Don't Let it "Slide": Moving to Proactive Asset Management

Capital Planning is a balancing act of: the maintenance of assets that are currently in place, seeing the asset needs for the future, measuring the gaps that require new facility investments, and thinking about the available revenues that are available to make these expenditures. The perceived lack of visibility for investment in current assets often yields annual budgets with unfortunate realities like deferred maintenance in the operating budget and losing the high-stakes annual capital improvement plan pageant to new projects in the capital budget. The deficit of investments in existing assets is a lack of stewardship that leaves jurisdictions vulnerable to the most expensive class of potential asset costs; emergency purchases for asset failure. This panel will explore the concepts and tools that finance departments can utilize to move thinking from Reactive to Proactive in the stewardship of assets like the master plan, consideration of levels of service, and the structure of decision making relative to the capital plan.