Denver, like many other major cities, has a long record of skimping on the routine maintenance of its most basic infrastructure – roads and bridges, city buildings and parks. Periodically, the city tries to make up for such neglect by passing a bond issue to build new facilities and patch up old ones.
Now, Mayor John Hickenlooper wants to wrap up his first term by approaching the city’s infrastructure in a more systematic manner. We wish him well.
Hickenlooper entered office in 2003 as the city was reeling from a recession that sent revenues diving. He had to continue the distasteful task of deciding which maintenance had to be taken care of immediately and which could be deferred- the classic “Pay me now or pay me later” dilemma.
The mayor first pursued civil service reforms but soon tackled two massive construction projects – supporting the FasTracks plan in 2004 and convincing Denver voters in 2005 to approve $378 million for a justice center downtown.
As these high-profile projects were being approved, other needs were being added to the city’s growing wish list. They ranged from elaborate plans for a new Botanic Gardens and rejuvenated Civic Center to simply patching potholes and repairing crumbling overpasses. Now the mayor has launched an ambitious effort to catalog the city’s short- and long-term infrastructure needs – and figure out how to pay for them.
The mayor’s 110-member (no, that’s not a typo) task force is comprised of nine different committees. Seven panels will study capital needs in public works, cultural facilitities, community planning and development, human services, public safety, parks and recreation and city buildings. The subcommittee chairs will meld into an executive committee to set overall priorities. A separate finance subcommittee will try to find ways to pay for the surviving proposals as well as establish new procedures for maintenance and new construction – in hopes of ending the recurring cycle of neglect followed by catch-up bond issues.
Every Denver resident who has ever seen sprinklers in city parks running full blast during a rainstorm or watched broken sprinklers misdirecting precious water onto the barren asphalt of city streets will will the new infrastructure committee well. Denver’s finance director, Margaret Brown, believes it will take $40 to $50 million to repair and update the city’s irrigation systems. The parks subcommittee will craft a plan to repair units that waste water and install modern sensors that will shut off sprinklers during or after rainstorms when irrigation isn’t needed. As a bonus, a modernized system will require fewer workers to operate it.
The committee hasn’t determined a timeline yet, but we would hope to see final recommendations early next year in time for Denver voters to consider them in the 2007 mayoral election. After so many years of looking at the city’s capital needs in fits and starts, it’s time to adopt a more businesslike approach.
