First in an ongoing series.
The City Council provided staff with direction on priorities for this year during the annual Strategic Planning meeting on Jan. 30. The five-hour meeting was held in Fire Station 48 on North Gate road. No members of the public spoke at the meeting. Only two members of the public attended the meeting.
An audio recording of the meeting is available at YouTube.
During the meeting, using colored dots, council members indicated which projects they want staff to prioritize.
These were not formal actions. In other words, the council didn’t approve starting projects or spending money on specific projects. City staff will come back to the council at a future date for each of these items.
Below are projects, that were prioritized by four or five council members and cost estimates for each. Note that these are rough cost estimates. Votes represent preferences, not official decisions.
• Repave the Eighth and 10th Street beach parking lots, as well as ADA upgrading. Five votes. Estimated cost: $800,000.
• IT Master Plan. Five votes. Estimated cost: $75,000.
• Lifeguard Headquarters project. Five votes. Estimated cost: $13.5 million.
• Update License Plate Reader System. Five votes. Estimated cost: $325,000.
• Storm drain debris capture system for Old Town and Bridgeport. Four votes. Estimated costs: $710,000.
• A new gas line for the McGaugh swimming pool. This would keep the swimming pool water warm. Four votes. Estimated costs: $200,000. (In 2008, a consultant recommended replacing the swimming pool. The project has been ongoing since. See “Seal Beach swimming pool project: a chronology of events,” at sunnews.org.)
The council also discussed measures for getting revenue.
Those items were:
• Paid parking on Main. (The Ad Hoc Parking Committee voted on Feb. 1 to say no to paid parking on Main Street curbs. See story, page 1.) The council is currently expected to make a decision on this issue soon.
• A sales tax measure. Four votes. (One of the consultants put up the number 4 in red and circled it.)
• An oil tax measure. Five votes.
The council and staff also discussed the city’s finances, the condition of the community pool at McGaugh, and bonds for updating lifeguard headquarters, and food service on the Seal Beach Pier.
According to a slide presentation at the meeting, the city has set aside more than $1.3 million for a pier restaurant/food service and almost $4.4 million for the community pool project.
