Oversight Cleaned Up

After investing $16 million in a new facility for Torrance Transit buses and city services, the city administration discovered recently that it forgot to ask for custodians to keep it clean.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve four custodial positions for the new facility, which is located on Prairie Avenue north of Torrance Boulevard. The cost in the 1986-87 fiscal year is $112,516.

Bill K. White, director of general services, explained the snafu in a memo to City Manager Leroy Jackson: “Unfortunately, due to the last-minute budget processing modifications, the department head assumed that the original request for the required custodial positions for the new city yard was well understood. . . . The budget was adopted without these positions. The critical need for these positions surfaced immediately after the budget was adopted and city department personnel commenced to move into the new . . . facilities.”

Jackson, in a memo to the City Council, said, “It is indeed prudent but expensive to properly maintain a new facility in which the city has an investment of some $16 million.”