With help from Kelly Garrity
COUNCIL CONTROVERSIES — The Boston City Council is a mess. Soon councilors could face consequences for it.
The past few weeks have been … eventful: Ricardo Arroyo paid a $3,000 penalty for violating the conflict of interest law by representing his brother in a sexual harassment lawsuit after becoming a city councilor. Kendra Lara crashed a car into a house and now faces a host of alleged motor vehicle violations, including driving with a revoked license.
Councilors warred with each other and with the mayor over a city budget that almost cut spending for police and veterans. The process was complete with walked-back votes, override attempts and hurt feelings that showed the council’s dysfunction didn’t end with its court-prompted redistricting redo. Allegations of racism have swirled within a body that has often divided this term along racial lines. And the sparring is spilling online as members mount their reelection bids — and begin to position for the next mayoral race.
Council President Ed Flynn — who’s alternated between acting like a dad trying to quell warring siblings and stoking the division by bankrolling the lawsuit that nixed the city’s first redistricting map — slammed Arroyo and Lara in a statement Wednesday for continuing to “draw negative attention” to the body through their “troubling ethical and legal lapses.” But he stopped short of calling for their resignations, telling the Herald that discipline “is not something I have considered yet.”
Hours later, Councilor Michael Flaherty called it quits. The 20-year council veteran and top vote-getter in several at-large contests stunned the Boston political class by withdrawing his name for reelection “after much deliberation and self-reflection.” Flaherty didn’t mention the ongoing drama, but he didn’t need to.
“The body is so dysfunctional that it’s driving good people from running or serving,” one City Hall insider lamented to Playbook after Flaherty’s surprise announcement, calling the council a “complete clown show.”
Flaherty’s departure is “a big loss for the city,” former city Councilor John Tobin said. But he told Playbook it’s understandable given the “soap opera” that is the current council: “You just get to a point in your life that’s like, why am I doing this?”
The chaotic council won’t barrel ahead unchecked for much longer. Voters will soon head to the polls for the city’s September and November municipal contests. Flaherty’s exit from the at-large race guarantees at least one new face on the council next year, with now just three incumbents and five challengers running for the four citywide seats. District 3 Councilor Frank Baker’s departure guarantees another new member.
And five of the nine district councilors have drawn challengers, according to the city’s elections department (Flynn, Gabriela Coletta and Brian Worrell are so far unopposed).
Arroyo has three opponents: Roslindale’s Enrique Pepen, executive director of the mayor’s neighborhood services team; Hyde Park police officer Jose Ruiz and Mattapan activist Jean-Claude Sanon. Arroyo has more money banked than any of his challengers, though Pepen and Ruiz outraised him in June, per OCPF. Oddly, Arroyo’s campaign website still says he’s running for district attorney.
Lara has two challengers: William King, a past at-large candidate from West Roxbury who could draw votes from the part of the district that Lara is weakest in, and Benjamin Weber, a workers’ rights attorney from Jamaica Plain. Neither Lara nor Arroyo responded to calls for comment.
Politicians have rebounded from bad press and personal troubles before. But, as former city councilor Larry DiCara told Playbook, “anything can happen in an off-year election when the turnout is lower and a small number of votes can have a dramatic impact.”
GOOD THURSDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Tips? Scoops? Running for city council? Email me: [email protected].
TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey remains in Rhode Island through Saturday. Acting Gov. Kim Driscoll boards the Blue Line at 8:30 a.m. at the Orient Heights station to highlight transportation alternatives during the Sumner Tunnel closure. Wu launches the city’s Swim Safe Boston initiative at 10:30 a.m. at the BCYF Paris Street.
— OUT OF SIGHT, NOT OUT OF MIND: The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation is calling for the “timely resolution” of tax talks between legislative chambers in a new analysis that says the state can afford to do everything the House and Senate put on the table. That includes cutting the short-term capital gains tax rate and expanding housing tax credits.
The one measure the group doesn’t want to see in the final deal: the Senate’s plan to require married couples who file joint federal income tax returns to do the same at the state level. Supporters say the change would close a “loophole” couples could use to avoid paying the new millionaires surtax. But MTF argues it would “run directly counter to the broader goals of addressing high costs and competitiveness.”
Oh, and there’s still no budget. Massachusetts is one of just five states that hasn’t passed a fiscal year 2024 spending plan, per the National Association of State Budget Officers.
— PUNTING ON RENT CONTROL: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent-control plan likely won’t get a hearing on Beacon Hill until the fall, the State House News Service reports after lawmakers left the city’s home-rule petition off the dockets for the housing committee’s June and July meetings.
— “Harvard Legacy Admissions Targeted by Massachusetts Lawmakers,” by Janet Lorin, Bloomberg: “A bill in Massachusetts seeks to tax rich colleges that favor families of alumni and donors in admissions policies — namely Harvard University — and give the money to poorer community colleges. The legislation targets Harvard, Williams College and a half-dozen other schools that use preferences for students whose parents attended the college, called legacies, and meet a threshold of current endowment value per student.”
— IN MEMORIAM: “State House Mourns Passing Of DCR Ranger [Joanne] Croken,” by Sam Doran, State House News Service (paywall).
— “Wu wants to deliver police reform via union contracts. With potential arbitration on the horizon, will it happen?” by Danny McDonald, Boston Globe: “It’s shaping up to be a defining question of Michelle Wu’s mayoral tenure: Can she deliver meaningful reform to the nation’s oldest police force? Wu has repeatedly cited collective bargaining as a tool to implement reform within the Police Department, which has been buffeted by scandal in recent years. But as the state takes over protracted contract talks with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, any changes to the next labor pact could be decided by independent arbitrators.”
— “Just What Is Marty Walsh up to, Anyway?” by David Bernstein, Boston Magazine: “By all appearances, Walsh seems to be in the Boston public eye more and more these days after consciously stepping back to avoid detracting from the current mayor, Michelle Wu.”
— “Hillary Clinton headlines list of speakers for NAACP National Convention in Boston,” by Rick Sobey, Boston Herald.
— ICYMI: “Former Globe president sues over the way he charges he was fired,” by Adam Gaffin, Universal Hub.
— “WRTA appoints Connecticut transit official as new administrator,” by Tréa Lavery, MassLive: “The Worcester Regional Transit Authority has chosen Joshua Rickman, an official with Connecticut’s state transit system, as its new administrator.”
— “Repairs that will shut down part of Green Line extension postponed until September,” by Mike Pescaro and Abbey Niezgoda, NBC10 Boston.
— “Rollins could face suspension of law license, disbarment at hands of state disciplinary board,” by Mike Damiano and Shelley Murphy, Boston Globe: “The misconduct that Rachael Rollins is alleged to have committed as US attorney is so unusual and varied that there is little precedent for what discipline she might receive, if any, from the state agency that regulates lawyers, according to legal ethics experts. … It is unclear if the board has begun investigating Rollins. Its general counsel, Joseph Berman, said, ‘We don’t comment on pending cases.’”
— “Spending bill targets Kerry’s office, global climate spending,” by David Jordan, Roll Call: “House Republican appropriators want to eliminate funding for John Kerry’s position as President Joe Biden’s special envoy and for other international climate efforts.”
— “Here’s what happened when West Springfield police added a mental health clinician,” by Aprell May Munford, Springfield Republican: “On the second floor of the J. Edward Christian Municipal Office Building in West Springfield, Ariana Ploran sits monitoring a police radio — ready to jump into action. She did that the other day, holding an impromptu therapy session with someone on the side of a road. That same week, Ploran, a licensed mental health clinician, gave substance abuse resources to a person in a jail cell. … Since [she started joining police officers on calls in] November, repeat 911 crisis calls in the town have dropped by 20%, Ploran said.”
— “Westfield director of public health is charged with allegedly stealing more than $7,000 in union funds,” by Stephanie Barry, Springfield Republican: “According to a police report obtained by The Republican, Joseph Rouse, the city’s director of public health, cashed checks and did not deposit that money in the union’s account.”
— “Controversial Easthampton city council ordinance on crisis pregnancy centers passes,” by Juliet Schulman-Hall, MassLive: “At a heated public hearing attended by more than 50 people across the Commonwealth on Wednesday evening, an ordinance — which provides protections for those seeking reproductive and gender-affirming health care services — passed with six councilors supporting the measure despite mayoral apprehension.”
— “State engineer accuses SouthCoast Wind of lying to RI agencies. What the email says,” by Alex Kuffner, Providence Journal: “A member of the team that reviews offshore wind projects for Rhode Island’s coastal regulatory agency has accused SouthCoast Wind of lying to a separate state board about the company’s $5-billion proposal to install nearly 150 wind turbines south of Martha’s Vineyard.”
— “After extended health-related absence, Nashua state lawmaker who sued for remote participation resigns,” by Todd Bookman, New Hampshire Public Radio: “Longtime Nashua state Rep. David Cote, who is part of an ongoing lawsuit seeking remote participation in the New Hampshire Legislature, has resigned. … Cote, who was first elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in the 1980s and has served in Democratic leadership, was never sworn in after winning election in 2022.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to former state Sen. Richard Ross, state Sen. Jake Oliveira, Dave Eisenstadter and WBUR’s Cloe Axelson.
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