Welcome to the 2024 CIPys!
Garland's first annual budgeting awards extravaganza!
With this post, I intend to have a little fun with what is typically a data-heavy, not-at-all entertaining, but very necessary process. I’m talking about the annual Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget process. This process, which begins in early January and will end February 6 with the adoption of the CIP budget by City Council, is one of the most important items which we on the Council approve each year.
Per the CIP document (which can be found here), the CIP is a plan for funding projects which have a useful life of not less than five years and exceed $25,000 in cost. Approved projects in this year often have budget implications for future years as funding for projects such as buildings and utility improvements are often spread over multiple years. While we are required to hold multiple public hearings per state law, we frequently get no speakers on the topic even though this year we are planning to approve $559.3 million in taxpayer spending–the second largest in city history and slightly under last year’s record CIP budget of $568.2 million.
Spending is divided among three categories — tax-supported programs (such as parks, roads, and economic development), internal service programs (spending internal to the city such as information technology), and revenue-supported programs (meaning those projects supported by utility service fees such as water, wastewater, electric, storm and sanitation services).
With that history in mind, let me introduce the 2024 CIPys (C-I-P-EEs) Awards. It is awards season after all!
For our first award category—the Farthest Out Project Completion Date—the nominees are:
Nominees End Date
Leon Road / S. Garland Ave. to McCree Rd. Q4/2030
Shiloh Road / Miller Rd. to Forest Ln. Q3/2030
Shiloh Road / Kingsley Rd. to Miller Rd. Q3/2028
Rowlett Creek WWTP Aeration Blowers Q4/2028
And the winner is…Leon Road from S. Garland Ave. to McCree Rd. scheduled to be completed in Q4 of 2030.
The project is to reconstruct Leon Road from South Garland Avenue to McCree Road to a three-lane concrete street with curbs. The street is currently a two lane road and is used as a cut-through to get from LBJ (IH-635) to S. Garland Ave. (SH 78). Roadway projects typically take a long time, but design is not even scheduled to be started until Q1 of 2028. Given the current reconstruction of IH-635, it is prudent to delay this project until that construction ends.
The current state of Leon Road (Image from Google Streetview)
Our next awards are for the most expensive projects in the CIP. First the Total Most Expensive Tax-supported Project. Our nominees are:
Nominee Project Cost
Surf and Swim Regional Aquatics Facility $19,389,000
Shiloh Road - Miller Rd. to Forest Ln. $40,080,000
Holford Recreation and Neighborhood Aquatic Center $41,660,000
Naaman School Road (Brand to S.H. 78) $36,907,000
And the winner is the Holford Recreation and Neighborhood Aquatic Center. Although these projects were once separate projects, they have been combined into one to better reflect the total cost of the complete project on this site.
This project in my District 7 is starting to “go vertical” as the steel frame for the building has begun to be erected. The picture below is from early winter of last year.
(Holford Recreation Center construction progress picture. Image from buildgarland.com)
The next category is the Total Most Expensive Revenue-supported Project. These are water, wastewater, storm or electric utility projects. Our nominees are:
Nominee Total Project Cost
Distribution Lines (Up to 14-inch) $53,266,000
Relocation of Mains Prior to Paving $49,269,000
Electrical Substations Upgrades $159,860,000
And the winner is Electrical Substation Upgrades. GP&L is one of the largest portions of the budget, but is often one of the least discussed items. From the CIP document:
The 2024 Substation CIP Program includes funding to support the ERCOT grid and GP&L system reliability. 2024 CIP projects include the conversion of the Oakland Substation from 69kV to 138kV, a point of interconnection with the Wylie Switch expansion and Nevada Switch terminal addition for battery storage facilities, a new station to serve data center load on Holford Road, new terminals at Lookout Switch and Campbell Switch to connect the Holford Road station, interconnection of a proposed solar farm at King Mountain Switch, a new 345kV station in west Texas to interconnect solar generation, and a rebuild of College and Oates Road Substations.
Since these projects are frequently not within the city limits and therefore not as familiar to council members, we rely on the experts at GP&L to bring worthy projects for approval. Garland is unique that it has a power company in its portfolio and is a significant source of revenue for the city. These projects will allow this revenue stream to continue.
After awarding our first few categories, let’s welcome our first musical act to the stage supergroup boygenius with their song “Not Strong Enough.”
Now continuing with the show. The next category is Highest Tax-supported Project One-year Spending Request for 2024. The nominees for this CIPy are:
Nominee 2024 CIP Spend
Holford Recreation and Neighborhood Aquatic Center $22,015,000
Modernization/Upgrades to Central Library $14,637,000
Economic Development & Redevelopment Program $22,888,000
Bottleneck Improvements Program $12,695,000
And the winner is the Economic Development & Redevelopment Program spending. It barely edges out Holford Recreation Center by 3.9%.
This project has a short description with spending authority left up to the City Council:
This project will provide funding for an undesignated acquisition of properties deemed essential to the implementation of economic development projects.
Included in this is the $2M acquisition of 519 State Street which I have documented my opposition against here. Please reach out to your council representative and let them know how you would like to see your economic development dollars spent in 2024 and what kind of projects you would like incentivized.
The next category is the Highest Revenue-supported Project One-year Spending Request for 2024. Then nominees are:
Nominee 2024 CIP Spend
Duck Creek WWTP Cloth Filter & UV Disinfection $26,148,000
Substations Upgrades $70,280,000
Transmission Lines $40,050,000
Relocation of Water Mains Prior to Paving $12,985,000
And the winner is…Substation Upgrades. Like the substation upgrades project above, it makes sense that the biggest one-year spend is on substation upgrades.
(The GP&L substation on Campbell Road.)
Now let’s welcome Jon Batiste to the stage with his 2024 song of the year nominee “Butterfly.”
Our next awards of the night are for biggest 2024 Single-category CIP Spending Request. On the tax-supported side, the nominees are:
Nominee Total 2024 CIP Spending Request
Parks $58,696,000
Engineering/Transportation/Streets $65,868,000
Drainage $13,027,000
Library $24,893,000
Public Safety $24,338,000
Economic Development $34,059,000
The CIPy goes to Engineering/Transportation/Streets for their combined spending amount, passing Parks by about $7M. All of the projects in this category go towards expanding and improving our streets and roads network across the city.
After we receive our comprehensive, citywide streets condition assessment due this summer, I would expect the $65M dollar to jump next year to further address our streets. That study will allow us to best prioritize our roadway spending to improve those streets that need it the most.
For the biggest Single-category CIP Spending Request on the revenue-supported side, the nominees are:
Biggest Overall CIP Category Spending
Nominee Total 2024 CIP Spending Request
Water $52,674,000
Wastewater $103,233,000
Electric $146,838,000
It’s no surprise that Electric takes home the CIPy already winning two awards for most expensive 2024 project and biggest total project.
Our final award of the night is for the highest 2023 CIP Completion Rate. All tax-supported and revenue-supported (Utility) programs are nominees for this award.
And the CIPy goes to Internal Service with a completion rate of 90.6%. Don’t be fooled by Stormwater Management’s 100% completion rate because there were no 2023 budget requests made in that category last year.
Internal service projects included Telephone System Replacement, EMIT Redundant Fiber Path and Fiber Replacement, and Motorola Radio Subscriber Replacement. All of these projects help the communications ability and connectivity of our facilities and city staff.
I hope you enjoyed the First Annual CIPys as much as I did! We’ll see you all next year.