Good afternoon.

Again, let's see here.

Thank you for uh being here on uh uh it's Star Wars Day, it's May the fourth.

Um hold on, let me bring up the right opening statement.

Uh so I am Ben Weber, I'm the chair of the Ways and Means Committee and the District Six City Councilor.

There you go.

Um today is May the 4th, and the exact time is 205 p.m.

Uh this hearing is being recorded.

It's also being live streamed at Boston.gov slash city-council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and FIOS Channel 964.

The council's budget review process will encompass a series of public hearings beginning in April and going through June.

We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving testimony for the record, which they can do in several ways.

One, they can attend a hearing either in person or virtually and give testimony.

You check out the uh hearing schedule on our website at Boston.gov slash council dash budget.

Uh you can also attend, we have two listening sessions.

Uh no, sorry, we have one listening session left, or the fourth of four, on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

You can give uh again at our hearings, you can give testimony in person here in the chamber via Zoom.

For in-person testimony, please come to the chamber and sign in on the sheet near the entrance for virtual testimony.

You can sign up using our online form on our council budget review website, or by emailing the committee at CCC.wm at Boston.gov, or by emailing Chris Machohan, that's K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A dot C H O U H A N at Boston.gov.

When you're called to testify, please state your name and residence or affiliation with an organization and limit your comments to two minutes.

In lieu of testifying in one of our hearings, you can also submit written testimony, which you can uh send to ccc.wm at Boston.gov.

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

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

Uh in-person testimony uh will be taken following the first round of questions from our uh the counselors.

Um again, sign you can sign up on the sheet where you walk in if you want to testify publicly, or email our director of legislative budget analysis, Chris Machon at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.

C H O U H A N at Boston.gov for the Zoom link and your name will be added to the list.

This afternoon's hearing is on docket number 073 to 0740, an overview of the FY27 operating budget for the inspectional services department, property management department, and public facilities department.

This is one of several hearings or a series of hearings on the FY27 budget.

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

This afternoon I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival, Councillor Flynn, Councillor Murphy, Councillor Culpepper, Councillor Santana, and the Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Councillor Fitzcherald, oh, and Councillor Braden.

Uh yeah, Councilor Braden.

Um I have received uh a letter of absence with some questions from uh Councillor Coletta Zapato.

Um we waive our opening statements in these budget hearings, so we're gonna go to the panel, which I'll introduce now.

We're joined I'm sorry, I'll use um the updated list.

People should have received uh which was printed out.

We've got Chief of Operations Dion Irish, Executive Director for the Public Facilities Department, Carlton Jones, uh we've got Inspectional Services Department Commissioner Tanya Del Rio, uh we have the Commissioner for Property Management, Eamon Shelton, and we have uh first deputy commissioner for property management, Sam Lovison, uh and uh Taylor uh sorry uh Bosler, uh the assistant director of administration and finance from the public facilities department.

So uh I'm just gonna hand things over to the panel.

Uh if you have coordinated among yourselves how you want to do this, uh I guess Dion, you're gonna get us started.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um yeah, we do have a plan.

First of all, I'd love to know if there is a Star Trek Day, so please inform me if that's in the Well, that's it's May the 4th, it'll happen again.

Yeah, May the 4th.

I don't know if anyone who doesn't uh somebody approached me this morning on my way to the subway and said happy Star Wars Day.

And I said, What?

And they said it's May the 4th.

You learned something new every day.

Yeah, uh next year.

Thanks.

Um continue to be honored by the mayor who would be able to serve in this position and work with these amazing colleagues who will talk to you about their respective departments.

And it's truly an honor to every time we have the opportunity to come before the council.

We understand the council's rule, and you know, we we certainly appreciate these opportunities to to speak to the council and speak to the members of the public about the work that we are all charged to do.

Um before I turn it over, um go to the next slide to have each department.

We'll begin with public facilities and um executive director Carlton Jones to talk about PFT and go on to the other departments, but I just do want to share that in addition to the work of each um individual department.

The the cabinet does a lot of work across um city cabinets and and different agencies on things like we've done the uh citywide facility condition assessment, uh land audit.

Now we're working on a citywide lead assessment, lease assessment to work with all city agencies.

Um I think it's also important to highlight the work that we do with our state of good repair steering committee, which is something fairly new.

It we talked about in the fast in the past that we needed really good data to understand uh the condition of our facilities so we can avoid unexpected um things that unplanned capital project, for example.

So we have that data now.

We've done that work.

We're working with all city agencies who have key and custody of city properties to make sure they're you they're using a um central database and uh work order system, and we're making sure that we're factoring in the conditions of our facilities and our capital planning.