m20190430.pdf
1 April 30, 2019
CITY OF SANTA MONICA
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
APRIL 30, 2019
A special meeting of the Santa Monica City Council was called to order by Mayor Davis at 6:04 p.m., on
Tuesday, April 30, 2019, at City Council Chambers, 1685 Main Street.
Roll Call: Present: Mayor Gleam Davis
Mayor Pro Tem Terry O’Day
Councilmember Sue Himmelrich
Councilmember Ana M. Jara
Councilmember Kevin McKeown
Councilmember Greg Morena
Councilmember Ted Winterer
Also Present: City Manager Rick Cole
City Attorney Lane Dilg
City Clerk Denise Anderson-Warren
CONVENE/PLEDGE
On order of the Mayor, the City Council convened at 6:04 p.m., with all
members present. Mayor Pro Tem O’Day led the assemblage in the Pledge
of Allegiance.
STUDY SESSION:
BUDGET
4.A. Strategic Budget Direction for the FY 2019-21 Proposed
Biennial Budget, was presented.
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council receive a three-part presentation on
the strategy to achieve fiscal sustainability for the FY 2019-21 Proposed
Biennial Budget and the following two biennial budget cycles, as follows:
1. Review the background for a long-term strategy for maintaining
fiscal balance over the next six years in the face of flattening
traditional revenues and sharply rising costs, including a plan to
eliminate the City’s unfunded pension liability in 13 years;
2. Review the outline of the FY 2019-21 Budget, including proposed
efficiencies and program changes and mid-term proposals for
making an additional $1.5 million in savings in the second year; and
3. Review the strategy for reshaping traditional government services to
create a government that works better and costs less to maintain
fiscal sustainability over the next six years and beyond
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Members of the public Dolores Sloan, Barry Rosenbaum, Denise Barton,
Laila Taslimi, Nina Fresco, Carol Lemlein, Elizabeth VanDenburgh, David
Morris (time donated by Linda Myers), Judy Abdo, and Dominick Bei
spoke on the recommended action.
Questions asked and answered of staff included: are there opportunities
down the road to include Historical Preservation; will there be Task Force
for each area, and for which years; who will be represented on the Task
Force; how does the new metrics incorporate into the new Enterprise
system, and how will those numbers be used; how to measure Wellbeing,
and how is the value determined; how do you do a true cost analysis of the
things you cut and the impact it has on other cost; when and how will we
say that the dollars are important, but the values are what’s driving us, and
therefore we are making this decision instead of that decision; what are the
plans as these proposals go through, to find out what is really important to
the residents who live here; what type of outreach and engagement is
planned, especially since this is such a new and different process; is the
budget being presented based on Wellbeing; have we considered revenues
in other ways than the traditional ways; has there been any thought on how
to get people from all parts of the city to contribute in the budget; what if
CalPers basically can’t provide what is put into the pension plan, and if
other cities suffered shortfalls, how would that impact us; how is CalPers
fairing during this recovery period, and how does it play into the budget
projections; what is reason behind the reduction in parking revenues; what
are the differences in sales taxes, and how can it be thought of different;
which taxes are in the city’s purview to control; what is the appropriate way
to rein in some of the Capital Improvement aspirations; how much room is
there to increase the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), and what is the
yield; typical economic cycles are usually six up, one down, so how does
that translate into the forecast being given; is there any vehicle that we can
fix our pension situation; when looking at individual departments, do you
look at the total cost recovery for the service fees; is the new online sales
tax helpful; how much interaction is there with the Economic Development
Department in terms of finding means to increase revenue; do brick and
mortar’s sales tax drive the internet sales tax we receive; what would a 14
year pay down of the pension liability save; are revenues being shown,
based on what is being received now or what is coming online in the future;
what are the options for taxing services; clarification on some of the items
listed; the inspection of HazMat, is that the Fire Department or civilian;
with the decline in parking revenue, is there a way to make up that money
by charging a fee to the ride share companies; how are these fee studies
being done, and is there consideration to looking past the dollars, because
sometimes you need to spend money to make money; and, why is the Print
Shop being included when they are already being studied.
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3 April 30, 2019
Councilmember Himmelrich
excused at 9:04 p.m.
Considerable discussion ensued on topics including, but not limited to:
focus on the increasing revenues, for example, a vacancy tax for
commercial and residential property; tax on luxury apartments that are
above the medium; charge a license fee on the various modes of other
transportations, including ride share; license fee for autonomous vehicles;
the metric should be how much does each unit cost for affordable housing,
to create efficiency; also public land should be used for affordable housing;
a possible County tax on rideshare companies; higher parking tax; see how
the mobility pilot turns out before eliminating the Breeze bicycle program;
cost benefit analysis from waiving the B&S fees or hedges fees; increasing
the ARB work by staff is a good idea for some small businesses, but not for
larger projects; make sure that cutting certain programs produce greater
efficiencies, not to diminish their impacts; pursue a full-time grants staff
person; congestion pricing; concerned about cutting after school programs;
expanding the Explorer programs; shouldn’t eliminate or endorse any of the
suggestions before there is more community input; Cost recovery and cost
allocation would be helpful to understand which business units that applies
to; Fire should be included in the Keeping Neighborhoods safety; address
ways to improve business relationships in the city; looking at values and
metrics, more information needs to be provided in order to make any
decisions; we need to enhance our nimblest in identifying what is working
over time and enhancing those areas; some of the tough political decisions
should just be made, because it’s only going to get harder as time goes on;
propose an opt-in for Seascape; making some significant changes in the
Breeze bike program is necessary; supportive of looking at creating more
efficient afterschool programs overall; based on our values, it’s important
to try to keep the cuts away from people when providing services; stunned
to see allocation of the city’s website under Learn and Thrive, when should
it be under Governance; Crime and Homelessness are symptoms, and an
investment in Engage and Learn and Thrive is about how do we tackle that
fundamental lack of Wellbeing in our community; look at the long term
investments and the Wellbeing of our community; support looking at any
new revenue sources; outsource things that have less impact on people and
set some values on if this is something that will impact the community, or
if outsourcing will have a limited impact on services; give reassurance to
people about what is being considered, and how efficiencies are going to
look; and, on the Task Force, bring in different people, who are going to be
directly impacted and affected by the proposed cuts.
Motion by Councilmember Winterer, seconded by Councilmember Morena,
to receive and file the report. The motion was unanimously approved by
voice vote with all members present, except Councilmember Himmelrich.
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4 April 30, 2019
ADJOURNMENT On order of the Mayor, the City Council meeting adjourned at 9:41 p.m. in
memory of Claude Laianne.
ATTEST: A P P R O V E D :
Denise Anderson-Warren Gleam Davis
City Clerk Mayor
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