FY26 BUDGET SEASON: Preview of Week 4 Hearings, Part 1
This week the Boston City Council has a number of important agencies coming before them, including inspectional services, Boston’s police oversight agency, the agencies that manage the City’s community centers & libraries, and the agency that leads the City’s efforts on homelessness. Councilors are bringing both city-wide issues and specific neighborhood-level concerns to these hearings, and this week Boston’s mayoral race is likely to make an appearance at the FY26 budget hearings for the first time.
There are 6 hearings this week, 4 of which are previewed today, with the preview for the last 2 coming out later this week:
Monday at 10 AM: Operations Cabinet - Inspectional Services Department (ISD), Property Management, Public Facilities Department (PFD);
Monday at 2 PM: Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT);
Tuesday at 10 AM: Human Services Cabinet - Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF), Office of Human Services, Office of Early Childhood, BCYF Revolving Fund;
Tuesday at 2 PM: Human Services Cabinet - Boston Public Library (BPL), Arts & Culture Revolving Fund;
This week’s preview of Thursday’s hearing will come out later this week:
Thursday at 10 AM: Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) - BPHC Overview, Infectious Disease, Child Adolescent and Family Health, Violence Prevention, Behavioral Health and Wellness;
Thursday at 2 PM: Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) - Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Recovery Services, Homeless Services;
There are three big things to watch at this week’s hearing:
ONE OF BOSTON MAGAZINE’S 150 MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE: #129 DION IRISH, BOSTON’S OPERATIONS CHIEF. Irish is one of the few senior leaders in the Wu administration who also held a senior job under Mayor Walsh, having been appointed by Walsh to lead Elections and then ISD. Now, Irish is involved in some of the City’s highest profile, most political sensitive projects, like White Stadium, Madison Park High School, and rodent control.
FORMER STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND CANDIDATE FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY & DISTRICT 3 COUNCILOR EVANDRO CARVALHO HAS A STAR TURN THIS WEEK, as he attends his first Council budget hearing as Executive Director of the Office of Police Accountability & Transparency, a position he was appointed to last May. There will be a lot of focus on his Monday afternoon hearing, particularly from the Boston Globe editorial board, which has written at length about what they see as OPAT’s inaction addressing important issues: in May 2022; in March 2023; and in April 2025. Carvalho is also likely to face questions about two other issues: Eddy Chrispin’s demotion and the state of the Human Rights Commission.
BOSTON’S MAYORAL CAMPAIGN IS LIKELY TO FEATURE ON TUESDAY & THURSDAY, as the agencies that manage Boston’s response to homelessness - the Office of Human Services & the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) - testify before the Council. Mass & Cass has become a major issue in Boston’s mayoral election, with a plan from mayoral challenger Josh Kraft and a new poll that the pollster said showed homelessness was one of the “local concerns that could create vulnerabilities for Wu.” One potential part of the solution to Boston’s on-going homelessness problem is a new recovery campus at Shattuck Hospital, which the state has been pursuing since 2018. A recent Boston Globe editorial speculated the Shattuck proposal was dead, and many of the agencies testifying this week - DPF, OHS, and BPHC - are in a position to be able to provide the public an update.
Keep reading for more on each of the six hearings!
MONDAY, MAY 5, 10 AM, IANNELLA CHAMBER
The listed topic for this hearing is “Inspectional Services Department (ISD), Property Management, Public Facilities Department (PFD).” Check out more from the public notice for this hearing.
WHERE TO FIND IN THE FY26 BUDGET BOOK?
Operations Cabinet - p. 329-367
Inspectional Services Department (ISD) - p. 331-342
Property Management - p. 343-361
Public Facilities Department (PFD) - p. 363-367
PFD is also listed as the “Managing Department” on more than 100 capital projects
BUDGET NUMBERS IN FY25 vs FY26?
Operations Cabinet - $63,899,729 in FY25 vs $64,233,831 in FY26, a $334,101 or <1% increase
Inspectional Services Department (ISD) - $24,322,444 in FY25 vs $24,796,174 in FY26, a $473,729 or
Property Management - $28,703,815 in FY25 vs $28,107,722 in FY26, a ($596,092) or
Public Facilities Department (PFD) - $10,873,471 in FY25 vs $11,329,935 in FY26, a $456,464 or
WAS IT IN THE MAYOR’S BUDGET LETTER?
Public Facilities are Boston’s construction managers, as seen from PFD’s presence across many department’s capital spending, and are managing or advising the projects this investment is paying for:
The Plan also invests over $188 million in state of good repair needs for municipal facilities, including community centers, libraries, fire houses, police stations, and City Hall.
The testimony about Madison Park High School earlier this year made clear that PFD plays a major role in Boston Public Schools’ capital decisions, and therefore can answer questions about those decisions and spending:
The FY26-30 Capital Plan invests almost $1.2 billion in BPS facilities, accounting for 27% of the total planned investment. Moreover, 32% of all City bonds, which finance the vast majority of the Capital Plan, are invested in BPS.
WHAT IS BPI WATCHING FOR?
This is the Operations Cabinet, so Dion Irish should be the main testifier at this hearing, answering questions and opining across the vastly different responsibilities and range of issues his three departments manage:
ISD handles everything from inspecting new construction buildings to hosting the man who serves as Boston’s de facto rat czar;
Property Management manages Boston’s hundreds of properties;
PFD is involved in all of the City’s building projects, including Boston Public Schools so they have visibility into which of the projects listed in the City’s $4.5B capital budget are actually getting done in FY26.
The range of issues covered by these departments means questions from the Council can range over a number of different topics. BPI is watching for just five:
What is the status of rat policy in Boston? The Wu adminsitration released the “Boston Rat Action Plan” (BRAP) last summer, but a year later there is still no formal “rat czar.” Appointing a single staffer who was responsible for the issue was something other cities have done, and many folks - including City Councilors and outside experts like Boston University’s Jessica Leibler - wanted Boston to as well. In addition to no “rat czr,” it isn’t clear how many of the 5 steps listed in the “BRAP Action Steps for 2024-2025,” or the specific plans for parks, sewers, BHA complexes and construction sites have been started or completed.
What is the status of the Long Island Bridge & what FY26 spending is happening because the Long Island campus is not available? In January Boston scored a court room win over Quincy in the now 11 year fight to rebuild the bridge, but in February Quincy filed an appeal to the Commonwealth’s Supreme Judicial Court. While that fight drags on, the encampments and issues that were once concentrated at Mass & Cass are spreading elsewhere in the City, including on Boston Common, in Downtown Crossing, in the Back Bay, and in Nubian Square.
What is the status of the state effort to create a recovery campus at the Shattuck Hospital? Unlike Long Island, the Shattuck does not require a bridge to be built through a neighboring town, and would mostly be paid for by Beacon Hill. A recent editorial from the Boston Globe speculated the effort may be dead, and its status should be something the City’s construction managers and inspectors at this hearing can provide an update on.
What exactly happened with cost estimates at Madison Park High School? In testimony before the Council earlier this year, PFD Director Carleton Jones told the Council at a hearing this past March that until the fall of 2024 the City estimated that the work at Madison Park would cost about $500M, based on a feasibility study done years ago. Then this past fall, the estimate rose to $700M+, prompting the City to seek state aid. With dozens of schools and other public buildings in need of partial or complete renovation, the public and the Council need to have faith in PFD’s cost estimates, and this hearing is an opportunity for Councilors to understand what happened.
What is the latest at White Stadium? Like with Madison Park, the estimates of how much White Stadium will cost, and who will bear that cost, have changed substantially. Back in July of 2023 the estimated cost was $30M, all of which would be paid by the team, the FY26 capital budget calls for the City of Boston to spend $91M on rebuilding White Stadium in FY26 (p. 519), with the NWSL team spending a still-undisclosed amount. After Mayor Wu’s “blank check” comment in December and with the City’s recent legal victory and the release of a transportation plan for the Stadium, more details on cost is necessary.
MONDAY, MAY 5, 2 PM, IANNELLA CHAMBER
The listed topic for this hearing is “Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT).” Check out more from the public notice for this hearing.
WHERE TO FIND IN THE FY26 BUDGET BOOK?
Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) - p. 317-327
BUDGET NUMBERS IN FY25 vs FY26?
Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT) - $1,481,276 in FY25 vs $1,472,015 in FY26, a ($9,262) or
WAS IT IN THE MAYOR’S BUDGET LETTER?
Not mentioned.
WHAT IS BPI WATCHING FOR?
“I think the general consensus has been that this particular measure of police reform has not lived up to its original intent,” is what Jamarhl Crawford, a long-time Boston activist who helped create OPAT, told the Boston Globe back in April. That sentiment is back up by the numbers. According to that same Globe article:
To date, the Civilian Review Board has received 368 complaints. Of those, the board sustained a total of 31, while 97 are pending . . . nearly all of the sustained complaints have not resulted in officers receiving discipline . . . [BPD Commissioner Michael Cox] rejected eight of the Civilian Review Board’s recommendations for discipline, with another 21 pending.
The Boston Globe editorial board has written for years about OPAT’s inaction and short-comings: in May 2022; in March 2023; and in April 2025.
Now on top of concerns about OPAT are two other issues, each of which highlight different weaknesses of OPAT:
For those who look at Cox’s rejection of sustained complaints as a sign the Wu administration is opposed to independent oversight, the on-going fight between the Wu administration and Eddy Chrispin does nothing to slack concerns. Last summer Chrispin was demoted from Cox’ command staff after Attorney General Andrea Campbell appointed him to the board of the state’s police oversight agency to fill a seat reserved by law for the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers (MAMLEO). The issue has prompted community meetings, a successful resolution of support for Chrispin from the City Council, and last month a lawsuit from Chrispin charging BPD violated his first amendment rights, with Lawyers for Civil Rights on Chrispin’s legal team.
For those concerned that Carvalho has not shown much energy for leading OPAT a year into the job, last week hearings about the last city agency he led were not reassuring. At the Equity & Inclusion Cabinet hearings last Tuesday, a number of Councilors expressed concerns that Human Rights Commission, which Carvalho led from September 2019 to April 2022, was in the words of Councilor Weber “effectively shelved.” At that hearing Equity & Inclusion Chief Solis Cervera previewed a plan for HRC that will be published on June, saying that the version of HRC that Carvalho led would be abolished:
The main goal is to make it merge rather than having a a ninth, almost tenth department working on a silo . . . what changes you should expect is that it's not going to be a a staff of five plus people.
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 10 AM, IANNELLA CHAMBER
The listed topic for this hearing is “Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF), Office of Human Services, Office of Early Childhood, BCYF Revolving Fund.” Check out more from the public notice for this hearing.
WHERE TO FIND IN THE FY26 BUDGET BOOK?
Human Services Cabinet - p. 788-872
Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) - p. 806-827
Office of Human Services - p. 858-872
OHS is being presented to the Council in an unusual way - instead of all together, its 6 programs are being split, with 3 individual programs with their own Council hearings, and 3 not listed on the Council schedule:
Human Services Office - p.864 - no stand alone hearing
Mayor's Office of Community Safety - p. 866 - no stand alone hearing
Coordinated Response Team - p. 870 - no stand alone hearing
Office of Early Childhood - p. 867 - in this hearing
Returning Citizens - p. 868 - May 27 at 2 PM
Office of Youth Engagement & Advancement - p. 869 - May 22 at 2 PM
The 3 OHS programs without hearings - plus Early Childhood - will have their budget number listed below.
BCYF Revolving Fund - there is no line item by this name in the FY26 budget.
This appears to be referring to the “City Hall Child Care” line item in BCYF’s external funds and details can be found on p. 806 & 816.
BUDGET NUMBERS IN FY25 vs FY26?
Human Services Cabinet - $103,816,166 in FY25 vs $103,321,918 in FY26, a ($494,248) or <1% decrease vs FY25
Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) - $30,870,901 in FY25 vs $31,156,055 in FY26, a $285,154 or 1% increase vs FY25
Office of Human Services - $10,130,356 in FY25 vs $9,681,274 in FY26, a ($449,082) or a 4.4% decrease vs FY25
Here are the budget numbers for the 3 OHS without hearings schedule and Early Childhood, which is a focus of this hearing:
Human Services Office - $3,200,720 in FY25 vs $3,193,371 in FY26, a ($7,349) or <1% decrease vs FY25
Mayor's Office of Community Safety - $1,952,168 in FY25 vs $1,605,194 in FY26, a ($346,974) or 18% decrease vs FY25
Office of Early Childhood - in this hearing - $1,238,261 in FY25 vs $1,148,510 in FY26, a ($89,751) or 7% decrease vs FY25
Coordinated Response Team - $328,950 in FY25 vs $367,591 in FY26, a $38,641 or 12% increase
BCYF Revolving Fund - there is no line item by this name in the FY26 budget.
“City Hall Child Care” line item in BCYF’s external funds - $900,000 in FY25 vs $900,000 in FY26, a $0 change
WAS IT IN THE MAYOR’S BUDGET LETTER?
This line is being cited in several hearing previews, because while Public Facilities is managing these construction projects, the “community centers” work is being done for BCYF:
The Plan also invests over $188 million in state of good repair needs for municipal facilities, including community centers, libraries, fire houses, police stations, and City Hall.
WHAT IS BPI WATCHING FOR?
Today’s hearings are on the Human Services Cabinet, which today’s agencies - the Office of Human Services, Office of Early Childhood, & BCYF - are part of. Human Services Cabinet has several more hearings scheduled: Age Strong and Boston VETS in am slot on May 22; Youth Engagement and Advancement in the pm slot on May 22; and Office of Returning Citizens in the pm slot on May 27.
There are three questions that BPI is looking for answers to:
Why was trauma funding transfered from Community Safety to the Boston Public Health Commission? On p. 35 the FY26 Budget Book, the cuts to Human Services are blamed on two factors:
There are two primarily [sic] drivers -- the removal of some one-time building repair funds from the Boston Public Library and the transfer of funding for trauma impacted families from the Office of Human Services to Boston Public Health Commission.
The Council will have an opportunity to explore the trauma funding transfer at this hearing and on Thursday, when the BPHC comes before the Council.
What leadership changes have occurred inside the Coordinated Response Team since last year’s budget hearings & how has that affected City Hall’s response to homelessness? CRT was has been responsible for handling Mass & Cass under the Wu administration, but that program has gone through a series of leadership changes:
In January 2024 Tania Del Rio - who had led CRT since June 2022 - was appointed to lead Inspectional Services
In the same press release announcing Del Rio’s elevation, two co-Directors - Brian Foran and Michaela Nee - were named to replace her, and those two co-Directors were also listed as leading CRT in the FY25 budgt book produced in April 2024;
In a January 21, 2025 Globe article about needle clean-up and in February 25, 2025 report from the Wu administration, sent to the Council as part of the ordinance that expanded the City’s power to clear encampments, Kellie Young is named as CRT’s director;
In this year’s FY26 budget book neither Foran or Nee is listed as the CRT director but a “Kelly Young.”
What is going on at the Jackson Mann? After years of complaints from District 9’s City Councilor Liz Breadon, this year the FY26 budget book promises:
A new expanded study will begin to explore how to best advance the Jackson Mann Community Center in Allston-Brighton, building on the programming study and engagement that was conducted previously and exploring alternative land use options.
This will also be a question that Breadon is likely to ask Public Facilities on Monday, which is managing both the BCYF & BPS sides of this project.
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2 PM, IANNELLA CHAMBER
The listed topic for this hearing is “Boston Public Library (BPL), Arts & Culture Revolving Fund.” Check out more from the public notice for this hearing.
WHERE TO FIND IN THE FY26 BUDGET BOOK?
Boston Public Library (BPL) - p. 834-856
Arts & Culture Revolving Fund - there is no line item by this name in the FY26 budget.
There is an Office of Arts & Culture, but it does not appear to have an FY26 budget hearing scheduled.
There is are two arts related revolving funds, the “Public Art Fund” - p. 387 & 395 - and the “Strand Theatre Revolving Fund - p. 387 & 396.
BUDGET NUMBERS IN FY25 vs FY26?
Boston Public Library (BPL) - $49,882,808 in FY25 vs $49,335,897 in FY26, a ($546,911) or 1% decrease vs FY25
Arts & Culture Revolving Fund - there is no line item by this name in the FY26 budget.
Public Art Fund - $800,000 in FY25 vs $800,000 in FY26, a $0 difference
Strand Theatre Revolving Fund - $150,000 in FY25 vs $300,000 in FY26, a $150,000 or 50% increase
WAS IT IN THE MAYOR’S BUDGET LETTER?
This line is being cited in several hearing previews, because while Public Facilities is managing these construction projects, the “libraries” work is being done for BPL:
The Plan also invests over $188 million in state of good repair needs for municipal facilities, including community centers, libraries, fire houses, police stations, and City Hall.
WHAT IS BPI WATCHING FOR?
There are two issues that BPI will be watching for at this hearing:
What services do the $11M+ in external funding BPL receives fund? BPL is one of the 10 City agencies in the operating budget that receive about 92% of the external funds that come to Boston, and federal programs that fund public libraries has recently been a target of Trump administration budget cuts. The exact numbers are BPL received $12,130,776 in FY25 and is expected to receive $11,905,068 in FY26, a ($225,708) or 1.8% decrease.
What is happening in Eve Griffin’s sick time fight? As a reminder, back in February there was a series of news articles, and a City Council resolution, about a long-time BPL worker who has suffering from stage 4 breast cancer and had run out of sick time. BPL was preventing her co-workers from donating their sick days to her.
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