A Brief History of the Process
In 2019, the Saginaw City Council, with public input, began a process of prioritizing the long term needs of city facilities and infrastructure and identifying methods to pay for these improvements. A roundtable event was held in 2018 to solicit ideas and comments from citizens, business owners and civic leaders.
Once specific projects were identified, the City Council appointed a Citizen’s Bond Committee to review and prioritize the projects for a potential bond election. The volunteers that formed this committee met multiple times over a three month period and spent many hours hearing from professional consultants including architects, engineers and finance professionals regarding public safety, buildings, streets, parks and drainage issues.
In November 2019, the Citizen’s Bond Committee provided the City Council with a prioritized list of projects totaling $100,000,000 for long term planning and construction. The number one priority was construction of a new central fire station. The City was able to issue debt in 2020 to design and construct this project and it is on schedule to begin construction this spring.
The City Council evaluated the other recommendations from the Citizen’s Bond Committee and voted to hold a bond election on May 1, 2021 for voter approval of funds to improve streets, parks, a library and a senior citizen center. The propositions and bond amounts are shown below.