Title
Authorizing the City to allocate funds temporarily held in the Public Works Traffic Engineering accounting unit, and re-distributing them amongst multiple city departments to finance an aggressive initiative designed to mitigate copper-wire theft and vandalization of City lighting fixtures.
Body
WHEREAS, the City of St. Paul maintains over 33,000 streetlights which contribute to the city’s safety and positive public appearance, and
WHEREAS, there is an ongoing problem of city-owned street light poles being vandalized and emptied of their essential copper wire, rendering lighting infrastructure inoperable and non-functioning, and
WHEREAS, the city is embracing an aggressive initiative to protect its infrastructure from such theft, and is working to implement a variety of preventive measures for this endeavor, and
WHEREAS, as winter approaches and the ground and street structures become frozen it would become impossible to implement these planned measures, necessitating a short turnaround time for these funds’ allocations, and
WHEREAS, there is currently $355,991 in available funds to address the issues and solutions discussed above, which will be further distributed as follows:
● Parks and Recreation Department:
○ $20,000 - Pilot new light poles
○ $5,000 - Explore new theft deterrent devices
○ $15,000 - Pilot theft deterrent measure
● St Paul Police Department:
○ $10,000 - Explore new theft deterrent devices
● Public Works - Traffic Engineering:
○ $140,991 - Explore/Research solar lights specifications/design standard, testing, etc.
● Public Works - Traffic Operations:
○ $20,000 - Expand theft notification locations systems
○ $5,000 - Explore new theft deterrent measures
○ $100,000 - Address public safety with banded access doors
● Department of Safety and Inspections:
○ $40,000 - Regulatory enforcement activities
WHEREAS, the Mayor, pursuant to Section 10.07.4 in of the Charter of the City of Saint Paul does certify that there are appropriations available to transfer between departments,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Council of the City of Saint Paul, upon recommendation of the Mayor, that the city operating budget, as heretofore adopted and amended by this Council, be hereby further amended in the particulars as specified in the attached financial analysis.
Financial Analysis
See Attachment.