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Home My WebLink About2001-07-19MINUTES ADJOURNED PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL MEETING THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2001 4:00 P.M. CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Ferguson convened the meeting at 4:03 p.m. 1I. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Councilmember Jean M. Benson III. INVOCATION - Mayor Jim Ferguson IV. ROLL CALL Present: Councilmember Jean M. Benson Councilman Buford A. Crites Councilman Robert A. Spiegel Mayor Jim Ferguson Excused Absence Mayor Pro Tem Richard S. Kelly Also Present: Carlos L. Ortega, City Manager/RDA Executive Director David J. Erwin, City Attorney Sheila R. Gilligan, ACM for Community Services/City Clerk Richard J. Folkers, ACM for Development Services Homer Croy, Director of Building & Safety Phil Drell, Director of Community Development Paul S. Gibson, Director of Finance/City Treasurer Teresa La Rocca, Director of Housing Martin Pinon, Director of Human Resources Joseph S. Gaugush, Director of Public Works/City Engineer David Yrigoyen, Director of Redevelopment Rachelle D. Klassen, Deputy City Clerk V. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - A MR. MICHAEL BRACKEN, Palm Desert, expressed appreciation for the street resurfacing that had recently taken place and for the conscientiousness shown by the contractor, Granite Construction. MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL VI. AWARDS, PRESENTATIONS, AND APPOINTMENTS J U LY 19, 2001 A. PRESENTATION OF COMMEMORATIVE SCRAPBOOK TO BERNICE GONZALEZ, CELEBRATING THE MOTHER/CHILD SCULPTURE GARDEN DEDICATION. Staff Member Debbie Thompson presented a commemorative scrapbook (which she put together) to Bernice Gonzalez. Mayor Ferguson noted that the Mother/Child Sculpture came about as the result of an essay written by Bernice Gonzalez several years ago as part of the Student Art & Essay Contest. B. PRESENTATION TO PALM DESERT ENERGY AUDITORS: RON HARRIS, DENISE WITTHAUS, IVAN CALIL, AND HERB NIKOLA. Mr. Michael Bracken, Executive Director of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, and Ms. Susie Harvey, Executive Director of the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce, and Mayor Ferguson made presentations of commemorative wall plates to Palm Desert energy auditors Ron Harris, Denise Witthaus, and Herb Nikola. Mr. Ivan Calil was out of town and could not attend the meeting. C. PRESENTATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL BY TOM KIRK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SALTON SEA AUTHORITY (Rescheduled from the meeting of June 28, 2001). Mr. Kirk gave a brief overview of the Salton Sea history and issues and offered to answer any questions. D. PRESENTATION TO PALM DESERT HEROES: ROBERT J. PLUMMER, TIMOTHY J. FARLEY, JEFFREY C. RODERICK, WILLIAM WARE, AND PAMELA WARE. On behalf of the entire City Council, Mayor Ferguson presented commemorative bowls and gift certificates for Sullivan's Steakhouse to Timothy J. Farley, Jeffrey C. Roderick, William Ware, and Pamela Ware in appreciation of their efforts in helping to catch a child molester in the Civic Center Park. He noted that Mr. Plummer's presentation would be rescheduled for the Council's meeting of August 23, 2001. He also expressed appreciation on behalf of County Supervisor Roy Wilson. 2 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 With City Council concurrence, Mayor Ferguson suspended the Agenda at this point in order to take up Items A of New Business, and A of Reports and Remarks. Please see those portions of the Minutes for discussion and action. With Council concurrence, Mayor Ferguson adjourned the meeting to Closed Session at 6:04 p.m. He reconvened the meeting at 7:05 p.m. VII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. MINUTES of the Regular City Council Meeting of June 28, 2001. Action: Approve as presented. Note: Mayor Ferguson ABSTAINED from voting on this item due to his absence from the meeting. B. CLAIMS AND DEMANDS AGAINST THE CITY TREASURY - Warrant Nos. 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 1, 2, 3, 110-PD Office Complex, 112PD Office Complex, 114PD Office Complex, and 3PD Office Complex. Rec: Approve as presented. C. CLAIM AGAINST THE CITY (#451) by Kenneth H. Barnes in the Amount of $100.60. Rec: By Minute Motion, reject the Claim and direct the City Clerk to so notify the Claimant. D-1. APPLICATION FOR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE by Cosmos Kitchen Palm Desert, Inc., for Cosmos Kitchen, 73-155 Highway 111, Palm Desert. Rec: Receive and file. D-2. APPLICATION FOR ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE LICENSE. by S B Restaurant Company, 73-833 Highway 111, Palm Desert. Rec: Receive and file. 3 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL E. MINUTES of City Committee and Commission Meetings. J U LY 19, 2001 1. Art In Public Places Commission Meeting of May 16, 2001. 2. Citizens' Advisory Committee for Project Area No. 4 Meeting of April 16, 2001. 3. Housing Commission Meetings of May 9, and June 13, 2001. 4. Promotion Committee Meeting of May 15, 2001. 5. Sister Cities Subcommittee Meetings of May 17, and May 29, 2001. 6. Technology Committee Meeting of June 5, 2001. Rec: Receive and file. F-1. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of the Sale of 12.40 Acres of City -owned Land at Merle Drive and 42nd Avenue. Rec: By Minute Motion: 1) Authorize the sale of 12.40 acres from the City of Palm Desert to the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency in the amount of $562,278.94 on the terms described in the accompanying staff report; 2) authorize Agency legal counsel to prepare a purchase and sale agreement to document the transaction (Contract No. C19150); 3) authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement. F-2. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of the Sale of 22.38 Acres of City -owned Land at Merle Drive and 42nd Avenue. Rec: By Minute Motion: 1) Authorize the sale of 22.38 acres from the City of Palm Desert to the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency in the amount of $1,025,653.63 on the terms described in the accompanying staff report; 2) authorize Agency legal counsel to prepare a purchase and sale agreement (Contract No. C19160) and a promissory note to document the transaction; 3) authorize the City Manager to execute the agreement and note. G-1. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION to Advertise and CaII for Bids for the Construction of Storm Drain Associated with the Gerald Ford Widening Project from Portola Avenue to Cook Street (Contract No. C19170, Project No. 501-01). Rec: By Minute Motion, authorize the City Clerk to advertise and call for bids for the subject project. 4 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 G-2. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION to Advertise and Call for Bids for the Construction of a Right Turn Pocket on Southbound Highway 74 at Entrance to Silver Spur Mobile Home Manor (Contract No. C19180, Project No. 686-00). Rec: By Minute Motion, authorize the City Clerk to advertise and call for bids for the subject project. G-3. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION to Advertise and Call for Bids for Combined Turf Seed Use on All City Properties, Including Desert Willow Golf Resort. Rec: By Minute Motion, authorize the City Clerk to advertise and call for bids for the subject purchase. H. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Agreement with the County of Riverside for Traffic Signal and Safety Lighting Maintenance (Contract No. C19190). Rec: By Minute Motion, approve of the subject agreement and authorize the Mayor to execute same. 1. REQUEST FOR ACCEPTANCE OF WORK for Contract No. C17500 Traffic Signal Installation at Five Intersections (DBX, Inc., Temecula, CA). Rec: By Minute Motion, accept the work as complete and authorize the City Clerk to file a Notice of Completion for the subject project. J. REQUEST FOR ACCEPTANCE OF WORK for Contract No. C17580 — 2000 Slurry Seal Program (Project No. 751-00) (American Asphalt Repair & Resurfacing Company, Inc., Hayward, CA). Rec: By Minute Motion, accept the work as complete and authorize the City Clerk to file a Notice of Completion for the subject project. K. REQUEST FOR AUTHORIZATION to Accept the Subdivision Improvements for Tract 28295 (Southland Communities, Inc., Applicant). Rec: By Minute Motion, accept the subdivision improvements as complete and authorize the City Clerk to release the improvement securities for Tract 28295. 5 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 L. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of the Purchase of Furnishings for the Council Chamber Conference Room. Rec: By Minute Motion: 1) Approve purchase of the following items of furniture: a) One 6-foot conference credenza; b) one 4-foot volute -edged table; c) four additional bella chairs; d) freight, delivery and sales tax on the aforementioned items; 2) appropriate $4,973.67 from Unallocated General Fund Reserves for the subject purchase. M. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Contract for 2002 El Paseo Artwork Exhibition (Contract No. C19200). Removed for separate discussion under Section VIII, Consent Items Held Over, of the Agenda. Please see that portion of the Minutes for discussion and action. N. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Contract for Design and Implementation of the Art In Public Places Web Site (Contract No. C19210). Removed for separate discussion under Section VIII, Consent Items Held Over, of the Agenda. Please see that portion of the Minutes for discussion and action. O. CONSIDERATION of Participation in the Palm Desert International Piano Competition. Rec: By Minute Motion, at the request of the organizers of the Palm Desert International Piano Competition, table their request for endorsement indefinitely. P. REQUEST FOR APPROPRIATION of Funds for Water and Sewer Fees and Special Inspection Fees for the Beginners' Skate Park. Removed for separate discussion under Section VIII, Consent Items Held Over, of the Agenda. Please see that portion of the Minutes for discussion and action. 6 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 Q. CONSIDERATION of Action Taken by the Legislative Review Committee at its Meeting of June 19, 2001. Rec: By Minute Motion, concur with the action taken by the Legislative Review Committee at the subject meeting and direct the City Attorney to prepare a letter of opposition for the Mayor's signature with regard to SB 476 (Escutia) relative to motions for summary judgment. R. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 1. Report on Retail Center Vacancies 2. El Paseo Phone Survey for Summer Hours and Vacancy Report 3. Time Line for Regional Park and Potential Ice Rink Siting 4. Report on Right Turn Lane — Northbound San Pablo Avenue at Fred Waring Drive Councilman Crites asked that Items M, N, and P be removed for separate discussion under Section VIII, Consent Items Held Over, of the Agenda. Mayor Ferguson stated that he would be abstaining from the vote on the Minutes of the meeting of June 28, 2001. Upon motion by Spiegel, second by Crites, the remainder of the Consent Calendar was approved as presented by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. VIII. CONSENT ITEMS HELD OVER M. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Contract for 2002 El Paseo Artwork Exhibition (Contract No. C19200). Upon question by Councilman Crites, Community Arts Manager Carolyn Miller stated that this would be a sole artist exhibition. She said there was currently one piece between Portola and Highway 74 that was owned by the City and permanently placed at that location, Charger, the red horse. She said the Art in Public Places Commission requested that another place be found for Charger, at least during the exhibition period. She added that this was a unique opportunity for the City of Palm Desert to exhibit an artist with the distinguished career that Peter Voulkos brings to this country and internationally. She added that interspersed with the 12 pieces would be large signage that would talk about the artist, what the art is about, why it is here, and how it fits in to the genre of the art world. 7 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Concur with the recommendation of the Art In Public Places Commission and approve a contract with Rose and Piero Mussi, Berkeley, California, in the amount of $12,000 for the loan of twelve Peter Voulkos bronzes for the subject exhibition; 2) authorize the Mayor to execute the contract. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. N. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL of Contract for Design and Implementation of the Art In Public Places Web Site (Contract No. C19210). Upon question by Councilman Crites, Ms. Miller responded that this had not gone to the Technology Committee. Councilman Spiegel stated that Sitewire Marketspace Solutions, which is the company that put this together, would be coming to the Technology Committee in September. He said one of the things that Committee would like to accomplish would be getting the Minutes of the various committee meetings on the website as well as the Agenda. Councilman Spiegel moved to refer this matter to the Technology Committee for review of agreement terms such as maintenance and long-term suitability. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. P. REQUEST FOR APPROPRIATION of Funds for Water and Sewer Fees and Special Inspection Fees for the Beginners' Skate Park. Councilman Crites asked if anything would be done with Art In Public Places regarding this proposal. Mr. Winklepleck stated that there were opportunities to do something at that facility. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, appropriate $16,000 for water and sewer fees and special inspection fees for the subject project — funds are available in Parks and Recreation Account No. 233-4630-454-4001, with staff reminded to coordinate the use of all AIPP fees paid on the Skate Parks' facilities to provide a suitable artwork for the location. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. 8 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL IX. RESOLUTIONS None X. ORDINANCES For Introduction: JULY 19, 2001 A. ORDINANCE NO. 992 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING CHAPTER 2.38 OF THE PALM DESERT MUNICIPAL CODE, RELATING TO VOLUNTARY EXPENDITURE CEILING (GENERAL MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS). Mr. Ortega noted the staff report in the packets. Councilman Crites moved to waive further reading and pass Ordinance No. 992 to second reading. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. B. ORDINANCE NO. 993 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING AND DELETING PORTIONS OF CHAPTER 5.87, MASSAGE ESTABLISHMENT AND MASSAGISTS (AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 870); AND ADDING CHAPTER 5.90, MASSAGISTS, TO THE PALM DESERT MUNICIPAL CODE, REGARDING ISSUING PERMITS FOR MASSAGISTS. Ms. Ruth Ann Moore reviewed the staff report, noting that the Valley -wide massage ordinance was developed by CVAG and allowed for the standardization of requirements for therapists throughout the Coachella Valley by those cities that will adopt the ordinance. She noted that the requirements for education, health, and background checks were very similar to the City of Palm Desert's current ordinance. She said staffs concern about having one central location for people to obtain their permits had been changed, and there were now in place reciprocal agreements. For example, if the Cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta agree upon the Valley - wide ordinance and therapists get their permits at the City of La Quinta, they can then bring certified copies of that to the City of Palm Desert, where City staff will give them a reciprocal permit, and they would also have to obtain their Palm Desert business licenses. She said it was very similar to the way a contractor works, where he gets a State contractor's license but must still go to the various cities where he is working and obtain business licenses. 9 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 Councilman Spiegel asked who sets the criteria. Ms. Moore responded that it was set by CVAG and the various groups looking at the current ordinances in the various cities. He asked if Palm Desert was losing anything from its current ordinance, and Ms. Moore responded that the only thing being lost was an issue staff had planned to bring to Council with a request to remove it from the ordinance, and that was the five letters of recommendation being required. Upon question by Mayor Ferguson, Ms. Moore stated that the City's criminal background check was still intact and would be done by the Sheriffs Department with one of the various cities where the therapist initiates the permit, and the applicant would only have to go through one background check. Upon question by Councilman Spiegel, Ms. Moore responded that this ordinance was going to Palm Desert first and was going to several other cities next month. Mayor Ferguson suggested that this matter be referred to the Public Safety Commission for its consideration of background check components of regulation. Councilman Spiegel moved to refer this matter to the Public Safety Commission for its consideration of background check components of regulation. Motion was seconded by Ferguson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. For Adoption: A. ORDINANCE NO. 979 -AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING AN AMENDMENT TO SECTIONS 25.25.016, 25.28.060, 25.30.220, 25.30.230, 25.30.240, 25.30.250, AND 25.30.270 OF THE PALM DESERT MUNICIPAL CODE, THE SETBACK REQUIREMENTS IN THE O.P. (OFFICE PROFESSIONAL), C-1 (GENERAL COMMERCIAL), AND P.C. (PLANNED COMMERCIAL) DISTRICTS Case No. ZOA 00-09 (Revision No. 1) (City of Palm Desert, Applicant). Councilman Spiegel moved to waive further reading and adopt Ordinance No. 979. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. 10 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 B. ORDINANCE NO. 990 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING A NEGATIVE DECLARATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND CHANGE OF ZONE FROM HILLSIDE PLANNED RESIDENTIAL, DRAINAGE TO OPEN SPACE, DRAINAGE AT 72-500 THRUSH ROAD Case No. C/Z 01-01 (City of Palm Desert, Applicant). Councilman Spiegel moved to waive further reading and adopt Ordinance No. 990. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 3-0-1 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT and Councilman Crites ABSTAINING. C. ORDINANCE NO. 991 - AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PALM DESERT, CALIFORNIA, AMENDING ORDINANCE NO. 107, THE PALM DESERT ZONING MAP, BY CHANGING THE ZONE FROM PLANNED RESIDENTIAL (PR-5) TO OFFICE PROFESSIONAL (O.P.) FOR 4.66 ACRES ON THE NORTH SIDE OF COUNTRY CLUB DRIVE EAST OF PORTOLA AVENUE Case No. C/Z 01-02 (Robert Orr, Applicant). Councilman Spiegel moved to waive further reading and adopt Ordinance No. 991. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. XI. NEW BUSINESS A. CONSIDERATION OF AN APPEAL RELATIVE TO GREEN WASTE HAULING IN PALM DESERT, VIOLATING THE CITY'S FRANCHISE AGREEMENT WITH WASTE MANAGEMENT OF THE DESERT (Desert Rent -A -Bin, Ltd., Appellant). Mayor Ferguson stated that he would abstain from discussion and action on this item because he represented Waste Management through his law practice. Mr. Ortega reviewed the staff report and offered to answer any questions. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, concur with the findings of staff and the City Attorney that this activity violates the City's Franchise Agreement with Waste Management of the Desert and deny said appeal. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 3-0-1 vote, with Mayor Pro Tem Kelly ABSENT and Mayor Ferguson ABSTAINING. 11 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 MR. JOHN WEHDE, President/CEO of Desert Rent -A -Bin, stated that his firm, during the past three years and working with another corporation with an outlet for recycled green waste, had assisted the City in meeting its quota of recycling and reducing municipal waste. He cited the 1989 California Integrated Waste Management Act, which had a twofold thrust: 1) To organize local entities into a better program for franchise agreements for waste management; 2) to reduce the municipal waste stream by use of recycling materials in order to, by 1995, reduce the municipal waste stream by 25%, and 50% by the year 2000. He said he had been renting out bins at flat daily, weekly, or monthly rates, and it had come to his attention that some of the bins were being used much more than others, with more tonnage going through them and had been pulled more by green waste recyclers. Some even had to be taken out of service because of excessive wear. He said he came up with a plan to rent them based on a smaller, flat rate fee, and then charging so much for each time another entity would pull them and for the actual tonnage used. He said the City Attorney and staff felt this was involved in hauling, although that was not the case. He noted that he had written a letter to staff indicating the Desert Rent -A -Bin has never entered into the hauling business and would not do so in the foreseeable future. He added that he had submitted a memorandum to the City Council dated July 9, 2001, and he outlined the different requests for determination in that memorandum. He felt his firm had complied with not only the California Supreme Court and the Integrated Waste Act, but Palm Desert's law. Councilman Crites asked if, after hearing the arguments submitted, the City Attorney was still comfortable with his recommendation to the Council that this constitutes a violation of the City's franchise agreement, and Mr. Erwin said that was still his opinion. He added that he had read the memorandum submitted by Mr Wehde, and he was still comfortable with his recommendation. Councilman Crites stated that he would follow the advice of the City Attorney. Councilman Spiegel agreed. Mr. Erwin called attention to one of the exhibits attached to his memorandum, a document provided by Mr. Wehde on Desert Rent -A -Bin letterhead, which talked about Desert Rent -A -Bin hauling, charging, and how much notice was required for pick up. 12 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 Councilman Spiegel stated that the matter could always return to the Council if it is later determined that the decision just made was improper, but that decision would rest with the City Attorney and the Appellant, and the City Manager to make the recommendation. He was comfortable with the action taken at this time. Councilmember Benson asked if the offer to Portola Country Club was a new service that they did not have in the past. MR. WEHDE responded that it was a new way of renting the bins. He said in the past he had rented on a flat rate per day, per week, or per month. He said it was his understanding that the City Attorney had no problem with that; however, the problem was in valuing the rental based on tonnage or number of pulls, which the City Attorney felt was hauling. As far as Portola Country Club, this was something new for them. Councilman Crites asked if any members of the City Council wished to reconsider the vote to concur with the findings of staff and the City Attorney that this activity violates the City's Franchise Agreement with Waste Management of the Desert. No Councilmembers wished to reconsider. B. CONSIDERATION OF SISTER CITIES SUBCOMMITTEE'S RECOMMENDATION RELATIVE TO RELATIONSHIP WITH IXTAPA - ZIHUATANEJO, MEXICO. Mrs. Gilligan noted that the Subcommittee had met that afternoon and heard a presentation from those who visited Ixtapa. The Subcommittee voted unanimously to recommend that the City Council send an official letter to the President of Zihuatanejo and to Mr. Octavio Chavez Gomez expressing the City's thanks and appreciation for their assistance and gracious hospitality. The second part of the recommendation was that the City Council consider extending an invitation to the aforementioned people to visit Palm Desert in the near future as a gesture of appreciation and goodwill. She said it was felt this would provide an opportunity for the City Councilmembers of the various City committees and other members of the community to also meet them and to reciprocate the visit. Upon question by Councilman Crites, Councilman Spiegel responded that the Civic Arts Committee would not meet again until September. Councilman Crites stated that normally this matter would go from the Sister Cities Subcommittee to Civic Arts; however, he would not want to wait until that time for Civic Arts to consider the Subcommittee's recommendations. 13 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 He added that he was an extremely enthusiastic supporter of the Subcommittee's recommendations. Mayor Ferguson stated that he felt this needed to go to Civic Arts, particularly with some comments that were made in the afternoon meeting regarding financing, funding, and direction being more private than public. However, he had a concern with waiting so long from June to September to invite them to visit Palm Desert. Councilman Spiegel suggested calling a special meeting of the Civic Arts Committee for that purpose. Mayor Ferguson added that he questioned whether a thank you letter and an invitation to visit Palm Desert was something that needed the full attention of the Civic Arts Committee when the issues may concern whether or not to establish a relationship. Councilman Spiegel said there was discussion previously about establishing a Sister City relationship in Mexico, and he asked if any other cities had been considered. He noted that it appeared this was one of the more wealthy communities in Mexico, and he questioned whether that was the direction the City should take. He added that he had other questions as well that were not answered in the report from the Subcommittee. Councilmember Benson asked if the City could just send a letter thanking them for the visit rather than waiting until September and then go on later with the rest of it. Mayor Ferguson responded that the thought was to invite them to visit the City of Palm Desert in October in conjunction with the City's Golf Cart Parade. He said to send a letter in late September or early October inviting them to visit in October would be short notice. He said one of the misperceptions was that this was a wealthy community when it is actually a fishing village of 80,000 next to a government -sponsored resort area called Ixtapa that had the high-rise buildings. He said it was very much suitable for Palm Desert. He said he would like to send a letter of thanks for the hospitality with an invitation to visit Palm Desert in the fall, with no commitments, and allow Civic Arts the opportunity to fully evaluate whether they feel the City Council should approve the relationship. Upon question by Councilman Spiegel, he said Palm Desert would not pay the costs for them to visit. 14 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize the Mayor to write a letter of thanks for the hospitality extended by the community of Zihuatanejo and include an invitation of reciprocity for the coming fall season to appropriate officials of the jurisdiction, without commitment of the formal relationship in order to continue dialog and discussion on the matter. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 3-0-1 vote, with Councilman Spiegel ABSTAINING and Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. C. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL OF CONTRACT FOR ADVERTISING SERVICES FISCAL YEAR 2001/02 (CONTRACT NO. C19220). Mr. Ortega noted the staff report in the packets. Upon question by Councilman Spiegel, Mrs. Gilligan responded that the City calendar was a separate budget. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the subject contract with Full Gallop Marketing Communications, Palm Springs, California, in the amount of $60,000 and authorize the Mayor to execute same. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. D. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL OF DESERT WILLOW GOLF RESORT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS (CONTRACT NO. C19230A-E). Mayor Ferguson stated that these were cart path repairs, desert palette curbing, bunker sand replacement, decomposed granite installation, and a power generator for the well pumps. Councilman Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize the City Manager to approve the lowest responsible bid on acquisition and improvement programs at Desert Willow Golf Resort: 1) Cart path repairs; 2) desert palette curbing; 3) bunker sand replacement; 4) decomposed granite installation; 5) power generator for well pumps. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. 15 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 E. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL, OF ACTIONS RELATED TO THE 2001 GRANT AWARD — RIVERSIDE COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, COACHELLA VALLEY LABOR MARKET AND BUSINESS SURVEY, AND PALM DESERT ENERGY ANALYSIS AUDIT. Councilman Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Appropriate $125,000 from the Unobligated General Fund to be set into an account for payment of services for the Coachella Valley Labor Market and Business Survey and the Palm Desert Energy Analysis Audit, as outlined in the County of Riverside Economic Development Agency (EDA) Grant; in addition, budget $125,000 as revenue in the General Fund from the County of Riverside EDA; 2) approve the following contracts and authorize the Mayor to execute same: a) Riverside County EDA - Contract No. C16951 in an amount not to exceed $125,000; b) Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce (PDCC) - Contract No. C16951-B in an amount not to exceed $6,000; c) Coachella Valley Economic Partnership (CVEP) - Contract No. C16951-C in an amount not to exceed $113,000. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. F. CONSIDERATION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF SPEED ZONES ON VARIOUS STREETS. Mr. Ortega noted the staff report in the packets. Councilman Crites said he wanted to be sure another article is included in the Palm Desert Newsletter that discusses what the State law is and why the speed limits are being changed. Councilman Crites moved to waive further reading and pass to second reading: 1) Ordinance No. 994, rescinding Ordinance No. 798 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Alessandro Drive); 2) Ordinance No. 995, rescinding Ordinance No. 804 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Deep Canyon Road); 3) Ordinance No. 996, rescinding Ordinance No. 816 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Dinah Shore Drive); 4) Ordinance No. 997, rescinding Ordinance No. 814 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (El Paseo); 5) Ordinance No. 998, rescinding Ordinance Nos. 805 and 812 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Fred Waring Drive); 6) Ordinance No. 999, rescinding Ordinance No. 796 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Hovley Lane West); 7) Ordinance No. 1000, amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Magnesia Falls Drive); 8) Ordinance No. 1001, rescinding Ordinance Nos. 795, 808, and 912, and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Monterey Avenue); 9) Ordinance No. 1002, rescinding Ordinance No. 626 and amending Section 10.36.010 of Title 10 of the Palm Desert Municipal Code (Park View Drive). Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. 16 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 G. REQUEST FOR APPROPRIATION AND DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS FOR STORM DRAIN CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATED WITH TRACT 25373 — HOVLEY LANE (J. N. Hayden Company, Applicant). Councilmember Benson moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize the appropriation and disbursement of funds in the amount of $137,639.81 as reimbursement for storm drain construction associated with Tract 25373 - Hovley Lane. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. H. REQUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING AND DESIGN SERVICES FOR COOK STREET AND FRANK SINATRA DRIVE STREET IMPROVEMENTS (CONTRACT NO. C19240, PROJECT NO. 678-01). Councilman Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Award the subject contract to RBF Consulting, Palm Desert, California, in the amount of $138,073 and authorize a 10% contingency in the amount of $13,807.30 for the subject professional services; 2) authorize the Mayor to execute same. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. I. REQUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING AND DESIGN SERVICES FOR CORPORATION YARD EXPANSION (CONTRACT NO. C19250, PROJECT NO. 715-00). Upon question by Mayor Ferguson, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Joe Gaugush responded that this was to improve approximately three acres of open area to include approximately 14,000 square feet of actual building facility, doing some retro on portions of the existing facility, and landscaping and support components. Councilmember Benson noted that of the six firms submitting requests for proposal, five were from Palm Desert; however, staffs recommendation was to award the contract to the firm from Ontario, California. Mr. Gaugush stated that with a proposal of this nature, fees are not evaluated as part of the criteria for appointing a firm. He said it was a qualification -based selection, which entailed evaluation of the proposers based on their ability to perform and the services required. Once staff determines that it has a design group in mind, the contract fees are then negotiated based on the time estimates for the product delivery. He said staff does not know the costs of the rest of the proposers. 17 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 Mayor Ferguson asked how the lowest competitive bid could be established if staff did not know the other prices. Mr. Gaugush responded that professional services are not based on lowest competitive bid. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Award the subject contract to David Evans & Associates, Ontario, California, in the amount of $187,336 and authorize a 10% contingency in the amount of $18,733.60 for the subject professional services; 2) authorize the Mayor to execute same. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. XII. CONTINUED BUSINESS A. CONSIDERATION OF AN APPEAL TO AN ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW COMMISSION DECISION, DENYING THE PARKING AND STORAGE OF A RECREATIONAL VEHICLE (RV) IN THE FRONT YARD OF RESIDENCE LOCATED AT 74-450 PEPPERGRASS STREET (Charles O. Curry, Appellant) (Continued from the meeting of March 22, 2001). Councilman Crites stated that as one member of the subcommittee asked to look at this issue, he was comfortable with the changes in conditions 2, 3, and 4 as recommended by staff. Mr. Drell noted that the applicant was also in agreement with staffs recommendation. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the request to park and store a recreational vehicle at 74-450 Peppergrass Street with the following conditions: 1) The Applicant shall strategically plant three, 24-inch box canopy trees in the front yard to screen the RV; 2) the Applicant shall install fencing along the front property line to allow the existing bougainvillea shrubs to grow into a solid, 7-foot high hedge. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. B. REQUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF MASONRY BLOCK WALL ALONG FRED WARING DRIVE FROM SAN PASCUAL AVENUE TO DEEP CANYON ROAD (CONTRACT NO. C18630-A) (Continued from the meeting of June 28, 2001). Councilman Crites stated that this matter had gone to the Landscape Committee which looked at a number of options. He reviewed the staff report and recommended action. 18 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 Councilman Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Award the subject contract to Cora Constructors, Palm Desert, California, in the amount of $1,304,682 for the base bid plus the additive alternate for a four-color block mountain pattern on the south wall; 2) authorize staff to execute additive alternate wall section work in the amount of $65,880 at a future date; 3) authorize staff to negotiate a change order in an amount not to exceed $75,000 for revising the mountain pattern on the south wall and adding a simplified version of it to the north wall, as unanimously requested by the Landscape Beautification Committee on July 10, 2001; 4) authorize the Mayor to execute said contract and change order — funds for this work are allocated in the 2001/02 Capital improvements Program Budget. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. C. REQUEST FOR APPROVAL OF BUS SHELTER MAINTENANCE AND ADVERTISING AGREEMENT WITH SUNLINE TRANSIT AGENCY (CONTRACT NO. C18650) (Continued from the meeting of June 28, 2001). Mayor Ferguson stated that he would abstain from voting on this matter because advertising supplier, Morris Communications, was his client. Mrs. Gilligan noted that Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly was comfortable with this as recommended by staff and would be supportive. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, approve the agreement contingent upon final review and approval by the City Attorney and authorize the Mayor to execute same. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 3-0-1 vote, with Mayor Ferguson ABSTAINING and Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. D. REQUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT FOR ANIMAL CONTROL SERVICES (CONTRACT NO. C19110) (Continued from the meeting of June 28, 2001). Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, award the subject contract to California Animal Care, Cathedral City, California, for FY 2001/02 in the amount of $111,200. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro- Tem Kelly ABSENT. 19 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 E. CONSIDERATION OF MEMBERSHIP PROVISIONS OF DISPOSITION AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE PALM. DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY AND FRIENDS OF THE CULTURAL CENTER, INC. (JOINT CONSIDERATION WITH THE PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY (Continued from the meeting of June 28, 2001). Mr. Ortega stated that staffs recommendation was to continue this matter until such time as Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly is present. Councilman/Member Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion, continue this matter to the meeting of August 23, 2001. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-TemNice Chairman Kelly ABSENT. F. CONSIDERATION OF THE DETAILS OF DELINEATING MATERIALS (PALM LOGS, BOULDERS, ETC.) AND ROADWAY SURFACING FOR THE HOMME/ADAMS PARK TO BE LOCATED AT 72-500 THRUSH ROAD (Continued from the meeting of June 28, 2001). Mr. Winklepleck stated that there was concern at the last meeting relative to the use of palm logs as delineators. He reviewed information relative to the various types of materials, noting page 3 showed lodge pole pine which he said was similar to what would be found on horse ranches and some golf courses, and it would work for this park, although staff would still support the idea of using the palm logs. He said the estimated cost to use lodge pole pine for the entire site would be approximately $65,000, not including removal and disposal of the existing palm logs which would add about $10,000 to $12,000 to the cost. If only the road were to be delineated with that material, it would cost approximately $30,000. He noted that as part of the Coachella Valley Water District's approval for the City to use its frontage road as access and parking, they required that some sort of barrier be placed along the Channel north of the Thrush Road Bridge to keep cars from driving into that Channel. Previous discussions were about some sort of metal rail, and CVWD also wanted chain link fencing like they have south of Thrush Road. He said staff would at least propose the lodge pole pine on the Wash side of the road. Councilman Spiegel suggested continuing this matter to the next meeting since Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly, who was very much against the palm Togs, was not in attendance. Mayor Ferguson disagreed and said he had spent hours talking to Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly about this issue, and they had agreed to disagree. He said 20 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly had recognized that he did not go really go there, would not see the palm logs, and okayed whatever the Council wanted to do there, but as a point of principal, he did not like palm logs. He suggested forming a subcommittee of two Councilmembers to work with Planning staff to get this done in whatever fashion is decided upon. Councilmember Benson agreed with the use of the palm logs in this park. Councilman Crites suggested that staff also ask CVWD to remove the concrete and asphalt remnants that have been placed in the area. Councilman Crites moved to, by Minute Motion, authorize staff to: 1) Place the palm Togs along perimeter of the CVWD road and along South Cliff Road to the mountain side; 2) return to Council with a specific design for wood fencing along the Channel and work with CVWD to explore the possibility of removing the existing chain link and replacing it with such wood fencing; 3) request CVWD's assistance in removing the concrete and asphalt remnants that have been placed in the area. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. XIII. OLD BUSINESS A. CONSIDERATION OF TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION FOR TELEPHONE VOICE MESSAGING. Mayor Ferguson requested clarification that basically the only thing that will change with voice mail from this point forward is: 1) if you call after hours, you will have the ability to leave a voice mail message; and 2) if you ask for voice mail, it will be given to you to leave a message. Mr. Ortega stated that this was correct. Councilman Spiegel stated it was his understanding that if someone were to call the Mayor, who was not in, the secretary would announce that the Mayor is not here right now and ask if the caller would like to leave a message or voice mail. The caller could then leave a detailed message for the Mayor, who could then think about the message before calling back. He said he did not see anything wrong with that. Councilmember Benson agreed and said she felt it was a very efficient way for callers to leave messages without having to have their message translated or written by another person. Mayor Ferguson's stated his concern was that the City not go down the slippery slope of shoving people into voice mail. He said his own 21 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 experience, the question "would you like to leave a voice mail?" gets asked in a way that he is being rude if he asks the person to take a message rather than leaving a voice mail message. He said when this was originally proposed by Mr. Ortega, the Council was told there were several occasions on highly technical documents in planning processes where people want to leave a voice mail but have been denied the opportunity to do so. He said while he agreed with that, he felt that 90% of the public who call City Hall enjoy speaking to a person. He added that the City has received nothing but compliments about the last three receptionists at the front desk and how wonderful it is to speak to a pleasant and cheery person. He said if someone wants voice mail, they should have the option, or it should be presented to them in a way that is very non -threatening or offensive. Mr. Ortega noted that staff members would receive training so that everyone offers voice mail in the same manner. Mayor Ferguson also asked that people be given the option, if they do go into voice mail, of being notified that at any time, by pressing "0", they can get a human being again. After additional discussion, Councilman Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Concurwith the recommendation of the Technology Committee for installation of a voice messaging system in City Hall, conditioned upon staffs strict adherence to the stringent guidelines, including: a) Ability for callers to access voice mail after hours; b) callers always being answered by a live voice with the opportunity to leave a message, and only upon requesting voice mail will they be transferred to that system; c) once caller within the voice mail system, ability to press "0" to return to an operator for further assistance and/or transfer to another extension; 2) appropriate an amount not to exceed $30,000 from the Unobligated General Fund for the purchase of same. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. B. REQUEST FOR AWARD OF CONTRACT FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN SERVICES IN THE DESIGN OF THE MAGNESIA FALLS DRIVE STREET IMPROVEMENTS AND BRIDGE OVER THE SAN PASCUAL CHANNEL (CONTRACT NO. C17350, PROJECT NO. 648-99). Councilman Spiegel moved to, by Minute Motion: 1) Award the subject contract to Tetra Tech, Inc., Palm Springs, California, in the amount of $329,130 and authorize a 10% contingency in the amount of $32,913 for the subject professional services; 2) authorize the Mayor to execute same. Motion was seconded by Crites and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. 22 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL XIV. PUBLIC HEARINGS JULY 19, 2001 A. CONSIDERATION, OF PRESIDENT'S PLAZA III PROPERTY AND BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT REIMBURSEMENT (JOINT CONSIDERATION WITH THE PALM DESERT REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY). Mayor/Chairman Ferguson stated that he would not participate in the vote on this item, as the parking lot in question is right outside of his business. Councilman/Member Crites declared the public hearing open and invited testimony in FAVOR of or in OPPOSITION to this request. With no testimony offered, he declared the public hearing closed. Councilman/Member Spiegel moved to waive further reading and adopt: 1) City Council Resolution No. 01-93, approving payment by the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency for the cost of the installation and construction of a public parking lot and related improvements known as President's Plaza HI; 2) Redevelopment Agency Resolution No. 422, approving payment by the Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency for the cost of the installation and construction of a public parking lot and related improvements known as President's Plaza HI. Motion was seconded by Benson and carried by a 3-0-1 vote, with Mayor/Chairman Ferguson ABSTAINING and Mayor Pro-TemNice Chairman Kelly ABSENT. XV. REPORTS AND REMARKS A. CITY MANAGER 1. Update on Ice Rink. The following is a verbatim transcript of this portion of the minutes: Key: JF Mayor Jim Ferguson CLO City Manager Carlos L. Ortega BAC Councilman Buford A. Crites JW Parks & Recreation Planning Manager Jeff Winklepleck JMB Councilmember Jean M. Benson RAS Councilman Robert A. Spiegel PD Director of Community Development Phil Drell PF Peter Flax TO Terry O'Brien GS Gary Stevens BB Barbara Bergman 23 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JF CLO JF JULY 19, 2001 The next item, and hopefully the last one that we'll take out of order this afternoon, is the City Manager's Reports on the request from Indoor Centers for Education in Sports, R-3 on the Agenda. I'II ask the City Manager for a staff report. Mr. Mayor, actually there are two reports with regard to an ice rink. If you'd like, I could discuss your direction to me last time first, which was to bring you a time line, or I can discuss the request for City participation first. Which one would you like? For the sake of continuity, why don't we pick up where we left off last meeting and then go through your time line and then take the later eclipsing event second. CLO The last time that we talked about an ice rink, you directed me to bring you back a time frame in which we could develop the site park that is currently under escrow and have it ready for an ice rink to be constructed. You have a report from Jeff Winklepleck which sets out the time line, and the conclusion is, if you look at the body of the report, that if we waited to process and plan the project in accordance with the agreement, that is, to grade the site all at once, we're looking at having an ice rink opening in September of 2003, which is basically a little more than two years from now. A more aggressive approach would be if we proceeded to develop just the land being purchased. We could turn it over and be ready for construction by August of 2002, and when you look at it, the reason why there are schedules for both options, obviously we have to acquire the land, we have to do the engineering, we have to do the grading, we have to do plans, etc., etc. So that is the quickest that we could turn over the property for the construction of an ice rink. The other matter is the matter of the request that is before you with Indoor Centers for Education in Sports. The proponents may want to provide you with more details, but essentially what it is, is that the City consider making a ten-year loan with provisions that if $250,000 is repaid over a certain period of time, that the rest of the loan be forgiven as a contribution to the facility. The proposal is to locate the facility at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. Along with the request is a budget for the facility. I have communicated to Mr. Flax basically the view of both the City Attorney and the Agency and have basically told him that because it is outside the City, because it is so far outside the City, neither the Agency nor the City could contribute in this manner. I have also told him that when I discussed the proposal with the group, that it was always my intention that the park or, say, another site in Palm Desert, would be developed with Redevelopment Agency funds. 24 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 Simply, the Agency cannot make the findings that the expenditure of Agency funds at that location would be of benefit to the project area. And, of course, the City Attorney is here to tell you about basically the same thing, except for different reasons, that the City couldn't. In any case, if the City were to consider it, that would be coming out of general funds. Of course, my recommendation would be that the City not spend general funds for that purpose. JF Questions for the City Manager? Mr. Crites... BAC On Option 2, the one that is a year shorter in terms of having land ready for building, 1 noticed that a lot of the activities appear to run one after the other, and I know that not all activities can be concurrent, but, as an example, Item 11, completing the mass grading plan, and Item 13, selection of park consultants, and some of the rest of those things, a number of those things appear to be able to be done at the same time. And it would seem to me that one good, short, preliminary park design review, etc., etc., etc. and some of that stuff, a lot of this stuff could certainly be compacted. Just in a preliminary...just in my first look, it looked like you could have this Option 2 done in six months. JF Mr. Winklepleck, maybe you'd care to answer that. CLO Let me a legal technicality, and then Jeff could talk about the...that would be assuming that we could go back on the developer for which we have an agreement and say that we're not going to do any land/earth trading with you, you can't use one site to balance the other, and we're just going to proceed on our own. BAC Well, it's (unclear) most of the rest of the site. He can still use the park site. CLO But the requirement of the agreement is that both sites be graded at once so that the land, I mean some dirt, could be exchanged. It's just a technicality. Assuming we could do that, then you could proceed with a shorter time frame. BAC Alright. JW At this point, both the consultant selection and we are getting a bid to complete the mass grading plan, so those two things are underway right now. And, like the City Manager says, depending...one of the other options we have is we can go ahead with just the ice rink site and a temporary parking site, grade that to its final design, leave the rest of the park site alone, and then that can be mass graded, and we can do some trading at 25 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL J U LY 19, 2001 that point. These numbers are based on our standard public hearing timing. There are some things we can shorten it with. We can do combined Planning Commission/City Council meetings, so we could potentially shorten it down to somewhere in the eight, nine months range, maybe shorter. Some of these things, like the City Manager said, we don't own the land yet. This may take some time. The engineering, we can Tight a fire under some of the consultants. But I didn't want to give a number and say six months and not be able to meet that. I would rather be able to work back from the 12 months. JMB But that's just the preparation of land. That isn't, unless they come in with the money to build the rink. JW Right. That's preparation of land and actual turnover after all the agreements. That includes working with Edison, working with CVWD, getting some power and water and sewer. BAC Right. JW There's more than meets the eye. BAC Right. Starting with a raw piece of land, there is considerable to have it ready for somebody to set a building on top of it. RAS I have a question for the City Manager. JF Please. RAS Approximately, as a guesstimate, what would be the value of this land that will be turned over? CLO Well, just in the raw state, I think we paid a little over $60,000 an acre. In the improved state, with the streets and everything, it's well over $100,000 an acre, probably about $150,000. RAS Thank you. JF And what's the value of the improvements that we propose to do to it to make it building -ready? CLO We have a budget of a little of $7 million. A little over $2 million I believe is for actual land acquisition. But that includes ball fields, that includes our part of the infrastructure, which is, I think, part of the street, our share of the water and sewer, and grading. 26 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 JF So how much is that for the two acres? CLO Well, the improvement cost is about, what is it, about $5 million, Phil? PD We're actually contributing more than two acres. Two acres is the pad for the building. We're also building a parking lot, which typically...parking Tots are usually larger than the building pad by a good amount, so we're probably, in terms of the total cost (unclear) more like five acres, plus we'll be physically improving the parking lot and providing something around 150 parking spaces at improvement costs of about $3,000 per parking space. So we're probably, the parking lot alone is probably worth, with land area and improvements, half a million bucks. I would say probably the total value of both the building pad plus the improved parking lot is closer to three- quarters of a million dollars. JF Okay. RAS Thank you. JF CLO JF CLO Any other questions for Mr. Ortega? I have one last one. What are the incremental costs in decoupling preparation of the ice rink pad for preparation of the park site as a whole, basically going to one year instead of doing it in two years? Is there an extra cost associated with that? We will not get the advantage of, for example, if we mass graded probably the whole 118 acres. The ideal would be to do, if you're doing street work, to do it all at once. There is some savings doing a large project rather than a couple of smaller projects. On the other hand, if you want to do it quicker, that, you know, that is part of the cost of doing it quicker. But what I'm asking is what is that cost? Either you or Jeff or Phil, do you have an estimate of how much more we're going to pay to get two graders out there instead of one at different points in time and... No, I think when we did the budget, we assumed that we would do the park in accordance with the agreement with the developer. We could come back and cut it down. BAC Carlos (unclear) he's asking give us a ballpark of what extra it's going to cost to do it in two pieces. CLO I have no idea. BAC Okay. 27 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 RAS One last question. Would you go ahead and build the pad without a developer? PD The answer is, is our intention to proceed with the plan which would allow that site to be then used as a soccer field or something else? We're trying to come up with the best design for the park regardless of what is ultimately on that piece of ground. RAS So if the pad isn't developed as an ice skating rink, it would be developed as something else. PD It would be a two -and -a -half acre, you know, playing field. JF Are there any other questions? Jean? Okay. Now, the second component. It would be better to take these up at the same time before we get the ice people up to comment on them. Are there any questions? RAS No. JF Okay. Okay, then, we have a request from Indoor Centers for Education in Sports. There are...it looks like five individuals who will be speaking, and they've requested a certain order. I'm going to start with Mr. Peter Flax of Rancho Mirage. PF Good afternoon, Mayor and Councillors. There has been a great deal of misconception, some innuendo, and a certain amount of lack of sincerity in various quarters over the past few weeks. Much of that appears in the press and on T.V. It's not of our doing. We are a group who have no other interest than to provide indoor facilities for their children and the older people in this valley. That's our intent. We don't have a political axe to grind, we don't have a commercial interest in the Mall. What we do have is a great discomfort at having the ice rink removed from the center of town in a very peremptory fashion and there being no sincere attempt to reinstate that ice rink in the shortest possible time. Now, when I say a sincere attempt, I'm speaking from the point of view of how it appears to us, how we see it. We all have our jobs, we all have our businesses, we all have our children to look after, so we're doing this in order to improve our environment. I don't live in Palm Desert, but I spend a great deal of money in Palm Desert. I know there are a lot of people here who have businesses in Palm Desert and who don't live in Palm Desert. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who live in Palm Desert and go elsewhere to spend their money. And it's time for this valley to get to grips with the situation, that as much as it is nice and lovely to identify as individual cities, it's also imperative that this valley identifies as a valley and that we have a valley- 28 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 wide economy and that we have valley -wide problems, and those problems aren't going to decrease, they're going to get bigger. And the biggest of those problems is a growing population, and our population at the last census was over 286,000 people, of which over 70,000 are under the age of 18. Now, don't tell me that it's not Palm Desert's problem if gangs come in to Palm Desert and smash the place up and vandalize the area. It's as much your problem as it is Coachella or the City of Indio or Rancho Mirage or Palm Springs. In the same way, we have two unified school districts. Both of those are fighting against an enormous increase in their school populations. Cathedral City High School is going to be looking at 3,160 pupils next year. It was designed for 1,680. If you look at these facts and you look at these figures, it is a frightening prospect. And those of us who have moved out here to this valley because we enjoy the environment and because we enjoy the peaceful climate and because we can all get along together, and we are looking at this deterioration, this potential deterioration of our living environment, then we have to be concerned. And we have to work together, city to city, across the valley, not in a parochial fashion, but on a wide-ranging basis to find a solution. And it's the people of the valley who get together and who are trying to assist and help the different city councils in this objective. Now, when the recreation park on Country Club was proposed to us, we were very excited. Wonderful, but there was one big criteria that we've stated all along and that is timing. As far as we're concerned, we need this ice now. We have six -year -olds traveling from here to Burbank, two hours and fifteen minutes in the car one way and two hours and fifteen minutes coming back. That's four and a half hours in a car for seven -year -olds to go and take their ice exams. Now, there are only seven of them in that particular van, but you're going to hear from a lady later, she's doing that trip three times a week. We have a lady here whose daughter is taking advanced competition, and she's had to leave her child out of the town, out of the district. It's not right, and the solution to this is to replace the ice as quickly as possible, not to deviate, not to shilly-shally about, but to replace it as quickly as possible. When statements are made, whether they're by politicians or by business people, people in this valley rely on those statements. We respect the integrity of those statements. You can cloud them, you can deny them, you can hide behind them, you can tap dance around them, but you're not going to fool us. We know what was said, and we know what the intent was. We were told, quite clearly, that if there is no ice (unclear) of May, then a temporary rink will be provided by July the 4t. No temporary rink by July 4th. We're now three weeks or whatever it is into the month. There is no rink on the horizon, no temporary rink on the horizon. We've worked diligently to find a short-term solution, whether it was temporary, interim, or permanent. Our brief, as far as we were concerned, and we're representing over 600 people now, our brief was to go out and find a short-term, responsible answer to the problem, a substantial building, 29 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 properly insulated, economic to run, providing the best in conservation, at the best possible price, so that we could get a building together that will provide a sporting facility and the recreational facility that's needed not just by our kids. We've got 83-year-old skaters. They vote. So do our 70-year- old skaters, so do our 60-year-old skaters and our 50s and our 40s and our 30s, all the way down to voting age. And the ones who skate in the ages of 15 and up, which they are future voters. So a lot of people here. Now, when they were dispossessed from the Mall, which they were, and when their protests were silenced in a brutal and bullying fashion, which they were, and which are on video tape kindly supplied by the T.V. cameras themselves, people are entitled to be upset. When we are told that everybody is working towards a fast -track solution, it salves some of the wounds, it heals some of the hurt. When we bring a proposition to the City, which we think is reasonable, and ask you to give us a half million dollars, we're not the McCallum Theatre, we're not asking you to give us $5 million to stick in an endowment fund, we're not asking you to give us $10.2 million to buy a car park which you're only going to lease back to us, and what about replacing the 110 spaces that were waived in that car park before we even started with this. We're not asking that. What we're saying to you is that we wanted a loan, an interim loan, of $500,000 so that between now and when our 501(c)3 registration is cleared with the IRS and State, we can go out and pay for the necessary items beforehand and then reimburse it out of the charitable fund. That's the way to expedite this problem. We thought it was reasonable, and we said we'll repay you 50 cents on the dollar if we repay you back in a limited period of time so that the City of Palm Desert's contribution to this whole effort would have been $250,000, which when you consider the number of people who would use this facility, 60 percent of whom at this present time come from the City of Palm Desert, and we know that once the regulation ice, the first sheet of regulation ice, is up, that's going to double as a minimum, just on the strength of what we know for certainty now, just in our hockey leagues. That's without touching the fact that we want to encourage the schools and the colleges and the new university campus to bring in their own teams and their own leagues, just on what is there now. Our existing figure skating organizations and groups, the majority of whom are seniors, just on the strength of what we know now. We're looking at 2000 users a week, 60% of whom come from Palm Desert. Now, we're saying to you, find a way. You're creative enough to find a way to get money in to the McCallum, you're creative enough to find a way to buy a car park for Westfield Holdings. I've got lists of interesting projects, all of them commendable, don't get me wrong. I commend the City of Palm Desert. You're doing a great job. But you're letting us down badly here. JF Mr. Flax, let me ask you a question before you get too indignant. 30 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL PF Certainly. JULY 19, 2001 JF You're asking us to break the law. We have a memo that says we cannot give money out of our Redevelopment Project Areas. Both of the items that you mentioned, the Theatre and the car parking lot, are in those Project Areas. And, incidentally, the Board of Directors of the McCallum Theatre contributed $10 million out of their pockets, and the Mall is contributing $63 million out of their pocket, and those were public/private partnerships to better this community. We have said all along that we are willing to work with you to put a facility in Palm Desert. We will contribute money. In fact, the first proposal we talked about tonight, I bet if you include the infrastructure costs, it approaches close to a million dollars. So it's not the amount of money. But the memo that we got from our City Attorney says the manner in which you're requesting aid is illegal and we can't do it. So you can beat up on us for not wanting to break the law, but I think there might be a more constructive approach in getting your goals accomplished than berating us and questioning our sincerity. PF I'm asking you... RAS Let me make a comment. PF Can I just answer... RAS Okay, go ahead. PF I'm asking you, I'm saying to you, we made a proposal at the City Manager's request, he asked us what is our financial need and what do we want from the City. That's what he asked, and we wrote back and gave him a reply. Now, we're not telling you how to do it, we're not saying give us a check. In fact, in the letter itself it said we don't want a check, we want to find an arrangement where we can get this money through into this project so that we can have it up and ready for November. That is what we asked for. RAS Let me ask you a question. Are you willing, if it can be worked out to get some money to you for this facility at the Polo Fields, then disregard the other skating rink in Palm Desert? PF RAS PF Mr. Spiegel. We just want a skating rink. No, no, no. 1 want an answer, yes or no, are you willing... Yes, we don't need two locations, we want one location. 31 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL RAS JULY 19, 2001 In other words, if that's provided for you, you're willing to walk away from any other responsibility for the City of Palm Desert. Skaters have known for over two years that the rink was going to be closed, they've known that, that's going to happen. PF True. RAS Why is it Palm Desert's responsibility? Have you gone to the other cities? PF Yes. RAS Have you made presentations? PF Yes. RAS Have you had any commitments? PF Yes. JMB What? PF We have approached the City of Indio, who have no capital, but we are awaiting a response from the City of Indio as regards a revenue support for the project, and I can't answer the question at this point in time. Hopefully tomorrow I may have an answer for you. But, yes, we've been to the City of Indio. RAS Have you been to any of the other cities? PF We've been to Rancho Mirage and had a resounding silence. We've been to the City of Cathedral City who have said they've got no money but they will support whatever we want to do, they will encourage their Parks & Recreation people to participate in the activities, and they will encourage their people and their organizations to participate in the activities. RAS How about La Quinta and Indian Wells? PF La Quinta we haven't spoken with. Indian Wells we have spoken with, and Indian Wells is not really interested in working outside Indian Wells at all. RAS They have in the past as you well know. PF They gave you a half million, well they gave this city a half a million dollars for the College, but that's the cities working together, and that's good, that's 32 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 what should be happening. But what we're saying, sir, is this. What we're proposing is a facility for the benefit of the valley as a whole. And it benefits Palm Desert, whether it's in Indio or whether it's at the other end of the Valley. It's the benefit of Palm Desert. If we're bringing you national and regional competition to this valley, those people are going to stay in hotels, they're going to use restaurants, they're going to use all of the facilities we have here. JF Mr. Flax, we understand all that. The problem I guess I'm having is we currently are evaluating three different proposals, located in Palm Desert, for permanent facilities, but you don't like that and you want us to use your proposal. We've looked at one in our park on two different time lines, but you don't like those time lines, it has to be your time line. And no other city is putting up money, it has to be the City of Palm Desert and Westfield, who is now attributed with making a $500,000 contribution, speaking of accuracy. Is that an accurate quote on behalf of Westfield Corporation? PF Well, let's take that up. Westfield Corporation at this last Council meeting stood up and said they wanted to make a substantial contribution. I don't know what their definition of the word "substantial" is, but we know what the English dictionary, U.S. American dictionary, is for the word "substantial." We've spoken to Westfield, I've written to Westfield, I've provided Westfield with all the information that they required. I actually managed to get hold of the Director of Development at Westfield at Los Angeles this morning after umpteen phone calls. JF Did they make a half million dollar commitment? PF No, but, and this is the point, Westfield said in front of a number of people, some of whom are here today, that they would match funds. That's what they said. RAS It didn't hear match, I heard contribute. PF That was in the Council Chamber, Mr. Spiegel. Outside, in front of six witnesses, David Hokanson said he would match funds. JF Okay, Mr. Flax, my only point, and I don't want to quibble with semantics, is that we are in a situation where passions are inflamed and understandably so because of ice skating. Everybody is trying to make their best efforts to want to get a permanent facility here, and statements like "Palm Desert naturally would participate with the rest of the community in putting an ice rink, no matter where it is," has become an iron -clad commitment by Palm Desert to fund an ice rink, and suddenly the word "community" gets left out. 33 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL BAC JULY 19, 2001 Statements like "We will do everything in our power to make sure that your skating isn't interrupted after July 4th" has been turned into an immutable pledge and a guarantee and a warranty backed by our treasury that you'll never have your skating interrupted, and that's not true. Statements by Westfield that they would like to help out and the word "significant" is boot- strapped into a half million. And you want to come here and beat us around the head and shoulders for not complying with your understanding of our efforts to try and help you. In my opinion, it is not a productive way to get a skating rink. Mr. Crites. I'II be very simple and very brief. If you expect, as one member of this Council, for me this afternoon to say that I'm going to say we're going to have a half million dollars out of our treasury handed to a group of people to build something in Indio that I don't know about and so on and so forth, while we're also looking at a potential proposal, as a matter of fact two or three different proposals in Palm Desert for ice rinks, that is not a financially appropriate decision for me as a member of this Council to make, and I'm real easy. The answer is at this moment no. If you want this to be considered, and if it is the consensus of people who skate in this valley, that they would rather have some contribution from Palm Desert to a facility in the east end of this valley, and in doing so would not have Palm Desert participate with land or anything else in any other kind of thing, if that's truly the consensus of all of the skaters, and if that's what they would like to have is something down at the polo grounds, then that's something that we need to think about and talk about and, in essence, relieve ourselves of looking at these other options, which by my bias at least may very well be better long-term options for people. But if that's the skating community, and Mr. Flax, I'm not particularly interested in your personal opinion aside from the fact that you're one person, and you do not represent 600 people, I've very rarely found anybody who represents 600 people because, as a matter of fact, with Americans if you can represent five without some of them disagreeing , you're pretty darned lucky. And it doesn't happen very long. I can guarantee you, having had some years of experience with it. But if that truly is what 600 people want, and if that's the end, then we'll sit and talk, at least as one member I'II sit and mull on that and chat about it with my colleagues. It certainly relieves us of a lot of other issues. And I'd like to hear from some of the other people who are here this evening. RAS But I'd like to find out what the other cities are going to do. PF Well, they are going to speak today. And when I talk to you, I'm not talking from my personal point of view, I'm talking on behalf of the people who meet and get together and discuss this at length. And when I talk about 600 people, I'm talking about the people in the Valley who are in organized 34 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JF JULY 19, 2001 skating, and we have their representatives on board with us. So it is substantiated. As far as if you're saying to us do we want to have an ice rink in Palm Desert and an ice rink out in Indio, no we just want one facility, and we want it up quickly. Now, if the City of Palm Desert says we will make a contribution, but we don't want to be involved in the ongoing position, that's fine with us. We're confident in our numbers and our financial figures that we can make sufficient to pay all our outgoings and to maintain our commitments and to improve and expand that facility. And we have special ed programs that need to be subsidized, and we've set up a machinery to do that as well. So, just so I'm clear and everybody in this room is clear and everybody watching T.V.s tonight are clear, you're willing to waive almost a million dollars of assistance in Palm Desert to have a centrally located permanent facility in Palm Desert, perhaps with construction beginning as early as one year from now, in a desire to have a temporary facility on a polo ground in Indio by November? • PF Where does the word "temporary" come from? JF Your report. PF No, there is no word "temporary" in my report. It says quite clearly... JF Okay...we can go back to semantics. PF Well, let me just be very plain and clear because I am. JF Well, can I get an answer to my question first. PF It's a permanent facility. JF Okay, can I get an answer to my question. PF Yeah, sure. JF Please. PF Your question is? JF Are you willing to waive a million dollars of assistance next August in exchange for a significantly, to use your word, reduced amount so that you have something in November in Indio? If that's the case, l agree with my colleague, we need to sit down and chew on it. 35 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL PF J U LY 19, 2001 If we can see the significant contribution from Palm Desert, and we know what that is, as opposed to a significant contribution from Westfield, which turned out to be $20,000... RAS We need to get an answer. PF I'm answering. Which we did not consider to be a substantial number, $20,000, but if it's a substantial sum coming from the City of Palm Desert as their contribution, and there will be contributions from other cities, yes, the answer is we would prefer to be over at the polo grounds, but I will ask the other people involved. We will poll the USFSA and the ISA members and the hockey players. We will poll them. We have all their names and addresses, and we'll ask them what do they want to do. That's what we do. So, yes, the answer to your question is quite possibly we would prefer to have an ice rink in November on the polo grounds in Indio as opposed to yet another pie in the sky dream that started three years ago about the $30 million ice rink on Cook Street. We want something that is tangible and apparent and stops our kids traveling 200 miles. Thank you. JF Terry O'Brien. TO I'm Terry O'Brien. Hello, Mr. Mayor and Councilmen, Councilwoman. I find myself in a very awkward place here. Politically I'm not involved in the happenings of the rink. I'm just a skater, a coach. I'm a mom, I'm a grandmother, and I'm coming from this place. What I want to ask is just one question, and I want to have something, this is directed to you, Mr. Mayor, and also to Carlos and also to Phil. And that is this, I recall on the day we were here in a meeting, and my husband was with me and he spoke that day. That was before Westfield closed down and basically that's where I've been coming from to keep it open because I want it to. And I left that day very jubilant because I felt that at that time, Mr. Mayor, you had suggested a mandate that we would step from one sheet of ice to the other, and then I just went home jubilantly as I said and I told my students this and my neighbors, which doesn't make, you know, a difference one way or another. But what I'm trying to say is what I want to know is what did you mean by that because what I said afterwards, and I went to two meetings and I directly asked Mr. Ortega. I said Mr. Ortega, what did the Mayor mean when he said he mandated, and he said he didn't hear you say that. But I did hear you say that, and Mr. Drell didn't hear either. That's the opinion I got, and what I want to know is am I just a dumb cluck here or what? I need to understand. JF No. Let me answer that question because I think it has been a popular misperception, but I can explain it very simply. I stood right down there by that podium and talked to, I think, about a half dozen of you after that first 36 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 meeting and said we would do everything in our power to try and make sure that your skating isn't interrupted. We had three goals at that point. The short-term goal was to keep Westfield, keep the rink open as long as possible. The interim goal was to get a temporary facility so that you could have continuity of ice skating. And the third goal was quite simply to get a permanent facility that would be here forever so that you would never face this issue again. Councilman Spiegel and I met the very next morning with Dave Hokanson from Westfield. We urged him to stay open until Labor Day. We went back and forth and got construction time lines out and were absolutely convinced that they had to do it July 4th or all of a sudden you would have a mall with scaffolding and drop cloths during our Christmas season, and that absolutely is the backbone of our budget is the retail sales tax that we get from that. And so July 4th became the cutoff. We then sat down with the City Manager and we asked him to do everything possible to take a look at a temporary facility. John Wareham from the Ice Chalet at that time told us that he had temporary ice equipment, he already had the Zamboni and the equipment from the Mall. At the time, I think he said he could do it for about $250,000, set up a temporary facility. We looked at doing it over here in our park. We looked at a number of different sites, and the City Manager at one point told me that Mr. Wareham had backed out, that his numbers had gone from $250,000 to $1.2 million, that he had looked at a number of different interim possibilities, and economically it didn't make sense to spend a million dollars on a temporary solution that would take a million dollars out of the permanent solution. And a threshold decision needed to be made...do we want to focus our energy and efforts on a permanent solution or do we want to detract from those efforts by spending money in a temporary solution, by the way during an energy crisis because at that time we were looking at a tent structure. And the decision was made to find you a permanent solution and to do it as quickly as possible. Does that mean we didn't use our best efforts to make sure your ice skating wasn't interrupted? No, it does not. It means I'm not a guru and I can't tell the future with 100% accuracy. That goal was always our goal, whether Mr. Flax believes it or not, it was our sincere effort to try and accommodate the interests of the skating community in that regard. And quite frankly, stepping back from it as a fiduciary of both taxpayers' money and of the will of the people, the prudent cause of action, in my humble opinion, at this point is to get a centrally located permanent facility so that you will never have to worry about this issue again. And by central, I mean the people in Palm Springs that drive the hour to Indio, maybe it's not two hours down to Burbank, but it's still an hour. I recognize that having a skating facility in your community, even if you have no responsibility for that facility, much as we did with Westfield, still leaves you with the incumbent responsibility for overseeing that ice rink. Frankly, I'm not eager to have it in Palm Desert, but it's the most logical place to put it. We've come up with three different sites, we've 37 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL BAC JULY 19, 2001 offered free land on several different occasions. In my view, I think we've tried to do everything in our power to come up with a sensible solution to this problem. And throwing a half million dollars, that our City Attorney says we can't throw, at a plan which we have yet to see other than it's just conceptual deal points on a time line that runs counterintuitive with most every project I've ever seen in the City of Palm Desert, is not a responsible way to manage our money. And when that plan, and I'll just go one step further, is delivered to the media outlets, and we get phone calls with cameras in our face while being asked to respond to something we've never seen, and then we get met with moral outrage in the skating community because we don't immediately say yes to every point of that plan, which we still don't fully understand, not only detracts us from that permanent facility but winds up putting us in an adversarial posture that we currently face right now and, I think, ultimately drains the momentum we did have going towards the permanent facility. So that was the basis for my comment. That was what we did to pursue that comment, and that's why we're here today. Mr. Crites. I'd just also add that some of these things change almost by the moment. As an example, the previous speaker this evening said, you know, he would prefer we have this in Indio, we have it now, and it's permanent. Yet, his letter that sits in front of me from the 10th of July speaks of this as an interim solution and though a "permanent installation would be preferred," etc. So this went, this letter, from interim, which I think tends to be equivalent to temporary, and though something permanent was better, it means that wasn't. It comes to be permanent tonight , it comes to (unclear). When the money leaves our hands, it's gone. TO I understand. BAC And we don't get to bring it back because, oh my gosh, that isn't really what I intended and that isn't really what we're doing and all the rest of that stuff and so if you expect anybody, I don't mean you in a personal sense, but anyone to do this, there has to be a proposal that is solid, that is understandable, that is backed by commitments, that has all the other things laid out, as anyone would want to do in your own personal finances if you were being asked to write a check for something that was being added to your home or anything else. And those are the kinds of things that we need to see. TO Well, I've really...I mean, this is my first experience in, you know, City Council. I mean I've really had, like, 101 here because I have learned a lot. I mean, I didn't know you had to okay a City Tight and everything, you know, is just down to that fine tuning. I just want to know, just for my own sake, if I said to you, Mr. Mayor, that I recall, and this is not, please, a confrontation, 38 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JF JULY 19, 2001 it's just I want to know this as a citizen and a resident of Palm Desert. If I recall, you said a mandate from your post there that you would not step off the sheet of ice unless you would step onto another. If that was the case, and that is what I remember, how does that stand in, you know, is it so or what happens then. I mean, is that the case? It's like...because I know I heard it, and I know others heard it. What is the...what would it be, say like you said, okay I mandate that you have a skating rink and you will not step off, bottom line from where you're sitting, what would that be if it were, like, in the minutes and so on? How would that stand? I did not use the word "mandate." I'm not in a position. I'm one of five people. What I clearly said was it is our goal to make sure that you have continuity of skating. We have the ability, we just passed a $33 million budget, we could hand you a check, if it wasn't against the law, for a half million dollars this afternoon. That doesn't mean we're going to do it. We can build a facility and put it in a tent and put it in a parking lot and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on air conditioning for temporary skating. That doesn't mean it's the best solution. We have struggled with a permanent facility for over three and a half years now. We thought we had one with the Desert Sports group when we permitted the land on Gerald Ford and Cook Street. We're trying to get you a permanent facility now. I knew at the beginning that we couldn't get a permanent facility in four months, not six months, not ten months. A realistic construction time frame is usually about 24 months. With Mr. Wareham offering an interim facility and talking about $250,000, it was very easy for me to say I think we can do something, and that's our goal. When $250,000 becomes $1.2 million and Mr. Wareham backs out and no longer wants to use his equipment and we have to start from scratch, as my colleague here pointed out, the facts change and that presents an entirely different scenario. But does that mean that we were somehow insincere in our desire to make sure that you didn't have an interruption in your ice skating routine? No. TO And may I ask one more question? On the proposed site, Tamarisk and Country Club, and you were talking about the slab for the skating rink and just assuming that that does go, does, now, this is something, and I just want to know, because I've been in skating for a lot of years, 50 as a matter of fact, so it's a long time, and I've seen many rinks come and go, and so I understand skating, every bit of it, from olden days to modern times. But the question that I have now is if the slab is put there, this is just as a citizen now, I mean I'm not any committee or anything like that, if it's put down, I'm wondering who has to build that? Is that like, okay, the City donates the land. Do you then put, like, bids out and then people say okay I'm ice rink management, x x x, well how does that work, that's what I'd like to know. 39 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL RAS JULY 19, 2001 Let me comment. We said that we would set aside this land. It's now worth, with the infrastructure, about a million dollars. If you found a developer that would be willing to come in and build an ice skating rink, that's what happened in Ontario. Ontario, the city provided the land. They didn't even do the infrastructure. They provided the land, and a fellow came in and he built an ice skating rink, as I understand it. I'm not willing to even give the land until the developer steps up and says we're going to give you a rink. TO So you need that person, that person with the bid... RAS Or the group or whoever. TO Or the group. And if that person builds, would they, like, own it or could they sell it if they say okay I don't want to be in rinks any more, you know, I'd like to just...you know what, I don't understand. I'm missing something here. JF Let me see if I can outline it for you because Councilman Kelly, Mayor Pro- Tem Kelly and I went and looked at the facility in Ontario, number one to see if the stories we heard about the market not being able to support a free- standing ice skating rink were true. We'd heard that there was a new facility in Ontario, so we wanted to meet with the owners, and we wanted to see what it looked like. Was it regulation ice, could you play hockey on it, could you figure skate? We went and met with the gentleman that built it. I talked to the City Manager at some length about the deal points and how the City structured it. They took some industrial land by the railroad tracks next to the old Ontario Airport, graded it and cleared it, did an environmental contamination report on it, compacted it and tied in a sewer line, brought electrical, water, and other utilities to the pad, and basically gave the developer a ready -to -build pad. For us to do that on the raw land that you see off of Country Club is probably going to be about, with the accelerated time frame, close to a million dollars out of our pocket. We would turn over to a developer, qualified developer with plans, a ready -to -build pad, and then he can go and construct an ice skating facility. The one in Ontario, pardon me, is currently owned by two former NHL players, I've been told. They're free to sell that, manage it, do what they want with it. They can hold shows there, put seating in there. The City's contribution was the land, the infrastructure, and the sewer tie-in, and the private sector took over the development. I was very enthusiastic in looking at it because, number one, the demographics supported it. It was something that was recently built, so it wasn't antiquated. The City's involvement dovetailed with what our involvement typically tends to be in these public/private type of things. And when I talked to him, he even expressed an interest in doing something similar out here. And when somebody has done something that I can see and look at, and I can talk to the city that was a partner, and it's been 40 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 successful, and it's penciling out, that told me that this market could support a private sector ice rink. And that's when we started looking at providing some land for private development. BAC With that, there are a whole bunch of strings. TO Yeah. BAC If the City's dollars are underneath an ice rink, you have to know what the financial ability of the corporation is, you have to have certain kinds of guarantees about what happens if they all of a sudden disappear tomorrow morning, who ends up with the facility and what happens to it. So, yeah, there are a whole complex set of things that go over to that table to make sure that you don't end up with a frozen elephant, I guess, in this case... TO I've got it. BAC ...all of a sudden on your land and what do you do with it, and the ice is melting tomorrow morning, and those folks are in Trinidad, and all the rest of that, so... TO Do you need a time date frame like, say, if this is going to be like a year out, do you, like, need three months from now to know or, I mean... JMB It's up to your group to bring in that (unclear) RAS You've got to bring the developer to us. JMB We've got the land. We're willing to give the land and do the infrastructure. It is up to your group to come in with the financing. We are not going to build an ice skating rink. TO Okay. JMB So it's up to the ice skating group to bring in a developer that is financially secure to do that instead of coming up here, as the Mayor said, and harassing us every time because we're not doing anything, and we are doing something. And not many cities in the Valley offered to you a piece of land worth a million and a half. You didn't even get a goodbye probably or good riddance, if anything. TO Well, I thank you, and I, you know, appreciate it, and it's cleared up a few things for me. 41 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JF Thank you. CLO J U LY 19, 2001 Mr. Mayor, just to add to the discussion with the gentleman in Ontario, he is still interested, and all he needs is a piece of property with infrastructure. He has volunteered that he could do it, or if there was a group down here that was interested that he could serve as the consultant to show them how to do it. So that offer is still there, even if nobody around here is going to put up the money, he's willing to come and talk to us about it. I just spoke with him yesterday. BAC Okay, we may very well have three or four proposals so the people who wish to do this will sort them out. JF And, just to follow up, I guess from my way of thinking, if we took an accelerated approach to preparing the pad, and this is where I think Councilman Spiegel was going, we can be working diligently for the next 12 months to get that pad ready, which gives us 12 months to check the financials, get a construction crew in there, take a look at who the operator is going to be, become very comfortable with them, so that come August 1st or whenever that pad is ready, they are there with their shovel in the ground laying the foundation for a new skating facility. The next person I have on this list is Gary Stevens from La Quinta. GS Mr. Mayor, Council, thanks for hearing us today. I'd like to bring a few points up, and I'll try to be as brief as possible. (Unclear) Mayor Ferguson stated that he suggested respectfully that the mandate is that a temporary facility be put into place by July 4th (unclear) JF Where is that? GS On the Minutes. RAS You know, if you continue this at every one of our meetings, from my standpoint one person, no ice rink. We have taken abuse from the ice skating group now for at least six Council meetings, and enough is enough. We're trying to help you. In Rancho Mirage, we heard tonight, they just closed their ears. In Indian Wells, they closed their ears. Indio's looking into it, and the facility that you want to build, or you're thinking about, is in Indio, not in Palm Desert. We're trying to work with you, and all we get is abuse. BAC Let me respond to Mr. Stevens. When we had a four-way partnership to get something done for $200,000 and that had all worked out, everybody was 42 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 there and all the equipment was there (unclear) I think you heard very clearly, none of that turned out to be true. GS When was this? JMB Several months ago when the operator was to warrant all the rest of that, it didn't turn out to be true. A mandate to do something for a quarter share of something that was ready to go as versus something that wasn't ready to go and didn't exist and the person didn't want to do it are two remarkably different events. GS What I'd like to bring is a few points. As you said earlier, a lot of things changed and as of the date, a lot of the Council are not aware of what we have, and we could expedite this project very quickly. We have a deposit down on a 225-foot building, 145 feet wide, specially built by the military, they paid a large chunk of money for the deposit and cancelled the order, so we picked up the building for way less than $200,000. This is sufficient, and we have the gentleman flown in from Alberta, Canada, to give us estimated prices on different ice chillers. (Unclear) We found a location where the kilowatt per hour is 7.9 cents (unclear) Imperial Irrigation District, it has the water, the power, the sewer right there. The building's going to be shipped here September 15t into the Valley. We're ready to go, and what I'd like to try to find out today is we had several meetings with Carlos, and one of the questions we asked, you may have been present, I can't recall, was if we find an interim solution to put the temporary building at the time up or an interim building permanent structure, would the City of Palm Desert be willing to financially donate something, and Carlos said has said yes, show us some proof of your funding and we'll participate. RAS Have you gotten anything from the City of La Quinta, in which you live? GS No, I haven't. They wanted to see some tax revenue. JMB And 1 can't believe that our City Manager would say that we would participate in something outside the city limits of Palm Desert with $500,000. GS No, I didn't say at $500,000, I just said if we could find a solution...we looked at several sites in Palm Springs and Indio, different flat tops (unclear) and we asked Carlos, if you recall, do you recall the conversation where you would do something, and another situation was they offered to do a bus trip to Riverside, but I asked all the group members, the committee members that day, I said would... instead of spending money, could we take whatever you expect to spend and put it towards a new facility or temporary or interim, and 43 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 that was something you were going to look into. Do you recall the question, Carlos? BAC Well, be that as it may, you make your presentation and if there are things we need to look at, we will. GS Okay. I'd like to bring it to the point, then. We are looking very heavily at the Indio site where we can get us up and running. And to answer the questions, to wait possible for a year or more til that other building is up is going to kill a lot of people. I've actually picked up 23 more hockey players (unclear) we're looking to get a rink up somewhere in the Valley, and that would help us. So I think, if I can speak on behalf of the Desert Hockey Association, I would love to see if I can get an answer as quickly as possible from the Councilmembers of Palm Desert to see if you can put some money our way to get us on the road. And as Mr. Spiegel said, we would wash our hands of the other site on Country Club. And that way we could move on. We just don't want to be without ice for such a long time. RAS Don't put words in my mouth. I didn't say we were going to give you a half million dollars. GS No, no (unclear) RAS I don't want you coming back saying that I said... GS Exactly. I would love to walk away... RAS I don't want you coming back saying that. GS I would love to walk away... RAS I didn't say that. JF It'll happen. GS I would love to walk away to find out...how soon could the Councilmembers get together to see if we can put something together now? JMB I could tell you right now, I for one would not be voting in favor of giving any money to a facility in Indio, Rancho Mirage, or La Quinta. Indian Wells Tennis Gardens didn't ask us for money, that's the City's responsibility. We're stepping up to our responsibility by giving you a site. We are not going to spend, at least as far as I'm concerned, we're not going to be giving money that is illegal to give, of our taxpayers' money, to another city to put 44 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 in the facility. That is illegal. We have it from our attorney, we cannot do that. GS Okay. JMB We can continue to work on the site that we're working on if that's what you want. If you don't want that, we'll discontinue it. That's fine. You can take it and leave it, either way. If you don't want us to continue to pursue the site... GS (Unclear) JF Well, I'll answer as well. The answer is no as far as I'm concerned, based on what we've seen of the proposal and what the recommendation of our City Attorney is. If you want an answer right now, no GS Okay. Thank you. JF Bruce Williams. Is Mr. Williams here? Barbara Bergman? BB Good afternoon, Council representatives and Mayor Ferguson. Boy, do I feel in the hot seat. I want to thank you for the intentions and the efforts. I represent the haggard and the few who have been traveling out of town because it is a serious endeavor, my child and I competing and (unclear) doing very well. We, unfortunately, found ourselves closed right in the middle of the heaviest time of competition, so we have spent the last three weekends in a row out of town traveling to Burbank three times a week because our coach lives in Palm Desert, didn't train here and now can't. It's been a large cost in the short time since July 4th, not just financially, a lot of gas money, food, emotionally. I've only been married a year and a half and if my husband wasn't in serious athletics we'd probably be divorced at this point. My poor daughter on her birthday was left in Burbank because she has to stay and train. I'm coming from a place that says we need a rink, and I don't know how. I really appreciate the offer that I heard. I think it's an alternative. I don't think I can last till 2002, but in spite of anything else, I will stand behind whatever we can do. I'm thinking maybe a city collaborative of some kind or a Palm Desert committee that works on this I think needs to meet more often, and I think we need to meet more often with you so that you know where we're coming from. And I'm leaving it open to...we need a solution. Thank you. JF Thank you. I would note for the record that an overwhelming number of parents of the skating community and some of the seniors that I talked to recognize that Palm Desert can do what it sets out to do and can (unclear) 45 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL PF J U LY 19, 2001 results. It may not be in the time line as some would like, or it may not be in the location that some would like, but we are responsive to the needs to our community, and I appreciate your comments because most of what I hear from parents and people who aren't "political", although I don't know why politics comes into it, it's a simple issue. We aren't doing this for the popularity, Mr. Flax, we aren't doing it to get votes, we're doing it because it's our job and because we're trying to respond to your community. We will get there eventually, and we'll do it the right way and do it the responsible way, and we'll do it in the way that'll meet your needs the best for the longest time possible. Mr. Flax, I have you down as the last person to speak. Would you like to make any comments at this point? I just want to say that when I first spoke at this Council meeting, I said that we are not confrontational, and we tried not to be confrontational. We don't want to be confrontational. What we're trying to do is be positive and arrive at a positive solution in the quickest possible time. Unfortunately, we may have reached a crossroads. If the situation in Indio is such that we can finance it, fund it, and the land and facilities are on offer to us, as far as the skaters are concerned it's a slightly more inconvenient location than Palm Desert, but that doesn't preclude it by any means. We're going to look at the facts and figures. We're having a meeting tomorrow morning, and the outcome of that meeting will somewhat dictate where we go from here. Hopefully, we want to cooperate with the City of Palm Desert as much as we want to cooperate with the other cities. Sometimes you have to have a leading city or a leader, and the others will follow suit, as you well know, the same way that there's many other cities that contributed to the McCallum to keep it going. Mr. Crites furrowed his brow. Is that not the case? I see. Rancho Mirage seems to think that they do somehow or other. All I'm saying is that we're looking for the shortest, sharpest possible solution to get a permanent building and a permanent site. When we talk about interim, what we're saying is that the building and the skating chillers and refrigeration and pipework and so forth, the system that we're using is the technologically latest system, it means it doesn't have to go into concrete, it goes in sand, we can roll it up and move it if we have to at some subsequent time. It may be that in five years time you'll say to us now we're ready, or three years time now we're ready. At that point, we could then consider the position and whether we wanted to move again. But right now, we need skating facilities, we need an ice rink. And we're looking for the shortest possible solution to that problem. And if we can fund it, we'll fund it. However our means, we'll fund it. We'd like to have Palm Desert involved with it. We think you should be involved with it. You were originally intrinsic in creating skating in the Valley. Skating in the Valley is going to be huge when the new rink is finished. It will be sad to see Palm Desert lose its association with it. Thanks very much. 46 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JF JULY 19, 2001 Thank you, Mr. Flax. And let me try and summarize this in a way that leaves it clear in everybody's mind. Palm Desert is doing nothing to inhibit your Indio proposal. We are choosing not to participate because of a determination that we've made that our efforts are best spent in getting you a permanent facility. We have three different proposals right now that we're evaluating for a permanent facility, the most viable of which, in my opinion, is the acreage on our park site because we control the land and we can control, with some exceptions, what happens and the timing of what happens, and we can accelerate things through the planning and the entitlement process. We are not giving up on trying to meet the needs of our residents in ice skating. We're simply choosing not to participate in this particular proposal in Indio. With that, our six o'clock adjournment has come for Closed Session, and I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. RAS So moved. BAC So seconded. B. CITY ATTORNEY 1) Request for Closed Session: Conference with Real Property Negotiator pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8: 1) Property: Lease Property - Palm Desert Soccer Park 74-735 Hovley Lane East, Palm Desert, CA Negotiating Parties: Agency: Carlos L. Ortega/Phil Drell/City of Palm Desert Property Owner: City of Palm Desert Other Parties: Corrine Brodsky/Cox PCS Assets, LLC Under Negotiation: x Price x Terms of Payment 2) Property: 18± acres located Southwest corner of Cook Street and Sheryl Avenue Negotiating Parties: Agency: Teresa L. La Rocca/City of Palm Desert/Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency Property Owner: Rick Hughes/HCO, LLC, Development Company Under Negotiation: x Price x Terms of Payment 47 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 3) Property: APN 653-020-062 (Approximately 11.48 acres) Negotiating Parties: Agency: Carlos L. Ortega/City of Palm Desert/Palm Desert Redevelopment Agency Property Owner: A. J. Lazar Under Negotiation: x Price x Terms of Payment Conference with Legal Counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(a): a) Eddie Ahmad Babai v. City of Palm Desert, Riverside County Superior Court Case No. INC 013297 b) Renee Capela v. City of Palm Desert, Riverside county Superior Court Case No. INC 021720 c) Betty L. Szymanski v. City of Palm Desert, United States District Court - Central District of California Conference with Legal Counsel regarding significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(b): Number of potential cases: 3 Mr. Erwin asked that the following item be added to the Closed Session Agenda: Councilman Crites moved to add this item to the Closed Session Agenda. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. Public Employment pursuant to Government Code Section 54957: Title of Position: City Attorney 2) Report and Action on Items from Closed Session Made at This Meeting. City Attorney Erwin announced that during Closed Session, City Council, on a 4-0 vote with Mayor Pro-Tempore Kelly ABSENT, rejected the Claim Against the City presented by Sergio Rosas. C. CITY CLERK 1. Consideration of September City Council/Redevelopment Agency Meeting Schedule. Ms. Klassen stated that it was her understanding from the Council Secretary that there will not be a quorum for the meeting of 48 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL 2001. JULY 19, 2001 September 13, and she asked for Council's direction on how to proceed. She noted that three of the Councilmembers would be at the League of California Cities conference. Councilman Spiegel suggested discussing this at the Council meeting of August 23, 2001. With Council concurrence, this matter was continued to the meeting of August 23, D. MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL o City Council Requests for Action: 1. Recognition for Legacy Home Furnishings and Palm Desert Merchandise Mart for their contribution of completely furnishing a Habitat for Humanity home on Catalina Way. (Councilmember Jean M. Benson) Councilmember Benson stated that recently when attending the dedication of the newest Habitat for Humanity home on Catalina Way, they were told that Legacy Home Furnishings and Palm Desert Merchandise Mart would be furnishing the entire house for the family. She said she felt it would be nice for the Mayor to send them a letter thanking them for their community participation. Councilman Crites suggested that they be invited to attend the August 23`d meeting to receive a token of appreciation. With Council concurrence, a presentation was scheduled for the meeting of August 23, 2001. 2. Request for Consideration of the Guidelines for Yearly Appointment of Mayor (Councilman Buford A. Crites). Councilman Crites asked that staff provide copies of the resolution relative to the scheduling of the yearly appointment of Mayor. He said some years it is done in November and others in December. Ms. Klassen responded that it would depend on whether or not there is an election held that year. Councilman Crites said he would like for the Council to discuss this at its next meeting. 49 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL JULY 19, 2001 With Council concurrence, staff was directed to place this item on the Agenda for the meeting of August 23, 2001, for consideration. 3. Consideration of Contributions to the Mourning Star Center and a College of the Desert Scholarship in Memory of Matthew Lingle (Mayor Jim Ferguson). Mayor Ferguson noted that the Mourning Star Center is a bereavement counseling center focused solely on families that lose loved ones. He said he had never really had full appreciation for what it is they until Chief Lingle lost his son earlier this week, and he read in the newspaper that the family had suggested donations to the Mourning Star Center. He asked if the City would consider making a contribution in memory of Matthew Lingle. Mr. Ortega stated that he read that Matthew was attending College of the Desert, and he asked that the Council also consider setting up a scholarship in his memory. He said this was something that could be administered by one of the Rotary clubs. Mayor Ferguson stated that he felt it would be appropriate for the City to do both. With City Council concurrence, the City Manager and the Mayor were authorized to determine the appropriate amount of contribution to both organizations and see to the disbursements thereof. o City Council Committee Reports: 1. Update on Energy Issues (Councilman Buford A. Crites). No report. 50 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE PALM DESERT CITY COUNCIL XVI. ADJOURNMENT JULY 19, 2001 Councilman Crites moved to adjourn to Closed Session at 8:18 p.m. Motion was seconded by Spiegel and carried by a 4-0 vote, with Mayor Pro-Tem Kelly ABSENT. Acting Mayor Crites reconvened the meeting at 9:10 p.m. and immediately adjourned with no further action announced from Closed Session. TTi" ST: SHEILA R. GIL GA ITY CLERK CITY OF PALM DES T, CALIFORNIA 51