Citing qualms about cost and effectiveness, the Santa Barbara City Council voted Tuesday not to go forward with a project to remove and relocate benches along State Street in an effort to reduce panhandling.

The council voted 4-3 to table the plan and revisit it during next year’s budget talks. Until then, the city will move forward with the stalled “Real Change, Not Spare Change” project.

Voting yes were Councilmen Frank Hotchkiss and Bendy White, Councilwoman Michael Self and Mayor Helene Schneider. Voting no were Councilmen Dale Francisco, Grant House and Randy Rowse.

Fourteen benches on State Street were slated to be moved or reoriented to address aggressive panhandling in the area, but the $50,000 price tag prompted White and Schneider to bring the item up during Tuesday’s meeting for more discussion. The plan was backed by the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization last month, and the discussion was picked up by dozens of national media outlets.

Schneider said Tuesday that recalling the item for discussion wasn’t a swipe against the Downtown Organization or RDA staff.

“The more I learned about what we were trying to do, the more questions I had,” she said. “I’m just not sure this is the right method to get there.”

White also commented. “Clearly we have a panhandling issue, and is the removal of a bench here and there going to make a difference?” he asked.

RDA staff member Marck Aguilar said the Downtown Organization’s Safety Committee expressed concern about the benches in 2009. Public meetings in January brought the issue before most people, however, and drew criticism about cost.

“To the general observer, it looks like the benches are just bolted into the brick, but it’s a little more than that,” he said.

Bolts from the existing benches would need to be cut, bricks in the new location would have to be removed, a shaft would need to be created 16 inches below the surface of the ground, concrete would need to be poured, and bricks would need to be replaced and benches rebolted.

Aguilar also went through a line item of the costs. Each bench and news rack would cost $1,250 to relocate, and just mobilizing the construction crew would cost $5,000. The two trash cans to be moved would cost $1,100 and the bike posts would be $725 each. That would bring construction costs, including fees if the city needed to change its order, to about $37,000. Another $13,000 would go toward the consultant’s fee and city engineers, and $500 fee to the Historic Landmarks Commission.

Success would be measured by a lack of complaints, Aguilar said.

“This is pretty consistent with our overall approach to our downtown sidewalk improvements,” he said.

If the City Council had decided just to remove the benches instead of reorienting them, it would amount to $3,500 of staff time, and the city would have to find a location to store the benches. A crew of two city staff and a work truck could get the jobs done for $2,000 to $3,000, and about $900 would go the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission for plans and review.

Panhandling is at the heart of the issue, and White asked about the “Real Change, Not Spare Change” project, which launched last year.

“It’s rolled out more slowly than we initially thought,” said Paul Casey, the city’s community development director. “I think there’s more to come than what you’ve seen on the ground so far.”

Dave Lombardi, chairman of the Downtown Organization’s Safety Committee, said, “It was never our intent to remove any of the benches on State Street,” adding that relocation was the goal to make the area safer and more inviting.

The Downtown Organization also eliminated matching funds that paid Bob Casey, a police officer who worked with the homeless on State Street. Lombardi said of Casey’s work on State Street that “the program was a big success, although not sustainable in today’s economy.”

Bill Collyer, the Downtown Organization’s executive director, said the problem seems to be worst at the benches outside Rite-Aid and Northstar Coffee.

“I haven’t found any store owners that want benches and don’t have them now,” he said, which could make relocating them difficult. “What’s really driving this is making locals and visitors more welcome downtown.”

Rowse said he supported the plan.

“It’s not about a homeless issue, it’s about panhandling,” he said, adding that businesses on State Street hear things from their customers and have a grasp on the street’s needs.

The last street improvements occurred 10 years ago, prompting House to support the new plan, even with the $50,000 price tag.

“I’m looking back over 10 years … and I stretch $50,000 over that amount of time,” he said. “I don’t think it’s that much at all.”

Francisco agreed: “Everything we do in the public space is astonishingly expensive. Unfortunately that’s what these things cost.” He added that the city ultimately would have to do something much more expensive to curtail panhandling, such as increase enforcement.

“We need a police presence on State Street,” he said, “and that is not going to be cheap.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews.