Agenda Packets - 2005/02/07 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Capital Improvement Bonds Capital Improvement Bonds (CIB) are a fairly new financing tool offered to counties and cities by the State Legislature. Their use is specifically targeted to facilities such as city halls, public safety buildings, and public works buildings. The city must adopt a CIP covering at least five years and the proposed facility must be listed in the plan. The CIP must be approved by the City Council after a public hearing. The City must publish a notice of its intention to issue capital improvement bonds and the date and time of a public hearing on the matter. After the hearing, three-fifths of the members of the City Council must approve the issuance of the bonds. Citizens opposed to the bond issue then have 30 days during which to circulate a petition that would need to have signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast in the last general election. Such a petition would require a special election on the question of issuing the bonds. In the absence of a petition, the bonds can be issued after 30 days. The proposed bonds would be structured must like the Fire Bonds of 1991. The City of Blaine would actually issue the bonds on behalf of all three cities. They would be 20-year bonds totally no more than $8,400,000. Annual debt service payments would be allocated between the cities on the basis of the existing cost allocation formula using assessed value and the number of fire calls. Supplement to the Joint Powers Agreement The existing Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) for the operation of the fire department doesn’t adequately cover the situation arising from a major construction project such as a new fire station. The City Council will be asked to approve the attached JPA. The provisions of the Supplemental JPA are very comparable to the existing JPA. The only noteworthy item is that the revised agreement commits the City of Mounds View to debt service for the 20-year life of the bonds. Mounds View has been in the fire department for nearly 60 years and has found it to be a cost effective means of providing fire protection. In fact, the department has the lowest cost per person for fire protection of any department in the area. It’s highly likely that the relationship will continue at least for the next 20 years. Construction Control Process In addition to the Supplemental JPA, there is a need to a more detailed management plan for the construction process. Three plans are attached to individually cover the fire station construction, purchase of two fire trucks, and the purchase of a command vehicle. The premise of all the plans is that each of the three city councils would approve the most important decisions, the Blaine City Council would approve decisions that are of medium importance, and a management team would approve less important decisions.