During March 17’s Redondo Beach City Council meeting, District 5 Councilman Matt Kilroy took a last stand to repave the roads of his district during what was his final regular meeting as a member of Redondo’s Council — and he was denied by his fellow councilmembers.
Kilroy, who has reached his term limit and is due to be replaced by former school board member Laura Emdee on April 7, made his attempt at funding the streets of his district at the tail end of a discussion during the city’s mid-year budget report. That report included 14 recommended “decision packages” to modify the city’s 2014-15 budget. Two of those adjustments were not passed: a suggestion to upgrade and replace Redondo Beach Police Department TASERs, struck due to an updated recommendation from RBPD noting the equipment’s satisfactory condition; and an appropriation adding money to the general fund covering costs of the March 3 election, struck because the election cost less than anticipated.
As the budget discussion reached its close, Kilroy took his shot. “We don’t want to make any specific adjustments? I want to get road surfaces done,” he said, asking for $500,000 to begin resurfacing the roads in North Redondo. He was met with initial silence, broken when District 3 councilman Pat Aust said “I would need to see a report on what we need to do.”
“I can tell you exactly where we’re at,” Kilroy said. “We’re on year 15 on what was supposed to be a five-year program,” he said, referring to the city’s long-time street-resurfacing plan, which began in North Redondo and is still making its way south. “We’re now looking at finishing a five-year program in 2020. It seems like it’ll never get back to Districts 3, 4 and 5,” he said, before asking city staff how much it would take to finish the project sooner than planned. Assistant City Manager Mike Witzansky replied, “With prior year allocations, another million would get us over the hump in three years.”
Kilroy made a last attempt. “I don’t think asking for a half-million more to finish this five-year job in 18 years is a whole lot,” he said, as his fellow council members sat quietly.
“It’ll come back,” Mayor Steve Aspel assured, before moving on to the next item.
Council notebook:
– Councilman Bill Brand left mid-meeting, due to a bout with the flu, he said. But before he left, he made his presence felt in a discussion over a system upgrade and rehosting for the respective automated staff scheduling systems of the Redondo Beach Police and Fire Departments.
Brand’s sticking point was over the agreement’s costs, a payment of $133,273 to upgrade and provide cloud-based hosting for the city’s Telestaff system, which city Information Technology staff said would free up local resources and reduce repair and replacement costs for city-owned servers.
District 1 councilman Jeff Ginsburg supported the move, citing experiences with his personal business. “We used to host our own servers, and anytime equipment went down, the organization suffered,” he said, noting that since his business has migrated to cloud-based service they haven’t had a single interruption. “I understand that there is a bit more cost to it, but what it saves you as far as day-to-day wasted time and downtime…” he said, trailing off.
“Well, a Mercedes is better than a Kia, but does a Kia get us from Point A to Point B?” Brand asked. His problem with the move, he said, is the initial startup cost, and that the projected yearly savings of $15,000 in local server upkeep wouldn’t cover the initial investment for ten years.
“It’s dangerous to bring private experience to city business,” Brand said. “We don’t just go along with staff just because they recommended something. We are not supposed to be a bunch of potted plants, passing whatever is brought up to us.”
Brand’s protests were in vain. The contract passed, 4-1.
– The Council directed City Clerk Eleanor Manzano to provide multiple ballot drop-off locations for the city’s upcoming May 12 runoff election to determine the future representative for Redondo’s District 3.
The upcoming election is set to be all vote-by-mail, an idea that initially chafed the Mayor and Council, due to distrust with the U.S. Post Office. “Where I live, you don’t get the mail until 9 at night. Even the mail carriers are bitter,” Aspel said. “A week in advance, I was telling people to take their ballots to city hall. I have no faith in the mail system at all,” he concluded, a sentiment echoed by the rest of the council.
The discussion concluded when City Attorney Michael Webb clarified things, suggesting that the City declare that the election will be entirely vote-by-mail, but with three locations where citizens can drop off their ballots, following an early concept brought up by Manzano.
“See? We are just a bunch of potted plants up here,” Aspel said.
– The night’s final referral to staff came about as a result of a public comment made by a citizen living along Esplanade. Jim Walker came to the podium with concerns about the messes left behind by pet owners who neglect to clean up after their dogs. “I run at sunset every night, and there’s feces in about ten or 12 places,” Walker aid. “I’ve seen elderly slip and fall, I’ve seen little kids running around and slip in it…it’s at least a sanitary issue.”
Aspel agreed. “It’s despicable what happens down there,” he said, adding that the problem lies with the dog owners, not the dogs themselves. “I would love to see people get ticketed for that,” he said, expressing a desire to see police run some sort of sting operation along the Esplanade — a “stink sting,” as Aust put it.
