Boston City Council gives itself ability to strip Kim Janey’s power

The Boston City Council is flexing its political muscle, giving itself the authority to strip Acting Mayor Kim Janey of her power.

The council by a 10-1 vote Wednesday approved a change in its own rules that would enable the body to remove its president by a two-thirds vote.

The council isn’t enacting that rule — merely creating it.

City Councilor Lydia Edwards, who proposed the rule change, said it’s about the power “to choose when we no longer want those leaders to lead us.”

She said that because the president is elected by the council, “We, therefore, are the only body that can hold the city council president accountable. And as the president’s power grows, so must the president’s accountability.”

The move has wide-ranging implications. Janey remains the city council president — a fact that’s at the root of her power as acting mayor. According to the charter, the acting mayorship is an extension of the duties of a council president.

Which means, therefore, that if she were to stop being council president, she wouldn’t be acting mayor anymore, Edwards said.

Janey, who became acting mayor when Martin Walsh left to become Labor secretary, is running for a full elected term. Three of the sitting councilors are also running for the position: Andrea Campbell, Annissa Essaibi-George and Michelle Wu. All three voted in favor of Edwards’ change.

City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, an ally of the acting mayor’s, was the only vote against the change. City Councilor Julia Mejia voted “present.” Janey herself technically remains the city councilor from Roxbury, but ever since she became acting mayor, she has been an inactive member of the council, following past acting mayors’ precedents.

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