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Council reviews new CIP prioritization framework; staff to provide quarterly updates
Summary
Council received a staff briefing on a new high‑level capital improvement plan framework designed to prioritize 47 projects across water, wastewater, streets and civic needs using strategic drivers (compliance, operations, water quality, supply flexibility and data). Staff will provide quarterly updates and refine project scoring ahead of a future rate study.
Assistant City Manager/Director Joe Leach presented a new approach to managing and reporting the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The framework aims to keep council and the public informed without forcing detailed project‑by‑project discussion at every meeting.
Leach described a project life‑cycle template: projects move from 'not started' to consultant procurement (design professional services), preliminary design (30%), final design, PS&E (plans, specifications and estimates), procurement, construction, commissioning and a warranty/closeout period. He said 47 CIP projects are currently tracked and that many were previously binned as 'high' priority, which made fine‑grained ranking difficult.
To help prioritize, staff and a CIP subcommittee proposed strategic drivers — compliance (legal/regulatory risk), operations and maintenance, water quality, supply flexibility and data/analysis — that will be used to compare projects more directly. Leach said staff will bring quarterly CIP updates (October, January, etc.) and that the prioritization matrix will inform the next rate‑study process.
Council members asked about where requirements‑gathering and 'stage‑gate' decisions happen; Leach said statutory council approvals occur at points such as authorizing an RFP or awarding a bid, and that the new framework reveals natural decision points where council can 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down.' Council and committee members also discussed embedding program‑management practices and possibly adopting a PMI‑style framework in the longer term.
The council did not adopt new CIP expenditures at this meeting; staff flagged that a wastewater treatment plant condition assessment remains unfunded and that some capital items (Oak Avenue utilities, Cronella pump station) are moving toward bid or acceptance in upcoming meetings.
