| ITEM #: 2. DATE: 02/03/2025 AI #:2402 |
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CITY COUNCIL ACTION REPORT
| SUBJECT: | FY2025 STRATEGIC PLAN – CIP MANAGEMENT ACTION ITEM |
| STAFF PRESENTER(S): | Steve Scinto, Director of Engineering |
OTHER PRESENTER(S):
Walt Kinsler, CIP Manager
Summary
Council will receive an update on the Engineering Department’s (Engineering) Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Strategic Plan action item within the Fiscal & Resource Management focus area. The Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Management action item is intended to improve the scope and cost estimation of city CIP projects. (Steve Scinto, Director of Engineering)
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no direct fiscal impact related to this item.
BACKGROUND AND PREVIOUS ACTIONS
On November 13, 2023 (AI-1649), Council adopted Resolution No. 2023-2363 ADOPTING THE CITY OF GOODYEAR FY2025-2027 STRATEGIC PLAN. In the adopted Strategic Plan under the Fiscal & Resource Management Focus Area, Engineering has a CIP Management action Item to improve the scope and cost estimation of City CIP projects, which is to be completed in FY2025.
The CIP Management action item is included in the updated FY2025-2028 Strategic Plan, which Council adopted at its November 18, 2024, meeting through resolution No. 2024-2434 ADOPTING THE CITY OF GOODYEAR FY2025-2028 STRATEGIC PLAN.
The CIP Management action item is included in the updated FY2025-2028 Strategic Plan, which Council adopted at its November 18, 2024, meeting through resolution No. 2024-2434 ADOPTING THE CITY OF GOODYEAR FY2025-2028 STRATEGIC PLAN.
STAFF ANALYSIS
The city of Goodyear’s CIP has experienced significant growth and increased complexity due to city expansion, volatile market conditions, and rising project demands. Historically, the CIP was administered and overseen by the Finance Department, which included the budgetary process, project submission, approval, and reporting. Engineering’s CIP role was limited to managing the design, construction, and delivery of approved projects. This division of responsibility for the CIP resulted in inefficiencies, as project scoping, risk identification, and cost estimation were not addressed in a coordinated manner during the CIP project development, submission, and approval phases. Consequently, CIP projects often faced budget overruns, frequent change requests, and delays.
In 2022, the City shifted primary responsibility for the CIP to Engineering to better align project planning, scoping, and execution. This transition aimed to improve project preparation, enhance accountability, and strengthen stakeholder communication. After this transition, Engineering conducted internal and external surveys to gather feedback on CIP customer service, processes, and tools. Concurrently, as recommended by the City Audit Subcommittee, the City engaged a consultant to conduct an audit of the CIP. Collectively, these surveys and the audit provided valuable insights into areas where the CIP program was falling short, most notably related to significant gaps in the project scoping and cost estimation processes.
As a result, the CIP Management action item was included in the FY2025-2027 Strategic Plan, with a focus on improving the scope development and cost estimating for the City’s CIP projects. In addition, the surveys and audit also identified additional areas for improvement, including providing better stakeholder engagement and addressing inefficiencies in project communication and collaboration.
CIP Management – Scope and Cost Estimating
One of the core issues with CIP project scoping and cost estimation stemmed from the timing and structure of the CIP project submission process. Historically, staff from various CIP departments who had new CIP projects that required funding approval, were asked to submit their project requests in November, which brought challenges with operating budget preparation, and peak holiday season and staff vacation schedules. The CIP submission timeline did not provide sufficient opportunity for the necessary staff communication and collaboration. Further, City departments each approached scope development and cost estimating for CIP projects differently. Even when staff engaged third-party firms to assist with cost estimating for CIP projects, the short submission window created limitations to the number of projects that could be assessed. The City’s decentralized CIP development and submission process resulted in significant issues with the consistency and quality in CIP project submissions. Once funded and ready for design and construction, these CIP projects often faced difficulties in implementation, which led to missed completion dates and projects coming in over budget.
When Engineering took on a central role in the development and management of the CIP, the intent was to provide sufficient time and standardized tools to fully vet CIP projects, to develop accurate scopes, and to produce realistic cost estimates, leading to better and more reliable delivery of the City’s CIP projects.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE
To improve scoping and costing for the CIP, several initiatives have been implemented:
CIP 365 Launch
The development of reliable CIP project cost estimates is highly dependent on the use of accurate and comprehensive databases, that are linked to local, regional, and national market conditions, as well as relevant and recently completed CIP projects. With limited access to industry cost information, Engineering engaged a third-party estimating firm, with industry expertise, for complex projects requiring specialized knowledge. In addition to working on the complex projects, the third-party estimating firm may also review and verify cost estimates for other projects, ensuring greater accuracy and reliability in CIP project budget development.
Increased Time Allocation
Engineering extended the timeline for CIP project creation to allow for more comprehensive analysis, enhanced stakeholder engagement, and thorough validation of costs by staff and third-party estimators. Additionally, the CIP project review window was extended to enable project managers and engineering leadership to conduct detailed assessments of new and updated CIP projects, ensuring greater accuracy and preparedness.
Improved Collaboration and Communication
To address diverse collaboration and communication needs, Engineering adopted multiple approaches to increase engagement and efficiency. Engineering staff facilitated roadshows to provide City departments with tailored presentations and tools, ensuring alignment and clarity across teams. City departments were involved early and consistently throughout the CIP development and submission process to foster collaboration and proactive decision-making. Additionally, technology and tools (SharePoint/G|Net) were utilized as a transparent hub, offering streamlined updates and a centralized platform for effective collaboration.
Additional Enhancements to the CIP Process
In addition to a focus on improving the scope development and cost estimating for the City’s CIP projects, Engineering also sought to address the other areas noted earlier for CIP process improvements.
To ensure transparency, alignment, and active engagement throughout the CIP process, a variety of communication and socialization strategies were implemented.
Stakeholder Roadshows
As noted earlier, Engineering conducted roadshows to kick off the upcoming 5-year CIP cycle, providing tailored presentations that introduced the CIP process, clarified program goals and departmental roles, and engaged key owner departments. These sessions addressed concerns, fostered collaboration, and ensured alignment on project intake processes.
Email Communications
Engineering also utilized targeted email communications to keep stakeholders informed about key updates and deadlines. These email communications ensured timely dissemination of critical information and maintained consistent engagement across City departments.
Stakeholder Meetings
Regular stakeholder meetings held by Engineering with other City departments further supported collaboration by providing updates, addressing challenges, and reviewing completed projects through lessons-learned debriefs. These meetings also served as a platform to gather feedback, refine project scopes, and sustain engagement throughout the project lifecycle.
Lessons-Learned Debriefs
Structured post-project reviews, known as lessons-learned debriefs, captured key insights, highlighted successes, and identified areas for improvement to enhance future initiatives. Collectively, these communication efforts strengthened collaboration, improved project readiness, and ensured alignment with organizational goals while maintaining consistent engagement with all involved parties.
HOW WE MEASURE SUCCESS
Although Engineering has implemented several improvements to the CIP process, the success of this strategic initiative will be evaluated through the following key measures:
In the spirit of continuous improvement, Engineering plans will continue to focus on better services to its customers, and has plans for upcoming initiatives that focus on strengthening operational efficiency, fostering collaboration, and improving project scoping rigor through the following actions:
In 2022, the City shifted primary responsibility for the CIP to Engineering to better align project planning, scoping, and execution. This transition aimed to improve project preparation, enhance accountability, and strengthen stakeholder communication. After this transition, Engineering conducted internal and external surveys to gather feedback on CIP customer service, processes, and tools. Concurrently, as recommended by the City Audit Subcommittee, the City engaged a consultant to conduct an audit of the CIP. Collectively, these surveys and the audit provided valuable insights into areas where the CIP program was falling short, most notably related to significant gaps in the project scoping and cost estimation processes.
As a result, the CIP Management action item was included in the FY2025-2027 Strategic Plan, with a focus on improving the scope development and cost estimating for the City’s CIP projects. In addition, the surveys and audit also identified additional areas for improvement, including providing better stakeholder engagement and addressing inefficiencies in project communication and collaboration.
CIP Management – Scope and Cost Estimating
One of the core issues with CIP project scoping and cost estimation stemmed from the timing and structure of the CIP project submission process. Historically, staff from various CIP departments who had new CIP projects that required funding approval, were asked to submit their project requests in November, which brought challenges with operating budget preparation, and peak holiday season and staff vacation schedules. The CIP submission timeline did not provide sufficient opportunity for the necessary staff communication and collaboration. Further, City departments each approached scope development and cost estimating for CIP projects differently. Even when staff engaged third-party firms to assist with cost estimating for CIP projects, the short submission window created limitations to the number of projects that could be assessed. The City’s decentralized CIP development and submission process resulted in significant issues with the consistency and quality in CIP project submissions. Once funded and ready for design and construction, these CIP projects often faced difficulties in implementation, which led to missed completion dates and projects coming in over budget.
When Engineering took on a central role in the development and management of the CIP, the intent was to provide sufficient time and standardized tools to fully vet CIP projects, to develop accurate scopes, and to produce realistic cost estimates, leading to better and more reliable delivery of the City’s CIP projects.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE
To improve scoping and costing for the CIP, several initiatives have been implemented:
CIP 365 Launch
- The CIP 365 approach sought to make the CIP development and submission process a year-round effort, providing more time for City departments to prepare key projects for funding.
- With CIP 365, Engineering introduced a centralized, year-round submission platform for continuous project requests, enabling real-time collaboration and comprehensive evaluations for future project viability.
- CIP 365 allowed the CIP project creation process to be separated from the annual budget process, allowing staff to start earlier in the year, allocating more time and resources for thorough project preparation.
- Concurrently, Engineering worked with Finance to establish a $500,000 financial threshold for CIP projects, and to remove agreements and asset management projects from the CIP, allowing Engineering and Finance staff to focus CIP efforts on larger infrastructure and construction projects.
- Engineering staff created a Project Initiation Workbook, which provided a standardized tool to streamline project scoping, budgeting, and scheduling for new CIP projects.
- The Project Initiation Workbook promotes quality at the source by consolidating all necessary information into one centralized workbook that includes:
- Project Initiation Questionnaire: Simplified questionnaire designed to convey major project goals, constraints, and the department owner's vision.
- Location Map: Proposed project location(s) and scope impacts.
- Risk Register: Proactively identifies project risks and mitigation measures through detailed matrices.
- Itemized Cost and/or Vendor Cost Estimates: Standardized unit costs and quantities for construction, based on current market conditions, developed through an estimating tool or substituted by third-party cost estimates (or combination thereof).
- Project Budget Sheets: Summary of the overall costs to deliver projects, including non-construction and administrative related items, by project phase (Design, Construction, Land Acquisition, etc).
- Project Delivery Selection Matrix: Identifies the recommended procurement method, which enhances the development of a more realistic project timeline.
- Project Timeline: Provides high-level insights into major tasks necessary for successful project delivery.
- The Project Initiation Workbook is a living document that allows for both project managers and project owners/stakeholders to contribute data, fostering shared accountability and a better partnership.
The development of reliable CIP project cost estimates is highly dependent on the use of accurate and comprehensive databases, that are linked to local, regional, and national market conditions, as well as relevant and recently completed CIP projects. With limited access to industry cost information, Engineering engaged a third-party estimating firm, with industry expertise, for complex projects requiring specialized knowledge. In addition to working on the complex projects, the third-party estimating firm may also review and verify cost estimates for other projects, ensuring greater accuracy and reliability in CIP project budget development.
Increased Time Allocation
Engineering extended the timeline for CIP project creation to allow for more comprehensive analysis, enhanced stakeholder engagement, and thorough validation of costs by staff and third-party estimators. Additionally, the CIP project review window was extended to enable project managers and engineering leadership to conduct detailed assessments of new and updated CIP projects, ensuring greater accuracy and preparedness.
Improved Collaboration and Communication
To address diverse collaboration and communication needs, Engineering adopted multiple approaches to increase engagement and efficiency. Engineering staff facilitated roadshows to provide City departments with tailored presentations and tools, ensuring alignment and clarity across teams. City departments were involved early and consistently throughout the CIP development and submission process to foster collaboration and proactive decision-making. Additionally, technology and tools (SharePoint/G|Net) were utilized as a transparent hub, offering streamlined updates and a centralized platform for effective collaboration.
Additional Enhancements to the CIP Process
In addition to a focus on improving the scope development and cost estimating for the City’s CIP projects, Engineering also sought to address the other areas noted earlier for CIP process improvements.
- Engineering worked closely with Information Technology (IT) to better leverage existing IT software, and Team Dynamix (TDX) was a primary focus. By implementing TDX as a project management tool, there is a consistent and reliable tool for tracking project requests, workflows, and reporting, thereby reducing manual inefficiencies and improving consistency.
- Engineering staff has worked to introduce quarterly reports with real-time dashboards, providing insights into CIP project health and performance metrics.
- Engineering worked to update the CIP Project Management Manual to refine workflows, create job aids, and establish consistent guidelines for project managers to ensure standardized governance across the organization.
To ensure transparency, alignment, and active engagement throughout the CIP process, a variety of communication and socialization strategies were implemented.
Stakeholder Roadshows
As noted earlier, Engineering conducted roadshows to kick off the upcoming 5-year CIP cycle, providing tailored presentations that introduced the CIP process, clarified program goals and departmental roles, and engaged key owner departments. These sessions addressed concerns, fostered collaboration, and ensured alignment on project intake processes.
Email Communications
Engineering also utilized targeted email communications to keep stakeholders informed about key updates and deadlines. These email communications ensured timely dissemination of critical information and maintained consistent engagement across City departments.
Stakeholder Meetings
Regular stakeholder meetings held by Engineering with other City departments further supported collaboration by providing updates, addressing challenges, and reviewing completed projects through lessons-learned debriefs. These meetings also served as a platform to gather feedback, refine project scopes, and sustain engagement throughout the project lifecycle.
Lessons-Learned Debriefs
Structured post-project reviews, known as lessons-learned debriefs, captured key insights, highlighted successes, and identified areas for improvement to enhance future initiatives. Collectively, these communication efforts strengthened collaboration, improved project readiness, and ensured alignment with organizational goals while maintaining consistent engagement with all involved parties.
HOW WE MEASURE SUCCESS
Although Engineering has implemented several improvements to the CIP process, the success of this strategic initiative will be evaluated through the following key measures:
- Tracking Change Requests: Change requests are part of the CIP project implementation process to communicate and approve significant changes to the scope, cost, and/or schedule for CIP projects. By measuring the frequency, scope, and associated costs of project change requests, Engineering will be able to identify and address deficiencies in initial planning, such as unclear scoping, unrealistic timelines, or underestimating budgets. This tracking effort will also help evaluate the effectiveness of implemented improvements.
- Monitoring Variances: The goal of effective CIP project planning is to achieve project delivery in close alignment with initial goals. Through analyzing deviations between initial project estimates and actual outcomes in costs and schedules, Engineering will be able to assess the accuracy and reliability of planning efforts.
- Stakeholder Feedback: Engineering provides support services to City departments in the delivery of their CIP projects. Collecting feedback from Engineering’s customers through post-project surveys and debrief sessions will help gather insights and inform continuous improvement efforts.
- Celebrating Wins: Goodyear’s Culture Statement is “We Care, We Achieve, We Celebrate,” and through highlighting successful projects in quarterly reports and public forums, Engineering hopes to acknowledge key CIP achievements and foster increased stakeholder confidence.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, Engineering plans will continue to focus on better services to its customers, and has plans for upcoming initiatives that focus on strengthening operational efficiency, fostering collaboration, and improving project scoping rigor through the following actions:
- Establishing a “CIP Project Lane” with DSD: In collaboration with the Development Services Department (DSD), Engineering will establish a dedicated process for CIP projects to streamline coordination. The “CIP Project Lane” will provide critical insights into site conditions, infrastructure needs, special conditions, potential developer activity, regulatory requirements, and coordination with other agencies and private utilities. By engaging subject matter experts, aligning milestones with permitting and design requirements and providing dedicated staff resources, the "CIP Project Lane" will help mitigate risk while increasing certainty around project delivery.
- Expanding CIP 365 Training and Maximizing Tool Utilization: Engineering will roll out targeted training programs and implement standardized system adoption to promote consistent and proficient use of tools across all City departments. By emphasizing accurate inputs, effective tool application, and uniform processes, this effort will strengthen project tracking, management capabilities, and overall quality.
- Advancing TDX Integration, Reporting, and Resource Management: The integration of dynamic reporting software and expanded use of TDX will enhance project management and oversight through live, up-to-date dashboards and refreshed quarterly reporting structures. These tools will provide real-time insights into project status, financial performance, milestone tracking, and overall project health while fostering transparency, identifying trends, and addressing potential risks early. Staff will also integrate document collaboration and review processes into TDX to streamline project initiation workflows, reducing reliance on SharePoint and improving efficiency. Additionally, TDX’s Resource Management capabilities will be expanded to optimize scheduling and allocation, with advanced analytics and reporting incorporated to enhance decision-making and strengthen oversight across all projects.
- Providing a Quarterly CIP Report: A quarterly CIP report will be disseminated to communicate CIP project health, status updates, and links to real-time dashboards. This report will offer a comprehensive view of CIP performance and progress by highlighting yellow and red projects, pinpointing potential risks, and promoting transparency. It will serve as an essential tool for monitoring project health, addressing challenges early, and ensuring alignment with organizational priorities. An initial CIP Quarterly Report is included as Attachment A.