Another Consulting Firm Hired to Help Palisades: Waste of Taxpayer Dollars?

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass announced today, June 6, in a press release that a global infrastructure firm, AECOM, had been selected to support rebuilding in Pacific Palisades.

“AECOM’s expertise in long-term infrastructure planning and design will only further expedite our work to get families home,” Bass said.

AECOM was selected  to aid the City in a rebuilding master plan, infrastructure plan for utilities above and below ground (in tandem with construction), a logistics plan for materials for local builders and a master traffic plan to manage an increased number of builders, trucks, construction materials, and other activity as more and more property owners begin the rebuilding process.

AECOM will work alongside City officials, and Hagerty Consulting, which has been focused on debris removal and immediate disaster recovery support.

The majority of debris removal has been handled by the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA, the City has only tangentially been involved.

At a Pacific Palisades Community Council meeting on April 10, the Haggerty Consulting representative was unable to articulate what the company had done for the Palisades and what the company planned to do.

The cost of retaining AECOM was not in the press release. Here are additional problems that AECOM can solve in Pacific Palisades.

• Almost every street will have to be repaired. The majority of the streets prior to the fire received failing grades, and now with heavy machinery used during debris removal, many have lost pavement and some have huge potholes.
• Most of the sidewalks were in bad shape, non-ADA accessible, prior to the fire and need to be repaired.
• A grocery store needs to be opened in the Village, NOW. Help Gelson’s or Ralphs or even put one in CVS, so the people who have moved back have a place to shop.
• Reopen the Post Office.
• There is a faulty assumption on the City’s part that all people will start rebuilding at the same time. Many residents have a large gap between what insurance will pay and the construction costs in Los Angeles and California. People simply DO NOT have the money.
• Insurance is not paying. Many Palisadians have had to hire a private adjuster or go to the state insurance commission to try and recoup funds. For the majority of people there is still incomplete payment.
• A quarter of the people living in the Palisades were senior citizens and many have chosen not to spend the last decades of their lives in construction, particularly since they are living on a retirement income.
• For various reasons, others have elected to keep their lots empty, at least for the time being. But no one in the City has determined the percentage of people who may be rebuilding. Instead the City’s assumption is that 6,000 people will begin building at once.

(Editor’s note: It might be more productive if the City took the money they are paying Hagerty and AECOM and used it for streets and undergrounding utilities in Pacific Palisades. There needs to be infrastructure for people to come back.)