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4. Evaluate and Prioritize Projects <br />5. Evaluate Funding Options <br />6. Program Funding between Prioritized Capital Projects <br />7. Adopt Capital Program and Capital Improvement Budget <br /> <br /> <br />Project Selection <br />The refinements proposed for evaluating and prioritizing projects will be explained and <br />then a recommendation will be made to approve the described process for the selection of <br />CIP projects. <br /> <br />Our process refinement is in the development of evaluation criteria to provide an <br />economics based guide for project selection. The domain of economics is the study of <br />processes by which scarce resources are allocated to satisfy unlimited wants. Our CIP <br />project selection is one of those economic processes wherein the scare resource of money <br />is allocated among our list of proposed CIP projects. As a City we must continually <br />consider whether existing assets are still needed and balance funding for replacing aging <br />capital assets with meeting new needs. An economist will tell us that our decisions are <br />good if they maximize return on investment. While the return or benefit of our projects is <br />hard to quantify, the CIP selection exercise hinges upon the comparison of benefits or <br />value for each alternative use of the money. Current best practice for making these <br />decisions, as outlined in “Capital Improvement Programming – A Guide for Smaller <br />Governments”, and as used by such organizations as the City of Baltimore, MD and <br />District of Wairoa, New Zeeland, relies upon a calculation of the Economic, Social, and <br />Environmental value of each project. <br /> <br />We have developed 8 categories to help judge project value: <br />1. Fiscal Impact <br />2. Economic Development Impact <br />3. Liability, Risk, Public Health, and Safety <br />4. Protection of Existing Facilities and Lifespan <br />5. Quality of Life <br />6. Population Served <br />7. External of Internal Mandate <br />8. One Time Funding Leverage <br />A description of each category can be found in the table at the end of this document. <br /> <br /> These categories are generally aligned with those in the guidebook but each has been <br />selected and defined with consideration for the values of our community. Each project <br />will be scored from low (zero) to high (three) in each category. Scores will be discussed <br />by the CIP committee and presented to council at a budget work session for their <br />adjustment and approval. Although most projects won’t have detailed estimates prepared <br />at this time we will include information on the likely cost of each project. <br /> <br />We anticipate not only that these categories aren’t equally important, but also that their <br />relative importance may change over time. In recognition of this we propose that each