As of September 1, 2011, ALL 1,875 retail establishments are prohibited from providing light-weight, single-use plastic carryout bags to customers at the point of sale. MORE

By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

November 4, 2011 -- The City Council told staff on Tuesday to look into ways to make Santa Monica's economy more sustainable, including a motion that gives local businesses a slight edge when competing for City contracts.

The Council voted unanimously to direct staff to explore the costs and benefits of expanding the City's efforts to encourage the “greening” of local businesses as well as attracting new high-revenue, low land-use sectors to Santa Monica.

As part of the effort to foster a sustainable economy, the Council also voted five to one to increase the advantage local businesses have when bidding for City contracts from one percent to one and a half percent, with Council member Bobby Shriver casting the lone dissenting vote.

“We want to focus on attracting sectors that generate high revenues relative to their land use,” Principal Environmental Analyst Shannon Perry told the council.

That was just one of several of the guiding principles outlined in the Strategy for a Sustainable Local Economy (SSLE), according to Perry.

The high-priority sectors include retail and “accommodation and food industries” which, according to Perry, generate annually “$29 million in hotel taxes alone.”

However, those sectors also use the most resources – namely, water and land – according to the staff report.

To help make these sectors greener, the City is looking into building a Sustainability Center that would be a hub to help businesses reduce their environmental footprint.

Another concern of the Council was “retail leakage” – the fact that residents have to shop outside of the city for certain goods because they simply can't find them in Santa Monica.

“We need something between Nordstrom and the 99 Cent Store,” said Council member McKeown.

Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis echoed McKeown's opinion, adding that whenever she goes to the Bed, Bath & Beyond – just outside of Santa Monica's borders – she runs into several other Santa Monicans who can't get the items they need within the city.

Davis suggested that staff look into encouraging the development of department stores that aren't big and “boxy” but rather are designed for “a pleasant and profitable retail experience.”

“We do affordable housing. We should do affordable shopping, too,” McKeown added.

Some members of the council thought that some of the goals should be more specific, however.

Council member Bobby Shriver said of the report, “There's no principle I'm against.” But he added that he would like staff to “describe the things [they] don't want to do.”

One of those things, Shriver said, is to attract businesses that don't operate on a typical nine-to-five schedule as a way to avoid traffic congestion.

The Buy Local campaign, Green Building ordinances and giving local businesses bidding preference are just some of the strategies the City has already employed in the name of sustainability.

To that end, the Council voted to increase the edge that local businesses get when bidding on City contracts by a half percent. The current ordinance gives local businesses a one percent edge when bidding on city contracts – meaning that if they are in second place for consideration by the city and their bid is one percent higher than the business in first place, the local business would win the contract.

According to city staff, the current ordinance affects fewer than one in every 100 bids. Staff recommended that the council raise the percentage by half a percent.

But Shriver said he couldn't support the recommendation until he knew how the new numbers played out.

Mayor Richard Bloom was absent.