Shoddy CenterCal mall study contract a waste of taxpayer money

The agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting includes the Council’s approval of a contract to perform a fiscal analysis.  Review of the details of the contract reveal the study if approved as is by our Council will be nothing more than window dressing to make the appearance that the City did due diligence on CenterCal’s plan for a mall in our harbor.  Here’s a quick summary justifying this conclusion:

1. Insufficient Funding:  The contract is limited to $16,000 for the analysis and $4,000 for travel.  When a city led process resulted in two visions for the AES site in 2005, the City spent over $40,000 to do a top level analysis of the proposed alternatives.  The City spends $250,000 per year for their harbor land use consultant services.  The amount being allocated for the study will only pay for window dressing so worthless that any resident could poke holes in any conclusions the study draws.
2. No Competition:  Despite the fact that City Councilmen have asked for this analysis in July, there was no competition.  Somehow staff just picked a company in the last week.  The contract was signed by the contractor last week.  Clearly, staff was scrambling after the Councilman Sammarco email chastised the City Manager for ignoring his request for the analysis.  This is one of the most important analysis in recent Redondo history.  It should not be done “shooting from the hip”.
3. Conflict of Interest not properly defined:  The contract terms are from the standard City template without any real thought the specific terms and conditions applicable to this situation.  The Contractor should have to validate that CenterCal is not a client.  The contract should prohibit the contractor from future contracts with CenterCal for a period of time… five years would be sufficient to ensure no conflict of interest.
4. The specifics of the analysis are full of holes:  An addendum to the contract defines the details of the study.  Notably missing are:

1. An analysis of the feasibility of  the proposed movie theater in the harbor
2. An analysis of the feasibility of the proposed hotel
3. An analysis of the impact of proposed mall and hotel on other harbor hotels including the approved Shade Hotel and nearby businesses, especially Riviera Village
4. The contract does not require the contractor to consider nearby mall expansion activities that are currently in progress for Plaza El Segundo, the Manhattan Beach Mall, and the Del Amo Mall.
5. The contract uses terms like “Greater Redondo Area” that are never defined.

On another note, the staff report included an interesting figure.  Pervious statements by the Council, Mayor and staff have quoted a positive return to the City of $4M-$8M per year.  That is a laughable amount for 15 acres of waterfront property overpacked with a 460,000 square feet mall. Consider that the current pier parking lot generates $1.8 million per year on its own.  But in this report that minuscule return has shrunk further to a ridiculously low $2 million per year.