Desert Magazine:
Tell us a little bit about your background and education.
Mayor Amith:
I am a native to Indio. I attended school here. I'm the eldest of seven and my mom and dad first came here as migrant farm workers, but then when they married, started their own business downtown here which is still there across the street from the post office. Ramos Upholstery.
Desert Magazine:
When did you become interested in politics?
Mayor Amith:
I went through Catholic school and then on to Indio High School [where] I became involved with government, being on charity boards and governing bodies through social clubs. I attended COD and studied business law and political science. I really became intrigued with the whole process. I went into accounting, and ended up working for the developers that built most of the country club communities here…Landmark and Sunrise. One day I came into City Hall [with] a project…it was going to be 3,000 homes up on the north side of the freeway called Sun City, Shadow Hills. I came to the city hall with 20 copies of my maps, 20 copies of my EIR, 20 copies of the plan checklist, and my check for tens of thousands of dollars. I was so excited bringing this project to the city of Indio.
And I come to the counter and the [clerk]…didn't want to be bothered. I said, "I'd like to submit these plans for review. I've brought the check and I've brought the checklist. Can you go over the checklist and make sure that I've submitted everything that needs to be submitted?"
And he goes, "I don't have time for that right now. Why don't you just take it all back and do X,Y, and Z?" I'm like, "Why would I do that?" And he said, "Because I said so." Then he said, “Lady, go take your package, or I'm going to make your life difficult for you." So I said, "How about I make your life difficult? How about I run for city council and we'll see how it goes?" I went around the corner, pulled the papers. Three months later, I was in and the old mayor was out.” (Editor’s note: So was the rude clerk)
Desert Magazine:
So in other words, you got into politics by getting pissed off?
Mayor Amith:
Yeah, I got pissed off at government.
Desert Magazine:
I think that's an excellent reason for getting into government.
Mayor Amith:
I wanted to make a change, and not only a physical change, but a change in the way the government interacts with community. For so long, we had seen that disconnect. That's what I spoke to in my campaign that first year. If you could see the changes in the last 20 years, you would just be awestruck.
So, with that came a lot of challenges. Downturns in economies and recessions, but we worked through those issues and then came out ahead and came out with strategies and plans on how to move the city forward to continue to support the continued growth we have. It's just an amazing time for Indio and I think the stars aligned and made it all happen.
Desert Magazine:
Okay, so five council members representing the five districts and one year rotation for Mayor?
Mayor Amith:
Yes. They used to have a directly elected Mayor, and they changed that to a rotation, which I believe is the best method. The role of the Mayor is ceremonial. The management is by the administration and the city manager we hired to [take] the helm. The [job] of the Mayor is to work with my colleagues to come to consensus and create a vision for the future of Indio. We just went through our general plan for 2040. Once we establish that and give it to the administration team, it's their job to make it happen. Our job is simply to guide them and to approve policies that will support that vision. At the end of the day, the good of the community is decided by the council based on the community input. We are the ones that are out there in the neighborhoods connected to the different communities, the different social groups, and non-profits. They have our ear. And they provide us with input and that input is what shapes our policy, which then gets executed through the administration. And I believe that's the best system, rather than to have a strong Mayor who is dictating. This way, we have a consensus.
Desert Magazine:
Could you describe Indio’s downtown revitalization?
Mayor Amith:
It started 20 years ago. We realized [that by] allowing the north side of the freeway to develop, our water system was overtaxed, our police capacity was overtaxed, all of our services were overtaxed. We realized that some significant changes needed to be made in order to adapt. Back then, we planned for the expansion and the efficiency of our water system, because we have our own water department. And when you start improving old infrastructure, it's really the foundation for future growth because developers don't want to come in and have to do it. So, we actually took those steps early on, not because we were planning for the future, but because the future was already here.
Desert Magazine:
So, tell me about the $200 million that's been invested in downtown over 20 years?
Mayor Amith:
No, $200 million is just a recent investment. It was local taxes that supported all the infrastructure growth 20 years ago. What you're speaking to is the more recent development with all of these new structures, College of the Desert, the John Benoit Center and what we're doing downtown, the library, Center Stage. It was part of a master plan. When we first got together 20 years ago and started planning for our future, I was good friends with one of the board members for the College of the Desert. At that time, the College of the Desert was considering a Mecca campus. I kept saying to her, I said, "I don't know why you're doing that when the majority of the kids come from Indio, and the majority of the kids from Indio can't drive." They already had the temporary campus here in trailers, so why don't you just take that temporary campus and make it [permanent]?” We ended up making a deal with the College of the Desert for them to buy that land for a dollar. And that dollar turned into what you see today. It's just all dominoes.
Desert Magazine:
Do you feel like this process of transformation is going to create a more pedestrian-friendly downtown?
Mayor Amith:
Certainly in our 2040 general plan, we moved in that direction, and the council's very supportive of becoming more pedestrian-friendly and less vehicular dependent not only because of the environmental issues, but just we want to bring that sense of community back. Remember I said that I used to walk to school? We used to walk everywhere. I do believe we're going to get there again. There's some drastic changes that need to be made. Of course, culture change. People are going to need to learn to walk a block or two. They're not used to it here. [People] come to our festivals and they'll walk all day, so why can't we walk two blocks?
Desert Magazine:
Can you talk about some of your personal projects that you've been able to see to fruition?
Mayor Amith:
One of my priorities when I became an elected official is to make sure that we had a plan for ending homelessness. Indio was the magnet for all the homeless because all of the cities were driving their homeless into Indio. I convinced my colleagues to allow me to raise the issue at the regional level. At the regional council, they agreed to allow me to begin the first-ever Homelessness Committee for the region. I was the first Chair of that committee [in 2006]. It's still in existence. Since that time, we've had more responsibility and accountability [and] making sure they have access for these individuals spread throughout the Valley. The county of Riverside, who's a great partner, now has an outreach campaign where they actually go out all over the Valley and make sure that they can keep track of who's here in case of an emergency. I was able to start the Regional Homelessness Committee, not only because the impacts it was having on Indio, but because I had a family member who was homeless. And because he didn't receive the services he needed, there was a tragedy in the family. Now there are numbers that you can call if you're a family member of someone that's homeless or is mentally ill or has an addiction problem. All of these services are out there now. All of the cities came together and addressed it as one body, which had never happened before I came on as a city council member. That's one of my major personal and professional accomplishments.
Desert Magazine:
What other changes would you like to see for the city?
Mayor Amith:
People in our community of Indio don't understand why our biggest commercial piece in the middle of town sits vacant and unimproved. That's the old mall on Monroe and 111. It was the seventies when the mall came, it excited everyone because it gave us an opportunity to have an experience. At that time, Indio was the hub of commerce for the Coachella Valley. We had the Sears Roebuck and JC Penney's. We had everything that anybody could need. So that mall was really important to the community as something that pulled everyone from the Valley together. And then there was a big lawsuit. David Miller of Miller's Outpost is the one who built the mall and he ended up losing it. The mall started to go down and tenants started to leave. We worked to help someone new come in. Mr. Hagan, who owns the polo grounds. He had some great plans to improve the mall and to create a venue that included a park and some residential housing. We supported that dream. We own the acreage behind the mall, so we were willing to get into going to a public-private partnership. At the end of the day with the market, the economy, the numbers couldn't pencil in for him [and] he had to downscale his plans. Now, everything's on hold again, but…we still have confidence and faith that he'll do something. He's been a community member of Indio for a very long time.
Desert Magazine:
It's really interesting talking to somebody who has had that perspective of a small rural town of 7,000 growing to a city of 100,000 in less than a generation. What are some of the biggest challenges in terms of growth?
Mayor Amith:
Hopefully in the next year, we'll have a better sense of what the economy's going to do. Right now, I don't think that we could put anything else on our plate because we have projects going out five years. The way we work on projects is we have our wish list and we know how much each one costs. We know how much we have of our own money and we know how much we can get on grants or other funding. But there's always a gap. Our goal has always been to make sure that each one of those projects on that wish list is shovel ready. And that's how we've been successful. The big sports park…broke around a couple months ago. Why? Because we had the vision and the foresight to create a shovel ready project. We applied to the state for a grant. We received a partial grant, enough to get [the] baseline started. So, even though you tell me today, "It's really important that we have X,Y, or Z, to start construction tomorrow," the reality is I can't start construction until I have that gap funding. That's how you build a city. You're always prepared. At the end of the day, you go with what works.
