Boston City Council pushes off redistricting vote in light of open-meeting law complaint

The Boston Metropolis Council will wait one other week to vote on redistricting after an open-meeting criticism from South Boston civic organizations pressed paused on the extremely fraught course of.

Metropolis Councilor Liz Breadon, the redistricting chair, mentioned the she had been planning to introduce an amended map and name a vote this week, however as an alternative will plan on doing so subsequent week following the criticism filed Tuesday.

“It could be finest for the council employees and regulation division to arrange an preliminary response to a criticism previous to voting on this matter,” Breadon mentioned in an announcement she learn to the council on Wednesday.

A number of councilors questioned what the purpose was in ready every week, when the criticism received’t be resolved in that point.

“What precisely are we to have occur in every week?” requested Metropolis Councilor Ricardo Arroyo.

Metropolis Councilor Kenzie Bok mentioned she had the identical query, however per authorized recommendation, “The great religion effort is for us to put in writing the preliminary response again” earlier than persevering with.

The criticism in query, first reported Tuesday night within the Herald, alleged three situations of open-meeting regulation points: one on the a public assembly hosted by the NAACP, one other on the Arroyo-Breadon press convention asserting a brand new map and one at a South Boston assembly hosted by Metropolis Council President Ed Flynn.

“The Metropolis Council Redistricting course of so far has been carried out in violation of state legal guidelines and guided by an effort to dilute the facility of our votes,” the coalition, which incorporates the South Boston Ward 6 Democratic Committee, South Boston Residents Affiliation, Martin F. McDonough American Legion Put up, St. Vincent’s Decrease Finish Neighborhood Affiliation and Previous Colony Tenant Affiliation, mentioned in an announcement to the Herald on Tuesday.

Advocates of probably the most not too long ago publicized map grumbled audibly on the delay and, exterior of the chambers, pushed again on these characterizations.

“It is a delay tactic as a result of sure councilors don’t really feel like they’ve the vote,” Vanessa Snow of MassVOTE mentioned.

The redistricting course of has been a extremely argumentative and infrequently personally fraught one which’s additional enflamed an already fractured council. A number of of the councilors have fumed about proposed modifications round Dorchester and South Boston within the map that Breadon’s been utilizing as a place to begin for discussions.

Diane Wilkerson, a former state senator concerned within the map push, mentioned she’d organized the NAACP discussion board and made certain not one of the councilors spoke simply in order that they wouldn’t break open-meetings regulation, which forbids councilors speaking exterior of public conferences when there’s what quantities to a quorum. She waved apart the concept that a press convention might trigger an issue with this, however mentioned the Southie occasion “completely” was a violation.

“And the president convened that assembly,” she mentioned, including that this entire kerfuffle is simply “delaying the inevitable.”