Fiscal Committee Budget Hearing for City Agencies and Nonprofits - April 15, 2026
Fiscal Committee Budget Hearing for City Agencies and Nonprofits - April 15, 2026
The Fiscal Committee of the Board of Representatives held a remote budget hearing to review funding requests from several city-affiliated organizations for fiscal year 2026-27. Co-chair Andrew Zachary opened the meeting at 5:31 PM. Present were committee members Eric Morrison, Representative Le Pine, Representative Bouchard, Representative Graham, Representative Goldberg, and later Representative Dorsey. Note on date discrepancy: The transcript indicates the meeting occurred on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, but the official date provided for this summary is April 15, 2026.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No separate public comment period was held; all testimony came from invited presenters.
Presentations and Budget Requests
Mayor's Multicultural Council
- Carmen Hughes (Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and Pilar Pelcz (Chair of the Mayor's Multicultural Council) presented. Requested $10,000, flat from the prior year. The council was created by the Board of Representatives over a decade ago. Noted that Stamford is the 19th most diverse city in the nation. Signature free events include Jazz at the Ferguson, Stamford Day (this year on May 31, 2026), and Rhythm and Rumba. Events aim to foster unity and combat rising hate crimes.
Stamford Senior Center
- Christina (Executive Director) and board chair Claire Bulldock presented. Requested $330,000; Mayor Simmons proposed $328,640, a 4% increase from the current $316,000 grant. The center serves an average of 200 seniors daily, with membership growing 21% to 1,152. Offers 50 programs weekly, including 20 fitness classes, language classes, a subsidized lunch program, and services in Spanish. 30-year anniversary this year. Facing space constraints due to double-digit growth. Average age is late 70s; largely serves low-income seniors (below 200% of federal poverty level). No plans to discontinue services.
Curtain Call
- Lou presented. Manages the former city golf course property under a 30-year management agreement. Requested $95,000 for utilities; actual costs are about $120,000 due to old, inefficient buildings. Recovering from COVID: 158 performances over 39 weekends this year, aiming for 175 performances over 44 weekends next season. Summer youth theater program fee is $50 (much lower than neighboring areas). Capital needs: outdoor Shakespeare stage destroyed by a microburst; a permanent structure could be shared for weddings. Request for $50,000 for an engineer to study water infiltration (capital project CP4000032). Also noted need for LED lighting and potential solar on the fly tower.
Palace Theater (Stamford Center for the Arts)
- Michael Moran, President and CEO. Requested $150,000; Mayor proposed $52,000 (last year received $50,000). The theater will turn 99 on June 2, 2026. Losing tenant at Rich Forum (NBC closing division). Annual local economic impact of $2.4 million based on 80,000 patrons. Capital request: $50,000 for an engineer to identify water infiltration sources (project CP4000032) to protect a planned $5 million ceiling plaster restoration. Safety netting installed with city cost-sharing after ceiling deemed unsafe. Annual gala with Smokey Robinson on Thursday.
Stamford Youth Peace Foundation (Beyond Limits Academic Program)
- Andrew Sklover presented. Requested $25,000. Serves over 250 students annually (4th-10th grade), 90% from families eligible for discounted government services. 95.2% parent satisfaction rate. Program includes peer tutoring, summer scholars program, and enrichment. 90% of sessions on-site. Focus on middle grades to close opportunity gaps.
History Center (Stamford History Center)
- Bill Ein, treasurer. Operating budget ~$100,000; expects a $10,000 loss this year due to no gala. Requested $125,000 in capital funds for parking lot repaving, outdoor lighting, and concrete repairs. Provided free educational programs to 2,200 students this academic year, on track for 2,300.
Silver Source
- Mary Ann Delaney, Chief Development Officer. Budget $2.8 million, staff of 17. Provides safety net for seniors 60+ (29,500 in Stamford). In 2025, provided $380,000 in direct financial assistance to 1,482 households, preventing over 220 evictions. The housing stability program is the core: 62% of assistance goes to housing. 70% of clients are women; 77% are at or below $23,000/year. Requested support to sustain the program. Also operates a medical transportation program providing 4,000 rides annually. Received city funding for the first time last year.
Key Outcomes
- No votes were taken. The committee heard presentations and will consider budget requests in future deliberations.
- The next fiscal committee meeting is scheduled for April 27, 2026, in hybrid format.
- Co-chairs Andrew Zachary and Eric Morrison thanked all participants.
- Representative Goldberg raised a question about the impact of federal tax policy on Stamford residents, but discussion was deferred to a later meeting at Representative Morrison's request.
Meeting Transcript
All right, let's get started. Good evening, everyone. My name is Andrew Zachary. I'm co-chair of the fiscal committee of the Board of Representatives. It's 5 31 on Tuesday, April 14th, and this is a remote meeting for budget presentation. Present tonight are other committee members, representative and co-chair Eric Morrison, Representative Le Pine, Representative Bouchard, Representative Graham, and Representative Goldberg. And we are ready to go. All right. Thank you. Carmen or Pilar. You're presenting for the Multicultural Center. And promised you'd be fast, so that's great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Do you mind if I share my screen? Because I think they'll just help aid us and go a little faster. That's great. Please do. Okay. Could I ask everyone who is not presenting to mute your microphones, please? And you can see my screen. Okay, perfect. All right. Well, getting us started real quickly. Um, quick introduction introduction of myself, Carmen Hughes, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the City of Stanford, and I'm here presenting with uh Pilar Pelez, and she is the chair of the Mayor's Multicultural Council. Um, she just accepted this role um at the beginning of this year. Uh, and really just want to start us off revering us with you know about the mayor's multicultural council. You know, we're really um we're put in place uh well over a decade ago as actually the brainchild of the board of representatives, and really it's there to inform, celebrate, promote, understand, and appreciate and respect the many diverse cultures that enrich Stanford. Um, and really at the top of the page here, what you see is the mayor's unity pledge. I won't read it, but um that pledge really just talks about the fact that Stanford is the 19th most diverse city in this nation, and we truly do affirm that our differences make us stronger, smarter, and more innovation more innovative. And so through the mayor's multicultural council, we really do uplift and um create events where we can celebrate people from all backgrounds, faith, and make sure everyone feels like they're welcome and safe. And here on this page is our chairs of the mayor's multicultural council. Um, and they do phenomenal work to make sure that everything we do is done with in a first class way. Um and really what we're asking for is, and I'll just leave these pages on the screen so that way um you can read it, but for those um who are listening in and can't read the page, I will quickly just read through them. Um our strategic initiative for this year is that um our greatest sense of pride and strength as a city comes from the diversity of our residents, businesses, and and visitors, and celebrating diversity as Stanford fosters unity, inclusivity, promotes understanding, and a richest community, and with hate crimes on the rise in this country. The events of the MMC strives to bring people together through unity, social activities to create a more um harmonious and vibrant environment environment. And I'll just call you to this page here, which really highlights the types of events that we're doing. We're asking for our budget to stay flat to last year, which was $10,000. Um, and you know, I'm not sure how we will do it, but um, I'm sure we will. But our events, our signature events is the um Jazz at the Ferguson, which just happened. The room was full, and we had um JARS jazz artists from all different types of jazz there, and it's a free event. All of our events are free. We have Stanford Day, typically in June, but this year it'll be May 31st. Um, and that's another great event that's gonna happen in um Mill River Park, and it's a day where we truly have all different cultures come out and demonstrate their um their traditions and heritage. Um and we also have vendors that are there. This is the first year where we will have um we'll we will be supporting local businesses, so um, there'll be an opportunity to take advantage of that and shop local, another um important theme for the mayor. And then in September, we always do our rhythm and rumba and salsa, which um it's always a popular favorite that it's sold out that we have to do it twice. Um, and then throughout the year, we are constantly promoting health fairs, flag raisings, um, we're in parades, we're doing different uh cultural events and community events, and we hope that you will approve us to um stay flat as last year because with the um increased demand, our events are getting bigger with rising costs and um with a reduction that we get every year with in-kind donations. Um we will be will need to continue to get creative to make sure that we are able to get this all done with that budget. So with that, I will ask for any questions and I will stop sharing.
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