Boston Metropolis Council set to debate removing of disgraced Tania Fernandes Anderson

The Boston Metropolis Council will take up a decision this week that requires disgraced Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson’s removing from the physique within the wake of her responsible plea to 2 federal corruption fees tied to a Metropolis Corridor kickback scheme.

Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn plan to introduce a non-binding decision at Wednesday’s assembly that requires the Council to “formally address the matter of Fernandes Anderson’s continued service,” after her federal conviction final week.

Murphy and Flynn sought to introduce the measure as a late file eventually week’s assembly, however it was blocked by Councilor Julia Mejia, an occasional ally of Fernandes Anderson, stopping it from being added to the agenda for doable motion. This week, it’s a part of common enterprise that’s up for dialogue.

“The residents want to know where we stand on it,” Murphy stated after the decision was blocked final week. “This would have been an opportunity to go on the record of where we stand on this behavior that is unacceptable.”

Flynn stated Monday that the Council has “lost the moral high ground needed during this critical time.” He stated “comprehensive ethics reform” is required for the physique to “regain some credibility” with metropolis residents.

Mejia stated final week that she objected to the late-file measure as a result of Fernandes Anderson, who represents Roxbury-centric District 7 and cited a “family emergency” in an absence letter, was not current for the dialogue. Fernandes Anderson, like the opposite 12 councilors, is paid a $120,000 wage.

“I decided to speak against it because not all individuals are in this chamber, and we’re talking about something that’s in reference to a colleague,” Mejia stated on the time. “Out of respect for that process, I think that’s a conversation that either needs to go to a hearing or we need to have it while all councilors are present.”

Fernandes Anderson, who had pled responsible to, and was due to this fact convicted on, two federal corruption fees two days prior, was the one councilor not current for final Wednesday’s assembly. The costs are tied to a $7,000 kickback scheme Fernandes Anderson carried out at Metropolis Corridor in June 2023, per the indictment.

Shortly after coming into her plea, Fernandes Anderson advised reporters exterior the Boston federal courthouse that she meant to formally resign subsequent month after the Metropolis Council funds course of, which usually wraps with a vote in late June.

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune filed a communication for this week’s assembly that sought steerage on a procedural Metropolis Council rule that was used up to now to take away a councilor convicted of federal felony fees.

“Rule 40A of the Boston City Council rules states that ‘[t]he council president shall automatically refer a matter to the council upon a felony conviction of any member by the state or federal court,’” Louijeune wrote to Metropolis Clerk Alex Geourntas on Monday.

“Given that this rule preceded the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Turner v. City of Boston, 462 Mass. 511 (2012), which states the City Council does not have the authority under the city charter or any state law to remove a member from the body, I asked the city’s corporation counsel for their interpretation of the rule.”

Louijeune’s letter was referencing Chuck Turner, the final Boston metropolis councilor investigated by the feds. Turner was convicted in October 2010 by a federal jury, following a 12-day trial, and sentenced to 3 years in jail for pocketing a $1,000 bribe from an informant who claimed to be looking for a liquor license.

Turner sued town for $350,000 after being booted off the Metropolis Council in 2010 following the conviction, and settled for $106,000 three years later, after the courts dominated that the Council violated its personal guidelines as a result of underneath state legislation, elected officers can solely be faraway from the physique after sentencing, not conviction.

Adam Cederbaum, town’s company counsel, wrote in a letter to Louijeune that the Supreme Judicial Courtroom held that “Rule 40A was procedural only, and created no substantive authority to remove a councilor.”

“Further, the court noted, the Legislature has specified that an individual holding public office is ‘automatically removed from office only when he or she is sentenced to prison on a felony conviction,’” Cederbaum wrote.

On this occasion, Fernandes Anderson pleaded responsible to 2 of six corruption fees that had been leveled in opposition to her in a December 2024 federal indictment, as a part of a plea take care of the U.S. Lawyer’s workplace that dismissed the opposite 4 fees and noticed the councilor waive her proper to a jury trial.

U.S. District Courtroom Choose Indira Talwani scheduled Fernandes Anderson’s sentencing for July 29, and final week warned the councilor that she might decide to impose a harsher penalty than what prosecutors really helpful within the plea plea deal.

U.S. Lawyer Leah Foley really helpful that the second-term councilor be sentenced to a 12 months and a day in jail, and ordered to pay $13,000 in restitution.

“As in the Turner case, the relevant statutes and case law … do not permit the City Council to remove Councilor Fernandes Anderson from the Council prior to her being sentenced to prison, which, as of the date of this memorandum, has not occurred,” Cederbaum wrote. “However, the Council may take other administrative action, such as removal from committees, as happened without issue in the Turner case.”

Fernandes Anderson was faraway from all Council committees by Louijeune after her plea deal turned public in federal court docket filings in early April.

Whether or not the Council president’s Rule 40A referral to the Council will necessitate additional motion by the physique was unclear. Louijeune didn’t reply to the Herald’s requests for touch upon Monday.