Voters will consider $325-million bond measure for upgrades at GCC
Glendale residents will be asked in November to vote on a measure that would allow Glendale Community College to issue $325 million in bond funds to upgrade campus facilities, following the college trustees’ approval on Tuesday of a resolution to put the measure before voters.
The college’s five-member board of trustees agreed unanimously to place the item on the Nov. 8 ballot.
“Hopefully, everyone will get behind this, and it will be a go,” said Anita Quinonez Gabrielian, trustee president.
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College officials began to seriously consider a bond measure after they passed a facilities master plan late last year, which listed a bond as a potential way to fund major renovation projects, such as constructing a new parking structure or building a new facility for the college’s engineering, robotics and computer-aided manufacturing program.
In February, consultants polled 600 randomly selected voters, and results showed that 65% of the residents polled would support a bond measure, according to a college report.
The bond measure would need 55% of voters to approve it for it to pass.
The last time voters approved a bond for the college was in 2002 when the $98-million Measure G bond passed.
Elsewhere in Glendale, voters approved a $270-million Measure S bond in 2011 for the Glendale Unified School District, which currently taxes property owners at a rate of $46 per $100,000 of assessed value.
A preliminary report given to the college’s trustees last month by financial consultant Frank Vega, director of RBC Capital Markets, stated that the college’s bond tax rate would be $25 per $100,000 of assessed value.
The $325-million bond would be issued in four installments over 10 years, said David Viar, the college’s superintendent/president, and would pay for extensive upgrades and renovations to decades-old facilities built in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, he said.
The funds would pay for classroom upgrades, construction of new facilities and technological improvements for programs such as digital media, nursing, science and engineering, law enforcement and firefighting training, Viar said.
“Facilities do play an essential role … in supporting student learning and student success,” he said.
The funds could also be used to repair gas, water and sewage lines, improve handicap accessibility and upgrade campus security.
In the upcoming months, Viar said he and the trustees expect to be busy as they inform the public about the college’s need for the bond and the ways it could support the campus.
“I trust that the voters will listen to our education efforts and recognize the value of Glendale Community College, the value that they directly or indirectly gain from this college, and that they will be prepared to support the next generation of students,” Viar said.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
