GREEN SHEETS: Preview of 06/03/26 Boston City Council Meeting
tahir h
GREEN SHEETS: Preview of 06/03/26 Boston City Council MeetingWill Coletta Zapata be 7th budget vote?; There are 108 dockets on the agenda - including the 8 more FY27 budget-related; Abrupt end of 6/02 budget working session sets up tense Council mtg
Today is the most momentous Council meeting of the year so far: the Boston City Council is expected to vote on the FY27 budgets - the City Hall budget, BPS budget, and the Capital budget - at today’s meeting, along with 2 supplemental appropriations to close the FY26 deficit. There are 2 things to watch for at today’s meeting: the fight over budget amendments and whether District 1 Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata ends her maternity leave and attends. The focus will not be not on the $4.9B FY27 Operating Budget or the $4.4B FY27-31 Capital Budget, or even the $70M in supplemental appropriations for FY26, but rather on budget amendments aimed at changing less than 0.5% of the FY27 Operating Budget:
FitzGerald’s package is of particular interest, because it represents the only comprehensive effort from any Councilor to answer the question Ways & Means Chair Weber has asked in response to all new spending requests: where will the money come from? After FitzGerald delivered his answer, Councilors pushed for straw polsl - informal votes - on Weber and FitzGerald’s respective packages. Instead, Weber gaveled the meeting closed less than an hour after FitzGerald offered his package of new spending and cuts. This was shocking: by ending the meeting Weber blocked the call for straw polls to see where the entire 13 member body stood on the proposed budget changes. Weber’s unwillingness to allow his colleagues to do straw polls votes on either his package or FitzGerald’s package highlights another important element of this FY27 budget season: the charge that Weber’s package was crafted by the Wu administration. For example, on Tuesday Councilor Culpepper went through Weber’s proposed pulls, asking whether specific numbers were from Weber or from Mayor Wu. He isn’t the only one: a number of Councilors either directly claimed or implicitly suggested that Weber’s package was crafted by Wu administration officials and reflect City Hall’s, not the Council’s, priorities. Weber’s unwillingness to allow a straw poll, especially on FitzGerald’s package, puts those charges in a new light. BPI liveblogged all 6 of the Council’s FY27 budget working sessions - read yesterday’s and find links to the previous 5. Coletta Zapata’s presence is important because right now the Council is tied 6-6 between supporters of Liz Breadon and Brian Worrell, most recently reflected in the May 20 vote on Rule 24:
A 7th vote is needed in order for either side to get a majority and win a vote, and based on the budget debate over the last few weeks, it does not appear that Ways & Means Chair Weber has convinced any of Worrell’s supporters to switch sides. There are a few other things to note in today’s agenda:
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 #1083 (p. 11–12) is a request for Council approval of an $80k grant - the Community Safety Initiative - from the MA Executive Office of Public Safety & Security, which will be administered by the Office of Workforce Development and funds the City’s comprehensive strategy to reduce gun, gang, and youth violence. Docket #1084 (p. 13–14) is a request for Council approval of a $39k grant - technically the “Donation of MSP Surplus Vessel - Marine 43” - from the Massachusetts State Police, which will be administered by the Police Department and funds the transfer of a 1979 Coast Guard patrol boat from the State Police Marine Unit to the Boston Police Harbor Patrol Unit. This is a hand-me-down from the state dressed up in grant paperwork. Docket #1085 (p. 15–16) is a request for Council approval of a $20,930 grant - the El Centro Fellowship - awarded by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Boston, which will be administered by the Department of Innovation & Technology and funds a fellowship program for graduates of El Centro’s IT training program. Docket #1086 (p. 17–48) is the Mayor’s response to a 17F request (Docket #0873, passed April 29, 2026) from the Council requesting information on all grant programs and funding provided to nonprofit organizations and community partners in FY26 and FY27, including reductions and eliminations. The response runs over 30 pages - mostly a spreadsheet of FY26 grant recipients across dozens of programs including Age Strong, Black Male Advancement, Veterans Services, LGBTQIA2S+, Office for Immigrant Advancement, Arts & Culture, and more. This is another example of the hide-the-ball approach that the Wu administration took to the FY27 budget. The letter from Mayor Wu is dated May 27, after the Council’s final FY27 budget hearing. That means that this list was not available for the dozens of budget hearings the Council held in April and May where the officials who actually administer these programs appeared. It also meant the Council wasn’t able to do any fact finding with the recipients of these grants programs. There are no “PETITIONS, MEMORIALS AND REMONSTRANCES” this week, so 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 #1087 (p. 49) is a routine notice from Mayor Wu of her absence from the City. Dockets #1088 & #1089 (p. 50-56) are routine notices from the City Clerk regarding Mayor Wu’s actions on papers from the April 29 and May 13 Council meetings, respectively. Dockets #1090–#1095 (p. 57-80) are 6 communications from the City Clerk forwarding filings from the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA) on Chapter 121A development projects:
Docket #1096 (p. 81-86) is a communication from the Boston Landmarks Commission asking the City Council to take action on the proposed landmark designation of The Swallow Mansion, 33 Cordis Street, Charlestown. If the Council takes no action, the designation goes into effect automatically after July 1, 2026. Docket #1097 (p. 87–95) is a communication from Councilor Flynn transmitting the Wolf & Company audit of Boston’s Main Streets programs. This is the audit that was ordered after alledged fraud at a Main Streets. This audit is the subject of a hearing order - Docket #1101 - from Councilor Flynn seeking a hearing on the audit’s findings, including that internal controls across the audited organizations “did not meet reasonable standards to manage risk.” Docket #1098 (p. 96) is a communication from Councilor Flynn regarding a double amputee disabled veteran who was forced to sleep outside South Station overnight because an elevator failure at the BHA’s Ruth Barkley Apartments left him unable to access his apartment - read more in the Boston Herald. Next up is “REPORTS OF COMMITTEES” which are hearings that were held prior to 9 AM the Monday prior to the regular meeting. Docket #0969 (p. 97–100) is the $12.6M FIFA World Cup Grant from FEMA, passed through the MA Executive Office of Public Safety, to fund security and safety preparations for the Boston 2026 World Cup, which had a hearing on May 28 before the Public Safety Committee, which recommends that it ought to pass. Docket #1030 (p. 101–106) is the $47.1M supplemental appropriation to close the City’s FY26 deficit. The hearing for both this appropriation and the next one for Boston Public Schools’ FY26 deficit was very poorly attended, and there are still significant unanswered questions about exactly what happened in FY26. Despite all those questions, the committee report recommends that it ought to pass. Docket #1031 (p. 107–110) is the $22.84M supplemental appropriation for Boston Public Schools to cover health insurance ($18.1M) and utility ($4.8M) deficits. The detail and cost cutting described in this committee report highlights the lack of similar detail in City Hall’s much larger deficit. The recommendation is that this ought to pass as well. 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. Dockets #0733–#0740 are the FY27 budget-related orders - the annual appropriations for City departments, BPS, OPEB, capital fund transfers, and the capital budget - that have been sitting in Ways & Means since April. They are technically “recently heard” for procedural purposes and are eligible for a vote at this meeting. Weber has indicated he intends to hold a vote on the budget at this meeting, so watch for this part of the meeting. Next up is “MOTIONS, ORDERS AND RESOLUTIONS,” which are legislative actions from City Councilors. There are 14 dockets in this section and 6 are important to watch. Docket #1099 & 1100 (p. 111–113) is an ordinance and resolution filed by Councilor Worrell requiring the City’s Supervisor of Budgets to produce quarterly revenue reports to the City Council no later than 30 days after the end of each fiscal quarter. This docket is particularly important because it appears to use data uncovered and publicized by BPI about the Wu administration’s revenue forecasts, which are far more inaccurate than those produced by the Walsh administration. The resolution accompanying the ordinance means the Council will go on the record about this issue. Docket #1101 (p. 114–115) is a hearing order from Councilors Flynn and Murphy to examine Boston’s Main Streets programs and the Wolf & Company audit. The docket request the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, the Boston Finance Commission, Wolf & Company itself, and Main Streets programs to appear in order to discuss the audit’s finding, including confirmed fraud and system-wide internal control failures. Docket #1103 (p. 118–119) is a hearing order from Councilor Worrell to examine eliminating minimum lot size requirements in District 4, and notes that the Mayor’s Office of Housing owns 915 vacant lots citywide, including 187 in District 4, of which more than 60 are under the current 3,000 sq. ft. minimum threshold. This docket comes amid a focus on minimum lot size reform in Massachusetts, which is the subject of a 2026 ballot question about which the New York Times recently editorialized in support of. NOTE: BPI’s Executive Director Gregory Maynard is one of the 10 original signatories on the minimum lot size ballot question. Docket #1104 (p. 120–121) is a hearing order from Councilor Culpepper to examine the proposed elimination of the Boston Human Rights Commission in the FY27 budget, which was repeatedly discussed in recent budget working sessions. The Mayor’s FY27 proposal cuts the Commission’s entire $391,622 appropriation, proposing to absorb its functions into other Equity Cabinet departments with heavier reliance on state resources. Culpepper’s hearing order asks: does the Equity Cabinet actually have the staffing, expertise, and resources to absorb the Commission’s civil rights enforcement, complaint intake, community outreach, and language access work? Docket #1108 (p. 125) is a 17F request from Councilor Flynn for information on the number of parking meters and annual revenue generated in Boston. This fund has featured prominently in FY27 budget discussions, since the Wu administration is drawing on it more heavily in FY27 than in past years, and activists have targeted it as a place to get more revenue for their budget priorities. 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.
© 2026 Boston Policy Institute, Inc
|
