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County finance staff outlines bond‑timing options and flags $4.8M public‑safety radio need
Summary
Finance staff presented options to smooth the county’s debt‑service levy by advancing bond sales or delaying capital projects, and flagged a vendor estimate of roughly $4.8 million to replace radios and equipment for public safety communications.
During the work session, finance staff told supervisors they are weighing alternatives to smooth debt‑service levies and reduce year‑to‑year spikes: sell the next bond issue sooner to level out levy impacts; delay some capital projects until bonds are available; or fund capital from reserves.
Staff flagged the public safety radio system as a major upcoming capital need. Initial vendor information indicates the radio-replacement project could cost in the range of $4.8 million for radios alone; additional infrastructure work (tower or base-station equipment) is still being scoped. Finance staff said preliminary modeling uses a 4% bond rate assumption and that moving a modest bond sale forward could help maintain a more even debt-service levy.
Next steps: staff will produce numerical scenarios showing how moving a smaller bond issue forward would smooth levy impacts, and will ask the radio vendor for a more detailed phased replacement plan and cost timeline before the board makes a final funding decision.
