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INSIDE Beloved Mountain Lion P-22 Euthanized Following Medical
REFLECTING THE CONCERNS OF THE COMMUNITY smmirror.com
December 23 - December 29, 2023 Volume CLXXII, Issue 176
Evaluation
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Santa Monica Approves Wayfinding Kiosk Bid Amid Contentious RFP Process 20-year awarded to BIG Outdoors By Dolores Quintana Santa Monica City Council has approved a 20-year contract for digital wayfinding to BIG Outdoors amid legal threats from IKE Smart City, the main competition in the bidding process. IKE Smart City made claims of infringement and unrealistic financial projections during the RFP process as part of the City’s Community Partnerships Program. According to the City, the agreement approved on December 13 will generate a minimum of $5 million in revenue through advertising to the City annually. The program comes after City Council directed staff in 2020 to pursue public-private partnership opportunities to generate new revenue. “This new community messaging and advertising program provides a benefit to residents and visitors while also creating a new much-needed revenue source that can support community programs,” said Mayor Gleam Davis. “The City and the selected vendor look forward to engaging the community as the kiosk program launches.”
In their bids, BIG Outdoor is offering a fulltime Santa Monica ambassador, something the other bidder IKE Smart City did not do as part of their bid. BIG Outdoor offered up to 90 percent off for local businesses to place ads. 10 percent of ad space would be reserved for local businesses. IKE Smart City offered a 50 percent discount with 25 percent of ad space set aside for small businesses. BIG Outdoor offers an in-market maintenance team seven days a week, while IKE offered five. In terms of projected revenue, in their respective bids, BIG Outdoor projected an average of $14.8 million while IKE Smart City projected $5.3 million. BIG Outdoor first offered a signing bonus of $3 million to the city, which they raised to $4 million as the negotiations progressed. IKE Smart City offered no initial signing bonus, but as part of their best and final offer offered a $1 million signing bonus. Another part of BIG Outdoor’s offer is a Santa Monica-based warehouse dedicated to serving the program and the city. Their kiosks would be custom designed for Santa Monica with innovative technology and durable hardware and the full-time maintenance team would be available seven days a week. BIG Outdoor promises that 2% of the program’s
annually generated revenue would be donated to the community, between $112 K and $298 K each year, to support community services and programs with the City Council having the oversight of where those monies would go. They would also give 10% of the kiosk’s screen time to the community for free. IKE Smart City would not be in-market with its own warehouse and would have a maintenance team available for the program five days a week. The company offered $250K worth of advertising space as a donation to the community and, at first offered 12.5% of the
kiosk screentime for community use for free and upgraded to 25% in their best and final offer. The proposal’s minimum annual guarantee from BIG Outdoor remained consistent from their initial offer to their best and final offer as an average between phase one (25 kiosks) and phase two (50 kiosks) at $5.49 million. IKE Smart City’s minimum annual guarantee started at $0.9 million (25 kiosks) and $1.77 million (50 kiosks) but went up noticeably
RFP Process, see page 6
Officials Tap Interim Superintendent for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Dr. Mark Kelly to take over for Dr. Ben Drati starting in the new year By Sam Catanzaro Santa Monica education officials have chosen an interim superintendent for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD). At its December 15 meeting, the SMMUSD Board of Education approved the appointment of Dr. Mark Kelly as interim superintendent. Kelly has served as the assistant superintendent of human resources for SMMUSD since 2015 and has been with the district for 23 years. Kelly will take office on January 1, 2023, following the recent resignation of Dr. Ben Drati, who is joining the Bellflower Unified School District as superintendent. “I feel honored to support the District during this time of transition,” Kelly said. “We will continue our tradition of excellence in
SMMUSD and will move forward initiatives and plans that Dr. Drati initiated over the past several years.” Officials touted Kelly’s “wealth of experience”, having previously served as co-principal of Santa Monica High School, principal of Malibu High School and executive director of student and professional services. “We are fortunate to have our longtime Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kelly available to support us as we begin our search for a permanent superintendent,” said Board President Maria Leon-Vazquez. “He is very involved and has a keen awareness and familiarity with our goals, budget, and initiatives, and will jump in as an effective leader immediately.” The school board has created a board subcommittee of Maria Leon Vazquez, Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein and Laurie Lieberman to develop the hiring process for a permanent superintendent. The sub-committee is recommending contracting with an education executive search firm in January to lead the
recruitment process. Following the selection of Kelly as interim superintendent, Drati sent a goodbye letter to SMMUSD teachers, families and staff. “My heart is heavy because this is, in fact, my last official message to you as your proud superintendent as I will be joining the Bellflower Unified School District (BUSD) as their new superintendent starting January 1, 2023. My optimism is due to knowing that we are collectively in the middle of something great with respect to us transforming the District,” Drati said. Among pursuits Drati pointed to were efforts to increase student engagement, adjusting programming to ensure all students have what they need both academically and socioemotionally and accepting and incorporating multiple perspectives of lived experiences in the curriculum. “All of the above will lead to the district reaching its mission of providing extraordinary education for all students while closing the gap in achievement with historically
Photo: SMMUSD Dr. Mark Kelly.
underserved and marginalized students,” Drati said. “I am proud to have played a role in the development and execution of the difficult, but courageous and necessary conversations, and the development of strategies and programs. I am mostly proud of the shift and increased awareness of what needs to be done to reach the District’s mission.”