Remarks by Miguel Arias
198 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 5 of 8
- Play at 7:25:27
“$72 million at 2029. But the full amount that we're borrowing is 86 million.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:25:36
“When you build a house, you have to incorporate the cost of financing the house.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:25:42
“Yeah, I appreciate it. Let's keep it in basic English. So we build a $86 million trunk line, total cost, all in. We're immediately on the hook for $6.5 million annual payment to that bond debt. Starting in 2030. In 2030. What if the development does not occur? Are we, what's a mechanism to, do we just continue to have the reserve fund pay that annual debt? You could, that would be one likely option.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:26:14
“And we would have essentially five years before that reserve fund runs out?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:26:23
“What's our backstop to stop the bleeding if development does not occur within the projected seven-year payback that is being proposed. Would the backstop then be the general fund, or do we go and raise sewer rates?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:27:00
“Did this financing plan in any way put development or the corporations or the developers on the hook if we build out the infrastructure, the project does not go through? Is there any deposit that we require from them to in any way put them on the hook for making the bond payments if the development does not occur that was promised? The reason I ask is, We have track masks that have been approved for a decade yet never built on, right? So if this happens here, how do we protect ourselves?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:28:26
“How long was it paid back for the Gretlin trunk line?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:28:58
“The reason I'm pressing on this city manager is I keep on being told up to this point that the payback is four or five, six years, seven years. But I'm assuming the trunk lines that you're referencing to that we use as financing mechanism took more than five, six, seven years to pay back.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:29:33
“When was the Grantland trunk line built? Do we know? Was that in the infamous Federal Rezone days? I don't know that history.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:30:12
“That's fine. What about the Fowler trunk line one? Was that built-”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:30:36
“And do you know an estimated amount what they cost?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:31:11
“So it's fair to say that in the past, when we've used this financing mechanism, it's taken us about 20 plus years to pay back.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:31:46
“and paying interest on it when we already collect other money to pay it fully?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:32:07
“Do we have any history of paying off a sewer bond in a five or six year period?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:32:18
“Okay, thank you. For the consultant, is there any financial mechanism options that you're aware of in other municipalities that you did not explore for us? So it's fair to say that these are essentially what's available in the market.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:33:05
“Thank you. What happens to the financial analysis if we only built half the homes that are being projected? Does it just mean that the subsidy gets bigger? You don't have to, I don't want to put you on the spot, but you can just get back to me.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 7:34:23
“THANK YOU. I THINK THOSE ARE ALL MY QUESTIONS FOR A MOMENT. AGAIN, I HAVE A FEW OTHERS THAT I'M GOING TO SUBMIT TO YOU IN WRITING. I just want to give us some history around projections around, you know, assumptions. The baseball stadium that we built was sold to us as it's going to pay for itself. The owner is a baseball baseball team is going to pay for it. They're going to pay the annual bond payment. And then year after year, we renegotiated to a point of essentially them paying $0 in today's and We've had to come up with all the capital improvements of the stadium. That was supposed to…”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:01:16
“Thank you, Council President. Of course, I think I, like others, are in support of not allowing data centers in the city. However, I think the item can be improved in a couple of ways. One is the new language that you included suggests that this would only apply to those who are primarily for the purpose of an AI data center. Is it my assumption that we would be okay with data centers within an existing business building? Say if Amazon decided tomorrow in my district to automate more of their internal delivery systems and use half of the million square fee and convert that to a data center,…”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:02:36
“Every institution has a server room. That's not what I'm getting at. Our server room is not half a million square feet of floor space. So if these Amazon distribution centers are huge in their size, if they decided they're also in the AI business, if they decided to take half of the square footage of the existing million square feet of floor space and turn it to a server room, would that be considered auxiliary use or would that fit the definition of a data center under this proposal?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:03:45
“And Council Member, if I may, Director. Yeah. 20,000 square feet, give me a visual what that is. Is it this room? Is it this building?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:04:55
“So say that a current warehouse facility is a million square feet, and they decided to section off, I don't know, 100,000 square feet. But their argument is we're not providing cloud service to a third party, right? We're providing cloud service for ourselves. Amazon's a pretty big corporation. They can, I'm sure, take enough space in a million square feet by itself and not be sufficient just to provide their own company. So would this definition as written apply to those who are just providing cloud services for themselves? Because there's a distinction between the hospital and an Amazon.…”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:06:36
“Yeah, I guess the example I'm trying to process is, Community Medical Centers is a big hospital, and I'm sure their data, their server room is pretty large, right? It should be. It's pretty big. Amazon, they're, if they have a server room, it's one thing for the server room to be for that facility versus the server room to be for the whole corporate and international corporation that therefore they can claim a million square feet at the Amazon on 99 is incidental to my corporate uses. So therefore.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:07:46
“So let's say on that example, If tomorrow Amazon decided that they wanted to reconfigure their existing building to allow for that, would that trigger a requirement for permit from your office?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:08:04
“And would that eventually come to council or is that approved at administrative level?”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 9:08:17
“Let's assume they argue it's not a data center, right? They say it's just incidental.”
City Council · Sep 3, 2026