Report 2018-127 Recommendation 5 Responses

Report 2018-127: California State University: It Failed to Fully Disclose Its $1.5 Billion Surplus, and It Has Not Adequately Invested in Alternatives to Costly Parking Facilities (Release Date: June 2019)

Recommendation #5 To: University, California State

To ensure that campuses thoroughly investigate and consider alternate transportation strategies, the Chancellor's Office should immediately enforce its policy and require campuses to submit the following information when they request to build new parking facilities:

- Up-to-date master plans and transportation management plans that include as key components their plans for implementing alternate transportation strategies.

- Information on whether and to what extent their alternate transportation strategies have decreased parking demand and evidence that projected parking demand justifies building a new parking facility.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020

The Chancellor's Office previously provided two examples demonstrating implementation of this recommendation. Since our last response, the Chancellor's Office received a request from a campus to make parking lot improvements as part of a larger project. The request did not include required information such as an up-to-date master plan and transportation management plan, or information on whether and to what extent their alternative transportation strategies have decreased parking demand and evidence that projected parking demand justifies the improvements. The Chancellor's Office informed the campus that its submission lacked required information and the campus subsequently removed the parking improvements from the scope of work.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

During its 60-day response, the Chancellor's Office demonstrated that it was taking steps to implement the recommendation. For one campus requesting to build a new parking structure, the Chancellor's Office provided information on to what extent their alternate transportation strategies decreased parking demand. The Chancellor's Office also provided evidence that it followed up with another campus to provide additional information related to parking demand and alternate transportation. In its October 2020 annual follow up response, the Chancellor's Office provided one additional example that it enforced the Transportation and Parking policy when a campus requested to reconstruct parking lots as part of a campus project. The Chancellor's Office informed the campus that it did not provide a required parking feasibility study, and ultimately the campus did not move forward with plans to reconstruct the parking lots.

1-Year Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office continues to assert that this recommendation is fully implemented. Since our previous response, the Chancellor's Office issued a new Transportation and Parking Policy in March 2020 that requires campuses to submit the information recommended by the State Auditor when requesting to build a new parking facility. In addition, we will continue the practice of enforcing the policy requirements, as we did in the two examples provided in our 60-day response, but there have been no additional submissions from campuses requesting to build new parking structures. Moreover, given the current environment surrounding COVID-19 and the likelihood that more courses may be offered online in the future, we believe it is unlikely that campuses will be submitting requests to build new parking structures in the near future. We respectfully request that the State Auditor consider reassessing this recommendation as fully implemented based on the examples provided previously as well as the new policy issued in March 2020.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

During its 60-day response, the Chancellor's Office demonstrated that it is taking steps to implement the recommendation. For one campus requesting to build a new parking structure, the Chancellor's Office provided information on to what extent their alternate transportation strategies decreased parking demand. The Chancellor's Office also provided evidence that it followed up with another campus to provide additional information related to parking demand and alternate transportation. In its six-month and 1-year responses, the Chancellor's Office did not provide additional examples because there had not been additional requests from campuses. We will assess the Chancellor's Office's actions to implement this recommendation during its next 1-year response.

6-Month Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office continues to assert that this recommendation is fully implemented. We will continue the practice of enforcing the policy requirements, but there have been no additional submissions from campuses requesting to build new parking structures and we do not know when any future submissions may occur.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

During its 60-day response, the Chancellor's Office demonstrated that it is taking steps to implement the recommendation. For one campus requesting to build a new parking structure, the Chancellor's Office provided information on to what extent their alternate transportation strategies decreased parking demand. The Chancellor's Office also provided evidence that it followed up with another campus to provide additional information related to parking demand and alternate transportation. In its six-month response, the Chancellor's Office did not provide additional examples because there had not been additional requests from campuses. We will assess the Chancellor's Office's actions to implement this recommendation during its 1-year response.

60-Day Agency Response

In July 2019, Chancellor's Office representatives met with campus parking directors to discuss the implementation of the audit recommendations. In addition, the CSU's division of Capital Planning, Design and Construction (CPDC) has taken steps to ensure more meticulous implementation of CSU policy. For example, for a proposed parking structure at the Fullerton campus, CPDC notified campus representatives of the additional information they needed to provide in order to proceed with the process. Further, for a proposed parking structure at the Dominguez Hills campus, CPDC sent a detailed memo to the campus interim vice president outlining additional issues the campus must address before proceeding further with the project.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

The Chancellor's Office has demonstrated that it is taking steps to implement the recommendation. For one campus requesting to build a new parking structure, the Chancellor's Office provided information on to what extent their alternate transportation strategies decreased parking demand. The Chancellor's Office also provided evidence that it followed up with another campus to provide additional information related to parking demand and alternate transportation. The Chancellor's Office should continue this practice and provide additional examples in its six-month response to our recommendations.

All Recommendations in 2018-127

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.