surface & stormwater management performance audit final report

Surface & Storm Water Management Performance Audit
Kitsap County, Washington
Final Report
I. INTRODUCTION
As part of its proposed budget for 2005, the Kitsap County Surface and Stormwater Management
(SSWM) Program in the County’s Department of Public Works proposed an increase in its rates.
After a review of the proposed rate increases, the County Board of Commissioners determined
that a comprehensive performance audit was needed to determine if the SSWM Program
functions in a way that is consistent with applicable laws, regulations, and policies and to
determine whether the stormwater utility is operating effectively, efficiently and economically.
The County Board of Commissioners identified the following specific tasks to be conducted:
• Review SSWM program activities for consistency with policy direction provided by the
County's Board of Commissioners,
• Compare Kitsap SSWM fees and expenses to other like stormwater utilities,
• Determine required and discretionary programs,
• Review opportunities for outsourcing/privatization,
• Conduct a fiscal review, and
• Review performance measures.
To gather information and conduct analyses to assess the County’s SSWM Program, the
consultant team did the following:
• Interviewed management and staff from Kitsap County’s Public Works and Community
Development Departments, the Kitsap Conservation District, and the Kitsap County
Health District,
• Conducted two SSWM stakeholder meetings,
• Reviewed Kitsap County codes and regulations related to the SSWM program,
• Reviewed and analyzed financial data and budgets, program documents and reports,
annual reports, SSWM literature, and agreements between the SSWM program and other
County departments and other agencies,
• Conducted a survey of SSWM programs in Pierce, Snohomish, and Clark Counties to
compare fees, operating costs, and capital costs, and
• Toured facilities maintained, improved, and regulated by the SSWM program.
Background On SSWM Program
Kitsap County’s SSWM program is the combined effort of two County departments (i.e. Public
Works and Community Development), the Kitsap Conservation District (KCD), and the Kitsap
County Health District (KCHD). The Puget Sound Action Team recently published a case study
about the County’s SSWM program that noted that the County’s program is an “excellent model
of a cooperative partnership” that fulfills the goals of developing a comprehensive stormwater
management program and of taking action to correct sources of non-point pollution that harm
Puget Sound. The program has received awards for Excellence in Environmental Health in 1996
and for Innovative Programs in 1998.
Kitsap County’s Public Works Department is the lead department and has overall responsibility
for the management of the SSWM Program and for coordinating the efforts of the other three
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