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[Music] guys ready for the record my name is Brian Warell District 4 city councelor and I'm the chair of the Boston City Council Committee on Ways and Means today is April 28 2025 it is 10:09 a.m this
hearing is being recorded is also being livereamed at boston.gov/city-counts-tv and broadcast on Exfinity channel 8 RCN channel 82 and Fios channel 964 the council's budget 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 for the record you can do this in several ways one attend one of our hearings and give public testimony we'll take public testimony at the end of each
departmental hearing and also at two hearings dedicated to public testimony the full hearing schedule is on our website at boston.gov/countsel-budget you can give testimony in person here in the chamber or virtually via Zoom for in-person testimony please come to the chamber and
sign up on the sheet near the entrance it will be taken at the beginning of this hearing following the panelist presentation individuals will be called on in the order in which they signed up and will have two minutes to testify for virtual testimony you can sign up using our online form on our
council budget review website or by emailing the committee at ccc.wmos.gov or by emailing Karishma Shoan at khm.choston.gov gov you will receive the Zoom link and your name will be added to the list when you are called to testify please state
your name and affiliation or residence and limit your comments to a few minutes to ensure that all comments and concerns can be heard second way you could testify email your written testimony to the committee at ccc.wm boston.gov the third way you
could testify is submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on your website for more information on the city council budget and how to testify please visit the city council budget website at boston.govcounsel-budget today's hearing is on dockets number 0822 through 0830
FY26 budget for the equity black male advancement women's advancement and fair housing inequity these matters were sponsored by Mayor Michelle Woo and referred to the committee on April 9th 2025 today I'm joined by my council colleagues in order arrival councelor
Flynn oh council councelor um Murphy and coun council Flynn we have received a letter of absence from councelor Kleta Zapata i would now like to turn it over to today's panelist to introduce himself and to get into their presentation the floor is now yours
good morning to the council good morning uh to members good morning everyone good morning to the council good morning to uh members of our community who may be watching from home my name is Marangeli i am the chief of equity and inclusion and I'm here joined by executive
directors of two of our departments in the larger cabinet uh first Dana Alice to my right who's the head of the women's advancement team as well as Frank Faroh who leads our black male advancement office um counselor are we gonna are we going
to be able to see the slides or Okay please yep there they go oh is that the slide no no it's the PDF that we share they're pulling it up now no worries i
think if it's okay with you I can start giving a bit of an intro and then get into the slides perfect does that work yes okay um I want to first start by acknowledging that I I'm I think it speaks volumes uh about our collective commitment to this work that the council
has chosen the equity cabinet as one of the kickoff um cabinets to present on the budget and I'm I'm looking forward to what we learned together today uh before getting started however I do want to acknowledge a presence that will not
be with us today our dear uh Bob Terrell who passed away earlier this year our head of the Fair Housing and Equity Commission um Bob loved the budget season nobody prepared more than than Bob for um budget hearings but I know
that uh we'll be making him proud today as we unapologetically talk about the work that we do in the equity cabinet okay so I will first uh give a brief overview of what the equity and inclusion cabinet collective goals are
our theory of change speak briefly about some initiatives that we are prior have been prioritizing since FY23 uh and then I will pass the mic to my colleagues uh both uh Frank Dana and then I will come back to me in that
order to close uh with some remarks for the fair housing commission as well the equity cabinet's mission is in alignment to the mayor's vision of building a home for everyone and what how we add to that work is by asking ourselves who has not been a part of
that definition for years who has been historically or presently excluded from that definition of everyone and we we work with communities to ensure that we are getting services programs policies to everyone in that sense and today
you'll hear plenty of examples of how we do that a little bit of how uh just presenting the theory of change first we have an incredible set of agencies that we work with as colleagues and we provide ENI services to them we use the
term ENI equity and inclusion for short uh to talk about trainings to talk about technical assistance to talk about brainstorming opportunities that we have as well and partnering for different programming we also offer targeted programming when programming does not
already exist in other departments u across the city of Boston and again you'll hear from my colleagues here a lot a lot sorry a lot about what those programs are and last but not least because we understand that the power lies in the coalition building that happens in our communities we use our
resources as a municipality to ensure that our um the work that has been happening for years is connecting to the government and that we're connecting with them as well so a little bit of that uh trust building through coalition building happens as well here are the different departments
that you'll hear from today again Women's Advancement Black Male Advancement and Fair Housing as well as the Equity Office this morning and then starting at 2 PM you'll hear from the rest of the offices which are the Disabilities Commission the LGBTQ advancement office immigrant advancement
language access as well as human rights okay now for the office of equity and inclusion priorities first we have the office of cultural affairs which thanks to councelor Mahia and councelor Warel um
for launching this initiative last year we are in a much better place now and are excited to share some uh wonderful partnerships that we've had with the community we are then going to talk about the ENI Academy the ENI coordination network the work of reparations and the work of technical
assistance and my hope is to close out with a a just a small impact impact statement that we have to share about the importance of the work that we're doing now so on cultural affairs some of the work that we did in FY25 that uh were
focused on actual spending dollars was is a work on the language preservation program that we will be launching very soon looking forward to working with the council on this partnership some back to school programming that we do specifically with the cultural communities represented in this office as well as a mini grants program and we
plan to do the same for FY26 as well as add uh other cultural celebrations that we were not able to be a part of uh last year but that we were a part of now you could also think about the technical assistance that we provide this way we work with the arts and culture department with parks with other
agencies to ensure that we are in selection committees that we are building out um RFPs with others etc so we're incorporating that cultural competence into other into other agencies work now to the ENI academy um which has
been an incredible program that has evolved for now three years uh we have now graduated over 120 staff that work for the city of Boston touching more than 30 departments and we are equipping them with the resources tools and
networks to understand how why and how to better serve residents from backgrounds that are different from theirs these are not just trainings these are opportunities for members who work for the city of Boston to opt in to opportunities to truly learn how to
reach across the aisle so that we're changing the culture of city hall uh and we plan to do the same in ENI and the academy this year hoping hoping to double our our number of touch touch points so that we can get to all departments by the end of 5.26 if you'd like to learn more we have
our impact report attached in the slides and we can happily share them with the community they're also on our website the ENI coordination network which I have been talking to the council now for a couple of years this image now
shows where we are uh originally it was intended to have one ENI manager and every single cabinet so that you can imagine a network of ENI officers working throughout the city of Boston in coordination with one another something
that we talked about with other cities and and and and what happens with the work of ENI is that oftentimes it falls on an individual or a group of people to do all the work and the heavy lifting here in the city of Boston under our mayor we're committing to this being
spread out as a as a responsibility for everyone and so if you look at the inner circle those are the specific um sorry the outer circle represents the offices that are already in the network and for
FR26 we plan to use already um available dollars to hire two more ENI managers that will share some portfolios and work with our offices of uh and streets and environment as as well as others our very important work of
reparations uh we majority of our dollars in FY25 went to what many of the people here already know about the phase one report uh which covers six units of study for over 400
years and in FY26 these are some of the some of the work that we plan to fund with dollars that are already allocated um and we are in consistent communication with the reparations task force to make sure that this is in alignment to the work that they're
hoping to do technical assistance program which essentially cost no dollars except for the personnel that's already available since we work in partnership with the departments under the equity cabinet um in FY25 alone we were able to impact 14
different programs practices and policies uh throughout the city of Boston and we plan to do the same in FY26 and keep going with that work and here are just two examples of some of the um partnerships that we've
had and I wanted to present a different view of our work in this last last slide i think in this moment where um we are in constant we're constantly under attack as as people who who work in the space
of diversity equity and inclusion um I want to show how much impact we've had in the last three fiscal years and how we plan to not change any of that we plan to do the same thing moving forward um for those three years we've allotted
essentially we funded over $7 million worth of services and programs out in the community because our departments are connected to those those organizations that are already doing the work we're not here to reinvent the wheel we work directly with trusted um
members of the community to ensure that they're continuing the work that those $7 million have um supported programs such as part of sorry parent support programs community uh based research cultural celebrations ESOL civic
engagement classes and again this is encompassing all nine departments under the equity and inclusion cabinet um and in FY26 we plan to sustain this model um as is the the priority of our mayor and our our administration that we continue
to work alongside our community members and with that I'll pass it over to Frank Farrell thank you uh good morning Chair War counselors this FY26 budget uh for the Office of Black Male Advancement recommended at $2
million um this proposal outlines our impact priorities and vision for deepening our investment in the lives of black men and boys in the city of Boston our mission is to improve outcomes and reduce systemic barriers uh
to advancement for black men and boys living in the city of Boston uh we have six key priority um areas uh economic opportunity and workers empowerment affordable housing and pathways to home ownership education and youth
advancement public health and wellness fatherhood and families community safety and res returning citizens as well as equity and racial justice uh for FY26 um our office is requesting level
funding um to give us the stability to continue the work that we've been doing the past couple of years um in the city of Boston uh for the overall budget it includes um $125,000 which will be allocated uh to continue for phase two
of the equity study as well as uh $25,000 that will go to stipens for commissioners on the black men and boys commission uh thank you to the advocacy of the the council for both of those um and then we'll have uh a little over
700,000 that will be um remain included in BPS's budget uh to continue and expand the work we're doing in partnership with the Division of Student Support uh through our My Brothers Keeper program pointed that direction
which way this way this one okay now Okay yeah just say next slide okay if you can go to the previous slide thank you um so through our My Brothers Keeper program we have served
over 10,000 young black males um through our initiatives uh we have an MBK fellows program uh where we have uh college internships at UMass Boston uh New England School of Law Harvard University Roxbury Community College and
Howard University uh we have an MBK ambassador program um which is a cohort of high school students that act as leaders um and support for younger students in BPS um to ensure that they have the proper
support and peer leadership um we conduct uh annual college tours this month we uh held two H.B.CU BCU tours where we uh brought over 150 BPS students uh to visit to visit
um H.B.CU um and since the inception of the office and the partnership with BPS we have a 87% success rate of graduation and continuing on to uh colleges for students that are connected to our program as well as ensuring that we're
supporting with um through the opportunity lab college essays college application as well as scholarships we have a number of our students that have received scholarships and full rides uh through the connection with our office um annually we provide over
500,000 in grants through our community empowerment grant program last year uh fiscal year we funded 63 organizations that supported over 14,000 uh individuals in the community this
year we are funding 53 uh organizations um that are working to advance and improve outcomes for black men and boys throughout the city of Boston uh next slide uh through our project opportunity
program uh we've provided 81 uh individuals access to free Corey ceiling as well as through our employment and resource fairs supported over 175 uh Boston residents as well as
in partnership with the office of returning citizens over 200 uh residents that are looking for employment housing and other resources um starting last year next slide please we also have technical assistance as we
noticed that there was a a gap and a need from the community partners that we were working with around technical assistance so we developed a capacity building institute um to support community based organizations with the tools training and resources to strengthen their impact um in this
fiscal year we launched a mentoring training institute uh for organizations that are working with our youth uh to make sure they're equipped with the tools uh to pro provide mentoring and deepening their impact and support uh
for individuals uh for both we have over 100 organizations that are connected and uh receiving these supports um and then we also have our Corey sealing project where we work with uh legal entities to provide uh free legal assistance to
individuals to seal their cories and legal records uh to make sure that they have access to employment um and other like uh next page please uh back one
page thank you um and through a few other um initiatives we have our equity study uh we launched phase one of the equity study um where we're working uh to look across the city uh for data related to black men and boys how we're
serving them policy program resources um and those findings will uh drive uh uh data and recommendations for phase two that we're continuing uh in FY26 we're in the process of launching a data dashboard um which will be a centralized
uh public data dashboard um to outline and show improvement and impact across city departments um in partnership with our office as well as do it in um departments that we're working with across the city and we have a
partnership network uh for community partners where we bring in different resources and information as well as to provide an opportunity for collective action and impact um amongst the local community organizations that we are working with uh next slide please um and
then also you know through our Black Men and Boys Commission who are 21 members of our community that are advocates that are adviserss um who provide a great deal of support and guidance and who are leaders in their respective fields uh we
continue to work with them to push policy budget um and through their work recently uh the commission has made over 20 policy and budget recommendations totaling $34 million to enhance black men and boys uh in the city of Boston
they have successfully advocated for the BMA equity study and the codification of the office of black male advancement this fiscal year um and also thanks to the support of our mayor and obviously uh the city council for helping us move that
forward next slide please um and then our goals for FY26 um our office um assists the mayor um and the Black Men and Boys Commission to determine budget and policy priorities uh we monitor and advise city agencies and departments on issues
pertaining to black men and boys we provide recommendations on projects and programs that promote equity for black men and boys which is currently not being implemented by existing city agencies performing outreach communication and liaison for black men and boys with community groups and
organizations uh working with all city departments agencies uh commissions and office to ensure black men and boys are represented at all levels of city government um as well as serving as an information broker strategic uh data collection
maintenance and reporting um throughout the city um next slide and as I wrap up um just want to name although our office is fairly new we know that the inequities are generational I truly believe if we are intentional around
addressing the disparities and developing sustainable solutions we can see positive outcomes um whether it's education housing health economic opportunity that would not only benefit this current generation but future generations of black men and boys
in the city of Boston um through the office with the support of the equity cabinet and our leadership of Chief Solar Sea our mayor Mayor Woo our black men and boys commission city council um
our community partners and residents we remain committed um to improving outcomes and reducing systemic barriers to advancement for black men and boys living in the city of Boston uh thank you to the council for um today thank
you now pass it over to my colleague you want this one i think the next one's for housing and the slides thank you Frank um okay my role in this moment is to
speak briefly on the uh work of fair housing and equity i'll be sharing some of the work that we did on FY25 and the goals of FY26 next slide please um in FY25 we were focused on um
staffing we were able to get more investigators into the very needed roles so that we can continue doing the work there we were able to close uh 30 cases and our you'll hear in a second what our goals are for F26 we were able to kick
off and and build a real cadence of uh work around the affirmatively furthering fair housing programming that we have um is with one of the first exe the first ex executive order that mayor Michelle Woo signed in 2022 and our dear colleague Bob Terrell was able to truly
launch it and we will make sure that it continues and we hosted over 30 events uh simply educating the public around what their rights are when it comes to fair housing next slide uh NF26 goals uh we plan to double the the closed uh
sorry we plan to double the cases uh that we close and when it comes to investigations we want to expand the outreach so that we can continue to work with communities and and helping them understand what their rights are and what the resources available to them are as well and we will be we have already
started but we plan to do a much better job in FY26 of developing training and training our colleagues across um the other agencies to so that they can implement principles of fair housing into their work
um just want to make a note as folks know a lot of the budget for our fair housing and equity office does come from operational funding operational budget but a lot a majority of it also does come from the federal government so we
are uh very carefully monitoring those um any changes to that policy to those policies and um but we know and we are confident that we can continue doing this work with the necessary staff and resources for FY26 and
beyond and now I'll pass it off to Dana good morning from the Office of Women's Advancement i'm Dana Alice the executive director um this year can we do the next slide thank you um just wanted to speak on the
mission of women's advancement to uplift the voices and advance the lives of women and girls throughout the city programs and policies and to remove barriers and provide resources including sharing resources advocacy initiatives and legislative tools to the women throughout the city of Boston so all of
our initiatives are rooted um in sustainable and impactful change next slide please this year um well just to re reiterate our initiatives health safety economic equity and representation so that's how
we sort of align our work this year um FY25 we had a bit of uh transition throughout the team um through staffing but first in our priorities for health we are expanding on the menstrual equity
work that we did in the last year so we've uh worked with animation providers to be able to expand um equity um menstrual equity access throughout BCYF and partnering for BPS
um animations throughout the city and free menstrual products next slide we've partnered around grants in 2025 um with the office of LGBT LGBTQ plus advancements
um to support Boston families and working closely with the Boston Public Health Commission around um their mental health epidemic and um increasing access for women in the city of Boston next slide
last year we also had the privilege to work with BPHC around the Empower Her inaugural health conference for and about black women um in January 2025 we joined the LGBTQ plus task force um at a conference talking about the health
findings for LGBTQ plus women um and sponsoring that and 26 we want to continue to cultivate internal and external partnerships to expand awareness of our office and support organization that share the city's commitment next
slide around safety um in the in the year of 2025 we supported the health commission in hiring the new director of the domestic sexual and gender-based violence prevention initiative and are looking forward to working with that new
director in 2026 around um tackling the issues around gender- based violence and sexual assault we've been intentional this year in including um girls in our programming and to that end we've strengthened a collaboration with Boston public schools
to expand initiatives and expand our network um and we've also partnered with the office of community safety for a specific summerbased activation initiative for girls next
slide our annual representation award is our extraordinary women initiative where we honor about 40 women each year sometimes a little more sometimes a little less um and we work with these women throughout the year in working groups to um inform our policy
initiatives and other collaboration work in the city so our girls mentorship this is something we've expanded this year um we've partnered with local schools and community organizations to attend career days and connecting Boston youth with women leaders across industries to
inspire future pathways um in FY26 we will integrate interns into our office initiatives and partner with the BPS schools to help support the college tours and to further expand our career day involvement next
slide we also are expanding our internal and external partnerships we've joined several community partners throughout the city to raise awareness um we've had a panel for hoops uh an arts and equity an arts and culture an equity day that
we've celebrated with the women's history center we collaborate with the equity department for Boston gives back and hosted our own cohort of volunteers um and speak out at different conferences and host programming throughout Women's History Month
for e economic equity and this year we were able to relaunch uh we boss and uh are looking forward to expanding those programming um it formally was a week long of programming in October and we are
expanding it now to quarterly um events starting with the kickoff in March and we'll host a golf clinic networking mixers and building on our relationship with the economic uh cabinet of economic opportunity and inclusion and the office of small
businesses for our internal and external partnerships around economic equity um we're continuing um the women worker rights programming in collaboration with the worker empower cabinet and um looking forward to working with them more in 2026 specifically around
low-wage women workers and in conclusion yep sorry that's also about our efforts about addressing the gender wage gap that we do in collaboration with the Austin Women's Workforce Council and in conclusion um we delivered measurable
progress across health equity representation and safety relaunched we boss expanded our menstrual equity programming and honored over 50 40 women at our extraordinary event our partnerships have strengthened citywide impact and our programs continue to
evolve to meet the needs of Boston women and girls as we move into FY26 we're looking to deepen youth engagement and further embedding embedding equity into every aspect of our work thank you all thank you um a lot of great work um in
everyone's department and the cabinet um also just want to um just quickly just take a moment of silence for um Bob Tyrell um if we can and just acknowledge all the great work that he has done for the city of Boston so please if you could take just a moment
of silence for uh Bob Tyrell thank you um also want to acknowledge that we've been joined by my council colleagues Council Weber and Council Braden uh we'll now go to public testimony on Zoom and then go to my council colleagues for
questions we'll start off with Kelly Vieiraa uh Kelly when you hear your name called please raise your virtual hand you'll be selected as a panelist um if you can unmute yourself give your name any affiliation
andor residence and then you will have two minutes there's no one on okay we'll go now go to my council colleagues no one on Zoom um starting with Councelor Murphy councelor Murphy the floor is yours thank you Chair
thank you um all for being here and for your presentation and Chief I do agree like I think he picks the um you know the important departments to come first so thank you for highlighting that um thank you for all the work you do some of the questions I think you touched on
with your um opening statements but I I'll just go through I just have a couple questions for each and then just to get them on the record and if you can just elaborate on some of the questions I have so for the office of equity um
how does the FY26 budget allocation for your office compared to last year at FY25 what specific initiatives will this funding support going forward and any metrics or outcomes like how are we gauging right what are we doing to make
sure that the you know the paths we took last year in the 25 programs to justify the current proposals um and how are you coordinating with other city departments I know you touched on it and I do think your office and many of your departments too need to work with every city
department so I'm glad you kind of touched on that already but how do we ensure that those equity principles are integrated across all services that our city provides um and what mechanisms are in place to assess the effectiveness of these collaborations
thank you councelor um we firmly believe that um we can have the greatest impact if we get every agency to to to plan backwards if you will to think about the most uh vulnerable most excluded
communities first and design planning design plan programs policies that way and so I appreciate you saying that because that that is where we really spend a lot of um time as for what is different between FY2526 uh in an effort because we understand
that we also have to be very uh responsible fiscally this year as well uh well as last year and the year before that too but this year in particular we want to prepare for worst case scenarios and so in an effort to ensure that every department and the equity cabinet has
the operational functions that they need such as policy communications admin and finance work we are centralizing some of those operations first so you may see women's advancement loses a position but that's because that position will be now
serving women's advancement and other departments in the equity cabinet and offering the functions that right now not everybody has and so we're we're preparing for that um in those different ways and making those uh sacrifices when needed without changing the programming
and that I think is really important for the public to know awesome thank you um Frank thank you i see you and your team out in the community um like you said you're a relatively new department but I do think you've made you know an impact
a positive impact to the residents and the communities um so thank you for that and you touched on like my brother's keepers but what other pri primary programs or initiatives are planned for the FY26 to support you know black men and boys in Boston and how will the
success of these programs be measured um and how are you engaging with community organizations and stakeholders to inform it on strategies and the programs you're working on and are there plans to expand partnerships and outreach in the coming year thank you counselor um so we have
uh my brother's keeper program opportunity initiative um we also have an opportunity lab uh which is structured to provide uh support around academic support college
preparedness um FAFSA college application support um we have um a partnership with um OC we provide Corey legal support as well um and so we're
level funded um so like these first few years we're looking at how can we maximize our impact uh with the the few programs we do have we provide uh $500,000 to community based organizations to expand our our reach um
and impact um and so we are in the first phase of an equity study so through the equity study um through this data dashboard is how we're going to be able to track um metrics and outcomes um and then you know through our kind of advising and advocacy from our
commission um and work with the different departments we'll be able to look to see where we're at where we're making an impact in outcomes um and where we need to to to address to to make more of an impact so that's our our goal we have quarterly meetings with
different uh departments in the city um where we talk about the data um and so once we launch this data dashboard uh get through the phase of these the equity study uh we'll have a a better picture on where we're at and where we
need to go going forward awesome thank you for that um the Office of Women's Advancement um what are the key focus areas um you're going to focus on and I heard you when you explained this but if you could talk a little bit more about how do you plan to address any
identified gaps and services or support that you see for women in Boston thank you could you give me the first question one more time sure what key focus areas is your office going to work on and like what are the resources that I know you have a small budget so it's
not like I think you can do but you do a lot you're mighty so thank you for that but what what are your with the resources you do have what areas do you focus on well as a small but mighty team thank you um we do plan on um focusing
really on the economic equity um the relaunching of Wei Boss we were able to sort of tap into a significant uh network of women entrepreneurs that are eager to sort of spread their knowledge and resources throughout the city um so that's one aspect of it the second
aspect is the work that we look to uh further with the worker empowerment center around low-wage um women workers especially given the the times we sort of see ahead um and how do we uh sort of bridge the
gaps uh I talked a little bit about with our extraordinary women we really like to sort of pull them together as working groups to hear what is needed what can we share because we don't have a large budget But how do we sort of be the convenor um of these women throughout
the city of Boston that's smart um I was a recipient of the first year many years ago but I do think that that network is important to keep them you did touch on youth engagement if you could just expand more because I do think that's very important so this year when we relaunched we boss
uh and we uh gave out our extraordinary women awards we were intentional about impro including girls um and we look to expand on their engagement in those working groups um and as we uh sort of were at the the hearing last week and we
talked about uh gender- based violence a lot of that prevention happens early on and we hope to be able to have those conversations with those young girls yeah and thank you for being here at that i know you weren't technically I guess a panelist but you were here through it all and I know that you're a resource for that so thank you for that
thank you Chair thank you um Councelor Flynn floor is yours thank you Mr chair thank you to the administration panel that is here um I supported the Frank it's good to see you i supported the stipen for the Black Men and Boys uh
Commission um are they currently receiving that stipend so uh in July 1st that's when they it'll stipens will kick in okay and how much is that stipen for so it's uh $1,200 a commissioner per year correct okay thank
you Frank thank you for the work you do i I enjoy going to your meetings you conduct them in a professional manner um more work we have to do um let me ask I know I know later this
afternoon we're going to talk about the Human Rights Commission uh can you can you give me an idea of how the commission is is doing right now over the last several years okay um yeah counselor we will give you more details at the 2M but essentially
all the work that we do is goes through a human rights lens right equity work is human rights work and so while the commission is not staffed or office is not staffed we have uh put in some dollars this year so that we can bring
in a consultant and help us figure out how to merge that work even better uh unfortunately we don't have those recommendations now but we plan to have them um later in the summer it hasn't it hasn't had staff in a long time is that accurate correct
what was the reason for that um when I was first appointed into this role the there was a lot of staff changes and um I think it's really important that we are clear on what we're trying to accomplish with the
office before we uh staff off do we have commissioners yes but they have not met i would have to give you a time but they have not met in a while how come they haven't met uh because there hasn't been staff
therefore not any no specific work but we do have uh an open line where people do submit um complaints or requests for information thank you i I I do respect that commission mayor Flynn was instrumental
in on that commission i've met with you many times on the human rights commission i think it's a critical tool in this city in fact I probably have submitted more complaints to the Human Rights Commission than maybe any elected official um on on all kinds of various issues if
people want to um get copies of I'm sure they're they're still available so the reason I ask it because I I have respect for the role of that commission i don't want to see it um become non-existent that's that's important
um you mentioned reparations where is the reparations task force um what is happening with that uh we are hoping that not hoping we will sorry by the summertime thinking of
August September formally publish the first phase one report that studies the four 100 years of the legacy of slavery in the United States in Boston that is where we are in this moment we've had now four consecutive public meetings
where our grassroots partners have presented some of their research or the research uh presentations or uh their community- based uh plan programming when is the next public meeting uh to discuss reparations task force or
reparations related issues yep may 12th and the plan the agenda for that meeting will be to do the second cohort of grassroots partners to do their presentations is that online no they're always in person but we do always have a offline online option okay
um over the weekend just over the weekend I've been I was at many events but including a 50th anniversary 50th anniversary of of the Vietnamese community here in the United
States um we celebrated a Puerto Rican veteran who's a friend of mine Purple Heart recipient we celebrated the tremendous role of the Chinese Chinese American community here in
Boston um I also met with LGBTQ residents as well um diversity is important in our city government i guess my question is are you concerned about the potential cuts from
the federal government and I know you are concerned but um what type of programs could be cut if the federal government um implemented any change is there like a list of uh federal programs
or federal funding we receive that or the state receives that could potentially impact the mission um to answer the first question we we definitely are concerned many of the residents that we work with and and many
of the backgrounds that we represent come have used some of these federal um programs ourselves and and are connected to those uh I think when it comes to our day-to-day operations I think it's really important that the public knows that we as an administration remain
committed to protecting those programmings that we know have an impact on our residents here in Boston at the same time um we are very aware of the fear and the anxiety that are that are very real uh because of some of the the
the funding issues that that may be out there so we are doing our best to track them um and to understand impacts so that we can continue preparing for that but our work will not change in FY26 i know I know you mentioned in your
opening statement Howard University a school I have great respect for can you tell me the the partnership with Howard University what is it um I would like to learn more about that oh um so that's through our My Brothers Keeper Boston program we have uh two fellows that are
from Boston that are currently attending Howard University um and so they they were interns in our office when they come back during the summer uh during the during the school year um like when we do college story they support um and
then they provide a kind of as big brothers to current high school students um in Boston thank you Frank i I would love to see a historic black college have a presence here in Boston um whether it's a satellite office
satellite educational program or a major presence here but I think it's critical long-term to have such a facility that does tremendous education work um located here in the city of Boston um Mr chair I have no further
comments thank you thank you Councelor Flynn and I agree um would love to have whether it's um full H.B.CU or a satellite office here in the city of Boston i just wanted to shout out Keith um who is working on that initiative as
we speak so I can more than happily pull you into those conversations as they progress um I do have a question u for executive director Pharaoh um with the stipens was there additional money given
to the department for the $25,000 worth of stipens no okay all right thank you uh Council Weber the floor is yours thank you Chair um I I guess I getting to Councelor Flynn's last point on federal funding
and what's going to happen i mean is the is the plan um to just uh budget based on uh things being sane in in the real world and then if if there is withdrawing of funding we'll deal with
it then just explain the thought process um I think it's important to recognize that many of the communities that we represent in our cabinet have experienced this level of um silencing erasure uh fear for many
years decades centuries and so prior to the current federal administration we had many conversations where we uh discussed what what what would this look like and feel like and I know that as an administration right now as a local
administration we are taking any of every single challenge as seriously as we can because we know the impact that it can have on the community um and we can control only what we can control and so in our small cabinet we
are doing our part by ensuring that every department continues to have what they need and that's why we're centralizing some of the operations and I know colleagues across other departments that are doing very similar um and making similar decisions to ensure that everyone has what they need to continue the work that we're doing
okay and um uh I was looking at uh this New Hampshire federal court decision this weekend about the the uh Department of Education's policy maybe this is more of a question for BPS but as part of it they're trying to end DEI in all of its
forms and it it it prohibits teachers from mentioning structural racism or uh saying anything that would make one any member of one racial group feel bad or about the history of the country or the
world or or anything h have you have you had any discussions because obviously diversity equity inclusion is probably you know written into all of your you know uh sort of programs here have you talked about that that you know what what the Trump administration is
doing have you talked to BPS about you know how they're going to handle these things um I think collectively many of our colleagues at BPS and others are are all thinking about this while still focusing on on the job and I don't mean
to dismiss your question it's just like because it's been a long time um of similar erasure and policies that neglect our communities we we are we understand that we have to focus on what we can control right now and so we are
continuing to do the work we are continuing to call things what they are say say what we need to say and thankfully we are working under a leadership and a mayor that is um that knows history and that
recognizes truth okay do do does the cabinet or any of the departments have grant writers um or does the city I mean because if we're looking for outside funding um grant writing is something that can help with that but yeah that's a good
call it's a good question so we know so you'll hear from different departments and each department will be able to speak to how they uniquely do it for their departments uh but yes we are definitely exploring as many avenues as possible to ensure that uh the work that we do continues uh but we as the equity
cabinet don't have unique uh grant writers okay um well I I think we should think about that as is the um I know non in the nonprofit world that's how they uh they you get a grant writer and they pay for pays for itself and you you uh
there's you know obviously we're doing great work and I think there's a lot of resources uh for that kind of um that are out there for those programs and I think we should take you know advantage of everything we can um so for in terms
of um you know last year uh Bob Terrell talked very convincingly about fair housing testers and what we you know how we can uh make a real dent in in in uh section 8 voucher discrimination housing discrimination just by calling people
sending them emails saying I'd like to rent a a unit so I I guess how many uh do we have testers now how many testers do we have um and you know if we don't have any you know what are we uh doing
to sort of bring that uh you know Bob Terrell's sort of advice to us to ramp that program up um yeah we we all wish he was here but um Oh and lastly who who is I mean what's what are we doing to
Yeah exactly who's doing Bob's work uh now and what are we doing to fill his position yeah so I'll start with your last question first um we obviously wanted to give time and space for some for grieving and for um
just healing in the staff we have the staff necessary for sort of the operational needs to be met on a day-to-day basis and we will be in the next couple of months um searching for the new head of of fair housing in the in the meantime we are sort of the you
know we have a deputy p um we have Dwayne Watz there in the team as a deputy and he steps in as lead in those moments as for your first question um I want to get back to you on specifics on that there there is some there have been many exploratory conversations but as
far as I know there isn't anything uh public and official that has kicked off yet okay um and then uh uh for for uh the offices of black male advancement and women's advancements um in the budget you see uh like contracting services and I think for women's
advancement it's it's like 250,000 and I think for black male advancements closer to n 900,000 can you just explain you know what that what those contract services funds are are going to well I can start with ours um so when we
do the menstrual equity project we use that money to pay both for the subject matter the subject matter experts that will be training the BCF the animation designers we use it for a lot of our programming contracts
um for the office of black mill advancement uh 500,000 of the contractor service goes to grants to community based organization uh we have uh several technical assistance programs so we have contracts for um our capacity building
institute that supports over 100 community- based organizations with technical assistance for expanding and um sustaining their organizations uh we have a mentoring uh initiative contract
um we provide legal assistance for individuals with quaries looking to sell uh their quories um and then we have funds that are allocated for our equity study that we are currently um in phase one of as well as um we do a community
empowerment summit uh MBKU summit every year HB.CU college tours um as well as uh to support our black men and boys commission work okay thank I just one quick question thank you chair um just and for for uh for the office of women's
advancement Dana are we doing anything around um child care fund like funding for childare i know the state supposedly has funding and a program for for child care uh and I don't know if I don't know if
this is the right pl you know if we're involved in that at all i know that there was some childcare entrepreneur fund previously yes I was gonna say I think that used to live in the office of women's advancement it doesn't anymore so uh Kristen McWain leads that
department okay thank you very much okay thank you chair thank you um just want to acknowledge that councilor Durkin has joined us and just piggybacking off of one of Council Weber's questions around the grant writers um in the past what
the city has done knowing that um funding wasn't always there for our marginalized communities um the city of Boston established and launched the Boston racial equity fund um is that and been on pause um since 2021 but
understanding that there could be you know need for more investments um to some of the community to to the communities that you serve in your cabinet are we looking to restart um that fund thank you for that question
Jack thank you for the question uh we've had exploratory conversations uh and that obvious that not obviously but that has come up um and we've we're open we're open to possibilities okay um thank you councelor Braden floor
is yours thank you Mr chair and good morning um I had some questions about how um the cabinet of equity and inclusion inter intersects with other city departments such as say the new planning the planning department that has come into
the city uh I hear a lot of concern uh about uh how planning initiatives and zoning initiatives are uh have the potential to cause displacement of minority owned businesses and displacement of low-income residents say
a block is being developed and whatever um are you engaged in that conversation with the planning department um thank you for that question we we could always be doing more work uh and we so I sit in the planning advisory council um I've
been a member of that council for now more than a year and so members of our team so when I say our team it's not just the equity offices departments that are reflected here have sat in some of the subgroups such as the ant anti-displacement group that just released a plan so we are advising in a
lot of these different plans and we also recognize that there's still a lot of work to do and then in in relation to the uh the testing and the the fair housing uh testers and um I I know last year Bob Terrell was advocating for um
you know for an attorney to be involved in the the department to help and we we tried to get money for that but where are we at um like I think Bob's vision we out of respect for his work I think it would be worth picking up where he
left off and continuing to find good leader for that team and then also giving them the resources that they because discrimination and housing is a huge huge issue um and also you know there are really um there are realtors
in the field who are trying to do the right thing and I heard a case last week of somebody had gone through the whole process with somebody who had voucher holder and the the thing crashed at the end because of some snafu within our systems so you know it's it's discouraging for folks who want to do
the right thing in terms of voucher holders and then they get the whole way through and the the voucher covers the cost but there's some little technicality that's missed so is in terms of just working with in the whole fair housing space is to really get in and partner with realtors in this
conversation as well because they have a they have a an experience of where it's challenging um they're easy to dump on like they're not a they don't appreciate being a punching bag uh there's certainly lots of improvement in the system so are we
addressing those are we are we engaging in a conversation with all the partners both on on both sides of the question um first I would love to follow up on the specific issue if you have not already worked with um any other I've been
working with okay great great great um so one of um Bob's goal was to and which is why we are going to be focusing on FY26 expanding our training not only to our only sorry not only to our agencies
alone but to real estate uh companies as well that was something that he did want to implement we did not get there yet we're not there yet uh but this is something that we definitely look for in the in the new leadership in that office so in terms of resources to get there um
what what's your estimate of of what what you need to deliver on that commitment we with the current investig staff in the investigations team and the outreach and training team we have what we need for FY26 and I would love to
have a conversation about FY27 in the future um then you know I think we're in an unprecedented time i don't think we should under understate the challenges that we have like we're talking about
losing grants this this this regime in Washington is is going after DEI project DEI initiatives across the board you're not even allowed and they're stripping out references to women in leadership women in the military women that have
done anything significant in the world they're take stripping it all out and they basically want uh a white male dominated world that women are expected to go back into the home and raise kids like I I don't think
I'm overstating that how do we how do we hold hold our ground and uphold the role of women in our communities and in our city and in society in the face of of this sort of
really aggressive um assault from the federal government now what what are you what are you folks thinking about it's a big question it is 24 hours um I I think one of the things that's most
important is that we're here in Boston and we have the Office of Women's Advancement to continue to sort of beat the drum when the federal government doesn't um and to share our resources and I don't want to say collect um but to sort of hold
space for our women and to push back against that here yeah are we working you because the other the other our education eds and meds are facing the same same onslaught like are we are we working with other entities like the business community and the nonprofit
community and our city administration together like to have this notion like together we stand divided we fall like if we have a united approach are we are we engaging conversations with the other folks in the in in Boston who are having equal equal challenges in terms of
Um the answer is yes uh through our strategic partnerships work uh under Steven Chan and um which to your question earlier councelor Weber around grant writing we do not have necessarily a grant writer but that that that team
is consistently like tapping into those opportunities and so we don't miss out on that and the work that Kristen Max Wayne has done um in the early childhood work the answer is absolutely yes we are consistently looking for opportunities to build coalitions so that there isn't
any one single entity working against um these efforts that are trying to set us back yeah and in terms of the grant writing like you don't you don't have someone in your your your so do we have a
centralized grant writing support in the city like from administration and finance or whomever to help support departments write grants and get there's money we're leaving money on the table so we shouldn't be doing that in this present climate
um not specifically for grant writing although I would I would reserve those questions for the finance uh cabinet but we do get when we are thinking even for our mini grants programs when we think of here's a specific need that we see in the community and we need
to insert X intervention uh we have partners that help us ensure that we are writing those correctly and that we can put them out into the community as for funding we we can lean in more um with the strategic partnerships teams through Stephen Chan yeah so and that's the the
writing of RFPs and the timely um timely putting out of RFPs so that whatever little money we have for outside partnerships that we get the door money out the door quickly yes yeah okay thank you Mr chair i think that's my time thank you um just want to acknowledge
that the vice chair of the committee Council Pepin has also joined us um I'll now turn it over to councelor Durkin for questions thank you so much Chair and I just want to say I think this cabinet is incredibly important to our success in
the city of Boston and obviously um the chief um I've gotten to know her work um in a lot of different roles and I just really appreciate the way that you lead um and the way that you do it in such an inclusive way when you know often people
don't have the information to um to really um communicate um and I think that a lot of people in the city look to you to figure out how to communicate in a way that includes everyone so thank you um Chief Omari as I'll say um so
thank you and um obviously women's advancement and um black male advancement are incredibly important and I I guess um off of sort of councelor Braden's questioning obviously we're headed for a
moment where a lot of these things are on the chopping block in the federal um landscape and I believe that Boston we have to be bold we have to be a beacon uh for equity and inclusion and I'm just
kind of curious are there jobs that are not yet hired yet that are you feel that are needed um does this budget really adequately fit what is needed in this moment and what partnerships exist
within the city to to and I know that our mayor has this is um one of her core priorities but I'm just curious sort of what partnerships need to exist that maybe haven't had to exist before
um I'd love to um have the team answer this question as well but I I do want to acknowledge the fact that like we are we are in compliance as as much as folks as as much as the federal government and and uh others may want to seem may want
to share that we're not we are following our our AG's guidance Massachusetts AG's um guidance on on this work and so we continue to be in compliance um and I think I'm going to speak for myself and the direct connections that I have out
in the community i think what what I could keep hearing is a need for consistency um and ensuring that we are stable uh because there are too many things that feel unstable and so for us
it's more important that we do what we're doing right now very well than to keep trying new things because that is the intention which is to keep us distracted and right now we we need to remain focused on the work that that we are here to do with the community but I don't know if folks want to say
something different i would just echo the chief's sentiments around um continuing to engage with our strategic community partners and listen to sort of what their needs are and how we can best sort of meet them through the city
thank you and I think just for me at the core of this work I think that sort of there being partnership between the disabilities commission and aid strong and when I've been um at senior centers in district 8 I know so many people are
having trouble accessing SNAP which I know they immediately think of astrong as the person you know as the as who to reach out to but it really is an equity issue as well and I think um there's a lot of issues sort of with federal funding right now and you know SNAP
fraud and other things that are impacting people so deeply and I feel helpless as a city councelor to support these folks and um and I know there's probably a thousand more examples of something similar where I think cross um
you know uh department interaction and coordination would be really helpful um because I do think we're while we want to do the things that we've always been doing really well I also think there is a charge right now to make sure that
there's more collaboration more partnerships um more communication across um silos because I think those that are most vulnerable in Boston deserve a city that's sort of like all working together interconnected um and I
think that's what we're all striving for um but it's just like I think as a district counselor I'm often out at like I'm doing building visits I'm doing um senior center visits I'm doing all sorts of things where I feel like I'm gathering all this information about how
unequitable both you know uh a lot of times federal um resources are or can be with without proper um support for folks and I think that's kind of the charge right now is like how do we make sure
that like when I receive feedback or any of us or if you see feedback it it's really getting to everyone um and I think in terms of language access I think I uh have been thinking a lot and I know this has been one of councelor
Mia's pushes just having there be sort of um more um it it to be easier because I know I I'm traveling to a building and I find out like a day before oh you're going to need a translator to be in this building
and I have no idea who to call at the city so I just go out of pocket to get translation services i think a lot of us have had those experiences where government should be just working towards more connectivity not less and
knowing knowing that I could call a line or and I I do think that's often what it is with the city council is we do feel a little bit siloed from sort of the resources that might be available to other departments um but that's just my experience and I think um we're all just
doing everything we can to connect with people um I know there's been a conversation around the codification of the LGBTQ plus advancement i know that we're all very supportive of that um and figuring out a way to do that um this
year I think I I'm fully in support of um and I just want to thank you all for your work i know it's really important um Frank we also go way back so thank you for all of your work i think there is uh a charge at the city and an
excitement right now to work on all these issues and do as much as we can um but I really just want to offer my support to all of you if there's any way I can be helpful um in my district um with making sure that the work that you
guys are doing is amplified and that there if there are events that are happening that those are amplified um I'm very you know very much in support of that and I think um in terms of women's advancement I do think there's so many other directions you know it's
it's all open to interpretation sort of what that office looks like i think the um communication around like salary and like getting people sort of skilled up to ask for more money is great i have heard from a lot of city workers who have taken that program that oftent
times they're in pay scale jobs and can't ask for more money um so figuring out how we either bring that to a broader audience or maybe what the next charge is um I do think there's a lot of ways in which um women's advancement
could uh really move into the next issue which is really reproductive care and access and I know um that's something that could be you know in true partnership with like everyone in the equity cabinet but um I do know about
wait times for um for reproductive care in Boston because of the lack of reproductive care that's happening around the country and I do think that that is you know if there was anything that was advancing women it would would be having them have access to health
care so so I don't know um if there are any plans for that but I know I'm out of time so uh thank you chair and um thank and just again thank you for all your work it's so meaningful and any way that I can be helpful let me know thank you counselor thank you u chair recognizes
Council Pepin the floor is now yours thank you Mr chair and let me see it's still yeah it's still 11 so good morning good morning good morning everyone thank you so much for the work you all do by the way because when I'm when I review this packet and I'm looking at the slides it's literally everything that
our federal government is attacking right now and the fact that you guys are staying strong in our city making sure that this work continues um it just shows where our backbone is here in the city of Boston so thank you for that i um I've been a very big fan of this
cabinet just because of the fact that I always call it the cabinet of do everything and there's I feel like every other cabinet does you know there's specific there's property management there's community engagement there's um whatever it is you guys cover it all
so thank you for that my um first line of questions is for the office of blackmail advancement um Frank you you've been doing such a great job and I I was at the Madapan Library recently i was reading the Bayate banner and I read that um you just released some grants to
about 52 organizations um I wasn't able to see which organizations they were i don't know if you've chosen them yet but I'm curious have you chosen them i would love to I would love to know if there's any in my district i'm just I love this type of initiative so can you elaborate on what what kind of program this is yes
so um this is our uh we released the funds we have the organizations we can send a breakdown district by district neighborhood by neighborhood where the organizations are um so um there are a number that are that would be in your district there they're in Roxbury
Dorchester High Park South Jamaica plane um so there you know organizations across the city that are uh doing work around youth advancement um housing support um support around
um economic opportunity and so we have this um grant as a way to kind of provide the additional support to community based organizations that are obviously supporting the city by doing the work and uh helping to expand the
impact um and then we also this year we matched it with the technical assistance program so not only does every organization that's funded through the grant receive technical assistance the organizations that we're not funding is receiving technical assistance and
support so going forward that they think they can have better opportunity to receive funding not only through our office but other city department state federal um and kind of help sustain and build out uh their capacity that's amazing and it's funny when I was
reading this I was I had just finished um inviting there's an organization called a young man with a plan yeah in High Park and they're actually coming to speak to the counselors this Wednesday um so if you I'm pretty sure we're connected you're connected so I I wanted to make sure that there was that
connection i I shouldn't have even thought about it you're on top of your work but they will be here in city hall on Wednesday okay so I just think about organizations like that that continue to help our our black and brown Latino young men in high school that just need some guidance we work we work with them
closely i'm actually going to be visiting them visiting their uh site in a few weeks and we actually helped them expand um their location um in High Park through some funds we had uh from through our MBK program um
last year that's amazing yeah they have a great space so you're gonna have a good time out there thank you for that um for Chief Solis I would love to I kind of want to get a glimpse of how your cultural liaison are are
working at the moment i'm pretty sure that their work has has gotten a little tougher in the past few months what kind of are they getting any different type of training in the new as a result of the new year what kind of resources do they need um I'm thinking specifically I
have a large Haitian population in my district your Haitian cultural leazison is amazing so I just want to make sure that they're suited and ready to serve our people um thank you counselor and I would say a year and a half later we that's a perfect question to be asking uh since
the establishment of the of the unit of culture affairs I actually would I think we should offline a little bit because I think this is a great opportunity for them to reconnect with the counselors so that there could be more of the specific constituent needs that you may be
experiencing and that we are experiencing and that we're I think there's a a ripe opportunity for that um as for professional development opportunities and and other things that they may need or resources uh something that we're exploring for next year is uh
having them work more directly with uh policy teams in other departments so that we're we're including right it's beyond language access right we're including more of that cultural competence lens into the the design of of different policies and programs and
so would love to invite you to those conversations as well but that's something that we definitely want to explore for FI26 i think that's a great idea because you said it's not just about language access it's just about cultural understanding of what those community needs sometimes they're the only ones that let's say they they not
that they trust but they have access to and they're the ones telling them "Hey you guys should be doing this." And maybe the cultural liaison are not part of those conversations yet right so I I would love to see that um I kind of want to ask a more general question for all of you in the
room what What do you think will make your jobs easier um if you were to say if we had this line item if we if if we had this resource it would make our jobs a little easier right now and don't be shy
um I think of time as a resource um a bit of time and space to coales with those of us who are hurting and those of us who are experiencing um all the weight have been experiencing
the weight of of the world for many years um to also educate the public the work that we do is not some scary thing we're not trying to harm anybody else we're just trying to help you understand that for years our communities have been
neglected and that there is an opportunity and a responsibility uh for different institutions such as government to to do things a little bit differently um but that's that's that's my ask of the world not just of you just a little bit more time would be great
right thank you for that either of you um I'll say for for us it would be having racial equity embedded across all city departments and I think we're working towards that we work closely with a number of city departments we
have standing meetings um and so I think that would be that would make my job easier um and then I think ultimately for kind of black men and boys to receive the same opportunity as everyone else um in
the city of Boston to thrive yes sir um with women being 56% of the population in Boston um I think I would echo Frank's sentiments that were affected and sort of all of the different walks um of
Boston so an appreciation for that um my personal uh uh No I'll leave I'll leave it at that sure i I think everyone needs access to mental health
resources as we sort of feel more pressures from all of the things that are surrounding us it's going to dictate how people cope with the world and I I know this is taking into your time but I do want to acknowledge what I said at the beginning i really
appreciate you all starting with our cabinet first my hope is that you take some of the learnings from today throughout the rest of of the journey of the budget and and and encourage our colleagues to continue working with us through the technical assistance program or the different
programming that we offer and so you know I I think this is also you're doing you're doing your part as well so thank you thank you and I know my time is up but I just want to say thank you and thank you for mentioning mental health don't ever think about leaving that one out um it's a big one and it's a really
one a really important one for me too so I'll be advocating for this on this side of the things so that's it for me Mr chair thank you uh Council Pepe and yeah we the idea of starting with that equity we want to start you know
the budget conversation u with equity because we want equity to be centered in all of our conversations when we're meeting with different departments um so that that is that was a thought process on starting with the equity cabinet um
in the equity department um I do want to thank you know everyone in your cabinet and everyone here for your all your work um I believe that this is what this cabinet um and these
departments have and can continue to make a major impact in the lives of all Bostononians because I think when you make a deliberate effort to reduce the disparities whether it's in LGBTQ plus black males uh women advancement you
improve the lives of all Boston residents so like my my questions are always going to be rooted just solely in that right improving the city of Boston and um reducing disparities my first question
is around the executive order uh that was signed in 2019 by Mayor Walsh also want to just give a big shout out to uh Carolyn Crockett and also Lorie Nelson um but the executive order that was signed was on racial equity and
leadership where the city pledged to address racial economic and social inequities in a systematic way uh some of the key highlights were every city department must participate in racial equity and leader leadership training
program so the training wasn't voluntary um apply racial equity tools and policy development and operations set racial equity goals apply a racial equity framework to their work and report on their progress uh
departments were also directed to review current and proposed policies through a racial equity lens um the order the executive order went into effect immediately and stays active unless it's been superseded
so my question is has there been an ordinance or another executive order that supersedes this one and then the followup is if not where do we stand with meeting these goals um no ordinance or executive order has been has
superseded this one the focus has been the implementation of the work unfortunately um Dr crockett was not able to u be in the role for as long as as I know that she she could have done an incredible job here and um the moment I
got appointed I recognized that that was something that we needed to implement and three years later happy to share that while it is not mandatory because there are many there are many hurdles to making trainings mandatory uh we are
implementing a bit of an not a bit an an audit into our ENI academy to ensure that we are applying a racial equity lens to the curriculum that is already being presented to um staff in fact we work directly with the public health
commission and they and their oresi office racial equity office uh to ensure that they're doing a social determinance of health through a racial equity lens training at the beginning of that academy and then people graduate after six sessions uh I think something that I
feel very strongly about and our mayor feels strongly about it's not only the responsibility of the equity cabinet and so if you see a um initiatives such as the live live long well program from the public health commission etc something that we are a part of as well is is
looking at these racial equity um racial disparity sorry and ensuring that we are setting those goals and and metrics to make the change i recognize your question um and the answer is we have we haven't restructured
um in a legislative way got it um but was there a time that the real equity or the real program real equity and leadership training program offered to all city departments my understanding is that prior to uh
Mayor Woo's um swearing swearing in ceremony there was about 10 months of this work and uh there were some issues as you can some equity issues around like folks that work at night at parks and not having access to computers and
being able to sit down in private and take these really hard trainings right and so lots of lessons learned there and why the academy offers so many different pathways for people to participate in rather than just like a sitdown mandatory three-hour training um so that
was implemented and we took those lessons with and Lori has been a part of uh these academy as well um to make sure that we're not reinventing the wheel right and then one of the major parts was previously they I believe every city employee went through the training and
now it is voluntary not everybody was able to go through it no it's it was not I think it reached about uh 3,000 i would have to give you a specific number um Okay but not everybody was able to it was mandatory but not everybody was able to take it because 18,000 people in an
organization is is a different is a different operational beast right and I think with given the time I I believe um that this type of training is is critical um and that we reach as many city employees um as possible um and if
that is making it mandatory um I believe that's that that is the work um and then also when it comes to like the racial equity tools and then the framework do you know where departments are with with that part of the executive
order we are so I would perhaps rephrase the question of where we are with that work we don't necessarily we are not like um we're not designing our programming
specific to that executive order under Mayor uh Mayor Walsh uh but I can speak on where we are with the different uh goals and initiatives that are happening throughout the city as you heard you have specific work that BMA is doing with the equity study and through the larger ENI coordination manager
coordination network we now have 11 cabinets out of the I should know the number to this um that have somebody who is meeting on a monthly basis to discuss to brainstorm to do a community of practice around issues that they're noticing on a day-to-day basis and so I
think that is where I would want to spend more time on because that's that's already that's that work is already happening and that trust has already been built and these are experts in their specific field that are also going through our trainings of equity and inclusion and are able to speak the same
language in that way right no and I I hear that but then I also see you know the city and contracting disparity studies right and how that centered data um and through that data right we were
able to get a sheltered market program where we have addressed um the issue um and have started to increase the amount of city contracting that we were able to award MWBEs so I think yes the day-to-day but also the system
systematic way on how to solve the problem um I believe is critical and also um we have seen past um efforts right past efforts and the strategy on how to make sure that we are
able to lay the foundation to provide a tool that we can change and reduce these disparities um councelor Durkin do you have a second round of question yeah I just had one more thing thank you so much chair um I just wanted to say I was
really happy to hear the mention of mental health because that was my maiden speech was about u mental health for city workers and I'm really pleased that my office is putting together a wellness series for city workers so we have some really cool ideas um and I hope that my
council colleagues and um I I will reach out to all the departments to let them know about it but the goal is to just have a group of like 30 to 45 people all figuring away way to like meditate dance bike or do yoga together um so we're
working on that and hopefully we'll do a small pilot this um spring and summer and then we'll get to do something more robust in the fall but um it's definitely something that I've noticed um as an elected official getting to see
all of these amazing city workers um really uh rise to the challenge of what constituents need from them but often that means um constituents um sometimes being abusive sometimes really not respecting boundaries and other things
and I think uh the city creating sort of almost an erggo- like space for mental health and for wellness I think is really important so we're hoping to just sort of like pilot that um I have been very uh much in favor of finding space
for a small city hall gym which I know there isn't a there isn't a space yet for that so um so we'll see but um I just I just wanted to say I really love that mention and it really does um cut across all departments and all um all of
our um workers really deserve um a space and an opportunity to um to recreate meditate and do everything they need to do in this building to bring their best self to the job so um so thank you all
and I just um seems a little off topic but because we all have people that work in our departments that like you know would benefit from there being some sort of opportunity um I think it'll be really fun yeah there's going to be a cherry blossom bike ride maybe a tour of
a really famous building in Boston and um so we'll see but thank you and um and yeah it's nice to know that some of the connections that are made in these hearings can turn into other things too
so thank you chair thank you um all right now I'm going to go to public testimony i hear that we have two people signed up for public testimony online oh no longer online
just double check um all right okay um we will now have a round of public testimony you could testify either in person or via Zoom if you'd like to testify virtually please sign up in advance using the link below after you
have signed up you'll be provided with the hearing zoom link please make sure you are signed up into Zoom with the full name you signed up with to help us call on you appropriately if you like to testify in person please sign up on the sheet near the chamber entrance and when your name is called to testify please
step forward and introduce yourself into the microphone participants have been called on in the order they signed up and we'll have two minutes to testify we'll go online um Kelly Vieira the floor is now yours good morning good morning um I'd like to
thank the chair and the for the opportunity to speak today about the state of fair housing in Boston u my name is Kelly Vieira i'm a resident of Brighton i'm also the director of investigations and outreach at the housing discrimination testing program which is part of Suffach
University Center for Housing Justice and Policy uh prior to join joining Suffach in 2020 I served the Commonwealth as a Middle Sex Assistant District Attorney the housing discrimination testing program together with the accelerator practice clinic at Suffach Law receives hundreds of
complaints each year um from victims of housing discrimination all over the greater Boston area we provide legal representation to victims of housing discrimination um at the Boston Fair Housing Commission the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination in Housing Court and in
Superior Court for over a decade we've been able to provide free fair housing education outreach and testing services throughout greater Boston uh for anyone unfamiliar testing is like secret shopping for the rental market it's an
investigative tool that we use to learn how housing providers are treating people based on characteristics like whether they have children or if they're using a housing subsidy through our testing we're able to obtain additional evidence that supports discrimination claims um in our legal clinic or
alternatively testing can also exonerate people and show that discrimination is not occurring which of course we like to see additionally our testing can help us measure the frequency of discrimination that's happening in a certain area or for a particular group of people for example in 2020 we released a study
called qualified renters need not apply in that study we we measured rates of discrimination against renters attempting to use housing vouchers in the Boston area and the study found that housing providers discriminated against voucher holders almost 90% of the time
as a result of that study um I was brought on to lead a testing project in partnership with the city of Boston's office of housing and equity from 2020 through 2022 this partnership resulted in a great increase of number of agency
initiated complaints um filed by OFHE um to the Boston Housing Commission Fair Housing Commission and over $66,000 in settlements that went either back to the city or to local nonprofits however this work fair housing work has been
primarily supported through funding from Congress um appropriated through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD um through an initiative called the Fair Housing Initiatives Program or FIT that funding is now under threat it's that
funding that's been targeted for termination and this is the situation that we're in in Boston where our program for example has two grant applications that have been pending since November with HUD and we do not expect to be awarded those grants this means that there's no fair housing
initiative work happening in Boston right now the only fair housing testing that we're able to do right now is related to other projects and we don't have the capacity to respond to all the testing needs um throughout the city or to do these type of audit testing or or
research based testing that I discussed earlier um our testing has established that discrimination based on uh characteristics like race and housing subsidies are extremely high without your support the work that we've been able to do for over a decade now might end and therefore we ask um that the
committee um support fair housing and include funding for our work in the city's budget including $200,000 for the housing discrimination testing program will allow us to continue our work toward ensuring that individuals and families in Boston have the equal access
to housing that they deserve regardless of their race their use of a housing subsidy or any other protected care characteristic um thank you so much for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you Kelly um we'll go back to
counselor counselors for second rounds of questions um I'll start off with few questions for BMA can you just provide um a little bit more detail on and just remind the
public about the equity study what's in it um timeline scope of work um and then after we after the equity study is done um what are your next steps okay bless you bless you yes so the equity study is
a comprehensive assessment of data related uh to black men and boys and how they are served by city of Boston policy programs services um it findings will inform equitable datadriven and impactful strategies to improve outcomes
and guide future investments within the city of Boston um so for phase one um we're at the beginning stages we are kind of at a eight to nine month timeline um and then once we um make it through phase one um the outcomes for
phase one will kind of guide phase two which is more lead to kind of recommendations uh for action um across city departments and so we're eight months away from being able to release um the report for
final report for phase one so we're in an initial process where we're um within the next week we're going to be launching a survey um we're going to be doing one-on- ons we're going to have some um um focus groups uh we're working with
the Black Men and Boys Commission different uh groups city departments um on this study we have a research firm um led by some uh researchers that are connected to Boston University and and Harvard um and then we also brought on
Dr rufus Faulk who's leading the community engagement support uh for the equity study awesome and then um I know that there are um term limits on the commission members
i believe they serve in two three and four year terms um can you talk to me about where what the status is and also um if commission members terms are coming to an end um what would that process look like yep so
we um we have a few commissioners who terms um end um at the end of June um so the process is um through the uh black men and boys commission we have a list
of over 400 individuals that applied to be on the the commission initially uh we had another um kind of referral forum that we shared out um several commissioners referred um
individuals um as well um and so the commission will be meeting to kind of compile that list um and identify uh recommendations for appointment um and then ultimately the mayor kind of makes
the final decision of uh who's appointed to to serve on the commission awesome um and then women advancement um I know we've done work in the past with maternal and infant um health grants i know a lot of this work has moved over to um the Boston Public Health
Commission uh could you just speak to um your involvement in collaboration between BPHC and your in your department so we work with BPHC on a couple of different areas so to your point the maternal health grants um we've been involved with the Kofi project which has
been um sort of expanding the doulas um so we work closely with them around that um and also like I said with the genderbased uh violence prevention initiative we were um sort of instrumental in sort of helping pick that director we've helped
um sort of sponsor the survey that they're doing amongst practitioners and really looking forward to working with them around um gender- based violence um outcomes in Boston awesome and then there's a $50,000 line item for emergency employees in FY25 and FY26 um
can you speak to what that that is for well I walked into FY25 so I'll I took that money and used it for grants we split it um one for the violence prevention um with community safety and the other with uh
LGBT Q LGBTQ2+ advancement got it um and I guess this is for everyone on the panel how many policy recommendations has each department um
the cabinet provided uh to the administration um and then also budget recommendations i I'd have to get back to you on our specific policy recommendations to the I go um so through our office in
partnership with our commission for FY25 um I believe we have over 20 policy and budget recommendations uh totaling $34 million uh for FY26 got it and has that been shared with the
council yes it's um public document um and we're actually releasing our next quarterly report this week so I make sure you have a follow up with the itemized breakdown of uh what's recommended and then also what the mayor
kind of included in the budget um for FY26 across uh multiple departments in the city yeah that would be great to have as we dive into more department hearings um yeah and I just want to encourage you
know the whole cabinet and all department um to produce um any recommendations budget investments um for the council as you know we wanted to start with equity center again center equity in all in all of our departmental
hearings um okay i guess my other question is around um it looks like or sounds like we're going to be centralizing some major uh I guess responsibilities inside of
the cabinet one of them looks like communications um do you have a calm specific person at each equity department um or h like how do you plan on like talk to me talk to me and explain that strategy like how do
you have one person centralized to speak to so many different communities yeah no so the the issue is that for three years there there has not been comms at every single department okay some departments have it some departments don't and we've been trying to figure out a way to be
more fair and in a space where we are not getting new vacancies we are instead opting for a a pathway where we get three to four experts in comm's marketing outreach to better serve right you think of a space where they're sort
of like a how budget analysts work for OBM similar to that because we are eight departments so we're not laying anyone off it's if there happen to be a vacancy we are taking it uh to ensure that we're centralizing so now thanks to the the
the absorption of a position from MOA we now can help language access who didn't have a comms person women's advancement who doesn't have a comm LGBTQ that doesn't have a cons person whereas before they just weren't and we had to continue to scramble and finding the
resources got it and staying on like the structure we have um equity ambassadors that are trained through the um equity academy u equity network managers and then within the cabinet we have equity not equity but executive direct
directors who are the heads of departments with inside of the equity cabinet equity uh ambassadors are city employees from across departments who go through the equity academy equity network managers and I think I'm getting
the name right right um are working within departments in the mayor's office and currently in the mayor's office of housing and human services while executive directors are collaborating across departments can you just break down like the specific
responsibilities and expectations of network managers versus the executive directors many differences so I would so one one easy way to differentiate would
be whereas our department heads are experts in the specific field and also can do everything else the equity inclusion manager are experts in the specific function of that cabinet so like you can think of Colleen Fanaeka
who is our ENI manager for housing right an expert in the space of um housing developers that is already brings that expertise is already connected to the space of housing and then is coming to the ENI cabinet for
direct feedback direct advice direct brainstorming opportunities so that's whereas our department heads offer that you know they come to a department and say we are noticing a gap in this particular issue with this particular work that you're providing can we
provide some technical assistance and then we do it that way um that's that's that's one of the major splits all right and then following up on that question I know we we have one in the mayor's office of housing yeah and can you talk
to me about the role the is it equity network manager played in the anti-displacement um report and I asked this only because we know housing is one of the major priorities um however in that
report the equity cabinet um wasn't listed as a contributor yeah so we'll make sure to talk to the team about that we our team was a part of many of the working groups that were a part of the earlier conversation so I think that's just an
administrative oversight there um Colleen was not in the role yet when the anti-displacement work began uh but there are different initiatives that she is working on again from our advice and directly from this expertise of of the
mayor's office of housing okay and I know there's some ongoing work in housing whether it's article 80 squares and streets um um welcome home Boston phase three can you talk to me about is is like is
there like an analysis component are they the equity network manager meeting with you know every department head like can you talk to me about like how that work yeah so the some of the initiatives you mentioned are coming from the planning
department and Luis Frizz is the representative of the planning department um so like the the anti-displacement work and all that that is what used to be BPDA now planning Luis Frizz is a part of the network and
a lot of the work originally was focused on like staff diversity and so little by little we're starting to transition that work because of the network into changes in like how the work is done which is the vision of the work rather than staff oriented right we've always
been really intentional about we're not focused on staff diversity we're focused on the outcomes of the work um and then when it comes to things like welcome home Boston etc we're in selection committees often one of the main ways in which we participate in other agencies
work is we either get consulted for write the write up of contracts RFPs etc or we're in selection committees for that um we definitely help with that targeted outreach on purpose because of the communities that we're connected to so that's oftentimes how that work does
show up but as for an analysis no not yet got it and then speaking about RFP and selection committees um do you have a list you know of how many selection committees
um the equity cabinet has been a part of and I guess um BMA and women's advancement can you guys speak to how many selection committees on RFPs you guys have been a part of outside of your
cabinet as far as uh I'll have to kind of look back look into it but um I don't believe our office has been a part of any um RFP selection committees i say we've been a part of uh committees in inside the
cabinet but not outside no um I could definitely get you a list of where we've been pulled in in the different um in the last three years and we do so just to make the clear distinction
here we do review now when we say we not all department heads right so I want to make that very clear but I and two people of the ENI leadership department sit in the grant approval process it does not get shown to the mayor until it's been approved by us Uh and then
when relevant we bring it to the different department heads of like hey so and so department is doing this and we bring it to the different departments that are here i ask for RFPs that's a little bit different i can definitely get you access to that data all right
um I know councelor Flynn mentioned the human rights commission you spoke about bringing in a consultant um and some concerns around or kind of revisioning right um creating a new vision for the department um of human rights commission
um I know that this department is like it was established by an ordinance um could you elaborate more on like what the goal for the consultant around the human rights commission is um the ordinance is pretty explicit and
vague at the same time about what it's meant to do um and so the we are bringing in consultants to help us better apply those principles of human rights that are laid out in in the ordinance into the work that we do uh
hopefully with the intention of not having yet another department working in a silo but rather embedded throughout the work that we do uh which is why it's taking us a little bit longer uh because there is an ordinance in place uh but that's that's the intention there got it
and do we have a timeline on consultant like have we ch it sounds like we've chosen a consultant yeah yeah yeah we're we're very close to getting the recommendations um and at the 2 p.m i can come back to you with the specific time on when we expect the final recommendations got it um shifting back
over to um executive director um Pharaoh black Men Lead um I was able to hire one of my staffers one of my team members who's still with the city through Black Men Lead um saw a lot of you know people
excited about the program and learning a lot um talk to me about the future of the program um so we kind of took a a brief pause um on the program as kind of through the council there was request to see about bringing that um to a fully
in-house program um so we're in conversation with the office of office of civic organizing to see kind of what their capacity is and what role they can play in partnership um but our goal is to relaunch both um black men leading
young black leaders uh later this spring awesome that's great to hear um I guess this for the entire this question is for the entire panel you know which disparities stand out in terms of increasing year after year um and then how um is each
department tackling these issues and I guess you know I could give some examples right um you know black men experience the highest rate of opiate opioid related death um the ongoing epidemic of higher
suicide rates among LGBTQ IA plus young people um and then just the 23 year gap in life expectancy between different areas of the city um like are we talk to me about the disparities you know the cabinet and
your departments are seeing um that have increased year-over-year and then some of the initiatives or investments we're making towards those i'm happy to start um as far as kind of health outcomes for kind of black men you know black men have the lowest life expectancy
um highest rate for um drug overdose homicide um and so uh preventative preventative cancers um so we're working closely with uh the health commission um not only for
targeted outreach um but um around their live long well campaign uh to make sure that we're supporting them but also intentional around where the resources are going um if we are the most impacted then you know there needs to be an
intentional uh focus on addressing those disparities so we're working with closely with the health commission on addressing those disparities um and through the budget there are some um budget increases in the health
commission uh directly targeting some of the disparities that that I just mentioned um so um in FY26 um we plan to have a more um kind of uh a deeper partnership
around addressing some of these disparities and um there's at least two individuals on the health commission side that are kind of point people to work closely with our office um and the commission around these disparities awesome um I think you've been leading on this
issue particularly around black maternal health care is one of the the disparities that I think has started to get the attention that it deserves that we work um with Boston Public Health Commission around that and then the other um one that I guess our office was built on and stays focused on is
economic equity and um the gender pay gap um while we've been working to be able to close some of the things around the higher earners we have not been able to sort of make the movement within the city around the lower wage workers um and that's what we're looking to sort of focus on
um and while these wonderful experts next to me and the folks you're going to hear at 2 p.m focus on specific populations the equity and inclusion office is more focused on a cultural shift of the larger administration a larger city of Austin larger municipality of how do we um not look at
a service just for the sake of oh we fill potholes for for example but say but be able to look at data whose potholes are being filled at what time etc at sorry not what time but um how quickly effectively they are and so that is and we lean into the the advice and
the expertise of these different departments awesome and then let me know if you want to All right going back to the ENI Academy and the equity ambassadors um I know we um 120 have
graduated um I think that's amazing work uh can you talk to me what does followup look like um and then how um is the cabinet measuring um how training is actually translating into into more equitable
um practices across uh departments especially in the frontline services yeah I think I have a and I I hope that I do our team um right but there's a a unique example of how these different initiatives that may sound very similar
are actually working together in alignment very well uh folks that worked in BCF center and other departments in the human services cabinet uh part who participated in the ENI academy with that knowledge with those resources were able to identify clear
gaps in the work that that is happening in uh in pools in centers and so part of why we're doing some of the work around adaptive swimming is because of the learning that happened in the ENI academy and now uh Latasha who is our ENI manager in human services is leading
in that charge um between disabilities and um BCF centers right and so the the the beauty if you will 120 staff members when there's 18,000 staff me staff members is not really the the selling point here the
selling point is that there's now 120 people that have what they need to identify bigger gaps have the trust of their colleagues and have a network to come back to and identify pathways for for some transformational change so that's just like one little example of how how that's happening right and are
you able to share with us um the council the curriculum that's Yeah awesome it'd be great if even um some of the staff could participate and we can get additional feedback in the future too absolutely um shifting gears a little um I know
this is not on like we're not bringing forward the literacy task force but it is part of your cabinet um there's been talk of hiring a data expert u to validate and to analyze um existing sources um can you talk to me where we
are where are we in that process of bringing on that um data expert and based on the last meeting it sounded like the funding had been secured so just want to just kind of hear the timeline I don't want to misspe um if
it's okay with you I want to get back to you we've we have we have brought in um at different fiscal years u external support to keep the the work going this was a request without specific like staff allocation and so we are trying to figure out how to get this
external um resource but let me get back to you on the specifics on that got it and um just want to acknowledge the work I believe it was 2021 council um that helped pass that ordinance to establish um that literacy task force and just
kind of you know the website I believe all all of the meetings do not have recordings i know they're meeting minutes um it being a literacy task force I think it's important for accessibility to have um
recordings online of all of all meetings you know past and future um and then also there was no schedule for upcoming meetings um listed on the task force so just want to make sure that we're posting all relevant information we will
and at the 2 p.m because I'm I'm just um jogging my memory now that work has been transitioned to the language access and communications team um and so Jennifer when she's here at 2 PM she will be able to answer more of these specific questions okay i want to acknowledge that we have been joined by Council
President Louis Jen um I'll turn the floor over to Council President thank you so much Mr chair and my apologies um to um uh the cabinet because I know that you're probably If
I'm not mistaken Mr chair you were probably wrapping up oh no oh you weren't okay just getting started okay all right um well I want to say thank you to all of you for being here um I I really was rushing to get here um after some morning commitments because I just
wanted to thank you all for the incredible work that you do i want to thank you Dana um executive director of women's advancement for being here for our hearing on Friday um I think there's incredible opportunity for the work and growth of of the office to really be thinking about how do we work with
office of community safety with different offices with the with BPHC to think about how do you know how do we do the work of eradicating all forms of violence with intimate partner violence domestic violence being at the root of a lot of the different forms of violence so I hopefully that you and I guess
that's like sort of a question towards you because you weren't on the panel um if you'd like to talk a little bit about like you know if if there you think that there's room for that type of work within women's advancement absolutely um we talked earlier about how we wanted to
um expand our programming into girls and a lot of that goes into the prevention I think that we talked about uh that was talked about on Friday with BPHC um and intentionally including them in those spaces we have also a grant um
we're collaborating with community safety for a grant specifically around young girls violence prevention um and I look forward looking forward to including that all in FY26 and to expand on the partnership with BPHC great i'm excited about that because I think that this could be well not excited is the
wrong word but I think that this is like a good an opportunity yes uh for the office to lean into really important work even around like public education and things of that nature um and it you know the executive director of the new program over at BPC I think there's a a lot of energy to
work on these issues in a cross- sectoral way that I think is really helpful so okay that's my question for you and welcome welcome on board i know that you haven't hit your year mark yet not yet so welcome welcome on board uh one of my morning meetings was with um uh someone who was a grantee of a uh a
grantee from your office Frank uh uh director Pharaoh uh the office of uh black male advancement and I just want to thank you for the work that you do um as a steady voice in the city about the need for us to be investing more dollars and resources into our black men and
boys um so I want to thank you for that um I want to talk about what challenges um like you know given the do you see yourself able the office still being able to provide grants next year um and two um do you believe that
there's an opportunity or an ability uh to deepen the grants and the reason why I ask is because we've already been uh you know just this morning alone um three different organizations that are going to be black blackrun black le that center black men and boys organizations
that facing funding cuts from either us the Boston public schools or from the federal government and so they come and they ask what are the additional sources of funding and I'm wondering what you know of course we get black communities get hit the worst i'm wondering sort of
like what planning and and if anyone has asked any of these questions already I apologize but I just wanted to sort of get an understanding thank you i'll share that i think initially our goal with the grants were to have a deeper investment
um to the organizations that we're funding uh but we saw kind of last year with some of the state budget cuts um to some of our organizations that we're giving smaller grants to more organizations because we know how great
the need is um and I think ideally I think where we're heading for next fiscal year um is looking at you know potentially for some philanthropy partnerships some matching grants um so not only we can give kind of the funds
that we're giving but we can identify external sources um to increase the amount that are going to organizations that are doing uh the work to improve outcomes for black men and boys in the city um I think you know in FY26 we are
u projecting to have the same $500,000 allocation for grants and how many did how many organizations So that was the allocation this year how many organizations received grant funding uh 53 okay and so you know we you know if you kind
of do the math it's we're able to fund more organizations but it's less it's less money mhm um and so I think our our work now is like how do we identify other external uh resources um we have a technical assistance program to help organizations identify other
opportunities for grant funding local state federal philanthropy um that not only every uh organization that we're funding but even the organizations we're not funding um this year we opened it up for them to to to receive technical
support um to help with their storytelling help uh locate uh funding and so we have over a hundred uh organizations that's involved with our capacity building institute this year 100 external like partnerships community
yep awesome so we we funded uh 53 we have an additional 50 that we did not fund um that um kind of need a little more support um so ideally that they'll go through this technical assistance to strengthen their kind of their work um
help better tell their story show their impact so they can then come back to us other city departments and go to uh external uh resources for funding as well okay thank you can I ask if you were to like the three substantive issues that your office deals with the
most what are they i would say um pathways so college and career pathways for youth um housing this for housing employment opportunities economic opportunity and
um uh health health mental health physical health for black men okay thank you um and thank you for all the work that you do thank you for bringing uh our young kids to city hall a few weeks ago and really enjoyed having them in chamber so um I just I hope that you know that you have folks here on the
city council who really believe in your work and in the work of your office and are ready standing ready to support thank you um Mr chair just so that I clarify the officers that are covered in this hearing are the office of women's advancement the office of
uh black male advancement the office of fair housing and equity and then the cabinet oh then the cabinet as a whole okay great um I have some questions of the office of fair housing and equity hi Chief uh thanks for being with us um and just want to you know continue to lament
the passing of Bob Terrell who was a visionary in this space working on issues of fair housing wondering what kind of testing the office of air housing is doing now he was a very he was a champion of pair testing which is the gold standard of testing in all sorts of housing
discrimination um and wondering what kind of testing we're doing right now um much of the I mean the day-to-day operations have not stopped in the office but many of the the projects and the the vision that Bob had um had to
had to stall uh I said earlier that we are going to be doing a search for the new person um very soon and our hope is to definitely my intention is to continue um his vision of bringing back uh the testing program uh and also we
need to make sure that we have the right leadership in that team so we'll make sure to come back to you all um with a job description what does the team look like right now we have a team of investigators i'm going to get this wrong potentially but we have three four investigators and we have a team a small
team of outreach engagement as well as a deputy and a director of investigations have you or has the office thought about what enforcement or what investigation is going to look like in light of the fact that HUD is going is like less likely going to be engaged in this type of work
yes and I would like to maybe have a a more in-depth conversation with the right staff that can answer a lot of the questions that you had here okay then I think a lot of my other questions are probably not yep i would love to okay um we are keeping an eye on all
those items we are definitely confident that the work can continue FY25 I mean sorry six and seven uh but definitely would want to make sure that one of the persons in charge of the actual budget book can have a real conversation with you about this i guess one last question if do you know if we're seeing an
increase in the number of complaints that we're getting as a city when it comes to housing uh fair housing um discrimination or a decrease or is it flatlined it's been flatlined partially because our outreach in the last couple of months has
been low given the our loss uh but the moment we get back outside it will be back up as expected just cuz I think I you know of course there's fair housing needs uh when it comes to a number of issues when it comes to appraisals when it comes to rentals but I know a lot of my colleagues have also talked about how
it matters for folks who are who have uh vouchers and it is a big issue right it's an issue that we see all the time as counselors people unable to place their vouchers and a lot of that is because they're facing discrimination with with the gold standard of paired testing you really you really sort of
get at that issue which is why I want to make sure that we continue to champion what is not only Bob Terrell's vision but what is in the industry is seen as the best practice which is uh uh paired testing to make sure that you know we shouldn't just give up on the issue we should do what you know what what we
know works and I I hope that we can do more investments in that I know that this body has advocated for that we advocate for that last budget and so hoping to actually see that come to fruition thank you counselor thank you Mr chair those are my questions for now thank you um just have a few more
questions i'll start off with the represent uh reparations task force um can you talk to me about the timeline and where where are we currently um the phase one report will be um
submitted to the city in the summertime and our hope is to come back to the community with a report that the task force has read and provided commentary for uh no later than September got it and then a after September what
what's what's the goal that is when technically the task force is having a lot of conversations about what that phase is going to look like but that's technically the phase where there's some um in-depth analysis of what the report says so that they can come back to us
with a phase three which are the specific recommendations and while ideally we would love to give you a specific timeline the task force is um taking a step back and understanding what that's going to look like given all the the changes in national level as well
all right and then I guess you kind of answer this um this is a question for BMA around the funding of nonprofits but ha has the amount or ho how are you able to fund
um has that amount changed and if it hasn't if it has can you tell me how it's changed and then how are you like do you have a where are you funding all these grants from like are you moving it around like talk to me how this how this happens so I I think the only changes
from year to year is if we have kind of um employee cost savings then we can add additional funds to grants um but it's in contractor services okay um so the the the funding is is there and we know
that it's a huge priority so as we're kind of looking through our budget and our focus we try to prioritize of what we know kind of is going to help with the most impact also based off of kind of the advice of um our commission
um and then what we're seeing in the city as gaps um so the the funding is allocated in contracted services in our budget uh year to year got it but it's not was it 500,000 correct right um And I don't have the budget book in front of
me is there 500,000 allocated inside of contracted services is there 500,000 in contract service i think Yeah yes okay all right i thought you was moving in also from No so it's it's contract contract so if there's if we have
um budget savings from personnel they supplement it to Got it i thought that was part of the 500,000 yeah no no it's not all right awesome um putting inside the block grants can you explain and
this question is uh for fair housing um put inside the block grants can you explain the other external funding for fair housing and what's that supposed to fund in FY23 we spent 195,000 in FY24 we
spent 338,000 um but we're appropriated 803,000 in the current fiscal year and we're forecasting 755,000 FY26 um are we on pace to spend all of that
$83,000 this year so it's two questions and I'm happy to submit it in writing and for you to go back to the team and get the answer for that yeah cuz I I I only have half an answer but yes we are we are on track to spending it and um the federal funding focuses
particularly on investigations arm uh which is something that we are keeping track of and and are prioritizing as well got it and I know last year we spoke about um when when the cabinet um and the departments were in front of us housing was like a major priority
um for all departments and also the cabinet um and it's also just a major priority for the city and all Boston residents um when when we're talking about housing I I feel like there needs to be like a three to fiveyear you know strategy and goal
um can you talk to me about you know how you plan on the cabinet plans on addressing housing knowing that it's a priority for many of your departments uh besides what we're doing already and
the reason why Colleen Fanaeka joined the team is is because housing is has been the priority since since um we joined the administration years ago um I would say that we are considering the work of reparations also as an
opportunity to explore further systemic changes that need to happen i know that through the equity study that um BMA is doing we're also going to find some opportunities there for for better work uh and yeah I we're on the same page here
we talk to housing essentially every single day because of day-to-day um constituent needs but when it comes to the 3 to five um year plan part of the work that the manager is doing is uh after doing an assessment internally of some of the
work that housing is doing uh coming back to us and developing a these are the specific interventions that we should put in place within compliance that can get us to better outcomes for the communities got it you just said that you know there's an assessment of the work that housing is doing is are
they assessing like I mean one thing that comes to my mind is there is a policy shift in the deed restrictions um you know whether we're lifting them whether they're um shortening the time
frames um and I'm fully supportive just want to be on record of deed restrictions because I believe you know they are one of the strongest tools uh we have to help low to moderate moderate income buyers purchase a home here in the city of Austin um you know in a city where you need around
$174,000 to afford a home sale price um so when you talk about assessment is is is this one of the programs um or policies that the Equity Network manager is assessing um to see what the impacts you know it would have on communities um
that the cabinet and your department serve yeah um if it's okay with the council I would love to submit um after this hearing some of the specific things that we are uh looking into in partnership with uh mayor's office of housing okay and I if if not
if this is not on the list I definitely want to put this on the radar um could you talk to me about the status um of the indigenous communities cabinet um and where we're at on that so uh
Amira Madison who was our u two plus year long um fellow in that role uh is no longer with us she's doing bigger better things and we are uh considering um either putting out a a grant to
support that the continuation of that work or hiring within the vacancies that already exist obviously um for that specific position okay and looking back uh there has been a a good amount of work around um equity uh
here in the city of Boston um there have been like a lot of studies um and reports that have been issued you know one just name a few resilient Boston and equitable and connected city um you know there has been you
know imagine Boston 2030 uh which speaks to the work that is needed for equity and then also um there's another report called the blueprint uh how do you take a look at all this work or in strategies
and base future work off of um really I'm I'm sure you're going to hear about this tomorrow from Chief Idawu uh but a lot of the work of equity is also centered on economic IC justice and um we're really excited to be partnering with them in this new strategic plan development to ensure that we are
developing a different vision for what economic justice is in the city of Boston and prosperity and I know that through that work part of the partnership part of the the contract is that people are looking at all these already existing to your point reports studies have happened so that we're not
reinventing the wheel and instead are merging all these different efforts but chief will probably speak on this are right and then sometimes we hear from residents when we're going back asking them um the same question like wait you guys have this report you have this information just build off of that so I
just want to also just encourage that a lot of this work a lot of these studies and reports are out there um and some of these strategies have been proven um do you have more questions council president Louis Jen um I don't I just wanted to underscore I mean I'm looking at this comment letter that we received
from the Suffach univer from Suffach University and they do they have a housing discrimination testing program and they're just urging us as a city to act because of they were funded by the housing initiatives program known as FHI from HUD um and they were really the only ones doing fair housing and they
are really worried that right now at this moment there's no um there's no housing testing happening in the city of Boston and so just wanted to elevate how important it is for us to continue to work on this uh where others are falling short sure
all right um couple more questions and we'll get you guys out of here the cabinet's at the panel out of here um can you talk to me about policy experts and how they work in collaboration across eight departments
um I'll I'll kick it off and I will say as I as I mentioned earlier a lot of the issues that we run into are are operational um there are so many departments that for many years have been working in silos and so having to build a muscle of collaborating has not been the
easiest um under our deputy chief of uh planning sorry of um policy and programming on and the team that we're building there with Kenneth Moles as the racial justice uh adviser and Lori and
Natalia who looks at economic mobility they have a bi-weekly sitdown with the policy experts at each of the departments here so that a we're hearing directly from them like what they're keeping track of the day-to-day stuff that's happening um uh at the federal
level and even globally sometimes vice versa we are feeding them information of like what we're hearing from other cabinets and then where we're trying to take them now take our team is how do we mobilize together and push forward on similar policies right uh because I think that collective voice is is going
to be essential in the in the coming years um and one thing that I um am able to take a part of is you know the black and males uh commission and I you know sometimes I feel like every
department should have um a commission arm um I guess Frank if you could just speak to the the value um of of the commission and how it has helped you in your work i'll say that the the commission is made up of kind of you
know black men that are kind of experts through lived experience educational experience um work experience in the various um priority issue areas um so they provide a great deal
of knowledge um and it extends the arms that we have in the office for the specific areas that we're working on um to provide us kind of guidance and uh support and so the the commission for us
is extremely helpful because for a lot of the targeted areas not only are they kind of experts um but they have the kind of community relationships and and partnerships um to engage and and kind of help us to
kind of get more information on where the gaps are how the community is seeing the work that we're doing different city departments are doing and kind of bring that feedback and kind of move it through policy and action awesome no and you know you see it in work and then you also see it through your policy
recommendations and budget recommendations as well um my last question is the equity network managers um are they in uh decision making roles they report directly to um people who
make decisions in other cabinets so either um think of deputy chiefs of operations etc in other places okay all right um that is all my questions um council president you all set i have I
have sorry I've disjointed i have followup questions one is a general one that I should have asked at the beginning and maybe you already covered this by a colleague uh from a colleague so I apologize um but just given the general environment right now on issues
involving diversity equity and inclusion um initiatives at the federal level have you seen any tangible impacts on the work that you're doing and would love I think that's kind of like you know I asked a question about how we're preparing but have you seen directly sort of impacts on on your work
i'll say for us we've been kind of navigating um kind of the attacks or challenges for racebased initiatives and programs for the past 18 months um so it's not a new challenge for our office um but we've
been kind of intentional of continuing the work uh following our mission um with guidance from kind of our legal department um you know I think it's something that we're going to continue to deal with um but our office has been navigating for
well over the past 18 months so um this isn't new to us in in navigating it and can I ask um especially because some of the organizations nonprofits that have done outreach to me have stated like you know one of the reason why they're coming to the city is a change in
philanthropic dollars and how folks are So do But and I'm very excited by the possibility that you're going to be able to do match grants with philanthropy that want to do it i think that would be incredible um is your understanding that the energy and the desire to still
partner with to advance the work of the office is still there is present in the philanthropic community i think those are uh conversations that are forthcoming so um we're going to be having those soon and hopefully uh but we won't know until we have those
conversations with philanthropy okay thank you and Frank how big is your office at this point like how many staffers do you have uh so we have a staff of nine currently a staff of nine okay thank you i've enjoyed seeing the growth of your office and the work that you all do i don't director um I mean
we've seen some of our nonprofit like not for-profit organizations lose funding and they've expressed that and the need um and sort of the fear that lies ahead of not being able to replace those dollars and to serve the folks that they need to um I think you'll hear a lot about that
on at on the 2pm um with additional constituent service needs and requests but as I said earlier um the one thing that we are steady on is providing stability in this moment um they are meant you know we feel like
the intention is to distract us and I think our our role as a municipal government is to to ensure that we are available and continuing the work okay um thank you those are my questions can I add something yeah of course um I think the only thing I would add is like
we we do the best with what we can uh we don't have the capacity to be the um solution for everything and all of the the gaps and the needs um and so I think that's we rely on other city departments um through their grant making and we
share that information with all of our community partners as well um so it's going to take a uh collective right you know work to kind of make sure that we're providing that support so everyone is not just looking at the office of black male advancement or office of women's
advancement to kind of plug those gaps um there are a lot of different uh grant opportunities in the city that we kind of refer to our community partners um and I think it's it is important for not philanthropy and everyone else that said
they cared about racial equity to to still censor kind of the work and support and I will say in the spirit of sort of just like keeping the the transparency honesty there's and Frank you could probably speak to this more but about two years ago there was a I
had an epiphany frank and I had an epiphany about like people were coming to black male advancement just because that was their first touch point of representation of like a connection to the city of Boston even though that was not the office at the end to go to know how how to access and so many much of the work that we are doing in our
offices is simply being that trusted bridge and what we have gotten so much better at is exactly what Frank just said and so like I think I think the more the more and more we keep doing this we we have this like fight that we want to organize ourselves out out of
this job i say 50 years frank says 25 years right this this is a goal we we shouldn't have to be a bridge of trust anymore for community uh but we got to change a lot of the internal work thank you there's a very nerdy thing where Sandra Day O' Connor said she
wanted affirmative action to end in 25 like that the problem will be solved in 25 years which is why I was like you know giving that sly smile because we see where we are like it can end and the work can be nowhere near over um hopeful thinking just an idea uh building off of
a bit of what you just said chief but also just taking into account right like you're not the one-stop shop you shouldn't be people trust you right right i I understand that 100% there are you know black people reach out to our office Haitian people reach out to our office and we can't like help with these
issues but we are a touch point i'm wondering if the city and I know that there are a lot of grant making opportunities and grants if if there's a comprehensive list that exists of these are the grants and the timeline of different offices in the city and if
especially in this year of you know uh federal challenges of creating that across offices right so like maybe it won't apply to everyone right but maybe it's a black males art organization right maybe not not only could they get funding from you they could get funding
from the Office of Arts and Culture right and maybe they work specifically with black men who are artists who are coming home from incarceration right and so I'm just wondering Tony no phones um I'm just wondering if there is a way for us to create that comprehensive list
like do we know I know oftentimes grants are being given out at the end of a fiscal year but I think a lot of the offices that have been giving out grants a lot of especially chief in your department have been giving out grants for the last few years so wondering if there's a database or collection that we
can create on the like so the schedule you you doing that slice smile now so is that something that we have something that we're building something that so I think uh when I first came in um through kind of our work with kind of the grants team that was kind of something that we
name like the central kind of database so there is now a web page um on the city's website for grants we share it out with all of our community partners whenever there's updated we do our newsletter we share it out um there's also kind of a list of federal funding
state funding that kind of comes out but there is now a grants page on the city's website that lists all of the grants um so but you it's you have to kind of go look and see what's relevant to you um but there's I don't think there is
anything that says "Hey this quarter 13 grants for the city are coming out you know to be prepared and look out for but there is at least a city page that lists every grant that's available currently um on the city's website." And this didn't exist three
years ago we had more than 14 different ways that we were collecting data around grants so this plus the fact that we have one centralized way of granting we just it's just not the sexy work that we talk about but this is part of a lot of the work that we do do I I can find it if you don't have it but do you have yeah we can share you said that yeah
there's been a lot of work the grants team has been kind of great at kind of listening to feedback and looking to kind of resolve and and act on on the recommendations so there is a grant page there's a centralized kind of reporting structure now so there's been a lot of
work that the grants team has done over the past year to Awesome and that would include like the reparations task force grants and all of those okay all right thank you those are those are my questions uh Mr chair thank you Council President um yes thank you guys again uh for all
your work that you have done um and thank you for the people who have um gave public testimony thank you to my colleagues thank you to central staff this hearing on darcus number
0822 through 0830 is adjourned [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]