On Nov. 6, 2025, the Des Moines City Council Committee of the Whole received a staff briefing on the proposed 2026'1031 Capital Improvement Plan, a portfolio of 87 projects totaling $175,275,000 focused on projects in 2026 that feed into the city's budget process. The committee voted 6-0 to excuse Councilmember Nutting, who was reported as out of the country.

Jeff Fran, finance director, told the committee the city's CIP is both a near-term funding plan and a longer-term planning tool, and that staff had emphasized projects for 2026 because those feed directly into the upcoming budget. "As you get closer in on the present, a CIP becomes much more really grounded in reality," Fran said. He said planned expenditures for 2026 total $33,859,000 across five categories: building facilities, municipal capital improvements, marina capital improvements, surface-water management and transportation.

Fran presented the funding breakdown for the full 2026'1031 plan: $123,014,000 in secured funding (including grants and other sources), $46,504,000 in identified but unsecured grants, and $5,757,000 for which no funding source has been identified. "We do not have $175,000,000 in the bank," Fran said, explaining the distinction between secured and unsecured or unidentified funding.

Staff emphasized that projects further out in the five-year window are more commonly unfunded and included in the plan in part to qualify for grants. Fran also acknowledged the cross-department collaboration required to create the CIP and recognized Jackson Swigert, principal accountant, as the central staff lead on the compilation.

The committee did not take policy action on the CIP at the meeting; staff said the plan will be included in next week's budget materials and in the public hearing for budget adoption.