Tania Fernandes Anderson’s responsible plea to fraud and theft in a rest room kickback scheme ought to ship her to jail and the unemployment line – as an alternative she continues to pocket her $120,000 taxpayer funded wage by desperately clinging to her metropolis council seat.
Anderson pleaded responsible Monday to stealing $7,000 in public cash and he or she has promised to resign.
We’re nonetheless ready. She advised reporters outdoors the courthouse she’s going to hold on till late June after the town finances is voted on.
That’s nearly two extra months of accumulating a paycheck funded by the general public. And she or he nonetheless refuses to confess fault.
“Her constituents deserve better than this,” U.S. Lawyer Leah B. Foley stated. “They deserve a city representative who respects the role of public service and does not use the power and position to line her own pockets. Her guilty plea says what she refuses to admit in her media interviews: she broke the law, lied to the public, and used her office for her own personal gain. Ms. Fernandes Anderson leaves a legacy not of a selfless trailblazer, but one of fraud, greed and deceit.”
Again in April, Anderson, 46, a far left Democrat and the primary Muslim elected councilor, stated she would stop after agreeing to a plea cope with the feds that might maintain her in jail for only a 12 months.
She paid a staffer who is expounded to her an enormous bonus after which pocketed greater than half of that by texting her to fulfill her within the toilet to make the transaction.
It was actually soiled cash..
“I will be resigning, it is the right thing to do, in coming days, I will evaluate transition plans and timeline with the District 7 Advisory Council,” she stated again then. “I will do everything possible to make an orderly exit to ensure my constituents’ needs are met.”
Transition plans?
The one transition she ought to make is the one from freedom to a locked jail cell.
As an alternative, she continues to embarrass herself and her Roxbury seat by holding on to her fats paycheck as a result of little question the feds are making her pay again $13,000.
And she or he pretends that is the suitable factor to do for her constituents? Leaving them with a disgraced public consultant to do what? Repair the potholes? Characterize them in metropolis conferences?
Due to the plea, Metropolis Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and Mayor Michelle Wu ought to attempt to drive Anderson out by making use of public strain on her each single day.
She shouldn’t be accumulating a single day’s pay whereas awaiting sentencing in late July.
Her constituents are higher off having no councilor characterize them than a unclean one. She nonetheless has a full workers that may take calls and emails and ensure her district is effectively represented.
It’s a working joke in Metropolis Corridor that almost all metropolis councilors do nothing through the day anyway, together with not exhibiting up for hearings. They solely have to indicate up as soon as per week for a council assembly and will maintain down a second job.
Day by day that Anderson stays on the job is one other day the place her seat is tainted. She shouldn’t be voting on something – not to mention an vital metropolis finances.
From her feedback on Monday, it’s clear she nonetheless doesn’t get it, occurring about God and racism and the way different councilors have been “pushed” to name for her resignation..
“Maybe you guys wouldn’t have been so kind to Councilor Louijeune if she didn’t say anything, right, because she is Black, because she is the Council president,” Anderson stated.. “Maybe you wouldn’t have been so kind. You would have pushed her, or said she wasn’t a good leader, or something like that. You know how the world is harsher.”
By no means thoughts the maybes, one factor is for certain: Fernandes Anderson must resign.
