Understanding San Diego’s $5 Million CMMS Municipalities Study

The San Diego Union-Tribune broke a story that’s got everyone in facility management talking. The City of San Diego just approved a $5 million CMMS Municipalities Study—an ambitious initiative designed to evaluate more than 1,600 city-owned buildings and find a better way to manage repairs, maintenance, and capital planning.

At its core, the study aims to help city officials shift away from constantly reacting to emergencies and move toward a preventive maintenance management model. Right now, about 87% of San Diego’s maintenance budget still goes to reactive, corrective work. Only 13% supports preventive maintenance—and that imbalance is costing taxpayers millions every year.

---

Why San Diego’s $5 Million CMMS Municipalities Study Matters

The city’s last major asset condition assessment dates back nearly a decade, around 2014. Trying to run a municipal maintenance program with data that old is like trying to plan your household repairs using your grandfather’s to-do list. A good place to start, but not enough to get ahead.

With aging facilities and a growing backlog—estimated at over $1 billion in deferred maintenance—city leaders say the San Diego CMMS Municipalities Study will deliver a roadmap for smarter infrastructure investments. Councilman Kent Lee and Deputy Director Hal Leggate both emphasized that the audit will clarify priorities and expose the real cost of continued delays.

Still, some are questioning the move. Councilmember Moreno backed the study but asked the hard question many residents are wondering: What’s the immediate return on investment if we’re closing libraries while spending millions on another report?

It’s a fair point. San Diego’s been through this before—another round of analysis that ends up collecting dust while the buildings continue to age.

---

How a CMMS Transforms Municipal Maintenance

That’s why we see this moment as an opportunity to go further than just a study. What San Diego—and every city facing a maintenance crisis—really needs is a living system of data, not just another binder of information.

That’s where a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) comes in. Instead of performing one-time audits, a CMMS for municipalities enables ongoing data collection, scheduling, and asset tracking across every department and facility.

Imagine this: rather than waiting a decade between assessments, every work order, inspection, and repair is logged in real time. Facility managers and city staff can view dashboards that show exactly what’s been done, what’s overdue, and what it’s costing.

With a solution like MPET from Four Winds CMMS, each building in the city could have its maintenance history and upcoming service needs updated automatically. Crews could report issues from the field using mobile devices, keeping information fresh and decisions data-driven.

That’s the difference behind an active system rather than San Diego’s $5 Million CMMS Municipalities Study—not just understanding the problem, but equipping the city to begin fixing issues and track progress.

---

From Reports to Real-Time Results: The Preventive Maintenance Shift

When cities rely only on studies like these, they get static data. But with a CMMS, they get continuous improvement. Every month, city officials could measure how far they’ve shifted from that 87% reactive benchmark toward a healthier preventive balance.

A CMMS also stops the endless rework that plagues municipal maintenance. With centralized scheduling and visibility, the left hand finally knows what the right hand is doing. No more approving a roof replacement only to find out the IT department is cutting a new hole for wiring two weeks later.

Instead, you get collaboration, accountability, and a living digital record that keeps improving over time. That’s how you break the cycle of crisis repairs and budget surprises.

---

Implementing CMMS for Municipalities: The Smarter Investment

Here’s the reality: a single study costs millions and still leaves the city waiting for action. But with the same investment, a CMMS rollout, San Diego could begin transforming its maintenance strategy today.

From the moment you enter a building’s data, you can:

• Automate preventive work orders and inspections.
• Track costs, vendors, and warranties in one place.
• Generate performance reports and audit trails automatically.
• Provide transparent progress updates to taxpayers and leadership alike.

Instead of paying consultants every five years for another snapshot, the city would own a live system that evolves every day—optimizing spending, improving uptime, and building community trust.

---

What Cities Can Learn from San Diego’s CMMS Approach

What San Diego is doing could become a national case study for smarter municipal asset management. Other cities should watch closely, because the challenge is universal: aging infrastructure, tight budgets, and the growing need for efficiency.

A CMMS for municipalities is more than software—it’s a mindset shift. It’s about treating maintenance as an ongoing process rather than a recurring emergency.

And that’s the real takeaway from San Diego’s $5 Million CMMS Municipalities Study. The city hasn’t changed its mindset in the past 10 years. They are just auditing assets rather than taking a crucial first step toward digital transformation in public infrastructure.

---

Want to See What’s Possible?

If you’re part of a city team, facilities department, or just a taxpayer who cares about smarter spending, check out Four Winds CMMS.

We help municipalities move from patching problems to preventing them—every day, in real time.

Let’s make sure the next maintenance report doesn’t sit on a shelf—it lives in a system that works.