County executive unveils multi-year facilities capital plan and asks board to allow bonds for countywide repairs

Eva Lynch, Oakland County executive, and Misty, the county's manager of capital planning and design, presented a multi-year facilities capital improvement plan and asked the Board of Commissioners to publish a notice of intent to issue bonds to finance the first phases of that plan.

Lynch said the county owns roughly 2,300,000 square feet of office space and that a Plant Moran assessment completed as a snapshot in 2021'22 identified nearly $1 billion in deferred maintenance. Lynch and Misty described a strategy of prioritizing critical 1'3 year needs while building a longer-term 10'14 year program to address major systems, including HVAC, electrical feeders, roofing, ADA improvements and other capital components.

Misty said the county has created a capital planning and design division inside facilities to focus on capital delivery and is pairing bond-eligible, large capital work with a recommended PAYGO repair-and-replacement fund for maintenance items that do not qualify for tax-exempt debt. Staff said the county is modeling bond proceeds and debt service with a goal of using drawdown structures so the county borrows only what it needs and minimizes interest costs while complying with federal tax rules on bond spending.

Finance staff noted a modeled interest-rate assumption used for planning (about 4.5 percent in current modeling) and emphasized that final borrowing levels will depend on completed bid packages and project schedules. Lynch said staff will pursue a campus master land-use plan (targeted for completion around 2027) to guide long-term property use, possible sales or repurposing, and to avoid investing in high-ticket work for properties that may be vacated or redeveloped.

Commissioners pressing technical and fiscal questions heard that the county has begun adding recurring maintenance funding and will improve asset-management systems to better project replacement costs. Staff said that some bonds will be structured to avoid large cash draws that would trigger immediate interest costs and that bond counsel will ensure compliance with tax rules.

The committee voted to recommend publication of a notice of intent to issue capital improvement bonds for county facilities (an initial, not-to-exceed authorization amount was presented in packet materials) and instructed staff to return with final financing documents, implementation sequencing and reporting to the committee and board.

The presentation packet included a prioritized list of projects for the first six years, estimated contingency and escalation assumptions, and a larger inventory of deferred needs identified in the Plant Moran assessment.