SARASOTA -- Both an $18 million road bond and a $16 million public safety bond that were approved by Venice voters last November passed muster during a Thursday validation hearing.
"The hearing was uncontested, with no witnesses or anyone from the public who showed up to object or support the validation of the bond," Venice City Manager Ed Lavallee said Friday.
Lavalle was the sole presenter for the city, and, through the presentation of eight exhibits, he demonstrated that the city had authority to issue the bonds, that it properly noticed voters before November 2016 referendum, and that the bond projects would benefit the public.
"We met the legal requirements," he added.
The city decided to go through the bond validation process for the public safety bond, after residents of Auburn Woods hinted at a possible legal challenge to the city's decision to build its public safety complex on 10 acres next to the 77-unit complex of condominium villas.
The city decided to validate the road bond at the same time because the cost to do so was negligible.
Later this month, city officials will review the bonds with rating agencies in New York City, with an eye toward finally selling them in July.
The process "does provide a comfort level," Lavallee said. "We think, going forward, if we issue general obligation bonds again, we just make this part of our regular process."
The public safety bond will pay for a new police station, while the road bond will pay for repaving roughly 70 miles of roads in the city -- including the major reconstruction of Tampa, Venice and Miami avenues on the island of Venice.
Since city voters approved the bonds, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates once and is reportedly considering another rate bump at the end of this quarter. Some city officials feared that would significantly increase the cost of borrowing the money. Lavallee is hopeful that won't happen.
"It's been a stable environment and the rates have stayed low," Lavallee said. "We're hoping they will stay at that low rate and we can be as attractive as we were a couple months ago."
