Meet the candidates: Desert Hot Springs City Council
Early voting is already underway for the General Election on Nov. 8. Ahead of election day, News Channel 3 is taking an in-depth look at the candidates running for Desert Hot Springs City Council. It is the first year the city is holding district elections.
The candidates for DHS City Council:
District 1
District 3
- Jan Pye (Incumbent)
- Adam Sanchez
Gardner is running unopposed. Candidates Jan Pye and Adam Sanchez are vying to represent District 3.
Incumbent candidate Pye has been serving her current term on the city council since 2018. She served before from 1999 to 2001 and was re-elected from 2009 to 2015.
Adama Sanchez was the former mayor of Desert Hot Springs in 2013. He was first elected to the council in 2011. Sanchez tried to run for re-election as mayor in 2015 but lost to Scott Matas, who is currently the mayor of DHS.
News Channel 3 talked with both District 3 candidates about their views on different issues:
Why should someone cast their vote for you?
Pye: "They should vote for me because I am in the community. I was president of the Women's Club. I've been in the Women's Club for over 10 years. With the [Regional Access Project] foundation, I've been there for over 10 years. They give grants to the community. I spread that word to the community. I'm chair of that right now. I participate in all of the Rotary Clubs... I support the pastors anytime they have something that's happening. In other words, I'm in the community already."
Sanchez: "I would tell him that I have the knowledge and experience of being a council member and a mayor. And I know how to lobby and how to work with government. [The Desert Hot Springs Health and Wellness Center] is an example. A $20 million building that took me 10 years to coordinate with about 20 different agencies. So I have that knowledge and experience. So I will bring it to District 3 so that we get the resources that we need to create healthy neighborhoods."
On homelessness:
Pye: "Well, people should not be sleeping on the streets. That's not good for anybody. It's not good for them. And it's not good for people who are walking the street. So once before, I was able to create a shelter for homelessness. A day shelter where they were able to go in from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. And that was for two years, the money dried up. So what do we do now? We can't ignore them. So the thing is to provide not a homeless shelter, but a resource center and make it permanent so that they can go in and get the resources they need to have homes."
Sanchez: "Let's find ways now to create opportunities because right now, we take $100,000 every year, we give it to the Coachella Valley Association of Governments under the homeless program they have. Well, I think we need to spend that $100,000 here. Hire two clinicians that are out, two health clinicians that are out there with code enforcement and police talking to the homeless; what can we do to get them off the street or help them alleviate the homelessness that they're having right now?"
Bringing more commercial business to DHS:
Pye: "Well, one, it's going to improve. A lot of people want it, but that is one thing. I will ask the district, what do you want in your neighborhood? I can think of something, but I need to ask the constituent is that what you want? So it could be restaurants, it could be hobby shops. I need to find out what they need."
Working on DHS Health and Wellness Center:
Sanchez: "It's the main priority because what's going to happen is I'm going to get a group of citizens involved in a committee. It'll be single-parent moms, it'll be seniors, it'll be youth from the high school across the street. We want to now prepare those plans and activities we want here. And how do we go about working with a new director here to create that?" He adds, "So it is going to be more managed more appropriately. But it needs to be from the bottom up, from families in the community up to the administration at City Hall."
DHS parks:
Pye: "We don't have enough parks. We do have recreation for football. But right now, they're playing at the high school, they don't have their own turf. And we're getting more kids. And that means they need parks."
Neighborhood watch groups:
Pye: "The mayor and councilman Nuñez created a neighborhood group which is good, and I support that."
Sanchez: "Our police protection is there, and the fire protection. What's more important now is creating neighborhood watch groups in our areas. Making sure that residents are communicating with one another. Because in today, with COVID, we've all been so separated. So bringing the community together discussing those issues."
