The city council is expected to authorize city staff to issue bonds for the taxpayer-owned convention center hotel at a June 19 meeting, according to Dave Levinthal with the DMN.

If approved — and there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t be, given the recent vote in favor of construction — staff would be able to issue bonds to fund the hotel if the rate on the bonds is 5.5 percent or lower, the DMN reports.

It’s not clear if the bond market has sufficiently recovered to achieve that rate, but it makes sense to authorize staff to put the proposal out there at that target price in order to quickly snarf up any investment money floating around that is willing to commit to the rate — pre-authorizing the staff is the most expeditious way to get the ball rolling on construction.