Lafayette staff report polling and outreach on proposed capital bond; council directs staff to prepare ballot options for recreation and service centers

City staff on Tuesday reported results of professional polling and multi-channel community engagement for a proposed capital bond that could fund renovation or replacement of three city facilities: the Bob Elberger Recreation Center, a new civic center (including city hall and municipal court), and a city service center for public works and operations.

Ryan Wenger of Magellan Strategies presented a statistically valid survey of 788 registered voters weighted to expected odd-year turnout; he said the margin of error on the sample was about ±3.43 percentage points. Early, uninformed readings of ballot language showed 53% support for a property-tax-funded package and 56% for a sales-tax-funded package; after presenting more information about the projects and likely tax impacts, the poll moved support toward 57% (property) and 58% (sales). Wenger noted that professional polling generally looks for roughly 60% support for tax measures to be confident of passage given variable turnout and external factors.

Staff summarized qualitative outreach — Lafayette Listens webpages, brochures in English and Spanish at public facilities, open houses, a booth at a community event, board-and-commission briefings and a questionnaire — and said the public showed the strongest net support for the recreation-center project, followed by the service center and then the civic center. According to the polling and questionnaire summaries, respondents were more likely to approve a measure that included the recreation center: 79% said its inclusion would make them more likely to vote yes; the service center drew 64% more likely-to-approve; the civic center 58%.

Staff showed illustrative tax-impact examples used in the outreach (as presented): a typical homeowner impact for the service center alone was shown as $24 per year; the civic center and recreation center were shown together as $136 per year; staff said combined figures put the illustrative total under about the $300 mark for the example package. (Staff and presenters noted these were example impacts for communication; final rates and debt structures would be set in bond documents and ballot language.)

Council members debated whether to place all three projects on this year's 2025 ballot or to bundle the highest-priority projects and bring the civic center later. Several councilors said they favored grouping the recreation center and service center as a package and using a property-tax funding mechanism; a number of councilors also supported the option of placing all three on a single question this year. Staff said the county ballot-certification deadline would require decisions and drafting of ballot language on a schedule that would require moving in the coming weeks (staff noted an August 19 certification target). Bond counsel (Butler Snow) and financial advisors (Hilltop Securities) are engaged and would assist drafting the final language and financing plan.

At the end of discussion staff said they would prepare and return with clear ballot-language options (one-question and two-question packages), illustrative debt-issuance schedules, and cost estimates for council review. The council’s working consensus was to advance the recreation and service-center projects for consideration on the 2025 ballot with a property-tax funding option and for staff to present comparative language showing the alternative of bundling all three projects on a single question; staff also was asked to return with firm timelines for certification and additional community education materials.