ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms City Council Meeting, March 10, 2026
A short agenda features a continuing education effort on septic system maintenance and the first reading of an ordinance to raise City Council salaries for the first time in 24 years
You may be wondering— What? No solar project? That’s right. It looks like City Council members will have extra time to read the newly published behemoth that’s the final Environmental Impact Report plus all the letters in the last Planning Commission agenda. We understand that the solar project will land at an off-calendar Council meeting scheduled for Monday, March 23 at 6pm.
The result is a relatively lean March 10 agenda — there’s just one consent calendar item beyond the routine warrant register approval, and a single action item. But that action item, a proposed City Council salary increase, is worth your attention.
The meeting begins at 6 pm. at City Hall, 6136 Adobe Road. Proceedings may be viewed on demand at the CIty’s YouTube channel or live streamed at www.29palms.org.
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 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. 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
Council will open with two proclamations: one recognizing March 2026 as Irish-American Heritage Month and a second recognizing March 2026 as Women’s History Month.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar consists of 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. Fill out a comment form specifying the item you wish to address and submit it in person, or send an email in advance regarding any of the items on this meeting’s Consent Calendar.
The warrant register for this meeting totals $1,319,350.36. A few line items are worth flagging: $39,456.00 to USGS National Center MS 270, likely connected to ongoing groundwater assessment efforts, and the now-familiar $8,400 monthly payment to Clifford Moss LLC, the consultant overseeing Probolsky Research’s community survey in support of the proposed 1% sales tax measure. The Consent Calendar also includes approval of the minutes of the February 24, 2026, meeting and the standard waiver of the reading of ordinances.
The one item of community interest in this meeting’s Consent Calendar:
6. Information on the Importance of Periodic Septic System Maintenance
This item continues a commitment the City made at a prior meeting to keep the public informed about groundwater protection. As a reminder: Twentynine Palms has no centralized sewer system. Residents rely entirely on septic systems, and the entire community draws its drinking water from underground aquifers. The City and Twentynine Palms Water District (TPWD) are collaborating on a Salt and Nutrient Management Plan required by the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board, and a key component of that plan is public education.
The staff report notes that there are currently eight batch treatment systems in the City — the larger-scale systems that typically serve residential developments, hotels, and commercial areas — and, per the staff report, three of them are known to be failing. The report does not identify their locations, nor does it provide a count of the individual residential and commercial septic systems operating within city limits. For a community that relies entirely on septic systems for wastewater management and is actively tracking groundwater contamination risk, that seems like information the public has a right to know. Improperly maintained septic systems can contaminate the shallow groundwater aquifer, which — while separated from the deeper drinking water aquifer by a clay layer — still poses a potential long-term risk.
The EPA recommends having a professional inspect your system at least every three years and pump it out every three to five years. Educational materials prepared jointly by the City and the Water District are included in the agenda packet. The City intends to place this item on the Consent Calendar at each meeting going forward as a standing reminder.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
7. City Council Salary Increase
This is the first reading of a proposed ordinance to raise City Council member salaries from $465 per month — a figure that has not changed since December 10, 2002 — to $950 per month, the maximum allowed by State law for cities with populations of 35,000 or fewer.
The item was initiated by then-Mayor Pro Tem Joel Klink, who raised the issue at the October 22, 20241 Council meeting as a future agenda item:
Since I’m going off the Council, I would like to discuss before December 10, an increase in the money that City Council members receive each month.
City Manager Stone James followed up at the November 12 meeting:
Looked into it. Cindy Canary, just great professional within our finance department, did some research. And ultimately, what we’re looking at is, I’m going to have to take this back before the Council. My goal will be to bring it before Council, and maybe quarter one or quarter two of this coming year of 2025 so that we can go ahead and have the Council adopt it…And so as as previously was identified, the Council salaries are remarkably low, and it has been, if I if I saw correctly, since 2002 they were set, so it is long overdue that they be changed.
Despite some consensus that salaries should discussed and potentially updated, it’s taken a year for the proposal to wind its way back to an agenda.
Under State law (Government Code Section 36516, as amended by Senate Bill 329 in 2024), cities have three options for calculating a salary increase. The staff report analyzes all three:
Time-based calculation (5% per year since the last adjustment): Over 24 years, this would yield a maximum of $1,008 per month.
Population-based flat rate: For cities under 35,000 in population, up to $950 per month. This is what staff is recommending.
CPI-based adjustment: Staff notes this method lacks readily available data and is not practical for this cycle.
The proposed $950/month figure matches what the Yucca Valley Town Council adopted in early 2024 under the same Senate Bill 329 framework.
There are a few important procedural points for residents to understand. First, the salary increase cannot take effect until after the November 2026 election — specifically, when the Council certifies election results and new members take their seats in December 2026. The current Council cannot vote itself an immediate raise. If tonight’s first reading passes, a second reading must occur prior to November 1, 2026, otherwise the increase is pushed to after the 2028 election.
Second, any Council member may choose to waive the compensation.
The fiscal impact, if approved at the State maximum, would be an additional $29,100 annually in total Council salary costs per year.
This is a reasonable conversation to have. Twenty-four years without a raise is a long time, and the difficulty of attracting qualified candidates to serve on Council is a legitimate public concern, especially in an economically deprived city. Council seats in Districts 3, 4 and 5 are up for election in 2026—those are currently held by Mayor Daniel Mintz, Mayor Pro Tem Octavious Scott and Councilmember McArthur Wright, and competitive elections ensure that important issues are discussed.
At the same time, the public has a right to weigh in on how their elected officials are compensated. This is your opportunity to do so.
The meeting will conclude with public comment on non-agenda items, consideration of future agenda items, and the City Manager’s report.
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The staff report misstates the meeting as December 10, 2024. We have verified the correct meeting date via our transcript archive.