‘STAND UP AND TAKE A VOTE’
Councilor ducks out amid attendance scrutiny
A Boston city councilor with a record of ducking key public safety votes and overseeing a budget last year that sought to cut millions from the police department left the room this week to avoid voting on four police contract funding requests.
Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson was present for the Wednesday City Council meeting, but was noticeably absent from a slew of votes that largely centered around approving funding for a $22.2 million five-year contract the city and a police union representing detectives agreed to last month.
Her absence was particularly notable given the recent scrutiny around Fernandes Anderson’s tendency to miss key public safety votes, following her call last week, later withdrawn, for attendance to be considered as a key metric for assessing the performance of councilors, while minutes reviewed by the Herald show she has missed more meetings than her colleagues since taking office in January 2022.
All 12 other councilors were present for the votes.
“She’s making $115,000 a year,” Michael McCormack, an attorney who served five terms on the City Council, said. “You’ve been paid to stand up and take a vote, period. Whether you’re in favor, or you’re against, show your colors and stand up, and don’t walk out and sneak out. Take a vote.”
McCormack said he would be interested to learn why Fernandes Anderson, who represents a district that has statistically some of the highest crime rates in the city and did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment, would be voting against or skipping votes pertaining to police.
Fernandes Anderson represents District 7, which largely consists of Roxbury, and encompasses parts of Dorchester, Fenway and the South End. The city released data, compiled by the Boston Police Department last spring, that showed gun violence was highly concentrated in the neighborhoods of Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan and Roxbury.
“I can’t imagine her constituents who are going through the cycle of crime that they are, aren’t looking for help,” McCormack said. “They’re not looking for someone who walks out when a key vote is taking place.”
“Anyone can take an easy vote,” he added. “It’s the tough votes that count.”
Louis Elisa, president of Roxbury’s Garrison Trotter Neighborhood Association, defended Fernandes Anderson, saying her missed votes aren’t confusing to him, as one of her constituents, as to where she stands on public safety in her district.
“Every conversation I’ve had with her around public safety and support for public safety, she’s been positive,” Elisa, a former regional director with the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Clinton administration, said, while pointing to issues his civic group has raised around street patrols, police response times and speeding cars.
All councilors could stand to be more present at meetings for hot-button issues, Elisa said, noting that he saw several walk out during a community session on White Stadium — he was among the plaintiffs seeking an injunction to stop the city’s plans for the project, which was thrown out by a judge — and “very few” have participated in those involving the Shattuck Hospital redevelopment proposal.
“We want councilors to do their due diligence on all the issues,” Elisa said.
Larry DiCara, an attorney and former city council president, said that while Fernandes Anderson has “no moral or legal obligation to vote in favor” of public safety funding requests, he would assume that “people in District 7 want to know what her position is.”
“That’s what democracy is all about,” DiCara said. “People are elected to vote.”
Elected officials have been “taking a walk for a long time” to avoid voting on certain matters, DiCara said, but if “this is a pattern” for the councilor on this issue, she should be expected to provide a response.
Meeting minutes show that three of four absences logged in 2023 by Fernandes Anderson — who oversaw a budget process last fiscal year that sought to cut $31 million from the Boston Police Department — occurred on days when the Council took big votes on public safety.
She was absent on Sept. 13, when councilors voted to reject three $850,000 grants for the Boston Police Intelligence Center, and again on Oct. 4, when four grants totaling $3.4 million were approved for the police department’s intelligence arm, over concerns the other councilors of color raised about the BRIC’s gang database.
Fernandes Anderson indicated in an Oct. 5 post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that after reviewing the meeting video, she would have voted against the BRIC funding as well, saying that her absence was due to a stomach virus.
She was also absent on Dec. 13, when the council voted 12-0 to approve a new five-year contract for the city’s largest police union that largely mirrors the detectives’ contract she skipped voting on this week, and 6-6 to block a $13 million counter-terrorism grant for the metro Boston region.
Fernandes Anderson was present, however, and voted in favor of the federal counter-terrorism grant when, after a firestorm of criticism, it came before and was passed by the body, 11-0-2, this term, on Jan. 31, 2024.
Four of the six consecutive votes Fernandes Anderson missed this week were for the police detectives’ contract, which includes raises and reforms. Two of the votes were 12-0, the other two were 11-01, with Councilor Julia Mejia voting “present” or abstaining over stated concerns with “central booking.”
Council rules dictate that members must vote in the affirmative, negative or respond “present,” when a question is put, “unless the council has for special reason excused that member from voting.” City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune did not respond when asked whether Fernandes Anderson was excused from the six votes.
“People elect their city councilors and give them the privilege of voting on matters for them, as taxpayers and voters,” a City Hall source said, “but if you are not even doing the bare minimum of showing up or worse ducking votes, then being an elected official probably isn’t the right fit.”