Commissioners press for more focus on roads and flood control amid capital trade-offs

Multiple commissioners used the FY26 capital update as an occasion to call for a higher-priority focus on roads and regional flood control. One commissioner cautioned that approving large creek/trail investments before addressing congested corridors and failing streets could produce public frustration as population growth accelerates. "If we invest millions in the creek projects before we look at all of these thousands of permits that we are approving... we're going to have a lot of angry constituents in the next five years," one commissioner said.

Commissioners asked staff to provide clearer breakdowns of the 10-year program by road projects versus creeks and trails; budget staff confirmed the roads allocation is about $187 million and creeks/rivers projects total approximately $247 million (as cited in the presentation). Several commissioners also discussed the option of taking a bond to voters for focused flood-control funding, noting that state funding patterns may have favored rural projects and that local voter support could be forthcoming for a county flood-control bond.