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 — In a light consent agenda, City Council will likely approve $424,096 in spending, with three quarters of that being covered by grants and money left over from other projects. Council will also accept a $400,000 water grant.
One item, which the Daily Press wrote about last week, reviewed all of the current development agreements and found that only one company, Agensys, was not in compliance. Too many of its employees are driving to work, city officials said.
Traffic platform
City Hall is hoping a web platform can help cut down on the headache that is traffic in the city by the sea. Civic Resource Group LLC will likely get $402,500 to build that platform, which will manage existing and future transportation demand management programs.
The platform would help drivers and riders navigate the city in the most efficient ways using all the available modes of transit. It would encourage commuters to use green routes and it would identify the costs associated with each option.
City Hall will only pick up $100,000 of the tab with the rest coming from portions of two different grants from Metro.
The total cost of the project will be close to $2 million with more than $1.2 million coming from the Metro grants.
Airport fire alarms
The Fire Department says there should be more fire alarms at the Santa Monica Airport.
In September, council agreed to pay Golden Phoenix $182,683 to add a fire alarm system.
The project started in November but the company hasn't used all the cash. The Fire Department found more locations that could use alarms so city officials are asking council to approve $21,596 for the engineering, design, and installation of horn strobes and pull stations in a hangar and several administration buildings. The initial project is $16,607 under budget, so only about $5,000 extra would be needed for the additions, which are expected to be completed next month.
Late last year, a jet veered off the runway and into a hangar. The hangar caught fire and the roof collapsed. All four people on board died in the crash.
Runoff water grant
City Hall is going to study using runoff water to bolster the local water supply.
The Office of Sustainability and the Environment got a $400,000 grant from the Metropolitan Water District that will partially fund a local runoff harvesting and use demonstration project.
The Sustainable Water Master Plan, which will likely be finalized later this year, includes numerous strategies that would lead to water self-sufficiency by 2020. Some of those strategies include the use of groundwater, greywater, wastewater, and urban runoff to contribute to the supply.
The grant project will study the impacts of using dry weather runoff and stormwater at Los Amigos Park. The water would be used for irrigation and toilets.
California is in the midst of a drought and saw some of the lowest levels of precipitation in years. Santa Monica has enough water to last through 2014, but if the drought continues council can vote for water restrictions in coming months.
dave@www.smdp.com
