Cathedral City:

City of Accomplishments

State of the City 2007

Over the years, I have asked, “Who is Cathedral City?” Well, along with you members of the business community and the residents of our fine City, Cathedral City is the unsung hero’s that work so hard, day in and day out so that all of us can live, work and play safely. It is the likes of Dennis Kinda, Jose Mercado and Mike Youngberg. It’s the names and faces you never see like Ben Potter, Kevin Lockwood, Estela Burt, Mike Scacco, Danny Michaels, Justin Hilderbrand, Donna Velotta, Officer Fox, Officer Ochoa, Officer Van Gorder and Sergeant Haas. It is Josie, Carma, Alice, Sandra, Melissa, Robert, Karl, Ed, Rudy, Josiah, and Danielle.

Who is Cathedral City? Cathedral City is family, Cathedral City is business, Cathedral City is progressive . . . Cathedral City is the Spirit of the Desert.

For years the Community has asked that City Council address two issues of significant interest to them. The first is putting more teeth in the City’s Noise Ordinance and the second is a stronger ordinance pertaining to RV’s and commercial vehicles parking on the street. This year we were able to successfully tackle both matters. Both ordinances have been amended and will be enforced to the best of our ability. Our Noise Ordinance is also being looked at as a model in the county. Our new parking ordinance goes into effect November 9th.

We adopted a new, more business-friendly sign ordinance based on input from our business community.

We completed the merger of our three RDA areas allowing for greater redevelopment flexibility.

We annexed property north of I-10 that fills out Cathedral City’s last “blank canvass” for future development. A Specific Plan process for the area is in progress to maximize public input. This area of our city will be an everlasting legacy. It is truly the future of Cathedral City.

Our Finance Department, under the direction of Tami Scott, received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for our Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2006. This is the third consecutive year the audit found no reportable findings.

I am proud to announce that Cathedral City has received an “A” bond rating on Wall Street. This is an achievement for any corporation, but particularly so for a municipal government.

As promised a new Finance Advisory Committee has been established to help identify additional sources of revenue for the City and an online Citizen Request Management system was implemented to better respond to and track citizen comments and requests.

Our incredible Public Works crews, under the direction of Pat Milos have implemented an ongoing street striping program and new street signs will be in place shortly. Street medians throughout the city are being reworked and the palm trees in the city right of way are trimmed.

In an effort to clean up nuisance water in our roadways, we have installed inverted siphons and splash aprons at selected intersections.

Street improvements on Edom Hill/Varner Road were completed.

Public Works crews have cleaned, pumped and flushed all catch basins to protect our residents from West Nile virus.

They also partnered with Cathedral City ROTC to do major debris clean up along Date Palm Dr.

Street Striping, legends, crosswalks, and reflective dot on streets were replaced.

Public Works is implementing a 5 year street maintenance improvement and renovation plan which includes drainage systems and street resurfacing throughout the city.

This department is doing their part of in our effort to be a “Green City” by retooling the Public Works fleet with the emphasis on alternative fuel with the help of related grant funding.

Deanna Pressgrove once again rises to the top of the list in Waste & Recycling. Cathedral City continues to meet AB939 waste diversion requirements keeping us in the forefront of waste management and recycling programs among California Cities. The California Resource Recovery Association announced that Cathedral City is a double award winner for our Outstanding Construction and Demolition Debris Diversion and Outstanding Waste Prevention Program.

The shredding program continues to be a huge success. Cathedral City received a Savvy Award from City-County Communications and Marketing Association for the 2006 S.C.R.A.P. Gallery Calendar and in 2007 four our Refuse and Recycling Guide.

In 2006 we received the California League of Cities Helen Putnam Grand Prize for Public Safety with our Stop Identity Theft/Shredding Program.

Cathedral City is a member of an elite group of cities belonging to the California Energy Partnership. Under this program Deanna has distributed over 200 Efficiency First! packs at a our very popular Shredding Events.

We have expanded our Water Smart Grant Program beyond the Panorama neighborhood. For those of you who live in Cathedral City, please take advantage of this exciting opportunity to save money on your water bill and to be a part of the solution to take water off our streets.

Under the direction of Jan Davison, in the area of economic development, we completed a retail market study to help identify potential new business opportunities for Cathedral City.

With much help, support and effort on the part of staff and with the concurrence of council Cathedral City can now help promote our business community to help with their growth via the Ramon Road Façade improvement program.

While we City is bustling with many small businesses, new bigger businesses are also opening in Cathedral City. Burlington Coat Factory just opened, Harbor Freight Company will open in the spring. Burlington and Harbor Freight are only located in Cathedral City within the Coachella Valley.

All of these projects required the internal partnership of our Community Development Dept. lead by Julie Baumer, with Bill Bayne in Engineering, Gil Estrada in Building and Leisa Lukes in Planning. They and their staff have all been very busy as well.

This fiscal year we have also seen over 416,000 sq ft of commercial space entitled with construction valuation of $46,693,197.00. With the help of Kim Porterfield in Business License, this year Cathedral City issued 3,200 business licenses, more business licenses than any other City in the valley.

The only Sonic Burger in the Valley has opened in Cathedral City. Jack-in-the-Box chose Cathedral City as the location for launching its prototype new restaurant design.

The Auto Center, a vital part of the Cathedral City Community, has seen significant growth also. It is the largest center in all Southern California. Toyota had a state-of-the-art expansion to a 77,838 square-foot dealership on 6.5 acres. Acura is building a new dealership. Palm Springs Ford ranks as Southern California’s largest Ford Dealership and has plans for expansion.

The groundbreaking on the downtown 300-room resort hotel and 18-hole championship Desert Cove Golf Course should begin in 2008.

Nearly 29,000 square feet of commercial retail space was approved to be added to the Canyon Plaza North Shopping Center near the existing Target on East Palm Canyon Drive.

Three retail buildings totaling nearly 43,000 square feet have been approved for construction on Ramon Road east of Date Palm Drive.

Mission Plaza on Date Palm Drive underwent a complete renovation and added new restaurants in their center.

Stater Bros is developing a second Cathedral City supermarket on Vista China in the 84,000 square-foot Plaza Rio Vista Shopping Center currently under construction. This new center will serve the needs of our residents in the north sphere of our city

The third and final phase of the Desert Princess Country Club has been approved with the addition of 122 single-family homes in a park-like setting.

A 7,000 square-foot community center and multi-purpose room, along with up to 94 multi-family workforce housing units have been approved for development on several currently vacant and underutilized sites in the Dream Homes neighborhood.

City staff is currently reviewing plans for the proposed Uptown Village consisting of approximately 70,000 square feet of retail uses on 9 acres adjacent to Date Palm Drive south of 30th Avenue.

Cal Trans completed construction of the ramp re-widening on Date Palm interchange and we finally got our traffic signal on the I-10 overpass.

We continue to work with Cathedral City Town Ventures to develop a high quality residential, retail, and commercial project in the downtown core.

And for those who like downtown living, Cathedral Towne Villas is completed, adding to our affordable housing options right in our downtown.

These projects are all signs of the positive business atmosphere in Cathedral City and its progressive approach to bring new and needed tax dollars into the City.

This year Cathedral City continues to work on two of the largest infrastructure projects, in the history of the City, going on simultaneously, one in the Cove and the second in Dream Homes. Thanks to the hard work of the residents of these neighborhoods in coming together to assess themselves for needed infrastructure improvement, they received the 2007 Helen Putnam “Grand Prize” Award from League of California Cities.

While it is always nice to be recognized for great projects, what is truly significant is that Cathedral City has been a Helen Putnam Award winner for the 3rd time in as many years.

We continue to form strategic community partnerships with organizations like the Chamber, who is our visitors center, Calvary Christian who is working on a community center, The Senior Center at Tierra Del Sol (formerly the Cathedral City Senior Center), Palm Springs Unified School District, The Boys and Girls Club, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians who continue to be huge supporters of our fair city. In partnership with the Agua’s we continue to look for ways to improve the quality of life for our residents. We are working with them on the Eagle Canyon Dam project, the Ramon Road Bridge project and who wouldn’t like to see the roadway raised on Cathedral Canyon Dr.

One of the most incredible partnerships is with AYSO soccer that helped make possible the impossible dream of our very own Cathedral City Soccer Park. The park was completed and dedicated earlier this year. We also want to thank Desert Healthcare District who, by their generous donation, afforded Cathedral City the opportunity to have a health and fitness track around our beautiful soccer park. With the Fitness Walking Track completed, testing of individuals was done by Desert Hospital and 90/180 Fitness program was developed. Many thanks are due to Mitch Nieman in our Engineering Department for coordinating these programs. We are working with the both the youth and seniors of our community to help them develop and maintain a more healthy life style.

Both the annual tree light and Fountain Works went off without a hitch due to the hard work of Lynn Mallotto, the City’s Special Events Coordinator. Our second Home Coming Parade was also a success under Lynn’s the watchful eye. The second annual Oktoberfest, put on by the Cathedral City Chamber of Commerce in Town Square was a hit with people throughout the Valley and beyond.

The Healing Fields event honoring our fallen service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan will take place November 7 – 12 at Patriot Park.

The Cathedral City Public Arts Commission launches its LIVE ARTS 2007-08 Series of seven monthly performances on Nov. 16.

In the area of public safety, under the direction and guidance of Police Chief Stan Henry and Fire Chief Bill Soqui, our two Public Safety organizations are now fully staffed, meaning that all budgeted vacancies have been filled, not that we have reached the recommended staffing levels for a community of our size. Both organizations still remain challenged in the area of personnel for a city of our size.

Cathedral City Public Safety, our men and women in Blue continue to keep our city relatively crime free as is acknowledged by Cathedral City once again being recognized as having the lowest crime statistics in the valley.

Since the start of the new school year our traffic unit has started a “School Safety Zone Campaign”. As an example in less than one hour near James Workman School they wrote 24 citations and towed two vehicles for traffic violations. Where the health and safety of our children are concerned council has a zero tolerance policy………..it is always safety first.

Again in response to the residents and businesses of Cathedral City, council approved an Anti-blight/graffiti Task Force to combat the issue of blight and graffiti, which is something we as a city cannot and will not tolerate.

We are still operating at a point where if a citizen calls in to dispatch to report a crime or problem 70% of the time or greater we are busy on another call for service and may not be able to handle the call.

Medals of Valor and Distinguished Service Awards were presented to four firefighters for a heroic rescue during a structure fire in February. We are very proud of the four honorees

• Firefighter/Paramedic Mark Caouette
• Firefighter/Paramedic Kino Suarez
• Firefighter/Paramedic Joe Bourque
• Engineer/Paramedic Josh Hess

We accepted delivery of a new 100-foot ladder truck.

The Fire Department purchased and implemented the ComCate code enforcement system.

And Cathedral City, the city of grants received and allocated grant funds as follows:

SB-621 in the amount of $103K was used to pay 70% of one firefighter/paramedic salary. 

The Agua Caliente Tribal gift in the amount of $100K will go towards the purchase of new, National Fire Protection Association compliant Self Contained Breathing Apparatus.

A Dept. of Homeland Security grant in the amount of $143K was used to purchase hardware and software for a mapping system to be used in all Fire Dept. vehicles.

Abandoned Vehicle Authority funds were received in the amount of $8,01l.

Grants from the National Emergency Medicine Association and the Berger Foundation totaling $13,780 was used to purchase Automated External Defibrillators to be placed throughout the City, including City Hall and Police Dept.

And thanks to Chief Soqui, Coachella Valley was host to the First Blue Mass, honoring all Public Safety personnel.

It’s all pretty amazing how this once tiny bedroom community has grown and will continue to grow. Our strategic plan has kept us focused on the big picture for the future.

Thanks to Allen Howe, Director of Communication, employees and the media get updates on what’s happening at City Hall. He works with the Marketing Committee as they continue to brand our city.

Where are we going?

Just for a moment close your eyes and imagine; a clean City, no graffiti, no trash cans on streets, streets swept, medians kept clean, no rundown buildings/shopping centers, no old/inoperable vehicles on streets or driveways, no RV parking in driveways/on street in view of neighbors, no commercial vehicles over a pre-determined weight parked overnight on residential streets…

Streets repaired and re-striped, new street signs, the balance of the city on sewers, a façade improvement program that businesses are taking advantage of, an expanded landscape grant program and seeking out those most responsible for gray water on our streets.

Our economic development/redevelopment goals and objectives clearly defined, our challenges identified to realize those goals. Our Strategic Plan moving forward as we assess our past strategies, identify our successes and failures, and planning new strategies to achieve our future goal.

When we accomplish all this we can increase staff and Public Safety personnel. Increased staff can be achieved by successfully implementing programs whereby our city is clean, our streets are in good order and we have an economic development plan successfully moving forward. I am very happy to report that many of the key pieces are in already in place. Yes, it has been 25 years, but it has been a very short 25 years.

We have accomplished much with much more to accomplish.

We are ensuring meaningful participation with residents and businesses of the Community.

We are developing innovative and effective programs for public safety, recreation and community design.

We are working to assure quality of life for all by providing responsive public services and the creation of beautiful neighborhoods.

Council, with the help and guidance of staff, has provided and will continue to provide fiscal leadership.

We continue to support and respond to the needs of our multifaceted community.

Our mission is being accomplished with teamwork, goodwill and our continued commitment to excellence.

While Life is good in Cathedral City, the Journey Continues . . . . . .

Mayor Kathleen J. De Rosa