Well, the Okay, good afternoon.

Just anyone here is uh giving public testimony.

If you haven't signed up, there's a sign-in sheet at the near the entrance.

Uh you'll be called on uh in the order you sign up, and uh, I'll get to that in a second.

I just have to announce a few things.

Um, so uh good afternoon.

Uh my name's Ben Weber, I'm the district six city counselor and the chair of the committee on ways and means today is May 12th, or it's still May 12th, 2026, and it is 2 10 p.m.

The 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 eighty two, and FIOS channel nine sixty-four.

Uh the city council's budget review process encompasses a series of public hearings that begin in April and run through June.

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

You can do so in several ways.

Number one, you can attend a hearing, which looks like we've got uh many people who've attended this afternoon's hearing and give testimony in person.

Um again, if you want to testify in person, please sign up on the sign-in sheet.

You can also attend a hearing virtually and give testimony virtually 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 our uh director of budget analysis Chris Machohan at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHO UHAN at Boston.gov.

You can also attend one of our public uh testimony listening sessions.

We will have the fourth of four.

The last one will be on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m.

in this room.

Everyone who comes has a chance to give public testimony there with counselors listening to you.

Uh you can also uh testify in person for that hearing or virtually um follow the same procedures to get a Zoom link for that.

Uh when you are called to testify, please state your name uh and your what you know what neighborhood you live in.

Uh and if you're here with an organization, just let us know what organization you're affiliated with.

Uh and we to make sure that everyone has time to testify, we're going to limit public comments to two minutes a person.

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

Uh you can or you know, I know some people here have already submitted written testimony.

If you're here to also testify, you can do both, which is great.

You can also um 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 budget website at Boston.gov slash council-budget.

Uh so for this hearing, in-person public testimony will be taken following the first round of counselor questions.

We're gonna hear from the panel.

And we'll have uh, you know, probably about seven eight minutes of questions from each counselor, and then we'll call on folks to come down and testify one at a time, and then we'll we'll have our second, maybe third round of questions after that.

This um uh you know, again, if you if you if you're watching online uh and want to testify, you can uh get a zoom link by emailing Kerish Machon at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.C-H-O-U-H-A-N at Boston.gov for the Zoom link.

This afternoon's hearing is on docket number 0733 to 0740, an overview of the fiscal year 2027 operating budgets for the office of immigrant advancement, office of language and communication access, commission for persons with disabilities, and office of LGBTQIA 2S Plus Advancement.

This is one of a series of hearings we'll be holding on the fiscal year 2027 budget.

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

Uh, I've been joined by my colleagues in order of arrival.

I'm not sure, but I think I, Counselor Flynn, Counselor Murphy, Councillor Pepin, uh, Councillor Santana, then Counselor Culpepper.

Um, uh I'll try to keep that order straight when I call on you.

Uh we waive opening statements at these budget hearings.

I'm just gonna introduce our panelists.

We're joined this afternoon uh for uh second hearing, the chief of equity and inclusion, uh Mary Angelie Solis Cervera.

Uh we're joined by the director of the Office of LGBTQIA 2S Plus Advancement, Julianne Lee.

Uh we're joined by the Commission for Dis Persons with Disabilities Commissioner, Krista Makash.

Uh, we're joined by uh director of the Office of Language and Communication, Jennifer Vivar Wong, and our uh interim director of the Office of Immigrant Advancement, Courtney White.

Uh so with that said, I'm gonna give the floor to the panelists and uh if you have a presentation, now's your time.

Oh, sorry, I've also received letters of absence from um uh council president Liz Braden, um, Councillor Julia Mejia and Counselor Sharon Jerkin.

Thank you, counselor.

Uh, just one in the same uh vein from the first session at 10 a.m.

I just want to open up by stating some of the incredible work and and growth that this cabinet has had in the last couple of years.

Four years ago, we would have never thought about the the incredible work that our team be doing right now with the amount of personnel and budget.

And while in this moment, and we have so many people here who we do incredible work with, well, in this moment there there are complexities and there are some budget reductions.

I want to affirm at the top of this hearing that our personnel will continue to do all the work that they've done, and even more so now, as well as the programming that is unrelated to grants.

And so I just want to start by just getting that out there as much as possible so that our team can focus on the incredible work that they've done, and we'll continue to do in the new in the new fiscal year.

Thank you.

Oh, and just for our panelists, you don't have to press the buttons for your microphones.

The central staff will handle that.

Uh and do you someone have a button?

Yeah, okay, the remote for the slides.

Okay, whenever you're ready.

All right, I'm gonna get us started.

Um, so good afternoon, counselors.

Thank you so much for having us here.

Uh, my name is Courtney White.

I use she her her pronouns.

Uh, really grateful to be presenting the mayor's office for immigrant advancements FY27 budget to you all.

Um I'm delighted to be serving in this role in the interim while we look for new leadership.

But I've been with the Moya team for over five years, serving as director of constituent services and our constituent services manager.

Um next slide.

So a little bit about Moya, we've been around since 1998, so really deep roots in the community.

Um, the mayor's office for immigrant advancement.

Our goal is to strengthen the ability of immigrants to fully and equitably participate in economic, civil, social, and cultural life.

We also promote the recognition and public understanding of the contributions of immigrants to the city.

And we our priorities focus around the following areas civic engagement, youth advancement, immigration legal access, constituent services, and community outreach, policy and advocacy, and technical assistance.

Next.

So, what have we been up to this past fiscal year?

So, it was really all about deepening our ongoing work, including outreach to and engagement with community.

We finished data collection for our community-wide survey and analyze and synthesize results from 744 immigrant and refugee Bostonians.

And we presented those results then at our second immigrant advancement forum, attended by over 150 community leaders and residents.

And there, at that session, we led meaning making sessions across these different topic areas, such as housing, social determinants of health, and community safety.

We engaged further with 26 participants in our fifth cohort of immigrants lead Boston, and we also launched our first series of community action projects to uplift leadership rooted in community and grounded in lived experience.

There are nine action projects currently underway, being led by 22 of those participants.

We also continued investing in our immigrant youth through our immigrant youth advancement program, running a summer experience program last summer that served 468 young adults while also broadening efforts to expand awareness of the statewide tuition equity law, which allows for a pathway to higher education.

To date, we've provide 797 individuals with free immigration consultations, helped over 2,000 constituents, gave out approximately 1.8 million in grant funding with an estimated impact of 7,000 plus community members by the end of this fiscal year.

And about a week and a half ago, we had our 12th annual citizenship day at the Reggie Lewis Center.

Alongside Project Citizenship, we helped 158 individuals from 42 countries start their journey of becoming a U.S.

citizen.

Oh, yeah, sure.

So we also continued our work building community and belonging, which is a massive priority for our office.

So we continued our You Belong Here campaign, distributing 2,638 posters across the city.

And you'll see here one of our banners displaying a message of welcoming.

We also continued our efforts to meet community where they're at and get City Hall out of City Hall.

So we celebrated two years of our community office hours at the Boston Public Library.

We launched office hours at the Copley Library, and then we hosted pop-ups in Hyde Park, Matapan, and Roxbury.

And lastly, we're excited to announce that we were awarded a $500,000 competitive grant from the Mayor's Migration Council Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees with a goal of helping cities implement bold city-led solutions for economic inclusion.

We were one of six inaugural sites for this grant and the only based in the US.

And I'll share a little bit more, but the focus will be on supporting immigrant-led co-ops in the healthcare sector.

All right.

These are our community partners that we provided grant funding to, so there were 94 grants across 81 community partners, but LIST doesn't explain the whole story.

We work with dozens of other community partners on making sure that this work and information about city services gets out to the community.

And again, just because of time, I won't go through this slide too much, but wanted to share some stories about programmatic impacts from some of our participants from immigrant youth advancement, immigrants lead Boston, our immigration legal access, and weaving well-being.

So what are we going to be up to this year?

So we will continue deepening our work for immigrant youth advancement.

So we are underway and are about to launch our summer 2026 program.

We will be aiming to serve 500 youth across 33 partners.

Again, continuing our pathways for tuition equity and informing youth of their opportunities for career technical and secondary education opportunities and continuing to deepen our collaboration with Boston Public Schools.

In the coming year, we continue to see immigration legal access as a priority work in light of continued enforcement efforts.

Our constituent services will continue to be offering the same free immigration consultations that we've been offering since 2001.

We were also grateful to receive 400,000 from the participatory budgeting process that will focus on grant funds for immigrant youth and those who are at heightened risk of detention and deportation.

And then we do have funding to continue our citizenship work.

For immigrants Lead Boston, we will be launching our sixth multilingual cohort with about 30 participants, deepening our engagement across our 100 strong alumni cohort, and expanding the impact of those community action projects.

We've been in a strategic planning effort for the past year or so, and so we'll be releasing the findings of that and also launching our 27 FY27 to FY31 plan.

And then we'll continue our work alongside our sibling departments in the cabinet for technical assistance and consulting.

So working with other departments to deepen their understanding of best practices to serve diverse residents working alongside the cabinet for the EI Academy and providing internal consultations on community outreach.

For communications, we will uh we'll continue to host quarterly multilingual media roundtables, continuing our third year of You Belong of the You Belong Here poster campaign and ensuring that materials are available in all the languages across the city and continuing to advocate for that at the city level.

All right, and just want to wrap us up with a little bit of information about the cooperating care grant because this will be another priority area of work for this.

So we are really close to announcing our sub-grantee partner who will be receiving funding to move this work forward.

They will be responsible for recruiting different community-based partners who will become worker cooperatives, worker cooperative owners, and they'll be training those folks up to become owners and execute this work in their communities.

We will be retaining some of that funding for the salary of some of our staff members to execute this work, but we anticipate the impact as being increasing economic stability and job quality for immigrant and displaced workers, replicating and scaling cooperative infrastructure for community economic development, and enhancing access to quality culture responsive home care services.

And well, with that, I think we will wrap up our presentation, but just want to thank you all for your time today.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, counselors.

My name is Jennifer Vivar Wong, and I'm the director of language and communications access.

Thank you for having me.

So to begin, our mission for our office is to ensure that residents of the city, we empower them regardless of language or communications ability, to receive the full spectrum of services across the city and play an active role in the decision making for everything across our city department.

In terms of fiscal year 26 and what we've been up to, I wanted to highlight, if you all remember from last budget hearing, we highlighted that we had published 20 departmental plans.

We are on track to publish 14 additional departmental plans, which outline what each department will be doing in terms of language access throughout their vital documents, programming activities, and services.

We also oversee the literacy task force, and we have accomplished the first round of qualitative community surveys.

We are currently working on finalizing a draft report, and I'll get into what fiscal 27 will look like for the task force in a minute.

In terms of equipment, I know in the past we have received support from you all regarding our equipment, and we have been able to provide departments with high usage interpretation needs in-house equipment for them to have within their departments, in addition to the amount of equipment that we have for departments to obtain from us as a loan.

We also have started a pilots around our AI translate live devices, and I will get into the details of that in the next few slides.

I also have a little bit of data up on the screen that talks about the total amount of accommodation spending that has happened in fiscal year 26 to dates.

The city has spent over $741,000 on fulfilling accommodations, and this ranges from translation requests, interpretation requests, ASL and carts, the breakdown is there for you.

Out of all of these requests, 145 of these requests were constituent made.

So that means that they indicated to departments that they needed an accommodation, whether it be translation, interpretation, et cetera, and that was provided as well.

We also have figures up there regarding our over the phone and video remote interpretation services, and that is for folks who walk in or they call over the phone.

And they were around in total 900 hours of interpretation that was provided across the city.

Ah, I went too far.

Departmental Highlights.

So I wanted to highlight a couple, although there's many great efforts being done across departments to embed and advanced language access.

For those of you who may have joined us during the elections at polling locations, the elections department works extremely hard to ensure that we have multilinguals at speakers at polling locations.

We also did have this year of room in City Hall that had folks who spoke different languages and also were aware of all of the I guess lingo that happens during the election season who were able to support any on-call interpretation needs.

We also had this year the new voting poll pads, and those video instructions were available in different languages for constituents.

Participatory budgeting, their ideas and action process.

We worked with them to ensure that from their phone tree to their materials was all accessible.

And this year, because of the increase in language access, we were able to really engage East Boston population.

They were actually one of the neighborhoods that had the most votes in a part of the process.

With youth jobs and resource fairs under OIEO, there were over 135 students who requested interpretation at this event, and we were able to fulfill interpretation for those students.

As well as I know that OIO goes above and beyond to ensure that they partner with organizations who can house students who need additional language support and match them with supervisors who can support them in language.

Myself and immigrant advancement served as a guidance to them and ensuring that there were multilingual ads regarding different locations, whether that be social media, MBTA, bus stops, etc.

And they also are doing a lot of care and ensuring that the handoffs that they do with constituents, we have state partners who are able to support them using their language access resources so that constituents do have that warm handoff.

The next slide will show a couple of the images related to what I just discussed in terms of highlights.

So that will be on the screen there for you.

And you'll see that on the bottom right, there is a picture for participatory budgeting where there are interpreters who were a part of the events, helping ensure that constituents' voices were being counted.

All of their ideas and action voting materials were also translated in different languages.

On the left-hand corner, you will see that there is the multilingual ads that were on the T regarding the Energy Saver program.

And above, you will see that there is photos of signage that is multilingual at voting locations, as well as the video that is available in our threshold languages.

And on the top right, you will see our interpreters who were ready to go support students during the youth engagement resource fair.

Okay.

In terms of fiscal year 27, like I mentioned, we are on track to publish 13 additional departmental plans, and those are available on our website in different languages for constituents to view.

We also are continuing our projects regarding AI and language access in partnership with Do It and across different departments.

We are testing different pilots regarding AI and seeing the, I'll get into that a little bit later.

And then our literacy task force, we hope to finalize our report and recommendations this upcoming fiscal year.

And in terms of data, we will continue to share and track the data regarding accommodations.

Although there is a live dashboard on our website at Boston.gov slash LCA.

So you're welcome to see the data that I just showed in the previous slides, all up on our website.

I will just highlight a couple of things here.

As you all know, the way that we approach language access at the city is that it's everyone's responsibility across all departments, and therefore our training team has done an incredible job of ensuring that we are embedded from the beginning to end of the entire process when it comes to training our workforce.

That includes ensuring that there is an affidavit of language access in our new employee hiring and onboarding materials, which flags to our workforce that language access is a mandate and then triages them to our office to continue trainings.

Just because of time, I'm gonna continue forward.

We also are piloting a translate live ILL pro device pilot.

It basically is two tablets together, which allow for real-time translation interaction, and that can be done through speech to text or text-to-speak, text-to-speech.

Uh, and we are testing that with uh the departments up on the board, registry, assessing, collecting, age strong, parking, and using this as a tool to aid the constituent services that are being done on the first, second, and third floor.

And then, as always, we are having uh very careful partnerships with uh the folks who provide language access services across the city.

So you will see on the screen a list of not only our our vendors but also our continued partnerships with Def Inc.

We have contracts with CBOs who provide cultural translation reviews, such as the VACA, IFC, AACA, and we'll continue to ensure that we get creative about our contracts to ensure that the language services coming out of our office are culturally competent.

With that, I will pass it over to my colleague.

Thank you, Jennifer, and thank you, counselors, for allowing me this time to talk about the work of my department.

I'm Kristen McCosh, I'm the disability commissioner and ADA Title II coordinator for the City of Boston.

As the disability commissioner, I lead the city's collective efforts toward equity, accessibility, and inclusion of people with disabilities.

As the ADA Title II coordinator, it's my responsibility to make sure that everything the city does, which is the work of all other departments is compliant with the ADA.

Our mission is to facilitate full and equal participation for people with disabilities in all aspects of life in Boston.

We do this by reducing architectural, programmatic, and communication barriers, as well as by ensuring access, inclusion, and equity in all city programs, policies, and in the built environment.

Much like Jennifer's office, the majority of my work is internal.

We're sort of internal consultants for all other departments to ensure that everything that they do is compliant with the ADA.

And that feeds into our theory of change.

By ensuring that every department is aware of the ADA and trained in how to make things accessible.

This will create systemic accessibility and inclusion across the board.

We also do this by continuing to engage and empower residents with disabilities.

Go to the next slide.

And then the main priorities of my office are ADA Title II compliance, training and technical assistance, architectural access review, engagement and empowerment, programs, services, and events, and constituent support and information and referral.

I lead a team of nine dedicated city employees, and they're broken out into two areas.

One is architectural access and one is programs, constituent services, and things like that.

We can skip the budget slide.

So the progress that I've made in the past year in ADA Title II compliance.

One thing I want to highlight is our work with the Elections Department.

Last November, we did get a complaint from a disabled resident about some of the technology in one of the polling places was not working.

So I work very closely with the elections department to ensure that we looked at all the training materials.

We looked at the different departments that are involved.

As Jennifer said, language access was a big piece of it.

And communication access is always key.

So we did a lot of good work with them, and we continue that partnership as well.

I also have a training specialist who has trained hundreds of department staff already this year in ADA Title II compliance.

My architectural access staff works closely with property management, public facilities, ISD to make sure that all the work they do is not only accessible and meeting ADA compliance, but goes beyond that to ensure full inclusion of people with disabilities.

One example I like to give in this realm is picture a building like City Hall City Hall and City Hall Plaza.

We used to have a set of stairs and a ramp next to it, but when they did the renovation, now it's all one level entry, so everybody can come into the building together.

So that's an example of more inclusion than just accessibility.

As far as our community engagement, we are kicking off in this FY26.

We kicked off and concluded our ABLE lab, which stands for Accessible Boston Leadership and Empowerment.

We actually have our meeting tonight, and we found 20 residents that we want to empower on all civic engagement opportunities, things like testifying at City Council, registering to vote, really getting involved in showing the power that they have in their communities.

So we are really looking forward to that program, and we'll continue that in FY27.

The only service that my department really runs is the On Street Accessible Parking Program, and I have a parking manager who runs this program.

It's the formerly called handicap parking, but we get a lot of work in that because we have a lot of elder and disabled residents in the city who really count on this program.

As far as information referral, as I said, we don't do direct services, but we do have a constituent support specialist who's a social worker and has in-depth knowledge of disability programs and services and other organizations, so he handles all those constituent issues.

And then, as I mentioned, architectural access review, we work with the PIC, PMD, MOH, BPS, and BPL to make sure all of their work is accessible and inclusive.

And moving forward for FY27, we plan to expand ADA Title II compliance.

We recently worked with LCA to purchase a training system that's a platform, sort of like when we do our annual compliance.

People can go on and take the trainings on their own time and learn about ADA Title II.

So we're excited about that.

As many of you know, we host a few big annual events every year.

Our disability community forum was last week, and that's our annual listening session.

We want people in the disability community to come out and tell us what's working, what's not working, tell us what their priorities are so we can map out our accessibility agenda for the coming year.

We also have ADA Day every summer to celebrate the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but also to host a resource fair.

We have tables set up and organizations, over 40 organizations bring information and materials to share about the support services they have for people with disabilities.

And then every October, we do webinars on financial empowerment for National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

We have four webinars that focus on ones on housing, ones on finding a job with the city, breaking down those barriers.

Other ones are savings and banking and finding housing.

Then, as I mentioned, our civic engagement and empowerment is not only the ABLE lab, which we have tonight, but we also work closely with my colleagues in the Equity and Inclusion Department as well as their cultural liaisons, and we have a volunteer advisory board of 13 residents who meet monthly to talk about issues of importance in their communities.

We're also providing insight on emerging issues that have to do with people with disabilities.

We're looking at requirements and regulations for autonomous vehicles.

We work with the streets cabinet on things like bike lanes and parking for home care eats.

We're exploring what possibilities there may be for that.

We work with restaurants to ensure that they know the rules around service animals, the captions ordinance and compliant tables.

And then we have a staff member who's on the architectural access board, and I myself sit on the state PCA Workforce Council.

And then I just want to call out two programs that I mentioned earlier to give you a little bit more in-depth information on what they are.

So the ABLE lab, as I mentioned, kicks off tonight and runs for the next six weeks.

It's a training program on civic engagement and empowerment.

We really wanted to look for residents who don't reach out to City Hall, whether it's because of you know child care or work hours.

We know there are a lot of people we don't hear from.

So we intentionally reached out to underserved neighborhoods and communities of color to ensure that they know they have the power to impact what happens in city government, and we want to let them know how they can do that.

This does not require any spending.

We did have a grant last year, which we expended, but we will continue this program in FY27 with my own staff.

And then the last thing I want to call out is our ADA transition plan.

When the ADA was first passed in 1990, all municipalities were required to create a transition plan, which was basically an assessment of all their infrastructure to talk about the state of accessibility was in and make plans for bringing it into compliance.

So when we did that as a city in 1993, it was a static PDF document, which was somewhat helpful, but now we know 33 years later really needs to be updated.

So my office is working on a dynamic web page that will bring all existing data that we have into one place.

So people can click on a map and they can see where the accessible parking may be.

They can click on a school building and see the last time it was updated, they can click on a library and see what features it has for assistive technology, and we're really excited about it.

We did a poster session on it last week, and we won uh one of the awards for the best collaboration among departments.

So this will be unveiled at our EDA day in July, and we really think it will be helpful for residents just to plan their day.

Like I said, schools aren't only used for children's education, they're also used as polling places and things like that.

So it'll be helpful for everyday activities but also for having fun and enjoying the city.

And that will not require any funding because we're using existing data sources.

So again, I want to thank you for your time today, and we look forward to having a continued great impact on the city in FY27.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair, members of the council for your time and continued partnership.

My name is Julianne Lee.

I use she they pronouns, and I'm the executive director of the mayor's office of LGBTQIA 2S Plus Advancement.

I also wanted to thank our residents, community members and leaders behind me who have taken time out of their days, work schedule, parenting, and those who are watching online participating in civic engagement, especially to our youth and older adults.

Thank you.

Exists to improve outcomes and remove systematic barriers for LGBTQIA 2S residents to improve barriers for our residents in Boston.

Our team does this through collaboration with city departments, community engagement, and policy development.

We strive to make services more accessible, responsive to the needs of individuals and families from our community.

As part of our work, we focus on policies, initiatives, resources, partnerships to enhance the well-being inclusion of Boston's LGBTQIA to S residents.

Here is our dynamic team who daily brings their dedication, passion, lived experiences, and intersectional identities to both the heart and hard work.

Our deputy director, Denesha Yancey, our director of policy and strategic initiatives, Kimberly, our community relations specialists, Justice, and Viola.

Our work is grounded in three strategies: policy development, targeted programming, and coalition building.

We do this work across city departments in close partnership with community organizations.

The goal is simple: to remove any barriers to LGBTQIA to us plus residents of Boston and their ability to access services, feel safe, and thrive.

You can see here in FY26, we continue to see strong demand and growth across all grant programs.

We awarded 275,000 and beyond grant pride grants supporting our community for programming and services, the highest amount to date.

Our idea fund provided 70,000 and highest amount to date in support of identity document changes with applications increasingly significantly over year after year.

This grant funding was supported, has supported MOLA's name change document assistance work and has deeply impactful for community members.

This remains a high impact program directly serving our residents.

Since FY 25, spending on this work totaled approximately 120,000 supporting 380 residents through gender affirming identity document assistance.

MOLA and the city leadership are actively exploring pathways to help sustain this work through external funding opportunities, collaborations, and community partnerships.

Our goal is to ensure this impactful work can continue even amid broader fiscal constraints.

We are also thrilled to share we attended more than 75 community events across Boston, and fully engaging our community through visible and sense of belonging events, including supporting the mayor's youth summit and partnership with OEA, consistently partnering with ENI Cultural Liaisons as well as the Office of Neighborhood Services.

Partnerships we've also explored with parking clerk, registry, have a close relationship with our register, Paul.

We also expanded partner network to over 150 organizations, convened SULE coalition, which is state of our LGBTQ youth, to 25 plus organizations, participate also in national LGBTQIA 2S conferences and partnerships.

And finally, cross-agency collaboration and systems change.

We're doing that through supporting ENI Academy, interdepartmental collaboration, and really strengthening our community partnerships to improve LGBTQIA 2S Plus advancement and resident outcomes.

We continue to see rising demand for affirming services, particularly for trans and non-binary residents.

And here you can see in this beautiful rainbow in front of you, our partner network, which now includes more than 150 organizations from across many sectors, including government nonprofits, grassroots organizations, and so many others.

Mola is seen everywhere and everywhere we can be seen.

We are connecting with residents, community organizations to ensure that they know they have a direct line to the services, programs, and support of City Hall.

Based on data for youth, we deeply feel the strength of one in 10 Bostonians are part of our intersectional communities.

This slide offers in-depth portrayal of our budgets, and you can review this more in detail in the budget books.

So now we're talking about FY27 and our future plans.

Community engagement, visibility, and belonging.

In FY27, we're continuing to invest in consistent visible spaces where our community can feel seen and connected.

This includes intergenerational programming, neighborhood-based events, and cultural spaces that center joy and belonging.

This is about building belonging, and it's also about something that people can feel and access throughout the year, not only during Pride.

Our second bucket deepening community relationships and civic engagement.

We are focused on building trust through consistent presence and follow-through.

That includes listening sessions, site visits, and direct constituent engagement.

In FY27, we will be launching a MOLA advisory council and steering committee to formalize shared leadership with our community.

Community voice is central to how MOLA designs and moves its work.

And finally, cross-agency collaboration and systems change.

We will strengthen collaboration among our city departments to reduce barriers and improve access to services.

This also includes highlights such as Boston Public Schools, Boston Public Health Commission, BCYF, the libraries, including official systems of structures that improve coordination, aligning resources, and supporting more referral response systems.

We are excited to announce for the first time here today that we will be launching applications for the MOLA Advisory Council and Steering Committee in May.

The advisory council and steering committee was created and codified in November of last year, thanks to strong advocacy of community members, including Giselle, Chastity, and so many others.

Councilor Mejia and our office.

The council will advise on service gaps and opportunities to expand inclusive affirming resources.

And we so look forward to working with them.

And finally, we just want to invite all folks here to attend our MOLA June programming.

This includes June 1st, the city's official rainbow flag raising, as well as the LGBTQIA2S Plus Job Fair in partnership with the LGBTQ Mass Chamber of Commerce, as well as June 6th.

Look out for us at the Pride Parade and Festival.

And exciting again this year, this is a fan favorite, June 27.

We'll be hosting our Pride celebration, which is free to all residents at the Museum of Science, and we'll also include a community award ceremony.

I appreciate your continued partnership and helping moving forward this work.

Thank you for your time today.

Okay, thank you very much.

That's the from the panel, I think.

Um okay, so we're gonna go to uh counselors and then uh round of public testimony uh after that, and then come back for a second round with the counselor.

So uh we're gonna do uh seven minutes per counselor.

Uh counselor Flynn, you're up first.

Yeah, thank you, and thank you to the administration team.

I I do want to highlight, I know there was a date of when immigrant advancement was established, but it actually took place, the immigrant rights unit actually started October 1st, 1987.

Um by Maya Flynn.

So I do want to I do want to highlight that the work Maya Flynn has done on supporting immigrants.

In the first executive director was Henry Houtin.

Many of us know Henry Lutin, that was the legal counsel for the city of Boston for a number of years.

Let me let me start with the um with Commissioner McCosh, probably, probably in my opinion, the most um compassionate and effective advocate for persons with disabilities in in LEDA, really across the city.

Someone I have great respect for, admiration for, for the way she does her job, but for the way she conducts herself and really always always supporting residents in need, never giving up, never giving up on anybody, always listening, always trying to do our best to help people.

So I want to acknowledge the role in the leadership you have played, Kristen, for so many for so many years.

I've worked with you for many years on different issues.

I believe the ADA is the most significant federal federal legislation we've had, or at least the top five ever.

But Kristen, my question is outside of outside of city government, um, what is the role of what is your office's role in terms of ensuring our streets and sidewalks and um, you know, non non-public areas are accessible to persons with disabilities, meaning like non-government ownership of land.

What is the responsibility of your team ensuring that all spaces are accessible to persons with disabilities?

Yeah, it's a good question, because when we take things like streets and sidewalks, the public doesn't know who owns what.

They just know it's a street or sidewalk.

So we work very closely with the Streets Cabinet to make sure that we can identify whose responsibility things are because if it's something owned by the state, we literally can't fix it.

So we refer it to the proper people at like Mastod or DCR.

And there are a lot of streets in Boston that we don't actually own.

So we do that internal coordination, and it does work well.

Of course, there's always more work to do, and we see that sometimes in things like you know, curb ramps and um even snow removal, things like that, the complaints we get.

But I think the city does a really good job internally, and they always prioritize areas that I point out that need attention.

Um as far as other businesses, uh things like that that the city doesn't own.

We do work with the licensing board to have an impact on places where they have some teeth, so things like restaurants.

If someone denies someone with a service animal, we can send them like a letter, send the manager a letter just to let them know the requirements, and you know, we always could have a hearing with the licensing board for restaurants that may not comply.

It's never gotten to that point, but we do work closely, even though we don't have oversight over it, we do a lot of internal collaboration to make sure things are accessible.

Thank you, Kristen.

Um, thank you for your leadership.

And let me I know Julianne is here, want to say thank you to Julianne.

Julian, um, wanted to acknowledge also the role the City of Boston Veterans Commissioner plays, who's a friend of mine, Rob Santiago, in support of um LGBTQ veterans.

Commissioner Santiago has done an exceptional job on advocating for not just LGBTQ veterans, but all veterans and and women veterans that have historically not been part of the VA health system.

So I just want to I don't necessarily have any questions, but just wanted to acknowledge you, Julianne, for supporting um gay and lesbian veterans, but also for you working closely with Rob Santiago's team on these issues, civil rights issues.

Um let me see.

Um, not just in Chinatown or the South End, but throughout throughout the district, throughout the city, really.

Um, and want to say thank you, Jennifer, um, for your commitment to language and communication access.

Let me ask a question.

Um, with so many different ethnic groups or different languages spoken in the city.

How do you keep up with you know always updating your services to um a new group a new group that you might not necessarily have thought of that that needs language and communication access support?

Thank you, counselor.

That's a great question.

Um so we have a process.

Uh we have on our website uh demographic data reports, and it's a comprehensive process that includes uh looking at uh the census uh data, and there's a question on the census uh that indicates that basically asks uh for someone to self-identify their uh level of English.

And so that's the first layer of data that we use to identify what are the threshold languages for the city.

In terms of identifying new languages, in the past, we have worked with, for example, uh immigrant advancement that when there was a surge of migrants coming into Boston to identify what additional languages we might need to pivot and create new resources for, um, but truly, we work uh we have a compliance team uh which is made up of our compliance manager and specialists, and they're assigned two departments, and they check in with the departments on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, and we work with them to raise us any additional languages requests that they are seeing.

We also use data, for example, from uh our on-demand interpretation where we can see the trends of languages that are being called into, and those are walk-ins too as well.

And then we also work uh with BPS, BHA and BPHC to keep track of the trends that they're seeing in terms of language needs.

I am happy to go into further depth as needed.

No, thank you, Jennifer.

Um I'm out of time.

Uh I want to say thank you to the administration team that is here.

Um, also wanted to recognize Councillor Santana and Councillor Mejia that have done excellent work uh working with not just Commissioner Santiago and supporting LGBTQ veterans, but um supporting so many residents in need as well.

And I do want to apologize to the public.

I usually stay for public testimony.

I do have a medical appointment that I will be leaving going to shortly, so I do apologize, Mr.

Chair.

Yep, thank you very much.

Uh we've been joined by counselors Louis Jen Fitzgerald and Worrell.

Just the order I have uh Councillor Murphy, then Councillor Pipen, Councillor Santana, Councillor Culpepper, Counselor Louis Gen, Councillor Fitzgerald, and Counselor Warrell.

I made it through everyone.

So counselor Murphy, uh, seven minutes.

Um, thank you to the panelists for being here.

Thank you for showing up every day for our residents in the city, and thank you to the residents.

It's always great when the chairs are full and you're here to you know advocate and stand up for what you know matters here in the city.

You know, we are a city right where Boston is welcoming, but when we have tough decisions and budget cuts, I think it's probably you know needed every once in a while, but it's really forcing us not just here on the council but every department and residents to see also how we really do rely on grant funding and outside sources to deliver what we do show up every day for across you know the residents in the city.

So just thank you for trying to be creative and find different ways, which I know it's it's good to stay positive, but then we also have some like hard decisions to make.

So we can say like earlier, there were the 10 o'clock hearing.

There are some departments that are losing all of their grants.

So how do we continue to do that work if there's no grant funding attached to it?

But that being said, um, Kristen and Jennifer, I think all departments, but your departments definitely work alongside, or every department is reaching out to your offices to for support.

Could you just explain how you fund and staff that knowing that you know there's people relying on you to deliver, you know, what their office may be able to, and if there's some sort of sharing of funding and other things, because oftentimes you know, they're just asking maybe like reaching out saying, like, you need help, help us with this, or you could just talk me through that.

Yeah, I can just start by saying we do collaborate frequently on things like American Sign Language Interpreters and CART services, which are like the open captions you see at meetings.

Um, we have it budgeted in our annual budget every year for those types of services, but LCA does, and I believe LCA gives all departments a budget, but I'll let Jennifer talk about that.

But um, yeah, it's it's part of our standard uh budgeting every year.

We plan ahead for it.

Our department plans probably more so than other departments for communication access, because we know that's our population.

But I'll turn it to Jennifer for more details.

Thank you.

That is correct.

So our office um funds the majority of language access accommodations across the city.

Uh, and however, that being said, the whole city as a whole is legally responsible to fulfill constituent requests, for example, we have an ASL request, uh, regardless of who funds it, we as a city are responsible.

And um, in terms of uh the way that we support departments, it's it's I feel like I say everything is complex in our office, but we um have a team, which is our compliance team, and they there's three specialists, so we have full-time employees, four full-time employees uh who are assigned to departments.

For example, there's one assigned to Boston Police, and they will check in with Boston Police.

They have a department to plan, and we are actually able to work with them to identify what is coming up in the fiscal year and ensuring that we allocate enough funding to support the reoccurring accessibility that happens on a year-to-year basis.

Um, and in addition to that, we are also the central holders of the uh citywide contracts for language access.

So while we are the central funders, other departments are able to tap into that contract, similar to how folks uh leverage the WB Mason contract for supplies, and they're able to use their funding as well to pay for services.

The one centralized service that we pay for the entire city is our on-demand interpretation service.

Okay, thank you for that.

And I just like to add, I think one of the ways that we are thinking internally about how we can streamline a lot of this work is collaboration with departments like LCA.

Um Moya has been doing a lot of work to support departments across the city in community outreach, um, you know, making sure that materials are translated, but then how do you actually get that information out to our communities through methods that they understand that they go through go to, and I think Jennifer's example of the Energy Saver Program is a really wonderful example of that partnership, and we look forward to continuing that in the next year.

Can I add one other thing too?

Um Council Flynn asked about our reach outside of the city.

Um one thing that my office worked on was a captions ordinance, so all TVs now in the public have to have captions on.

So that's an example of how we can do things that we don't actually pay for, but we have influence across the rest of the city to commute to um create communication access.

Awesome, great.

Um I have a Moya question.

Um youth summer jobs are fully funded for the summer.

Um I know that and I've connected a few.

I had a visit to Binka and a few you know students came up asking, so are we continuing and how many summer jobs are we able to offer students that aren't?

Yeah, so our goal for this fiscal year 26 running kind of into 27, given the kind of overlap.

Um, our goal is around 500 students across 33 partner sites, um, and so we're ongoing as well throughout the summer and then into the calendar year, thinking with some of these youth around how do we support them in taking those next steps, whether that looks like um career pathways, technical pathways, um, or entrepreneurship.

And have you filled all the 500 yet?

Or there's still uh we just um actually my colleague Vanya had our um onboarding session today, so I believe they're in the process of working to fill those spots and are working with um Pedro and his team on um getting folks signed up.

So we can still send some kids your way.

Yeah, yes.

Okay, we're getting a thumbs up from my colleague, yes, please.

Okay, awesome.

Thank you.

Um, and Julian, are there any specific grants that were cut from your department or if you could just speak to those?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, so our grants were cut 100%.

Um, and so I can kind of go into more depth, but um, out of our contracted kind of services which include the grants, um, yes, that those were were cut, and I I also just wanted to um give an answer as well, um, similar to what my colleagues were saying is we're really working with sibling departments um to ensure that the work that they are providing and the resources and constituent services they are providing um uh they are listening to our department as a tech advisor um and as consulting so that we're able to have city services that reach all Bostonians in a welcoming and affirming way.

Thank you.

Thanks for all you do.

Okay, uh thank you.

Uh Councillor Pipin, you're up seven minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And I just want to start off by thanking all of you for for the work you do, for being here also for always being a place where my office could reach out to for assistance whenever we we are seeking that for our residents.

Also extending my grace to all of you because I know that the work that you all do is literally under attack right now by the federal government.

And I just think that only adds so much more pressure to you and to the workload that you already have.

So just thank you for what you do.

But the uptick of residents that may be reaching out to your office.

I want to know, do you keep track of how many residents reach out to you for assistance?

How do you guys break that down?

How many case work or I don't know what you call them if they're case workers?

What's the right title?

I would love to know that.

And then um, how many how many cases are they working on?

Obviously, there must be overworked.

I want to know how do you deal with so much of it.

Yeah, you asked the right person.

Um, as formerly director of constituent services, I should hopefully have all the answers for you.

Um so we've been grateful across the past few years that we have been able to get um continued funding and investment in staffing.

Um so we have about six folks on our team that are supporting with constituent services, myself included.

Um we have capacity on staff for Haitian Creole.

We made a really intentional move to increase our capacity in that particular language as we saw more community members coming from Haiti.

Um, and then so we um call our folks constituent services, we have a manager, a legal access project manager who supports with our scheduling all of our one-on-one immigration consultations, and then we have immigrant integration specialists, but they all serve on our constituent services team.

Um so to date it's been just under I would say 2,500 folks that we have directly supported with assistance.

So just this year.

Just this this fiscal year.

This fiscal year.

Yes, this fiscal year.

Um, and so that's that's not the full number of how many folks have reached out to us.

I can get you that information.

We have a policy of getting back to everyone no matter um if we get a missed call from them.

So that number is actually much higher in terms of how many people reach out to us, but we have directly supported 2,050 folks, um, whether that is referring them to our one-on-one free immigration consultations, connecting them with other city departments, or connecting them with community-based resources.

Okay.

And I think that very last thing you said um pivots me perfectly for my follow-up question, which is in my district I have amazing immigrant support services like IFSI, like Rise, Rosino is for everyone.

Um, I know in Hyde Park they're trying to build some more of a grassroots movement.

How do you, how does your office partner with those type of groups across the city to make sure that if they don't have the answers, they can work with you or vice versa.

Yeah, so we can't do any of their work that we do without community.

They are the trusted messengers.

Um they have built trust with community, and so we really um work closely with organizations such as IFC, um, I would say Casserly House and Rosalindale, right, of making that one-on-one connection.

Um, and so really thinking about how do we learn from them, what they're seeing on the ground and how that can inform our strategy.

So that's why, you know, at our immigrant advancement forum, we really made a concerted effort to ensure that community members and community leaders were present to inform us of what changes they might be seeing within their communities.

So part of that is grant funding that we've been able to provide to offer uh legal services and so on and so forth.

Um, but we also make sure that constituents are that our community leaders are aware of the resources that we provide so that they know they can refer someone to us for one-on-one consultations, but also resources across the city.

Often our immigrants are the last to know about something, and so not only is it our services but other city services that we work to um close that gap.

I really appreciate that.

Um I I do see how valuable that connection is with the partner with the organization that exists in my district at least.

So I just want to thank you, and I know that they also feel the support.

Yeah, um, and just if folks are interested in reaching out to us, you obviously can refer them directly to our office.

Um we have, as I mentioned on our slides, really trying to get City Hall out of City Hall.

Um, and so hopefully Roslendale will be on one of our pop-up shops uh stops for um our office hours, but people can find us in East Boston and Comply on a monthly basis.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Julie, you mentioned in your pre in your previous answers that was it you lost 100% of funding for grants.

Is that correct?

Yes.

And so I can kind of go into more detail.

So that includes our Beyond Pride, Gender Affirming Idea Grant, and family and individual legal support grants were cut.

How are how are we going to support organizations outside that are they're seeking support, especially with Pride Month coming down the line?

Um obviously Pride Month is every every day of the year, but it's just I feel like it's more of there's more of a spotlight coming up soon.

Um are you partnering with outside institutions?

What's the strategy moving forward?

Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for your question.

Um and thank you for understanding pride is 365 and not just in June.

Um Black Pride is in July.

Um so for our gender affirming idea grant, um, our current strategy is having conversations with outside funders.

For our other grants, uh, we are so thankful to uh folks from the partnership office who are exploring ways to support our residents through like creative thinking as far as um our team is also getting creative and scrappy around how to provide our uh community technical assistance and other supports, um uh kind of shifting our internal strategy to focus on community recognition opportunities, advisory structures, um, and even outside of direct funding uh relationships, we remain committed as far as our our plan and and strategy to um create intentional touch points for collaboration, communication, um, and connection and making sure that our communities needs are you know properly assessed and um that uh we are in close contact with those community leaders to ensure that they are in rooms that they are able to advocate.

Absolutely, and I can only imagine that you know departments like yours could you're feeling it.

You're feeling those the those cuts are felt, the people are gonna feel it.

So um we'll love to just if there's any way that we can support, obviously let us know.

Um, before I finish my remarks, just want to give a shout out to Kirsten.

I see her in the back.

Um, just work closely with you from at the Pride in Hyde Park.

And I know I'm personally gonna be there with I think Councillor Louis Gen's team um at the end of the month for or yeah, the end of this month for a beautiful event, and um just give forward to supporting everything.

And again, thank you so much for all the work you all do.

That sidewalk is looking gorgeous.

Oh, yeah, we worked on that.

Okay.

Thank you, Councillor Santana.

You're up next uh seven minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon.

Thank you all for being here.

I know um you've all been here all day, so um really appreciate it.

Um I do want to start off just by thanking um Monique.

Um, I think she's just such an incredible uh leader.

Um, this video is gonna miss her, and um, just very thankful for her service to our city to our American communities.

Um she was she's one of my favorites, and I'm I know we're really gonna miss her and wish her all the best.

Um I don't think I have so I I also just want to acknowledge I think Commissioner McCall, she's been I know we've done tours and and visits together and just really appreciate um your leadership um and uh you know, just just amazing work from you and your team, and looking forward to um the the work ahead.

Um, I think I mentioned it earlier today, um just in terms of like I I I know the moment we're in right now, like I think all of our colleagues know.

Um, but you know I'm I'm I'm really struggling with, especially just with the, you know, I think with immigrant advancement and our LGBTQIA 2S Plus office, um, these two communities are communities that my office, I think everyone, right, across the city and everywhere has identified as our communities that are being attacked by our federal government.

And although I can appreciate, you know, I think uh Chief, you mentioned earlier and today, right?

Like the work that we the city of Boston under your leadership under this cabinet, you know, since 2022 to now, like it's it's amazing.

Um with that being said, we're in a moment right now where it's it's it's literally life and death for some of these community members, right?

Um especially our immigrant communities, especially our LGBTQ, IA2S Plus community.

And I I have a hard time just coming across like why are these grants um who support amazing organizations and amazing people?

You know, why are they the first to be cut?

And I don't, you know, I don't know if Chief, you want to take that question or if the directors want to take that.

Um, and this is no, like, I know the people here, I know the people you have in your office, uh, you know, I know they you want these grants, I know you that's all it's no, it's no shade to to any of you, but there's real consequences to this, right?

We have a room here packed with people on the on a Tuesday afternoon where I'm sure people have work and other stuff to do as well, where they have to advocate for very limited grants.

These are not huge grants we're talking about, but grants that are extremely important to the work that they do.

So, you know, why why is this the first step of uh of the cuts.

Thank you, counselor.

Um you don't I fully know that you are a partner.

We our teams work a lot with all of you really um because your constituents are our constituents and and we and a lot of our staff represents the constituencies that we're that we're here to um work with and for.

Um I would so this is you all have I'm sure looked at the hundreds of pages of the budget book.

This is not the only item that was cut out of the entire budget book.

Something that I said in the morning that I do want to reiterate to you all as my colleagues in the city council is there are other places that we need to put our attention to so that we could ensure that dollars are going out into community for the services that they are providing.

So what I said earlier was I am working with other agencies, BPHC, we're looking into BPD and other options, so that those grants, which are much bigger than the ones in equity and inclusion, are considered right, like we are able to be a part of this election committee, etc.

So that yes, we can have the conversation of why now on FY27, and we can also reallocate our strategies towards the bigger dollars.

That's one thing that I want to just like name, and I will need your support on that.

There's a second piece of um, you know, when we had the funding, we used the funding as much as possible.

We made a choice not to bring in those services in-house and instead put the dollars out into community because the work was happening.

And we are in a different fiscal environment, and this is one of the many difficult decisions that we had to make.

And in Spanish, we say en la buena en la mala, and I wish this was not one of the malas where we had to be together in the good and the bad.

And so this is a moment that we are um collectively struggling through.

I understand that I appreciate that, Chief.

I guess like I guess I'm not just understanding from the other side.

Again, it's for some of these organizations it's life or death right now, especially under this current federal administration, which I know I'm preaching to the crime, right?

Like, so um, and I know some of my colleagues have said, I think you know, Councillor Peppin mentioned, like, oh, let us know how we can support.

Well, I'm gonna let my colleagues know the way that we can support this is that we can do it, we can write amendments and pass amendments this upcoming budget cycle to restore um some of these uh uh some of these grants.

And I understand again the uh the the difficult moment we're in, but I also like understand like if we're gonna be a sanctuary city, if we're gonna be a sanctuary city for our immigrant communities, if we're gonna be a sanctuary city for our LGBTQIA 2S plus community, um these are the cuts that I I don't wanna see.

And I know that you know, I know I'm big on you on on summer youth jobs and year-round jobs, and that's gonna you know, I've stated that's gonna be my number one priority, but I'm really gonna work with my colleagues to try to see how we can restore these grants, um, because I know that this is what community is asking for and what it's needed, um, especially in this moment right now.

So I don't feel you know, I I don't feel well to knowing that some of these organizations or all these organizations in some instances won't receive, um, and I'm gonna repeat what I said earlier this today is that there are other departments where I know the grants have been discontinued.

Um, and I think some of those uh departments have opportunities to find other measures of funding.

I think our immigrant communities and LGBT community community, they're not registered, they're not gonna receive any help from this federal administration.

We can count on that, right?

So I I really encourage my colleagues to put forward amendments um specifically into um our LGBTQ, IA2S Plus Advancement Office, and our immigrant advancement office um, specifically uh for these grants, so that's some of these organizations and uh some of these leaders and and in our community can continue doing the programming that they do um because it's absolutely needed right now.

So um that's gonna be a priority of mine moving forward.

Um again, I I do appreciate all of your teams doing amazing work.

I think very reflective of the city that we have, and um I'm very thankful for the work that you all do.

Um, but that's which one of my priorities are gonna be, and that's what I want to be fighting for, and I encourage my colleagues um to vote in favor of that.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Counselor Cole Pepper, you're up.

Seven minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you for this hearing, and thank you for the panel for coming to talk with us about these budgets, budget cuts today, and we had an earlier panel, uh, inclusion panels.

They too had budget cuts.

I look at these budget cuts here.

I'm trying to figure out what we're doing, especially when we're talking about inclusion.

And we can't talk about inclusion while at the same time excluding the dollars that support the inclusion programs, and I know the chiefs said that they're looking elsewhere for funds, and it seemed like everyone that comes with for us and the budgets are getting cut, everyone's looking elsewhere for funds, and so if everyone's looking elsewhere for funds, somebody's not gonna have the budget funding that they need to support the programs.

I was looking at the Office for Advancement, looking at 42.8%.

Look at the non-personal funding from 2.5 million down to 802 million.

And I look at these grant programs, and I look at the youth and the families that depend on these.

What happens for the families that depend on these that you don't find money for?

What happens to no go on?

Um, yes, so I think some of the strategies that we're using are thinking about how we can expand our free immigration consultations program.

Um that has been a valuable lifeline for our community members since 2001.

We know that that is not enough, and so that is why we have tried to really broaden our strategy to help ensure that folks not only have access to legal counsel, um, but also um have the information to prepare um themselves if they were to be faced with immigration enforcement.

So working um internally as well as alongside community to ensure that there is broad-based um new year rights and family preparedness planning efforts because we know a lot of our impacted community members will need to exercise those rights regardless of whether they do have a pathway to formal status or not.

Um we are grateful, although um we did experience some budget cuts.

I think this really speaks to the power of community.

You can see community here, really rallying and voting for participatory budgeting to ensure that some of this grant funding remains with our office.

So, and we will be particularly focusing and leaning in on community needs with this 400,000 dollars of funding to ensure that families, youth, and individuals most at risk do continue to have access to services.

We know that it will never be enough funding, but we hope that thinking about this strategy and building out an ecosystem with all of these different measures will support community members.

Can you give us a list of the grants that are being eliminated so that we can look to see what grants are being eliminated as we look at what may be able to be restored or uh through the amendment process so that we'll have them all, and then if we have additional questions, we can always come back.

But it would be helpful through the chair, uh, Mr.

Chair, just like I did earlier, a list of the specific grants and the organizations that are actually being cut.

And what about the youth?

Because we know that the youth uh are going to be impacted by these programs.

How are we going to work with the youth that are impacted and you don't find the funding to support them?

So I'm going to start with the first part of your question.

Um, so uh the grants that um have received cuts are our weaving well-being, non-clinical mental health program, um English for speakers of other languages, um, our mutual aid grant program called Strengthening Boston's Diverse Neighborhoods, as well as the academic year, um, immigrant youth advancement program, and then again, um, funding for immigration legal access, which we do have some funding through participatory budgeting.

Um, to your second point, I would say that's why we're thinking of diversifying our strategy.

Um, we know that um work experiences are not or this opportunity is not a one-size-fits-all for our immigrant youth.

Um, and so that's why we really try to diversify the partners that we do work with during the summer to ensure that our youth are getting um access to different kinds of opportunity, whether that looks like going to college, whether that looks like entering the workforce, um, and so really working closely this year with Boston Public Schools with community partners and making sure that we raise awareness of these different pathways for folks, and so thinking about how do we approach youth in the school, how do we work alongside them to ensure that they continue to receive support in determining what that pathway looks like for them?

So you support uh us amending this budget, don't you?

So we could always, of course, do you know more work with more funding?

Thank you, thank you.

I want to uh move to Julianne for a minute with regard to your cuts and Julianne.

I've been asking all the organizations to give me specific list of what community groups are losing their grain.

So I'd like for you to do the same thing through the chair, so that we can look at those groups that are also losing their fund as we go through the um amendment process.

And with regard to non-personnel funding, I see it's dropping from 343,600 to 50,000 430.

What a big cut that is.

And so, how will you the programs that you support now the community partnerships?

How will you without that funding support those community partnerships as a result of this industrial reduction?

What will you do different?

Yeah, thank you for your question.

Um counselor.

So one thing I can say is happy to be able to provide that list and submit it um after the the testimony.

Um, but we can say it's over um uh 40 from this year.

Um, and so also just wanted to say ongoing engagements, um, can continue creating pathways for us to stay connected to emerging leaders when you were talking about youth, um, also grassroots organizations and longtime community partners um i also will lift up that our advisory our our now partner network and soon to be advisory council steering committee have deep connections in community um and with they also overlap with former grantees who built connections uh to our office initially through the grants um but they're now um embedded in our office's partnerships and then just to finally say um the advocates in our LGBTQI2S plus communities in Boston and many of which who are sitting behind me um they have fought for our rights and belongings long before our office existed and that process doesn't get undone and we will continue to stand by them and do the work that we have to do as an office.

Yeah I thank you Counselor Culpepper it's the end of the first round I we need to get through everyone and do a lot of public testimony.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

So just uh before we move on to Councillor Louie Jinn if anyone's here to give public testimony you haven't signed up at the on the sheet down there please do so when we're done with the first round of questions we've got three four more counselors to go and then we'll uh call on people.

So next up is uh counselor Louie Jen.

Thank you and Council Calpepper's doing a lot better with the timer so I just wanted to give you a no no you're doing a lot better though don't don't put it on but just want to he was okay.

I just okay I just want to thank all of uh you for being here and the incredible work that you do um the work of equity is deeply important especially for groups that have long been overlooked sideline marginalized intentionally excluded so I want to thank you and also want to thank all the folks who are here advocating community see some of my people bonju paste Kiki thank you for being here with us um Curtis so many others I'm gonna stop calling people out okay um I'm gonna start with you Commissioner McCosh I want to thank you for all the work that you do um last year the city constructed uh 1,723 compliant pedestrian curb ramps which exceeded the annual consent decree amount of 1600 which neighborhoods still have the largest backlog of inaccessible intersections and how are those locations being prioritized in the upcoming fiscal year I think this is incredibly important especially after we saw the snowstorms and the issues that we saw with Kerb cut so just want to like which one which of our neighborhoods are struggling the most I would have to get back to you with that um I know that public works has an ADA coordinator uh who oversees the compliant ramp construction but as far as which neighborhoods um they're prioritizing I don't have that information now but I'd be happy to get back to you are there neighborhoods that you hear complaints from about more than others um offhand I I can't think of any um particularly okay um and I was glad to hear about you know the the work on the the captioning I was glad to be a co-sponsor on that ordinance how is it actually working what are you hearing what is the feedback that you're getting yeah so um we we did just see an article in um on Axios that talked about the captions ordinance uh reported did some investigation and found that only about forty percent of the restaurants were in compliance with it so um we did some internal strategizing in my office and we are going to prioritize that this year because we did a big push when it was first um passed like three or four years ago but now this summer with all the events coming up with Sale Boston and FIFA FIFA um we we want to make another push to get their word out there because it's really important for communication access it is thank you so much and thank you Commissioner McCosh for our you do uh next questions are for Mola um thank you uh uh Julianne for being here and for all the work that your office does um want to echo the disappointment that some of my colleagues have expressed um um sort of seeing the you know the decrease in grant funding is also means a decrease in in well you can push back against me if you don't agree with this but uh decrease in partnership with community um because so much of the way in which we're able to do that work in partnership is via grants um the non-personnel budget drops from about 343 thousand600 to about 50 thousand um and we are seeing this trend across departments that like their personnel slightly increases um but you see the grant capacities um basically completely decimated.

Which work is being preserved through staff capacity that was being prior to that was being used, maybe grants were helping to support that work, and which community-facing grants, contract services, or events are being reduced because the office has few fewer flexible dollars.

Thank you for your question, Counselor.

I would say that our work has always centered celebrating our LGBTQI to us plus Bostonians, 365.

So I think that we will be looking at our FY27 budget that is being recommended on how we can use that to most effectively and kind of creatively support our residents.

We also specifically look forward to the guidance of our newly established MOLA Advisory Council and Steering Committee on how we will be using those remaining funds that will be the most impactful.

For example, you know, looking at uh 10 to 15,000, uh focusing on public facing community events such as the flag raising, transgender day of remembrance, uh day of visibility, uh, youth summits, um, and then truly the remaining funds being guided by the input of that advisory council and steering committee, which will focus on funding responsive community-informed programming and resources that will truly strengthen connection visibility.

Um our personnel is not being decreased.

Um is it in any way being increased?

It is not being increased.

Okay, okay, I understand, okay.

I just because he's gonna buzz me out, and I got I got a lot more people to ask questions too.

But just want to, you know, um, highlight that I think especially the Beyond Pride, the mini grants that we were able to do, those were really important for community, and just um think that it's incumbent upon us to um make sure that we are continuing to walk hand in hand with community in the way that we do that.

One of the major ways that we do that is via these grants.

Um, language access, um, I was not in the chambers, but my team was telling me all the great work that you're talking about that you do, Jennifer, and that your office is doing around elections, and that's something that we deeply care about in terms of making sure that voting is accessible and accessible to people of all languages.

What more can we be doing as a city around language access when it comes to people voting?

That's a great question.

Um, you know, I I think I want to give credit to the election department who has been doing an incredible job at sitting down with us every year and really mapping out what is their communication campaign going to be, what is uh the on the ground efforts.

I think every year we find new ways to innovate.

So I think really when it comes to that question, we we look towards you all as partners to help us uh identify.

Also, don't want to speak on behalf of elections, but I think even this year we had the interpretation room that was local in City Hall, which was a new uh inventive idea.

Uh, and so I think we're um also looking forward to continuing to partner with Moya to see how we can continue increasing efforts, but I I think in terms of language access, uh, we're happy to kind of fill in any gaps as long as uh elections department has uh new ideas.

Awesome.

And we have some ideas too, and we'd love to sit down with you all in elections to sort of see some of those out.

So, okay, Moya, you could have all of my questions like for real.

Courtney, the entire team want to thank everyone.

I mean, Monique deserved a red carpet send out for all of the incredible work that she has carried.

So just want to thank Monique for her leadership of Moya, you know, and I'll say again that you know, in back in the beginning of this year, my office started working on the partnerships with the Boston Foundation United Way, used to make other foundations to support just it.

So it was happening in Minneapolis.

We see what's happening in TPS with age community, we wanted to be ready, and that that private public partnership was born.

And I just want to say, in no way to supplant what I think is the important city dollars to working in partnership with community, and in no way knowing that this was going to happen.

So, what are we going to do?

Because there are so many entities and organizations that depend on these grants for their ability to serve the most vulnerable, and also absent additional external funding, weave and well-being, legal access, ESOL, mutual aid grants will all wind down.

We know that those are the most important, especially the mutual this work for not just for Moya, but for all departments, we know that people are doing this work with or without governments out.

And we need to be there so that they can see that there's this affirmation, the sense of like we are in partnership with you.

What are we going to do to ensure that that's still happening?

Yeah.

Just want to thank you.

I'm sure Monique is listening in, so thank you for the kind words.

And thank you again for your advocacy and partnership and making that collaboration possible.

I think we have a really nimble team that has been working on these challenges and thinking through how do we support community since before we had grant funding.

The grant funding has been incredibly supportive to ensure that communities are honored for the work that they're doing, and we recognize that it is not going to be enough funding for them.

So really thinking about internally how do we become creative, how do we partner with other departments like the Health Commission, for example, to execute more work on weaving well-being that still remains centered on honoring lived experiences, community-based support, and so on and so forth.

Immigration legal access, we will continue to advocate with our funding partners.

We know that is a primary priority for us to continue advocating for with funding partners.

We unfortunately cannot legally do that work internally as a city, but we are committed to ensuring that folks still have access to our free immigration consultations, and we'll make sure that that remains a priority for our office as well.

But we welcome, you know, continued collaboration with you.

Thank you for all the constituents that you connect with us, and thank you again for all of your advocacy.

Thank you.

No problem, Councillor Luigi, and we'll just take the time out of Councillor Culpepper's.

Okay, uh, Councillor Fitzgerald, you're next, and then Councillor Rurel.

Uh and then uh we'll I have a couple questions, we'll get to public testimony.

Uh thank you, Chair, appreciate that.

Um, a lot of great questions I had were asked already, uh, and I appreciate that.

Typically, I've started off every department with saying, like, we're all taking a haircut, we know uh that it's tough times for all.

Um, I guess one question I ask is is uh, and you guys have alluded to it briefly, so you don't have to dive as deep again, but in where we're taking the cuts, which ones are you feeling the most?

From what I understand, it's the grants really that we're we're losing over personnel, same as this morning's uh meeting.

Uh, but the confidence you have that we'll be able to stretch and cover.

I guess it's a little bit different with grants.

It's how it's harder.

I mean, we gotta look to outside philanthropy or other means to cover it, so um, there might not be much more that you haven't already said, and I don't want anyone to repeat themselves, but if if there's anything else to add about the confidence level of sort of how to backfill some of this stuff, or ideas that you guys are having, and how we could be helpful.

Um, happy to hear any of those ideas from any department, yeah.

You guys have answered it, it's fair enough.

I just had to I've asked it of every department, so I want to make sure I stay consistent.

Um, I can start.

I think our office is very fortunate where uh a lot of our funding uh remains in our budget.

Um, one of the areas that we did receive cuts, um, which we identified would still allow us to continue our operations in the is our equipment line, uh, and that is um for counselors who were here before and had supported amendments.

That is a decision that we made um because of the fact that there are still pilots that are occurring, and that we did not think we're going to uh finalize in time for us to purchase new equipment in the upcoming year, and that is where the major of our cuts uh did happen for us.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think just continued areas of visibility and uplifting our former grantees.

Um, you know, one thing that we're looking to do is for the first time ever, we're going to have an LGBTQIA to us plus affirming uh job fair happening on June 1st in connection with our flag raising, so we'll be able to have some of those partners and grantees.

You know, we're doing a call of any job opening, you know, job openings, and that's another way to have visibility.

Um, and I would say uh really kind of figure out ways to uplift and highlight.

Um, so we are shifting our um annual museum of science pride celebration that's happening on June 27th this year, and adding a whole community awards ceremony, so trying to get creative as far as uplifting and um acknowledging, but also providing a spotlight for those folks as they are seeking other funding.

Great, thank you.

Um and I'll just add, I think we're thinking about this in two different ways.

One for some of the work that we can do internally.

I've referenced um weaving well-being, so mental health um work as well as our immigrant youth advancement, um, really thinking about how do we partner with outside organizations, semi-quasi, um, BPHC, Boston uh public schools to deepen the work that we're doing to kind of ensure that this legacy that has been built continues on and thinking about ways that we as experts in this work as well, alongside community partners with that expertise can uh move forward this work just maybe in a different way.

Um I think as I mentioned before, legal access is a little bit different simply because of the legal nature of it, and I would just add, you know, we have made in historic investments um in immigration legal access, thanks in part to previous amendments from the city council, but even with all the funding in the world, the demand is unfortunately you know going to always be higher than the funding available.

So really thinking about what are some ways that we can think in the long term to ensure that folks get trained up in the community to become Department of Justice accredited representatives.

Um thinking strategically around how we can provide technical assistance and support for maybe a more long-term strategy.

Great, thank you.

On the free immigration consultations, what would it take to increase that?

I know you guys meet twice a month now.

I mean, is that is that more is it more money that it would take to increase it, or is it just like diverting efforts and times and sketch people's schedules to to allow for more of them to occur?

Yeah, so um I think the so these are all volunteer immigration attorneys that devote their time to us.

So I think this has always been a challenge in the field.

It's just um there are not enough folks that are going into immigration law, and we are seeing challenges with the current environment that a lot of folks are also devoting more time to their private practice as a result of federal enforcement measures, um, and folks needing to seek support for immigration relief.

Um but we have a legal access uh project manager who is actively recruiting new volunteers every week.

So if you are aware of any immigration attorneys that want to support with this pro bono effort, um you can contact our office.

Great.

Thank you.

The mental health mini grants uh are those still are those are those being cut.

I know there was 70,000 to seven different organizations.

Uh is that 70,000 gone or is that still happening?

And if so, what did those grants sort of any specifics of what that those mini grants actually turned into?

Like what were they supporting?

Yeah, so um this year we had the opportunity of actually providing I believe it was around 230,000 um in funding, ranging from around 4,000 for the smallest grantee up to 15,000.

Um, and these uh uh we will be experiencing a cut in that program, but um we're fortunate for the Boston Public Health Commission.

I meet with folks there on a monthly basis to collaborate, learn about more opportunities, think about what resources exist, whether that's to support us or direct community organizations to but folks really this is a uh this program has been ongoing for five years, and so folks have really built up ecosystems to you know sustain the work that they're doing even after the grant funding ends.

So we have folks running group circles, we have um Reiki, stop by the East Boston Farmers Market and get some, you know, Reiki.

We also have folks offering yoga in the park, so really thinking about what are the strategies that are rooted in community.

Great.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh I know I'm short on time.

Um the rainbow crosswalks, right?

Trying to get, I don't know.

Are you guys working with Public Works at BTD to do that?

And if so, what is your latest understanding?

I've been trying to get one at Peter's Park in the South End for a year or two.

Reach out to our office.

So we are working closely with Streets Cabinet on that as sort of case by case.

Um, what entails is making sure that ADA accessibility, community buy-in, awareness, things like that.

There's multiple steps.

We also streets works with directly with ONS neighborhood services to kind of talk through the different things.

Everyone's been super supportive.

Streets has been a great ally, no pen intended on this.

And but feel free, anyone can reach out to us at LGBTQ at Boston.gov.

And we can connect them with Streets or reach out to Streets and 311.

And yes, happy to we're always looking for increased visibility on our streets.

I appreciate that, Julian.

Thank you for all the work you do and for all that you do, everybody.

Thank you so much.

Chair, thank you for the time.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Council, seven minutes.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to everyone on this panel for your service.

I'll start with uh LCA, the purchase of ILA pro devices.

I know that has been put on pause to study the uses data.

Um what are we looking for in the data to, I guess, expand or grow or stop the pilot?

I apologize, I think I misspoke.

We did purchase them.

So we did 14.

I actually have one because I thought you were gonna be here and I can show it to you later.

Um, so we purchased 14, and we are piloting it currently with departments.

Um, and that includes like the first, second, and third floor folks.

Um, the what we are studying through the pilot, however, is we do understand that incorporating AI into language access is a big decision, and if we were to do that on a citywide scale, we have been uh really honing in on the risk factors, the case by case usage, ensuring quality uh uh control, and we also know through a lot of um our involvement in safe AI task force, et cetera, that the and I'm sure you're inert about this as I am, but the actual technology really depends on the data that is fed through it, and a lot of it is available online, and so our concern is mainly for languages that are not that common.

Um, you know, how do we ensure that we are rolling this out in a way that's uh uh sensitive to our communities, and also acknowledging the workforce that is ultimately going to be impacted, and we're working with ATA and other folks there as well.

I think you answered like two or three of my questions in your response.

Um, this question for immigrant advancement, um the council amendment um that supported ESOL parent classes and uh legal support capacity.

If those dollars are not restored, I think we might have spoke already around the legal support capacity portion of it, so this is more so centered around the ESOL parent classes.

Those dollars are not in store restored, which neighborhoods languages, school communities uh will be most impacted.

Yeah, so we um uh we have some of the findings from uh previous funding years, and I can certainly um share more of that with you after.

I unfortunately don't have that um available right now.

Awesome, awesome.

Uh, through the chair if I can get that.

And then you are projected you're projecting to continue um FY27 service levels, around 500 youth, over 2,000 constituent inquiries.

Yes, um, 600 free immigration consultations, um, while still cutting uh your your budget.

Um, what work is being shifted from community-based organizations to staff, or is this all already been done internally?

Uh yeah, so uh our free immigration consultations are internal, um, so and we've actually, as you saw, far surpassed that number already with about 700 uh folks that have received consultations already.

Um, immigrant youth advancement, we are grateful that we um do have funding for the summer programming, and we have staff, our immigrant youth organizer who is working with BPS, and partners on how do we continue opportunities throughout the school year for our youth?

Um, so a lot of the work um we are able to do internally and think about how do we shift that work as well.

Awesome, thank you.

Um Mola, this question's for you.

Contractor services are dropping from around 340,000 uh to 40,000.

Is this all grants, or is this grants and other services like consulting, community events, or is this just all grants?

Yeah, absolutely.

So Mola's overall budget in total was cut by 30%, contracted services, which includes grants, uh programming and events budget were cut by 87%, meaning that all three grants were cut by 100%.

Got it.

Um, and then we have 45,000 remaining.

Okay, thank you for FY27.

Thank you for that.

And I'm not sure if this is a external grant or this is this is a um internal grant, the uh IDEA grant.

Um provided 70k for gender affirming identity documents and emergency assistance.

Um what is the status of that grant for FY27?

And if that if we don't receive that grant, where are we directing constituents?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, so that grant has been cut um for FY20.

That was an external or was that was an internal grant?

That was our Mola grant being given to external um community.

So uh overall that grant was um received twice the number of applications this year compared to last year.

Twice the amount.

Can you give me like a uh a figure?

Um I can I yes I can get that number for you, and my incredible team up in the balconies here can help get that to me.

Um so $70,000 was given out to key organizations such as um MTPC, emergency transgender emergency fund, and uh blue, um with uh lifting up MTPC, Massachusetts Trans Political Coalition doing really the only work of its kind.

Um and so uh through this, a number of Boston residents were assisted with specific name change services, as well as community advocates uh being trained to provide that, in fact, like a training the trainer.

Um so it went specific specifically to uh document change assistance, um, which still remains a very high impact program, um, ensuring that these residents can um really affirm and safely change those um identities, which is impactful, we know as far as um you know everything from health appointments to traveling.

This year's grant cycle was more exceptionally competitive.

Um so again, I had mentioned we we received more than twice the number, so uh requests in general um for these applications uh were close to a half a million, so for 69 um thousand.

Uh the office uh initially had just 50,000 budgeted for the awards, and thanks to the support of equity and inclusion, um, we were able to bring that up to the 70, uh, which really um uh helped meet that gap in that need.

Yes, and and you know, cutting those grants uh sends again.

I said this in the 10 a.m.

hearing, it just sends the raw message uh to our community.

Uh when you see one point nearly 1.8 million dollars uh being cut from immigrant advancement, half a million being cut from black male advancement, uh 400 close to 400,000 from Human Rights Commission, the Office of Equity taken 306, close to 360,000 uh cut, um, Office of LGPTQ, I IA 2S plus taking 283, a little bit more than 283,000, women advancement 157,000, fair housing and equity, 112,000 cut, office of language, community access, LCA, a hundred thousand dollars in cuts, and then it's just you sit back and you look at it, it's like what is equitable about these cuts.

Thank you, Councillor Warrell.

Um, so I just have a couple questions then.

Again, if you're here to give public testimony, please sign in on the sheet by the entrance after I I speak then uh we'll we'll go to public testimony and then to a another round of questions for my colleagues.

Just you know while we have a captive audience uh here you know I just uh speaking to folks who showed up today um yeah I was I was in the Boston Herald this morning uh some head the headline was something along the lines of uh you know Boston City Council budget chair floats defunding the fire department to fund veterans uh which is a little overstating it but um you know just so you understand you know we're talking we've got a 750 thousand dollar cut to veteran services we had a couple counselors who floated a resolution which we passed to try to prioritize funding veteran services but you know in this universe of our city budget you know the money has to come from somewhere right and so uh there are you know the fire department budgets 336 million dollars is going up 2.5 percent unlike you know the departments we see before us today and there's items like uh miscellaneous supplies where they budget 3.8 million a year and they underspend by 900 thousand we could fund the veterans and still have 1500 left over that they won't spend um but you know we heard that people you know they don't want to fund uh you know uh veteran services off the backs of our firefighters which I understand but as we're talking today you know we're we're talking about funding it off the backs of our you know our immigrant communities our LGBTQ communities you know our youth so we all have really hard choices to make in this budget this is a finite amount of money we already collect the maximum amount of property taxes that we can prop two and a half we collect the maximum every time the tax bills goes out we we hear a lot about that from the from the community and rightly so people are struggling to pay their property taxes so one thing I'll flag for folks here there is something called the transfer fee you know which this council has supported and which the mayor has supported which is to collect two percent on property sales over two million dollars and not over the whole thing just two percent on the what's whatever is over two million dollars which would result in the city collecting around 160 million dollars extra year which would prevent us from having to decide you know kind of are we helping firefighters are helping youth uh and make these choices and that's something that you know I everyone we we've had a lot of hearings like this arts and culture youth jobs uh small businesses you know you know LGBTQ community immigrants and and folks are are are trying to get you know find the money in the budget for those programs there is a a source out there that is in the state house just down the road I hope we have the same energy looking for those I mean I'm you know I I think everyone here two two percent our property sales over two million dollars if we can't collect that money you know really what what can we do for our communities I just um so we we've we've heard a lot so Mola I how are these cuts impacting suicide prevention I don't know if you've mentioned that I know uh we have worked on that in the past through MOLA.

Yeah absolutely thank you for your um for your question um and sort of lifting it up um in a way that helps increase visibility and using this platform on that piece um so our Beyond Pry grant allows uh organizations to apply across multiple different um aspects um the we hold a community needs assessment uh in the fall and through that the community identified um several different uh specific priority areas uh housing, crisis response um legal assistance, and then specifically well-being, mental health, and physical health um so many of these contribute to um mental health um i will also say that our team um over the past year has worked very closely with BPHC and the center there, really kind of assessing how we're wanting to move collectively and together.

Specifically have a deepened connection again with the Center for Behavioral Health and Wellness through standing coordination meetings, focusing on service navigation, rapid response, community-based support, and this partnership has really specifically created more affirming pathways for residents to seek health and wellness resources.

What I will say is based on national data that the rates to suicide hotline and other numbers are going up and have gone up steadily over the past two years.

Okay.

Well, yeah, I want to get to public testimony.

I agree with everything my colleagues have said about how painful the cuts to you know to Molanoia are and the cuts we heard about this morning.

And I'm you know, I think we'll be working to try to figure out a way to restore that uh in in the budget process, you know, as we go forward.

But uh so uh I'm just gonna cede the rest of my time.

I'm gonna start calling on folks on the sign-in sheet.

Um, I'll call out the first five people.

I'm gonna apologize in advance uh for um mispronouncing names or misreading them.

Don't don't please don't take it personally.

Uh uh Aisha Gaskins, you're here this morning, and then Sean Cahill, Tanya, uh, I think I'm not sure what that says.

Uh there's Tanya for Mass Equality.

I'm not even gonna try that, and then Nina Silvaji, maybe, uh, and Trey Andre from MJAPC.

So let's start there.

So, two minutes.

We've got a lot of folks to get through.

Um, I'm just gonna say when you hear the buzzer, please wrap it up, at least make eye contact with me, that you understand that your time is up.

I'm not gonna play people off the stage, but um, you have two minutes to talk.

Uh please be respectful of everyone else here, make sure they get heard.

Uh, and when you hear the buzzer, please try to wrap it up and acknowledge that you've heard the buzzer.

Otherwise, I'm gonna have to chime in.

So uh Ms.

Gaskins.

Thank you.

To City Council, Minister Cole Pepper, Menyard Cole Pepper.

Ms.

Gaskins, you just lean closer to the microphone.

I think we'll pick you up better.

City Council Menyar Cul Pepper, Young Youth.

This is from Young Youth and Women's Development, Asia Gaskins.

I'm Roxbury, Dorchester, Massachusetts.

I am an empath, and which means that I hear auditory voices that are not present, so I have a disability.

America is at war with foreign nations.

Young youth and women's development has been searching for grants and fundings to invest in our youth, which we have not been successful with.

Issue, the immigrants are very rude, aggressive, and violent.

The city is concerned about their advancement when they are the one who are creating World War III.

Question, which condition created them to flee from their home country, and what politics have they been taught about the American rights issue?

While conducting business and filling out American forms, I continuously associate with foreign immigrants who speak the English language, which is very hard to understand from them because of their accent.

Question: How were they taught to read English and write English?

And they assume that the Americans do not understand English.

Comment Americans doesn't require Greek language, the first biblical language taught to everyone.

Why is it Spanish?

Issue.

The immigrants, foreigners have more access to American government documents than any black American that has been working for America since they existed and their families existed.

Question, why are the immigrants, foreigners hide for government positions before black Americans?

Issue commission for disabilities are struggling to approve for funding for their disability.

Americans have made a promise to help the low income restricted income and disabled, no matter color, creed or religion.

Question, why is there too little to no help with black Americans who are disabled?

Why is there little to no help for our growing?

Sorry, can you wrap up?

Yes, I'm wrapping up.

Our grower families, we are citizens of the United States of America and in God We Trust.

And last question How are the LGBTQIA2S community able to build their families and have children while black Americans have depleted to have children?

How is it possible that advancement is condoning fostering children and having families while the black American is suffering and not replenishing their youth?

I have concluded my concerns and questions for today.

All respects to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Have a wonderful day.

Okay.

So Sean Cahill, then Tanya, Nina, and Treyandre.

Sean Cahill had to leave.

Okay.

Uh sure.

And again, just say your name, organization, where you're from.

My name is Tanya Nesslusen.

I am the executive director of Mass Equality.

I am here today to urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ advancement and all of the other equity cabinet departments in the City of Boston budget.

For organizations like ours, these community grants are not symbolic investments.

They have direct impact on Bostonians in need of support.

Funding from MOLA allowed our organization to host community programming and reach community members who are too often left out of traditional systems of care and support.

These programs have enabled us to register first-time voters, educate people from marginalized community on how to engage in advocacy and provide arts programming, reflective of the identities of the members of our community who don't often see themselves represented.

The impact on our community has been tangible.

Through this funding, LGBTQ residents in Boston have had access to safer spaces, culturally competent services, mental health support, educational programming, and community connection during a time when anti-LGBTQ plus rhetoric and discrimination are decreasing and at an all-time high across the country.

These grants helped ensure that marginalized residents, particularly transgender people, were not facing these challenges alone.

If these budget cuts move forward and the community grant funding is eliminated, the consequences will be immediate and harmful.

Community members who already face disproportionate barriers will lose resources at the exact time they are needed the most.

The equity cabinets are simply not equipped to deliver the programming that our organizations are delivering to city residents, and perhaps more importantly, they do not have the deep relationships with the marginalized communities that they seek to serve.

Beyond that, when only 20 cents of every hundred philanthropic dollars is going to LGBTQ nonprofits, we simply cannot and should not be put in the position with competing with the city of Boston for funding.

It benefits the city to partner with trusted community organizations by not only enabling our services for underserved residents, sorry, I'm wrapping up, but also by helping to foster truth trust and develop and build relationships between those communities and those in city government.

We asked the city to reject cuts that would eliminate community grant funding, budgets or value statements, and 30% cut to MOLA's budget, which resulted in an 87% cut to their contractual services and a complete elimination of grant funding, which was a key component of MOLA's mission, demonstrates a lack of concern for the communities which you seek to serve.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

You get a B on time timing.

So let's try to keep it to two minutes, everyone.

And okay, whenever so, yes, uh Nina.

Yes, thank you.

Good afternoon, Chairperson, and members of the council who are still here.

Um, my name is Nina Savaggio, I'm the executive director of Greater Boston P Flag and a Hyde Park resident.

Greater Boston PFAG supports families, schools, and communities across Massachusetts in creating safer and more affirming spaces for LGBTQ people and those who love them.

I'm here today to urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ Advancement and the equity cabinet departments in the city of Boston and keep the programming in the community-based organizations that have been doing it for decades now.

And we are the experts, we have the content, and we have the relationships.

Our organization serves hundreds of LGBTQ youth and their families across the city of Boston, and we strongly support the continuation of these community grants in the FY27 budget.

Every week we hear from families navigating systems that were not built with LGBTQ people in mind.

Schools without clear policies for inclusion, healthcare providers unfamiliar with gender diverse care, and young people who fear that they're being targeted simply for being themselves.

According to the Trevor Project, you had asked about suicide.

We have seen uh an uptick and an increase in any place where anti-LGBTQ laws or policies are passed.

And 90% of LGBTQ LGBTQ youth say recent laws and political debates about the very existence of LGBTQ people negatively impacts our use mental health.

At a time when so many people feel unsafe and unsupported, Boston should continue to show leadership, and we should commit verbally, on paper, and financially to doing what it takes to create inclusive spaces.

For the past two years, we've received a modest grant from MOLA that has allowed us to provide free training to uh city departments and Boston public schools, staff, and caregivers, helping to build safer environments across the city.

Boston has long positioned itself as a leader in equity and inclusion, preserving funding for MOLA and the equity cabinet is clear and necessary commitment to public health, community safety, and belonging.

We urge you to reject these cuts and fully support support the departments that make this work possible.

Budgets tell a story, not only of your priorities, but who the priorities are in the city.

Our communities need sustained investment, not divestment at a time of growing need.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Okay, thank you.

So I I've uh for anyone waiting online.

We're gonna go through all the uh in-person testimony and then get to you.

Maybe there's about 20 or so folks uh ahead of you in line.

So Trey Andre, then there's Jeff Walker.

There's also a Jeff Walker online, so I'm not sure if that's the same person.

Uh Sorella, uh Blyman Cohen, Carolyn Cronin, and Claudia Green.

So uh Trey, Andre, yeah.

Good afternoon, Chairperson and members of the Boston City Council.

My name is Trey Andre Valentine.

I'm a JP resident and the executive director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, the oldest active transgender advocacy organization in the country.

I'm here today urging the council to restore funding to the community grant programs within the equity and inclusion cabinet, including the grants administered through MOLA.

Last March, this council voted 12 to 1 to make Boston a sanctuary city for transgender people.

That vote mattered deeply to our community at a time when transgender people across the country are facing escalating political attacks.

It sent a message that Boston would stand with us, protect us, and invest in our safety and dignity.

A sanctuary city cannot exist in name only sanctuary requires action, it requires resources, and it requires meaningful investment in the organizations doing the day-to-day work of supporting the very communities the city says it wants to protect.

For the past three years, MTPC has partnered with the city through MOLA funding to provide direct support to trans and non-binary Boston residents.

More than 60% of these funds went directly to community members for name changes, rent, food, basic needs.

These partnerships matter because organizations like MTPC are often the bridge between the city and communities that have historically been marginalized, criminalized, or excluded from systems of power.

Without trusted community partnerships, the city loses one of its most important connections to the very people it claims it wants to protect.

These grants are not symbolic, and they do not just fund programs.

They build trust, relationships, and access.

At a moment when the federal government and extremist movements are targeting transgender people with increasing hostility.

Now it's not the time for Boston to retreat from its commitments.

Defunding these programs undermines the very promise this council made when it declared Boston a sanctuary city.

We are asking you to restore these funds and demonstrate that Boston's commitment to transgender residents.

It's not just rhetorical but real.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

A plus on timing.

Thank you very much.

So Jeff Walker, then uh Cyrella uh Blyman Cohen, Carolyn Cronin, and Claudia Green.

Hi, um I am also the Jeff Walker Online, so you can remove me.

Okay, good in person.

Great.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon, Chairperson and members of the City Council, and thank you all.

Um I had no idea how much incredible work was happening in the city by you esteemed leaders.

So thank you.

Um again, I'm Jeff Walker.

I'm speaking on behalf of LGBTQ Senior Housing in Hyde Park.

Um I urge you to protect the funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ plus advancement MOLA and all other equity and inclusion departments in the city of Boston.

Funding for MOLA allowed our organization to host community programming and provide direct services and support to LGBTQ elders in income-restricted housing and keep them safely and securely housed.

This funding enabled us to reach nearly 3,000 individuals last year, including LGBTQ transgender adults and youth, residents, Boston area seniors, and BIPOC community members who are too often left out of traditional systems of care and support.

Through this funding, LGBTQ plus residents in Boston had access to over 300 programs last year.

If the budget cuts are enacted, community members will lose affirming spaces and trusted resources at the exact moment they are needed most.

We ask that counts this we ask the council to reject cuts that would eliminate community grant funding and instead fully fund the equity and inclusion cabinet departments that make this work possible.

Our communities deserve sustained investment, not disinvestment during moments of growing need.

Thank you so much for your time.

Okay, thank you.

Another A plus.

Uh okay.

Sorella and then Carolyn, Claudia Green, and Audrey Martinez, uh Gudapakon.

Good afternoon, Chairperson and members of the council.

My name is Sorella Blyman-Cohen, and I am the executive director of QNIST, queers never experiencing shame and trauma.

QNEST is a young nonprofit that benefited from a Beyond Pride grant, which provided the initial funded meeting to launch a peer support group for LGBTQ IA plus youth.

Since receiving this support, the program has expanded from one group to multiple groups across the city.

What began with only a handful of participants has now served more than 25 young people, helping them feel seen, supported, and safe.

This work would not have been possible without the support we received from MOLA.

I know QNIST is not alone.

Many LGBTQ IA plus nonprofits across Boston work every day to fill critical gaps and support communities whose needs might otherwise go unmet.

These partnerships allow the city to extend its reach and impact in meaningful and cost-effective ways.

I urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ, IA, to us plus advancement, and other equity cabinet departments serving our communities.

Thank you for your attention and consideration.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, Carolyn Cronin, Claudia Green, Audrey, Martinez, and Mercedes, loving uh Manley.

Good afternoon, Chairperson and members of the City Council.

Thank you for your time.

My name is Carolyn Cronin.

I'm a resident at 55 Harvard Avenue in the Hyde Park, a building known as the Pride, which is an income-restricted building that is affirming to LGBTQ plus elders over 62.

Programming there is provided through LGBT senior housing, a nonprofit.

That was mission is to end elder isolation among other things and provide safe housing.

So I speak to you not as an expert, but as a receiver of their services.

And we're hearing about lack of money.

We know there is a lack of money, but there is also in terms of where do marginalized communities like the LGBT community find money, and where else but government funding is most critical here.

We know that it just does not come from the general population.

So I ask you all to, you know, appreciate all of your work that you've been done, but what is being done by LGBT senior housing is keeping elders safe, safely housed, fully engaged, and feeling welcome.

And Boston has a reputation to be welcoming to the LGBT community, but without funding.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um, Carolyn.

I know, so that was Carolyn.

Um Claudia Green, next.

I'm actually, I'm Kirsten Keels.

Um, Claudia has so graciously allowed me to skip ahead just a bit.

Um, yeah, if you're okay with that.

Totally fine.

Go ahead, go ahead.

That's amazing.

I was like, I got a red socks game to catch.

My first.

Okay, I know.

Go socks, yeah.

Okay, no pandering.

Oh, pandering, understood.

Keep it profession.

Um, good afternoon, chairperson and members of city council.

My name is Kirsten Keels, and I'm speaking on behalf of LGBTQ Senior Housing in Hyde Park.

I urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ plus advancement, MOLA, and other equity and inclusion cabinet departments in the city of Boston.

Funding for MOLA allowed our organization to host community programming and provide direct services and support for LGBTQ elders and income-restricted housing and keep them safely and securely housed.

To witness our queer elders, the most vulnerable of us finally experience belonging, community, and acceptance after decades of social and institutional persecution has been life-changing to see.

As a younger queer person, the queer elders I work with are a part of our city's living history that deserves to be heard and respected in practice and in policy.

As the only multi-generational LGBTQ plus community center in Boston, we exist at the forefront of intersectional community well-being.

This funding enabled us to reach nearly 3,000 individuals, including LGBTQ, transgender adults and youth residents, Boston area seniors, and the BIPOC community members who are often left out of traditional systems of care and support.

Through this funding, LGBTQ plus residents in Boston had access to over 300 programs and services a year.

If the budget cuts are enacted, community members will lose affirming spaces and trusted resources at the exact moment they are needed most.

As the nation tends further towards fascism and amplified demonization of our community, alongside funding already being slashed from city supports like the Age Strong Commission.

It is our responsibility, our duty to stand firm against.

If actions speak louder than words, then the action of proposing extreme cuts to essential funding for the LGBTQ community speaks volumes.

Is Boston only a city for the straight, the white, the gender-conforming, and anyone under the age of 55?

Personally, that doesn't sound like the Boston I have fallen in love with, nor city I would be proud to call my home.

Last thing we asked the council to reject cuts that would eliminate community grant funding and instead fully fund the equity and inclusion cabinet departments that make this work possible.

Our communities deserve sustained investment, not de divestment during moments of growing need.

We're here, we're queer, and Boston is better for it.

Thank you for your time.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Good luck at the game to everyone.

Um Claudia Green.

Enjoy the game.

Is it raining outside?

I don't know, I've been here all day.

It's apparently nice.

There's some sort of orb of light coming through the clouds.

Okay, go.

Hello, my name is Claudia Green.

I'm the executive director of English for New Bastonians, the city's partner for 25 years, and in fact, we were founded out of the mayor's Office of New Bostonians, which today is the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Advancement.

Thank you for having us here.

I'm here to ask the council to submit an amendment to Mayor Wu's budget for level funding at 500,000 for parent English classes across Boston schools and neighborhoods in the coming year.

Parents' involvement is the single most critical factor in determining children's success at school.

It's more than socioeconomics, more than student background, or the type of school that a child attends.

To fully support children's academic success, immigrant parents need to communicate with teachers and administrators, and schools need to communicate with parents.

English skills help immigrant parents to be able to select the schools that are right for their children, to help their kids learn at home, and to use their voice to advocate for their children's interests and unique needs.

To be clear, we fully appreciate the situation of the city's budget at this time.

However, given the fear and uncertainties facing immigrant families, the need is greater now than ever.

In this hellish year, English classes are a lifeline, they're a place of community and information and a path forward for immigrant families.

It's where they get information on a lot of the other resources that we've heard about today, legal resources, information about housing, food, etc.

And it's also a way for parent for BPS to hold on to family programming and stay in touch with immigrant families.

The council voted 11-2 years ago and unanimously last June to support parent English classes, and I hope that you will again today.

I want to share with you the impact that your vote had, the two of you that are here and the rest of you, and welcome to uh Counselor Culpepper.

This year in FY26, EMB applied for and received support for our ES or our ESL for Parents initiative, and Moya approved the RF move the RFP process efficiently and committed the funds to align with the regular ESOL program year, and it worked great.

With an additional 250,000 this year, English for New Bostonians supported partnership development, program planning and implementation.

And I want to be clear that as per English for New Bostonians model, we spread the funds across 10 community school partnerships.

We launched six new classes and six.

Six new classes at six new sites, and we sustained uh ten existing classes.

And to answer um uh counselor Warell's question, the new class, the classes are in Dorchester, Matipan, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, East Boston, Brighton, Chinatown, and Roslendale.

Um, and that was 402 parents over the last two years.

Um, so uh you'll hear from the next person testifying, Audrey Martinez of Gutapacum from parents themselves through her from parents themselves, and I would just like to ask you again to please help continue building rather than wasting two years of hard work and to help us to be the Boston that we want to be by investing in immigrant children and families, by supporting parent English classes.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Great work, D- on time management, but uh thank you.

Uh I'll work on it.

Okay, Ms.

Martinez.

Hi, um, counselors.

So, as a former teacher and education researcher, I know parent involvement in a child's education is the most powerful way to ensure children's academic success.

That's why, as a parent, I got involved in my daughter's school.

While working with other multilingual parents, I learned that access to English classes was their top priority so they could help their children at school with doctors to get better jobs and better housing.

That's why I helped create a partnership with English for New Bostonians four years ago at the Winship School.

It's very scary for parents to leave their children with strangers they can't fully communicate with for so many hours.

It's even more painful when they can't communicate with their own children about what they are learning at school.

For example, if a child is doing science projects about the solar system or geology, how can the child talk about this when they don't know the scientific terms in their native language?

How can a parent help their child when they are seeing them struggle with homework like reading and math?

The English for New Bostonians curriculum helps to close that gap.

ENB helps parents understand report cards, what is a parent teacher conference, how to use libraries, the value of reading with their children, and also communicates with them about vital community resources.

The letters I have here are from 22 parents who have children attending schools in Boston.

Most of them could not come because of their work schedules or because they were fearful.

Um, for example, one winship parent English classes helps my child and me share school and interesting stories at school.

A Quincy School Parent said, Before I took this class, I was afraid to talk to teachers because I could not understand or answer their questions.

Another parent from the Curtis Guild.

Now I can communicate confidently with my daughter's school and have the tools and support I need to pursue my dreams.

So we have extremely talented families who have so much to teach their children, and now with budget cuts in schools, we desperately need their partnership for our education system.

Thank you very much, Claudia.

Take notes.

Uh okay.

Uh, Mercedes, then Andrew Cho, Matisse Dupont, Elijah, Oyanuga, and uh Rainbow.

Good afternoon, Chairperson and members of the council.

My name is Mercedes Loving Manly, and I'm speaking on behalf of Pride Extended Incorporated, a community-driven platform for resource distribution, healing, and advocacy with heightened urgency on black and transgender populations.

I urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ plus advancement, MOLA, and other equity cabinet departments in the city of Boston.

Funding from OLA allowed our organization to provide direct services and engagement programs crucial to sustaining the security and well-being of those we serve.

This funding enabled us to redistribute over $10,000 annually to individuals who are often left out of traditional systems of care and support.

Our emergency assistance program alone, with the help of this funding, has provided LGBTQ plus residents in Boston access to nutritious food, safe housing, transportation, and medical support.

Further, these grants help ensure that the city has an opportunity to help build trust between the cabinets and the marginalized communities that they represent.

These grants are not only tangible resources, but they serve as bridges between the city and the people who make this city what it is.

It's through these grants that community members like myself have been able to meet folks where they are, which is a question that has been tossed around today.

If these budget cuts move forward and community grants funding is limited, the consequences will be immediate and harmful.

Organizations like ours will be forced to reduce programs, serve fewer people, or eliminate critical services altogether.

Community members will lose affirming spaces and trusted resources at the exact moment that they're needed most.

The decision to defund LGBTQ plus programming during this particular moment feels like a slap in the face to organizers like myself who are called in year in and year out for photo ops and public agendas.

The time for actually showing up and putting money where our mouths are for the sake of all of our well-being in security is now.

Trans youth in particular who face heightened risk of criminalization have recently experienced cuts to their gender-affirming care, specifically for youth ages 17 and under from key medical institutions in the state.

Now is not the time for divestment.

Now is the time to promote safe spaces and invest in them.

For black folks, brown folks, poor, disabled, immigrant, transgender, women, queer, all of our lives depend on it.

Lastly, last year, Mayor Wu publicly and notably spoke in opposition to federal officials who were, quote, attacking communities that embody diversity, creativity, and moral clarity.

Today, in this moment, I'd like to remind Mayor Wu that you do not get to represent us without actualizing the diversity and moral clarity that you speak of.

We ask the council to reject cuts that would eliminate community grant funding and instead fully fund the equity cabinet departments and maybe even give some more money to equity cabinet that makes this work possible.

Our communities deserve sustained investment, not divestment during moments of growing need.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you.

Again, if you hear the beep, please just acknowledge that you're over time, and I don't I really don't want to cut people off, but uh we've got a ways to go here.

So thank you, Mercedes.

Uh Andrew, uh Cho, Matisse Dupont, Elijah Oyenuga, and then Rainbow.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Andrew Cho.

I'm the director of music and operations at Ability Stands Boston.

I am speaking on behalf of the founder of the organization, Elise Patterson, and the organization overall, in support of these departments uh that have supported our work and allowed us to reach the multiply uh marginalized in our community.

Specifically with the mayor's office of immigrant advancement, we were able to receive grants that provided free movement classes on site at six different Boston housing authority locations, where attendance was 90% immigrants.

They self-reported receiving less than $10,000 annually, and without our free onsite services, they could not access programming.

And with our programming, they self-reported a wider range, uh, wider movement range, increased social connections, and other factors that led to greater physical, social, and emotional wellness.

With this cut in funding, we will have to decrease our offerings, which will only lead to increased isolation to our marginalized students, as well as reduced employment opportunities for our diverse and disabled teaching staff leading this work.

In conversations with the Office of LGBTQIA 2S Plus Advancement, we are exploring how funding can support our largely queer and trans staff, who in turn support our queer and trans productions and students as they develop their identities across our programming.

Their office has been helpful in amplifying our work in the work of our colleagues to ensure our LGBTQIA 2S Plus community feels supported in this time.

These cuts would drastically negatively affect our organization and what we provide for the city.

They need to be taken seriously because the ripple effects will be severe for the constituents across the multiple neighborhoods that we serve, such as Brighton, Back Bay, South End, Dorchester, and more.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Okay, Matisse.

Hi.

Um, my name is Matisse DuPont.

I'm speaking on behalf of Queer History Boston, which is a community archives documenting lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, to spirit, and more history of Boston and England.

I urge you to protect community grant funding for the mayor's office of the LGBTQ plus advancement and the equity inclusion cabinet at large.

These grants have helped build trust between the cabinet and the marginalized communities they represent, and trust takes years to build and can be lost in a single budget cycle if caught.

And history tells us if funding is cut, it often does not get restored.

In May 1981, during budget cuts driven by proposition two and a half, Mayor Kevin White eliminated the position of mayoral liaison to the lesbian and gay community.

It was a shorter name back then.

There's more of us now.

Um the only such position in the country at the time, 1981, held by Robin McCormick.

The liaison position had helped coordinate with the BPD during a time of rising violence against the queer community, educated city officials and community needs, and served as a trusted conduit between residents in City Hall.

McCormick's position costing only 14,000 to the city was a fraction of the comparable position of the mayor's office, very much like the departments that are at stake today.

Community members called it what it was not a financial necessity but a political choice.

On June 16th, 1981, the liaison's last day, approximately 100 people gathered at City Hall.

They marched to the Parkman House and showered the steps with tea bags, invoking the same principle that defined the city, no taxation without representation.

They called it the Tea Party two and a half after the name of that budget that year.

The city promised to reinstate the position, and it did not.

The broken promises echoed for it of um what is proposed today, eliminating community grant funding through Moal and Equity Cabinet is not the elimination of stop positions, it's not the same thing, but it carries the same message.

The LGBTQ plus residents and other marginalized communities are first to be cut and the loss to be restored.

Our organization exists to in part to ensure that the history like this is not forgotten, and we are asking you not to repeat it.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

I apologize, I didn't start the clock, so I had to estimate the first minute.

Um, I hopefully I didn't cut you off.

Double the funding, thank you.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

I will say the best advice I got as a lawyer was from uh uh a boss, one-time boss of mine, and he said, lead with your best shot.

So, you know, uh, I think it's definitely public speaking, it helps, and I don't always follow that advice.

Uh, okay, so uh Elijah, uh, if you're here, yes, and then Rainbow and then uh Mickey Jones.

Um, good afternoon, Chairperson and members of the city council.

My name is Elijah Oyanoga, and I'm speaking on behalf of Save Ourselves.

I urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of GPTQ Plus Advancement and other equity and inclusion cabinet departments.

Because this vital funding supports work that the city of Boston cannot do on its own.

Save Ourselves or SOS is a Boston-based uh peer-led initiative led by Vella Riley.

And SOS aims to fill the bat um the gap that society has left as the um transgender people have been actively targeted in this country.

Transgender individuals continue to face systemic crisis across all major sectors of public life, categorized by staggering four-fold increase in the risk of homelessness and violent victimization compared to the general population.

In the workplace and in healthcare settings, over half of the community reports experiencing discrimination or mistreatment, forcing many to postpone life-saving care or endure horse style professional environments.

For example, 26% of transgender people reported experiencing anti-transgender violence in the workplace, and this type of violence continues to rise annually.

And 10% reported being fired because of their transgender identity.

These compounding disparities can create a cycle of economic instability and physical danger that necessates urgent comprehensive legislative protection and funding for community organizations that serve this community.

Because without it, how are trans people meant to work and live within these circumstances?

That comes, save ourselves comes in to fill this disparity.

Save ourselves or SOS aims to make a living possible.

SOS is a Boston-based peer-led initiative led by Vella Riley.

We support transgender people, especially current and former trans sex workers and others navigating housing instability, HIV, substance use, recovery, and systemic exclusion to be able to participate in society again.

What makes SOS different is that um what makes SOS different is that it is funded by us and for us to address these um circumstances that transgender people have to face.

Um, do these services because they do not have the lived experience of the transgender community and those who serve them under Villa's leadership, SOS is helping current and former transgender sex workers move from isolation and crisis towards stability, healing, and self-determination.

Protecting this funding means protecting peer-led life-saving work that has transformed the lives of many transgender people.

So, once again, I urge the council to restore funding to all equity and inclusion cabinet departments so they can continue funding the community-rooted work that is that is the heartbeat of the city.

Thank you and for your time and consideration.

Okay, thank you.

So, we're gonna hear from Rainbow and Mickey Jones, and then we're gonna take a short bathroom break.

Is that okay?

Hi, go.

Whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon, Chair Parson, and members of the city council.

My name is Rainbow, and I'm speaking on behalf of Save Ourselves.

I want to share how funding from the city of Boston has made a real difference in my life.

Because of Mo Laws Beyond Pride grant, SOS has been a safe and life-changing space for trans women like me in Boston.

Through this support, I've been able to get help with clothing, transportation, food, stipends, basic necessities, and connections to public services.

But more than that, SOAS gave me a sense of safety belonging in community.

Before SOS, I often didn't feel comfortable leaving my house or asking for help.

Through this program, I found a place where I could be myself without fear of being disrespected.

That has meant so much to me.

Programs like that.

So I do more than provide services.

Thank you.

Okay.

Mickey Jones.

Good afternoon, Chairperson and members of council.

My name is Mickey Jones, and I'm speaking on behalf of all of the LGBTQ advancement.

I am here today to urge you to protect the funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ plus advancement and other equality cabinets departments within the city of Boston.

Through this funding residents and myself, and Boston have gained access to critical services, including mental health, housing assistance, full access, transportation resources, education services, and also essential programs that improve quality of life and community.

As far as that's being said, I'm standing here again and living experience of the effectiveness of how these programs and orders contribute to the LGBTQ plus IA community.

As being a resident since 2016, originally from Alabama, I would not have made it as far as I have now without these orgs as far as housing, as far as transportation, as far as living, as far as mental health, as far as being felt like Boston is a sanctioned state, which may we promise that we were.

So with that being said, if we respectfully, if council respectfully rejects any cuts that will eliminate community grant funding instead of fully instead of fully funding equal equally cabinet departments that make work possible for our communities, we deserve stability.

No family, no friends or anything.

The LGBTQIA plus advancement was what saved my life here in Massachusetts.

So if Mayor Wu wants to say that we're sanctioned for Massachusetts, I'm living proof of that.

If these cuts continue, we're not sanctioned.

Thank you.

So we're just saying five-minute recess and come back.

We've got about 10 more folks here to give testimony.

Thank you very much.

Oh, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what I like.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I think we don't want to buy it.

I don't know.

I was going to go to the right.

I don't know.

I don't want to have a point.

I don't want to do that.

I was going to go to the next one.

Hearing is uh going back on the record.

Um I don't know who's still here, but I have Sal from Cambridge.

Uh I'm not sure if that's okay.

Um, then Jay Lamb, Liam, Carnahan, uh, I think it's Lilla, Nguyen, and Sam Schwartz.

I don't know if anybody is here.

So I'm hoping to get a couple more panelists back, but if I've called your name, or I've gotten close to calling your name, because I couldn't read the your handwriting, um, just line up uh at either mic, and we'll be started in one second.

Okay, so we are back on the record.

I mean, it's fine.

I can um go ahead.

If you want to wait another thirty seconds.

Do you need water?

Oh, okay, sorry.

Uh yeah, just take take your time.

So we hear from Sal, uh, Jay, Liam.

I think it's Lilla and Sam Schwartz.

Uh, there's another Sam later in the program.

Um, so okay, great.

Thank you, panelists.

You're back whenever you're ready.

Hi, everyone.

My name is Sao Khan.

I use all NNA pronouns.

I'm a former resident of Boston, um, neighborhood, Deutscher.

I'm a current president of the city of Cambridge and a founder and executive director of Out Newcomers.

Is it grassroots LGBTQ migrant justice organization serving low-income and at-risk, LGBTQ, asylum seekers, refugees, asylumes, immigrants, and across Square Boston?

As a former journalist and an openly career activist from Pakistan, I was forced to seek a political asylum in the US in 2019, due to rising state-sponsored and religious extremist violence against journalists, dissidents, and LGBTQ activists.

When I arrived in Massachusetts, immigrant and LGBTQ plus focused nonprofits became a lifeline for my survival and allowed me to continue my advocacy work, which was essential and led to the creation of out newcomers.

I'm here today to strongly oppose the proposed budget cuts targeting equity-centered programming and grant funding supporting LGBTQA plus migrant disabled and historically marginalized comedian in the city of Boston.

Organizations like ours operate with extremely limited resources while filling critical gaps larger systems often fail to address.

As many of us do not qualify for federal benefits or even state benefits.

Out Newcomers is trying to provide emergency support, immigration, legal and housing referrals, wellness programming, and safer spaces for LGBTQ migrants fleeing persecution, violence, detention, displacement, only to arrive in America seeing the rising hostilities and threats against us.

For many LGBTQ migrants, deportation, ours is not a legal outcome, it's a death sentence.

Small grassroots organizations are already operating under immense pressure, fear, and burnout.

These organization these services are not optional.

Many um LGBTQ migrants face homelessness, a rejection from their own cultural communities.

I urge the city of uh city council to protect and restore funding for LGBTQ migrants and disability justice.

City of Boston cannot claim to value equity and inclusion with this form of fiscal fascism, and even claim to call itself the sanctuary city for immigrant and LGBT community members while simultaneously dismantling the very grants and other resources that keep us alive and safe.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh Jay Lamb, Liam Carnahan, and uh again, I apologize.

Uh Lila Nguyen.

Hello, Boston City Council.

My name is Jay Lamb.

I use he in pronouns, and I am from the Medford Summerville area.

I am gay, queer, and part of the LGBTQ plus community.

LGBTQ plus um rights are human rights.

We are people of any gender, any race, any color, any age, any ability, and of any marginalized identities, or identity in general, by distributing um budget towards LGBTQ IA to S Plus programs.

We improve their community resources, health care, housing, educational opportunities, and prevent suicides and the loss of career lives from discrimination or lack of resources.

And we are a community under attack from our own federal government.

Meaning we need a safe haven for the LGBTQ IA2S plus community, especially those who are transgender and non-binary.

Funding gender affirming health care and legal services is important, it's important to improving their quality of life.

And trans people have faced discrimination from our federal government within the past couple of years, such as preventing individuals from changing their gender marker on their passports, or um transgender youth being unable to receive gender affirming health care.

Um people should be allowed to live as who they are, who they identify as, and live happily, especially because Boston is a sanctuary city.

Can we really talk about inclusion and community when we're cutting budget funds for the LGBTQ plus IA2S community, the immigrant community, the disabled community?

Um we really deserve having our assistance, our identities of just being who we are, being turned into a political football, being thrown around.

Removing these financial resources from any of these groups is to exclude them from our overall Bostonian community, and excluding them is to promote these systematic barriers that we've been working so hard to overcome and push.

Boston needs to be there for its people, and we all belong and deserve to be here.

Um we need to support and up with each other, and cutting the budget is not the way.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um, okay, Liam Carnahan, uh Lilyn Wynn, Sam Schwartz.

Okay.

Uh Jay Johnson, Max Evans, and then I need the other sheet.

Uh no?

Okay.

Uh I guess uh Sam.

Are you coming down to testify?

Uh Sam Pierce.

I do so people online.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, members of the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet.

I actually rise today in support of the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet in its entirety.

I think that they do wonderful work.

Um, so shout out to you, Mary Angelou, and your team.

Um, one of the things that I would like to see us really focus on is not creating false narratives.

I think that it's very important that we have language access, and that is what the school department, I feel like, is for.

And I think that now that the US Supreme Court has removed the right to vote, we are reminded of Mrs.

Dwyer, who was hanged in the Boston Common for Religious Freedoms, who is a Quaker.

And I say all this because young adults and adult English classes, as well as immersive French, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Spanish classes should also extend to ballot access.

And that is why we are asking for a hundred million dollars that can be floated at $10 for every one dollar uh invested to create a new city of Boston Penny Savings Bank.

The city of Boston used to have a City of Boston bank, and um now is the time that we start to really invest in our different commissions.

There used to be a Suffolk County Commission, there used to be a housing commission, a school commission, there's supposed to be a reparations commission, and a black men and boys commission, LGB IQ commission.

And I think that what we're basically seeing is that we don't want it to feel like ducktails or bugs bunny and daffy duck, where a lot of the money is moved that is supposed to be allocated to certain expenses.

And I bring everyone's attention to the charter school budget and our regular school budget.

I don't think it was ever intended that charter schools would take up 10% of our budget, and now being $300 million when we have a budget of three billion dollars for our schools.

And so I really want to get us back on track and focused on realizing that this is not the United Nations, it's the Boston City Council.

I think it would be great if we could solve all the world's problems, but we have to really focus on Boston residents and people and uh departments of this city.

So I really want to bring us back.

I think that we have five billion dollars as a whole for the budget, and then we also have a capital budget.

I like to see ways that we can get more diversity as far as um our hiring and our retention so that many of these problems can be resolved through a job and a house that people can afford.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, I'm sorry, if Rick Boyd, if I hadn't called them, Kenyon James, Curtis Santos.

I did you I'd like to right now.

Okay, great.

So, Max, you're up.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Max Evans.

As a part of Trans Resistance Massachusetts, I urge you to support MOLA's budget as Trans Resistance Massachusetts.

We provide mutual aid, self-care resistance, and more to the trans community.

While I'm a member of Trans Resistance Massachusetts, I make this next statement as an individual, and what I say may not reflect all of trans resistance views.

I'm a certified practitioner, accessibility core competencies, an MIT alum, and a software developer with over seven years of experience.

If your Steam Department is considering using Gen AI or large language model platforms or translation services, I highly recommend looking elsewhere for automated translations.

For example, the voice offline speech kit is an open source free model that respects users' privacies.

LLMs have a huge environmental cost that hurts the communities that translations would benefit the most.

Additionally, as one member said, your model is only as good as the data you feed into it.

LLMs are fed on a large amounts of data across the internet and hard to fine-tune to specific language translation tasks.

MIT released a study showing that 90% of LLM-based efforts fail.

The models often make false and incorrect statements publicly known as hallucinations, but I prefer to call them statements without regard to the truth for accessibility reasons.

Additionally, many available LLMs are likely to increase their prices in the coming years as they need to show profit to become public to the stock market.

GitHub Copoly just switched from a subscription model to a usage-based model this month as an example.

The time, energy, resources, and funding put towards making an LLM translation service may only increase over time and will harm many of the communities who have represented today.

Thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you very much.

I've got uh Kenyon Jeans and Curtis Santos.

And then, if if you haven't heard your name uh read out and you're here to testify publicly, please just uh get in line.

Okay.

Hello.

Can you hear me?

Uh, yeah, just do you want to get close to the mic?

Uh, I'm kind of tall, you know.

Yeah.

That one's taller for some reason.

Oh, is it?

Okay.

Yeah.

We should just say short and tall, tall.

Thank you for being so accommodating.

Yeah.

Sure.

Uh first things first.

My name's King James, and I'm the editor-in-chief of the Black and Proper.org.

Thank you to the council and representative representatives who have spoken before me for their words and efforts.

I'm here on both on behalf of both black and queer communities.

TBI stands at the intersection of blackness and queerness.

In addition to curating ballroom events, I serve my community by providing educational cultural workshops, including borrowing one-on-one understanding, cultural competency, and safe sex classes.

We're stronger together, so by creating spaces for our people to feel safe in conjunction with education educating their minds and providing the funds to do so, we can cultivate successful black queer LGBT and LGBTQ societies and economies.

As we've learned, as we've learned and seen today, education and connection is a need, and for people of black and queer communities of Boston.

So I urge in all in power to protect the funds it takes to help our communities thrive.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh do we have anyone else?

Oh, I'm sorry, I had uh Curtis Santos.

I think Rick was first.

I'll be on.

I'll be okay.

Yeah, just make sure to introduce yourself and uh go ahead.

Thank you to the thank you to the esteemed chair and members of the Boston City Council.

Thank you for doing the difficult and important work of this council in this chamber.

My name is Rick Boyd.

Uh, I prefer he series pronouns, and I am an eight-year resident of Alston.

I'm speaking as a member of the Queer Neighborhood Council and as the founder of the Greater Boston LGBTQIA Plus Community Center project.

I'm here today to state my firm opposition to the proposed budget cuts, specifically targeting existing grant funding for Mola and other equities services.

By choosing to cut these grants, the mayor's proposal sends a clear message to me that my life and the lives of my neighbors across Boston, particularly our trans and non-binary siblings, our black and brown queer neighbors, youth, and elders are negotiable and not valued equally.

These grassroots groups are often working intersectionally, and many of these diverse communities overlap.

For some, these are the these resources are the only reason many of our community members and most historically ignored neighbors have a place to turn that represents them and their families and defends them against further marginalization.

These commun these communities and others continue to bear the burden and sacrifices needed to reconcile the budget for a city that doesn't represent us equitably.

The budget as it stood was a promise to the city of Boston, and these cuts undermine and invalidate that promise.

As your neighbor, I urge you to restore grant funding for organizations serving LGBTQIA plus, immigrant, and disabled communities.

Boston is watching.

I expect the council to be brave and stand between these divisive and destructive cuts and the marginalized people who will be harmed by them.

You and you alone will set the standard today.

Show us that our value as humans, contributions as neighbors, and our tax dollars as citizens are for us to determine by us and for us and are not up for debate.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh next good afternoon my name is Curtis Santos.

I serve as executive director of Boston Lesby Gay Urban Foundation.

Also serve as the president of Boston Black Pride.

I am here today in opposition of the budget that was that was sent to the uh that was sent in.

I stand before you as an advocate I stand before you as a resident of Boston a long longtime resident of Boston Roxbury specifically.

I stand I heard everyone say the same thing I'm gonna say around as being a sanctuary city um and I think I take that really heavy that we have an influx of individuals coming to our city because we made it known that we are protected here and the fact that we are not living through that protection and we're being this this investment is being given to our community tells us that what's come out of people's mouths not always what their bond is and so I stand before you and ask you to please reinstate the budget that is going to be cut from the Mola office and I thank them for their true partnership throughout the city and making sure that visibility, joy and belonging is number one and how we show up within our communities.

And I brought my um young person here one of our mentees in our program as proof of what the Mola office funding has done to our community and how they found more solidarity by being within our community and I'll give her a few words if she'd like to speak.

Of course hello everybody thank you for this time and thank you Kurtz for the environment you continue to harbor for youth and elders of the queer community I would like to say that with the budget cuts it affects lives like myself deeply not only am I a career person but I'm also black and DCF youth I've been in other group homes I've shut down due to these budget cuts and fortunately I have the Blue Foundation as a home place I will say with the budget cuts if you are worried about negotiating where you would like to put that money understand when you pour into our cups we pour back into yours.

Thank you.

Okay thank you very much okay I think that's it for in-person testimony yeah we have if you uh if you want to come around and leave written testimony uh if you just leave it over where the sign in sheet is uh we'll just central pick it up okay so uh I think we have two people waiting online Giselle Byrd uh Giselle can you hear yes I can hear you.

Okay great we can hear you whenever you're ready I'll start the clock.

Amazing thank you.

Good evening everyone thank you all for being so diligent today.

Giselle Bird she her executive and artistic director at the Theater Offensive and state commissioner on the Mass Commission on the status of women a newer Boston resident and I've seen so much of what this city can do when it is fully supported.

I read in the media back in February that a beacon that only shines for some is no beacon at all.

It's just a spotlight that was spoken by our mayor Michelle Wu in February 2026 and it appears that since then that spotlight has been blown out.

It's abundantly clear that this sanctuary city is on fire and it seems that no one wants to extinguish the flames.

When you extinguish equity you extinguish people you eliminate communities you deplete opportunities for advancement and so I come here today virtually in this space along with my siblings who you all heard from in person, to speak in deep, deep, deep opposition against these budget cuts across all of these advancement equity offices.

This recommended budget has devastating cuts across many different sectors, all of which make Boston the place of possibility that it aims to be.

Our sanctuary is broken, and we must recognize that now.

If this recommended budget is passed, there will be blood on your hands.

And maybe that is in line with what Boston stands for.

We let the death of Christmas Addicts create a revolution, and even now the life expectancy between someone in Roxbury and Back Bay is 23 years.

If we are going to get the spotlight back on, that means investing in the people who give their lives to make the sanctuary glow.

Don't deprive them of that.

Reconsider this budget.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Giselle, and uh we have Shirley Riga.

If you can hear me.

Shirley, can you hear us?

I am here.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I'm having a little trouble hearing you, but uh, can you speak just as a test?

Um I I am here.

Okay, we're good.

Uh so whenever you're ready to start, I'll uh start the time.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

This has been a long wait, but it's worth it for me.

Um my name is Shirley Riga, and I live at the Pride of Hyde Park, a unique affordable housing community for LGBTQ seniors and allies, 62 and over.

I am a member of the LGBTQ community and have lived in Massachusetts all my life.

I have contributed to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a professional freelance court reporter, and yet, because of my lifestyle choices, I am marginalized.

I urge you to protect funding for the mayor's office of LGBTQ advancement and all other equity and inclusion cabinet departments in the city of Boston.

I'd like to share an excerpt from a poem entitled Place of Pride, written by my wife Thea Iberal, that now hangs proudly displayed in Boston City Hall, sixth floor south.

Quote, we've lived through accidents, assassinations, wars, protests, tear gas, sit-ins, plagues, deaths, terrorist attacks, fires, pandemics, and instead of being stealth bold people groveling for a spot.

Boston mentors us towards hope and the goodness of neighbors who pick up trash.

This threatened funding allows us to experience programs like intergenerational LGBT group gatherings.

It helps us experience nature, provides us cultural opportunities, gives us the ability to explore arts and creative expression for people who have been marginalized now have an opportunity to shine on their peers and community.

It allows people like an acupuncturist to offer us health services, widens access to wellness summits and end-of-life planning education.

The list goes on.

This funding helps reach thousands of individuals, including LGBTQ, transgender adults, and youth residents, Boston area seniors, BIPOC community members who are often left out of the system of traditional care and support.

If these budget cuts move forward and community grant funding is eliminated, the consequences will be immediate, harmful, and personal.

Community members like me will lose affirming spaces and trusted resources that are so needed.

And so we ask you to reject the cuts that would eliminate community grant funding and instead fully fund the equity and inclusion cabinet departments that work, makes the work possible.

Okay.

Thank you for listening.

Thank thank you, Shirley.

Okay, thank you very much.

More more poems uh in the city council.

That would be great.

Uh okay, thank you.

Um I just uh want to thank uh all my uh my colleagues who came today.

I want to thank the panelists.

I really want to thank the chief who's been here since 10 o'clock in the morning and uh uh been here with you and uh I I again um I know this is not the budget anyone wants to really you know uh bring and we just we have a lot of tough choices to make and uh we have more tough choices ahead of us before we get to the budget approval uh in June and so again uh thank you for all the work you're doing and all the great things you're delivering for people who who need it in Boston and with that said I am going to uh adjourn this hearing.