Groundbreaking for New $43.7 Million Public Safety Facility

By Jorge Casuso

Two decades after the city began to hatch plans to replace its outdated Cold War era police station, city officials gathered under sunny skies to finally break ground for a new state-of-the-art public safety facility that will house the police and fire departments under one roof.

"We've waited a really long time for this occasion," said Mayor Pam O'Connor. "This public space will be the heartbeat of the city."

Construction of a new $43.7 million facility to house both the police and fire departments was spurred by the hard lessons learned during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The emergency was a wake-up call to city officials, who coordinated the disaster response from the back of a pickup truck.

"The new facility is state of the art," O'Connor said, "and will ensure that all the lessons we learned will be taken into account."

Despite the emotional attachment police officers have for what is their second home, Police Chief James T. Butts Jr. said that "it's time, actually past time, for the city and this police department to move on to a building that will support the modern, computerized, proactive law enforcement agency that we have today. The citizens of the city will
benefit significantly from the consolidation of police and fire commands in
one structure."

The four-story high, 118,000-square-foot facility - slated to be completed in the fall of 2001 - will include cutting edge technology and be constructed with environmentally friendly materials. There will be an atrium at the center of the building to let in sunlight, and an emergency operations center will double as a community meeting room.

The new facility constitutes the first phase of the Civic Center Plan and will be located on the site of the parking lot behind the 1957 station. The current parking lot for police vehicles will be replaced with 100 secure parking spaces underground.

The $43 million facility will be bankrolled with $32 million saved by the city in recent budgets, with the balance paid for with certificates of participation. Using funds from the budget was necessary after a $28 million bond measure on the 1996 ballot failed to garner the necessary two-thirds majority.

City officials have planned the construction so that it has a minimum impact on the current nearby structures, which include the city's court buildings, said City Manager John Jalili.

"This day has been a long time in the making," Jalili said.

"This is the beginning of what has been a vision for a very long time," said Fire Chief Ettore Berardinelli. "What we are here for today is to create our future."

To truly appreciate how significant this groundbreaking is, we need to
consider what events surrounded the opening of our current police station.

Just two years before this station was opened, Albert Einstein died and
Disneyland opened its first theme park.

The year this station opened, the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched into
orbit by Russia.

Two years after the station opened, Alaska became the 49th state and Hawaii
became the 50th state.

It's not that we don't love this building. There are two structures in
which officers spend the majority of their lives during their careers. One
is named home and the other referred to as "the station." During your
career, you may and most likely will live in two or more homes, but the vast
majority of officers will work in only one police station in their lifetime.
So for police employees, the police station is very symbolic of what the
organization projects and stands for.

But it's time, actually past time, for the city and this police department to
move on to a building that will support the modern, computerized, proactive
law enforcement agency that we have today. The citizens of the city will
benefit significantly from the consolidation of police and fire commands in
one structure. This is a time of great anticipation for us. Since the
construction people have begun their preliminary work in preparation to dig
a big hole right where you sit, I have never seen more people happy to see
dirt and dust and listen to the sweet music of jackhammers.

When the building opens, it symbolizes a new beginning and new chapter in
the history of this police department. All of its members will share a
special event together, being the first Santa Monica law enforcement force
to turn a building into a station.

I want to thank the community and councils past and present that have made
this important step forward in providing for public safety a reality.