By Daniel Larios
Staff Writer

September 23, 2014 – The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday will consider spending $8,549,673 on new transit buses, credit card processing services and planning services for the Civic Auditorium, among other expenses on the Consent Calendar.

The biggest expense is the allocation of $6,825,464 to Winnipeg,-based bus manufacturer New Flyer of America, Inc. to furnish and deliver seven 60-foot, low-floor articulated CNG-powered transit buses.

The seven new buses would replace seven 40-foot buses that have reached their useful life cycle, according to the staff report. The new buses would increase seating capacity by 126 seats, or 18 seats per bus.

“The new articulated buses are more reliable and efficient,” Transit Maintenance Officer Getty Modica said in the staff report.  “The replacement of these buses …. would assist in reducing overcrowding on high volume routes” and “increase rider comfort.”

BBB developed a capital improvement program to replace aging buses as they approach the end of their useful service. According to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) guidelines, buses have a useful life of 12 years.

The Council will also consider allocating $1 million to Kansas-based TransFirst Health and Government Services, Inc. to continue credit card processing services for credit card payments related to City fees and services.

Last year, the City processed approximately 8.1 million total credit transactions, which translates to approximately $2.2 million in total credit card processing costs, according to City staff.

The City pays a fee for each credit card transaction processed, which is 0.15 percenty of the amount of the transaction plus an additional fee levied by various credit card providers.

“Parking-related transactions, which account for 98 percent of the total credit card transactions, tend to be small and therefore incur a higher amount of processing fees as a percentage of the actual transaction amount,” said Oscar Santiago, the City’s principal budget analyst.

“For example, credit card fees for parking meter transactions average 10 percent of the amount of the transaction,” he added.  “The fees for other parking-related charges average about 5 percent of the transaction amount.”

The Council also will vote on awarding a $377,665 agreement with New York City-based consulting firm HR&A Advisors, Inc. (HR&A) to work with the City throughout the planning process for future use of the Civic Auditorium.

Services would include preparing technical analyses of land uses and refining the community workshop process in collaboration with City staff and CWG.

In March 2014, the Civic Working Group (CWG) decided to organize three community workshops for future plans for the Civic Auditorium. 

The first workshop will take place on September 27, starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Auditorium, and will focus on the Civic facility, the site and working assumptions for the planning process. 

The second workshop will be divided into two parts on January 31 and February 1, 2015. Participants will explore alternative uses for the Civic and will develop a budget for the uses along with funding sources. 

The third community workshop is planned for March 21, 2015 and will focus on developing a set of recommendations to inform the Working Group and the City Council.

HR&A would also work with the CWG to look at detailed planning, financing and implementing a mixed-use cultural district, including preferred uses for the Civic Auditorium and adjacent parking, for presentation to the City Council by June 2015.

The Council will also consider spending $200,000 to for maintenance of the public safety radio system, accepting a $31,585 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice for communications equipment and accepting $44,800 from the Exposition Construction Authority (Expo) for an easement of 160 square feet of City-owned property at 1800 Stewart Street.