By Jorge Casuso

December 12, 2024 -- At its first full meeting Tuesday night, Santa Monica's new City Council will take a deep dive into some of the most pressing issues facing the City when it meets behind closed doors.

Among the items on the closed session agenda are an 8 1/2 year old voting rights lawsuit, the appointment of an interim City Manager and negotiations of a lease for the landmark Civic Auditorium.

Discussions of the voting rights case against the City -- which will include four newly seated Councilmembers -- will resume after last-ditch efforts to settle the lawsuit failed ("Push to settle Voting Rights Case Fail," December 2, 2024).

Advocates of switching to district-based elections pushed hard to settle the case that has worked its way from County Superior Court to the State Supreme Court and back down again at an estimated cost to the cash-strapped City of $14 million in attorneys fees.

Prospects of a settlement under the new Council are nil, with the City's liberal establishment, which has opposed a settlement, holding a 6 to 1 majority on the Council, and minority member Mayor Lana Negrete in agreement.

In contrast, the choice of an interim City Manager must come swiftly after David White's surprise announcement last Tuesday that he would leave the post he has held for little more than three years in February ("City Manager to Leave Post," December 10, 2024).

White's replacement would become Santa Monica's fourth City manager since Rick Cole resigned in April 2020 after coming under increasing pressure for his handling of the coronavirus emergency.

Also on Tuesday, the Council will resume closed session negotiations with Revitalization Partners Group, LLC (RPG) to restore and operate the iconic Civic Auditorium, an endangered 66-year-old building that has been shuttered since 2011.

RPG -- which came together for the project -- is composed of experts in live entertainment, real estate development, finance, historic preservation and public-private partnerships ("City Launches Negotiations to Revive the Civic," July 24, 2024).

After closed session, the Council will take up a consent calender so lengthy the letters of the agenda items exhausted the alphabet -- ranging from items A to Z.

The items, which are voted on as a group without discussion unless "pulled" by a Councilmember, include purchasing new uniforms for the Fire Department at a cost of $415,000 over five years and a real-time video analytics platform for the Police Department for $716,562 over three years.

The new firefighters' uniforms include those that contain flame- and heat-resistant material, as well as dress, work and civilian uniforms, according to the staff report.

The investigative and real-time video analytics platform for the Police Department "can process video, condense timelines, and generate real-time alerts allowing for a dramatic reduction in the need for personnel to monitor video feeds," according to staff.

The Council also is expected to authorize the purchase of as many as 30 battery electric buses for $46,800,876 to replace vehicles that have reached 12 years of service or 500,000 miles.

Tuesday's consent calendar also includes contracting the services of parking citation hearing examiners and maintaining the software for the City's traffic signal system.

And that all happens before the Council gets to its main agenda items, which includes a final proposal to build 130 affordable units on City owned parking lots ("New Council to Take Up Amended Projects," December 11, 2024).