The Public Works Department is responsible for the County’s Flood Control, Roads , and several Special Districts programs including landscape/lighting, parks, and recreation. Public Works has previously provided details to the Board of Supervisors of budgetary challenges and constraints within these programs that make it difficult to meet service levels expected by both the public and the Board of Supervisors.   
  
The budget challenges continue and have been magnified by inflation, hard caps on revenue streams, voting threshold requirements, pandemic impacts, a focus of government grant programs on capital improvements instead of maintenance and operations funding, and the general reluctance to increase taxes or fees to pay for necessary capital improvements, maintenance and services. In an effort to address or temporarily mitigate the budget shortfalls in these programs, the Public Works Department has implemented short-term solutions that in some cases are not sustainable.  
  
The purpose of this presentation is to inform the Board of Supervisors of the ongoing budget challenges facing the Public Works Department, circumstances that led to the challenges, actions taken to mitigate the challenges, and request direction from the Board of Supervisors on possible long-term solutions. In addition, the presentation will provide general information on available grants from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and how some grant funding may help, or in some cases perpetuate, the budget issues.

Public Works recognizes our need to benefit from the Infrastructure Iinvestment and Jobs Act grant opportunities to the greatest extent possible. This presentation will further highlight the need for additional resources to leverage those funds to maximize those benefits.