Remarks by Miguel Arias
198 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 8
- Play at 7:11:26
“Is there any above power lines on that right-of-way?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:11:44
“Oh, north. Well, it's been referred to as a Jensen truck line.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:12:01
“Do we have already rights to all that right-of-way?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:12:10
“months i mean it's a it's part it's through the design process of the of the sewer does this study assess any underground utilities that may exist there i know now pg e requires us to underground above power lines whenever we do work that would not be in the scope of what we did in public utilities we just looked at sewer costs has anybody looked at that cost and who would pay for that”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:13:15
“IF I CAN GET BACK TO THE ACTUAL POWERPOINT ON THE PUBLIC FINANCING ANALYSIS ON PAGE 8, IS IT MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THE CONSULTANT LOOKED AT LAND SECURE FINANCING IN MALAROUS? I KNOW OUR FORMER COLLEAGUE MEMBER CHAVEZ KEPT TRYING TO CONVINCE US THAT MALAROUS WOULD SOLVE WORLD HUNGER AND SATA IF WE JUST DID IT THAT WAY. BUT IS IT YOUR CONCLUSION THAT THAT IS NOT A VIABLE OPTION? NOT THAT I DON'T BELIEVE MEMBER CHAVEZ BECAUSE HE CAN ALWAYS LAND THE PLANES.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:14:14
“Is there any mechanism in which development or corporations are the ones that take out the bonds and the debt to get us to a feasible approach?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:14:43
“So can they, in any of these proposals, does it include private development offering of capital towards the financing structure?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:15:08
“Why would it be a lot for a private developer and not a lot for the taxpayers? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ask you that question. It's not a finance question. But it's fair to say that that is possible. If we had a developer who owned 1000 acres, had tenants had interest, that developer can bring forward capital, which would help offset any potential taxpayer subsidy.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:15:45
“And I'm assuming for them to pencil, a probably third-party banking financing institution would have to confirm that it pencils out for them.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:15:56
“Unless they have independent wealth and they're putting in their own money.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:16:42
“Thank you, Mayor. Director from utilities, thank you. I may have some more for you. Isn't there an alternative where the developer can build their own standalone facility? versus requiring the city to connect our infrastructure?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:17:29
“Yeah, and what is the current capacity status of our existing sewer facility? Because for the public's benefit, we have a couple of facilities that... clean water, but only one facility that processes sewer. That's correct. Happens to be in my district, the whole city, and I think Clovis, we get some other stuff in our facility too. We do. So what is the current rate of capacity there now and when do I anticipate mean the next threshold with that facility has to be expanded irrespective of SATA or not? Irrespective of SATA.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:18:31
“So when do we anticipate having to expand the plant again, whether a SATA occurs or not, just naturally?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:19:20
“And since you use a general plan as kind of that capacity threshold, how many homes did the general plan assume in SATA at that time? I don't know the... 25,000 homes? 45,000 homes. 45,000 homes? And so, but the SAL SEDA is only 10,000 homes? Okay, thank you. On the second option of a revenue secured financing, why was that not an option, a feasible option for us to consider?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:20:09
“So that's the version that you guys are proposing that would require surcharge for us to fund?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:20:47
“In the reserve fund of the utility department?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:20:50
“But isn't that reserve fund accounted for other things? If we empty out the reserve fund, we're going to have triggering rate increases again.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:21:26
“If you can just break it down to me, city manager or staff in basic English, how much of a loan are we talking about? What is the payback period and what is the interest rate that rate payers would be charging this SEDA development for that cash?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:22:29
“What's the current size of the reserve fund?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:22:39
“You know, not that we're gonna get to Prop 218 discussions, but part of the rationale for bringing forward rate increases soon on water and sewer was a dwindling reserve fund. So now we're proposing to tap into that reserve fund. So what is the current reserve fund?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:23:01
“Thank you. Thank you for not making me use my ballot city manager yet. My medium-sized ballot.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:23:40
“So we have $32 million in the reserve balance, and we want to borrow $86 million?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:23:55
“What's the annual payment that we're making out of the reserve fund?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:24:49
“So let's assume we build this $87 million sewer line and we have annual bond payments of what? Two, three million?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:25:10
“So we build an $86 million sewer line We are on the hook immediately for a $6.5 million annual payment.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026