The City of San Marino will need to invest just under $4 million more annually than it has currently budgeted to provide its citizens with top-quality streets, safe sidewalks, well-kept public buildings and new sewer and storm drain systems, according to an Infrastructure Investment Program report presented to the San Marino City Council last Friday by Parks and Public Works Director Dan Wall.
“The report before you provides recommendations on future targeted levels of investment in…the city’s infrastructure,” he said. “These targeted levels of investment that are going to be presented to you will not only maintain the city’s infrastructure in its current condition, but will over time bring it up to the highest standard.”
He reminded councilmembers of the three scenarios presented in a consultant-prepared pavement management plan report, which rated the city’s streets a 64 out of 100 on the pavement condition index, or PCI, and indicated $13.95 million in deferred maintenance.
“If we had $13 million right now, we could do reconstruction on all the streets that require reconstruction this year,” he noted, explaining that the deferred maintenance is the unfunded backlog of streets that need complete reconstruction.
He continued that in the first scenario—at the city’s currently budgeted $1.2 million per year—the city’s PCI score would decrease to 57 over the course of 10 years and develop a deferred maintenance bill of $32.35 million.
In the second scenario—at a budget of $1.9 million per year—the city would maintain its PCI score of 64, but build an unfunded backlog totaling $26.44 million.
In the third scenario—spending $2.52 million per year—the city would increase its PCI score to 70 and begin to level off its deferred maintenance costs to $17.65 million in 2026.
Wall, however, recommended a fourth option.
“What staff is recommending is that there be an establishment of a goal, eventually budgeting $4.3 million annually for streets. Two-and-a-half million dollars will be used for maintenance and $1.7 million each year would be used for reconstruction,” he said. “Spending at this level over a 10-year period would improve the overall condition of streets and completely eliminate the backlog of streets requiring reconstruction.”
Wall added that once the city eliminates its backlog, “we would be able to do more cost-effective maintenance on all of our streets and not worry about streets deteriorating to the point where they need reconstruction.”
Council members inquired about the purpose of the report, which was received and filed by the council by a unanimous vote.
Interim City Manager Cindy Collins explained that the report would function as a “decision-making package” that the council could refer to during the development of a new budget.
“This gives you a decision-making package: whether you want to invest more money into paying the unfunded liability, or would it make more sense to put more of that money into infrastructure, which is also a burden on the city,” she said. “It’s very ambitious to think that we’re going to introduce four million new dollars and perhaps have to cut out $4 million to make it all equal. We would have to be phasing this [in] and when we do budgets, we would have to look at what our priorities are,” Collins added.
Wall then moved on to the status of the city’s sewer and storm drains.
“San Marino’s sewer and storm drain systems are nearing the end of their useable lives. The total combined replacement cost of sewer and storm drain systems is estimated to be $18 million,” he said.
Wall recommended that the city increase its sewer and storm drain spending by half-a-million dollars to total $600,000 per year over 30 years.
“As a first step in this 30-year program, it’s recommended that sewer and storm drain master plans, similar to the pavement management plan, be developed to provide guidance on the optimal order of replacement, but also on capacity improvements designed to accommodate anticipated future demands,” he added.
“So back when sewers were put in, the public made a big investment in the sewers and we’ve been riding the coattails of that investment ever since. It’s getting to the point to where we should be thinking about a systematic replacement,” Wall stated, noting that the sewers have not been replaced since they were initially installed.
For the city’s sidewalks, Wall suggested an annual $250,000 repair and replacement budget, which is $100,000 more per year than is currently budgeted.
“San Marino is fortunate to have an abundance of trees lining its streets. However, roots from these trees are continually uplifting portions of sidewalk, creating potential tripping hazards. Additionally, many of our sidewalks do not meet current Americans with Disabilities Act requirements,” he explained.
The city’s public buildings would be maintained by implementing a building reserve fund, Wall said.
“The principle of building reserves is to ensure that an organization has provided for the inevitable need to reinvest in its facilities to both guarantee continuity in the provision of programs and services and to protect the value of the investments that have been made in those assets,” Wall explained. “The replacement value of all other city owned buildings is estimated to be $19 million. Based on that 50-year life span and a replacement value of $19 million, the annual contribution to the building reserves would be $380,000 per year.”
Wall also noted that Stoneman and the San Marino Center were not included in his calculations due to their uncertain futures.
“There’s no expectation that these could be fully realized in the upcoming fiscal year, but rather these are targets, something to strive for in future years through the budgeting process,” Wall concluded.
The city council will hear an abbreviated portion of this report during its special meeting on Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. in the Barth Community Room at Crowell Public Library.
The special meeting will review and assess key factors impacting the city’s long-term financial position, including future obligations related to the employment retirement system and the city’s aging infrastructure.
“It doesn’t stop aging and it doesn’t stop deteriorating. No matter how much you don’t want to spend on it, it doesn’t care,” Collins told the council of San Marino’s infrastructure.
