San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders says the city is going to finance millions of dollars in infrastructure repairs with a private bond. The money will cover road, sidewalk and storm drain repairs. KPBS reporter Katie Orr has details.
The city will take out a $103 million private bond through Bank of America. Sanders says borrowing the money through a private lender will allow work to begin faster. The city plans to refinance the loan with public bonds this summer. Sanders says he’s not worried about San Diego becoming over extended financially now that the city has re-entered the bond market.
“We have an audit committee. We have a monitor that’s independent that actually reports to the SEC. We take that very seriously. We have a disclosure practices working group that goes over every single thing that we do,” he says.
About $64 million will be used for street and sidewalk repairs. $24.8 million will go toward facilities maintenance and repair. And $14 million will be used on storm drain repairs.
Sanders says this deal would not be happening if former City Attorney Mike Aguirre was still in office. Aguirre said it was illegal to borrow that much money without voter approval. The current City Attorney has OK’d the deal. Sanders says it will cost about a billion dollars to repair everything the city needs fixed.
Katie Orr, KPBS News
