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City of Charlotte reviewing status of dozens of capital projects

By Joe Bruno, wsoctv.com
By Joe Bruno, wsoctv.com

RALEIGH — A $77 million shortfall for the Cross Charlotte Trail may be only the tip of the iceberg.

The city of Charlotte is currently reviewing 185 capital projects after City Manager Marcus Jones said previous “big ideas” from the 2014, 2016 and 2018 bonds did not have scoping and cost estimates until after Charlotte City Council approval.

[City Council: City short millions in effort to build Cross Charlotte Trail]

Voters may have been promised projects at one cost when in reality, they cost a different amount.

“If you define that as, ‘This is what it is going to take to finish (the) project and bring it to fruition,’ yes, I think voters were misled,” Councilman Tariq Bokhari said.

Jones blamed the issue on people who had big ideas and good intentions.

Bokhari said the issue does not involve Jones and he appreciates the county manager’s disclosing the issue.

“Before things are pitched to the city, you have to have a general idea of what the planning, design and costs and timeline all look like,” Bokhari said. “I think the culture over the last decade has not been conducive to that.”

[Charlotte City Council to discuss four-year terms]

In the past, scopes, engineer cost estimates and preplanning were done after Charlotte City Council approval. In the future, preplanning, detailed budget analysis, cost estimates and scope will be done before the city manager recommends the project to the City Council for approval.

“There are two big flaws here: one, that the work has never been done up front, and the other is, years went by when people knew this,” Bokhari said. “We have to make sure we don't make the mistakes of the last five to seven years that is going to require us holding people to account.”

The 185 projects under review by Jones are all at different stages. He hopes to have a full report for council at a future budget meeting.

“My goal is to put it all out there, and we will deal with what we have,” Jones said. “Now we know our universe. Now is the time to start peeling away at the universe so we can have a conversation about this.”

The city of Charlotte is still exploring funding options for the Cross Charlotte Trail. Jones hopes to present options to the council on Monday.

Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt said the focus of this year’s budget should not be adding or subtracting, but rather it should be getting things right.

“The good news is we have a city manager and a deputy city manager who discovered these things,” Eiselt said. “The bad news is they discovered these things, so I think our focus will be on getting things right.”

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