Seven of 12 Palm Springs City Council candidates participated in a lively early morning discussion Tuesday during the final public forum of the campaign.

While few attended the forum in person at the Mizell Senior Center, KPSI News Talk 920's Steve Kelly moderated and broadcast it live on Newstalk 920 KPSI.

With one week of campaigning left before Election Day, challengers intensified their calls for new blood on the council to help restore empty storefronts with new businesses.

The two incumbents countered that their experience is key and the challengers are painting Palm Springs in too negative a light.

The candidates debated the way forward for the Wessman Development- owned Desert Fashion Plaza, a key component to revitalizing downtown.

The City Council and developer John Wessman have been locked in tense discussions over the 12-acre site, believed to be worth at least $66 million, since Wessman purchased it in 2001.

“Mr. Wessman has held the city hostage for many years” — and this is the first council to do anything about it, Councilwoman Ginny Foat said Tuesday.

Mayor Pro Tem Chris Mills said the city is working on a development agreement with Wessman “right now,” expected to come before the council in November.

“We are long overdue for any action from Mr. Wessman,” candidate David Carden said. He added the city should consider floating bonds or redevelopment funds to buy the property, repackage it and sell it to a new developer if progress continues to stall.

Carden said that he opposes any development in the Chino Canyon area.

Challengers Barbara Beaty and Drew Sweatte said the city, not Wessman, was to blame for the lack of progress on the Desert Fashion Plaza.

“I've never seen a developer who doesn't want to develop,” said Beaty, who called Wessman a “brilliant developer.”

“We may have held him in captivity,” John Tymon added.

Former city employee Mark Walthour said Palm Springs needed to “get rid of the pimple that's on the end of the mall there,” referring to the white tent that once housed “Cirque Dreams.”

Beaty and Foat grappled over city redevelopment policy. Foat repeated a statement she made at an Oct. 15 forum that only elected officials can sit on the redevelopment agency board.

However, Beaty challenged that.

State law does not require that elected officials comprise an RDA board, Deputy Director of the Sacramento-based California Redevelopment Agency Tom Hart said Tuesday.

Nearly a dozen out of 397 California RDA boards either have separate appointees other than the city or county's governing board, or they use a joint powers authority, Hart said.

But when the council acts as the RDA board it ensures “they're both going in the same direction,” Mills said at Tuesday's forum.

Ken Vincent, News Talk 920's afternoon news anchor, asked the candidates their view on the voter-approved Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California last year. He argued it's a relevant council issue “at a time when we need business activity.”

Beaty said she didn't vote on Proposition 8 because she didn't fully understand the equality issue until recently.

“It's a new revelation,” she said.

Mills asserted that Proposition 8 is a “personal issue” and inappropriate for the council to be involved, he said.

“City Council is elected to govern,” not to “dictate a lifestyle,” he said.

Carden and Foat said Proposition 8 was a civil rights issue. Carden said business from same-sex weddings would be “a big boom for Palm Springs,” and Foat said the city saw nearly 400 same-sex weddings before they were outlawed.

Walthour said he abstained from voting on Proposition 8 and it was tough to reconcile same-sex marriage with his Catholic upbringing. However, Walthour added: “I see the happiness. ... If they want to have a wedding ceremony, who in the heck cares?”

Candidates Alexander Dobrecevic, Willie Holland Sr., Michael Gallardo, Eloise Garcia- Mohsin and Jim Osterberger did not participate in the forum.