RECAP: Twentynine Palms City Council, March 12, 2024
Fee waivers for me and thee, self-built housing and 29's latest affordable housing report card, and renewal of a wastewater contract
At its March 12 meeting the City Council tackled a request for a fee waiver from a church for use of the City gym for an event, approved a yearly Housing Element update to be sent to the State, and extended a wastewater contract with the County. The agenda packet and the video can be viewed here.
Giving the invocation was Pastor LeeAnn Clarke, secretary of the 29 Palms Ministerial Association, the president of which is Councilmember McArthur Wright. All five council members were in attendance.
AWARDS AND PRESENTATIONS
Mayor Pro Tem Joel Klink presented the Twentynine Palms High School Softball Team an award for their participation in the City's Cash for Trash and Recycling Program.
Assistant Fire Chief Scott Tuttle, representing the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District, Division 4 (South Desert), announced his retirement and introduced new Assistant Fire Chief Bill Villarino.
Monique Arellano from the San Bernardino Council of Governments (SBCOG) reviewed SBCOG's recent initiatives, funding and costs. She informed the Council that starting July 1, SBCOG is increasing its membership dues for all member cities, and advised that yearly dues for Twentynine Palms would increase from $14,000 to $23,000. Councilmember Daniel Mintz asked Arellano whether the organization would drop the City if the City didn't pay the increase, and Arellano replied that yes, SBCOG would effectively kick out any city that failed to pay its full dues.
Haywood Adams, Recreation Supervisor for Twentynine Palms Park and Recreation, outlined upcoming sports events. In response to a question from Councilmember Octavious Scott, Kary Minatrea, Recreation Division Manager, replied that the City has policies in place for waiving fees and awarding scholarships as needed.
Mayor Steve Bilderain then proclaimed City recognition of March 2024 as Women's History Month, and presented a certificate to Kim Ortamond, who in the US Marine Corps achieved the rank of Master Gunnery Sergeant, served in the USMC Mounted Color Guard, and participated for years in Twentynine Palms Pioneer Days.
CONSENT CALENDAR, PUBLIC HEARING
The Council removed no items from the consent calendar and voted for it unanimously. The only significant item on it was approval of a warrant register totaling $714,087.92. There was no public hearing at this meeting.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
8. The Sanctuary Church Fee Waiver Request for the Use of the Community Center Gymnasium.
The Council tabled a request from Sanctuary Church to waive rental fees for three days of use of the Community Center Gymnasium.
They instructed Kary Minatrea to return with a tally of the City’s “hard costs,” like hourly pay for Recreation Division staff, for renting the facility for the gym and kitchen.
Introducing this item from the staff side, Kary Minatrea said the Sanctuary Church reserved the gym and kitchen for three days, April 25, 26 and 28, to celebrate the church’s 20th anniversary. The church then wrote the City to request the City waive the $3,855 facility rental fee, due to the Church’s non-profit status and also citing “the community-oriented nature of [the] event.”
Representing the Sanctuary Church, Pastor John James outlined the planned event: "Friday we're having a celebration ball, open to the community, a plated dinner. There is a big event that we will have that Sunday [which is] free for everyone. We're looking to max out capacity in the gym that day, as we will also be having a Grammy recording nominee Zacardi Cortez. He will be the main psalmist that afternoon.…I've already coordinated with several businesses here in the City, specifically Stater Brothers, we will be passing out gift cards and helping with the purchase of meals for those citizens of Twentynine Palms."
The church is actively publicizing this event on its Facebook page, although as of this writing the “Community Events” section of the church’s website remains blank.
Questioned by Councilmember Scott, James replied that the fee for the plated dinner would range from $90 to $150 per attendee, and that funds raised by the function would “go for the cost of paying for the event, but also it'll go towards the purchasing of the gift cards from Stater Brothers,” which the church planned to distribute that Saturday at 8:00 a.m.
Minatrea argued that an event like this would demonstrate that the space is “not just a gymnasium for sports, it's a community center.” She advised that the usual rental fee for these days would range from $1,126 to $1,397 per day and confirmed that the City never waives insurance fees or cleaning deposits, so these are excluded from the request.
Pastor LeeAnn Clarke and Sylvester Cullen spoke in favor of granting the church the fee waiver they were requesting.
Karen Harper of Women of Color Global 29 voiced concern about whether all nonprofit organizations in the City would be treated equally, saying "I don't have any issue with this. But I'm just concerned about the nonprofits. Nonprofits, we get one day free. So I'm just saying can we change something pertaining to nonprofits now? That's my question. Because we went to Patriotic Hall. And I know that Kary [Recreation Division Manager Kary Minatrea] was adamant about the one day that we had free — one time a year."
Kicking off Council discussion, Scott argued that "we're setting a precedent, and I think that we should make a motion to change the days to three days for all nonprofits." Mintz countered that such a change would need to be a future agenda item.
Responding to Mintz, Minatrea complained that the City’s formal policy on fee waivers for nonprofits was woefully out of date, that staff had long since resorted to enforcing its own informal policy, and she recommended the Council update the City’s formally approved policy:
It's outdated. It's 35 years old and it doesn't put a cap on how many days nonprofits or public service organizations can reserve facilities for. So I do think that at some point in time we need to revisit it. But the past couple of decades, in order to make sure that everybody has access to [City facilities] we [City staff] had to say one day free per calendar year.
Mintz then requested a tally of the City’s actual costs from Minatrea, saying “we just need to get the hard labor costs back.” Minatrea replied that she’d return with these costs.
Bilderain then suggested the City waive fees for the most expensive day, $1,397.00 for Sunday, April 28, plus do a partial additional fee waiver for the other two days by charging the church only the City’s actual labor costs. The Council seemed agreeable to this compromise.
Wright then suggested they simply table the matter for now, pending a full accounting for this option from Minatrea. The Council assented.
Surprisingly, there was no discussion of any fee or fee waiver for the church blocking others’ use of the space Saturday, April 27, a day when according to Minatrea, “nobody's going to have access to it because all of their equipment will still be set up.” The City’s rental tally shows “N/A” as the rental cost for that Saturday.
9. Housing Element Annual Report.
The Council voted unanimously to approve the Housing Element Annual Report for the City and forward it to the state.
Interim City Manager Larry Bowden introduced this item saying, "We're required to turn this into the state every year. It's a pretty simple question.…I'm not sure it's a requirement, they recommend that we have 900 additional affordable housing units by 2029 to meet the RHNA [Regional Housing Needs Allocation] goals. At this point, what we send to the state is how many housing starts we've had in the last two years. The first year, last year, was 27 residential units. And this year, we have 13 that have pulled permits or are in process. So that's what we were sending to the state."
Mintz asked, "What about the duplexes and fourplexes?," implying that Bowden's figures seemed too low to believe. Bowden replied that the figures are accurate, reflecting "anybody that has paid money for a permit at this time — or completed."
There were no questions about this from the public.
10. Project Phoenix Wastewater System Service Contract Amendment.
The Council voted 4-0-0 to extend for another year the existing contract between the City and San Bernardino County for maintenance by the County of the small wastewater treatment plant that serves 18 downtown businesses.
Mintz left the room for this item, saying "I have to excuse myself from this, my wife leases property down there."
Bowden advised, "We did get three bids when we first entered this in year one, which was three years ago," and that the City was satisfied with the County's maintenance service. The amount is $146,793.58 with a total not-to-exceed amount of $346,482.59. There were no questions or discussion.
11. Update on Self-Build Housing Program.
Interim City Manager Larry Bowden provided an update on this item. Sounding enthusiastic, he said "The self-build program is with the CVHC (Coachella Valley Housing Coalition). We've been working with them, they actually qualify people of low income, and they have a program where they help build the house."
He reported that he'd worked with the Planning Department to identify three different clusters of buildable parcels, with water and electric service nearby. "We asked [the CVHC] if they're good with septic systems, and they said yes.…They liked them. They said that any of those [parcels] would work."
Regarding the location of the parcels, Bowden advised that "each [set of parcels] has to be within the Four Corners Redevelopment District1, which is a pretty big district actually. Each cluster of 10 to 13 houses are on the same block, with [each cluster] in different portions of the city."
Neither the staff report nor the presentation included the APNs of the parcels.
According to Bowden the next step is, "we can purchase the lots, we do have some money on hand that has been allocated already. Then we would have to do an agreement including all details with the CVHC."
Finally Bowden commented, "They've done this for many, many years. They're doing 150 right now in the Imperial Valley. It's very well established, it's run through the USDA. And it's — I was sitting here listening to it and thought — this is too good to be true. But it's real!"
Scott thanked Bowden and Community Development Director Keith Gardner for their efforts toward getting this housing initiative off the ground.
FUTURE COUNCIL INITIATED ITEMS
Mintz received a second for both new items he proposed, the increase in SBCOG membership dues and updating the public facilities rental policy that dates from 1989.
Scott received a second for his proposal to "revisit those funds that we allocated for the showers as well as the drop-in navigation center. The funds have not been dispersed and we need to revisit this."
PUBLIC COMMENTS
LeeAnn Clarke thanked Mayor Bilderain "for serving as the keynote speaker for the first quarter Mayor's Prayer Breakfast held on February 20." She then announced that "We also will be hosting an Easter sunrise service on Sunday, March 31, at 6 am at Freedom Plaza. The offering recipient, the local nonprofit, for that service will be Set Free Ranch." Finally she thanked Gary Daigneault of Z107.7 for hosting PAAC Chair Anna Stump on a recent podcast.
Jeffery Preston thanked Octavious Scott "for facilitating the meeting last night for the organization of a group who is interested in providing hot meals for our locally unhoused folks."
A woman [Bilderain called "Miss Holms"] asked for greater Parks and Recreation involvement in creating more after school and summertime activities for local teens, "our high schoolers who have aged out of Parks and Rec." Said Miss Holms, "I had the opportunity and privilege over the summer to work at the high school for summer school, and we had some high schoolers that after they finished their assignments, they had no place to go.…We don't have a Boys and Girls Club out here."
CITY MANAGER UPDATE
Larry Bowden advised that the City has deployed new radar speed display signs around town, and five miles of roads had been newly repaved. He added that Congressman Jay Obernolte "took our Fiscal Year 2022 and 2023 grants that total $1.95 million back onto the floor, and got them re-appropriated towards our USGS study [to verify and maintain the long term health of local groundwater resources] — that was done last week. And it was signed by the President on Friday. So we can move forward with the USGS project." Also regarding the USGS local aquifer study, he commented, "I was in contact with the USGS today. They're gonna get us a quote and a scope of work. We send that into the EPA. If they approve it, we'll bring it back to you."
Twentynine Palms City Council meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month at 6:00 p.m.
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Per LAFCO document dated 5/7/2012, Service Reviews for the Twentynine Palms and Wonder Valley Communities, pp 41: “The Four Corners Redevelopment Project Area is the City’s only Redevelopment Project Area which requires future action to unwind its affairs. The project area encompassed 5,017 acres (7.8 square miles), which represents 13.3% of the City’s total land area. The project area covers the City’s central core including the downtown. The Redevelopment Project Area does not include several of the hotel properties located along Twentynine Palms Highway west of downtown. Most of the parcels within the Redevelopment Project Area are vacant.”