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Council directs staff to begin reverse-referendum process for reallocating unspent bond funds
Summary
City staff proposed using roughly $2 million in unspent bond proceeds (2021–2023 bond issues) for deferred facility maintenance; council voted to initiate the reverse-referendum process and asked staff for project cost breakdowns and engineering fees.
The Marshalltown City Council voted to direct staff to begin the reverse-referendum process required before reallocating unspent proceeds from three previous bond issues to deferred city-facility maintenance projects.
City staff said the three bond issues (2021, 2022 and 2023) include unspent funds and proposed using roughly $2 million to address deferred maintenance on city facilities while reissuing bonds later for the projects originally planned when those projects catch up. Council asked staff to return with project-level cost estimates, engineering fees and any implications for the reverse-referendum timeline.
Public commenter Marco Yep Gomez urged prioritizing City Hall HVAC improvements and said he supports maintenance of government facilities. Councilors emphasized the need for cost breakdowns and engineering estimates before final allocations and approved the motion to proceed with the reverse-referendum process in order to preserve flexibility to spend bond proceeds on urgent maintenance projects.
What’s next: Staff will prepare project cost estimates and set a public hearing to start the reverse-referendum timeline; the council will review specific project estimates and make final allocation decisions following the required public-notice process.
