or the Town Center, it's
all the merchants around that have had their point. One of the things that is very difficult
to do and in this job sometimes you learn that soon, the most difficult thing you can do is
to sit on the other guy's side and really believe and listen to his side of the issue as well as
the other side. And I find that it's very easy to get very strongly involved in your side and
dismiss the other guy's side. You can't have this job up here if you do that. You've got to
try to listen and put yourself in the other guy's spot. Now I agree with most of the things
that have been said here, there's been some very excellent presentations made of why we
should go one way or the other. It's a decision, it's a very difficult decision on our part
because if you all look at it, basically 1 could tell you that on one side you have a group of
merchants that feel that they are being discriminated against. that the state fair as we call
it, the College fair does not have to pay the rent that they pay, they do not have the upkeep
that they pay and that they have been working hard and developing our city and have
created our city by paying all of these dues and fares and taxes that we do. And this is true,
and part of the thing that we're going across, our President's running around the world nc
saying that we want to be able to compete on a level field, while on their side of the str:
they say the field is not level. So we have to take that into consideration too, at least
have to listen to their side. On the other side we have a major predominance of you people
who are telling us that what you're doing is proper, what you're doing is creating a
livelihood, what you're doing is in your opinion helping the City. It is like sitting up here
deciding the matter that in the Bible the guy decided to cut the baby in half. We're almost
to that decision here. The arguments on both sides are very, very compelling and it's not
an easy thing that we're going to do tonight, assuming that we live through it, that we're
going to make a decision here tonight. I hope that we make a decision that has been based
upon the discussions that we've had with all the people on both sides and we can come
up with some answers to both sides that we will have created and determined that this is
fair and that this is right and this is what we should do for this city and our people. And
I hope that we dig deep in our soul and come up with the answer that satisfies most of you,
and those that we don't we hope that you know that we really have spent a lot of time, a
lot of effort, to do that, to do what's best. You elected us to do this, we're doing the best
we can, and I assure you that if our track record means anything you'll know that we do the
best we can and make the best decisions we can for all of you. Thank you.
Thank you. When I was elected to the City Council, 1 thought that I'd have to make
decisions where half of the people would be mad and half of the people would be happy.
I found out shortly after that everybody went away mad. This is a subject that we have
spent a tremendous amount of time on and staff negotiating and we have been criticize
by the news media for taking too much time. I don't think that we have because we didi
want to make a decision without exploring every possibility of having the parties negotia
something, mediate something that they could agree that would be fair to both sides. Aii.,
we were hopeful that that would happen and we gave every chance for that to happen.
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REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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JANUARY 9, 199''
EXHIBIT' "A"
And we came I think very, \,ery ,:lose a couple of times. I'm sorry that that didn't nappen
but when that doesn't happen then there is nothing left for us to do but make a decision.
One gentleman suggested tonight that we go over there and see what goes on. I took a half
a day one Saturday and 1, by the way I got there by seven o'clock, I didn't get there quite
six o'clock but I stayed till one o'clock. And I interviewed one hundred people who were
visitors to the street fair. In some cases there would be two or three people in those Groups.
And I actually had recorded questions and one of the questions I asked was why they came
to this city, why they were at the swap meet. where are you going after you lease the swap
meet, if they're going somewhere 1 found out where they shop, what else they did in the
City. So aside from all the time I spent here at the City, I also spent time over there so
that hopefully when I had to make the decision that I could make an intelligent decision.
So I know that we're going to try here tonight and I'm glad that we're finally to that point
where we're going to attempt to make a decision that's fair to everyone. By the way. I'm
not oblivious to the fact that the street fair provides a lot of just plain old recreation for
people. I actually saw people over .there who hadn't bought anything and did not intend
to buy anything. They came there fOr the recreation and the outing; they just enjoyed the
atmosphere there. So I'm not oblivious to that either. We spend thousands of dollars.
actually millions of dollars to provide recreation for the community. 1 don't think that we
want to destroy recreation that actually doesn't cost us anything. We understand all of the
different ramifications and we've heard about every argument that there is, I think. Jean,
maybe we ought to ask you to make an attempt at an outline of some kind of a motion that
we can at least get a motion on the floor so that we could discuss it.
Benson: Alright, I'll be happy to do that. Before I make the motion on the hours, I also want to
point out that the hours that 1 am suggesting is not any cut down on the hours that the
merchants, the vendors, still have. The time will equal the same, there's not any shortening
of hours for them.
I would like to make a motion that we add to the conditions that were approved by the
Planning Commission, in addition to those which included the policing of the person, having
a person on the property, that condition, for complaints and that, the condition that the
College would hold the City harmless in case of suit. And then on to the parking, the
parking plan that the Planning Commission suggested, add to that the off-street, no street
parking on Monterey and Fred Waring on the days of the street fair from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00.
The applicant's shall for pay the installation of the parking regulatory signs and the parking
management plan shall be submitted to the Palm Desert Community Development
Depaslloent for review and approval within thirty days, said plan as approved and/or
modified by City staff shall be implemented within three weeks of the staff's approval and
that the hours of the street fair be on Saturday from seven till noon with a direct cut-off
at noon and no sales allowed while they're taking down their stands or anything, it's strictly
a noon cut off and seven to three on Sunday. I think that adds those conditions.
Erwin: Mr. Mayor, might I assume that that motion would include direction to staff to prepare two
resolutions, one dealing with the negative declaration, the second adding those conditions
to the existing other existing conditions.
Benson: Right.
41
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REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 9, 1992
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EXHIBIT "A"
Diaz: And we'll bring those resolutions for you for formal adoption at your next meeting.
Kelly: Then you will prepare a resolution that we would adopt at the...
Diaz: ...at the next meeting. That's correct.
Kelly: ...the next meeting.
Brady: Mr. Mayor, could 1 address you for a second?
Kelly: Well, the public hearing is closed.
Brady: Okay, I would like to, before you vote on this, ask something please. All I'd like to ask is.
could you just give us one more hour? It would make one big difference.
Kelly: Do what?
Brady: Give us one more hour on Saturday, it would make one big difference. That's all I'm
asking.
Kelly: What...
(Members of the audience making comments from their seats...)
Snyder: You've handled yourselves beautifully tonight, let's keep it that way.
Benson: We started out in negotiating this seven to eleven and or talking about seven to eleven and
we did come up with seven to noon in order to give them that much (uncl)
Diaz: Mr. Mayor, just to clarify one thing....
Benson: ...and the traffic (background)
Diaz: ...the staff report which relates back to that negative declaration of environmental impact
started we were looking at seven to noon limitation. If we do not limit it at noon then staff
cannot continue to, we would have to relook at the environmental issue so we'd recommend
that the Council stay at noon, we'd urge the Council to stay at noon.
Kelly: Well, there was a lot of negotiations on that particular subject: staff is recommending ten
o'clock, merchants would like to have eleven o'clock and the Council is willing to go til
twelve o'clock and I think possibly we could have a clause that we could take a look at this...
Benson: It will be reviewed as...
Kelly: ...reviewed
42
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JANUARY 9, (992
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Benson:
Snyder:
Gentleman:
Benson:
Gentlemen:
Benson:
Gentlemen:
Kelly:
Gentleman:
Kelly:
Gentleman:
Kelly:
Gentleman:
Kelly:
Gentlemen:
Kelly:
Gentlemen:
EXHIBIT "A"
...sixmonths we could put that condition in mere, that we look at or as Rav said if it :sn':
working we could look at it at any time.
I think you're failing to recognize the fact that if we definitely change the position that staff
has taken. not just that staff takes it but what the law says. we may have to go even further
than this. Staff is telling us that by doing what he recommends. we feel strongly that we
could substantiate ourselves in court and we do not have to have an EIR. We go different
than what he established the negative declaration on, we could well be in court with an
EIR which will, then you will really regret what happens.
Mr. Mayor, is this same motion on the floor'?
Yes, it's still on.
Okay, it has to be seconded, is that correct'?
Right.
And then there will be discussion on the motion'?
Well, we will discuss the motion. The audience has their opportunity during the public
hearing, now you have to give us a chance to discuss it so that we can make a decision.
It is very difficult to discuss it if we try to carry on public hearings at the same time. That's
why we go through that process and close the public hearing.
No, okay, I was under the oppression when a motion is made...
We've been negotiating this for two years.
Mr. Mayor, I represent the vendors. Nobody in your committee ever sat down with the
vendors to ask their opinion of the street fair. Now could you sit there honestly and tell
us that you took everything into consideration of the vendors who are hard working people.
Miss Benson or Ms. Benson, they pay their taxes, every vendor pays their taxes.
We were, we were very polite and considerate and listened while everybody testified. Now
it's our time to do our job and we think you should give us the same consideration.
I'm giving it except that it's been brought out...
I'm going... (background)
...that the vendors have never been asked for a meeting.
...ifyou keep that up, I'm going to recess the meeting.
Well, I don't think it's fair...
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Kelly:
EXHIBIT "A"
IANUARY 9, 1992
* * * * * * * * * *
I said, I'm going to recess the meeting if you keep it up. I should clarify that, that we wo
very closely with the College and the Alumni Association and the Chamber of Commerce
and any interested parties. And we've spent lots of time, it's not something that just
happened tonight.
Snyder: Yes, I will second the motion.
Kelly: Is there any other discussion?
Benson: I don't have any.
Kelly: Then moved and seconded, all the recommendations as outlined by Mayor Pro-tempore
Benson, would you indicate your pleasure by voting.
Gilligan: Motion carries by 3-0-2 vote, with Coiincilmembers Wilson and Crites abstaining.
Altman: Would you like to take a Live -minute recess?
Kelly: We might as well take that other item, right?
Altman: Oh yeah, the two dollar item? Sure.
Kelly: What's that...(Uncl)
We'll take a five-minute recess. and when we come back we're going to address that subject
of the license fees.
Kelly:
.- RECESS
I'll call the meeting back to order. We have one item left over from the 4:00 meeting. It's
Ordinance No. 664, An Ordinance of the City Council of the City of Palm Desert,
California, Adding Category J to Chapter 5.06,Pertaining to the Establishment and Defining
of Business License Tax Categories. And...
Erwin: Mr. Mayor, you did, in fact, Council slid, in fact, pass that ordinan,e on second reading.
It is the second item, the resolution...
Kelly: We're on Resolution No. 92-1, which has to do with setting the fees. Thank you. Mr. City
Manager...
Altman: Yes, Mr. Mayor, the effective change in the resolution would be to reduce it from the 55.(
to $2.00. Let's see, Ray or Frank, maybe you could give a couple reasons for what we'
talking about there.
4-
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Allen:
EXHIBIT "A"
Yes, Mr. Mayor and members of the Council. If you recall, December l 'th we approved
Resolution 91-134 assessing a business license rate of $5.00 per day for each booth, space.
stall, or similar device for an outdoor e\ ent. Now it has been recommended 52.00 a day.
and I think that's quite fair because I did a survey of some cities in Orange County which
continually had swap meets and street fairs. and they usually charge a base fee between
$35.00 to 560.00 plus $1.00 to S5.00 per Liar . So 1 think...
(audience background and applause)
In addition, if the College does not collect the required fees, let's say for a rainout which
was (uncl), then the City wouldn't receive anything. So I would recommend that we approve
Resolution No. 92-1 at $2.00 a day.
Benson: And that would negate their $60.00 a year business license'?
Allen: Oh, yes, that is correct.
Benson: And anyone that has a current one or a long time left on it would be refunded that money.
Allen: We would refund it if they requested.
Kelly: So I'm clear, would it be 52.00 a weekend or $2.00 per day?
Benson: $2.00 per day.
Allen: Per day for each stall, booth, etc.
Kelly: And that would, then there would be no regular business license, and someone then could
operate if they operated only two weekends, the tax would only cost them for four days, and
anybody who has already paid would be...
Benson: Anybody that has a business license that they just got and paid the $60.00 if they asked for
a refund, they would get it.
Allen: That's right.
Benson: And the S2.00, the S2.00 per day is, since the College is the landlord they would be paying
that back to the City, they'll be the collecting agent.
Kelly: The College would be the collecting agent.
Allen: That is correct.
Kelly: Okay, any other questions?
Snyder: I think it's much fairer to the people (uncl).
45
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EXHIBIT "A"
Kelly: This is not an advertised item for public hearing, but we will let people speak if they woul
But this is a very precise item, so let's speak to the item and not...
Brady: Right. Again, my name is Thomas J. Brady. I addressed you this afternoon in regards to
the $2.00. Nothing against the $2.00. The question I asked this afternoon was, if I have
a slot at the street fair, and I have to pay $30.00 a day to maintain that spot, I do not show
up and sell Saturday, do l still have to pay that $2.00? And 1 don't show up, someone
comes behind me and takes my spot, they pay the College of the Desert $25.00 to take my
spot, do they also have to pay that $2.00, so is the City going to get $4.00 a day for a spot
that is not taken by the original person that has it, or are they just going to get $2.00 a day.
Kelly: Let me answer that question the way I would think it would work and then staff can tell me
I'm right or wrong. This particular fee is not just the College of the Desert, it is City-wide.
Brady: That's right, I understand that. So if the City had a street fair...
Kelly: Let me finish, let me take a crack at it. If you. of course the College is the one collecting
the fee, but I would assume that when you pay you're going to pay $25.00
Brady: And the $2.00..
Kelly: and then $27.00, whatever it is. So the College is going to collect that. In the case of ti
City, if somebody came to us and took a permit for two days and we collected the $2.,
and it rained and they didn't use it, we would keep the $4.00 because we still do the same
paperwork. And that's basically what the fee is all about.
Brady: So what you're saying is that if that spot is not taken by the original vendor, and someone
else takes his spot, you're going to get $4.00 a day for that same spot.
Kelly: Let me put it one more time. la -this case, the College is going to be doing the collecting,
and when the day happens, if they have 50 spaces used, that's what they're going to pay us
accordingly. And so, I would see that it's between the College and the vendors how they
collect that.
Benson: It's up to them.
Brady: You only expect $2.00 a spot'?
Kelly: If you were somewhere else in town and you game in and took a permit for tomorrow and
we collected $2.00and it rained tomorrow and `ou didn't use it, tied keep the $2.00. What
the College does and how the\ do that is going to be their business. I would think.
Diaz: Mr. Mayor, the College doesn't nail people twice for the same spot. We're not going to g
two licenses that day for the same spot.
Woman: We will only charge the $2.00 for whomever uses that spot.
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EXHIBIT "A"
Kelly: Okay. Now, did somebody eke want :o speak to that issue? I know what you're going :o
do. You're going to tell us chat :akc the S2.00 and run. right?
Sacks: Can 1 have my 52.00 now? Sir. my name is Ken Sacks, I'm from Thousand Palms. NI',
question is, this is for outdoor vendors. I am a food vendor, I am licensed through the
Health Department as a catering N,ehicle. and I want to know if all catering vehicles in the
Palm Desert area will be charged this S2.00 or am 1 exempt from this 52.00?
Kelly: How about catering vehicles at construction sites?
Diaz: This is just street fairs.
Kelly: Now wait a minute, not just street fairs.
Diaz: Well, street fairs, swap meets. in conjunction with conditional use permits is what it is.
Kelly: Wait a minute. What this ordinance addresses is someone who wants to do outdoor selling.
It does not address the food vendors that go to the construction sites.
Diaz: Right.
Kelly: If we have a problem with that, staff can review it and if we want to make some kind of
an ordinance to cover that, we can do that. But this does not address that.
Sacks: You take away the prime selling hours that I have and then charge me an extra 52.00a day
to be out there?
Kelly: It's not an extra $2.00.
Sacks: It's not?
Kelly: You're not going to pay the $60.00 a year you pay now.
Sacks: Oh, I'm not going to pay the $60.00?
Kelly: You're not going to pay that $60.00 to the City that you have been paying.
Sacks: So it's just $2.00 a day?
Benson: Right.
Kelly: It's just $2.00 a day.
Sacks: I like that. Thank you very much.
Kelly: I thought you should grab that, I was sure you were going to say it's a good deal and you
would take it.
47
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REGULAR PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 9, 1992
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EXHIBIT "A"
Snyder: Can't somebody else object?
Kelly: Does anyone else want to speak to this particular item? Okay.
Snyder: I move to approve.
Kelly: You move Resolution 92-1?
Snyder: I do.
Kelly: At $2.00?
Snyder: At $2.00.
Benson: I'll second it.
Kelly: It's moved and seconded that we approve Resolution No. 92-1, and that is at $2.00 per day.
Would you indicate your pleasure by voting.
Gilligan: Motion carries by a 3-0-2 vote, with Councilmen Wilson and Crites abstaining.
;S