Santa Monica Council adopts Realignment Plan updates after staff reports drop in crime and new revenue steps

Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously to adopt a set of staff recommendations designed to "operationalize" the city’s Realignment Plan, Mayor Terosas said after the meeting. City Manager Oliver Chi told the council the package pairs public-safety gains with new programmatic revenues and organizational changes intended to sustain improved service levels.

The update front‑loaded public‑safety results, with Police Chief Derek Jacob presenting a four‑pillar deployment model—crime suppression, homelessness response, traffic safety and community engagement—and a video showing department activity. Chief Jacob said the department is fully staffed for the first time in two decades and has increased officer‑initiated activity, traffic enforcement and targeted operations. "When you come into Santa Monica to harm our residents, you will be identified, you will be caught and you will be held accountable," Chief Jacob said.

The city’s finance director, Oscar Santiago, told the council the FY 2026–27 outlook had improved after the administration locked in roughly $28.8 million in new annual revenues. Those items include updated parking‑structure rates and validations, an ambulance operator program launched in February that bills insurers for transports, and planned digital signage licenses. Santiago said the city now projects a modest general‑fund surplus for 2026–27 under current assumptions and will post a public “realignment scorecard” with performance measures.

Among the operational changes adopted, staff will: reorganize public‑works maintenance to expand corridor cleaning and landscape work downtown; move 311 operations into Public Works (to align most common service calls with the department that executes them); add limited new positions across departments to support plan execution; invest in staff training; and refine a remote‑work protocol for managers and supervisors. Council members emphasized that any changes for represented employees must proceed through meet‑and‑confer with labor partners.

The measure also included an economic toolkit to spur private investment and activation: council directed staff to return with the details of a proposed $3 million economic‑development fund, to study a retail‑to‑restaurant activation program (including subsidizing the city’s portion of wastewater capacity fees for qualifying restaurants), and to move forward with event‑based expansions of the city’s entertainment zones. Councilmembers asked staff to bring back detailed eligibility criteria for subsidies and to coordinate event calendars, hotel operators and small businesses before any permanent changes are made.

Housing and homelessness remained a center of discussion. The council authorized separate outreach to study a transition to a housing‑first "system of care"—an approach that would emphasize providing interim and permanent housing as primary options—and directed staff to evaluate whether a locally focused nonprofit housing‑development entity could accelerate mixed‑income housing production. Both studies will include stakeholder engagement and return to council with options and budget implications.

The meeting followed hours of public comment ranging from safety on the Santa Monica Pier and water‑quality testing at the Pier to debate over the future of the Santa Monica Airport and neighborhood organization grant rules. The council directed staff to post a public scorecard of the Realignment Plan metrics and to return with the operational details for several recommended changes in the coming months.

Council action: items 1–20 of the Realignment Plan update were approved by unanimous voice vote. Staff was directed to proceed with the outreach and studies described above and to return with implementation details and fiscal estimates.

The council scheduled follow‑up briefings on the entertainment‑zone management plan, the restaurant wastewater subsidy proposal, the housing‑system outreach and the nonprofit housing‑entity assessment.