Weekly Transcript Round-Up for 12/13/24: Council's final meeting features loud crowd, disagreements; Tax shift legislation dead, press weighs in
This week featured the end of a months-long legislative fight, a taste of Council business with a member facing federal corruption charges, and a 4 1/2 hour long final Council meeting of 2024:
Councilor Tania Fernandes-Anderson’s indictment on federal charges last week prompted a number of columns, a Globe editorial, and many of her supporters & reporters to turn out to Wednesday’s regular Council meeting.
Wednesday’s regular Council meeting clocked in at four and half hours and featured a series of sharp disagreements and a packed house.
The death on Monday of Mayor Wu’s tax shift proposal prompted a flood of press coverage, including a number of editorials and columns.
Keep reading for more on each item!
COUNCILOR FERNANDES ANDERSON’S INDICTMENT PROMPTS COLUMNS, EDITORIALS, & A PACKED COUNCIL CHAMBER
District 7 City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was indicted on federal corruption charges last week, and Wednesday was the first regular Council meeting since her arraignment. A number of Councilor Fernandes Anderson’s supporters and an even larger number of media members were present in the Chamber on Wednesday, prompting Council President Ruthzee Louijeune to open the meeting by reminding observers — she is Speaker 0 and starts at the 00:51 mark in the transcript:
“Also, just a reminder, pursuant to Rule 42, that in this chamber, no demonstration of approval or disapproval by members of the public is permitted. So that means no clapping, no talking.”
Her reminder was not heeded.
About an hour into the meeting, Councilor Fernandes Anderson was called to speak about Docket #1391, an order addressing issues in District 7, which she represents and which had a hearing last Friday. It was the first time Councilor Fernandes Anderson spoke during the meeting, and she delivered a speech lasting more than 15 minutes — quite long by Council standards - she is Speaker 12 and begins at the 1:11:22 mark in the transcript.
In addition to attracting significant attention at Wednesday’s meeting, Councilor Fernandes Anderson has also attracted attention from the Boston Globe’s opinion writers, with an editorial and two columns:
Editorial: Fernandes Anderson’s indictment should be a wake-up call — “The Boston City Council needs an ethics commission, and rules that allow councilors to remove members found to have committed serious ethical breaches.”
Joan Vennochi: Given the Trump standard, why should Tania Fernandes Anderson resign? — “What is disqualifying for voters? It should be up to them to decide, not the media or other politicians with agendas of their own.”
Marcela Garcia: Transparency in question: Fernandes Anderson’s culture of secrecy — “Is there room for nondisclosure agreements in the Boston City Council?”
For more on the issue that the editorial addresses, check out a short explainer that BPI posted on TikTok and Instagram about why the Boston City Council can’t expel its own members.
FOUR & A HALF HOUR COUNCIL MEETING FEATURES SERIES OF SHARP DISAGREEMENTS
Wednesday’s Council meeting was the final one of the year, and with issues such as Mayor Wu’s failed tax shift proposal, the indictment of one of their colleagues on federal corruption charges, and the need to accept controversial grants, it was a long and tumultuous meeting.
FEDERAL PUBLIC SAFETY GRANTS The first issue that Councilors debated was a series of federal grants funding the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, better known as BRIC, which maintains Boston’s controversial gang database.
As first noted by Universal Hub, fighting over BRIC funding is becoming an annual tradition for the Boston City Council. Federal grants that funded BRIC were rejected by the Council at the end of 2023, and accepting them earlier this year required the new Council President and several of her allies to switch their votes.
On Wednesday, the Council debated and voted on those grants for more than an hour — starting at the 1:32:12 mark and continuing until the 2:43:37 mark. The main point of contention over the grants was not the individual grants themselves, but a vote on Councilor At-Large Julia Mejia’s motion to “lay on the table” one of the dockets. If successful, this motion would have prevented a vote on that docket until the next Council meeting, which would be in 2025 -she is Speaker 5, beginning at the 2:15:36 mark in the transcript.
Councilor Mejia’s motion set off about 15 minutes of debate, which included:
A definition of what a “motion to lay on the table” is provided by the City Clerk - who is Speaker 1 at the 2:18:16 mark.
District 8 City Councilor Sharon Durkan pointed out that other Councilors were speaking more often than she was, and was heckled by the audience - she is Speaker 3, starting at the 2:22:38 mark.
Councilor Mejia’s motion was voted on at the 2:30:52 mark and was defeated 9-4, which saw many Councilors switch their votes compared to the major BRIC vote at the start of 2024.
TAX CLASSIFICATION VOTE The top vote BPI was watching at Wednesday’s meeting was Docket #1715, an “order relative to the adoption of Tax Classification in the City of Boston for FY 2025,” or in plain language, a vote to set the tax rates in Boston for 2025. This vote had been delayed from the previous week, as the Council was waiting for the state legislature’s decision on Mayor Wu’s tax shift proposal. The expected failure of that legislation prompted the Council to hold an extremely unusual hearing on this docket on Wednesday morning — this appears to be the only hearing held on the morning of a regular Council meeting this year. The meeting featured a sharp exchange between District 2 City Councilor Ed Flynn and Boston’s CFO Ashley Groffenberger over the role public estimates played in the failure of Mayor Wu’s tax shift proposal.
Despite the months of debate and the sharp exchange on Wednesday morning, the docket featured no further discussion at the regular meeting and was passed unanimously.
DEFENDING & CRITIZING PRESIDENT LOUIJEUNE Councilor Flynn’s hearing order on creating an Ethics Committee for the City Council and his resolution for another Council meeting next week drew a response from his colleague Councilor Durkan - she is Speaker 3 and starts the 3:25:34 mark:
A few minutes later with the Council still debating Councilor Flynn’s Ethics Committee hearing order, Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson criticized Council President Louijeune’s handling of the Council meeting, who defended herself - President Louijeune is Speaker 0, Councilor Fernandes Anderson is Speaker 12, and this exchange starts at the 3:30:44 mark:
Adding an extra layer to this exchange is Council President Louijeune’s call last week for Councilor Fernandes Anderson to resign after she was indicted on federal corruption charges.
COLUMNISTS & ED BOARDS WEIGH IN ON TAX SHIFT’S FAILURE
The failure of Mayor Wu’s tax shift proposal on Monday has dominated press coverage of Boston this week. The failure also prompted several editorial boards and columnists to weigh in:
MASSterlist’s Keller @ Large: Breakfast with the mayor - “It’s like the old joke about teenagers: how do you know when City Hall is lying? Its lips are moving.”
Editorial from Boston Business Journal: Waiting on Wu’s ill-fated tax shift plan was the right move - “The tax shift plan was simply too blunt an instrument at a time when so many small businesses are still struggling after the pandemic.”
Editorial from Boston Herald: Transparency Mayor Wu’s best bet after tax shift debacle - “The Wu train had a signal failure this week as Boston’s mayor saw her controversial tax shift proposal derail in the Senate.”
Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker: Wu’s tax defeat carries a harsh lesson - “This failure is a harsh lesson for Wu, who underestimated the challenge of getting this through, and overestimated the strength of her support on Beacon Hill.”
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