Details are very limited but FODHS has learned that some work on the Palm Drive overpass has already stopped and if a dispute between the workers and the company are not settled all work may come to a halt putting the overpass completion date behind schedule.

It starts in Riverside where workers have been working without a contract on a I-215 overpass. The same company that is building that overpass is building the Palm Drive overpass. The workers on the I-215 overpass only went on strike on the I-215 overpass but no strike was called for the Palm Drive overpass. 

Our source told us the company told the workers on the Palm Drive overpass not to come to work until the issues in Riverside are settled. Maybe that is a way to put pressure on the workers to end the I-215 strike. We can't be sure.

We drove past the site and there are people working so it confirms that some work is still happening on Palm Drive overpass. The work that is stopped is the building of the earthwork. So for now work is still going on but at some point the project will run out of other work and it will be time to move dirt again. If the labor dispute is not settled in Riverside then work on the Palm Drive overpass will come to a halt unless the workers are allowed to work on the Palm Drive overpass.

Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival Line Up Announced. Tickets On Sale. Festival Dates October 9 and 10.

		Saturday - Sunday October 9 & 10 Order Tickets and other details
Los Angeles Times reporting  Early Bird Passes On Sale For Two Day Concert "The action takes place at Joshua Tree Lake RV & Campground, a 40-acre private venue on the edge of the Mojave Desert and a few miles from Joshua Tree National Park. The festival lineup includes steel-guitar players the Lee Boys from Miami, garage-folk band These United States, blues rocker Mia Dyson from Australia and the Shadow Mountain Band, which will deliver (my fave description) hillbilly gospel as well as traditional mountain music. Two-day passes are on sale for $60 per person." The Reverend Payton's Big Damn Band Playing Sunday    Oh, the other festival you ask... The Bruce & Tony Show Twice we have been given assurances by the promoters about the date tickets would go on sale and announcement of who the other acts will be at the Desert Hot Springs festival. First it was a month ago and today it was supposed to be today. Now we hear it will be Sept. 8. We are tired of being jacked around by these promoters. Life is too short. Let us know when you get your acts together and for $250,000 the city put into this it better be more than Ziggy Marley as the only headliner.

Where Is The Government?

A Quick Update On City Events

Arco Ours (Jack in the Box not) Sept 12
Our annexation to the I-10 was recorded on August 17 and on September 12 it will be ours. If you pull into the ARCO gas station on I-10 and Palm Drive, the city will get revenue. If you pull into the gas station on the other side of the road next to the Jack In The Box, that tax money goes to Cathedral City (the west side of Palm is ours, the east side is not). We gave up the east side to Cathedral City when several city officials on a prior city council (one is still on the city council) actually spoke in favor of giving that land to Cathedral City. As we told a good friend recently, you fight to the end for what is rightly yours. But we digress...

Agency Calls Us Distressed - The Nerve!
Actually, it is a good thing. The distressed designation is a key component in our getting an enterprise zone. Department of
Housing and Community Development says our boundaries meet the designation. An enterprise zone will provide incentives and tax breaks for businesses locating there...if we get it. It is at least the third time the city has tried. The application is done and ready to be submitted.

Chicken Egg Enterprise Rumor

In one of those famous Desert Hot Springs rumors that is so absurd we wonder how a sane person could believe it, the city  (as the rumor goes) is trying to lure a chicken egg farm in the west end of the city - yes, that would be upwind of the city. If you hear this one, it is just another crappy rumor!

Fresh And Easy To Sell Eggs (and other stuff) In Desert Hot Springs Eventually
Fresh and Easy has asked for another plan revision and the planning commission agreed to give them more time. Fresh and Easy needs to address violations of its original agreement. Here is a shocker. We agree with the planning commission decision - it is not like the planning commission agreed to put in 125 homes before sidewalks are installed (do our regular readers follow these digs?) Fresh and Easy said not so fresh building is making it hard to open the store. They found asbestos in the building so it is taking longer. They say they have a 20 year lease on the property but we have not seen the lease to verify. We trust the planning commission asked for verification.

Ah, the good ole days!
FODHS Gets Results...Still

In the not so distant history of the city, the word among city employees is that if they wanted to see what their work schedule was going to be for the day, they would simply look at FODHS. We admit we were more diligent then in pointing out things like palm trees that are dying from lack of water.

Well, it seems city hall still takes some direction from FODHS. The city manager reports that the palm trees are now getting watered by the city crew. We are happy to hear it! 

We got beat up by a few of our readers for our failure to do something about these palm trees. They pointed it out to us. Send us your tips and you will get action too!

(Tomorrow)
Finally, The Big Day For The Music Festival Is Here
Tomorrow is the day FODHS was told our city will have an announcement regarding the other music acts and the day tickets will go on sale. Commander Ed Smith in a presentation to our public safety commission provided early details. We hear the announcement will be in the form of a press release. Don't forget us Bruce when the press release goes out. 

Another Desert Hot Springs
Resort and Spa
 
 

The end of a California city?
Sun May Set On Half Moon Bay

During the recent heat wave (thankfully over), we had to travel to the Valley floor. Coming from Desert Hot Springs, we immediately noticed three things once we got there. It was hotter and it was more humid on the valley floor. The third was it is flat down there.

Yesterday at 5 p.m., our winds blew the humidity out of Desert Hot Springs. An hour later, the local news stations were reporting the humidity would soon be gone. On the 11 p.m. news, the reports were of lingering oppressive humidity on the valley floor with a terrible mix of haze caused by moisture and dust from the wind.

There was not a lick of wind in Desert Hot Springs last night except from swamp coolers taking over for air conditioners.

This morning from our perch atop the valley and looking down on the valley floor cities, we see the haze still in their air. One remaining cloud, the last remnant of monsoon moisture, has yet to depart.

The skies are clear and blue in Desert Hot Springs. It is amazing how those clear skies provide such clarity.

Was Coachella City Manager Steve Brown Fired Over Bad Housing Land Deal?
"GRamirez" says he was along with two other city officials also being fired over the deal.

City officials handed out $6 million of taxpayer money without getting all guarantees and it cost their jobs according to a post appearing in the Desert Sun. The bad deal was on a plan to build low income housing in Coachella. It has created a stir in Coachella and led to the firing of City Manager Steve Brown according to the posted comments. If the comments are correct, the $6 million the city lost also led to the firing of two other top Coachella city officials.

The comments above appear to be from Coachella City Councilman Gilbert Ramirez and appear as comments to an article in the Desert Sun. We caution our readers we are not able to confirm it is Ramirez and not just someone posting as him in the Desert Sun. We trust the Desert Sun checks to make sure people are not posting in other people's names, just like we check for those things here at FODHS. The posting to the newspapers website appears at this link. You have to scroll through the comments to find the post above but the article is also worth the read.

We should also note that all other news accounts of Brown's departure from the city manager position in Coachella are reported as a resignation and we have seen nothing regarding the other two employees.

How Did It Happen? Background

A low income housing project was proposed in Coachella. The city council voted to provide $6 million towards the project. Other funding (a combination of federal and private money) was needed to make the project possible. The $6 million Coachella put up was just  a piece of the funding pie.

Here is the rub. Just because the council approved the $6 million funding does not mean the city is supposed to immediately cut the check. The city is supposed to wait (and confirm) that all other funding commitments have been made. In other words, guaranty the project can actually go forward. The city cut the check without the other funding being secured. That made it the only investor in a project with no other investors. The other funding guarantees never came through. The city committed funds before it should have and now it is stuck with $6 million into a project that can't be built.

You Don't Have To Sit Around Getting Fat Waiting For The Music Festival

Desert Hot Springs

Get in shape for the big event!

Run Away Slave
 

Obama Halts Prosecution Of Terrorist
Who Killed 17 US Soldiers & Wounded  Dozens

Columnist says we need FODHS! 
Government Salary Reform
State can't do it alone

You might be sick of hearing about the fallout after the pay scandal in Bell was revealed, but there are new revelations that uncover something new. Legislators released a six-point attack to prevent future scandals, including bills to provide reforms to prevent cities from paying big, big salaries. 

Are the reforms good? 

Joe Matthews at Prop Zero says the world needs FODHS. Well, not in so many words. But he said essentially the same thing when he writes, “The state is in no position to keep an eye on all of California's local governments. It needs citizens, engaged citizens, to be minding the store.” 

We had a simpler solution: Just publish the salaries. For our part, FODHS is the only information source in the Coachella Valley to completely do that - and this is not even our day job. It takes more than just unpaid citizens minding the store. How about the media that actually get paid to do it?

It is a start. Not much of one.
Los Angeles City Employees to Pay 5% Of Health Benefits

Among public-sector workers nationally, the most common figure is now 25 percent contribution towards health benefits. Among private-sector workers, it is even higher.

State Reduces Fines For Red Light Camera Violations

EPA Seeks To Ban Lead In Ammo

Agency being used as tool of anti-gun crowd to make it even harder for citizens to defend themselves. What is the alternative to lead bullets? Expensive, very expensive ammo made with copper and other metals. Can a bureaucracy on its own render citizens defenseless by putting the cost of ammo out of reach of ordinary citizens? How will you protect yourself when the police can't be there to protect you?

Chamber Announces Three Award Winners
From the Chamber come three award winners. In a short article in the Desert Sun they are listed as Resident Ron Gilbert, Bruce Abney and Mary Prado (no respective titles provided in the Desert Sun article).

Allow us to fill in the details.

Resident Ron Gilbert
(AKA Owner and author of Ron's Log)

Ron Gilbert is most well known in the community at large as the owner and author of Ron's Log, a local internet blog covering city government. I suppose we can understand why the Desert Sun would only want to identify him as a "resident". In the age of news via other avenues why mention those that are providing detail. As for Ron the award winner, while we have sparred with Ron on a couple of occasions, most recently challenging Ron's extreme naïveté on how government really works and city planning development issues, he does a good job covering local city government. If for some reason you don't like his take on a meeting he provides the complete audio of the meeting and you decide.

Bruce Abney
(AKA Owner and operator of El Morocco Inn and Spa)

In takes guts to open a business. It takes a whole lot more than that to keep it successfully operating. In the hospitality industry during the worst times to hit that industry in the last 30 years, well, we can't imagine the work it has taken to be the success of the El Morocco Inn and Spa. The boutique spa hotel is just one of many successful hotels maintaining their occupancy rates while all other hotels in the valley are struggling to bring in guests. El Morocco stands out. Business is good and good businesspersons deserve recognition - far more of it. Abney gets award for top business proprietor category.

Mary Prado
(AKA Executive Director of Food Now food bank)

Nurses, paramedics, police officers, judges. These are the people that day in and day out see the harsher side of life. Add to that list the people that see everyday the needy and are working to help them. Add Mary Prado, Executive Director of Food Now food bank. We don't know how someone goes into work everyday to see a world of people down on their luck and needing food and on top of that dealing with the pressure of getting that food to them, somehow, some way. If you need food, Mary Prado is providing it as top non-profit business person of the year.

Gabriel King
(AKA Citizen who saved the city the most money)

Oh, that's right, there are just three award winners. Adding us would be the fourth. How silly. Oh well, if the Chamber does ever come up with a category for citizen that saved our city the most money, we will be happy to accept ($3.19 million).

On the Chamber nomination process, our understanding is the award winners were selected from nominations provided by Chamber members. If you don't see someone on the list you think is deserving, join the Chamber and submit a nomination - ed

Our Readers Are Soooo Smart

Yesterday we wrote how we are sooooo hoping Santana will be at the upcoming World Music and Wellness Festival. Our hope was spurred by a music video we watched of Santana. A reader writes with the news.

The promoters had given indication early on that Santana would be at our music festival, listing him on the festival website where as of this posting Santana still appears as one of the artists. 

Thanks to our reader for doing the research (actually, that we should have done) and sending in the news, saaaaad as it is.

Here For Your Listening Pleasure
It is not classic Santana but we liked the song as some of his newer work. It is from the DVD we watched that showed the entire concert.

Democrats Vote To Register/Ban Ammo
Law Could Allow Our City Council To Ban Ammo Sales
(the city council and Mayor RINO's tried recently to ban all gun possession in our city)
If enacted, AB 2358 would require that ammunition vendors transmit records of sale, information on the quantity and type of ammunition purchased, and the personal information of purchasers collected at the time of sale to local law enforcement if required by city or county ordinance. AB 2358 would allow uncontrolled expansion of city and county ordinances requiring handgun ammunition vendors to transmit all information collected relating to sales of handgun ammunition and some rifle cartridges to local law enforcement agencies.
AB 2358 puts ammunition vendors and purchasers at the whim of city councils and county boards that would have local, discretionary authority to regulate ammunition and grant or deny licenses to sell ammunition. Vendors could be prohibited from obtaining a local permit to sell at gun shows or sporting events.

In the Spirit of FODHS
Police Officers Create Web Site To Take City Council To Task

Obama "Recovery"  Losses 
Another 500,000 Jobs

Existing Home Sales Hit 15 Year Low
Housing Market Weakens

Beat Whitey Night

Mission Springs Water District Seems To Be Having Trouble Getting The Words Out

RATE INCREASE
RATE INCREASE
RATE INCREASE
RATE INCREASE
RATE INCREASE

There, we said it. That was not so difficult.

Merriam-Webster describes the condition

"Euphemism: the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant."

From a Mission Springs Water District announcement of a public meeting to take place tomorrow at 9 a.m.

"Staff will provide information to the Board regarding the current fiscal condition of the district and discuss rates, expenses and revenue in consideration of a possible future rate adjustment."

Do you suppose "rate adjustment" is about lower rates? We suppose they could be but more than likely the district is having trouble putting in print what it is really saying.

How The Hell Does A Small Town Water District With A Tight Budget Justify Hiring A Consultant As A Spokesperson?

In a story about the water district not getting funds from the feds to install sewers we find the water district has hired a paid spokesperson. It is financially serious out there for a lot of Mission Springs Water District customers and their water bill is just one of the many challenges. Customers can't afford to waste one drop of water and the water district can't afford to waste one penny of the ratepayer's money.

If there is a justification for this expense of a paid spokesperson we'd love to hear it.

Water District Will Not Get $35 Million For Sewers To Protect Ground Water

Desert Hot Springs Police Prepared For World Music Festival

County Workers Earn As Much In Retirement As They Did Working The Job

While it is a common part of every day work life in the private sector to have to save for retirement, Riverside County employees don't have to save a dime for their golden years thanks to a very hefty golden handshake courtesy of the taxpayers.

Riverside County allows retirees to earn as much as 90 percent of their final salary in retirement benefits, but then adds in extras that can boost that total to 97 or 98 percent. Such indulgence is one reason the county has 87 former workers who collect at least $100,000 a year in retirement, which works out to at least $3 million apiece over 30 years. Another 150 retirees collect yearly pensions of $75,000 to $99,000.

And what about private sector retirement plans?
Americans Now Draining 401K Savings To Survive

A Reader Writes

Note to our readers: We have put in that request but have yet to receive an answer from city hall.

Riverside County Sends Three Measures For Voters To Decide

Riverside County Set To Adopt Rules Placing Restrictions On Parolees 

Friends Of Desert Hot Springs
Person of the Year
"I have no idea how I find the energy, but I decided 
to do it for my kids..."

Every once in a while comes along a person that is an inspiration to dedication, hard work, pursuit of their dreams and a balance with family life. They approach life driven to excel, be better, do more. By their example they show all of us that we can be better and in the process make our community a better place to live.

No More Than 32 - 36 Students Per Class

Budget cuts have impacted schools and students but there are limits and classrooms with 32 to 36 students per class is it. Many of us remember  classes that had more than that and it difficult not just for the teacher but also for the students. We know it is tough financial times and taxpayers have a right to be concerned about what schools are costing them but any class size over 36 and you might as well not send the student to school.

"We Won't Build It"
Hardhats Vow Not To Work 
On Ground Zero Mosque

We only want to build a mosque at Ground Zero where we killed 3,000 of your people. Think of it as a celebration of tolerance

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is a duck. Some things are just plain wrong. You know it as soon as you see it. Like someone trying to build an islamic mosque at 911 Ground Zero. The hard hat construction workers have refused to build it if it gets approved. What's next, Obama approves a guest worker program for Middle East iron workers.

Lots of Pictures At This Link

Salaries Gone Wild! 
Jerry Hansen Redux
Vernon city official holds two jobs, nets over $1 million per year reports LA Times
(If only Bell...and Vernon...had listened to FODHS)

As if the pages of the Jerry Hansen scandal were being rewritten, a city official in Vernon, California has just been caught getting paid for two positions at city hall. His annual take topped $1 million a year in combined pay for each of the last four years.

Long time readers of this website will recall that former Desert Hot Springs City Manager Jerry Hansen (or it is Hanson?) was paid for being the city engineer and the city manager at the same time. A consulting job he was offered at the end of his employment would have netted him $3.19 million. In the end, a grand jury agreed with FODHS and slapped the city for the double jobs. FODHS exposed the consulting agreement in time for it to be stopped (but we repeat ourselves).

There is a difference between the Jerry Hansen scandal and the one unfolding in Vernon. In the Vernon story, it was not FODHS that uncovered the scandal - although we would have had we been there. The Los Angeles Times gets the credit for the report.

The Times story also reveals other city officials making upwards of $800,000 a year and they are not talking about the city of Bell. Here is the link.

Note to Chamber: If you ever come up with an award for the person that saved our city the most money, we will be happy to accept. For your calculation purposes, we are at $3.19 million.

If anyone looks like they will come close to our total, let us know. We will gladly provide documentation of more FODHS savings for our city. Right now we are too lazy to do the math and actually we have to get back to our real job.

$195,000 a year plus benefits
Caught On Film Filling Personal Vehicle At City Pump

Budget cuts in Alameda have shuttered a fire station and resulted in the layoffs of firefighters, but the town's $195,702 a  year fire chief is getting unlimited free fill-ups for both his BMW convertible sports car and his Honda pickup truck at the city pump.

These are the people Nancy Pelosi says are conspirators opposing the building of a mosque at 911 ground zero.

Shop Local Alert

We just picked up the sweetest watermelon at Stater Bros. Best we have had all season and the price is only 15 cents a pound. Still plenty in the bin (but now that FODHS has put out the word we can't guarantee they will last).

Fire Breathing Bartenders Facing 45 Years



Feds Say Another 2 Year Recession Likely
 

Flamingo Hotel For Sale - $849,500

From the real estate listing: Mineral hot spring Hotel and Spa is vacant and waits for a new improvement developer to resume a mineral water hot spring Spa and Hotel. 33 guest room hotel is 19,000 sq.ft within 77,972 sq.ft.(1.79 Acres) land. It has 2 large pools, 4 jacuzzis on 20,000 sq.ft. A major renovation was interrupted while the original structure still stands. The city redevelopment agency invested $250,000 into recent renovations.

 Counterfeiters Caught In Desert Hot Springs

Police department was getting many reports of someone passing counterfeit bills in the city. DHSPD went to work and (as usual) caught them in quick order. This police department is really developing an amazing track record. Below is the release from DHSPD. Above is picture of the fake bill DHSPD confiscated.

City Tries To Stop Female Breast Part As Business Name
We warned the city about this a while ago but the council ignored us.  The city manager and planning commission approved the business. The mayor and city council has actively approved and supports sex spas in our city's residential neighborhoods where this and another sex spa are located. 

FODHS as a ex Planning Commissioner never thought that open promiscuous adult sexual activity business's should be promoted by council because these spas are located in residential neighborhoods with children.  The planning commission disagreed with me and the council has taken zero action to address the issue.  Obviously "family man" Councilor Scott Matas's former bar with wet tee shirt contests, Mayor Yvonne Parks public endorsement of "swinger spas" and Councilor Karl Baker's internet critique of said spas and open solicitation on the internet for sex "threesomes" should have been a clue.

Thank the current Council for Children and Sex Business's zoning mix.

Critics Of Ground Zero Mosque To Be Investigated By Fed
 

A Reader Writes

'Why Is My Water Bill So High?'

'Music Festival Tickets Go On Sale August 30'
- Commander Ed Smith
At a public safety commission meeting, Commander Ed Smith had this to report about the planned World Music and Wellness Festival (we paraphrase). 

Ticket sales are planned to begin August 30. Two or three days before that the other musical acts will be announced. The general feeling of the experts, according to Smith, is tickets do not need to go on sale 90 day prior to the event. The promoters, he said, are not  concerned about starting to sell tickets 30 to 45 days before the event. He said the experts are telling the city that 10,000 tickets will sell very quickly.

Some other things Smith had to say...
The world music and wellness festival will not be a concert only. It is a festival and world music. The actual concert is the smaller portion of it. It will not be a Coachella Fest of a Stagecoach type event (two very large music festivals in the Coachella Valley). It will be a two day event with 7,500 to 10,000 people in attendance each day. "They" are scaling it to no more than 10,000 attendees. Because of limited parking at the festival site (Mission Springs Park) various parking locations around the city have been set up with some of those sites 2 1/2 miles away and buses taking people to and from the festival.

Finally, the Desert Sun newspaper is being brought in as a media partner.

Note To Readers: FODHS has been in contact with the festival promoters Tony Clark and Bruce Barrett several times over the last few months regarding details of the festival. Our information on dates of tickets sales has come direct from the promoters. We have not heard from Clark or Barrett the resolve the conflicting information provided by Commander Smith at the Public Safety Commission Meeting vs. the ticket date announcements provided by Clark and Barrett. So far Clark and Barrett have said the middle of August for ticket sales to begin.

Rick Daniels, Are You Going To Let These Trees Die?

Two readers wrote to us to tell us about three palm trees that are dying from lack of water. The last letter writer blamed us for not doing anything about it. Rest assured we did notify the city manager. Obviously nothing has been done. We took the picture of these Mexican Palms to confirm it is a recent picture and the palms are now nearly all brown. They are almost dead.

Shooting In Cathedral City Leaves 1 Injured, Three Arrested

Video of California 200 Crash
Someone had their video camera rolling

Big Quakes Everywhere But Here

Live map. Red indicates quake in last hour.

Large quakes all around the Pacific Rim with only the west coast of North America quiet.

We Could Use Art
Truss Park

While perusing the internet an item caught the attention of one of our artists. We did not quite understand it - likely you will not either - until going to the link provided here.

Picture (part of it anyhow) credit to Ron Gilbert of Ron's Log. Original photo at link.

"If you paved that site, put in some nice lighting, and mounted a little plaque entitling the pile something like "The Real Estate Boom," you could convince some people it was art." It is all tongue-in-cheek we must point out (at least for the reading comprehension challenged).

Off Road Racers Just Feet From Spectators
California 200 2009

I

Let Them Eat Cake
How The Rest Of The World Views Our First Lady


T.Y.R.
Thank You Readers
Over a thousand unique visitors to FODHS last month totaling over three thousand hits by those unique visitors. 


Rabid Anti Gun Obama Administration

Obama administration stops South Korea from selling collector WWII M1 Grand rifles to gun collectors in USA


Another CA City (just like Desert Hot Springs) Found Out It Cant Ban All Guns
So what does it do instead - moves to ban ammo. Another costly taxpayer wasting fight on its way to the Supreme court with government paid lawyers (paid with your tax dollars) getting paid to fight against your rights and the constitution.

Flashback

San Francisco Fined For Trying To Ban Guns

Desert Hot Springs Attempts Ban On All Firearms 


A Reader Writes

City Code Enforcement Ignores Slum Lord's Risk To Child Safety

A Reader Writes

City Allowing Mexican Palms In Public Right Of Way To Perish From Lack Water Of Water