A Letter from the Chair of Ways and Means

May 16, 2025

As we enter our final stretch of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget hearing process, we’re calling on our community to show up and make your voice heard. To that end, we’re hitting the road and opening up City Hall at night so that the public can comment.

Next week, on Monday, May 19, at 6 p.m. at City Hall, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Boston Housing Authority will be in front of the Committee on Ways and Means. On Thursday, May 22, at 10 a.m. at the BCYF Grove Hall Senior Center, Veterans and Age Strong departments will be presenting on their annual budget. And that night, at 5 p.m. at City Hall, we’ll hear from our youth-centric offices, including Youth Employment Office, Youth Engagement and Advancement, and Youth Options Unlimited. As part of all these hearings, a public testimony period will be held at the end of the administration’s presentations. On Wednesday, May 28, at 6 p.m. at City Hall, we’ll be holding another session solely dedicated to public testimony. I hope that all of our residents and advocates can show up and take part in these important conversations.

Before we move forward, we must acknowledge the two weeks of hearings since I last wrote. During that time, we’ve heard from more than a dozen departments, bringing our total number of hearings and working sessions to 38, with more than 85 hours of testimony and questions. From our Operations Cabinet, we got a breakdown of our city’s inspectors, learned that the Inspectional Services Department has decreased the wait for a simple review from 50 to 35 days, and that we expect to underspend by $592,000 in ISD in FY25. We heard about Boston Public Library’s capital projects and dove deep into BCYF’s pattern of annual underspending. We also heard from the Boston Public Health Commission about their new Violence Prevention Department, which includes important programs such as the Men’s Health Initiative.

This week, we heard from the Planning Department and the budget changes they’re making after their first year under the city. We also heard from the Boston Fire Department, which is increasing its women firefighters by more than 25% thanks to the fire cadet program, but continues to work through its high overtime costs. And we finished this week with two hearings from the Boston Police Department, which reviewed its procedures for new technology, overtime, the Crime Lab, and its spending on Community Interaction Teams.

As a reminder, I encourage all of our residents to follow this process on the City Council’s website and on City Council TV.

Councilor Brian Worrell

Chair of the Committee on Ways and Mean