San Joaquin County taxpayers began receiving mailers in recent weeks to gauge priorities for a potential $450 million bond measure to be placed on the November 2022 ballot.
“A potential measure might cost homeowners approximately $15 annually per $100,000 of assessed (not market) value, generating $450 million in locally controlled funding …,” according to the tri-fold mailer, which include a survey to mail in or the option to fill out the short survey online.
Among the cited needs: repairing gas, electrical and sewer lines, improving access for disabled students, replacing outdated technology, fixing leaky roofs and deteriorating bathrooms and plumbing, expanding educational and career resources for veterans and upgrading nursing and healthcare training labs and classrooms.
The survey is “an attempt to reach out to voters and learn more about what they think the priorities should be for a potential bond measure,” said Alex Breitler, Directing of Marketing and Communications at Delta College.
“We are already beginning to collect some of the submitted responses. Ultimately, the Board of Trustees will need to decide later this spring whether to proceed with putting the measure on the ballot in November 2022.”
If passed, the bond will be the first since the 2004 passing of the $250 million Measure L bond, which funded the development of a Mountain House satellite campus, the Science and Math Center and DeRicco Building on the Stockton Main Campus, an addition to the Shima Center, as well as upgrades and renovation to the Goleman Library.
“While Measure L has accomplished some important projects (the new Science and Math Building and DeRicco, for example), we still have many aging facilities that need upgrading. In addition to that, we need to further build up the South Campus at Mountain House and establish a presence in the north county. So, there is much work to be done,” said Breitler.
The Measure L bond was the first taxpayer initiative passed since 1969.
The survey sent to taxpayers is meant to give indication as to what Delta might pursue in terms of renovation, fixes, or builds. It lists 11 specific priority areas, asking voters to prioritize “high,” “medium,” or “low.”
A bond would also go to renovations to the more than 50-year-old main campus. Such revisions include a rework of the deteriorating plumbing, as seen with the Shima flooding in early 2021. Insurance covered the cost of flood repairs that hit just over $1 million, according to documents presented to the Board of Trustees.
The 2017 Comprehensive Master Plan may also inform the projects, specifically the replacement of portable structures with permanent buildings in Mountain House.
“The new potential bond would fund permanent structures at Mountain House,” said Breitler. “We really need to make improvements to better serve that area and the bond would also help fund a Delta College presence in the north county, but the exact location for that has not yet been determined.”
The 2017 plan also addresses building a North Campus site on Liberty Road in Galt, but those plans never materialized despite Delta College owning 140 acres of land there, according to Collegian reporting between 2015 and 2020 and master plan documents.
The bond was a noted priority for President/Superintendent Dr. Omid Pourzanjani, who requested a leave of absence from the board in September 2021 and remains on leave through the end of his contract in June.
“My hope is that we would get at least two buildings in Mountain House. My hope is that the Manteca farm becomes the Manteca center so we actually have full programs there. My hope is that we get at least one if not two buildings in the Lodi/Galt area and my hope is that we get a couple of buildings here on this campus,” Pourzanjani told The Collegian in February 2020.
The bond wasn’t pursued at the time.
“It wasn’t really a delay per se, but we did some surveying back then and decided that 2020 wasn’t the right time to go to voters,” said Breitler. “It was right at the start of the pandemic of course, and there was a lot of uncertainty about jobs and the economy, etc. So we waited, and spent the last year or so laying the groundwork for a possible 2022 bond.”
Read more about future proposed projects and take the survey at deltacollege.edu/OurFuture