Desert Magazine: Tell us about your background.
Mayor Ron deHarte: [I was] born in a small town called Wickenburg, just west of Phoenix. My uncle was one of the founders of Wickenburg in the 1800s, so we've had a family presence in Wickenburg for a long time. In LA, I worked with the Mann Theatre[s] company, which at the time, was the largest theater chain west of the Mississippi. I handled marketing and advertising. It was eventually purchased by Paramount and Warner Bros., so I started doing theater openings and big premieres in Hollywood.
I went to San Diego to produce at the Insights World Conference … for the Chamber of Commerce … They asked me to become the chief operating officer and produce the event. I continued until my boss left and went to work with the Price family. Sol Price opened Price Club, and Price Club eventually merged with Costco. Sol Price retained international rights for membership warehouses in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and Guam. I went to work with them and handled all the new markets. Eventually, we opened 37 different markets in all of the countries that I named. Then, my boss left and expansion stopped, so I started working in the non-profit sector and have produced large-scale events ever since.
Desert: You started volunteering in Palm Springs in 2005?
deHarte: With the Palm Springs Pride organization. I'd come out and volunteer for the event. Then, in 2010, the president became ill. The board called and asked if I could help them shut the organization down. I said, "Hold on, that's a drastic move." At the time, they didn't have the ability to continue to run the organization. I said, "Well, give me a couple of weeks. I'll come into town and let's just take a look at things." 2010 turned the event around for the city. It's grown from being a 15,000-person event in Sunrise Park to being this annual cultural event that fuels tourism in Palm Springs to the tune of about $35 million direct economic spending with 200,000-plus people this year. It's really grown, and it represents the brand of Palm Springs in a very large way.
Desert: What turned it around?
deHarte: It’s a city that welcomes everybody. A magical thing happens when people come to Palm Springs. People take a deep breath and relax. They leave stress at home. It's the energy from the mountain, I think, that just comes over folks. It's a different vibe, and folks are just more calm and relaxed and have a great time. It wears off on everybody. It is a very friendly gathering of folks, and for people that have never come to Pride, and it may be their first visit to Palm Springs, they're just blown away. [They think,] "Does this happen all the time in Palm Springs?" From January to May, it does. We have so many events that happen in the city that you won't get bored in Palm Springs with everything that's going on in this city.
Desert: How did you decide to move from non-profits into public service?
deHarte: I'm still involved with a number of non-profit organizations [such as] Safe Schools Desert Cities. I'm still involved with … LGBTQ+ [History and] Archives of the Desert. I’m one of the founders of that organization. We just had our annual conference for the United States Association of Prides, and I'm … one of the founding co-presidents of that organization. I'm deeply involved with the Pride movement in the United States, and when I won the election, I stepped down from the International Association of Pride Organizers, and that's called InterPride. I was with that organization for 15 years.
Desert: How did you make the move to City Hall?
deHarte: [I have been] very involved in the human rights arena for a long time. I got involved in the city because I started as a commissioner with the Human Rights Commission. I was on the commission … [for] seven years, and [I spent] five years as chair of the Human Rights Commission. I worked with a number of council members during that time on issues that were brought before the Human Rights Commission.
I got to see the workings of City Hall. My term ended just as Geoff Kors said that he wasn't going to run any longer in District 3. That opened the door for me to step up in his place. Geoff and I have known each other for 20 years, and I never would've thought of having a campaign against him. When he decided to leave, that was the opportunity. It seemed like I could be a good fit for [the City] Council with my business background and bringing a perspective that we didn't necessarily have at that time, and then having the years in the human rights arena as another perspective that other Council members didn't have.
Desert: In the last two years, there's been a complete changeover in the City Council. I think Grace Garner is the only one left from, say, pre-2021.
deHarte: With this last election, with Christie and Lisa moving on, Grace is the elder … I don't know if she would like me saying that.
Desert: Does the City Council have a different feel than the Council that you were familiar with before you ran for office?
deHarte: Jeffrey and I have been there for two years, so we've worked with Grace. It would be a rare day that we all agree on something. It does happen occasionally, but I think the public sees David Ready replacing the voice of reason and experience that Lisa Middleton had. And Naomi (Soto) comes in with some of that voice of looking out for the workers in the community, looking out for health and wellness for all folks, and access to health care and livable wages. Different people, but they have some of the same priorities, and that's probably why we were elected.
Desert: You’ve served on the City Council and now the mayor’s office. What are some issues that are important to you?
deHarte: I'm a very big supporter on doing whatever we can to create the safest environment that we can, not only for our residents but [also] for tourists coming to town. It's a very important piece of our brand to have that safe space for these millions of folks that come to Palm Springs every year. Fueling tourism as our primary economic engine continues to be a top priority, and then protecting our open space is important for just about everybody in Palm Springs.
That continues to be a focus, and looking for opportunities to create workforce housing. I'm focused on creating those housing opportunities for our workforce who can live in the city that they work in, have their families, their children, raise their family, and go to church in the city that they work in and not have to be spending an hour [or an] hour and a half driving back and forth into Palm Springs from home. Creating those opportunities continues to be a big priority. It's creating a home that people don't feel like they're using a Section 8 voucher. I'm looking at a big overall quality of life for the workforce that is the backbone of our primary economic engine.
Desert: What are some of your ideas about creating that workforce housing?
deHarte: [I’m] looking at developers [who] can make it happen. It's a challenge, but if we don't keep it on as a high priority, it will never happen. As long as we can continue to have conversations and look at opportunities and try to find folks who are interested in building that type of housing [where] they can generate a profit, that the developer can make money on, that's the magic.
We're on the hunt for land to create more affordable housing units. The Aloe on Palm Canyon and Stevens is a $42 million project that is targeted to seniors. What I love about it is there's 25 units set aside specifically for transitional homeless folks … who are going through temporary housing situations into full-time living situations. The Monarch opened up just this year – a beautiful [affordable housing] complex. We're also just now looking at [developing] 150 units north of Home Depot off [of] Gene Autry. That's a lot of units for our city, but there's a huge need in our senior population. They're still healthy enough that they don't need assisted living, but they can't afford where they are, and places like this will keep that senior population from experiencing homelessness.
Desert: How successful has Police Chief Andy Mills been with the unhoused population in the city?
deHarte: From the chief coming to town to today, it really is night and day – [especially] with the early-entry facility opening up in North Palm Springs. 55 beds may not seem [like] much, but for our city, it is a lot. Now that the full navigation center is open with 80 units, that's going to make a massive difference. It's going to continue to make a difference for those [people] who are unhoused in Palm Springs for decades to come. You look at the streets downtown; it's night and day where we were even just a year and a half ago. Huge credit goes to our police officers who have been on that impact team and committed to helping people and making contact with people who are unhoused and letting those individuals become familiar, so when help is being offered, they become more open to hearing about it. It's made all the difference in the world.
Desert: Didn't Palm Springs have over 300 unhoused people at one point?
deHarte: You could not drive downtown without seeing [homeless] folks. I think we've made progress with the people who want help and are just down and out through unfortunate circumstances. Those are the ones that we've had the greatest impact on. I know the chief's team has been able to send folks to family members back home, so they've done everything they possibly can with the people who want the help.
Now, we are still challenged with the addicted population. It's a challenge … when they're not ready for help. You can't force somebody, but that's where the familiarity comes in. From what we've learned from cities across the country, the more touches that I have as an officer with somebody on the street, the more open that they are to receiving that street medicine and receiving access to harm reduction support. If they're going to take drugs, let's lessen the opportunity that they're going to kill themselves. When you create that relationship, that starts to open the door, and that just takes a lot of time to touch those folks on the street and let them know that we're going to be there when they're ready and they want to go to a facility. This is a very challenging population that we're left with, and we're not going to ease up. They are not welcome in Palm Springs, period. We are doing everything that we can to provide the tools and support that somebody possibly can use and to keep them out of jail.
Desert: What's the best part of being mayor of Palm Springs?
deHarte: When we went to districts, I was very much in favor of the idea of a rotating mayor. The thought of bringing attention to different parts of the city – because you had a mayor [who] was being represented from different districts – that had a lot of appeal to me, and I think it had a lot of appeal to many people. Now that I've been on [the City] Council for a couple years plus, my opinion's changed. I think that model still could work, but we need to modify it, because what we're missing out on is … long-term relationships that the mayor would build with our sovereign nation right next to us.
The same goes for key stakeholders in the business community. When you have this person [who] changes year over year over year, you lose that relationship that you have with individuals like that. We serve on a dozen different committees in the county. Switching that out each year, it creates a new learning process year over year over year, and that's not serving the city's best interest when we're not carrying that historical institutional knowledge year over year [and] not having that ability to develop those bonds with key stakeholders as that leader of the city. I'm feeling these days [about] modifying the model and maybe trying a two-year cycle.
Desert: In one of my conversations with Garner (when she was mayor), she talked about revitalizing city parks and how the infrastructure of parks had fallen down over the years. That was her priority as mayor. Does the office give you the power to push through a single agenda?
deHarte: What can you do in a year? We're still talking about parks three years later. It's a challenge to champion an issue as a symbolic leader. To be that champion of parks, you've got 12 months, you've got 11 months of meetings. If you're lucky, it's 20 meetings a year. 20 meetings. It further shows there's a challenge [to one-year terms]. I think, "Well, why don't you change it?" We haven't had the conversation with [the] Council. I don't think I've had the conversation with anybody, but I'm not afraid to bring it forward.
Desert: Do you enjoy being mayor?
deHarte: It looks great on a business card. You do get to be that primary spokesperson for a year, you do get to be the mouthpiece, and that brings a different voice to the city, to the media, to what people hear and see. And it’s an ego boost.
