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# Parking problem potentially solved for time being
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/parking-problem-potentially-solved-for-time-being/
- Published: 2007-11-27T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T04:06:51.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Government & Politics, Main St, #archive-import

*Web site redesign on City Council’s agenda*

(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. Many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.) CITY HALL Parking can be pretty expensive in Santa Monica, but nearly $4 million?

That’s the price the City Council will pay a private company to manage parking operations for one year at nearly all city-owned structures, as well as lots on Main Street, Ocean Avenue and at the beach.

The contract with Parking Concepts, Inc., which will include extra staffing during the holidays and for the Sunday Farmers’ Market bike valet, is just one of a host of expenditures totaling more than $7 million that the council is expected to make tonight when it meets at City Hall.

Other items up for consideration include extra security for Big Blue Bus employees, landscaping at Woodlawn Cemetery, security cameras at City Hall and a redesign of the city’s Web site.

PARK IT Parking Concepts (PCI) has been managing parking for City Hall since June 2004\. The original contract was for three years with two one-year renewals. That contract ended in June 2007, and ever since, City Hall has been paying Parking Concepts on a month-to-month basis.

By extending the contract for another year, city staff will have the time to hire a consultant to review parking operations and make recommendations on how City Hall can improve. Those recommendations would then be incorporated into a new contract. Some of those recommendations include allowing credit card payments in exit lines and at pay stations located throughout the structures, according to a city staff report.

In addition to extending the contract with Parking Concepts, the council is being asked to set aside $9,000 for improved elevator maintenance, another $9,000 for armored transport from beach facilities and $116,000 for additional staffing to handle peak hours at the beach and downtown.

If city staff moves fast and is able to find a new company to manage parking operations before the contract with PCI ends, City Hall can terminate the contract with 30 days notice.

There were approximately 3.8 million visitors to the parking structures in 2006-07, up almost 200,000 from 2004-05 and more than 300,000 since the year before PCI began operating the facilities.

THE MUSCLE BEHIND THE BUS With construction of a new Big Blue Bus maintenance facility underway, parking for employees has been reduced, forcing them to park at off-site locations.

To protect employees who might have to walk to and from their cars during the late evening and early morning hours, the bus company is asking the council to spend $1.9 million on added security. The security officers will also be in charge of guarding the BBB facility and construction site — located at Colorado Avenue and Sixth Street — 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to a city staff report.

The opening of the new Transit Store on Broadway in downtown this month also creates the need for added security. Roving patrols will cover temporary parking at the Civic Center structure as well as the new Transit Store.

The contract to provide security is with International Services, Inc. BBB has contracted with a security service to provide daily coverage at the bus yard since February 2002.

To ensure that the grounds at Woodlawn Cemetery are maintained for visitors, while freeing up staff to concentrate on mausoleum cleaning and maintenance, as well as burials, city staff is asking the council to enter into a one-year landscaping contract with ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance, Inc. for $431,143.

In September 2006, the council authorized the city manager to award a one-year contract to address ongoing staffing shortages which resulted in inconsistent maintenance of the cemetery grounds and less-than-acceptable appearance of the grounds and markers, according to a city staff report.

Since the contract work began in October 2006, the appearance of the cemetery has improved and city staff has been able to concentrate on other areas. Staff has examined the costs and benefits of adding additional city staff, in lieu of continuing to contract out, and concluded that the contract for landscaping provides the most effective service and saves money.

Services to be performed under the contract include mowing the grass daily, aeration, fertilization, pulling weeds, grave marker edging and trimming, planting flowers, collecting trash and trimming the perimeter fence hedge both inside and outside the cemetery.

By keeping the services in-house, City Hall would have to spend $486,592 a year, plus purchase equipment at a cost of $258,480.

To enhance security at City Hall and the offices of the finance department, which is located 1717 Fourth St., city staff is asking the council to spend $184,394 to install and maintain security cameras at both locations.

The contract with Firstline Security, Inc. is for five years.

Following a recent burglary at the finance department and the repeated discovery of trespassers in City Hall after normal business hours, city staff evaluated security at both locations and it was determined that enhancements are needed. Police recommended security cameras and new locks for doors that can only be unlocked with special access cards during off hours.

Internet traffic has grown so much over the last two years that City Hall’s Web site has become increasingly difficult to navigate and maintain, leading city staff to ask the council for $125,300 to pay Content Management System to redesign the site to make it more flexible and accessible.

To see if residents are willing to vote for a ballot measure that could protect between $8 million and $12 million a year in tax revenue, the council is expected to spend $35,000 on a survey.

The potential ballot measure would modernize the city’s Utility Users Tax regarding telecommunications,a tax which constitutes 13 percent of the city’s General Fund, which pays for essential services such as police and fire.

The 10 percent tax, which applies to all telecommunication services, including wireless communications, has been challenged in court and in the halls of Congress. The city’s tax is valid,but it needs to be updated to address 21th Century modes of communication.

Such changes would require voter approval. City staff is looking at November 2008 as a possible time to place a potential measure on the ballot. Another option would be to hold a special election in the summer, but this would cost considerably more money than if City Hall waited until the already scheduled election in November of next year.

The city of Los Angeles, which has $270 million at risk, is proceeding with a special election that will be held in February 2008 to coincide with the state’s presidential primary election. City staff did not recommend that option because a special election would not draw the largest voter turnout and would be costly, anywhere from $150,000 to $170,000.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 27, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/112707.pdf?ref=smdp.com)