San Diego’s nearly $5 billion infrastructure funding gap would be about $1 billion larger if the city included hundreds of maintenance projects that officials postpone and ignore, according to a city audit.

Postponing those projects, which include roof patches and minor repairs to air conditioning systems, will increase long-term costs by forcing the city to replace entire buildings sooner than necessary, according to the 57-page audit.

“While deferring maintenance can save money in the short term, deferring maintenance results in higher future costs and can impact city services, worker morale, and the city’s overall reputation,” the audit says.

It may also deprive city leaders of an accurate picture of how far behind they are on infrastructure projects. The audit says deferred maintenance should be included in future assessments of the city’s infrastructure deficit.

If included, it would likely represent the second-largest deficit, behind only stormwater. In evaluation of last winterthe stormwater deficit was $1.6 billion, the streets deficit was $989 million, and the parks deficit was $801 million.

The audit says the roughly $25 million San Diego spends annually on facility maintenance represents only 8% to 18% of what the city should spend.

This is based on the National Research Council’s recommendations that cities should spend between 2% and 4% of the replacement value of their assets on routine facility maintenance each year.

San Diego’s 1,600 buildings and facilities have an estimated net value (or replacement value) of $7.2 billion, which would require an annual expenditure of between $143 million and $287 million on routine maintenance.

The audit also says the city is spending those limited resources incorrectly.

He says best practices dictate that government agencies should spend 30% of facility maintenance money on repairs and 70% on preventative maintenance projects.

By contrast, San Diego spends 87% of its facility maintenance money on repairs and only 13% on preventive maintenance.

“We found that the continued lack of funding for facility maintenance has also resulted in the Facilities Services Division having to take a reactive approach to maintenance, meaning the city is fixing facility components when they are break and delaying repairs until you have the necessary staff time and funds,” the report said. says the audit. “This pattern has created a significant backlog of deferred maintenance and limits Facilities Services’ ability to perform preventive maintenance.”

To help solve this problem, the audit said the city should develop a facilities management plan to track and report maintenance needs and decide how to address them and how much money is needed for each project.

The audit also recommends that the city use that plan to create a long-term funding strategy to address both annual maintenance needs and deferred maintenance.

A third recommendation is that the city establish a goal for the percentage of the facility’s total replacement value that the city intends to spend annually on facility maintenance. The city is now spending 0.4% of its $7.2 billion facility replacement value, well below the recommended 2% to 4%.

In the city’s defense, the audit says San Diego is far from alone in postponing maintenance, because it’s a way for cities to make ends meet: spending money on immediate priorities and postponing less immediate ones.

“The National Research Council says underfunding for maintenance and repair is such a prevalent practice in the public sector that it has become a de facto policy that worsens the problem each year as the backlog of needs grows. maintenance,” says the audit.

City officials agreed with all of the audit’s recommendations, but stressed that meeting them would require more money.

“Significant investment in the Facilities Services Division is required to correct underfunding issues and to take necessary steps for ongoing maintenance to protect the city’s investments in its facilities,” wrote two officials, Comptroller Rolando Charvel and General Services Director Musheerah Little in a letter to City Auditor Andy Hanau.