THE BUG BOARD AND THE PUBLIC’S MONEY: LESSONS FOR CATHEDRAL CITY.

After six years of service as Cathedral City’s trustee on the Board of Trustees of the Coachella Valley Mosquito & Vector Control District, I was replaced at the end of my second term by the mayor and her allies on the council.

However, while my time as a Trustee may have been a casualty of small-town council politics, I can leave knowing that the fiscal accountability I tried to bring about at the Bug Board may finally be coming. The Board’s unanimous decision not to increase its benefit assessment (that’s a tax, people) was a result of the scrutiny the District has faced since the Desert Sun awakened to the financial hijinks that had been happening.

Unfortunately, the District has still gone on to approve a padded budget that does not reflect reality, but first things first. If the those who were able to convince the council majority to get me off the Bug Board thought they had shielded their friends in District management, they have been disappointed in their expectations.

MOroever, the council majority has apparently not got the message that the scrutiny that came the Bug Board’s way can, and should, come the City of Cathedral City’s way as well.

As stewards of the public’s money, we are accountable. We do not honor either that stewardship or that accountability when members of the council, in this case the mayor, take what amount to taxpayer funded junkets. Some have asked me whether I am prepared to back down from my criticism of the mayor’s receipt of nearly $1900 from the City for expenses for a so-called goodwill tour to New York. “After all,” they say, “it was in her travel budget.”

My rejoinder is simple.

What is in a budget is public money; it is not to be spent wastefully, unwisely, or unlawfully. California law has some of the strictest guidelines in the nation about how public money may be spent. It is not to be spent to cover a partner’s or a spouse’s travel expenses, as has apparently happened here. It is not to be spent unless the expenditure is “necessary.”

That money may be budgeted for travel does not mean it is a blank check to be spent as an officeholder desires. It is to be spent for legitimate and necessary public purposes. Now the mayor has said that she spent this nearly $1900 to accompany Cathedral City High School band members to hear them play in Carnegie Hall at Easter, 2007. What is interesting is that Mayor Pro Tem. Charles “Bud” England also traveled to New York. But Mr. England is a band parent, and he traveled at his own expense.

Therein lies the rub.

Now let’s be clear about something. My criticism of the mayor’s use of public funds is not a criticism of the band. Our high school band members are some of the most marvelously talented young artists it has been my good fortune to meet. For many of them, playing Carnegie Hall will be something they will tell their grandkids about, and I am tremendously proud of all of them.

However, part of growing up is learning that travel costs. The band members and their families -including the aforementioned Mr. England- had to travel at their own expense. Because no matter how special the opportunity to play Carnegie Hall may have been, California law -for better or for worse- still does not regard such a trip as “necessary” for the purposes of spending public money.

So, if the band members’ trip to New York did not constitute the kind of “necessary” travel that would justify spending public money, then neither can the mayor’s travel be so classified. Yet, the mayor chose to present nearly $1900 in reimbursement requests to the City, and the city did in fact reimburse her.

Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

Something is wrong when a majority of the council does not object to spending close to two grand to subsidize a “good-will tour” to New York, while it complains about other members' travel at public expense to Los Angeles on public business to participate in the public activities of official regional planning bodies. Our priorities are not in order when the mayor junkets to New York on a nonpublic purpose, but travel for a public purpose to Los Angeles is now off limits.

We should take a lesson from the continuing scrutiny of the Bug Board. Legitimate travel should never become a political football; unnecessary or unlawful travel should never happen at all.

MORE ABOUT THE BUG BOARD TO FOLLOW.

HEEEE’S BAAAAACK!

After a long hiatus, occasioned in equal part by some family issues and by Blogger.com’s new lashup with Google, which has made it hard to post, I’m back with some random thoughts as we prepare to leave Spring, 2007 behind us and head in to the scorching days of summer.

THE ELECTION IS OVER: ONWARD WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!

The dust has settled, the voters have spoken, and another election is over here in Cathedral City.

While voters returned incumbent mayor Kathleen DeRosa, incumbent councilmember Chuck Vasquez, and I to our seats on the City Council, they decisively rejected -by more a than two-to-one margin- Measure Q, a proposed sales tax hike that would have raised the levy on sales in Cathedral City by nearly ten percent.

As the only councilmember who opposed Measure Q, I am gratified that the majority of Cathedral City voters shared my view that a sales tax hike would have penalized both residents and businesses alike, putting Cathedral City at a permanent competitive disadvantage. However, the fact remains that Cathedral City does need to enhance its revenue.

Measure Q’s failure needs to be a wake-up call to the City that we must push aggressively forward on projects now in the pipeline that will enhance our municipal bottom line. We must redouble our efforts to surmount the final hurtles that stand in the way of our Sheraton Desert Cove resort project, and in the way of the downtown boutique hotel project. Those two projects alone have the potential to bring in more than $2m to the City’s coffers annually. We have no excuse now for not being proactive.

We need to be equally proactive in setting the groundwork for development north of Interstate 10. Having brokered a compromise that strikes an adequate balance between conserving fragile desert ecosystems and allowing for crucial economic development, I believe there is no time like the present to get going with development. Our long-term prosperity lies in creating synergies for success in our northern frontier.

Our future is an exciting one, if we have the gumption to make it so.

I NEED YOUR HELP, MY FRIENDS

With just thirty days remaining until the election, things are heating up in Cathedral City, and I Need Your Help.

Notwithstanding my documented track record of achievement for the people of Cathedral City, anti-progressive forces that want to roll back everything we've accomplished are mounting a determined effort to get me off the City Council come November.

To those people, it does not matter what the track record of my four years on the Council is. To them, it’s about personalities and ideology.

But while they’re fretting over ideology, I’ve been working. Some of the achievements I can be proud of are:

● Our Downtown Energy Savings and Conservation Project will save taxpayers tens- even scores-of millions of dollars over the estimated 40+ year life of the project, will keep more than 500 tons of noxious pollutants out of our air every year, and help make America stronger by helping reduce our consumption of nonrenewable foreign fossil fuels. All this at zero financial risk to the City. Those who are seeking to drive me off the council opposed the project.

● When some sought to use the Coachella Valley Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plan keep us from developing north of Interstate 10, I helped broker the deal that struck an appropriate balance between conservation and safeguarding our City’s economic future.

● When I took office, we had a parks/parkland shortfall of more than 120 acres. On my watch, we’ve eliminated that deficit, acquiring more than 140 acres of parklands for our expanding future.

● I’ve never stinted on making sure that public safety remains as well-funded as we can make it. I’ve held the line on staffing and consistently voted to make sure our public safety personnel have the tools they need to keep the community safe.

● On my watch, we are moving forward with our Sheraton Desert Cove resort. It will be a union facility -the only one in Riverside County- paying good union wages and providing good union benefits to Cathedral City workers. If the anti-progressive forces that want to get rid of me get their way, the resort may well be cancelled.

While some of my colleagues don’t think it’s important to cherish the diversity of a City that has large Latino, senior, and GLBT communities, I do. The candidate they want to replace me with does not, and uses code words that convey clearly his view that Cathedral City should not welcome its GLBT residents.

The good news is that I am receiving expressions of support from all over Cathedral City and the Coachella Valley. I am pleased to be able to say that I am endorsed, among others, by Cathedral City Mayor Pro Tem. Greg Pettis, by Democratic Congressional candidate David Roth, by Coachella Mayor Pro tem Juan de Lara, and by former Cathedral City Councilmember Sarah DiGrandi, who was my immediate predecessor on the city council.

The bad news is that those who want me gone are outraising and outspending me by a factor of more than 3-1. That shouldn’t surprise anybody. Anti-progressive forces always have more money, and in this race, they’ve been supported by wealthy developers.

I need your help if I am to keep getting our message of achievement and inclusion out to the community. Though we have raised close to $25,000 already, the opposition keeps raising money faster. We need to raise another $25,000 between now and October 30 to stay competitive and keep the electorate informed. Every contribution, no matter what size, helps. There are no contribution limits in this race, and thus no limit to your generosity.

And it is to your generosity that I am appealing, as well as to your commitment to progressive, city-building values. What we have accomplished in Cathedral City is largely the result of those values in action. We can't let what we've worked so hard to accomplish be dismantled.

If you haven't contributed, but would like to help
If you've already contributed, but are willing to contribute again
If you've contributed all you can, but are willing to volunteer or (in Cathedral City) to display a yard sign.
If you're willing to send a link to the blog (www.councilmembermarchand.blogspot.com) to like-minded friends.

Your support will be greatly appreciated.

Contributions can be mailed to:
COMMITTEE TO ELECT PAUL S. MARCHAND
No. 1245357
68-860 Perez Road, Ste. F-1
Cathedral City, CA 92234

Thanks,

Paul

THINKING ABOUT AMERICA'S NATURAL TREASURES: THE CASE FOR RESOURCE ADVOCACY TO INSURE RESOURCE ADEQUACY

Last Saturday, I attended the quarterly meeting of the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Advisory Committee, to which I was recently appointed by outgoing Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton.

Visually, it’s hard to miss the Monument. Anybody looking to the hills back of the Cathedral City Cove is looking into the Monument, and anybody who has ever driven Highway 74 out of Palm Desert into the mountains toward Highway 371 or onward to Idyllwild has driven through the Monument as well.

To become acquainted with the Sta. Rosas and the San Jacintos is to become aware that they represent a national treasure. Of course, every national treasure is unique in its own way, but it is unusual to have so many different biomes and climate zones in a relatively small area.

From the desert floor in the Coachella Valley, the mountain massif rises more than 10,000 feet to the peak of Mt. San Jacinto in less than seven horizontal miles, making it one of the steepest escarpment formations in the world. As one climbs from the floor of our Valley to the alpine reaches of the upper parts of the San Jacinto range, one passes from desert to scrub and chaparral to intermediate forest, and finally to truly alpine flora and fauna. It bears repeating that in no other part of California or the country is so much environmental diversity showcased in so relatively compact a space.

What is even more amazing, however, is that the Monument must accomplish a wide variety of goals on a shoestring. With hundreds of square miles to consider and with barely $1.5m per annum at its disposal –-and with even that relatively small amount at constant risk as Congress and the White House do their annual dance of the budget–- the resources available to the monument can be put in context by noting that the Monument could be funded twenty times over with the money the Navy or the Air Force spend to acquire a single fighter plane.

Of course this is not to suggest that we should shortchange the defense function. The old bumper sticker "wouldn’t be nice if every school had billions of dollars and the Air Force had to hold a bake sale" may play well in some quarters, but it ignores the importance of a strong and credible national defense.

Rather, pointing out that the Monument’s resources amount to about one-twentieth of a fighter plane is to suggest that this nation’s parks and monuments –which are some of the very things those fighter planes exist to defend- are being shortchanged. Congressional parsimony -and a reluctance to spend money on what are viewed as "nonessential" government functions- have tended to flow into a common channel to leave America’s national parks and monuments without truly adequate resources to do the job they were intended to do, leading to deferred maintenance, insufficient capital investment, and to increased use charges that create invidious class-accessibility barriers to what should be the common possession of all Americans, irrespective of their socio-economic status.

Clearly, resource adequacy for monuments and parks requires resource advocacy for monuments and parks. To insure that parks and monuments do not continue to be shortchanged, two things need to happen. First, the constituency for monuments and parks needs to be broadened. For too long, it has been easy to stigmatize the parks/monuments constituency as nothing more than a loose congeries of scientists, park/monument users, and "tree huggers." Given such a view of the park/monument constituency, there is an almost ineluctable tendency among the political class inside the Baltway -men and women who pride themselves on being "hardheaded realists," unburdened by any squishy, sentimental attachment to America’s natural wonders- to regard protecting such natural wonders as at best a frill, and at worst, a philosophical affront.

Developing a broader constituency for parks and monuments will require reawakening Americans at large to the importance of parks and monuments in our society. As America becomes a more crowded place, the case for preserving not only our natural wonders, but also the sites and scenes of our heritage, ought to become more compelling every year. But it is not enough to assume that simply because the clear logic of the case for resource adequacy is so compelling, the public will spontaneously do the math and arrive at the right conclusion. To the contrary, experience demonstrates that the constituency -or the potential constituency- must be educated and guided to an understanding of the integral role parks and monuments play in our national life. In short, we must change the tenor of the national conversation about parks and monuments.

Of course, the national conversation being what it is -in which scientists, government officials, politicians, and environmentalists all excite some measure of popular suspicion- a considerable part of the impetus for positive change will need to come from change drivers from outside such groups. It is for this reason that broadening the constituency is a crucial step in creating a climate in which broad-based, transpartisan resource advocacy targeted toward establishing long-term resource adequacy can take place.

For the moment, however, the situation continue to be one in which America’s monuments and parks will have to make do with what is available. Here in the Desert, that means leveraging resources, all the while knowing that the fighter jet that just winged its way overhead represents as big an investment of taxpayer dollars as twenty of the Monument.

COUNCILMEMBER MARCHAND HONORED AS ELECTED OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR BY AMVETS POST 19 /VETERANS FOR PEACE

On Memorial Day, Councilmember Paul S. Marchand was honored by Amvets Post 19/Veterans for Peace as "Elected Official of the Year" at a Memorial Day luncheon at the Villas Resort in Cathedral City, California.

Receiving this honor is a wonderful surprise for me,. I had no idea that I was being considered for the award until recently. What is especially touching is knowing that last year's honoree was Palm Springs Councilmember Ginny Foat, whom I consider a good friend. It is truly special to be in such wonderful company.

In addition to being a very special award for me because it was unsought, unexpected, and unanticipated, the award is also special because so many friends and supporters came out to be present for its presentation. The luncheon at the Villas was sold out, and I was especially honored to have the company of David Roth, running in the Democratic Congressional primary in the 45th Congressional District and Assembly candidates Steve Clute (80th A.D.) and Dr. Rita Ramirez-Dean (65th A.D.) I was also grateful for the presence of Cathedral City Mayor Pro Tem. Greg Pettis and Desert Hot Springs Mayor Pro Tem. Gary Bosworth, as well as that of Laurie Stalnaker from the Central Labor Council, Joe Duffle from UFVW Local 1167, Chuck McDaniel from IBEW 440, former 45th CD candidate and now Democrats of the Desert president Elle Kurpiewski, and so many other friends, family and supporters.

Finally, a further word of thanks to post commander Tom Swann and the members of AmVets Post 19 and Veterans for Peace for selecting me to receive this honor.

Being named Elected Official of the Year represents a challenge to me to continue working as hard as I can for my constituents.

Remarks Given at Luncheon (Revised and Extended)


In the venerable tradition of the Congressional Record, I take this opportunity to "revise and extend" my off-the-cuff remarks from yesterday:

Brothers and sisters, hermanos y hermanas, the most special gift of all is the one that comes as a surprise.

This award is special to me because it was unsought, unexpected, and unanticipated.
It is also truly special to me because so many of you have taken time out of your holiday to be here.

On this memorial day, it is not only appropriate that we remember those whom we have loved but see no longer, who have fallen in this country’s service, but also that we ask basic questions about this nation’s foreign policy.

Let me preach heresy and sedition for a moment by suggesting that we can never allow our foreign policy to foreclose the military option. Diplomacy needs the threat force to be credible, and the military solution can never be taken off the table.

However, the current administration seems to have embraced a polity of taking diplomacy off the table, of reaching the military solution first, last, and always.

On this Memorial Day, I submit that we have not only the right, but in fact the duty, to insist that if we are going to send our young people off to foreign lands to face foreign shot, foreign shell, foreign steel, and foreign fighters, we do so in the service of a well thought out policy that has a coherent beginning, middle, and exit strategy.

We must not allow the precious lives of our citizen soldiers to be regarded as inconsequential things, to be put at risk or in harm’s way upon the mere whim or caprice of whatever administration occupies the White House.

Yet, what can we do in local politics to influence foreign policy?

The Russians have a proverb: God is high, and the Tsar is far away.

So too in America, God is high, and Washington City is far away.

Yet we have tools to shape policy that the subjects of the Romanov Dynasty did not, and incrementally, city by city, county by county, state by state, region by region, the citizens of this nation can begin to address the single most deranging factor in our foreign policy, and that is our dependence on nonrenewable foreign fossil fuels.

If we are to wage peace, we must wage war on extravagant energy consumption. Too many of our fuel sources are in the hands of Middle Eastern rulers, or Venezuelan colonels who bear this country no love, and do not have her best interests at heart, and whose people are in the street, shouting "death to America," or "abajo los Estados Unidos."

For us in Cathedral City, waging war on energy extravagance has taken the form of embracing the Downtown Energy Initiative that I brought to my Council colleagues three years ago, and which has been in operation since last October.

It is a combination of energy-efficient best practices designed to enhance the City’s energy efficiency and capital improvements, which take advantage of the clean, environmentally green, abundant light of the sun, to save the city nearly $200,000 per year on its energy costs. This long term is a win-win-win-win.

For starters this long-term(at least 25 year) program will potentially save Cathedral City tens or even scores of millions of dollars over the next two to three decades. Once the initial capital costs have been recovered, which should happen in as few as nine years, the City will enjoy ever-increasing savings on its energy costs as those costs continue to rise.

Second, the Downtown Energy Savings and Conservation Initiative will remove more than 500 tons of noxious pollutants from our city’s atmosphere, helping Cathedral City and Southern California as a whole incrementally attack its malodorous reputation as being one of the most polluted regions in the country.

Third, we are setting an example to other California cities and to our own private sector that solar power is not a pipe-dream, but that it can be an important part of an energy reducing strategy that reduces costs and consumption at the same time.

Finally, by helping reduce overall demand on fossil fuels, Cathedral City’s energy conservation initiative helps enhance this country’s energy independence, helping to making this nation stronger, safer, and more secure.

And I can’t think of a better way to honor the sacrifices of those whose lives we celebrate today than to work to reduce the drivers of conflict by reducing the energy dependency that engenders such conflicts in the first place.

Let me thank Tom Swann and AmVets 19/Veterans for Peace for this award. Let me thank all of you for coming to be here today. Let me thank those both living and dead, who have served this nation and defended her cause.

God bless you, God bless Cathedral City. God Bless America.

WELCOME

Welcome to my Cathedral City Blog.

Simply put, the purpose of my Cathedral City Blog is to make information available to the community. During my nearly four years on the Council, I have always tried to insure that Cathedral City’s municipal government is as open and transparent as possible; democracy needs openness if it is to survive.

In succeeding posts, I’ll be making an effort to keep the community up-to-date on important local events and happenings, as well as offering commentary on them.

ABOUT ME
(Taken from my biography as published on the City's website, http://www.cathedralcity.gov)

Born and raised in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills, Councilmember Paul S. Marchand was a Coachella Valley visitor and resident for more than a decade prior to his election to the Cathedral City City Council in November, 2002.

Before election to the City Council, Paul was a consistent advocate for an inclusive community that respects all of its members. He has been a longtime community activist in Cathedral City, serving most recently (1999-2002) as President of the Palm Springs/Desert Communities Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays).

In addition to serving Cathedral City's residents as a Councilmember, Paul has represented Cathedral City on the Board of Trustees of the Coachella Valley Mosquito & Vector Control District since April, 2001, and currently represents the City on the Human and Community Resources Committee of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments (CVAG), as well as on the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy Board. He also serves as CVAG’s representative to the Energy & Environment Committee of the Southern California Association of Governments.

Here at home, Paul was a key participant in the City's community revenue dialogue, in which Cathedral City residents from all walks of life came together to try to develop a workable strategy for securing vital revenue for financing needed municipal services. Earlier, Paul advocated in favor of, and helped mobilize support for, Cathedral City's first-in-the-Valley Domestic Partnership Ordinance. Paul has also served on the Palm Springs Desert Sun Diversity Advisory Committee and with the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission's Police Advisory Committee.

Among Paul’s significant legislative achievements on the Council are his Downtown Energy Savings Initiative, by which the City is realizing nearly $200,000 a year in direct and indirect savings on its energy costs, as well as using the clean, “green,” abundant and environmentally-friendly light of the sun to generate electricity for our City Hall, as well as Cathedral City’s “Matricula Consular” ordinance, which affords our public safety agencies an additional investigative and Homeland Security tool by permitting limited use of the Mexican consular identification card for identification. In the fall of 2005, Paul brought forward memorial resolutions honoring the late Simon Wiesenthal and the late Rosa Parks. Their unanimous adoption by Council put Cathedral City on record as the only Coachella Valley city to honor these great exemplars of the human spirit.

Prior to relocating permanently to Cathedral City, Paul was involved with the Bill of Rights Bicentennial Project and with the State Bar of California's Barristers' Hospice AIDS Project. While living in Los Angeles, he was also active in lay ministry in the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles.

Paul Marchand, a licensed attorney since 1989, received his law degree from the Valparaiso University School of Law, in Valparaiso, Indiana, and his Bachelors from Vanderbilt University, of Nashville, Tennessee. His offices are located in Cathedral City. Paul's parents and his aunt also call Cathedral City their hometown.

A NOTE CONCERNING COMMENTS

Please be aware that while I do appreciate feedback from the community, this blog will be moderated, and if comments are received that, in my view, transgress the bounds of decency or good taste, are defamatory, or are not germane to the mission and purpose of the blog, I do reserve the right to remove such postings