Three City Council members are calling for an independent audit of the city’s Public Works Department — amid concerns about project execution and transparency surrounding major infrastructure processes that have dogged the city for the past several years.
Councilmembers Sukh Kaur (D1), Teri Castillo (D5), and Marina Alderete Gavito (D7) put out a joint statement Tuesday asking on City Manager Erik Walsh to initiate the review in response to residents’ concerns about “communication, project execution, and the transparency of infrastructure processes.”
“The voices of our community are clear: they need better communication, a clearer process, and faster responses from the Public Works Department,” said Kaur, who leveraged residents’ frustration with construction delays on the St. Mary’s strip to unseat an incumbent back in 2023.
Since then, concerns about the department have been so persistent that a group of local business owners formed a political action committee to start pushing for changes last year.
Longtime Public Works Director Razi Hosseini announced plans to retire in September, after public backlash to the city’s handling of projects surrounding the Final Four tournament. Prolonged construction leading up to that event caused the city to spend $800,000 on temporary sidewalks for the tournament that it planned to later remove.
The council members requesting the audit asked that it provide a “comprehensive assessment” of the 182 projects approved in the city’s $1.2 billion 2022 bond. They also want a review the city’s Infrastructure Management Program and its public request system for infrastructure improvements.
“As a council, we are responsible stewards of residents’ taxpayer dollars — we owe it to them to hold our departments to a high standard of transparency and accountability,” Alderete Gavito said. “This review is a much-needed step to improve our processes, deliver on our commitments of residents’ needs, and ensure we stay within budget.”
An internal city audit conducted last year found that the Public Works department’s longer-term projects suffered from “inconsistent communications efforts,” which auditors attributed to “noncomprehensive policies and procedures.”
The department created a corrective action plan that includes a digital dashboard with information on current bond construction projects, informational web pages for major projects and the ability for staff to add road closure information to the Waze navigation app.
