After a pair of readings this month, a Mercer Island bond measure will soon be headed to voters this fall.
Mercer Island City Councilmembers voted unanimously at their July 15 regular meeting to place a bond measure targeted on financing the city’s new Public Safety and Maintenance (PSM) Facility on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.
The first reading took place on July 1 and the second and final reading occurred on July 15. On June 17, council approved the PSM schematic design, setting the project budget at that juncture at $103,900,000 — the project budget was since reduced to a final amount of $103,160,000 after council exempted the PSM from the 1% for art contribution requirement on July 1.
Deputy Mayor David Rosenbaum thanked city staff and council for their diligence over the course of this process, which included site visits and speaking with other city councils on their towns’ facilities.
“This is a big milestone. Obviously there’s a long way to go here in this process, on this project, but getting here took a lot of work and a lot of thought. I think it’s been very thorough and thoughtful,” he said.
The bond ordinance, which features a 25-year repayment schedule, outlines the purpose of the bonds to pay for the PSM from concept through completion; limits eligible use to designing, constructing and equipping the facility; and levies excess property taxes to pay the bonds, according to city documents.
A repayment schedule table presented at the meeting showed potential financial impacts resulting from the bond: final maturity on Dec. 1, 2050; all-in true interest cost of 4.52% (market conditions as of July 8, 2025); total debt of $174,185,543 (according to Piper Sandler & Co.); city average annual debt service of $7,011,830; and the bond would financially impact households (with a $2 million assessed home value in 2025) by $55 per month.
As noted in a previous Reporter story, utilizing staff-recommended Unlimited Tax General Obligation (UTGO) bonds requires 60% voter approval for bond passage, along with 40% voter turnout based on the previous general election.
Council also unanimously passed an ordinance on July 15 to approve the pro and con committees to prepare ballot-measure statements for the voters’ pamphlet. Pro members are Russell Federman, Robert Sulkin and Benson Wong, and con member is Mike Cero.
Ad-hoc working group members Mayor Salim Nice, Rosenbaum and councilmember Craig Reynolds joined City Manager Jessi Bon and city attorney Bio Park in reviewing the ballot proposition and explanatory statement and preparing a final recommendation for council’s consideration on July 15. The ballot measure includes: ballot caption (name of jurisdiction and subject matter statement); concise description of the measure, which is limited to 75 words; and a question to voters (not listed yet).
Bon said she will submit the ballot measure language and explanatory statement to King County Elections. Bon added that elections staff may contact the city with some changes. The July 15 approval gives Bon and Park the authority to make any final revisions or corrections, she said.
