Boston City Council moves toward overriding special election

The City Council appeared to come to something close to a consensus on the idea of overriding the likely special mayoral election, and appears poised to pass the legislation in the coming week.

“We are going to get this done in a consensus vote,” City Councilor Lydia Edwards, the government operations chair, said in a working session meeting Friday about the legislation.

The proposal, a home-rule petition from City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, would override the special election required in three months if Mayor Martin Walsh leaves to become President Biden’s Labor secretary before March 5. The petition would instead extend the time City Council President Kim Janey serves as acting mayor until the normal mayoral election in November chooses a new chief executive.

By the end of the Friday working session, which included nearly all of the 13 councilors, no one was saying they planned to vote against the legislation. Most of the time was spent haggling around the specifics of the language, and whether the mayor chosen in November should be sworn in right away.

The norm is for the end of the term to come at the start of January, with the new mayor being sworn in with the new year. But charter provisions for when there’s a vacancy in different circumstances call for the mayor to begin as soon as possible, which likely would be around mid November.

Arroyo originally wrote the proposal such that the acting mayor would serve out the year, and he tried to stick with that until the end of the meeting when it was clear most people disagreed. Arroyo’s argument was that there’s no need to rush the transition, and if a city councilor wins the mayorship, an earlier swearing-in will result in a vacancy until the new council is seated in January.

“Does it make sense to force that transition to happen?” Arroyo asked, citing “cascading upheaval” possible.

But most others disagreed, saying they’re already looking at having an unelected acting mayor more limited in powers long enough — there’s no point in holding off further in giving Bostonians a mayor they elected.

“We’ve got a good reason to delay that moment,” councilor Kenzie Bok said, echoing Arroyo’s concerns about the pandemic. “But I don’t think we have a good reason to delay that moment longer than we must.”

Others including Edwards and City Councilors Michael Flaherty, Ed Flynn and Matt O’Malley agreed.

Arroyo eventually relented, saying, “I don’t believe it’s in the best interest of the city, but I do believe it’s what’s in the best interest of building consensus.”

Edwards plans to put the legislation up for a vote this coming Wednesday, Feb. 3.

That’s one day before the U.S. Senate is due to hold a confirmation hearing for Walsh.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3r4Bte9