Mural, mural on the wall: City asked to restore art
By KIM CALVERT Special to the Daily Press
(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.) CITY HALL — Medical insurance will take a big bite out of Santa Monica coffers at tonight’s City Council meeting.
A new three-year agreement with the city’s non-safety employees and city firefighters is expected to cost more than $8.2 million. In the first year of the agreement, City Hall’s contribution cap will increase from $475 per month to $532 per employee. For the subsequent two years, City Hall’s contribution cap will increase by a percentage required to cover the medical insurance premium, or 12 percent, whichever is less.
The total increase in medical insurance costs to City Hall will amount to $557,500 for fiscal year 2004-05. In the next fiscal year, the increase will jump to $1,740,800, and in the third year, it will top off at an estimated $3,070,900.
The money needed to fund the increases for the current fiscal year will be taken from available fund balances, while future costs will be included in fiscal year budgets yet to be developed, according to city staff.
City Hall also will use budget savings from last year to establish a reserve account in the amount of $2.65 million for a non-sworn employees’ retiree medical trust and for out-of-pocket medical insurance contributions by covered employees. A payment in the amount of $250,000 will be established for a firefighter’s retiree medical trust — coming to a onetime lump sum for both entities of $2,900,000.
The City Council also is expected to approve another $405,600 for an array of projects, which include the following: City staff will ask council members to allocate $61,400 from City Hall’s arts and conservation fund to restore the “Whale of a Mural” on Ocean Park Avenue at Fourth Street.
Barbara Stinchfield, Santa Monica’s community and cultural services director, said City Hall sets aside about $100,000 annually to cover the cost of maintaining and restoring the city-owned artwork, which includes 13 murals. She said “Whale of a Mural,” along with “Unbridled,” a mural of horses running on the beach located across the street from the whale mural, had been deemed priority items for restoration by the Santa Monica Arts Commission.
The City Council will be asked to award the contract for the mural’s restoration to Rainer Zebala Partners. The restoration work, which will be done by artists, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Conservation funding for “Unbridled” will be performed under a separate agreement.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 12, 2005. Read the original PDF.