Kenney Admin Proposes Framework For Massive Renovations, Funded By Beverage Tax
CITY HALL (CBS) -- The Kenney administration is waiting for the end of court challenge to spend the money from the controversial Beverage Tax, but officials are getting ready to launch the final project of the three that the tax will fund: a massive rebuilding of city facilities.
The bill was introduced in City Council on Thursday.
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Community schools and Pre-K expansion, which will also be beneficiaries of the beverage tax money, were able to launch on a limited basis before the tax went into effect, but Rebuild is on a different scale. It's a 7-year, 500-Million dollar project. The Beverage tax will pay debt service on bonds. With so much at stake, passions ran high both in the administration and on council. After much back and forth, Rebuild deputy director David Gould said the administration has proposed letting stakeholder organizations run the projects, if they can meet certain criteria.
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"Project users will need to have a long-term interest in the sites that they are working on," Gould said. "We'll be looking for experience managing capital projects, experience fundraising, experience with community engagement and also a commitment to diverse hiring."
RFQ's would go out after the bill passes and the Beverage Tax lawsuit is settled.
