Overflow crowd debates elected mayor idea at first of seven Palm Springs meetings

More than 100 people packed the Mizell Center on Wednesday for the first of seven public meetings the city is holding on whether Palm Springs should move from its rotating mayor system to a directly elected mayor.

The City Council directed staff in February to research options for changing the mayoral position. The discussion gained urgency after the city received a notice in March for a possible ballot initiative that would create a directly elected, at-large mayor by putting the question before voters in the November election.

No formal proposal is on the table yet, and the issue won’t be on November’s ballot. Instead, a citizen working group is holding seven meetings across the city’s five districts — including one meeting in Spanish — to gather public input. Once the meetings conclude, the working group will consult with the city attorney and report its findings and a recommendation to the City Council, which will make the final decision about how to move forward.

Two invited speakers opened the meeting with 10-minute presentations covering each side of the issue. Lex Ortega, who served on the city’s 2017-18 California Voting Rights Act working group, argued that a rotating mayor drawn from council districts better represents a diverse city than an at-large elected mayor would.

“They won because they actually talked to residents,” Ortega said of recent close council races, contrasting door-to-door campaigning in council districts with the citywide reach a mayoral candidate would need.

Rich Gordon, chair of Citizens for An Elected Mayor, countered that an elected mayor would give voters a say they don’t currently have in who leads the city and would provide a single point of accountability for stalled infrastructure and development projects.

“Every four years, I have a mayor who I didn’t vote for,” Gordon said, arguing that major projects in the city need to be steered to completion and that an elected mayor could take on a bigger role lobbying in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

Gordon also saw a future mayor position that would also work as a spokesperson promoting Palm Springs tourism, all while keeping a watchful eye on major city projects.

During public comment, accountability arguments cut both ways. Opponents of an elected mayor repeatedly invoked past scandals involving directly elected mayors Steve Pougnet and Rob Moon.

“We had once an at-large elected mayor who also brought the FBI to City Hall,” one resident said, questioning whether an elected mayor would actually bring more oversight.

Proponents of a change countered, and pointed instead to a 2022 universal basic income grant program, funded with $700,000, that a grand jury later said was stolen by a nonprofit’s CEO.

Diversity also came up frequently on both sides. Several residents said they valued having seen a broader range of people serve as mayor since the city adopted district elections and rotation in 2018, including women and people of color. One recent transplant said she was inspired when she attended a city council meeting and saw Naomi Soto serving as mayor pro tem.

In the city’s 80-year history before district elections, Palm Springs had never elected a woman as mayor, and only ever had one person of color elected mayor. Since 2018, three people of color, two of them also women, have served as mayor.

Other speakers questioned whether any single elected mayor could realistically fill all the roles being described — lobbyist, spokesperson, tourism marketer, and watchdog over developers and grant spending. “I don’t know that you’re really going to get one person to do all those things,” said Lauri Aylaian.

Several speakers said they remained undecided. The next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 16 in District 5. Find out more about the upcoming meetings on the city’s website.

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