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Amid calls for Fernandes Anderson to resign, her colleagues’ hands are tied
A city lawyer told the City Council president this week that the body could not force Fernandes Anderson out, even after she pleaded guilty to corruption charges.
More than a week after pleading guilty to federal public corruption charges, Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson remains a member of the body. She plans to resign, but the timing remains unclear.
In the meantime, two councilors are urging their colleagues to “formally address” the matter of Fernandes Anderson’s continued service through a non-binding resolution. But they cannot force her resignation at this time, and neither can Council President Ruthzee Louijeune.
Louijeune asked the city’s corporation counsel, Adam Cederbaum, this week to interpret council rules relating to the situation. Cederbaum affirmed that councilors cannot remove Fernandes Anderson from office before she is sentenced to prison.
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Fernandes Anderson is scheduled to be sentenced on July 29. Federal prosecutors recommended a sentence of one year and a day, but whether Fernandes Anderson will serve prison time is yet to be determined.
She represents District 7, which includes Roxbury, Dorchester, Fenway, and part of the South End.
Fernandes Anderson was removed from all of her council committee positions by Louijeune. She has participated in most of the weekly City Council meetings in recent months but skipped last week’s meeting due to a “family emergency.” Councilors are currently working through the annual budget process, and Fernandes Anderson has indicated that she would prefer to wait until after this process ends to officially resign.
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The calls for Fernandes Anderson’s resignation are growing louder, but they have been pronounced ever since her arrest in December. Prosecutors accused her of orchestrating a kickback scheme that involved a family member who she hired as a staffer.
They say that Fernandes Anderson, facing financial difficulties, arranged to give the staffer a hefty bonus with the understanding that much of it would be given back to the councilor. Eventually, the staffer handed off $7,000 in cash to Fernandes Anderson in a City Hall bathroom, according to prosecutors.
Multiple elected officials, including Mayor Michelle Wu and Louijeune, have urged Fernandes Anderson to resign. Two of the loudest voices on this issue are Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy. The two were involved in a debate with Louijeune last month over whether to hold a special election to replace Fernandes Anderson, and they are the ones who filed the non-binding resolution calling for formal action this week.
Flynn and Murphy actually tried to introduce the measure during last week’s meeting. But Councilor Julia Mejia blocked it from being taken up, citing Fernandes Anderson’s absence. Flynn and Murphy’s resolution is on the agenda for this Wednesday’s meeting.
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Murphy did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
“The Boston City Council must demonstrate that we are taking steps to regain public trust with Boston residents that was lost through a series of ethical challenges and legal lapses over the last several years. Integrity, accountability, and responsibility must be a top priority for all city councilors. This process begins with ethics reform, accountability, transparency, work ethic, and positive leadership,” Flynn said in a statement to Boston.com.
On social media, Flynn accused his colleagues of looking to block a vote on Wednesday.
His post came in response to the correspondence between Louijeune and Cederbaum. An existing rule mandates that if a City Council member is convicted of a felony, the council president must officially refer the matter to the council. Any action taken by councilors in response to that referral requires a two-thirds majority vote.
Louijeune sought information on how this rule should be interpreted in the wake of a 2012 Supreme Judicial Court decision involving former Councilor Chuck Turner.
In 2010, Turner was found guilty of accepting a bribe and lying about it to FBI agents. He was set to be sentenced to prison in January 2011 and thus removed from office. But Turner’s colleagues did not wait and overwhelmingly voted to remove him from the City Council.
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Turner sued the city, and eventually the state’s highest court ruled that the City Council did not have the authority to remove him from office before his sentencing. Cederbaum told Louijeune that this also applies to Fernandes Anderson.
Fernandes Anderson is not the first councilor to find herself in legal trouble or be accused of ethical lapses in recent years. Unrelated controversies surrounding former councilors Ricardo Arroyo and Kendra Lara derailed their careers in 2023.
Since then, Flynn has been an outspoken advocate for ethics reform on the council. In January, he tried and failed to marshal support for the creation of an ethics committee made up of council members. More recently, Flynn led a push to establish a new oversight committee that would include outside parties to monitor possible ethics concerns and rules violations.
“I will continue to encourage my council colleagues to support a comprehensive ethics reform package – including having all Councilors release state and federal tax returns for the last five years, and releasing the Statement of Financial Interest Form,” Flynn said. “Moreover, it is critical that the Council works closely with the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission to provide enhanced training for Council candidates and current staff.”
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