This graph illustrates a breakdown of new funding for Long Beach’s Capital Improvement Program for 2016. ” captionposition=”left”] There is a massive amount of work to be done on Long Beach’s “honey do” and its “honey should have done yesterday” list. At the Dec. 22 Long Beach City Council meeting, the municipal staff laid out a comprehensive inventory of its infrastructure needs.
Here’s a taste of the City’s priorities: the streets and alleys in Long Beach should be better maintained at a higher standard; classrooms, offices and locker rooms for the police academy should be built and moved out of the “temporary” trailers installed in 1998; aging fire stations 7, 9, 10, 11, 18 and 19 should be replaced; street lights must be swapped out in favor of LED fixtures; old irrigation systems in parks should be updated citywide!the list goes on.
The problem is the price tag— $2.8 billion over 10 years, according to a presentation by Assistant City Manager Tom Modica and Deputy Director of Public Works/City Engineer Sean Crumby at last week’s city council meeting.
The breakdown of costs has been separated into three categories: transportation (including street repair), civic infrastructure and maintenance. According to the presentation, transportation costs have been estimated at $1.4 billion, civic-infrastructure costs at $1 billion, and maintenance costs at $400 million.
It’s not as though repair and maintenance isn’t already being done on the City’s network of roads, 414 buildings and other properties. Crumby stated that about 25,000 LED lighting fixtures are already in the process of being installed throughout the city and that roadwork continues on Ocean Boulevard and Alamitos Avenue.
Modica acknowledged in a statement to the Signal Tribune that the $2.8-billion amount is the “total identified need.”
He added that the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) has identified $67.6 million in funding sources for the 2016 fiscal year, including $31.1 million from the City’s funds for infrastructure and maintenance. Beyond the municipal budget, there are other revenues to help offset the costs. State, federal and regional sources will account for about $24 million in revenues, and the City has new grants totaling approximately $12.5 million, according to the presentation. (See the graph for a breakdown of the CIP’s new funding sources for projects.)
It’s a significant dent in meeting that $2.8-billion goal over the next decade, but it’s still not enough.
The City still needs an additional $212.4 million per year, according to Modica.
He stressed this concern to the council last week.
“So while we are doing very well at securing funds, there is a tremendous need,” Modica said, “and what we have currently doesn’t cover what our need is over the next 10 years.”
The news was distressing to Tom Stout, the only individual who spoke during the public-comment period at last week’s council meeting. The 7th-district resident criticized the councilmembers, who, earlier this month, had approved construction of a new civic-center. The project is known to be a “public-private partnership” which will build a new city hall, port headquarters, main library and Lincoln Park. The cost has been estimated to be over $500 million. City Manager Pat West at a Dec. 15 council meeting
acknowledged that one of the main reasons behind the push for new construction was that the current city-hall and the library buildings were noted to have major seismic safety issues. He also estimated that the project’s cost is less than 3 percent of Long Beach’s general-fund budget.
However, Stout also blasted the city leaders for their lack of ability to consistently maintain streets, especially south of 31st Street.
“Property value goes down because infrastructure is hurting,” Stout concluded, “and it’s always going to be a low priority in this city.”
Eighth District Councilmember Al Austin called the staff’s presentation a “chilling report.” He asked for the city manager and other staff to look at new options for revenue sources.
In response to Stout’s statement, Austin acknowledged that infrastructure needs to be prioritized. He noted that he does get messages from residents about alleys and streets that need to be repaired and areas that have flooded.
“I think we do a great job of patchwork and addressing the most critical needs in our districts with the limited resources that we have,” the 8th-district councilmember said.
Crumby stressed the need to address infrastructure soon. The deputy director of public works suggested that waiting could cost the City more money in the long term.
“As the condition of the City’s infrastructure declines,” he said, “the repair costs increase.”
Since the report was offered in the context of a study session, no other specific action was voted upon beyond the one to receive and file the report. Several councilmembers were absent from that last meeting of 2015, however the city manager’s office has been instructed to offer the missing councilmembers a briefing on this report.
Mayor Robert Garcia will be addressing the budget and the cost of the infrastructure during his annual “State of the City” speech scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 13, according to Daniel Brezenoff, who serves as the mayor’s deputy chief of staff.
