The Mobile County Commission has approved a $31.5 million loan to fund a slate of capital improvement projects, including jail upgrades, road work and additional funding for a new Emergency Operations Center. The commission voted 2-1 on June 24 to approve the bond issue.
Despite being in the works for some time, the bond issue wasn’t discussed during the commission’s conference meeting the week prior. Nancy Johnson, Mobile County’s public affairs and community services director, said at the time the county was still waiting on confirmation before placing the warrants on the agenda.
“The bond counsel had asked us to get this proposal validated, which is a court process that also takes place before we can actually issue the bonds,” Johnson explained. “Meanwhile payments come due — such as the incentives ($4 million) already approved for Airbus — so there was motivation for us to move expeditiously.”
In total, the county issued $31.5 million in general obligation warrants, which are backed by the county’s credit and taxing power rather than revenue from any specific project. The move is part of what the county calls its “dynamic structured debt service” approach, designed to keep annual debt payments consistent from year to year.
During last year’s budget hearings, Mobile County Finance Director Michelle Herman said the county has maintained roughly $10 million in annual debt service in recent years, though that figure saw a slight decrease in 2015. Under the agreement with Regions Bank, the bonds approved are set to be repaid by 2026.
“The process is that every two years bonds roll off and comparable borrowing is made to continue funding the capital budget, all the time with a level debt service,” Johnson said, noting that Standard & Poor’s has previously characterized the county’s debt load as a “low overall debt burden.”
Upgrades planned for emergency operations facility
The projects funded through the recent warrants were originally approved in 2012 as part of a 10-year Capital Improvements Plan. The largest share of the $30 million in available funds will go toward upgrades at several public facilities.
Roughly $4 million will fund compliance upgrades at the Strickland Youth Center, along with renovations to the vacant seventh floor of Government Plaza, which will be used by the county’s Public Works Department.
The single largest allocation among the $14 million in facility upgrades is $5.5 million earmarked for construction of a new Emergency Operations Center. An EOC serves as the centralized hub for coordinating disaster response and recovery efforts, and county commissioners have spent years working out how to fund a replacement facility.
Last December, Mobile County Emergency Management Agency Director Ronnie Adair noted that portions of the existing facility on Zeigler Boulevard are more than 60 years old.
“The size and operational capabilities of the current [Emergency Management Agency or EMA] facility fall far short of our needs for disaster response,” Mobile County Commission President Connie Hudson said in a statement. “This is unacceptable in a hurricane-prone coastal area like Mobile County, where a fully functioning facility is critical for the safety and welfare of our residents.”
So far, the EMA has secured about $2 million in federal grants toward a new EOC and has spent nearly $800,000 of that on a structural plan. The Mobile County Communications District has also indirectly pledged roughly $1.3 million toward the facility.
The city of Mobile had previously offered to contribute $7 million toward the project but later withdrew that pledge. In December, County Engineer and former EMA board member Joe Ruffer told commissioners that a new EOC would require only $7 million from the county’s capital improvement fund.
Adair has previously estimated the new facility could cost around $14 million, though Commissioner Jerry Carl said there had been discussions of scaling the project back, and a final price tag has yet to be determined.
Carl cast the lone vote against the capital improvements loan.
“I’m against the size and cost of it. Why do you want to spend that much money, when you can spend half of that?” Carl said of the EOC facility. “I don’t think we have vetted the EOC well enough. The last meeting I was in they were talking about downsizing. Why borrow the money if we don’t know what we’re going to do with it? If we’re going to downsize it, we’ll borrow that amount of money when the time comes.”
Road, jail and parks funding included
The county funds most road improvement projects through its Pay As You Go program, but some are covered using capital funds. The recent bond issue includes $2.4 million for widening and resurfacing Gulf Crest Road, along with matching funds for improvements to Zeigler Boulevard between Tanner Williams Road and Schillinger Road North.
About half a million dollars will offset the cost of recent renovations at the Mobile Metro Jail, including cell-door and lock upgrades. The first phase of that project was covered by a 2012 debt issue.
Each of the county’s three commission districts will also receive $2 million for parks and recreation expansions, though specific projects were not detailed in pricing documents obtained. Typically, individual commissioners determine how their district’s allocation is spent.
An additional roughly $2.6 million in bond funds remains unearmarked. According to a draft of the capital improvement plan allocations, projects funded from that unassigned balance “will be determined by action of the county commission.” Neither Carl nor Hudson indicated how those funds might ultimately be used.