Politics

A timeline of recent Boston City Council controversies

Members of the Boston City Council have faced allegations, investigations, and charges over the past year.

Boston City Hall. Charles Krupa / AP

July 31, 2023

4 minutes to read

Over the past year, members of the Boston City Council have dealt with a variety of controversies. Voters will make their voices heard this fall, with councilors up for reelection. In the meantime, the timeline below can be used to keep track of the various issues and where they stand as of late July.

Aug. 23, 2022. News breaks in The Boston Globe that Councilor Ricardo Arroyo was twice accused of sexual assault. In 2005, a 17-year-old girl said Arroyo, then 18 and a classmate of hers, pressured her to perform sexual acts on several occasions over the course of four to six months. In 2007, a 16-year-old girl told police that she thought she had been sexually assaulted by Arroyo, then 19. Arroyo vehemently denied both claims, and police investigations into both matters never led to criminal charges.

Aug. 24, 2022. Brigite Melo-Cronin, an attorney who said she represents one of the women who was allegedly assaulted, reads a statement at a press conference that said her client was not assaulted by Arroyo and blamed Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden for “disgusting tactics.” Arroyo was running against Hayden for the position at the time. Arroyo said he would not resign and would not drop out of the campaign.

Aug. 30, 2022. The woman who accused Arroyo of sexual assault in the 2005 case tells the Globe that she was afraid of him then and did not want to see him win the race against Hayden. “As the potential DA, women are not going to feel safe calling his office,” she told the paper.

Sept. 2, 2022. Arroyo’s campaign releases documents that show investigators in the 2005 case determined the matter to be “unfounded.”

Then-Sufflok County District Attorney candidate Ricardo Arroyo voted at the Franklin D. Roosevelt School in Hyde Park, on Sept. 6, 2022. – Jonathan Wiggs / The Boston Globe

Nov. 2, 2022. During a debate regarding the redistricting process, Councilor Frank Baker says he has heard from Catholic constituents who see the process as “an all-out assault on Catholic life in Boston,” GBH reported. “And it’s not lost on them that the person that’s leading the charge is a Protestant from Fermanagh,” Baker continued. Councilor Liz Breadon is a Protestant from rural Fermanagh, Ireland. Breadon called Baker’s remarks an “absolute disgrace,” and Baker later apologized, The Irish News reported.

May 16, 2023. Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins announces that she will resign following a federal ethics probe. According to two federal watchdog reports released later in the week, Rollins committed “extraordinary” abuses of power, including meddling in the Suffolk County district attorney race on behalf of Arroyo. In the midst of the sexual assault allegations coming to light, Arroyo told Rollins that the announcement of an investigation into Hayden “[w]ould be the best thing I can have happen at this moment.” Rollins allegedly provided negative information about Hayden to the Globe, tried to convince a subordinate to issue a letter that would have created the impression of a DOJ investigation into Hayden, then disclosed sensitive DOJ information directly to a Boston Herald reporter before the primary.

May 19, 2023. Facing calls to step down regarding his involvement in the Rollins scandal, Arroyo says, “I’ve done nothing wrong, and so, I’m absolutely not resigning.”

June 27, 2023. The State Ethics Commission says Arroyo admitted to violating conflict of interest law. Arroyo’s brother ran for mayor in 2013 before joining Marty Walsh’s administration. He faced sexual harassment allegations in 2017, and Arroyo appeared as an attorney on behalf of his brother before becoming a city councilor in January 2020. Arroyo did not withdraw from the case and continued to participate as an attorney after being sworn in, according to the Ethics Commission.

June 28, 2023. In the wake of an emergency call to a Boston Housing Authority apartment that prompted “house of horrors” reports, Councilor Kendra Lara accuses several other councilors of spreading “unsubstantiated stories” and stoking “homophobic and transphobic rhetoric.”

June 30, 2023. Lara crashes a car into a Jamaica Plain home with her son in the backseat. Police say Lara was driving more than double the speed limit. She was allegedly driving an uninsured, unregistered car with a revoked license when she crashed. She tells police she was forced to swerve to avoid another car that was pulling away from a curb. Her son received stitches for a cut above his eyebrow at a local hospital.

July 14, 2023. In response to a records request from the Globe for camera footage of the executive garage, city officials say Lara “regularly” drove the car involved in the crash to work. It is reported that she did not have a valid driver’s license during this time.

July 19, 2023. Lara appears in court, where a judge rules that she will be charged with operating negligently so as to endanger and recklessly permitting bodily injury to a child under 14. She had already been facing a charge of driving a car with a suspended license. Lara speaks with reporters outside the courthouse, saying, “There are often circumstances that prevent good people from checking off all of their boxes.”

Boston City Councilor Kendra Lara leaves West Roxbury District Court after her arraignment on July 19, 2023. – John Tlumacki / The Boston Globe

July 23, 2023. Councilor Michael Flaherty calls on Lara to resign, telling NBC10 Boston that Lara’s “behavior is one of a habitual scofflaw… To go 10 years without a license isn’t a mistake; it’s the middle finger, frankly.” Lara still plans to run for reelection.

July 25, 2023. News breaks that Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson admitted to violating conflict of interest law by hiring her sister and her son to paid positions on her staff, according to the State Ethics Commission. Fernandes Anderson admitted to the conduct in a signed disposition agreement and agreed to pay a $5,000 civil penalty. She participated in votes to confirm these family members, and then raised their salaries soon afterward, violating the law.