City Council - Ways & Means Committee Hearing on Docket #1927

Thank you.

For the record, my name is Brian Worrell, District 4 City Councilor. and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means. Today is November 24th, 2025. The exact time is 10 a.m. This hearing is being recorded, 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. Written comments may be sent to the committee email at ccc.wm.boston.gov. It 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 in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify.

Public testimony will be taken at the end of this hearing. Individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify. If you wish to sign up for the public testimony and have not done so, Please email our Central Staff Liaison, Karishma Chauhan at karishma.chouhan at boston.gov for the link and your name will be added to the list. Today's hearing is on docket number 1927. Message and order authorizing the City of Boston to accept and expend the amount of $2,006,007 in the form of a grant, a community mitigation grant awarded by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to be administered by the Office of Budget Management. The grant will fund offset costs related to the construction and operation of a gaming establishment. This matter, sponsored by Mayor Michel, will refer to the committee on October 29, 2025.

I will now turn it over to today's panelists to introduce themselves and to dive into their presentation. The floor is now yours. Yes, so either David or Gigi, if you're presenting on behalf of the administration.

Hello, I will start. This is Gigi Monden from Planning Department, Real Estate, Capital Construction. We will receive some of the funding to fund the Harborwalk Extension Project in the Little Mystic Channel, about one million of it. This project will construct the missing part of the Harbour Walk by the terminal and Chelsea streets in Charlestown and will help mitigate negative effects of the Casino Construction by creating outdoor recreation opportunities and walkways. David?

Yes, good morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm the program coordinator for the Community Mitigation Fund. On our end, I manage Out of the $2.6 million that was allotted to the City of Boston, $622,000 was allotted for public safety. And I, as a program coordinator, As a program coordinator working with BPD, University of Boston, I ensure proper reporting Research and internal stakeholder engagement with our internal partners to ensure that we are dispersing these funds for advanced training, advanced training, Technology and Resources, as well as cross-jurisdictional public safety engagement.

Thank you, Did. Was that all of your presentation, or is Omar? I see that you just joined. Anything to add to the conversation?

Yes, Councillor. Apologies for the delay. Omar Koshaka, Budget Director for Public Works and Transportation. We submitted two parts of this grant as well, partially funding We're completely funding the intersection improvements at Chelsea Street and Terminal Street and adding four blue bag stations in Charlestown, both to mitigate safety and traffic from the casino. So, nice to be on.

Thank you. Just also want to acknowledge that Councilor Murphy has joined us. Councilor Murphy, we just heard from the administration. Now we'll dive to Councilor questions. If you have any questions, Councilor Murphy, the floor is now yours.

Thank you. No questions. Just happy to support and make sure that all our walkways are equitable in all the neighborhoods. So thank you for hosting this.

Thank you, Councilor. I just have a couple questions. Again, thank you for monitoring this grant and making the necessary investments in the area. How many years have we been receiving this grant and then In terms of planning after we do this phase, do we know what is the next phase of investments in the area? Yeah, I can go ahead and answer that.

So this grant stems from the expanded gaming app and the city of Boston has been receiving funds since 2015. and for this grant, and of course, specifically the public safety grant going forward for FY26, the public safety allotment $622,000. And this grant supports advanced training and operational readiness for specifically for BP units for the FY26 year, the human trafficking unit, crime against children, of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center and BFS Bureau of Health Services. This allows for Boston's ability to mitigate The document impacts involving human trafficking, organized crime, financial crime, drug distribution, child exploitation, cyber threats, as well as traffic related public safety concerns.

and separately from the city's operating budget, this operates separately and through the state-administered casino revenue.

For Harborwalk project, this was the first time we applied for this grant. The project is In design phases, but it will be completed and bid out by the spring. The project cost is Around $5 million received $1 from this grant. And we have other funds, private and mass trails grant. to complete funding necessary for this project. And we will complete the project with the timeline outlined or spend at least do the spending by 2027 and we'll complete the project in 2027 as well so we won't be applying in the next round again so this is it for us

This is it, okay. And then when it comes to support for those who struggle with gambling addiction, can you talk about What is currently provided? What type of support or that might be a question for BPD or someone else, but seeing if you can speak on it.

For me, for the object, it will be to mitigate the effects of traffic and for creating other recreation opportunities. So it's not as involved mitigation as BPD, so I'm gonna leave the floor for Doug.

No problem. So this particular grant, this doesn't, touch on specifically gambling addiction, more so the public setting mitigation efforts in terms of Piper and Congestion, human trafficking, child crimes against children, gang violence, and anything of that nature that impacts the neighborhoods stemming from the casino. but not specifically gambling addiction.

Awesome. And then when it comes to crimes, have we seen any types of crimes that have been on the rise over the past, you know, Like 10 years? Or have we seen decrease of crimes in the area over the last 10 years? Any trends that you can speak of?

So right now, what we can speak on more so is the human trafficking aspect of it, you know, just in terms of how that impacts our streets and the vulnerability that it has on So we've, our human trafficking unit is a big partner with us in this grant and has received funding predominantly through over the last 10 years. I can definitely get back to you on that with a specific number. Maria?

Since the casino opened its operations, and then as everyone knows, Thank you. Thank you. A lot of transportation safety issues taking place. So we had to have extra patrols on during Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, which is the high traffic time where people go to the casino. So there has been A marked increase in sort of traffic issues there as well as some collisions. And then as David had mentioned, We are keeping an eye closely with other jurisdictions including the Mass State Police and the Gaming Police on the activities that relate to and many more. Thank you.

starting in 2025 it went from being a direct grant to the BPD to a block grant where this budget office gets the full amount and then they subcontract it out to multiple city agencies and When that began, we decided to, Coordinate a law enforcement task force between BPD and about four or five other law enforcement agencies. So beginning with 2025 moving forward, we're trying to coordinate better with other jurisdictions to keep an eye on The bigger picture networking type of crimes that David had mentioned earlier. So there has been like a slight increase in some crime categories, but it's really the bigger picture

broader crime that you really need to keep an eye on, the cyber stuff and things like that, as well as the crime that is coming up in the crime reports, in the incident reports.

And then I know that there has been conversations around a new stadium in the area. What type of traffic issues do you see if a stadium goes in there and how would that change some of the issues that we're facing now? And then what about if the venue is a year round dome? And I'm asking you to kind of speculate.

I think that the Department of Transportation could probably better understand that because they're probably doing mitigation planning as we speak. However, Area A would do you know typically would need a full call out if there is more needs to mitigate traffic in that area so you know you really have to just keep up with the planning that's taking place with the Department of Transportation and the other city agencies to really do an impact study on what that would then look like. And so that's sort of a coordinated approach with internal BPD agencies versus what I was just talking about with external coordination with other law enforcement agencies around those other crime categories that I mentioned. I guess the answer is it's all, you know, planning and coordination well ahead of time, but for these impacts.

Well, I see that we have no other questions from any of my counselor colleagues. No one signed up for public testimony. So I just want to thank everyone on this call for their work in this. And thank you, central staff. Thank you to my team. Thank you to IGR. and is hearing on document number 1927 is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Have a good one, Councilor.