Recommendation to approve submittal of the recommended list of grant applications to potential funding agencies, including the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro); and Authorize City Manager to administer and execute all necessary documents to accept and expend all grant funds in connection therewith, to pursue additional grant funds for the projects listed as needed, and to take all other actions necessary to implement the use of such funds. (Citywide)
Item 14. Item 14 Recommendation two to approve submittal of the list of grant applications to potential funding agencies and to accept and expend all grant funding in connection here with city wide. There's been a motion by Councilman Andrews, a second by Councilmember Durango. Mr. City Manager. Our public works director are a million. Honorable Vice Mayor and honorable council members. I have a PowerPoint. If you're interested in a 20 minute presentation, I'm more than willing to do so. Otherwise, I have handouts. Or I can do a very short synopsis for you. I think the handout and a short synopsis will be fabulous unless you have an interpretive dance you'd like to offer with that. But. In short. Brief synopsis. Honorable Council Members Metro provides an opportunity for local jurisdictions to apply for projects that improves transportation. Pedestrian activities, bicycle activities and so forth. So this is called cold call for projects. It happens approximately every two years or three years. And it is slated for this call for projects, is slated for moneys to be awarded in 2020 or 2021. So we're looking for a five year or six year period. We have identified eight projects. Two of these projects have been previously applied for, but we were not successful. Reason being is Metro uses very complicated system to grade the agencies. So we have taken those two projects that we have previously applied and we have improved upon them. So to increase our chances of winning. So there are eight projects. One category is regional surface transportation improvement. That includes the seventh Street connectivity. Basically, we're looking for enhancing the entire seventh Street corridor between the Shoemaker Bridge towards East, and that includes bicycle, pedestrian traffic, signal modernization, synchronization and so forth. In the same category is Artesia Complete Boulevard, and that's the same vision that Councilmember Rex Richardson had through the COG. So this is going to kind of kickstart this process. And if we're this is all contingent upon if we're selected and we are where the winners of these grants, we have three bicycle improvement projects, which is one is Walnut and 52nd Street. The other one is Atherton Bridge and Campus Connection. And finally, it's the L.A. River Gap Closure. Those are the three bicycle improvement projects that we're submitting. For our pedestrian improvements. We had a downtown pedestrian improvement project, which is in Council District one and two. We also have a signal synchronization and bus bus speed improvements. This is on seventh Street, Fourth and Broadway that. It's the entire corridor. And finally, we have one last category, which was transportation demand management, which is part can, right? So and in the few following pages you will see, we have shown the estimated project cost, estimated grant request and the match. A metro requires that we have a minimum 20% match. We have shown the funding sources and none of them are the general fund. We're using transportation funds to match these and also the 20% is minimum. We haven't made a strategic decision yet. If we want to increase that to two basically by points, by increasing our match will have a higher chance of winning. But this is something that we have to do at the staff level, but it's something that's under consideration. That's my report on this. You have a specific question. I can elaborate more. Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I just want to say thanks to all the staff that put together this proposal. And I know this is not the first time Artesia Boulevard has been on this proposal. I've seen I think this is maybe the fourth time I've seen RTG be applied for either Caltrans or MTA. But I think with the team that you've put together to really, really drive this, we've got a good shot this time. So I'm really excited and thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Gonzalez? Yes, I think you are. These are great projects. I'm very excited to see a few of them in the First District. And my question is geared towards the great seventh Street, the Connectivity Project. Now, how will that be married, I guess, with our park? I mean, is that I know that's in the works. Correct. So the guy Minor Park project, if you can envision or visualize, it's between Alamitos and Atlantic. So we are trying to mimic the same kind of traffic enhancement that is west of Atlantic, all the way to Shoemaker Bridge. This is again has to marry up with the future Shoemaker Bridge and looking at more of a complete street, maybe decoupling the traffic all the way to the Shoemaker Bridge. So those are all possibilities that will be studying. Great. Thank you. There's been a motion by Councilman Andrews and seconded by Councilmember Urunga. Is there any member of the public that wishes to address Council on item 14? Please come forward and state your name. Very good you cook as they dress. I have complete confidence that our director of public works as I do and the with the director of the our gas and oil department. And for the edification of the public or those who may have not followed council business that much. These type of grants are the lifeblood of the city. People think, well, gee, I pay my taxes, I should get that. The taxes don't even pay for all of our police and fire. So without grants, we're literally out of business, period. The one question I need to and I want to ask and what is to make sure? That we don't have a repetition of what we had when grant monies. From various different agencies, including those that get those transportation monies, including the people that put money in a bucket at a concert, including money from the state and the county transportation that went into political ads like this hymnal of hosannas coming out saluting extensively the mayors. Protege. Two weeks before the election. We need to fight. Sure. That the foot goes on the neck and that the city auditor stays right on top of this. With all due respect to the good director of public public works, the fact is somebody was asleep when five different departments were raided. And if this keeps up. Those agencies will put a foot on the neck and cut us off, period. No ifs, no answer. No, that's. That's even notwithstanding the fact that Garcia is going to jail, period. They will still, still be watching us as our bloom, as is, incidentally, the Bloomberg organization giving second thoughts. And I don't know the council all the council people understand who Bloomberg is, but if you get on that, they're a bad list. That's worse than getting on a moody's or any banks credit rating system and so forth. So be very, very careful that you don't try massaging the figures to suck money out into some of your pet political projects or candidates. Thank you. Thank you. Members, please cast your vote. Motion carries eight zero.