Matt O’Malley begins to preside over Boston City Council as Kim Janey becomes acting mayor

Kim Janey’s ascension to acting mayor has a trickle-down effect: City Councilor Matt O’Malley is now presiding over the council.

O’Malley, the district councilor from West Roxbury, told the Herald he’s delighted to take up this “awesome responsibility” as the presiding officer, technically the president pro tempore.

“The best thing that I can do and ought to be focused on is just Boston’s recovery,” O’Malley said Wednesday. “My role is making sure the council is best equipped to handle this great task before us.”

He said the job of a council president is to “set the right tone” as to how things get done. O’Malley is known for his cheerful adherence to the nitty-gritty of council formalities.

The details of the domino effect created by the departure of the mayor get very dense very quickly. Janey remains the city council president; the acting mayorship is an extension of that job when the elected mayor leaves, as Labor Secretary Martin Walsh did at 9 p.m. Monday. And she remains the District 7 city councilor, but will be a “non-participating member” of the council — meaning she won’t attend meetings, which is how then-Council President Thomas Menino handled the situation when he was acting mayor 28 years ago.

So O’Malley, who was chosen as city council president pro tempore at the start of the council term in January 2020, now acts as president, and the council on Wednesday cemented his role as the presiding officer with a rule change on Wednesday.

O’Malley last year announced that he plans to retire from the council at the end of the term when this year wraps up.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3rfu8br