Despite their defeat Tuesday at the polls, nine of the 10 candidates who challenged incumbents Ginny Foat and Chris Mills for the Palm Springs City Council seats said they still intend to serve the community in some way.

Foat, who reclaimed her seat with 3,180 votes, said a top priority in her next term is to “help get back on track” Palm Springs’ 30 or so commercial and residential projects approved before the recession.

“Once you build them everything else will follow in place,” Foat said.

Mills, who serves as mayor pro tem and won his seat with 2,945 votes, called keeping the city’s budget balanced amid dwindling tax revenues his top priority in the coming term.

Palm Springs likely will “need to do some belt-tightening” — on top of the cuts to address a $12 million deficit, Mills said.

“That’s going to be hard to do” because it affects the livelihoods of many city employees as well as public services and programs, he said.

Among the challengers, at least three plan to run for a council seat again, and another expressed interest in running.

“I am looking forward to two years from now,” James Osterberger said Wednesday. “I look forward to another run. I still have roots here and I don’t want to give up.”

The downtown business owner said this year’s campaign was an “invaluable experience” and he “learned quite a bit.”

Osterberger also plans to get involved with city boards, committees and commissions.

Michael Gallardo also will run again in two years, he said this week.

"I still believe it’s going to be the same old song and dance," he said. "I still believe I can make a lot of change in Palm Springs."

Gallardo plans to begin that change by getting involved with city commissions.

"There’s several I want to get on," he said. "It just depends on what’s going to be open. I want to study them and see which ones really have an impact on the city and growth of the city, getting behind the businesses and make sure we keep businesses open."

Developing schools and opportunities for youth, as well as addressing residents' issues in the city's north end will be among Willie J. Holland Sr.'s priorities during his second bid for the council in 2011.

A late addition to the race this year, Holland said he will work to ensure voters are educated about ballot measures and get out to vote the next time.

He is interested in serving on the Planning, Human Rights and Parks and Recreation commissions.

David Carden said he would be honored to run again.

"I think my campaign proved that there is room on the City Council for a true public servant and I do want to bring the public BACK into public service," he said by e-mail.

Carden's community involvement will continue, he said earlier in a press release.

He has co-founded Volunteer Palm Springs! and is involved with a program to network with and assist Palm Springs visitors from Canada and other areas. He also plans to continue serving as the Baristo Neighborhood Organization chairman and working on preservation efforts, among other interests.

Barbara Beaty said she received calls following the election from people offering to help her with a 2011 campaign.

“I don’t know about running again,” she said. “I can’t think that far down. I do know I want to stay engaged.”

Beaty, who now serves on the city’s human rights commission, said: “My heart is this community. I don’t feel discouraged. I feel energized. ... We just need to come together, work together and fix Palm Springs.”

Mark D. Walthour plans to help make a difference in his neighborhood, Desert Highlands Estates.

“I’m looking forward to working with my community and maybe applying for one of the positions on the board," he said. "I need to do that because I need to keep this area really going.”

Walthour said he wants to help the neighborhood be ready for the junior college that’s planned for it.

In addition to continuing her volunteer work with Our Lady of Solitude, Eloise Garcia-Mohsin said, “I would like to get involved in the campaign of whoever is running against (Assemblyman) Manuel Perez. At this point I don’t care if it’s a Democrat or Republican. I just want to make sure he’s not re-elected.”

She also plans to continue her mydesert.com blog about campaign donations regarding the 2010 Congressional race.

“At the moment I don’t foresee running for office myself — it’s too soon,” Garcia-Mohsin said.

John Tymon, who said he has intermittently attended the meetings of all city boards, committees and commissions, will continue to attend city meetings “and speak during public comment” sessions, he said.

Though he does not intend to run for a council seat again, one of his objectives is to work with the city, developer John Wessman and Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Chairman Richard Milanovich “to finally get this fashion plaza done,” he said. Tymon described the plaza as the “town’s anchor property.”

Enrolling in school is among Drew Sweatte’s immediate priorities, but he remains committed to the Palm Springs community.

“I’ll be fighting for the things that I fought for on the campaign trail, now as a private citizen collecting signatures,” he said.

Sweatte hopes to organize teams to help roll out three to five policy initiatives in the spring. The initiatives would deal with various issues, with the Redevelopment Agency and city sign code being “two of the biggest,” he said.

Challenger Alexander Dobrecevic was unavailable for comment.