Ron deHarte

Ron deHarte was elected to the Palm Springs City Council in December 2022. He is a community organizer, a longtime public servant, and a recognized human rights champion who served two terms as Chair of the City of Palm Springs Human Rights Commission. Ron is also a small business owner. He's not a special interest politician. He's a local resident who cares about Palm Springs and believes we can have safe streets, sound economic development, a robust tourism economy, and accessible housing while being a leader in sustainability. He is dedicated to ensuring vibrant and walkable neighborhoods and open spaces accessible to all, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, native language, culture, abilities, and disabilities. 

 
Extensive local leadership experience
 

Active in the Palm Springs community for sixteen years, Ron’s service and civic engagement led him to serve on the Palm Springs City Council.
 

Qualified to serve and take on today’s challenges
 
Through the years, Ron has supported and/or produced some of the City’s most significant events, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and generating millions of dollars in revenue. This includes the Greater Palm Springs Pride Parade and Festival, the City of Palm Springs Cesar Chavez Day, the Veterans Day Parade, the Festival of Lights, Cathedral City LGBT Days, and the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast. 
 
Ron prepared for the position of Councilmember for over a decade by attending countless city council meetings in person to learn of the issues facing the city and observe the local governance process. Before and through the COVID-19 outbreak, Ron has continued to follow city council actions via the city’s live council meeting broadcast on YouTube. 
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Not one to sit idle, Ron is co-chair of the Community Leadership Council and serves as a director on several community-based initiatives, including Safe Schools Desert Cities, The LGBTQ Archives of the Desert, and Greater Palm Springs Pride. At the start of 2026, he completed his second term as a co-founding president of the United States Association of Prides.
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As the Mayor, Ron served on the following committees:

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• Mayor's Council on Economic Development

• Convention Center and Tourism Stakeholders Working Group

  • Tourism Improvement District (TID) 

  • Urban Planning & Connectivity

  • Public Finance 

• Coachella Valley Association of Governments Executive Committee

• Coachella Valley Association of Governments Energy & Environmental Resources (2 years)

• Coachella Valley Association of Governments Homelessness Committee (2 years)

• California Coalition of Mayors

• Coachella Valley Conservation Commission (2 years)

• Visit Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau (Alternate)

• Palm Springs Hospitality Association

• P.S. Resorts

• Office of Neighborhood Involvement (One-PS)

• Board & Commission Interviews

• Finance Standing Committee

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​As a councilmember, Ron represents the residents of Palm Springs on:

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• Convention Center and Tourism Stakeholders Working Group

  • Tourism Improvement District (TID) 

  • Urban Planning & Connectivity

  • Public Finance 

• Visit Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau

• Palm Springs Hospitality Association (Alternate)

• P.S. Resorts

• Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce

• Alternative Transportation Committee

• Ad hoc committee for downtown parking

He is a proud Latino from a working-class family and has his own family.
 
Regarding his personal background, Ron is a proud Mexican-American, the youngest of seven. He is a first-generation college student who grew up in a modest community in Glendale, AZ.  He is a proud graduate of a graphic design trade school and community college, and he continued his formal education in Los Angeles while developing industry-recognized public relations events and marketing programs. He is a graduate of California State University, Northridge.
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Ron’s family history is documented in the Arizona Chicano/a Research Collection at Arizona State University, Archives & Special Collections. Dating back to 1863, the family history, in document and photographic form, helps document the presence of Hispanic people in Arizona. It is a permanent part of the Arizona State University collection titled the Teodoro and Mariana Rodriguez Ocampo Collection.
 
Ron and his husband of twenty-eight years, Keith Gran, have two sons and live in the Vista Las Palmas neighborhood of Palm Springs.