How to let your assets tell their story

Justifying the appropriate level of funding from state and federal sources to maintain public assets has always been challenging. But after decades of underfunding, United States cities and states are reaching a breaking point. Last year’s ASCE report card on America’s infrastructure, which rated the country as a C-, indicates the impact of our long history of underfunding infrastructure and deferring maintenance due to budget or staffing constraints and the toll on public assets, especially for those managed at the state and local level.

The city of Asheville, N.C., for example, recently conducted a facilities condition assessment (FCA) of its 1 million square feet of city-owned buildings, resulting in a C grade—one that their current $1 million facilities maintenance budget would not be able to maintain. Without the proper data insights to support a case for increased budget, many of the buildings would reach a “failed state” over the next two decades.

Deferred maintenance, whether due to oversite, backlog or a lack of budget, causes ripple effects throughout a city’s entire operation—from major service disruptions when an asset fails to hemorrhaging money for unforeseen repairs, which may be 30-40% more than planned repairs. The only way to stop that from happening? Capital planning.

Imagine your local park could talk. It could tell you what assets are being under or over utilized, which playground equipment has loose bolts, where the ballfield has holes that could trip players or where the grass is wearing thin androcks are threatening to trip walkers. The park, if it could, would alert someone to the timing of when concerns need to be addressed, but perhaps as important, the outcome of NOT fixing defects. The park’s maintenance, then, becomes more than a budget line that could impact taxes or financial numbers, but a choice with consequences on visitors. Now zoom out—not only are cities responsible for monitoring and maintaining their parks, but their bridges, highways, roads and buildings too.

With the responsibility of an entire ecosystem of infrastructure on their hands, city planners and decision makers need to make informed decisions now that will ultimately make their lives easier in the long run, i.e. capital plan. Until parks can talk, here are a few ways city planners can communicate the story behind their assets:

A prime example of the value of data and analysis in reaching stakeholders and decision makers; by auditing their buildings, analyzing the data and determining the best path forward, facilities and operations managers from the city of Asheville were able to clearly communicate the status, projections and needs of city infrastructure to make a case to city council members for a 3X increased maintenance budget. A request that without data, may have been impossible.

Investing in community facilities and infrastructure to meet public needs is crucial, but doing so while facing tight budget constraints and unexpected repairs can be a challenge. By leveraging data-driven insights to inform asset investment decisions, city managers and facilities teams can better protect their assets throughout the entirety of their lifecycle.

Jennifer Perkins, Government SME, Brightly, has more than 25 years of experience in the state and local government and education markets as a practitioner, consultant and industry advisor. It was during her time at the city of Boston that she found her lifelong passion for technology’s role in government operations. She pioneered many efficiency projects while at the city around infrastructure and operations. She spent more than 15 years in a variety of positions for the city rising to the level of CIO. Currently, at Brightly software, she is able to help state and local governments become more efficient using a state-of-the-art solution to manage public assets as well as helping long term financial planning.