City to consider steps toward building ICE office

The Santa Maria City Council will consider measures on Tuesday to clear the path for a construction project that includes the establishment of the citys first Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

The office would relocate the operations of the ICE location in Lompoc.

Theyre located in the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary, which makes it very difficult for them to conduct their operation out of there because of their restrictions as far as accessibility, because theyre housed in the penitentiary, said City Manager Rick Haydon.

The offices mission is to review records of inmates incarcerated throughout Santa Barbara County, find undocumented immigrants and process their deportation. Haydon

said the move wouldnt change that mission or have any effect on the citys police department.

The construction project also would establish two medical buildings. The project meets city goals of bringing in long-term employment opportunities, according to the staff report.

The council will consider other items ranging from a pay raise for firefighters to replacing a sidewalk on installing bike lanes on San Ysidro Street in its first meeting of 2014.

The wage hike comes as one of the larger annual updates to the citys memorandum of understanding with the Santa Maria Fire Fighters Union. It is the last of the MOUs with city labor organizations to reach the city council agenda and promises small cost-of-living adjustments on the same scale as the other groups received. They represent the first time any of those employees have received pay raises since 2009, Haydon said.

The San Ysidro sidewalk project will replace existing material warped because of tree growth between College Drive and Miller Street on the southern end of the city. The council will vote on whether to award a $166,577 bid to G. Sosa Construction for the project. According to supplementary agenda materials, the price is more than 30-percent lower than what the city expected to pay. The job also involves installing bike lanes, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant wheelchair ramps and improved drainage. Workers will remove existing trees and replace them with less invasive types, the report said.

Read more:
City to consider steps toward building ICE office