Title
Recommendation to Consider an Informational Report on City’s Facility Condition Assessments. (Public Works 310) (30 minutes)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Jill Keimach, City Manager
Re: Consider an Informational Report on City’s Facility Condition Assessments
BACKGROUND
On December 17, 2014, the Public Works Department executed a contract in the amount of $74,999 for professional services with Faithful & Gould, and on May 19, 2015, the City Council approved a First Amendment to their agreement in the amount of $74,786, for a total contract amount of $149,785 to perform facility condition assessments of the City’s-owned thirty-eight buildings. Faithful & Gould has performed thousands of facility condition assessments, including recently at the municipalities of Novato and Santa Monica, and the state governments of Oregon and Utah.
A facility condition assessment establishes baseline asset inventory of facilities, the facilities' condition, renewal needs, and rates of investment required to keep them in various conditions. For the assessments, trained professionals conduct an on-site inspection of each facility, and then analyze those results together with the facility’s history and input from staff and facility users. The assessments are comprehensive and include the building’s envelope; roof; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC); plumbing; electrical; flooring; ceiling and wall tiles; and drainage. These assessments then feed into a long-term facilities plan and options for funding the plan.
DISCUSSION
A summary of the facility condition assessments is in the attached presentation. Faithful & Gould found that 17 of the City’s 38 facilities are in good condition, including City Hall, Alameda Police Department, City Hall West, Civic Center Parking Structure, and the Main Library. Four are in fair condition, including Fire Station No. 2 and the Alameda Recreation & Parks Administration Building. Fifteen are in poor condition, including the Officers’ Club, Veterans Building, Maintenance Service Center, and Animal Shelter.
A facility that is in good condition refers to one that is well-maintained with no visual evidence of wear or deficiencies. A facility in fair condition is one that is subject to wear, but is still serviceable and functioning. A facility in poor condition is one that is subject to hard or long-term wear and is nearing the end of its useful or serviceable life.
The facility condition assessment shows that years of underinvestment resulted in a need to complete approximately $12.3 million in high-priority facility repairs over the next 10 years. (This is in addition to the $2 million allocated to high-priority facility repairs by the City Council on September 15, 2015.)
These much-needed and essential repairs include roof replacements, HVAC upgrades, major electrical projects, and other replacements of equipment beyond its useful life. Failure to make these repairs has real consequences. For example, City staff spends time responding to roof leaks when those leaks would not exist if the roof had been replaced when its useful life ended.
Beginning in Fiscal Year 2012/2013, Alameda’s budget included a special Facilities Maintenance Fund (Fund 706) in which departmental charges raise roughly $750,000 per year for building projects. Over ten years, these charges will raise $7.5 million for high-priority facility repairs, leaving a $4.8 million gap. Public Works will likely request the City Council bridge the $4.8 million gap through a combination of General Fund surplus and raising departmental charges.
Another $15 million over the next ten years is needed for a long list of deferred and neglected maintenance projects such as painting; weathersealing; downspout cleaning; fence repair; roofing maintenance, replacements of windows, doors, and frames; flooring, ceiling, and wall repairs; electrical upgrades; asphalt and concrete work; fire alarms; and cabinet replacement. Public Works will likely request an additional $500,000 to $1 million per year from a mix of General Funds and/or departmental charges to complete a portion of this work.
In February 2017, as the budget process begins, Public Works will seek the City Council’s direction on the options for raising spending for City facilities’ capital projects. After gaining City Council’s direction, Public Works will prepare a biennial capital budget and finalize its long-term plans for facility capital projects and deferred maintenance.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
At this time, there is no impact to the General Fund.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
This action does not affect the Municipal Code.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The project is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Section 15378 subd. (b)(5)5301(b) Administrative activity of the City that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment.
RECOMMENDATION
Consider an informational report on City’s facility condition assessments.
Respectfully submitted,
Liam Garland, Acting Public Works Director
By,
Abdulla Ahmed, Project Manager II
Financial Impact section reviewed by,
Elena Adair, Finance Director