Last night, Supervisor Desmond and key staff members from the County Department of Transportation (SacDOT)  held the final session of their annual meetings about the sad state of the County's roadway network. Supervisor Desmond started the meeting by saying his district has a significant portion of the unincorporated area of the county, noting that the unincorporated areas are not well-served. He listed his top priorities as being:

• Dealing with homelessness - in terms of housing, public health and enforcement,
• Getting the Board of Supervisors to pay more attention to unincorporated communities - via code enforcement and much more, and
• Fixing the roads - the County spends $30 million a year on road maintenance but needs double that amount just to contain the maintenance backlog.

According to SacDOT Director Ron Vicari, the County's unincorporated area roads are worth $8 billion, but, as he has said in prior years, the condition of the pavement is "poor", based on engineering standards used to determine the cost-effectiveness of maintenance procedures. To be fair, Sacramento County's standing on the "poor" scale is at the upper end of "poor", meaning it's not a total disaster - yet. He said Sacramento County's roads are not the worst in the state among counties, but their status isn't great in comparison with local cities.

Mr. Vicari said the cost of the maintenance backlog has risen to over $1.4 billion, primarily due to inflation and damage from storms in 2022-2023. He added that increased spending by the County over the last 4 fiscal years has stabilized the deterioration of the roadway network, but stated that a lot more money would be needed to keep the system from failing. Counties get most of their roadway maintenance funds from federal and state sources (e.g. gas taxes) that are distributed by regional councils of government like our region's Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG). As in past years, Supervisor Desmond and his SacDOT team said SACOG's rules for use of the transportation funds are not aligned with the County's "fix it first" needs.

Audience questions and comments pointed out desires for specific roadway improvements, not all of which require the County to spend money. They also addressed sidewalk gaps, bicycle and pedestrian safety and the need for abatement of the extensive litter along the roads. Supervisor Desmond urged people to use the 311 system to report problems like litter and potholes. He concluded the meeting by saying his next round of community meetings will most likely focus on the homelessness situation.