[Source via Boston Herald By Joe Battenfeld]
Mayor Michelle Wu has a lot of questions to answer about the latest messy ethical imbroglio surrounding a Boston city councilor – her hand-picked stooge overseeing the powerful Ways and Means Committee.
Specifically, what does Wu know about the $342,000 in city financial support and lease funneled to the immigrant support nonprofit where the wife of Councilor Ben Weber works and when did she know it?
The Boston Planning and Development Agency vote to give the funding surfaced this week after the Herald reported that Weber disclosed that the state Ethics Commission had raised concerns about his oversight of a Council budget process that could financially benefit the immigration nonprofit.
The vote was just three days after Weber was appointed chair of the Council’s Ways and Means Committee by Council President Liz Breadon, another Wu acolyte, so the timing of it stinks at the very least.
Wu fought hard to get Weber elected, endorsing him and rallying her troops to back him in his tough 2023 election fight against William King.
“I am deeply honored to have earned the support of Mayor Wu and look forward to partnering with her to implement progressive policies to make Boston a healthier, more equitable city to live in,” Weber said at the time.
After Weber won, Wu helped insert him into the powerful Ways and Means chairman post, the second most sought after position on the council, with some control over the city’s purse strings.
Weber claims there’s no conflict of interest because the International Institute of New England, where his wife Alexandra is chief advancement officer and senior vice president, gets money through a city procurement process and not directly from the City Council.
But as mayor in 2024, Wu fought for and now completely controls the BPDA, which handed out the deal. The agency is under the mayor’s office – it’s no longer the independent authority that it used to be when it was called the BRA.
“I look forward to the work ahead with all our residents to engage with this new Planning Department and shape Boston’s future,” Wu said at the time the BPDA was created.
It’s her board, her agency, her funding. She’s pulling the strings, and the question is did she want to reward Weber by giving his wife’s nonprofit a sweet deal?
Weber also has some influence on the city budget and where the money goes. Recusing himself from the vote on his wife’s nonprofit is not enough. The council is so ethically challenged, how can you have confidence in anything they do?
Clearly there’s an appearance of a conflict here and probably more. It’s a serious matter and can’t be just dismissed as a “smear” campaign, as Weber calls it.
How do you take a position as chair of Ways and Means with a significant impact on the budget, when you know your wife works for an agency that gets major funding from Wu’s office?
It strains credibility to think Wu’s office wasn’t aware of the funding going to Weber’s wife’s nonprofit.
Maybe it’s past time for the U.S. Attorney’s office to renew its look at City Council activities and scandals. The feds went after Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson for relatively small potatoes, so perhaps it could take on the ethical questions surrounding this matter and specifically Wu’s involvement. Wu has some answering to do because her board did it.
It’s another example where the government sadly has become a complete trough at which people feed, whether it’s Reps. Ilhan Omar or Ayanna Pressley or the Boston City Council. Some public officials are getting rich off their taxpayer-funded jobs.
If it hadn’t been for the toothless Ethics Commission, the funding controversy surrounding Weber could have continued without anyone knowing.
But maybe it’s time a law enforcement agency with teeth sinks into this latest chapter on the ethically challenged council.