City Auditor Matthew Grady has conducted an independent review of the Street Maintenance Fee Special Revenue Fund. He has published his findings for public review. The audit objectives were to: (1) review Street Maintenance Special Revenue Fund revenues and expenditures for fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022; and (2) review street maintenance activities.
City Auditor identified the introduction of the Transportation Division’s Mill and Overlay program as one of the more significant outcomes of the Street Maintenance Fee increase approved by City Council in FY 2021. In fiscal years 2021 and 2022, the Division completed a total of 26 center lane miles of Mill and Overlay work, focusing first on main thoroughfares affected by Winter Storm Uri. Prior to the fee increase, limited resources had restricted the Transportation Division primarily to the best practice of “keeping good roads, good” through preventative maintenance. While preventative maintenance is the most cost-effective use of scarce resources, the absence of a robust Mill and Overlay program had nevertheless left the City’s wide swath of deteriorated streets largely unaddressed. Under the enhanced street maintenance fee structure, expenditures for Mill and Overlay treatments have averaged about $2.5 million, or about 60 percent of the Division’s $4.3 million operations budget.
While the Transportation Division is making good progress with its Mill and Overlay program, the current budget for street maintenance operations is based on the City’s FY 2019 pavement condition assessment, which predated Winter Storm Uri and therefore did not consider the estimated $40 million in damages inflicted by the storm. The City Auditor recommended that management work closely with the Transportation Division to identify other Uri-affected streets in need of timely intervention and consider expanding the Mill and Overlay program if warranted and additional funds become available.
All City of Killeen Audit Reports can be found on our website at www.KilleenTexas.gov/Auditor.