RECAP: Twentynine Palms City Council, May 12, 2026
Nonprofit grant presentations, outgoing Manager James receives community praise, Flock surveillance cameras to be discussed as future item.
On Tuesday, Twentynine Palms City Council met for a nearly two-hour meeting where they hosted a workshop on nonprofit grants, received recognitions from Yucca Valley Mayor Merl Abel, heard from concerned residents on the Flock surveillance system, and recognized outgoing City Manager H. Stone James for his two years at the City.
Our agenda preview for the meeting is linked here; video footage of the meeting is available here.
CDBG Non-Profit Grant Applicant Presentations
Before the official meeting, Council hosted a grant workshop where they heard three-minute presentations from 11 of 12 nonprofits applying for a pool of $75,000 in available City funds.
Presenters and requested amounts were:
29 Palms Artists’ Guild - $11,300
29 Palms Community Food Pantry & Outreach Ministries - $30,000
Animal Action League - $10,800
Armed Services YMCA 29 Palms - $10,000
Basin Wide Foundation - $10,000
First Assembly of God Church - $55,790
Girls on the Run Inland Empire - $15,500
Joshua Tree National Park Council for the Arts - $5,000
PALS of Palms N Paws - $10,000
Project Sheba - $10,000
Reach Out Morongo Basin - $25,000
Joshua Tree National Park Council for the Arts Director Vickie Waite and board member John Cole presented on the upcoming 14th annual Joshua Tree National Park Art Expo, a free event that draws more than 400 attendees and features a month-long juried exhibition of art inspired by the national park. The City has co-sponsored the event every year since its inaugural 2013 expo, and the organization is requesting $5,000 to continue that partnership. “We will be grateful for whatever the City can give us,” said Waite.
Lori Cosgriff presented on behalf of the 29 Palms Community Food Pantry and Outreach Ministries, requesting $30,000. Her presentation focused heavily on celebrating the volunteer base that runs the pantry. Cosgriff emphasized the pantry is run exclusively by people who give their own time.
The pantry hosts three food distribution programs. Three days a week, the pantry serves 150 to 200 families across 29 Palms, Wonder Valley, Desert Heights, and the Marine Corps Base. Volunteers also coordinate a monthly USDA food distribution to approximately 144 families, and collaborate with Reach Out Morongo Basin to provide 300 boxes of food to seniors.
Last year, our pantry spent $57,000 on food and we received 21,000 pounds of food in donations and our board of directors kept our costs at less than 8% of our total operating budget
The organization relies on food donations, monetary donations, and grant programs.
Grace Lebda spoke on behalf of the Youth Activity Center at First Assembly of God Church. Requesting approximately $56,000, the location is seeking funds for the building to have an HVAC system, allowing for expanded programs and operating hours. The building currently has no cooling system, leaving the center inoperable during hot days.
In a city like ours where summer temperatures regularly reach extreme levels, having a safe, reliable indoor environment is not a luxury—it’s a necessity. Our youth center serves as a critical hub where our youth can go after school, during weekends, and throughout the summer months. It provides structure, supervision, and positive engagement in a setting that keeps them safe and off the streets.
Two organizations presented requests for City-based spay/neuter clinics: Animal Action League, a mobile low-cost clinic that has operated in the Morongo Basin since 2005, and PALS of Palms N Paws, a nonprofit founded in October 2025. Both organizations noted that residents in 29 currently have no access to a spay-neuter voucher program, unlike residents of Yucca Valley and unincorporated San Bernardino County.
Presenting for PALS was Michelle Benedum, who said the nonprofit has partnered with Animal Action League on two community clinics. Showing a strong community demand for affordable spay/neuter services, Benedum said each clinic filled within 48 hours and had zero no-shows.
Summing up presentations was Director of Reach Out Morongo Basin, Robin Schlosser, reporting that the nonprofit served over 1,200 residents in 2025, logged 15,000 trips, and 104,000 miles last year, serving Wonder Valley, Desert Heights, Indian Cove, and 29 Palms.
Reach Out MB assists with transportation to and from appointments, grocery shopping, meal delivery, and assistance to those who are home bound and without transportation, and operates out of the 29 Palms Senior Center.
60 to 80 seniors gather there for daily lunch programs, health clinics, chair yoga, art groups, Medicare and financial information sessions — and is where the Twentynine Palms Youth Council regularly volunteers. They also deliver food boxes to homebound seniors who cannot otherwise access services:
We hand delivered over 1,400 of those boxes to shut-in seniors that would not be able to access these programs because they can’t get out of the house. So we hand deliver these boxes and the food to them.
Desert Media Foundation, which had applied for $3,500, was unable to attend.
No formal action was taken on funding requests as this was just a workshop. Council members will vote on nonprofit fund distributions at a future date.
REGULAR SESSION
The official Council meeting kicked off shortly after 6 pm with a Pagan-inspired invocation from Stephanie Ballard. Her invocation focused on five elements with themes that related to the City and encouraged audience participation.
Mayor Daniel Mintz announced that an anticipated presentation from Re-Enlist to Life Housing and Veteran Services will be postponed until the next council meeting.
Agenda Item 10, under the Consent Calendar, entailed council approval of a $9,000 payment to Culper Consulting for services to provide a City code enforcement manual. The item was removed from the agenda by outgoing City Manager James without explanation.
As the Desert Trumpet reported here, James signed the Culper Consulting contract to the tune of $17,000 on April 16, just seven days after announcing his resignation. Signature lines for City Attorney Patrick Muñoz and City Clerk Cindy Villescas for the contract in the agenda packet were blank. The City Attorney issued a work stoppage on the contract four days later.
City attorneys were not present at Tuesday’s meeting. The staff report pertaining to the agenda item stated that Council would be pulling funds from its code enforcement cleanup budget to cover the costs of Culper Consulting’s invoice, though Council never formally approved the consultant contract in the first place nor did the City post a formal RFP (request for proposal) for code enforcement consulting services.
As of now, it is unclear if approval of funds to cover the $9,000 consulting bill will be a formal agenda item at a future meeting. Culper Consulting is operated by Deputy Mayor of Yucaipa, Justin Beaver.
The item also entailed approval of a code enforcement report provided by Gemini Consulting, whose principal is a former colleague of James through his previous employer—Cathedral City.
A copy of the item’s 130-page staff report is available here.
AWARDS, PRESENTATIONS, APPOINTMENTS AND PROCLAMATIONS
Council heard two presentations– one from Yucca Valley Mayor Merl Abel, presenting for the 35th birthday of Yucca Valley, and the other from San Bernardino County Fire Department’s Division 4 Assistant Chief Bill Villarino, who provided an operational update on Twentynine Palms Station 44.
Abel acknowledged Yucca Valley and Twentynine as partners in a shared region with a shared identity, noting that Twentynine Palms inspired Yucca to incorporate in 1991:
Our residents don’t really look at city limits. They experience the high desert and the beauty in one connection, one connected region. They work across our communities. They support local businesses throughout the Basin.
Chief Villarino said that thanks to a three-year federal grant, the fire department has been able to add a fourth full-time firefighter to ME44 at the Twentynine Palms station and spoke on the department’s Explorer Program.
Council marks end of Stone James era at City Hall
One behalf of the City of Twentynine Palms, Mayor Daniel Mintz presented a plaque to outgoing City Manager H. Stone James for his two years of service. Steve Reyes, Field Representative for County Supervisor Dawn Rowe, also presented James with a certificate of recognition from the District 3 Supervisor’s office.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
None
FUTURE COUNCIL-INITIATED ITEMS
Councilmember April Ramirez requested to add a future agenda item for a study session or discussion regarding constituent concerns on the Flock surveillance program, which was seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Octavious Scott.
Scott requested an expedited item—that the City look into its cooling center operating hours.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Council heard from seven audience members: Lashara Maea, LeeAnn Clarke, Diana Rozendaal, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Heather Drake, Scott Curry, and Robin Schlosser.
Rodriguez, Dean of students at Palm Vista Elementary School, thanked Councilmember Bilderain and Mayor Pro Tem Scott for their attendance at a recent Morongo Unified School District board meeting in which possible school closures were the topic.
Maea, Clarke, and Schlosser recognized Stone James for his work. Maea spoke on behalf of the 29 Palms COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster), thanking James for recognizing the need for disaster response organizations in Twentynine Palms:
I would hope after your departure that the City Council and the individual who will sit in your seat but not replace you will continue to pick up where you left off.
Schlosser commended James on coordinating assistance for seniors during a critical flash flood, and noted his work in homelessness services as Co-Chair of the East Desert Regional Steering Committee.
I’ve had the honor of working with him from the very beginning when he first started and the city flooded and he was out there in his boots and hauling sandbags and mud.
Heather Drake and Diana Rozendaal raised concerns about Flock surveillance cameras, with Rozendaal highlighting a recent press release from the Morongo Basin Sheriff’s Department that she says read more like an advertisement for Flock than an informative, factual police report.
The Sheriff’s press release pertained to an instance of repeat domestic violence that occurred May 1st, which states:
The use of FLOCK was critical in locating the suspect’s vehicle, which ultimately led to locating the suspect and protecting the victim from further harm.
Per Rozendaal:
The report editorializes, calling Flock camera technology critical and stating that it may have inevitably saved the victim’s life. May have inevitably is not the language of a factual police report. It is the language of marketing. But let’s be clear about what actually happened. The fact the victim was attacked twice. The Flock system did nothing to prevent the first assault and it did nothing to prevent the second.
Rozendaal highlighted that Deputies Maldonado and Arenas played an undeniably critical role in saving the victim’s life in this instance—not the Flock technology:
It overstates the technology’s value in a way that obscures what community safety actually requires: Timely, well-trained human response.
Scott Curry raised concerns regarding a personal banner he had paid for and displayed on a parcel off Lear Avenue and Highway 62. The banner thanked the outgoing City Manager:
At the top it said ‘Stone James’ and it says, “Thank you for your leadership.” I posted that about 10 o’clock in the morning. And my client who owns the property received a letter dated the same day. “Take it down….The sign’s too big…..You’re in a residential area….The post shouldn’t be there.” It’s the fastest you’ve ever moved for code enforcement within five hours, six hours. Very interesting and very suspicious to me. I’m disappointed with what I think happened.
City Manager Update
Stone James delivered his final City Manager update, thanking a number of individuals and local organizations, including the 29 Palms Ministerial Association and the Rotary Club. James concluded with a pointed quote from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, delivered in Paris on April 23, 1910:
If he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.
The next City Council meeting will take place May 26, 2026.
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