CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
title
A RESOLUTION establishing a Watch List of large, complex, discrete capital projects that will require enhanced quarterly monitoring reports for the 2021 calendar year.
body
WHEREAS, Seattle’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) identifies planned spending and revenues for City capital projects during the upcoming six-year period; and
WHEREAS, updates to the CIP are adopted by the Seattle City Council (“Council”) as part of the annual and supplemental budget process; and
WHEREAS, CIP oversight is a critical function of the Council; and
WHEREAS, effective CIP oversight ensures transparent, accountable use of public dollars; and
WHEREAS, the Council’s ability to perform effective capital oversight is dependent on access to thorough information and the opportunity to review and process this information in a timely manner; and
WHEREAS, some capital projects such as the City’s Elliott Bay Seawall Project and the utilities’ New Customer Information System cost millions of dollars more their original proposed budget; and enhanced, timely reporting could have improved the Council’s oversight by communicating potential project risks before the risks were realized; and
WHEREAS, oversight for the 2020-2025 Adopted CIP was improved via Council and City Budget Office review of capital project development and delivery, including seeking information from and holding conversations with some of the major capital departments on their project management practices and contingency budgeting, and conducting meetings to jointly discuss capital project issues across departments; and
WHEREAS, there is opportunity to continue improving CIP reporting and accountability to the Council and to use the Council’s budgeting authority to improve financial oversight; and
WHEREAS, the City benefits from effective Executive management controls and Council oversight for projects that have a significant financial, policy, or programmatic impact on the City and its residents; and
WHEREAS, in November 2016 the Council adopted and the Mayor signed Resolution 31720 to “institute new rigor in capital project oversight that will increase appropriate and timely oversight and provide more transparency to the public,” through, among other things, “[e]nhanced regular CIP reporting developed in conjunction with the City Budget Office, including but not limited to quarterly reports to the Budget Committee on project scope, schedule, or budget deviations”; and
WHEREAS, in order to provide uniformity across City departments, and to communicate progress of projects during the budget process and in monitoring reports, City capital departments agreed to use common terminology identifying project stages; and
WHEREAS, the City Council imposed stage-based provisos for selected projects in 2018 and 2019 to allow spending of authorized appropriations only for specified activities unless and until the City Council passes future separate ordinances lifting such provisos; and
WHEREAS, the Council adopted Resolution 31853 <https://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3718436&GUID=3DE31EEF-F70E-4885-B5BC-245C47FB89EA&Options=Advanced&Search=>, establishing enhanced reporting requirements for the City’s Capital Improvement Program projects and establishing the City’s intent to use a stage-gate appropriation process for selected projects; and
WHEREAS, the Council has annually adopted a Watch List of projects since 2019, consistent with Resolution 31853; and
WHEREAS, on January 14, 2021, the Executive transmitted for Council’s consideration a Proposed Watch List of projects requiring enhanced quarterly reports consistent with Resolution 31853; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:
Section 1. The Seattle City Council (“Council”) establishes the following as the 2021 Watch List of capital projects as shown in Table 1:
Table 1: 2021 Watch List
|
|
Dept |
CIP Project ID |
Project Title |
|
a. |
Fin. and Admin. Services |
MC-FA-FS31 |
Fire Station 31 Replacement |
|
b. |
Information Technology Department |
MC-IT-C6304 |
Criminal Justice Information System Projects |
|
c. |
Seattle City Light (SCL) |
MC-CL-ZT8307 |
Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement - Utility Relocations |
|
d. |
SCL |
MC-CL-YR8351 |
Overhead Equipment Replacements (Pole Replacement) |
|
e. |
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) |
MC-TR-C072 |
Alaskan Way Main Corridor |
|
f. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C040 |
Center City Streetcar Connector |
|
g. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C073 |
Overlook Walk and East-West Connections Project |
|
h. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C051 |
Madison BRT - RapidRide G Line |
|
i. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C013 |
RapidRide Roosevelt |
|
j. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C030 |
Northgate Bridge and Cycle Track |
|
k. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C042 |
Delridge Way SW - RapidRide H Line |
|
l. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C110 |
West Seattle Bridge Immediate Response |
|
m. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C102 |
Northlake Retaining Wall |
|
n. |
SDOT |
MC-TR-C096 |
Georgetown to South Park Trail |
|
o. |
Seattle Parks & Recreation (SPR) |
MC-PR-41040 |
Lake City Community Center Improvements |
|
p. |
SPR |
MC-PR-21007 |
Parks Central Waterfront Piers Rehabilitation |
|
q. |
SPR |
MC-PR-21005 |
Smith Cove Park Development |
|
r. |
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) |
MC-SU-C3614 |
Ship Canal Water Quality Project |
|
s. |
SPU |
MC-SU-C3806 |
South Park Stormwater Program |
Section 2. The Council requests that the Mayor submit an enhanced quarterly report for each project on the 2021 Watch List in the manner and on the timeline described in Resolution 31853 <https://seattle.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3718436&GUID=3DE31EEF-F70E-4885-B5BC-245C47FB89EA&Options=Advanced&Search=>. The Council further requests that the Mayor continue to provide information as soon as practicable about these and other large, complex, discrete capital projects whenever significant budget, schedule, or scope risks are developing that may require Council decisions. Similarly, and consistent with Resolution 31853, the Council invites the Mayor to add any other projects to the 2021 Watch List through the course of the year and then to provide enhanced quarterly reporting for those other capital projects in order to enable the Council to make critical policy choices - changing funding, adjusting scope, etc. - as early as possible and before identified risks develop into actual implementation challenges.
Section 3. The Council intends to review the enhanced quarterly reports and to determine whether and how to stage Council approval of funding for each project on the 2021 Watch List.
Section 4. The City Council anticipates that the Finance and Housing Committee (or successor committee) will review the enhanced quarterly reports.
Section 5. Consistent with Section 9 of Resolution 31853, the Council requests that the Executive work with Council’s Central Staff to identify two or more projects to pilot with a new reporting format that can be used to provide enhanced information about so-called “programmatic projects” (ones that don’t have a beginning and end but rather include multiple smaller projects and/or activities that are expected to continue beyond the life of the Capital Improvement Program). The Council further requests that the Executive provide such pilot reports at the time that it submits other enhanced reports for project activity related to the second quarter of 2021 about projects in the 2021 Watch List established by this resolution.
Adopted by the City Council the ________ day of _________________________, 2021, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this ________ day of _________________________, 2021.
____________________________________
President ____________ of the City Council
The Mayor concurred the ________ day of _________________________, 2021.
____________________________________
Jenny A. Durkan, Mayor
Filed by me this ________ day of _________________________, 2021.
____________________________________
Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk
(Seal)