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# A few hundred thousand to be spent tonight at City Hall
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/a-few-hundred-thousand-to-be-spent-tonight-at-city-hall/
- Published: 2003-04-22T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:05:25.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Government & Politics, Pier, #archive-import

(Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that tracks city expenditures that 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. Many of the items, however, have been part of public discussion in the past.)

By Carolyn Sackariason

Daily Press Staff Writer

The Santa Monica City Council is expected to spend $320,000 tonight for maintenance of the pier and to build a new street connecting Main and Fourth streets behind City Hall.

City Hall has accumulated $140,000 in earned interest on the city’s capital reserve for the construction of Olympic Drive. By law, the money must be used by June 30.

Los Angeles County voters approved Proposition C in 1990, authorizing a.5 percent sales tax increase to fund transportation projects. Money generated by the tax is distributed to Santa Monica and to Los Angeles County every month by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, officials said. Under the MTA guidelines, Proposition C funds must be spent within three years of being collected.

In 1995, the city received approval to use the funds on the Olympic Drive Extension project, which will provide drive-thru transit access to the Civic Center by building a new street between Main and Fourth streets.

The project is one of the final phases in the multi-million dollar Public Safety Building that is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by June 30.

The council also is being asked by city staff to spend $180,000 for one year of maintenance on the Santa Monica Pier. The council is expected to approve a two-year contract with Roth Management to operate and maintain the Santa Monica Pier carousel.

The annual management fee of $82,000, plus the reimbursement of estimated staff salaries and maintenance costs of $98,000 are predicated on a six-day per week operation from mid-March through the end of August, and a five-day week operation from September through the first part of March.

Revenue generated from the carousel’s ticket sales, special event rental and filming are anticipated to be $136,000, offsetting in part the projected costs of management costs.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 22, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042203.pdf?ref=smdp.com)