Durango City Council will consider whether to create a capital investment projects division to help oversee infrastructure improvements with an eye toward preventing waste and creating efficiencies.
City staff have built into the budget proposal a new division of its Public Works Department that will oversee capital investment projects.
Capital investment projects are currently overseen within individual departments. In some cases, city departments don’t have expertise in fields such as engineering to properly communicate with contractors working on projects.
“Some departments like Parks and Recreation don’t really have engineers on staff, but have landscape architects,” said Durango City Manager José Madrigal.
Madrigal said a major benefit to a CIP division would be having staff members who keep past and future projects organized to stop potential overlap.
“One of the best things is having somebody look at all the projects that are coming down the line so we’re not repairing a road one year, and then tearing it up to replace a water line the next,” Madrigal said.
He used the complications with the Smith Sports Complex soccer fields as a recent example of when a CIP division would have been useful.
“The project had to be redone because we didn’t have someone dedicated to making sure that the project was built to the quality and standards that were outlined in the plans,” he said.
The city has proposed spending $22 million on capital improvement projects for the coming year. If the division is approved, a staff of up to eight would oversee upcoming projects. Four of those positions would be current staff members transferred to the new division.
“We have four CIP inspectors that we’re looking into, and we’re going to build those in as we go through,” Madrigal said. “We’ll start with two, and if we see the need, we’ll go to three, and then if there's still a need we’ll go to four.”
Total cost for the division is proposed to be about $1 million with about 30% of funding coming from the general fund, and 70% funded through the CIP projects themselves. Five percent of CIPs across all departments is already budgeted for project management.
“Those dollars will come from the funds that are responsible for building and creating CIPs,” Madrigal said.
Council was largely supportive of the city’s presentation on the CIP division at a budget study session Nov. 2. Councilor Melissa Youssef said she is excited about city staff making innovations.
“I appreciate this new structure that’s being proposed to address what we’ve previously lacked. Which is not a reflection on current staff, they’ve been pushed, I think, to the max,” Youssef said. “I really appreciate the effort that staff has put into this.”
City staff noted that more oversight of CIPs could result in projects not going over budget as often, because there would be staff members who can catch project issues earlier.
“Hopefully then we could start coming in below budget and be able to reassess the true cost of our projects based on efficiency and effectiveness,” said Durango Mayor Kim Baxter.
Councilor Olivier Bosmans said he is concerned about staffing for the CIP division, saying the city is already having trouble filling its staffing vacancies.
njohnson@durangoherald.com
