Capital improvement plan? (Resolution 977-2025)

[council3_rubal]

Section 6.05 of the City Charter identifies the authority and responsibilities of the City manager from time to time to submit to the Council a Capital Improvements program. The Charter further states, "The manager is required to submit the Comprehensive Plan for review by the City Council every even-numbered year. That said a Capital Improvements Program (CIP) is not simply the reclassification of funds! It is a multiyear plan defining objects, funding sources, and if there is a need for voter approval.

Please reference: Open government: https://opengov.com/article/capital...l projects,safe material, or repaving streets.

"Capital improvement plans differ between private companies and public organizations, and each local government will have its own unique needs it should detail in its CIP.

Each city or state may have specific requirements, and some municipalities may also need to obtain citizen approval (via ballot votes) on parts of their CIP.
In general, a capital improvement plan (CIP) includes:
Estimated overall cost of each capital project
Estimated operational and maintenance cost for each project
Estimated project timelines
Total revenues from each project
Funding sources
Project prioritization
What are the benefits of developing a Capital Plan?
A complete, properly developed CIP delivers the following benefits:

Synchronizes capital and operating budgets
Systematically evaluates competing demands for resources based on a prioritization matrix reflecting the entity’s long-term goals and objectives
Identifies, prioritizes, and optimizes the financing of capital projects
Pay-Go
Federal and State grants
Debt financing
Links strategic and comprehensive plans with fiscal capacity
Informs the public about the government’s investment in infrastructure
What are the features of a Capital Improvement Plan?

The CIP typically includes the following information:
A listing of the capital projects, equipment, and major studies
A ranking of projects
A financing plan
A timetable for the construction or completion of the project
A project justification
A classification, itemization, and explanation for the project expenditures"

First I absolutely support a comprehensive CIP! Indeed I was the only member of the Council to point out in 2024 that this was not done in accordance with the Charter. I am asking only that the Council consider deferring the vote on Resolution 977-2025 until staff provides elements consistent with a sound Capital Improvements Program that meets the objective: "To enhance clarity and transparency of Capital Projects".

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

 

[council4_vaughan]

I agree with you that a long-term capital plan would be great and I would support that as a future agenda item. I don't think we need to pay a fancy consultant to do it either. I would like the staff to put together a general framework with some rough estimates to start a conversation.

I know we have a CIP plan for the utility operations but my last recollection of it was only about 5 years out.

Part of the problem is that the nuts and bolts of this are probably not fit for a council meeting discussion. What we probably need is a committee that can work with the staff on putting a plan together and then presenting that to council. I think a finance committee made up of some council and some resident volunteers would be great to look at this and other issues.

We are soon to have a golf course assessment that will hopefully give us some good metrics to be monitoring. We can do that at a council meeting, but you can often have a more fruitful discussion in another setting.

While I share your goal of getting a CIP plan, I am not sure holding up a pretty innocuous budget amendment is the right approach. Actually, this budget amendment will start the conversation of a CIP plan. The idea is that we would annually contribute money to a capital projects fund based on a CIP plan. This would be the first step in that. What we don't want to do is contribute money to capital projects funds with fuzzy or mutable characteristics.

 

[council3_rubal]

Thank you for your excellent points. I concur 100% with your statement: ”What we don't want to do is contribute money to capital projects funds with fuzzy or mutable characteristics.” The open government reference provided above has useful guidelines in this regard.

I would agree that many of the Capital Improvement projects fall within the general guidelines above and already have a well-defined scope, cost, and identified future funding. These meet the threshold for the CIP fund category. In this case, the documentation for these projects are available, just not referenced nor are funding timelines yet projected to appreciate the impact of these programs on future budgets. I understand this is in the works. Reference or attachments to the supporting documentation for well-defined CIP would be very useful for clarification remembering that transparency should include the presentation of information that is both meaningful and understandable. However, an example of one line item that does not appear to meet the threshold for a well-defined CIP project is the ‘Old public works yard’ project’. The scope and magnitude of the total cost of this project have yet to be defined. I would yield this point IF the $300K budget this FY would cover the total cost of the project.

 

[council3_rubal]

My no vote. Council members, please note that the City Manager reported that the "old Public Works project" will eventually be greater than $6M. It was stated that this would be funded by a future bond issue for voter approval. It was confirmed that the $300K in this budget cycle (and I believe expenses in prior budget cycles for land purchase etc.) were derived from utility funds. My No vote for Resolution 977-2025 was specific to this line item. It is my view that this project should not be considered under this Capital Improvements resolution UNTIL the bond issue is put forth and approved in accordance with the guidelines for CIP above. Whether Utility funds or bonds are used it must be clarified how this translates to Utility rates for residents. We also must realize that our City contracts for the majority of major infrastructure projects therefore, bond issues must weigh funding for actual residential infrastructure improvements or improvements in municipal structure. There is likely a middle ground, but Council and residents should not be placed on the course of a financial Catch-22.