Palm Desert Geography Confuses Voters, Candidate

Palm Desert Geography Separates Denizens in the Area into City Residents and Residents of Unincorporated Palm Desert (the County)

PALM DESERT — Let’s say your address is 71730 Jaguar Way, Palm Desert, CA 92260. Now, in which city do you live? If you said, Palm Desert you would be wrong! Because of current Palm Desert geography, 71730 Jaguar Way technically sits in an        unincorporated area of Desert, which means you actually live on a street in Riverside County.

That’s what happened to Anyse Smith who is seeking a seat on the Palm Desert City Council in November in District 3.

The above address was Smiths on Aug. 8, 2022, when she applied for a seat on the Civic Engagement Committee.

She was appointed but was later asked to resign because she did not live in the city limits.

As for who appointed them, the full City Council holds Study Session meetings to interview applicants and assign them to committees/commissions. Once the recommendation is finalized, a staff report is prepared for a subsequent regular City Council meeting in which the City Council takes the appropriate actions to confirm appointments for a start date of July 1.

No one on the City Council flagged Smith’s application for living outside the city.

“In my experience as the City’s election official, it is common that voters in the Cahuilla Hills and Sun City areas reach out because they question why Palm Desert City Council candidates do not appear on their ballots,” City Clerk Anthony Meija told Uken Report. “These residents use Palm Desert as their mailing address and may not know they reside in an unincorporated area of Riverside County.”

In the image below, you can see the approximate area of Anyse Smith’s previous residence, which shows that the Cahuilla Hills area is surrounded by Palm Desert City limits on three sides.

Prior to June 2023, City staff did not proactively verify voter registration status or confirm applicants’ residency in Palm Desert, Meija said.

“As the new City Clerk, I requested my staff follow best practices and begin checking all currently appointed members and new applicants’ voter registration status and residency. During our review, we discovered three members resided outside of the city limits. Anyse Smith and Jonathan Stutz were newly appointed to the Civic Engagement Committee, and Debra Norby was appointed as an alternate to the Cultural Arts Committee. When I reached out to Anyse Smith, she was cooperative and voluntarily resigned from the Committee upon learning that she did not reside in Palm Desert City Limits.”

Some of her opponents are attempting to portray Smith as a liar, claiming she lied on her application. She did not.

Smith said she simply was unaware she could not live in an incorporated and serve on a city committee.

“I had no idea and City Council didn’t either, which is why they appointed me to the committee,” Smith said. “I was on it for, I think I attended maybe three meetings, two or three max. And it was not just myself, by the way.”

“I really wanted to work on the Civic Engagement Committee. I think that getting the community involved and understanding the city and how it works is so important …, “Smith said.

An address is not always just an address — at least in Palm Desert.