City Council - Ways & Means Committee Hearing on Dockets #0733-0740, FY27 Budget: BPL

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Good afternoon. My name is Ben Weber. I'm the Boston City Councilor for District 6, and I'm the chair of the Ways and Means Committee. For the record, today is May 19, 2026, and the exact time is Still 2.07 p.m. This hearing is being recorded. It's also being live streamed at boston.gov slash city dash council dash tv at broadcast on Xfinity channel 8, RCN channel 82, and Fios channel I have a couple of preliminary things and then we'll get to the panel. The Council's budget review process encompasses a series of public hearings beginning in April running through June. We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving testimony for the record You can do this in several ways. You can give testimony at one of our public hearings, or all of them if you can. You can do so in a couple ways.

One, you can show up in person to a hearing, sign in on the sign-in sheet near the door, and you'll be called on for the public testimony portion. testify virtually at any hearing. For virtual testimony, sign up using our online form on our Council Budget Review website or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm.boston.gov or by emailing our budget analyst right here, Karishma Chauhan at karishma.chauhan.com. and you'll get a Zoom link to testify. You can also come to the last or fourth of four listening sessions, which, and I've been saying I've been reading the script and saying it's on Thursday, May 26th, but May 26th is a Tuesday, so it's Tuesday, May 26th at 6 p.m. right here in the chamber.

Anyone in the public, please come and counselors will be here to hear your testimony about what you want to see in the budget. Again, at that listening session, you can testify in person or virtually, so follow the same steps to get a Zoom link if... If you can't make it in person. In addition to testifying at a hearing virtually in person, you can email written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm.boston.gov. Lastly, you can supply your testimony by submitting a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website. For more information on the council budget process and how to testify, Please visit the City Council's budget website at boston.gov slash city dash sorry, that was wrong, boston.gov slash council dash budget. We will have in-person testimony following a presentation from the panel and our first round of counselor questions.

Again, you'll be called on in the order you've arrived or you signed up In, or get a Zoom link from our legislative budget analyst, Karishma, at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A dot C-H-O-U-H-A-N at Boston.gov for the Zoom link, and your name will be added to the list. This afternoon's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740, an overview of the fiscal year 2027 operating budget for the Boston Public Library. This is one in a series of hearings to review the fiscal year 2027 budget. These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026. I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Flynn, Councilor Murphy. I've received letters of absence from Councilor Louijeune and Councilor Culpepper. Now I'm just going to introduce the panel, and then you can give a presentation if you have one.

We're joined today by the President of the Boston Public Library, David Leonard, the Chief Financial Officer, Emily Tokarczyk.

Great.

Okay, the Director of Library Services, Michael Colford, and our Director of Neighborhood Services of the Boston Public Library, Priscilla Foley. Okay, so that's it for me. I'm going to hand it over to the panel, and then we'll go to questions from the councillors over here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be back with the council once again. I believe this may be my 10th time presenting on our budget for the library. And it remains, although we are A complicated institution with our own challenges. It remains a joy and privilege to lead this institution. for all of the residents of Boston and beyond. We have a number of slides to present on, but I'm just going to pick off a couple of highlights from the slides so we can get to your questions in particular and which will also lead us into the budget picture. You warned me about this not to be too aggressive with the clicker, right? So let me start right here. And you have all of this information in your packet.

But the BPL 2025 calendar year snapshot of performance A few highlights that I want to point out just to give context to the work of our staff and the institution system-wide. So in 2025, we had over 3.2 million visits to the Central Library and all of our branches. Our circulation numbers, i.e. the books borrowed, 1.9 million items in physical items, actual books, which is actually an increase over the previous year. and 5.4 million items downloaded as e-books or e-audiobooks. The other number I want to point out is the sign up of new library card holders at 129,000, which is which is kind of the norm for us from year to year.

So what I want you to take away from this slide is a really strong year for the Boston Public Library in terms of serving the community. We base all of our messaging on our new strategic plan from 2024, which centers four key roles of the library in our work in community. Those are our role as a lifelong learning and research partner, Our work as a community engager, our work to present a welcoming destination at all of our physical and online locations, and our work to be a trusted resource. Briefly taking a highlight from each of these four roles in community, from the Lifelong Learning and Research Partner role, I just want to point out that last year we

delivered an all-ages summer reading program, whereas normally it's just for our young people, but last year we did a very successful program for people of all ages. That was augmented by some work with our Lego grant, so learning through play is an important part of how we animate kids' programs across the system. Continuing in this role, one of the other highlights relates to our workforce development program, including our ESOL services, which continue to have wait lists and be much in demand. and then looking at bringing history to life and bringing engagement to life around our arts and culture work. We had 98,000 visitors to our revolutionary art exhibition at the Central Library.

The current exhibition, which will be up through September, focusing on the declarations of independence, All eight copies of the original printing that the Boston Public Library holds for the people of Boston and the Commonwealth. Moving to our welcoming destination, I am actually just going to talk about our Major Capital Projects, Fields Corner Branch is almost done and we look forward to an opening in the fall. This is probably one of the two fastest projects in terms of the building going up. and for those of you in the neighborhood, you can actually see it happening right in front of you. The other branch renovation project is the new Chinatown branch, which is part of the Housing with Public Assets program. down on Tyler Street in Chinatown.

That's more complicated, so it'll take a little longer, but absolutely underway. And we have work underway to support a future renovation of the remaining parts of the Central Library, the old McKim Building on Copley Square. Within our trusted resource category, I just wanted to highlight our intellectual freedom training, very relevant to today's period that all staff who are very familiar with these principles and concepts, but it's always good to get retrained on things, as well as our Books Unbanned program where we offer, through private funding, Thank you very much. Our social service program servicing those who are housing insecure. We continue to double down on that.

Again, supporting that work with some external grants. This year, we're also able to extend our block programming to all 25 branches. And so, whereas in years past, people may have focused on just borrowing a book or going to Use the space at the branch. Programs and services are key to the work serving all of our communities. We also have work underway around civic engagement, There's a whole set of accomplishments around our internal equity, diversity, and inclusion programs, workplace culture, and Collaboration and Communication.

We have our coming up on the year of our first data analyst on the staff who's able to help us look at our programs who are reaching, where they are from and what they might need. There are a number of programs that we are continuing to do either patron facing or internally to augment the work of staff. Which leads us to a set of goals for next year. Each of those slides also included some goals. Those are aspirational, but they are contingent on what our budget capacity will be as we go into next year. And so I believe we want to leave the budget conversation I do want to note that our proposed operating budget from the City of Boston

is proposed as a $50 million, $724,000 budget. That is largely flat. Thank you very much. We were able to look at a more modest set of reductions and cuts. We want to avoid a situation where we have to entertain the possibility of layoffs and we also want to ensure that our Operating hours across all locations is currently maintained and so we've been able to achieve that within the flat budget largely by holding trimming here and there but holding a number of vacancies as unfilled going into next year. You may have questions about that capacity.

This is about $1.5 million below what our maintenance budget would have been as proposed. So this will not be easy, but compared with many of our colleagues and what they are facing, we believe this is a fiscal responsible budget right now, and we will do our part With belt tightening and other measures to ensure that it works. We will be working with our city colleagues to ensure We don't hold too many vacancies because we could easily dip below the minimum standards of service across branches, across central and across back of house spots. And then just a note on our capital budget. The five-year capital budget totals about $231 million in proposed renovations. Right now we are very focused on the Fields Corner and Chinatown branches I mentioned earlier, which are well underway.

and on ensuring the next project which is the south end branch actually goes into construction during the course of the next year. And then there are a number of projects in the out years where there is a level of Still uncertainty about when they could start. Did you want to add anything, Emily, or shall we move to Councilor's questions?

No, I think if we can go ahead into questions and we'll add some detail for you.

Okay, thank you very much. So we've been joined by Councillor Fitzgerald. We have six minutes for a first round. Whenever you're ready, Councillor Flynn.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to David and the library team for being here for your professional work. I share, David, as you know, the South End with John Fitzgerald and Reverend Culpepper. We're concerned about the South End Library. David, can you make a commitment? Is the money in the capital budget for the South End Library? What is the delay? When are we going to get this built, David?

Yes, the money is in the capital plan. We recently got the release authorization from the budget office. to ensure it can go forward, which means the early prequalification and bidding for Contractors can begin imminently. There is one outstanding issue and Both Priscilla and I are rushing off to a community meeting after this hearing specifically to gather Community input on this last issue, which actually doesn't relate to the branch itself proper. That design is done and fixed, but rather to ensure what is the best option for the alley behind the branch. so that our colleagues in the public works departments can continue to service the residents appropriately.

That particular matter took a little bit of time for our colleagues to get their arms around and we believe we now have three options for how to deal with that and we want to get one more piece of community feedback on those three options. That will then, once released and decided, allow the architect to get those documents ready to go out to bid. So that will be a three to six month process to complete that and then be in construction over the course of the next fiscal year. Thank you, David.

I'll be at that same meeting you'll be at tonight. I think it's either at 5 or 5.30. David, I do want to say that I did a walkthrough with some residents in the South End and Back Bay on Friday, and some people from the Boston Public Library team where they are out of Copley. I want to say thank you to them, to you, for their professionalism in joining us, but also for their input in addressing quality of life issues, public safety issues. So I wanted to start off on that, thanking them. So on the public library in the south end, What are we doing or what steps are we doing on potential for any type of flooding, any type of heavy rain? As you know, that's what damaged the library in the past. What is our strategy? What is our plan?

I want to make sure my constituents, John's constituents, Reverend's constituents have the best public library that possibly can be. What are we gonna do, David?

Yeah, I mean, the original reason that the branch had to close was because of the two flooding incidents in the basements. and unfortunately the prior design involved locating all of the mechanical, plumbing, electrical work in the basement of the branch and the current design actually raises the branch up the new design and most of the equipment is located either on the interior or on the roof So we will not have that problem again for sure.

Okay. I've been active and engaged and involved in the Chinatown Library. I think the... Temporary Library is great. The staff there is excellent. Enjoy going down there and talking to them. I want to acknowledge Mayor Marty Walsh also for pushing this public library in Chinatown. David, my question on Chinatown is how are we going to ensure, and I think your team does this well, but how are we going to ensure that Cantonese-speaking residents are included Their voices matter and that there will be books, programs for the seniors that mostly speak Cantonese, that they're included.

Yeah, I'm going to turn to Priscilla Foley, our director Thank you.

We actually had a wonderful meeting just last Monday where Melissa joined us. For meetings like that, we do make sure we have interpreters on site. But with that, the staff there are majority multilingual. And there are certain positions that we have that we do require language. and so making sure that we have either Mandarin or Cantonese speaker at the branch and part of that is also bringing in community partners as well. The staff that are there, as you said, they're excellent and they make sure that they're connecting with The Cantonese speaking community there. There will be, as you said, it is a smaller branch right now. We will have about, the collection itself will be about half Chinese. So we will be able to be continuing to serve residents there and then across the system.

Thank you, Priscilla, and thank you for your important leadership. My final question, I think I have 24 seconds left. David, you forgot about the residents of South Boston though. You forgot about the community for the longest period of time. We were trying to get a library built there and you said we were going to get it done. and then that fell off the map and here we are. What happened to the plant for a brand new South Boston library?

So, Councillor, I assure you we did not forget about our friends and important residents in South Boston. The next step always was and still is a programming study to look at the conditions of the branch We may even be able to use that vehicle to, as we stated before, to have one eye on the needs of the South Boston waterfront. or the Seaport. There remains funding for that study in the five-year capital plan. Now, we both know that it's a rolling five-year capital plan, and so that's one of the difficulties about being able to say when things are in the later years, when exactly will we have capacity to do that. Our list of priorities has not changed.

Our order of precedence has not changed. But as I sit before you today, because it's in the latter years of the plan, I cannot give you a guaranteed year when we will be able to do that work. The good news remains that it is still in the plan and so we have it on our horizon to do as we have the available funds and capacity to execute.

Questions all the time from residents as young as like two years old, three years old. And the little kids, they love the library. They're there with their mothers or fathers or nannies at times. All the way from two years old, to my parents at age 87 years old. Who are frequent users of that branch. Yeah, so they said to me before they pass along, they want to see a brand new library. And how can you say no to your parents, David, you know? I understand your quandary very well. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, David, and thank you to your team for always being professional. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, thank you. Councillor Murphy, six minutes.

Flynn, I have a young and old story to share. I first want to thank you all for being here, but also give a shout-out to Ms. Celeste. from the Rosendale branch. So I'll share with you this digital image she created yesterday. So that would be my great niece, my niece Murray's daughter, who's 10 months old. And they have a program there of the... One Thousand Books Before Kindergarten Program. So she is the youngest ever. She got there at 10 months, but she visits the library I think daily and is continuing and has already hit I know I've called you and talked before about the chess club. that moved from the Adams Street branch to the lower mills. And it must still be going on because I went over Monday night to help my mom watch my dad while she went and she had her chest bag with her. So I want to thank you for that also.

Libraries are just places there. All of our residents can visit hopefully and just thrive there. So it's important that we continue to fund. So I'm glad to hear that we don't have cuts. Unfortunately, this is you know a year where we may have to you know make hard we do have to make hard choices but I'm glad that we don't have to make hard choices with our libraries they're like life-saving spaces for our neighbors so And also want to shout out and thank my district counselors who I know speak eloquently about advocating for the branches in their neighborhoods. As an at-large counselor, I obviously represent all of the branches and Care deeply that we continue to invest in them. So I really don't have more specific questions. I know you're always open and just a phone call away if there's any questions or Thank you.

Thank you. Any libraries? I know some if they're under construction, they're just trying to be creative. But are there certain branches that you've been needing to give a little extra support to to make sure they can continue to provide services if they're in some sort of in-between? Staffing or Construction.

Yeah, so we actually along with our operations team, we actually did a furniture survey, which I know that that seems like something that's so important to have The right chairs, the right tables, the right size, and we are actually working to just on that basic thing of making sure our furniture is accessible We have a table from 1930. It's not necessarily going to fit 2026 standards for how we use the library. We're looking at that for our branches that maybe are further out on the capital plan and making sure that we are getting furniture for that. So that's like the basics, making sure we are still a welcoming environment. And additionally, We work with the Boston Public Library Fund. All of the branches are able to request additional program support, which is one of the ways that we have those amazing trusts

We have a lot of different opportunities to be bringing in different kinds of programs. like the Brighton branch just started they're shut up and write and so people just go in there and they write together and they can share what they want and they you know we've been in there since 2010 but again with the furniture We need to be looking at that. So we have a lot of different opportunities to continue to welcome people across the system.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you for all you do. And I'll be. advocating and making sure your funding stays strong.

Thank you.

Mr. Len, I know you're saying on the cuts, everyone's taking a haircut. What do you feel the most? And I ask that because I know you said you're keeping some of the jobs, the vacant jobs available where a lot of others, the vacant jobs are being cut from departments. Just talk to me about the strategy a little bit more in depth and sort of where you're feeling... More of the heater, what you're concerned about, and if you could, what would you want to preserve?

Yeah, I think our CFO will be able to give you a couple of examples related to the collections budget because That is still our bread and butter. You know, the thousand books before kindergarten, those thousand books have to come from somewhere. And in last year's budget cycle, the council actually restored Part of the collections budget cut that we experienced, the council restored $100,000 of a $200,000 cut, and that cut is actually being carried forward to this year, so in exactly the same position. against the backdrop where materials are costing more and where the demand for more expensive ebooks is actually increasing. So that's one area if you'd like to talk a little bit more about.

Sure, I can jump into that. So our collections budget, we are eligible for state aid funding, particularly to service operations, building operations for the library. So to be eligible for our state aid funding, we need to spend the equivalent of 12% of our city operating dollars on collections. So for us, that's a little bit over $6 million annually. The city operating budget typically is between $3.5 to $4 million that the library receives for collections. And what we're seeing recently, a couple of different things. One, the cost of materials that David just referenced. So a physical book itself, the average cost is around $20. for us to receive a digital format, whether it's an audio book, an ebook, is around $70 per item. And those are actually only valid for two years. So you're essentially leasing the item. What we found over the past few years is the demand for the digital copies to actually far exceed the physical.

So I think 2025, the audiobook actually was the most checked out, circulated item that we had through our collections. That's not only an easier way for people to receive items, it also provides an accessibility. So people who may not be able to hold a book, may not be able to focus on a book for that long, or perhaps turn pages, we're actually providing additional access through our materials. By purchasing more of these digital collections. And what we're finding, though, because of the demand, the hold times are exceeding. So we have $6 million. It's actually providing us fewer quantities of books in our collections. And I wanted to point out, right now, our largest hold across the system is a fiction book that just came out last month. called yesteryear. And currently the library holds 417 copies. There's over 4,600 people on hold.

So what that equates to is 305 days hold for an e-book, 270 days hold for an audio book, or 50 days hold for a print book. If we were to say a reasonable time period, we will fulfill all of these holds within a month. It would cost us $55,000 just to do that for this one title. So the collections budget and the demand that we're having, we're trying to keep up with it and service the community. The other piece of this on the flip side, going back to the vacancies, These holds aren't going to go away. So what we need to ensure is that there are staff in the buildings who can respond to people coming in and saying, why am I waiting nine or 10 months for this book? and actually being able to engage with them and say here's something that you can get off the shelf right now that's equivalent it might be in the same genre and making sure that we're engaging with these folks and supporting Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I would add, if I could, that when it comes to vacancies, if a small branch has six staff or a medium-sized branch has eight staff and maybe they have one vacancy, They'll still be able to open successfully and maintain hours, but where is the time for programs and outreach work that brings this fully to life? So again, this is workable. This is fiscally responsible right now. We're one or two vacancies away in any place from not being able to meet that. We have a commitment to continue working with our budget colleagues to ensure we don't pass that threshold.

I know I'm running out of time. Do you think yesteryear is in high demand because everyone just wishes it was yesteryear as opposed to today?

You know what? I haven't been able to get it off the shelf yet, so I'll have to get back to you.

You can't bump yourself up in line there? Right. Although I do find it odd that by going to electric, I thought everything was supposed to be faster. It's more expensive and have slowed things down. That's not a great sign overall, but that's just an aside. To some of the physical aspects very quickly, thank you for the Fields Corner Branch. It looks beautiful so far. I can't wait to be at the ribbon cutting. It's going to be awesome. And I love the little triangle we have there of academics, athletics, and arts. Upham's Corner Branch I know that we've got a public-private partnership, housing going in. Just explain to me where we're at. I think the holdup is on the housing side, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes, it's the housing funding specifically. We have a developer on board. We have our own architects on board. They've gone as far as they can. until the developer is able to get the right combination of housing subsidy and housing funding for the overall project. So, you know, we're good on the city side, we're good on the library side, and they are dependent on a variety of commitments, either from the city through housing or More directly from the state for housing subsidy. So ready to go when they are. And it will follow the same path as the Chinatown timeline, for example.

That sounds great. And I know my time is up, but I just want to say, as a neighbor to the Adams Street branch, I just saw a riveting performance of Peter Pan by my oldest son, who was in the third grade at the Kennedy School. and we thank you guys for letting the school and the library having such a close relationship being right next to each other and it really works out awesome and my kids love going to the library after school. And so I don't want to disincentivize that even when the time is not there. I'm like, it's hard to say, look at your kids and be like, no, we're not going to go to the library, right? Like, that should be the only thing you want your kids to do. But so thank you for that opportunity for myself.

Thank you, Chair.

Good afternoon. Good to see you all. A couple of things. The audiovisual equipment that we got funding for for the Honan Library, are we in the procurement process or where's that at at the moment?

Thank you. We're going through a couple of things right now. One is we have a gift agreement that we're working through with Harvard for receiving the funds. And then part of what we need to do basically is show them a scope of work. So this is what we've outlined. for the location, the costs associated. I know they'd like specifics on updates and making sure that the material and the software that we're using actually can last five, 10 years. So we're working through the scope and I hope to have the gift agreement complete soon.

Very good. And are we fully staffed in all of the branches like the Honan I think they were down one, maybe. Priscilla, you look at them.

I do know. So we actually have a vacancy of the branch librarian. Karen O'Connor retired earlier this year, and we're currently in the search for... A new branch librarian. We have extended an offer for a children's librarian. She's coming up from Texas to come work here, which is fabulous. And we anticipate her start date in June. Alston, Brighton will have full staff we expect in the next few months once the Houghton and Alston positions fill. Excellent.

And then I'm just thinking about this is the 250th and our Boston Public Library is a Pride and Joy in the centre of town. Are we doing any special programmes around the history given the The incredible history that the Copley Square Library has as a repository for presidential papers and God knows what.

Why, yes, we are. So we just completed the larger exhibition, 120 objects from our collection. We're revolving around different stories of revolutionary art, basically telling the story of the history of the country and many more. That had 98,000 visitors while it was open We have our Declarations of Independence exhibition up at the Central Library. That has... Not one, not two, but eight copies of the Declaration of Independence on display, which we hold and have held for many, many years.

They've never been on display together before. and so that will be up through September. That is our premier contribution to the celebration of the 250th anniversary. Our programs team and several of our branches are doing other programs as well.

Excellent. And then, can you outline any new or strengthened partnerships with schools, community centres or non-profits in the upcoming year?

So we have an ongoing relationship with the Boston Public Schools in particular. And I believe there is a program actually in the next week or two specifically around supporting the GSAs of the Boston Public Schools. So we continue to look to different opportunities for collaboration. The Boston Public Library is also an infrastructure provider to the school library system through the Metro Boston Library Network, and we continue to support that work. I think Priscilla and I probably both agree that at the local level it's where the branch librarian or the children's librarian has a strong relationship with the local principal or teachers That is where it really comes to life in a meaningful way and we want to continue encouraging those collaborations really across the city.

The non-profit World more broadly we continue to develop multiple partnerships across The arts and culture space, across the education and learning space, and across human services and civic engagement. Company One just honored our Director of Library Services to my left, Michael Colford, for his Thank you. Thank you. That was a great note to go out on in a way that celebrates not just the work at the library but the work in community with another partner.

Okay. I've got 45 seconds left. Let's see. In terms of programming for residents with limited English proficiency, I know we all We have a network across the city and in Alston Brighton in particular, we have our adult learning coalition. I think that includes the librarians. In this moment are we able to keep up that level of service and offer those opportunities?

I'm going to ask Michael to respond to that. Yeah, we're actually doing quite a bit in that area. We bundle our English language learning with workforce development and digital literacy and entrepreneurial support, social services, and community connections. We don't view them as isolated programs but really work really well together. We continue adapting our services in that area in response to any changing workforce and immigration trends. We're focusing on a few areas right now. We're doing one-on-one workforce support and continued case management approach with people who are looking for work and then Really, we just received a fairly large grant where we were able to hire a grant-funded ESOL and work readiness instructor.

who speaks several languages and he's going to be really built on the workforce education that we're already doing in training system-wide across the entire system so we do have Currently 20 literacy classes, including workforce-focused classes and a chorus that helps people learn English by singing. Seven of those classes are at six branches, Mattapan, Roxbury, Grove Hall, West End, Chinatown. and Rosendale, 11 are at Central, two are online. Then we also have 11 conversation groups where people can come and practice their English together. They're at 10 branches. They're at Jamaica Plain, Hohner, Alston, Parker Hill, East Boston, Faneuil, Rosendale, Connolly, Chinatown, Lower Mills, and Common Square. We also have 10 at Central and 4 online. So as David mentioned, his opening remarks, I think, before you got here, we are having trouble keeping up with demand. There are many, many people who are Looking for these services, so we're just trying to keep ahead of it.

Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. My time's up.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. near the entrance. Okay, so I guess one thing I don't think I heard about was Eggleston Square branch. Maybe I wasn't listening closely enough. But where are we at? I think last year we talked about having designs being nearly finished.

Yeah, so on the capital front, We're effectively waiting for there to be funding available for it to go next, essentially. The south end is, as we talked about earlier, will be happening next year and that funding has been released for that. The South End does not have a branch right now and so it was very important that that go first of the ones that are not already shovels in the ground and from the library's point of view, we would see Eggleston Square go next as soon as funding is available.

What is the timeline on that?

Five years, 10 years? The funding remains in the five-year capital outlook. So it's really about the cash availability, and on that front, that is the balancing act that our colleagues at the Capital Office in Finance have to balance across the city.

And then I guess I've been asked about I think Councilor Breadon got to this, but like foreign language programming, you know, in Jamaica Plain, and I've heard that, I mean, it calls for more of it, or some of it, I don't know what We're offering right now.

We have language programs available all over. And as we were talking about, we have an endless need of ESOL classes. But for example, at Connolly, We have Maria, who is a fabulous librarian there, who started a Spanish language book club. So we do want to make sure that our key rules of making sure that we're connecting language access to We also want to make sure people are having fun and which is really important and so we do have and so on. We also have classes that are for that or even just people that don't speak Spanish that Multiple language programs that are for, you know, some of them are targeted and some of them are open for everybody.

Okay. And then, so you just have, but is that just your funding staff who are already there? It just so happens that, I mean, or? Is that how the programming for that works, or do we have...

It works so many ways.

I think in our ideal world that we understand for each community what are the languages other than English that are spoken predominantly and we rely to a little extent on the BPS data for what languages are spoken in the home. From our point of view, Having collections that are responsive to those languages, having programs, the partners that we engage to help with programming, and then incenting staff, either they already have the multi-language capability or can take on a challenge of at least being and many others.

language access in the equity cabinet in the city as well as our own equity diversity and inclusion managers focus. being able to deeply understand what the needs are so that we can be a multilingual institution but that is not an overnight proposition as you can imagine.

And I think last year in the budget I think it was like a $50,000 maybe amendment from us for diversity in hiring at BPL. Has that been used?

Yes, and Michael can speak to the specifics. I think we have three individuals in September. Oh yes, yes.

We have a partnership with Simmons University and so we are People who are going into the master's degree in library science, we have availability for three positions. We currently have one external candidate who is going through the first year of their program. and in September they'll be starting in the second year of their program which has them working in the In the system. And then also starting in September, we have two more candidates that ended up being internal candidates who do not have the library degree. will be starting their first year of the program. The program tends to be about two to three years, and it is to try to diversify The pool of library applicants and we're very excited about our next three to have our three in September. They'll also help us fill out some of our vacancies and

Thank you to the council for ensuring that was preserved in last year's budget.

Okay, and just going over the budget for the library department, I see For permanent employees, it's about 35 million, is that right? I have 51,000. Is the number 510000? So, and that's down 500,000, is that impacting Your staffing levels?

Sure. So the library city operating budget is personnel heavy. So we're about 70% toward personnel and then 30% remaining expenses that get allocated to city operating budget. This was part of the challenge when we were coming up with our budget submission for this year. We did focus on current vacancies. We wanted to make sure that we could maintain operating hours and avoid any changes to filled positions. So the drop that you see there is related to our budget reductions that we proposed around holding some of the vacancies. I think there were a couple of long-term old positions that aren't actually current anymore. that were removed as well. So that's why you're seeing the drop there.

Okay. And then there's a large increase or a couple hundred thousand in utilities. Is that just expensive to keep the lights on?

Sure, so that's a centrally budgeted line item there. I know the city utility rates fluctuate year to year, but we notice that as well.

Okay. Okay, so it's going to wrap up the first round. I don't know if anyone signed up? Nobody's here to give public testimony now? You sure? Going once, going twice. Did you sign up? Okay, great. So in the order you signed up, you can come down, I'll read your name out. You'll have two minutes each. And then we'll go to a second round of questions from my colleagues. Just give me a second here. and then so just watch the clock and at two minutes again like just We can work together on this.

I'm used to being told to wrap it up.

Okay, I'm not going to cut you off. Just acknowledge that you're aware of the time. Okay, whenever you're ready.

Sure. My name is Bryce Kieran Healy. I've lived in Boston since 2008 and I've worked at the Boston Public Library since 2014 where I am a cataloging supervisor as well as a chief steward of the Boston Public Library Professional Staff Association. I'm here today for the latter because the city's proposed budget cut for the Boston Public Library is a step in the wrong direction for the library, a step back for the city of Boston, and an attempt to balance the books on the backs of library patrons and library workers alike. For a system that is already barely treading water, this budget seems designed to break rather than build the library. Our own strategic plan highlights how the BPL is critically underfunded and understaffed relative to peer public libraries and peer American cities. In my own department, staffing cuts, unfilled positions, and an increased workload is ensuring that we are falling behind and are struggling to process materials in order to meet the public's needs.

We're entering a period of sustained economic crisis and social uncertainty, and the library will be needed more, not less in this time by the public. Library funding, therefore, needs to be sufficient to the task at hand, and it is presently not. As city workers, we cannot make all the city does possible on mere thanks alone. We need resources and we need support. We cannot do more with less, we can only do less with less. The library needs increased funding for more collections, for more programming, for more resources for patrons, and for more staff, and for better compensation for those staff, because we have to live in the city. And we deserve not to just be able to scrape by here, but we deserve to be able to thrive. and our communities deserve to as well. They deserve a fully funded, fully staffed library that can fully meet their needs and allow them to thrive as well.

As a representative of the BPLPSA, I'm calling for the city to course correct, reverse these cuts, and to raise the budget of the Boston Public Library so that the library workers can meet the needs of our patrons and our communities. Thank you.

Thank you and well done with the time. Alison Kahn, I think, is on this reading here.

Hi, I'm Allison or Allie Hahn. I'm the president of BPLPSA, and I am also the children's librarian out at the Brighton Branch Library, more fondly referred to as Miss Allie out there. And I'm here today to Say it maybe a little nicer, a little less nicely than the senior leadership team has presented. They're doing a really good job of Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. They are public servants through and through. None of us get into this for the money, for sure. But these budget cuts, even though they might look small on paper, have incredibly large impacts in our communities. A loss of collections as we face those rising costs of physical and print books that Emily went through, books that we don't even get to keep at the end of all of that because they are digitally snatched back from us. makes demand hard to keep up with.

While Boston is prioritizing keeping their library open in this fiscal crisis, that is not true across the Commonwealth, and we serve as the library for the Commonwealth. in addition to serving as the library for the people here in Boston. So as other libraries across the state close or have to reduce their service and reduce the collections that they have there, BPL is there to catch them. We are, as Bryce said, Treadingwater this budget will allow us to continue and that is much better we will not have to lose our staff that are currently employed which is of the utmost importance to all of us and we will be able to keep those doors open for the people that need us the most But at the end of the day, this budget has incredibly real impacts on the people who need us the most, the people who will be relying on us When things get harder, our free classes, our free books, our free programming for children. It is in a lot of ways I serve as the preschool for kids who are not in preschool. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Okay, no one virtual, so go for a second round, five minutes. Councilor Flynn.

Thank you. David, just want to follow up on that public testimony. Are there programs that are being cut that impact youth, children, in terms of literacy or... or other educational programs?

I think I would characterize it as capacity rather than individual programs. We heard in the public testimony from our colleagues about the challenges that already exist. and that certainly I shared last year with the council in referencing our strategic plan which did in fact look at us compared with our more well-funded peers across the country. and so had we not been in this more broad fiscal crisis this year or our fiscal challenges this year I would certainly be sitting here advocating for deeper investment in the library because the need is so great, as you also heard from our colleagues.

But getting back to the question, capacity is the word you use. But if there are programs being cut for youth, for educational programs, for children literacy programs, that's what I'm trying to get at.

I'm sorry. To David's point, the loss that we may see is regarding a delay of vacancies being filled. So the actual programming dollars, the funding for the classes or the materials or the outside contractor coming in, those are not currently in our city operating budget.

Okay, because basically because there's a hiring freeze or we're not moving forward on potential new hires, That person is not able to provide educational programs, outreach, literacy programs for youth. Is that fair to say?

The actual funding for the vast majority of our programs, however, It does not come from the city budget. It actually comes from external funding and mostly through the Boston Public Library Fund. 501c3 partner on this effort. They are not predicting a fall off in their funding this year. So it's from the library's point of view, the risk factor here is about the staffing levels.

David, the Boston Public Library Foundation. Yes. How much do they have in the bank?

I don't have that information with me.

Does anybody there on the panel have that information? Is that public information?

It's a private 501 entity, so we could request the balance sheet. But do they fund the public library system? They fund programmatic aspects of our work. How much do they provide each year?

What we have available on the website, and I apologize I didn't bring those figures today, we do post annually what's called a gift report. So all of the funds that come in from external sources, we have the totals there for all of those donations.

and you will see in the budget packet a reference to the external funds budget, which includes funding on an annual basis. So for example, In FY24, the total from those sources was $3.4 million. In 25, $3.8 million. And we don't have actuals in the budget for 26 or 27 yet.

That's what they donate to the public library? From multiple sources, but yes. Okay. So how would I get that information about how much they have in the bank? We could request that. Okay. So those trustees are appointed by the mayor, is that correct?

Those are not. Those are not? That's a self-perpetuating board privately incorporated.

Okay, then the one that's appointed by the mayor, what is their role?

So they have care and custody of the library, which means that we kind of have dual reporting both to the mayor and the council, but also to the library's board for oversight of policy and strategy.

Okay, and just one other question. The public library property, or the public libraries in Boston, that's all owned by the Public Library. Is that accurate? City of Boston. It's owned by the City of Boston. It's not owned by the Public Library. It is not.

Care and custody is with the trustees of the library. Ownership of the land and buildings, I think, is almost exclusively, if not entirely, City of Boston.

How much of the property at Copley is City of Boston property? Do you have an idea of how much? Like all of that area outside, do you know how much?

I don't have that off the top of my head. I mean, the total square footage of the two complexes is just shy of a million square feet. That includes all of the interior space and the exterior space.

Okay.

Thank you, David.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. Thank you very much. Councillor Fitzgerald?

Thank you, Chair. I don't really have any further questions. I just want to say thank you to the folks that came and testified and those that work. I think the great thing about these hearings and hearing from folks who are on the ground is you always learn a different way To sort of look at the job and your perspective of hey we are the teachers before they even get to teachers is a light that I hadn't thought about it in and I think that's a very cool way to look at your job so I appreciate I have that much more appreciation when I see it under that light so thank you for describing and educating me in that light as a librarian is ought to do. Right, so thank you again. But also to all the librarians and all the Dorchester libraries, I thank them, especially the ones at the Adams Street, and thank you all for the work that you do and provide for the city. So that's it, Chair. Thank you so much, guys.

Okay, a couple questions from the chair. So in terms of vacancies, is there a hiring freeze?

There is not technically a hiring freeze. We are running between 45 to 55 active vacancies currently, and about half of them are released to be filled currently.

and let's see, so a different topic. West Roxbury Library, we would love to have a new carpet. Especially in the children's room, how do we get that done? Does that come out of capitals?

We have our operations team is working through and then identifying locations that we do need to Have some consistent upgrades and replacing that, but we will definitely include that in there. But it's that there would be a mixture of capital depending on how

and so on. I've been able to hold up as well as we had hoped. Okay. Let's see, so there is like external funds for permanent employees. It goes down from several million to like 400,000. Can you just explain what impact? That has... I have... Sure. Yeah. So, yeah, it's going actually... Oh, no, no, you know what? Again, it's going up. Sorry, I misread this. So it's going up $477,000. Can you just explain what's happening with that then? It's going from 5.1 to 5.6 million.

Sure. So there are contracted increases to the salary. So that's year over year. And that's what that figure is representing.

Okay. And who would the external fund permanent employees, who's doing that?

It's a combination. So we have some library for the Commonwealth funding. We have our associates, another one of our philanthropic arms, funds some positions as well. It's a combination.

I would note, Councillor, that all of the employees, regardless of funding, are City of Boston employee and subject to the same standards, whether those be through one of the two unions or exempt positions. Even though the funding source may be different the entirety of the population is Staff population is one body.

Okay Okay, and then there's another Drop in the budget for library administration personnel services. Can you explain what's going on there?

I had to explain it to myself, Councilor Weber. So we did notice that as well. When we put in our budget reductions for this year, and like we've already pointed out, We were focusing on the vacancies. So when we actually submitted them into our budget, they were Thank you. Thank you. They are not all going to hit the administrative line. It's vacancies across the system, but that's what that figure is showing.

Okay, thank you very much. So that's all the questions I have. Fitzgerald, thank you very much for sticking around to the end. I want to thank the panel for coming in and answering questions. I want to thank everyone who came in to give public testimony and central staff for making the hearing happen and all the staff for our libraries that we, I mean, we love our Boston Public Library system and look forward to all the Great work you're going to do in the next year.