INGLEWOOD – The Inglewood city council unanimously approved the City’s Finance Department’s request to adjust how much Inglewood taxpayers will contribute to the ongoing maintenance and operations costs of the Inglewood Transit Connector (ITC) during the June 20 city council meeting.
The City has assembled roughly $765 million towards the construction costs of the ITC project, but in order to get the additional $1 billion in federal funding, the City has to demonstrate they have the financial wherewithal to finance the project.
“The action today is needed to demonstrate the project’s 30% operation and maintenance sources of funds as committed to be in compliance with the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) requirements,” said Lisa Trifiletti, lead consultant on the project. “Our goal will be to submit our request for ratings this week to the FTA and this goal is needed to achieve our schedule to be constructed and operational by the [2028] Olympics.”
They hope to receive the FTA feedback, on the request, by either the end of July or early August.
“The mayor is continuing to lead negotiations with the venues for their contributions to operation and maintenance, in consistency with our plans, and the negotiations are ongoing and collaborative,” said Trifiletti.
According to the June 20 staff report, “the City continues to engage the owners of the venues within the Inglewood Sports and Entertainment District on contributions to support maintenance and operations costs [for the ITC]. Given that those negotiations are still underway, it is prudent for the City to demonstrate this additional commitment to support the project rating.”
Councilwoman Dionne Faulk then read from a prepared statement about her support of the project.
“I want to congratulate the mayor for spending a lot of time working with Trifiletti and trying to coordinate with the leadership at our venues to help make them understand how beneficial this will be to Inglewood residents, who will deal with less traffic but then it would be beneficial of the growing population of attendees coming to the City to attend the venues,” said Faulk. “I know our venues will continue to work hard and I know you are working with them to see the benefit of this.”
The city council initially authorized funding in the amount of $7.6 million during the May 23 city council meeting and that number has now swelled an additional $1.5 million to $9.1 million.
“The fact that we are optimistic about the project but of course, this money would not be coming from the general funds, it would be revenue producing funds, if, in fact, the project goes through,” said Councilwoman Gloria Gray. “I want to reiterate the venues involved in this discussion, with the mayor, it’s important they realize this project is important not only to the City but also to the venues that are involved in the discussions and I hope that spirit of cooperation continues and there is a positive outcome.”
Councilman Alex Padilla said “he’s good with it” because it’s “only $1.5 million”.
“This is an ongoing process and we are making this commitment now because we have to do this because there are deadlines to be met to show where the operations and maintenance money would come from,” said Butts. “The reality is I am still actively engaging the venues but what we cannot do is negotiate with a firearm to our head because we have to meet a deadline for the FTA.”
“This is a process and every step of the way we [the council] are going to deliberate and make sure this works for the budget,” said Butts.
According to the staff report, given that a regular share of the ITC’s ridership will occur on non-event days, it’s appropriate that the City contribute a share of the cost of operations” although the environmental impact report estimates that just 414 people per hour would ride the ITC at peak times on non-event days compared to 11,45 per hour on event days.
Mayor Butts has long alleged “no taxpayers money” would be used to construct any of these projects, however, the June 20 staff report on the matter makes it clear Inglewood taxpayers are on the hook for some construction and ongoing costs of the ITC project.
The City has made attempts to find other means to pay for the ongoing costs, however, one was successful and the other wasn’t.
The project is being built to mitigate traffic congestion concerns generated by the Inglewood Sports and Entertainment District, but the sports and entertainment venue owners are not equitable partners with the City in funding the transit connector.
The City held a special election in November 2021 asking voters to approve Measure I, a forever Real Estate Transfer Tax, that would have generated roughly $3.5 million annually to go towards the transit connector project’s ongoing costs but it was defeated by voters.
Murphy’s Bowl LLC contributed $10,000 towards the Yes on Measure H & I campaign.
The following month, in December 2021, the council approved the creation of Transportation Impact Fees (TIF), which are to be applied to new developments based on the amount of traffic the city expects it to generate but it bypasses the venues in the Inglewood Sports and Entertainment District.
The intense traffic and car pollution the ITC is intended to mitigate is created by the privately owned stadiums which to date are not obligated to pay towards its cost.
The council voted unanimously to approve increasing Inglewood taxpayer’s contribution to those costs unless Mayor Butts is able to convince Steve Ballmer and Stan Kroenke to contribute.
2 Comments
Ya gotta love it James Butts doesn’t want to “negotiate with a firearm to our head” ? Well then why is this a topic at all – if not for his giving this city to the billionaires we would not have the problem at all!!
Who is holding that imaginary firearm with the hammer cocked on the residentsof this community? Wasn’t it he who.told all the lies? Wasn’t it Butts also who carried the lie about Murphy’s Bowl being a bowling alley rather than a Basketball arena? Wasn’t it Butts who had the environmental impact report released with a time clock for response released during the weeks City Hall was closed for Christmas Vacation? Wasn’t it Butts who talked about wanting a technology park on the land Ballmer is building the Massive Arena creating a lawsuit with the prior Forum owners? Wasn’t it Butts who gave Kroenke a free pass to build a 100,000 seat venue without requiring adequate parking? Wasn’t it Butts who gave back the 4 acres designated for school property for the thousands of new residents?
HOW DARE HE and the other go alongs who voted with him suggest the BIllionaires need to be coddled while He and they trample over long term business owners and destroy our historic downtown and our neighborhoods !!!
No to answer the question Community was not asked if we wanted this in our city? Among the first lies was a petition circulated asked if we wanted the opportunity to vote about a stadium BUTTS and company lied that the petition was signed by residents who wanted a stadium in our community rather than conduct an election!! And then when residents declared no that was not what we signed he had the petitions destroyed with the help of the bobble heads and then City Clerk Yvonne Horton! Inglewood residents were shut out of meetings during Covid but they were disallowed meeting attendance when BUTTS and CO moved all meetings to the middle of the work day using a cut and paste petition from a convalescent home sign in book ….and then limited speaking time while attacking any who did not support his every word or deed. As for giving tax dollars away…wasn’t it BUTTS who provided $18 MILLION tax dollars to the local church which of course remained silent while he violated his marriage vows…LET US ALL REMEMBER Who BUTTS has been serving – it has NOT been residents of the community!,
Also, let us all not forget it was Dotson, Padilla, Morales, and Franklin who made this betrayal of public trust possible.
While the code of silence of the law enforcement community has thus far afforded a Look the other way behavior from the District Attorney ….the much greater power is not impressed by badges.
When Karma knocks on the city hall door we should not be surprised.
The city of Inglewood apparently bit off more than it can chew with this new stupid transit connector. They can’t afford it first of all and second in order to build it they had to step on many of their small business owner to do so. I want to know did they ask the public if they even wanted this in their city? Or did they just do whatever the hell they wanted? Seems to me politicians these days forget who they work for? Maybe it’s high time people start reminding them that they are public service agents and very replaceable