What is the Capital Improvement Program (CIP)?

A major City Council directive given to management was the development of a proactive approach to assess existing and future capital needs.

At its essence, the CIP is a long-range financial planning tool to address the community's needs in the long-term future for improving:

• Streets
• Drainage
• Parks
• Public facilities
• Utilities
• Other City functions

Every year, a citizen survey is conducted online and through the mail asking DeSoto citizens to prioritize suggested projects, then the list is ordered and presented to council for approval. Through this process, the city schedules the improvements over time and in so doing, is able to afford them.

Criteria

Generally projects in the CIP are relatively expensive, nonrecurring, have a multi-year useful life, and result in fixed assets. The criteria for a project to be considered under the CIP is that it:

• Must be at least $100,000 in value
• Must have a life expectancy greater that five years
• Requires vehicles, heavy equipment or machinery that have a value of at least $200,000 or are a part of a larger project such as the addition of a fire substation

Projects are added and deleted from the approved list as a result of adjusted funding or project completion. The CIP:

• Lists each capital project and proposed methods of financing
• Attempts to identify and plan for all major capital needs
• Deals with capital items that are different from those which are covered under the capital outlay category in each department's annual operating budget

The CIP represents the best efforts to allocate available resources toward projects that provide the most benefit for the citizens of DeSoto.

The CIP will be reviewed each year to reflect changing priorities and provide a framework for identifying capital requirements and the impact of capital projects on:

• Operating budgets
• Scheduling
• Coordinating related projects