A city audit probing the Public Works Department’s communications around major construction projects did not reach out to business owners affected by those projects.

That apparent oversight prompted frustration from a local restaurant owner, incredulity from one council member and a brief musing on the definition of the word “adequate” from another.

The audit, which covered the period of October 2022 through May of this year, was presented to the city’s audit committee on Tuesday, along with Public Work’s action plan for improvement. The committee voted to accept the audit.

Before they did, however, Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) questioned why the audit process would not include speaking to those who are most affected by major projects and have long complained that communications are not adequate.

“I don’t think there’s anything our council offices hear more about than the Public Works issues,” he said. Auditors spoke to the department’s management and staff plus City Council liaisons about communications efforts.

“I don’t know if it was an oversight or not but I think this audit would have been much more complete had we spoken with some of those businesses. So I do have a problem with that,” he said.

Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran (D3) said that she has heard from business owners in her district who “do not feel like your definition of adequate and their definition of adequate are the same.”

A lack of consistent communication from Public Works has been such a pain point for businesses affected by years-long infrastructure projects that many of them in the St. Mary’s and Southtown areas recently formed a political action committee out of frustration, with plans to weigh in on the upcoming city elections.

Co-founder Jody Bailey Newman, speaking on behalf of the Business Community PAC, said they were unaware of the audit until the San Antonio Report shared it. “As usual, we’re behind the eight ball, making calls, trying to get info from city council offices that are in the dark as well. … It’s a failure talking about how they failed.”

Public Works audit findings

During the time period of the audit, Public Works was overseeing 359 projects worth $2.4 billion, according to the report. The department’s communications and engagement team is tasked with strategic communications to, and respond to requests from residents, businesses and other stakeholders. They work closely with 15 Capital Project Officers, who are assigned to specific projects, also prepare and disseminate information.

The audit found that for short-term projects, which it defined as those that last less than one year, communications from Public Works were “adequate and timely.”

Longer-term projects however, suffered from “inconsistent communications efforts,” which auditors attributed to “noncomprehensive policies and procedures.”

The audit also found that citizen complaints received by council staff are not logged into the city’s 311 system for tracking — which means their resolutions are not tracked either.

The Office of the City Auditor made recommendations for improvements to the department’s procedures, and the department developed a “corrective action plan” in response.

The department also noted that beginning in February of this year, it began rolling out a series of “major improvements to its communications and engagement efforts.” Those include:

• Digital dashboards with information on 3,500 projects, including timeline, maps, budget and contact information.
• Individual web pages for more than 200 major projects, where residents can get up-to-date information, sign up for email updates and give feedback.
• Ability for staff to add road closure information to the Waze navigation app, which are then incorporated into Google Maps.

Also in February, the department also updated its Public Communications and Resident Engagement Plan, which last received a “substantial update” in 2019.

Public Works Director and City Engineer Razi Hosseini was listed in the department’s response to the audit as the responsible party to ensure that all citizen complaints that come through council offices are logged into the city’s 311 system. This work is ongoing; after a 2019 audit of the department’s public engagement efforts, it pledged to work with 311 staff to better train council staff on how to create and monitor 311 tickets.

Whyte questioned whether communications around short-term projects was indeed adequate.

“I know some stakeholders that would disagree with that,” he said. “I don’t know that we have a bigger issue right now in our city, [with] the length of construction and the negative effects it’s having on our residents and our businesses.”

With the audit accepted, Viagran suggested that City Council delve further into the department’s action plan.

“I do want us to talk about this ‘adequate’ definition,” she said.