Election results: Desert Hot Springs incumbent Jan Pye leading Adam Sanchez for council

Councilmember Jan Pye was leading challenger and former mayor Adam Sanchez by nearly 100 votes in Desert Hot Springs' first by-district election.

Pye had 342 votes and Sanchez had 249 votes in District 3 as of Thursday afternoon. Mayor Pro Tem Gary Gardner ran unopposed for District 1.

Both Pye and Gardner gathered with supporters at Playoffs, a sports bar in Desert Hot Springs, on election night. Several candidates for Mission Springs Water District and Desert Water Agency were also at the event.

With the lead, Pye said she was feeling optimistic. Gardner, running unopposed, had 373 votes. He said he was grateful for the support and to have people vote for a candidate even where there isn't opposition.

"I'm just thrilled at the results, and I'm really looking forward to serving the residents of Desert Hot Springs for another four years," he said.

Sanchez could not be reached for comment.

The council reluctantly approved dividing the city into four districts earlier this year due to a letter alleging its at-large elections violated the California Voting Rights Act. Desert Hot Springs denied it violated the law, but approved the district maps to avoid litigation costs.

Pye, 70, is retired and has been a councilmember since 2018. But this isn't her first term — she also served from 1999 to 2001 and from 2009 to 2015.

She is the city’s representative on the Coachella Valley Association of Governments’ homelessness committee. Pye is working on a strategic plan to help people experiencing homelessness, which she will eventually present to the rest of the council.

“I was able to create, for two years, a cooling center, but I need to do more than that,” Pye said. “And so that's where I'm trying to get something that is sustainable, and we will have continual revenues to protect it.”

She voted to approve the new districts, though it isn't something she supports. She said she will continue to serve the entire city, but plans to have quarterly meetings with District 3 residents to hear what they want.

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Sanchez, 64, was elected to the council in 2011 and as mayor in 2013. He ran for re-election as mayor in 2015, but lost to current Mayor Scott Matas. He lost his bid for council in 2018 to Pye by 28 votes and lost his bid for mayor again in 2020.

He currently works as the director of operations at the Art Foundation of Desert Hot Springs, which he said is a nonprofit that promotes art in the city.

If he wins, the former mayor plans to create citizen advisory committees on health and wellness, recreation, neighborhood watch, education and clean-up to engage residents if he's elected. The city recently created a clean-up group called the Desert Hot Springs Beautification Committee, but Sanchez said his group would be separate so he can lead it.

He also mentioned homelessness, citing two abandoned hotel resorts that he claimed have become homeless encampments. He was critical of Pye for the situation, but Pye said the city has to follow laws that prevent it from removing people and there are projects in the works for those locations.

“It's a health and safety issue that the city failed to address early, and allowed them to become homeless encampments,” Sanchez said.

MORE: One Desert Hot Springs council race contested as new districts debut

Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Desert Hot Springs election results: Jan Pye leading Adam Sanchez