At today’s City Council meeting under agenda item 14, City Engineer Sam Rodriguez gave a lengthy presentation on the City’s various capital improvement projects, including the 2012 Quality of Life Bond projects.
I have attached page 209 of the agenda packet, which confirms that of the $473,250,000 in bond funds from the two ballot propositions, all has been issued except for $128,455,636 that is ostensibly for the “Arena” (supposed to cost only $180,000,000) and possibly the Mexican-American Cultural Center (set to cost $16,500,000).
What we did not know until today is that some of the bond money from Proposition 2, which includes the City’s planned multipurpose basketball arena, was deposited in a bank account in 2016. According to the City Manager, the money has been sitting there because of the litigation.
QUESTIONS:
1. How much money is in that bank account?
2. Who authorized this 2016 debt issuance and why was it issued at such an early date?
3. Why are we learning about this apparently secret bank account now? I checked with the former Chair of the Bond Overview Advisory Committee and he had no idea that such an account existed.
4. What other bond funds are sitting in bank accounts that are not so much as mentioned in the City’s budget books or other public documentation and how much interest are taxpayers paying on that debt?
Enjoy your afternoon.