The State of the City laid out the Mayor's agenda: What happens next is up to Boston's City Council

Learn why the '24 Council is historic & go inside how the body works with interviews from fmr Councilors & staff in BPI's 2024 Boston City Council Transition Guide

On Tuesday night Boston’s chief executive Mayor Michelle Wu laid out her 2024 governing agenda in the State of the City speech. While a past Mayor of Boston said holding the office was “the closest thing to being a king as you can be in the United States,” Mayor Wu does not govern Boston alone. The Boston City Council serves as the legislative branch in Massachusetts’ largest city. They are the most unique local legislature in Massachusetts, with the highest salaries & the largest staff budget of any local legislature in the Commonwealth, the ability to get on television & the front page, and an important formal role in creating and implementing City policy. This year’s City Council has new budget powers, once-in-a-100 year choices about the structure of City government, and an ominous economic climate on its plate.

While their names, faces, and even their politics are usually well known, what the Boston City Council actually does, and how it works - from how staff are hired to what formal powers the Council holds - is not. Boston Policy Institute, Inc wants to change that, and this year is releasing the “2024 Boston City Council Transition Guide”.

This Guide is particularly important in 2024 because this year’s Council is historic:

• 6 out of 13 Councilors were not on the Council when the last term started on January 1, 2022 - the 2^nd most turnovers since the 1993 election

• 2 of the 6 new Councilors defeated incumbent District City Councilors in the 2023 election - tied with 1993 election for the most incumbent District City Councilors to be defeated 

• 2017 was the year the most senior City Councilor was elected - 2024’s City Council is the most inexperienced in decades

In less than 10 years the entire Boston City Council has turned over, with no one sworn in January ‘24 having been sworn in on January ‘16.

To answer the question ‘What does the Boston City Council do?’ BPI interviewed the folks who know best: former City Councilors and staff. In the Guide, you will hear from them about hiring & managing a staff, passing an ordinance, engaging with the annual budget, and leveraging the ‘bully pulpit’ of the City Council to advance important community priorities.