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 — Parking doesn't come cheap for City Hall.
This week, City Council will consider spending $3,807,580 on two large parking contracts and an elevator.
Santa Monica already has 5,816 parking meters so what's another 350? New meters would cost City Hall about $323,000 for installation and another $93,800 in annual maintenance. The additional meters would also increase credit card processing costs by an estimated $44,000 every year.
More than 12 million people park at city parking meters every year. City Hall recently installed new meters with electronic payment options and weight sensors.
The 350 new meters would be installed next to areas of high parking demand, city officials said. The areas don't currently have time limits or meters and so they are occupied nearly all the time. Installing meters, city officials said, will ensure that parking turns over frequently.
Meters will go in along 14th Street from Olympic to Pico boulevards, on Michigan Avenue from 14th to 15th streets, on Ocean Park Boulevard from 16th to 17th streets, on Arizona Avenue from 10th to 11th streets, and along 10th and 11th streets between Santa Monica Boulevard and Arizona.
All meters will cost $1 an hour and be active from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The time limits range from one hour on Ocean Park to nine hours on Michigan. All other new meters will have two-hour limits.
City Hall expects the installation to begin before July. The IPS Group will likely get the contract.
Lots and garages
The contract with Central Parking Systems — the operator in charge of managing City Hall's 14,283 parking spaces at 12 garages and 30 parking lots throughout the city — expires in May. It's a massive contract, one that's been ongoing for five years, and because May is the beginning of the busiest parking season it would be a bad time for a changeover, city officials said. Additionally, parking operations just switched departments in City Hall — from the Finance Department to the Planning Department — and city officials want to make sure everyone has time to be involved with selecting the next contract.
City Hall is proposing that the contract be extended on a month-to-month basis for no longer than six months while city officials receive and review the new bids. Central Parking Services would receive $490,000 per month or up to $2,940,000 for the six-month period.
Going up?
The Airport Administration building needs a new elevator that's compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The current elevator is unreliable and expensive to maintain, city officials said. It gets repaired two or three times a month, it fills with water when it rains, and last year the Santa Monica Fire Department was called in because a passenger was stuck.
The Fast-Track Construction Corporation will likely get the bid at $406,780. Construction is scheduled to start in June and take 90 days.
dave@www.smdp.com
