Morning.

Um for the record, my name is Ben Weber.

I'm the District Six City Councilor and the chair of the Boston City Council on Ways and Means.

Today is April 14th, two thousand twenty-six.

The exact time is ten.

Oh five.

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 Eight, RCN Channel Eighty Two, and Fios Channel Nine Sixty Four.

The city's budget review process, uh, which uh officially starts now, although we've had several pre-budget hearings and a listening session, uh actually two uh here will encompass a series of public hearings uh beginning now and running through June.

We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage with in this process by giving testimony on the record.

Uh you can do so you can you can do this in several ways.

Uh first you can attend one of our hearings and give public testimony.

You will we will take public testimony at the end of each departmental hearing uh and also at two hearings dedicated to public testimony.

The full hearing schedule can be found on our website at Boston.gov slash council-budget.

Our scheduled hearings dedicated uh to public testimony are in person here in City Hall on Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m.

And again here in City Hall in person on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

You can give testimony in person here in the chamber or virtually via Zoom at all of our hearings for in-person testimony.

Please come to the chamber and sign up uh on the sheet near the entrance for virtual testimony.

You can sign up using our online form on our council budget review website, or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov, or by emailing uh Kurishma Choan at uh Karishma, that's K-A-R-I-S-H-A.C-H-O-U-H-A-N at Boston.gov.

Um when you are called to testify, please state your name and affiliation, residents, and uh limit your comments uh to a few minutes.

We'll have two minutes uh for each uh person giving public testimony and just make sure you're prepared for that time limit so you can have all your concerns heard by us.

Email your written testimony uh if you have it to the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov.

Um you can also submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website.

Uh for more information on the city council budget process and how to testify, please visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash council-budget.

In-person public testimony will be taken at the beginning of this hearing following the panelists' presentation.

Individuals will be called in the order in which they were signed up, um, and we'll have two minutes to testify.

If you wish to sign up for public testimony, you have not done so already, uh, please uh either sign in on the sheet that's uh over there now, or uh uh email uh our staff liaison at Kurish Machoan, it's K-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHO UHAN at Boston.gov for the zoom link, and your name will be added to the list.

Today's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740, an overview of the FY27 operating budget.

This is one in a series of hearings we'll be conducting on the FY fiscal year 27 budget.

These matters were sponsored by uh Mayor Michelle Wu and were referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026.

Uh today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Murphy, Council President Braden, and Councilor Flynn.

We've received a uh letter of absence from Councillor Coletta Zapada.

Uh I you know, I so we're we're because we have a lot of work ahead of us and a lot of hearings, we're not going to be doing opening statements at these hearings, but because today is the first, and because there's only three of you, if anyone you know wants uh one minute each to say anything, uh Councilor Murphy.

Thank you, Chair.

Could could you explain?

Are you going to me already?

Uh well, yeah, I so but my my microphone.

Yeah, well, oh uh sorry.

Yeah.

Um thank you.

Could you just clarify before we start?

See although this is the beginning of many, what you meant by there will not be opening statements.

Yeah, so uh sometimes in some hearings, every counselor gets an opening statement before we before we go to qu go to the panel and go to questions.

Uh, because we're gonna be spending a lot of time.

Uh I I you you can give an opening statement as part of your questions, but we're not gonna have that part.

I think uh councilor Orrell did that last year, and I think it was effective in making the hearings more efficient.

But because today is the first one.

If you want to say something.

I always want to say something.

Thank you again for being here.

Have some obviously questions and some concerns, knowing that you know, we got the budget, I guess was a formally shared last Wednesday, and since then have been hearing directly from organizations, from students.

So looking for some clarification, and I hope through the slides and your presentation, and then just questions answered.

But one email that was forwarded to me from the Age Strong Commission yesterday was notifying a nonprofit provider that certain grants would no longer be funded.

And since then, um I've received outreach from students that their jobs will are being cut and other youth employment opportunities that are tied to community-based organizations.

So I heard it's just a rumor though that maybe the city started sending out emails on Friday, and organizations, nonprofits, individuals are finding out that you know opportunities or jobs they had or grants they were funding are no longer being funded.

And it does tie to the question that I think four times now, Krishna.

Um I've put on the record, and when I had my one-on-one with Michelle with Mayor Wu, it was the only question I asked to say, like back in was it December, January when we reached out to each department saying we need to make some cuts.

What was that communication to each department and what did they send back?

And now seeing that we do have the budget in front of us, I think it's still important to see that because I do want to line up where the cuts were made and how are we communicating and what are we going to do about it?

Thank you.