By Michael Aushenker
for The Lookout News

December 2, 2010 -- Santa Monica City Manager Rod Gould led Monday night’s workshop at Grant Elementary to gather input from the Sunset Park neighborhood that will help shape next year’s city budget.

As with a similar workshop two weeks earlier, Gould brought a group of top-tier City servants and administrators to answer questions, including Santa Monica’s Chief of Police Timothy Jackman, Officer Art Williams, and several other high-ranking Santa Monica policemen. About 100 people filled Nancy Patterson Auditorium to take part in the community discussion.

After leading a presentation previewing and updating various city projects affecting the area, including the Santa Monica Airport, which contract with the City is up in 2015, Gould, whose talk comes six months before City Council adopts its budget, opened the floor to public comment.

Residents of Sunset Park stood up and weighed in, beginning with several Friends of Sunset Park members, who delivered a litany of statistics about the effects of the excess traffic and the current construction around Santa Monica College (SMC) and John Adams Middle School along Pico Blvd. One member listed the diesel trucks, debris, asbestos, and other air-quality impacts, as well as the noise pollution and how the diversion of traffic has overflowed through Sunset Park’s residential streets.

“SMC sadly continues to replace every single structure of the campus,” said one Friend. “We made the suggestion for them to remodel, rather than demolish, the buildings. The trustees have shown their mind was made up by allotting residents only two minutes to voice their concerns.”

Friends also noted increased Big Blue Bus activity (including commuter and intercampus lines) in recent years. They demanded that the City do a better job posting advance warnings of such projects and bus line additions on its website, as they were tired of such implementations happening “without adequate notification” to the community.

The Santa Monica Airport, which some residents said they would like to see shut down in 2015, was a formidable topic of discussion.

“Airplanes over schools and residential areas are huge concerns of ours,” said another Friend, who claimed that the planes were ignoring control tower instructions. More than one resident proposed “limiting the number of flight schools at Santa Monica Airport.”

Gould once again summoned “our garbage queen,” Active Solid Waste Manager Kim Braun, to respond to sanitation concerns. Gould teased Braun with the nickname, which he coined at the last meeting, and “it stuck.” “It did stick,” Braun agreed, smiling.

In response to one local woman, who complained about the foul smell and excess garbage blowing around from “the alley behind 2nd St. [which] has eight containers in the parking structure behind the restaurants that get filled up very fast,” Braun assured her, “We’re looking into ways to minimize the impact of garbage from dumpsters” such as perhaps “switching to a compacting system.”

One resident complained that the City was not keeping Pico Blvd. clean, and he was advised on how to wash the street without sending garbage into the storm drains, either by mopping or ShopVac.

Randy Little, manager of the City of Santa Monica’s Public Landscape department, said that after complaints about early-morning public street washing at 2nd, 4th and 6th Streets, the activity has been moved to after 8 a.m.

Shelly Fisher, a homeowner new to the neighborhood as of three months ago, addressed the police force regarding the recent capture of an SMC student on PCP who, at one point during a police pursuit, was hiding in her neighbor’s garage. “I’m discovering there’s quite a bit of crime around Sunset Park,” she said, sounding very dismayed. She wondered rhetorically how the student did not go through a thorough background check by the college.

Police Chief Jackman emphasized the positive aspects of his law-enforcement strategy that led to his officers coordinating with SMC campus police to apprehend the suspect without incident. “It’s a good relationship,” he said. He also praised the efforts of Officer Williams, whom he described as the de facto “chief of police of this area…he’s been pretty successful. Our burglaries have gone way down and they’re staying down.”

One resident, a female runner named Chris who relies on the bus, asked why there was no special-discount bus pass for residents. Gould acknowledged the recent rise in Big Blue Bus fares, reminding the room “all of transit is hurting in America right now.”

Stephanie Negriff, director of Transit Services, told Chris about such options as the 13-fare passes are available. Gould agreed with Chris’s point regarding prioritizing and facilitating a greater push for bicycle transportation in the congested SMC/John Adams area. Another resident pointed out that such a move would encourage “less cars, less pollution, and less obesity.”

Former councilmember and Sunset Park resident Tony Vasquez proposed exchanging the Wednesday street sweeper schedule with the Friday garbage pick-ups because the sweeper would be more effective coming after the garbage pick-ups as the garbage trucks often leave behind trash overflow. Gould called the idea sensible and appeared to take the suggestion to heart.

Other suggestions included using the City’s community bulletin board to offer tips on the disposal of hazardous waste and medical waste, doing something about the allergens kicked up by leafblowers, clearing alleys of interlopers and homeless, and blocking porn from kids on library computers.

Any Santa Monica citizens interested in providing their input before the City plans its budget should e-mail budget@smgov.net, visit smgov.net/budget, or attend the Feb. 8, 2011 City Council meeting.