TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2011
Volume 11 Issue 27
Santa Monica Daily Press
GET CREATIVE THIS YEAR SEE PAGE 3
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THE DRIP DROP ISSUE
Millions allocated to approved RDA projects Consent equals over 40 percent of the city’s annual budget BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.
CITY HALL $267,667,608. The Santa Monica City Council is expected to approve an expenditure Tuesday night equal to 40 percent of the city’s 2011-12 budget to cover a host of projects funded through the city’s Redevelopment Agency. The money is held in a designated account in the General Fund, established solely for funding redevelopment priority capital projects identified in August 2010. That amount will cover a number of projects that promote safety and revitalization, like traffic signal synchronization, work to stabilize the Palisades Bluffs and the $11 million Pico Neighborhood Branch Library. Affordable housing also takes a large chunk of the designated funds, totaling a $111,561,517 investment in low-income housing and the acquisition and rehabilitation of other housing throughout the city. According to the staff report, the Redevelopment Agency prepaid some of the projects and a $38.7 million bond issued in May. The massive expenditure, which has been approved in a variety of actions since August 2010, constitutes the vast majority of the $269,905,192 consent agenda, which SEE CONSENT PAGE 8
STAYING DRY
Fabian Lewkowicz FabianLewkowicz.com Santa Monica College students take cover after getting off the bus on Pico Boulevard on Monday. More rain is expected today.
Are daily deal sites working for Santa Monicans? BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE Check your inbox each morning and you’ll probably see one, an e-mail promising you half off of a cosmetic service, a steal on a tropical vacation to Mexico or buy-in to a lottery of sought after sports tickets. Daily deal websites are sprouting up on the Internet like mushrooms after a rainstorm, and, like some fungi, they can be as dangerous as they are appealing for the unwary business owner. From a consumer point of view, the daily deal websites provide a cheap way to access things they already wanted or tempt them into a spur-of-the-moment purchase they might not otherwise have made.
Andrew Thurm 310.442.1651
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Companies like Groupon.com or Livingsocial.com capitalize on that and rake in half of the money that people spend on the deals, depending on the terms of the contract made with businesses. Businesses can benefit from the exposure to the massive number of clients these sites offer if they’re savvy, but some find themselves in way over their heads, inundated with orders for products or services that they’re putting out for only a quarter of the amount they’d normally receive. It’s a delicate balance that can be a windfall if business owners play their cards right, said Laurel Rosen, president of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. Rosen helped craft a week of Groupon.com deals focused exclusively on
five Santa Monica businesses including Willow Spa, Pacific Park, Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows and the Border Grill. The chamber worked with each of the businesses to ensure that the promotions offered would benefit them by creating return customers or by encouraging those brought in by the deal to purchase other goods or services. Willow Spa, for instance, promoted their baths, which don’t fill up appointment books as quickly as massages, Rosen said. “They sold over 600 baths that week, and many of those people said, ‘Well, why don’t I get a massage?’” Rosen said. “They have to see if they have an opportunity to market SEE DEALS PAGE 10
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