Written by:  Tami Scott
Administrative Services Director of Cathedral City.   
 
There have been several questions as to what is going on in the flood control channel south of East Palm Canyon/111 and east of the Cove? Why is there water running? If there is going to be a Utility User’s Tax on the ballot this fall because the City doesn’t have any money. How can the City afford to do this work?

Let me try to clarify these issues: The water is being run to soften the dirt in the channel so the contractors (coordinated by the City’s Engineering Dept.) can dig and pull sand/rock etc back from the side of the channel to build an additional 5 foot deep concrete lining (also known as Toe Downs). This is a levee certification requirement of the Riverside County Flood Control District of which Redevelopment  Agency  funds are being used (not General Funds, which are experiencing severe deficits thus causing the proposed Utility Users Tax in the fall). The construction of these Toe Downs will also benefit the golf course and hotel project. City/Redevelopment Agency  has a contract with Riverside County Flood Control District to pay us back over time. The Redevelopment Agency  is doing the work now because the Riverside County Flood Control District  was not scheduled to do this work for a few years and we did not want the golf course or the hotel project to be adversely impacted by having to dig up this area at some future date.

From the Desert Sun Friday, June 13, 2008

Even after cutting the proposed budget by almost 11 percent, Cathedral City faces an operating deficit of $5.1 million in the next fiscal year.  

Among the city's biggest issues are a declining source of revenue and the high cost of funding public safety, which eats up almost two-thirds of general fund revenue.

Cathedral City relies heavily on sales tax, which is down with the current state of the economy and the housing market.

The general fund operating revenue is projected to be down 4.6 % from 2007 to 2008.

And city officials say cuts to the public safety budgets, 7.6 percent for fire and 6.5 percent for police, prevent the city from keeping up with its growth.

"We're staying on the same levels (of service) while our population continues to increase," City Manager Don Bradley said.

Original budget requests would have provided funding to maintain the current level of service, which is already overtaxed.

It would take an estimated $2 million for new equipment and 11 new officers to bring police response times down from 6.7 minutes in 2006 to the 2000 level of 4.2 minutes.

An estimated $4 million for 38 new positions and equipment would be needed to bring fire response time down from an average of 6.6 minutes to the nationally recommended five minutes.

The city is also expecting about a $5.9 million deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Because of the city's reserves, currently at $20 million, are projected to last only until early 2011,the city made cuts wherever possible.  

"We essentially took it down, at least the operating costs, to the bare bones," said Tami Scott, Cathedral City's administrative director.

The schedule to replace or repair equipment and city vehicles has been stretched out to delay regular maintenance for at least another two years.

There are not plans to cut jobs, but six non-public safety positions that are expected to be vacated by retirement or other personnel changes will not be filled, Scott said.

The city also planned some delay in recruiting other positions expected to open during the budget period.

Rather than filling positions immediately and allowing overlap as the new employee is trained, there will be temporary vacancies before staffing is replaced.

"Anything to buy us additional time (until) the economy turns around and we can recapture some of our lost revenue," Scott said. 

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, (LADWP), is currently working towards implementing their Green Path North Project.  This is a new 500-kV electrical transmission corridor.  The purpose of this corridor is "to bring electricity generated from renewable resources, such as geothermal, solar and wind, from Imperial County to the LADWP power grid".  The route they have chosen would carve through pristine desert and desert communities creating an 85 mile long path through the Mojave Desert.  To accomplish this the LAWPD is using the federal Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement process to designate energy corridors on federal lands in eleven Western states and by applying through the Bureau of Land Management for approval to place power lines on public lands.  Since LAWPD is a city-owned utility, they do not need to seek approval by the California Public Utilities Commission. 

 

The LADWPD's submission to the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement shows two routes for the energy corridor.  Both routes would start northeast of Palm Springs and travel north through the Big Morongo Canyon Area of Critical Concern to Yucca Valley.  They would then travel through the Pioneertown Mountain Preserve and on across the Mojave Desert and other desert communities.  One route would end in Hesperia and one in Victorville. 

 

The route across the Big Morongo Canyon Area of Critical Environmental Concern would bisect critical wildlife corridors.  Bighorn sheep, mule deer, mountain lions, Pacific kangaroo rats and badgers, species know to be sensitive to habitat loss, require large tracts of land to support viable populations.  These species need their corridors to travel from the San Bernardino National Forest to Joshua Tree National Park. 

 

Pioneertown Mountains Preserve, owned by The Wild lands Conservancy, is also targeted.  The power lines would travel through preserve lands, which were purchased with funds donated by private citizens.

 

So far, 30 members of Congress have taken a stand against this project.  On October 13th they released a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy.  Their letter asks the Department of Energy to "order an immediate study of cutting-edge alternatives using 21rst Century technology that can be utilized without resorting to the standard answer that building transmission infrastructure is the only solution."  Use of higher conductivity lines would allow the LADWP to use the existing 1-10 energy corridor which travels in a direct line to Los Angeles. 

 

Information from Desert Report, 2007

History of Proposed Eagle Mountain Land Fill
Submitted by Rita Salner

Eagle Mountain, Ca., was founded in 1948 by iron magnate Henry J. Kaiser. The land once owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad and is located on the southeastern corner of Joshua Tree National Park. It, at one time, was southern California’s largest iron mine, supporting a town of 4,000 at its peak... It connected to Southern Pacific via a 51-mile –long railroad branch known as the Eagle Mountain Railroad. The mine closed in 1983.

In 1986, the California Department of Corrections converted the former shopping center in the Town of Eagle Mountain into a privately operated prison for low-risk inmates. Also in 1988 a proposal was made to turn the 1.5 mile long by half-mile wide open pit mine into a massive, high-tech sanitary landfill. Trash would be shipped by train from the Los Angeles area via the Eagle Mountain Rail Line. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors approved the project in October 1992 with the approval of EPA.

In 1987 Kaiser formed a subsidiary named, Mine Reclamation Corporation. In 1989 Kaiser proposed to swap 3,481 acres of land at the old mine site with the Bureau of Land Management for 2,486 acres split up in 10 non-contiguous parcels plus $20,100 in cash. Kaiser/MRC also requested an easement through the new federal land to operate a rail line. The railway’s purpose was the daily transportation of 20,000 tons of garbage from the Los Angeles Sanitation District to the Eagle Mountain pit.

The dump plan consists of five phases. Permits have been granted for the first four phases, but not the last. The Department of Mines and Geology wants to have access, if needed, to the remaining iron-ore reserves in the pit. Instead of putting garbage in the pit, for the first 76 years of operation, 2,000 areas of wild lands will be spread with LA’s garbage, causing mounds several hundreds of feet high. No biologist will deny that a landfill surrounded on three sides by protected desert wilderness will eventually ruin that wilderness. And, there has never been a land fill that doesn’t leak.

In 1992, Riverside County’s first environmental impact report was filed, and it stated that the landfill would exacerbate air and water pollution in the Coachella and Chuckwalla valleys. The county officials rejected the Eagle Mountain project with a 4-1 vote. Currently, the landfill has been held up by a lawsuit brought by the Desert Protection Society, the Riverside-based Center for Environmental Justice, and Donna and Larry Charpied. The Charpieds quote the original 1952 agreement Kaiser had with the U.S. Government as saying that “if the land is not used for mining for seven consecutive years, it will revert to the public for its highest and best use.” They call this the “Give It Back Campaign. The Eagle Mountain Land Fill is still going through the courts.

Excerpted from the Cathedral City Sun, Friday, 3/28/08

   The City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to look into jumping on the bandwagon with other Coachella Valley cities to keep closer tabs on foreclosures and the blight an unkept home can cause in a neighborhood.
   With about 1,100 homes in foreclosure in Cathedral City limits, officials are considering implementing an ordinance requiring abandoned properties to be registered with the city and maintained. Similar ordinances are in effect in Desert Hot Springs, Chula Vista, Chicago and Detroit, according to a Cathedral City staff report.
   Indio’s foreclosure ordinance goes into effect April 4. Property owners – usually the banks in foreclosed situations – could face fines or criminal prosecution for failing to comply.
   The topic has brought Cathedral City’s Code Enforcement staff a barrage of complaints about abandoned homes and swimming pools; according to the report.
   “This can’t hurt us,” Mayor Kathy DeRosa said about the ordinance.
   “I think this can help us to preserve and protect property values (for) those who have been able to keep their homes.”
   The ordinance would help Code Enforcement staff make sure properties don’t become neighborhood eyesores and lower other property values, the report shows.
   Councilman Paul Marchand said Wednesday he would like city staff too look into requiring a registration of agents to ensure that mortgage holders will be available to contact locally.
   The Desert Hot Springs program call for charging a $60.00 fee to titleholders when they register an abandoned property with the city.
   With the Cathedral City ordinance, the fee for registering homes would be used to maintain a database of information on foreclosures, the report shows.

Excerpted from the Cathedral City Sun, Friday, March 7, 2008

   The City has used eminent domain since the mid-1990’s to develop high-profile commercial and tourism projects, such as Town Square, and the Desert IMAX and Mary Pickford theaters.
   Six months ago, Dream Homes residents were elated about a new “workforce” housing development and community center planned near their neighborhood.
   Now nine families on San Diego and Mission drives are concerned they will lose part of their properties to make way for the development.
   The City Council unanimously voted Feb. 27 to negotiate with the families to acquire a portion of their backyards through eminent domain – the government’s right to take private property for public use.
   “All the property owners were sent certified letters informing them, said Jim Cleary project manager for the city’s Redevelopment Agency. “It was made clear to them that it was simply the rear portion of their properties.”
   But the mainly Spanish-speaking residents at the meeting last week, many of whom were offered $1.25 per square foot, say the plan is unacceptable.”
   “It’s not that they (property owners) object to the project,” said 26-year-old Steve Barrientos, whose mother owns one of the properties affected. “They don’t think it’s a fair price for their property.”