City Council - Labor and Economic Development Committee Hearing on Docket #0218

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Brian Worrell, District 4 City Councilor. I'm Chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Labor and Economic Development. Today is October 15th, 2026. The exact time is 2.05 p.m. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being live streamed at boston.gov backslash city-council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and Fios Channel 964. Ring comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.laboratboston.gov and will be made part of the record and available to all Councillors. Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on in the order which they signed up. We'll have two minutes to testify. If you're interested in testifying in person, please add your name to the sign-up sheet near the entrance of the chamber If you're looking to testify virtually, please email our Central Staff Liaison Ron Cobb at ron.cobb at boston.gov and the link in your name will be added to the list

Today's hearing is on docket number 0218. Order for a hearing to review the effectiveness of the Boston resident job policy in improving equity and employment standards on projects throughout the city This matter was sponsored by Councilor Brian Worrell and will refer to the committee on January 28, 2026. Today I'm joined by my councilor colleague, Councilor Flynn We've also received letter of absences from Councilor Mejia and Council President Breadon. I will turn it over to my council colleague to see if he has any opening remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your leadership on this important issue. Ensuring that residents of Boston and women, people of color have equal access to jobs in the construction field. And also ensuring We have a policy but that the policy is enforced as well. I've been on the City Council going on nine years and I've made every one of these meetings, I believe we have two a year Because I know how critical this issue is to residents of Boston, to people of color, to women in the construction field. It's about ensuring that economic development is enjoyed by everybody.

But it's also about ensuring that there's equal access to jobs, but equal access training, employment opportunities giving people an opportunity, clear paths to the middle class. I strongly support Boston jobs for Boston residents. I also am proud that my probably may have funded a lot of work on this, especially on the Employment Commission which enforces the Boston Jobs for Boston residents job policy. So I'm gonna continue to advocate in support of this And there's no place that I'd rather be than right here because I know how critical this issue is and want to say thank you to you, Councilor Worrell. But also want to thank you Councilor Culpepper as well I want to say thank you to the administration team that's here.

And I know you also have done an outstanding job working on this issue and want to acknowledge both of you for your professional work that you have done in your team as well. Mr. Chair, thank you.

Thank You Councillor Flynn Want to thank the panel for being here. I want to thank you for all of the work that you have poured into the BRJP and data reporting over the four or five years I've been on the council. and I know you guys probably like, man here he goes with another ask but acts that I made previously hoping that we could make progress on it. We report the hours We'll love to see if we can get the wages. Total dollar amount, just to start understanding The financial impacts, want to see how those are lining up within these different groups. To make sure that if there's anything there that we're able to address it.

I also just want to remember some of the advocates that we have lost. Brooke Woodson, and Janet Jones, who have been fierce advocates and leaders in our communities around the Boston residents job policy. So love to take just a brief moment of silence in the memory of those two individuals. Thank you, with that we'll turn it over to the panel. The floor is now yours.

Okay good afternoon council I would thanks for acknowledging the two The BRJP leaders that we lost recently. I'm just going to read a brief caption for both of them. Brooke Woodson, a longtime Boston civic business leader who spent more than two decades working for the city of Boston, passed away on September 26th after a brief illness. He was 62 years old. His work centered on expanding economic opportunities for businesses and workers from communities that had historically been left out of major development and contracting opportunities. and was the Director of the Boston Residence Jobs Policy Office for 20 years. Also Ms. Janet Jones, a long time Boston community organizer and advocate for social justice passed away on June 21st.

Ms. Jones was the co-founder of the Dorchester Roxbury Labor Committee, which promoted Boston jobs for Boston residents and worked to expand access to employment opportunities throughout the city, especially for people of color and women. Those efforts helped promote greater enforcement of the policies through the Boston Employment Commission, whose meetings Janet attended religiously for many years. Thank you.

Thank you, Chris. I'll get started with our overview. I will go fairly quickly. Councillors Flynn and Worrell, you know our programs very well but just as a Reminder, the Boston Resident Jobs Policy is part of the Worker Empowerment Cabinet which was created in 2022. It moved over to our cabinet in April 2023 and is part Compliance and Worker Protections, which is one of the three departments in the worker empowerment cabinet. In addition to the work that we do to support compliance with the Boston resident jobs policy, our cabinet enforces Our department enforces the Boston Jobs Living Wage and Prevailing Wage Ordinance, the Boston Wage Theft Executive Order. And as of this summer, the Heat Illness and Injury Prevention Ordinances which We are very honored to be one of very few municipalities that has a law protecting workers from excessive heat.

We also provide free health and safety training, and have a worker's rights initiative partnering with Worker Center Free Multilingual Know Your Rights Training. And just, I always like to make sure that you know about the free resources and I hope you'll help share this with your communities. We do free OSHA 10 training in English Spanish Haytian Creole and Portuguese, and OSHA 30 training in English and Spanish. After the tragedy in Jamaica Plain on September 24th we are also going to be offering free We'll be releasing a WQC soon to have a partner help us with that in English, Spanish and Portuguese. To the BRJP, I think everybody here knows that it was established in 1983 and amended in 2017 to set up employment standards for all Boston Projects, as well as any private development over 50,000 square feet. And at the moment

The goals are that projects should do their best to have a total of 51% of the total work hours of journey people and apprentices go to Boston residents, 40% to people of color, and 12% for women. and I will go through this, and then Senior Manager Chris Brown will give an overview of the data over the last six months. One thing that is important to mention is that compliance with the Boston Resident Jobs Policy, however, is not linked to the The employer's ability to meet those hiring standards, instead it is based on a set of administrative complaints or administrative requirements around the steps that contractors must take I'll add that we collect

Payroll documentation for all projects, however we only and only more recently since November of 24 have collected wage data for public projects, which is connected to our compliance monitoring for prevailing wage. So unfortunately Because it's not required from monitoring of the Boston resident jobs policy, we don't collect wage data from those who are not publicly funded at the moment. We do have the ability though to issue penalties and fines. We've only done this since my time once, but we have come close is a result of a new transparent system that we have put in place, and I'd just like to highlight a little bit about the... We've done a lot over the last few years to really try to improve our impact

Do as much as they can with the resources that we hire so we've transitioned to a new, not new anymore I keep saying new but Salesforce database. So now all contractors submit their payroll via the Salesforce database that gives us a lot more ability to be able to track data and analyze data. We have a new equitable system for warnings, sanctions and fines. We have our newest dashboard is now a couple of years old I still feel somewhat new but we do We have everybody from BPDA used to have a set of compliance monitors who are now all part of the BRJP office. And one thing that we have done to try to quantify the economic impact of noncompliance is an annual report looking at what wages are lost as a result of not meeting the 51%

We are due to do that again. We'll have it in April at our next hearing for 2026 and we'll look forward to providing that the 2024-25 reports are available on our website. The warning system we've talked about before also. We give people a warning and then a second written warning before we come up with recommendations to the Boston Employment Commission for sanctions. This seems to be working pretty well because while we've gotten through quite a few first warnings, a handful of second warnings. We haven't quite moved into or folks have been able to rectify whatever problem before we had to recommend sanctions. Well, I do want to point out we have added trade so now you can look at the data by Year, Developer, Contractor, Subcontractor or Trade.

Or any combination of those so I know that was a request and we were very happy to be able to add that and now you can look at any project Any contractor by trade to see the real-time numbers and the dashboard is linked directly to the Salesforce database so it's real time data. And with that, I will hand it over to Chris. Oh wait! Nope, I'm sorry, I forgot. I did add one of the most important pieces of the Boston resident jobs policy is building a pipeline for Boston residents and young people into the trades. We were very fortunate in that we were We received a grant from the Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of their new initiative to build and expand This slide shows we are one of a handful of towns and

We are very excited to be doing this work. It came directly out of the project labor agreement signed by Mayor Wu with the building trades in 2025 which essentially set up Not only ensuring a supply of quality union labor for certain school retrofits, but at that time the building trades and carpenters stepped up and said they would accept and so on. So we have up to 50 young people a year into the trades, so the Bloomberg Philanthropies funding allows us to do that work Very exciting. We're building the pipeline by embedding a pre-apprenticeship program, building pathways directly into Madison Park By the end of the grant period with Bloomberg Philanthropies, we will be expanding the number of young people going from Madison directly into registered apprenticeships in the trade from 50 to 100.

Part of the way we're doing that is expanding access to new trades, and we're building a new registered apprenticeship program with the machinists. and we're doing expanding access by also providing programming to students outside of Madison Park through a program called Vocation by Madison. We launched that already. The orientation for that was last night, and we had huge participation of the schools that are engaged in bringing young people for paid opportunities to learn about the trades after hours and we'll be launching some middle school recruitment programs as well. Our first cohort graduated in 2026. We are very excited to see quite a few of them move on to building pathways and then into the registered trades and other programs, some of them are going to be applying to registered apprenticeships in January.

And we are already working very hard on the 2027 cohort, doing orientation and work with young people at Madison to get them into the program and online in getting the support they need to be successful. We have, thanks to Bloomberg Philanthropies two apprenticeship navigators now embedded at Madison Park to support those young people. So I wanted to make sure I shared that for some of you. I think this is a repetition if you came to the accept and expend, but I did want to make that I highlighted it because it's such a critical pathway for Boston Thanks, Jody. All right, so BRJP compliance procedures and data.

All right. So on average, well we have seven construction monitors that work in the office and on average we monitor approximately 150 construction projects per year The public projects consist of four city line departments. That would be the Mayor's Office of Housing, Public Facilities Department Parks and Rec, and Public Works. And the monitors for the Mayor's Office of Housing Robert Woodson and Celso Ribeiro P.F.D would be Manuel Barboza, Parks and Rec Patricia, and Public Works Nelson Cunha We also monitor private projects that are 50,000 square feet and over Pamela Ruffo and Takara Hamilton are the primary monitors for the private projects.

So the slide that you're looking at now is just a visual of the compliance process that we go through with each project, especially the large projects. Sometimes it's smaller projects We might not be able to meet every procedure just because it might be a week long. We have projects that are only a day, some maybe two weeks. So we have all the necessary appropriate meetings for those projects, but really with the large projects, the private projects, we make sure that we go through every step. But some of the smaller projects are just too small and construction doesn't last long enough to go through every step. But compliance is held regardless of the size of the project. All right, projects breakdown. All projects. So we've had 150 projects from April 1st 2026 to September 30th 2026

Of those 150 projects, 44 were private projects. Those are the projects that are over 50,000 square feet. 106 total public projects 30 was from the PFD, 15 from Parks, 28 from Public Works, 33 from the Mayor's Office of Housing. And so we have the work hours for private projects 3,100,000 work hours. 18% Boston resident, 41% people of color and 8% women for the public projects 660,000 hours 22% Boston resident, 58% people of color and 5% women. And when you add them together there's a total of 3 million 762 thousand hours

19% Boston resident, 44% people of color and 7% women. In terms of the breakdown by neighborhoods I'm not going to read through every one of them but Boston proper, which is the downtown area. The Seaport had 21, Dorchester 23, Jamaica Plain four. At the bottom it says various locations Those would apply mainly to the public works projects. You might have a project that has a contract that consists of sidewalks in Dorchester and in Roxbury, for example, so it would fall within the various location category. In terms of the public projects to break down on the Mayor's Office of Housing Consistently, each year has the most work hours. For this period of time it was 454,000, 21% Boston residents

67% people of color and 4% women. Public facilities department, 95,000 hours, 24% resident, 36% people with color and 8% women Public Works, 90,000 hours, 28% resident, 44% people of color, 4% women in parks. About 20,000, 15% Boston resident, 28%, people of and less than 1% women. So as you know, we are monitoring the White Stadium project which is a high profile project We figured we would include some data. That project is one project, but we monitor it as two projects, East and the West Grandstand In terms of the East grandstand, we've had so far about 60,000 hours.

The numbers are 39% Boston resident, 49% people of color and 14% women. The top trade has been the laborers' trade, about 26,000 hours, 47% Boston residents, 58% People of Color, and 17% women. Carpenters 35%, Boston resident 47%. People of color is 17% Women. And then you have iron workers at 61, 59, 15. The operators at 1% Boston residents, 4% people of color, 0% women. Electricians 38, 60 and 16. As far as the west side is concerned 48,000 hours 36% Boston resident, 45% people of color and 10% women. The labor's trade has been the top trade 19,000 hours 46%.

Boston resident, 57% people of color and 14% women. Ironworkers almost 9,000 hours, 36% Boston resident 63% People of Color, 9% Women Then we'd have carpenters at 40, 44 and six. Operators at one five and zero. And electricians at 50% resident 24%, people of color and 0% women. And so that would complete the slide that we have with the data.

Thank you for that presentation. I want to acknowledge that Councilor Fitzgerald has joined us, and now turn it over to my council colleagues for questions starting with Councilor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and again thank you to the administration team that is here and that's working on this important issue. I want to go directly to the Employment Commission That enforces the Boston residency policy. And I know you highlighted some of the results that we have. From the results that you highlighted, what is most concerning and where do we need to work on Most to improve those numbers. What's the specific area?

Well, I will take that question. I think outreach, I think the Boston resident percentages have always been historically low Especially recently, Early on, 20 years ago, the numbers in that area were percentages were higher. But over the last 10 years or so we have seen a decrease in the Boston resident percentages The people of color numbers are exceeding the percentages, and the women numbers have also increased. But it's really the Boston resident percentages.

So, people of color tell me what the percentage is and tell me What the mandate should be?

Okay, the goal is 40%. and let me just go to the data page here. This is people of color? People of color, their goal was 40% and we're at 44%. For this quarter, I mean for this six-month period. Okay.

So if it couldn't Construction, if a project wants to get off the ground they have to get various permits through the BPDA for the zoning board as well, inspectional services. Does Inspectional Services review the Boston jobs for Boston residency compliance before they issue a permit, a building permit?

Not at this time.

I believe, though the certificate of occupancy we share data with the awarding authority if it's public and they share that information before certificates of occupancy can be issued.

There is a provision in the document that was amended in 1985 extending the Boston residency job policy in 1985, that inspectional services could actually review the permit and not issue a permit if The person, or the company rather, that was seeking the permit was really not in compliance with the Boston jobs to Boston residency policy. Is that accurate?

I'm not familiar with that. We can create a record of noncompliance That can be used during procurement, but I'm not aware of permitting. And I know that our inspection services department has to follow the state building code which is Super limited in terms of our ability to change or influence the permitting process.

The 1985 policy extending the Boston residency jobs policy, that's still in effect though?

Yeah, well it's been the 2017 version is the version that's in there.

But it hasn't been watered down though? No I don't believe so You know like things taken out of it to weaken the policy

I do not believe so, but I would want to do a side-by-side copy.

Okay. Mr. Chair may I request some information on that issue from Jody if appropriate? Absolutely. Is that OK, Jody?

Yes, absolutely. I can share both the 1986 and 2017 versions.

So could you tell me again the numbers for women? Women in the construction trades, jobs.

The goal is 12%. but it varies and it depends. In the last six months, the data has been actually I think you'll see that better than I can.

Right so the goal is 12%. The last six month we're at 7% women Seven. Seven percent, yes. Okay.

And just I guess for the public but we're only reviewing The six months, because that's all we do when we review it. Because semi-annually, we review every twice a year. So that's the numbers we're looking at. Is that accurate?

That's correct. By project, it may look different. By year, it might look different In fact, one of the reasons we brought the White Stadium Project is because something is going very well there Our numbers for Boston residents are higher and we had 14% work hours for women

I remember, Mr. Chair, I'm almost done but I just wanted to put for the record that I was the first elected official to call for a project labor agreement at White Stadium. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I want to acknowledge that Councillor Webber has joined us.

Councillor Fitzgerald, the floor is yours. Thank You chair and thank you panel for being here today we appreciate it A question on the resident numbers being down. I've got my own theory, but do you see what is the driving force that may be behind that?

All the other careers and all the other areas of employment in Boston and probably other major cities as well. I mean, I think I have no direct data in front of me but Because I've done this for so long, I'm just thinking that people are moving, making decisions family related financial decisions and moving to where they can afford to move. And unfortunately, that's out of Boston. In some cases.

No, I would tend to agree. I think that the middle class sort of being forced out this these were the middle-class jobs and typically the people that are coming in or coming for a job already Right? And it's not in this sector. It's in other sectors, which I'm glad that the city has. So I do tend to agree with you. I appreciate that answer. We still have the jobs bank, right? The numbers. Sorry if I missed this. I was listening before I came in but what do we have there now and are we confident those are up to date and how many of those do we go out the door as these larger projects come in?

We can definitely get you the data. I did not, we recently compiled that information because we do an annual report to the Boston Employment Commission. Utilize minimally. The numbers are under 20 in terms of not the number of people on but the number requests we get and the follow through we get from contractors is very minimal

So the contractors aren't asking to hit up the jobs bank anymore?

Correct.

And so that's not to say there isn't a plethora of folks that are in there and willing to be picked up, but they just don't... That would tell me just on that fact alone, that they feel they're good about reaching most of the numbers or at least in the ballpark of hitting their goals on this except for maybe resident.

With the caveat, I'd say that sometimes I think those folks on the jobs bank database don't perfectly fit with the requests we're getting, so there's a lot of different things at play. And oftentimes I think contractors come before the back with a set of strategies that they've used of which Reaching out to the Boston Resident Jobs Policy Job Bank is one of many. and sometimes we're not sure that what they're saying about their outreach is actually matching what we know about their out reach.

From the contractor standpoint?

Yeah.

Because I know it was, Don't work long before. Yeah, a long time ago now but the it used to be If you couldn't reach it, then you'd have to put an ad in the paper or an ad on the radio. You had to show these steps to exempt you from them. Has anything changed from over 20 years ago? Best Faith Effort That was the best faith effort that you gave.

Exactly, so we don't give exemptions. It applies to all contractors. The union contractors as you know they have to go to the union to get their labor The non-union contractors, they can hire a person from a local nonprofit by putting an ad in the paper. By reaching out to the jobs bank. In terms of the job's bank, the individuals that are in a jobs bank or more so unskilled and Younger individuals that are unskilled. Rarely is there a skilled electrician or iron worker, someone with different licenses in the job space. It's mostly unskilled workers who are from one of the nonprofits like YouthBuild Boston,

you know so that's a straight I mean we're looking for basically if labor needs someone they would pull from that but otherwise otherwise yeah the match isn't there the matches are there and oftentimes the contractors that do reach out to Joss Bank they're looking and most of those individuals are gainfully employed.

If you do have the skill, you're not in a job spec. Understood. And I know through the efforts of Madison, I mean is the idea through the Madison Park and things of that nature building pathways? I guess it's not necessarily to put skilled folks in the job. The first is to get them a job Would we anticipate any increase in the jobs bank or is that the hope to drive those numbers up or is it more to get people gainfully employed right off the bat?

I think through the Madison-Boston skilled trades initiative, those folks hopefully are going to be going into union apprenticeships in the 17 trades that are part of the project labor agreement. Those unionized folks tend not to be on the jobs bank because they're getting sent out to jobs via their own business managers. We are looking at how we can utilize the jobs bank, not only for those young people who are graduating and not quite entering registered apprenticeship but even co-op opportunities and things like that. Because the young people coming out of Madison In those vocational programs have skills and credentials. So we want to make sure we're using every avenue possible to get them into good quality Good quality jobs.

And that's awesome, I love that. But final question real quick it's only because you have the White Stadium numbers here if I knew a black female owned business say went for a job at White Stadium but did not get it then I would assume, and I know you just said those numbers are but I would think they'd be looking for a black female owned business in the painting trade specifically. What would be the reason that She would not have got that job. Is it just saying like numbers are all set and we found someone with a better history or quality? Or was it, I mean if the numbers aren't there then it's not a guaranteed thing?

Every contractor has their own approach to hiring. We set the goalpost, and then they can choose how they move forward in meeting those goals. The only time that we, as the Boston Resident Jobs Policy Office can ask questions about that is if we have sent over someone through the jobs bank and they don't hire that person. They're supposed to come back for us within a certain amount of time, which I can't remember to say why they haven't hired that person. But otherwise they have their own processes and we're not really...

So the city doesn't play a role in sort of who is Besides setting the goals. So the GC does that and the city stays out of that one?

Our responsibility to be our JP's office is responsibility for the workforce, not for businesses. So we really don't have any authority or any type of minority or women-owned business that are hired or not.

I will say our construction monitors are phenomenally talented professionals who work very closely with The GCs and covered contractors, and often give them many options and thoughts and ideas on how to better reach their goals. So contractors that are truly trying to make best faith efforts should Thank you so much. Chair, thank you for the extra time. Thank you. Council Weber, floor is yours.

Okay, thank you Chair. So yeah I apologize if you've covered this already but in terms of the The submission of the records and payroll records, do you have data on compliance with that? Both for the public projects but the large private ones.

Meaning compliance of submitting on time?

Submitting on time and sufficient records.

That is the core of our compliance efforts, so if they are Late, they have a little bit of leeway. They get 10 business days but otherwise we have a very strict process If you are late, you get a warning in corrective action meeting. If you're still late there's written warning and if you still don't comply we then recommend sanctions but timely submission of payroll is the core of R

But overall, do we have 100% compliance? With submissions? I mean, just even if they're late.

So I wouldn't... No, we do not have 100% compliance. Most of the payrolls are being submitted on time, especially since we implemented this new warning system. When contractors do submit payrolls that are late They're issued warning. We have meetings with them. The goal is to make sure that they submit those payrolls on time And the reason that we need those payrolls on time is so we can review those payroll and make sure they're doing They're best to hire Boston residents, people of color and women. So we do have a warning system. Contractors have been warned. And most and majority of them have corrected their If they have been submitting payrolls not on time, they've corrected that process.

Okay yeah I mean so do you have any statistics on like how many How many were the percentage of employers that have to be warned or you know?

Exactly. So yeah, we do We have what we call a late payroll We keep track and every month in terms of the Boston Employment Commission, I go over the late payrolls for that month. and for the last year or so that we've been tracking. So yes, we do have... We've been trackin' it.

Okay, and then for the... I guess, are the payrolls adequate to provide the information you're looking for? Or there's some people who submit the payroll and then it's like this is not... You know, usable information. Like is it always presented to you in a way that...

Exactly. Good question, so yeah. So I think since we've had this Salesforce database, contractors going to the platform they have a login, they go on They enter their workers, their work hours. And Salesforce gives us printouts and spreadsheets. It's easy to read when a contractor is putting in the information. They miss a space, it won't let them go. It won't allow them to complete the process so the end result is accurate in terms of what they entered into the platform. Years ago, when the contractors were submitting handwritten payrolls Sometimes it was hard to read. I think the accuracy was still there, but I recall there being occasions where we had to reach out to the subcontractor and have them resubmit the forms.

So yes, I think with the Salesforce and the database that we have, the contractors have to submit the payroll information accurately. And as a result, we get accurate information.

Okay, and then I guess maybe you said this. Have you issued fines? We have once in my time significant fines though, $11,000.

We continue to give warnings and corrective action meetings. Also important to point out for publicly funded projects that are covered by BRJP, the submission of BRJ data is paired with the certified payroll records they must submit for prevailing wage compliance. So we as a city of Boston have to meet our statutory obligation to collect those certified payroll Similarly, if a project is public, a contractor goes into the system and must enter the information. And they must enter all of the information required by the certified payroll record otherwise they are unable to move forward and submit the documentation.

Okay, just maybe Chair one more quick question so I just on White Stadium First, I think the data on the ironworkers is very encouraging. Thank Local Sevens for their work on that. But is there anything in the data that you see and the difference between the City of Boston project and the team side, just that we should be It points to what we're doing right as a city, because the numbers are slightly different. I don't know why that would be the case and anything we should take from this.

It could just be timing. One side got started sooner than the other. Honestly, I don't think I can say much about it but I will say that the numbers have gotten my attention in terms of that they're better than many of the other projects. So even on both sides, so I'm very interested in taking a deeper dive Thank you for joining us. Not very far along at the moment, so I think it's early stages as well. But the numbers especially for women are very encouraging and I want to better understand why so that we can replicate that in other places.

Okay, thank you. Thank you chair. Thank You I only have a few questions. I'm not gonna even time myself don't think I'm gonna use the whole five minutes So Jody, you mentioned that we only collect wages for public construction. Are we able to just add a field for the private side and have them report?

I would have to ask, the ordinance doesn't require that we collect wage data. So I'm not sure

If we can then require that, but it... Well not required because I guess in Salesforce you could make a field require right so therefore it could be like optional to see what the

Projects are set up either as prevailing wage or non-prevailing wage projects. Because if it's a prevailing project, it adds all those fields and requires that people put in that information. If it's not a prevailed wage project It doesn't require those fields. And I think that's because the ordinance doesn't require that. I'm not sure the ordinance precludes that, but it doesn't required that and it's a question I can find the answer to before.

Yeah, and I just want to add that there is a lot more work involved When the projects are prevalent wage projects, because they have to fill out the FICR or the state withholdings and do the calculation as opposed to when a project is not prevalent wage. They pretty much just enter it, you know, demographic and address up to like the work hours. So they don't have to enter all the other fields.

Got it, alright. Something to think about. When can we see the public wages reported in these reports and online?

We have not added wages to the dashboard. And we've just started using the Salesforce system to collect The certified payroll records is of November 24, so it's really only just a couple years but we could definitely prepare a report on that. We have a monitor whose sole purpose or role is looking at rate sheets on projects and comparing it to what workers are being Thank you. Thank you very much. Pervailing Wage Projects.

Awesome, thank you and I think this might be my last question is when we see shortfalls in hours Is our workforce development programs geared to address those shortfalls?

I think that the Boston Skilled Trades Initiative is a major initiative that we are investing There are other youth build and other programs, but To ensure that young people know about the options of a career in the skilled trades and are exposed to that, Really, the investment we are making thanks to Bloomberg Philanthropies is game-changing. We're reaching middle school students, we're reaching high school students outside of Madison Park, and we're investing in Madison Park and supporting the wraparound supports and other services that young people need to succeed.

I guess when we're looking at the data, you see maybe it's like single digits in some of these trades. Whether it's carpentry, elevator, I think maybe

Operators. Operators, right?

And I'm assuming that just did it like a quick Google search these are some of the highest paying jobs on the construction site so just want to You know, encourage us to be thinking of our workforce development programs to try to be mindful of trying to address that.

There are 17 trades that are part, including the operators, that are a part of the project labor agreement. And we have asked that they come to Madison Park to explain so that young people know it's not just laborers, it's that there are trades that are very well paying with great apprenticeship programs that are open to them. And we want to make sure they're exposed to all of those traits.

Awesome, thank you. Looking around to see if my colleagues have any additional questions. Councilor Flynn?

Yeah, thank you. Again, this will be my final question or comment. But as I mentioned at the beginning, I've been to every hearing we've had over the last nine years. This is important. Subject, and I take it very seriously like you do. But I'm just looking at the executive order extending the Boston residency job policy and it was signed by Mayor Flynn in July 1985. So, it continues on the third page basically The plan shall further contain provisions for monitoring, compliance and sanctions.

The Commissioner of Inspectional Services shall not issue any building or use permit with respect to any building structure or land which requires a development impact project plan unless the director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority has certified on the application for building or use permit and on each development impact project plan that the project is consistent with the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved Boston residency construction appointment standards as mentioned above for said project.

So I'm not as up to date on Article 80 rules, but I can say that once a project notification is issued that projects must create. A plan for or required to sign that they understand that the Boston resident, they must comply with the Boston Resident Jobs Policy. They must have a plan. They most submit data and that is I can never remember the acronym, but I can find it. Those plans are signed by the developer understanding that they must comply and only once they've signed that they know that they Are they then able to go to the inspection services department and get their building permits?

But Jody, I understand what you're saying but the Commissioner of Inspectional Services shall not issue any building or use permit with respect to a building that the project has to be consistent. with the Boston Redevelopment Authority approved, Boston residents construction employment students. So I guess my point is if the general contractor has a history of Not being in compliant with the Boston jobs of Boston residency policy, and that's backed up through the Employment Commission. It's all documented. But it but the inspectional services is able not to issue a permit. And that's basically why I'm highlighting that.

That provides teeth in the enforcement, that why are we giving contracts to a company that has a history of bad practice, of not being compliant, of hiring women, hiring people of color. Is that fair to say?

I'll have to take a closer look. I know that within the 2017 revised version of the permit, we create One of the reasons we created the dashboard was to create a record through which our procurement team can easily look at any contractor and subcontractor, understand their compliance history, and utilize that information when making City of Boston making decisions about who they want as contractors on City of Boston projects. For private projects through the Boston Planning Department, it was my understanding that they just had to sign I think this is private projects as well, including hotels, retail.

So I'll just provide this to you, and maybe you can take a look at it.

I will take a closer look. I know that I've reviewed many of those plans that have been submitted prior because we utilize those to launch our monitoring projects.

Okay, but on public projects do we look at the compliance of a general contractor before we issue a permit?

A contract, I know we provide the information to the procurement team. I don't know how that is utilized beyond that point.

OK.

It's similar, we also disclosure of wage theft through the Wage Theft Executive Order. All of those things are provided to the procurement team so that they know when through the procurement process but state procurement law is also very rigid

Okay, my final point and Mr. Chair thank you again for the important leadership you have provided I just want to recognize both of you for the importance work you're doing I also want to recognise the Carpenters Union exceptional work on this and especially on wage theft issues as well. And not only advocating for union workers, but advocating for non-union workers who have been exploited. and have talked to a lot of workers that are exploited, that are non-union workers. But I do want to highlight the important role the Carpenter's Union has played, continues to play in ensuring Economic Justice for all workers, including immigrant workers in ensuring that they are treated fairly because I do know they are not treated fairly especially if their

Nottingham Union. Mr. Chair, thank you.

Thank you. One last question that I have is the Live-In Wage Advisory Committee. Okay. Status.

Status is that it was blended into or combined with a new advisory committee that is meant to represent the entire All of our Office of Labor Compliance oversee all of our wage and hour, living wage, wage theft. However we were holding We wanted to make sure all the new laws were in place as we brought that together. We have work to do to make it happen.

Got it, so near future, far future?

Definitely part of our work plan for this fiscal year in Boston.

All right. Well, that's all my questions seeing no other councillors with questions and we have no public comments. I just want to thank you for your work. Thank your team. I also want to thank our advocates and then also just again, just want to lift up the names of Brooke Woodson and Janet Jones in their work that they have done in this field. and with that, the hearing on target number... Okay. Councillor?

Mr Chair, I just have one question for you. In the past, we always had a lot of public testimony from advocates in the community. And sometimes they'd be waiting in line to testify Do you know what happened or is that still a major focus for the community? Because I do know that they loved attending and they provided A lot of great knowledge in advocacy and listening to them was always helpful, but just wanted to get your thoughts on do you know what happened in terms of the advocates? And are they still engaged on this issue?

Yeah, I think last night we heard from residents on this very same issue. And a room full of people made it known, passed out the information. Could be the timing, could be the day but I know that people are still well engaged. But today yeah unfortunately no public testimony.

Yep and I do acknowledge we had a meeting last night at three hour meeting I went to with Worrell. And you did mention that about the important meeting that was happening today, so I just want to say thank you to you, Councilor Worrell Absolutely, thank you.

This hearing on document number 0218 is adjourned

Thanks for watching!