The money would be used to pay for capital projects in the college district, including the construction of an educational facility in Malibu.
By Jonathan Friedman/Staff Writer
A $175 million bond measure to pay for Santa Monica College District capital projects could be placed on the November ballot for Santa Monica and Malibu residents. The SMC Board of Trustees was presented with the proposal, which came about after a yearlong study of the college’s facilities. The district would use the funds to pay for a number of projects it determined are needed, including the construction of an instructional facility in Malibu’s Civic Center Area.
Mayor Sharon Barovsky said at the meeting that she believed Malibu voters would support a concept in which the city and the college purchased the Civic Center’s Chili Cook-Off site to create a mostly nondeveloped property with an instructional facility.
In its presentation, SMC staff presented a number of capital projects it would like to accomplish with the bond money. They included the acquisition of field space in Santa Monica and Malibu, improvements to existing fields in Santa Monica and improvements to educational facilities in Santa Monica and on Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District property. Several of these projects would be done through joint ventures with the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu and the SMMUSD. Other projects would be done with just the district bond money, and some projects would require federal and state grants for funding. However, residents would only be voting in November on whether to support the bond, not any actual projects. The measure would require 55 percent approval for passage.
Although about 500 Malibu residents take courses through SMC and there are emeritus classes offered at five locations in the city, there is no SMC facility in Malibu. Barovsky said she liked the idea of a partnership between the city and the college to purchase the coveted Chili Cook-Off site.
“I think to have a Civic Center Chili Cook-Off purchase and [the property] not developed except for an educational project would be very high on the voters’ list in Malibu,” Barovsky said. “Basically, it would be solving many of our problems.”
Malibu Bay Co. representative David Reznick was seen at the meeting Monday night taking notes. Malibu Bay owns the Chili Cook-Off property and several other sites in the Civic Center Area.
The bond measure only needs approval from the SMC board to be placed on the ballot. Several trustees said they were concerned about what they said was a rushed timeframe to vote on the proposal. They must approve it by Aug. 5 for the item to be placed on the ballot, but SMC staff will be asking the board to vote on it at its next meeting in the first week of July. Trustee Nancy Greenstein said it concerned her that this would not give enough time for community input. However, she called the proposal a visionary plan.
“This to me is visionary because we are setting a precedent of working together,” Greenstein said. “It’s risky … but if you look at some of the best products in our society, it’s because somebody had a vision and took a risk.”
Prior to the July meeting, presentations will be made to the Malibu and Santa Monica City Councils and the SMMUSD Board of Education. Their support is not required for the measure to make the ballot, but Trustee Graham Pope said he would feel better to hear the support exists. Also, a survey will be taken of district residents regarding the measure prior to the July meeting.
This has been a rocky time for SMC. Last year, the board cut eight vocational programs to address a large budget gap. The SMC faculty union said the cuts did not need to occur and made a vote of no confidence for college President Piedad Robertson and the board. Trustee Carole Currey said with the bond measure, some people might think the college is not addressing the right issues.
“Last year was very difficult for us,” Currey said. “We had layoffs and closed classes. And whether this [the bond measure] is a different funding source, the perception is not that way. We will have to face the fact that people will say we are taking our eye off the ball with restoration by going into a larger endeavor.”
Three Board of Trustees seats are being contested in the November election. Only one incumbent, Chair Margaret Quiñones, has chosen to run for re-election. Last week, an organization called Santa Monica’s Education Team, made up of Santa Monica College and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified teachers, endorsed two of her challengers.