today we're going to talk about a citizen's guide to the capital improvement programs and i have doug jeff cope with me and john leggy would you please introduce yourselves and tell us what you do sure i'm done just go down the public works director for the city of  and ask you both to use first names just for convenience and please call me susan for the convenience of this interview what is the capital improvement susan the capital improvement for the city yes or so to is a putting in a new sidewalk or expanding a bike lane to a road surface the other would have to be that it would be the acquisition of real property or if we were going to be building a new facility or adding  addition to a new facility or existing facility that would be fifty thousand dollars or more in cost improvements to existing infrastructure or new infrastructure such as the roadways are putting in other things such as bike lanes sidewalks you know parks things of that nature that's fifty thousand of the raider and then the last category that we have would be vehicles and equipment and for our policy in the city of sarasota it has to be a singular cost of fifty thousand or greater in regards to that perfect example that would be a garbage truck one of our big front end loaders what is the capital improvements program exactly so that's a great question the program is a five year plan of the cities but funding for what does it just described as capital improvements the city projects these on a five year basis because some projects last more than one year so we have to ensure that there's funding in five years and so for example there's a project the last two or three years the plan would be to complete that project over that three to five year period once that project becomes approved and gets on the list and then we look at the funding for the five years for the total length of that project because we don't want to get into the project and have the funding so the whole entire five years is looked at for funding purposes the city commission adopts only one year of that plan every year but we keep track of the other four years to make sure that the funding is there when they need it well how does this approach explanation could you explain how this c i p or the capital improvements program  works in regards to that we have a list of projects that were added to or removed from the c i p and every annual basis those projects come from such things as master plans studies that are done in regards to joint projects with different agencies and they get added to the program through that we also have input from neighborhood associations and also staff has input in regards to that once we have this list put together then we meet annually with the city commission that workshop kind of go through those projects that are on the list identifying the ones that have been added to the will in the ones that have been deleted from the list and if you're a citizen and you have an interest in a capital improvement how do you find out about the workshop the workshop is part of our budget process and actually it's again a fight the first workshop is going to through that process in our first well coming up we may twenty second so if someone is interested in  twenty second workshop how would they know what's on the list as part of the putting the workshop together we put in the gym together in that list is inclusive in that agenda and can they download that from the city website w sarasota dot com yes they can thank you how are capital improvements there we have several different dedicated funding sources for capital improvements one of them would be through the penny sales tax this is a phase three of the penny sales tax which was approved by the voters observes the county in two thousand and seven and that funding source runs through the end of fiscal year two thousand and twenty four projects that we're projecting about a six point four million dollar  income from that penny sales tax that's one funding source an additional funding source is the gas tax there is a five cent levy on gas tax that's used for capital improvements that we use that it has strings attached to can be used for transportation expenditures only as opposed to where the sales tax can be used for infrastructure type projects there's also the c r a they have projects that they fund through the c r a there are mobility fees and the impact mobility fee is another source we also have a  replacement program where departments such as the solid waste department or other partners who have big quitman can actually put money into kind of a savings account if they need to replace a vehicle in several years so once the keppel improvement plan is approved we marry up with the group and determine the funding sources and make sure that the right funding source is used for the right project you just used a term called the c r a not everybody knows what the c r a is could you explain briefly what  that area and that is up for renewal in two thousand and sixteen is that correct correct that thirty two thousand and sixteen is right now the projected in and about how much money do we getting annually from that c r already between the city and county both together is probably approximately seven million dollars almost three and a half million dollars for the county so the total is about seven million dollars per year now it would seem to me that these funds might be variable the money coming in might be variable according to the economy is that correct yes that is correct when the voters approve the sales tax and he says tax in two thousand and seven the estimate was you know the estimate that time was to fund that over the twenty twenty four however with the great recession the economy started to see a decline in the sales tax and so at that point in time the city had to actually look at those projects they had on the board that they wanted to do and determine our priority basis which ones they could not afford to do and so those projects were temporarily for the purposes of looking to twenty twenty four eliminated from the ip plan and then as the tax  comes back in we're looking at reestablishing those and report ties in some of those projects for the future now doug how did you do that well the process that we go through is just that we take an existing list that we have in regards to the capital improvement program and we sit down and we take a look at working with staff working with other governmental agencies that may be participating in regards to projects and then in the area and take a look at what's coming off the c r p what projects are being completed and then what are the new projects that are coming aboard and then we sit down we work with the finance department and we put the blissed together then we go through the workshop process we meet with the commission take a looking at those list and make recommendations to the commission saying here projects that are coming aboard here's where we're recommending funding come from the fund these projects or if there are unfunded then there's a good discussion in regards to how we're going to fund these projects and how do we move forward with it and can a commissioner make changes in the c commissioner can make changes in the c i p we go through the process the final process for the c i p is actually a public hearing in regards to it because the funding for the year next year in which we are volved with has to be approved by the city commission so the final step in the c i process is actually a public hearing in which the public and the commission can make discuss you know decisions in regards to or make recommendations to change that process now you've talked a little bit about how citizens can become involved by attending the workshop workshops are not exactly citizen back and forth presentations there are more that the information is presented in the public if a citizen wanted to become more closely involved with the capital improvement program how do they do it well there's there's a couple ways of being able to be involved and my first suggestion is as we talked about earlier many of these projects come out of studies or master plans so being involved right up front if you know that the public outreach in regards to specific things are going on get involved so that you know what those projects and you have the time to put those in put in as a citizen in regards to that  like you said the workshops are citizens really don't have the comment but there's the potential to contact the neighborhood and development services department or the public works department in regards to it and be able to have conversations with us and see if we can work something that's actually something that steps outside a little bit of the capital improvement program because the capital improvement program or projects that are going to be on a five year basis if you have a circumstance where you need your road redone or you've got a sidewalk that's got an issue with it especially if it's a safety issue we wouldn't want to wait one year to go through the process to do it so again though what we give for the city is the dialing to three six five twenty two hundred walks you through the menu to be able to get your department in with the probe proprium apartment the other one is the website you can make service requests on the website which is serious sort of go to dot com and that gets to the department to make safety issues we want to address immediately would want to go through this process if my i mean as we go through the year the c r p is adopted in september prior to the next fiscal year that they say this is issues come up with you speaking of you know the city commission also has the ability to modify or change the p and that projects as the years go along so we wouldn't want to wait in these cases we could bring that back to the city commission and determine if it's a project that we need to move forward we could suggest funding and move forward those projects on an immediate basis as opposed to funding to fill a pothole or something in those those come to the fires department or the justification explanation of what the money is needed for and then the finance department takes the budget amendment and provides information to the commission and they approve those budget amendments and then we are able to move the funds and appropriate the funds for the appropriate purpose and how do you find the money for that well sometimes it may be a poor as ation with another project if a project isn't on the draw it's on the drawing board in the c i p but for some reason it may be delayed we may be pushed to do another fiscal year and addressed immediately so if basically if a safety issue comes up you can modified the capital improvements program to address the more pressing the health and safety over the individual is going to be impacted there's the risk associated with that that plays a big role and that's what we address we address risk in making sure that our citizens are if they're walking down the sidewalk there is not a trip and fall and doing that or for the bigger picture side of capital improvements getting a child from a neighborhood to school and putting in a new sidewalk  making sure that that child has a safe route to getting to that school those are the types of things that we look at and i know we don't have much time but can you give me some ideas of what are the big issues that are coming up on the capital improvements program for the coming year well i think some of the big issues that will be looking at it is just that the economy is changing you know the past five years we've really gone through a process of just saying well here's the projects that we have funding for and we're not really able to do anything with it and i think there are some opportunities that are coming with the economy getting better that we'll be looking at some more opportunities in regards to the infrastructure of our city and you've got an aging infrastructure like everywhere else and those are going to be some of the things we're going to have to address and on the down side you said the upside there we are there cami is improving and everybody seems to be bringing in money to the city on the downside if they  the c i p and look for other funding sources which could be the spend the sales tax or the gas tax to fund those projects what i want to thank both of you for coming in and it's been a very interesting conversation and i think an area where people need to know more things and thank you for listening join us next time for commissioners corner