Geneva committee advances $68 million public-safety bond question to city council

The Geneva Committee of the Whole voted unanimously to advance an ordinance that would place a referendum on the April 1, 2025 consolidated election asking voters to authorize up to $68,000,000 in general obligation bonds to fund public-safety facility improvements, including construction of a new police station and a new Fire Station No. 2 and public-safety-related improvements to the public works facility.

City Administrator Stephanie Dawkins told the committee the city used community engagement — online and telephone surveys, focus groups and a citizen committee — to narrow needs and funding levels and recommended placing the question on the April ballot. The council must adopt the authorizing ordinance by Jan. 13, 2025 for the question to appear on the ballot.

Supporters said the buildings under study are old and expensive to maintain. “The police station was just one that we could not fix,” Alderperson Marks said, describing recurring leaks, outdated spaces and constrained public and staff areas. He and other members said the facilities reviews and site visits showed that renovating some structures would be fiscally inefficient compared with replacement.

Consultant Colin Corbin of O’Sullivan said survey results showed majority support for investment in facilities: only about 20% of respondents chose “no additional funding” when presented with funding-level alternatives. Dawkins and other council members said the draft ballot language was developed with the city’s bond counsel and intentionally limits expenditures to items that qualify as public-safety improvements; the language does not include a separate city-hall item because counsel advised the items must not be commingled on the ballot.

Officials gave a sample tax-impact figure: for a $350,000 home the initial annual increase would be about $180; for Geneva’s median home value of $392,800 the estimate is about $200 in the first year, staff said. Dawkins and council members said the city will run a factual, nonpersuasive public information campaign if the ordinance is adopted and the measure is placed on the ballot. Dawkins said detailed architectural plans and renderings would not be produced until after voter approval; the next steps would be space-programming and then design contingent on voter approval.

Several council members said the proposed $68 million figure is the result of multiple rounds of paring back an initially larger proposal and that the package still would not address every building the city has identified as needing work. Committee members asked staff to provide clear public education over the coming weeks; staff said a community education plan and facility tours would follow adoption of the ordinance and ahead of the April 1 vote.

The committee vote advances the draft ordinance to the full City Council for formal adoption; if the council adopts it at the special meeting next Monday the question will be certified to the county for the April ballot.