GREEN SHEETS: Preview of 04/01/26 Boston City Council Meeting
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GREEN SHEETS: Preview of 04/01/26 Boston City Council MeetingAgenda has 51 dockets; Groffenberger announces $48M year-end deficit, won't put # on spending freeze, floats supplementary budget; 3 17Fs filed, 1 on Amir Mohamed, 2 on White Stadium
Boston’s FY27 budget is coming out next week on April 8, which was likely a factor in this week’s agenda packet being relatively light. The most important docket in this agenda is a letter from Boston CFO Ashley Groffenberger, which lays out that City Hall currently faces a $48.4M deficit year-end deficit. That means this deficit is what is left after the spending and hiring freezes are put in place. What is Boston’s solution? Here’s a hint: it borrows a page from leaders on Beacon Hill. That right, Mayor Wu may propose a “supplementary budget” to close out FY26. A number of other highlighted dockets are also budget related, including Mejia’s closed-pools hearing order and 2 17Fs from Worrell about White Stadium. In this preview there will be the docket number, along with the page numbers and a short description of the docket. You can follow along in the agenda packet: First up is “COMMUNICATIONS FROM HER HONOR, THE MAYOR,” which are items being sent to the Council by the Mayor that will see follow-up hearings before being voted on by the Council. Docket #0688 (p. 7-8) is a request for the Council to approve a $20k grant - the Local Food Policy Grant - that would:
This grant is from the MA Department of Agricultural Resources and will be managed by the Office of Food Justice. Docket #0689 (p. 9-10) is a request for the Council to approve a ~$14k grant - the Mass Commission for the Blind Grant, that would
The grant is from the MassHire Department of Career Services and managed by the Offie of Workforce Development. Next up is “REPORTS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS AND OTHERS,” which are items the Council is being informed about, but is not able to vote on. Docket #0690 (p. 11) is a letter from Audit Committee Chair Lawrence DiCara, a former City Councilor (1972-1981) and 1983 mayoral candidate, who is now one of the few still active links to Boston’s tumultuous 1970’s and early 1980’s politics that saw Mayor Kevin White and busing dominate the City’s public conversations. What is the Audit Committee? It was greeted in 1982, when the 1979 Tregor decision, which saw the Supreme Judicial Court order City Hall to return tens of millions of dollars to commercial property owners who had been overassessed, and Proposition 2 ½, which was passed in 1980 and constrained year-over-year property tax increases, combined to create Boston’s last great fiscal crisis. It is a 5 member body, appointed by the Mayor, and according the City’s website:
It isn’t clear why the letter was written, but DiCara lays out his view of the City’s fiscal position, writing:
Docket #0691 (p. 12-14) is a letter from Boston CFO and Treasurer-Collector Ashley Groffenberger, about the City’s recently announced spending freeze, and like most of the Wu administration’s recent announcements and statements about the budget, it raises more questions than it answers. The headline from this letter was captured by headlines on Monday: Boston will end the current fiscal year - FY26 - with a $48.4M deficit. This development is a huge deal, and it is made more consequential when comparisons to past years start being made. The Boston Globe writes that Boston showed deficits back in FY09 and FY10: those years were the teeth of the Great Recession, when the global economy collapsed. Today, there isn’t even a recession. One more note on FY09 and FY10: Boston actually ended both of those years with a general fund surplus - read the BMRB’s finance updates from 2009 and 2010. The letter is 3 pages long, includes a chart, and claims:
Unfortunately, this document does not actually answer the question those Councilors were asking. Here are the 3 Councilors - Pepen, Coletta Zapata, and Flynn - asking the question at last week’s budget hearing, and Groffenberger’s answer:  From left to right, these are the questions and answers between Councilors Pepen, Coletta Zapata, and Flynn and CFO Groffenberger. Based on BPI’s review of the letter, the projected $48.4M year-end deficit is the remaining over-spending after the City takes all the other steps laid out in the past weeks and months: the hiring delay, the spending freeze, and the use of un-budgeted revenue. What else can Boston do? Groffenberger proposes an action that does not appear to have been taken in FY09 or FY10: a supplementary budget. She writes:
How would that work? The letter doesn’t say, but this “supplementary budget” would need to be proposed and passed during the City’s regular budget process. That is a daunting prospect. After reading through this letter, there are still 3 major questions about the deficit:
Boston’s budget is due out next week on April 8, so more information will continue to be released through the FY27 budget process. Next up is “REPORTS OF COMMITTEES” which are hearings that were held prior to 9 AM the Monday prior to the regular meeting. This section has been missing for the last few weeks, despite hearings being held in this time frame, so it is good to see it back. Docket #0268 (p. 15-22) is a report from the Government Operations Committee Chair Gabriela Coletta Zapata about a hearing that took place last week on March 27, for a “Petition for a Special Law re: An Act Relative to Pension Benefits for Firefighter Leo J. Bracken” and recommends that this matter ought to pass in a new draft. Docket #0570 (p. 23-28) is a report from the Ways & Means Committee Chair Ben Weber about a hearing that took place last week on March 26 for a request for $20.2M “for the purpose of paying costs for the window and door replacement projects at the following schools: Adams Elementary School.” Docket #0571 (p. 29-37) is another report from Weber as Ways & Means Chair for the other docket heard on March 25, this one a request for $1.1M “for the purpose of paying costs for the window and door replacement projects at the following schools: Margarita Muniz Academy, Mildred Avenue K-8 School, Orchard Gardens School.” While those are the correct schools, those are not the correct projects. In fact there are no “window and door replacement projects” to be found, Instead, the schools are getting:
This docket, along with the preceding one, were held at the same hearing, and both dockets are for projects that Boston is doing in partnership with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, through their “Accelerated Repair Program,” meaning the state will pay part of the cost of the project. Using state funds means that the school buildings cannot be closed or used for non-educational purposes, meaning that these projects have major implications for the district’s long-term facilities plan. Unfortunately, there was no discussion of the district’s long-term facilities plan at the hearing. Next up is “MATTERS RECENTLY HEARD-FOR POSSIBLE ACTION,” which are dockets that had hearing between 9 AM on Monday and the beginning of since the last regular meeting. Since these hearings were held this week, there are no results, just the text of the docket:
One note on Docket #0374: the “Emergency Hearing Order” about school transportation comes on the heels of reporting in WBUR on Monday with this headline: ’Very fed up’: Boston parents fume over chronically late school buses. Next up is “MOTIONS, ORDERS AND RESOLUTIONS,” which are legislative actions from City Councilors. There are 20 dockets in this section, so BPI won’t summarize all of them, but here are 5 to watch. Docket #0694 (p. 57-58) is a hearing order being offered by Councilor-at-Large Julia Mejia “on the conditions, operations, and access of Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) Pools.” Too many of Boston’s public pools being closed is an annual issue, as you can see from coverage of the issue in 2023 and 2024 and 2025. This docket specifically names 2 closed pools - the BCYF Hennigan, and at the BCYF Blackstone - and says “multiple pools remaining closed or facing delayed reopening timelines.” This hearing on this docket is going to be one to watch because this joins a growing list of recent policy issues in Boston - rebuilding Madison Park, Wu’s involvement in transportation projects, the new White Stadium - that involve sizable amounts of capital spending, and concerns about higher debt service payments, appear to be driving at least some of City Hall’s decision making. Docket #0695 (p. 59-60) is a hearing order being offered by District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell “on the status of the implementation of the City of Boston’s Assessment of Fair Housing.” The order lays out Boston’s recent history of Fair Housing action, before getting to what seems the heart of the docket:
The Director position has been vacant since January 2025, when the previous occupant, long-time fair housing advocate Bob Terrell, died. Almost a year ago, at an April 29, 2025 hearing, Councilors were told that the City would “in the next couple of months [be] searching for the new head of of fair housing” but it appears that hasn’t happened - this answer starts at the 1:03:02 mark. There are 3 17F requests, and they are one after another in this week’s agenda packet:
The remaining sections are “PERSONNEL ORDERS” which is legislative action required to keep Council staff on payroll and “CONSENT AGENDA” which are for recognition from the Council of events like birthdays and anniversaries. Boston Policy Institute, Inc is working to improve the public conversation - help us by following BPI on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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