In the Coachella Valley’s nine cities, the city managers are vital to the successful and safe operation of their municipalities.
Bryan Montgomery, Indio’s current city manager, stepped into his role in 2021. But what, exactly, does a city manager do? The duties of Indio’s city manager are described on the city’s website as follows: “The City Council appoints and supervises a city manager, who serves as the full-time chief executive officer of the city and executive director of the Indio Water Authority. The city manager serves as policy and financial advisor to the City Council, prepares the annual budget and implements council goals and objectives. His primary responsibility is to oversee the day-to-day operations of the city by working closely with the city’s executive team in provision of services relating to public safety, community development, public works and utilities, parks and trails, economic development and support services.”
Got all that? The Independent recently spoke with Montgomery.
“I think even in high school, I was interested in government, trying to find something that would make a difference in the world,” Montgomery said. “I thought about a number of options with government, including the foreign service. I had traveled overseas quite a bit, but during graduate school, I had an opportunity to intern for a city, and so I caught the bug. I found out how exciting it is.
“Quite honestly, local government is closer to the people, and … I determined that would be a better opportunity for me to make a difference.”
Montgomery has accumulated 32 years of city-government experience, working in Mesquite, Nev., and Oakley, Calif., before moving to Indio. What skills and traits has he found indispensable for a city manager?
“The first thing that comes to my mind is a thick skin,” Montgomery said with a laugh. “You need to be a business manager, because you’re operating and leading a team. We have almost 350 members on our team, so someone has to be able to lead and inspire people. Also, I manage money, functions and structure, all at the same time, while having five bosses (the City Council) who have 100,000 bosses. There’s a little more complexity than the typical business manager, but that’s what I like to compare it to. … I kind of stay out of the political world and let the City Council lead and set the vision and the priorities. Our goal is to implement those priorities as efficiently as possible.”
City managers are supportive of each other, Montgomery said. According to Montgomery, there’s a monthly conference call held involving city managers from the cities in Riverside County, and a quarterly meeting hosted by the Coachella Valley Association of Governments. The League of California Cities also holds an annual meeting of city managers and staff members from around the state. Montgomery said he often speaks to the city managers in the eastern Coachella Valley.
“There are so many issues that affect all of us in this smaller region of the valley,” Montgomery said. “For example, IID (the Imperial Irrigation District), transportation and fire services are all issues we talk about often, and that we share in common, and we’re trying to solve those problems together.
“The IID provides power to much of the valley, at least the eastern portion, but the infrastructure is deficient at IID, and we in Indio have come up with an idea … to address the issue. Regionally, we’ve been meeting quite frequently to work on a joint powers agreement. … It’s about representation. Right now, we have no representation on the IID board, because they’re all from Imperial County, yet we have to deal with all of their decisions. So the idea would be to establish a new governing body, and then contract with IID and retain the benefits that come with the fairly inexpensive power that they purchase.”
Another primary function of a city manager is to attract businesses. These objectives are often laid out in multi-year strategic plans that the City Council and city manager’s team develop together. In the 2022-2024 Indio strategic plan, attention was focused on the improvement and development of the downtown area of Indio and the Highway 111 corridor.
Downtown Indio has welcomed a number of new businesses over the last few years, with even more coming. But not as much has happened along the Highway 111 corridor.
“Most significant is the work that’s been done in the downtown,” Montgomery said. “We’ve had a lot of the members of the team working with the private sector and College of the Desert. Our own investment (has led to the construction of) a new library and City Hall. We’ve developed a couple of park areas and activated those for our Food Truck Fridays and a farmers’ market. We have a new stage that we call Center Stage, and we just had a huge event there for Black History Month. So yes, I think we’re finally seeing revitalization of businesses and restaurants, bars and a few retail opportunities. College of the Desert has their new building done, and they’re renovating their other building. They also built a smaller child-care facility. In total, their investment alone is about $150 million. City Hall is probably at about 60% completion. The library is maybe 80% done.”
Downtown Indio has welcomed a number of new businesses over the last few years, with even more coming. Two new market-rate apartment developments are rising up along Oasis Street as well. But not as much has happened along the Highway 111 corridor. Montgomery was optimistic that more residential and commercial building will be happening soon.
“The Mathis Brothers (furniture store) made a huge investment, expanding their retail site, renovating the whole lower store as well as adding new development,” Montgomery said. “The Jackalope (Ranch) restaurant that had been closed for some time is now open and operating. Also, along Highway 111, we have a couple of vacant parcels with proposed plans. One is for senior housing with some retail. We’ve renovated the medians up and down Highway 111. … One of the ideas is to beautify the corridor, (since) it’s a little tired and aged. We have a facade improvement program, and we’ve probably done six or seven along the corridor.
“We have a consultant service that helps guide us to retailers that are looking, and we try to match them up to the available retail spaces that we have. There’s been some good success recently. We have Sketchers and Tilly’s … up by The Home Depot. Over the last four years, there’s been a hotel, a Handel’s ice cream, a Pollo Loco, a Chipotle, a Dave’s Hot Chicken and a Jersey Mike’s in that area. It goes on and on. Meanwhile, on the other side of 111 near Walmart, under construction now is an In-N-Out, a Raising Cane’s, a Wingstop, a Salad-to-Go and a Sumo Dog.”
The city is working on a new strategic plan.
“We’re bringing in an outside consultant this time,” Montgomery said. “Last time, since I was new (to this position), I facilitated that first one; I really wanted to know firsthand what the City Council wanted us to accomplish. We’ve sought out a consultant who’s preparing a survey that we’re going to send out to the community to solicit information for the next strategic plan. The (public) meetings will probably start over the next 30 to 45 days. There will be a number of focus groups, as well as meetings with the City Council to bring a new plan to bear. We haven’t quite decided if it will be another two-year plan, a three-year plan or a five-year plan. … I think this summer is when we’re intending to have (a new plan) adopted formally. I would say by July or August, at the latest.”
Another prime responsibility of the Indio city manager is working closely with the city’s police chief, Brian Tully. According to California’s Open Justice website, since Montgomery’s arrival in 2021, reports of many major crimes decreased substantially from the 2014-2019 timeframe. However, over the last few years, major crime reports have started increasing slowly, in categories like violent crime and property crime. When the Independent mentioned this data to Montgomery, he countered with data provided by Tully which showed marked decreases in these same categories and others from 2023 to 2024.
“(Tully) has been presenting a few slides lately that show while our population has been increasing over the last five to 10 years, the crime rate has been going down, or is steady. That’s relevant, (because) showing our population going up would imply the likelihood of more crime incidents, but the reality is the exact opposite. We’re finding Indio to be much safer over the last five years than it was previously. It’s probably true that we continue to have a little bit of a stigma there that we’re fighting, but we’ve been aggressive in it.
“We’ve got an intensive beautification program—we call it Indio Lindo—and we’re trying to build pride in the community with our branding, putting signs up and really marketing ourselves as a progressive, moving-forward city. Part of that effort is to send a message to all residents to take care of their properties, to help their businesses and neighborhoods look nice and fresh, and to let us know if there are crime issues that need to be addressed. … I think that’s been part of the reason that crime has gone down. We just don’t tolerate it anymore.”
In November, Indio opened a new 43,000-square-foot public-safety campus which includes a fire station, a dispatch center and a public-safety service building; it cost $50 million to build. A new police headquarters building is in the design stage and should be completed in the next year.
“We’re working on the functionality of where the offices should be located, and how the flow of the building (should work), but we have the footprint set,” Montgomery said. “It’s actually the location of the former fire station on the corner of Dr. Carreon (Boulevard) and Jackson (Street).”
“Key to that is … helping them feel that the local law enforcement here, and throughout the state, is not involved in enforcing the federal immigration laws. If there’s a crime that they are a victim of, or that they witness, we want them to come forward and feel comfortable to report those crimes and to assist us.
City Manager Bryan Montgomery, on undocumented immigrants
Montgomery said he and Tully are sensitive to the wave of fear within Indio’s Latino community due to the Trump administration’s undocumented immigrant deportation initiative.
“Key to that is … helping them feel that the local law enforcement here, and throughout the state, is not involved in enforcing the federal immigration laws,” Montgomery said. “If there’s a crime that they are a victim of, or that they witness, we want them to come forward and feel comfortable to report those crimes and to assist us. They should not be fearful that if they step forward for any reason, somehow, we’re going to be a part of the (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) effort to deport them.”
Chief Tully recently issued a message to Indio’s residents which read, in part: “The Indio Police Department is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all members of our community, regardless of immigration status. Our priority is to foster trust between law enforcement and the public and to show our commitment to all who reside in our community. The department’s mission is to protect and serve all residents with professionalism, fairness and respect. … We do not enforce federal immigration laws, and communication with federal agencies may only occur on very serious criminal matters, such as violent felonies, human trafficking and terrorism-related investigations. … We are dedicated to ensuring a safe and respectful environment for all, where fairness and dignity are always upheld.”
City managers go to work every day knowing that at any time, they could be dismissed by a majority vote of their City Council, with or without cause—even in the case of Montgomery, who was hired with a five-year contract.
“You know, with a majority vote, they could let me go at the very next council meeting, even if I have an agreement, and state law doesn’t allow them to pay through the agreement. … but the council wanted to set a term when I first arrived,” Montgomery said. “So the next time I have my review, which is coming up later this spring … if I’m successful, and they want me to stay on, then the contract could extend a year. If next year, everything’s going well, they could extend it another year—but again, that doesn’t take away their ability to remove me, with or without cause, at any time.
“I am at the tail end of my career. This is my 32nd year, and I won’t be around forever. But we’ve made this our home, so I’ll be a cheerleader in Indio for a long time to come—even if I don’t happen to sit in this office anymore.”
A lot of patting of his own back from Indio City Manager. Cleaning up a run down city center is kinda a no duh thing to do, nothing special there. All the new businesses hes so proud of moving in are more crappy fast food businesses, more gas stations with bums and restaurant on 111 that fails every 2 years after reopening 3-4 times over 10 years+. I also dont think a new city hall is much benefit since the city employees are mostly incompetent. Let me know when you hire employees that are helpful or knowledgeable start working there. This still a failure Mr. manager.