LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed an executive directive to continue improving Los Angeles’ infrastructure and delivery of services by repairing streets, cleaning parks and enhancing infrastructure projects and city services. The Mayor’s executive action will support the City’s work to ensure much needed infrastructure improvements to Los Angeles in a way that will benefit the region for decades to come. The directive will also improve City department coordination to complete projects more efficiently and cheaper, align with voter-approved Measure HLA and ensure L.A. has its first comprehensive long term plan for all investments on streets, parks, and public spaces to guide this.
“This executive directive will create a path for delivering much-needed improvements to our streets, parks, and public spaces in communities throughout Los Angeles,” said Mayor Bass. “I am directing the establishment of a multi-year investment plan to coordinate improvements and maintenance of our City’s infrastructure on display when we welcome the world for upcoming major international events, while leaving lasting benefits for decades to come. I want to recognize Councilmember Bob Blumenfield and other leaders on the City Council for their work advancing public works delivery reform as we continue to urgently prepare for LA's place on the world stage in 2026, 2028, and beyond."
As directed by Mayor Bass, mayoral staff and relevant departments will establish a Capital Planning Steering Committee to consolidate existing public right-of-way working groups and committees to deliver better infrastructure projects in less time and lower the cost. Departments will also be required to report on maintenance programs, efforts to decrease backlogs, and to develop revenue-generating proposals to meet capital infrastructure needs and be intentional about funding for city projects.
“A piecemeal approach to fixing LA’s infrastructure problems isnt going to work and I’m grateful to Mayor Bass for helping elevate the need for a holistic approach,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield. “Our constituents deserve better and it’s beyond time for bringing all our departments together to develop long term strategies to get our infrastructure woes on a path to recovery.”
Mayor Bass’ actions will support a wide range of projects, including:
Roadway improvements to reduce traffic collisions and fatalities
Parks, green space, and recreation and senior center upgrades
Bridges, stormwater and sewer upgrades, and LA River related projects
Better street maintenance for trees, parkways, medians, street furniture, and lighting
This effort follows the Mayor’s efforts to deliver world class city services to make Los Angeles more livable for all and ensure the City’s preparation benefits Angelenos in the years leading up to the event and for decades following is a top priority for the Mayor.
Read the full text of the Executive Directive below:
EXECUTIVE DIRECTIVE NO. 9
Issue Date: October 16, 2024
Subject: Streamlining Capital Project Delivery and Equitably Investing in the Public Right-of-Way
The City of Los Angeles’ expansive infrastructure is fundamental to the City’s health, livability, economic development, and resilience to climate change. In fiscal year 2022-2023, the City spent over $860 million on public infrastructure, including capital projects and investments in our public right-of-way.
As Mayor, I am committed to making our neighborhoods more resilient and equitable by revitalizing our streets and tackling years of deferred maintenance and underinvestment in our most vulnerable communities. Although Los Angeles has adopted pioneering infrastructure and transportation policies like Mobility Plan 2035 and Vision Zero, we are not delivering on these projects with the urgency they require. In December 2022, the Council instructed the City Administrative Officer (CAO) and Chief Legislative Analyst (CLA) to reform the City’s capital infrastructure programs, recognizing that capital investments are made in an ad-hoc manner between City departments, not fully addressing critical infrastructure needs in low-income communities (C.F. 21-0039). In November 2023, the Council instructed the CAO to work with departments to provide recommendations for a Five-Year Capital Infrastructure Plan for more equitable transportation investments (C.F. 23-0919). In March of this year, Measure HLA passed, calling on the City to implement roadway design improvements included in Mobility Plan 2035.
The City of Los Angeles currently lacks a comprehensive, multi-year plan for maintaining and developing infrastructure in the public right-of-way. Angelenos do not have a clear understanding of what can realistically be funded and when, nor what the City’s long-term priorities are beyond those of a given year. Additionally, fragmented governance over what gets built on and below our streets means that projects requiring strong collaboration between City departments experience last-minute changes, creating cost overruns that contribute to a growing total cost of capital projects. Furthermore, the City is financing many of these projects in a year-over-year approach, often meaning that without dedicated and predictable sources of capital, project work stops and starts and takes much longer to complete, costing us more. As a result, many communities suffer from deferred maintenance that degrade our streets, sidewalks, parks and aging facilities, and delay improvements that prevent injury and save lives.
As we prepare for major international events and the uncertainties of a changing climate, we must ensure our City’s infrastructure is safe, clean, accessible, resilient, well-maintained, and world-class. This future demands a Citywide, strategic vision for infrastructure grounded in an equitable, transparent process for initiating, planning, budgeting, and executing capital projects. We must deliver on this commitment through streamlined governance, appropriate staff resources, centralized asset management, and long-term capital planning to deliver projects on time, on budget, and with maximum benefit to the public.
To that end, I am hereby creating the Capital Planning Steering Committee led by my Office of Infrastructure and consisting of the following departments:
City Administrative Officer
City Planning Department
Department of Public Works
Bureau of Contract Administration
Bureau of Street Lighting
Bureau of Engineering
Bureau of Sanitation
Bureau of Street Services
Department of Recreation and Parks
Department of Transportation
Department of Water and Power
Department on Disability
General Services Department
Information Technology Agency
This effort is dependent on Citywide collaboration and alignment. Therefore, I invite the Chief Legislative Analyst to participate in the Capital Planning Steering Committee.
I hereby direct the Capital Planning Steering Committee to perform the following tasks:
Capital Projects Governance: within 60 days, the Capital Planning Steering Committee shall create a Charter that clearly defines roles and responsibilities, a shared understanding of purpose and objectives, decision-making processes, and resourcing requirements of the Committee and its functions. Participating departments shall be represented by General Managers or their designated representatives. The Charter shall establish governance of the Committee to meet the obligations outlined below. Committee members shall build out staffing plans needed to execute this directive.
Capital Projects Funding: The Capital Planning Steering Committee shall develop proposals to address known funding shortfalls affecting the repair, replacement, cleaning and maintenance of public right-of-way and parks assets. The Committee shall author proposals to be delivered to the Mayor's Office of Infrastructure and the Mayor's Office of Finance, Operations and Innovation that:
Generate new revenue to meet current gaps in existing capital infrastructure projects, as well as projects expected to be identified within a future Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).
Fund modernization of City yards and shops used to maintain the public right-of-way, and the cleaning, repair, replacement, and maintenance of major asset classes like streets and sidewalks, street trees and lighting, aging facilities, parks, and public spaces.
Create dedicated contingency fund pools that capital projects under the auspices of this Committee can draw upon in order to speed project delivery and reduce project work stoppages. Proposals shall include reporting requirements to ensure transparency and accountability, and identify any City of Los Angeles Charter limitations, and what courses of action might be needed to address potential limitations.
Develop a comprehensive public-private partnership strategy for funding major asset and capital project types in the public right-of-way and the parks system taking into account current types of agreements prevalent in the City, as well as assets or projects not currently funded in this way, and how a future citywide CIP may facilitate new opportunities for philanthropic funding.
Capital Projects Maintenance, Delivery, and Development: within 90 days, the Capital Planning Steering Committee shall consolidate existing public right-of-way working groups and committees to better align policy goals, integrate project delivery and maintenance workflows, and develop shared metrics across departments. Existing groups to be consolidated include the Street Working Group, Street Renewal Management Group, Sidewalk Repair Program Executive Steering Committee, Transportation Grants Advanced Planning, Complete Streets Program Executive Steering Committee, Vision Zero Steering Committee, Transportation Infrastructure Steering Committee, and the Interdepartmental Memorandum of Understanding Core Team and Oversight Committee. The Committee may identify other existing working groups and committees to consolidate if such consolidation would better align project maintenance, delivery, and development. The Committee shall meet at least monthly and focus on three subject areas, for which Subcommittees shall be formed:
Maintenance Coordination: Participating departments shall report on maintenance programs and efforts to decrease backlogs, and pivot toward a more coordinated approach to asset management. Maintenance activities include but are not limited to sidewalk repairs including access ramp installations, street light outages including copper wire theft replacement, public electric vehicle charging, tree maintenance, street sweeping, street resurfacing, maintenance of traffic safety improvements, heat mitigation, climate resilience, and flood control. This Subcommittee shall also identify opportunities to coordinate maintenance activities and project delivery (e.g., street resurfacing and installation of new bike lanes).
Project and Program Delivery Coordination: Participating departments shall coordinate delivery of grant- and City-funded projects and programs using the Right-of-Way Protocols established by the Interdepartmental Project Delivery Memorandum of Understanding, including pedestrian infrastructure, active transportation infrastructure, and other projects in the public right-of-way.
Project Development Coordination: Participating departments shall share unfunded project concepts to coordinate planning, ensure multimodal and holistic design, strategically prioritize limited capital funding, and best position the City to compete for grant funding. This Subcommittee shall also centralize grant coordination and develop a strategy that focuses limited staff time on the most viable applications
The Mayor's Office will assign a department lead for each of the above Subcommittees. Participating departments shall assign leadership at the executive level of General Manager or Assistant General Manager, subject to final approval from the Mayor's Office.
Centralized Asset Management Systems: within 120 days, the Capital Planning Steering Committee shall document all asset types that each participating department repairs, replaces, cleans, or manages in the public right-of-way. Departments shall develop a data implementation plan to create digital records of these assets within a single centralized, enterprise-wide asset management system interoperable with existing departmental platforms.
Departments shall document life-cycle data on assets, including current condition, cost of operations and maintenance through remaining useful life, cost of replacement including potential upgrades in pursuit of decarbonization, and risk of failure. For assets for which life-cycle data is not currently available, departments shall provide plans to develop this data and, in the intervening period, base the condition of such assets on industry standards for useful life and any relevant operations and maintenance data.
The centralized asset management system shall provide the basis for determining the cost of deferred maintenance for current assets in the public right-of-way, and enable a more data-driven, transparent capital planning and budgeting process. The system shall also provide the information to determine the funding priorities for following fiscal year budgets.
The centralized asset management system shall also provide public-facing information on asset maintenance and capital projects that is easy to understand and access. The system shall incorporate MyLA311 customer relationship improvements identified through my Executive Directive No. 5: Improving Customer Experience.
Capital Projects Planning and Prioritization: The Capital Planning Steering Committee shall compile all current and planned capital expenditures and recommend strategic priorities for capital projects and deferred maintenance in the public right-of-way over five-year, ten-year, and twenty-year periods. The City Administrative Officer shall, as part of the Committee and upon agreement with it, publish a Capital Infrastructure Plan (CIP), which will replace the Physical Plant Projects (other than Clean Water) portion of the Five-Year Capital and Technology Improvement Plan (CTIP). The CIP will inform future budget requests and continue to be updated annually. The Capital Planning Steering Committee shall:
Recommend a citywide vision for capital improvement supported by an equitable strategy for developing, prioritizing, funding, and implementing projects over the subsequent five-year, ten-year, and twenty-year periods to meet legal requirements and other criteria including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Measure HLA, the General Plan’s circulation element, mobility equity goals, climate change goals, and other departmental capital prioritization policies.
Propose project intake reforms to ensure new capital projects maximize public benefit while addressing investment disparities throughout the City.
Propose project closeout reforms to ensure delivered projects maintain a good state of repair with sufficient operations and maintenance resources.
Assess the City’s fiscal capacity and long-term financial considerations based on the above-referenced asset life-cycle data, to help the Mayor, City Council, policymakers and the public understand the true costs of constructing and maintaining the City’s assets, and the costs of maintenance deferrals, so that budgeting can be more informed and justified.
Document desired features and requirements for a common Citywide inter-departmental capital project management information system. This system shall allow for integration with asset management and customer relationship management systems. The Committee shall develop plans for enhancing existing departmental project management information systems, while planning for and procuring a new system or systems.
Executed this 16th day of October, 2024
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KAREN BASS
Mayor