City management cautions against 2025 bond election

A 2025 bond election would reduce available funding for a comprehensive bond election in 2026, according to a memo from Assistant City Manager Robert Goode sent to City Council through City Manager T.C. Broadnax.

The memo offers reasons that Council should not have a bond election this year, citing the history of bond consideration and the possibility that the public may not approve bonds two years in a row.

Last July, Council directed staff to bring to Council both a comprehensive bond package that addresses climate infrastructure and other public improvements for an election no later than November 2026. In August, Council approved creation of a Bond Election Advisory Task Force. Some members of the task force have indicated an interest in a bond election this year. Staff members have already told the task force that there would be no time for public engagement related to a bond election this year.

Additionally, as Goode warned in the memo, “Any funds dedicated to an accelerated 2025 bond program would reduce available funding for the comprehensive 2026 bond. City Council will also not be able to consider those 2025 initiatives alongside all other prioritized projects and/or programs resulting from the completed 2026 bond prioritization of the over $10 billion of needs identified across the city. Just by the timing, any projects brought forward in 2025 will take precedent over the remaining needs. Deciding in 2025 without the full understanding and scope of the need across all departments may hinder the City Council’s ability to address other needs within a comprehensive 2026 program.”

He also noted that “if bond programs are brought to the voters in both 2025 and 2026, it could be possible that one or both elections would not be supported due to ‘voter fatigue.’”

“Finally,” he wrote, “funds that the City Council dedicates for the I-35 Cap and Stitch project will also impact future bond programs.”

Chief Financial Officer Ed Van Eenoo and other members of the city’s financial services staff told Council last April that it would not be advisable to have a bond election this year.

The new memo gives a detailed account of problems associated with asking for bond approval based on a “wish list,” as opposed to a carefully researched plan for funding and building.

Since last July, Capital Delivery Services held 11 meetings with the city departments eligible for the use of general obligation bonds to develop the framework that departments will use to score their projects. As a result, staff has provided a list of more than $10 billion in requests throughout the city, “which is far beyond what the staff could deliver within a 6-year timeline,” the memo notes. Some of those projects are not eligible for general obligation bond funding. Capital Delivery Services will work with the departments to facilitate the 2026 Integrated Bond Program development process with the task force. They plan to present the preliminary ranked needs assessment without price tags in July.

At that point, staff will then partner with the task force “to tackle the heavy lifting: identify, study, engage with the public, and prioritize projects. The prioritized projects will then go through a thorough scoping and cost estimation.” Staff is in the process of developing the public engagement process, the memo says.

The task force has its own web page with a calendar of meetings throughout 2025.  The memo from Goode includes an appendix of possible bond projects from city departments beginning with Animal Services and ending with the Watershed Protection Department.

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