Good afternoon.

My name is Ben Weber.

I am the Boston City Councilor for District Six and the Chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means.

Today is April 23rd, 2026, and the exact time is two eleven in the afternoon.

This hearing is being recorded, 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 that 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 uh in several ways.

First, you can attend one of our hearings and give public testimony.

We will take public testimony uh at the end of the first round of questions from my council colleagues.

Uh, we're also going to take public testimony to listening sessions, um, which will be at night at at uh the Boston City at City Hall, uh, the first being on Tuesday, April 28th at 6 p.m., and the second being on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

Those are listening sessions.

You can see the full hearing schedule on our website at Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

Uh in lieu of appearing in person, you can also testify by Zoom.

Um you which you can let's see, if you want to testify virtually, uh you can email the um council budget review website.

Uh or you can sorry, you can fill out an online form at the council budget review website, or you can email the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov, or by emailing uh uh Kerish Machon, that's K-A-R I S H M A C H O U H A N at Boston.gov.

Uh if you're here to testify in person uh at a hearing, which uh anyone uh is welcome to do should sign up.

There's a there's a sheet at the entrance if you want your name called for public testimony.

Um if you're if you signed up and your name is called, you have two minutes to testify, please just identify yourself uh and uh tell us what your affiliation is uh if you're representing your organization or just uh where you live in the city, and uh you'll have two minutes to uh make your voice heard.

Um instead of if you don't want to you don't have time to come here or testify virtually, you can also email written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at Boston dot gov.

Uh lastly, you could you can also submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website.

For more information on the Boston City Council budget process and how to testify, please visit the count city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash city, Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

Uh in-person testimony will be taken uh following the first round of questions from my colleagues, and folks will have two minutes to testify again.

If you want to testify virtually at this hearing, you can email uh our director of legislative budget analysis, Krishnmach at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHO UHAN at Boston.gov for the Zoom link and your name will be added to the list.

This afternoon's hearing is on docket numbers zero seven three three to zero seven four zero, an overview of the FY27 budget for the Office of Particip Participatory Budgeting.

This is one in a series of hearings that we'll be having on the FY27 budget.

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

Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Flynn, Councillor Culpepper, and Councillor Caleta Zapata.

Let's see.

So at these budget hearings, we do wave opening statements.

We're just gonna go to the panel.

This will be easier than some panels because there's only one panelist.

So to introduce today's panelists is Renato Costello, who's the director of the Office of Participatory Budgeting.

So just give me a second.

There's no one online.

Okay.

And nobody here wants to testify in person.

I'm just checking, you can decide later.

Okay, so uh Renato, the floor is yours, and then we'll go to questions for my colleagues.

Thank you, Chair Weber.

Um I will uh do a brief presentation and then I'm happy to answer any questions about the office or the process that we're running.

This works.

So the Office of Participatory Budgeting consists of three full-time staff, me as the director, Blanca Texera, Senior Finance and Operations Manager, and a community partnerships and project coordinator that we're currently accepting candidates for review.

Um participatory budgeting is a democratic process where community members decide how to spend a part of a public budget.

PB advances the city's goals around civic engagement and community collaboration by addressing barriers for public participation and decision making in local government, elevating resident-informed project ideas that reflect their priorities and lived experiences, and bringing communities and city government together.

The mission of the Office of Participatory Budgeting is to provide an official point of entry for Boston residents to contribute to the city's budget process through partnerships with community organizations, collaboration with city departments, and guidance from our external oversight board.

The office hosts yearly participatory budgeting cycles to allow for continuous engagement.

We offer opportunities for the public to propose community-centered project ideas to address local priorities, engage resident priorities to inform the city's budget process.

The ideas that residents propose have to meet certain criteria.

Projects are limited to a one-time expense and cannot create new permanent positions.

Project ideas must be feasible to implement, be consistent with existing city policies, laws, regulations, and the participatory budgeting ordinance.

Projects must be implemented or managed by the appropriate city department or agency receiving direct budget appropriations.

Project ideas may include programs and services, as well as funding for physical improvements, such as community enhancements on city-owned public property, like benches, trash containers, green infrastructure, etc.

Physical improvements on projects, projects on private state or federal property are not eligible, such as projects concerning the Department of Conservation and Recreation or the MBTA.

So this is our timeline and phases that we have as part of the process.

We start in July with idea collection, and it is an opportunity for residents to share their project ideas with our office.

And we have multiple ways for residents to submit their ideas.

We have a multilingual online platform, we have a multilingual phone line, we have boots at public libraries and some BCYF community centers, and here at City Hall, and we also work with community organizations to host events across the city to collect ideas from residents.

After we collect those ideas, that happens during the entire month of July.

We take August and September to review those ideas and make sure that they fit with the criteria that I shared earlier.