This week, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) submitted their review of the California Department of Transportation’s (Caltrans) Capital Outlay Support (COS) program as required by the 2013-14 Budget package. This review was prompted by concerns regarding insufficient information to justify the program’s overall budget and staffing needs. The COS program provides a variety of staffing support necessary to deliver state transportation projects. The adopted Budget package required the LAO to work with the California Department of Finance and Caltrans to provide recommendations to improve the efficiency and accountability of the COS program.
The LAO report uncovered that the COS program:
1. Lacks performance data to adequately measure program effectiveness;
2. Is experiencing decline in workload that will result in significant overstaffing starting in 2014-15; and,
3. Allows for limited legislative and external oversight.
More specifically, the LAO recommends that the Legislature reduce the budget and staffing levels of the program starting with the 2014-15 Budget, improve its staffing projects and data quality, and provide the California Transportation Commission (CTC) with specific oversight and project approval functions that have limited external oversight. RCRC anticipates that these recommendations will result in administrative, budgetary, and legislative proposals to address the LAO’s findings. The detailed LAO report can be accessed here.
For additional information, please contact RCRC Legislative Analyst Randall Echevarria at (916) 447-4806 orrechevarria@rcrcnet.org.