Letter to Indio Residents from Gene Gilbert for Indio City Council

By Gene Gilbert

Dear Friends:

No matter what age we are, at any given moment, life will unexpectedly teach us valuable lessons. Approximately two years ago, I experienced such a lesson. The good people of Indio clearly delivered the message that they were dissatisfied with the direction and decisions made by their representative leadership and made the corrections they (at the time) felt necessary.

Whatever form, defeat has a way of forcing a person to look within themselves and determine the areas that either their actions or character may require improvement or change. The good citizens of Indio should be aware that, over these past two years, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting upon my past City Council years. I have met with family, friends, business associates/leaders, developers and community members to discuss and evaluate my years of service. I have appreciated the honesty and candor of all comments and suggestions and I have learned much.

What I was most grateful for is that no one ever questioned my commitment and passion for wanting what is best for our City of Indio. As a native born son of Indio, I attended Indio schools through my graduation from Indio High School. I also graduated from COD and attended classes at UCSB and UCR. I spent 31 years in Law Enforcement protecting the City of Indio and its residents. In short, there a few individuals or families that may claim the same commitment of time and energy to serve our great community as my wife and I have served.

My desire to serve Indio has not diminished in the least. When I consider the current challenges facing Indio, I am compelled to run for City Council this year because it is difficult to witness the current lack of cohesion at the dais. It is imperative for Indio's future success that; staff, the business community, the development community and the region are comfortable and confident with the notion that Indio's leadership operate and lead as a `Team'.

Recent events jeopardized the continuance of the City's single largest Festival. Imagine the loss, not only to Indio but to the entire valley, if we had ultimately lost the music festivals. The downtown, after all the investment, continues to grow more silent as small business owners relocate or close their businesses. Economic Development is lagging with no significant promise of new businesses to our community.

Good citizens, I am aware that it is not enough to just sit back and point out deficiencies. Indio needs leadership with ideas and the energy to carry out ideas. Clearly, it is imperative to develop strong and effective economic development strategies, provide efficient and sufficient public safety and balance all with quality of life features and programs.

With the loss of redevelopment, it is incumbent upon the Council and staff to become far more creative in ways to encourage, finance and sustain businesses that not only create jobs but generate ongoing revenue for the City. I have made the best use of my time (away from Council) to study and discuss (with other communities) what they are doing to adapt to the changes and challenges of our time. Just to mention a few ideas; some cities have developed specific development promotion departments which combine, under the umbrella of `Economic Development', the entitlement departments with the goal of expediting and prioritizing development projects. Another idea is to combine public-private and public-public funding resources with `New Market Tax Credits' and creatively pool monies to maximize capital revenue. Finally, we need to rid ourselves of redundant services and form partnerships with relevant jurisdictions to expand and maintain the use of public facilities while maintaining programs.

Many are aware that the majority of my professional life has been spent working in public safety. I have a unique appreciation and understanding of the challenges facing our public safety teams as they are now forced to do more with less. Our citizens and visitors must be safe to work and play within our community. Indio must expand its `community policing initiatives and programs' in order to add greater support for our public safety departments.

I am not naïve to the prospect that there will be those who want to force the issues of the past into the campaign discussion. To those I say that we cannot move the City forward if we continue to focus on yesterday. Instead, let's take what we have learned from those lessons so that we may create an opportunity for Indio to grow and prosper into the future. We must execute as a Team with sound and prudent strategies on a steady course.

If given the opportunity to serve Indio as their next City Council Member, I will serve with profound vigor to make Indio the best community that it can be!

I ask for your vote. Gene Gilbert 3rd on the ballot!

Thank you.