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# City Hall needs to bring spending down to Earth
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/city-hall-needs-to-bring-spending-down-to-earth/
- Published: 2004-05-21T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:22:09.000Z
- Author: Bill Bauer
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

*I have some ideas how Santa Monica can save money next fiscal year, make ends meet and serve the needs of residents for a change.*

City Hall could save big bucks if it rolled up the red carpet for the homeless. In spite of nearly $100 million spent over the last 20 years, City Manager Susan McCarthy admitted in a Daily Press profile (May 10, page 1) that, “... We haven’t been able, with all our resources, to resolve it (the homeless problem).”

Has it dawned on City Hall that no matter how much we commit, things just get worse? It’s time to cut our losses.

I’d start by slashing the $2 million City Hall annually gives to 10 agencies offering 22 programs that are mostly ineffective at reducing the impacts of 1,500 to 2,000 transients on our streets daily. I’d encourage aggressive enforcement and prosecution of those violating food handout ordinances, trespassing laws, panhandling and other regulations governing anti-social behavior.

According to city statistics, about one-third of police resources and 18 percent of paramedic/fire emergency costs are generated by transients. Lowering these could save tens of millions of dollars annually that now disappears down a black hole.

Then there’s the Bayside District Corp., a city affiliated, nonprofit organization governed for the most part by wealthy Bayside landlords and property owners. The city handed the BDC $608,700 last year to promote business downtown.

The success of the Third Street Promenade has made many property owners and landlords wealthy. So why is the city giving them even more money? The BDC, like many city boards and commissions, is primarily an advisory body to the City Council, which really makes the rules.

Last year, the Bayside’s board of directors twice requested an increase in homeless services spending. It seems they’re working at cross purposes because it’s the drunks, screamers, mentally ill, panhandlers and social misfits that make the Promenade so unattractive. Instead of addressing these issues, the BDC’s executive director, Kathleen Rawson, campaigns for more “state-of-the-art” movie theaters to bring even more people, traffic and parking problems into already congested downtown.

The city gave the Pico Youth and Family Center (through Public Health Foundation Enterprises) an interim $203,987, covering nine months during the 2003/2004 fiscal year. With ongoing organizational problems and controversy, and despite a blistering critique of the nonprofit’s operations and leadership, city staff still recommended refunding the troubled youth services operation. Projected annual cost of the grant next year: $272,000\. Couldn’t this money be spent a lot wiser on less volatile resources with a similar purpose?

City Hall gives “officially recognized” neighborhood groups annual subsidies of up to $4,000 each. Last year, four groups took the handouts. Some of the original neighborhood organizations are defunct. Others have lost touch with their constituency. One is too self-involved to concern itself with neighborhood issues. And, one has become a platform for a political activist and his crew who are mostly interested in personal agendas.

If these groups can’t stand on their own, City Hall should stop propping them up. My suggestion: Give the money to the Santa Monica Police Department’s mounted patrol.

There’s no better public relations tool than a peace officer astride a horse. They’re also a terrific resource for crowd control and crime fighting. The City Council perpetrated a cruel trick last year when they told mounted officers to raise part of their budget on their own. There’s something unsettling about policemen fundraising by selling T-shirts in a city as wealthy as Santa Monica.

Let’s end all the traffic jamming projects this year. Politicians will tell you improvements such as the downtown transit mall, Wilshire Boulevard traffic islands, curb bump outs, roundabouts, street lane reductions and all the rest of their steer manure is paid by county, state or federal sources. City Hall still spends millions of our dollars on proposals, design studies, inspections, construction oversight and public relations to convince us these are good ideas.

Traffic is even more congested, and everyone’s stress level is through the roof. Their “get ’em out of cars and on the bus” agenda isn’t working. Let’s take the money earmarked for “traffic calming” and spend it on a horse stable for the SMPD Mounted Unit and on “free” parks and recreational resources for our kids. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer).

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 21, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/052104.pdf?ref=smdp.com)