Boston city councilors to weigh Walsh zoning board appointments

Boston city councilors are planning a meeting next week on what to do with the Mayor Martin Walsh’s nominees for the troubled zoning board.

Michelle Wu, who chairs the Committee on Planning, Development, and Transportation, is calling a working session next Thursday over the four nominees for the board in light of the reform bill the council passed last week that would create more specialized seats for the Zoning Board of Appeal.

Asked whether the plans could involve rejecting the nominees, Wu told the Herald, “Everything is on the table.”

The board was shaken by a bribery scandal last year that resulted in one staffer being federally charged and one member resigning. The council passed a home-rule petition last week that would — with the approval of the Legislature — make transparency and regulatory reforms to the board, and would create specialized seats for experts in urban planning and climate change.

Wu said the council needs to think about that new potential composition in weighing the mayor’s nominees.

“The city council should take into account whether enough has been done to restore public trust,” Wu said.

Asked for comment, Walsh’s office pointed to the backlog of “approximately 600 cases” before the board, which is struggling to get a quorum in its meetings, due to a lack of members and interruptions by the pandemic.

There are normally seven slots for board members, plus six alternatives. Three of the board members and four alternative slots require further appointments, and the mayor has put forward four people — one last September and three in January, and the council hasn’t acted on any of them yet.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2DIzpoA