Legislative Analyst’s Office says Caltrans support staff budget is overstated; Caltrans says it is reforming practices

The Legislative Analyst’s Office on June 25 presented to the California Transportation Commission the results of a multi‑year review of Caltrans’ Capital Outlay Support (COS) program, concluding the program’s data and budgeting practices limit legislative oversight and that staffing appears larger than workload projections warrant.

Jessica Peters and Jeremy Fress from the Legislative Analyst’s Office told commissioners the COS program has data inaccuracies and missing fields that make it difficult to evaluate performance. The LAO sampled roughly 1,200 projects from the 2012–13 budget and found that 60 percent of projects in that sample overestimated required staff resources by more than 25 percent; the analysis suggested the program expended about 73 percent of the staff resources requested in that sample, and the LAO estimated a possible excess of about 3,500 full‑time equivalent positions relative to longer‑term workload — a cost the LAO put “in excess of $500 million a year.”

“While Caltrans has made some minor improvements to the program over the past few years,” the LAO report said, “the program continues to have some very significant problems, and generally has just been very poorly run,” concluding the state needs “significant increases in oversight and budgetary reductions” unless Caltrans improves program accuracy and accountability.

Caltrans’ Jim Davis, division chief of project management and COS program manager, told the commission the department recognizes data problems and is implementing a new project management and scheduling tool, PRISM, to replace a 17‑year‑old legacy system. Caltrans said PRISM will create and retain baselines, improve change‑control documentation and support a predictive estimating tool and a quality management plan for data.

“We agree that Caltrans must continue to improve and are actively doing so with regards to COS data,” Davis said. He noted Caltrans has reduced staffing from higher levels created during temporary programs and that the department’s budget request for 2014–15 represents the lowest COS staffing level in 17 years.

Caltrans also pointed to a package of transparency products it said are already in use — a 10‑year SHOP plan, a four‑year SHOP program, a yearly contract‑for‑delivery document, quarterly project delivery reports and an annual project delivery report to the Legislature — and said it will provide a list of projects proposed to use CMIA savings when asked by the commission.

Stakeholders in the meeting made divergent remarks. Keith Dunn of the Self‑Help Counties Coalition told commissioners the coalition believes COS is probably overstaffed and urged alignment of roles, responsibilities and funding as statewide temporary programs wind down. Commissioner comments ranged from support for greater outside oversight to caution about implementation complexity; several commissioners said better data is a prerequisite to any major staffing decisions.

The LAO recommended two broad actions: (1) a multi‑year legislative approach to reduce COS staffing to match long‑term workload and (2) an expanded role for the commission to provide project‑level approval, allocation of COS funds to projects and public reporting of Caltrans delivery performance. The LAO said those measures would create external checks and balances that do not exist under Caltrans’ internal delivery model.

Caltrans disagreed with the LAO staffing estimate but agreed on the need for continuous improvement and committed to implementing better baselines, change‑control rules and reporting as part of ongoing reforms. Both sides said they would continue the dialogue with the Legislature and the commission.

Ending: The commission received the LAO presentation, heard Caltrans’ response and took public comment. Commissioners asked Caltrans for improved data and a CMIA project list; no commission action to mandate staffing changes was taken at the June 25 hearing.