2017 GO Bond Process

Project Planning, Selection and Approval Process

Selection of Projects

For the 2017 general obligation bond program, City departments submitted a little more than $142 million in project requests. The objectives of the project planning and selection process are to:

• evaluate, rate and rank those projects according to the criteria described in the foregoing section;
• present ranked projects to senior city management;
• ensure that the recommended amount of the general obligation bond program conforms to the available funding;
• make the capital program available for public comment; and
• place the general obligation bond program on the ballot for voter approval.

The capital improvement ordinance establishes the following steps to achieve these objectives:

Staff Committee Review

During the summer of 2016, staff from the capital implementation program, office of management & budget, the planning department and the department of municipal development reviewed, rated and ranked departmental project requests according to the criteria established in R-15-270.

CIP Committee Review

During the late summer of 2016, ranked projects were evaluated by senior city management (CIP Committee.) In order to conform to the available funding, and to the policies, priorities, and criteria established in R-15-270, some project requests were reduced, and some were deferred to future years.

Environmental Planning Commission Public Hearing

After the Mayor has approved the CIP committee recommendations, the CIP ordinance provides that the program must be forwarded to the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC) and EPC must hold a public hearing. EPC is empowered to make recommendations to the Mayor. The Mayor, by ordinance, is empowered to decide whether or not to accept those recommendations.

City Council Review and Plan Adoption

Upon receiving recommendations from the EPC, the Mayor will finalize his recommendations and forward the 2017 capital program to the City Council. By ordinance the Council must also conduct at least one public hearing. As the governing body of the City of Albuquerque, the City Council has the responsibility to finalize the plan that will be placed on the ballot.

Voter Approval

All general obligation bonds must be approved by the voters in the municipal election, scheduled for Oct. 3, 2017. Funding from approved bonds generally becomes available in about the first half of the following year, in this case the first half of 2018.