ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms City Council, December 10, 2024
City surveillance and who wants to be Mayor?
This Tuesday, December 10, 2024, the Twentynine Palms City Council is set to meet with a relatively trim 11-item agenda. The 138-page agenda is linked here. Highlights include whether the City should deploy a License Plate Recognition (LPR) camera system at major intersections, and the Council deciding amongst themselves who’s to serve as Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem.
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 p.m. on the date of the meeting so they have time to read your email prior to discussion. Be aware that the Mayor has stopped reading public comment letters at meetings.
AWARDS, PRESENTATIONS, APPOINTMENTS, AND PROCLAMATIONS
Following an invocation by Pastor Amy Miranda of the First Assembly of God Church, the meeting will kick off with a series of presentations, including a State of the City Address by outgoing Mayor Steven Bilderain and a presentation to outgoing Mayor Pro Tem Joel Klink who is retiring from Council after 20 years.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar consists of routine items usually approved with a single vote. The public is given a chance to make public comment on these items prior to the Council motion. Again, fill out a comment form if you wish to address any of the items on this meeting’s Consent Calendar.
Routine consent calendar items include approval of this month's City’s Warrant Register for $993,531.53 and certifying the November 5 election results. Other items highlighted on the consent calendar include:
8. CDBG Funding Prioritization Fiscal Year 2025/2026
The City Council approve and prioritize the allocation of CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds for Fiscal Year 2025/2026, for the City's parking lot construction project at 74325 Joe Davis Drive (Luckie Park Activity Center).
CDBG funds are provided by HUD (the U.S department of Housing and Urban Development) but administered by counties. The City applies to the County each year for these funds to complete various projects.
10. FLOCK Safety Camera System
At its November 12 meeting the Council was enthusiastic about installing a FLOCK License Plate Recognition (LPR) camera system in Twentynine Palms after hearing a presentation from Sheriff’s Lieutenant Albert Huff and the system vendor. Per the staff report, "LPRs are a foundational tool used by law enforcement across the county to solve crimes, locate missing and endangered persons, and alert law enforcement of wanted individuals and/or crime-related vehicles."
This item would authorize the City Manager to approve a two-year contract for Phase I of the camera system with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and the vendor.
The system would monitor nine major City intersections along Twentynine Palms Highway and Adobe Road using 31 cameras.
All incurred costs would be paid through a Local Law Enforcement Supplemental Account (LLESA), so this project would have no net fiscal impact on the City.
Paid by this fund would be a first-year cost of $130,200 covering installation, permitting, hardware, and connectivity, followed by an annually recurring $102,300 cost, totaling $232,500 for the two years.
SWEARING IN OF NEWLY ELECTED COUNCIL MEMBERS
City Clerk Cindy Villescas will administer the oath of office to reelected Councilmember Steven Bilderain representing District 1 and newly elected Councilmember April Ramirez representing District 2.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
11. Selection of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem
Over the years the Council has adopted various schemes to decide which two council members serve as Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem, but per the staff report on this item, all these former methods are "not legally binding. The City Council is free to select any one of its members to serve as Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem as it deems appropriate."
In fact, nowhere in City code or law is a method specified for selecting the Mayor or Mayor Pro Tem. City code doesn’t even mention the existence of these titles — in other words, the roles of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem are traditional but not defined or required.
From the City's 1987 founding until 2017, elections were “at-large,”meaning that elections were citywide and City Council seats were determined by those receiving the most votes. Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem were assigned based on the same system, with the candidates getting the most and second-most votes respectively filling the slots of Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. This system of choosing the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem continued until May 2023. The staff report states that over the years Councils didn't strictly adhere to this scheme, although the record shows no recent evidence of deviation from it.1
In May 2023, the Council decided to rotate mayoral posts numerically, by district number. They decided to begin with Districts 1 and 2, yielding Mayor Bilderain from District 1 and Mayor Pro Tem Klink from District 2 for the year 2024.
Further complicating matters is the fact that if the Council wanted to continue following the 2023 scheme, due to Klink's retirement, there will be no sitting Mayor Pro Tem to elevate to the position of Mayor.
Also notable is that if the 2023 scheme were followed, new, incoming Councilmember Ramirez, representing District 2, would be elevated to Mayor willy-nilly, with zero experience serving on Council or serving as Mayor Pro Tem, the Mayor’s back up.
Given this conundrum, staff suggests the Council simply nominate one of their number for Mayor, and if more than one person is nominated, to discuss the matter amongst themselves, then vote; and the same procedure for Mayor Pro Tem, except that the new Mayor will call for nominations instead of the City Clerk.
Will the newbie, Ramirez, be nominated or nominate herself? Bring your popcorn!
FUTURE COUNCIL INITIATED ITEMS
1. Revisit allocated funds for the portable showers and Navigation Center.
2. Discussion on the General Plan Update.
3. 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.
4. Shade structures around Freedom Plaza and a possible art fixture with "Freedom Plaza" announcing the location.
5. A review and discussion of fees as it relates to Site Plan Reviews for Barber Shops in existing buildings.
6. Discussion on increasing the City Council compensation.
The December 24 meeting is cancelled due to the holidays, so the City Council meets next on January 14, 2025.
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For reference here’s a list of mayors since 2014 and how many votes each received. In the 2014 to 2023 period there’s no evidence that the most-votes scheme wasn’t adhered to:
2014 Mintz (received 1485 votes in 2010 election)
2015 Klink (received 1911 votes in 2012 election)
2016 Mintz (received 1063 votes in 2014 election)
2017 Cole (received 1061 votes in 2014 election)
2017 - City changed from elections at-large to elections by district
2018 Wright (received 925 votes in 2014 election)
2019 Bilderain (received 2021 votes in 2016 election)
2020 Klink (received 1670 votes in 2016 election)
2021 Mintz (received 456 votes in 2018 election)
2022 O’Gilvie (received 347 votes in 2018 election)
2023 Wright (received 277 votes in 2018 election)
2024 Bilderain, District 1 (rotation changed to District number)