By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

Who would’ve ever guessed that we would eventually have a bond election that would be less transparent than the one put forward by the Paul Harpole-led City Council in 2016?

Well, here it is.

This year, the Amarillo City Council, now led by Mayor Ginger Nelson, voted to place a $275 million bond on the ballot, which is being called the Amarillo Civic Center bond. In all actuality, it is more of a downtown projects bond, including projects such as relocating City Hall, renovating the Santa Fe Depot, and constructing another downtown parking garage. The Civic Center is just a chunk of what is being put forward.

The trouble is, we know some renovations of the Civic Center which are being put forward, including an arena with an official seating capacity to be announced. We also have a rough idea of a few projects which were discussed for the bond. Outside of that, we really don’t know what specifically is in the bond and what kind of Civic Center renovations officials are looking at completing. Even the website officials created to sell the original concept of the bond has been changed into a landing page thanking residents for visiting the website, without offering any clear numbers, estimates, projections, or explanations for what projects are in the bond.

Looking at this bond, I can’t help but to remember the bonds the City Council placed on the ballot in 2016, when Mayor Paul Harpole was still in office and Terry Childers was still serving as interim city manager. The Harpole bonds were by no means transparent either, but at least voters were provided itemized lists on what the bond money could be used to pay. In this bond, however, you would be lucky to even get an elected official to lie to you about the bond, much less tell the truth. They have mostly been just coasting on a cloud of aloofness, hoping voters will buy their bond proposal without explaining what voters are really getting.

I was an outspoken critic of the Harpole bonds in 2016, from a standpoint of both cost and transparency, but the Nelson bonds have to take the cake. We seem to have found the least transparent bond in history, which also carries the largest price tag since at least the 1990s. In fact, of all of the bonds offered to voters in Amarillo since 1999, totaling over $653 million, the Nelson bond makes up over 42 percent of the total cost of all of the bond proposals. Still, with being one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive, bond in Amarillo history, voters still really do not understand what we are voting to approve.

This farce of a bond election cannot earn the support of Amarillo voters. Voters need to get out and vote this bond down. Just think, if this bond’s composition makes the Harpole bonds look transparent, then what should that say about this proposal?

It’s simple. Demand accountability and transparency and vote against Proposition 1 on Election Day.