Maint, Ops, Pres, Imprvmts and Admin | Public Works and Utilities

Public Works & Utilities >> Communication and Accountability >> Performance Measures >> MOPIA

What is MOPIA at Public Works and Utilities?

Maintenance, Operations, Preservation, Improvements and Administration

Maintenance is considered a routine activity associated with repairing a physical asset or keeping the physical asset functional during the asset's useful life. Maintenance of the roadways--such as repairing potholes or cleaning streets and culverts--is a logical example of a maintenance activity.

In other Public Works and Utilities programs, a less obvious maintenance activity is the maintenance of our levee systems.

Operations (or operating a system) include the costs and activities associated with the continued and highest and best use of an asset. Public Works and Utilities operations can include activities such as cleaning sewer pipes, retiming traffic signals, and removing snow and ice from the roadways.

Providing public education on how to best use a system, responding to constituent requests and questions, sewer billing and collections are also regarded as activities associated with the efficient operations of a system.

Preservation activities can be confused with the capital improvement of a system. Preservation is actually the replacement or repair of an asset after it has reached its useful life to accomplish the same overall function.

Some simple examples of preservation are the replacement of a bridge or the paving of a roadway. Other preservation activities in Public Works and Utilities such as replacing a pump at a pump station or replacing a failed pipe in a water collections system are also good examples.

An Improvement primarily improves the capacity or function of an asset. Any activity in the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) is considered an improvement activity. In Public Works and Utilities, even the actions associated with the identification or development of the CIP is considered an improvement activity.

Administration of a project or programs involves the management, planning, and coordination of the overall asset. Examples of administration activities include the management of boards or committees, planning activities such as basin planning or work on an Environmental Impact Statement.

In Public Works and Utilities, maintaining records and the participation in department wide programs is also considered an administration activity.