America In Disrepair: Public Property Needs More Maintenance UA Professor, Report Contend

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Most Americans would be appalled if they knew the condition of public buildings they paid more than 300 billion dollars to build, according to U of A professor Jack Buffington. This substantial portfolio of public assets is deteriorating rapidly.

In a study conducted for the National Research Council and published by the National Academy of Sciences, Buffington and his team found that many agencies are responsible for more buildings than they need to support their missions. In addition, as buildings age, maintenance needs increase, but funding for maintenance does not.

Buffington, who is chairman of the Federal Facilities Council. was invited to present his findings at the annual conference of the Real Property Institute of Canada on Nov. 23 in Hull, Quebec. The Real Property Institute is the agency in charge of Canadian government properties.

"It is a common problem," explained Buffington "There is a lack of stewardship for our federal facilities at the highest levels. When political appointees take over federal agencies, they may only be in office for a couple of years, so most want to accomplish something people can see, not fix leaky roofs. This understandable attitude, which has nothing to do with whether Democrats or Republicans are in office, is projected down through government agencies and our facilities continue to deteriorate. Until commitment at the highest levels is instituted, and officials recognize that facilities play an important role in the mission of an agency, our facilities will continue this downward spiral."

"The Canadians have much the same problems that we do," said Buffington. "And for many of the same reasons."

Buffington’s 10-person research team was charged with developing a methodology that facilities managers could use to formulate maintenance budgets. However, they found that so little data was available that formulating a methodology was impossible. They recommended instituting methods and strategies that would provide useful data for developing a methodology.

The researchers also found that existing technologies have the ability to monitor and maintain a range of building environments. However, for economic and other reasons, these technologies have not been implemented in many federal facilities. They also found that staff members were inadequately trained in facilities management, condition assessments and maintenance and repair budgeting, impairing their ability to make effective decisions.

Calling the underfunding of facilities maintenance and repair "a persistent, long-standing problem," the researchers found that pressures on federal agency managers "encourage them to divert potential maintenance and repair funds to support current operations, to meet new legislative requirements or to pay for operating new facilities coming online."

Researchers found that some federal agencies are responsible for more facilities than they need to support their mission or have money to maintain. In addition, although facilities managers are encouraged to be more businesslike and innovative, current government processes have disincentives and institutional barriers to cost-effective facilities maintenance.

Little research has been done on the deterioration/failure rates of the buildings or the impact of building maintenance. Federal conditions assessment programs are characterized as "labor intensive, time consuming and expensive." As a result, agencies have "limited success in making effective use of the data they gather for timely budget development or the ongoing management of facilities."

In addition to developing a strategic framework for maintaining and repairing federal facilities, Buffington’s team made 12 specific recommendations for dealing with the nation’s rapidly deteriorating facilities. These recommendations ranged from increased staff training and implementation of technologies to fostering accountability at all levels.

Researchers recommended that the government should adopt more standardized budgeting and cost accounting techniques and establish government-wide performance measures. They also supported empowering facilities managers by removing barriers and disincentives for cost-effective use of maintenance funds.

The team recommended reducing the size of the federal facilities portfolio by directly linking facilities to the agency mission, requiring every agency to justify its facilities in light of its mission. They stressed limiting new construction and adapting existing buildings to new uses or transferring them to other public organizations.

"Facilities that are functionally obsolete, are not needed to support an agency’s mission, are not historically significant and are not suitable for transfer or adaptive reuse should be demolished whenever it is cost effective to do so," according to the researchers.