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THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 2015
Volume 14 Issue 62
Santa Monica Daily Press
CULTURE WATCH / PLAYTIME SEE PAGES 4&5
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THE NOT VERY MYSTERIOUS ISSUE
Council to consider two significant construction projects
Courtesy images
BIGGER GOVERNMENT: The City of Santa Monica wants to build an addition to city hall to house employees that are currently working in rented office space.
BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
CITY HALL City Hall needs more space for its employees and, in response, City Council will consider moving forward with two major projects on Tuesday. One of the projects would be a brand new building, wedged between City Hall and the public safety building that would alleviate the need to spend public tax dollars on rented spaces for city employees. The 50,000-square-foot City Services Building would cost between $47.5 million
and $56.4 million. City officials estimate that they will spend $2 million this fiscal year on rental fees for 43,500 square feet of private office space housing 200 employees. By 2019, when the building could be complete, city officials estimate they’ll be saving $2.5 million annually on rent. Given that they expect rents to rise at a rate of 4 percent per year, city officials expect that they’d break even on the most expensive of the three building options (the one they’re recommending) by 2034. They’re recommending the most expensive
A kindergarten ‘crop failure’ anomaly BY JEFFREY I. GOODMAN Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE Where did all the kindergartners go? Just 81 students enrolled in kindergarten for every 100 graduating seniors in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District last year, a trend revealed to the education board during its meeting Tuesday at district headquarters. It was one of several potential issues outlined by Dean Waldfogel of DecisionInsite, a demographics firm that SMMUSD hired to forecast enrollment in the district for the next decade. The projections play a role in staffing decisions, budgeting and other district policies, including transfer permit allotments. Although kindergarten figures weigh heavily in enrollment forecasting, Waldfogel said district-wide enrollment is expected to hold relatively steady despite the recent
decline at the kindergarten level. He said there were unexpected drops in the numbers of kindergartners living in the areas served by Franklin, Grant, McKinley, Rogers and Roosevelt elementary schools. “In looking at this district, did we project kindergarten properly? No,” Waldfogel said. “There was nothing in your historical trends that would have predicted this crop failure in kindergarten. With the mathematics of looking at three years of kindergarten, no demographer would have projected a loss. But we didn’t do very well this year on kindergarten. “Overall, when you look at the districtwide numbers, usually you’re falling between moderate and conservative projections. These anomalies do happen, but our general confidence is that the reality falls between the two projections.” Modest residential growth and a oneSEE STUDENTS PAGE 6
option because it comes with a Living Building Certification (LBC) - more environmentally sound than the current LEED certifications. The LBC “would increase operational savings through Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Water requirements,” city officials said. The project is still a long way from approval. If council picks a direction on Tuesday, city officials will come back with a “guaranteed maximum price for design” in the spring. In 2016, they’d come back for permission to issue lease revenue bonds and, if all goes smoothly, construction would start in 2017.
CITY YARDS
When City Hall took ownership of the 14.7-acre City Yards property on Michigan Avenue near 24th Street in the 1940s they never expected it to become such an important space for city operations. Currently, it houses facilities maintenance, custodial services, street maintenance, fleet maintenance, traffic operations, resource recovery and recycling, water and wastewater operations, hazardous waste storSEE COUNCIL PAGE 6
New law ousts florist from Farmers Market after 24 years BY DAVID MARK SIMPSON Daily Press Staff Writer
MAIN STREET Edward Tomblin couldn’t bear the thought of the Farmers Market on the day, earlier this month, when his streak ended. “I didn’t go over there because I didn’t want to throw salt in my wounds,” he said. Tomblin, who is a part-owner of the Main Street flower store Fleurs Du Jour, says for 24 years he never skipped a day at the Main Street Farmers Market. “Rain, hail, lightening, we have never missed a day,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if New Year’s was on Saturday. We were still there on Sunday. There could be five vendors over there and you could always place your bet that Fleurs Du Jour was going to be
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there.” On Jan. 1, a new state law (Assembly Bill 1871) went into effect, tightening many regulations on sellers at farmers markets certified by the state. The law — which was sponsored by thenAssembly Member, now State Senator Roger Dickinson, who did not respond to requests for comment by press time — is intended to increase funding for farmers market enforcement and stop the sale of agriculture products that aren’t grown by the sellers. For Tomblin, it meant the end of a 24year run as a Main Street merchant at the market. He imports his flowers from all over the world. Tomblin feels that, for several reasons, Fleurs Du Jour should be exempt from SEE FLOWERS PAGE 7
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