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The New Bedford City Council's Finance Committee, chaired by Councillor Joseph P. Lopes, convened on June 24, 2026. The committee's single agenda item was the review of the Community Preservation Committee's (CPC) annual budget for fiscal year 2027. CPC representatives Jan and Jessica presented the budget, which totaled $1,999,887, derived from $1,743,165 in local surcharge revenue and a projected state match of $256,722. The proposed budget allocated $99,995 for administration, $199,989 each for open space, historic resources, and community housing reserves, and a budgeted reserve of $1,299,925 for projects. Key discussions arose from questions posed by the councillors. Council President Ryan J. Pereira inquired about the state's matching funds, learning that the percentage fluctuates (currently around 15%) based on statewide real estate sales and the increasing number of municipalities participating in the Community Preservation Act. Councillor Shawn Oliver questioned the CPC's outreach efforts to attract new applicants. The representatives detailed their process, which includes public workshops and direct assistance, and encouraged councillors to help promote the program to their constituents. Following the discussion, the committee voted unanimously to receive and place the CPA budget communication on file, and the meeting was adjourned.
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Council
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They all happen.
0:00They all ring.
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1:09Good evening, everyone.
1:10It is 6:31 on Wednesday, June 24th.
1:12Calls Committee on Finance to order.
1:15Note, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.
1:17The City Council committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings.
1:23In attendance, we have Councilor of Ward 2 Scott Pemberton, Councilor of Ward 1 Leo Choquette, um, Council President and Ward 6 City Councilor Ryan Pereira, Councilor-at-Large James Roy, Councilor of Ward 3 Sean Oliver, and myself, Joseph Lopes, Chairman of Finance and the Ward 5 City Councilor.
1:39We do have one letter to be read into the record.
1:41This letter is from Councilor Baptiste.
1:43I am writing to inform you that I've been unable to attend tonight's committee meeting due to a family commitment.
1:47Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my absence.
1:53Made by Council Oliver.
1:54Second by Council Pemberton.
1:55All those in favor?
1:56Opposed?
1:57The ayes have it.
1:58We have one item in front of us.
2:00Communication.
2:00Community Preservation Committee submitting the CPA annual budget for fiscal year 2027 for committee administration expenses and community preservation projects in fiscal year '27.
2:11This item was referred to the Committee on Finance on June 11th, 2026.
2:15Motion to receive in place on file.
2:16Made by Council Roy.
2:17Second by Council Oliver.
2:18All those in favor?
2:19Opposed, the ayes have it.
2:20Before we call over— call up either Jan or Jess, um, First Vice President, Councilor-at-Large Shane Burgo is also in attendance.
2:30The podium is yours.
2:38If one of you would— Jan, would you like to give an overview of the— uh, good evening.
2:45So we are here again to talk about the budget for the Community Preservation Committee.
2:52I think you've all received it.
2:54So we're presenting a budget of $1,999,887, and it's based on surcharge revenue of $1,743,165, a match of a proposed match.
3:12We don't know what it will be exactly, but $256,722.
3:19And we also have all the expenses.
3:23I can read those.
3:24Program administration, which is 5%, $99,995.
3:29Open space and recreation reserve, $199,989.
3:35Historic resources reserve, $199,989.
3:41Community Housing Reserve, $199,989, and budgeted reserve of $1,299,925.
3:51So I guess if you have any questions— we do have one, we do have one, Councilor.
3:56Councilor Pereira, on your first.
3:58Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
4:00So my, my question, I think I've asked this a bunch of times, and it's— I, I know it's just more for a point than anything else is, What's the trajectory of the state matches?
4:10Are we getting more money?
4:11Has it been fairly stagnant?
4:13It's— it depends.
4:15Yeah, it's based on the transfer taxes that happen within the state.
4:19So as real— if real estate sells less, there's less real estate sold, we'll get less of a match.
4:25I see.
4:26Okay, this year is about 15%, but it's been higher than that.
4:29It's also been lower than that.
4:31So the year that it was higher, they actually made it up with some of the free cash at the end of the year, so it jumped the percentage up.
4:39But typically we've been running, I think, 15 to 18%.
4:43We've been a low of 11 and then a high, I think it was 20— I think the high was 23.
4:50Okay.
4:50Yeah, it's just— it's too bad there isn't another way to try and infuse some more funds into this because, you know, the contributions the taxpayers of this city have made towards community preservation is is amazing for the preservation projects that we work on.
5:05And I can only imagine if we had a little bit more support from our state partners, how much more we could do with those funds.
5:14And funds that directly go into this community, right?
5:17Like, there's very little in between from appropriation when we see you guys, and it goes directly into the city.
5:27With that being said, the spread across the board in with our neighboring communities that have, that have, um, the Community Preservation Act enacted in their communities, is it divvied amongst all the towns equally?
5:42Is it based— is it a percentage of what we bring in?
5:45How is it— how do we know which— how much we're going to get from the state?
5:49Like, I know it's a pot that we get divided up, but how does it get divided up?
5:54I think it's just— yeah, but I mean, I would imagine it's mostly just percentage.
5:59Right now there are 201 communities that get Community Preservation Commission money, and every year more communities come on board.
6:07So it's going to change every year.
6:10There's 351 communities in the state of Massachusetts right now.
6:15That's like 200 out of the 351.
6:18Yeah.
6:19So to expand upon that, so some communities are at 1%, one are 1.5% like we are, some are upwards of 3%.
6:26So that changes the calculation because the higher calculations get a second allotment.
6:34To answer your question on the how they determine the state match is based on the previous year's fiscal year's local revenue.
6:42So whatever we've received or calculated and received on the surcharge, that 15.5% that we're receiving for fiscal year '26, they take last year's revenue times 15 point— I think it's 15.5, sorry.
6:58And then that's where you come up with the $256,722.
7:02So it— and it depends on each community, like I said, depending on what their surcharge percentage is.
7:08Okay.
7:09Yeah, that's something to monitor, especially to your point, if more communities continue to join and, and need to, to come out of this fund, we're not going to have the money will get smaller because the percentage of a pot that's not growing, you know, will equate less dollars.
7:25So I guess I would say that it took 14 years for us to do this.
7:31Yeah.
7:32And that before the 14 years, we got nothing.
7:34Right.
7:35Because we didn't have it on our books and therefore we weren't getting a match.
7:38So even if we're not getting much of a match from the state, I look at the benefit to the overall— to our community.
7:44Oh, I don't— just for us to be able to have the money to use because We were getting zero before.
7:51Yeah.
7:53And to add to that, the Community Preservation Coalition, which is made up of various organizations that were the proactive leaders of passing the legislation back in 2000, they try to work every year with the state legislature to get access-free cash and put an infusion in and also to increase the, the match.
8:13They're always trying to look for creative ways in which to increase the state match because as Jan said, we now have 201 communities, one of which was Boston.
8:21When Boston joined and received CPA match, that skewed the formula.
8:27But even some of the small communities like a Cambridge or a Wellesley, you know, their income tax— you know, their property taxes they collect is that much higher.
8:36You do the percentage.
8:37So the Community Preservation Coalition has done a really good job of advocating for CPA to make sure that it remain solvent and to provide communities with, like us, with lobbying efforts that we don't, you know, have to do, and also with technical assistance.
8:55Yeah, okay, very good.
8:57Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
8:59Thank you, Councilmember.
9:00Next we have Councilor Carney has joined us, Councilor At Large Councilor Carney.
9:05Councilor Oliver, the podium, the questions are yours.
9:08Thank you.
9:09Thank you, ladies, for being here today.
9:11My question is simple.
9:13What have we done?
9:14What are we doing?
9:14And what are we going to continue to do to attract new projects or new people to take part in?
9:22Well, we just offered— our last meeting, we went over the Community Preservation Committee plan.
9:29So the public was invited to that to learn, to even talk to us about what projects they have in mind.
9:35So none of the— we don't come up with the projects.
9:37It has to come from the community.
9:40In September, we have a workshop where people are invited to come talk about their projects.
9:46Jessica does a great job of talking to each group individually to help them figure out how to flesh out an application.
9:53It is a 2-step application process.
9:56There's an eligibility process because we have to figure out, is the project eligible?
10:00And then there's a longer-term application.
10:02Application that's due in November.
10:03So we're not going around looking for projects.
10:07That's on citizens of New Bedford.
10:11Yeah, and I understand that.
10:12But aside from the workshop, are we doing anything else to promote that?
10:16People can contact— so a greater— people can contact— so it's still incumbent upon people to know that this exists then?
10:26I would say yes, but there's been a lot of information put into the community about it for the last 10 years.
10:31We've had 166 projects since 2016 where we've awarded $16,921,854.
10:44And there were a lot of leveraging.
10:46So people come in, say they come in for $100,000, but their project is $250,000.
10:51They have to get that $150,000 from someplace else.
10:54So the leverage has been $12,917,000.
10:58$917,570.
11:00So it's a total of over $28 million.
11:02I— my only concern is, and I, and I get that, and I know that the, the— it's incumbent upon the people who are seeking these funds to know about it.
11:13And I know that there's no, you know, there's no money allocated to help promote it.
11:17I just was interested in what the city is doing aside from just posting it on a website or something like that?
11:26Because it's great that we're doing 166 different projects, but in the last couple of years, as this councilor has seen, a lot of the same entities continue to come back because they know the well is there.
11:41No, but they also have large projects.
11:43But this is where we ask for help from the city council.
11:46I mean, you have the pulse of your constituents.
11:49You go and have neighborhood meetings with them.
11:52You have the opportunity to talk about community preservation to your constituents.
11:55Constituents directly and then direct them to the meeting in September.
12:00Yeah, I was going to add that several city councilors that I follow on Facebook have reposted when the press release goes out.
12:10And I understand your point, Councilor, that, you know, it is incumbent on the community to understand.
12:16I think at this point the community has somewhat of an awareness, especially those that are in the nonprofit sector.
12:22I'm hearing from various nonprofit entities.
12:25I have, and I'll do this again because there's several new faces here in the chamber, I've offered to go to any neighborhood meeting that you may have to speak to people just to say, hey, this is what CPA is, this is how you could be eligible.
12:37I'm very, very happy to do that.
12:40It's not something that we have the resources to do, right, on, you know, individually.
12:46But, you know, I'm happy to to provide that service and, you know, to reach out to your constituents.
12:52It's because it may not be the person in the chair, but they may know somebody who's running a nonprofit that's living— working in a historic building that needs those resources to, you know, preserve and rehabilitate their building.
13:06And to add to Jan's point about the projects, we aren't receiving a lot of money.
13:11I mean, it's a lot of money because it's, you know, $1.8 million this year.
13:15It is a lot of money.
13:16However, it's not the same as a Boston or a Wellesley or Cambridge.
13:21So, and the capacity of a lot of the projects that are coming before us, they don't have the capacity to take a large sum of money and execute it in a year or 2.
13:31So what you're seeing, because you're seeing a lot of the same entities come back to the well, as you put it, are because either they're doing it in phases, which we've advised them to, because they just don't have the capacity within an organization because they're volunteer organ— based organizations, or we don't want to tie up funds because they're so limited and we always have 2 to 3 dozen applications.
13:52The CPC parses it out in phased funding and says, do this phase, come back next year, get a little bit more, get a little bit more, and it keeps their projects going and they can also look for other funding sources.
14:04So it's, it's 2 reasons why you see these projects is one, because they don't have their capacity in internally, but also because the CPC isn't going to say, here's $1 million, that's all we have, folks, is going to this project, and it's going to take them 6 years to spend it.
14:18So what they've done is try to make sure that they are moving as many projects forward as possible and continuing to support them so that they can move forward and they can build capacity and to make their projects more attractive and to attract leveraged funding, because if they If other funders see that the city is putting in and they view CPA money as city money, then they're more likely to support these projects because they see, oh, well, the city is supporting it.
14:47Let's put some money in.
14:49In fact, the housing projects now, if they go to the state for housing funding, one of the questions on the application is, have you applied for CPA funding and have you received it?
15:00So that's why you'll see some housing projects that come in where you may think it's a little early in their process, But it's to prove to the state that they are seeing city support for their project so that they can be successful at the state application level.
15:14No, and I understand that, and I totally get the coming back.
15:19It's just, you know, speaking with some folks, it's, you know, they get discouraged because they say, oh, I don't think— and it's on them, and it's that they should always just apply and see if you can get it.
15:30When they start seeing the same folks coming for more money and seeing that it's a phased project.
15:35And it's not— this isn't really an indictment on— I think you guys do great work.
15:40You definitely, you know, go above and beyond what you have to do.
15:43And most of my line of questioning is just for the general public purpose that may be watching tonight or will see this at a later time where, hey, okay, I have to know that I have to go and seek out these funds.
15:57Because we— the fact is we don't have the resources to, you know, take out a billboard or something and say, you know, right.
16:03So I completely understand that.
16:05And this is just another way to kind of get that information out there.
16:09No, I appreciate that.
16:09Yeah.
16:10I was just going to say that actually in the time that we've been funding, we've been able to put I don't know how many playgrounds in this past year.
16:18We— a school came in for a playground and it was the last school in the city that did not have one.
16:24So that was a new application that came before us.
16:27We've had new applicants every year, just like we've had people come back and come, you know, seemingly come back regularly for it.
16:35But also their projects are large, like they might be a $10 million project.
16:39We, we would never tie up $1 million for a project.
16:42And I understand that.
16:43And like I said, the school is a good example, but yet another entity that knows that this tranche of money exists.
16:49So that, that's all, is just trying to make the general public aware that it's that time of year again type of thing and take part in the workshops that you guys— Well, I would say if anybody's listening that they— and they want to come forward, they need to check a few things before they do, which is they need to look at the application and see what they want to apply for, whether it's open space or recreation, whether it's historic resources.
17:12They need to make sure that the resource is listed on the State Register of Historic Places, so they would have to go to the Historical Commission.
17:18If it's community housing, usually that's developers.
17:21And like Jessica said, we're usually the first stop for people who are doing that.
17:24And where would they get that information?
17:26Our website?
17:27They could get on the Community Preservation Commission website.
17:30Okay.
17:31Or they can call Jessica and ask her.
17:32Okay.
17:33Thank you very much.
17:33Thank you, Mr.
17:34Chair.
17:34Thank you, Council Oliver.
17:36Anyone also on their first?
17:37Seeing anyone on their second?
17:40Seeing no further discussion, made by Council, um, Forever, seconded by Council Oliver.
17:46All those in favor?
17:48Aye.
17:48Opposed?
17:49The ayes have it.
17:52Made by Council Oliver, second by Council Pereira.
17:54All those in favor?
17:55Aye.
17:56Opposed?
17:56We are adjourned at 6:47 PM.
17:59Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.