The newest episode of the Boston cleaning soap opera “Because the Metropolis Council Turns” was a doozy. Disgraced District Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was a no-show to Wednesday’s assembly, and At-Giant Councilor Julia Mejia blocked an effort for the council to take a stance on Fernandes Anderson’s job standing.
There’s rather a lot to unpack right here.
After pleading responsible Monday to federal corruption prices tied to a $7,000 kickback scheme carried out at Metropolis Corridor, Fernandes Anderson mentioned she’s eying late June for her Council resignation to develop into efficient.
One would suppose respect for the Metropolis Council would immediate a right away exit given the gravity of those prices. However this isn’t the councilor’s first ethics-impaired rodeo.
Again in 2023, she was cited by the state Ethics Fee for hiring her sister and son to paid positions on her workers. She admitted her guilt, and needed to pay a $5,000 civil penalty. She was re-elected that yr.
This time was totally different: federal prices, indictment and arrest. Nonetheless, Fernandes Anderson is in no hurry to get off the stage.
“It actually hasn’t been about me,” Fernandes Anderson mentioned Monday. “I used to be attempting to resign instantly and my advisory council suggested that District 7 doesn’t deserve to not have a vote within the finances. … It seems to be like in June, as soon as we get the finances out of the way in which.”
District 7 deserves a voice on the whole lot put earlier than a Council vote, which is why the councilor did her constituents a disservice when she racked up seven absences at common weekly Metropolis Council conferences from January 2022 to April 2024.
As the Herald reported, three of 4 absences logged in 2023 by Fernandes Anderson occurred on days when the Council took large votes on public security.
District 7 deserved a vote then, too.
And it deserved illustration Wednesday, although Fernandes Anderson defined her absence in a letter as being attributable to a “household emergency.”
After all a key merchandise on the council agenda could be the standing of her place, and it was launched by Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn, calling for a late-file “emergency decision in help of moral management and a Council vote on the standing of Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson.”
Mejia blocked the kick, saying, “Not all people are on this chamber, and we’re speaking about one thing that’s in reference to a colleague.
“Out of respect for that course of, I feel that’s a dialog that both must go to a listening to or we have to have whereas all councilors are current,” she added.
Murphy mentioned she noticed the choice to dam their decision as resistance from different councilors to take a stance on Fernandes Anderson’s job standing.
“The residents need to know the place we stand on it. This is able to have been a possibility to go on the report of the place we stand on this conduct that’s unacceptable,” she mentioned.
However the Boston Metropolis Council wouldn’t be what it’s with out maneuvers, inside politics and dysfunction.
“It actually hasn’t been about me” — that epic line from Fernandes Anderson ought to spur the councilor to attend each assembly from now till the June finances listening to.
And Flynn and Murphy ought to keep the course and demand on a decision. As a result of this actually isn’t about particular person councilors and their careers — it’s concerning the constituents.
