By Jane McClure
How St. Paul funds large and small brick-and-mortar public projects could change in the future. Proposed revisions to the Long-Range Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) process are under study by the St. Paul City Council’s Audit Committee. Wilder Research is to bring the committee a report in February 2025, with more work after that.
The committee review comes after a 2025-2026 community projects cycle that some community members described as frustrating.
The audit committee could suggest changes going forward. It typically doesn’t hold public hearings during its study process but instead seeks out people to interview. The audit committee is made up of city council and community members and makes recommendations on various city operations.
Heather Britt, executive director of Wilder Research, and committee members discussed the ongoing study at the Dec. 17 committee meeting. Key issues that have come up include the project submission and selection process itself, how community engagement is conducted, and how equity issues are addressed, said Britt.
“It’s clear that’s there’s going to be a lot of different perspectives there,” said Britt. One of many issues raised is how to make the process more open, and less like something that is accessed by “insiders” or people who are savvy to how the process works.
St. Paul’s CIB program was set up in the 1960s by the Minnesota Legislature, and began in 1967. Citizen committee members are appointed by Senate district.
Ward Two Council Member Rebecca Noecker emphasized the need for district councils to be included in the study process. District councils had a long history of involvement with the CIB process. That changed over time. For many years district councils would meet with and interview candidates for CIB seats. That process was dropped when Norm Coleman was mayor.
In the longtime CIB process, projects were submitted every other year. Some years, more than 200 projects competed for funding. But this drew complaints. One objection was that dollars would be taken from streets projects to fund recreation center, playground and library projects. Street paving work then got behind. That mean creating separate bonds for streets.
The greatest objection was that in the most recent years of the old funding cycles, a few large projects took the lion’s share of the capital bond funds. Smaller projects were squeezed out.
Another issue was that some district councils couldn’t muster volunteers for each subcommittee. For many years three subcommittees, made up of volunteers from the city’s 17 district councils, reviewed and ranked projects. The subcommittees covered streets and utilities, community facilities and housing and economic development. Their review cycles took several weeks before recommendations were ready for the full CIB Committee.
Mayor Chris Coleman’s administration announced projects changes, which were largely taken on by Mayor Melvin Carter’s administration. City departments’ projects are reviewed and funded in odd years, with smaller, neighborhood-generated projects funded in even years. There have been three rounds of neighborhood projects, with $1 million typically split over a two-year cycle. The vast majority of the projects have been for traffic calming or pedestrian and bicycle amenities.
The 2024 neighborhood project funding round for 2025-2026 drew criticism from community and CIB Committee members. The application process was reopened last spring after fewer than two dozen projects came in. Two council wards had no projects submitted. That was compared to 86 projects for the previous neighborhood funding cycle.
Reopening the process citywide was seen as a way to provide equity for all parts of St. Paul, but groups that met the original deadline were unhappy that the rules were changed.
Having two online polls, for original projects and then all projects, also met criticism.
Only a handful of Monitor area neighborhood projects were funded. The top-ranked request, from Union Park, is to install flashing pedestrian safety beacon lights between Skyline Tower and Midway Peace Park. At $65,000 it is the smallest project funded for 2025-2026.
Another area project funded is safety improvements of the Thomas-Griggs intersection, at $225,000.
The six recommended projects, plus money for public art and contingency, totaled $1,567,847.
Area projects shut out include Horton Park improvements, Robbins/Transitway lighting improvements, Westgate Commons park shade structures and bicycle connections along Pierce Butler Route, and a bike improvements along Wabash Avenue in West Midway.
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