On Sept. 21, the Indio City Council held a meeting to discuss the upcoming month's agenda. Coachella Valley Times reached out to city councilmember Glenn Miller for highlights of the meeting.
Miller said that the biggest item was the allocation of $155,000 in Community BLOCK Development Grants which could only be used on things that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We decided instead of trying to figure out ways to use it, that we'd split it three ways and give equal portions to the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission, to Martha's Village and Kitchen and Find Food Banks for their operations," Miller told Coachella Valley Times. "So they get over $50,000 each to help with their operations, whatever their mission is, helping with homeless, part-time housing or food insecurity. So that's a great opportunity for those three agencies to get some more money and some more funding into their coffers to help those in need. So that was a great opportunity for us to be able to utilize that money."
The council discussed the redevelopment of the old Indio Fashion Mall.
"We sold a piece of parcel, a little over 19 acres, in back of the old Indio Fashion Mall which is now going to be the Indio Grand Marketplace," Miller said. "To be able to start the mall process of the expansion and part of that, which the city is keeping about five acres as we will be building a park and landscape the common areas up in that area to enhance it and start the process of getting the mall development going into the finer scale. Right now it was confined to just a little area in front. Now they've purchased all that property behind it and we'll expand the mall into those areas along with the five-acre park with the city below."
The council also went over their general plan, which serves as the guiding documents for city development and sign ordinances for businesses.
"We want to make sure that they have signage that is viable for them to make sure that they're successful, but at the same time, we don't want an overabundance of signs everywhere, neon signs, everything else that then becomes a blight to the community where it's just seems overly so," Miller said. "And we got that finished and accomplished, which made a lot of businesses happy because now they can know how they can move forward with their signage."
Also discussed at the meeting was community development grants for groups and nonprofits. The council had initially set aside $125,000, but since the city was able to save $50,000 from not having an election for two of the council members, the council decided to put those funds into the community development grant fund.
Local nonprofits can apply for up to $5,000 in funding through the city's Community Grant and Sponsorship Program starting Oct 1. More information can be found at the city's website at indio.org.
When asked what would be on the next agenda, Miller said that the council would turn their attention toward infrastructure, ordinances and the city's park system.
The Indio City Council meeting was held at 5 p.m. at Council Chamber, 150 Civic Center Mall. Meetings are currently held once a month on the third Wednesday of the month during summer. Meetings will resume on the first and third Wednesdays of the month in October.
The City Council Chamber is open to the public and city council meetings are conducted in person and remotely through Zoom. The public may view the meetings via livestream on the city’s website, Facebook Live or YouTube, or participate in the meetings through Zoom.
Glenn Miller is an Indio City councilmember and a well-known community leader and businessman who has called the desert home for more than 30 years. In addition to councilmember, he is also the district director for California State Sen. Melissa Melendez for the 28th Senate District.