When Col. Henry Washington did the first survey of Colorado Desert land in 1855, according to local folklore, he stood high on the east side of a water wash, gazed at the landscape around him, and commented that the rock formations resembled a European cathedral. The name Cathedral Canyon stuck.
Some 70 years later, four entrepreneurial gentlemen named Glen Plumley, George Allen Jack Grove and M.V. Van Fleet purchased the east half of section 33, township 4 south, range 5 east, from the Southern Pacific Land Company, and subdivided it into small lots. The subdivision was named after the canyon south of the proposed town. The name Cathedral City stuck.
On Nov. 8, the city’s voters will head to the polls to select the city’s treasurer, and City Council representatives in three districts—but only one of those races is contested: Three candidates are running in District 4.
The incumbent is Ernesto Gutierrez, who currently holds the rotating title of mayor as he closes out his first four-year term. Born in Mexico, Gutierrez came to the United States when he was 14, and attended local schools through his college years, when he earned a degree from College of the Desert. A real estate broker, builder and investor, Gutierrez has operated Tortillas Restaurant in Cathedral City since 1996.
Running against him is David Koslow, who was born in Virginia and educated at Yale University and the New York University Law School before moving to California. He lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for many years as an entertainment-industry lawyer and as an art-gallery owner. Koslow served as an administrator with several HIV and cancer-treatment facilities as well before moving to Cathedral City in 1992, where he has busied himself as an artist agent and fine-art photographer.
The other challenger is Rick Saldivar, an outreach pastor with the Destiny Church of Indio, and owner of a local childcare business. Born in Mexico, Rick was raised in Southern California as part of a working-class family. He’s been a resident of Cathedral City for more than 30 years. After experiencing his own brush with the legal system, he has established a successful anti-recidivism program, helping men and women re-enter society after being incarcerated. Saldivar has worked with public outreach groups that distribute food and other aid to low-income citizens and vulnerable local populations, like seniors and migrant workers. He is married and has three sons, two of whom are currently serving in the United States Air Force. Saldivar is working toward a bachelor’s degree in government with an emphasis in legal studies from Grand Canyon University.
The Independent reached out to the three candidates and asked them the same slate of six questions. Below, in alphabetical order, you will find their responses, which have been edited only for clarity and editorial style.
Ernesto Gutierrez
Why do you think you are the best candidate to be the District 4 City Council member for the next four years?
I think I’m the best qualified candidate, because I have a broad knowledge of business. From (being) a restaurant owner, to a developer, to being an investor, to mortgage loans, and to having my own business for 34 years, I have a broad business knowledge that truly helps our city and our residents in conducting and running our city like a business. Also, I have a common sense (approach) to helping people. So I’m able to balance not just the economic part of our city, but also, I’m able to balance the needs of our residents, and be compassionate with the residents when I make my decisions.
Having all my broad knowledge and experience has shown that our city, for the first time ever, ended up (this fiscal year) with a $7 million surplus. We have never had a surplus this large, and my knowledge of running a business has definitely benefitted not just our city, but our residents, too, because there are a lot of things that we can do with that surplus money. For instance, I’m a big proponent of fixing, repairing and improving our streets, which are in disrepair, so that’s a big thing. Another thing is that we can make sure that our parks, which are also in disrepair, are kept up, are maintained properly, and are in great shape. And of course, with that comes making sure that we help with programs that help kids, seniors and adults to stay not just active, but also help our youth stay out of trouble and have a better future.
What are the top two issues or goals that the city must address for the benefit and well-being of all the city’s residents?
You know, we lost a lot of our buildings to cannabis. Our city is in desperate need of creating ways to help the local businesses that we’ve lost, or that are about to be evicted from light industrial buildings. This includes businesses like body shops, auto shops, cabinet makers, artists and many different businesses that require buildings with square footage under 3,000 square feet. I was able to get my colleagues to come along, and we changed the zoning in an area to the north of the 7-Eleven off of Golf Club Drive (Crossley Road) and Ramon Road, where we have about 20 acres that have been changed from residential (zoning) to light industrial. That’s a huge, huge victory for our residents and our businesses in our city. That will allow businesses that are light industrial to open up and develop, which is needed by our residents.
Now the second step that I’ve been working with the city (to achieve) is to create an assessment district in this area, which the majority of owners of all these properties are in favor of. So currently, I’m working on having the city put out a request for proposals (to find) a company to assist us in getting the assessment district not only started, but also approved and completed and breaking ground as well.
The second issue we need to address is homelessness, which is a big issue. I’m trying to work with many of our local organizations, such as Martha’s Village, and we are really close with the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission (to whom) we already give money to assist us with any local homeless people who need to be housed. Or, if they reach out for assistance, we can actually help them, because we have this great relationship with CVRM.
Also, we have two designated police officers who work directly with the homeless. and what we want to do is make sure that these police officers not only talk to the homeless and try to alleviate this huge problem, but can try to get them help. And secondly, our businesses do have a big problem with homeless causing issues within their business or around their business. So I’m working really hard with our police department to make sure that we assist our local businesses in making it easier for them to conduct their business by visiting them more frequently to identify what their problems are, and then eliminate as many of them as we possibly can. That’s a huge and continuous problem that we don’t have the answer to, but we’re always trying to find some kind of relief to it. Our state doesn’t have the answer; our federal government doesn’t have the answer, but we are definitely in search of some ways to help our residents and our businesses and, of course, our homeless population.
The Desert Sun recently reported that Cathedral City had the second-most reported cumulative COVID-19 cases among the nine Coachella Valley cities, and the third-most COVID-19 deaths. As of Oct. 11, the Riverside County listed Cathedral City as having 37 cases of monkeypox, the second-most in all of Riverside County after Palm Springs. Could the city have done a better job of protecting its residents from, or responding effectively to, COVID-19 and monkeypox?
We can always improve on educating our residents, and looking back, we could have done a better job, just like the federal government could have done a better job of educating us about COVID. So in retrospect, yes, we could have done more, but we did our very best with the knowledge that we had at that particular time.
Now, with monkeypox, we are trying to work with certain segments of our population, and we are staying on top of it to make sure that we don’t see a huge spread of it. In some of our resorts here, we often have vaccination places for monkeypox, and at every City Council meeting, we discuss on an emergency basis what’s going on, not only with the COVID pandemic, and if we need to make any changes (there), but also with monkeypox. Fortunately, the monkeypox issue seems to be a little more under control, but we’re trying to make sure that we protect the residents as much as we can with the information that we do have.
Do you support or oppose Measure K on the Nov. 8 ballot, which would create a dedicated-funding source (a property tax) for expanding and maintaining Cathedral City parks and recreation facilities, and joining the Desert Recreation District (DRD)?
I support Measure K. Is it perfect? Very few things can be perfect from the get-go, but it’s as perfect as we can make it for the voters, and we definitely need to be a part of the Desert Recreation District. We are the only city without a community center, and without (the ability) to offer activities like those being offered by the DRD. A large majority of our residents are families, and it’s a relatively young population that have families with kids, so we have to do whatever we can to keep both our youth and our seniors busy, active and healthy as we can.
Many national economists are warning that an economic recession may occur in 2023. Do you believe that Cathedral City is well poised, and has sufficient reserves on hand, to withstand such an economic downturn?
Under my leadership, and (given) my business knowledge and the great decisions that my colleagues and I have made over the last two to three years, we have a very proactive City Council that is fiscally accountable and conservative. Our city has never ever had 50% of its annual expenses in revenue savings, and we also have a $7 million surplus. Our state of the city has never been in better financial shape, and a lot of that is attributed to not just myself, but that of my fellow council members. We have done an unbelievable job of being fiscally responsible. Having such an amount of reserves does give us a cushion, so that whenever we see that things are changing, we make the decisions on time to make sure we are not affected. We make adjustments given the revenues being received and the expenses as well.
What is your favorite “me” time activity?
With the little free time I have, I love to exercise, to go to the gym, and decompress from a lot that goes on in my life, with my business and with the City Council. It helps me refresh and reset, so every single day, I go to the gym. Also, golf is my second big hobby.
David Koslow
Why do you think you are the best candidate to be the District 4 City Council member for the next four years?
I have only one true opponent, Mr. Gutierrez, the incumbent. He’s made a mess of things with the police department. The Cathedral City Police Officers’ Association has put up a billboard and put posters everywhere they could, urging citizens not to vote for Mr. Gutierrez. The reasons for that dispute are a matter for the media to ascertain from the association itself. I cannot speak for them, but I do know that things have come to an ugly pass between Mr. Gutierrez and the police department, and this cannot stand. He must be removed simply to maintain order and comity with our police officers, who are essential to our being a city.
There are two other points. Mr. Gutierrez and four other City Council people voted for Measure K, which is a mockery. Here in this recession, and possibly an upcoming depression, you’re asking citizens to dig into their pockets and pay more taxes, so that they can outsource to the Desert Recreation District (DRD) the management and maintenance of their park, and the selection of their recreation programs. They did this without ever asking the opinion of the five-citizen panel of the commission on parks and recreation. So they just went over their heads, and they passed this, I think, on the recommendation of Charlie McClendon, who’s the city manager. They showed no independence of thought, and no realization that this was the wrong time to be outsourcing this park management. We had a parks department 20 years ago, and then it was disbanded 20 years ago. We need to have that parks and recreation department reinstated.
The third reason why I’m the best candidate (is that) I’m not going to allow the city to outsource our government jobs to third parties like Data Ticket, which collects the fines from citations for municipal code violations and vehicle citations. The collection of these fines can be done in-house. It’s very, very simple. We don’t need to pay 15% of those fines to Data Ticket to collect them.
Also, we need a complete review of our human-resources plan, because we’re the 84th most-populous city in California, yet the salaries of our city manager, city clerk and the other officers and members of the staff are way out of line. So we need to find the savings that will accrue from putting our human-resource salary schedule back in line with cities of a similar size. We only have 50,000 people in our city, and we’re paying salaries that are commensurate with a city that has 250,000 people.
Lastly, our cannabis sellers are struggling. They’re struggling because they’re losing their business to the Palm Springs cannabis sellers, so we need to give them a tax vacation, and we need to help them promote their businesses as much as possible. Mr. Gutierrez is in favor of banning billboards (from our city). That is crazy. We need to have a Las Vegas of billboards really pushing our local cannabis and our local sellers. We need to reduce our sales tax so that we bring more business to our local sellers. I have a passion about this.
That’s why I’m running, because no one else is paying attention. You know, when I went around my neighborhood to get the signatures for my petition so that I could run, I was surprised how many people have dropped out of voting all together. I see my campaign as informational. With the assistance of the media, I am getting a message across that things are not well at City Hall.
What are the top two issues or goals that the city must address for the benefit and well-being of all the city’s residents?
I think the city needs to revisit the short-term vacation-rental (STVR) ban. We’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water. The complaints about STVR properties have been that there’s excessive traffic, excessive noise or suspicious-looking people arriving. These issues can be handled by municipal code citations. They don’t need to eliminate the right of individuals to maintain their properties, and to utilize them as they see fit. This is the unknown factor in Cathedral City. We have a lot of people here who are part-time residents and are registered to vote elsewhere, or they simply own property here and are registered to vote elsewhere. So when the STVR ban was approved, it was done without considering the interests of people who have properties here, in other words are property owners, and may be only part-time residents and may mostly not be registered to vote (here).
So I would add that to my previous list, which is to repair the relationship between the City Council and the police department, and to establish our own parks and recreation department, and to eliminate outsourcing and correct the salary ranges of our city employees.
The Desert Sun recently reported that Cathedral City had the second-most reported cumulative COVID-19 cases among the nine Coachella Valley cities, and the third-most COVID-19 deaths. As of Oct. 11, the Riverside County listed Cathedral City as having 37 cases of monkeypox, the second-most in all of Riverside County after Palm Springs. Could the city have done a better job of protecting its residents from, or responding effectively to, COVID-19 and monkeypox?
In defense of the city, I believe that these public-health issues are not within their bailiwick. In other words, it’s not within the city’s portfolio. It is the responsibility of California’s Department of Social Services and the Department of Health Care Services. What has been effective in other epidemics, for example in San Francisco, is the use of visiting nurses to make sure that medications and vaccinations are occurring.
I think there are some related reasons why COVID-19 was higher in Cathedral City than elsewhere, and it has to do with poverty rates, homelessness and related issues. It was interesting that The New York Times reported recently that political affiliation also affects whether or not you received your vaccination. That’s something I’m not qualified to speak on, regarding how you convince someone who has decided—as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has decided—that vaccinations are all bad. They are distrustful of the government, and we’re living in an era of distrust.
There’s a theory in organizational psychology called parallel processing, and that theory (says that) when someone at the top of a ladder behaves inappropriately, it gives permission to people down the road at lower levels of the organization to act inappropriately as well. I think that’s what happened in America, and it’s regrettable. We had a president who acted inappropriately. He made a mockery of our public health system, and he laid the groundwork for people to become “deniers” of COVID.
So I’m going to say that this is an issue for the state and the county, and not for the city. But I would point out that we should do everything that the city can do to route people to the social-service opportunities that are available at the Department of Social Services on Perez Road. We have a local office there that accepts applications for emergency housing and for CalFresh food stamps. This is something that I’ve been proposing in my candidacy. We need to include in our police department licensed clinical social workers who work in the field with homeless people and with homebound people to get them access to the sources of assistance that are available to them. This is something that we can’t expect the police to do. They’re not trained to (provide) social services, and they don’t have the time to, so we need to add to the roster of our police department. In that respect, I think I am an innovator in suggesting something extremely important to be considered by the next City Council.
Do you support or oppose Measure K on the Nov. 8 ballot, which would create a dedicated-funding source (a property tax) for expanding and maintaining Cathedral City parks and recreation facilities, and joining the Desert Recreation District?
On a scale of one to 10, I’m, like, 2,000 opposed, and I have four reasons. First of all, the Desert Recreation District has made no promises to us about how they’re going to represent the interests of Cathedral City. At a meeting I attended recently, Charlie McClendon said, “Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it, because once we’re members of the DRD, we’re going to have people on the board of directors.” I don’t know how many people we would have, but it would be based on our population load compared to the total population of the other cities that utilize the DRD.
The second is that Measure K was passed without the City Council requesting the advice and consent of the five citizens on the parks and recreation commission. I feel that in itself was a failure of protocol that is deadly to Measure K.
Third is that citizens are struggling to put food on the table. They do not need up to $300, or maybe even more, added to their home tax bills. And I’m not sure how much businesses will be taxed. I notified Target and Stater Bros. and some other companies that they should take a look at this, because it’s going to affect them also. It may drive companies like Amazon, which has a warehouse here, and that’s very productive of tax revenue, to move their entire facility out to Desert Hot Springs. It’s the wrong time to be proposing taxes.
Fourth, and finally, I think that if a citizen wants to utilize the programs of the DRD, they can do so. We get these thick brochures of the different programs that are available, and for cities that aren’t a part of the DRD, all you do is pay a nominal fee to participate. And that is fine, but the programs are not really responsive to the specific interests of Cathedral City citizens. I think those are best represented by the five citizen members of the parks and recreation commission.
Many national economists are warning that an economic recession may occur in 2023. Do you believe that Cathedral City is well poised, and has sufficient reserves on hand, to withstand such an economic downturn?
I’m Jewish, and I really treasure the biblical stories, and the one I treasure the most is the story of Pharaoh’s dream. Pharaoh dreamt that there were seven fat cows and seven lean cows. Joseph, who had been sold into slavery by his brothers who were envious of him, was called upon to interpret the dream. He told Pharaoh, “We’re going to have seven years of plenty, and during those seven years, we need to fill all of our grain warehouses, because then we’re going to have seven slender years of need and want.” And there was a woman in the city of Troy who was the daughter of the king, and she was cursed by the gods. She could see the future. Her name was Cassandra, and the curse was that she could see the future, but no one would believe her. Occasionally, I feel like Cassandra, and I think the economists in this country feel the same way. We are headed over a cliff, and it’s not solely our fault or situation. It is worldwide. It’s Ukraine. It’s Europe. It’s Great Britain, with its decision to leave the European Union. It’s China, with its downturn in its economy. So, yes, yes, yes. We are in for a difficult time.
Now the good news is that this year, the city of Cathedral City recorded a $7 million surplus. How they did it, I don’t know. Why we can’t use that surplus to have a parks and recreation department, I also don’t know. But I do know that we need to be tightening our belts, just like every homeowner in the city is doing, and making sure that we’re not overstaffed, and that we have brought in house the functions that can be performed by our in-house employees. We need to be counting our pennies. To quote someone who jumped off a cliff, “The end is nigh.”
What is your favorite “me” time activity?
I have friends all over this world who I connect with. They’re professors at various universities. I’m writing a series of plays, screenplays and television series on different historical eras. It’s those interactions with these professors who are so generous with their time and with their knowledge that I treasure the most. So working on my writing and doing the research with the assistance of these professors around the world, that is my favorite activity.
Rick Saldivar
Why do you think you are the best candidate to be the District 4 City Council member for the next four years?
I’m best qualified, because I’m going to strengthen three areas in our city. One is strengthening our local government staffing, our police department and our fire department. I’ve learned the art of writing (applications for) grants, and have gained lots of funding for my organizations, and that’s what I’d like to bring to the table for Cathedral City. There’s a lot of money out there that’s untapped. Obviously, you have to find it, and then you have to write the grants, and you have to do the research. I have run across grants that could help my community, but from a resident’s space or a pastoral space, I cannot tap into them. But if I was an elected official with the backing of the city and the city staff, we could definitely go after some of these grants. If I could do it for my organization and gain hundreds of thousands of dollars for the work that I do, I’m pretty sure that I could do it for my community and bring in new funding.
I’m the better candidate, because I’m going to strengthen local existing business, and I want to legitimize in-house businesses. Currently, I’m working with 10 in-house businesses, and we hope that by the beginning of the year, they all become legitimate. These are people who sell food out of their houses, or do several business things out of their homes. We work with these businesses to become legitimized, which adds to (the city’s) tax revenue, and it ensures that everybody doing business in Cathedral City is legitimate.
One of the other things that makes me a better candidate is that, as an outreach pastor, I have endless resources with nonprofits and community-based organizations (that can) better our community by dealing with crime safety, and homelessness issues, and by fighting for those who are living paycheck to paycheck.
So, all these three areas make me a better candidate, because I’ve not only done this from a pastoral space, but I’ve done it from a resident’s space, too. But my reach only goes so far. If I was an elected official, more doors would open, and I would be stronger and have more resources to better our residents’ quality of life, and bring more resources to Cathedral City.
What are the top two issues or goals that the city must address for the benefit and well-being of all the city’s residents?
I’m not running on any issues. I’m running on strengthening. For example, we do have a homeless issue. What city doesn’t? Every city is facing the homeless issue. My approach is more a medical approach. If you look at our homeless population, there are people who live from check to check, and they are one crisis away from being homeless, or they have already experienced that crisis, but there are resources for them. The second and third part of homelessness deals with mental illness and drug addiction. Those are issues that I work with daily, and I have endless resources and connections. If a homeless person is approached, and they desire mental health treatment, or if they desire rehabilitation for drug addiction, I can have them picked up within a few hours. So, if that’s an issue of concern for residents, I have the solutions, because I do this for a living, and I have working relationships, phone numbers that I call. And not only do they give me preference, because my work has been so successful, they allow me to skip some of the bureaucracy in order to get these people help.
The Desert Sun recently reported that Cathedral City had the second-most reported cumulative COVID-19 cases among the nine Coachella Valley cities, and the third-most COVID-19 deaths. As of Oct. 11, the Riverside County listed Cathedral City as having 37 cases of monkeypox, the second-most in all of Riverside County after Palm Springs. Could the city have done a better job of protecting its residents from, or responding effectively to, COVID-19 and monkeypox?
I don’t know that I can speak to that. I can speak to what I’ve done with my organizations. Throughout the COVID pandemic, I was very active in putting programs together for the residents of not only Cathedral City, but the entire Coachella Valley. We were providing funding, or medical masks and sanitation materials, and I took it a step further by partnering with Riverside County Public Health (RCPH), and I started doing vaccine clinics and testing clinics on our properties. So, what did the city do? I’m not sure, simply because I wasn’t there. I was too busy doing other stuff for the residents, like the vaccines and the testing, giving out home kits, and making sure that everybody was taken care of.
Just recently, I got approached by RCPH to do a monkeypox vaccination clinic or educational (outreach), but we haven’t gone forward with that per se, just because I’m in the middle of this campaign. But that’s something I want to explore later.
My answer is that I really don’t know what the city did. During those two years of chaos that we faced with COVID, I was doing stuff to better my community from my pastoral space and my resident space. I didn’t have time to see what the city was doing. But if we should have an outbreak again, what I’d bring to the table are the working relationships I have with companies and organizations, so that I could say, “Hey Cathedral City, every Tuesday, we will have vaccines,” or, “Every Wednesday, we will do testing.” That’s what I bring to the table: real working relationships to solve real issues.
Do you support or oppose Measure K on the Nov. 8 ballot, which would create a dedicated-funding source (a property tax) for expanding and maintaining Cathedral City parks and recreation facilities, and joining the Desert Recreation District?
I’m raising three boys, and my boys all took advantage of programs that the DRD brings—for example, teaching them how to swim at an early age. But every time we had to do something, we had to drive to a nearby city (like) La Quinta, Indio, Coachella or Palm Springs, who had their own recreational center.
What I’m trying to say is that Cathedral City has nothing for our children. We have the Boys and Girls Club of Cathedral City, and they do an amazing job, but they cannot absorb all that our population needs for the youth. So I’m a big proponent of Measure K. I know people are riled up about taxes, but I have an 8-year-old right now who is looking to do sports. We’re minimized. Youth is minimizing a lot of activities.In 2015, I could not afford to pay for child care, and I had two boys who needed it. Desert Recreation District in Thousand Palms charged me $15 a week. Unheard of—just $15 a week to take care of my boys over the summer. Now, that’s valuable. So, for $280 a year extra (according to the measure’s tax formula) on my taxes, why wouldn’t I do that to help a fellow resident? Why wouldn’t I do that in hopes that we’ll have a recreational center that seniors and youth could go to? Why wouldn’t I do that? I spend probably $500 in coffee at Starbucks. That’s the way I look at it. I support it.
Many national economists are warning that an economic recession may occur in 2023. Do you believe that Cathedral City is well poised, and has sufficient reserves on hand, to withstand such an economic downturn?
The funny thing about that question is that when I saw our (city’s) projected budgets, we were $5 million in deficit. For a long time, that’s what the city had presented publicly, that we would end up in a $5 million deficit. What that did was start my wheels spinning, thinking, “Rick, if you win this election, you have to find the $5 million in funds from grants.” And they’re out there. They’re out there. You just have to find them. You just have to research them. You have to put the paperwork together, and it takes work. But I love doing that stuff. To me, it’s like playing the lottery. I’ve got the grant bug. I’ve written five grants, and I’ve been awarded four of them. The last one was $150,000 from the Sheriff’s Department to help men and women who need jobs after they’ve been incarcerated. I can find you grants, work them and package them, and bring funds to the city.
Now, somehow, the city came back out and said we have $7 million in reserve. I haven’t really researched where that came from. Still, $7 million is not a lot for a city to be prepared for a recession. So, that changed my proactive thinking to, “What other money can I find to add to that $7 million reserve if (a recession) does happen in 2023? How can I add to the funding of our city’s general account through grants, or use some grant money to offset the cost for some stuff, and not have to spend out of the general account?” The good news is that I have a good working relationship with three of our major elected officials: I work very well with Supervisor Manny Perez; there’s California Assemblymember Ed Garcia, who I also work very well with; and there’s Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz. These are endless resources for us to have in those working relationships, to know what’s coming down the pipeline, so that Cathedral City doesn’t receive a hard blow from the recession, if it does indeed happen.
What is your favorite “me” time activity?
I love law, and I love reading law. I love reading law books. I’m a student right now in my junior year of getting my bachelor’s degree in governing with an emphasis in legal studies, and I hope to practice law by the time I’m 55. I’m a late bloomer, but I think if I keep doing what I’m doing, by the time I’m 55, I will be practicing law. So my leisure time is reading law journals and spending time with my 8-year-old boy.