Proposed interior of a new downtown arena included in the Amarillo Civic Center bond/Photo by the City of Amarillo
A new email chain obtained by The Amarillo Pioneer through an open records request shows Amarillo City officials discussed using COVID-19 relief funds to help cover the costs of the Amarillo Civic Center expansion project included in an upcoming bond election.
In an email dated June 10, 2020, Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson reached out to city manager Jared Miller with a list of talking points for calling the Amarillo Civic Center bond election for November after it was postponed from its May election date due to COVID-19 concerns. In the email, Nelson included an attachment of a handful of talking points, including one talking point about using COVID-19 relief funds to “help with” the costs of the project.
“If we could broaden the use of COVID relief funds, we could use some of our funds to help with this project,” the attachment from Nelson reads. “This is a project that would stimulate economic activity across the entire city — not just in one particular business or industry.”
The attachment also makes a mention of a request to “broaden the definition of COVID related expenses that cities can use their relief funds” to pay.
According to a Coronavirus Relief Fund allocation document provided by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the City of Amarillo, between its population in Potter and Randall Counties, is eligible for relief funds of over $11 million, with $55 being allocated to each jurisdiction, per capita. Guidance released by the U.S. Treasury in June states the funds allocated to government entities for coronavirus recovery may only be used to cover expenditures meeting three specific criteria: costs that are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19); costs which were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020 for the State or government; and costs which were incurred during the period that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020.
Amarillo officials have been pushing a proposed expansion of the Amarillo Civic Center and completion of various downtown projects through a bond election since September 2019. The total cost of the project is $319 million, with a $275 million bond being placed on the November 2020 ballot. If passed, voters can expect a hefty tax increase and the completion of a number of projects, including the creation of a roughly 8,000 seat indoor arena, construction of a second downtown parking garage, creation of a central park downtown, expansion of some convention spaces, relocation of Amarillo City Hall, a restoration of the Santa Fe Depot, and more.
In September 2019, officials with the City of Amarillo said the remaining costs of the $319 million project would be covered through “finance engineering” mechanisms such as certificates of obligation.
