Santa Monica unveils plan to restore the beach city’s luster
3 min read
Bloomberg News
Santa Monica City Manager Oliver Chi unveiled a
The fix won’t be instantaneous. Chi anticipates it will take two fiscal years before the city closes its deficit.
A central part of Chi’s plan — outlined during Tuesday night’s city council meeting — is to spend $60 million of reserves, originally planned to close deficits over the next few years, on direct investments, including $3.5 million on infrastructure improvements to be completed by January and on essential employee hires, in part, to bolster public safety.
The issues with public safety and infrastructure disrepair are “preventing confidence in the local economy,” Chi said during his presentation at the council meeting.
The focus of the plan is: How do we invest now in order to grow our revenue base moving ahead? Chi said.
Tourism, a key component of city revenues, hasn’t recovered post-pandemic and the city has paid out $229 million to settle claims of sexual abuse by Eric Uller, a former Santa Monica police dispatcher, with more claims expected.
The city isn’t alone in facing claims from child sexual abuse cases.
Cities, counties and school districts across the state are
The Santa Monica City Council on Sept. 9 approved
Both Moody’s Ratings and Fitch Ratings dropped the city’s rating to a
Cash reserves have fallen from a high of $435.8 million in fiscal year 2017-2018 to $158 million in fiscal year 2025-26 and only $98 million of that is unobligated, according to Chi’s report.
The city faces a $29.1 million deficit in fiscal 2026-27.
The city’s economic development plan includes a possible parcel tax in 2026 and a plan to sell three properties to help close the gap.
The realignment plan would achieve a structurally balanced general fund operating budget by fiscal year 2027-2028, Chi said. It uses the $60 million in reserves as a 24-month bridge to invest in needed public safety, capital and operational enhancements.
The plan includes doubling to eight or 10 a day the amount of police officers assigned to a specialized unit in downtown by assigning an additional five patrol officers daily, creating a substation, adding two workers to tackle homelessness and hiring eight public safety employees to patrol the city’s central commercial district, parks and parking garages.
The city would also hire more attorneys to bolster the shrunken city attorney’s office to improve the ability to prosecute misdemeanor cases. At current staffing levels, the office has been prosecuting roughly 60% to 65% of the cases filed by police officers, Chi said.
The $3.5 million infrastructure spending would go to improve crumbling sidewalks and streets, repair water fountains, trim trees and replace trash cans and upgrade restrooms near the pier and Muscle Beach. The city would also move the homeless shelter out of downtown and away from the central tourist area and increase operating days for the library.
The city also plans to force owners of vacant properties to clean up those lots and make sure others don’t fall into disrepair. The city plans to speed up the permitting process to make it easier to build single-family homes and accessory dwelling units and reduce permit fees for restaurants with outdoor dining.
“There exists today a sense in the community that our city has been knocked down and that we have lost the focus, capacity and confidence that once defined Santa Monica,” Chi said. “The city is at a crossroads.”
The overarching theme of realignment “suggests a need to make focused investments today, in order to achieve the strategic priorities identified by the City Council to realize a revitalized Santa Monica,” Chi said.
