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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 3AFrom:Susan To:Grace Garner; Lisa Middleton; City Clerk Subject:RFP matter half a million... we say NO! Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 11:40:14 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Dear Mayor, Council, City Manager c/o city clerk We moved to Palm Springs in 1957. I recall Section 14. You all are so very mistaken on this matter. There is no just cause for reparations. Opportunities were given when tribe extended land lease years leading to Spa Mineral Baths followed by Spa Hotel. You are mistaken as well because there were 351 families of two or more counted as white, then 115 families of two or more people of color. Many white families were noticed to move and vacated. Many POC were migrators who left the city over summers or half the year who left for Texas or Mississippi...many descendants now live as they did back then more permanently in Mississippi. If you continue with this costly nonsense then IMO you need to include ALL people who were evicted. There are three times more white, spanish, chinese, phillipino than blacks impacted by tribe sovereign land rights. IF you continue with the matter, then you must include all people since all people were impacted, their businesses closed and they had to rebuild completely. Whereas blacks were provided money to buy homes at Crossley tract or chose to Desert Highlands/Gateway or Garnet/Banning. Former Mayor Holstege apology was inept, immature because she knows not the city history at all and this knee jerk inept decision she initiated on this...just like her knee jerk attack on good PS Police Chief Reyes to take a knee bend when he has been one of our best Chiefs of police. Former Mayor Holstege is about political party grift vote bait by paying black community money, as did her MIL for black library. As she stumps right now she is CYA since she apologized and now grifts or pushes to force council to hire reparations advocate group for half a million. You need to pinpoint two year period only, you need to look at all records, phone books, aerial maps of the two years, you need to look at recent records that give addresses for properties the tribe members asked their representatives to notice for bulldoze then local burn since city dump far away. It needs to be limited to corner where Spa Hotel is located only since this was the area razed to build Spa Baths and Spa Hotel... All else is irrelevant. If POC/blacks have no proof of being there over the two years...they are out of the study. period. IMO the City did NO wrong. The tribe noticed, the city only engaged with razed, planned PS FIre dept burns used to train new firemen for an actual accidental fire. ALL shacks or shanty homes were vacant as per the newly found records. One of the alleged black shanty shack owners there was a slum, slum landlord. That is he bought up perhaps five shacks thet he rented during the winter season to seasonal migrant servers. He claimed he lost several homes yet he bought up former tribe shacks or hispanic shacks as couples married, began families, bought in the Veterans tract, Dream homes built by Walker Boltz, the Outpost. Businesses, laundromat, Chinese restaurant, small shops, stores and larger such as Libbott pools, PS Plumbing were along Indian Ave. So you see, many many small businesses were financially impacted. Many POC were squatters who did not pay the Indian land owner rent. Many local Indian tribe kids or young people let temporary hotel workers or laborers just stay there for weeks, pocketed the rent or spent on beer, gambling. prostitutes. There were gun and knife 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A fights...gun fire just like Desert Highlands is today ..nightly fights, drugs, crime ..just read Friends Of Frank Bogert rebuttal...you will see Police Chief Gus Ketterman written history. The area was blighted..just as Desert Highlands is blighted and crime ridden, drug deals ongoing today and shoot em ups. The tribe could not deal with it, the city could not deal with it, Many I know will stand before you to tell you how bad it was. I doubt any one of you would walk alone at night around the Northern city area because it is unsafe. Police cannot control it today, it was far worse years back then with primitive equipment, far less protective gear. As stated I know many many locals who will testify if you wish. It is unfair, unjust to give money gifts to blacks, when all citizens at the time struggled to survive by hard work, service industry. Blacks here were treated well. Hotel,business owners supported all POC here. My family took good care of, and generations supported. My grandmother had crippling arthritis, a local black lady Porcha ,school teacher dropped off her senior mother Minnie several days a week to my grandmothers home. My grandmother would feed and watch over Minnie. Minnie would press my grandfathers work shirts, do light housekeeping, dusting, sweep. fold laundered towels..nothing heavy. There were no senior day care centers. Minnie was very happy to be there, spend the day, get meals, be in air conditioning which went on from 1965 to about 1973 when she reached ninety. Addie was a Palm Springs High school grad who did office cleaning for my folks and their home light housekeeping. And she & I worked in my home for years. Addie bought a Crossley home, near her parents home in Crossley Tract; her father was a landscaper for Old Las Palmas homes. Leonard was a plumber who when city of PS added sewer pipes, he did connections and abandoned septic tanks. His kids became contractors, masonry. I think many who say they have claims to reparations are confabulating, telling stories, misleading for the hand out, money grab. Many who have succumbed to drugs, on parole now for various crimes. So do you give money to a guy who is a felon, drug conviction or crime record for possessing a stolen gun or the like? Do you believe this person when they tell a story that clearly is not their own, but made up or bits of hearsay. All of the records have been available for sometime such as perhaps addresses in archived phone books. Aerial maps. Those who went on to buy at Crossly or Desert Highlands realized betterment. As regards red lining, it mattered not about skin color..what mattered is if paved road for bank loan. Banks looked at foreclosure rates, would not make a larger loan back then in a number of areas. Nothing to do with the color of skin. If you go back to 1944 post WWll CC&Rs did restrict until 1960 and thereafter Lyndon Johnson Civil RIghts Act. For claims of redlining that are not applicable or other stories that have no basis, no proof or loss of a home that they did not own on a piece of land when tribe land. The $200 that former Mayor Frank Bogert proposed was enough to buy a home here. I know because in 1969 this is the down payment I made to buy and Alexander home north of Racquet club rd. We go back to my mother having a RE broker license in 1960, she was with Silver Spur Ranch properties in Palm Desert but we lived in Palm Springs near Desert Hospital. Our RE offices in 1970s was the most diverse in the CIty with Clarence Dauphine- black, Desert Highlands Homeowner, Marco Ramos-Filipino, Alan Stearns- Jewish, Gus Pantele- Italian, Liana Voinescu- Romanian refugee, Emma Santana- Hispanic, Richard Cadieux- Canadian immigrant, Gay & many others. My late step father was a conservator for tribe members from Palm Springs & Morongo. He was a NY Life insurance agent, was instrumental in drafting 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A Mission Hills CC. My late grandfather was a land man, packaged the Bob Hope land owned by Riviera Hotel Schuman Brothers, my grandmother named it The Springs CC in 1971. We have had five generations here since 1957. I am not willing to have any reparation pay out. For one reason and I can prove it.. my forefathers, family died in the Civil War, gave their lives to free actual black slaves. If you pay any reparations, you must consider those of us who lost treasure of life for blacks, POC. Then I wish to make a claim. For while the local blacks, POC lived rent free in the mid 1960s I worked, paid rent next door to Section 14, I struggled, starved, worked 40-50 hour weeks on my feet all day long. The matter needs to be tabled now. Even Justin Clifton said two things..1. POC did not own any real property here (tribe sovereign land) 2. It is not legal to give public taxpayer funds like this as gifts. Sorry Ms Holstege failed to do her homework,, it is just like most any issue here.. knee jerk inept... I listened tonight about a water feature at city parks.. 1. water conservation is still in effect 2. water attracts mosquitoes.. young children, pregnant women are vulnerable to Zika virus, west nile. 3. recycle water means tank, means chlorinated, treated, filtered. grass kill. 4. kids get sun damaged skin being exposed or playing for long periods in water features for long periods of time sun burns. 5. the homeless will use it to bathe in or unthinking dog owners will use it for their dogs.. (small toddlers, kids and strange dogs do not mix..city will get sued). You are talking about $100-200,000 water feature plus weekly maintenance...maybe even daily use daily fountain service like a pool clean service. This city council has not listened to local citizens who know or those who helped manage the city over many many years here. You cannot keep grifting as has been happening. I understand Ginny Foat is behind a lot of this and she is wrong, got it wrong years back. You need to get it right, not knee jerk and not give out half a million. You as a city can assign staff to look at older aerial maps, look at phone book records, look at school registry records that do go back. You can see where students lived. Section 14 was a temporary stop for most. There are living tribe members who could come forward on this. But they likely will not want to be bothered. You must manage this, look at only a short time period per the recent documents, Look at addresses and IF a POC or black family can point to records that show during the two year period their address matches, then there may be a basis. Many families lived off of Arenas which was not even developed until much later, mid 1970s. So if a claim surfaces clearly irrelevant. And as stated if someone worked seasonally but left half the year.. does not count and should not because they left for out of state, Texas, Mississippi migrated here there.. some worked Lake Arrowhead or Lake Tahoe..just as white families who served in tourist seasonal work. Do you give reparations for farm workers who migrated from Thermal to Fresno to Sacramento.. if the farmland is replaced by new housing development do you give them a trailer home as reparations because their temp farm labor housing went away? This is in reality what happened yet its gotten skewed, blown out of proportion entirely as a like a jewish holocaust or Tulsa Greenwood District 1921 town burn where blacks businesses were burned. This is so absurd. Ask those of us who were here. Those coming before you now fabricate. They have no proof, It's hearsay. Or sympathizers' story too, this to inflame. embellish because they want in on the money grab. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A Those who wanted to achieve did. We had Willis Edwards at high school who was a cheerleader, gay black who went on to be with Rosa Parks. We had Gerri Redding a black dancer who was on many TV shows as performer. We have military who served for years, then went on to work in public administration. We have many school teachers who recently retired from local PS Unified. Many who retired from public works, GTE/Verizon. You have a handful here who tell a story of trauma because they are coached or they embellish for the money. They've had no trauma..its all story telling, hearsay. This political spin of equity, equality, disparaged, loss of generational wealth...it's a political spin to distract and buy black votes... very simple and we know who is behind it. This city does not need to spend half a million or any million on this. Just send the message that the matter is tabled, closed, no such reparations. Let it go to court then have the court dismiss then. And city council has authority to vote out one or two sitting council persons who are behind this grift... Put this on the ballot, on the same ballot to oust one or more city council members, count the valid verified votes and lets see what happens. City council members can apologize, recant statements, admit they are sorry they just did not clearly know city history going back or they did not know the 1968 AG report is false, was rebutted. Lets not waste any more time or expense on such frivolous matters. Drop it, table it, let the new group waste their money going to court and let the judge dismiss the case. And if council members wish to resign as a result of their mistakes, let them resign and get out of public city job. Time to close this, IMO. The marginalized in Desert Highlands or Crossley have their equity.. homes can be sold for half a million which can buy a lot in Texas or Mississippi where they most likely would rather be with family. I hope they do not waste money on group legal fees unnecessarily. The city needs to inform them that a look at recent records show legal notices served, only vacant structures were bulldozed. There is no legal basis or cause, matter is closed. If a person who was evicted did not vacate when given the notice, the law is clear. I appreciate the no vote for half million fee to reparations advocate..clearly biased and to cherry pick false AG 1968 LA Times article or recent op pieces does not change the facts of notices served, lots of time allowed to move, etc. Regards, Susan Palm Springs- Desert Resident 1957 April 27 2023 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 6:33:19 PM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2397701 IP Address:174.243.225.250 Submission Date:04/27/2023 6:33 Survey Time:2 minutes, 2 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Jason Olvera City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia 6411 Jacaranda Street Rohnert Park Ca, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) 7608352850 Email (optional/opcional) jason_olvera@hotmail.com Your Comments/Sus comentarios I am in support of reparations task force for Section 14 Thank you Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 5:41:47 PM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2397621 IP Address:66.74.200.163 Submission Date:04/27/2023 5:41 Survey Time:1 minute, 51 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Roberta Bejjani City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia Indio, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) 7608081651 Email (optional/opcional) rm.olvera@yahoo.com Your Comments/Sus comentarios You/we are in favor of Palm Springs hiring a reparations consultant.Linda Mann Consulting Firm is the firm we want, because they’ve been successful in reparations in the past for Evanston, Illinois. Thank you so much. Roberta Bejjani Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:Roberta Olvera To:City Clerk Subject:E-Public Comment Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 5:39:32 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. I’m/we are in favor of Palm Springs hiring a reparations consultant.Linda Mann Consulting Firm is the firm we want, because they’ve been successful in reparations in the past for Evanston, Illinois. Roberta Bejjani Thank you so much. Sent from my iPhone 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:Roberta Olvera To:City Clerk Subject:E-Public Comment Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 5:39:32 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. I’m/we are in favor of Palm Springs hiring a reparations consultant.Linda Mann Consulting Firm is the firm we want, because they’ve been successful in reparations in the past for Evanston, Illinois. Roberta Bejjani Thank you so much. Sent from my iPhone 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A SUMMARY OF BOGERT SEEKING LOW-COST HOUSING FOR DISPLACED RESIDENTS & ATTEMPTING TO ALLEVIATE THE HARDSHIPS OF THE EVICTIONS ●Bogert worked “tirelessly” to alleviate the harms associated with Section 14 evictions and to make the best out of an untenable housing crisis (see timeline of Bogert’s actions). Within the seven-year period when he became Mayor in 1958 and when the city worked with the Tribal Council, the BIA, conservators, and trustees to demolish abandoned homes after landowners gave eviction notices, the record shows that Bogert was resolute on finding solutions to the Section 14 crisis. Specifically, Bogert took the following actions: ○Held off city-coordinated demolition until 1965 (7 years after becoming Mayor), despite pressure to do so sooner from tax paying residents, Tribal landowners, local businesses, and conservators. ○Worked “tirelessly” to seek low-cost housing for displaced residents.1 ○Secured housing certificates from the FHA which provided relocation grants with 100% financing to displaced residents.2 (See Bogert and housing certificate photo.) ○Pursued numerous public assistance programs to fund low-cost housing. ○Pushed for and supported several privately funded low-cost housing projects (see clipping for one such project), including that of Lawrence Crossley, a Black pioneer of the community and a friend of Bogert’s.3 ○Launched an administrative investigation into Superior Court ordered burnings after numerous residents had made complaints.4 These burnings were NOT done by the City but by individual landowners. ○Negotiated with the BIA and landowners to secure a 6 month moratorium on evictions which allowed 430 families to find housing.5 (See eviction delay photo.) These evictions were set by the BIA and landowners, NOT the city and the City had no unilateral authority to issue this moratorium on its own. ○Created multiracial citizens committees, consisting of members from the Black community, the local NAACP chapter, and a Section 14 resident, to assist with relocation efforts and to communicate the Tribal landowners and BIA’s eviction plans with Section 14 residents.6 ○Hired the City’s first ever Black employee (a Section 14 resident) who served as a liaison to Section 14 residents, served on committees with Bogert and who was ultimately instrumental in securing the first housing project for Section 14 residents. ○Enacted a bond program in 1961 to purchase land that would partially be used for low- cost housing for evicted residents.7 1 Desert Sun, Volume 35, Number 12, August 18, 1961 2 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 298, July 14, 1961 3 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 89, November 15, 1968 4 Desert Sun, “Section 14 Probe Set,” August 14, 1962 5 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 283, June 27, 1961 6 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 98, November 26, 1968 7 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 161, February 4, 1961 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A ○ Ensured that the city complied with all local, state, and federal regulations throughout a complex eviction and demolition process. ● The Desert Sun described Bogert as working “tirelessly” over the span of 10 years to seek low-cost housing for evicted Section 14 residents.8 These efforts included him continuously pushing for numerous publicly and privately funded housing projects. Select quotes from the articles at the time: “The Mayor, working tirelessly for a low-cost housing project, had asked (developers) some months ago if (they) couldn't come up with a solution to the ever- increasing problem of homes for the scores of people who are residing in Section 14”9 “Bogert was vigorous in attempting to make welfare arrangements for the residents of Section 14.”10 “Mayor Frank Bogert...has sought to promote a minority housing development in the Palm Springs area”11 “Since Bogert was elected to the council almost three years ago, (he) has been working steadily to get private money to build a low-cost rental unit project for (Section 14 residents)”12 ● Bogert even continued seeking housing for displaced residents after his Mayoral term ended. In 1967 — the year after he left office to care for his wife whi was battling breast cancer — he partnered with his close friend the Rev. Jeff Rollins, a leader in the Black community, and the First Baptist Church to develop a 250-unit housing complex adjacent to Gateway Estates13 (see Desert Sun clipping). He traveled to Washington, D.C., with Rev. Rollins to lobby the FHA to secure federal funds for minority housing (see Bogert and Rollins photo). ● Bogert cared deeply for the welfare of Section 14 residents and was extremely vocal in public forums about the need of low-cost housing for Section 14 residents and about the deplorable conditions residents were forced to live in. Select quotes: “There is a great demand for low-cost housing for the working force in the city. Something must be done for them…There were a lot of fine people moved out of Section 14.”14 8 Desert Sun, Volume 35, Number 12, August 18, 1961 9 Desert Sun, Volume 35, Number 12, August 18, 1961 10 Desert Sun, OFFICIALS OPEN SECTION 14 STUDY June 23, 1961 11 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 136, January 6, 1961 12 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 136, January 6, 1961 13 Desert Sun, Volume 40, Number 235, May 5, 1967 14 Desert Sun, Volume 40, Number 235, May 5, 1967 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A “We do need enough (low-cost housing) to take care of our labor force. There is a terrific demand for housing for the working people”15 “The biggest scandal is that (Section 14 residents) are forced to live in these conditions, because we haven’t done anything about it”16 “I don’t want to see another slum area. If someone is going to build a place for these people, it should be good”17 “I think we ought to stretch a point and let them have the zoning they want...Due to the housing emergency at the present time, we have to lean over backwards (to allow for zoning for low-cost housing)”18 ● As Mayor in 1961, Bogert directly hired Charles Jordan, the city’s first Black employee and a resident of Section 14. Jordan was instrumental in the development of Seminole Gardens in 1968, the city’s first federally funded, medium-cost housing project which was prioritized for Section 14 residents. Bogert made this unprecedented hire when it was unpopular to do so. When Jordan returned to Palm Springs after graduating from Gonzaga University, Los Angeles Times reporter Ken Reich explained: “It was then Mayor Frank Bogert who gave him a job as a recreation supervisor. Jordan said he had suggested to Bogert at the time, 1961, that he might not be accepted by whites in that position. Bogert had been adamant about going ahead with the job offer, and it was the beginning of a brilliant career for Jordan.”19 ○ Indeed, Bogert’s hiring of Jordan, at a time when no Black resident was employed by the city, was the catalyst to a brilliant career. After working as a city official in Palm Springs, Jordan ran the Parks Departments in both Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon. He was the first ever Black city councilmember in Portland and the first to serve as city commissioner. After leaving public office he ran the Conversation Fund, an environmental non-profit, where he established a land trust for Black farmers. President Ronald Reagan appointed both Jordan and Bogert to the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors, where they worked together to promote nationwide recreational opportunities for citizens.20 Jordan served as an ex-officio member of a multiracial housing committee Bogert created to work with and help Section 14 residents during relocations. As the Desert Sun said, “Jordan made tremendous strides toward greater understanding and respect between all races in Palm Springs and worked toward 15 Desert Sun, Volume 40, Number 235, May 5, 1967 16 University of California Press, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, February 2004, The Path to Paradise: Expropriation, Exodus, and Exclusion in the Making of Palm Springs, Ryan M. Kray.pg 108 17 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 89, November 15,1968 18 Desert Sun, “The Section 14 Story III, Elation Over Housing Okay Fades as Recession Comes,” November 15, 1968 19 http://takebackthetimes.blogspot.com/2006/10/memorable-50th-high-school-class.html 20 The Oregonian, “Charles Johnson remembered: Portland’s first African American commissioner and long time parks director was “a giant in this city,” April 4, 2014 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A greater involvement of blacks in community affairs, helping to bring City Hall closer to the (Black) community than ever before.”21 ○ After being promoted to assistant to the City Manager, Jordan was instrumental in securing funding for and developing the aforementioned Seminole Gardens housing project.22 Serving on the Palm Springs Housing Committee and active in community relations, Jordan worked to understand the needs of the Black community and other minorities and to develop a housing plan for Section 14 residents. ○ In June of 1987 while giving the commencement speech at Palm Springs High School, Jordan thanked Bogert for taking a chance on him and giving him a job with the city after college.23 (See Jordan photo) Low-Cost Housing Timeline Bogert worked “tirelessly” to find housing for Section 14 residents and to minimize the hardships caused by the evictions. ● January 1961 24 ○ Bogert asks the city for an “Urban Redevelopment Program” on Section 14. ○ The Desert Sun notes: “Mayor Frank Bogert...has sought to promote a minority housing development in the Palm Springs area” ○ Additionally, the Desert Sun claims, “since he was elected to the council almost three years ago, (Bogert) has been working steadily to get private money to build a low-cost rental unit project for (Section 14 residents), but the location of it has been the big problem.” ○ ‘'If it is too far from downtown, they can't get into town, and there just isn't any place they can go downtown,” said the Mayor. ● February 196125 ○ Bogert enacts a bond program for the purchase of land used for the airport. ○ Part of the justification for purchasing the land is not just for the airport itself, but for the development of low-cost housing as well. ■ Indeed, “The Mayor also mentioned that the purchase of the airport by the people of Palm Springs may solve many other problems which to date have plagued the resort community. One of these is the initiation of a low-cost housing project eyed for 21 Desert Sun, Volume 43, Number 282, July 2, 1970 22 CVRA Community Working Group — Report to Palm Springs City Council, September 27, 2018 23 Desert Sun, “Commencement speaker: You can go home again,” June 12, 1987 24 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 136, January 6, 1961 25 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 161, February 4, 1961 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A the north-east corner of the land. According to the Mayor, backers have approached the city seeking such a project.” ● March 1961 26 ○ “Bogert, in his official capacity as Mayor, has served a request to the FHA and HHFA to come to Palm Springs and discuss a federal housing program, especially in connection with their project 221, the replacement of displaced persons...Mayor Bogert said that the federal representatives have looked at a couple of parcels of land which could qualify under the requirements of FHA and HHFA.” ● May 196127 ○ He later stated that, although the city was rushing the slum clearance of Section 14, the city council was not interested in persecuting anyone, emphasizing that “The biggest scandal is that people are forced to live in these conditions, because we haven’t done anything about it.” ● June 196128 ○ Officials from the Department of the Interior visit Palm Springs to study the issues plaguing Section 14. ○ “Mayor Bogert assured “the federal officials” that the City of Palm Springs was doing everything possible to see that persons evicted from Section 14 were not made homeless.” ○ The assistant secretary of the Dept of Interior said he’d been told that “Bogert was vigorous in attempting to make welfare arrangements for the residents of Section 14.” ○ The biggest scandal," he maintained “is that people are forced to live in these conditions because we haven't done anything about it." ○ Bogert “told the assistant secretary that the city was doing everything it could to see low- cost housing was made available to the present Section 14 residents.” ● June 1961 ○ Bogert announces a six-month moratorium on evictions and demolitions in order to buy time to find housing alternatives.29 The BIA had previously issued a June 1961 deadline for Section 14 evictions, but Bogert negotiated a six-month moratorium with the BIA and landowners given housing options weren’t yet in place for Section 14 residents. ■ Bogert enacted this moratorium after hearing directly from two residents in Section 14 who said they came back to find their homes in ashes.30 26 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 182, March 1, 1961 27 University of California Press, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, February 2004, The Path to Paradise: Expropriation, Exodus, and Exclusion in the Making of Palm Springs, Ryan M. Kray.pg 108 28 University of California Press, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, February 2004, The Path to Paradise: Expropriation, Exodus, and Exclusion in the Making of Palm Springs, Ryan M. Kray.pg 108 29 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 283, 27 June 1961 30 University of California Press, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, February 2004, The Path to Paradise: Expropriation, Exodus, and Exclusion in the Making of Palm Springs, Ryan M. Kray.pg 108 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A ○ “A promise from Federal Housing Authority representatives to the City Council that action would be speeded to certify city eligibility for financing guarantees for low-cost housing, both private homes and rental property.”31 ○ Additionally, the Desert Sun states: ■ “Councilmen and members of the Planning Commission had been working more than a year in anticipation of a housing crisis in Section 14 when the June eviction deadline arrived, ‘I'm pleased to learn this financing could be rushed through,’ said Vice-Mayor Ken Kirk. ‘It’s shaping up into a definite program and it looks like no one will be actually displaced without getting a better home’…Kirk went on to credit Mayor Bogert and Councilman Ted McKinney with spearheading work on obtaining housing for families evicted from Section 14. “They've worked very hard on it.” he said. “It's good to see things moving along.”32 ● July 1961 33 ○ Bogert leads a special Citizens’ Committee to work on minority housing problems related to Section 14. ■ Among those named to the committee is the Rev. Jeff Rollins, a Black community leader and a friend of Bogert’s and and Berbon Abner, the head of the local chapter of the NAACP. ○ This committee had four functions: ■ Inform the community of the substandard conditions in Section 14. ■ Inform the community and those being relocated about the assistance they were eligible for under Section 221, which provided 100% financing for relocation with only $200 down. ■ Assist relocated families in finding alternative housing within their price range. ■ Communicate important updates and details to all related parties of Section 14. ○ The city submits a program for community improvement “made in support of the city's application for federal aid in relocation housing for persons to be moved from a portion of Section 14 marked a major step toward solving the problems of displacement, caused by area development” ○ The Desert Sun stated, “As Palm Springs builds for the future, it is working for adequate housing for its citizens.” ● Mid-July 1961 34 ○ Bogert endorses and advocates for the low-cost housing development plans of Lawrence Crossley, a Black city pioneer and close friend of Bogert’s. These plans included 150 low-cost, two-story units in Section 20. ○ “Mayor Frank Bogert, long active in trying to solve the housing problems of the minority groups in Section 14 said he thought the Gould-Crossley project would be a good thing,” ○ In fact, Bogert even pushed city council and officials to relax zoning ordinances to enable the Crossley development to proceed as quickly as possible: 31 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 283, June 27, 1961 32 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 283, June 27, 1961 33 Desert Sun, Volume 34, Number 298, July 14 1961 34 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 89, November 15,1968 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A ■ “I think we ought to stretch a point and let them have the zoning they want...Due to the housing emergency at the present time, we have to lean over backwards.” ○ Regardless of which low-cost housing projects the city approved, Bogert demanded that the new dwellings be suitable for the people of Section 14: ■ “Nevertheless, Mayor Bogert emphasized, he wanted to be sure any dwellings built for rentals would be good housing. “I don’t want to see another slum area. If someone is going to build a place for these people, it should be good.” ● August 1961 35 ○ Federal Housing Association approves a $2.5 million housing development for families displaced by Section 14 evictions. ○ The development was spearheaded by N & W Development Corp., whom Bogert had pushed to help find a solution to the housing crisis. Indeed: ■ “The Mayor, working tirelessly for a low-cost housing project, had asked (N & W Development) some months ago if (they) couldn't come up with a solution to the ever increasing problem of homes for the scores of people who are residing in Section 14 and who are presently on notice that they must move from their present homes to make way for a full-scale Indian Section clearance program.” ○ Upon hearing that the FHA and FHAA had approved this $2.5 million plan, Bogert “was elated. It had brought to an end the months upon months of studying for a solution to a problem which was only worsening with time.” ○ Unfortunately, the N & W project ultimately failed as the developers went through a period of “tight money” brought upon by a recession that had hit the country. This recession “set back many major housing and building development projects everywhere,” not just in Palm Springs. Additionally, the recession “was particularly harmful to the city’s plans for the immediate solution to the problems of Section 14.”36 ● September 1961 37 ○ The city and Frank Bogert secure a certification from the “Housing and Home Finance administrator proclaiming that Palm Springs has qualified for Federal Aid in its Workable Program for community improvement” ○ “U.S. Housing administrator Robert C. Weaver has determined that this community's program meets Federal requirements….The certification means that Palm Springs can proceed with its program, under federal assistance, to utilize appropriate private and public resources to eliminate and prevent the development or spread of slums and urban blight: to encourage needed urban rehabilitation; to provide for the development of blighted, deteriorated or slum areas, or to undertake other activities as may be suitable employed to achieve the objective of such a program.” ● October 196138 35 Desert Sun, Volume 35, Number 12, August 18, 1961 36 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 89, November 15, 1968 37 Desert Sun, Volume 35, Number 30, September 8, 1961 38 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 99, November 27, 1968 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A ○ Bogert and the city council “rezoned five acres of Section 20 for 120 low-cost housing units. Developer Robert Gould applied for a low-interest loan for the project and subsequently announced the city had qualified for it.” ● December 196139 ○ Bogert and the city rezone seven and a half acres in Section 34 for 200 to 250 low-cost housing units. The developer for this project unfortunately died before the project could get underway and the development was cancelled. ● 1961 40 ○ As detailed earlier, Bogert hires Charles Jordan as the city’s first Black employee. Jordan would go on to serve on a special citizens’ committee led by Bogert to assist Section 14 families with relocation. He was instrumental in securing the city’s first federally financed housing project in 1968. ● Early 1962 41 ○ “Certificates of eligibility for the Section 221 loan plan were distributed by the city’s building inspector.” These certificates were to provide financing for relocation for Section 14 residents. ● August 196242 ○ “The Palm Springs City Council last night ordered an administrative investigation and report on Section 14 burnings carried out under a Superior Court order last month. The council took the action after emphasizing that the city was not involved in the action, nor could it legally make payments for personal goods lost in answer to a plea by 72-year- old Mrs. Florence Fatheree for city payment for her house and household goods.” Bogert stated that the burnings had nothing to do with the city at all and was issue between the landlord and tenant. ● September 196243 ○ City approves plans for low-cost homes in the southeast section of town. ● Mid-1963 ○ “A judge struck down a proposed affordable housing project”44 ● January 1965 ○ When Indian agent Paul Hand stated that city sponsored public housing could be built on Indian reservations, Bogert asked “Where could you put this public housing?” asked the 39 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 99, November 27, 1968 40 http://takebackthetimes.blogspot.com/2006/10/memorable-50th-high-school-class.html 41 University of California Press, Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 73, No. 1, February 2004, The Path to Paradise: Expropriation, Exodus, and Exclusion in the Making of Palm Springs, Ryan Kray, pg 113 42 Desert Sun, “Section 14 Probe Set,” August 14, 1962 43 Desert Sun, Volume 36, Number 44, September 25, 1962 44 Desert Sun, “‘It was beautiful for the white people:' 1960s still cast a shadow of distrust over Palm Springs,” September 22, 2016 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A Mayor. There was no answer to his questions,” 45 demonstrating the difficulty in finding land for relocated Section 14 residents. ○ The city council approves 20 acres to be rezoned in Section 20 for 300 low-cost housing units.46 ● September 1965 47 ○ When the city needed to enact a “workable program” in order to secure federal funds for low-cost housing and when inspections to comply were lagging, Bogert pushed to accelerate the completion of tasks needed to qualify for the federal program. ○ “Mayor Frank Bogert however, pointed out that this would delay the program about 4 months and asked Aleshire to proceed as rapidly as possible with the inspection using present staff members...the proposed low-cost housing would be located in the lower half of Section 34. The city has also met most of its workable program requirements, including a master plan and zoning.” ● November 196548 ○ Under Bogert’s leadership, the city created a human relations commission. The commission was recommended, “partially because it is needed to fulfill provisions of a “workable program" the city has submitted to the federal government for low-cost housing aid” ○ Bogert, who was a member himself, appointed a multiracial committee, comprised of members representing various minority groups, including Rev. Rollins of the First Baptist Church, Eileen Miguel of the Agua Caliente Tribe, Rabbi Joe Hurwitz, and John Quinonez (a leader in the Mexican American community) and Wardell Ward (leader in the Black community). ○ This committee would later go on to study any complaints of the city’s Clean-Up campaign and to hear concerns from displaced residents. The committee was never able to verify a single claim of a resident not getting proper eviction notice prior to the City demolishing the home ● January 196649 ○ Even up until his last months in office, Bogert was working furiously to secure low-cost housing: ○ Bogert helped create and conducted a meeting for the human relations commission to “alleviate problems of minority groups in Palm Springs.” ○ Bogert “outlined some of the aims of the present committee. Among them, he said, would be its relationship with economic opportunity programs and with the city’s workable program which would pave the way for federal aid in low-cost housing developments. 45 Desert Sun, Volume 38, Number 143, January 19, 1965 46 Desert Sun, Volume 42, Number 99, November 27, 1968 47 Desert Sun, Volume 39, Number 44, September 24, 1965 48 Desert Sun, Volume 39, Number 97, November 25, 1965 49 Desert Sun, Volume 39, Number 131, January 5, 1966 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A In addition to his constant efforts seeking low-cost housing during his Mayoral term, Bogert even continued seeking affordable housing options after his term ended in early 1966. He did so by partnering with leaders of the Black community. ● May 5, 196750 ○ “Backed by city council support, former Mayor Frank Bogert today prepared to go to Washington in an attempt to obtain federal aid in low-cost housing for Palm Springs. Bogert, who has been working on a program for low-cost housing for 10 years, received a consensus of approval from the council yesterday at a study session…. Bogert will seek a 250-unit housing complex adjacent to the Gateway Estates and will try to get federal subsidies for a ‘Model Neighborhood Program’ which would include the housing project.” ○ “The former Mayor noted that the city has had a workable program for three years, an FHA requirement for aiding private developers in construction of low-cost housing. “There is a great demand for low-cost housing for the working force in the city,” Bogert told the council. “Something must be done for them.” ○ “Bogert pointed out that as a result of the Indian-owned Section 14 cleanup campaign many of the city’s hotel workers and domestics were forced to move to Banning and to Beaumont. “There were a lot of fine people moved out of Section 14,” he told the council.” ○ “(Bogert) said he had conferred with FHA officials in San Francisco on a 250-unit housing development. But, he said, they recommended only 60 units. This is far from sufficient”, he added. ○ “We’re not trying to create a paradise to bring in people from Los Angeles,” (Bogert) declared “but we do need enough to take care of our labor force. There is a terrific demand for housing for the working people.” ● May 18, 196751 ○ The “possibility of getting 180 units of low-cost housing for Palm Springs was described as good today by former Mayor, Frank Bogert, after conferring with Federal Housing Administration officials.” ○ “Bogert and a group interested in obtaining low-cost housing for the city returned this week from Washington where they met with officials.” ○ “With Bogert (on the trip to Washington) was…Rev. Jeff Rollins, pastor of the First Baptist Church.” ○ “He said the local delegation made the FHA officials aware of the Section 14 cleanup in which a large number of residents were forced to leave Palm Springs for Banning and Garnet and other nearby areas.” These residents, Bogert said, still work in Palm Springs and would prefer to live here.” ● August 196752 ○ Rev. Rollins speaks before the city council urging them to pass emergency zoning laws in order to facilitate Bogert’s proposed development project. 50 Desert Sun, Volume 40, Number 235, May 5, 1967 51 Desert Sun, Volume 40, Number 246, May 28, 1967 52 Desert Sun, Volume 41, Number 21, August 29, 1967 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A ○ The First Baptist Church and the Los Angeles Psychological-Social Center are co- sponsors of Bogert’s low-cost housing project. ● September 1967 53 ○ Bogert meets with school trustees to push for low-cost housing plans for displaced residents. ○ Bogert stresses to the trustees that “low-cost development is needed to house the city’s hotel work force.” ○ Furthermore, “Bogert said he...covered Palm Springs thoroughly to locate economically priced land for the low-cost development. The only place they could find, he said, was the proposed location.” ● November 196754 ○ City Council all but kills Bogert’s low-cost housing plans. ○ A council member “indicated the federal rent supplement program on which the development hinged, was untested “and there is no experience on which the city can rely. Federal Housing Administration regulations call for approval by the city council before funds will be allocated” but ultimately the city council disapproved of the rent supplemental program. ○ “Former Mayor Frank Bogert, who said he had worked for 10 years or more on getting low-cost housing for the area, said it was obvious the council wouldn’t listen to the proposal. Rev. Jeff Rollins, pastor of the First Baptist Church which would have been sponsor of the development, termed the action short-sighted on the part of the council.” 53 Desert Sun, Volume 41, Number 35, September 24, 1967 54 Desert Sun, Volume 41, Number 99, November 28, 1967 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A PHOTO #2 55 Bogert with the Rev. Jeff Rollins in Washington, D.C., in 1967. Bogert and Rollins went to Washington the year after Bogert left office to seek funds and approval from the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) to build low-cost housing for Section 14 residents. From the Desert Sun: Bogert “said the local delegation made the FHA officials aware of the Section 14 cleanup in which a large number of residents were forced to leave Palm Springs for Banning and Garnet and other nearby areas. ‘These residents,’ Bogert said, ‘still work in Palm Springs and would prefer to live here.’” 55 Desert Sun, pg 1, May 23, 1967 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A PHOTO #3 56 Bogert displaying a housing certification to city officials that he and the city were able to secure for Section 14 residents. This certificate would provide Section 14 residents with 100% financing for relocation with only $200 down. The “Housing and Home Finance administrator proclaim(ed) that Palm Springs has qualified for Federal Aid in its Workable Program for community improvement.” 56 Desert Sun, Volume 35, Number 30, September 8, 1961 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A PHOTO #12 Charles Jordan in 1976.57 Jordan, a former Section 14 resident, was hired by Bogert as the city’s first Black employee. Jordan was instrumental in the development of Seminole Gardens, the first federally funded housing project that was prioritized for Section 14 residents. From Palm Springs, he went on to have an illustrious political career, serving as Portland’s first Black city councilmember and city commissioner, running the Conservation Fund, and working with Bogert on Ronald Reagan’s President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. He gave the commencement speech at Palm Springs High School in 1987 and thanked Bogert for taking a chance on him by giving him a job in 1961. 58 57 The Astorian, “Former Portland City Commissioner Charles Jordan Dies At Age 77,” April 2, 2004 58 www.portlandpf.com 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A PHOTO #13 59. A Desert Sun article from May 18,1967. Bogert continued seeking low-cost housing for Section 14 residents the year after leaving office in 1966. The City Council at the time voted to reject this housing proposal. 59 Desert Sun, “Low-cost Housing Prospects Good,” May 18, 1967 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A PHOTO #14 60 Desert Sun article from June 27, 1961. Bogert negotiated a issued a six-month eviction moratorium with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau had previously issued eviction notices to 430 families with a June 1961 deadline. Bogert negotiated this delay after hearing directly from two residents in Section 14 who said they came back to find their homes in ashes. The delay allowed families to seek alternative housing options and for the city to continue its efforts to secure both public and privately financed low-cost housing. 60 Desert Sun, “Time-out Called on Section 14,” June 27, 1961 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A PHOTO #16 61 Desert Sun headline from August 18, 1961. The article states, “The Mayor, working tirelessly for a low-cost housing project, had asked (the developer) some months ago if he couldn't come up with a solution to the ever-increasing problem of homes for the scores of people who are residing in Section 14.” 61 Desert Sun, “$2.5M Apartment Complex Slated for Section 14 Families,” August 18, 1961 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 11:20:51 AM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2396297 IP Address:47.158.122.11 Submission Date:04/27/2023 11:20 Survey Time:4 minutes, 11 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre T Martin City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia Palm Springs, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) Email (optional/opcional) Your Comments/Sus comentarios I contend that there are better ways to spend $500k than on hiring a consultant to help develop a reparations program related to the Section 14 displacements. Maybe hiring more police. Maybe putting that money into cleaning up the city more. Please allocate the city's limited resources to helping the majority of city residents as opposed to small focal constituents. Hit the ball in the middle of the fairway, not on the fringe (of either side). Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Thursday, April 27, 2023 8:46:51 AM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2395647 IP Address:172.56.232.107 Submission Date:04/27/2023 8:46 Survey Time:2 minutes, 2 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Concerned Citizen City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia , Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) Email (optional/opcional) Your Comments/Sus comentarios No to the $502k reparations consultant contract. The people they want to hire have limited experience. In fact, one of the consultants is Robin Rue Simmons, who is charge of the botched Evanston so called reparations plan, where they are getting home refurbishments. And many of the ancestors for that program have died. I fear that the consultants (AARN) and Robin Rue Simmons (First Repair) are in it for a money grab. Also, the 502k would be paid out first to Columbia University, which has its own ties to slavery, segregation, and gentrification. People online are already starting to expose Robin Rue Simmons for grifting via this contract. Also the lawyer for the case Areva Martin is connected to AARN and First Repair, through her affiliation with NAARC and NCOBRA, so there’s profit to be made by all these groups off the justice Section 14 deserves. Please consider calling in against the $502k consultant contract. Maybe instead, ask the city for new RFP process since more pres Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Wednesday, April 26, 2023 6:15:58 PM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2394832 IP Address:47.158.6.110 Submission Date:04/26/2023 6:15 Survey Time:19 minutes, 15 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Vincenzo Bacarella City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia Palm Springs, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) 9517608412 Email (optional/opcional) vincenzob@adelphia.net Your Comments/Sus comentarios This is totally "REDICULUS ... NO REPERATIONS SHOULD BE PAID 60 + YEARS LATER TO PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW DEAD !!! DECENDANTS WHO NEVER LIVED THERE EVER !!! OR CARPET BAGGERS LOOKING FOR A MONEY GRAB FROM THE TODAY PALM SPRINGS TAX PAYING CITIZENS !!! THOSES PEOPLE WERE LEGALLY EVICTED & NEVER OWNED ANY PROPERTY THERE EVER !!! LEGALLY EVICTED & DID NOT LEAVE !!! & NOW THE PEOPLE WHO NEVER LIVED THERE WANT TAX PAYING CITIZENS TO PAY THE THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST AFTER A CASH GRAB FROM US WHO DID NOTHING TO THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE DEAD !!! TELL THEM TO GO TALK TO THE " AQUA CALIENTE INDIANS & SEE IF THEY WANT TO PAY THESE MONEY GRABBERS , BUT NOT THE CITIZENS OF PALM SPRINGS !!! NOT A PENNY FROM US , NOT NOW , NOT EVER !!!, TO OUR CITY COUNCIL , DO NOT EVEN ENTERTAIN THIS TOTAL MONEY GRAB EVER !!! THE COUCIL SHOULD JUST SEND THEM TO THE "AQUA CALIENTE INDIANS TO PAY AS THEY WERE THE " ONLY ONES THAT OWNED THE LAND IN THAT SECTION < NOT MONEY GRABBERS OR PALM SPRINGS CITIZENS NO MONEY EVER!! Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Wednesday, April 26, 2023 5:10:08 AM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2392383 IP Address:172.58.28.134 Submission Date:04/26/2023 5:10 Survey Time:11 minutes, 58 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Paul Hinrichsen City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia Palm Springs, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) 6262520440 Email (optional/opcional) LetsAll@GoBananas.net Your Comments/Sus comentarios The City is a defendant in a major related lawsuit, therefore professional experienced consultants need to be part of the process. It would possibly be considered negligence not to. I object in the strongest of possible terms of the use of description of this Section 14 eviction as a "Holocaust". My uncle was brutally tortured and murdered by the Nazis in a real "Holocaust", along with 13,000,000 others. No "Holocaust" has EVER taken place in or around Palm Springs. Leased land, Tribal or otherwise, remains a major investment risk to any and lease holders. This is true today as much as it was yesterday. Claims to the contrary are indefensible. Thank you for reading Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:City of Palm Springs To:City Clerk; City Clerk Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Date:Wednesday, April 26, 2023 12:56:43 AM Submit Public Comment to the City of Palm Springs Submission #:2392314 IP Address:76.93.227.101 Submission Date:04/26/2023 12:56 Survey Time:4 minutes, 46 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and must be viewed after your login. Full Name/Nombre Mike L City of Residence/Ciudad de residencia Palm Springs, Phone (optional) /Teléfono (opcional) 7604998940 Email (optional/opcional) Your Comments/Sus comentarios Quit the area 14 nonsense… it was redevelopment on Indian land … the tenants were told to relocate and many of them did … the city officials involved are all gone now and it’s unjust to assume all of them were racist or this was racially motivated… Thank you, City of Palm Springs This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:Diane To:City Clerk; Lauren Wolfer; Alyssa Chavez Subject:THURSDAY 4-27-23 AGENDA PUBLIC COMMENT Date:Tuesday, April 25, 2023 11:29:00 AM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Subject: Section 14—Racial Reparations? Fair and Balanced? I'm living on INDIAN LEASED LAND. Before you vote Thursday: I sincerely apologize for the length of this two minute read, but I BESEECH you to invest this time..it could save us all untold MILLIONS. Before jumping off the cliff and spending half a million dollars on figuring a way to blame one group for the misfortunes of another, please consider THIS: Section 14—Racial Reparations? Principally, Section 14 was and is wholly-owned by the Agua Caliente Cahuilla Band of Indians, not the City of Palm Springs. None of the Tribal Owners are asserting that their land was stolen or taken by eminent domain. Only tenant rental agreements with Tribal landlords were terminated, and structures remaining on Tribal land post-eviction legally reverted to Tribal ownership and were razed to make way for civic redevelopment. The Agua Caliente Cahuilla Band of Indians is a sovereign nation. In 1950, they paid no property taxes to the city, and they received no city services. In 1950, Section 14 had no city-maintained streets, sewers, garbage collection, spotty utilities, police and fire, or any other city service in this particular square mile of desert dirt in Indian Territory. Section 14 was little more than a flat sandy clearing dotted with a patchwork assortment of mostly DIY shacks, small trailers, unplumbed home-built sheds lacking foundations, electricity, or even indoor toilets. Makeshift dwellings could be hastily fashioned overnight, of random materials. Some residents lived in window-less mud huts with thatched roofs, and sheet metal lean-to’s. Rustic cooking over open flame posed a growing threat. All kinds of debris, old tires, pipes, crates, broken furniture and refuse piled up around Section 14, and stray dogs roamed freely. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A Tribal owners rented their vacant land to tenants —low income tenants, mainly month-to-month; typically just verbal arrangements. Tribal owners neglected to invest in their own property. They built no housing, no schools, and established no building codes. Tenants burned their trash wherever and whenever in open fire pits, despite dangerous desert windy conditions. Eventually, the litter, trash heaps, vermin, general lack of upkeep, non-existent public health and safety services culminated in many tenants refusing to pay rent to their Tribal landlords. Ultimately, in exasperation the City of Palm Springs enjoined the Tribal Council to meet and collaborate to invoke US Federal/Bureau of Indian Affairs slum abatement resources to eradicate blight on the surrounding emerging tourist destination of Palm Springs. The Tribe was enthusiastic about redevelopment. They recognized that a makeover would create a better long term lease-income opportunity for them, incorporate full Palm Springs municipal services, and rid their property of squalor. Soon, this move toward progress would result in area-wide job creation and economic prosperity for a growing population of an entry level and recent immigrant workforce. Developers would eventually construct casinos, resorts, and golf courses as foundational planks of a blossoming tourist destination. The Tribal owners’ tenants were slated to receive a 30-day Eviction Notice and remove their possessions. Tribal owners of some lots may have been notified, but not the actual party residing on the spot, since often no formal paperwork existed identifying just who was actually living on the land. As such, some residents may never have gotten notice and their claims deserve to be properly investigated, and they should be fairly compensated. Compensated for failure to grant adequate notice, and destruction of PERSONAL property, if their possessions were illegally lost or damaged. NONE of these residents had any claim to any “real estate”, or any improvement they had constructed upon the leased land, nor any “appreciated value”, since they never owned Section 14. Still other occupants simply refused to heed the 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A notices, refused to pack up their belongings, holding out till the bitter end in hopes, (until bulldozers were literally upon them)—that somehow they could halt the inevitable: the legally deeded rights of the Tribal owners to determine the usage of their own land. Yes, people lived there; yes, childhood memories of carefree times remain. Yes, Palm Springs “progress” caused uprooting and displacement. Yes, as families dispersed and relocated, they met with the prejudice that runs rampant in a world where different races, classes, religions and languages have always sparked resentment and rejection amongst each other. Yes, when clusters of makeshift homesteads however humble, are bulldozed and consumed by fire, the heart is saddened. Yes, of course eviction harmed them, and dissolved their sense of community by requiring that they relocate elsewhere. They did not WANT to vacate their unsafe, substandard living conditions…they were happy there, despite the detrimental effect on their own families, and on the surrounding community at large. Despite the hard fact that they did not own the land beneath their domicile, and were subject to the preeminent rights of the land Owner as to its disposition. Importantly, ANY improvement upon Indian leased land is constructed at the risk of the builder/owner, since it reverts entirely, without compensation, to the tribe at the expiration of the lease, even today, even in our most luxurious valley Country Clubs. From the beginning of time, society has been populated by haves, and have-nots. Through the fickleness of fate, some of us get no breaks at all. From the beginning of time, power versus poverty accounted for both human misery and human elevation. From the pyramids in Egypt, to the Colosseum in Rome, from the Taj Mahal in India, to the Great Wall of China, conquered peoples were cast into forced labor. From the serfdoms in England, and the feudal system, which made “indentured servitude” the Anglicized, sanitized word for enslavement—to the slave ships anchored offshore waiting for African warlords to deliver their captured enemies 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A into slavery in the New World. Our history as a species is stained with a deplorable legacy of taking advantage of the less fortunate. In the spectre of time, only most recently have some of the nations of the world come around to awaken to the concept of human rights. The people living in Section 14 had fewer options and lesser opportunity. They settled on land that they would never own. They paid less, and they got less. They lived in the uneasy situation of being subject to eviction whenever the landlord decided, their only legal protection being given 30-Day Notice to clear out, departing only with what was portable. Wouldn’t it be better to educate our community about the upsides-versus-the downsides of building anything on a leasehold? But for anyone to infer that slum abatement was racially motivated is nothing more than a bold- faced attempt to “history-shame” today’s Palm Springs citizens and “shake down” taxpayers who have nothing to do with past city-tribal joint efforts to create a safe and healthy environment in lieu of a dilapidated, rundown shantytown. To equate tenant eviction from slum conditions with the “Holocaust”, or the destruction of “Black Wall Street” in Tulsa, as has been touted by tenant advocate Areva Martin, reparations attorney, is simply ludicrous. To deem evicted tenants “survivors”, and to refer to the dismantling of hazardous domiciles as “atrocities”, does a grave disservice to legitimate victims of the Holocaust and victims of the Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Incidentally, the adjacent Cathedral City was becoming the “backyard bedroom community” to Palm Springs. It was considered the “suburb” catering to the emerging Palm Springs Hospitality Industry burgeoning labor pool. “Cat” City quickly became a welcoming home base to restaurant, hotel, and casino workers. Societies worldwide advance and develop by clearing away decaying habitats and replacing them with safer, cleaner, better human establishments in which to thrive. This momentum is surely always accompanied by the pain of disruption, and the loss of the comfortable and 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A the familiar for those impacted. The condemnation of private real estate in a municipal eminent domain action is generally accompanied by compensation, but the story of Section 14 is an entirely different set of circumstances. Tenants on Indian land were (and are) at the mercy of the land owner— when the landlord elected to evict, the tenants were compelled to vacate. Any improvement constructed on Tribal property would be forfeited upon termination of the lease/rental agreement, and lose any market value. As tragic as is this reality, it’s all perfectly legal. And it’s not one-sided: during the period of time tenants resided in Section 14, it’s the reason why tenants enjoyed certain advantages: They paid no property taxes, paid exceptionally low or negligible rent, and it's why they were exempt from a myriad of restrictive city ordinances. This was the trade-off for the security and asset appreciation of ownership. The story of Section 14 is not complicated. Low income tenants enjoyed a supremely low-cost living option. They paid a rock bottom price to rent a plot in a ramshackle area, and construct their own rudimentary accommodation, subject to no standards or requirements. They formed a community alongside others also willing to give up basic amenities in exchange for “low rent, no restrictions, no taxes, no commitment.” They also gave up the security of land ownership. They ran the risk of eviction, and forfeiture of anything they couldn’t haul way upon termination. The Section 14 tenants are neither victims nor “survivors”. They are evictees, and no compensation is due. YES, It’s too bad people were evicted. The landlord had that RIGHT. If anyone lost their belongings because they were not properly noticed, they should be reimbursed. Neither the city, nor the Tribe, and obviously not today’s Palm Springs taxpayer—has committed any wrongdoing of any kind. Stop internalizing guilt for other people’s misfortune—stop trying to ascribe blame. 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A People suffer hardships; it’s part of life. And it’s not your fault. DON’T pay a HALF MILLION to consultants re- writing history for financial snookering. Thank you for reading my letter. And thank you for your kind and generous dedication to the future of Palm springs. Diane McAlpine LIVING ON INDIAN LEASED LAND--MY BEAUTIFUL VILLA SUBJECT TO CONFISCATION AT LEASE EXPIRATION 714-552-0549 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A From:Christy Holstege To:City Clerk Subject:Fwd: Reparation Date:Sunday, April 23, 2023 9:24:00 AM Christy Gilbert Holstege, Esq. Councilmember District 4 City of Palm Springs Begin forwarded message: From: Elizabeth Smalley <e-smalley@sbcglobal.net> Date: April 22, 2023 at 9:27:00 PM PDT To: Christy Holstege <Christy.Holstege@palmspringsca.gov> Subject: Reparation NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. We strongly object to proceeding with a reparation assessment for section 14. This will open a Pandora’s box while ignoring much of the factual information from the time. The very biased LA Times article didn’t help! Please urge the council to take a deep breath and use common sense before putting Palm Springs in a situation it can’t get out of and cost the city millions of dollars. Thank you Elizabeth Smalley and Garth Gilpin Sent from my iPhone 04/27/2023 Public Comment Item 3A