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Council presses staff on roads, sidewalks and how CIP projects are prioritized
Summary
Council members pressed staff about how the FY27'FY32 capital improvement program prioritizes projects, how much the city can actually spend on roads and sidewalks next year, and why some large projects (CityDock, fire stations) are scheduled the way they are.
City staff outlined the FY27'FY32 capital-improvement program on April 30 and answered detailed questions from council members about execution capacity, grant versus bond funding and ward-by-ward project mapping.
Bert Vogel, director of public works, said the capital budget book runs about 130 pages and noted that roughly $6'$7 million in general-fund projects carry forward each year from prior approvals. Vogel described new investments in striping, crosswalk refreshes and increased routine maintenance, and he said the CityDock project was moved forward so FY27 shows $16 million allocated for that effort, of which about $11'$11.5 million would be bond-funded.
"We have a contractor that we work with," Vogel said when council asked whether the city could double roadway spending quickly; staff explained that while contractors and staff can scale up with lead time, encumbrances and project-management capacity constrain how much the city can spend in a single fiscal year. For example, staff indicated the city could practically spend roughly $3.5 million a year on road resurfacing in the near term, based on project-manager capacity and existing encumbrances.
Suzanne Flaherty, budget accountant, pointed council members to CIP pages that list grants and other funding sources; staff said an internal workbook shows bond-only portions for each project and that they would provide those tables to council members who requested them. Multiple council members asked for a reconciled spreadsheet showing differences between the CIP totals and Davenport's tables; staff said that workbook and an "all-fund summary" page in the CIP (PDF page 12) contain the requested detail.
Council members also raised equity and geographic questions. Staff presented a ward-by-ward mapping of 117 projects in the FY27'FY32 window intended to show distribution of project counts and gross dollar amounts; staff cautioned the map counts the full cost of multi-ward projects in each ward for a high-level view, not a pro-rata allocation. That analysis showed Ward 1 capturing an outsized share because CityDock and major city-facility projects are concentrated there, while funding across other wards is more similar.
Other questions addressed priorities for sewer and utility work, the treatment of recurring sidewalk funding (repair vs. new sidewalks), and the scope of fire-station projects. Staff said the CIP contains planning and design funds for multiple station renovations but that full rebuilds will require additional appropriations and more detailed design estimates.
The council asked staff to centralize follow-up questions in a shared tracking tab and to post the unpublished bond-allocation workbook so members can reconcile project-level grants, PAYGO, and bond funding. No formal votes were taken; the mayor closed the presentation after follow-up items were assigned.
