By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

June 23, 2015 -- With a new two-year budget package, critical funding for local nonprofit agencies and a new zoning law that will set development standards for the next two decades, Santa Monica City Council members face a hefty agenda Tuesday night.

First up for Council approval is a long consent calendar that includes about $2 million in renewing or amending service-provider contracts for maintenance, equipment and supplies. Included is a three-year, nearly $700,000 contract with Outdoor Service Providers Inc. to provide bus advertisements for Big Blue Bus and Culver City Bus.

Also in the consent calendar, City Historic Resources Inventory, a private company, will help the City update a survey of structures built 40 years ago or more as part of professional services agreement not to exceed $216,605.

Council members also are set to award a three-year, $1.9 million contract to Carlos Guzman Inc. to provide body and paint repair work on City transit coaches.

In addition, the Council also is scheduled to review appointments to several commissions, set a date for a public hearing on a new improvement district for Lincoln Boulevard merchants and vote on a resolution from Mayor Kevin McKeown supporting a state bill giving residents tax breaks for seismic retrofitting their homes.

Among the big-ticket items, the Council is set to adopt the first year and approve the second year of an estimated $1.1 billion budget for the 2015-17 Fiscal years -- $564.4 million in 2015-16 and $641.1 million in 2016-17.

Included in the budget is the General Fund, used to pay for the City's daily operations, which will have projected revenues of $347.1 million in 2015-16 and $347.4 million in 2016-17.

Funding for nine new officers for the Police Department and a new rescue ambulance for the Fire Department is included in the biannual spending package.

“The two-year budget is balanced,” said a staff report, “with resources dedicated to strengthening municipal services, including public safety, water conservation, mobility and planning efforts, affordable housing, human services and a number of initiatives to increase enforcement of administrative law.”

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s meeting could be the last appeal by Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC) leaders for City funding. At a public hearing earlier this month, dozens of PYFC supporters showed up to speak after a City staff report recommended the Council turn down PYFC's application for a $190,000 grant.

After the public hearing, Council member Sue Himmelrich said she was willing to take another look at PYFC’s grant application, based on new financial data provided by center officials.

PYFC’s appeal comes as Council members are scheduled to approve $8.1 million in grant requests submitted by 22 local nonprofits to the City's Human Services Grant Program (HSGP). The funding comes mostly in the form of federal dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program.

According to a staff report in Tuesday’s agenda, staff will request the Council to provide direction on the matter.

But last week, PYFC officials announced plans to protest before tonight’s meeting. Supporters will gather at the center, 715 Pico Boulevard, at 3:30 p.m., and march from there to City Hall to demand “an increased investment to enhance the well-being of underserved youth,” said PYFC founder Oscar de la Torre.

In a separate item, McKeown is asking the City to back, in a formal resolution, AB 428 by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, D-Van Nuys. The bill would provide a 30 percent state tax credit to help owners of “at-risk” properties with seismic retrofitting.

AB428 was heard in the Assembly last week and is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on July 1.