“Three” proved to be the charm for the Twentynine Palms City Council at its regular meeting last night. Dan Stork explains why, and reports that a familiar figure will be filling the post of interim city manager…
After celebrating the remodeling of the Senior Center with an open house before its Tuesday night meeting, the Twentynine Palms City Council conducted the third review of the City’s budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year. After mopping up some straggling issues, the council approved the budget. The budget is balanced in its general fund revenue and expenditures, with about $7 ¾ million coming in and a like amount going out. Additional expenditures of over $400,000 from the general fund balance are within the limits of the formula set by the Council last year that is intended to allow cautious use of the Fund Reserve. Some of the uses for funds from the Reserve are a drag strip feasibility study and a lobbyist’s services, at $50,000 each. Before the budget discussion, there was a closed session to discuss acquisition of a property on Smoketree. There was no report from that closed session, and the open agenda item related to that acquisition was dropped. Following the budget discussion, the Council returned to closed session with two purposes: To discuss potential litigation, and to continue the closed session discussion of the previous evening about the quest for an interim city manager. Following that session, City Attorney Patrick Munoz informed local media that Andrew Takata, a former Yucca Valley town manager, was unanimously chosen to be interim city manager, at $100 per hour. After a brief initial period of full time work, the post is expected to be a half-time position.
FORMER YUCCA VALLEY MANAGER ANDY TAKATA IS INTERIM TWENTYNINE PALMS CITY MANAGER
