City worker shortage slows pothole repairs

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

City crews are hustling to maintain streets and repair damage from recent storms, but nearly one in three jobs at the city department that patches potholes remains empty after years of tight budgets that may be cut further.

"They work hard and they're dedicated, but we're tasking them very hard and we're pushing them," city maintenance director Larry Leopardi warned.

More than 220 of the 778 jobs at the Department of Facility Maintenance are vacant, and the proposed city budget calls for trimming $160,000 from its Division of Road Maintenance, Leopardi told City Council members yesterday.

"We're at 29 percent vacancy and we've been that way for a number of years," he said. "It's tough. It's hard to run an organization with the resources that are available."

Council members repeatedly questioned whether road repairs have fallen behind because of the staff shortages. Leopardi said that's hard to quantify, but that roads would last longer if the city took better care of them.

"Maintenance is never done," he said. "Maintenance has to be funded every single year and it has to be done adequately every single year."

More than $2 million that was authorized for road maintenance went unspent last year because hiring limits were imposed, he said.

"We did not hire enough personnel," he said. "We were restricting what we were doing."

Leopardi said he understands that all city departments are under pressure to save money, but that spending cuts can cost more in the long run if roads or equipment deteriorate heavily.

"Typically, because maintenance is looked at as something that can be deferred, we're kind of like stepchildren here," he said. "... That is probably not cost effective. If you can correct something before the damage becomes greater, it's more cost effective."

Council budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi agreed that straining the city's workforce to save money was shortsighted.

"The unfairness is that these good workers have to carry the load because of the vacancies," she said. "I've always questioned these high vacancy rates. It may look good on the surface — yes, we're keeping costs down — but look what's happening underneath."

In addition to repairing roads, the department takes care of bridges, streams, buildings and vehicles. While the budget calls for trimming road maintenance money, overall spending would increase $1.3 million. Nearly all the added costs are due to salary increases required by labor agreements.

Kobayashi said she has no doubt the city has fallen far behind on road repairs, and that it will be hard to catch up. But she praised Leopardi for being candid about the situation.

"He's like a breath of fresh air," she said.

The poor condition of many Honolulu streets has been a growing concern after heavy rains that drenched the state this winter, eroding road beds and causing potholes that turned some streets into moonscapes.

The city pays private contractors to do major road repairs and resurfacing, and Mayor Jeremy Harris has proposed to spend $40 million on such work next year.

Harris has defended his administration's road repair record by pointing out that $137 million was spent on resurfacing during the past nine years, up $21 million from the nine years before that.

But the number of lane miles resurfaced has fluctuated sharply during the past 15 years, dropping steadily from 319 miles in 1989 to a low of 35 miles in 2000, city records show.

More than 100 miles were resurfaced in each of the following two years. Kobayashi said she has requested updated figures from the administration and expects to receive them soon.

Reach Johnny Brannon at 525-8070 or jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com.