Memorandum 13-114 Capital Improvement Plan Re-vamp

Memorandum 13-114
TO:   Mayor Wythe and Homer City Council
THROUGH: Walt Wrede, City Manager
FROM:  Katie Koester, Community and Economic Development Coordinator
DATE:  August 6, 2013
SUBJECT: Capital Improvement Plan Re-vamp

The purpose of this memo is to set some ground work for proposed changes to the 2013 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). Mayor Wythe has initiated a ‘revamp’ to the process to make it more reflective of long term planning. Some proposed changes to the CIP are:
-Limiting the Legislative Request to 5 projects (versus the 15 it has been in recent years).
-Limiting the Legislative Request to City of Homer projects. There is a place on the CIP for projects submitted by other organizations that fulfills the public process requirement  for projects set by the Legislature. Resolutions of support are also an effective way to show City of Homer support for a project.
-Incorporating projects that are included in the various City of Homer plans into the CIP. A good example of this is Karen Hornaday Park Improvements; they are part of the Karen Hornaday Park Master Plan.
-Consider downstream maintenance and operation expenses. An example would be considering the cost to maintain and clean an additional restroom when it makes it to the Legislative Request (or ‘short list’).
-Make the CIP a mid to long range planning document by prioritizing projects that the City of Homer is committed to regardless of other/state support.
There is no council member ranking sheet in the packet. Instead of filling out the ranking sheet and turning it in for compilation at the next meeting, Council will participate in a day long work session on Saturday, August 17 to re-vamp the CIP process and the criteria Council uses for prioritizing and selecting projects. At that meeting Council will be presented with additional projects pulled from City plans. The goal is to come away from the August 17th work session with a Legislative Request, recommendations for new projects to be added to the CIP, and recommendations for projects to be deleted. The new draft CIP and proposed Legislative Request  will come before Council for a Public Hearing  on August 26. Please keep this goal in mind as you carefully review the2013 Draft CIP between now and August 17.