ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms City Council, February 25, 2025
Black History Month, JTNPA takes over the NPS Visitor Center, and a mid-year budget update
This upcoming Tuesday, February 25, the Twentynine Palms City Council will hold their regularly scheduled meeting at 6 pm where they will receive the City’s mid-year budget update and approve amendments to the General Fund, Capital projects fund, and Special Funds budgets; amend the lease for the Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center on Freedom Way due to administrative contingencies within the National Park Service; and acknowledge February as Black History Month. An invocation will be delivered by Melvin Rock of the Sanctuary Church. Here is the 184-page agenda packet. Coverage of the previous City Council meeting is available here.
PUBLIC COMMENT
You can comment on agenda items and issues important to you at every City Council meeting. Comments on agenda items take place during discussion of that item, while comments on non-agenda items take place near the end of the meeting. The Brown Act prevents Council from commenting on non-agenda items. To comment, just pick up a green or gold form at the entry desk, fill it out, and hand it to the Clerk, who usually sits just in front of the Council bench toward the right.
Here's the list of Council email addresses to write if you can't get to the meeting — be sure to email them prior to 2 pm on the date of the meeting so they have time to read your email prior to discussion. The Mayor has stopped reading emails into the record at meetings. You can also copy the clerk at cvillescas@29palms.org and ask that your letter be made part of the public record.
AWARDS, PRESENTATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND PROCLAMATIONS
After a presentation from the fifth grade class at Oasis Elementary on their recent Black History Month project, City Council will acknowledge the month of February as Black History Month in a formal proclamation as they have done in years past. Council will then receive a presentation from Dave Thornton, executive director of the Coachella Valley branch of Habitat for Humanity.
CONSENT CALENDAR
This meeting’s consent calendar is light and includes approval of meeting minutes for the January 28 and February 11 City Council meetings.
PUBLIC HEARING
None
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
6. Designation of a Delegate and Alternate Delegate for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Annual Regional Conference and General Assembly
Each year, the Twentynine Palms City Council sends a delegate and alternate delegate to the Southern California Association of Governments regional conference. This year, the conference will be held in the Coachella Valley. The SCAG is a regional joint-powers authority composed of local governments and municipal agencies. Its membership is made up of 190 cities all within the Southern California region, including twenty-four cities in San Bernardino County. Policy discussions regarding regional transportation projects, the South Coast Air Quality Management Plan, housing, policy studies, and commercial development take place at the SCAG General Assembly meeting.
7. Financial Report: Fiscal Year 2024-25 Mid-Year Budget Update - General Fund
The next two agenda items pertain to mid-year budget adjustments. Municipal budgets can be daunting—there is a 91-page report for the General Fund budget amendment and a 39-page report for the Special Projects and Capital Projects funds. In total, the mid-year financial reports, finalized by Finance Director Abigail Hernandez Conde, are over 130 pages, comprised of year-to-date transactions, budgets, expenses, and amended budget adjustments for Council to approve for the three funds.
Amendments to the General Fund for Council to approve include moving monies from the General Fund to the Capital Projects fund, such as allocation of $35,000 in reserves toward street sweeper reserves and $200,000 for Senior Center improvements.
Comparison of third quarter sales tax revenue collected between 2023 and 2024 shows the Twentynine Palms Restaurants and Hotels market faring slightly better compared to the previous year, while sales tax revenue collected in Building and Construction and Fuel and Service Stations has not been as prosperous, with revenues trending downward slightly.
The City maintains a cash balance of $2.8 million in its checking account and approximately $15.7 million in investments, including $2 million in U.S. Treasury bills. For the upcoming fiscal year (FY ‘25-’26), the General Fund has a projected budget surplus of $139,037 (Source: Staff Report, page 17.) A comparison of adopted budgets and proposed budgets shows Council will approve slight revenue adjustments for property taxes, building and road permits, vehicle license fees, and grants, including a decrease of $405,815 for property tax revenue that was initially projected to be higher.
A pie chart provided in the staff report shows the majority of City revenue coming from vehicle license fees (in lieu of property tax), property taxes, and Transient Occupancy Tax, a 10.5% tax paid by hotel guests and short-term rental guests when they stay local, with 1.5% of that going to the Tourism Business Improvement District and the remaining 9% going to the City.1
The City’s largest expenditure is law enforcement, contracted through the San Bernardino County Sheriffs department, with an annual budget nearing $6 million, and includes gasoline and maintenance of patrol vehicles for two full-time deputies and a detective.
Key takeaways on the City’s General Fund, summarized in the Finance Director’s report, are that the city continues to maintain a balanced budget, cash and reserves are “strong,” revenue and expenditures “are within expectations,” and that the operating budget is “performing well through mid-year.”
8. Financial Report : Fiscal Year 2024-25 Mid-Year Budget Update - Capital Projects Funds and Special Funds
Moving money between each fund requires Council approval. In this case, Council is moving money from the General Fund to the Capital Projects Fund and Special Projects Fund and approving additional funding. The purpose for these budgets is outlined in the Finance Director’s staff report, “Capital Project Funds and Special Funds are funds established by the City Council or other agencies to collect money that must be used for a specific project or purpose.”
Approval of this agenda item is for City Council to authorize additional funding for a new Animal Control Shelter, as this was the number one priority item for strategic planning in 2023-2025, and $6,000 for the Homekey housing project on Elm Street, with designated money authorized through the City’s Capital Projects Funds and Special Funds.
The 39 page report is available here.
9. Joshua Tree National Park Visitor Center Lease
Joshua Tree National Park, boasting more than three million visitors per year and counting, is one of the nation’s top ten most-visited National Park destinations and one of California’s most popular vacation spots. A crucial extension of National Park destinations is their visitor centers, which offer informational pamphlets, Park Ranger services, maps, historical and informational displays, shops, maps, water, and—most crucially, restrooms.
Due to a recent federal crackdown on the National Park Service from the Trump administration, National Park staff have seen organization-wide layoffs of essential park personnel, including first responders and seasonal park rangers meant to accommodate the influx of tourists during peak times. As of February 21, plans by the executive branch to restore some of these NPS positions have been announced, but the administration continues to be in limbo.
The U.S. National Park Service boasts more than 400 sites nationwide— each location is responding differently to the administrative changes. In a social media post on Thursday, February 20, 2025, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Divide, Colorado, which reports approximately 70,000 visitors annually, announced a two-day-a-week closure effective now—this includes closure of the monument’s restrooms, visitor center, and all monument facilities: “There will be no access to the visitor center, trailhead parking or public restrooms,” states the message.
Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona, announced that both visitor center locations will be closed Mondays due to staffing.
The U.S. Forest Service, also under the executive branch, is facing a similar executive bulldozing. Mendenhall Glacier, a popular U.S. Forest Service site for tourists to frequent in Juneau, Alaska, announced that 80% of their Visitor Center staff have been terminated and only two employees remain.
Staffing at the nation’s public lands remains tenuous. Locally, the Joshua Tree National Park Association, a non-profit partner of JTNP, is taking whatever steps they can to proactively respond to the upheaval, hence this agenda item.
Currently, Joshua Tree National Park Visitor and Cultural Center at Freedom Plaza is leased to the National Park Service through the City of Twentynine Palms and was formed in “partnership with the City of Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree National Park’s traditionally associated Native American communities, Joshua Tree National Park, and the Bureau of Land Management.”2
Approval of this agenda item would authorize the City Attorney and City Manager to amend the City’s visitor center lease agreement with the NPS, signed in 2022, to allow JTNPA to assume operations of the Cultural Center at Freedom Plaza due to recent contingencies. The City Manager’s staff report states the purpose for this move:
to allow the Joshua Tree National Park Association to assume or otherwise become responsible for all lease obligations needed to ensure Freedom Plaza's Joshua Tree National Park Cultural Center remains operational in the event the National Park Service is forced to suspend visitor center operations.
Aside from public restrooms and water refill, a crucial resource for anyone entering Joshua Tree National Park, the visitor center offers rotating exhibits as a cultural resource center, artifact displays, and highlights local Native American history. There’s also a bookstore and informational pamphlet exchange, where visitors can purchase historical biographies on the region’s famous homesteaders, books on local desert flora and fauna, and anthropology.3
The City Manager’s staff report directly cites the actions of President Donald Trump as the reason for this move:
Since January 20, President Trump and his team have begun closely evaluating and in some cases reducing or eliminating massive amounts of Federal spending. Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent Jane Rodgers is concerned reductions in Federal spending may force the National Park to close the Twentynine Palms Joshua Tree National Park Cultural Center (29JTNPVC). Allowing the Joshua Tree National Park's non-profit (Joshua Tree National Park Association) to assume the 29JTNPVC lease or otherwise become responsible for all National Park Service lease obligations will enable the 29JTNPVC to remain open in the event National Park Service related Federal funding cuts occur.
FUTURE COUNCIL INITIATED ITEMS
Revisit allocated funds for the portable showers and Navigation Center.
Discussion on the General Plan Update.
Discussion surrounding (i) costs to maintain dirt roads verses paved roads; (ii) what is a City maintained dirt road, a non-maintained dirt road, a road that has been accepted by the City, a road that is private and not accepted by the City; (iii) the City's ability and liability associated with the City periodically maintaining non-maintained roads, and (iv) ways residents can bring non-maintained and non-accepted dirt roads to paved-rural-road standards ready for acceptance into the City's accepted-and-maintained road list.
Shade structures around Freedom Plaza and a possible art fixture with "Freedom Plaza" announcing the location.
A review and discussion of fees as it relates to Site Plan Reviews for ancillary uses.
Discussion on abandoned homes in the community.
Discussion on reorganizing the Homeless and Housing Committee.
Discussion on partnering with the Boys and Girls Club.
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Vehicle license fees in lieu of property tax are collected by the Department of Motor Vehicles during the car registration and renewal process, with funds designated toward local municipalities. Unlike some other states, personal vehicles in California are exempt from property taxes and instead residents play a vehicle license fee - explained here.
NPS also operates a visitor center in Downtown Joshua Tree on Park Boulevard, a Visitor Center at the Cottonwood campground outside of Indio, and a Nature Center at Black Rock campground in Yucca Valley.
I find the outlays for some services difficult to accept. This is, of course, because I'm quite unfamiliar with the complexity of much of what is involved based upon what I just read above. Nonetheless I'm glad much of government is currently under the looking glass what with President Trump's election.