Tucked inside the local section of the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 25 was a report of a “short debate” by the City Council before a vote to enter into negotiations on an amendment and extension of a 20-year contract that’s been “a financial disappointment for the city.”

The negotiations will proceed with Outfront JC Decaux, which got an exclusive contract to install and maintain “street furniture” such as bus shelters and public toilets in 2001.

The company sells advertising on those amenities, and sends a cut to the city.

The original contract still has three years to run, and the 11-2 vote by the City Council gave JC Decaux a four-month window of exclusivity to work out a 10-year extension.

Give the city credit for seeking some changes in terms – but please note there remains plenty to question about the deal, which holds the potential to affect our quality of life, a key matter to the community of business when it comes to attracting and retaining companies and employees.

Also note that the city took in only about a third of the $150 million in revenue it had expected over the first 15 years of the deal with JC Decaux, and there’s no indicator of any recent improvement.

One factor in the monetary shortfall: Only 15 of an expected 150 automated public toilets have been installed so far, according to the Times.

And that dreary statistic moves this matter from farce to tragedy.

We face a crisis of homelessness, with encampments scattered around the city, turning patches of public and private property into open sewers.

The California Department of Health informs us that “a large Hepatitis A outbreak is ongoing” despite a recent slowdown in new cases. The disease is “spread person-to-person and through contact with a fecally contaminated environment.”

It will take time to make substantial progress with the multifaceted challenge of homelessness in our city.

We should not, however, let the daunting nature of the challenge delay us from taking immediate steps to address the sanitary conditions of our streets and sidewalks.

And we must realize this does not have to be dependent upon whatever strange wrangling is going on over the renewal of a contract that’s failed to deliver the vast majority of public toilets promised nearly two decades ago.

Voters have approved significant funding for homeless programs. Find the money to establish enough sites with public toilets to make it reasonable and fair to enforce laws against public urination and defecation.

Budget constraints and NIMBYism might be tough circumstances for elected officials – but it’s time to make tough calls.

Either that or we can try this option, also from the state Department of Health, which paints a picture of what inaction will yield:

“Eventually, sufficient herd immunity will be developed through infection and immunization or other factors interrupting transmission will occur to stop the outbreak, but this is not likely to occur for some time.”