Boston City Council


The Boston City Council is the legislative branch of government for the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. 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 current unicameral iteration of the council was established in 1909, replacing a bicameral iteration that had been formed in 1822.
The leader of the City Council is the president and is elected each term by the council. A majority of seven or more votes is necessary to elect a councillor as president. When the mayor of Boston is absent from the city, or vacates the office, the City Council president serves as acting mayor. The president leads Council meetings and appoints councillors to committees.

Qualifications

Any person seeking to become a City Councillor in Boston must meet the following requirements:
  • Be at least eighteen years of age
  • Be a registered voter in Massachusetts
  • Be a resident of their district for at least one year when elected
  • Receive 1500 signatures from registered voters for At Large City Councillor
  • Receive 200 signatures from registered voters for District City Councillor

    History

Previous City Council

Prior to 1909, Boston's legislative body was bicameral, with an eight-member Board of Aldermen as well as 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 unicameral 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. In November 1981, Boston voters approved again changing the composition of the council, to 13 members: 9 district representatives and 4 at-large members.

District representation

The 1981 referendum establishing the current 13-member composition of the Council 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 F. McDonough, who opposed district representation, appointed Rosemarie E. 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 Terence P. 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 from 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.

Party affiliation

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, but formerly served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a Republican.

Acting mayors

When the Mayor of Boston is absent from the city, or vacates the office, the City Council president serves as acting mayor. The city charter places some restrictions on an acting mayor's authority: an acting mayor "shall possess the powers of mayor only in matters not admitting of delay, but shall have no power to make permanent appointments." Three presidents of the Boston City Council have served as acting mayors of Boston for extended periods after the Mayor vacated the office:
In June 2021, the city council granted itself the authority to remove its president by a two-thirds majority vote. Should that action occur while a council president is serving as acting mayor, the role of acting mayor would be assigned to the new council president who would be elected by a simple majority of the city council. In 2022, the rule was removed.

Membership milestones

DistrictAreaCouncilorIn office since
District 1Charlestown, East Boston, North EndGabriela Coletta Zapata2022
District 2Chinatown, Downtown, South Boston, South EndEd Flynn2018
District 3DorchesterJohn FitzGerald2024
District 4Mattapan, Dorchester, Roslindale, Jamaica PlainBrian Worrell2022
District 5Hyde Park, Roslindale, MattapanEnrique Pepén2024
District 6Jamaica Plain, West RoxburyBenjamin Weber2024
District 7Roxbury, South End, DorchesterMiniard Culpepper2026
District 8Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway-Kenmore, Mission Hill, West EndSharon Durkan2023
District 9Allston, BrightonLiz Breadon
President		2020
Henry Santana2024
Ruthzee Louijeune2022
Julia Mejia2020
Erin Murphy2022