Education meetings. If we we will have an opportunity to go ahead and, allow individuals to go out to the rest of the tables if they happen to have any questions following the presentation. There will also be an opportunity for q and a. And And so they can also happen to have any questions. So with that, when we go into q and a, we do have some microphones we'll be asking that if you have questions, we'll offer you the opportunity to use the microphone as well. The opportunity to ask questions as well as opportunity for future public education meetings. So when it comes to the 2026 bond program, all of you may have received a video on the 2026 bond program.
Every four years, the city prepares a bond program, program, one way of funding large capital projects such as The city of Fort Worth's 2026 bond program, totaling 845,000,000, is organized into several propositions. Each proposition outlines a set of projects that could be funded through bonds, pending voter authorization. Funds will record intersections, bridges, traffic signals, street lights, adding sidewalks, and improving safety for street crossing around our schools. This will include remodeling three of our existing locations. Proposition D provides $10,000,000 for affordable housing.
By preparation, construction of affordable housing, construction of infrastructure to support affordable housing, home repair programs, and loans and grants for affordable housing. Proposed f allocates $59,800,000 to our new upgraded facility for our residents and animals, which would replace the Chuck and Brenda Silcox Animal Care and Adoption Center. This proposition would fund the construction of an upgraded shelter with expanded veterinary facilities, also including new modern kennels with natural light and upgraded play yards for animal enrichment.
The bond election is scheduled for Saturday, 05/02/2026 with early voting for texas.gov/2026bond. Alright. So if you've been part of the 2026 bond program development, this particular schedule may look familiar to you. But for context, the 2026 bond program has actually been in development since 2025 as far back as even March 4, where the city first proposed the bond list, to city council. From then, on August 5, city council then approved that proposed list to go out
for that first phase of community engagement. And during that time, we were able to engage with all the various residents. We're We're able to kind of detail all the various propositions, the overall bond capacity to really dive into, what the residents, you know, thought about various propositions, some of the feedback. So we have that continuous public feedback all the way through December 31. So between October and November, we actually had a citywide bond meetings, as mentioned, where we were gathering that public feedback. We closed the public comments on December 31. And in January, we presented, basically that proposed final project list to city council, where
we were able to just kind of finalize and everything so that, on February 10, city council was able to meet and order the bond election for that final list that we'll be presenting today. So just some quick engagement numbers. Just really it was really exciting to be able to say that we received 329 submitted comments, and this was both through in person email feedback, as well as a 188, comments through that balancing act. As you may recall, if you happen to use that particular tool, we're able to see, like, based off of the overall capacity, what projects, what propositions, how you would
have liked to see each proposition, funded. And so from there, just as an overall, we had 18,220 website views. 260 residents attended over 11 council district meetings. We had 1,109 YouTube views as well as, as I mentioned before, 177 balancing act submissions. So all of this led to that final 2026 bond program that we're presenting today. So we have a total of six propositions. Proposition a, for example, streets and mobility infrastructure, with the final funding at $511,480,700.
You know, public library, for example, proposition c at pub public library improvements at 14,586,000 and so forth as you could see here. What you may note is that the total bond program is set at 845,000,000, and this is a result of that, you know, resident feedback. In the first phase of the bond program, the bond capacity total amount was at 840,000,000. And in working with city council, and really just hearing that resident feedback, you may, you may find that a proposition d affordable housing was actually increased from 5,000,000 to
10,000,000, once again, as a result of the overall engagement. So now what you may also see is that there's also an estimated public art funding baked within each one of these propositions. And this really leads back to the public art ordinance. And so for example, each proposition includes funding that can be used for public art specifically related to one or more of the projects in that proposition. So for example, proposition a, streets and mobility infrastructure, can have up to 1% in public art funding, for the amount shown here.
You can also find the propositions B, C, E and F have public art funding up to 2% of the projects as shown here. And then affordable housing is set at 0%. Again, this is aligning back to, the idea that one, it's affordable housing, for example, is a citywide, proposition also tied to the way that public art ordinances is set up and that, the public art would be delivered where it is available and viewable based off of the capital project as it's being delivered.
All this to say is that the estimated public art funding is $10,752,000 as shown here. And this is all based off of an upcoming ordinance amendment that is just some technical updates that will be made to the public art ordinance. So really want to dive into how exactly does bond funding work. Well, the city property tax rate as it exists today is 67¢ per 100 evaluation. That 67¢ is broken up into two separate buckets. One bucket is the maintenance and operation, and that is that fifth that 52 and
a quarter penny. The debt bucket is at 14¢ and 3 quarters of a penny. So these two are kind of thought through in, like, two separate ways. So for one, operation maintenance, when you see me standing here in front of you today, I am funded by the general fund that actually falls under that operation and maintenance when you go out to say a facility. So we're here at a community center. This is also part of the operation maintenance, that would come out of the particular bucket at the top, which is o and m. Now debt, that 14 and 3 quarters of a penny ties back to the city's
debt service. And I'm gonna walk through these three bullet points. So one, a bond election is a way for the community to vote on measures that allows the city to borrow funding for larger capital projects. Again, that all ties back to that debt right here and how the city can allocate that city property tax rate. A portion of the city property taxes are set aside to pay for the bond programs and other city debt. Fort Worth has historically and in the '20 and for the 2026 bond program, structured its bond package to work within the existing city property tax rate so that the
bonds are planned to be fully repaid without increasing the city property tax rate associated with this debt. So again, a lot of this ties back to that 14 and 3 quarters of a penny that allows a city to set the bond capacity as well as use that funding to be able to pay for the bonds into the future. So just some context here with a sample ballot. So this is what one would expect if one goes out to go vote for any proposition. Each one of these propositions are voted individually. So there's a total of six propositions and sort of the what you'll see is
that you'll either be asked to vote for or against. You'll also see that this is for the city of Fort Worth, Texas special election for proposition a in this example. And within this paragraph, the first sentence that we have to have in every single proposition when it comes to bond related propositions, and this is mandated by the state, is in all caps. This is a tax increase. Now, the purpose why you're also here is just to have that information. Right. The information that the way that the city of Fort Worth structures its bond program and that we do not. And going back to that previous slide, anticipate, increasing the city property tax rate associated
with that debt of 14 and 3 quarters of a penny. But again, by law, we have to have that in all capital letters. You'll also find that the issuance of the amount of the proposition. So in this case, proposition a at $511,480,700, and it will also inform you into what propositions for. So in this case, for streets and mobility infrastructure, you'll see the same thing for proposition b in that amount going back to that summary table and so on and so forth. So now we're gonna dive into the bond propositions.
Now the video did a great job of really diving into some of the highlights related to the bond program itself as proposed in this final amount. But just as a refresher, proposition a, there is an exhibit on each one of these slides as applicable. And this is a little difficult to read, but we do have them printed out and available for you to walk through and actually see them, like, a little bit closer. We also have these particular exhibits shown in the bond program itself, the bond book. We both have we both have it both in electronic format as well as in, this physical format. So this all relates back to streets in which relation to construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation.
It has projects with an intersection, sidewalks, signals, traffic, and signal control, street lighting again for that 511,000,000 for an $80,700 what you'll find too in the bond book itself is that major and neighborhood streets are listed individually for each one of these projects. There's also what we call bucket categories that allow for sort of that flexibility, when it comes to, say, traffic signal controls, the street lighting, as well as, like, railroad crossings, for example. So for proposition b, we have park, recreation, open space acquisition and improvements for 185,000,000,
140,000. And this kind of spans quite a bit, relation to community parks. Again, the bond program actually details which community parks are in there. Botanic garden infrastructure, aquatic facility, athletic complex, Fort Worth Zoo utilities. You may you'll also find that the open space is included in this, in the 2026 bond program. If you've been part of previous bond cycle or the previous bond cycle, open space is actually a standalone proposition. But now within 2026 bond program, it is included as part of proposition B.
Next is proposition C for public library improvements, and this is for 14,586,000. And this is for the relocation of the Fort Worth History Center, the renovation of the Southwest Regional Library, the renovation of Diamond Hill Jarvis Library. For proposition d, this is affordable housing. Affordable housing set aside in the amount of $10,000,000. And the idea behind this is that this is the city would look at these dollars to then leverage. So for every dollar that the city would put in, there'd be a leveraged amount,
that we could go for that could go towards any of the purposes as shown above, but specifically towards, like, land acquisition, the construction of housing and neighborhood infrastructure to support affordable housing, funding affordable housing and home repair programs, as well as funding loans and grants for affordable housing purposes. You'll see the little asterisk on there, and a lot of this is as permitted by law. This is a newer or this is a new bond proposition, to the city of Fort Worth. And so, we would definitely still be, like, learning along the way in terms of,
leveraging those dollars, in relation to this proposition. So for Proposition e, this is police, fire and emergency communication facility at $63,919,300 And this is this would go towards the new Fire Station 46 in Southwest Fort Worth, the new emergency communication center, as well as the rebuild of Fire Station 40 in Northwest Fort Worth. And finally, proposition f is the animal care and shelter improvements at 59,874,000.
And with that, we're gonna jump into some charter amendments. Again, we do have an opportunity for question and answers, so we'll go ahead and have that. So, Trey, you go. Sorry. Hi. My name is Trey Qualls. I'm an assistant city attorney, in the Fort Worth City Attorney's Office. I'm gonna go through the, proposed charter amendments. And, the city charter, as you probably know, is kind of like the founding document of the city like the constitution. Like the constitution, it can only be amended after a vote. And so there are nine propositions. So jump right in. Proposition g is the first.
It comes right after the bond propositions and it's, deals with, pay for mayor and council. If approved, the mayor pay would go from 29,000 to 60,000, and then all other council members would go from 25,000 to 50,000. That would start, beginning of the next fiscal year, which is October 1. And the total impact of that for all of, the council members and the mayor for a fiscal year is $285,075 for the coming fiscal year and, every fiscal year
thereafter because it's it stays at those set numbers of sixty and fifty. The current numbers twenty nine and twenty five are from 2006. So if approved the mayor and council pay would go to sixty and fifty. Next proposition H, It removes a requirement in the charter, a non binding requirement in the charter, that that gives department directors the ability to request an additional hearing, before the city council in the event of their termination.
It's a duplicative requirement really because, the city council really can't do anything about their termination because they are hired and fired by the city manager. This also this provision, also is somewhat in conflict with other provisions in the city charter that say that the city council can't interfere with the hiring and firing decisions of the city manager. So this is to clean that up. This is similar. It has, the city charter currently has a provision that allows the council appointees to request an additional hearing regarding their termination.
It's it's somewhat duplicative again because to terminate some of these appointed positions city manager, city secretary, city attorney, city auditor, those already have to come before the city council which would be in a public meeting. It already requires a majority vote in a public setting. So this is a again, duplicative of that requirement. Proposition J is to remove a little quirk that's currently in the city charter that requires the budget hearing and the budget adoption to happen at two separate meetings.
That's not required by state law. The election Texas election codes has many requirements, that, we have to oops. We jump through to for the the budget hearing and then the adoption, tax rate hearing and adoption. This is one that we created for ourselves for some reason. I don't know why, but, if you you might remember from last September, what this usually requires is that they still happen on the same day. We hope open one meeting, then the mayor says, now I have I'm closing this meeting, then I'm opening the next meeting.
So it's just kind of an an additional process step. It's not really necessary. All the same requirements under state law and under the, the Charter regarding the the, notice excuse me, the notice for the public hearing and the public hearing and the adoption of the, budgets remain the same. This just kinda removes this unnecessary hurdle of closing a meeting and reopen a meeting on the same day. K removes a requirement, in the charter that doesn't really have a lot of application
anymore. It's because cities don't have a lot of regulatory authority over public service corporations anymore. Public service corporations are like, oil company, or excuse me, gas companies, electric companies, water, used to when cities had more regulatory authority, I think, this requirement would require all of those corporations that operate like franchises in the city to file a public report annually with the city. This is again, sort of duplicative because they all now file them with state agencies. They're available with those state agencies and online.
Most of them who are supposed to, don't even file them with us anyway. So this removes that requirement, because the information is available elsewhere. Proposition L. This involves granting a privilege, and granting a privileges are again like franchise agreements. These are for hauling solid waste in the city. Anyone that does that has to get a grant from the city to do so over the city streets. And there's a requirement that the city council has to adopt a separate ordinance for each one of those people who wants to, perform that service. The City Council is already in the City Code established requirements for grant or privilege
haulers. And so this would remove the requirement to take to City Council an ordinance every time we want to approve one of those. It already, it could be approved administratively following those criteria that the City Council has already established by ordinance. Okay, Proposition M, would remove the requirement for the city manager. It would excuse me. It would remove the requirement for an ordinance to be approved to reorganize certain department oh, well, departments that were not already required to be created by the charter.
So, it would allow the city manager to reorganize, create new departments, when necessary. It gives more flexibility, rename departments for instance used to. The parks department was called Parks and Community Services, I think, and some places I think it still is just because we haven't been able to change the name officially, in certain areas. So this would allow city manager a little flexibility. I will say this would not, there are certain departments that are required to be established by charter. City Manager could not abolish those.
Those would still remain. Any, city departments that have previously been established by ordinance, those would have to be, to to remove them, they would have to be removed by ordinance. So that would have to go to the City Council. This is, would just allow City Manager some flexibility, departmentally later on. Okay, Proposition N, this is probably the most technical one. It it aligns our, some of our requirements in the city code for filling vacancies, short term vacancies with the Texas Elections Code.
When we were looking at this particular provision, we realized that we have a provision that deals with calling the election to special election to fill a vacancy that actually doesn't align with the election code, so we needed to fix that. And there's a there's a chart, I think. Yeah. I'm not sure if this is gonna help or hurt, but as you may know, we can only hold, our we have our general elections in May of odd numbered years, so that's far down there on the left, and then far on the right
in May of, odd number years. That's when we have general elections. We have our in Texas, you can only have special elections to fill vacancies on, uniform election dates that are in the election code. That's those other red dots, November 2025, May 2026, and November 26. And so we have a provision right now about filling those vacancies that occur less than ninety days before the general election. And and what the if this amendment were approved, it would allow us to fill
those or those vacancies that occur following the last date on which the city could order a special election prior to the general election. I know this is this is the least interesting one. Right? But I'll give you an example just to show if for instance, we had a council member. Let's say, that, we created a they resigned and created a vacancy, we'll say in October 2026. As of right now, that would be too late for us to order a special election on November 2026.
However, because right now, the charter says we can only, fill a vacancy that occurs, ninety days prior to the general election. It would mean from this point to this point actually, from this point to this point, that that district would not be served by a council person. So what this allows us to do, it it says that if we miss if the resignation happens after the last date to order a special election before the next general election, that is just filled in the same manner that the Charter already allows.
Again, don't know if that helped or hurt. This is the least interesting one to explain. But if you have questions, I'll be over there. And then though, I think this is the last proposition O. This is about just it's really a technical fix for the language. We have language right now that says the city will pay a purchase order. And just to make sure, this one is to clarify that not everything that the city has a bill for is called a purchase order. It may be an invoice or a bill or a letter of some so this
is just to clarify that not everything that that city pays is a purchase order as long as it comes with the appropriate written documentation to support that claim. The city can pay it even if they don't call it a purchase order at the top. So it's really just a technical fix. And yep. Back to April. Thank you, Trey. Alright. So we have, sort of we have a schedule for the bond and charter election education meetings. We have a total of seven various regional meetings across the city of Fort Worth.
This is meeting number two. So thank you all so much for attending and for, coming here today to take time out of your day. If you have friends, if you have family, neighbors that would like to attend future, education meetings, please share with them this particular schedule. Also, again, this we're we're also streaming this on YouTube, so encourage you all to please share, the link to that. This will go all the way through 04/18/2026, as shown here. We started on March 25. The last day to register to vote is April 2, and that is for the
May election. So April 2, it's a big day there. On April in April, this month, we'll have that technical update as mentioned earlier related to the public art ordinance, and we will end our citywide bond and charter election meetings on April 18, because early voting will begin on April 20 through April 28 with election day being on May 2. In the back of your charter of of your bond books, this does have all the various details, for whatever county, you happen to be a part of.
There's information as well as, you know, voting will take place from 7AM to 7PM. But with that, we're gonna go ahead and open this up for questions. We do have all of our technical experts that, are tasked to really have pulled together a lot of these projects, in the future should the bond program pass in terms of implementation that would kind of also fall into their shoulders. There is bond details, bond book, and charter details, if you happen to have more questions, just to dive in. But with that, I'll I'll open up, the floor for questions.
We do have microphones as well, so we can always tap on folks. Anything? Alright. Question up here. We have one for Trey. Perfect. Trey, come on up. Going back to the one that you said was difficult to explain the elections and everything. Okay. You almost had me, but what I didn't understand is that if we pass it, are you saying that if somebody were to a council member left in October, they can still the new person can still be on the ballot if this is passed?
This doesn't have anything to do with who can be on on the ballot. This is about the time for calling the special election. This is it Right. With the way it is now, they can't do it if it's afterwards. So if they're if somebody leaves in October and what you're proposing is passed Correct. Does that mean that you can call this a special election? You you would not be able to call the special election because there wouldn't be enough time prior to that. It would just be now. Or yes. There still wouldn't be enough time to call the special election if this were passed.
What this would allow is for the city to fill that position the city council to appoint an individual to fill that position for the remainder of the term, which it already allows them. That's the part I didn't get. I'm thank you. Okay. And one more question. On there, you said it had to be in all caps on the ballot. This is in tax increase. How are you gonna let the people know? I mean, if I didn't come to this meeting and I go to the ballot and I go, oh my gosh. They're They're gonna increase my taxes. No. No. No. No. No. How can you let people know beyond us that that isn't gonna happen?
K. Are you allowed to do that? Yeah. Great question. The city of Fort Worth is we are not allowed to be advocates in any way before, you know, for or against in that case case for the bond itself. But we are allowed to provide information. And so that is what we're really trying here today is to be able to provide the context, behind how the city of Fort Worth structures its bond program. So it really does come back to individuals coming to these education meetings, sharing the knowledge, being able to if you have a bond program, speak with different folks, whatever
you happen to say, on your own, you can go ahead and share that. But the city of Fort Worth still stands and just this is the information. This is where we are with the bond ballot itself, and we cannot change it. We can't, I think by the state, we are not allowed to supplement this either. So The education to the public. Yeah. I mean, it's gonna be up to us or I'm on the board of the You can use your you can use your mic if you'd like for folks that are listening in. I'm on the board of the HOA in Creek Wood here, and now I'm gonna
try and make sure all of our residents know that ignore it, you know, because it's not true. So I'm hoping other HOAs will do the same. K. We're putting that to all the city media. Are you? The education. Okay. Yep. And the comment is is that we are, putting as much as possible as far as education, to educational meetings on how the city of Fort Worth structures the bond program, through media. Yep. Thank you. Alright. Any other question up here? Yep. Okay. It says this is a tax increase.
How could it not be a tax increase? I listened to you, and yet you're still spending half $1,000,000,000 or more of taxpayer money on lots of things. And I don't see the value of paying property taxes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you for your comment, but also the question. So, as mentioned earlier, we do set aside, for within the city property tax rate, 14 and 3 quarters of a penny. And so I may ask Jay to kind of say say this a little more
succinctly, but, what I can add is that the city of Fort Worth, does have various bonds that we have taken on, and the bonds are structured so that we pay them off over twenty years. And so, Jay, would you like to expand on that? Sure. So basically, our the way the city structures its its bond program, is that we don't issue debt unless we paid off other debt. Previous debt, most of the bonds get get set for twenty year bond service. So it's like a mortgage on your home.
Right? When you you can't buy a second house unless you, if your income allows, till you pay your first house off. Well, when you build a street, and the street's $50,000,000 of one of the major roads, the city doesn't have the cash to do that, so you use debt service to build that $50,000,000 street. And we don't issue the debt until we've taken care of enough debt, so that we build bond capacity that still fits under that current tax rate of 14.75.
So as we go forward, you you don't have to rely you rely on that 14.75 to continue to issue, to pay for the debt for all the projects that are listed out in the bond book. And so that way it doesn't change your tax rate. And so it doesn't it's not an increase on the tax rate. Now the value of your home goes up, you might have an increase in in taxes. But if you live in Tarrant County, Tarrant County this year, for instance, is not appraising single family homes, so it's not gonna go up because they're not changing the
tax rate. I mean, your your values of your homes. They didn't change them last year. They're not doing it again this year. But hopefully I answered the question. That's that's what that means. I think the state or the the legislature, when they put that language in, what they said it's a tax increase, even though it's you don't know if it's a tax increase or not until after the fact. Because I think they were basing it on a thought that if it didn't issue this debt, then you could lower the tax rate. And so it'd be a tax decrease.
But depending what the economy is doing, that tax rate might get shifted to the operations in order to pay for police and fire. On an annual basis, the city council is making these decisions. So it's never a black or white answer to that question. Alright. Thank you, Jay. Okay. The public, the bonds, are these, like, when you go to your financial guy and he says, do you wanna buy municipal bonds, like tax free municipal bonds? Is that what you what you guys are offering to people? They are they are available.
You could buy them through your I mean, you have to go to, like, a mutual fund or something like that and if they're investing in that area. But yes, they're bought They're basically, are typically bought by large intermediaries. And so this The city currently, we're double a plus, so our interest rates are usually pretty good. Sorry. I believe I read somewhere in this paperwork in on the website that that debt or the maintenance percentage could go up. I believe it said something about if circumstances warranted it.
It's in it's on the website somewhere. Yeah. So it is on the twenty two six bond program impact on property taxes. And so this is based on and I'm just gonna read it for those who wanna tag along. So it's on page one of your PDF, of your bond book. And it says, based on current financial conditions, trends, and forecasts, the 2026 bond program has been structured with the intent of debt being issued in a manner that is not expected to require a tax rate increase. Is that what you're mentioning what you're referencing? Yeah. And so, again, as Jay mentioned, that fortune and 3 quarters of a penny allows
us to set our bond capacity as the city pays off the bonds, like, the bonds year over year that we have a set bond capacity that allows us to continue to, just basically set ourselves up for the next bond. So all $845,000,000 of bonds aren't issued at the same time. The program, there's there's not enough contractors to do all the work at one time in the area with all the other work going on with TxDOT and everything else. So this program would basically be a five year program, where the city issues the
debt on an annual basis for the projects that are starting in those years to be completed. So, like I said, there's not a, it's not a black and white answer. If, if we move forward and the intent is to not change that tax rate. So if the economy goes into a recession, for instance, although that's when you wanna do the work because everything will be cheaper, but that's a different story. But if the the economy goes into a recession and the city's tax values go way down, the city council has a choice of saying, and I would recommend this,
we told the taxpayers not to we're not gonna go change that tax rate. Instead of being issued over five years, over four years, we're gonna slow down projects and issue that debt over a longer period of time, so we don't have to change that would be my recommendation to the council. Ultimately, the city council would decide, no. We need to move forward on this project. It's too critical or whatever. So it's not a an exact science or it's not a black and white answer. But based on all the trend analysis, all the data that we use, the conservative,
the conservative numbers that we use for growth, all those kind of things. The intent is that our tax rate associated with debt will not change from 14.75. Alright, we have a question up here. Here you go. Okay, you said over twenty years the debt will be spread out? Okay. Leave the bonds. What you're saying is you're gonna freeze the tax rate for twenty years? That tax rate's been the same tax rate for over ten years. Point six seven? No. The the fourteen seven five. The one associated with debt. Okay. This is what pays this portion of the tax rate pays for debt.
Okay. So The other the other, piece at one time the the council I mean, when I started at the city, the tax rate in the city was 97¢. Over the last thirty years, it's gone down 30¢. So my my experience is, and you can tell me about this particular site here. I think it was way behind schedule, way over budget. What I don't How is that gonna be figured in to this? I don't I don't I don't think so because this was done with bonds and
and the and the dollars out. But the original budget, it was way over budget. You know, my experience with streets, everything, it's it's always behind schedule, way over budget. That's gonna be figured into that. Right? We've we've figured into the actual cost of the project. Right. But then the actual, you know, principle is gonna be a lot higher in the long run. So that's gonna cause a strain on the tax. It it has not changed, again, including this and all the But I'm talking about the the amount. You've got 511,000,000 budgeted for streets.
Right. That's how much What's gonna happen when we hit that 511,000,000? Are we gonna stop spending or are we gonna complete the streets? You well, you can't So the projects can't get, we can't spend more than 511,000,000, for the projects. Okay. So we quit spending. Is that correct? On the streets? I don't understand the question. You're making an assumption that there's not gonna be enough money to complete the projects. And I would argue with you that that's not always the case. There has been inflation since COVID that went up 36% across on construction costs.
That happened everywhere, and so that's just a reality. But that's where where projects got behind or projects went over. But those are things you can't And there was contingency, but I don't think there was a 40% contingency in the projects. But that's an anomaly that we've seen over the last five years. So it's it's simple to say things like, well, everything's over budget. We have projects that are under budget and delivered early, but those aren't ever talked about. Sure. Sure. Where's our TPW folks? Because we're constantly moving dollars around. Yeah. So everyone wants me to name one project, but I will tell you we have
over 200 projects at any given time. So I will absolutely find you all something that has come in under budget or, ahead of schedule. But typically, what happens is once a proposition in a bond program has been declared substantially complete, that's when we're able to essentially take those funds and apply them to the similar proposition. So, for example, proposition a is broken into arterial projects, neighborhood street projects, and, let's
just take traffic signal projects. So once those traffic signal projects are done, we're able to either take the remaining funds from the projects that went under budget and do more traffic signals. Does that make sense? I would say we are growing so quickly that our need for projects is you know, I could do four bond programs worth of work just to keep up with the growth. Alright. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Jay. Alright. We have a question up here. Yes. I'm an old guy. But back in the early nineteen eighties, the city wasn't just as you are today
weren't able to promote passage of the bond election. All you could do was provide information, but there was a citizens group that that actually could go out and promote passage of the bond election. I know that because I chaired it, but that's been forty some odd years ago. Now we've had bond election after bond election since then. We told them back then, and we've told them over the years, it's not going to increase your taxes. The city manages the the the sale of the bonds and the implementation of the programs and you're not going to you know, it's not expected that this is going
to increase your taxes. But is there any such group today? Is there somebody that's that can do that message? It was the question the the lady asked a great question a minute ago. How do we get that word out? Is there a group that is spreading the word on that? Yes. There is. And I believe it's being chaired by Brian Newby, the former or they just passed, board chair for the Chamber of Commerce. I'm not sure who else is involved, but I believe there is. K. Any questions? Relate any additional questions related to the bond or charter amendments.
Alright. Up here. Thank you. This one is for the, 10,000,000 for the affordable housing. I don't know who's chairing that, but do they have an idea of the areas of where they wanna put the proposed 10,000,000 of in the city? Yeah. So related to proposition d, so also for context, each project and each proposition project scope, it is detailed, in the bond book. But proposition d affordable housing is citywide. And I'm gonna have Dana expand a little bit more on how those dollars will
be utilized across the city. So, I'll come up here soon. So I have to turn your turn your neck. That's funny. Yes. Thank you for the question. So it is available citywide. And so we'll work with the city council on where those dollars could be appropriated or allocated. The, one of the areas that we'll look at for example, would be, we have neighborhood improvement program areas that have been previously selected by the city council for improvements. We also have neighborhood empowerment zones that have been designated by the city, for improvements.
We have, targeted, I apologize when I forget the name, but targeted investment zones through our economic development department through for community development that we could look at as well, urban villages, transit, oriented development areas, urban villages. So there are a number of areas that have already been designated by policy for investment and reinvestment, by the city council. I'm sorry? Yes. But but the city council is not limited to those areas. So I don't wanna say that those are the only areas where we could look,
to to put affordable, affordable housing. More likely that's That's one of the one of the areas. The other thing though to think to keep in mind is that, for developers who might be seeking low income housing tax credits, if they wanted to partner with the city, then the state has certain criteria that they use, in order to provide those tax credits. And sometimes the locations will get certain kinds of points, where they're trying not to concentrate, developments.
And so that might, have influence over where those projects might be. And so that's another factor is where those tax credits might be available. And then where would I go to see the list of is that, like, a twenty fifty plan or Yeah. Certainly. The comprehensive plan speaks to those areas as well as, just certainly if you go to our city website and just type in neighborhood empowerment zones, that'll bring that up. Yeah. Okay. Oh. Oh. Oh. There you go. Has the neighbor have the neighborhood empowerment zones been put up recently? Or Right.
Because I was looking on your website at only affordable housing, and I could not find any specific locations. That's correct. Again, the city balloon. Yeah. The city council has not designated on whatever. Yeah. That's correct. The city council has not yet designated areas where they're going to to spend those dollars. Closed areas? I'm sorry? They have areas they're thinking about? So they've they've not designated areas yet, but just as staff, we would recommend potential areas. And so I'm giving you examples. And is that on the website? Yes. Neighborhood empowerment zones, the neighborhood improvement program areas.
Yes. And they're called that on the website? Yes. K. Good. Thank you. K. Is there any additional questions? Alright. Going once, going twice. Alright. Thank you so much, Dana. So we're gonna go ahead and open, basically, the the meeting is not this particular area. It's open for individuals to, go ahead and mingle, work with all of our staff. If you happen to have any specific questions on where, certain projects are located, if you have questions on the bond book itself, feel free to to catch me at any point. We are available both online.
There's an email on the bond website. And if not, feel free to reach out to anyone of our staff. Okay? Thank you so much. And I'll go and leave these, QR codes up here.