Tania Fernandes Anderson is a pariah within the metropolis.
It doesn’t matter what she says, the District 7 councilor has modified her mobile phone quantity and refuses to confess she cheated taxpayers by allegedly stealing from them. (It’s nonetheless an alleged crime since she hasn’t totally admitted in court docket to a kickback scheme. That listening to is about for Could 5.)
Town’s personal payroll data present she earned $114,557.77 final 12 months. That was all paid by the residents of Boston with the expectation she’d earn that pay actually. Now, her workers members don’t have job safety and constituents should discover a substitute.
A federal indictment states that Fernandes Anderson doled out a $13,000 bonus to one in every of her Metropolis Council workers members, a relative however not fast member of the family, on the situation that $7,000 be kicked again to her. The handoff was coordinated by textual content and occurred in a Metropolis Corridor toilet in June 2023, the feds mentioned.
On Thursday, as Boston politicians gathered to have fun the groundbreaking for the FieldHouse+ being constructed by the Boys & Ladies Membership of Dorchester in reminiscence of Boston Marathon bombing sufferer Martin Richard, 8, not a phrase was spoken in regards to the District 7 councilor. Her identify was not uttered. Not even as soon as.
That may have solid a cloud over the solemn occasion and this was the place to be within the metropolis. It appeared as if each Boston politician pitched in for this challenge and talking her identify would have ruined the day.
That truth alone reveals simply how deeply Tania Fernandes Anderson has betrayed Boston. Hopefully, for the final time.
Galvin appoints acquainted face to supervise Boston Elections Division after poll mess
Secretary of State William Galvin appointed the previous director of the state workplace of Marketing campaign and Political Finance to supervise the Boston Elections Division as a part of the receivership that resulted from final fall’s widespread poll shortages.
Galvin has appointed Michael Sullivan, who retired his roughly 25-year put up as head of the OCPF in 2019 and beforehand labored as the town clerk in Newburyport, because the “designee” overseeing the town’s Elections Division, Mayor Michelle Wu mentioned in a letter to councilors final week.
“We look forward to working with Mr. Sullivan, given his experience and expertise, along with other staff from the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Election Division,” Wu wrote.
Galvin in February ordered the Boston Elections Division to overtake its practices and adjust to state election legal guidelines.
Residents had been left ready in lengthy strains, and in some circumstances, compelled to go away with out casting a vote, after the town failed to provide sufficient state-issued ballots at a number of polling stations, throughout final fall’s presidential and state election.
Wu’s letter touches on the directives the town is working to adjust to, because of the investigation that led to state oversight and Sullivan’s appointment.
It additionally mentions that the Elections Division has been moved from reporting to the Regulation Division and “now sits under the city’s People Operations and Administration Cabinet, where it has direct organizational support and management from the Commissioner of City Records, Paul Chong.”
Town employed a course of enchancment supervisor devoted to the Elections Division by repurposing an current function, and The Elections Group, a nationally-recognized non-partisan consulting agency to supply the town with on-the-ground assist and short-term suggestions that may be carried out over the subsequent few months, the mayor wrote.
Wu’s letter doesn’t state how a lot it’s costing the town to overtake its election practices, as ordered by the Secretary of State’s workplace. The mayor’s workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark searching for that info.
A previous letter the mayor submitted to the Council for her proposed $4.8 billion metropolis price range for fiscal 12 months 2026 states that it consists of investments within the Elections Division “to help implement necessary operational reforms and improvements.”
No numbers are listed, however the mayor’s proposed spending plan reveals a 14.32% enhance within the Elections Division price range. The FY25 price range for that division was $6.4 million, and is proposed at $7.3 million for the subsequent fiscal 12 months.
