Palm Desert City Council Approves $45m Budget

The Palm Desert City Council approved a budget for fiscal 2012-2013 on a unanimous vote.  The overall budget of $53 million includes $45 million in general funding.

"We delivered a balanced budget to the city in a tough economic climate, and with the loss of development funding," said City Manager John Wohlmuth.

Also approved was a pair of special propery taxes on another unanimous vote.  The taxes will repay bonds issued by the city for improvements on streets, medians, water and sewer services in the Indian Ridge and University Park Community Services districts.

The Indian Ridge District is also known as Indian Ridge Country Club, while University Park is the area north of Desert Willow between Cook and Portola.

The meeting had a light moment  as they approved 53,380 for the purchase of two new motorcycles for the Palm Desert Police.  Council Cindy Finerty opened the motion, quipping "I'll ask for a motion to approve even though i got pulled over by one of the motorcycle officers recently."    Before the motion could be seconded, Mayor Bob Spiegel said, "the motorcycles are the mayor pro-tem and myself," bringing laughter to the small crowd in council chambers.

The Council approved a alcoholic beverage license for Blue Orchid Thai Bistro at 73-030 El Paseo.