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Council weighs creating project management office to improve grant readiness and oversee capital projects
Summary
Councilors and staff debated creating a certified project management office (PMO) or program manager to coordinate grant-ready projects, manage contracts and reporting, and reduce delays; staff said a PMO could make the city more competitive on major grants but salary and budget details remain to be worked out.
The council workshop moved from outreach to internal delivery capacity when staff and councilors discussed creating a project management office to coordinate large, grant-funded projects and manage implementation. The city's grant writer and grant administrator argued a PMO would provide a single owner for schedule and scope and relieve directors of last-minute data requests.
"If the city wants to continue to have multimillion dollar projects, we need someone to step in and help with the implementation," the grant writer/administrator said, describing responsibilities that would include bidding, compliance, reporting and contractor oversight. He noted that having projects "shovel ready" improves competitiveness for competitive grants such as BUILD and TSET and said a PMO would handle drawdowns and coordination after awards.
Council members generally supported the goal but asked for limits and clarifications. One councilor cautioned that planning and land-use review must remain closely integrated with any new PMO functions; another noted cost questions and said a job description, salary and funding would be returned to council for approval. Staff said the role could begin as a single hire and potentially grow into a team and that existing consulting and interim support have covered some needs while the city assesses permanent staffing.
Practical details remain unresolved: salary levels, whether to hire an internal certified project manager or contract out, and budget offsets. Councilors discussed possible offsets from increased grant success and operational efficiencies but staff said concrete projections of grant revenue gains from a new PMO were not available at the workshop. Councilors asked staff to draft a job description and compensation proposal to return for a future council consideration.
