The City Council Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Councilor Ben Weber, held a hearing on May 12, 2026, at 10:09 AM to review the FY27 operating budgets for the Office of Equity, Office of Black Male Advancement (BMA), Fair Housing and Equity, and Office of Women's Advancement (Docket Nos. 0733-0740). The panel included Chief of Equity and Inclusion Maria Angelie Solis Cervera, BMA Director Frank Farrow, Women's Advancement Deputy Director Halle Smith, and Equity Cabinet Deputy Director of Operations Maya Getter. The hearing featured presentations, councilor questions, and public testimony, with a focus on significant cuts to grant programs while maintaining personnel.
Oh, but we do. It's a jump. There we go. My name's Ben Weber. I'm the District six city Councilor and the chair of the committee on Ways and Means. Today is May twelfth, two thousand twenty six, and the exact time is ten oh nine AM. Uh I have a few preliminaries to get through here. Uh so this hearing is being recorded. It's also being live streamed at Boston.gov/slash city-council-tv and broadcast on Xfinity Channel 8, RCN Channel 82, and FIOS Channel 964. The Council's budget review review process will encompass a series of public hearings beginning in April and running through June. We strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving testimony on the record. You can do so in several ways. One, you can attend one of our hearings and give public testimony. You can do so by speaking, coming to the hearing in person or by testifying virtually online. A full hearing schedules on our website at Boston.gov/slash council-budget. We also, in addition, you can come to the fourth of four public listening sessions we're having. The last one will be on Thursday, May 26th at 6 p.m. right here in the city council chamber. You can give testimony in person again here in the chamber by Zoom. For in-person testimony, please come to the chamber and sign up on the sheet near the entrance. For virtual testimony, you can sign up using our online form on our council budget review website, or by emailing the committee at ccc.wm at Boston.gov, or by emailing Karishma Choan at K A R ISHMA.CHO UHAN at Boston.gov. When you're called to testify, please state your name and where you live and your affiliation with any organizations. And please limit your comments to two minutes. In lieu of attending one of our hearings and giving public testimony, again, if you're here to give public testimony, there's a sign-in sheet near the entrance. You can also testify virtually.gov. Lastly, you can submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website. For more information on the city council budget process and how to testify, please visit the city council's budget website at Boston.gov slash city-council-budget. In-person public testimony will be taken following the first round of counselor questions. Individuals will be called on in the order in which they've signed up, and we'll have two minutes to testify. If you wish to sign up for public testimony, haven't done so. And you uh, you know, again, the sign-in sheet is by the entrance, or you can email our director of legislative budget analysis, Karishma at K-A-R-I-S-H-M-A.CHOUHAN at Boston.gov for the zoom link and your name will be added to the list. This morning's hearing is on docket numbers 0733 to 0740, an overview of the fiscal year 2027 operating budgets for the Office of Equity, Office of Blackmail Advancement, Fair Housing and Equity, and Office of Women's Advancement. This is one in a series of hearings to review the fiscal year 2027 budget. These matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Wu when we referred to the committee on April 8th, 2026. Today or this morning, I'm joined by my colleagues in order of arrival. We have Councilor Flynn and Councillor Santana. We're waiving opening statements at our budget hearings. So the counselors will have ample chance to speak after we hear from the panel. So this morning we're joined by uh the chief of equity and inclusion, Mary Angelie Solis Cervera. Uh we're joined by the Director of the Office of Black Mail Advancement, Frank Farrow. We're joined by the Mayor's Office of Women's Advancement's Deputy Director Hallie Smith and the Deputy Director of Operations for the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet, Maya Getter. So with that said, uh I'm going to hand things over to the panel. If you have a presentation, it looks like you do. Uh, the floor is uh yours. Good morning, counselor, and thank you for your patience. I needed to make sure that we had some warm water and snacks, as we are here all day and in the hearings. Um, for those of you who may not know me, my name is Maria Angelis Solis Cervera, and I'm the chief of equity and inclusion, and I have the pleasure of leading a cabinet of eight different departments with several uh priorities that I'll go into in just a second. Uh but before I start, and I'm gonna say this again at a 2 p.m., because it's important for me to sort of just like name the moment and articulate what what some of us um may be feeling is that for the last four years. I've had the opportunity to lead a cabinet that when I first joined in FY22 during the FY22 budget, um, had less than 30 staff members. And today I get to share that we are 80 plus strong as a cabinet, and I know I have colleagues across the country who do not have that resource.