The City of Vista uses Cityworks and GIS to support multiple stormwater functions, including asset management, municipal code enforcement, facility inspections, and regulatory reporting.
The City maintains its storm drain asset data, such as open channels, pipes, structures (inlets, manholes, outlets, cleanouts, etc.), and structural Best Management Practices (BMPs), such as detention basins, bioretention basins, or treatment manholes, in the GIS. A wide range of attribute data is associated with these assets and is routinely updated as projects are completed or field corrections are identified.
The Public Works Streets and Stormwater Division uses Cityworks as a core function in its workflow through the use of service requests, inspections, and work orders. By tracking incoming work through service requests, field staff can assess and document conditions on wireless devices by using inspection forms in Cityworks. Based on inspection results, work orders can be created automatically, thereby tying the service requests, inspections, and work orders together. Doing so allows work to be tracked and reported, particularly for regulatory reports associated with the City’s NPDES MS4 Permit. City staff can also generate reports summarizing asset work history such as the number of inlets or length of pipe inspected and cleaned, as well as inspection and maintenance frequency for structural BMPs.
The Engineering/Stormwater Division uses both the AMS and PLL components of Cityworks. A primary function is to manage citizen complaints, ensure compliance, and track enforcement actions. When staff investigates potential violations of the City’s municipal code, case information is retained in Cityworks. Photographs, contact information, enforcement actions, and case details are all stored within a uniquely identified case. Data stored with the case allows staff to readily query the case history based on geographic location, case type, nature of discharge, and many other characteristics. Cityworks is also used as a foundation for conducting stormwater compliance inspections of local businesses. Forms in Cityworks provide a template for inspectors to use, facilitating consistent inspection procedures and data collection. As with enforcement cases, staff are able to readily query historic inspection data. Tablets allow data collection to be entered into Cityworks while in the field. Similar to tracking publicly-owned structural BMPs, Cityworks is used to track inspections, maintenance, and annual certification for privately-owned structural BMPs.
Ultimately, the collection and management of data in Cityworks allows the City to more readily report on activities that support NPDES MS4 Permit compliance. Multiple reports in Cityworks provide both “snapshot” and end-of-year summaries for data that must be reported to regulatory agencies to demonstrate compliance with the permit.