When the police department's 7-year-old air conditioning unit broke again in early May, maintenance officials gave up hope that constant leaks in the system could be fixed permanently. They rented a portable unit that still hums in the officers' parking lot next to rows of squad cars to keep the building operating in the summer heat.
The rental is costing the department $8,700 a month, adding roughly 30 percent to its total monthly utility bill, city officials said. The permanent unit had been expected to last 10 years but has been plagued with problems for years. A new, permanent air conditioner could cost $500,000, and the bidding process could push installation off until January.
"Whenever you get a cost of this nature, it does put you through a tizzy," said Assistant City Manager Oscar Martinez. "We want to be able to plan and anticipate better than we have been, because our facilities are getting older. They haven't been maintained on a strategic basis, and we're trying to get better at that."
It's fairly common every year for one or two of the city's approximately 400 municipal buildings to need an air conditioning overhaul, one of thousands of annual maintenance needs the city faces each year.
Until recently, the city generally dealt with maintenance issues - for buildings and for city vehicles - as problems arose. They let some vehicles drive beyond their life expectancy without replacing them and didn't do some nonessential building upkeep. The result - almost half of the city's fleet is beyond its useful life and some buildings are in need of big-ticket repairs, Martinez said.
The city has ended up paying more in the long term when regular maintenance could have reduced those costs, Martinez said.
To save money and plan for future repairs, the city is undergoing an inventory and long-range planning survey of almost all the city buildings. The survey includes needs for painting, site work, parking lots, floors, ceilings, plumbing, electrical systems, asbestos removal and heating and air conditioning systems.
The goal is to prioritize needs and save money for new roofs, air conditioners and other major work before things break. The survey has been under way for two years and will continue on a rolling basis in the future. It is about 75 percent complete.
The city budgeted $18.5 million for maintenance this year, including security, vehicle parts, equipment purchases, fuel and building maintenance, and other expenses. That number is up from $16.1 million three years ago, but still not enough to meet all maintenance needs immediately.
Under the new system, the city sets aside the same amount in maintenance funds but has started putting away money to go toward anticipated maintenance. It is a more complex version of a savings account for home repairs, Martinez said.
Martinez, who oversees budget preparations, put $100,000 each into two new funds as seed money for future maintenance needs. One fund is for buildings and the other for equipment, such as trucks, tractors and beach cleaners.
The money came from the maintenance budget, a fund to which all city departments contribute for upkeep, and the plan is to set aside money each year.
"It really won't be accessible in the short term," he said. "We have to build up the fund to capacity so it's able to meet the demand as well as have some mechanism so it's constantly replenished."
Michael Neuman, associate professor of urban planning for Texas A&M University, College Station, said the city's approach, known as lifecycle planning, is a relatively new way to manage government infrastructure.
"It's typical that a municipality or county hasn't taken a holistic view of infrastructure and maintenance over the long term," Neuman said. "It seems like it's so common sense. It sounds obvious, but it's not that common, surprisingly."
City staff is creating a database that shows each building's expected needs until 2015 and estimated maintenance costs based on life-cycle projections. City architect Jim Boggs is heading the project with help from someone in each department who is familiar with the buildings. The study is being done internally and doesn't cost the city other than staff time, Martinez said.
"While it's critical to find out what might be hitting us in the near future, it's just as important to know what will be coming in three to four years so we're not surprised," Martinez said.
Most city buildings - including warehouses, park buildings and various departments - are included in the study. However, City Hall has not been included yet because it recently was renovated. The Police Department also was left out because it has a dedicated maintenance supervisor. Those buildings will be included later as the survey continues. Buildings will be surveyed on a rotating basis, so projections will go beyond 2015.
"We can be more aggressive with our preventative maintenance program," Martinez said. "We need to take every step necessary for preventative maintenance so these larger problems don't come along."
Maintenance hasn't been a major budget priority, Martinez said. When it comes time to haggle over the budget, a maintenance issue usually would lose funding to a service, he said.
For instance, the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Health District building is in need of parking lot repairs and some plumbing maintenance, Martinez said. However, city officials put money into health services such as clinics and vaccinations because of their importance, he said.
"Typically, because of competing priorities, a parking lot might not be the first thing you think of," Martinez said.
Neuman said putting off maintenance is not unusual for governments.
"In the city budget, the first thing to go is maintenance," he said. "They say, 'Oh we'll do it next year,' and next year becomes next year, becomes next year and so on."
Parts and labor prices, as well as more sophisticated equipment, have pushed maintenance costs up in recent years, Martinez said. But the study and renewed focus on maintenance should save the city money on repairs and replacements, he said.
"It's on a schedule rather than, 'Can we squeeze it in this year?' or 'We have no choice because it broke down,' " he said.
Neuman, who studied lifecycle planning for the states of California and New Jersey, said few studies have been done, but the results are promising.
"There's no disputing the few studies that have been done that show if you take a life-cycle approach, you'll have significant cost savings," Neuman said.
Contact Denise Malan at 886-4334 or at maland@ caller.com. Contact David Kassabian at 886-3778 or at kassabiand@ caller.com
