So, you won an election, what’s next? That’s the question many Indio voters are asking after the November mid-term elections.

The unraveling of the Indio at-large election process, where all Indio residents were able to elect their Councilmembers, began about two years ago. Unable to win elections in Indio in the past, the far left socialist Democrats in Indio, and the Coachella Valley at large, approached a Malibu-based attorney named Kevin Shenkman, who has been suing cities all over Southern California, demanding they change the way they elect members of their city councils.

Using the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA), a piece of disguised legislation promoted by the majority left in the California Legislature, that allowed meddling in city elections via lawsuits to change the process and make it easier to elect candidates, other than conservatives, to change the
balance of power. Indio was threatened with litigation, that no California city has fought successfully because of the CVRA, and chose to change our election system instead of paying lawyers millions of dollars and losing those hard-earned dollars that could be spent in the city itself instead of infrastructure replacement and repair. This is the tactic that is turning California cities into liberal dumping grounds.

Though the City Council as a whole did not want to change the at-large process, as well as most Indio residents, the Council knew we could not win and reluctantly changed the process to what is known as Districts or Districting.

Indio now has five Districts, a new process this election. This is what led to a drastic change in the 2018 Indio mid-term elections, a change that would have never occurred in an at-large election in Indio. So, what does this new balance of power and new Councilmembers in Indio mean for
Indio’s future?

Newly elected Councilmembers in Indio Oscar Ortiz, 28, (District 4) and Waymond Fermon, 38, (District 2) bring no experience period to elected office. When I say no experience I mean zero experience. Both will be puppets or mouthpieces at-large to the Progressive Left Democrat
Parties in the Coachella Valley, who got them elected.

Fermon, a prison guard who works in Calipatria, 70 miles away, Ortiz, an unemployed college graduate who has dabbled in the marijuana industry, have no leadership experience, no budget experience, and no public policy experience. In the past few weeks both have shown they don’t even know the governmental makeup of what their elected offices do or who they appoint to the various commissions and committees.

It’s so bad that after six meetings with staff they reportedly still don’t understand the commissions and committees and what they do in Indio. This is the very scary and nightmarish results I warned voters about. Ortiz has already allegedly boasted about how being elected has changed his jobless outlook for the better as marijuana companies are allegedly offering him job opportunities.

Of course, they are as they want influence and his vote. A trip to
the City Attorney’s office might be in store for Ortiz as his conflict of interest issues are very real and may preclude him from voting — period. The word on the street is Ortiz also plans to appoint the failed ex one-term Indio Councilmember Sam Torres to the Indio Planning
Commission as an alleged payback for support.

This is a nightmare waiting to happen. Torres himself almost chased Goldenvoice, Coachella and Stagecoach, out of town due to his political actions and will chase investors and developers out of Indio with his non-business friendly approach.

Just like the far left, he seems to believe that business owners and operators should foot the full bill for paying for all the socialism expenses his politics creates. This will cause growth and development to stop in its tracks in Indio. These two individuals, Ortiz and Fermon, combined with the failed current Mayor of Indio, Lupe Ramos Watson (Amith), will form the basis of such a significant change and majority that all Indio residents should be seriously worried and concerned about Indio’s future.

Indio residents are about to see such a partisan hard turn left for its City Council that all the progress over years of non-partisan good public policy
leadership is about to come under heavy attack and change — for the worse.

The forward progress of using capitalism and economic development to create higher paying jobs, a growing sales tax base to support city services, building community value by increasing property values, and supporting all Indio residents by making their lives better will drastically change to a full out socialist agenda and hard left approach.

Data and the plain numbers show over many years that the current public policy, up until this election, has worked incredibly well for Indio and made us a great success and destination city once again.

If you look forward to increased crime by supporting sanctuary city policies in Indio, want to take God and prayer out of the City Council Chamber’s and the public square, and look forward to seeing marijuana on
every street corner, and the city smelling like our other Valley cities that promote it, then you’ll love and embrace the change.

Otherwise, you’ll start making plans to either fix the mistakes of this election by recall or completely looking to re-locate as it will be a long few
years in Indio. The only true leaders remaining on this current City Council make-up are Mayor Pro-Tem Glenn Miller, and Councilmember Elaine Holmes.

I pray for the best but it will be hard times for Indio and its current Council makeup after this election.