Boston City Council


The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is made up of 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. Councillors are elected to two-year terms and there is no limit on the number of terms an individual can serve. Boston uses a strong-mayor form of government in which the city council acts as a check against the power of the executive branch, the mayor. The Council is responsible for approving the city budget; monitoring, creating, and abolishing city agencies; making land use decisions; and approving, amending, or rejecting other legislative proposals.
The leader of the City Council is the president and is elected each year by the Council. A majority vote is necessary to elect a councillor to president. When the Mayor of Boston travels out of state or is removed from office, the City Council president serves as acting mayor. The president leads Council meetings and appoints councillors to committees.

History

Prior to 1909, Boston's legislative body consisted of an eight-member Board of Aldermen and a Common Council made up of three representatives from each of the 25 wards in the city. When the Boston City Charter was rewritten in 1909, the Board of Aldermen and the Common Council were replaced by a nine-member City Council. All nine councillors were elected at-large for terms lasting two years. The new charter also gave the Mayor the power to veto all acts of the City Council. The first council meeting as a unicameral body occurred on February 7, 1910.
The procedure for electing city councillors was changed by Chapter 479 of the Acts of 1924, which provided for the election of 22 city councillors, one from each ward, beginning with the biennial election in 1925. The procedure was changed again by Chapter 356 of the Acts of 1951, which provided for the election of nine city councillors, all at large, for two-year terms.

Districts and current council

By law, Boston municipal elections are nonpartisan in that candidates do not represent a specific political party. However, most city councillors have been members of the Democratic Party. John W. Sears was the first Republican elected to the Boston City Council, in 1980. Chuck Turner, who served during 1999–2010, was a member of the Green-Rainbow Party. Althea Garrison, who served during 2019, has identified as an independent since 2012.

Committees

, the City Council has the following committees:
; Standing committees
;Special committees
The salary for councillors is half of the mayor's salary. Every four years, the Council votes on whether or not to raise the mayor's salary, thereby also raising its own salaries or not.
In June 2018, the Council voted to increase the salary of the mayor from $199,000 to $207,000, effective after the mayoral election of November 2021 ; this increased the salary of councillors to $103,500, effective after the council elections of November 2019.
YearSalaryRef.
1980$20,000
1981–1986$32,500
1987–1994$45,000
1995–1998$54,500
1999–2002$62,500
2003–2006$75,000
2006–2015$87,500
2016–2019$99,500
2020–present$103,500

District representation

In November 1981, Boston voters approved again changing the composition of the Council, to 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members. However, the referendum did not indicate how the district lines would be drawn, only that the districts be of approximately equal population and district lines not cut across city precincts.
The Council created a districting committee to propose several different possible district maps and hold public hearings before presenting one plan to the Council to approve. State law required the City Council to make a final decision on the districts within 90 days of being notified that the referendum had officially passed, meaning that the Council voting on the districts would be the 1982 Council, not the 1981 Council creating them. Then-president Patrick McDonough, who opposed district representation, appointed Rosemary Sansone, a major advocate of district representation, as chair of the districting committee, but chose Frederick C. Langone, Dapper O'Neil, and John W. Sears as the other three members, all of whom opposed district representation. Both Langone and O'Neil would be returning to the Council in 1982, but Sansone did not run for re-election in 1981 and would not be able to vote on the district boundaries if the committee did not work quickly to present a plan to the Council before the end of the year. Public hearings over possible district boundaries were full of heated debate between advocates of drawing lines to protect neighborhood unity and advocates of drawing lines to create two predominantly minority districts and give minorities a voice in local government. Contention centered around Dorchester and the South End. Dorchester, Boston's largest neighborhood, needed to be split into at least two districts. A simple split in half would create either a north and a south district or an east and a west district. An east district would be largely White and a west district would be largely African-American. North and south districts would have less extreme majorities. Many residents were opposed to both divisions, stating that they would increase racial segregation in Dorchester and continue the political powerlessness of minorities. A more complicated split taking into account areas with large minority populations would create one predominantly minority district and one predominantly white district but treat Dorchester as several smaller neighborhoods to be divvied up among surrounding neighborhoods rather than as one community. In various proposals, the South End, due to its location, was grouped with either South Boston or Back Bay/Beacon Hill by advocates of neighborhood unity, or Roxbury by advocates of minority-dominated districts.
Two days before the 90-day deadline, freshman councillor Terrence McDermott, who had been appointed as Sansone's replacement for chair of the districting committee, presented a plan to the Council which was approved 7–2. Today's district boundaries are only slightly different than those adopted in 1982, with the South End and South Boston forming one district, and Dorchester roughly split into an east and a west district. The Council faced more challenges after finalizing the new districts, such as whether or not district councillors should receive a lower salary than at-large councillors and where office space for four additional councillors could be found in City Hall.

Presidents

denotes different instances of a councillor serving as president
YearName
1910Walter Ballantyne
1911Daniel J. McDonald
1912John J. Attridge
1913Thomas J. Kenny
1914Daniel J. McDonald
1915George E. Coleman
1916Henry E. Hagan
1917James J. Storrow
1918Wavier L. Collins
1919Francis J. W. Ford
1920James T. Moriarty
1921James W. Watson
1922David J. Buckley
1923Daniel W. Lane
1924John A. Donoghue
1925James T. Moriarty
1926Charles G. Keene
1927John J. Heffernan
1928Thomas H. Green
1929Timothy F. Donovan
1930William G. Lynch
1931Joseph McGrath
1932Edward M. Gallagher
1933Joseph McGrath
1934John F. Dowd

YearName
1935–1937John I. Fitzgerald
1938John E. Kerrigan
1939George A. Murray
1940–1941William J. Galvin
1942Thomas E. Linehan
1943Thomas J. Hannon
1944–1945John E. Kerrigan
1946–1947John B. Kelly
1948Thomas J. Hannon
1949–1951William F. Hurley
1952Gabriel F. Piemonte
1953Francis X. Ahearn
1954Joseph C. White
1955William F. Hurley
1956Edward J. McCormack, Sr.
1957William J. Foley, Jr.
1958Patrick F. McDonough
1959–1960Edward F. McLaughlin, Jr.
1961Patrick F. McDonough
1962Christopher A. Iannella
1963Peter F. Hines
1964–1965John J. Tierney
1966Frederick C. Langone
1967Barry T. Hynes
1968William J. Foley, Jr.

YearName
1969Gerald O'Leary
1970–1972Gabriel F. Piemonte
1973Patrick F. McDonough
1974–1975Gerald O'Leary
1976Louise Day Hicks
1977Joseph M. Tierney
1978Lawrence DiCara
1979Joseph M. Tierney
1980Christopher A. Iannella
1981Patrick F. McDonough
1982Christopher A. Iannella
1983–1985Joseph M. Tierney
1986–1987Bruce Bolling
1988–1992Christopher A. Iannella
1992Dapper O'Neil
1993Thomas Menino
1994–2000James M. Kelly
2001Charles Yancey
2002–2006Michael F. Flaherty
2007–2008Maureen Feeney
2009–2010Michael P. Ross
2011–2013Stephen J. Murphy
2014–2015Bill Linehan
2016–2017Michelle Wu
2018–2019Andrea Campbell
2020–presentKim Janey

Public records of Boston City Council