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We reported on March 27, 2025 that Reps. Chris Canales and Lily Limon spearheaded an effort to expand the scope of the Bond Overview Advisory Committee, which only had purview over the 2012 Quality of Life Bond.
On November 5, 2019, the voters approved the Public Safety Bond, authorizing the issuance of $413,122,650 for Police and Fire facilities, including $90.6 million for a new police station, $38.6 million for an Upper East Side Regional Command Center, and $74.4 million for renovating several fire stations.
On November 8, 2022, the voters went on to approve all three propositions of the $272,480,000 Community Progress Bond, which provides $246,480,000 for street improvements, $20,800,000 for parks and recreation facilities, and $5,200,000 for climate initiatives.
In total, we’re talking about $685,602,650 in debt issues, amounting to well over $1 billion in principal and interest.
On April 1, 2025, the proposal to expand BOAC to provide citizen oversight of both the 2019 and 2022 general obligation bonds came before City Council for a vote but failed 6-2, with Canales and Limon as the lone supporters.
Canales had hoped to “expand BOAC’s role and make it a permanent standing committee” but he and Limon failed to convince their colleagues.
After that vote, there was a great deal of behind-the-scenes wrangling before there was enough momentum to bring forward the proposal for a final vote, which happened September 3, 2025, when it appeared on the consent agenda as item 10 and passed unanimously.
We are pleased to report that BOAC now has purview over all general obligation bonds, now and in the future, and that it currently includes several citizens with solid business acumen. The committee met for the first time since the September vote on March 16, 2026 and is supposed to meet twice each year.
We erroneously reported this past April 10 that BOAC did not have purview over the two current GO bonds. We regret the error as well as our failure to report on the September 3 vote extending BOAC’s authority to all GO bonds.
We wish to congratulate Reps. Canales and Limon on a job well done!
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