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Finance committee approves $4.7 million Measure C appropriation to replenish police‑station contingency
Summary
The Santa Barbara City Finance Committee unanimously approved staff’s request to appropriate $4.7 million in Measure C funds to replenish contingency and cover unforeseen owner‑furnished items for the new police station, after staff described contaminated soil removal and other unanticipated costs.
The Santa Barbara City Finance Committee on Oct. 14 unanimously approved staff’s request to appropriate $4,700,000 from Measure C to replenish project contingency for the city’s new police station and cover unforeseen owner‑furnished items.
City Finance Director Keith Demartini introduced the item and turned the presentation over to Brad Hess, the city’s principal project manager, who said construction has begun on the police station and described the request as intended to “replenish the contingency for the project and to cover some unforeseen owner furnished items.”
Project construction manager Derek Troya said environmental sampling identified impacted, nonhazardous artificial fill across the site at roughly seven feet depth. The city took about 60 soil samples, Troya said, and removed the impacted material to landfills in San Luis Obispo and Kettleman City. Troya told the committee staff originally expected remediation costs on the order of $7,000,000 but, through negotiation with contractors, reduced that to about $4,000,000. He said doing the work used roughly 40% of the project contingency within the first two months of construction.
Troya said the current $4,700,000 request includes replenishing contingency and two additional owner‑furnished items: a water‑line relocation on Santa Barbara Street to move the line out of the building footprint into the right‑of‑way, and a microgrid controller to support the building’s net‑zero capacity. Demartini said any unused contingency at project completion (projected September 2027) will be returned to the city.
After staff presentation and a brief public comment period with no speakers on this item, a committee member moved approval and a second was recorded; the motion passed unanimously with no abstentions.
The committee’s action was limited to the appropriation requested by staff. Project staff said the contaminated‑soil work had a minimal schedule impact. Staff did not propose changes to the project scope beyond the two owner‑furnished items presented.
The city will record the appropriation in project accounting and report on contingency balances during regular project updates and at project closeout.
