On Tuesday Sugar Land Council Members approved posting notice of a coming bond sale, declared winners in unopposed races in May’s coming election, and reviewed reports from the fire and police departments.

City to sell $25 million in bonds

City council unanimously approved a resolution to publish notice of the city’s intention to issue up to $25 million in bonds, with the funds earmarked for capital improvement projects. Texas law requires such bond issuances to be posted publicly for two weeks prior to the date of the bond sale, which is scheduled for April 18, according to meeting documents. The bulk of the money from the sale of the bonds—about $22 million—is earmarked to pay for drainage and road related projects. A little over $2 million will be spent on projects at Sugar Land Regional Airport, and that amount will be repaid with airport revenue. The rest of the bonds will be repaid from property tax revenues. Jennifer Brown, Sugar Land’s director of finance, told council members they could expect the bonds to carry interest rates of about 3 percent, slightly higher than the city has paid in the recent past. “It has come up some, as has the Treasury market,” Brown said. “We’re still in a very low interest rate environment.”  

Unopposed candidates declared winners

City council voted unanimously to remove from the coming May ballot choices for candidates to represent Council Districts one, two and three, as the incumbent council members for those districts—Steve Porter, Bridget Yeung and Amy Mitchell, respectively—are running unopposed. The ordinance approved Tuesday declares Porter, Yeung and Mitchell to be the elected council members for their districts. Voters will be asked to choose from three candidates competing for the District four seat, which is being vacated by Council Member Harish Jajoo, who is not seeking reelection.  

Crime, fires down from 2015

As part of a discussion workshop, council members reviewed annual reports from the police and fire departments. In a presentation on the state of city crime, Police Chief Doug Brinkley provided council with statistics showing the crime rate to have dropped to its lowest levels in 20 years. Meanwhile, Fire Chief Juan Adame made his own presentation showing the departments calls increased very slightly from 2015 to 2016, with most of those related to needs for emergency medical services. Structure fires dropped to 17 from 36 the year prior.