DRWMAG.COM 24 #353 • SEPTEMBER 2018 • 29 YEARS STRONG by COOPER CITY MAYOR GREG ROSS As the school year and football season opens, so does election season.This year during the general election, Cooper City residents have a number of decisions before them. In addition to County, State, and Federal issues, your bal- lot will contain two ballot questions that will be exclusively for Cooper City residents. One will be the selection of a District 2 commis- sioner, a position from which there are four to choose.The qualified candidates who remain in the running for the District 2 seat areWil- liam Athas, Olga Cabrera Watson, Lisa Con- lon Dodge, and Howard Meltzer. The second issue on which you will de- cide is whether or not to approve a bond ref- erendum for the renovation and improvement of both the Sports Complex and Bill Lips Park. Please educate yourself on the issues at hand prior to entering your voting booth. Learn everything you can about the candidates for District 2. Attend the Candidates Forum, hosted by the Education Advisory Board and moderated by the League of Women Voters on October 3rd at 6:30 p.m. in the audito- rium of City Hall.As for the bond referendum item, city administration has developed some educational materials to educate the public on the subject.The FAQ flyer and informational pamphlet are available on our website and at all city buildings. Some important dates you should be made aware of are as follows: The General Election is on November 6th, the deadline to register to vote is October 9th, and Early Voting will take place from October 22nd through November 4th. EarlyVoting sites may be found by calling the Supervisor of Elec- tions at 954.358.7050, or by visiting www. browardsoe.org. For Your Edification If you are unfamiliar with how a bond works, please allow me to share some information that may aid you in understanding the issue.A bond referendum is a voting process that gives voters the power to decide if the municipality should be authorized to raise funds through the sale of bonds.A general obligation bond is long-term borrowing in which a municipality pledges its full faith and credit by way of tax- ing power to repay the debt over a specified term. In this case, Cooper City is asking its residents to allow the issuance of bonds in the amount of $12,000,000.00, the repayment of which will be collected over a 20 year period through the taxing authority of the city. The ballot will read,“Shall the City of Cooper City issue general obligation bonds not exceeding $12,000,000 in one or more series, maturing not later than twenty (20) years from their is- suance dates, bearing interest not exceeding the maximum allowable by law, payable from ad valorem taxes levied by the City, to finance renovations and improvements to Bill Lips Park and the Sports Complex?” You will have the option of choosing: __ For Bonds or __ Against Bonds. To calculate the approximate amount that this bond will cost you, please use the Esti- mated Tax Calculator under the Bond Ref- erendum Tab found on the home page of the city’s website. Go to www.coopercityfl.org and click on the big, orange “Bond Referen- dum” box to the right of the page and then click on the EstimatedTax Calculator link. A Matter of Perspective Knowing where each of your commission members stand on the matters that are im- portant to you helps you to understand their direction and perspective. I am all in favor of having well-maintained parks for our kids to play in, and from which the Optimists may run their sports programs. However, with a homestead exemption increase looming, a one penny sales tax hovering, and a half pen- ny school board tax pending, I see no harm in waiting two years to begin such an exten- sive and expensive project. Two years would give us sufficient time to see how the artificial turf is working at the newly developed Flam- ingWest Park before we commit to spending such a large sum of money on the restora- tion and remediation of Bill Lips Park and the Cooper City Sports Complex.The decision to move forward with putting the bond issuance before the voters came about through a series of meetings and workshops which addressed our sports fields, parks, and the Optimist Organization that runs the sports programs in Cooper City. Not everyone on the com- mission agrees that the extensive proposed changes are necessary at this time. To follow the process of how the city came to develop this referendum, you may review the prior commission videos.To view prior commission meetings and workshops and learn how your elected officials have vot- ed on every issue before them, you may visit www.coopercityfl.org and go to the “View MeetingVideos” link. Please feel free to contact me directly, at any time, with your questions on any of the issues that affect you as a resident of Cooper City. With our thoughts and actions, we make the world a better place. The future begins in the fall with election and bond decisions MAYOR GREG ROSS