West University council members voted 3-0 to call a May bond election regarding several projects previously listed in the Facilities Master Plan.
The vote took place during the Feb. 10 city council session with council member John Montgomery abstaining from the vote and council member Shannon Carroll absent.
What’s on the ballot?
The bond will include only one proposition worth a total of approximately $15 million. The proposition includes construction of a new community building, senior center and library.
Mayor Susan Sample and council members Clay Brett and Matt Hart voted in favor of calling the bond election with the sole item. However, the original plan brought forth by city staff Monday night included three propositions, which were as follows:
- Proposition D: New community building, senior center and library ($26.3 million)
- Proposition E: New city hall ($18.9 million)
- Proposition F: Renovation of the current municipal building into a Public Safety Building ($25 million)
For Prop D, the cost for street and sidewalk improvements—at roughly $10 million—was cut from the bond as well as the the $1.2 million for the escalation cost, leaving $12 million for construction and $3 million for community open space improvements.
The debate
Council members ultimately decided to pull Propositions E and F from the future ballot to allow citizens to provide feedback on just the new community building, senior center and library, which has incited the most public feedback throughout the last several months.
City Manager Dave Beach said theoretically the city could use Certificates of Obligation for the public safety building, which does not require a vote and is secured either by property taxes or other revenue. However, a new city hall cannot be funded by CO's.
Council members argued that Propositions E and F should have been tied together in one proposition due to the connection that the two buildings have and their locations, but the Attorney General's office told the city's bond counsel that they would have to be separate items on the ballot, which led city council to decide to take the items off the bond without knowing how to navigate if one item was voted up and the other voted down.
"I'm enormously disappointed because I feel like with more time the AG's office could have seen the interlinkage, but alas they don't," Hart said. "Given that fact, I don't see how we can go with these items that are interlinked currently."
Montgomery said he chose to abstain from the vote because it came down to deciding to place just one proposition on the ballot instead of all three.
Measuring the impact
City Finance Director Marie Kalka presented a slideshow Feb. 10 with tax rate impacts for scenarios related to a bond election between $50 million to $70 million. However, after council decisions to cut two of the propositions and limit the remaining one, the final bond amount changed to below $50 million.
The new tax rate impact numbers were not available by press time, but city officials said the finance department is in the process of finding those new numbers.
One more thing
In addition to the bond, West University will also have three additional propositions on the May ballot that relate to changes to the city’s charter. Propositions A-C include:
- Proposition A: The reduction of required meetings of the City Council to one regular meeting each month
- Proposition B: The removal of the requirement for an official newspaper, instead, providing for the use of a newspaper in general circulation within the city
- Proposition C: Providing for City Council to directly appoint and manage the city secretary
All four council positions and the mayor’s seat are up for election this May as well. The final day to file to run for election is Feb. 14.
