SR-09-08-2015-3G
City Council
Report
City Council Regular Meeting: September 8, 2015
Agenda Item: 3.G
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Jacqueline Seabrooks, Police Chief, Police Department
Subject: Accept Two California Office of Traffic Safety Grants
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Authorize the City Manager to accept a grant awarded in the amount of $300,000
from the California Office of Traffic Safety for the Selective Traffic Enforcement
Program.
2. Authorize the City Manager to accept a grant awarded in the amount of $57,000 from
the California Office of Traffic Safety for a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety campaign.
3. Authorize budget changes as outlined in the Financial Impacts & Budget Actions
section of this report.
Executive Summary
The City of Santa Monica Police Department has been awarded two, one-year grants
from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). No local match is required for either
grant.
Both grants would support the City's efforts to reduce occurrences of injury and fatal
collisions. The Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) grant award of $300,000
would fund several best practice strategies to impact traffic safety including training,
community education, strategic enforcement operations, and equipment to support
those operations. Enforcement operations would include the following: bicycle and
pedestrian enforcement operations, DUI saturation patrols, DUI check points, distracted
driving operations, traffic enforcement operations, and motorcycle safety operations.
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety campaign grant award of $57,000 would fu nd a
multimedia approach to communicating bike and pedestrian safety messages. This
grant was awarded to the Police Department in partnership with CityTV. The grant
would fund a variety of social and broadcast media outreach efforts as well as
messaging throughout the City, including parking structures, buses, and hotels.
Discussion
These two grants would provide funding for an array of traffic education and
enforcement activities which meet the overarching goals of both the Vision Zero and 8
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to 80 programs, which were identified as a Council priority during the FY 2015/17
budget adoption process. Both grant awards would enable the Department to expend
the funding consistent with these programs as its efforts would include a focus on
bicycle, pedestrian, and motorist safety for all ages, and with an emphasis on both
youth and the elderly.
STEP Grant
The Police Department is committed to reducing the incidences of injury and fatal
collisions in Santa Monica. The annual STEP grant supports and enhances the Police
Department's efforts to address and further reduce incidences of collisions and to
generally improve traffic safety. OTS grant funding is specifically directed toward law
enforcement traffic safety operations. The Police Department has received su ch grants
annually for the past eleven years.
The STEP grant program would be implemented by the Police Department's Traffic
Enforcement Unit in three main phases. During Phase One, training would be
conducted, operational plans would be designed, and an initial press release
announcing the grant kick-off would be distributed. In Phase Two, the Police
Department's Traffic Enforcement Unit would roll out the program's operations. The
2016 grant would fund a variety of traffic, bike, and pedestrian safety e nforcement
operations during the term of October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016.
Additionally, the STEP program would include 14 traffic safety educational
presentations reaching a minimum of 220 community members, as well as participation
in the Pacific Coast Highway Task Force meetings and enforcement along the PCH
corridor within the Santa Monica jurisdiction, collaboration with the County's Avoid the
100 campaign to apprehend DUI offenders, participation in the annual National
Distracted Driving Awareness Month in April, and participation in the annual Click It or
Ticket mobilization period in May.
These strategies are designed to garner media attention, thus enhancing the overall
deterrent effect. The Police Department would work to create media opportunities
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throughout the grant period to call attention to the innovative program strategies and
outcomes. Phase 3 would be the data collection and reporting phase which occurs
throughout the grant program. Quarterly Performance Reports would compare actual
grant accomplishments with planned accomplishments.
Bike and Pedestrian Safety Campaign
The grant award for the Bike and Pedestrian Safety Campaign is a new grant awarded
by the California Office of Traffic Safety for the first time this year. The Office of Traffic
Safety Director announced this new grant opportunity at the end of 2014. The call for
projects requested an expanded variety of innovative program proposals to help the
Office of Traffic Safety achieve Vision Zero by preventing and reducing fatalities,
serious injuries, and economic hardships caused by traffic collisions. An important
feature of the program requirements was that law enforcement agencies partner with
another city department or organization with diverse but complementary strengths to
create a program that would promote safety for all modes of transportation, including
pedestrian and bicycle safety.
The Police Department partnered with CityTV to craft an innovative multi-media
program to submit for funding. According to the 2012 OTS rankings, the most recent
rankings available, Santa Monica falls into group C based on resident population. This
group includes 102 similar sized California cities and shows Santa Monica currently
ranks the highest for pedestrian-related collisions and ranks number two for bicycle
collisions. Based on this information, bicycle and pedestrian safety became the focus of
the Department’s grant program proposal.
Working together, the Police Department and CityTV, would implement a multi-media
campaign to educate Santa Monica residents and visitors on how to maintain safe
streets for bicyclists and pedestrians. Strategies would include the following:
- Short videos about bicycle and pedestrian safety as part of an "Everybody has
a Story" community project targeted at the residents of Santa Monica.
- Short social media videos about bicycle and pedestrian safety targeting a
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student audience, including Santa Monica College students.
- Public Service Announcement targeting youth in Santa Monica.
- Public Service Announcement targeting seniors in Santa Monica.
- Ads in parking structures targeting drivers in Santa Monica.
- Ads on buses targeting drivers, bicycle riders, and pedestrians.
- Coasters with bicycle and pedestrian safety messages targeting residents and
visitors.
- Slides with bicycle and pedestrian safety messages for display on the hotels'
graphic bulletin boards targeting tourists.
The above strategies and the products produced would be pushed out in a number of
ways, including CityTV and the City's social media networks.
With these grants, the goal is to utilize both education and enforcement strategies to
reach residents and visitors to the City of Santa Monica and ultimately reduce the
number of persons killed or injured in all categories of traffic collisions, with a special
focus on collisions involving bicyclists and pedestrians.
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Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Award of a $300,000 grant and a $57,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic
Safety requires the following FY 2015-16 budget changes:
1. Establish a revenue budget at account 20306.406857 in the amount of $300,000.
2. Establish a revenue budget at account 20306.408730 in the amount of $57,000.
3. Appropriate the following expenditures to reflect receipt of the Sele ctive Traffic
Enforcement Program grant:
$48,400 expenditure cost at account 20306.576515.
$251,600 personnel cost at account 20306.511490 89007W .
4. Appropriate the following expenditure to reflect receipt of the Bike and Pedestrian
Safety Campaign grant:
$25,979 expenditure cost at account 20306.568090.
$31,021 personnel cost at account 20306.511490 89008W .
Prepared By: Nicole Bustamante, Senior Administrative Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments: