Boston Council Hears BRJP Review as Residency Hiring Goals Remain Elusive After 40 Years

BOSTON — November 26, 2024 — Boston's construction jobs residency hiring rate sits at 22 percent against a 51 percent legal target, with advocates demanding real enforcement at a City Council hearing Tuesday. The Committee on Labor, Workforce, and Economic Development, chaired by Councilor Benjamin J. Weber, heard from city officials Jody Sugarman Brasen and Christopher Brown, who presented a new Salesforce-based public dashboard tracking the approximately 4.67 million work hours logged across 121 projects from April through September 2024. People of color exceeded the 40 percent ordinance goal at 41 percent combined, while women reached just 7 percent against a 12 percent target. The city's eight construction monitors have issued sanctions just once since 2023 — a $17,000 fine against three subcontractors on a Kaplan Construction project for late payroll. Boston Employment Commissioner Priscilla Flint called the enforcement record "a joke," and Council President Liz Breadon committed to advocating for more monitors in the upcoming budget cycle. Researcher Susanna Bomi presented preliminary Green New Deal Workforce Needs Assessment data showing union apprenticeship programs enroll more than 70 percent people of color among Boston residents, compared to 55 percent in nonunion programs.