Memos

Questions Regarding the Proposed FY17 Budget

May 20, 2016

Thank you for your Department budget presentations on the proposed Fiscal Year 2017 Budget at the Budget Review Committee. I am providing additional questions in writing with the request that you provide a response to me as soon as possible.

Capital Improvements Program FYl 7 Budget

As was noted during your budget presentation, in FYI 7 the City is embarking on a $634M CIP expenditure, the largest in a decade. However, there are various projects within the CIP budget that I have questions, including the following:

• Barrio Logan D IF
Is all of the Barrio Logan DIF being allocated, if so, what are the projects?
• CIP Emergency Reserve/ ABT00006: $1M
Please provide more details on this item. Has it been used in the past?
• Sidewalk Repair /Replacement: $4M
Please provide a detailed list of the repairs.
• Regional Park Improvement Funds
Chicano Park is a regional park, as such, can the Bayside building receive funding from the Regional Park Improvement Fund?

• City Facilities Improvements: $250,000
Please provide a list of all improvements proposed.
• Miscellaneous CIP Projects
Please provide infonnation for the following:
a) What is the year to date amount collected in Development Impact Fees that have been identified in the budget?
b) How much funding (from all available sources) is currently allocated for FYI 7 and all future fiscal years?
► Beyer Park S00752
► Hidden Trails S00995
► Riviera Del Sol S00999
• Cesar Solis Community Park/ S00649
In FYI6, $5,5I6,028 was anticipated in funding, did this funding become available and is there sufficient funding for project completion?
• General Fund
Please provide the list of street lights circuit locations that will receive the $1.4 million proposed.
• TransNet
Please address the following questions regarding TransNet funding in FY17:
o It has been reported at the Otay Mesa South Bound Truck Route Working Group that the Otay Truck Route Phase 4, will be funded with FYI 7 TransNet funds totaling $9.7 million, however it does not appear on the list for FYI 7. Please provide an explanation for why it was not included on the FYI 7 list.
o Please provide the complete TransN et waterfall list.
o Will funding from TransNet savings included in the list be funded in the order presented in the list or will staff move other projects on the list forward if savings fully fund the identified project?
o Please provide a detailed list of projects for the following line items:
• Ped Facilities Projects $I .SM, Traffic Signal Projects $1.7M, New Street Lights $I.3M

Southeastern Mini Park Improvements/L16000 (EDCO funds)
Please provide the anticipated costs for design work and a specific timeline of when the work will be completed for the projects below. Will a RFP be prepared? Lastly, the staff report states that CDBG will be requested to fund the construction. Which CDBG program year is being targeted?

Sidewalk Replacements

For the City Council to make an informed decision on this allocation within the FYI 7 budget, it is critical that the locations for replacement are provided. In addition to a complete list of sidewalk locations to be replaced in FY I 7, is the amount budgeted the same number identified within the assessment?

Street Light Replacements ADIO00S
Please provide the unfunded street light list, including sites that have been requested by residents, evaluated by the Department and locations approved but do not have identified funding. During the Budget Review hearing it was stated that the future years funded needed is $360M, is this number based on recent assessments?

• Traffic Signal at San Ysidro Blvd & Averil Road (Southwestern College)
This location qualified for a traffic signal with an approximate cost of $275,000. Is this location receiving funding for FYI 7? If not, how are we addressing this dangerous intersection?
• Fire Station 6
Fire Station 6, serving Otay Mesa, is in serious need of expansion. What are the improvement plans for this station? Would this require an existing CIP or would one need to be created?

II. Transportation & Storm Water (T&SW)
• Is it T &SW responsibility to clean feces on City Streets and sidewalks?
• Please provide the following information for the list of CIP line items below :
a) a list of projects;
b) details on how these projects are prioritized;
c) whether this is the only funding allocated to the project for the following T&SW
► Bridge Rehabilitation/AIO000I $250,000
► Install T/S Interconnect System/ AIL00002 $I,413,547
► Installation of City Owned Street Light/ AIH0000I $I,260,000

► Median Installation/AIG0000l $718,325
► Minor Bike Facilities/ AIA0000l $750,000
► New Walkway. AIA0000l $1,658,619
► Resurfacing City Streets/ AID00005 $1,500,000
► School Traffic Safety Improvement/ AIK00002 $100,000
► Sidewalk Repair & Construction/ AIK00003 $2,000,000
► Street Light Circuit Upgrades/ AIH00002 $1,350,000
► Traffic Calming/ AIL0000l $760,000
► Traffic Signals- Citywide/ AIL00004B $150,000
► Traffic Signal Modification/ AIL00005 $100,000

III. CST Fleet Services
• How many work trucks are inoperable and how long they have been down?
• Are there vehicles being leased in.any of the City departments? If so, how many and for how long?
• Has the delay in fixing vehicles led to work delay?
IV. Parks and Recreation Department FY17 Budget
• For the eight Rec Centers that will receive expanded hours in FY 2017, it was indicated that they were the eight largest still operating at 45 hours. Is that by physical size, budget or overall use?
• What are the 14 Rec Centers still operating at below 60 hours per week? What would be the additional cost to bring them to 60 in FY 201 7?
• For the playground equipment being repaired, we are adding 3.00 FTE. Could the repair of the playground equipment located at the Sherman Heights Community Center be included in the work funded under this line item?
• Is there additional staffing provided to deal with the increased use related to the expanded aquatics programs at Memorial Pool?
• There was no funding for temporary pools in the budget. What is the cost of adding more temporary pool locations in FY 2017?
• What parks will be included in the condition assessment in FY 2017 since the Balboa Park assessment should be done?
• How often do bathrooms at the various parks get maintained and cleaned? What would be the budget impact to increase the cleaning/maintenance of the public bathroom facilities at our parks?
• Will the funding allocated for rubberized replacement allow for Sherman Community Center and J Street Park to receive replacement floor?
V􀀇 Development Services Department FYl 7 Budget

• What is the timeline for the Development Services Department to fill its identified vacancies?
• It is critical that the Development Services Department improve permit application processing times, in order to provide faster and more efficient services to the public submitting project applications. Filling vacancies at a faster pace is likely to help speed up processing times, however, what are the costs/cost savings associated with the following options?
1. Implementing a "Self Certification" process that allows a licensed professional designer to certify that their plans meet required standards and signing an affidavit that places any potential liability related to the permit issuance on them;
2. Utilizing a "Third Party Plan Check," which uses third party review companies to complete a plan check on an applicant and notify the City that an applicant is eligible to pull the required permit.

By utilizing the above options, in combination with filling the current vacant positions, permits are likely to be issued faster and more efficiently to project applicants that rely on the City for timely processing in order to complete their projects. This approach should be explored in FY 2017. What would the cost be for a pilot program to be done on each item in FYI 7?

VI. Performance & Analytics Department FYl 7 Budget
• The IBA raised the issue of performance measures changing and many departments dropping the performance measures created by Council in FY12. It is valuable to know year to year how each department has fared compared to the previous year's performance measures. Why was this done and can the metrics associated with previous performance measures used be provided before the Council takes final action on the budget?
• Is there a resident satisfaction survey planned for FYI 7 and if so, where in your budget
· would the funding come from?
• Nearly $1. lM and 3 new positions are allocated for the 311 program. Both the FTE and overall costs are a major increase to your budget and the IBA notes that this will be a 5-year implementation process. Are the added positions expected to be sufficient in future years or do you anticipate the staffing and other associated costs to grow in the upcoming budgets?
• The IBA mentioned that the Department is working on an external facing dashboard - which I feel would be work done by the program coordinators that support the open data projects. Is there a schedule and roll out of a dashboard? Is an actual call center being considered, as the City Auditor's Report suggested?

VII. Library Department FYl 7 Budget
• What will the $877,000 increase in IT equipment and support cover specifically?
• The performance measures we have seen every year that shows us how the library system is doing have been changed. Please provide the data associated with the metrics used in the FYI 6 budget so that a better comparison can be made.
VIII. Communications Department FYl 7 Budget
• Please provide a breakdown of the enterprise fund positions that were transferred from the enterprise fund departments to the Communications Department, including how much time, less or more, they are spending on work for the enterprise fund departments where they came from?
• Please provide the breakdown of insidesandiego.org staffing costs as well as statistics for the viewership/usership experienced thus far.
• Please provide a breakdown of the contracts for FY 2017. What is the output of work under each contract under the Communications Department versus the output of work previously performed by these positions in the respective enterprise fund department?
• Lastly, are those contracts centralized in the Communication Department? If not, why?

Please provide a written response to the above questions prior to the City Council's final review of the FYI 7 budget. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

David Alvarez with District 80 residents
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