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 HALL — The City Council will be asked to approve the purchase of almost $400,000 worth of a unique sealant that will be used to rehabilitate 86 alleyways in the next two years.
The material is made by Petrochem Manufacturing Inc., a California-based company that creates a slurry seal ready to use when it arrives to the worksite rather than requiring workers to mix the formula for each use. It's the only company that makes such a product, according to the staff report.
The company recycles tires to make the product, taking 162 tires out of landfills for every 70,000 square feet of asphalt paved.
The Public Works Department has already used the material on the asphalt walkway in Palisades Park and 11 alleyways throughout Santa Monica. The new purchase order would cover an additional 20 alleyways in the 2012-13 fiscal year and 66 in the following year.
The purchase order covers $338,333.76 for all of the proposed work, the largest-ticket item in an $802,923.76 consent agenda.
Going up?
If the City Council gives the OK, nine elevators in three of the Downtown parking structures will be replaced with newer models that both function reliably and meet modern code requirements.
Elevators in parking structures 2, 4 and 5 were originally installed when the structures were built in the 1960s and are plagued with performance problems despite maintenance, according to the staff report.
Officials selected IDS Group for the project. The company will have to design and provide construction documents for the new models, as well as coordinate the design components with City Hall, Downtown Santa Monica Inc. and the construction company hired for the actual installation of the elevators.
IDS Group has done work with the Los Angeles Housing Authority and their consultant did work on the Public Safety Facility.
The contract will cost $191,840, which includes a 10 percent contingency.
Bridging the gap
Santa Monica is in the market for a new bridge to connect its iconic pier to dry land, but with the start date on that project over three years away, City Hall will have to find another way to keep pedestrians and cars separate in the interim.
Enter Meek Shea, Joint Venture, the group entrusted with the $8.2 million bridge reconstruction project. For an additional $150,000, the company will construct temporary improvements to the bridge recommended by city officials that will provide separation between pedestrians and vehicle traffic.
Those includes demolishing the sidewalks on either side of the bridge and replacing them with a single, wider sidewalk on the northerly side as well as putting up a temporary concrete barrier between the pedestrian path and the cars.
The new sidewalk would be 9.3 feet wide, almost twice the width of the current walkways.
Lots of cots
The Office of Emergency Management is recommending a Santa Monica company for a $50,000 contract to buy between 200 and 250 emergency cots appropriate for people with disabilities.
Santa Monica received a $50,000 Urban Area Security Initiative on top of over $3 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security to buy emergency supplies to care for people in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.
The cash will be used to buy cots to help house people left homeless by a disaster, and Joffe Emergency Services sells the lowest-cost product suitable for people with disabilities.
The purchase comes on top of a June 2012 order for 1,501 cots, also from Joffe.
Funds for Cradle to Career
The City Council is expected to approve a $107,500 increase in a consultant contract to further a local initiative meant to address youth violence in Santa Monica.
The money would go to Jonathan Mooney, a Santa Monica resident who has helped with the development of the Cradle to Career initiative since its inception and, if approved, would shepherd it through June 2014.
Mooney would be in charge of five key focus areas, including a model of sharing data between key agencies, evaluating what children do in the time away from school and how to make the entire effort sustainable in the long term.
The extension amount would bring Mooney's total contract to $177,500.
Just keep swimming
Officials in charge of the Annenberg Community Beach House have requested over $130,000 for chemicals to keep the pool at the facility up to snuff.
State and county laws require that public swimming pools maintain balanced water chemistry, and the beach house officials have selected Commercial Aquatic Services, Inc. to deliver the necessary materials to make that happen.
Four bids were received on the contract, but Commercial Aquatic Services was both the lowest bidder and has done previous work at the Santa Monica Swim Center at Santa Monica College.
Only $30,250 will be spent this year, with future funding contingent on council approval of the 2013-15 biennial budget.
Extra charges
City Hall plans to cash in on a private restaurant's desire to spruce up its facade by charging for an expansion into the public right of way.
King's Seafood Company LLC., owners of Ocean Avenue Seafood, plans to remodel the front of the restaurant at 1401 Ocean Ave. The improvements are expected to extend 490 square feet into the public right of way.
That will cost them $3,636 each year for the next decade with an option to renew for two five-year terms.
ashley@www.smdp.com
