Boston Council Scrutinizes Neighborhood Services Budget as Grants Eliminated, Posts Vacant

BOSTON -- April 28, 2026, Boston City Council challenges Community Engagement Cabinet over FY27 budget cuts and district notification gaps. At an April 28 budget hearing covering docket numbers 0733 through 0740, Chief of Community Engagement Brianna Millor and Office of Neighborhood Services Executive Director Mohammed Missouri confirmed that both the summer block party activation grants, roughly $50,000 to $60,000, and the Spooky Streets grants, approximately $25,000, have been zeroed out of the FY27 operating budget, with the administration planning to replace funding through unspecified philanthropic partnerships. ONS personnel is down more than $200,000 from the prior year. Three of 14 neighborhood liaison positions remain vacant, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, and Charlestown, with a fourth on leave covering parts of Hyde Park and West Roxbury. Councilor Liz Breadon pressed administrators on the absence of new capital funding for the long-studied Jackson-Mann Community Center in Allston-Brighton, while Councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Ed Flynn demanded a formal protocol for notifying district councilors when ONS staff hold meetings in their neighborhoods, with Missouri acknowledging no such protocol currently exists.