Supplemental Bond Proposal

[Ryan Alter]

Colleagues,

For nearly a year, staff and the public Bond Election Advisory Task Force (BEATF) have been doing the critical work of identifying the greatest capital needs facing our City. This work has been incredibly thorough, and we want to thank the members of the BEATF for their time and dedication to identifying the needs of the community. This work combined with a renewed review of our financial policies, including the bond decision tree, will better position us to deliver any projects in a bond, should such an election be called in 2026.

As it currently stands, the BEATF will be providing their recommendations on May 4. Staff will subsequently take those recommendations and work to reconcile it with their $700 million recommendation made earlier this year. Our subquorum would like to take this opportunity to ask the BEATF and staff to prepare an alternate scenario for Council’s consideration with the following budgeted amounts:
• $250-$260 million for parks projects, not including any maintenance facilities
• $50-$60 million for community facilities, such as libraries and cultural arts
• $75-$80 million for active transportation projects*

*The funding levels for the active transportation projects should be for two-years’ worth of projects and all be eligible for Certificates of Obligation.
We believe such an option strikes the right balance of meeting the critical needs of today and the cost to taxpayers of less than $5/month, if approved. It is our intent to review this option through the process currently envisioned for any other proposal – including the bond decision tree. Should this option ultimately be pursued, we would then use the work of the BEATF and staff for the non-parks categories as the starting point for a 2028 bond discussion.

We look forward to the continued work and discussion around this critical issue.

Sincerely,
MPT Vela
CM Fuentes
CM Velásquez
CM Alter
CM Siegel