April 13, 2023 at 11:17 a.m.
Supervisor says county needs better planning for capital projects
That concern emerged again this week at the county's administration committee meeting from supervisor Steven Schreier, during discussion of a resolution to amend the 2023 county budget to add paving of the county's landfill entry and parking lot, and to add the courthouse annex roof replacement project to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) program.
The roof project had been pushed off through the years by buildings and grounds because of more pressing needs, committee chairman Billy Fried said, but failures now demanded that the project be fast-tracked.
To date, the county has apparently run through $6.9 million of federal Covid relief aid through the ARPA program. Like every government entity at the state and local level, local officials have been awash in money to spend on capital improvement projects (CIP), in addition to the normal process for funding such projects, and other programs.
Indeed, at this week's meeting, supervisor Ted Cushing said that was the whole idea of ARPA.
"Personally, that's the intent of all that money, is to spend it," Cushing said. "We've been on a spending spree, as are the towns and all the other counties in the state."
But now that the money is spent, the projects keep coming, and, as Fried said, the two projects before the committee would be paid for by remaining ARPA dollars but any shortfall would come out of the general fund. Indeed, Schreier said, the agenda item was initially talked about as an ARPA project "until we realized there was no money left."
"We're seeing an inordinate amount of CIP projects that aren't being proposed during the budget process," Schreier said. "They are being proposed later on, and we're fortunate to have these funds that can be tapped for those projects, and most of them I feel were justified."
Still, Schreier said, most of them were not on the list that the capital improvement projects subcommittee came up with when it prioritized projects, justifying immediate expenditures for some projects and putting others on the back burner.
Schreier acknowledged that sometimes things happen that can't be foreseen, mandating unplanned expenditures.
"The roof being one where they were pretty convinced that maybe we could get by another year and just patch it," he said. "That didn't happen. It was a very bizarre weather year and it's 30 or 40 years old. It's well past its due date."
That said, Schreier said, other suddenly-appearing projects are a concern.
"It would be nice to see these things on the CIP list," he said. "Don't take me wrong, but blacktopping, we should have been forecasting that replacement. It behooves us as members of this committee, as well as the CIP committee, to be a little more adamant about that."
And that means taking a serious look at structures and buildings and being realistic about what is a reasonable lifespan, Schreier said.
"Just as we should be doing with IT (information technology)," he said. "Nothing lasts forever, unfortunately."
Schreier pointed out that the county was spending a lot of money on IT.
"We also expended a very significant amount of money on IT last year, this year, and going into next year," he said. "A lot of it was, again, programs that were redundant and we really had no choice. But we also knew about it for many, many years."
The worst part is that costs have escalated, Schreier said.
"We couldn't have had a worse time to spend money because everything costs so much more than it would have," he said. "You know that. Guys buying equipment for public works know that. Is it out of our control? Yes, absolutely, but at the same time it's kind of a shame when you think about it. What you are spending on two trucks, you probably could have bought four trucks three years ago, and that's regrettable because that also affects our long-term planning - when are we turning this over? When are we planning on that?"
Schreier said the county needed people who could tell officials those things.
"What does it look like? What is the status of that out there?" he said. "I want to hope that they are going to make a little bit more of a concerted effort on that so we have a better idea of forecasting this because the money is gone now. And I don't anticipate us getting any more big bucks in the near future. We've taken all the eggs out of that basket, regrettably so."
To be sure, Schreier said, the money was meant to be spent, as Cushing said, and he said he would like to think that it has been spent wisely, but his concern about planning remained.
Fried also said he had concerns relating to Schreier's comments but would save them for the county board floor when the resolution came up there. The committee voted to move it on the county board for that discussion.
Not the first time
Suddenly appearing capital improvement projects have been a concern before.
For example, in 2019 alone, 10 significant capital improvement projects appeared that were never before part of any five-year plan.
And Schreier has raised his concerns before, as he did in late 2020, when a request for a new front-end loader for the solid waste department suddenly appeared on the CIP list, at a cost of about $250,000.
"It's an old loader, yet all of a sudden here it is, and we're talking a quarter of a million dollars," Schreier said in September 2020. "It wasn't any less old a year ago than it is now, and yet suddenly it falls into a CIP project. Doesn't every department keep track of this and have a turnover rate so that we are anticipating this, so that it doesn't just suddenly appear? This bothers me a little bit."
Now the subcommittee is having to rank it among other projects, Schreier said, and on such items that shouldn't be necessary.
"They should be budgeting to replace this," he said. "They should know what the life expectancy of that equipment is."
At the time, then finance director Marcy Smith defended the solid waste department, saying it was that department's first trip through the CIP process and future needs would be included in the department's five-year plan.
"They knew it was getting old and that they had to replace it," she said. "But they do have the funds in their budget to replace it, so they will be funding it 100 percent."
Not even three years later, however, the same department is back with another unplanned project, the paving of the landfill entry and parking lot.
Back in 2020, then land information director Mike Romportl blamed ongoing demands for zero-increase budgets for the problem.
"One thing that has put all departments in a situation over the last 20 years, there has been an ask for reductions and reductions, and zero percent (increase budgets), and unfortunately one of the first things that gets deferred - and you see this in school districts - is maintenance or replacement of equipment," Romportl said. "It is easy to push it off, push it off. All of a sudden, similar to (this situation), you got a bunch that needs to be done and unfortunately, that's just what many departments have been forced into."
Richard Moore is the author of "Dark State" and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.
Comments:
You must login to comment.