With all but one item on Santa Monica City Council’s Consent Calendar passing without discussion last Tuesday evening, the City effectively signed checks totaling a possible $5.94 million for legal work, bus repairs, solar emergency lights, and pedestrian striping.
Questioning why the City should pay for a faulty element on Santa Monica’s Big Blue Buses (BBB), Councilwoman Sue Himmelrich pulled one item from the consent calendar for brief discussion. After being assured by City Staff that the cost must be met, the item also passed unanimously, with a direction for staff to try to recover the costs.
The item in question involves the installation of equipment due to BBB motor coaches having an unsafe passenger barrier and faulty single flip-up seat in, requiring the City to pay, “an amount not to exceed $570,000” for the purchase and delivery of 174 single aisle-facing flip seats and 174 transit bus passenger barriers.
An agreement for workers’ compensation legal defense services was also passed by Council, authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute five-year retainer agreements with law firms Shaw, Jacobsmeyer, Crain & Claffey; Armstrong and Sigel; Law Offices of Stacey Tokunaga; and, Goldman, Magdalin & Krikes; for workers’ compensation legal defense services. The item also sees the city manager given flexibility to allocate work between the law firms based on their expertise in an amount not to exceed $4 million over a five-year period.
Climate change professionals TerraCosta received $180,000 for the assessment of impacts from climate change and storm water on area coastlines over a two-year period. $55,000 was authorized for shoreline change modeling based of area coastlines over a two-year period.
The Fire Department received an additional $80,000 to purchase medical supplies from Bound Tree Medical. The increase resulted in a total purchase order amount from the company of $395,250.
The purchase of eight emergency portable solar light towers, to be used in disaster response and recovery operations, was authorized by council at a cost of $22,841.50 per unit, in an amount not to exceed $200,000 this financial year.
Pedestrians also got the heads up with a crosswalk striping materials and installation contract for $280,000 going to PCI and a purchase order of $22,310 to Flint Trading, for the purchase of pre-formed thermoplastic materials resulting in a revised purchase order total not to exceed $215,310 over a three-year period.
Santa Monica streets will also benefit from a purchase and full service maintenance agreement awarded for Three Tennant M30 Scrubber-Sweepers for Promenade maintenance, in the amount of $207,752. The city manager was authorized to negotiate and execute a contractual services agreement with Tennant Company to provide full service maintenance of these vehicles, in an amount not to exceed $114,513 for one year, with two additional one-year renewal options in the amount of $229,026 on the same terms and conditions, for a total amount not to exceed $343,539 over a three-year period.
With maximum expenditure limits in the awarded contracts considered, that’s a total of $5.94 million spent in two minutes.
• Do you have a story idea or news tip? Contact Jennifer Eden by email at jennifer@smmirror.com.
