Palm Springs forms task force to plan for ‘safe and successful’ recovery
Palm Springs has formed a new task force comprised of the city's business, tourism and hospitality leaders.
The Palm Springs Business Transition and Re-Entry Task Force will help the city plan for the recovery process once California eases precautions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The task force is made up of representatives from tourism and business organizations, working toward a safe and successful recovery.
The task force includes:
- Celeste Brackley, Palm Springs Hospitality Association,
- Patricia Breslin, Greater Palm Springs Bar Association,
- Aftab Dada, Chairman of P.S. Resorts,
- Ron de Harte, Community Leadership Council,
- Jim Franklin, Palm Springs Regional Association of Realtors,
- Michael Green, Palm Springs Small Hotel Tourism Business Improvement District,
- Jeff Grubbe, Tribal Chairman, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians,
- Rob Hampton, General Manager, Palm Springs Convention Center and
Bureau of Tourism, - Bruce Hobin, Vacation Rental Owners Network,
- Palm Springs Mayor pro tem Christy Holstege,
- Dean Levine, Arenas District Merchants Association,
- Harold Matzner, Chairman Palm Springs International Film Festival,
- Joy Meredith, Main Street Palm Springs,
- David Powell, Desert Business Association,
- David H. Ready, Palm Springs City Manager,
- Patrick Service, General Manager of Las Casuelas Terraza, representing the Palm Springs Restaurant Association
- Jay Virata, Palm Springs Director of Community & Economic Development,
- Joe Wallace, CEO of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership,
- Nona Watson, CEO of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce and
- Scott White, CEO of the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau
"We have one shot to get this right – for the trust of our community, the trust of our guests and also the trust of our staff," said Patrick Service, general manager of Las Casuelas Terraza and a member of the task force.
His business has come to a half since the city issued a shelter-in-place order more than a month ago. The restaurant normally employs more than 100 people, but it's completely shut down right now.
"We are a tourism and hospitality economy and so we do have primarily businesses that are severely affected," said Palm Springs Mayor Pro-Tem Christy Holstege.
Holstege said the process will take a staged approach to reopening and she hopes it will apply lessons learned from essential businesses that have remained open through the pandemic.
"It's changing every day, so it's difficult to predict – will this be in two weeks, will this be in a month, what will the next three months look like?" Holstege said. "But we're triying to have a strategy to do that."
The city's council is expected to discuss Thursday night whether or not to allow golf courses to reopen.
Palm Springs was the first valley city to implement stay-at-home orders, closing non-essential businesses and declaring a local emergency on March 14, before Governor Newsom's own statewide order.
The city also has some of the strictest fines for violating emergency orders in Riverside County.
As of Wednesday night, Palm Springs has the third most coronavirus cases with 84, but the most deaths in the Coachella Valley with 9. Palm Springs has the third most number of deaths in Riverside County, the other two cities with more deaths are Riverside (20) and Moreno Valley (12).
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