Infrastructure Reforms Result in Over $133 Million for Neighborhood Projects
New Report Shows Mayor Faulconer’s Reforms Provide Tens of Millions in Funds & Efficiencies for Neighborhood Projects Thanks to Improved Financial Management
San Diego – (RealEstateRama) — Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer’s reforms to “repair the repair program” by streamlining infrastructure improvement projects continue to create major efficiencies with a new report showing those reforms have provided more than $133 million for neighborhood upgrades over the past year.
“We implemented these reforms to cut red tape, manage city finances more efficiently and actually use existing tax dollars that had been gathering dust in accounts for years,” Mayor Faulconer said. “Now, with the changes we’ve made, we can fix streets and improve our neighborhoods faster and more efficiently than at any time in recent memory. We’re also prioritizing funding so that every community gets the neighborhood and infrastructure improvements they deserve.”
The new report will be presented to the City Council’s Infrastructure Committee at its 10 a.m. meeting today in the Committee Room on the 12th floor of City Hall.
The report from the City’s Financial Management Department shows that an additional $59 million is now available for dozens of neighborhood priority projects due to “repair the repair program” reforms proposed by Mayor Faulconer and approved by the City Council. That continues the momentum built last year when the first Semi-Annual Capital Improvements Program Budget Monitoring Report identified nearly $75 million provided by the reforms.
The new report identifies projects that have excess cash that can be redistributed to other priority projects in need of funding, such as parks, police facilities and fire stations.
City staff will request the City Council approve transferring savings from completed projects, projects that are under budget, projects that don’t use a contingency set aside for cost overruns, and projects that do not require large amounts of cash until later fiscal years.
Improving the management of City funds is one of the 20 reforms to the infrastructure program Mayor Faulconer introduced in March 2015. The reforms focus on technology to increase efficiency, reducing bureaucracy and providing better financial oversight so taxpayer dollars are used more efficiently.
Other reforms implemented so far include online bidding for construction projects, a change that has helped reduce the contract procurement process for capital projects by three weeks, and tripling the size of contracts to increase the capacity and award many more construction contracts.
The reforms identified excess cash from the following sources:
$15.2 million from unused funds in City accounts
$24.4 million from excess funds from completed projects
$15.7 million from projects that do not currently need large sums of cash
$3.7 million from savings from unspent contingency funds
CONTACT: Craig Gustafson at (619) 453-9880 or cgustafson (at) sandiego (dot) gov
