Taking a glance at the See-Eye-Pea

There’s just no way to ease into this.

We’re going to talk about the government today.

Specifically, the capital improvements program, referred to as the CIP and pronounced See-Eye-Pea.

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Before you start thinking, “Oh geez, not another civics lesson,” let me say it won’t be that bad. Unlike many government programs, the CIP is really a very simple concept.

It’s basically a five-year look at anything that costs more than a few bucks. What we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we’re going to pay for it. That’s a See-Eye-Pea.

I always enjoy writing the CIP story because it’s filled with imagination and wonder — and little else. Not a lot of detail in a CIP, and none of it is set in stone.

The County Commission has an 9 a.m. workshop Tuesday on the CIP. You can view the entire report here.

Without further ado, some See-Eye-Pea highlights:

— It’s $402 million in projects over the next five years. Revenue sources include taxes, grants, tipping fees, impact fees, and loans. It’s spread out among government buildings, park facilities, airports, libraries, water/sewer projects, and roads.

— Here’s what I didn’t see: Any mention of a new animal shelter. That’s odd. Remember when last we left this saga, the county dedicated a site on C.R. 491 for the new shelter, but had not one dime set aside for it other than what citizens provided themselves.

There was talk about using the Betz Farm sale proceeds for the new shelter, but County Administrator Steve Howard put the kibosh on that because, frankly, hanging your project on the separate sale of unrelated property is not proper planning.

It’s not in the See-Eye-Pea, at least not where I could tell.

—Numerous SCOP roads. SCOP is the Small Counties Outreach Program, and it basically is our meal ticket for resurfacing non-residential county roads.

Way this works is the state pays for 75% of road resurfacing projects so long as our population is under 200,000. Citrus has participated for 10 years and saved tens of millions of dollars by getting the state to pay for the lion’s share of resurfacing county roads.

With Citrus rushing toward that 200K population, though, it has me wondering how we’re prioritizing these roads. I wrote last year about the county resurfacing Trails End Road, which may have needed the work, but has very little traffic.

Compare that to Gospel Island Road, South Apopka Avenue, and West Dunklin Avenue — heavily traveled roads that are truly horrible. I was on Apopka the other day and couldn’t believe how bad it has gotten since I moved from the Highlands 20 years ago.

The See-Eye-Pea has all three roads, plus a few others, in the mix for resurfacing the next five years. That’s great, but is anyone watching the clock? With our accelerated growth, and the County Commission approving big developments here and there, we’re going to hit that 200,000 before we know it.

The state is already showing signs of backing out of SCOP. It is significantly shortchanging the county on both the Gospel Island and West Dunklin projects; instead of 75%, the state is offering to pay only half or less.

I don’t recall county commissioners ever prioritizing SCOP roads. Strategic planning, anyone?

— $250,000 to redesign the HR/admin offices of the Clerk of Court; $150,000 to replace the tile floor at the Lecanto Government Building; $375,000 to replace the LGB carpet; $580,000 to resurface the Citrus County Resource Center parking lot.

Look. I know this stuff is important. Totally get it. But geez, we’re not going to have a serious discussion about getting our tax structure straight if we don’t first prioritize our spending. If it’s not something the public experiences or benefits, we should take another look at it.

If we have employees working in terrible conditions, those conditions should improve. Employees who would PREFER better working conditions, that’s not the same thing.

The clerk should have to show that sprucing up her HR office is a vital service to the public. If not, drop it. That goes with everything on this list.

(Deputy Clerk Traci Phillips contacted me Tuesday morning to say the clerk's HR office redesign was on hold until results of the space study are complete. Traci said she would ask the county to remove that item from the CIP.)

— So much more to the See-Eye-Pea, and as a government geek you know I can write about this all night. Maybe I’ll do a series.

Or maybe not.

Have an awesome Tuesday, friends.

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