Santa Cruz County Grand Jury • 2024-2025 • Agency Response
Response to: Santa Cruz County Local Roads

Santa Cruz County Local Roads a smooth path through paradise or a hell of a road?

Published: June 05, 2024 49 pages
Ver PDF original

Findings and Recommendations 11 findings

F1 Page 14
Underfunding the road and culvert maintenance work on the 586 miles of County roads in unincorporated Santa Cruz County for more than four decades has created a backlog of deferred maintenance currently exceeding ¾ of a billion dollars which creates a hazard for residents.
No recommendations for this finding
F2 Page 14
Due to the large shortfall in funding, Santa Cruz County Department of Public Works adheres to the accepted practice promoted by the Federal Highway Administration and RTC of prioritizing pavement preservation over pavement restoration. Much of the public lacks awareness of this practice in the absence of a formally documented policy which impacts voter choices.
No recommendations for this finding
F3 Page 14
The County road maintenance strategy differs by Supervisorial District leading to inconsistent road repair expectations among districts. This lack of a coordinated strategy leaves residents frustrated and with a sense of unfair treatment.
No recommendations for this finding
F4 Page 14
Storms of 2017 and 2023 caused significant road failures. Contributing factors were inadequate culvert, drainage ditch, and road surface maintenance which led to culvert failures and full road washouts leaving residents stranded or incurring significant delay.
No recommendations for this finding
F5 Page 14
The County of Santa Cruz has failed to ask unincorporated County voters to increase the funding of the Special District 9D (1-3) road assessment fee since its inception in 1988, which has resulted in a drastic loss of revenue for maintaining County roads.
No recommendations for this finding
F6 Page 14
The County of Santa Cruz has failed to perform resurfacing maintenance on many of the smaller unincorporated local roads, resulting in higher failure rates and at least a 10 times increased maintenance cost when and if those roads are resurfaced.
No recommendations for this finding
F7 Page 14
Santa Cruz County's neglect of unincorporated local roads for many decades has led to an average Pavement Condition Index of less than 48 (as of 2019) which is 17 points below the statewide average. With the current funding level, it is projected to be 38 in 2024, and it is further projected to drop to 33 by 2028 which will leave the County in a position to experience higher catastrophic road failures.
No recommendations for this finding
F8 Page 14
The County prioritizes preventive maintenance of roads in fair to good condition over road repair and reconstruction due to limited discretionary funds. As a result, many residents in local road areas will have to contend with very poor/failed roads into the foreseeable future.
No recommendations for this finding
F9 Page 14
The most recent LAFCO and County reports fail to provide detailed accounting of how 9D funds are being spent. The result is that taxpayers lack the information to ensure that generated funds are being used appropriately.
No recommendations for this finding
F10 Page 14
Minor progress has been made in seeking and securing additional funding sources. The additional funding is far short of what is needed to maintain and repair the road network. Santa Cruz County Local Roads published June 5, 2024
No recommendations for this finding
F11 Page 15
Measure K funds go directly into the General Fund and road maintenance funding expenditures are only recommended. This may allow the funding to go to other needs.
No recommendations for this finding

Conclusions 1