Just a week or so ago, we reported on how Big Blue Bus was set to follow in the footsteps of Metro in the hiring of transit security officers.
"We will be rolling out a new transit safety officer program early this year where we’ll have unarmed security guards on many of our buses and at our bus stops to ensure a positive customer experience," Anuj Gupta, Director of the Department of Transportation for the City of Santa Monica, told the Daily Press, confirming that this matter would be on the agenda for the Tuesday, 23 January City Council meeting. And indeed it was.
However, it was a consent calendar item and thankfully it was pulled by Councilmember Christine Parra allowing the residents of Santa Monica to learn a little more about it. All but three consent calendar items, including this one, passed unanimously 7-0 with no additional discussion.
"Our goal is to get as much coverage throughout the system as possible based on the security incident data that we receive from our operators … Right now we have a lot of incidents on route three for example, based on the data that we get," Liseth Guizar, Transit Safety and Training Manager for Big Blue Bus, explained to Council.
"As of now we’re doing different shifts during the weekdays and weekends. So on weekdays we’re going to have two shifts, it’s going to be nine hour shifts … with four guards per shift and we’re going to start them early in the morning when we’re having the majority of the incidents," Guizar said.
She went on to explain guards would follow a predetermined path set out each day based on incident reports. During their shift they would more than likely change buses and even routes. During the working week, Monday to Friday, there will be two shifts of eight working hours and each shift will have four guards, providing a total of 16 working hours of coverage. On the weekends, since the service is reduced, one shift of eight working hours with four guards will be deployed.
"That’s the funding that we have for now," Guizar said, "And we’re hoping that it will make a difference." She added that there will be an accompanying public information campaign, informing the public of the code of conduct and providing information about passenger and driver safety policy.
"We’re hoping that it’s also going to increase the perception of safety for our passengers, because we also do get, as I’m sure you get complaints from the public about disturbances on the buses, we get those as well. And so we’re hoping that this is going to alleviate some of those concerns," she said.
The company awarded this five-year contract is Good Guard Inc. a California-based company that has already worked with the City of Santa Monica patrolling parking structures for about a year or so. According to Guizar, they will not be armed and will wear uniforms that easily identify them.
Councilmembers had a few concerns, most notably the fact that the contract was for five years, the small number of guards compared to the number of buses in operation during peak hours and even potential jurisdictional issues outside of city limits.
"Why are we doing five years instead of maybe two or three years with options to renew, because how can we give other smaller businesses an opportunity?" Vice Mayor Lana Negrete asked. Guizar responded, ‘We had initially requested a three year contract with the option to extend it for two years. And we’re told that the city is going in the direction of doing five year contracts."
"We follow best practice of going out to market every five years at a minimum," added Oscar Santiago, the City’s recently-appointed new Finance Department director. "It eliminates some of that administrative burden of having to modify agreements, but we know that we are probably going to keep it for the entire five years and when we know that we can exercise an option to kind of pull out of the contract."
The security guard rollout will begin soon, on an as-yet unspecified date, "but is targeting a full rollout in the first or second quarter of this year," Robert McCall, Community Engagement Manager, told the Daily Press and the contract is costing a total of $7,407,816 for the full five years.
Interestingly, that contract takes the City right into the 2028 Olympic Games, but no one on Council mentioned that. "Big Blue Bus’s five-year contract with Good Guard is inclusive of the 2028 Olympics; however, TSOs will only be deployed on Big Blue Bus vehicles during the Olympics, and will not provide security for any events/activities specific to the Games," McCall said.
During peak weekday hours, a total of 124 buses are on the roads at any one time and on the weekends it’s 64.
On more than one occasion discussion dived headfirst into an unrelated rabbit hole, even somehow bringing President Joe Biden into the conversation. Ultimately however, the motion to move ahead was made by Parra, seconded by Negrete and passed unanimously 7-0.
