Council Weighs in on Department Budgets; Criticizes Planning

By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

May 28 -- The City’s beleaguered Planning Department is understaffed, overworked and hard pressed to meet deadlines for both long-term and short-term projects, Santa Monica’s planning director told the City Council Wednesday.

The acknowledgement came during a study session of the City’s proposed budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year that saw several department heads give candid assessments of what projects they have and have yet to accomplish.

The question and answer-style presentations not only allowed council members the chance to gauge the departments’ performance over the past year, but also question how those departments should prioritize future projects before the council adopts the new $377 million operating budget June 15.

And although all city employees received high marks for past efforts and achievements, council members did not shy away from criticizing the Planning and Community Development Department, which proposed a budget of nearly $15 million.

Planning and Community Development
Long-term planning priorities -- such as updating the land-use laws, zoning ordinances and circulation element -- could take up to two years to complete, while permit processing and short-term projects continue to be delayed by months, even years, said Planning Director Suzanne Frick.

There are multiple vacancies in divisions throughout the department as a whole, and seven out of 22 unfilled positions in planning alone, according to an information item distributed before Wednesday’s meeting.

“The thread that runs through so many of these problems (in the Planning Department) is staffing,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown. “It seems it’s a real challenge to fill these… vacancies. What are we doing about that?”

The main problem, said Frick, is that planners choose to leave or not accept planning jobs in Santa Monica because of professional “quality of life” concerns.

“Santa Monica is a really hard City to work in for a planner,” she said “We get great staff, but our issue is retaining those great staff. They get here and they realize they didn’t go to school to be spending all their time, energy, effort and creativity to be processing permits and going to night meetings and really burning out.”

One way to extinguish that burn-out rate, said Frick, would be to rotate teams of planners between short-term, tedious items – such as processing permits – and the more desirable long-term land use, zoning and circulation issues.

“This approach would be a lot more efficient than the process we have now,” said Council member Herb Katz, “This would basically be the process we had… a few years ago.”

A planning department audit by the Matrix consulting firm, which is expected to be released next month, will contain similar recommendations to the rotation plan, said Frick.

“It’s really a question of doing things incrementally or comprehensively,” she said.

Yet some council members said they preferred the incremental approach for rezoning the Public Right of Way, updating the Landmarks Ordinance and other short-term items.

“We’ve been waiting years for these items,” said Council member Ken Genser. “I think people’s businesses and such are hanging, just waiting for this to happen. These can be pulled out and done as discreet projects, parallel to the citywide land use element.”

Frick, however, said the incremental approach would add to the inefficiency.

In addition to being short-staffed, the planning department has been quite busy during the last year, according to the information item.

The department “processed over 186 administrative and discretionary permits, reviewed and approved 1,475 construction plans, issued 2, 462 construction related permits, answered 110,000 phone calls, and helped over 25,000 persons at the public counter,” the report stated.

Other Planning Department issues council members felt the need to address included the distribution of permits through the internet, cutting back on the sets of plans distributed to each department and crafting design guidelines for Downtown.

While the majority of the pointed questions were reserved for planning, the Big Blue Bus, the Community and Cultural Services and the Environmental and Public Works Management Department also gave presentations.

Each of those departments received slight increases in their budget from last year of between $1 million and $2 million each.

Community and Cultural Services
Community and Cultural Services Director Barbara Stinchfield presented a proposed departmental budget that hovers around $30 million, half of that for supplies and expenses.

She fielded various questions, ranging from the alarming rates of obesity among youth to securing funds for legal aid and the local symphony to the need for parks in the Pico Neighborhood.

The active living program, which integrates physical activity into daily routines, helps combat the problem of obesity, while an update of the City’s circulation element will encourage biking and walking, Stinchfield said.

A proposed cut in the legal aid program concerned both McKeown and Council member Michael Feinstein.

An alternative would be to partner with non-profit agencies, Stinchfield said. But Feinstein said he would rather fund legal aid with $25,000 from the City’s general funds to ensure its economic health.

An additional $13,000 will also be appropriated to shore up a budget shortfall for the symphony as well.

Crime in the Pico area was another concern.

“Violence in the Pico Neighborhood continues to be an issue for many,” said Mayor Richard Bloom, “What is your department doing to help?”

Opening a new park in the area, cutting the tree canopy, improving lighting, and providing various youth programs are all ways Stinchfield said her department is working to increase safety and discourage violence in the crime-prone area

Big Blue Bus
Director of Transit Services Stephanie Negriff informed council members that her department’s proposed budget of nearly $41 million will help open a compressed natural gas station and bus washing facility in July 2005 and will update informational systems and security features such as cameras, and electronic signage.

By 2005, the Big Blue Bus will also award the design for the facility expansion at Colorado and 6th street.

“Is there any way to accelerate that?” Genser asked. “Seems to me we’re already a year of two behind.”

Any speeding up of that process could cut out public input and result in shoddy manufacturing, said Negriff. However, she said her department would explore any possible options.

The Big Blue Bus is also looking into its next fuel source as it moves away from dedicated electric to hybrid electric vehicles.

The new models will be either electric and gas or electric and compressed natural gas, said Negriff. McKeown said any of those seem fine “as long as they’re not diesel.”

Environmental and Public Works Management
Environmental and Public Works Management proposed a budget that stands at just short of $59.5 million.

“One of our department’s challenges is that the work is never done,” said Department Director Craig Perkins. His staff will have fewer resources this coming year, but should continue to get by, Perkins said.

Council members applauded Perkins and his department’s efforts, offering few suggestions to improve services.

“I hope that you could work out a program that will use recycle collection crews to point out graffiti,” said Genser.

That suggestion and another by Feinstein for additional stickers on communal recycling bins that clearly state allowable materials will both be incorporated into the department’s project list, said Perkins.

The two-day study session came to a close with applause for each department’s presentation and some discussion of miscellaneous items.