A Burtech Pipeline worker works on one of the streamlined Capital Improvement Program projects in North Clairemont on Nov. 2, 2012. The project, valued at $4.3 million, is one of ten that were fast-tracked under the new authority of the mayor's office since July 1 | Photo by Brad Racino
A Burtech Pipeline worker works on one of the streamlined Capital Improvement Program projects in North Clairemont on Nov. 2, 2012. The project, valued at $4.3 million, is one of ten that were fast-tracked under the new authority of the mayor’s office since July 1 | Photo by Brad Racino
With a unanimous vote on March 20, 2012, the City Council bulked up San Diego’s strong mayor form of government in a major way.
It gave the mayor’s office the sole authority to approve certain city contracts up to $30 million, many times higher than the spending thresholds of the county, the Port district, and the cities of Phoenix and San Jose combined. The strong mayor’s ceiling used to be $1 million.
The whole point was to speed up capital improvement projects, like filling potholes and upgrading water mains. Between July 1 and Oct. 1, a total of ten projects for approximately $36 million were awarded under his new authority.
But the increased power was balanced by a commitment to greater accountability — a major component of which was a website, full of details for the public and the council to monitor contractors and costs.
That hasn’t happened, and city officials can’t say when it will.
Whether the city’s next mayor is Councilman DeMaio or Congressman Filner, he will wield extraordinary power to shape the future infrastructure deals of San Diego — a city with approximately $3.5 billion slated for capital projects over the next five years.
inewsource has found that private citizens, civic groups, and even council members are more than a bit concerned about how that power will be checked.
In an email to council members, a resident of Golden Hill summed up the main concern among critics of the system:
“… if (the Council) hands the Mayor’s office the ability to award such lucrative city contracts, what will prevent the Mayor from unjustly awarding/rewarding those interests that placed him or her there?”
A broken system
Some of the reforms, approved by the council in March, were unprecedented. All were meant to streamline and modernize the city’s multi-billion-dollar Capital Improvement Program — the program that pays for maintaining and improving infrastructure such as parks, airports, water mains and roadways. Currently, there are more than 900 of these projects in various phases of completion.
An impetus for change came in June of 2011, when, after 18 months of research and writing, the Office of the City Auditor released a report highlighting inefficiencies in the program, including the complexity of the system itself. The Public Works Department — which manages nearly all of the city’s capital projects — agreed that changes were needed.
“The council was frustrated that we weren’t getting enough projects moving — we weren’t getting things in the street,” said James Nagelvoort, assistant director of the department.
“The public wanted the streets repaired… you have contractors and consultants who were hurting for business, who are looking for business, and the city of San Diego is back in the bond market. We have the buckets of money. But we weren’t moving it,” he said.
Add to that frustration the time and money spent bringing every project before the council.
“Every action that we took to get to council, on average: three months.” Nagelvoort said, and between $5,000 to $10,000 in “labor and time,” money that was taken out of each project’s working budget.
He referred to it all as a “perfect storm.”
Councilman Carl DeMaio isn’t worried about the CIP website, telling inewsource that the Sunshine Act and Proposition A will mandate the contracts be put online | Photo by Brad Racino
A solution
Seated in front of the council in March, Nagelvoort addressed Council President Tony Young.
“I’m going to go very, very fast,” he said. “If you need me to slow down, let me know.”
“The first item, increasing the Mayor’s authority…” he continued.
“Don’t,” interrupted Young. “Don’t go fast.”
Nagelvoort, accompanied by the director of the Public Works Department, Tony Heinrichs, had run through this pitch before — many times. The two department ambassadors had presented their reforms to the Budget & Finance Committee, the Citizen’s Equal Opportunity Commission, the Independent Rates Oversight Committee and numerous other public and private stakeholders since November 2011.
One of the key things Nagelvoort and Heinrichs wanted was the transfer of power to approve large contracts to the mayor’s office.
“We’re asking for this to be increased to 30 million dollars,” Nagelvoort said. “This would cover 99.9 percent of all the projects we’ve awarded.”
All this power would be balanced by transparency measures, they said, one of which would be a website complete with project names, descriptions, accounting information, timelines for completion and Equal Opportunity metrics — among other things.
The council sided unanimously with the proposal, and on April 5, 2012, implemented a new council policy — “Capital Improvement Program Transparency.”
The mayor’s power has been in place since July 1, 2012.
Yet today, the website is still absent some of the most critical information — like the names of contractors and actual amounts of funding. What does exist is a mix of knowns and unknowns: project ID numbers with estimated start dates; current project status’ next to estimated project costs.
And no one interviewed for this story can say when it will be complete.
Transparency
David Alvarez, one of the eight council members who approved the new streamlining provisions, said during a phone interview that the website “is definitely not what I was expecting when we voted for transparency measures.”
“I expressed my disappointment with the initial website when it first came out,” he said, later adding that he’s aware “some of the information is outdated.”
When asked if she had received updates or metrics on capital projects since the council’s vote, Councilwoman Sherri Lightner said her staff “doesn’t recall seeing any,” and would like “an explanation” as to why that is.
Other council members aren’t worried, or are waiting to see results before criticizing or praising the new process.
“It’s really early in the process,” Councilwoman Marti Emerald said, “but we are getting contracts out faster. I think some of the street work is happening faster.”
“Let’s give it a fair shot, and if it works,” she said, “hey, all the best.”
On Nov. 1, Councilman Todd Gloria told inewsource that the process is “a bit like repairing a plane while it’s in the air,” and what worries him most is not the lack of transparency — which “no one has forgotten about” — but what could happen under a new administration.
“A new administration with a new (public works) director may not be up to speed, may not have the same priorities (regarding transparency),” he said.
“If we’re repairing the plane in flight,” he added, “this would also be switching the pilot in mid-flight.”
Congressman Bob Filner declined to discuss the issue of increased mayoral authority with inewsource | Photo by Brad Racino
Technical problems
Nagelvoort echoed others interviewed for this story in saying that a big issue rests in merging department data with software brought in to replace its infamous predecessor in 2007.
The department is trying to “work through the issues,” he said, adding, “this [issue of transparency] has been a new problem for us.”
Part of what the agency is struggling with is not only getting the information out, but making it digestible for the general public.
He let out a short sigh.
“The CIP program is complicated and it’s big,” he continued. “The amount of information we put out is enormous. And it’s hard to get through it all and understand what it means.”
Nagelvoort believes the department may be ahead of the curve when it comes to information sharing, citing efforts to make the annual budget more understandable, additional community outreach, and new chunks of information made available online.
But he admits that all that may not be enough.
“Yea we can post information,” he said, “but if we don’t help people understand what we’re posting, then so what? You have to understand who your audience is.”
Concerned Parties
Before and after the council action, numerous critics have expressed concerns with the new power of the Mayor’s office, including the Center on Policy Initiatives, the Community Budget Alliance, the League of Women Voters and at least one engineering firm.
Jeanne Brown, co-president of the League of Women Voters, told inewsource that her main issue is with the transparency measures.
“Now that we have the strong mayor form of government,” she said, “the mayor doesn’t sit with the City Council, and so has very little input from citizens’ groups, so he’s basically open to more influential interests that seem to be connecting with him.”
“It is the lack of transparency that seems to be happening that’s concerning to me,” she said.
Other measures
Although the increase in spending power is the most talked-about reform measure implemented in July, it wasn’t the only one authorized by the council. Other changes were enacted to streamline the capital improvements program.
A plane in mid-air
Councilman DeMaio, a mayoral candidate with a complicated history of transparency, has helped spearhead through council both the streamlining reforms and the “Sunshine Act” — a measure passed in October which mandates city contracts in excess of $25,000 be posted online and easily accessible.
Proposition A, passed in June, already mandates city construction contracts be posted online. But that has yet to happen.
When asked his opinion on the slow progress of the website, DeMaio said he saw both Proposition A and the Sunshine Act as safeguards, and made a bold promise about his administration if elected:
“On day one in office,” he said, “we’re going to make sure that those projects have to be placed online for the public to search and see.”
He harped on his point.
“That has to be an essential agreement — it’s not an option,” he said.
“It has to be a requirement.”
Despite multiple attempts in person, over the phone and through email, Congressman Filner declined to discuss with inewsource the capital improvement program and its lack of transparency.
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Gender Identity
Gender Identity
Gender Identity
Women
80%
Women
82%
Women
75%
Men
20%
Men
18%
Men
25%
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation
Sexual Orientation
Straight
87%
Straight
82%
Straight
100%
LGBTQ-identifying
7%
LGBTQ-identifying
7%
Not specified
7%
Not specified
7%
Speak a language beyond English at home
33%
Speak a language beyond English at home
18%
Speak a language beyond English at home
75%
Race/Ethnicity
Race/Ethnicity
Race/Ethnicity
White
67%
White
73%
White
50%
Hispanic or Latinx
20%
Two or more races
18%
Hispanic or Latinx
50%
Two or more races
13%
Hispanic or Latinx
9%
Age
Age
Age
20-29
40%
20-29
45%
20-29
25%
30-39
47%
30-39
45%
30-39
50%
60 or older
13%
60 or older
9%
60 or older
25%
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Lorie Hearn is the chief executive officer, editor and founder of inewsource. She founded inewsource in the summer of 2009, following a successful reporting and editing career in newspapers. She retired from The San Diego Union-Tribune, where she had been a reporter, Metro Editor and finally the senior editor for Metro and Watchdog Journalism. In addition to department oversight, Hearn personally managed a four-person watchdog team, composed of two data specialists and two investigative reporters. Hearn was a Nieman Foundation fellow at Harvard University in 1994-95. She focused on juvenile justice and drug control policy, a natural course to follow her years as a courts and legal affairs reporter at the San Diego Union and then the Union-Tribune.
Hearn became Metro Editor in 1999 and oversaw regional and city news coverage, which included the city of San Diego’s financial debacle and near bankruptcy. Reporters and editors on Metro during her tenure were part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that exposed Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham and led to his imprisonment.
Hearn began her journalism career as a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, a small daily outside of Philadelphia, shortly after graduating from the University of Delaware. During the decades following, she moved through countless beats at five newspapers on both coasts.
High-profile coverage included the historic state Supreme Court election in 1986, when three sitting justices were ousted from the bench, and the 1992 execution of Robert Alton Harris. That gas chamber execution was the first time the death penalty was carried out in California in 25 years.
In her nine years as Metro Editor at the Union-Tribune, Hearn made watchdog reporting a priority. Her reporters produced award-winning investigations covering large and small local governments. The depth and breadth of their public service work was most evident in coverage of the wildfires of 2003 and then 2007, when more than half a million people were evacuated from their homes.
Laura Wingard is the managing editor at inewsource. She has been an editor in San Diego since 2002, working at The San Diego Union-Tribune, KPBS and now inewsource. At the Union-Tribune, she served in a variety of roles including as enterprise editor, government editor, public safety and legal affairs editor, and metro editor. She directed the newspaper’s award-winning coverage of the October 2007 wildfires and the 2010 disappearance of Poway teenager Chelsea King. She also oversaw reporting on San Diego’s pension crisis.
For two years, Wingard was news and digital editor at KPBS, overseeing a team of four multimedia reporters and two web producers. She also was the KPBS liaison with inewsource and collaborated with inewsource chief executive officer and editor Lorie Hearn on investigative work by both news organizations.
Wingard also worked at the Las Vegas Review-Journal as the city editor and as an award-winning reporter covering the environment and politics. She also was the assistant managing editor for metro at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside. She earned her bachelor’s degree at California State University, Fullerton, with a double major in communications/journalism and political science.
Brad Racino is the assistant editor and a senior reporter at inewsource. He has produced investigations for print, radio and TV on topics including political corruption, transportation, health, maritime, education and nonprofits.
His cross-platform reporting for inewsource has earned more than 50 awards since 2012, including back-to-back national medals from Investigative Reporters and Editors, two national Edward R. Murrow awards, a Meyer “Mike” Berger award from New York City’s Columbia Journalism School, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism, San Diego SPJ’s First Amendment Award, and a national Emmy nomination.
In 2017, Racino was selected by the Institute for Nonprofit News as one of 10 “Emerging Leaders” in U.S. nonprofit journalism.
Racino has worked as a reporter and database analyst for News21; as a photographer, videographer and reporter for the Columbia Missourian; as a project coordinator for the National Freedom of Information Coalition and as a videographer and editor for Verizon Fios1 TV in New York. He received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 2012.
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Brad Racino is the assistant editor and senior investigative reporter at inewsource. He's a big fan of transparency, whistleblowers and government agencies forgetting to redact key information from FOIA requests.
Brad received his master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri...
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