DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - As City Engineer, Gary Lee Moore pulls the levers on public construction projects from street widenings to the development of the $440 million LAPD headquarters. Since taking over the job as general manager of the Bureau of Engineering in 2003, Moore, a Lynwood native, has overseen some $3.8 billion in public infrastructure efforts.
On Tuesday, Aug. 14, Moore will grab the reins of the city’s Information Technology Agency as interim general manager. The stint is expected to last about three months. During that time, his post as the city’s top engineer will be waiting for him.
Los Angeles Downtown News: What, exactly, does the City Engineer do?
Gary Lee Moore: I oversee 800 dedicated professionals that are involved in a couple different areas. One is delivering capital projects: designing them, project managing them and finally managing the construction of them. We do bridges, new parks and buildings like community centers, libraries, fire stations, police stations. We do projects at the Los Angeles Zoo.
Then of course, we do the sewer system, wastewater treatment projects and then streets. The other major function that we have is we regulate the public right of way, so if you want to put in a new driveway you need to come to the BOE.
Q: Does that make you more of a manager and less of a practicing engineer?
A: I definitely am not on a CAD machine designing every day. But on the larger projects and even on the smaller ones it’s always fun to get a little involved. Spring Street Park is an example. That is a very unique park and a unique opportunity to shine and I enjoyed having some initial input on the park.
Q: Much of the actual design and construction of public projects, from the LAPD headquarters to the Spring Street Park, is done by outside firms. Where do city engineers come into play?
A: We always first look in-house to available staff to design projects. Then you factor in the complexity. For instance, the 10-story 500,000-square-foot Police Administration Building is very unique. There, we went to outside architects to design that facility. Spring Street Park was a 50/50 design with an outside consultant [Lehrer Architects] and inside staff. Sometimes we do very unique projects in-house.
Q: When it comes to major projects like the Sixth Street Viaduct, do engineering and design priorities tend to clash?
A: No. The reason being is that one thing I like is the public. It’s their project. You always learn something by listening to the public that’s going to use those projects.
I’m not an accountant, but I can understand basic accounting principles. When you’re out there with the public, they’re not necessarily engineers or architects, but they can understand if you explain it to them. You have to find a way to explain it and do it with a deep sincerity. I try to empower our staff to always make the public understand the complexities and the challenges.
Q: You’ve been involved with some marquee projects. Which has had the most profound impact on the city?
A: When you open a pocket park in a neighborhood and the residents walk over to you — I’ve had them cry because they’re so excited to have this open space. Or when the community center opens and they have a place to go play and once again, the stories you hear from the residents, it overwhelms you and it makes you want to go back and work even harder.
Q: When it comes to building a major public project, what aspect of the process is the city good at, and where is it weak?
A: We’re very proud of all aspects of our project delivery. My motto is, today is going to be better than yesterday. Every project we do, we hope we’re better at the community outreach, at listening to the community. We’re looking for areas to enhance our sustainability.
Q: The Bureau of Engineering and the Information Technology Agency seem like different worlds. What has prepared you to take over at ITA?
A: In the BOE, you have professionals where I don’t necessarily have the training in that area, but you’re pulling the best out of these professionals to deliver great projects. My job here is to question, to have them think through alternatives, to focus on schedules and budgets and delivering projects. ITA maintains the servers where all the information is transferred, the payroll servers, financial management system. They manage the telephones, the Internet system, the email system.
Q: So what inspired the faith that you were the man to get city workers to stop streaming Olympics coverage?
A: There were very few employees doing that; that was last week. Today is this week and I have all the faith in the city employees that they’re doing their job. But that’s up to the various department managers to make sure their workers are following city policy.
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
©Los Angeles Downtown News.
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