The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday approved a $712.9 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year that marks a steep drop from previous annual budgets, as the City tightens its belt to tackle a looming pension debt.

The budget -- down from the $802.1 million budget adopted last year -- includes no major new capital projects and leaves 29 unfilled full-time positions vacant.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/June-2019/06_26_2019_Council_Approves_Nearly_713_Million_Belt_Tightening_Budget_for_Upcoming_Fiscal_Year%20.html

Jim Ries -- considered a moderating force during the two terms he served on the Planning Commission -- will rejoin the board he left four years ago. Ries was among four applicants appointed to the powerful board by the City Council on Tuesday.

The City Council Tuesday night appointed Ries to replace Amy Anderson, who in April resigned from Santa Monica's most visible and powerful commission. 

Read More:  http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/June-2019/06_26_2019_Former_Planning_Commissioner_Among_Four_Appointees_to_Citys_Most_Powerful_Board.html

The City Council on Tuesday took initial steps to underwrite a $340,000 study on replacing Santa Monica's 25-year-old "temporary" homeless shelter by accepting two grants.

The study, as well as an estimated $60,000 in administrative costs, will be paid with a $300,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Homeless Initiative and a $100,000 grant from California Community Foundation on behalf of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

The feasibility study "on the interim and permanent housing needs of the City’s homeless population" will require approximately 3,000 hours over a two-year period to complete, staff said.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/June-2019/06_25_2019_Santa_Monica_Council_Accepts_400000_in_Grants_for_Samoshel_Replacement_Study%20.html

A new revised biennial budget will be presented for final approval to the Santa Monica City Council Tuesday that adds $1.2 million to the budget proposed earlier this month.

Among other things, the nearly $1.5 billion revised budget adds a $250,000 pilot program to place “ambassadors” at Reed Park, reduces the time the City's Swim Center closes during the winter and keeps Council meetings on the air another year.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/June-2019/06_24_2019_Proposed_Budget_Revised_to_Reflect_Community_Needs.html

The potential shuttering of another Santa Monica rent-controlled building could have an impact on the local political scene.

Last week, former City Council candidate and political activist Armen Melkonians received notice that the 13-unit complex north of Downtown where he lives will be cleared by the owner.

Read More: http://surfsantamonica.com/ssm_site/the_lookout/news/News-2019/June-2019/06_24_2019_Top_Santa_Monica_Activist_May_Leave_City.html

The revised biennial budget the council will vote to adopt Tuesday is $1.3 million higher than the budget city manager Rick Cole proposed last month.

About one-fifth of the increase will go toward the cost of stationing hospitality ambassadors in Reed Park. Residents have called for the city to manage the large homeless population in Reed Park and the council decided to fund a pilot program in which Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. ambassadors, who are already present in other downtown parks, would work to make the park cleaner, safer and more welcoming. The program will cost $250,000 over six months.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/council-to-adopt-2019-2021-budget/176674

The man who made Santa Monica a leader in sustainability and helped the city prepare for climate change is retiring July 1.

Dean Kubani, the city’s chief sustainability officer, is responsible for Santa Monica’s reputation as a laboratory for innovative environmental policies that larger cities across the nation and world adopt and build upon. But after working for a quarter of a century to put Santa Monica on the path to carbon neutrality, he’s ready to take a step back from policy, start training the next generation of climate leaders and take a little time for himself.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/sustainability-czar-leaves-santa-monica-greener-than-he-found-it/176667

Community Corporation of Santa Monica will hold the second community design Input meeting for the proposed new construction affordable housing development at 1834, 1840, 1844, & 1848 14th Street.

Read More on pg. 2: http://backissues.smdp.com/062419.pdf

Officials are revising development standards in Santa Monica’s single-family neighborhoods to discourage developers from replacing small homes with mansions.

In the city’s four single-family neighborhoods — Sunset Park, North of Montana, North of Wilshire and a small part of Pico — new development is typically double or triple the size of existing homes, according to the city of Santa Monica’s analysis of recent building permits. Residents have noticed the change in the character of the neighborhoods they’ve called home for decades, and they’re not happy about it.

Read More: https://www.smdp.com/city-moves-to-limit-mcmansionization-of-single-family-neighborhoods/176611

Thanks to community advocacy, City Council approved $669K in funding for improvements to Samoshel - an interim housing facility located on City property, leased and operated by OPCC dba The People Concern.

The facility is a tent that has not been improved by the City or by The People Concern for a quarter of a century. During that time, vulnerable homeless individuals - many of them seniors, disabled or with serious health conditions - have been warehoused, sometimes for years, in substandard conditions complete with mold, at times in temperatures of around 60°F in the winter and over 80°F in the summer, with no ventilation and with poor air quality, including the sewer gas odor.

Read More: https://www.smobserved.com/story/2019/06/20/opinion/city-to-fund-669k-in-improvements-to-samoshel-tent-after-25-years-of-neglect/4061.html