TheBoston City Council is thelegislative branch of government for the city ofBoston, Massachusetts, United States. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4at-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 astrong-mayor form of government in which the city council acts as a check against the power of the executive branch, themayor. The council is responsible for approving the citybudget; monitoring, creating, and abolishing cityagencies; makingland use decisions; and approving, amending, or rejecting other legislative proposals.
The currentunicameral iteration of the council was established in 1909, replacinga bicameral iteration that had been formed in 1822.
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 themayor 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.
Prior to 1909, Boston's legislative body wasbicameral, with an eight-member Board ofAldermen as well as a Common Council made up of three representatives from each of the 25wards in the city. When theBoston City Charter was rewritten in 1909, the Board of Aldermen and the Common Council were replaced by a nine-memberunicameral 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 cityprecincts.
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-presidentPatrick F. McDonough, who opposed district representation, appointedRosemarie E. Sansone, a major advocate of district representation, as chair of the districting committee, but choseFrederick C. Langone,Dapper O'Neil, andJohn 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 predominantlyminority districts and give minorities a voice in local government.[6] Contention centered aroundDorchester and theSouth 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 councillorTerence P. 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 fromRaymond Flynn andBruce 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 inCity Hall.
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 1947, upon mayor Curley being sentenced to prison for mail fraud, the Massachusetts legislature passed emergency legislation to bypass council presidentJohn B. Kelly, who had recently been acquitted on bribery charges and was in ill health, and granted full mayoral powers to city clerkJohn Hynes until Curley's release.[19]
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]
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 ofNovember 2021 (term starting in January 2022); this increased the salary of councillors to $103,500, effective after the council elections ofNovember 2019 (terms starting in January 2020).[49][50]
1.^ Kerrigan served as acting mayor during a portion of this term as council president[61]
2.^ O'Neil was elected council president after the death of predecessor.[62]
3.^ Menino served as acting mayor during a portion of his council presidency[63]
4.^ Janey served as acting mayor for a portion of her council presidency, and was absent from council proceedings during that time.Matt O'Malley presided over the council in her place.[64]
Gallery of Boston City Council Presidents (partial)
^Richard, Ray (January 8, 1980). "Iannella new president of Boston City Council".Boston Globe. p. 1.ProQuest293397598.
^Langner, Paul (September 28, 1980). "White to approve his pay hike".Boston Globe. p. 1.ProQuest293997728.
^abRezendes, Michael (January 29, 1992). "Raises will be asked for council".Boston Globe. p. 22.ProQuest294639718.
^Jordan, Robert A. (December 27, 1986). "Unfinished '87 business".Boston Globe. p. 25.ProQuest294384926.
^Aucoin, Don (December 22, 1994). "City councilors get a pay raise; Little public outcry heard as officials vote themselves 21 percent increase".Boston Globe. p. 30.ProQuest290723825.
^Schweitzer, Sarah (January 31, 2002). "Ross named to key post as council eyes pay issues".Boston Globe. pp. B.2.ProQuest405438915.
^"The rewards of public service".Boston Globe. June 29, 2003. p. 11.ProQuest405528161.
^Walker, Adrian (February 20, 2006). "What worth councilors?".Boston Globe. pp. B.1.ProQuest404992402.
"Firsts From the Women of the City Council".boston.gov. March 9, 2018.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.
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