City Council - Ways & Means Committee Hearing on Dockets #0733-0740, 0744-0746, FY27 Budget: Environment, Food Justice, Revolving Funds

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Good morning. My name is Ben Weber. I'm the District 6 City Councillor and the Chair of the Boston City Council on Ways and Means. Today's April 22nd, 2026, and the exact time is 10.06 a.m. This hearing is being recorded. It is also being live-streamed at boston.gov slash city dash council dash tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8. RCN Channel 82, and Fios Channel 964. The Council's budget review process will encompass a series of public hearings, which began last week and will run through June. We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving testimony for the record. You can do so in several ways. First, you can attend one of the hearings and give public testimony.

will take public testimony at the end of each departmental hearing and also you can testify in person at two public testimony listening sessions. The full hearing schedule is on our website at boston.gov slash council dash budget. Our scheduled hearings dedicated to public testimony are in person at City Hall. on Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m. and again on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m. You can give testimony in person here in the chamber or virtually via Zoom. For in-person testimony, Please come to the chamber and sign up at the sheet near the entrance for virtual testimony You can sign up using our online form at our Council Budget Review website, or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm.boston.gov, or by emailing krishmachoan, that's K-A-R,

ishma.chouhan.gov. When you're called to testify, please state your name and affiliation, your residence, and limit your comments to a few minutes to ensure all comments and concerns can be heard. In lieu of personally testifying, you can email your written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at boston.gov, or you can also submit For more information on the City Council's budget process and how to testify, please visit the City Council's budget website at boston.gov slash council dash budget. We'll be taking in-person testimony at this morning's hearing after the first round of councilor questions. Individuals will be called on the order in which they've signed up. We'll have two minutes to testify.

If you wish to sign up for public testimony, have not done so already, again, you can sign up at the sign-up sheet, or if you're virtual, please email our director of legislative budget, analysis, Karishma Chauhan, at karishma.chouhan.boston.gov for the Zoom link and your name will be added to the list. This morning's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740 and dockets 0744 to 0746. An overview of the FY27 budgets for the Environment Department, the Office of Food Justice, and the following revolving funds, Conservation Commission, Distributed Energy, and Birdo. This is one of a series of hearings to review the FY27 budget. For my colleagues' information, this is the first year The Berto Revolving Fund has been filed with us.

These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and were referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026. are joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, no surprise here, Councilor Flynn, and then Councilor President Breadon. Let's see. We've received a letter of absence from Councilor Santana. I'm now going to introduce the panel. We have with us this morning, we've got Brian Sweat, the Chief Climate Officer for the City of Boston. We've got Chris Osgood, who's the Director of the Office of Climate Resilience. Oliver Sellers-Garcia, Commissioner of the Environment, Energy, and Open Space, Taisha Rogers, Finance Director for Environment, Energy, and Open Space, and Eliza Wasserman, Director of the Office of Food Justice.

Before we get to my council colleagues, I don't know if the panelists have presentation, anything they want to, opening statements. Do you want us to go through the brief presentation first? Yeah, I think that would be, yeah. So we're waiving opening statements in these budget hearings. So the panel, the floor is yours. Great.

Thank you so much, Councilor Weber. for their opportunity to present. We have a few brief slides just to set the context. Sorry, this is fast. So in terms of, thank you for introducing us, brought obviously my colleagues with me to help present some successes from the current fiscal year budget and the return on investment there and our proposed budget that is under your consideration for the next fiscal year It might be at the end where it used to be. Sorry, we had flipped the order of some of these slides. Go back to the... So just in terms of grounding what we're covering here today, the Environment, Energy, and Open Space Cabinet For the city is composed of five offices and departments currently. You'll hear from three of them today, the Environment Department, Office of Climate Resilience, and the Office of Food Justice.

The Office of Historic Preservation, we're completing the RFI that was requested. and then Parks and Rec has a hearing scheduled in a couple of weeks and that is obviously from a budget perspective the largest in the cabinet so here to focus on those three I think the, you know, and just as a reminder, in terms of government organization, we have created back in September of 2024, the Climate Council to help organize a number of our climate efforts and really operationalize an all-government approach. that is still in effect and supporting both our policy and action plan agenda as well as making sure that we get the highest return on investment for the budgets in this cabinet. So at a high level, I just want to sort of preamble for my colleagues. This is our response to the mayor's directive of finding some savings, and we were able to

to do that while preserving key services and programs that have been invested in over the last several years to minimize any potential negative impact on constituents and residents and businesses in Boston. And I believe we've been able to do that. And so I think we've been able to preserve key services and programs that are critical not only to the environment and health of the city of Boston, but really support our focus on increasing affordability in the city. and whether that's reducing energy costs for constituents and businesses, reducing costs to the city in terms of our utility costs or increasing access to healthy and nutritious food in as an affordable fashion as possible. We really are expanding our focus on supporting infrastructure that solves critical needs in the city of Boston. So with that, each of my colleagues will go through sort of their

budgets and a brief sort of review of highlights of the current fiscal year and the investments that were made over the last nine to 12 months and then our focus for the upcoming fiscal year. With that, I'll turn it over to Oliver Sellars-Garcia. Thank you, Councilor.

Oliver Sellars- Great. Thank you, Chief Sweat. My name is Oliver Sellars-Garcia. I'm Commissioner of the Environment Department. I will share a little bit, as Brian mentioned, about the past year and the year ahead. So I'll just start by saying happy Earth Day. This is an auspicious day for our cabinet to be presenting the budget. And I will just do a little bit of high-level framing, which is that the Environment Department budget is really, I think, what a budget designed for environmental protection and climate action in 2026 looks like with more than ever setting realistic goals I'm tied to specific action that we can accomplish guided more than ever by our forthcoming climate action plan. Really playing to our strengths. We have so many impactful programs that we are moving forward and continuing that serve

A real focus on climate action that not only has a climate impact, but that also improves quality of life and affordability. So that's what you'll see in our accomplishments of this current year and our plans for next year. Overall, the Environment Department budget is proposed with a 2.1% reduction. with a lot of that being accomplished with a one year only shift from contract services to revolving funds. And we're really able to continue making the progress that we have made with this temporary measure. I'll also note that the Office of Climate Resilience, which Chris will speak to, is included in non-personnel services in the Environment Department.

So in terms of our accomplishments, we really have so much that we'd like to share with you, but just a few highlights. Berto implementation has really moved forward this fiscal year with a lot of new services for buildings that are covered by Berto, for example, assistance purchasing renewable energy and special guidance for condos and condo associations. You'll hear me talk about the Boston Energy Saver a little bit more in a moment, but this is a really important marquee program that we launched at the end of October of last year. that is helping residents save money and have more comfortable homes. We launched our third round of Clean Community Air Grants, and we'll be holding Boston's first Boston Area Air Quality Summit on May 15th.

We also continue the important regulations conversations with community members on updating the Boston wetlands regulations. On the side of our own energy usage as a city, We've done a conversion of gas street lights to LED lights in Bay Village. I'll talk a little bit more in a moment about what else we've done behind the scenes, but we're working very aggressively to lock in more energy savings while continuing to build more renewable energy. This year we completed solar installations in six buildings that we'll add. Two megawatts of solar capacity to the city and save an estimated $415,000 a year in electricity costs. We'll be launching our 2030 Climate Action Plan.

Next week, which we're very excited about, which has 40 strategies on emissions reductions, resilience, climate justice, and workforce, paired with a new dashboard that provides a new level of accountability and information on understanding how we're having an impact and how to be accountable for our progress. And also, we have a lot of new initiatives that we launched this fiscal year. We continue our community choice electricity program that has saved over $260 million for residents since its launch in 2021. We are launching a new building material reuse program, which is all about how we can not just demolish buildings, but salvage the materials and create a market for reusing high quality materials. You may have seen the news a couple weeks ago.

We're partnering with MassCEC to launch Boston's first study of using thermal energy from the harbor and rivers as an alternative source of clean energy. Wow, this is fast, isn't it? Okay, so I just want to do a tiny zoom in on two programs that I think are just very important in the context of this budget year that are all about Climate and Affordability together. So I mentioned we launched the Boston Energy Saver, which is a lot of things, but what residents see is a A friendly face and a helping hand to figure out how to navigate the very complex world of making upgrades to your home or building or figuring out how to lower your bill next month. We connect people with resources. We solve some of their problems on their own. We've engaged over 1,000 residents and helped over 300 in the last couple of months through our help desk.

We estimate that we've leveraged about $50 million in Mass Save incentives And I do want to point out that we have set aggressive goals jointly with the utilities for heat pump installations and weatherizations for the next three years. And in 2025, we are right on target with a third of that goal accomplished in each of those categories. So that is accessible at boston.gov slash save and 617-635-SAVE. The other program that I just want to highlight in this moment that is particularly relevant to the overall city budget is that the municipal energy unit in the Environment Department works Behind the scenes to save energy costs. Since more strategically purchasing energy starting in fiscal year 15, this program has saved $61.8 million in avoided electricity costs.

Just a couple of months ago, we identified the possibility to switch some account classifications to larger energy usage rates that are lower than what they had been on. That's projected to save $2.3 million in the upcoming fiscal year with very little cost to implement. We also have implemented lots of energy-saving projects in our buildings, such as lighting, and those every year. saved $2.3 million compared to what we would be paying had we not made those infrastructure upgrades. So I'm focusing on those just to give you a sense of how important our focus on climate and affordability is together, which you'll see reflected in a lot of the programs that we are continuing this fiscal year. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot about my goals for the next year, which I will go very quickly.

But really, in this budget cycle, we are continuing to invest in all of the programs that I mentioned. and moving them forward. So whether that is the expansion of the Boston Energy Saver to reach more neighborhoods, to continue Berto implementation and providing support, we're also really working on both a vision for expanding and maintenance of the urban wilds jointly with the Parks Department The continuing, not just the energy production measures that I mentioned, but also strategically purchasing renewable energy, which is more important than ever. in a time when the renewable energy markets need stable customers such as the city. And I will mention again that next week we will launch our climate action plan, 2030 climate action plan, which really sets the stage for very practical work across the city implemented through the Climate Council that Brian mentioned.

And that will really be the next phase of this department's work in climate. And we continue to keep focus on hiring and retaining talent. We had an excellent year last year in terms of hiring with very few positions vacant now. And with that, I will pass it to my colleague, Chris Osgood. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Oliver, Chair Weber, Council President Breadon, Councilor Coletta Zapata, Councilor Flynn, pleasure to see all of you. Thank you for your partnership and engagement and support of this work. As Oliver mentioned, I'm Chris Osgood. I have the great pleasure of leading our terrific Office of Climate Resilience team. This is a team that is focused on coordinating Boston's all-government approach to risk reduction, looking at three principal climate risks, extreme heat, For our mayor, the focus is to shift from a decade of really good planning and demonstration projects that we have done with many of you and many of you in this room to a decade of implementation. And that is implementation through implementing systems and projects and policies that help protect our people and our critical public assets and enhance our public realm, making sure that we're delivering on that objective that Boston can be a great place for families to call home for generations to come. In the upper left hand corner of the slide you see a quick summary of our budget as Oliver mentioned.

We have a shared services budget on the non-personnel line so that our non-personnel budget is within the Environment Department. Our personnel line is essentially the heart of our operating budget. It covers the staff of the Office of Climate Resilience. We have the good fortune to have some support from external funds, principally grants that help us advance our work. and then a set of capital projects that are really focused on risk reduction across those three principal risks, heat, extreme stormwater flooding and coastal flooding. As you see in the lower left, there's been a lot of work by the office and across the administration over the course of this last year. That includes cutting the ribbon on the beautiful nine-acre restoration of the Mattahan Urban Wild, a project done in collaboration with the Environment Department and the Parks Department. and a set of work which is opening up a new trail network and improving the ability of this environmental asset to handle stormwater and cool the neighborhood on extreme heat days. Also in that lower left you see an image of A project that is currently under construction in Charlestown.

It is a new piece of flood risk reduction infrastructure along Main Street that helps cut short a flood path that otherwise would impact A number of residents and some critical infrastructure in the Charlestown neighborhood. In addition to those projects and others like those, we also were able to deepen our partnerships over the course of this last fiscal year. Recently launching our heat research agenda, the first of its type for our city, really as an instrument to help us have better collaborations with Thank you. Thank you. As you see on the right side, there's a whole set of work which is continuing and advancing and accelerating in our city. Over the course of this next fiscal year that this budget supports, that includes collaboration with our Office of Emergency Management to make sure that during the heat waves that we would anticipate over the course of this summer,

that we're providing relief to our residents, particularly our most critical populations, through communications, through things like misting tents, and through some direct outreach and working new policies for things like outdoor workers. something which was done in collaboration, Chair Weber, with you. Also a set of work done in collaboration with our Parks Department as well as Mass Audubon to expand our tree planting efforts across our city. both to increase shade particularly in those parts of our city that have lower canopy cover and to be able to sort of transform our urban heat islands into places that are cooler over time and protect the public health of our residents there. In the lower right-hand corner of the slide, you see two images of some of the work we're doing really around coastal flood risk reduction, Over the course of this year ahead, we'll be continuing to work with our Office of Emergency Management in delivering a set of interim solutions. And then importantly, over the course of the summer,

We'll be working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release a plan looking at the long-term areas that the federal government would look to invest in flood risk reducing infrastructure in our city. So again, appreciate the great partnership and collaboration with all of you. Look forward to your questions and comments and the budget process ahead. And I'll turn it over to Aliza.

Good morning. My name is Aliza Wasserman, and I am the director of the Office of Food Justice. and really appreciate this council's support of our office. Over a number of years, our mission is to build a food system that is equitable, Resilient, Sustainable, and Just. And I'm going to share just a little bit about our accomplishments over the past year and over the past several years as we've significantly expanded and deepened our office's work We work closely with a number of other city departments, including Grow Boston, Boston Public Schools, Age Strong, Boston Public Health Commission, and many, many community partners to carry out our mission as effectively as possible.

Because Boston has such a robust food access infrastructure, Whether it's grocery stores, farmers markets, mobile markets, FarmShares, Food Pantries, and so many other food access organizations and businesses. We at the Office of Food Justice have really had the opportunity to impact residents most by supporting partnerships and critical food access and affordability infrastructure that supports the excellent work of these businesses and organizations. and leveraging their efforts to really be sort of more than the sum of their parts to provide affordability and access for residents on the ground. I would say in a year that was challenging at the federal and global level for conditions that made it harder for residents to be able to afford food, our work

critically supported the ability of partners throughout the city to be able to help residents weather these storms, both the time-limited crisis of this delay in SNAP benefits In November and throughout with ongoing federal efforts to remove residents eligibility to receive SNAP as well as the ongoing high cost of food. So A few accomplishments of the awesome team we have at the Office of Food Justice who really make all of these things happen with our partners in FY26. Through our contracted services budget, primarily, we were able to build equitable access, improve equitable access, I should say, in distribution systems for fresh, culturally relevant, and

Citywide Farmers Market Coupon Program Nearly $420,000 of fresh food at no cost to low-income Boston residents at any of the 20 farmers markets across the city between June and October that were through coupons distributed by 35 different organizations and community health centers, ensuring that folks could really access food of their choice in the community of their choice while also supporting local farmers and food producers. Similarly, on the front of making sure residents could afford fresh food of their choice through our Double Up Food Bucks program,

which provides SNAP shoppers 50% discount on fresh fruits and vegetables at participating stores. Since the beginning of that program in 2018, Our office has distributed over a million dollars in discounts to Snap Shoppers for fresh produce. And in this past, to date, this past year, The support for fresh fruits and vegetables has been about $88,000. And we have actually added two additional stores to that program. The Brothers Supermarket on Dudley Street in Dorchester on the, I would say, on the border of Roxbury. I always have to kind of both there. And Happy Market on South Street across from the BHA site in Jamaica Plain. On the front of the supporting emergency food

Ecosystem and Food Recovery Organizations. Our initial seed investment of ARPA funds, thanks to the Council's support, for the Greater Boston Collaborative Food Access Hub in Roxbury has really begun to blossom in terms of utilization of the space this past year with quite a few partners including ABCD, JP Center Food Hub, Rosie's Place, Maverick Landing Community Services, Fresh Start Food Network, and Food Link all basing a portion of their operations out of the Food Hub in Roxbury and working with almost a dozen other collaborating partners to help move food in and out. We were able to officially kind of partner with the YMCA and Mass General Brigham to more officially open that site this year. Really, it changes every week, so a few examples of unique partnerships.

During the past year, there was a shipment of bananas that moved through Chelsea that really could not be, like no one organization could find homes for all of the bananas, and there are clearly many, many households that could benefit, and so the hub was critical in getting those resources to residents who needed them. At another point during the year, an entire tractor trailer of 15,000 prepackaged meals also was not going to be Going to people to eat it was going to go to waste. And so the partnerships in that space made it possible to get those meals out to many, many households in many neighborhoods. And so when snowstorms and federal policy changes to SNAP also disrupted supply chains,

The Collaborative Hub was able to function as a core stopgap space for operators in the emergency and local food spaces to connect with each other, to have this cold storage that you've all heard us talk about so much. to connect and ensure that food wouldn't go to waste and that each community really would have a greater abundance of fresh food. Similarly, the additional 12 ARPA-funded cold storage grants that we provided to food access and food recovery organizations this year increased The cold storage available by 1,337 square feet of cold storage and those organizations increased their average number of clients served this year by 33%.

So I'll just close with one more piece of our work which is our partnerships with Boston Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services which has really made amazing strides and progress for the Good Food Purchasing Program, which was started by the Council's Good Food Purchasing Ordinance, and this year Boston Public Schools earned Good Food Leader Silver status from this organization that works with jurisdictions across the country called the Center for Good Food Purchasing. And so that means that for the 2023-2024 school year, All of the food that BPS purchased gave them this exceptionally high rating in terms of the values behind the food that they purchased.

as part of their mission to provide students with fresh, nutritious, and locally sourced breakfast, lunch, and after school and summer meals. And so this kind of independent assessment really shows They sort of scour all of the purchases and look at the individual ingredients, where they're sourced from, how they're produced. and this is a higher ranking than many of the districts or jurisdictions around the country have been able to achieve and this is only their second assessment ever I want to pivot a little bit to talking about our goals and our plans for FY27 Our proposed budget for FY27 includes $609,852 for personnel and $610,000 for contracted services.

and combined with an additional $500,000 from the participatory budgeting FY26 process where residents voted to support food access for residents. We're looking forward to really continuing to deliver on supporting this affordable fresh food access infrastructure across the city. In addition, we will be developing Looking at what initiatives we can develop to really do more to support affordability at locally owned independent grocery stores. Developing a food access and food insecurity dashboard. Evaluating the impact of our Double Up Food Bucks program with a report that will be coming out this year and looking at how we can support year-round fruit and vegetable affordability through both farmers markets and locally owned grocery stores.

Given the challenges with SNAP at the federal level, we will be partnering with organizations on the ground to protect access to SNAP for the thousands of Boston residents that could be have already been and could continue to be at risk of losing their eligibility for SNAP. We will be implementing additional recommendations from our food recovery assessment Working with food waste generators, food recovery organizations, and the organizations that distribute recovered food throughout our neighborhoods. Lastly, conducting outreach to additional institutional food supply chain vendors and farmers so that we can expand the number of small and regional BIPOC food producers that are able to access

Our procurement channels and those of other large institutions and expanding our good food purchasing work to other departments. Lastly, We are currently working with the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, Small Business, and the Mayor's Office to engage directly with local independently owned grocery stores and bodegas to understand their challenges and in parallel to identify what levers the city could use to support these stores to better weather the current storms and we are advising the planning department's community and needs assessment where they are Looking at grocery stores as part of the essential quality of life facilities in each neighborhood to better understand The existing landscape of grocery stores as food access infrastructure and what needs each of our neighborhoods might have. Thank you.

And I will thank you for closing up.

Thank you, Lisa. So thank you, Chair Weber, for the opportunity to present this brief overview of sort of 2026 accomplishments and 2027 goals. I think happy to take any questions we have really focused on delivering on core environmental and health needs and services and programs for the constituencies in Boston with a real focus on near-term affordability and making sure we're addressing that moment. But I look forward to your questions and the conversations here today.

Okay, thank you. I've been joined by Councilor Coletta Zapata, Councilor Murphy, Councilor Fitzgerald. Aliza, I had a question, just clarifying. So we got money from participatory budgeting The recent vote, how does that show up in your departmental budget, like in your operating budget? So just as a hypothetical, if you If you got $200,000 in participatory budgeting, which I, was that the number?

It's 500. 500, okay.

So you got 500, but your operating budget went goes down 200 for this year. Are you really up to 300? How does that work? How should we be thinking about that?

That's a great question. I think, you know, fortunately, there's a lot of alignment between the project that residents voted for and suggested around Thank you. Thank you. want to make sure that we're honoring what the residents suggested and voted for and I think it will give us the opportunity to hopefully maintain the level of support for food access across the city that we have been able to support over the past several years.

Okay. Yeah, so just to clarify, Chair, so one, the timing of the participatory budgeting, there's a long tail because it's very participatory. So this is the funding that was allocated in the current fiscal year. We don't know where it goes until very recently. and so at the end of that process there were projects and programs that made sense for OFJ to run coming out of that process. This is not just sort of an amount of money that goes into the OFJ operating budget to do with it What OFJ feels, it's what comes out of the participatory process. So that is the FY26 decision of the participatory budgeting process. You know, there'll be obviously an allocation to participatory budgeting for the next fiscal year as well, but the timing isn't such that we're, you know, we include it in the operating budget submission.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Flynn. Okay, so I'm going to go to my colleagues in order of arrival. We're going to do six minutes after the first round and go to public testimony and there'll be a second round after that. So, Councilor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the administration team that is here. Here's my first question. What are the contracted services that are seeing a $315,000 cut in the environment Department's operating budget and another 1.6 cut in that department external funds budget. Can you explain that?

Just for the panelists, just don't touch the buttons. We'll take care of that. Okay, great.

So for the contract services, the reductions are for support programs related to Berto implementation? So these are programs that directly help with, for example, providing a support by and many more. We are working on creating additional materials for example I mentioned the condo handbook which we are doing this year an example of something similar to that for next year we are moving We have a service that provides free third party verification, which is something that buildings that need to comply have to have their data verified by a third party. and we're moving that to the Pollution Abatement Fund for one year. So it is, by and large, those are a couple examples.

It is, what is being moved is entirely Virto support contract services. In the 1.6? The 1.6 from external funds.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think, well, let me look into that, Ty. Do you have a, can you zero in on that? Or is that actually OCR?

So some of the external funds, well, Ty and Oliver can correct me on this, it reflects largely grants, and so some grants are expiring over the course of this last fiscal year, and so you see some ebbs and flows in the external funds budget as grants cycle in and cycle out. As a small example of that, there's a grant from the Barr Foundation that has helped with our Climate Ready Boston implementation in the external funds budget that is sunsetting at the end of this fiscal year.

Okay. That's not necessarily a cut, though, if you have grants and the grants are expiring. That's not really a cut, right? So, just briefly, the services that you mentioned, how are we going to be providing those services that you mentioned are going to be cut?

Let me answer that question by just stating at the top. We're actually not going to be cutting any of our planned services. We are moving them for one year from contract services to Be funded by a revolving fund. So I'm happy to say that we're we're not actually cutting any of the services We're continuing everything as had been planned.

Okay Last week, Boston announced that Berto reporting deadline had been extended to August, I guess. Can you walk through where the free one-on-one technical support flexibility measures Describe in the press release announcing the changes can be seen in the budget. Where in the budget is that?

Where in the budget is reflected the, sorry, just a clarifying question, how has the extension affected the budget?

Yeah, the free one-on-one technical support and flexibility measures described in the press release announcing the change. Where is that in the budget?

That is in fiscal year 26 operating budget, so that will continue for anyone who needs to avail themselves of that through June, and those same services will be available all the way through and if the contracts are if it's the same contracts that we're working off of they will just be The eight jobs listed on

joined the work to become a Green New Deal city, all of whom appear to be working either in whole or in part in the environmental department. How has filling those jobs been impacted, affected by the mayor's hiring delay? And how will filling those positions affect the environmental department's budget as well?

So to clarify, the question is, how has filling positions been? Yeah, we've been able to, over the past fiscal year, we've We filled a great number of vacancies and I believe only have three or four now. I will note that as part of the to contributing to the 2.1% reduction of the overall budget. We've proposed freezing the hiring of a environmental policy analyst position, which came from a retirement. and we're also actually receiving fellowship funding for a two-year fellow that no longer requires us for the next two fiscal years to have funding from the emergency employees line. So that is the only impact that we're having on the budget from hiring.

Thank you. My final question, maybe I'll get that question in. Mr. Chair, should I ask it and then? Yeah, why don't you go ahead. I just want to be respectful to my colleagues. With Berto regulations, I have heard of people in my district that wanted to do Some particular upgrade to their condo, whether it's HVAC work. So they want to get the HVAC work done, but then the added Berto regulations are making it much more difficult for them financially to get that done. Is that a concern you have heard? And what is your advice for people that are in a condo group and they do need to get critical upgrades to their apartments or condos? but they don't necessarily have the money because of the added Berto regulations.

Yeah, would you like me to answer that question? Yeah. Okay, so I don't know the particulars of the cases that you've heard but by and large what we have heard is that when folks want to make upgrades, the upgrades that they want, and this reflects what we know about the state of technology, all of the upgrades that anyone would make to a building, whether it is a big single occupant or a condo, They all go in the direction of reducing energy usage and decarbonization, which is exactly what Birdo is designed to do. So we don't hear, you know, Birdo is making it more difficult for me to do the upgrade I want. It's more that I want to do the upgrade I want, which is good for me and good for Birdo, but I don't necessarily have the resources to do it now. That's what we hear. And so that is why we have so many flexibility measures for people to be able to come to us and develop a plan that puts the timing of their upgrades on a special track so that it matches when they will have the resources.

Just to add, Councillor Flynn, just for clarity for those watching, Berto regulates buildings of a certain size, not individual condo units. So at the moment, The only buildings that are being roped into Berto implementation from 2025 through 2029 are 35 units or larger. And so happy to, as always, happy to take any particular cases that are coming to you and many more. Regulate a particular unit, it's buildings of a large scale.

Yeah, that was my concern. There was one unit, one building I should say, in my district, more in the downtown area, that is Brayden.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Good to see you all. I was just wondering, in terms of Birdo, how many buildings are currently out of compliance with Birdo reporting or emissions limits? And how do you handle that if they're out of compliance for whatever reason?

Yeah, so we, as you know, we have... Extended the deadline from May 15th to August 15th. So we are not going to know until a couple of months after August 15th what compliance with emissions limits is because that is This is the first year, 2025 is the first year that we will have that information. What I will say is that because Berta was developed so closely with property owners, we know through some estimating that the vast majority, somewhere between 80 and 90%, are likely to be able to come in and many more. So keep in mind that around 6,000 buildings are covered by Berto. And we've had a...

I'm trying to think how to simplify the numbers. We've had, depending on the category that you're looking at, whether it's... you know larger large buildings or medium-sized large buildings between 70 and 80 percent reporting and that is about Comparable to other cities that have had building performance standards, although there aren't that many that are, you know, Boston's at the forefront here, but we expect that when compliance comes, emissions compliance is also something that comes into effect for buildings, reporting compliance will increase as well.

Thank you. And then I know one of the key areas you mentioned was cooling. Trying to help us survive hot summers. So, as you know, Alston is an urban heat island, and we're wondering what plans do you have to ensure safety with hot summer months ahead? Like, are we The other question I have is just thinking about we heard recently we'd increased our tree canopy but is there still a loss of tree canopy on private spaces rather than and improving on public spaces. That's the other.

Yeah, I'm happy to take the second question and turn it over to Chris on the emergency response in terms of heat. So on canopy coverage, great question, Councilor. So the report you're referring to, every five years we do a LIDAR survey of canopy coverage. So we wait till full growth of leaves in the summertime and say how much Shade is being provided by Tree Canopy in Boston. And we had a material improvement in the five-year period from 2019 to 2024, which was great because The previous five-year period showed no change. We added a little over 150 acres, which is a real amount across the city, and it moved our total unit by about half a percent. Obviously, because the city of Boston is 48 square miles, it's a massive amount of land mass. But it's moving in the right direction. We also saw significant increases in the canopy covers that the public sector directly controls. So that's street trees over sidewalks and rights-of-way. That's trees in parklands. It's on buildings and assets that we own.

We saw a very large increase there in terms of acreage that was significantly offset by the reduction of tree canopy coverage on private sector residential lots. and so you know we continue to try to find better ways of encouraging private sector tree planting and coverage and appreciation for the benefits that private sector trees on residential lots provide and you know are integrating that into our Thank you. Thank you. One is we now have an urban forestry unit that hopefully every city councilor is seeing in their neighborhood. We are maintaining trees in ways that we didn't for the previous 40 or 50 years. And the best thing we can do for canopy coverage is actually pruning trees and not waiting for Mother Nature to do it for us because then we usually lose the whole tree when that happens.

And so we now have a goal of getting to every street tree and tree under our care and coverage every five to seven years. to prune it so that it is healthy for longer. That has proven really successful in those investments that this council made are really returning an ROI. Secondly, we are prioritizing the planting of new street trees in climate justice neighborhoods. And we have many throughout Boston, including Austin, Brighton. We plant about 2,000 trees every year. and 40% of those trees are going in the 20% of land that is defined as climate justice in the city of Boston. So we are trying to grow that canopy coverage in the neighborhoods where urban heat island is a more extreme issue. That is the structural response over time to reducing urban heat. And we know that temperatures can vary up to 10 degrees or more. on an extreme heat day between a well canopy coverage neighborhood and a neighborhood with less canopy coverage. In those types of events, I'll transition for Chris to talk about our response on cooling centers, our response on splash pads and deployable water features.

Council President, so perhaps first talk about what happens during a heat emergency, and then an additional point on the transformation of our public realm over time, and then third, some direct people-based or people-focused interventions. So our Office of Emergency Management has a whole set of missing tents and shade structures to be able to deploy during the course of a heat emergency. Very happy to have your recommendations and any member of the council's recommendations on locations that we should be setting those up. As we head into any heat emergencies that we experience over the course of the summer. In addition, we have a great interest in making sure that Residents are simply informed of heat related risks and the steps they can take individually. So delighted to work with any of you on amplifying that message, particularly as we head into the summer, not just during heat emergencies, but all throughout the summer.

One of the key ways in which we are providing shade in some of our neighborhoods is through some outdoor cool spaces, largely at our libraries and community centers, including one that is in your district. And happy to sort of, at some point, Walk through that location and think about other cooling resources that we may be able to make sure that we provide in Alston, Breadon. A quick additional note on canopy cover. As we think about that long-term transformation that Chief Sweat spoke about, one of our key investment areas The On Street Trees is on the private property. As he mentioned, a lot of that is done through the Boston Tree Alliance in collaboration with Mass Audubon. We've had a round of investment this past year of a half million dollars to Six grantees to be able to expand tree planting on private property in places that have lower canopy cover historically and have higher heat during the course of the summer. We'll have another round of that coming out next year with support from Inflation Reduction Act funding of about $320,000. One last quick note.

A lot of these things are place-based, but really Thank you. Our first summer working under the new ordinance that this council passed in collaboration with the administration around heat illness prevention plans focused both on city contractors and City employees who will be most at risk from extreme heat events. So there's a set of things that are less about the place and more about individuals who will be most impacted and happy to work more on that with you as well.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Councillor Coletta Zapata.

Six minutes. Thank you so much, Chair, and I probably will have a second round, but I'll go as quickly as I can. Good to see you all. Thank you so much for your deep partnership. It's a pleasure to work with all of you. Boston is a national role model as it relates to being a Greenville dual city and our standards, Office of Climate Resilience, Berto, Chief, Eliza. I'm sorry. I should know your name. What is it? I'm sorry. Taisha. Thank you for your work. I apologize for that. I was late. I have a few questions just checking my own math and I'll go through coastal resilience, food access and recovery and then parks and specifically parks maintenance ahead of this year and all of our events. To Chris, so in the Coastal Resilience slide, we had put $88 million to $91 million for capital, and just confirming that that's the Coastal Resilience Fund.

So of that capital budget. 75 million is the coastal resilience reserve. The balance of that are a set of Coastal Resilience, largely Coastal Resilience-related projects, things like the Border Street project. One of the new projects, which is one of the reasons to see an increase over the previous five-year capital plan, is that the Amana School is now part of the city's capital budget and the design work which is happening there. and just of note and as you know some of the coastal resilience work the capital projects are not just in this budget but are also in the planning and many more. and other departments' budgets, but are all adding to the city's overall investment in coast resilience.

Okay, and that leads into my next question, and thank you. So we have the Border Street project, we have the Mowgli Park connector, we have the Mario Umana, Is it safe to cleanly say that's a part of the $75 million that's allocated?

So the Amana is actually above the $75 million. So there's the $75 million Coastal Resilience Reserve, and then Border Street, Locally, Lewis, Amana. and a small set of additional projects are above that 75 million Coastal Resilience Reserve. So we've been able to take the reserve and really use that largely for a set of match efforts. Some of that will be about We're leveraging it for the Army Corps project in the out years of the five-year capital plan, but some of that will also be able to help us move more quickly on some of the near-term projects that we've talked a lot about and you've been leading on.

Thank you. And I was going to ask, I know the last time we had talked and we have our monthly meetings, which I appreciate so much. Thank you again for your partnership and just your transparency. So there was discussion about just given the national landscape that we're seeing right now, trying to move away from maybe a matching model, still utilizing it for the Army Corps of Engineers, but trying to figure out how we can So I appreciate the question.

I think first on the Army Corps and then on the Reserve. We have renamed as the same line item, but we've renamed within this budget for transparency purposes to your point that The Army Corps collaboration in particular is at $5.7 million. That is both full funding from the federal government as well as the city's 50% match for that work. As you'll see sort of in the cash flows for the $75 million Coastal Resilience Reserve, there is an expectation that we will use portions of that in advance of some of the other large grant or Army Corps investments in the out years, I would expect that the near term investment or use of that fund will be for projects like Lewis Street and Carlton Wharf. We do have the outstanding roughly $10 million grant we will expect from the hazard mitigation grant program that the federal government runs.

And the city is expecting to put a $10 million match towards that project. And so it would likely pull from that reserve for that purpose going forward.

Thank you. I'll go to Food Access and Recovery. Eliza, you're amazing. I appreciate you for answering our questions and being very Open to some of the ideas that we have, especially around food access and food recovery. I have a question, just again, double checking my math. So OFJ budget is down 14% with 204 down in contracts. does that sound right? I apologize if you had gone over that and I missed it but what contracts are we losing?

So our contracted services line item is a sort of a general It's not broken down by specific contracts. So there are not specific contracts that we're losing per se. It is the general source of Operating Funds Resources that allows us to work with for various grant programs and any contracts that we set up to support the work that the farmers markets and the community partners do.

I think that makes sense.

Yes, there's money that's going towards our third party partners to support their work. We are prioritizing the places where we are supporting critical infrastructure but for our support. would be financially unstable. So we want to make sure that farmers markets and that local neighborhood grocery stores are continuing to be part of the food ecosystem and the structural improvements that we need to make. while being aware of sort of the challenges of SNAP benefits and direct food access programs. So we're working through. And the other thing is obviously this is what's coming out of the operating budget. Elisa and her team work really hard on finding outside funding. Philanthropic, corporate, other partnerships where we can sort of continue to support our partners and use the full weight of the city's support and gravitas to sort of bring attention to issues.

Right, I know the Boston Foundation is very fondly tuned into this. And I apologize. Just really quick, one last question before. My time is up, which it kind of is now anyway. Sorry, Chair. Can I ask one more question?

Thank you.

Because it's on food access. Just really quickly. So that, following up on his question with the money through participatory budgeting, that was an FY26 decision. It's going to be seen in FY27. How will you operationalize that? Where is that money going? How long will it take to get online because these organizations do need it? It says it's for the neighborhood fresh food initiative. What will that look like operationally, and where is it going?

So I would say some of those options we are currently working through given the changes to our operating contracted services for FY27, kind of what we have a federal grant Thank you. Thank you. working through as we as we determine like what other funding resources are available how to make the best use of both city operating funds and any potential external funds I so I would say We're sort of in the early planning phase of that just because it yeah information we have had for a few weeks about the opportunity to work with community partners on Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay, thank you very much. Councillor Murphy.

Thank you, Chair. I'll go not in the order I was thinking, just to continue on that conversation. Thank you all for being here. So one thing I have been asking and just kind of citywide for months now, like knowing that in probably even before December, every department was saying like we're coming into some tough times. When you propose your budgets, what would you cut? And then obviously when the administration came back, departments were notified what was actually cut from their departments. Still waiting for those answers, but The question that was just asked, if there is a number to food access, are we hoping that external funds will come back to replenish? And if not, then what?

External partners or even city partners or contracts do need to be cut knowing that they may not come back. I mean obviously I'm a very hopeful person they will but if not then what?

Yeah, let me frame and then Alicia should expand on the answer. Just expanding on her answer to Councilor Coletta Zapata, One of the moving targets we have is there were federal grant programs that used to be like clockwork on certain months. They were like released and there was, okay, we update the application, we know it's coming. That uncertainty, and those usually come with a leverage, so a local participation. has meant that we're being, I think, appropriately conservative in saying we want to wait to get that window of opportunity and understand is this going to be released in the next couple of months, make sure we have that leverage available in terms of that local participation to then go after those programs. and so there is one coming up in the next couple months that the Food Justice, Office of Food Justice has used historically to support its partners that we just want to be ready for. So there is that element of a moving target where hopefully we'll use both participatory budgeting and operating funding

So there isn't, we're not trying to be cagey of like which particular program, we're trying to maintain some flexibility with, again, this lens of where the city's investment from whatever budget is supporting infrastructure that otherwise would be financially a risk that is critical to food access in the neighborhoods. That's what we prioritize. And if there are other things that we can go to philanthropy or corporate partners to try to backstop reductions in our direct support, we will do that. And that's the headspace that we're in.

Yeah, I think, I mean, those are the decisions that we're going to be making. And I don't foresee that we would be, like, just to your specific question about I don't foresee that there are specific partners we're working with that would be cut per se as much as we're going to continue the strategies we have had around supporting affordability we may need to Adjust the scale of some programs or like the chief said, sort of be nimble about what we deploy when based on external resources available.

We did have a robust hearing. that went into my committee back on March 30th that Councilor Flynn and I sponsored about discussing food insecurity across the city. We did miss you, Eliza, there, but You know, public health was here, BHA, the conversations just around public schools, age strong. There are so many city departments that, you know, families and residents look to, but they're also going after grants and funding. and I'll run out of time but hoping that you know oftentimes many city departments lean on each other for different things and when there's I never say there's lots of money but when we're not really cutting back and scaling There's not, as I think, a close lens on who's actually paying for it. When we think about, you know, BPS does have a snow removal budget, so we're making sure Public Works isn't expecting to shovel light. So are there...

Thank you very much. as a body or how can I as a councilor make sure I'm advocating to make sure that obviously your department is one of the biggest that's making sure food insecurity isn't happening but almost every department has that somewhat responsibility supporting that going forward?

Yeah, I will say I think it will be best if we can get back to you about specifics. There are definitely resources within Age Strong in particular, and BPS that are support federal, that they're able to tap into federal nutrition programs for school age students and as well as older adults. And we work closely with those departments as well as the Boston Public Health Commission's Chronic Disease Prevention and Control. We've been working around a strategy for fresh food access as part of their REACH grant, as well as Grow Boston's work to help people be able to grow their own food. Those are not dollar amounts that I can give you right now.

That's fine. Just making sure. One question before the buzzer goes off. Just shade and cooling spaces across the city. Chinatown obviously is a... I guess for a lack of better words, a hot spot, but knowing just diseases and just needs that are there. Council Flynn and I have been at many events. Tufts is a great partner and other You know, just nonprofits that step up to support. But is there a plan in place for that neighborhood in particular in the summer months coming up?

Great question. So there has been a collaboration in part supported by the Resilient Cities Network to do a Chinatown-specific I can follow up and share that with you. And of note, some of the things which we've been looking at in Chinatown and discussing have now been piloted. So as we have discussed in the past, Well, street tree planting in tree pits is a priority. There's some places in some of our streets because of area ways where that's very difficult to do. So it is in Chinatown on Harrison Ave where we first piloted these sort of large scale Movable Tree Planters to be able to provide cooling on some of our streets in Chinatown, knowing that it's difficult to, some of our typical interventions in other parts of the city for infrastructure reasons are harder to implement there.

in the partnership with Boston Water and Sewer with their water truck.

Yes, exactly. The water truck, the shade tents on the plaza, those sorts of things have been part of the regular installations. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Fitzgerald. And we've been joined by Councilor Culpepper. You're after Councilor Fitzgerald.

Thank you, Chair. Much appreciated. Thank you all for being here today. Unfortunately, this year it just seems like the only question we have to ask every department that comes in front is how much you're losing and where does it hurt the most. So I'll try and phrase it differently in that If you could advocate, I understand mostly cuts are coming probably from contracted services, external personnel fund. Which one are you worried about the most, and if this council could advocate for anything in terms of the powers it holds, would you like to see reinstated? And I guess, which cut feels the hardest to take this year for you guys? If we had that ability. Is it in contracted services? Is it in another department? What are we losing that you guys want to see back?

It's a great question, Councilor. I think at a high level, we had, because of conservative budgeting in the past from some of our revolving loan funds, we had a little bit of capacity to take a one-year hit. So honestly, our answer is we can always do more good work in the neighborhoods and the communities with a bit more money across our programs. But there should not be a demonstrable drop off in services from this flat budget this year. because we're able to shift some expenses for one year only to some funds that had built up some reserves because we conservatively budget how much money is coming in versus how much is going out. That will not be the case next year, right? And so I think the answer is like, I'm happy to have additional funds put in the areas that we're able to cut because it allows us to do a little bit more. But there isn't anything that sort of is going to be very negatively impactful to things that we've committed to. And I'm really happy that we're able to do that. So there are no programs where it's like, oh, we're canceling this program that we thought we were going to be able to continue last year.

We're just not going to be able to do it. That was operating budget funded. There are obviously programs that were externally funded that have a window of opportunity. We always try to work with our partners when it's external money to say, this is the window of opportunity to spend that money. And that's not shifted into the operating budget when that's done. Those games or those programs are sustainable for the constituents that they're benefiting. Right, and so you're saying next year then, now that the one head's gone, then next year that question might be more pertinent. If a similar ask was made of us next year, we're not able to do some of the things we're able to do this year because those sort of reserves will have been expended.

Was there anything that you saw in what was being cut this year that kind of gives you an idea of next year what you have to sort of forecast for and might have to think about? You know, things that you filled in with some of the revolving fund money, but saying, hey, that's probably going to be the same area next year, if that's what we saw it cut this year. Is there anything there that...

Yeah, I mean, so I think thematically, obviously, this is a big year for Birdo in terms of implementation. We're going to see what responding buildings and owners need, right, this year. And so we'll have an answer, you know, come August about saying here are the areas where, you know, we actually... would want to see more technical advice and services provided. So that'd be one that jumps to mind. As Chris mentioned in climate resilience, we are in a period of ramping up Thank you very much. We're trying to solve a problem that has been with us for decades that is particularly pointed because of the confluence of federal and state and local challenges, inflation. We need to make changes to our food ecosystem. And we know, as the city council knows very well, there are many aspects to our food ecosystem that are teetering financially.

We don't like to see grocery stores close. We don't like to see farmers markets go under. So we need to, and we're spending a lot of time, as Aliza mentioned, trying to better understand what is the city's role in helping support those ecosystems. and that infrastructure that is so critical to our residents. And I think we'd have an answer next year about saying here are the places where we feel like some investment makes sense because we don't want that downward spiral around food access. Thank you.

Staying on the food axis, Eliza, only anecdotally, right? I've got some friends working at Teachers and BPS. And they call me up knowing where I'm at. And they say, hey, John, every morning we got muffins and stuff for the kids, breakfast, lunch, and even some to-go dinners. And one kid will take one out of the 24 muffins, and then the rest just go in the trash, right? and to them it just bothered me. So my friend reached out to me and was like, there's gotta be something better we can do with this food. What is set up now and what do we have planned for in conjunction with BPS, how to make sure Any unused food gets into the hands it needs to. Because I'm sure there's data on how much food goes to each school. I'm sure there's data about how much food is used. but I'm not so sure there's any data on how much gets thrown out every day, right? And so how do we find out what that number is and how do we sort of lower that number?

Yeah, so I will say that I know that the leadership of Food and Nutrition Services and PBS, BPS has the same concerns that you mentioned. I will say a few things, since you did mention Breakfast specifically. It would be better to get details directly from them, but BPS is working on sort of, I would say, strengthening and overhauling the system for what Some schools that offer breakfast in the classroom and improving sort of data tracking and giving more control to the classrooms to be able to align what they get with what students want so that could cut down on I think the overarching challenge that all districts that get federal reimbursement for school meals face is there are Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. like they can't reuse things a lot of the time between federal regulations and food safety again I'm not the expert on some of these technical details but they have been working in a number of schools to do some studies around things like fruit that Like weighing it determining how much waste there is and what measures they can put in place at a training level for the many many staff Thank you. Thank you.

You know, if you hear people waiting for food and then on the other hand we got food going into a trash can, it's almost like, well, we should probably just figure out how to join those two. But I'm glad folks are thinking about it, whatever we can do to help that. I know my time is up, Chair. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you.

Councilor Culpepper, six minutes.

Thank you, Chairman Weber. And good morning. What a day, huh? Budget cuts. And so let's talk a little bit. about the specific budget cut. So your cut is $204,000, right? Are you referring to Office of Food Justice or across the county? Yeah, Office of Food Justice, yeah. Where are those specific cuts going to apply? When you look at the Good Food Purchasing Program, the Farmers Market Coupon Program, the Double Up Program, the Collaborative Where are those cuts going to apply? Where are you applying those cuts with these five different programs?

For clarity, a lot of our funding comes also from sort of external sources. And so as I mentioned before, we are not line-iteming a particular program at this moment because we are in the midst of better understanding what are some of the federal funding cycles that we'd want matched money to support. The lens with which we are bringing is not to hold harmless double food bucks and programs for the farmers markets and programs for that support local grocery stores financial sustainability because we don't want that ecosystem of food access to be disrupted. And I think we can accomplish that, but we're...

So you're saying that the good food purchasing program won't be cut? The Farmers Market Coupon Program won't be affected by these cuts. The Double Up Program won't be affected by the cuts. The Collaborative Food Access Program won't be affected by the cuts. and the Cold Storage Grants. Well, we can talk about that in a minute. But those four, you're saying that you're preserving those and they won't be affected by the cuts?

I mentioned the double of food books and the farmers market supports are ones that we're prioritizing and we're working through analyzing opportunities to sort of leverage funding support from other sources for other programs.

And the other, so the Good Food Purchasing Program is primarily a personnel supported for us. We haven't, for the most part, had Grantz, or contracted spending for that. It's staff time, and it's great that we are able to maintain our six FTEs.

So you're just loaning them staff. There's not Money actually going into the...

For the most part, on our office's end, that's correct. And then the Greater Boston Collaborative Food Access Hub and the cold storage grants were one-time ARPA funded, which we are still continuing to disperse. The remainder of those grants through December, but they were not part of the operating.

So it's going to cut at the end of December?

Well, they were time-limited grants for a specific project that those recipients are working on.

But at the end of December, the program's going to stop. Are you looking for other funds to supplement what you're going to lose in December?

So those two grant programs in particular were for capital infrastructure investment. So those were grant programs where we had One, we had the Greater Boston Food Hub Collaborative, which was a major source of ARPA money, to underwrite a multi-year lease.

No, I understand, I understand.

But those were never intended. Those were never intended as annual operating programs. Those were capital grant programs.

So they were just, so you planned for them to just end at the end of the opera funds?

I guess the issue I'm having, the words I'm having a challenge with is like cut or end. They were never designed to continue. Those were one-off programs.

But they're going to stop, though, right?

We will not be issuing another set of grant articles. That's what I mean. Right. But the recipients of them did.

And that was my next question about the recipients. That's my next question about the impact on the recipients.

Yes, so I will say two things. So for example, most of those grants, the cold storage grants, those entities were able to, in some cases, purchase a freezer, right? So they have a variety of food sources and the freezer has allowed them to tap into additional sources. There may be some portion of those grants that they are using for ongoing costs. It really depends on the grantee. We gave them a lot of flexibility within the focus on cold storage. but the majority of the funds, they can still use that freezer for these food sources. And we have a partnerships and community engagement manager on our team and we have ongoing work with all of our partners to help them. Connect with each other, connect with other resources where those grantees have been absorbed into that partner network where we are available to support them.

We've supported sort of technical assistance with ISD at times. So I think the point you're raising about when those final grant disbursements go out, will there be a plateau or an impact on those Organization's ability to serve their communities is something that we are planning to collect information on and continue working with them to identify other ways that they can get their program supported.

Right. And one more question, Mr. Chair, if I might. I had others, but I'm going to just ask one more. Thank you. And so when you look at the $200,000 cut and you look at... The request to all of the departments was for a 2% cut for all the departments. I think the mayor asked all the departments for a 2% cut. And your cut came out to be 25% for your discretionary funding. Did you make that decision? Or when you were asked for the 2% cut, what cut did you give to the, let's say, John Williams, when they asked for that 2% cut. Or did you, were you the person that gave the Department, the 25% cut.

Do you see what I'm getting at? So you were asked for a 2% cut, right? But you ended up with a 25% cut, right? Who made the decision to... Cut 25% instead of 2%.

So the 2% cut, just for clarity, was across the board in her full budgets, both contracting and personnel and operating. Obviously, each of the departments and offices in the EUS cabinet are different sizes and scales. Some are more dependent on personnel line items. Some are more dependent on contract dollars to deliver services. So it doesn't waterfall down completely consistently. We worked extensively with OBM for months on developing the mayor's proposed budget. So it's not as if we submit something and then they just change it and they submit something. They're a conversation about how do we accomplish that overall intent. of an aggregate, a 2% cut across the board. And you're seeing three of the five offices that I have the privilege of seeing sort of the best available response given the tasks that we were given at hand. Some felt cuts in different areas more deeply than others, but in the aggregate, we feel like this is responsive to the moment that we're in while continuing to deliver key services and programs.

In the aggregate, you came up with a 25% cut? Can we continue to deliver on our food program priorities on ecosystems with $200,000 less in grant money? And we are confident that we'll be able to do that.

And was that your decision for the 25% cut, or was it in discussion with the analysts to try and trim the budget.

I mean, it's a collective conversation and decision, it's not... Who's the conversation with? With the same folks who presented the full budgets of Jim Williamson.

But who was the conversation with? About the cut. Who was it with? Not the folks. Who were the folks?

I was just saying, it's with the Office of Budget Management. So Jim Williamson, Johanna Bernstein, they all work for Ashley and the Mayor's team on setting direction.

And so even though you're telling me now that you can live with these cuts. You're asking us to reverse these cuts in the letter to us. We're asking you to reverse cuts in the letter. Please support OFJ and Boston Residence Food Security by reversing this cut.

I think that may be from advocates, but I don't...

It doesn't say. I thought it doesn't say a name on here. I just assumed... Well, let me ask you... Can I ask... Okay, okay.

Are we having a second round? We are definitely going to have a second round after public testimony. Okay. Thank you very much. I'll come back. Thank you. Okay. I'm just going to give myself six minutes, then we're going to go to public testimony, and then a second round. So there's $200,000 less in contractual services for food justice. So what's going to be impacted by that reduction? Is it nothing? Somebody's not going to get their grant. What were those? We had $800,000 last year.

It's a reduction in the line item that covers all of the money that comes out of the OFJ to our partners. So, as Elise had mentioned previously, we're not cutting off any complete programs to any partners. Thank you. Thank you. It's reduction in amounts that partners have supported and we're still working through what are the opportunities to find other funding from philanthropic or from corporate donations or leverage differently to be able to sort of make those partners as whole as possible. This is, as you guys know, we are in a tough budget cycle across the board. And decisions that were made when there were state and federal grants available of us sort of contributing our leverage to get those You know, we do have to, you know, think about what is the highest return on investment when those opportunities are not there, you know, for the resources that we have available.

Yeah, and so, yeah, I mean, Eliza, I just, I mean, everything we've seen, food security is increasing, correct?

Yeah, although I will say the recent, we're hopeful, I cannot say the cause of this, the recent Greater Boston Food Bank hunger report that came out did show a slight decrease in food insecurity for Suffolk County, which Again, I can't say the cause of that. We're hopeful that the many, many organizations that do this work on the ground, as well as folks like yourselves and policymakers really trying to address root causes of poverty and hunger are stabilizing things to some extent. But yes, with grocery prices what they are, it's a challenge for Fitzgerald, and, you know, thousands of folks in our city.

Okay, and I'm dovetailing with Councilor Fitzgerald's questions for your office. You know, funding wasn't an issue. One or two things that you would really like to do in Boston. Maybe the answer is just increase funding for what you're already doing, but if there are programs that you I think we could pour more resources into what would you like to see?

Yeah, I mean, as the Chief mentioned, we're currently waiting to find out if the federal funding that we have for Double Up Food Bucks that is ending, we'll have another opportunity to apply for that, and I think being able to provide the match funding for that will be important moving forward which we have sort of that's part of the decision-making process to keep that option open if we Do you have the opportunity to compete for another federal grant? I think as we are in the process of conducting these conversations with locally owned independent grocery stores and bodegas, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

There may be other ways, but we need to have that information from them first before we can really determine what the solution is.

Okay. I would add, given Councilor Fitzgerald's question, The measure for us of success isn't sort of how much money is going into food access, but how much food access is being provided by the investments that we're making. And so I think we are getting much better at being able to understand What is the amount of healthy, nutritious recovered food that is no longer going to waste and actually able to go to Bostonians who need it? And that to me is where if we can focus on what are those choke points and is it cold storage? Is it infrastructure? Is it distribution networks? Because we don't have in Boston a problem with a lack of food coming into the municipal boundaries of Boston. It's a matching program, making sure that the food is getting to folks who need it in the most affordable and efficient fashion.

And then in terms of cold storage, is there a goal for amount of capacity that we... That's a great question.

It's definitely a moving target because the organizations are You know, constantly shifting their program. I think there are some folks here who could maybe speak to that better, who do the work on the ground and write the life of a freezer or refrigerator Right, it's not a fixed point in time and then it's done. So I know that we were one of the few municipalities across the country that was actually able to invest in cold storage with ARPA funds, primarily that We had a number of other jurisdictions reaching out to us to understand how they could replicate our model. You know, if there are resources available in the future, it's something we hope to learn from and see how we can support in the future.

Okay. The next level down of that question, Chair, is it wholesale or retail cold storage? And so we invested in both in this funding round. There is some more capacity for use in the wholesale, and we want to make sure we're getting out that last mile distribution cold storage as well.

I gave everyone else extra time, so I'm just going to take advantage of the same. In terms of Birdo, I just took quick questions. Will the extension of the deadline impact the payments that are made for alternative compliance and our ability to collect those or those funds flowing into the...

Let me do the rationale behind the extension so you can handle the cash flow. The reason that we extended Berto compliance by three months is, I think, very appropriately in the ordinance. When we make a change to how compliance can be achieved, we give people 90 additional days to figure out if they want to take advantage of it. So one of the things we heard from constituents was they wanted more flexibility on the purchases of RECs and the application across calendar years. We put that into place, and that triggered this three-month extension. In terms of the timing of payments, They have been available to make ACPs, Alternative Compliance Payments, since they were able to file in early January or February through this August 15th date. So you're asking us at very appropriate So yeah, thank you.

Chair, the answer is that we have Projected that we have sufficient remainder in the Equitable Emissions Investment Fund to continue a next round of grants comparable to what is open right now, which is $600,000. So if we keep it at just The regular business that the fund has been doing for Berto grants before alternative compliance payments came in, that's not going to be disrupted at all. As Brian mentioned, expect to be getting alternative compliance payments from the spring all the way into the end of the summer. and that will be hopefully an opportunity to make much bigger grants but it's probably not going to throw off the cycle very much at all. So I think the short answer is it'll be minimal but we have a solid Thank you.

Thank you very much. Why is this the first year it's been around?

This is the first year that we're receiving funds that weren't already authorized from the operating budget. So this is the first year that other people's payments, because this is the first year that 2025 regulated building owners Thank you very much. So we're going to take a

I don't know, interlude here for public testimony. In the order, I have Greg Maynard, Elena, Schreckenberger, Alex Taubman, and then Hassan Faruqi. You can have two minutes each to testify. Give me a second here. Just introduce yourself and then you get two minutes.

Hello, my name is Gregory Maynard, and I'm the co-founder and executive director of the Boston Policy Institute. There is an office missing from today's hearing and from the council's budget hearings, the Office of Historic Preservation. The EEOS Cabinet is made up of four offices, Parks and Rec, Environment, Food Justice, and Historic Preservation. The Council is hearing from Environment and Food Justice today, and Parks and Rec on May 11th. That leaves just one office not having a budget hearing, Historic Preservation. This oversight is surprising given the office's importance and the fact it has a larger budget than food justice and the personal offices led by Chris Osgood and Brian Sweat. The lack of a budget hearing isn't new. Historic Preservation and therefore the entities it oversees, the Landmark Commission and the 10 architectural landmark and historic districts didn't have one in 2024 or 2025 either. The Wu administration has a fraught relationship with the largest component of the office, the Landmarks Commission.

In August 2023, the Boston Globe reported that unnamed city officials pulled a vote on the Hotel Buckminster off the body's agenda and then in April 2024, all 15 commissioners signed a letter which laid out six different examples of Wu administration officials interfering in the body's work. After that letter became public, Mayor Wu fired the body's executive director. The council has never held a stand-alone hearing on the allegations in that letter. Since April 2024, Historic Preservation's inaugural director resigned, and a new chief was hired in September 2024, and a new deputy chief was hired in March 2025. Leaving historic preservation out of this year's budget hearing is a particular oversight because it has a lot to do in FY27. It is in the midst of creating an 11th historic district for Charlestown's Monument Square, and is playing a major role in the city's plans to celebrate the country's 250th birthday, which will also be supported by sponsors and philanthropic partners. Something for the budget.

Thank you. Thank you. Elena.

and then Alex Taubman. Okay. Yeah. So introduce yourself and you get two minutes.

Good morning. My name is Elena Strachenberger. ABCD is one of Massachusetts' 23 community action agencies and serves over 100,000 individuals and families across greater Boston, administering several federal and state programs. We recommend that the City of Boston continues and increases its investment in food security programming. Due to the rising costs of food and other household essentials, food insecurity has continued to increase in Boston and the nation at large. Recent and upcoming changes to SNAP, also known as food stamps, has exacerbated this increase. In Massachusetts, the data from the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General William indicates that approximately 40% of households of 1.12 million people experienced food insecurity in the past year.

At the same time, SNAP enrollment has been decreasing rapidly due to the changes in eligibility, in some cases fear of re-enrollment from still eligible immigrant populations. As more of the changes to SNAP go into effect in the coming year, it is expected that enrollment will continue to decline despite the increased need. ABCD operates seven food access centers across Boston and participates in the Senior Brown Bag Program, distributing hundreds of thousands of pounds of food each year. All of our food access centers and senior brown bag sites have seen an increased need for food. They have expanded the number of slots available for food pickup and consistently have full wait lists, but many clients unfortunately must leave without food because we were unable to keep up with the demand due in large part to a lack of funding. The funds these food access centers use to purchase food from the Greater Boston Food Bank and other sources do not go as far as they used to do to increase costs.

The work of these food access centers is complemented by the ABCD Food and Security Program, which is a member of the Collaborative Food Storage and Distribution Hub in Roxbury.

If you could wrap up.

Okay. Through this hub, the Food and Security Program is able to collect more fresh and recovered food from grocers, farms, and other entities to supplement what our Food Access Center receives from the Greater Boston Food Bank. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Alex? Mr. Faruqi, after this. Okay.

Dear councillors, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Alex Taubman and I'm the program director for food security at ABCD. I'm also an elected steering committee member at the Boston Food Access Council. which represents an active membership of over 200 residents from every neighborhood across the city and organizational partners from all sectors of Boston's robust food justice ecosystem. We organized to realize our conviction that nourishing food is a right, not a privilege. In the Mayor's budget proposal, There may be cuts to discretionary spending that will impact the availability of double up food bucks at grocery stores and farmers market coupons. This will lessen residents' access to fresh, healthy, affordable, and nutritious food. At a time when 40% of Bostonians are experiencing food insecurity, grocery prices are going up,

and SNAP is in pre-fall, city investments in affordable and accessible food are not discretionary but imperative. Farmers markets are centers for community cohesion in every neighborhood of Boston. They bring high quality fresh food close to home. They increase the purchasing power of public benefits dollars. They have a multiplier effect on economic activity in the surrounding neighborhood. and they're a key mechanism for ensuring equitable market infrastructure citywide and for increasing the purchasing power of those navigating food insecurity regardless of their SNAP enrollment. Double Up Food Bucks expands fresh food retail year-round by matching snap purchases of fresh produce in locally owned businesses. Under OFJ's leadership, the Double Up program has scaled to Several locally owned small businesses in Roxbury, Dorchester, East Boston, and Jamaica Plain.

It's a powerful example of how community design solutions with public investment can lead our city forward in challenging times. Please support OFJ and Boston residents food security by reversing this cut. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Hasan Faruqi. I'm executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network, or BCAN, and I serve on the City of Boston's Berto Review Board. I'm a constituent of Councilor Fitzgerald, so it's good to see you here. I will testify just on the Environment Department budget. I have the privilege of working very closely with a lot of the folks in the Environment Department. and so on. Seeing an increase by about 5% to the personnel services line item while it's really the contractual services that's seeing the decrease of about 20%. And so I think that's acceptable. What's most important from our standpoint is that we are continuing the investments in the staff who deliver these really critical basic city services to lower energy bills, to improve air quality, to create jobs, and all the programs that you all have mentioned

really are administered by these by a relatively small number of staff so we're heartened to see that those staff will continue to have their jobs and continue to support the community and of course it goes without saying you know enough is never enough when it comes to climate action there's not any amount that we could invest that would be too much because every dollar has so many dollars back in economic value in terms of Lowering Bills, Raising Wages, Improving Health. And so those are the, of course, long-term investments we need to see. And I think it also speaks to why we shouldn't have to be in this situation Like the one that we're in today, we need to expand the state aid that we are getting and find alternative sustainable long-term revenue mechanisms for the entire city operating budget. So that the current challenges, fleeting as they may be from the federal government, are not impacting our ability to deliver services. So with that, thank you members of the committee and thank you to our partners in the administration as well. I yield back. Thank you.

Okay, no one on line. We're going to start again. Second round, we'll do, let's shoot for five minutes. Councilor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do want to go back to the Berto requirements, the financial impact it's having on residents, but also nonprofits as well. I did hear from several nonprofits across the city that they are struggling to make these changes or to be in compliance with Birdo, including the Museum of Fine Arts, The New England Aquarium as well. Are we downplaying the financial significance of the impact this will have?

Flynn, you raise an important topic which I am happy to have the opportunity to respond to. I think it is sort of zooming way back, it is It is definitely a large financial undertaking that all of us as a planet have to do to rise to the challenge of you know meeting what is required of us to reduce emissions and keep our society going if you will allow me to muse a little bit but this program is actually designed very closely with property owners and to have it work with the financial constraints that each property owner has. When you think about cultural institutions, particularly the MFA and New England Aquarium, if I'm not mistaken, they both have

Harcho compliance plans in place and they are excellent examples of how the Berto program is designed for property owners to be able to come to the table without too much cost embedded in their work to say, This is our situation. How can we either Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All told, really the message for all buildings that are covered by Berto is, if now, In 2025 and 2026, you are facing hardship.

Thank you.

So I want to go back to a question I asked earlier. The eight jobs listed on the join the work to become a Green New Deal city, all of whom will be working with the environment and the Environmental Department. But can you walk me through the eight jobs, the salaries as well that you're looking to hire?

I'm sorry, forgive me, I think I need a little bit more clarification of exactly where you're looking for.

Okay. Councilor, my apologies. I'm just looking on the join the work to become a Green New Deal city. It's on the kind of the home page of the cabinet, and it lists available positions, building, director of energy transformation, Climate Innovation Analyst, Energy Analyst, Energy Management, Renewable Energy Finance Manager, Climate Policy, Building Project Manager.

Yeah, I believe we'll have to double check on that website, but it must be a website that is out of date. Many of those positions have already been filled. And I think the most accurate So not in the homepage then? That's right. We'll make sure that's updated. But the most accurate place to look for is the current job openings in the citywide portal.

Okay, that's fine. Let me go to Chris. I know you talked about it earlier. I was in Chinatown recently and talking to some of the residents about I know there's an ongoing plan, but is this a priority or is this just It'll be, it'll, we'll get there when we can get there. Or is it a case where it's a community of color neighborhood, they have the lowest tree canopy in the city, and it is a priority, which, what do you think?

So I think it is a very high priority for the city. I think you see, particularly around tree planting work, as Chief Sweat mentioned, our parks department has changed not only how they care for trees, but where they are planting trees so that 40% of the Street trees that we are planting are now in the 20% of Boston that have a higher social vulnerability index and a lower canopy cover today. So changing where the investment happens as we've discussed and as we've worked on There are also some specific interventions that we are trying in Chinatown around tree planting, given some of the subsurface infrastructure. in the neighborhood. So we are trying on that one block stretch of Harrison, the additional street trees that we planted there last year or installed there last year. As you know, that is a pilot. We're looking to evaluate that and see how we can be able to scale that up. Both of those things are really led by our parks department. We also realize that the investment around tree planting alone is one part of a

Murphy, that collaboration with Boston Water and Sewer around things like deployment of their water truck as well as some of the Office of Emergency Management's Misting Tents and Shade Structures are sort of all part of the set of interventions. And then with your collaboration, we've had a lot of good conversations with the Chinatown community itself about how we actually get the right message out around some of the public health messaging from our Office of Public Health Preparedness and the Office of Emergency Management.

Thank you. And I'll just add, one, we have sufficient resources to plant trees where we can identify tree beds. If there are locations, Councilor, where you feel like we don't have underground conflicts that we aren't, by all means let me know and we will plant the trees there very quickly. The challenge has been that the underground terrain in terms of utilities makes it so complicated that we need to do above-grade solutions. And so we want to see if these above-grade tree-sized planter pots are working and then deploy them throughout Chinatown. It is more expensive, but it is absolutely the right solution if the tree can accommodate that to bring shade tree. The other particular project that we haven't talked about that I think your team is in the loop on in planning is the Phillips Square intervention. We're talking about a more permanent solution there, and can we add? So everywhere that we can in Chinatown, we're talking about how do we add shade, and ideally shade from canopy coverage and trees, but if not, at least from physical structures to accommodate what is one of the densest neighborhoods, not just above grade, but below grade.

Thank you. When I was with Councilor Weber in Chinatown doing a city council listening session a couple weeks ago, Probably 70% of the conversation was about Phillips Square and having that access for residents, especially seniors. Any quick update on that particular project, where we're at? Obviously, residents want it. It's critical to this neighborhood to have someplace where they can go to get a little bit of shade, especially during 100-degree nights.

So that one is a joint, as you know, BTD and Parks Department effort, so happy to update in one of those. From my knowledge, we are at the end of design for phase one and moving forward with implementation. It's a multi-phase project, but I think the community has been engaged on the initial phase and is pretty excited about what we're going to implement.

They have been, but they've been pushing me to get it I keep telling them we're going to get it done, but then there's no progress. I need to go to the residents and say to them, well, in two months we're going to get it done, or in four months we're going to get it done. But what is the date where we're going to get it done?

I will take that away and we'll get back to you with when we expect to break around on phase one. And again, it's a joint parks department, BTD. BTD currently... It's a public works project, but I'll get you a date.

Could we do it this summer?

That would be a goal to start to break ground this season.

Okay. I think it's a priority. I'll do everything I can. I voted for the mayor's budget four years. So I voted 12 of them. And I voted to approve all of them. And I'm asking something for my My constituents, communities of color, so that they can get a little bit of shade in the summertime. And I'm always fighting with people to get something done. I need to get this thing done, guys. Thank you, Mr.

Chair. Thank you, Councillor Flynn. Councillor Brayton. Oh, and we've been joined by Councillor Worrell.

Thank you. I'd like to talk a little bit. I really appreciate the attention to rising Sea level and flooding challenges along the coast. But going inland to the riverine problems, like I know we have the Mystic Watershed, we have the Carls, and we have the Neponset Watershed, and I'm specifically curious. I know stormwater, extreme weather events, like in August a couple of years ago we had two inches of rain in two hours. and we were up to the gunnels in water and we had basements being flooded and all sorts of crazy stuff happening. Where are we at on sort of enforcing Our stormwater management plans with regard to a planning department saying, you know, permeable parking spaces, permeable everything, permeable surfaces that can absorb three inches of water.

You know, sort of take the edge of those extreme weather events. And then the other question was in terms of, I understand that the state has lightened up on their, you know, contaminant requirements Thank you very much. Closer Beaches in the hottest days of the summer when everybody just wants to be at the beach. So any thoughts on how we can coordinate with Other agencies at the state level or boss moderates or whatever. So we're all marching in the same direction.

Sure. I'm going to start and then the entire piece to turn over Chief Sweat. So the majority of the stormwater work that happens in the city of Boston is really managed by two different entities. As you know, one is the Office of Green Infrastructure, which is within our streets cabinet, really thinking about how, when we We invest in our 800 miles of roadway and our 1,600 miles of sidewalk. We are making those changes, Councilor, that you are Looking at how do we have an increase in porous surfaces, how do we expand the amount of green infrastructure, or in some cases even gray infrastructure to reduce flood risk and improve water quality as it eventually gets to the harbor or the Charles River, Mystic River, and the Ponson River. The other key partner obviously is the Boston Water and Sewer Commission and it is through their three-year nearly 70 million dollar capital plan Thank you.

Thank you. Aye. An additional set of work which our planning department is best able to speak about that really is looking at essentially your question, how do we think about Those policies that we have in place that address coastal flood risk that we should be bringing to address riverine flood risk in neighborhoods that are like Alston Brighton, for whom riverine flood risk may be the principal factor. And so I do expect As one of those things which we'll be talking about more over the course of this year, it is one of the recommendations in the Climate Action Plan that will be published on Monday. I'm happy to have more conversations about that intersection of planning, zoning, and stormwater flood risk reduction.

And then the Office of Green Infrastructure. Who's leading that office right now?

The director is Max Rome, who is formerly of the Charles River Watch Association.

Of course it's Max Rome. How could I forget? He's one of our neighbours from Alston Brighton. In terms of just thinking of people paving over their yards and increasing the amount of asphalt and That contributes to heat island issues, but also it really speeds up runoff so that we end up having flash floods in the city that we wouldn't have expected maybe years ago. What are we doing to actually educate property owners about the benefits of having porous permeable infrastructure and how are we enforcing Folks who don't obey the rules.

Sure. So on the, again, some work that the Office of Green Infrastructure is doing and then some work that the Boston Water and Sewer Commission is doing, the Office of Green Infrastructure has done and will be doing another round of work essentially helping small property owners be able to handle more stormwater on site through a rain mail program, which I'm happy to follow up and give you some more details on. That's a program which we'll be rolling out over the course of the summer. The principal entity, though, that's thinking about things like transformation of asphalt surfaces on privately owned lots is the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. And in 2024, They created the Boston Stormwater Program, which not only has a stormwater fee component to it, but also a set of grants and credits to allow property owners to make transformations and encourage property owners to make transformations to their properties. to reduce onsite ponding as well as runoff into streets or adjacent properties. I'm happy to follow up with you about that program. And again, open to any, both,

Suggestions about that program, but also collaboration on promoting the Boston Water and Sewer Commission's program.

Or just round out the answer, because you asked about regulation and enforcement as well. The triggers for the City of Boston are on new projects, and that would go through, depending on the scale of the project, Planning Department and ISD. But Boston Water and Sewer Commission has to sign off on those plans. So just for clarity for those watching, OCR does not have any regulatory function on the private sector when it comes to groundwater infiltration. Those are policies that will certainly be involved in setting, and then enforcement is through both ISD and Botswana Sewer Commission.

Yeah, it's also offering more incentives from Big Boss Modern Sewer to do, we have a rain garden, we throw all of our water gets into the yard and it doesn't go anywhere. But encouraging other people to do similar things to try and It helps with drought in your yard and I better stop talking because my time's up. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much. Councillor Coletta Zapata.

Thank you. And I realize that Parks is May 11th, but I might not be here, so I'm just going to ask these questions. I'll do my best. God, I hope I'm not here. Anyway, no, that's a joke. Okay, so what am I going to ask about parks maintenance? So I see a couple of dips on operations and maintenance. Down from $21 million to $20 million. I have some concerns about how that will impact The services that we're delivering. So my last round of questioning was very macro. This is very micro. How are we just going to make sure that we're picking up trash in our parks? given all of the events especially in my district because we have Boston sail or the tall ships coming through 250 and we've had some challenges in the past especially with East Boston there's just been some folks on leave when it comes to

I think people were taking FMLA and things just weren't getting done and so people were seeing this happen in real time in front of them. So how are we protecting ourselves from that even though there's a decrease in some of the funding?

Yeah, it's a great question. I will try to answer it at a higher level, and then we will follow up at a more detailed level because I didn't come prepared with the right folks or documents on the Parks Department question. We have been planning for what is supposed to be a bonkers summer for at least 18 months. So as you mentioned, we have Tall Ships, we have World Cup, we have 250th celebrations. So the operating, the on-end team at Parks has been laser focused on how do we deliver for that increased demand of our services because folks are going to want to be outside in our open space. and using it as appropriately, hopefully, but intensely. And so the budget that they put forward was able to accommodate both that increased intensity this summer as well as the goal of being more efficient with our resources in terms of how do we deliver that. So my expectation and what I am informed of is that we have the plan in place. We have the coverage available. I would encourage folks, certainly, as always, use 311. We respond to that.

That gets directly into our work order system. We will deal with that usually within a couple hours if it's like an overflowing trash can, if not faster. We've really refined that system significantly over the last few years to be responsive because the last thing we want is folks using our park and not seeing it in good shape and seeing refuse over the place.

Thank you. And we just had a conversation here last week about reviving a variation of the registrar's program. And parks did come up as a way to utilize the power program, but then also trying to utilize our community partners Pierce Park Sailing Center was here to say hey please utilize our kids like not only are we building leadership through sailing but it's through civic engagement and you know they're they're here to help as well so there's a lot of folks that are Ready and willing to step up and help our wonderful Parks Department's staff members. Last question is just around the Greenway construction. I know you're probably not prepared to talk about it here, but are we on time with that? Are we getting the alternative pathway on Orleans Street up and running? There were some questions there about whether or not that would be implemented sooner rather than later.

But we will have to get back to you on an update on that. I don't want to over-promise or under-promise. No problem.

That's on me for asking Parks questions. No, just thank you again for your work. Thank you for your leadership, everybody. It's been a pleasure working with all of you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you. Councilor Culpepper? One minute. No, just kidding. Five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to come back to the food insecurity issue. And I did find that this was Alex's testimony. And she testified about the 40% of households experience food insecurity, according to that. Greater Boston Food Report for 2025. I think, Dr. Wasserman, you said that the Greater Boston Food Report said that The food insecurity level lowered in the past year. I think Alex testified that the Greta Boston food report rose to 40% and 2025, down from 30%.

And so talk about that inconsistency. Because I think you said that the Greater Boston Food Report that came out said that Food insecurity was lower than it was last year. Alex testified that it was 40% Massachusetts households higher than last year.

Thanks for bringing that up as well. I appreciate hearing the testimony. So I think the key point is that 40% food insecurity in our state and our city is unacceptable and is really I was referring specifically to Suffolk County. Honestly, it's like a 2% reduction. that's basically stable at too high a rate.

Was that in that Greater Boston food report, 2%? Yes.

So I think she was referencing the statewide or one of her colleagues. She was. Statewide. It's high in Suffolk County. It's high in Boston. It's high across the state. I think some of the community organizations have noted recently that it's interesting that there seems to be a small dip in Suffolk County, but We don't, it's anywhere near 40% or 35% or 38%. It's also done through a survey, so this is data that Honestly, your conversations with your constituents are just as valid data as any kind of a report that's a survey. So that might be the discrepancy you were noting in what you heard.

Right. It was up 40% in the state. It's at 40%. Yeah. Interestingly, it went up from 2024 and 2025, though. But the percentage of African-Americans that are affected And when you look at my district, I didn't see that there was a decrease in food insecurity. What I saw was that there was an increase in food security, especially in my district, from what I've seen. And when I asked about the reduction in the farmer's market coupon program, last year it was $418,625. What did that Fiscal year 27 cut due to that $418,625.

Yeah, so my hope is that it will not go down. What we are planning for right now is this summer's program, and between the current funds we are finishing out from FOA 26, and then some from FY27. We are continuing that program. We're making some process improvements in how residents receive the coupons. The actual amount of support going to residents is going to continue at that level this summer.

So there won't be a cut in that 418,000?

There will not be a cut. This summer and our hope is that as we're planning for the remainder of FY27 for the various efforts to address affordability through farmers markets in each neighborhood as well as and locally owned grocery stores that were able to maintain our current level of programming throughout the remainder of FY27.

And is that the same for the 00 program? So that's the one where we do... Where they purchase the refrigerators?

So the refrigerators is a cold storage grant we did through ARPA.

So for the double ups, will that experience a hit?

possibly that is we currently we've had a federal grant for that program through a USDA competitive grant program since 2021 and that is coming to an end at the end of June. So we're hoping to apply with city council.

Right. So I'm asking so that, and this would be helpful to me, if you could get back to me or to the council through the chair. So that we can look at where the cuts are and possibly make some amendments to put the money back. Because I think when you look at the double program and the farmer's market program, that's food that goes directly to their table. And so we don't want folks losing meals, especially In my opinion, there's an increase in food insecurity in my district, especially when I look at what we give out with regard to those free food boxes and how quick They disappear on a Friday. During COVID, they would last through Friday and Saturday. And people think that

Because COVID is over, there's no more food insecurity. Those boxes now, 225, are gone within two hours. And so whatever we can do to help keep food on folks table, especially in District 7. I mean, for all the city of Boston. But I'm looking at folks in my district. Just one question, Mr. Chair? Yes. One final question. With regard to the Tree Canopies, you talked about them. Under that Boston Urban Forest Plan, what does that look like for Roxbury and Dorchester for this year?

For this year in terms of tree planting? Yes. I can get back to you with our plan. So every year, so again in the aggregate and historically since the beginning of the Wu administration, we've planted 40% of the trees in The 20% of the area of Boston designated as climate justice, we opportunistically will try to grab like a full street as opposed to saying one tree here, one tree there. So we plan out a spring and fall planting season. You know, holistically through our office, Urban Forestry. That's through the Parks Department, who's not represented here, so that would be a topic for the May meeting. I'll make sure that they're ready to talk about it.

So where is that 20%? You said 40%, 20%. Where is that 20%?

In terms of designated neighborhoods that are urban heat islands? There are a number of them. I mean, there are a number of them in Roxbury. With regard to my district, where are they? I'm happy to supply a map with sort of the boundaries of the...

Thank you. Through the chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Councilor Culpepper. Councilor Worrell, everyone's got 11 minutes so far. It's a five-minute second round. I'll give you six minutes.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to the panel for being here. The Urban Community Forestry Fund. I know it was a, I believe it was a three-year or five-year plan. Was the initial 2026 Appropriation of $2 million, was that the total amount for what we're seeing this year in FY27? Is that a drawdown of the $2 million? Can you just explain to me? Yeah, I was looking out.

That is largely funding the Boston Tree Alliance program, which is a path to be able to expand tree planting on private properties across the city of Boston. We do expect, there's a combination of funds we've used for that program. A portion of that is ARPA, a portion of that is Inflation Reduction Act funding. We do expect throughout the balance of this fiscal year and actually all of next calendar year to be able to sustain that program at the same rate it's been for the last several years. We are in active work. A lot of leadership by the person who is directly over your shoulder. and figuring out how in 2028 and beyond to make sure that we are continuing to sustain that level of investment. But what we're seeing here is a federal investment towards this tree planting program that again will be sustained throughout this fiscal year.

Thank you. And then speaking of federal investments, can you tell me what, because I do see a dip in terms of external funds. How much of that was federal grant? I think we can come in, unless I issue you.

Yeah, we could get back to you definitively, but I'll just say scanning the external funds that are just the Environment Department, I'd say virtually none.

Okay, so the environmental department did not lose any federal grants in FY26.

The environment department is back there, yeah. I stand corrected.

There's one grant that was canceled that was $1 million. for replacement of gas stoves in Dorchester and that we replaced with the pollution abatement fund funding from our own revolving fund. So the reason in my head the answer is none is because there has been no impact. But yeah.

So we ate those costs. But climate resilience, we did have projects that were funded that that funding had been rescinded. in terms of projects that we hadn't gotten started on. But as you know, we try to build up multiple different funding sources to do these major projects. So we've lost a couple of wedges on a couple of projects that Chris and the team had teed up over the years but now we need to backfill and we're just, you know, we're further back but it has not stopped current work from moving forward or ongoing work.

Got it. And I know We budget for external funds. Are we budgeting for lack of federal funds or are we budgeting for You know, external funds through whether it's, you know, any of these other revolving funds that we have, whether it's the MVP action grant, like just kind of get an idea of external funds.

Sure. So there's a different story for each of the offices. So I think if you want it comprehensively, because food justice is much more dependent on some of the federal, depending on when you arrive, we're talking about sort of leveraging some of the HUD grants. Climate resilience is definitely dependent on external funds for capital purposes. From an operating, just to set the table, from an operating FTE standpoint, we do not have any current employees that are dependent on funding from federal government. in terms of personnel, but we do have capital and grant exposure. Some of this, as was talked about before, is winding down of programs that were never intended to extend, that we're using ARPA money or IRA money, we're just getting the last bit out, and some of it is ongoing. And I would want to exclude

Albert, Dollars from this conversation.

So happy to give you two quick examples and happy also to follow up. We had a A grant essentially from FEMA for investment in the Four Point Channel for $10 million. That was... Going through the process of an award, it is a lengthy process of collaboration with FEMA to get the actual award. That was rescinded before it was ultimately awarded. In this budget, what we essentially are doing is finding a different way to deliver more expeditiously flood risk reduction infrastructure that that grant was for, for the Fort Point neighborhood. That is a line item that's actually in the parks capital budget. Again, happy to provide more details on that. A second example of this, which is less of a change of approach and more of a change of funding source. We had an investment in a flood risk reduction infrastructure project in Mowgli Park. that similarly was at least temporarily rescinded.

We have a different path to access federal funding for that project through a collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. There has been changes in the way in which the federal investment has happened, and it's impacting our strategy of where we're seeking funding or how we're sequencing projects.

Got it. And for you, it sounds like mostly capital. Mostly, exactly. Right. Very much so.

Yeah, for environment I would say that we're fortunate that we do not rely on federal funding for operating or capital. With respect to other external funds, I mentioned earlier in the hearing that we are contributing to our cut by shifting some Berto support services to a revolving fund. But we project that, we plan for that, and we expect that to be sustainable throughout the rest of this year. Flynn. And I will also, you know, Councilor Flynn is not here, but I will respond to his question earlier and note that the reduction that he saw in external funds are all from grants that, as Chris accurately or for resilience that are sort of ending and going down or were planned for anyway. So just in the spirit of your question, how do you budget for

Federal Funding specifically.

Yes. So yeah, so we have a GUSNIP grant that has been a matching grant since 2021 for $500,000. And then we've been using $500,000 in operating funds. That ends. at the end of June. And I believe you had asked about personnel specifically related to. So we do have currently a temporary program manager who has been running that program That position is set to, the contract is through the end of June as it's being supported by the federal grant. We do have other staff on our team who support that program with operating funds as a percentage of time for several of us.

so depending on if we're able to get another federal grant we will or shift some of the structure of the program and we do hope to continue working with those stores to provide this kind of a specific fresh fruit and vegetable discount to Snapshoppers.

Awesome. And if you could just quantify, not right now, but through the chair, we just get the dollar amount of the, I think it's 500K you said, and then the temp position.

The dollar amount for the position?

For the position, right. And then you said there was also dollar amount associated to, I guess, some of the staff in the office as well. You could just get a dollar amount. My last question, I think... is around... Since I said it's going to be my last question. The no-cost account analysis that will save an estimated $2.3 million a year, does that I don't know if I want to ask that question now. It's a good one. It's a good one.

He hasn't taken his hands off the chess piece.

Yeah, exactly. We'll give you a bonus question. Yes. I want to know about that and then also the solar renewable energy certificates. I just want to get a better understanding of how that works. So I guess we could talk about the cost savings through the No Cost Account Analysis, and then the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates Fund.

Yes, I can easily answer the first question. When you refer to solar renewable energy certificates, are you referring to a external fund or something you saw in the presentation?

It was the external fund. Okay. Just kind of get an understanding of how that works.

Yeah. Okay. Understood. The reclassification is that our wonderful municipal energy unit is responsible for managing all of the city's energy usage. Our assets across the city, very few of them actually owned by the Environment Department, and our team found that usage had increased in a number of accounts that would allow it All of these accounts to be moved to a rate class for higher usage users which reduces the cost because that is how it works and so we project that just by doing this reclassification we'll be able to save $2.3 million relative to what we would have been paying under the other rate classes. So we are very excited about that.

What we'll do is- That was in FY26, so the savings is for FY27.

It's actually just for 12 months. So what we will do is that we will track the usage to make sure that our projected savings really are verified with our estimates and then make future improvements. And we're happy to come back and report where our projected savings as expected. And that will start in June, July? I'd say several of those account reclassifications have already started. It's about like

and so forth. and we're always trying to look for getting the most advantageous rate based on the use of that building right and so we found I think it was over 100 over the last 12 months and so As we find them, we put in the request to reclassify the rate, so it's not as if they all go into effect June 1st. Right. It's stagnant. Every source, they change it, and the next month, it's the better rate.

Got it. And does that cost savings go back to... the Environment Department, I wish that would make that the answer, Councilor, and we would be your best friends. That would be nice. And the other one, the solar.

So with solar, what I will say is that I'm going to double check on why that is showing total budget for... Fiscal Year 27, because it's actually an old Revolving Fund, where we sold solar credits from systems that we own, but that's no longer the model that we use. I'm going to double check whether it's accurate to still keep it level or not. But long story short, we used to own solar panels. Now we rent the systems that we do because it's more profitable. So yeah, I'll make a note to double check on that.

Okay, and then speaking on that, honestly, my second to last question. How many residents are using the Clean Choice Energy program? I just bring this up just because we hear about high utility costs often.

Just want to know how the program's going. 210,000 accounts if I'm not mistaken.

Is that an increase from Last year?

I can tell you that it has increased from around, I believe, around 180,000 or 90,000 when the program launched in 2021. So it's been a gradual increase.

You're talking about community choice electricity?

Yes, that's right. Yeah, if you want to just talk about the program a little bit.

Yeah, my question is, and what's the plan for the future on that? Great.

Well, I can thank our... Director of the Municipal Energy Unit, Chris Kramer, who is feeding me information live. Okay, so, but don't ask questions that are too complicated. Thanks, Chris. It's actually 219,000 BCCI accounts. 2025. And I believe that's around 70% of eligible customers in Boston. So there's room to grow. And I'd say that our plan is to Our rate is locked in through the end of 2027, so that will continue to provide stability and most likely savings through that period. But in the coming year, our focus is really to do as much as possible to have Eligible customers who would benefit from being in the program, in the program. And what that essentially comes down to, because sadly this is the state of the world, it's getting them off of predatory third party suppliers.

and all of the partners that we are recruiting to work with us to work with residents on their questions on energy. We really are looking to Thank you. Thank you. Knock on wood to be aided by some changes in the state legislature which would allow us to limit or prohibit those third party suppliers which would be a huge increase in enrollment likely we would see to the program. All of those are on the table and as our main focus for the program.

So just for clarity and then a plug, Boston Community Choice Energy, like all the Community Choice Energy programs around the state, is an opt-out, not an opt-in. So we sweep all eligible accounts that are just on Eversource into BCC because the vast majority of time, the vast, vast majority of time, our rates have been better. and it saves customers money, but folks don't opt out. So they get a postcard, they say, if I want to just be on Eversource base rate for some reason, I will opt out. As Oliver mentioned, the vast majority of folks who are not currently on BCC-E are on third party suppliers from somebody else. Oftentimes with a sweetheart, like one or two month special deal like you see at a bank, and then suddenly they're paying rates that are substantially more than BCC. and they don't know it because people very rarely track rate over rate like changes each month in the electricity bill. So we've been working really hard to let folks know and as Oliver mentioned we're very optimistic of some potential legislative changes that will empower this body to take some action. But short of that, I'd just encourage anybody who's watching, your constituents, if you have a question about your energy bill, it's Boston Energy Saver.

Go to Boston. I'll go back to that save or 635-SAVE. We have folks on staff for free. will take a look at whatever you share. We will audit your energy bill and say, you know what, the rate you're paying is actually higher than it would be. You need to call your third-party supplier and say, I don't want to renew my contract, or I want out so I can join this, and then we can get them a better rate.

And those contracts are renewable every month, or they... It depends on the third party supplier.

It's the Wild West out there. Some of them have cancellation penalties. Some of them have them only for a certain period of time. Some, unfortunately, have auto renewal in them so that you can't get out unless you reach out to them and say, I no longer want this. That's why it's been a really challenging practice. The history of third-party suppliers is that it predates Boston Community Choice Energy, so they were the only option out there back when it started. That's no longer the case, and we do a better job for the constituencies in Boston of buying bulk power.

Okay, thank you very much. These are the fun ones, though. You can keep going. Just in terms of grants that were lost, I thought there was a diversity and tree grant. That we had... There may... Sorry. And that may be parks or something.

And we were talking about grants, yeah. It was just these three offices. There may be parks department related grants that we'd cover in that hearing.

It was like the study, because it had the word diversity in it and it was, you know, When they're doing their word search in Washington. Yeah. Okay. Well, so just a couple more questions for me and then we'll wrap up. O'Rell has another question that will go on for 20 minutes. When you're talking about the solar panels, is that Renewable Energy and Maintenance Revolving Fund. Is that related to that? Okay, I'll wait for that. I guess for Eliza, in terms of the participatory budgeting funding that was awarded, what are the challenges in Using that money, is there anything about that process that you're learning? How soon can you put that money to use?

I don't. We're meeting with them next week, actually, and they've kind of set up a very clear process for us to indicate kind of the process we will use to determine Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're voted for by residents for food access. It's really sort of us understanding what and many other external resources are out there as we were talking about with the Double Up Food Bucks grant and figuring out from sort of a really not interesting administrative operations set up what the best way to get those resources out into the community.

I would say the fastest, but also to help get folks the most amount of fresh food, because there's many different

I think we know from the amendment process that getting the money sort of allocated is half the battle, maybe not even half. It's then translating that into To real life action takes additional time if you're going through an application or whatever, just trying to make sure that process is that we can help with that.

Yeah, there have not been hurdles for us particularly. I think the transfer of funds is a smooth process. It's just sort of as we're planning for our farmers markets this summer. and double up determining the best use of the funds.

Okay, and the food recovery assessment talked about Working with ISD to make sure that the food recovery vehicles could park and get the food. Have you made any progress on that? Can we help in any way?

That is a real specific question, Chairman. So let me see. I would like to follow up on that, but I will say we have been in ongoing conversation with ISD and some of our partners about different opportunities to Make sure sort of everyone's aligned and on the same page about situations where recovered food may be slightly Divergent from traditional practice where with food pantries, what I see is used to dealing with just because of the way that The dates may be on the food or when they're how they're getting it I'm not I'm just trying to yeah, let me let me follow up with you. It sounds like you're asking specifically about vehicle

Yeah, I mean, if there's some work that can be done on our end to make sure those vehicles can park and not be

I think that that would fall more with BTD and BPD than with ISD. So there are sort of a few different regulatory things that came up in that report that

Just curious, so in your contracts, it looks like the last three years there's a contract with the YMCA. Is that ongoing? Is that funded for next year? And what was that contract?

So, yeah, we had a one-year contract with the YMCA that we were able to renew two additional times, which is the limit and many more. Thank you. Thank you very much. locations like community centers, libraries, BHA, as well as other community-run programs, all of which offer summer meals but have to go through what is considered an official sponsor that is partners directly with DESE and USDA to provide the meals, which is why MCA plays that function. BPS is the other sponsor for sites in Boston.

Our team, actually our deputy director Melissa this year has been working really closely with the YMCA and BPS and a number of other partners to identify how to continue supporting and many more. We have a lot of open sites this summer. Some are meal sites. This summer as many open sites as The renewals are up, but we are working sort of from a personnel standpoint to make sure we have as many open sites for youth as possible this summer.

Okay, and then just last question. I think Councilor Culpepper is alluding to it. In the amendment process, if there I know the panelists think that the budget is probably perfect in every way and we shouldn't touch it, but if we were going to be putting money into food security, It sounds like contractual services would be the place where you could do the most good with that extra money, or is there personnel? Do you need more people? Okay, I don't know. You want to take over? But I just, if you want to, you know, if we're looking to amend and we want to support food security, like which of your line items should we be looking at?

It's a great question. It's a fair question. I mean, I think, I mean, it's a team, right? And so if My answer to that question would be contract services gives the most flexibility and historically OFJ has operated through supporting partners to deliver programs, right? You could 10x OFJ's budget tomorrow and we're still not able to move the needle significantly on food access, right? That's the reality of the problem that we have in Boston. That's why SNAP is so important and these other programs is that the scale. So we are focused on the The ROI, the return on investment for infrastructure and systemic changes we can make that is easiest that is most best served through contract services because that is the line item that we can then issue grants to say oh you know maybe we need another cold storage facility over here or you know at a wholesale or maybe we need You know, a retail program there. But again, we can always use more resources to address food insecurity. That's the nature of this problem.

and we're comfortable with the submission that we made that is consistent with our values, but yes, we can always do more with more.

Okay, thank you. Councilor Worrell, do you have any last, last questions?

This will be the last, last, last, last questions. The Berto 2.0 revolving fund, what's the total amount in that revolving fund currently?

We can get back to you on exact numbers, but the Equitable Emissions Investment Fund is technically what it's called, but we can just call it the Berto Fund, was Seated with $3 million from the operating budget a couple of years ago and has largely been spent on Grant, as well as programs to support building owners directly with their individual buildings. So we anticipate that it is, we have an open grant round right now We're targeting around $600,000 in grants. We estimate we'll have approximately that amount left afterward. So the balance is less than half of the $3 million that was ceded, but we already have plans for all of that. and the revenue that will be coming in is in the form of alternative compliance payments.

But since this is the first year that those will be made, we have a very wide range of what to project because frankly, We're happy if we get the payments. We're really happy if we don't because people are complying in other ways. So we will have a lot to share back a year from now in terms of where we are because that will give us a clearer picture.

I just said the intent behind forward funding it with some operating dollars was really like prime the pump on this new grant program that over time we fully anticipate that there will be building owners that use alternative compliance payments and fund the equitable emissions investment fund We want to make sure that the recipients and the applicants understood this program. So we just announced the second round of winners through social media and press release. We're having events with them. We know there's demand out there for this supply of funding to invest in energy efficiency in environmental justice neighborhoods, focusing predominantly on housing. And now they're aware of that. And so that was the intent here was always that that $3 million We weren't going to continue to put operating dollars into that fund. We're like priming the pump for a Berto Alternate Compliant Payment annual funding process.

Right. Yeah. I think I was hearing that... To backfill some of the contracted We were using a fund. Which fund was it? Temporarily to shift some of those burden support costs.

It's actually to a different fund called the Pollution Abatement Fund, which covers work on air quality and and Emissions Reduction which obviously is also Thank you. Thank you.

And for the contracted services that were decreased, In FY26, how many recipients received the grant in the line item that was decreased? Sorry, for which office? I think it was, was it? Yeah, I think it was Office of Food Justice.

So it's not, it's a little tough to answer because our whole contracted services is one lump There aren't specific line items. So it's not like one line item was decreased. It's contracted services as a whole.

And how many vendors were you able to fund through your whole contract and services line item?

I'm trying to do some quick math in my head. they're separate programs so there's like 20 farmers markets there are 35 organizations that distributed coupons some of those are the same organizations I mean roughly probably 55 or 50 to 55 if you look at farmer's market or I'm getting a little higher 60 65 okay uh some pantomime behind you Yes, I'd say 55 to 65 community organizations that distribute farmers market coupons, run farmers markets, small grocery stores and bodegas. and then some of the other food access organizations that through Summer Eats or other food pantry support.

Got it. And then how would the, in terms of recipients, how would the reduction

I mean hopefully we will continue to work with all of those partners.

At a smaller scale? Like a smaller dollar amount? Is that the idea?

If we're optimistic, we're hopeful we may be able to compete for another federal grant or find additional external resources, so we won't need to reduce those. But yeah.

That's the idea is to not eliminate programs that are directly and benefiting folks shopping at farmers markets or shopping at and many more. These are grant programs that have shifted over time in terms of the amount of money that we've been able to put into them and this year is a harder year.

Think about this question because there's $500,000 from participatory budgeting.

Right, so hopefully there won't be a net decrease to these partners that we can work with in other ways.

And then my last question is, It's a big topic in District 4 around the Talbot neighborhood triangle or Norfolk triangle substations. Have we talked about or are we thinking about any alternatives for substations?

Yeah, I can see the broader remit than you can talk about that specific. So to meet energy demand in Boston going forward, we know that there's about six additional substations needed in Boston over the next 10 to 15 years. That is largely driven by current substations being at or over capacity, right? And so right now, that is one of the challenges of the lack of resilience in our grid is These substations are running, it's like running your engine too hot, right? These substations are running really hot and then they're getting extra capacity from substations further away, which is less efficient and there isn't capacity even for increasing demand of existing developments as well as increasing development, as well as electrification. So we are, for me, the answer to your question is really yes and. We need to do everything we can behind the meter in terms of solar and battery and energy efficiency That will not prevent us from still needing energy infrastructure to distribute demand where it is needed with supply where it is coming from.

Because, you know, at any given time, a resident is exporting power and then it's importing power and other developments export. so those the substations what balances that input and output into the system so there is no alternative in my opinion and based on you know what technical information has been shared with us with this six substations in certain areas of the city and the one you're referring to is one that's sort of next up from the priority list from every source where there's been lots of conversations about do we have the right location? Is it the right size? How does it best fit in the neighborhood? How does it get mitigated in terms of any negative impact of having it there? And those conversations are ongoing.

Yeah, I will just say, I think Chief Sweat said it perfectly, there's no way around The problem that we have, which is even to meet current demand, let alone what we know is going to happen in the future, if we do all the right things for climate change, we're going to need a lot more electrical infrastructure in Boston. And so the question for us is, How do you do it well? How do you do it with as much community voice and influence? How do you do it with the utilities and regulators understanding what our communities need and what the city's role is in bringing all of these Thank you.

are fortunate to have received a grant from the Bar Foundation a couple of years ago that has taken shape in the last year as a project that we're doing with some very skilled consultants to look at the city and all of the sort of Parcels that are available. What are community members' priorities? What are different things that can be taken into account? so that we're in a really good spot. And we're doing this sort of not in conjunction with Eversource, but with their awareness and with some exchange of data so that with every future community, and it will benefit Dorchester as well, that we have these conversations. We're doing it from a much better position of saying, well, have you looked down the street? Or this actually makes sense because communities really value green space. How can we combine the two or have a benefits agreement that does that? I'm giving you some examples, not actual situation in Dorchester. So that is what alternatives means in my mind.

It means actually zooming out and thinking of all the sorts of things that are alternatives, not just one spot versus another, because there's so many different things that come into play.

That Cambridge was able to build an underground substation, but they had coordinated and negotiated that with a private developer. Hopefully, our planning department, when large projects are moving forward, maybe taking a look at seeing if that could be part of the community benefits, knowing that we need Thank you. Thank you. You know, large developers that are looking to build in Boston. Kearney Hospital, I know there are already some that are approved. I don't know if we could go back to that conversation, but definitely something I just want to, you know, Because it's underground, it's a way better conversation for the community.

It's a point well made. I want to manage expectations in that direction. So there was a unique confluence of factors at Kendall Square that was happening. One, there was no new development. It is the most expensive substation ever built in New England. So, but because, and you may remember like that happened at the peak of lab rental rates. So you had companies saying, I can't build my next 500,000 square feet of lab space. I'm willing to subsidize a below-grade substation because there's a unique confluence. It did not cost... The ratepayers in Eversource any more than a traditional substation. All of that additional cost was subsidized by the developers around that that benefited from that additional substation. So to your point, wherever we have a substation need in the city of Boston where there is alignment with new potential development, We're totally talking about co-design.

The planning department with Eversource and saying, okay, well, you know, if you need one in Charlestown, what's happening in Charlestown that maybe it gets tied to if you need one else in Bright. But there is a timing aspect to this that you can only wait so long for large developments to materialize, and then the electric utility is saying, oh, we're beyond capacity. I need this sooner than that. It's a point well made, but I just want to make it clear. All right, thank you.

OK, thank you very much. That's going to be it for this morning's hearing. We have two budget hearings tomorrow, a doubleheader in the morning. Office of Labor Compliance and Worker Protections and the Law Department in the afternoon participatory budgeting. I just want to thank everyone for being here. There's an afternoon hearing. on street safety. So I'm going to give central staff enough time to get ready for that. So thank you very much. This morning's hearing is now adjourned.