Report 2018-127 Recommendation 7 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 #7 To: University, California State

The Chancellor's Office should not approve any request to build a new parking facility unless the requesting campus has submitted this information (recommendations 5 and 6) and the Chancellor's Office has reviewed and approved it.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020

As originally reported in August 2019, the CSU's division of Capital Planning, Design and Construction (CPDC) has taken steps to ensure more meticulous implementation of existing CSU policy, as demonstrated in examples provided to the State Auditor at that time. In addition, 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.

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.

Completion Date: August 2020

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

In its annual update response, the Chancellor's Office provided an example that it is has implemented this recommendation. The Chancellor's Office received a request for a campus to reconstruct parking facilities 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

Completion Date: March 2020
Response Date: June 2020

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

The Chancellor's office has not received any requests to build new parking facilities since creating its updated policy in March 2020. We will assess the Chancellor's Office's actions to implement this recommendation in its next annual response.

Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation

6-Month Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office previously provided examples of follow up with two campuses to request additional information before the Chancellor's Office would approve requests to build new parking facilities. Since that time, the Chancellor's Office has drafted a revised policy to further address the information campuses must provide when requesting to build a new parking facility. The draft policy is undergoing review and is expected to be finalized by the end of January 2020.

Estimated Completion Date: January 2020
Response Date: December 2019

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

60-Day Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office is already requiring the information outlined in recommendation 5 and has used those experiences to draft and circulate updated policy in response to recommendation 6. Once the draft policy and programs have been reviewed and accepted, we will formalize all of the new requirements for requests to build a parking facility.

Estimated Completion Date: January 2020
Response Date: August 2019

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

All Recommendations in 2018-127

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.