Boston City Council | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | 1909 (current form) |
Preceded by | Boston City Council (1822–1909) |
Leadership | |
Council President | |
Structure | |
Seats | 13 officially non-partisan 9 district councilors 4 at-large councilors |
Length of term | 2 years |
Elections | |
First past the post in 9 districts; Nonpartisan Plurality-at-large voting for the at-large district. | |
Last election | November 2023 |
Next election | November 2025 |
Meeting place | |
Boston City Hall | |
Website | |
https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council | |
Constitution | |
Boston City Charter |
The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms, and there is no limit on the number of terms an individual can serve. Boston uses a strong-mayor form of government in which the city council acts as a check against the power of the executive branch, the mayor. The council is responsible for approving the city budget; monitoring, creating, and abolishing city agencies; making land use decisions; and approving, amending, or rejecting other legislative proposals.
The leader of the City Council is the president and is elected each term by the council. A majority of seven or more votes is necessary to elect a councillor as president. When the mayor of Boston is absent from the city, or vacates the office, the City Council president serves as acting mayor. The president leads Council meetings and appoints councillors to committees.
Any person seeking to become a City Councillor in Boston must meet the following requirements:
Prior to 1909, Boston's legislative body was bicameral, with an eight-member Board of Aldermen as well as a Common Council made up of three representatives from each of the 25 wards in the city. When the Boston City Charter was rewritten in 1909, the Board of Aldermen and the Common Council were replaced by a nine-member unicameral City Council. [1] All nine councillors were elected at-large for terms lasting two years. The new charter also gave the Mayor the power to veto all acts of the City Council. The first council meeting as a unicameral body occurred on February 7, 1910. [2]
The procedure for electing city councillors was changed by Chapter 479 of the Acts of 1924, which provided for the election of 22 city councillors, one from each ward, beginning with the biennial election in 1925. The procedure was changed again by Chapter 356 of the Acts of 1951, which provided for the election of nine city councillors, all at large, for two-year terms. [3] In November 1981, Boston voters approved again changing the composition of the council, to 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. [4]
The 1981 referendum establishing the current 13-member composition of the Council did not indicate how the district lines would be drawn, only that the districts be of approximately equal population [4] and district lines not cut across city precincts.
The Council created a districting committee to propose several different possible district maps and hold public hearings before presenting one plan to the council to approve. [4] State law required the City Council to make a final decision on the districts within 90 days of being notified that the referendum had officially passed, meaning that the Council voting on the districts would be the 1982 Council, not the 1981 Council creating them. [4] Then-president Patrick McDonough, who opposed district representation, appointed Rosemarie Sansone, a major advocate of district representation, as chair of the districting committee, but chose Frederick C. Langone, Dapper O'Neil, and John W. Sears as the other three members, all of whom opposed district representation. [5] Both Langone and O'Neil would be returning to the Council in 1982, but Sansone did not run for re-election in 1981 and would not be able to vote on the district boundaries if the committee did not work quickly to present a plan to the council before the end of the year. [4] Public hearings over possible district boundaries were full of heated debate between advocates of drawing lines to protect neighborhood unity and advocates of drawing lines to create two predominantly minority districts and give minorities a voice in local government. [6] Contention centered around Dorchester and the South End. Dorchester, Boston's largest neighborhood, needed to be split into at least two districts. [7] A simple split in half would create either a north and a south district or an east and a west district. [7] An east district would be largely White (75% or greater) and a west district would be largely African-American. North and south districts would have less extreme majorities. Many residents were opposed to both divisions, stating that they would increase racial segregation in Dorchester and continue the political powerlessness of minorities. [7] A more complicated split taking into account areas with large minority populations would create one predominantly minority district and one predominantly white district but treat Dorchester as several smaller neighborhoods to be divvied up among surrounding neighborhoods rather than as one community. [7] In various proposals, the South End, due to its location, was grouped with either South Boston or Back Bay/Beacon Hill by advocates of neighborhood unity, or Roxbury by advocates of minority-dominated districts. [5]
Two days before the 90-day deadline, freshman councillor Terrence McDermott, who had been appointed as Sansone's replacement for chair of the districting committee, presented a plan to the Council which was approved 7–2 (the dissenting votes came from Raymond Flynn and Bruce Bolling). [8] [9] Today's district boundaries are only slightly different from those adopted in 1982, with the South End and South Boston forming one district, and Dorchester roughly split into an east and a west district. The Council faced more challenges after finalizing the new districts, such as whether or not district councillors should receive a lower salary than at-large councillors [10] and where office space for four additional councillors could be found in City Hall.
By law, Boston municipal elections are nonpartisan in that candidates do not represent a specific political party. However, most city councillors have been members of the Democratic Party. John W. Sears was the first Republican elected to the Boston City Council, in 1980. [11] Chuck Turner, who served during 1999–2010, was a member of the Green-Rainbow Party. Althea Garrison, who served during 2019, [12] has identified as an independent since 2012, but formerly served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Republican.
When the Mayor of Boston is absent from the city, or vacates the office, the City Council president serves as acting mayor. The city charter places some restrictions on an acting mayor's authority: [13] an acting mayor "shall possess the powers of mayor only in matters not admitting of delay, but shall have no power to make permanent appointments." [14] Three presidents of the Boston City Council have served as acting mayors of Boston for extended periods after the Mayor vacated the office:
In June 2021, the city council granted itself the authority to remove its president by a two-thirds majority vote. [14] Should that action occur while a council president is serving as acting mayor, the role of acting mayor would be assigned to the new council president who would be elected by a simple majority of the city council. [14] In 2022, the rule was removed. [25]
District [42] [43] | Area [44] | Councillor [45] | In office since |
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District 1 | Charlestown, East Boston, North End | Gabriela Coletta | 2022 (May) |
District 2 | Chinatown, Downtown, South Boston, South End | Ed Flynn | 2018 (January) |
District 3 | Dorchester | John FitzGerald | 2024 (January) |
District 4 | Mattapan, Dorchester, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain | Brian Worrell | 2022 (January) |
District 5 | Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan | Enrique Pepén | 2024 (January) |
District 6 | Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury | Benjamin Weber | 2024 (January) |
District 7 | Roxbury, South End, Dorchester | Tania Fernandes Anderson | 2022 (January) |
District 8 | Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway–Kenmore, Mission Hill, West End | Sharon Durkan | 2023 (July) |
District 9 | Allston, Brighton | Liz Breadon | 2020 (January) |
(At-large) | Henry Santana | 2024 (January) | |
(At-large) | Ruthzee Louijeune President | 2022 (January) | |
(At-large) | Julia Mejia | 2020 (January) | |
(At-large) | Erin Murphy | 2021 (December) [46] |
As of January 2020 [update] , the City Council has the following committees: [47]
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The salary for councillors is half of the mayor's salary. Every four years, the Council votes on whether or not to raise the mayor's salary, thereby also raising its own salaries or not.
In June 2018, the Council voted to increase the salary of the mayor from $199,000 to $207,000, effective after the mayoral election of November 2021 (term starting in January 2022); this increased the salary of councillors to $103,500, effective after the council elections of November 2019 (terms starting in January 2020). [48] [49]
Year(s) | Salary | Ref. |
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1980 | $20,000 | [50] |
1981–1986 | $32,500 | [51] [52] |
1987–1994 | $45,000 | [52] [53] |
1995–1998 | $54,500 | [54] |
1999–2002 | $62,500 | [55] |
2003–2006 | $75,000 | [56] [57] |
2006–2015 | $87,500 | [58] |
2016–2019 | $99,500 | [58] |
2020–present | $103,500 | [49] [59] |
(#) denotes different instances of a councillor serving as president
Gallery of Boston City Council Presidents (partial) |
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The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan, and elect a mayor to a four-year term; there are no term limits. The mayor's office is in Boston City Hall, in Government Center.
Thomas Michael Menino was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three months in the position of "acting mayor" following the resignation of his predecessor Raymond Flynn. Before serving as mayor, Menino was a member of the Boston City Council and had been elected president of the City Council in 1993.
Michael F. Flaherty is a politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council for a cumulative ten terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the council in 1999, serving an initial five terms between 2000 until 2010. During this initial tenure, he served as vice president of the council in 2001 and as council president from 2002 to 2006. In 2009 he forwent reelection to a further term in order to run for mayor of Boston in that year's election, which he lost to incumbent mayor Thomas Menino. He ran unsuccessfully in 2011 to return to the council as an at-large member. In 2013, Flaherty again ran in the at-large city council race, and was returned to the council. He served five terms between 2014 and 2024. In 2023, he declined to seek reelection to an additional term.
The 2009 Boston mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, between incumbent Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino, and Michael F. Flaherty, member of the Boston City Council and former Council president. Menino was re-elected to a fifth term, the first mayor to do so in Boston history. A nonpartisan municipal preliminary election was held on September 22, 2009, where Flaherty and Menino advanced to the general election.
William P. Linehan is an American politician who was a member and president of the Boston City Council in Massachusetts. He represented District 2, which includes Downtown Boston, the South End, South Boston and Chinatown.
Matthew Joseph O'Malley is an American politician and businessman who served six terms a member of the Boston City Council. He was elected as the District 6 representative in a special election on November 16, 2010, and was re-elected in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017. His district included the neighborhoods of West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain, parts of Roslindale and Roxbury, and the Back of the Hill. As the most senior member of the council, O'Malley succeeded Kim Janey as acting council president after Janey became acting mayor of Boston in March 2021. In late 2021, he became the chief sustainability officer of Vicinity Energy, a U.S. district energy subsidiary of Antin Infrastructure Partners.
The Boston mayoral election of 1993 occurred on Tuesday, November 2, 1993, between Acting Mayor Thomas Menino and State Representative James T. Brett. Menino was elected to his first term.
The 2013 Boston mayoral election occurred on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. Incumbent mayor Thomas Menino had declined to run for re-election to a sixth term. A non-partisan preliminary election was held on Tuesday, September 24, 2013. 12 candidates made the ballot to replace Menino, with state representative Marty Walsh and at-large city councilor John R. Connolly advancing to the general election. Walsh was elected to his first term, defeating Connolly by 3% of the vote, and was inaugurated on Monday, January 6, 2014.
Tito Jackson is an American politician who was a member of the Boston City Council. He represented council District 7, representing parts of the Roxbury neighborhood and parts of Dorchester, South End, and Fenway. In 2017, he ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Boston against incumbent mayor Marty Walsh. After leaving the Boston City Council, Jackson worked in the cannabis industry. In 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu appointed Jackson to the city's Commission on Black Men and Boys.
Kathleen Sullivan Alioto is an American educator and politician who served on the Boston School Committee as a member (1974–79) and its president (1977). She played a role in the desegregation of the Boston public schools.
Michelle Wu is an American politician serving as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, since 2021. The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, she was the first Asian American woman to serve on the Boston City Council, from 2014 to 2021, and acted as its president from 2016–2018. She is the first woman and first non-white person to have been elected mayor of Boston. At 36 years of age, she is also the youngest individual to have been elected to the position in nearly a century. Wu is a member of the Democratic Party.
Boston City Council elections were held on November 2, 1993. All thirteen seats were contested in the general election, while ten seats had also been contested in the preliminary election held on September 21, 1993.
Boston City Council elections were held on November 5, 2019. Nomination forms could be submitted starting April 17, and candidates had a filing deadline of May 21. A preliminary election was held on September 24. By law, Boston municipal elections are nonpartisan—candidates do not represent a specific political party.
Annissa Essaibi George is an American politician who served as an at-large member of the Boston City Council. First elected in 2015, she served on the council from 2016 to 2022. She was a candidate in the 2021 Boston mayoral election. She placed second in the nonpartisan primary, but was defeated in the general election by fellow city councilor Michelle Wu. Since November 2022, Essaibi George has served as the president of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit organization Big Sister Boston.
Kim Michelle Janey is an American politician and community organizer who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022. As a black woman, her tenure as acting mayor made her the first woman and the first person of color to lead the city.
Frank Baker is an American politician who represents District 3 on the Boston City Council. He was first elected on November 8, 2011.
The 2021 Boston mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2021, to elect the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. Incumbent mayor Marty Walsh was eligible to seek a third term. However, he resigned as mayor on March 22, 2021, after being confirmed as secretary of labor in the Cabinet of Joe Biden. This left the Boston City Council president, at the time Kim Janey, to hold the role of acting mayor until the victor of the election would take office.
The 2021 Boston City Council election was held on November 2, 2021. All thirteen councillors from the nine districts and four councillors at-large were up for election. Elections in Boston are officially nonpartisan.
Thomas Menino served as mayor of Boston, Massachusetts from 1993 through 2014. He is the longest serving mayor in the city's history. Menino first became acting mayor in July 1993, after Raymond Flynn resigned as mayor to assume the post of United States ambassador to the Holy See. Menino was elected mayor in the subsequent 1993 Boston mayoral election, and was reelected to additional terms in the four subsequent elections, making for an unprecedented and unsurpassed twenty year tenure. On March 28, 2013, Menino announced that he would not seek a sixth term.
Edward Michael Flynn is an American politician currently serving on the Boston City Council, representing the city's 2nd district. A member of the Democratic Party, he has held his seat since January 2017. From January 2022 until January 2024, he served as president of the Boston City Council. He is the son of former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn.
There has been at least one woman on the Boston City Council for the past 41 years, since 1974. The current makeup of the Council includes the most women ever in history! In honor of Women's History Month, here are some firsts being represented by the current women of the City Council.