A group of former residents and others with ties to Palm Springs’ Section 14 area proposed this week that the city pay them up to $105 million in damages — more than 20 times what the city has offered to pay as compensation for residents being forced off the land over 50 years ago.
That counteroffer, which was sent to the city attorney Wednesday, came about six weeks after the city offered to pay about $4.3 million by giving 145 households about $30,000 each.
Palm Springs officials said Thursday they were “shocked” by the counteroffer, which city spokesperson Amy Blaisdell said “could easily bankrupt the city.” Blaisdell suggested the city might decide to stop negotiating altogether with Areva Martin, the attorney pursuing legal claims on behalf of the residents, writing that “Staff is preparing to recommend to the City Council to work with each survivor and/or their descendants on direct cash payments.”
Martin, attorney for a group calling itself Section 14 Survivors, responded by saying the amount her clients are seeking amounts to about 4% of the city’s budget over a 10-year period.
“Four percent of a budget is not an attempt to bankrupt the city,” she said in a statement. “This is more than fair to right a wrong of this magnitude.”
In April, when the city made its offer, Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein said there was evidence city staff and resources were used in the demolition of 145 homes, and that $30,000 apiece was the estimated present-day value of homes that were worth about $2,000 each when destroyed.
But Martin wrote in her letter this week that the city should instead compensate 350 families, based on the “number of survivors who have provided oral histories of the atrocity.”
And she added that the city miscalculated both what homes were worth at the time and what they would be worth today and that the appropriate present-day compensation amount is just under $300,000 per family. Martin wrote that the city’s $30,000-per-home figure uses the consumer price index, which should not be applied to real estate.
Martin said her clients would accept payments spread out over 10 years with an annual total of “approximately $7.7 million to $10.5 million.”
Martin said the counteroffer is premised on the city continuing to move forward with several efforts to address and rectify the harm of Section 14. In April, the city pledged to move forward with many, but not all, of the efforts she lists in her letter, which include contributing to the construction of a racial healing center, providing land to the group located on or near Section 14 and providing resources and assistance for people with ties to Section 14 who want to start their own businesses.
Martin also said that she looked forward to discussing the calculations with the city and continuing to work towards a creative solution that fairly compensates the survivors of Section 14.
Much of the current dispute seems to be about how many homes the city was involved in destroying. The city maintains that it was only involved in the destruction of a fraction of the homes that were once located on Section 14, with the owners of the land handling the demolition and burning of many others without city involvement. It has said it will only pay compensation to those who can prove they lived in homes that the city was involved in destroying. Martin has generally seemed to maintain that the city is responsible for the demolition of all homes on Section 14 and should pay compensation to all residents who lived in homes that were destroyed there.
Efforts to substantiate the value of homes on Section 14 have also long been complicated by the reality that the owners of many Section 14 homes did not own the land. Instead, that land was owned by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians or its members and rented in what historical accountings and documents often show to have been informal arrangements. Given that over 50 years have passed, many of the records that would document claims to homes may have been lost.
City pledged to address ‘inequities of the past’
Martin’s counteroffer is the latest development around the Section 14 discussions in recent days. Earlier this month, the city of Palm Springs posted a series of documents to its website that it says provide a factual history of Section 14 based on a review of city documents related to the demolitions.
Those fact sheets say, among other things, that the city provided money, staff and resources that were used to destroy homes at the direction of those who owned the land after they provided records showing they had provided notice to evict the residents.
One of the sheets also says “the City of Palm Springs and City Council recognize that City funds were used to clear land that housed individuals and families who were…
Read More: Palm Springs rejects $105M request from Section 14 group