City updates police academy timeline and $185 million budget; bond office expects feasibility study soon

Jenny Niswander, director of the bond office, said the feasibility study for the public safety campus is being finalized and she expects it to be ready for council review "in the next month or so." The Chair said the total budget for the new police academy location is $185 million and encouraged private-sector fundraising and community engagement.

Assistant Chief Daniel Salazar and James Russ, assistant chief for communications, updated the committee on DFR facility work and station alerting installations. Salazar said training-tower renovations are scheduled to start in February (work had not yet begun), and Russ said two stations have wiring installations completed and that the vendor (Honeywell) will add a second installation team to accelerate the schedule. Russ said the vendor expects a two-week per-station timeline with two teams running and staff committed to providing a month-by-month plan to show progress toward a December 2026 completion for the alerting work.

The Chair asked staff to return next month with a clear monthly schedule showing how the city will complete alerting installations at all stations by December 2026 and to provide status updates on the construction-manager-at-risk and owner's-representative procurements described in the memo.