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DPW outlines staffing, street projects and pit-stop pilot as budget asks
Summary
Department of Public Works Director Muhammad Nuru told the Budget & Finance Committee that DPW is recovering from staffing cuts, handling record service requests, and seeks funding for pilot programs including yearlong staffing for portable "pit-stop" toilets and a third tree crew for planned maintenance.
Department of Public Works Director Muhammad Nuru presented the department's annual briefing to the Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee on May 6, outlining operations, capital delivery and specific budget requests for neighborhood livability services.
Nuru said DPW runs eight bureaus with roughly 1,300 employees and manages or supports about $5.2 billion in city projects. He told the committee DPW's total department budget was about $237.1 million and that the department received $23.6 million in general-fund support in 2014. "We are 24/7 operation and our services are far reaching," he said.
The director highlighted performance metrics: DPW logged about 90,800 calls last fiscal year, mostly for sidewalk and street cleaning, tree care and graffiti abatement, and reported meeting service targets over 90% of the time for many core services except graffiti removal on public property.
Nuru described pilots and enhancement requests tied to livability. He said a portable-toilet pilot in the Tenderloin has reduced nearby service calls and that DPW requests $827,000 to fund pit-stop toilets for a full year. "This pilot has been successful because they are staffed and they're monitored and we make sure that they are clean," he said. The department also proposed an enhanced residential corridor cleaning program for newly residential areas and requested funds to add a third tree crew to perform planned maintenance on about 2,000 trees annually.
Supervisors pressed DPW on coordination with other agencies on paving and sewer projects and on nighttime construction permits. Nuru said DPW coordinates regularly with the Municipal Transportation Agency and the Public Utilities Commission to align projects and avoid digging the same street multiple times. On tree maintenance, he said the city manages roughly 40,000 right-of-way trees and that constraints mean crews are often reactive to emergency calls rather than performing routine pruning.
Nuru warned that long-term funding for street resurfacing and tree maintenance remains a concern: "If we want to continue improving our streets, finding a dedicated source in the near term will be very critical," he said. He concluded the department is seeking sustainable funding to maintain gains made by bond-funded projects and to expand successful pilots.
