Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Integrated Systems topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee adds integrated-systems language to general plan draft; calls for fiscal impact statements and coordination
Summary
The draft integrated systems chapter calls for increased interdepartmental coordination, fiscal-responsibility tools such as fiscal-impact statements for interdepartmental projects, and consideration of district‑specific impact fees and financing tools such as community facilities districts.
Planning staff presented a new “Integrated Systems” chapter intended to institutionalize cross-department collaboration, fiscal accountability and equitable distribution of county investments. Bethany Morrison said the section is new to the draft and was included to address the committee’s recurring request for better coordination across county agencies.
Key policy proposals included an objective to “increase collaboration and cooperation for efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness” and a fiscal objective that “projects involving more than one department’s assets shall be coordinated to define scoping, design and construction needs.” The draft lists an action to create a fiscal-impact-statement (FIS) requirement for interdepartmental capital projects and recommends a standardized cost-benefit analysis for new facility construction or replacement.
Committee members pressed for clarity on who would carry out those analyses and how semi-autonomous entities such as the Department of Water Supply (DWS) would be integrated. Morrison and finance-related staff said current CIP review processes include department coordination but that DWS maintains a separate budget process and is not always part of the county CIP meetings; the chapter language is intended to bring agencies into a coordinated implementation process.
On financing tools, Morrison described policy language encouraging use of community facilities districts and district‑sensitive impact fees. She also noted the plan references transfer-of-development-rights (TDR) mechanisms, which the county could pursue through separate enabling legislation and further study.
Members asked for stronger definitions of equity and for performance metrics to track whether county investments are distributed to underserved communities. Chair Ashley Kirkwitz said she will work with the planning director and finance director to bring implementation detail back to the committee at a future meeting.
Ending: The committee accepted the integrated-systems chapter for further refinement and directed staff to work with finance and DWS on standardizing fiscal impact statements, project coordination and equity metrics before the next round of decisions.
