City Explores Ways of Funding School District

Hannah Heineman
Mirror staff writer
  
   The Santa Monica City Council directed City staff to explore five strategies for providing “predictable” additional funding to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) at its meeting last Tuesday.
   Given the state’s fiscal crisis, it is anticipated that the District will face financial uncertainties for the next several years.
   The staff will look into the possibility of the City and the School District entering a long-term contract for City use of District facilities to supplant the current year–to-year arrangement, which generated $3 million for the District this year.
   Another option would be to have both City and District staffs examine the value placed on District properties relative to lease payments to see if those payments should be increased.
   In addition, the possibility of providing community access to additional District facilities and potential use of other public/private facilities for school/City needs will be looked at.
   Council members Michael Feinstein and Herb Katz proposed that a ballot measure could be placed on the 2004 ballot that would call for the City’s purchase and/or lease of part or all District land and buildings, as well as its purchase of non-District property at 2943 Exposition Boulevard in order to meet community education, open space, housing and parking needs. The purchases and/or leases would be financed by Mello-Roos bonds.
   Katz said the proposal “is a long term plan, as opposed to a shortfall plan,” and that, “the master planning of this would have to work between the City, the School District and maybe even Santa Monica College … [we must] start looking at how we can collate what we do so that we don’t have separate things going on with double expenditures.” He went on to cite an example, in which the planned Civic Center parking garage might be built “underneath the football field at Santa Monica High School. It gives us two things, parking you don’t see and relieves space on Fourth Street that is tied in with the Civic Center and City Hall.”
   Later, Katz said, “There is a threat out there, and I consider it just that, of getting an item on the ballot to force us to give money [to the District] every year on a long-term basis. I think that is totally destructive. I would like to see it stopped, because it will do nothing but divide this town, and whoever wins will not win.”
   Feinsten added, “If we’re going to try and protect ourselves from the swings of state and the much longer fixes that will come from the state, we have to not buy into the getting something for nothing dynamic, which I believe the proposed ballot measure directing City funds to the School District would do. We can either choose to be in a zero game where we pit a variety of important community needs one against another or … we can choose to take the responsibility and put a ballot measure on and give the voters of this community a chance to put more money into schools by creating a new revenue stream.”
   The Council asked the staff to make a preliminary report on the Katz/Feinstein proposal at the Council’s January 27 budget hearing.
   Mayor Richard Bloom said that community discussion of a possible ballot measure had triggered many questions by Council members to City staff, which, in turn, caused “concern that the Brown Act was being violated” and led to the evening’s discussion to help decide “what direction the Council should take.”
   Bloom and City Manager Susan McCarthy both said that the City was facing a new budget shortfall of $4 million, owing to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s repeal of former Governor Gray Davis’s tripling of the Vehicle Licensing Fee.
   According to Bloom, “Our reality here in Santa Monica is that we expect to have to cut 19 of our own positions … in the coming year and to reduce programs and services in … very noticeable ways.” He then reminded his colleagues that however sympathetic they were to the needs of the School District, “Our first obligation is to maintain basic City services and keep the City’s financial position strong.”
   Echoing Bloom’s concern for giving the City’s budget allocations the highest priority were two City employee representatives. Laura Lee Ash said, “The Coalition of Santa Monica City Employees urges the Council to proceed with caution in its consideration of mandatory City funding of the public schools. The uncertainty of future City revenue growth makes the decision to guarantee continued funding of the schools at current or greater levels a very big financial risk … There is no statutory mandate obligating the City to fund local schools and ultimately California’s failing system of funding education can only be fixed in Sacramento, not Santa Monica. The Council’s mandate is to provide an operating budget that provides for the continued delivery of City services that are needed and expected by the citizens.” She concluded by asking the Council to look for other alternatives than the strategies they were considering.
   The Santa Monica Police Association’s Shane Talbot went one step further by pointing out, “As long as the locals continue to pick up the shortfall, Sacramento will continue to not respond to the needs at the local level.”
   In contrast, District advocates, including members of the Committee for Excellent Public Schools (CEPS), were very enthusiastic about the Council’s exploration of new funding strategies. Maria Rodriquez, SMMUSD PTA Council President, said the District’s “children span great cultural and economic divides. They are rich, poor, black, white, Hispanic, but they all have one thing in common. They are relying on us to prepare them for the future.”
   The discussion concluded with Bloom stating, “I’m really optimistic that this evening begins the serious and difficult dialogue towards providing an answer that this community has long sought to provide -- the predictability and certainty that I think we all agree is extremely important” for the School District … that doesn’t detract from the other needs we have in the community.”
   In other business, the Council gave its approval to a performance audit of the City’s Planning Department on the recommendation of the Planning Commission.
   McCarthy said “The City has the funding for this fiscal year to look at the [Planning Department’s] processes” but City staff believes the “Planning Commission’s request is too limited” and would like to also look at the City’s “permit and code enforcement processes” and zoning code.
   Mayor pro tem Kevin McKeown, the Council liaison to the Planning Commission, said the audit will “make the process better for the people who live through it [and] increase the effectiveness of our process. I hope out of this comes a user-friendly process.”
   Katz, an architect, said he hoped it would “streamline the whole process of planning, building and safety and the environmental [aspects] and take people through it in a more equitable, simple and expedited manner.”
   The Council also approved on first reading the extension of an interim ordinance extending the modified development standards for businesses located between 6th Court and 17th Street on Montana Avenue until September 2004. According to the City staff report the extension “is necessary to complete the process required for implementing a permanent ordinance, which will involve input form various neighborhood organizations and merchant associations.”
   Also approved unanimously by the Council were a contract to demolish the portion of City Hall that housed the Police Department, and the enrollment of Council members in the Public Employee Retirement System (CALPERS).
   The Council also directed City staff to analyze new information received regarding recommendations on election reform.
   Finally, the Council made the following appointments to the City’s Boards and Commissions: Edouard Mimieux to the Architectural Review Board, Susan Crimmins to the Social Services Commission, Former Mayor Judy Abdo to the Metropolitan Water District and Victor Ludwig to the Housing Commission.
   Now on its holiday break, the Council is not scheduled to meet again until January 13, 2004.