Salt Lake City Capital Improvement Program process allows for citizen initiated projects

I remember signs like this for federal Interstate freeway projects, when I was a child in Detroit.

Is different from what I am familiar with, "back east".  It's not a 6 year program, with a focus on the current two years, like it is in many cities and counties in the US.

It's not a free for all like the federal government and DC, where there isn't a public planning process that is separate from the annual budget process, although the Mayor's Office and the Chief Financial Officer's office have capital planning units, and similarly so does the General Services Administration (Federal Real Property Council Policy Guidance) and the Office of Management and Budget, but the processes are somewhat flawed.

-- "Another example of the need for more formal and open capital budgeting planning practices (in DC)," 2019
-- "Capital/civic asset planning, budgeting and management processes," 2015
-- "The FBI Building as another example of 'I told you so'," 2015
-- "Municipal Natural Assets Planning Initiative, British Columbia," 2018

Reading Jumping the Abyss, about Marriner Eccles, I learned that when he was in the Treasury Department in the early 1930s they put forth a proposal for the federal government to do a capital planning process separate from the annual budget, but Congress said no.  That was a mistake.

So the Salt Lake City Capital Improvement Program process:

1.  Is annual, not multi-year.

2.  Is public.

3.  Is separate from the annual appropriations process and is connected, in that primary funding source is the General Fund, but supplemented by other tax sources (special sales taxes usually), impact fees on new development, and transportation related funding.

4.  Is open to citizen-initiated projects, with a minimum of $50,000 and a maximum of $500,000, and a useful life of at least 5 years.

5.  And the city and citizen-initiated projects use the same process, forms, etc.  The split on awarded projects is roughly 90% city projects, and 10% citizen-initiated.  This year, the application period opened September 1st and closes September 30th.

6.  While I'd say more guides and materials could be provided, and assistance and technical support is provided, the city doesn't expect citizen-initiated proposals to be 100% complete, and if the project is accepted for consideration, a city staff member is assigned to assist the citizens in fully refining the proposal during the October to December consideration and review period..

(I was lucky in that the application I'm submitting had a cost category and percentage schedule outlined in a 2013 city memo.  It made it very easy to come up with the budget.) 

7.  Projects are presented to the Capital Improvements Project Advisory Board (CDCIP) which chooses a final set of projects to recommend for approval to the Mayor's Office and the Mayor forwards the project list, generally with few changes, to the City Council for final approval.

The City Council prioritizes funding for the following types of projects:

• Preserve and protect the health and safety of the community;
• Are mandated by the state and/or federal government; and
• Provide for the renovation of existing facilities resulting in a preservation of the community's prior investment to the environmental quality of the City and its neighborhoods.

8.  The process aims for projects congruent with other city policies like sustainability, revitalization, and equity, and you have to answer related questions (e.g., is the area of the project a formerly "redlined" area).  I imagine equity coverage is a key element of the scoring system.

9.  Citizen-initiated projects are managed and constructed by one of the four city divisions deemed the subject area for the project (Parks and Public Lands, Public Works and Transportation, Economic Development & Neighborhoods, etc.).

One problem is that the maximum amount is $500,000.  These days, with inflation, that's not very much for a capital project.  

Especially when in some way the process can be a different way of gathering citizen input on what city government's neighborhood priorities should be wrt capital investment, maintenance of existing infrastructure, etc.  (In other words, the project we're submitting really should have been initiated by the city anyway, but hasn't been given all the other priorities they have.)

For next year, I hope I and others ask the City Council to raise the maximum amount.

-- Yearly timeline for the Salt Lake City CIP process

An unworking toilet in a public park.

The proposal I worked on is for restrooms in a park.  It has restrooms, but the city has standardized on single occupant stall buildings, and lockable stalls create tremendous opportunity for vandalism and misuse.  We are proposing that the city change its policy wrt these facilities to reduce noxious use, increase "natural surveillance" and increase uptime.)