Good morning.

My name is Ben Weber.

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

Today's April thirtieth, two thousand twenty-six, and the exact time is ten twenty-two AM.

This hearing is being recorded.

It's 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 Council's budget review process will encompass a series of hearings which uh begin in April and run through June.

We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to uh engage in this process in one of several ways.

Um first, uh, you can view our hearing schedule on our website at Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

You can attend one of our hearings uh and provide testimony either in person here in the chamber or online.

Uh if you would like to testify in person, please sign up at the sign and sheet at the door.

If you want to testify online, you can email either the uh uh cccc.wm at Boston dot gov, that's the committee's website, or our uh uh director of legislative budget analysis, Chris Michel on a K R I S H M A.

C H O U H A N at Boston.gov.

Uh you can um you can also uh when you're uh called on to testify, you'll be called on the order of arrival.

You'll have two minutes uh to give your testimony.

Please state your name, affiliation, where you live, and uh again, please limit your comments to two minutes.

Um in lieu of testifying, you uh in person or virtually you can submit written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov.

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

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 dash budget.

Today's uh or this morning's hearings uh hearing is on docket numbers zero seven three three to zero seven four zero, an overview of the FY27 operating budget for the Office of Economic Opportunity Inclusion and the Department of Supplier Diversity.

Uh, this is one of the series of hearings we'll be holding on the uh fiscal year two thousand twenty-seven budget.

Uh, these matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu and referred to the committee on April eighth, two thousand twenty-six.

Today I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Flynn, Councillor Murphy, Councillor Culpepper, Councillor Louis Gen, and Councilor Durkin.

We've received a letter of absence from Councillor Santana.

So at these budget hearings, we waive uh opening statements.

I'm just going to go to the panel, who I'll introduce now.

Uh, we're joined by interim uh chief of economic opportunity inclusion, Donald Wright, uh, Director of Small Business, Alicia Porcena, uh, Director of Operations, uh, uh, Joe Olivia Barros, and uh director for the Department of Supplier Diversity, Andrea Caruth.

Uh so I don't you have a presentation, why don't you go ahead?

And uh so the floor is now yours.

So I've also we've also been joined by Councillor Braden.

Yes.

Good morning.

Chair Councillor Weber and members of the Committee on Ways and Means.

It is my pleasure to come before you in the capacity of interim chief of economic opportunity inclusion, and thank you for the time to discuss our budget for the fiscal year of 2027.

Clickers not chair, do you have a copy of that?

Uh I don't I do.

Uh you you can have my copy.

Yeah, correct.

Oh, okay.

Having a little technical difficulty here.

That's okay.

If you does everyone have uh yeah, I think uh I think we leave it up to the staff to print them out.

Counselor Floyd.

We'll get you we'll get you in.

Counselor Murphy.

You ready?

Yeah.

Can I proceed?

Yes.

Okay.

Today I am joined by my colleagues from the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion.

Uh Alicia Porcina, Director of Small Business, Andrew Caruth, Director of Supply Diversity, and Jolivia Barrows, Director of Operations.

The Office of the Cabinet of Economic Opportunity Inclusion is made up of four departments, two of which we will be speaking about today, and that's the Office of Economic Opportunity Inclusion and the Office of Supply and Diversity.

Our vision is one of a resilient, equitable, sustainable, and vibrant city that centers on people and creates opportunities to build generational wealth in all communities.

Um as we understand equity uh the productive process of providing historical excluded communities and resources that are needed to live and thrive in Boston, and we understand equity to be a productive process of providing historically excluded communities, excuse me, repeating the resources that they need to live and thrive in Boston.

And while the national discourse may be regressing, we remain dedicated to equity.

The principles continue to be to serve as the essential framework for every program policy and practice our cabinet implements.

The mayor's office of economic opportunity inclusion is made up of the business strategy unit, the office of nightlike economy, economic and strategic planning, operations and communications, policy, and the office of small business.

The Office of Business Strategy works to largely engage with companies of all sizes, supporting their relocation, expansion, and long-term growth in Boston.

We focus on attracting new businesses, retaining existing businesses, and building lasting relationships to ensure Boston remains a vibrant place for every business to succeed.

The business strategy team has engaged, recruited, and supported 150 companies, including new U.S.

headquarters and grand openings for Leomore, uh Lovable, Lydian, and the German American Chamber of Commerce in the Boston chapter, and electrified thermal solutions.

We've hosted 15 events and will host Climate Tech Crossing on May 6th to highlight the climate climate innovations merging from Boston.

You can't be Boston is a new initiative launched in 2026, uh April of 2026 to attract talent and investment, featuring a collaborative campaign, a theme song, a Harpoon Brewery Partnership, and its direct recommendation of the mayor's business recruitment task force, which convened and led by the Office of Business Strategy in 2024 to advise the city on strategies to advance business recruitment and retention.

And in international business development, as the global leader in life sciences, technology, and innovation, Boston remains a top destination for foreign trade and investment.

And FY26, the Global Affairs, hosted the Global Business Connect event convening 50 plus stakeholders from 30 communities.

We will welcome 50 plus delegations from 26 countries to City Hall.

And in April, Mayor Wu announced a multi-million dollar business recruitment fund in partnership with MT Bank and the Boston Foundation at the U.S.

Spain Business Summit building on momentum from the Spanish government's new trade office in Boston.

The cannabis industry development team remains committed to ensuring equitable participation at all levels of the cannabis industry to provide technical assistance and opportunities for financial assistance.

The team awarded 280,000 and contracts to five technical assistance providers to provide direct one-to-one support to cannabis equity applicants.

We awarded 350,000 in grants to create financial support for equitable uh eligible equity uh businesses.

From June 15th to the 21st, we will be hosting our first annual or fourth annual cannabis empowerment week, highlighting the newly regulated social cons social consumption license types.

Our economic and strategic planning team works across EOI and city departments on a number of chief and mayorial priorities led by planning and economic development focused initiatives.

The small team consists of two full-time staff and one recently well no longer with us, uh Rapport Fellow.

Some of the program initiatives here are the commercial acquisition uh program, Invest Boston, and the Uphams Corner Implementation Plan.

Our Office of Nightlife Economy, which was established in the spring of 2023.

Uh OE is focused on ensuring that Boston's nightlife is not only vibrant but safe and welcoming for everyone who participates in it.

Workers, operators, and patrons alike.

A core part of our work is collaboration.

We work closely with venue operators, public safety agencies, public health professionals, and workers across the nightlife economy to identify challenges and implement proactive solutions.

The late night food truck program was one of the key initiatives in the past year that was launched in the summer of 25.

The program extends the vibrancy of our streets and provides a vital new platform for business for local businesses to thrive.

The late night food truck program is one of the is more than about meals, it is about unlocking new opportunities for Boston's entrepreneurs and increasing access to late-night food.

This initiative is a direct response to conversations with residents, workers, and businesses as they indicated the need for more food options after hours.

We're excited to launch this year's lineup next month.

Now I'll turn it over to Alicia Porcina to talk about small business.

Thank you, Chief Wright.

Good morning, members of the City Council.

My name is Alicia Porsena.

I am the director of small business.

Boston is home to over 18,000 small businesses that employs over 127 people in the community and generates more than 28 billion dollars in revenue each year.

Our team provides small business owners with the tools and guidance to successfully grow, start, and build a business in Boston.

I would like to acknowledge my team of 18 individuals for their hard work and dedication over the past year, and thank the console for your support.

This slide shows a breakdown of some of our program and initiatives.

So I'm just going to take a deeper dive into that.

Okay.

Okay, here we go.

So our technical assistance programs led by Emily Patrick pairs aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners with consultants and subject matter experts to address areas of concerns on a project basis.

They are designed to provide business owners with the tools needed to start, strengthen, or expand their business.

We want to ensure we are meeting businesses where they are, help create stability for our businesses, retain jobs, curb displacement, and closure.

Here are some of our numbers to date, and the team is still going.

This flyer is an example of a multi-series workshop starting next week, centered around the physical fitness industry business that's going to be in Roxbury.

And the TA program continues to be one of our largest programs and most widely used across the city.

Our outdoor dining program facilitates permitting and technical assistance for restaurants seeking to expand their seating capacity by utilizing city sidewalks and publicly owned streets throughout the spring to late fall season.

The season officially begins tomorrow, Friday, May 1.

So the numbers in red are from last year, but I'm happy to report that we are on track to surpass last year's numbers.

Okay.

Excuse me.

Yeah, if you hold it too long, I think that's right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Our main streets program is really the intersection of community development and economic development.

By supporting these independent 501c3 nonprofits, we support the improvements of the physical condition and appearance of our districts and expand economic activity by attracting new businesses.

Our main streets are integral to increasing neighborhood and commercial vitality.

The photos are not even a glimpse of what the main streets have contributed to our neighborhoods, which have had a combined attendance of over 120,000 people.

Some of these programs include The Taste of Eastie, Alston and Roslendale, holiday markets, farmers' markets, pop-ups, outdoor performances and festivals such as Torchfest, and they also address real concerns in the community.

I want to spotlight Chinatown Main Streets led by Debbie Ho, who worked on urban heat concerns this past summer, and partnered with community organizations and nonprofits in Chinatown to build a communication network to circulate information during heat emergencies.

They acquired, deployed, and managed missing tent coolant stations in Chinatown during a series of heat emergencies and made it an activation.

This led to them becoming a national example for other communities across the U.S.

facing similar challenges.

They continue to do neighborhood cleanups as well.

The list really is endless for how they support our commercial district improvements such as mural installations, district cleanups, planting days, and engage our communities from hosting community meetings and district walks with local stakeholders.

Through their partnership, residents are able to connect more with their neighborhoods and businesses and take pride in the community creating a sense of belonging.

So, in the interest of time, I'm just going to skip by these slides quickly.

Our legacy big our legacy business program celebrates 30 long-standing businesses that have been a strong that have made strong contributions, contributions to our cultural fab to the cultural fabric of our neighborhoods.

May is small business month.

Aside from our core programming, we do initiatives as well, such as this.

This is an opportunity throughout the month of May to highlight local businesses and strong business in the strong business support system that is Boston.

We have over 30 events across the city hosted or supported by our office, and we hope to see everyone here take part in the events, bringing violence to our neighborhoods, increasing food traffic, and spending dollars in our local community.

Here's a list of the 20 partners who received uh grants that are gonna be activating all month long in May.

Restore Boston helps eligible businesses and commercial property owners improve their storefronts by providing financial and design assistance for signage and facade renovations.

This program has undoubtedly had the most improvement over the cat over the past year.

This team, led by Aaron Schleifer and Renat Giftopolis, have been working extremely hard to address the backlog of projects and make updates to the program.

I'm happy to report we have streamlined our processes, created a pilot online application that has since been fully implemented.

And it's also important to note that the city's investment is a real catalyst, which allows for the leveraging of private investment from business owners not only is the money going back into the community, but this work also contributes to job creation.

This is a program where you can physically see the difference.

If you walk in Mata Pan Square, we worked on a project that was nine storefronts across seven businesses, or walk down 264 to 268 Bowdoin Street, home to some legacy businesses.

You can see the difference.

To date, we have 17 completed projects, and some are featured on the slide.

We have Turkish Lesuri Cafe in Uston that was an expansion of a small family-owned bakery and creation of a new cafe in a vacant commercial space, community care pharmacy in Dorchester, that's an independent pharmacy, and then most recently we have Gangman Spice and Miami Restaurant and JP that had a new signage as well.

This is a great example of the holistic approach that our office takes.

Earlier this month, we got to celebrate the opening of Brown Bear XL XL Learning Center.

That was right, that is right next to Boston Flower Co.

They were space recipients, but also they received signage as well.

In addition, we have 17 projects committed, which we are looking forward to their new signage and work in the over the next couple of months, their new signage going up.

This program is on track to complete more projects this year since before pre-COVID times.

And then some of our additional.

Sorry.

Some of our additional programming we have over the past year, our neighborhood access program addresses capital gain grant capital gaps for entrepreneurs.

And I just want to note that my office is committed to ensuring that our work is accessible.

We do reach, we do outreach in multiple languages and work on policies that address the gaps in our businesses.

In closing, I'm incredibly proud of my office and the work that we do and continue to do.

Access is extremely important, and working with business owners to explore possibilities is the core of what we do.

Thank you for your time and the opportunity to speak on my work.

Okay.

Good morning, everyone.

Good morning to the council and everyone who pressed to make it here.

My name is Andrea Caruth, and I am grateful and humbled to come here and be before you and speak on behalf of my department, the Department of Supply Diversity, and especially to do so along my colleagues Chief Wright and Director Barros and Director Forsena.

I would just like to share that when I left the city of Somerville as a deputy chief procurement officer, the city of Somerville was just finishing its disparity study.

And so to have the opportunity to work at the capacity and the level of the city of Boston is on leaning and learning from its past and working to implement solutions to better connect diverse suppliers with city opportunities.

That was quite a dream.

It was quite a dream.

And especially to have opportunity to cultivate generational wealth and to make sure that everyone who is here who has worked to build this city, build the communities within it, would have some part of that.

And so I look forward to being able to share a little bit more about our department.

The Department of Supply Diversity, we aim to bring transparency, access, accountability, and growth to the process of doing business with the city of Boston.

We have the role of oversight in the city's plan called the Equitable Procurement Initiative.

And we seek to lower any barriers that businesses encounter in doing business with the city.

We partner with departments to empower them to engage with diverse suppliers while also gaining quality services for our constituents.

And of course, we can't do this alone.

At this time, we partner closely with the procurement department to evaluate our policies and systems that we have in place to increase accessibility and user-friendliness for our departments as well as our diverse suppliers.

And that said, while procurement policy is vital to achieving our mission as a department, there are other challenges that require the engagement of auditing and law and so many other departments.

And I can give you an example.

When it comes to barriers that are regulatory in nature, the city cannot pay for services until they are rendered, as most of us know.

Well, when it comes to emerging businesses, that means you need capital to purchase materials and to pay people to do the work before you are paid.

And I could imagine, I'm sure we all can imagine that that is a pretty risky situation for some of our diverse suppliers, and I look forward to expanding our focus as a department to be able to solve that problem as well.

And so here are some of the ways that we aim to encourage transparency, access, accountability, and growth.

We certify businesses to highlight them as an option for our departments.

We understand that most of our departments have a tried and true way of doing things that have helped them consistently provide high quality services to our constituents.

Therefore, we realize the need in 2022 to create a procurement option named the inclusive quote contract that makes it easier to engage with diverse suppliers in less time and greater value than your regular standard written quote contract and the invitations to bid.

Now, inclusive quote contracts allow for departments to release quotes to three or more diverse businesses for goods and services between 10,000 and 250,000 in a shorter time that it takes to release an invitation to bid.

And as you can see here, IQCs, they account for 3.2 million of the 115 million dollars that we receive for diverse suppliers just for Q1 to Q3.

And just moving on to other parts of this slide here, we we increase transparency and accountability also with the creation of the equitable compliance form that requires departments to document their attempts to engage with diverse suppliers for every level of procurement.

In addition, we created the first ever dashboard on a major construction project with the White Stadium dashboard that allows for everyone to track the progress the city is making with meeting our goals for spending with minority and women-owned businesses as well as small and local businesses.

That was the first of its kind for the city.

And this dashboard is a work in progress as we work to refine how we communicate the developments of this project.

But it is one of the innovations that were born out of this project, including the creation of an advisory board that allows us to hear from the community and better disseminate information and opportunities.

Now, I have been here for about let's say nine months, but when I came to the department, there was already a mighty team waiting for me.

People who have been pushing the mission of our department to create opportunities for businesses of all kinds in Boston.

People like Stacey Williams, who carry 20 plus years of experience and expertise when it comes to working with minority and women-owned certification.

She has been the blifeblood, I would say, of this department.

She has kept us going and consistent, and I honor her work.

She is supported by two others, Jessica DeSova and Adrian Jorge, who have 10 and 20 plus years respectively working with the city.

And they provide personalized service.

In a time when everyone's moving to AI and doing different things, we provide virtual office hours where someone can connect with an actual person on Wednesdays 11 to 1 every week.

And that team has been doing it faithfully.

And that means that anyone in any stage of the process is able to come up and to ask a question, whether they're starting a business, whether they're ready for certification, we give them the opportunity to hear a real answer.

In addition to this, we have also focused on business outreach.

It's an annual week of program that we have, and one innovation I would like to point out was one of the priorities of Cisno Baez, who is our diverse business engagement manager.

She prioritized making sure that we had good language access service services for our webinars.

So we had an interpreter on hand for our certification workshop as well as for our workshops on procurement.

I will note that the procurement workshop had at least 80 people or so in attendance.

And when it comes to the programming for that week, we reached 60% when it comes to our walk-in attendance.

And much of that program, the programming of that week, allow for businesses to connect with each other and not just with us.

I would like to also bring up the Black History Month panel that we had, and we featured an array of businesses.

We had our legacy business owners, we had our newer businesses, we had Willie Hicks, who has been in the business for quite a while and is still here.

And we had some who have just built a lot of reputation and a reputation that is focused on building up their community.

And so Thumbprint Realty, we had them in the room, and we allow the space for businesses to learn from businesses who have done work with the city, but also who have survived and thrived in this city as well.

That being said, we also have a part of our team that focuses on engaging and empowering our departments.

And with all the experience that they have, I appreciate that we've been able to build more relationships with them and to make sure that they know of the different options that are available to them to be able to procure and to engage with diverse suppliers.

One of the ways that we do that is through training.

And in this past year, we had our program monitors for the first time host a training for the inclusive quote contract, and that was an event that had about 70 plus people from the city, people who are doing procurements on the day-to-day.

We were able to walk them through this opportunity that we provide for them to have another option and an easier option, perhaps, to engage with suppliers.

A sign of what's to come because I would like to see our program monitors, the people who engage with departments to have greater access to just the whole procurement process.

So over the last year, we've been working on making sure they're engaged at the drafting phase before things are out and about, so that we are not just letting them know who's in the market, but we're also looking at the RFPs and I and the IFPs that are coming out and looking at it through the supply diversity lens as well.

And they've been very welcoming with that.

And the beautiful thing about this program is that while it was funded through ARPA funds, we had five million dollars or so that we used to hold up this program, and we worked with the CDFI BDC community development to work with them, and we worked with technical assistance providers.

This was a program where we provided technical assistance that was industry specific to business owners who were emerging and established, and we also provided money as well, and we gave them the wisdom on how they can use that money to build capacity wisely for their businesses.

The reason I'm proud of this program is because in many ways we can see this as a pilot for how we can use our general funds to help businesses and cultivate them.

This program is an example of what it looks like when the city is able to intentionally focus on our emerging businesses and get them into a place where they can have a fruitful relationship with the city.

And that represents 84 million.

And of that, we also had 11.6% of our discretionary spend, the spend on contracts that have already been awarded and executed and are underway in the city, and that represents 72.5 million.

And I'll say that's a good far cry from the 2% that we had years ago.

And so thank you.

Okay.

Uh is that wrap it up?

Okay, well, thank you very much for that.

We're gonna go to questions from my colleagues, Councillor Flynn, you're first.

I'm gonna uh we'll do six minutes for a first round, Mr.

Chair.

Can um Reverend Cole Pepper take my spot?

Sure.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I want to try and run to a funeral.

No problem.

Just go ahead.

Thank you.

So you mentioned there were two percent.

And good to see all of you this morning.

Good to see you as well.

I see my good friend Samuel Tato.

Could have been the city council, he could be sitting right here.

Just a few more votes.

But good to see him.

Good to see uh former Chief Idaw here this morning, taking notes.

Good to see all of you.

And uh time I see Sammy, I go the other direction.

Uh but really good that he's with the team, and uh I know he's making a difference and he would have had he become the city council, and so I'm so grateful to have him.

Yeah, he's doing great work.

Well, well, let me ask you a couple of questions.

I've got three areas I want to focus on supplier diversity, I want to focus on black male advancement, and I want to focus a little bit on the reparations task force.

And so the budget is decreasing by $350,000 for the reparation task force, but I'm trying to understand what's meant by the conclusion by the conclusion of the reparations task force.

Does this mean that the city has ended it once that's once that report will be published?

And with that cut, how much more where's the additional funding coming from that will support the reparations task force?

Good morning, counselor, and thank you.

Um I'm gonna have to get back to you with some more details on on the reparations task force.

As I'm not as versed, uh and that could be, but I've got to do that.

I think that's more questions for you, so I'll just submit the additional questions through the chair.

Um, let me just ask you this, but it's not terminating, is it?

Not that I know of with the funding decrease, it's not terminating.

And I want you to tell me how much funding will be there to support the additional work that the task force will be doing because it's they're issuing a report, then there's the implementation phase of the report.

I just want to make sure that it's not ending, that there's a commitment to keep the task force moving forward based on the report that we expect them to issue.

All right, I'll get back to you on that, counselor.

Thank you.

Okay.

Let me move to uh the Office of Black Male Advancement, because that's one of the things I've really been pressing in this budget, and I see that Councillor Cole Pepper.

I also want to add it that I believe that question perhaps might be better asked with um equity and inclusion cabinet as well.

That's what I'm doing.

Oh, we're economic opportunity and inclusion.

But the information and the money comes with the task force still comes under equity and inclusion.

Under that budget.

Yeah.

I was talking about the decrease.

I was talking about whether the reparations task force continues.

I'll find all that out.

Yeah, it all comes under there.

Well, let me just uh Andrew had a few questions for you.

Thank you.

Um so you mentioned that there was 15 million dollars put aside on 3.2 million was spent.

Was that on MPWEs?

Yes, and 115 was were spent.

Discretionary spent no spent.

Okay, so contracts that are already executed and the city is using them and spending them.

Um we had 115 or so.

What was the 3.2 million that you made?

That was um for the IQCs, the value of the IQCs that we had.

And so the budget, your budget is decreasing by 11 percent.

I'm talking about the supply diversity budget, decreasing by 11.

11.2 percent, yes.

How will that impact the goals that you have and the goals that you've set aside with regard to MB MWB participation?

Well, as I said, I have a mighty team, and so we have been very resourceful, we've been very flexible, and with the experience knowledge that we have, the relationships that we have with departments as well as relationships that we're building with business support organizations.

Uh I don't see that we would have a break in the quality of service that we'll be able to provide.

And you talked about a diversity study for Somerville?

Yes, the disparity study.

Disparity, I'm sorry, disparity.

What about one for the city of Boston?

Do we have one or do we have one planned?

Well, we are working internally uh and preparing an RFP for that.

Um but of course, you know, there are bigger decisions that we also have to put that in the context of.

But yes, we are RFP for a disparity study.

Yes.

And when can we expect that to be issued?

I would say I have to have more internal discussions to be able to give you a response to that.

Can you get back to me?

Um as soon as yes, as soon as we've made a decision, yes.

And the 12% of the discretionary spending, that was part of the 115 million dollars.

Well, let me ask another question.

So you said there was two percent, and we're now up to 12 percent.

What's the goal for MDW contract?

What's the goal?

The goal's not the 12 percent, right?

What's the goal for the office?

Well, I mean, as a city, our aspirational goal is 25 percent.

Okay, and we and it's 11.6.

Well, about 12 percent, but yes, 11.6 with discretionary scan.

That was for Q1 and Q2.

Okay, Councillor Culpeper, because you're I assume you're not gonna be here for a second round if you have another question.

Yeah, can I have two more?

Just wanted to talk about the blackmail um the BMA equity study that was taking place, and we noted in there that uh they had a $51,000 cut that was pretty much based on the community empowerment grant funding.

There's well, let me well I'm telling you, there's a 23.7% cut, 51%.

Um counselor, so hold on, hold on.

Let me finish and then I'll get to you.

That was part of the community empowerment grant funding, right?

Did that grant and would will that program continue or will it where's the money gonna come from to continue that grant?

So our our cabinet is economic opportunity and inclusion.

That grant is under economic.

No, that grant is under uh equity and inclusion, and so black uh black male advancement doesn't fall under our jurisdiction.

I thought it fell under the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion.

No, no, counselor.

That's what I'm looking at right here.

I'm looking at the budget, I'm looking at the 2.2 million dollar cuts.

I'm looking at the BMA study.

Well, let me ask you this.

They did a study, right?

The BMA equity study and fiscal 26.

Are you familiar with the study?

Counselor Culpepper, I think I mean this this happens to everyone uh who comes through here, uh, Office of you know fair housing, Office of Housing Stability.

I mean, they're just so we we will have uh uh the Office of Black Mail Advancement before us and and we'll be able to go.

Separately, yes.

Okay.

I was trying to get to who they came under, not actually and I know we'll get to them, but I was trying to get to where the funding comes through.

The funding comes through the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion.

That's where they're saying no.

So I'm it comes to the next one.

No, thanks to you, Council Cold.

I'm gonna defer to the panelists on on that answer.

But uh we can do we can certainly if if there's some there's some questions that the panelists should be answering, and they're not will we we can talk about this offline with our uh your your office, sure.

With with regard to the main streets program, you talked about the different activities.

You didn't mention anything about the Nubian Square, the main Roxbury Main Street focusing on Nubian Square.

What's the plan for the Rosbury Main Street as it relates to Nubian Square?

There's no changes um in a no, but what's the plan?

What's the plan?

So we're focused.

We've been uh uh one of the the departments that have been in Nubian the whole time.

We we we've just been there, Council.

Yeah, I just want I know it's good being there, but what's the plan?

And that's a just when you can provide to me, because I want to see some kind of plan for Nubian Square because if you don't have a plan, then you're just there.

I mean, how will it grow without a plan?

Everything needs to plan.

And I know that you guys had a meeting, right?

With some of the businesses from New Bean Square recently.

We just had a neighborhood walk yesterday in the case.

Now I'm not talking about that meeting.

I'm talking about a meeting with the mayor and some of the businesses from Nubia Square.

So we had a meeting uh with regards to a Nubian Square Task Force.

Is that what you're referring to?

Well, that's part of the plan.

Yeah.

What's the plan for the task force?

Well, there's a there are two parts uh to a degree.

There's uh a more operational side of what we're looking at.

So the issues with you know um public round public safety, that's gonna be addressed, but the task force is going to be uh tasked with doing uh more specific public-private partnership work.

Can you just let yeah when can you let me know the plan when you put the plan together?

And my final question is.

Just before you say this.

So the Office of Equity and Inclusion is coming before us May 12th.

Under the Equity Inclusion Office is the Office of Black Male Advancement, Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Fair Housing and Equity, Human Rights Commission, uh, LGBTQ, IA2S Plus Advancement, Office for Im Immigrant Advancement, Office of Equity, Office of Language and Communication Access, and Women's Advancement.

So May 12th.

I'll say those questions.

I did have one final question with regard to the technical assistance, and you talked about the five technical assistance providers.

Right?

Uh and with the five technical assistance providers, we know the final touch had some issues, they were in trouble.

But I think we worked that through, right?

Can we uh can you assure me that those five technical assistant providers will now be working with final touch to help them work through with some of those issues that they're facing?

Final touch has received technical assistance.

Uh, no, no, no.

Just will you I mean and I think it's great, but they probably need more technical assistance.

I just want to make sure that they're gonna get it because you have these five technical assistants.

Right, but we've we've we've always provided technical assistance, right?

And and we had provided technical assistance recently with uh trying to get them to look at an online option versus a brick and mortar.

So we have been president working with uh final touch, and we will continue to do that.

That's going to even if they don't want to do it online or whatever, they want to stay where they're gonna be able to do that.

Thank you, Councillor Cop.

I'd like to give uh the other colleagues a chance.

Okay.

So Councillor Flynn, uh six minutes.

And thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you to the administration team that is here.

Um Donald, a couple questions.

I know we spent your team spent uh time talking about the business strategy unit, Office of Nightlight Economy, but those two those two directors or or chiefs of that particular um department is not here.

Is that is that accurate?

Right.

We do have uh um Aaliyah for our um business strategy unit.

Um Kareem Reynolds is not present today.

Okay, I thought I saw her earlier.

You might have.

Some of some of my questions are about the um nightlight economy.

I'll be glad to uh give it a shot.

Okay.

How are we doing with that nightlight economy in terms of have we consistently provided the critical training to restaurants and bars on uh spike drinking since that office was um stood up?

Yeah, so there's been quite a quite a bit of work more more recently.

Uh no, no, I'm no b at the beginning when it was stood up.

So engagement started a long time ago, at least um when Corinne got out, and what she started doing was meeting with groups.

We formed a uh uh a committee, um, and then she started going out and seeing what what people were saying, identifying that folks uh in the latter hours, meeting that third shift group were looking for food options and things of that nature, so she's worked diligently on that.

She's working uh with the licensed premise unit now on those specific interactions with bringing training on the restaurants and businesses like that, but that's a function that folks have to opt into, and so for businesses are interested in any relative training like that, the licensed premise unit will come out uh and and work with them on various aspects of training, IDs, uh drink spiking, et cetera.

So that's that's always been ongoing, that training at restaurants since she started.

But there's also what she started was an option for folks to do sort of at their own pace, the online option where the the actual vendor, the restaurant tour themselves would log in, have their team or staff take that online training themselves.

So it's not something that we were directly overseeing.

We made the the opportunity happen.

I try to get that information from your department to a 17F Are you familiar with that?

For 17F?

Yeah, it's basically a request for information from the City Council on a particular subject, but I requested that information several times.

I'll check with my comms team, but we'll get you any uh answers you need there, Counselor.

Okay, but you don't you don't recall receiving anything about that?

I received something initially.

Uh I think after our first our our hearing um forget what month it was, but yeah, we'll get you some answers, counselor.

But I think um, you know, to be able to be clear.

When when would I be able to get that?

Soon.

But what I would say, counselor, and and to be clear.

The the the actual training was an online training, right?

That that businesses had to opt into what we did was set that up.

Okay.

Donald, that's what that's what I'm looking for.

Can I get that information sent to me?

It's it's an on, it's not on a city portal or something to that effect.

It's an online training.

I will get what information I can for you, Counselor, of course.

Okay.

Donald, um I listened closely.

I maybe I I didn't hear it, but was the word your your department also does outreach to um disabled veterans to veterans.

Oh, counselor.

Um I I didn't hear that word mentioned during the presentation.

Was there any reason why that wasn't mentioned in in the only reason I say it is the City of Boston Veterans Department budget is being cut 14 percent.

Um so that's that's a concern to me, but I don't know if if that also means we're getting away from um programs supporting veterans.

We're we're not getting away from that, and and at least you can speak to that as well.

And counselor, I'm a veteran, so I'm always gonna look out uh for for veterans in that way, and that was something that I started very early on when I got into this role.

No, I know, but I I also have to make sure, Donald, that um I'm advocating for veterans um businesses, and uh how many grants have we given out to um veteran-owned companies?

So uh counselor, I don't have that information readily available.

What I can say is that we have an internal working group called Bat Boss Network, where we're working with city departments from underrepresented groups, where we're meeting with them, especially as we are facing budget cuts to to partner and make sure that we're supporting their businesses from from that respected group.

So we're meeting with the um opera office of we're we're meeting with the with veterans, we're meeting with um immigrant advancement, we're meeting with women advancement, we're weak with all those groups to ensure that there's a lot of collaboration and work together.

Could I get a list of um for the last four years or five years a list of all uh companies that received veteran-owned companies that received a grant from your office?

Sure.

Note of that.

Thank you.

Um Hasbro moved to Boston, uh, located to Boston, I should say, uh, they received some state tax breaks.

Was there any tax breaks from the City of Boston to Hasbro or and or what did Boston actually do to encourage Hasbro to come to Boston?

Councilor, our office um uh on the business attraction side does a lot of interactions with businesses that have interest in and uh you know coming to Boston.

Yeah, we connect them to uh say the downtown business alliance uh developing groups uh uh at the seaport, et cetera.

But I have a Leah uh for us here that I can kind of speak to, but we did sort of typical due diligence and and uh an assistant.

Okay.

Did we offer them any tax breaks?

Uh we don't do that as a practice at all, because we don't have them, but I would say no.

Okay.

Well, some some companies previously have received.

I I can't speak to what other companies have received, counselor.

No, I I understand.

I'm just asking, was has did Hasbro receive any?

Not to my knowledge, Counselor, and it's not something that we've we've discussed.

Okay.

Okay.

Counselor Flynn.

Thank you.

Counselor Murphy.

Um will Chair the Office of Night Life and Economy be before us?

Councilor Webber?

I'm sorry, can you say that again?

Will the Office of Night Life and Economy be with us at a different year?

She's part of the Office of Economics.

No, I know that.

Like so, will she be at will that department or business strategy unit be at this hearing, or are you able to help us?

We're represented here, and so we can speak to both.

Okay, we do have tourism this afternoon.

But it doesn't fall under that.

So it's fine.

I'll just reset your time.

No, it's fine.

Thank you.

Um first, just kind of overarching, and it seems to have happened to every department across the city.

When you look at the 2025 budget for departments in 2026, a lot of them had a big bump for lots of reasons, lots of it opera funding and just the way we were spending, and then now we're seeing um a decrease, so things are having to be cut and programs that were maybe going well or having grants that could support small businesses are now gone.

And the department um you know, a hundred and sixty percent increase for um the supply diversity, it seems, but on page one eighty-one, it shows that the increase for filming alone, like went up like a a lot of money.

Can you describe like why we're spending more money on filming for tourism?

Okay, tourism.

We're coming in in in the afternoon with tourism, counselor.

Can you then speak to what the cuts because I am hearing from either small businesses who have received support or grants from the city or ones who were hoping to receive ones that they have seen other businesses be successful with that just aren't going to be there anymore?

If you could speak to the plan to continue the support, I know you said like you know, and I believe that you have you know hard workers who want to do the best, but at the end of the day, if we're working with you know, going from a hundred and sixty percent increase in many of the departments to now having to make cuts, like things are going to have to fall somewhere.

So if you could speak to what we're doing to keep the businesses supported.

Is is to continue programming.

Yes, things uh are gonna be a bit uh scale-backed uh in that regard, but there's still importance around the work that we do.

I think we'll be uh strategizing to do it in in new and unique ways, uh, reaching out to our partners uh out there as well and uh those BSO organizations, but um our work is gonna continue.

At least you noticed so follow up what counselor Flynn had asked about the Office of Night Life.

We did have a hearing, it was I believe the beginning of March, because I know um it was before the evacuation day grade, and it was about spiking and just the you know the work that that office does, and from that hearing questions, you know, RFIs were put on the record, and then I had submitted with Councilor Flynn a 17F back on March 18th.

I re-filed it, but only because it's been 43 days and we have seven days to get answers.

And I know the list may look long, even though none none of it though needs to be like data like research, it's just questions like um because many of the speakers did talk about public records requests that they had asked for, so just the status of public records request, um a description of all initiatives that the office is doing, copies of the meeting agendas where they talked with small businesses, you know, communication that was happening between the cities and the bars, but I do just want to add focus on three of the outstanding questions.

How many training sessions were conducted by the city under that office since August 2022 related to spike drinks?

And what were the dates, locations, and like what trainers and what support and the number of attendees, like how many bars or businesses attended it?

Do we have those answers?

So I guess.

And also we had asked, and she said it would be easy to get like what what training materials are given.

I know she had brought a role of like the stickers, and she had showed up at that meeting later in the community um before the parade where they meet with the bars and um liquor stores the night before to just let them know about the changes to their um licensing, they have to close early and all.

But she had those stickers that I've never seen them before that were being used, I guess.

If people want them, I've never seen anyone use them, but also just the materials and presentation.

So do we have those answers?

So I I can I can speak at a high level to a number of those things there.

Um what I will say is as of the 19th of March this this year, and you you you I think you were at the event the night before.

Um, roughly about 10,000 drink covers uh were issued uh to about 37 uh nightlife establishments.

What I will talk about is is most recent.

That just means that roles were left.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

But it doesn't even be used.

Counselor, let me let me finish about the whole entire interaction.

Yeah.

Because those engagements, and I'm gonna speak to some of the recent ones.

There were three that were done recently, Southeast Seaport and the Theater District.

This was a combination of the Office of Nightlife Economy with the licensed premise unit.

That's an engagement, that's an opportunity for folks to come together.

You can interact with businesses.

The seaport and what was the city.

South V to C port and the theater district.

What came out of that that interaction with those those business owners was one excitement.

Some were, oh, this is great.

One even made reference to not liking the uh the adhesive on on on the uh plat on the uh cover because it left um residue on their glasses when they had to be clean.

But this is an opportunity for us when we meet with them, is for them to get to know our licensed premise unit and also know our office of nightlife, but they now have a conduit in the city that they can reach out to, not when they're just issues, but what they can do is reach out when they have questions around safety, things that are happening in and around with their staff.

So this is an actual ideal conversation.

We're gonna talk a bit about this in the afternoon because it comes from our licensing and our Office of Nightlife Economy working together.

Can I just ask um through the chair to Council of Planner?

I guess I could do it that way.

Were you aware that there were these meetings in your district?

Um no, I was I was not, I was not invited to them.

I I do know the nightlight manager was here a few minutes ago at the start of the meeting.

Was that was the nightlight manager here?

I saw, yeah.

Yeah, do you know if she's able to come back to answer some basic questions because she was here 15 minutes ago.

Right.

And I think she might not be feeling well, so I can find out.

Um I would like as an at-large counselor also, like covering all the if we could be shared with those, because it would be helpful because I hear directly from you know the not just the um you know young women mostly who want these supports, but also the bars, restaurants, and liquor stores.

So if there are trainings, I I would love to at least go to some of them to see exactly what information we're pushing out to be supportive of that.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Of course.

Thank you, Chairman.

Okay, thank you, Counselor Murphy.

Counselor Louis Jen?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you uh to the economic opportunity and inclusion cabinet for being here and for all the work that you do on behalf of our residents, um, interim chief.

Uh right, I just want to thank you for the work that you've been doing.

Um, and I know we have our former chief here for years uh when it comes to businesses, either in Manipan Square or in Nubian Square, um, especially uh conversations that I've been having with your office around Final Touch for years.

Want to thank Councilor Culpeper for his um advocacy.

Uh, and so want to make sure that we, as we talked about at the beginning of this hearing, that we continue to support that business and uh a number of businesses um in Nubian Square.

Hopefully, I know that you we've been waiting, and I was very proud to be the city counselor that got the liquor license for Jazzer Bain that is going to be opening soon in Nubian Square.

That will hopefully help to anchor, and we know that there are other exciting business opportunities that are coming to the square, but just wanted to, you know, we it's in the news that there are there are a lot of black owned businesses that are struggling, a few of them located in Nubian Square, and that we just do need to make sure that we have a plan and a vision for what the future will be, um, so that a lot of the businesses that Haley House will be reopening uh very soon so that those businesses there can be successful.

Um and Alicia Percenta, thank you uh for all the work that you do for our small businesses and into this entire panel.

I and Andrea, I appreciated the shout-out that you gave to my former staffer, Susnell for how much she focuses on in your office on language access.

She cares deeply about equity and uh deeply about uh supplier diversity, and it was it was heartening to hear that shout out to Sisnell.

Um I like to hope that we help to train her well.

So, okay.

Um the economic opportunity and inclusion cabinet has an overall budget cut of 2.6 million dollars that affects all four offices in the cabinet.

One office is taking the vast majority of those cuts, and that's the Office of Economic Uh Opportunity Inclusion and seeing a 2.2 million dollar cut.

The budget book lays out how those cuts are achieved.

Uh the primary uh it's primarily driven by the legacy business program reduction and financial support.

Um, and we know that there's going to be continued investment in support for local businesses through initiatives like the main streets program.

Um you're also losing two FTE positions in the Office of EOI and one in supplier diversity.

So I'd like to hear a bit about how the loss of those positions are going to affect your work.

Um but my first question is one on communication.

Uh your presentation highlights a wide range of grant and support programs from the Small Business Month activation grants to technical assistance and neighborhood-based funding, uh, many of which have reached dozens of organizations and businesses, and I've been uh proud to be at a number of ribbon cuttings and events and support.

Um, and we know that the budget this year includes reductions um and shifting of resources.

How are we planning to communicate with past grant recipients about potential changes, reductions, or discontinuations in funding?

And what guidance are you providing them about future grant opportunities, whether with the city or not, so that they can plan accordingly.

Thank you, counselor, and thank you for your support.

So our our funding is not only operating funding, we also get federal funding from community development block grants.

And so uh we are excited to continue to provide a lot of our programming through that um funding stream.

And in terms of communication, I think it's really important for us to uh continue to communicate what kind of what is happening and provide information about what resources are out there and what will come up where work Boston itself has a very strong business support ecosystem, so we're working with partners to be collaborative, to be creative and think about how we can support businesses through this period of time.

Yeah, like I think that's a great um idea.

Like, you know, we did a you know private uh public partnership where basically uh in the immigration space where philanthropy really is uh stepping up more to help in that space.

I'm wondering like is it the uh center for with the one that Steve Grossman runs for competitive inner city businesses?

Like, what are those organizations that we can lean on more to help us in this time of a budget crunch, either with primarily with financial resources?

Like is it the philanthropic community or the other ways to get more money to support these businesses that are in need of assistance?

I mean, I think we're gonna exhaust all options, of course, to support our small businesses.

We have our strategic initiatives.

Um manager Lindsay Sweat has been working diligently to bring all the business serving organizations together, and so we we intend to convene them in the in the next couple of months to really make sure we're addressing the needs and filling gaps, and we'll be happy to invite you to that opportunity as well.

Thank you.

I will say that when this budget was rolled out and I was and knew that it was going to be a difficult year.

This is one of the office where I was I was actually really disappointed to see the depths of the cuts.

Um, you know, we have power as a council when it comes to you know seeing where we can amend the budget in certain areas.

I'm curious to hear from all of you what you think if there's an ability to you know either save a program or or save a um uh position, right?

If we're making sure that we are supporting our black and brown businesses, focusing on supply diversity, suppose um uh our small neighborhood businesses, what programs or what um FTEs or positions would you think that is worthy of the council considering for investment.

Um I know that the space grant is a has been a beloved program, a lot of that uh sponsored via ARPA, uh, I know the legacy business program.

So would you know I know that I because of the work of the supply supply diversity office that that's important.

So just wanting to hear from you, sort of if there was an ability to restore or to already have where what would you do?

And then I will save I have I have other questions I will say for my second round.

And I'd like to actually hear from all of you.

Yeah.

Counselor.

Hi, Director Barros.

I didn't direct any questions to you, but also thank you for being with us.

Counselor, if I if I could say this, um I would say every program.

That's not a great answer for me that has been a good idea.

I don't know, but I I say it for this reason.

The way in which we uh got those federal dollars was due to a once-in-a-lifetime um catastrophe, however you want to call it.

What we did was take advantage of that opportunity to support our small business ecosystem that was historically left out uh of a lot.

We were able to maintain not just uh small business, we were able to maintain not just our department, but also some other departments in the city, housing doing some of the work that they do.

We understood that there was importance in this work.

We got to show that the richness and vibrancy of our small business ecosystem by providing these resources.

We knew that this was going to end basically uh uh the December of this year, so to speak.

But understanding that now we have businesses that are in better positions than they were prior to.

There we are businesses now that have the ability to scale, um, sure, with a little bit of our technical assistance, but those that have gone through some of those programs often to the races, and so yes, there's a need, and unfortunately, I can't control uh the our uh fiscal conditions right now, but what we can do is continue to work with those businesses in the same way that we have in the past.

We're still gonna do uh office hours, we're still going going to do TA, we're still gonna reach out to our BSO partners, but it's just gonna be a little harder, right?

Our work's not gonna stop.

It's gonna be a I I would even say from a reference, more on the ground.

I think there's engagement that we can do with our small businesses that go a little further, the same way with our suppliers.

I mean, I I just think this is now going to be a time where our communication is really gonna be face to face, and we're gonna talk through some of the real challenges, but we're going to have to do that work a bit a bit more diligently, though.

Thank you.

I'll save the rest of my questions for second round.

Thank you.

Oh, actually, it did ask if they could all respond.

So yes, you did.

I just wanted to speak to the FTEs.

Um, so one of the um one of our employees is the global affairs position, which was moved to IGR.

So that explains one FTE.

And then the other position was a senior design manager, which is in small business.

It was a reclassification to create two positions.

So we technically didn't lose it.

The old position, the old position is gone, but there are now two senior design managers focusing on the restore project.

And then this lovely two percent is uh 20% operating funding for a former CDBG um funded position.

So I just wanted to provide that context.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh Mr.

Chair.

Counselor Jerkin, uh, you're you're up.

Thank you so much, Chair Weber.

Um, I first I just want to thank your team for all that you do.

And now um that I'm here, I I would be remiss if I didn't have the opportunity to congratulate Elisa Forsena on getting BBJ 40 under 40.

I'm also on the list, so it gives me a chance to say that I'm also on the list.

But um, but I can't wait to be with you and can't wait to celebrate with you.

Um, your your department is doing incredible work.

I see our former chief uh sitting behind me.

Um there has been a huge legacy of leadership here.

I think you can see from the um procurement numbers, the city is moving in a great direction.

Um idea that is is just such a low-hanging fruit, it feels, and I know that there's a lot of work to be done, and a lot of work that's already been done on this, but I was curious.

Um, when I look at sort of the broader um expenses in the city budget um and basic city service contracts.

Um I I was curious if the city has thought about piloting an incubator fund um to increase competition and um diversity among um the those that apply.

What we find a lot of times um in city contracts is there's not a lot of competition because essentially there's only certain companies that can fit you know the scale and the need of what the city is able to do.

So I'm curious, just sort of how are we increasing, and I I've heard a lot of great stories out of other cities where you know a company was created to do a small thing and then grew into this sort of, you know, and I and I feel like the only way to probably get sort of even even bigger gains in terms of supplier diversity is for us to incubate those companies, and I know there's a lot of work being done, so I'm just curious how we're doing that and how we can work build on that.

Um I I think our scale pro program is would would be considered a reflection of that.

I'll I'll turn this over to Andrea.

But we understood uh the importance, and I'll give you uh an example of such.

There were three uh scale recipients.

Um I'd like to say all three, we met some time ago when we had an executive order.

We talked about uh companies having the ability to scale up, but we didn't have a system by which they could receive the that training or TA.

Um of the businesses uh is a roxbury-based business that I happened to meet on the street one day.

Um they said that there was no way that they could get a city contract.

I said I I'll I'll bet you you can get a city contract if you do X, right?

And it was more like let's dispel this myth, let you respond to a bid or a contract opportunity so that you can go through the exercise.

A and them home services was this business that I always use as an example because I stopped them on the street.

They had trucks, they had equipment.

They came in, they started doing work with the mayor's office of housing, they then started doing work uh for I want to say parks, streets or what have you.

They were issued a contract to do uh the cleanup of Melania Cas.

That's an example of finding a local minority owned business that had the ability to do the work and be successful.

There's another one, Nicola Um Construction, who also part participated in scale, was a general contractor that decided that they wanted to be a builder and wanted to build in a city.

We had an opportunity, he'd build a number of homes for the uh uh mayor's office of housing, but he found himself in this place almost he couldn't get beyond it.

And so participated in scale, and now he's in a in a mindset where he looks at his business from a totally different lens.

And so that's been our sort of pseudo-incubator.

If you want to add to that, you don't have to.

Well, I actually well, first of all, thank you, Councilor Dirk, for that question.

Um, I actually was curious to hear a bit more of um how you would envision that fund being used.

Well, I guess I was kind of operating from the the opposite end where it's like I see the outgoing of like a lot of you know city funding to to at areas like trash removal, snow removal.

Um, and we often hear that there's not competition in the bidding for some of those services because there aren't there aren't companies that work at that scale.

So I guess my question at the root of it is how do we break certain contracts into smaller pieces so that there are opportunity for smaller incubator sized businesses to to really, you know, it's like for instance, like these trash districts are really big, these um snow removal areas are you know the contracts are really big.

Um I I imagine even in like BTD and streets cabinet, there's contracts around you know, sidewalk repair, and so it's like how do we right-size the scale of some of the contracts that were that we're putting out there to ensure that smaller you know businesses can apply, which I think which which I think would lead to more diversity and um you know, minority and women-owned businesses applying.

Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Um that is uh a wonderful question and also a great idea.

Umbundling contracts has been one of the premier suggestions when it comes to tools that you can use within procurement.

I would say that that would just take conversations with departments ahead of time, which is again why I'm focusing on having our program monitors more involved at the drafting stage and in the planning stage with departments.

Um I think one contract that comes to mind as a mattress collection contract.

Now, you know, the first contract um, of course, started before I was here, but what I recall um just learning about it was that we worked with the suppliers, and there were some that you know maybe needed some equipment or different things to get themselves ready for it.

And one in particular was NEMA, for instance.

And because we were able to help them with funding, uh, at least in terms of technical assistance and getting the equipment that they needed, um, they were prepared to be able to bid for that original contract.

And I believe with the last uh renewal uh or at least in last cycle of putting that contract back, they were actually able to continue on because the department was very pleased.

And so I think talking about it.

Just wanted to get one more thing on the record.

I think that um obviously I see the two million dollar cut to contractual services and that um cited in the budget overview book that we have.

Um it talks about most of this being legacy business awards.

I was curious um if the legacy business um awards could continue without grant funding, because I do think for the businesses in my district that have gotten these awards, um, some over 50-year-old businesses that have um served our communities.

Um it didn't the grant money wasn't the only reason that they were interested in it.

So I was just curious if that was something that you guys had thought about continuing on with the legacy business awards, but having either smaller grants or um or no grant money attached.

Okay with these thank you so much, Sharon.

Thank you, Councillor Durkin.

Councillor Braden.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

My colleague Council Louis Jeanne has already touched on some just the impact of the operating cuts in the operating budget.

Are there particular programs and services that are being reduced that are impacted most?

And we've already talked about some, like the notion about our legacy businesses, for example, but what what what positions and what programs are impacted the most mainly it has been the legacy business was the the biggest cut one million dollars?

Yeah, and that was you know really an instigated that was that's respawned out of out of COVID um ARPA money.

So it was like Christmas for a few years that we had some extra money to do some really exciting things.

Uh you mentioned uh when you in response to Councillor Louis Jeanne's question that the there was some vacant long-term vacant positions eliminated and and some uh personnel were moved to different departments.

Could you remind me again what what those were?

Um so the the FTEs, we had a shift from the global affairs position was shifted to IGR, and then a position with under Alicia's team was reclassified, and then we created two additional positions.

So now we have two um employees focusing on the restore program.

And then there was um another position that was 20% funded by operating, 80 by C D B G funding.

Um and that was the position that we lost.

So you know, I'm um I'm um we're gonna be talking about tourism this afternoon.

Um had questions about that, but in terms of uh the the global affairs position, um what what what was there?

What's that role?

Was it a global affairs position within your department that's moving over to IGR?

Or is that is it and and in terms of global, I'm assuming you're talking global, right?

Oh, really, really, legitimately global.

Because I think you know we have the World Cup coming, we have we're celebrating 250.

Um we are a historic city uh with a global sort of connection.

Um so will your department still be thinking and working or will that sort of be shifted over?

We'll still work closely with them.

Okay.

And then in terms of the contracted services, I think that's the big place where we seem to see the big a big cut.

Um can you talk about which particular contracted services we're we're cutting back on?

That's two two million two million over just over two million.

So, in addition to the legacy business um grant program, we had funding for a CRM software, which has been cut.

Um there was a one-time investment for storefront re revitalization grant, which I believe was um just one time for FY26, so we will not receive that funding again for FY27.

And then uh the last one, we do these small uh small business activation grants, they're mini grants, they're they're up to 9500.

And uh we actually Alicia presented on that, and we were able to give 130,000 dollars this year to activate the city um during small business month in May.

Um, so that was another program that was cut.

Yeah.

You know, the small businesses employ more people than the big big the big guys, so it's really important um to our community.

Um I was wondering, I have some other questions written down uh in terms of um the commercial acquisition assistance program.

Do we have we actually supported acquisition of commercial premises for any of these?

Yeah, an example of such, and I believe Andrew might be here, but an example of that um is Roundhead Brewery and uh in Hyde Park.

Okay.

Um what we were able to do, and I I I was thinking about this the other day, is as like many of us, they say uh when you acquire an asset, like many of us have purchased our home, we put everything in the in the in the buying the home.

And you know, we're in we might wait a month, two months, three months to buy furniture, things of that nature.

That was that was the example uh that we found at Roundhead.

Um that started well before uh we got uh cap announced, but it was an opportunity for us to come in and and to be able to fill a gap.

And and so it worked out really well and allow for us to look at a a broader model.

But um yeah, I was wondering if Andrew was here to speak a little bit more, but um I can get you a little bit more detailed.

That would be great.

You know, and and and also just thinking about um I know we got more licenses thanks to the advocacy of our colleagues, Consul Louis Jeanne and Constable Warel and folks worked really hard on that.

Um you know, the small um a lot of our small ethnically owned businesses and restaurants would love to get a wine and beer license, and I'm I like I'm coming from Alson Brighton, so we've already got a lot of licenses compared to others.

But we still have these communities where we have ethnically owned businesses um who really getting a beer and wine license is uh is a lifeline that's very hard to make it work, make the numbers work, especially if your rents are high.

So are are we any plans to expand the the beer?

So um, and we'll we'll talk about this a little bit more this afternoon when when licensing comes on board, but we're doing targeted outreach, um, and that's to uh neighborhoods that you know have not had them.

Um we're reaching out to businesses themselves.

Um we were she we were doing uh some work, and I I want to say it was uh Southeam, and it was a business uh across the street that had uh just beer and wine.

And I just went over, uh had a conversation with the owner.

He was doing a campaign online, you know, is uh uh patrons all wanted him to uh to get a a complete liquor.

So having those opportunities to really do that targeted outreach is what's what's going to be able to uh lead to some level of success.

Um I'm gonna try and get um I think this is maybe a question for this afternoon, just thinking about how we partner with the with the um mass convention center authority, and and I know we had a conversation when COVID hit about how we were going to be impacted economically by just everything shutting down, and the folks from the convention center were there saying really concerned.

And do we is that a conversation for this afternoon?

Yeah, we just uh yeah, we can talk about it this afternoon, but um we've been in conversation with the new executive director um and so excited about that.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

Um I'll be back this afternoon.

I don't know if I'll be here for a second run this morning, but thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you, Councilor Braden.

I just have a uh I I think my colleagues have asked a lot of the questions.

I mean, I you know, we're we're talking about two million coming out of contractual services.

Uh sounds like most of it is legacy business, uh, which I agree with.

Counselor Durkin, that I I hope that can continue because it's been a really I get a lot of enthusiasm for that in District Six, uh, that that program is um and uh you know, certainly how we can support small businesses.

So just my my only follow-up was uh we've talked about a commercial vacancy tax here, uh, and the first step in that is to help small businesses in the outlying neighborhoods uh and and sort of fill in those storefronts.

Um the first step in that was getting the data on the vacant storefronts, and I think we were talking about unveiling a uh a website that would detail where the vacancies are, and again, we're not talking about downtowns as a different uh issue.

But you know, talking about Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, Mattapan, where there are just some landlords who, for one reason or another, will keep spaces vacant for a really long time.

They're hoping Starbucks comes in or a bank or something where we just want to give those small businesses an opportunity.

So I don't know, is there an update on that database and how that's going.

I thank you, um, Councillor Weber.

Actually, with your advocacy, yesterday, the team did do a pilot of the vacancy um kind of tool, and and so we did a pilot of newbie, and so we're looking at the results there, and so because it's online, we're we're just really trying to do our due diligence to make sure uh that it looks good and it makes sense.

And so the first step was kind of we're piloting it in um a couple of different communities, and then we hope to really um fully pilot it out towards the end of the month.

And so happy to walk you through the steps that we've taken since we've met on kind of where we are at with the vacancy tool.

Okay, great.

Uh and I can add counselor, I was on that walk yesterday, and Lizzie Swept from uh Alicia's team was instrumental um in moving this forward.

What was a real success yesterday?

Uh was it gave us an opportunity one, yes, move utilizing the platform, but when you're on the ground and you have an opportunity to one engage with a business owner when they uh it's not inspectional services or it's not a code enforcement or something like that, you get to now exchange information, right?

We knew why we were in Nubian yesterday, and we got to share that.

We also had an opportunity to to find out a little bit more, handicap accessibility without having to go in.

So to uh to Alicia and her team's point, this platform is is definitely going to be game changing the way we do process in that way.

Okay, and then just before before we go to public testimony, and we've some uh I urge my colleagues to stick around.

Uh just um in terms of supplier diversity and those numbers, I mean, we're the goal is like roughly double, right?

What we're what we're doing.

I mean, what what is what what are like the like if you there's two things we can focus on doing, like what what is going to increase those numbers and help us get to the goal, like and I guess is there anything that we can help with in terms of the budget?

You know, if you if money wasn't an object, like how can we increase those numbers?

Well, that's a dangerous question.

Um for who I'm I'm not sure.

Uh uh, well, I I know things are tight, so I definitely would not um want us to get to the point of asking for more when I know other departments, of course, uh need it as well, and this is a fixed amount.

Um, but I will say that um, I mean, this is something I I ask and my colleagues ask most departments because we want to help you innovate.

We know it's a tight budget, we know you know, the the from your standpoint, the budget is perfect in every way.

But it you know, in terms of uh, you know, what are programs and maybe you may not you may be planting a seed that some counselor is gonna pick up next year or two years from now, and like, oh, I heard this great idea.

Uh, you know, what are some things we we can do?

And again, like just one or two.

Well, I would just say that I appreciate your question.

Um I I will say that in response to the fiscal environment that we are in, um, that I am still looking to see the city focused on construction procurement and making gains in that way.

And so part of doing that is collaborating, collaborating with other municipalities as well as collaborating with other business uh support organizations.

We have wonderful uh support organizations like work two, for instance, that provide good training and accessibility for diverse suppliers, and we have MOUs with Cambridge, for instance, and in doing so, um we've seen how we can pool our resources together to still provide good resources for the suppliers that are available.

Okay, well, thank you.

Okay, I'd like I'd like to go to public testimony.

I know uh we have been joined by state rep uh home Russell Holmes over there uh and and and his wife, very nice to see you.

Uh I don't know if you're if you're here to testify uh I hesitate to retire.

Okay, okay.

Oh wow.

Oh wow.

Yeah, okay.

Okay, uh yeah.

Well congratulations to you and and thanks for celebrating.

Is this this is what you you're saying?

We're gonna come for come to the hearing.

Okay, maybe we'll have to work on that.

Um, so so just we for public testimony.

Uh someone named Shagun from Hyde Park uh is up first.

Uh then Antonia Edwards, and then Aaron Aaron Ashley Bailey will be third.

So what's up, everybody?

Okay.

Someone someone said uh I must really miss this because uh here I am spending my free time.

So we only have three we have three people, so we're gonna do three minutes uh each.

So I will I will stick to that.

Well, um, first of all, it's really um refreshing to be on this side.

Um so uh but happy to be here, and I I just want to I really came to advocate um uh for some pieces related to the budget, but I also uh there are some questions that were asked that I want to um address as well.

Um, first, this is an incredible team, so I have been uh grateful to serve with them, but to also watch their work in the last couple months, so I just want to express my support again for the EOI team and the work that they're doing.

This is a revenue generating and revenue producing team.

Um, and so I want to, especially on the small business side, want to advocate that the million dollars that's been brought up a couple times on the um for the legacy businesses, in my opinion, I and whatever way we can should be restored.

Um, and the reason for that is that you know, as Alicia said, 19,000 businesses, these are taxpayers, um, and this money has been critical.

I mean, these are businesses that have been around for 10 or more years.

So the question has been asked several times about Hasbro.

Um, we were happy to not just welcome Hasbro here, but Lego, Eli Lilly, so many other companies.

Boston, um, when it comes to tax incentives, we don't have uh those tools except for 121A's or TIFFs, but that's only related to new construction.

So if Hasbro were building a new building, then there could have been that conversation, but they moved into an existing building.

See, we don't have that.

But when we talk to these companies, um, uh like Chris Cox at Hasbro and um uh uh I'm forgetting Lego now, but and and the others, um, what we did offer was you know, well, we'll be your liaison here in City Hall, but also like they want to move to Boston because Boston is the place to be.

Our neighborhoods are the vital anchors of this city's economy, and uh they're places that people want to live.

And so the the reason that their neighborhoods are places that folks want to live is because of our legacy businesses and the small businesses that are there, so I think that that funding should be restored.

I think that we should support supplier diversity with the disparity study.

The last time we did it was five years ago.

That's what's helped to build the baseline of all the work that we have been doing as a city.

It's why we were able to double the percentage of contracts to uh to women in minority businesses.

Um so I think that we need to make sure that we're supporting their work, not just the disparity study, but funding for staffing as well.

Um I won't be around for MoCal uh later on, but I think whatever we can do to support staffing there should be uh we should do as well.

Um, last thing I'll just say, you know, I want to give credit to Councillor Caletta Zapata because she's actually the counselor that uh brought up and and really leaned in on the spiking um in community, and I the reason I want to give her credit is because she actually worked with our office.

Um we had several meetings with her with Karen to talk about how to address issues like that, and I want to give credit to many of the counselors who are in this room and not in this room, who are doing what I think is the third leg of the stool of being a city counselor, not just holding hearings and writing letters and taking care of constituent services, but actually partnering uh with city departments to do the things that you think that we should be doing.

And so I want to give credit to her and of course uh celebrate what Corina's been doing.

Um last thing, uh well, I'll keep it there and just say that you know, team's doing a great job.

They've done a great job for downtown as well.

A lot of what you see happening downtown is because of the uh the the seeds that were planted between the city's uh EOI team, uh Mike Nichols and uh the DBA and others, and now we're we're bearing those fruits.

So again, I just want to give credit to the team and thanks uh for all your work, and thank you, counselors, for your support over the years.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh yes, as you can see, I if you're if you're a former chief, uh I'm not cutting you off.

And uh thank you very uh honestly thank you, uh Chief Chief Udo for all the hard work you put in for the city.

So uh good morning.

My name is Antonia Edwards.

I am a legacy resident of the city of Boston.

My family's been in Boston since 1940.

We've lived in the Dudley area for 50 years, and I am so disappointed and disheartening of the conditions in this community, and I've said it at every meeting in the community.

There is no other community in the city of Boston that is despaired, like the capacity that it is.

We are overran by the opioid crisis.

There's only four black businesses in New Bean Square, and they're all going under, and they're suffering from being pushed out.

We have Frugal Bookstore, which is a legacy um business.

We have the final touch, who I'm here to advocate for today as a specialty dress shop that I patronize, I patronize all of them.

We have black market, and we have OACE's blobber shop, who is the most legacy or um business in the city of the Dudley Square area, been there for 34 years, and has applied for the grant several times and been ignored.

I really love all the work that you guys have been doing.

I see that you guys get it done in other communities.

My community is the most dysfunctional, deserted, lack of quality of uh meeting in the city of Boston.

I just don't feel like I have to come when I come out of my house and I live right at Dudley Square, right at what the police station is, and I have to fight through the sidewalks with the opio crisis, defecation on the sidewalks, peeing on the sidewalk, navigating.

My mother can't even come outside.

And then the businesses that are in the New Bean Square area, which is final touch in the bowling building, is a treat for me.

That's where I get all my specialty outfits from.

I'm finding out that they're going out of business because the city won't help bail them out.

Black market is right down the street.

Nobody will bail them out.

So there's nothing in my community that reflects my my culture, but every other community feels corner, up in the corner, Mattapan, Rosendale, everybody has their culture represented, whether it be food, clothes, entertainment.

But my community has six banks and four liquor stores in the opioid crisis.

I want to take a hats off to Mignon Cold Pepper, who's listening.

I had um Councilman Flynn, Murphy, and Roosei has been listening to me more recently about what's going on.

This is serious.

Our community has absolutely nothing.

I don't understand how we have such a close proximity to downtown Boston.

All these unaffordable houses are being built.

For what?

There's no incentive for anybody to be in New Bean Square.

There's nothing there.

And so what is the game plan?

Like, I don't get it.

Like you build all these unaffordable houses, $5,400 for a unit.

Who are you trying to invite or entice to the community?

Because I don't feel like I should have to leave my community because of all these ill situations, and that nothing reflects in the community.

I don't feel like I should have to go to Brigham Circle to get a talent off or go to the supermarket.

Everybody else can go in their community and gather whatever they want.

So when you talk about economic inclusion, what are your plans for New Bean Square to keep the legacy residents in the and what about the legacy buildings?

That's own building businesses.

There's only five businesses and newbie and square that are black.

And again, that is approval bookstore, that is Final Touch, that is OACE's Bobby Shop and Black Market.

I like for you guys to focus more on that if you can't.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh Aaron Ashley Bailey.

And then uh we have one uh person signed up online.

Good afternoon, Councilor Weber and members of the city council.

My name is Aaron Ashley Bailey, and I'm the owner of Petchikan.

It's a boutique pet care company here in the Boston area.

I also serve as the president of my neighborhood association and I'm an active member of the local business community.

I appreciate the council's efforts to strengthen small business support and to better connect existing resources across the city.

From my perspective, Boston has made meaningful progress in expanding access to support, where I've seen challenges is not access but consistency and reliability and execution.

For example, in one instance, working with a city referred accountant, errors led to unexpected financial consequences and required significant time and resources to resolve at a critical moment for the business.

Experience like this uh highlight how gaps in execution can create real operational and financial risks for small businesses.

From a business owner's perspective, these systems don't feel separate.

They function as a single ecosystem.

When there are inconsistencies in delivery, whether across city programs or external partners, it reduces trusts and limits the impact of otherwise strong initiatives.

I would offer a few considerations to help ensure that these efforts deliver practical value for small businesses.

First, coordination will be critical.

Aligning new initiatives not only with city programs, but also with trusted access points like the Boston Public Libraries Entrepreneurship Resources at Copley could make the systems more cohesive and easier to navigate.

Second, it's important to ensure that support provided, whether through vendors or partnerships, is practical and implementation ready.

Small businesses are often operating with limited time and capacity, so engagements need to be clearly scoped and directly usable to be effective.

Third, I would encourage a focus on accountability and outcomes from the business perspective.

Tracting participation is important, but understanding whether businesses can actually use and benefit from the support they receive is equally critical.

Finally, as the city considers broader funding priorities, ensuring that financial investments are aligned with well-connored coordinated, reliable support systems could significantly improve outcomes for small businesses.

As Boston continues advancing initiatives like the Spark Act and investing in small business support, ensuring strong execution and coordination will be critical to translating these efforts into meaningful outcomes for businesses on the ground.

Overall, I think this is a strong direction.

Strengthening coordination, usability, and accountability at the execution level will be key to success.

So thank you for your time today, and I'd be happy to be a resource as this work, Ms Borry.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we've got one person online.

Hello.

Um, thank you for having me join you.

My name is Gregory Maynard, and I am the co-founder and executive director of the Boston Policy Institute.

There remain a number of unanswered questions from this panel that I hope the council addresses for the rest of the hearing.

Number one, this week, Boston Arts Review reported a letter was sent out by uh arts and culture chief Joseph Zeal Henry to pass grant recipients, detailing cuts to grant programs.

That letter appears to be far more detailed than what is in the budget book.

I think it's really important that EOI talk about if similar letters were sent out and what grants are being affected.

Number two, in September 2025, John Chesto published a column that provided a detailed timeline of Hasbro's move to Boston, which started with the conversation in 2018 with then economic development secretary Jay Ash, when Charlie Baker was still governor.

According to that column, the idea was rekindled and Hasbro's move accomplished by Governor Healy's economic development secretary Yvonne Howe.

In that column, there is no mention of any involvement by anyone from the City of Boston.

The sense that Boston didn't play a major role in having Hasbro move was reinforced by the you can't beat Boston initiative that was announced earlier this month.

One of the goals of that program is to quote serve as the central point of contact for businesses, considering growing in Boston.

This seems to imply that there is not a central point of contact right now.

Can city officials describe how City Hall's business outreach works now.

For example, which staff in City Hall worked with Hasbro or Lego.

And finally, um there's been a lot of discussion of the space grant.

And in her budget presentation, Mayor Wu said that thanks to the space grant, um formerly vacant space have been occupied, foot traffic increased, tax dollars were added, and jobs were created.

Can the city provide data to back up those those claims?

Has the city tracked, for instance, how much vacant space was rented out, or increases in foot traffic, or increases in sales tax or other local option taxes, and jobs, jobs created.

There hasn't been a ton of data about all of the ARPA spending, and this is a really good example of something that there should be more data.

Thank you so much and have a great day.

Okay, thank you.

Uh so we're gonna go to a second round of questions.

Uh we're gonna uh we're gonna go with four minutes.

Uh if you have you know um a third round, we'll we'll come back.

Okay, so Councillor Flynn.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and I just want to um correct the record during the uh downtown Boston.

I had to ensure that we provided a safe environment in the neighborhood for business, for tourists, for residents, for workers.

We had a lot of public safety challenges that I needed to address working with the Boston police with the district attorneys.

Um that took me a significant amount of time to um provide a safer environment.

So I just wanted to highlight the um the importance of providing a safe environment.

Um it's not just as simple as working with the downtown um business alliance.

Um we had significant sub public safety challenges that I that I addressed as the elected official from that area.

Umald you mentioned you you were going to see about the availability of the nightlife economy director was was that possible?

Uh I didn't reach out.

She's in a meeting on uh public safety.

She's in a public safety meeting.

Okay.

The what's the status of the um Main Street program and is there any ongoing investigation about any misappropriation of funds at anything relating to Main Street?

There's uh we are working with our main streets as as we do uh there was an issue.

Um our internal controls caught the issue.

We don't believe that there's any other issues that we need to be concerned with.

I mean, it was the fact that we had these in internal controls that caught the infractions that was identified through those controls.

Uh once once there were we saw a misappropriation of funds in was addressed immediately.

It was it was our staff member on our team that alerted, she was the one that found it.

She alerted her boss that then it went to legal.

So we we took steps.

Okay, so once once it happened, um it so it only happened for a short period of time then.

Uh I don't understand what you mean by time frame.

What I would say is like when when someone from your team saw that there was um something irregular about financial data um once that happened, it pretty they pretty much addressed it.

And then that was that was the end of it.

It wasn't a matter of it taking a year.

Okay, now that's that's good to know.

Um, wasn't there an audit about that issue?

Was Wolf and Company doing an audit?

I'd have to get back to you on that that specifically.

Would anyone there know about an audit being done by Wolf and Company?

Yes, uh, Councillor Wolf and Company didn't audit.

Is that public?

I I am not sure.

I'm I'm not I I don't have that information.

Counselor, let me find out and I can get back to you.

Okay.

Could I re could I respectfully request a copy of that audit?

Mr.

Chair?

Yep.

Yes.

Donald, if if if the audit is done, could I receive a copy of it?

I'll talk to legal, whatever process we have to go through.

Sure.

Okay.

But it's not, but it is it a public document or uh counselor, I'm not I'm not sure.

Okay.

Let me ask one one final question.

Um the grants, any the grants that were given out by your office to small businesses to help them, maybe it was during the pandemic, maybe it was after the pandemic, but to support them and some of the challenges they were facing or to improve their business climate.

Now that that funding is no longer there, does that mean we are cutting them loose and we're not supporting those businesses any longer?

No.

I mean it's it's our our work continues.

I I mean I said that earlier, Lisa's team is diligent.

We're in every neighborhood in the city.

Um because our funds have been cut, like every other in the city, essential city services are going to continue.

Our work, we find it to be an essential city service.

And our neighborhood business managers are going to be out there in our our communities, our internal staff, our programs, though cut.

Um we're still gonna provide technical assistance, we're still gonna be a point of contact for our small business ecosystem.

Okay.

None of that's going to change.

We may do a bit more to be fiscally in front of them, workshops, seminars, things of that nature, but nothing's gonna change.

Could I could I get a copy of all emails that went out letting grantees know that their funding has been eliminated or reduced?

Um is that is that something I can request, Mr.

Chair?

I thought we don't have any.

We don't have any code.

I I think yeah, yeah.

Got it, which you want to say.

Is that I think it would be a good idea.

Counselor, can you be a bit more specific about what grant programs?

Because yeah, any any grant program that um your department oversees that we're no longer funding those um those organizations.

Maybe it's a small business, maybe it's a nonprofit.

Um, but am I able to get a to get the emails or to get the list of those that receive funds that won't be getting those funds any longer?

But I but I do I do understand that an email did go out letting them know that they would not be getting funds again.

Is that accurate?

I'm not pervy to that email, counselor.

Um but what I can say is that any communication we have to grant teams, we let them know that it's a one-time funding, and then we assess funding every fiscal year.

And so as the new fiscal year is coming up, we'll share that information out with our partners.

But in terms of recruiting grants from year to year, we we we disclose to our grantees that this is kind of a one time and then we assess every year.

Mr.

Chair, may I receive that information?

Yes, I mean I I think you know if there's this legacy grant, you get it for one year.

That's it.

They're not gonna send out a letter at the end of the year saying you're not gonna get it next year.

But I understand if there are programs that were uh ongoing that they were cutting in the middle of the term.

Yeah.

So I think what they're saying is, and there may not be any uh from this from these offices things that are.

Yeah, more clarity on the grant program would be um, you know, we we run on the fiscal year, so the grant programs are all on the the fiscal year.

And so it's a one time we assess the business, we provide them services.

It's a one time if they need help continuing support, we assess again, we look to see if they need continuing support, but it's not um, you know, we we we work with businesses by project or by scope of work, um, and that's how we support them.

And and I yeah, I think it's for for everyone here, like you just and there may be no letters sent out like this because of what you're saying, but if there were any that you cut off in the middle, uh these are there was a two-year thing or you stopped payment on a grant that was given out, you know, last at the beginning of this fiscal year, we're supposed to run the entire one, and would you cut off?

But you're you're saying that there are none.

Okay, so there may there, I mean the answer might be uh nothing from from this this panel.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, thank you very much.

So uh Counselor Louie Jen.

Uh yeah, Councilor Murphy had to step out.

So you're up next.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chair, and thank you to this panel for doing a really great job answering questions um and repeating them.

I appreciate that.

Um I think I may have missed this, but the space grant specifically, is that going to be maintained, expanded, or is that reduced because of this great the space grant was one-time funding uh was through ARPA funding?

And it was only through ARPA, there was no operating dollars that supported the space grant.

Correct.

No okay, thank you.

Um we heard testimony about uh the legacy business program first so that I can understand as is because Councillor Durkin asked a question and we were sort of uh going back and forth about what actually important always, what are the facts, and then we can talk about disagreements from there.

But what are the facts is I think an important reminder uh for all of us.

So uh the facts is it true that um even though there's not funding for the legacy business program, there's an intention for the legacy business program to continue in terms of like marketing and or is that not so if someone could explain to me.

Yeah, right now, I mean, understanding that um the grant aspect of the program has been discontinued.

We're trying to look at uh a cost-effective way of still recognizing those businesses.

We understand the importance of those businesses in our small business ecosystem, and we also understand what those awards had done for them.

Um and unfortunately, because we no longer have the award doesn't mean that we don't care and feel the same way about those businesses.

How much are the award grants?

30.

30,000, given to how many businesses?

30.

30, okay.

What was what what I say is more important is it was the constituency, the patrons of those businesses were the ones that did all the work.

They went, they voted, they talked to their friends, they voted.

I mean, and so supporting that, we all we know the support our local businesses have in those communities.

And so seeing uh a program like this, we still have to acknowledge and lift up those businesses.

I'm still gonna go.

Um, and I just think it's important that way.

Anything that Alicia is.

Yeah, good.

Thank you, Counselor.

Um, I think you I have a additional questions, but let's say you know, because we're we're gonna have to be dealing with math and figuring out what's possible.

So we're saying the legacy program was at a million dollars.

If it is a program that this council is able to help restore funding to do you think that is a worthwhile endeavor.

Yeah, but uh you know, I I I say yes for a number of reasons, and and I I also you know understand the financial constraints of the city right now.

So just just being mindful of the other.

Yeah, I do too.

I do too.

But so thank you for that.

However, counselor, I'm I think my office is willing to work with you and obviously counselor Durking to see how we can uplift these businesses.

You know, we went through a public nomination process.

We still want to uh center businesses, that's all about the work that we do, and so if there's a way we can work together to figure that out, I'm would love to work with you on that.

Thank you.

And we also heard public testimony, is and we also had public testimony about some businesses again gonna uplift Nubian Square, um, who have been there.

I don't know if Frogo Frugal Bookstore has been a recipient of the legacy right, so that we continue to support and provide uh support for businesses like that.

Um can I add just uh to the food frugal book conversation?

And this is one exciting example.

Everyone knows the importance of frugal books.

I stopped by yesterday to have a conversation with them because I started a conversation of uh about a month or so when I got into this role.

Frugal books are one of the businesses that we're looking at right now to be a part of our uh commercial acquisition assistance program.

Yeah, we yeah, I remember that was great.

We're we're looking uh at them, excited about this opportunity.

Um, and uh yeah, I'm smiling because frugal books I've known for for many years not being a Bostonian, but just understand the importance of them being here.

So yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, and uh just before uh Councilor Durkin a commercial acquisition assistance program that is not being continued next year, am I right?

Uh we just yeah, we just funded it.

Okay, okay, okay.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, Councilor Jerkin, four minutes.

Thank you so much, Chair.

If you would come to our hearing, just kidding.

Um so yeah, I I'm excited.

I think that's thrilling that um the BRA or planning department or EDIC, however we cut it, um what is funding that this year?

It makes sense that the uh you know the economic development of our city would be funding more economic development.

Um I think with the legacy business awards, I just believe that 900,000 is not an insurmountable feat for private philanthropy to step in here.

I think I mean maybe it's you know, my former fundraiser brain, but I just can't see a world in which that's not a great opportunity for an external funder of this, you know, of the city and an external partner of the city.

So I will be calling Stephen Chan later to see, you know, I I really do I I really don't think this needs to be through operating dollars.

Um I feel like there is some solution here.

Um I just think it's meant so much to people in my district to have it's it's really not about the money for them, it's about the uh external validation of knowing that they're important to the city, and that um and you know, that their city counselor knows who they are, that they're the mayor knows who they are and knows that they're doing an amazing job, and they I mean I just think every time I've been to the awards and every time I've weighed in on uh the legacy businesses in my district, it's it means so much to them to get that recognition, and um so and I mean I'm still working on a couple that we have not been able to get through, uh and I just don't want to see this program end.

Um I know that I've you know been critical of um you know of of going through the budget process in a way that's you know, like we have to make cuts, but not here, you know, because we have you know, we have to live in the financial reality that we're in.

Um but I think for this program in particular, it's just such a great thing for you know, an external partner to like be part of, and so I I think we should all put our thinking caps on about that.

Um I know that we have um tourism and special events later.

I did just want to like, you know, just so I know what to ask in sort of this next hearing.

Like, is open streets completely under this department?

Yes, including open newbury.

Yes, no, we're not doing newbury.

Open newberry has not moved.

Okay.

Just wanted to get that for clarifying.

Um so um I'm grateful to this department for all the work that you're doing, and it is clear to me.

I I it I know the businesses that have benefited from your work because they're also talking to our office.

Um, I know every single legacy business that is, you know, and every single um space grant that has been granted in my district since I started because that's my job.

And um, so I don't need a list, I don't need a list from you guys.

I've been in deep conversation with these with these groups and with these businesses.

Um I also am not gonna let special interest groups write my questions for this hearing.

I think it's very apparent when that happens.

Um so I support this budget.

I know there are some tough decisions being made here.

I would like to keep the legacy business awards intact.

So I think that's gonna be my point of advocacy, but I think there's so many different ways to approach that.

And I think it's all about collaboration and partnership.

I think the former chief Idawoo has um you know it's all about partnership, it's all about actually coming to the table, and it's not about these hearings, it's about working with you day in and day out.

And I just want to thank um Emily for her work because she has been a real resource for our office, and um, and I think it's really important that we work together and that we partner and that um and I think anyone who's saying I I was at the Lego, you know, I'm sorry, I was at the Lego.

I mean, if you heard what these CEOs and these leaders said about our city and the work that the city is doing, um these are international leaders that came in um to launch their business.

They chose Boston because they love the work that we're doing in this city.

So anyone who wants to claim that our city and the way that we're running it has nothing to do with businesses moving here, is devoid of actual business conversations in which I'm very much a part of because I'm in you know, representing some of the economic most economically vibrant places in Boston.

So I want to say please pat yourselves on the back and don't let anybody get you down.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh just we can go for a quick third round here, but um so in terms of legacy business, if we if we did like a pared down version, um how many did do you do it by those council districts?

Like how do we make sure that there's enough to go around?

We're not gonna be able to do that.

Is it nine districts or would it be?

So we do it, we we we like to make sure that every neighborhood is represented when we think about legacy businesses.

We want to make sure that there's a range of industries in terms of and that the businesses are reflective of the community.

We want to make sure there's minority owned, we want to make sure there's woman-owned, we want to make sure there's immigrant owned, veteran-owned.

We want to make sure there's minority owned, we want to make sure there's woman owned, we want to make sure there's immigrant owned, veteran owned, those are all important in considerations.

Okay.

Um I mean, instead of maybe two or three every neighborhood, you know, if we did one in every neighborhood, uh, counselor, I know you've you've gone through the process that's very hard, I think, to do one for each neighborhood.

I'm trying to imagine I you know uh in the amendment process.

Um we can set up a program that still works and not just say, okay, you get two legacy businesses and then you have to you know choose between all the, you know, and then absolutely.

I think we also look try to look at um neighborhood and how big the neighborhood and try to make it relevant relevant to that as well.

Um but again we are very collaborative and so happy to kind of think through different ideas and options with you.

Okay, okay.

Well uh yeah, uh thank you.

Uh Counselor Flynn, um you have any we're gonna we're gonna go to two minutes uh if I can operate this thing correctly.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks.

Yeah, you're up.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I know one of my colleagues mentioned Boston as a strong climate for encouraging businesses to relocate here.

Um do you agree with that, Donald?

Yeah.

Not just relocate, um start, you know, build a headquarters here, start a business here.

We have a strong startup community here that we work with.

Does the and and you're probably the point of contact for potential businesses coming here?

Is that is that accurate?

For the sort of one of I'm one of the contacts.

Um are they concerned at all about taxes in Boston of a high tax rate or taxes in terms of um you know any type of issue, but is that does that have any impact at all?

Our conversations, and um I have our director of our business strategy unit, uh Aliah Forrest that's here.

Um, and I've been you know, in meetings, I've been on tours.

I mean, it's it's it's not as granular as as you think when it comes to our department.

We're conduit.

You know, we're connecting folks to state and federal resources, we're connecting folks to uh broader real estate uh uh opportunities and access.

We've been talking to folks in other you know surrounding neighborhoods, whether it be Cambridge, Somerville, folks who are looking, what we want to be is the conduit that they reach out to first because we have a system in place.

But you even though even though we there's the perception I should say that Boston or Massachusetts has a lot of taxes, that's not the reality.

They're they're coming here for the talent.

They're coming here for the meds.

I mean, so it's it's not the tax thing that that my office is engaged with.

It's just not so it's where do we where do we land?

You know, what what do our families lose?

To potential potential businesses ask about uh taxes as part of the due diligence, I'm sure that's something that you have to ask, but they don't necessarily ask us about it.

Okay, they already know at a municipal level what what resources we have.

We're we're clear about that.

I'll help you.

Thank you, Donald.

Um Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Councillor Flynn.

Counselor Louie Jim.

Thank you.

Thank you, and again, thank you to this panel for being here and for your work and answering our questions.

Um and thank you for all the work that you're doing to really um highlight how businesses want to come to Boston because of uh meds and eds and because of the talent that is unique, not to say that we have solved all the problems.

I you know, I will always talk about when I heard the had I don't have that much time, but we still have to solve our housing and transit issues, which are two of the biggest factors for placing businesses here.

Um your presentation highlights over 300, three 3100 hours of technical assistance, more than 100 projects and support across 15 plus neighborhoods.

Yet uh these are primarily inputs rather than outcomes.

Um we we talked about it as well that there are businesses that receive techno technical assistance and are still struggling.

What measurable results can we point to in terms of business survival, revenue growth, or wealth creation for businesses that receive technical assistance?

So thank you, counselor, for the question.

That's something that we continue to work on with our data and improving our um that the impact work and return on investment.

And so it's something that we we need to continue to work on.

And I hope it's something that we also have documented so that when folks we can say that this was the technical assistance, this is you know, whether it was internalized or not.

Um I also wanted to, you know, we've been talking about um the legacy business program, but we could also explore different models, right?

Of uh we have 30, there were 30 recipients receiving 30,000.

What would it look like to pair that down?

Um, not to 15, because I know I struggle every time with choosing just I don't know how many I get five or so, and that's not enough.

Right.

And so um, what are their different models that we could do?

Could it be a different amount?

Because I know that, for example, 10,000, 15,000 would still be helpful for a number of these businesses.

And so I think that's something for us to explore as a council, but I did like Counselor Durkin's idea of uh, you know, I'm not gonna give it to her because I also talked about it.

Um but the model of partnering with philanthropy and other like what businesses, so like maybe if we do have to scale down, right now it's not in the budget.

So either if it remains not in the budget or we restore it to a certain amount of the council, is there a business partner that can do the other half that can match the other half or somebody?

So I mean I think that is really worth exploring for a lot of these gaps, and not just in this, not just in this office and every other domain where we see cuts, like who are like this as a time for others who are well healed in our city to step up and do the work alongside us.

I have other questions, but I know my time went off, but I know I'm also the only counselor left.

So you are the only counselor left.

Uh I will say, like, in terms of uh those questions about what businesses you know are concerned with.

I I I was at a in a group where they brought in Jay Ash, who's the the Secretary of Housing for the state, and he's talking about businesses coming here, and they they take a tour of the city and they're they love all the resources and everything, and then the cost of housing comes up, and then they they're like, well, you know, maybe Charlotte, North Carolina might be a better place for for us uh in terms of like how we're gonna house people.

So I you know how we can help business help help you attract businesses would be to uh bring down the cost of housing here in Massachusetts, um, or at least in Boston.

So I I don't know, Counselor Lujan, did you have any other questions you wanted to ask?

I don't want to.

Yes, I have three questions related to supply diversity if I can ask those questions.

Yes, and then uh we'll wrap up.

Thank you.

My team did a good job of prepping me here, so I just want to make sure that I ask the questions.

Um the data shows that in fiscal year 26, only about 10% of total contracting dollars and 11.6% of discretionary spending have gone to MWBE's businesses operated, owned and operated by women and people of color.

Given the city stated commitment to equity, what are the primary barriers to higher uh primary barriers preventing higher participation?

Oh, I'm sorry, counselor.

I was like I'll repeat my question.

Um the data shows that only about 10% of total contracts and 11.6% of discretionary spending have gone to businesses owned by women and people of color, MWBEs.

Given the city stated commitment to equity, what are the primary barriers preventing higher participation?

And I do want to notice that that's still an improvement from where we've been.

But how do we continue building on the work of getting higher participation?

I know we talked about breaking down the larger contracts, what are the other things that we can be doing?

Um there was mention of uh, you know, maybe another disparity study would help it increase that.

Like, what are the things that is preventing higher participation numbers?

We know talk about white stadium, and you know, we're not where we want to be, even with with the state of goals were for white stadium, which is disappointing.

So wanted to ask what more can we be doing?

Yes, I'll make an attempt.

Thank you, Councilor Luigian.

Um, so two that I'll mention are vendor knowledge of our city procurement processes.

So we have been working very closely with our um with procurement department just to have the buying plan make sure that people know about it.

I know that that that that department released a postcard as well, um, as well as just letting people know about certification.

Um, but just having an awareness of the intricacies of that department, especially when it comes to construction, uh construction can be so um brutal when it comes to the requirements that you know the law just requires that could make the difference between someone um someone's bid being being evaluated or not.

And so just making sure that people know the difference for one and just how crucial some of these requirements are, um, as well as just knowing that we have different departments, and I know that the procurement department is doing their best to make things consistent in terms of price sheets and templates and what it means to apply for construction contract, for instance, with Parks and Rec versus PFD or goods and services with Health and Human Services.

There still can be a bit of a learning gap when it comes to knowing how to fill out some of these.

Can I ask a follow-up question?

Do you provide general contractors with a list or of MWBE subcontractors?

Or is there a way for us to do that?

To like congratulations, you won this bid.

Whether or not the GC is itself an MWBE.

Do we find a way to ensure that they are able that they know who the contract MWBE subcontractors are?

I think that's something that probably is better answered by a PFD or a Parks and Rec.

Um, I know that those departments do their best to not show that we have a strong preference for certain or strong relationships with one contractor versus another.

But I know that my department does our best to make sure people know the contractors that are in the market.

And so we have our certification dashboard, um, it has different um iterations, and we make those available so that it's really easily accessible for departments, but also easily accessible for the public as well.

Um, just having an awareness of who's in the market is one of the biggest barriers.

Um I think also um actually I already started speaking about the second one, but just identifying that this the diverse suppliers in the market as well.

Um, just making sure people know who they are, but also matching the capacity that they have with the scope of what the business of what the city of Boston needs.

I think that a department, for instance, um, such as PFD, they have many experts there that can just break down uh business, what they how they are communicating what they can provide and how it matches what they need.

Not necessarily every department has that.

And so we are working to see what relationships we can have either with software or just um communication to be able to break that gap.

Okay, thank you.

Two more questions.

Um the department has invested significant resources into capacity building programs like scale.

And Andrew, I believe that you were relatively new when the scale announcements were made, and I was happy to be there at that event in newbie and uh for that like.

We've had a couple of we had a press conference while I was here, and we also had the scaled impact just to kind of round off.

Yeah, I think I attended both, especially because of Sisnel's um work on sort of that event.

Uh so another shout out to my former staffer who y'all still um and so it included five million dollars in ARBRA funding grants to 27 businesses.

How many of those businesses have since successfully uh secured city contracts?

And what does that conversion rate look like?

Yes.

Well, we've or have any like well, if if you will allow me to at least open that uh categorization of city contract to more city opportunities.

So, for instance, ancient bakers, I know right now they're working on being able to start their contract with the BPD because they were able to secure a license to be the vendor that's in their cafeteria.

I know we have Boston Builders and they were able to secure some grants recently through the mayor's office of housing, and um this is from last fiscal year, but Noikoi Construction, yes, they were in a house doctor contract, but that's a contract that you just use when you need it, and so I am sure that with the assistance that they receive that when they do get a call out for an in um for a quote to be able to work on a project that the BPS needs, that they would have the capacity that they need based on the resources that we have.

But we look forward to supporting that program.

We had a Connect program, for instance, uh, that we hosted a webinar with BPS and with each department within the city of Boston to connect them with the scale participants, not to show preference, but just to establish that relationship and let them know hey, these folks are here and they can do what you need.

Um, we are looking forward to seeing the fruit that we get from this department.

I mean, from this program.

Again, it ended pretty recently, and so I would say allow us some time to be able to see what comes of it.

And it's not it's not going to recur?

Reoccur, um, no, unfortunately, because it was um federally funded through the ARPA.

Okay.

But again, I will say I look forward to seeing how we can use it as a template for others.

Thank you.

And then my last question um given you know we've had a number of hearings on the World Cup um and it's a major opportunity and for contracting and vendor opportunities how are we applying supplier diversity goals to see World Cup related spending?

I know I asked you this but wanted to see if we moved the ball along um particularly where contracts are being administered by external entities like FIFA or host committees rather than directly by the city and it's a question that I asked the state as well like the mock grants that they gave out how are we ensuring and a lot of those mock grants eight million dollars of that more than eight million dollars is going to fanfest um and how are we ensuring that whether it's through the you know tech and A V or the business how do we make sure that Sue joint right that food trucks uh you know are are represented here that our businesses are represented here.

But it's a question about like our own supply diversity principles how are we using what sticks are we using to also hold vendors and people we are partnering accountable to also using those supply diversity goals.

Right so you know as we have uh I want to get closer uh to these functions happening um areas in which we control we're obviously looking to make sure that those opportunities are real and and diverse it it it etc we're still working with the broader group around some of the opportunities that they're having we're hosting uh uh an event um may 4th um and it's called partnering with Boston 26 to host um it's called uh excuse me get ready for summer 2026 business forum and so we'll talk uh a great deal uh with our partners in this work uh about what opportunities really exist one of the things I I did find out which was pretty interesting is that um things happen in real time um and while the event is here and I I think in our mindset initially we were thinking oh this it may not be any opportunities once you know the the the the the plaza is all set up and once the there's opportunities uh when things are happening during um that that time that they're here so we're working on those details as well thank you and I appreciate the May 4th which I think is going to be a webinar and that's going to be small business facing what I want to make sure is that we're also looking right that's looking towards the businesses who want to participate that we're also like FIFA and I was just at me Boston this morning like well they're they're participating with us.

Okay yeah that okay okay and that they know so the assignment thank you thank you Mr.

Chair thank you and so in terms of the fan fest like so who's the contractor is that a city is the city going to be contracting for services so so um the plaza was licensed out by another entity and so they have full they have a license to the plaza okay and and done and put those um vendors and I together themselves.

Okay well thank you very much I really appreciate uh yeah all your answers and and uh your presentation Krishma says that's fine uh so um uh I just uh so this afternoon's hearing or this sorry this morning this afternoon's hearing is coming up in an hour uh this is the morning's hearing is now adjourned thank you thank you