Task force declines to recommend November 2025 climate bond after EIP briefing; staff to deliver narrowed project list

The 2026 Bond Election Advisory Task Force voted 12‑3‑1 on Feb. 24 to decline recommending a November 2025 general obligation bond based on projects from the Environmental Investment Plan (EIP), following an extended staff briefing and member debate over timing, public engagement and project readiness.

Zach Bauer, director of the Office of Climate Action and Resilience, summarized the EIP and the work since February 2024, describing a rapid analysis that cataloged potential climate, water, land and city‑operation projects across departments. Bauer said staff had identified a broad universe of needs — roughly $7.3 billion in projects that could be bond eligible across multiple categories — and emphasized that the initial list had no set timeframe and included long‑term needs as well as near‑term opportunities.

"We were taking a very wide net of projects across department plans and looking at where the investments might be," Bauer said. He told the task force that city council had asked staff in July 2024 to prepare a comprehensive climate implementation program that would produce a more focused, two‑year set of implementation priorities and a prioritized list of bond‑eligible projects.

Bauer walked the…