Editor's note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city's expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.
City Council will consider spending $582,866 on a bike path sweeper, a new public restroom and Web updates at its March 24 meeting.
They could pay Studio Jantzen $252,698 to design improvements to the Transit and Parking Services (TAPS) center on the ground floor of Parking Structure 5.
Big Blue Bus subleased its space on Broadway — which served as its retail center until April, when it moved to modest digs on the bottom of the parking structure to save cash. Now BBB is bunking up with City Hall's parking contractor, Central Parking, Inc. It's the only Downtown location where BBB riders can buy bus passes or get route info.
"The shared space is insufficient to handle the volume of staff and customers which can be as high as 300 daily for both Central Parking and the BBB," city officials told council.
Studio Jantzen's makeover would add public restrooms and a small retail space for lease.
"The location of this facility is approximately one block from the Expo terminus, which will not have public restrooms," city officials said. "The restrooms would serve light rail and BBB riders, parking patrons and downtown visitors alike."
Sweepers
Council may decide to take a chore from Los Angeles County. The county, which built the Marvin Braude Bike Trail along the beaches in 1972, has been in charge of sweeping duties. Santa Monica, which extended the 19-mile trail to its city limits in 1989, would like it swept more frequently and is willing to take on the job to make that happen.
The county is supposed to sweep twice a week in the winters and three times a week in the summer, but it sometimes gets delayed in the southern portion of the route. Santa Monica beach maintenance workers break out the push brooms when the county misses a day or when sand covers the trail.
"In addition, the equipment used by the County to clear the trail scrapes the pavement and has damaged the recently installed trail guidance markings," city officials said in a report.
The county doesn't sweep Ocean Front Walk.
City officials suggest buying a sweeper and hiring someone to drive it so the 2.9-mile section of the Santa Monica bike trail gets swept five times a week. Hot spots along Ocean Front Walk and the bike trail would get swept three times a week.
The new staff member would cost $88,723 per year — a cost that would be partially offset by an annual $30,000 contribution from the county.
The sweeper, plus its first year of depreciation, would cost $226,436. Tennant Company is recommended to get the bid.
Web maintenance
The ongoing drought is really putting a strain on City Hall's Web fund. (You read that right.) Council will consider spending an extra $15,000 on the Web this year.
The Office of Sustainability and the Environment's website is City Hall's hub for promoting all its sustainability programs.
"More work than expected is required this year as a result of Web updates from the drought response and launching an open data site for Sustainable City Plan data," city officials said in a report to council.
John Oakes, who's been working with City Hall since 2011, will likely get the extra cash, bringing his total agreement to $95,000.
dave@www.smdp.com
