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# Council to consider $4.1M in expenditures
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/council-to-consider-4-1m-in-expenditures/
- Published: 2008-04-22T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T19:20:24.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Government & Politics, Downtown, #archive-import

*City set to speed up maintenance request system*

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 Santa Monica Police officers could soon be patrolling in a fleet of new Fords.

As part of its Vehicle Replacement Program, the Santa Monica Police Department is seeking three new compressed-natural-gas sedans for administrators and nine gasoline-powered sedans for routine policing duties, including emergency response.

The two sedans will be supplied by different vendors — Downtown Ford Sales will provide the gasoline vehicles for approximately $202,000 and Galpin Ford will sell the CNG interceptors for $114,000.

The new vehicles are part of a $4.1 million spending package that will go before the City Council at tonight’s meeting, with items ranging from a new computer maintenance management system to a contract with a summer surf camp.

City Hall intends to continue its long relationship with the Surf Academy, which has operated the summer surf camps through the community classes program since 2002\. Among the spending items is a contract with both the Surf Academy and Socceropolis, which similarly has ran the soccer school in the city for years.

While the two contracts combined are valued at $387,000, those costs will be offset by the fees collected through the program, raising roughly $108,000 for City Hall.

The level of participation for the two programs has grown gradually over the years. In 2002, more than 380 kids between the ages of 8 and 18 participated. As the program expanded, so did attendance, with nearly 600 youth and 170 adults enrolled in the current fiscal year.

The same trend was experienced with Socceropolis with more nearly 1,000 student enrolled in the camps and classes. Approximately 1,100 students are expected to enroll this summer.

In operating the surf and soccer schools, city staff handles all administrative duties such as registration while the contractors provide the instruction.

“As a city provider, Surf Academy has the capacity to offer a selection of affordable programs that are accessible to all members of the public,” according to a staff report.

City Hall is looking to extend an existing contract with ACS State and Local Services to continue processing the unfriendly teal and white parking violation slips that sit on the windshields of offending motorists.

The cities of Santa Monica and West Hollywood jointly contracted parking citation processing services from ACS, whose current agreement with both municipalities expire on June 30\. Both City Halls have agreed to extend the contract for two years.

If the council agrees, ACS will receive an extension worth an estimated $2.8 million.

Among the services that ACS provides is processing payments, scheduling hearings, collecting on delinquent accounts and customer service.

“A two-year extension will provide the cities the opportunity to realign contract expiration dates and move forward as a unified group,” according to a staff report.

In order to ensure accurate reporting of payments for the Utility Users Tax, which is a fee affixed to electricity, cable, telecommunication and natural gas services, City Hall is seeking extending a contract with MuniServices LLC to continue providing auditing services well past the expiration on April 30.

The firm has been contracted over the years to perform audits on the UUT, and the Franchise Tax and Transient Occupancy Taxes, resulting in $960,000 in additional revenue for City Hall.

The contract includes an $85,000 Utility Users Tax Program, which provides ongoing monitoring of legislative and technological updates and $80,000 audit for the Transient Occupancy Tax.

“MuniServices LLC is the only firm known to provide the full range of audit and revenue enhancement services required by the city,” the staff report states.

In order to update an archaic work order system that relies on phone calls and e-mails to different maintenance staff, City Hall is looking to install an new and efficient com-puterized management program.

The Maintenance Connection could receive a contract worth more than $447,000 to install a new management system that will allow city staff to submit and track their requests online and be notified of changes via e-mail when the status of the request changes.

“The existing system went into production in 1998 and after a decade is no longer considered to be responsive to the city’s needs,” the staff report states.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 22, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042208.pdf?ref=smdp.com)