Tonight's DHS City Council Meeting

At the Desert Hot Springs city council meeting tonight several mentions were made of the VisitDHS.com website. Very nice site with links to our city's resorts. It's been operational for only a few months.

Also, one hotelier will be escorting two reporters from the BBC (which said hotelier explained to us noobs is in London!) around Desert Hot Springs. Following on that, in December he will do the same for a reporter from Le Figaro (we are informed it is in Paris) who will be staying in Desert Hot Springs and will be escorted around the city.

City Manager Daniels reported the rather seriously shocking fact that NO written minutes of city council meetings had been made for 9 months (or, as I prefer to say, NINE FUCKING MONTHS!) and his staff (three currently) are working on that backlog at a potential cost of $20,000 in overtime pay. Mr. Daniels didn't point any fingers, so the ill-informed among us (such as I) are left wondering if this was a fault solely of City Manager Gallant, or does the city council bear some responsibility for the failure to notice the lack of any minutes from the previous city council meeting for NINE FUCKING MONTHS! What sort of legal mis-standing would the city be in if this had continued unnoticed?

Mayor Bias reported that CVAG will be picking up the bill for a traffic light at Vista Montaña (which Mary Stephens still pronounces as "Montana") on Palm Drive. The cost for that (hold onto your tax bills!) is about $457,000! But now that CVAG has approved it, it has to go to RCTC [can you believe that the Riverside County Transportation Commission is the top Google hit for "RCTC?!"] for approval and after that to SCAG [another top Google hit] because, as every citizen with some common sense must realize, the ability to make a safe left turn during rush hour is a privilege, not a right, and such privileges must be screened by at least four layers of government before they are conveyed on what otherwise might be a disrespectful citizenry. A frivolous request for pedestrian crosswalk buttons will be submitted to Congress, pending consent from the United Nations and the Nobel Prize committee.

Chief of Police Williams reported on the parolee situation in Desert Hot Springs. For you out-of-towners who may be under the impression DHS citizens just naturally love to shoot, stab and beat each other to death, that foul misrepresentation came about because our California Department of Corrections was driving vanloads of parolees to the intersection of Palm and Pierson, opening the doors and telling the newly freed to go forth and reform themselves. Locals will recall that a couple of years ago the Department of Corrections agreed to stop doing that, and I and members of the city council (and quite likely all of my readers) were under the impression that it was a permanent stop. Chief Williams disabused us of our naiveté. It was only a six month hiatus, and the Department of Corrections has been dumping regularly since then.

A couple of astounding statistics (or maybe it's one statistic) are that in all the Coachella Valley (population roughly 400,000) there are 854 parolees. In little Desert Hot Springs (population about 20,000) there are 411 parolees (or 411 FUCKING PAROLEES). That is, more than 48% of the valley's parolees were dropped here. Two percent of the city's population is parolees. We've already got an understaffed police force. Yet, cities with larger populations, budget surpluses and fully staffed (and I mean FULLY) police forces like Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage cruise along with only token numbers of parolees.

No one asked the question "But weren't these parolees reformed by our Department of Corrections?" Thank goodness, no one here is that foolish.

So, an ad hoc committe has been made up of city council members and members of the public safety commission, and led by Chief Williams who will examine the issue and lay out the possible corrective actions. Chief Williams suggested this should go as high as the governor's office, while Hank Hohenstein suggested seeking federal funding via Senator Boxer and Representative Lewis. I think this is the first time I've heard Representative Jerry Lewis' name mentioned in a city council meeting. I think if Jerry Lewis actually came down Route 62 and crossed into Riverside County all of his beautiful wickedness would just melt into a puddle.

The CVAG Homelessness Committee has decided to fund some bus passes for the homeless who need to get to job interviews or medical appointments. Each city in the valley has been asked to kick in a share, and Desert Hot Springs got the lightest request, only $2,000. Now, I'm pleased the city council is keeping an eagle eye on the budget and weighing every expenditure, but I can't recall an expenditure as small as $2,000 coming before the council. Councilmember Matas let it be known that he, like many other Republicans, lies awake at night worrying that some homeless person or welfare mother or kid in a wheelchair is living the high life on those juicy, juicy welfare benefits that gush forth freely from every government coffer. Mr. Matas wants to know who's supervising and controlling this bus pass program, because god knows that a bunch of homeless people taking pointless pleasure cruises on the route 14 bus on the city's dime (possibly just to see that almost-half-million-dollar traffic light at Vista Montaña) would crash the city and bring the Republic to its knees.

The decision to fund or not fund has been continued so that the staff can determine if $2,000 can be found, and so that a representative of CVAG can come to a city council meeting and explain their system of controls on these luxurious bus passes (I got the impression that a bus pass was good for a complete round trip!). Myself, I think a homeless person requesting one of these phat passes should be required to speak before committees of CVAG, the RCTC and SCAG. He can take a taxi to those meetings.

Anyone who has not realized at this point that more than $2,000 will be spent possibly to deny $2,000 in benefits to the poor is a Republican.

Karl Baker reported on the Coachella Valley Mosquite and Vector Control District. He suggested that the City of Desert Hot Springs withdraw from the district and join the Riverside County Vector Control District. That would save us money and couldn't get us any worse service (a resident of DHS died of West Nile recently). The staff will study the issue and discuss it with the city council in a workshop next week. On October 25 the CVMVCD's proposal to enlarge its sphere of influence into the Banning pass goes before LAFCO.

City Manager Daniels in one of many light moments during the meeting suggested that the city should request $2,000 from the overfunded CVMVCD to pay for our share of the bus pass program. It was not taken up as a serious proposal.