Finance committee preliminarily approves Public Works budget after broad review of parks, streets, transit and deferred maintenance

Santa Fe — The Finance Committee heard an extended presentation on the Public Works Department’s operations, capital priorities and staffing needs on Monday, April 28, and moved to preliminarily approve the department’s FY26 budget following discussion of deferred maintenance, transit fleet needs and major capital projects.

Public Works Director Regina Wheeler opened the overview by emphasizing the department’s “feedback loop” approach: operations identify maintenance needs, those needs feed into asset-management planning, and capital construction funds are used to repair or replace deteriorated infrastructure. Wheeler and division leaders described recent and planned work at the golf course and MRC effluent irrigation system, median beautification designs, and the department’s use of one-time funds for pavement, fleet and equipment upgrades.

Why it matters: Public Works maintains the city’s roads, signals, parks, buildings and transit system. Committee members raised concerns about an extensive backlog of deferred maintenance across city facilities, aging transit vehicles, and the need to align capital planning, reporting and revenue sources to meet the city’s long-term needs.

Highlights and department priorities from the presentation and committee discussion: - Asset-management and capital integration: Wheeler described the department’s effort to connect day-to-day maintenance needs to capital planning and the ICIP. She cited the MRC/golf-course effluent irrigation refurbishment as a recent capital project that restored irrigation service after wastewater plant constraints.

- Parks and open space: Director Melissa McDonald said parks is managing about $40 million of capital projects and is moving to make parks more climate-smart. Parks assumed responsibility this year for paying its water costs (about $700,000 was added to the parks budget to cover water), and the division emphasized innovation around turf management, irrigation and artificial turf as options to reduce water use.

- Transit: Transit staff described fleet challenges, including many buses nearing end of life and a pending set of federal-grant reimbursements. Wheeler and interim transit operations director Andrew Baca said the department is pursuing a revised service plan that would use smaller vehicles for neighborhood connections and rely on FTA (Federal Transit Administration) grants and dedicated GRT for replacement vehicles. A transcript exchange indicated about $7 million in FTA grant money remained tied up pending federal processes.

- Staffing and hard-to-fill positions: Wheeler identified persistent vacancies in Complete Streets and Transit, plus difficult-to-fill trades positions such as heavy equipment mechanics and sign/paint-shop staff. The committee discussed trade-offs between contracting and hiring permanent staff, including using contractors to address backlogs versus investing in more competitive pay for in-house positions.

- Technology and reporting: Wheeler said the department is implementing a work-order and asset-management system to link constituent service requests to work orders and provide managers better data for prioritization. Committee members and the finance director discussed using new Questica software and better reporting to make capital prioritization more transparent to council and the public.

- Major projects and timing: The presentation covered the Airport Road repaving project (estimated at multi-million-dollar scale) and the Guadalupe bridge/street reconstruction (federally funded; substantial completion and landscaping expected later in the season). Wheeler said the Airport Road project is scheduled to move into construction when bond funds become available, with concrete and ADA ramp work required before paving can occur.

Action: The Finance Committee moved and seconded a motion to preliminarily approve the Public Works Department budget; a roll call recorded affirmative votes by Councilor Cassett, Councilor Lindell, Councilor Faulkner, Councilor Lee Garcia and Chair Romero Worth. The motion passed as preliminary approval.

Committee requests and next steps: Councilors asked for clearer, publicly accessible capital prioritization and reporting (Councillor Cassett, Councilor Lindell). The committee and staff discussed reserve funds, diversified revenue sources (stormwater utility, lodging tax, grants), and the potential long-term savings of a consolidated city services center to reduce maintenance of many older city-owned buildings. Wheeler noted there are no new positions in the Public Works FY26 budget and that several funded positions remain frozen or unfilled.

This summary is drawn from the department presentation and the committee’s discussion; direct quotes and attributions come from the meeting speakers list (Regina Wheeler; Division directors Jennifer Morrow, Melissa McDonald, Sam Burnett; Interim Transit operations director Andrew Baca; Parking Director Steve Kaspin; MPO Director Eric Ani; City Manager Scott; Finance Director Andy).