Just Killing Time

Oof. That was brutal. Even as a way to kill time while waiting for election results, it was dreadful.

The centerpiece was a meandering discussion about the Council’s ongoing effort—on the “City side”—to work with the School Committee to create a Joint Facilities Department, ostensibly to give City Hall more control over school building maintenance.

Such a move requires the assent of the School Committee, which has resisted similar efforts for years. Last week, the Council voted to continue collaborative talks to define what a joint department might look like. At the same meeting, however, it also approved a motion by Councilor Robinson directing the administration to draft a home rule petition to amend state law, namely M.G.L. c. 71 §37M.

If such a move were approved (unlikely), it would “lay the foundation for a future consolidated facilities structure that falls solely within the authority of the City Council.”

I read that vote as a long-shot backstop in case negotiations collapse. The problem is that the petition was drafted in less than a week and immediately placed on last night’s agenda for a vote. The unavoidable message was that the Council was preparing to steamroll the School Committee before negotiations even began.

After roughly 40 minutes of circular debate, the Council voted to hold off on the home rule petition and allow the two sides to meet in hopes of reaching an agreement—in other words, exactly the course of action agreed to a week earlier.

The lone notable sideshow involved Councilor McDonough, who has been abstaining from school-related matters because he is an LPS employee. Last night, he attempted an end run around that recusal by signing up to speak during public comment and voicing opposition to the petition on the grounds that it could lead to privatization of services.

As I understand it, his approach can be permissible: public comment is a limited public forum, and elected officials do not forfeit their First Amendment rights. But it requires clarity—namely, a formal recusal on the record and a clear statement that the speaker is acting as a private citizen. (Also, it kinda has to pass a smell test, no? I have no way of knowing whether Citizen McDonough would have come out on a 9-degree Tuesday night to talk about a doomed home-rule petition. But I think it’s fair to have some reasonable doubts.)

However, Councilor McDonough skipped a step. He simply stood up from his council desk and took the public podium when his name was called. He never formally put his recusal on the record. Councilors Scott and Descoteaux took exception to this move and sought an opinion from Corey Williams, our City Solicitor.

[It’s my duty to note that Solicitor Williams spent his winter growing out a stunning head of hockey hair. He’s slowly but surely morphing from stoic municipal lawyer to a power forward who leads the Eastern Conference in both assists and penalty minutes.]

When pressed for an opinion, Solicitor Williams opined that Councilor McDonough’s move did constitute a violation of law. It remains to be seen whether (a) the opinion is correct, and (b) who, if anyone, will care.

The episode neatly captured the night as a whole: process confusion culminating in a vote that changed nothing.

Moreover, if our goal is to build trust and work with the School Committee, this was a strange way to start.

Until next time, fanatics.