The mayor of San Diego wants to fill your potholes faster and spend your money wiser.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer unveiled plans Thursday to update how the city repairs assets such as roads, water pipes and sewer lines. The aim of the proposed Capital Improvements Program Process Improvements is to streamline how infrastructure projects move forward and free up funds that may be tied up on a technicality.
“And these reforms will focus on technology to increase program efficiency, reduce bureaucracy and produce better financial oversight and cash management," Faulconer said at a news conference at the city's Chollas Operations Yard.
The mayor also intends to double the city's street repair.
"When I took office, the city repaired 150 miles of streets a year. Next year we are going to repair more than 300," he said.
Funding for the extra paving will come from a combination of revenue streams, including the Transnet tax, gas tax, Proposition 42 and bond financing, Faulconer said.
The increased improvements are part of the mayor's five-year plan to pave 1,000 miles of streets, which he announced at his State of the City address in January.
Councilman Mark Kersey, chairman of the City Council Infrastructure Committee, said the mayor's suggested changes will save time and taxpayer money.
"These are common sense reforms such as putting contract bidding online, eliminating duplicative reports and establishing better coordination between city departments," he said.
Kersey, who has suggested a ballot measure for the city's nearly $4 billion infrastructure backlog, said his committee will hear the mayor's recommendations at its meeting next week. The committee will also review the mayor's plan to double the city's street repairs.
What is a Capital Improvements Program project?
CIP projects "provide improvements or additions such as land, buildings, and infrastructure."
Examples:
Airports
Bikeways
Bridges
Drainage and flood control facilities
Libraries
Park and recreation centers
Police, fire and lifeguard stations
Street improvements, lights and traffic signals
Utilities undergrounding
Water and sewer facilities and pipelines
Source: City of San Diego website,
The city's Public Works Department director, James Nagelvoort, said not all of the improvements require council action, such as accepting bids for projects online. He said the city has already acquired the software and received approval to accept digital signatures.
"So now we're piloting a few projects, making sure that we get the bugs out and make sure it works with the industry and that," he said.
The city's current process requires contractors to submit their bid in person to be reviewed by staff, Nagelvoort said.
"If you understand that we only do that about 40 to 45 weeks out of the year, four days a week, you can see that we have a capacity problem. There's only so many you can conduct in a year," he said.
Nagelvoort said online bidding would also help eliminate mistakes because the system would generate an error message if the form is not properly filled out. He hopes to accept all bids electronically by the start of the next fiscal year on July 1.
