SEAL BEACH : Council Wary of Costs for Pier Safety Office

When volunteers offered earlier this year to build and help staff a safety office at the pier, the city accepted gladly, seeing the proposal as a way to help reduce beach crime at no added cost.

Despite pledges of time and materials, however, the city might have to pick up part of the tab after all, officials said this week.

City Council Member William J. Doane said he is concerned that an environmental report, prepared for the California Coastal Commission and approved by the council this week, says the city would be required to “make up shortfalls in the community funding effort.”

“This is kind of scary,” Doane said. “This, to me, sounds like a blank check.”

Downtown residents have lobbied city officials for years to build a police substation at the pier to check rising incidents of graffiti and burglary. The Police Department’s main station is in a remote area of the city, on Seal Beach Boulevard across from the Naval Weapons Station.

Because of budget constraints, council members had said that the city could not afford a police substation. A number of community groups then offered to build the pier safety office, and the city agreed to staff it with police reserve officers.

But Lee Whittenberg, the city’s director of development services, said that, “as you get into the final construction and not knowing what conditions the Coastal Commission may or may not place on the project, there’s uncertainty. We can’t say definitely there may not be some cost to the city.”