Major Accomplishments

Public Safety and Police Staffing

The crime rate in Desert Hot Springs is now the lowest in the valley, with consistent drops in violent and property crimes in the last 7 years. Our police force is fully staffed for the first time ever, and we are now in the process of 'over hiring' so that we will have a consistently fully staffed department at all times when officers are out due to injuries or illness. We broke ground on our new police department annex building which will be finished later this year, and we brought our emergency dispatch services in house to improve our response times.

Downtown Murals and Desert Nights

The City's downtown area is coming alive. Phase one of our mural project added 12 glorious murals by world renowned artists to downtown buildings that have become tourist attractions themselves in addition to beautifying our downtown. We've also reimagined nightlife in the downtown by hosting the twice a month 'Desert Nights on the Blvd' with live bands and DJs on the second and fourth Saturday's each month, followed by a Farmer's Market on the following Sunday's. You'll see phase two of the mural project with more murals come alive this year.

A New Approach to Homelessness

The city has taken a unique approach to addressing homelessness in the city. Working with SWAG – the Social Work Action Group – we've made big strides in getting unhoused people off the streets and into services. Our model, based on tough but compassionate care, uses dedicated police officers, code enforcement officers, and social workers to get unhoused individuals into services, and also stopping illegal activity. While this approach is tough, it is working ' so much so that cities like Riverside have come out to see what we are doing and are taking the same approach. In the first year this approach has resulted in 66 people exiting homelessness into treatment or housing – a spectacular 76% success rate.

Eagle Sports Park Under Construction

The brand-new Eagles Sports Park is now under construction too. At Cholla and Hacienda, this new park will have a play area, baseball field and football field, concession stand and restroom facility and will be finished by the end of the year.

Jobs and Economic Growth

We've brought hundreds of new jobs to the city ? over 1500 at the new Amazon facility alone, and with two other warehouses in the pipeline, there will be even more. Add to that our growing tourism sector and thriving cannabis industry, there are lots of new employment opportunities for residents here in Desert Hot Springs.

Improving Hiking Trails

As Chair of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, I secured grant funding to put in four new trail head signs and maps to show off our wonderful city hiking trails. Free maps are available at City Hall, and these new signs help people find the trailheads. CVMC, the Coachella Valley Conservation Commission , and other land conservation organizations work to maintain the trails.

Protecting Local Healthcare Funding for Desert Hot Springs

Did you know a portion of our property tax dollars fund the Desert Health Care District to operate Desert Regional Hospital? In 2024 the District was negotiated the sale of the hospital to an out-of-state for-profit health care company. The sales contract would have prohibited the District from spending OUR tax dollars and the profit from the sale of the hospital to subsidize health care services that would 'compete' with the new hospital owners. I found that unacceptable. Those dollars are meant to be used to deliver health care to the residents who pay them. I want those dollars to be used to build more clinics and emergency services here in Desert Hot Springs. I fought against that prohibition and it was then amended (informally nicknamed the Gardner Amendment). It allows th Desert Health Care District to directly subsidize health care services like clinics and urgent care centers but ONLY in Desert Hot Springs and a few select areas. One of my main goals now will be working with the District to expand the health care services with a 24 hour Urgent Care/Emergency Room here in DHS.

More Things for Kids to Do!

There are a lot of families with young kids in Desert Hot Springs, and we have a fantastic Recreation Center here in town for both kids and adults. We are also the only city who sponsors a Little League Baseball program. When our local little league was in danger of going under, the City took over running the Little League and continues to do so this day. It's now so popular that we are adding a new field at the new Eagle's Sports Park. When we took over the Recreation Center four years ago, the only programs offered for kids was the after-school program. Today we have grown our program offerings at the center exponentially, offering a wide variety of youth classes and programs, ranging from painting and ceramics to volleyball and basketball and archery in addition to the after-school program. Kids at the Rec Center have taken field trips to museums in Los Angeles, and up into Joshua Tree National Park. We've also partnered with the Riverside County Office of Education to makes our after-school program free for low-income residents on public assistance. And for parents who home school their children, we've partnered with Mission Vista Academy who will cover enrollment costs for those kids in the art and PE programs who are home schooled.

We are also in the middle of a major rebuild of our Furbee pool and adding a kids splash pad there. And once the refurbishment is done we hope we will be able to open the pool for longer periods of time.

Continuing to use Strong Tools to Clean up Dilapidated Properties.

For too long much of the city has been littered with dilapidated buildings and properties. In the last four years we've taken a very strong approach to dealing with the owners who allow their buildings to remain vacant and dilapidated and we are moving to do more. I'm advocating that the Council adopt a vacant parcel tax or fee that we would impose on owners who allow their buildings with commercial and retail space to sit vacant year after year. I also will continue to push to use the city's 'Receivership' powers to take over dilapidated and dangerous properties and force sell them to someone who will improve and fix them. That's the approach we took with the old Sahara Hotel complex off of 6th Street and the old Hyundae hotel on Palm Dr. The city condemned and demolished all the buildings on the Sahara site, and is selling those as prime hotel development spot. We forced the old Hyundae into receivership and the building has been gutted and is being reimagined as the 'Soluna Hotel and Spa'. Soon you'll see another beautiful new spa hotel rise there. And the city did the same thing with the old Skyliner hotel off Hacienda Ave., which has been completely renovated and reopened.

Improving Living Conditions

For many years a number of Desert Hot Springs residents suffered from the living conditions in a run-down mobile home park on 5th Street. Years ago, the state took away the power of cities to regulate mobile home parks, so the city really had no ability to address the deplorable conditions. However, we worked with former Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia and his staff who brought in the California Department of Housing and Community Development to make the park habitable -- evicting the drug dealers and riffraff and putting in new modular homes that replaced the condemned mobile homes, and making a big difference in improving the neighborhood.