Soto steps into mayor’s seat with a lifetime of purpose and a focus on Palm Springs’ future

The first time Grace Garner met Naomi Soto was at a Palm Springs City Council meeting in 2018 — before either of them held elected office. Soto had made a public statement, and noticing she was the only other person in the room her age, Garner went straight to her after the meeting.

“I went running up to her after and I just said, ‘Hi, we should hang out.’ And she was like, ‘Hi, my name is Naomi.’ And I realized I didn’t introduce myself. I just decided that we needed to be friends,” Garner recalled.

Not long after that encounter, Garner launched her bid for City Council, ultimately becoming the first Latina elected to the council and later the first Latina mayor. In December of last year, Soto, 40, became the second Latina to join the council as mayor pro tem, representing District 4. Wednesday evening, she will step into the role of mayor.

“Naomi has been just a really amazing friend, but also a leader in our community,” Garner said. “She cares deeply about making sure that Palm Springs is a place that’s equitable for everyone.”

A proud daughter of Peruvian immigrants and mother of two young children, Soto has a long history of advocating for marginalized communities and working on policies that improve the city for residents of all backgrounds and income levels. She has nearly 20 years of experience in public health, with a focus on adolescent health, reproductive and sexual health, workforce development and social determinants of health. In recent years she served as chair of the Measure J Oversight Commission and Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.

Soto moved to the Coachella Valley in 2011 after graduating from George Washington University with a degree in English and journalism to join the California Health Corps, an initiative that placed health professionals in schools to enhance health education.

She later worked at The California Endowment, helping build healthy communities in the eastern Coachella Valley, and served as director of programs for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, where she led asthma intervention programs in more than 5,000 schools across the Midwest, providing inhalers and other resources to children in need. Most recently, she became executive director of Californians for the Advancement of Midwifery.

Her organizational skills and focus on execution have been evident throughout her career.

“You can expect someone who is transparent, someone who is highly ethical and who’s competent in execution,” said Soto’s older sister, Margarita Soto. She noted that in addition to her public service, Soto was instrumental in growing her and her husband’s management consulting firm from $1 million to $10 million. “When she left, we had to hire five people to do her job.”

Margarita said Soto will bring that same rigor to the mayor’s office, never promising things that aren’t feasible and ensuring all decisions consider young parents, working-class families and residents of all generations and backgrounds.

“Bad governance for the sake of politics is something she’s never been able to stomach. She despises games and really believes in good governance and competence,” she said.

A self-described spreadsheet enthusiast, Soto has always been goal-oriented and organized, said her sister, who is 14 years her senior.

“She always knew who she was,” she said. “She was always very focused. I remember her being in middle school and saying ‘I really want to take this class because I want to be able to get into this program in high school so that I can get into this program.’ She was in sixth grade, and she was five steps ahead.”

When Soto was preparing for college, her strict father assumed she would attend a state school close to home. But her sister recalls Naomi sitting him down with a binder and giving a detailed presentation explaining why she should attend George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

“He was just so overwhelmed with her organization and her presentation and her knowing so thoroughly her path. So she went,” her sister recalled.

In high school, Soto was active in student government and worked on the school newspaper, where she met her husband, Brendan Steidle. While the two used PageMaker to build the paper together, something specific caught his attention. “She knew all of the shortcuts,” he said.

They didn’t become a couple until years later, after Soto moved to California and Steidle eventually joined her. They now have two young children and live near the intersection of Sunrise Way and Ramon Road. Together they used their journalism backgrounds to host a podcast, “Polilogue,” releasing 291 episodes from 2020 to 2022 analyzing issues dominating the news cycle.

What does Naomi do in her free time when she’s not raising two young children, working as the head of NGOs and leading the city? “Jigsaw puzzles,” said Steidle. In fact, that’s how he proposed to Soto, after presenting her with a fake cover, the puzzle pieces slowly revealed the question.

Soto is the youngest of five siblings. According to her sister, they grew up in a loving, mixed-status immigrant household surrounded by strong Latina women — a matriarchal, religious and community-centric environment with a strong moral compass. “We come from a family where showing up is super important,” her sister said.

They were raised watching their parents take in distant relatives and community members who needed help — a model that influences Soto’s leadership priorities today, particularly in economic development, housing and public spaces.

“Bad governance for the sake of politics is something she’s never been able to stomach. She despises games and really believes in good governance and competence.”

— Margarita Soto

“She’s very proud of her heritage, very proud of the immigrant experience, very respectful of the immigrant experience, no matter where people came from or when or where their parents came here,” Steidle said. “And I think she is very conscious of those sorts of issues, whether they’re the most recent movements of ICE and how that’s affected our community and our economy, or whether it’s just the opportunities that are available to people in our community.”

While the mayoral role in Palm Springs is largely ceremonial, with all five council members making decisions collectively, Garner said the mayor holds significant influence in running meetings and setting the tone for how the city responds to issues throughout the year. She said where Soto shines is making sure they are accountable to residents and staff and prioritizing agenda items with actionable steps and tangible results.

“I think that she’s going to bring that leadership in terms of thinking about things like: How are we moving forward with items on the agenda? Are we making sure that we’re coordinating properly with residents and with staff? Are we making sure that we’re not just moving forward with items that don’t really have a means of being implemented?” said Garner.

One of Soto’s top priorities is continuing to upgrade and maintain community amenities such as parks and libraries, ensuring they serve diverse populations and provide equitable access to resources and technology. She played a key role in the formation of People for Palm Springs Parks, which elevated the need for improved parks and contributed to new playgrounds and public spaces.

It was at a playground with her children and husband that Soto heard the blast from what was later identified as the bombing of a local fertility clinic. With Mayor Ron deHarte out of town, Soto, as mayor pro tem, was thrust into a highly visible position, representing the city at a national press conference the day after the bombing. Though she had been sworn in only months earlier, she had been an advocating for the community for years, and the moment showed she was prepared to keep residents calm, safe and reassured in times of crisis.

Another focus for Soto is strengthening community connections by making public spaces and city events, such as the farmers market, more inclusive and supportive of interaction among residents from all walks of life. She is also committed to addressing housing issues for people of all incomes, ensuring city services are accessible and understandable, and establishing clear standards for crisis communication.

“She really wants the city to function well for people. I think she’s excited about hopefully having an impact to standardize and make sure that these sorts of things are consistent and high quality,” Steidle said. “I think she’s probably hoping that’ll be a legacy that will live beyond her short one-year tenure — that the next mayor will inherit a city with more consistency in that respect.”

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