Description:

In 2012, the City of Palos Verdes Estates began a project to build entrance monuments at each of the five entrances to PVE. $100,000 was set aside in each of FY2014 and FY2015 for beautification projects, and $153,000 of the budget was to go for these five entrance monuments.  By 2014, the building had begun on three of the five locations and cost overruns brought the overall projected cost to $256,084. The worst overrun was for the entrance located at Granvia Altimara & Via Cerritos in Montemalaga which is pictured at the top of this webpage. That entrance was budgeted at $50,000 but the actual total was $136,880. This seems very high for a single brick monument and a traffic island that remains un-landscaped today.

For the staff memos on the cost overruns, click here and here. 

For an analysis of the project by entrance and by area of the City, click here.

For a discussion on www.pvetrails.com of the project with photos of the various entrances, click here.

Chronology of Events:

• 5/13/14 City Council Approves Beautification and Enhancement Projects Update and Budget Adjustment
• 10/28/14 Modification of City Entrance Island on Granvia Altimira at Via Cerritos and Appropriate of funds

Voting Record of Elected Officials:

May 14, 2014 City Council approved an increase in budget to cover cost overruns on the entrance projects. 

Voting For: Jim Goodhart, John Rea, Rosemary Humphrey, Ellen Perkins, George Bird

Voting Against:  none

PVRRG Perspective:

This is an example of poor fiscal management -- both in terms of not managing to budget estimates and in terms of the reasonableness of the actual costs. $137, 000 for a single entrance that is a brick wall surrounded by a small traffic land and no landscaping (see photo above) is not reasonable. 

It is our hope that in the future greater care is given to developing budget estimates, and tighter management to insure that projects come in at or under budget.

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