Team Unity propels Feeney to City Council President

Howard Manly

One thing is clear about outgoing City Council President Michael Flaherty — he can count.

By Saturday night, Flaherty knew he didn’t have enough votes to continue his reign as president. And that’s when the telephone call was made to City Councilor Maureen Feeney.

It was a concession meeting of sorts, but underneath the political arithmetic was a signal that Team Unity, the four city councilors of color, would play a significant role in deciding the council’s new leadership.

Councilors Charles Yancey of Dorchester and Chuck Turner of Roxbury and Councilors at Large Felix Arroyo and Sam Yoon all decided to vote together to represent the interests of communities of color.

Make no mistake about it: the election of Feeney was clearly a vote against Flaherty.

“Flaherty was not very cooperative or supportive of issues raised by Team Unity,” said Yancey, who ticked off what he called several instances of Flaherty’s “arbitrary and capricious” use of council presidential discretion that muffled rigorous debate on issues important particularly to Turner and Yancey.

Beyond what Yancey described as unfair use of the presidential gavel, Yancey said that Flaherty “lacked real leadership skills” and was always willing to “play second fiddle” to Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Not so with Feeney. She unsuccessfully ran against Menino two years ago and prides herself on independence as well as fairness.

Feeney’s victory was a unanimous decision by the 13-member City Council, a vote that makes her only the second woman to lead the body. The first was Louise Day Hicks, the infamous politician from South Boston.

“It is an honor and privilege to lead the Boston City Council,” Feeney said. “I very much look forward to working with my colleagues and Mayor Menino to make continued improvements to the quality of life for all residents of the city of Boston.”

Feeney has served on the council since 1993 and identified public safety and education as critical issues that the council will focus on under her leadership. Close observers said they expect her to make committee appointments later this month. City Councilor John Tobin was elected City Council Vice President.

“In 2007, we must find creative and effective ways to stop the rising violence in many of our neighborhoods and to better serve our city’s children with improvements to public education,” she said.

Turner is looking forward to working with Feeney. “She has said that her agenda is to make sure that all councilors are given opportunities and strength to work on their issues in their districts,” he said. “She also said that she would focus on fairness.”

The significance of Feeney’s election was not lost on Turner. “Team Unity has worked together since 2003 on several different issues,” he said. “But this is the clearest demonstration of the value of working together as a bloc. Without that, it would have been more of a question on the future leadership of the council.”