A borough president is an elected official who represents one of New York City’s five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, or Staten Island. The job combines targeted legal powers over land use review, budget recommendations, and community board appointments with a broader advocacy role on behalf of borough residents. The office once wielded direct executive authority over city contracts and budgets, but a 1989 Supreme Court decision stripped most of that power away and handed it to the City Council.
Why the Role Looks the Way It Does Today
For most of the twentieth century, borough presidents sat on the Board of Estimate, which controlled land use, contracts, and the municipal budget. Each borough president had an equal vote on that board regardless of how many people lived in the borough. In Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that the arrangement violated the Equal Protection Clause because it departed so sharply from one-person, one-vote.1Justia Law. Board of Estimate of NYC v. Morris, 489 U.S. 688 (1989) Voters then approved a charter revision that abolished the Board and moved most of its authority to the City Council.
What survived is spelled out in Chapter 4 of the New York City Charter: appointment of community board members, recommendations on capital projects, the right to hold public hearings on any matter of public interest, and a formal role in land use review and budgeting.2American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter Section 82 – Powers and Duties Each borough president runs a planning office and a budget office to support that work.
Land Use and ULURP
Land use is where the office carries the most weight. Most zoning changes, special permits, and major development proposals move through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP. After the Department of City Planning certifies an application, it travels through the affected community board, the borough president, the City Planning Commission, and finally the City Council.3Manhattan Borough President. ULURP Recommendations
The borough president has 60 days to review each application and submit a recommendation to the City Planning Commission.4The City of New York. Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) That recommendation is advisory, not binding. It still carries real political gravity. When a community board, the borough president, and the local council member all oppose a project, agencies and developers face strong pressure to negotiate. ULURP also includes a mechanism sometimes called the “triple no”: if the borough president recommends disapproval and then files a formal objection with the Council and the City Planning Commission within five days of CPC approval, additional Council review is triggered. The final vote still belongs to the City Council, but the leverage is genuine.
The Budget Role
Borough presidents take part in the annual budget cycle by submitting proposed modifications to the mayor’s preliminary budget. These recommendations are due by March 10 each year.5American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter Section 245 – Borough President Recommendations to the Mayor The proposed changes can’t increase total appropriations on net. If a borough president wants more money for one program, an equivalent cut elsewhere in the borough has to be recommended alongside it, and each proposed increase or reduction must be stated separately and tied to a single purpose.
The office also recommends capital projects. The Charter gives the borough president standing to consult with the mayor during preparation of both the executive expense budget and the executive capital budget.2American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter Section 82 – Powers and Duties In practice, each borough president receives a discretionary allocation from the city’s capital budget to direct toward local infrastructure, parks, schools, and community facilities. That allocation is the office’s most tangible spending power and a big reason community organizations and local officials actively court it.
Community Boards and the Borough Board
New York City has 59 community boards, one for each community district, and each board can have up to 50 volunteer members. The borough president appoints all of them. At least half of those appointees must come from nominees put forward by the City Council members whose districts overlap with the community board’s territory, and the number of nominees each council member can submit is proportional to how much of the district they represent.6American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter Section 2800 – Community Boards Members serve staggered two-year terms. The council members themselves sit on the board as non-voting members.
Community boards advise on land use, participate in the budget process, and raise local service problems. They’re usually the first stop for residents frustrated with a new development, a broken streetlight, or a neglected park. Because the borough president controls who sits on them, the appointment power shapes neighborhood governance across the entire borough.
Each borough also has a borough board, chaired by the borough president and made up of all the council members from that borough plus the chair of each community board.7New York City Charter. New York City Charter Chapter 4 – Borough Presidents – Section 85 It reviews land use proposals affecting more than one community district, submits borough-wide budget priorities, mediates disputes between districts, and prepares planning documents for the borough’s growth. The borough board meets at least once a month, and meetings are open to the public.
Constituent Services and Advocacy
Beyond the Charter powers, every borough president’s office runs a constituent services operation that acts as a bridge between residents and city agencies. If you’re stuck with an unresponsive agency, a stalled permit, or a neighborhood problem nobody seems to own, that office can contact agencies on your behalf, connect you with community organizations, or escalate the issue publicly.8Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. Constituent Services Center
Borough presidents also hold public hearings on local issues, commission studies and reports, and use the office as a platform to draw attention to problems that might not otherwise reach the mayor. The advocacy role is harder to measure than ULURP recommendations or budget line items, but it’s often the most visible part of the job. A borough president who uses it well can move agencies, shape opinion on development fights, and build coalitions that affect council votes without casting one.
Elections, Term Limits, and Salary
Candidates must be residents of the borough at the time of election and must remain residents throughout the term.9American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter Section 81 – Qualifications, Election, Term, Salary, Removal, Vacancy Borough presidents are elected by popular vote within the borough, on the same four-year cycle as the mayor.
The office is subject to term limits under Section 1138 of the City Charter. Someone who has served three or more full consecutive terms as borough president can’t run for the office again unless at least one full term has passed since they last held it. Only terms that began on or after January 1, 1994 count toward the limit, and a borough president who resigns or is removed before finishing a term is still treated as having served a full one for this calculation.10Laws of New York. New York City Charter Section 1138 – Term Limits
The Charter sets the salary at $179,200 per year. A borough president may be removed or suspended under the same procedures that apply to the mayor. If a vacancy occurs, the deputy borough president or executive assistant, in the priority order the outgoing borough president designated, serves as acting borough president until an election fills the seat, and the mayor must proclaim the date for an election within three days of the vacancy.9American Legal Publishing. New York City Charter Section 81 – Qualifications, Election, Term, Salary, Removal, Vacancy
One boundary worth noting: a borough president is not a borough’s chief executive the way a mayor is a city’s. There is no borough-level government that sits between the city and its neighborhoods. The role is a seat within city government, with specific levers over land use, budgeting, appointments, and public advocacy, rather than a parallel executive branch.