The Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by District Six Councilor Ben Weber, held a hearing on April 30, 2026, from 10:22 AM to approximately 12:00 PM to review the FY27 operating budget for the Office of Economic Opportunity Inclusion (EOI) and the Department of Supplier Diversity. The hearing covered budget reductions, program impacts, and performance metrics, with testimony from city officials and members of the public.
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.