Facilities audit finds unclear contract responsibilities downtown, flags EV upgrade costs and camera overuse

Audit staff told the committee the facilities contract-management audit was requested by the city manager to evaluate whether the city's use of contractors is cost-effective and properly managed across more than 300 facilities.

The auditors highlighted the Oaks downtown agreements, some created a decade or more ago, and said responsibilities for items such as elevator repairs, lighting and landscaping are fragmented across multiple documents. "We're responsible for around the city hall area," the auditor said describing control areas in the garages, and auditors noted the city is being billed at a flat 50% for certain landscaping charges that the agreement said should be broken out; auditors reported a monthly bill figure cited in the record. They recommended consolidated, clearer agreements and implementation of a negotiation and review process with an April 1, 2027, target for the Oaks-related changes.

The audit also covered EV chargers at the garages: city staff said conduits poured in concrete may be too small for higher-capacity chargers and that rewiring and station costs could be significant; no final cost estimate was available. On security cameras, auditors reported the city operates "just over 1000 cameras in use" with ongoing costs for IT and support and questioned how often footage is actually accessed. Auditors recommended developing tiered camera standards, reviewing the support model and deactivating nonessential cameras to reduce long-term lifecycle and storage costs.