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# $2M to be spent on ‘consent’
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/2m-to-be-spent-on-consent/
- Published: 2004-02-24T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T03:51:49.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*City Hall looks at purchasing hydrogen-fueled cars*

(Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures which appear on the upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agenda. 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).

By Carolyn Sackariason

Daily Press Staff Writer

More than $2 million is expected to be spent tonight in City Hall on everything from unexpected costs in building the new library to buying hydrogen-powered vehicles for city staff and a boat for the police department.

The boat, a personal watercraft for the Santa Monica Police Department’s Harbor Patrol, will only cost City Hall a buck. The SMPD received a grant from American Honda Motor Co. to lease a Honda AquaTrax for $1 a year. The boat, which seats between one and three people, will be used for water safety and rescue operations around sandbars, jetties and pier pilings.

The AquaTrax will replace the harbor patrol’s Sea Doo, which has become unreliable and expensive to maintain, officials said. It cost $1,956 to repair last year, compared to $638 the year before, officials said. It’s estimated that it will cost $1,250 to maintain, fuel and insure the new boat, according to city documents.

• The most expensive expenditure is nearly $1 million for three projects related to the main library construction. The City Council is expected to approve $382,000 in emergency funds because a contractor exposed asbestos during excavation where the library is being built. The contaminated soil was abated and cleaned up. Officials are determining who should pay for the cleanup, but in the meantime, it’ll be City Hall.

Another $416,000 will be spent on required inspections of the construction project to ensure potential problems are identified early. And as part of the project’s second phase, $125,000 will be spent on a firm that specializes in establishing and monitoring a start-up plan for the library’s major building systems like its mechanical equipment.

32B,• Another $743,000 is expected to be spent on the Santa Monica Pier as part of a $5.7 million overhaul. Tonight’s expenditure will pay a new road on the pier. The pier roadway is the first critical piece needing a major repair and upgrade, officials said. The work is expected to be done by May.

• The City Council is expected to give the Santa Monica Convention and Visitors Bureau an extra $200,000 on top of its $1.2 million annual contribution. The bureau’s contract with City Hall ends in June and staff is recommending that it be extended another five years.

Officials say the bureau’s budget is modest when compared to other cities in the region and it receives a lot of in-kind support from local hotels and restaurants. The bureau also partners with regional, state and national tourism organizations.

Santa Monica continues to lose revenue as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials say. Tourism is down — Santa Monica has experienced higher room vacancy rates and lower room prices, official say. Compounding the problem is that key partners have been lost — the state-funded office of tourism has closed and federal funding has been reduced, officials say.

In their memo to the City Council, staff suggested that the bureau get more money because it’s doing more with less. The bureau opened a visitor’s center downtown but with no extra money so funds that would have otherwise been spent for promotion went to operating the center, officials said. Second, only a substantial increase in funding will make up for the loss of the bureau’s promotional partners, officials say.

• A contract between City Hall, the Southern California Air Quality Management District and Toyota Motor Sales USA, is expected to be approved tonight for $415,000 — of which City Hall would pay $85,000 — to buy hydrogen-fueled vehicles. The air quality management district has agreed to reimburse City Hall $130,000 and Toyota will contribute $200,000.

Known as the “fuel cell vehicle program” was first discussed in January and was expected to cost City Hall $200,000\. People who spoke on the issue said they were concerned that the development of a zero emission hydrogen vehicle program would diminish the city’s commitment to procuring zero emission electric vehicles. Some people also suggested that hydrogen cars are not as efficient as electric ones.

As a result, city staff met with a special task force and the public to come up with another proposal. Under the new plan, City Hall will complete a comparison of the efficiency, emissions and operation of the hydrogen car versus other alternative fueled vehicles City Hall uses.

City staff believes that it’s important for Santa Monica to have hydrogen fueled cars because City Hall will gain knowledge of an emerging technology and might be able to influence regulators, vehicle manufacturers and fuel suppliers as policy decisions are made over the next several years that will impact the cost of city operations.

• The last expenditure amounts to $55,858 to lease office space on Main Street for the city’s environmental and public works management department. The lease is actually a six-month extension so city staff can continue working in the space. A portion of staff in the engineering and architecture division, as well as the environmental programs division, currently work in the space, but the lease is set to expire in May. Officials say the staffers have work to complete before moving to another location. City officials negotiated a $2.44 per square foot rate with the landlord.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 24, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)