Candidate Q&A: Desert Hot Springs City Council Candidate Yvonne Parks

Name: Yvonne Parks

Age: 79

Occupation: Former mayor of Desert Hot Springs/retired

Interview: In person

1. Describe the city’s current budget situation. How do you plan to balance the budget and take care of the city?

I think the council has done a pretty good job of just cutting everything. I would have done things a little differently had I been re-elected. What I would do—and what they didn’t do—is aggressively pursue economic development. We had five employers sitting there waiting to come into the city, and no one contacted them during these last two years. We had a hedge-fund person who was going to build a 3 million-square-foot distribution center at Interstate 10 and Indian, and a hotel that was going to go in down there, and they were also going to put in their own sewage and water. Nobody pursued Applebee’s, and they were very close to coming, and they just needed the right site. That’s the first thing I would do: Get more revenue, because there’s no problem in this city that revenue won’t help.

I’d also aggressively pursue the grant program. We wrote $5 million in grants and got $3 million out of it. You also have to have a plan, and you can’t lead without a plan; you also need a vision, and then you set benchmarks. What do you want this city to look like in five years? 10 years? We had a vision two years ago, and we knew what we wanted.

2. Aside from hiring more officers, what can be done to tackle DHS’ crime rate? 

We have to get community-based policing back—that worked! When we had that, our crime rate came down, because people got active. They participated, and we had the city separated into four quadrants with specific officers assigned to them, and the people who lived in those quadrants got to know their officers. We need to get back to that and back to where the community feels safe and connected to the police department. Also, the youth are doing a lot of the daytime crimes such as the burglaries. They should be in school, and they’re doing things while people are out at work. We need to put unmarked cars in those areas, and it’s going to show, because the crimes are reported, and (they’ll) look at this map and say, “They’re targeting this area.”

3. How do you plan to attract new businesses to Desert Hot Springs?

First of all, I would put together an aggressive economic development committee, and I would work with the chamber of commerce. They know the entrepreneurs, and they know the businesses that would be willing to come in. Work with Walmart and get them in here. Walmart is an attractor, and I don’t care what the detractors have to say. You look at all these areas in the Coachella Valley with a Walmart, and pretty soon, you’ll have Ashley Furniture, PetSmart, Kohl’s, and they gravitate there, because they know there’s going to be foot traffic in and out of Walmart, and they want to be close. They want to take advantage of it.

I also know the owners of the 70 acres at the corner of Dillon and Palm on the southeast corner. Two years ago, they were planning to bring in a nice development with Target as an anchor store, and that fell through because no one followed up. I want to bring in for the youth a (John’s Incredible Pizza); it’s like a huge building, and one half is the food and all of these little rooms where you can entertain, and on the other side for $35 a year, per kid, there’s a two-lane bowling alley, bumper cars and every kind of arcade you can ever imagine. It’s a matter of rekindling and giving those leads to the economic development committee.

4. DHS has a problem with homelessness. What can the city do to fix this?

Right now, I would venture a guess, (there are so many homeless on the streets) because our police have offered them a ride down to Roy’s Resource Center, and they refuse. You can’t make them do something that they don’t want to do. I think what we’ve got in our city are those who are on drugs and alcohol, and they don’t want to stop, and they know if they go in there (to Roy’s), they have to abstain from both.

The other population is the mentally unstable; with that group, I know they can be helped simply by giving them medication, and they can go into The Path, which is the facility down by Roy’s, and they have 20 beds there. But mentally, they can’t be in a closed room or adhere to rules and regulations. If they aren’t willing to get help, I don’t see there is much that we can do.

5. If you could challenge every DHS resident to do one thing, what would that one thing be?

I’d say be the eyes and ears on the streets for our police officers. Help identify crime before it happens. We have some of that beginning to happen, and I want it to continue. There’s nothing better than that cooperation between the public and the police to get that crime rate down.

6. Palm Drive/Gene Autry or Indian Canyon? Why?

If I’m going to Cathedral City or Rancho Mirage, I take Mountain View to Varner to Date Palm and get on the 10. If I’m going to Palm Springs, I’ll go down Indian Canyon. But Indian Canyon really needs a lot of work right now. I think we’ve got Palm in pretty good condition. Let’s get that CalTrans money and put it to work in Desert Hot Springs on Indian Canyon; bring in Palm Springs with their Measure J money; and then bring in the county to get that done.

7. Date shake or bacon-wrapped dates? Why?

Oh my goodness—date shakes, but I also love the bacon-wrapped dates, too. If I had to make a choice, first I’d have the shake, and then follow it up with a bacon-wrapped date. Dates are fantastic!

8. If someone gave you a $100 gift card to the DHS Kmart, what would you buy?

I’d probably buy my daughter some clothes, my son some clothes, and if I could find anything that I liked, I would buy some clothes.

9. If someone walked up to you and told you that DHS was the worst place to live in California, what would your response be?

You don’t know Desert Hot Springs! Desert Hot Springs has the greatest potential of any city in the Coachella Valley. We’ve got the land; we’ve got the drive to succeed; and we’ve got residents who love living here and want everyone else to love living here. If you say it’s the worst place to live in the valley, you probably haven’t even been here.

10. Award-winning water from the tap, or bottled water?

I drink from the tap. My water tastes as good as bottled water, and it’s just as tasty and cheaper than bottled water.