GREEN SHEETS: Preview of 2/11/26 Boston City Council Meeting
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GREEN SHEETS: Preview of 2/11/26 Boston City Council MeetingAgenda has 50 dockets; Coletta Zapata calls for fewer night flights at Logan; Council rules fight continues; Clrs want wants hearings on Vision Zero, MassCore, OPAT, fair housing, & MORE
The rush of dockets that marks the start of a Council term is slowing down, and this week has the fewest items on the agenda. It isn’t just Councilors running out of dockets to refile: there were just 2 mayoral communications, 2 reports from public officers & others, and just 25 “motions, orders, and resolutions” from Councilors. Another reason for the lack of dockets: The Council is also now starting to schedule committee meetings. There were 3 this week, and looking at public notices, it is clear that calendars are circulating to plan more.
One of these meetings - Thursday morning’s Ways & Means Committee hearing - is the subject of Docket #0323, a complaint in this week’s agenda. That’s because a committee meetings like that one, while technically open to the public, are not recorded or televised. That means under the current Council rules, in order to know exactly what was said, and who said it, you have to be in the room. There is still a lot of interesting dockets that will make news and drive policy action this week and into the future:
In this preview there will be the docket number, along with the page numbers and a short description of the docket. You can follow along in the agenda packet: First up is “COMMUNICATIONS FROM HER HONOR, THE MAYOR,” which are items being sent to the Council by the Mayor that will see follow-up hearings before being voted on by the Council. Docket #0320 & #0321 (p. 7-10) are two grants - $577k & $140k - for port security grants. Next up is “REPORTS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS AND OTHERS,” which are items the Council is being informed about, but is not able to vote on. Docket #0322 (p. 11-13) is a letter from District 1 Council Gabriela Coletta Zapata recommending a number of action to state officials based on a recent report about Logan Airport’s environmental impact:
With a lot of flights going in and out of Logan this year thanks to the World Cup and 250th celebrations, expect to see a hearing about these issues this year. Docket #0323 (p. 14) is a letter from Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy asking that the Ways & Means Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday morning going through Councilors “requests for information” about the FY27 budget be televised and recorded. This is a committee “meeting,” which is a category of event that while technically open to the public, the Council does not televise or record. There was a proposal to record and post the Council’s un-televised and unrecorded events, particularly the ones where important Council business takes place - meetings, working sessions, and briefings - during the Council’s 26-27 rules. While that amendment was tabled at the February 4 Council meeting, Councilor-at-Large Ruthzee Louijeune said making these changes was something the body could do during the Council term - she is Speaker 16 & starts at the 2:32:55 mark:
This letter makes clear that this issue remains alive. Budget season always has features the most of these types of meetings, so look for this issue to continue to be discussed, and potentially acted as, as the starting date for the FY27 budget season on April 8, 2026 approaches. There are no “REPORTS OF COMMITTEES” because no hearings were held prior to 9 AM the Monday prior to the regular meeting, so next up is “MATTERS RECENTLY HEARD-FOR POSSIBLE ACTION,” which are dockets that had hearing between 9 AM on Monday and the beginning of since the last regular meeting. Dockets #0128 & #0129 (p. 15-20) saw a hearing before the Ways & Means Committee yesterday afternoon - BPI had 3 questions about how Boston’s school closures decisions were affected by state rules, none of which were answered. The 2 dockets authorize spending a total of $9.5M for major school repairs at 4 schools - the Everett, Murphy, Kenney, and O’Donnell - that are being done with state aid through the MA School Building Authority’s Accelerated Repair Program (ARP). The highlights from this hearing will be in Friday’s newsletter, but you can read the whole AI-generated transcript now thanks to BPI’s partnership with Somerville-based civic tech start-up Legislata: Next up is “MOTIONS, ORDERS AND RESOLUTIONS,” which are legislative actions from City Councilors. There are 25 dockets in this section, so BPI won’t summarize all of them, but here are 5 to watch. Docket #0329 (p. 35) is a hearing order offered by District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell and District 1 Councilor Ed Flynn “to review the mission, goals, objectives, and challenges at the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency (OPAT).” Flynn submitted a similar hearing order last week - Docket #0269 - but withdrew it and said he would be re-submitting something with Councilor Worrell - that exchange starts at the 4:51:38 mark. Flynn allowing Worrell to be the lead sponsor on this issue may give it more momentum: Councilor Worrell represents District 4, one of the Council’s majority-minority districts, and prior to Worrell the District was represented by now-MA Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who as a Councilor played a major role in creating OPAT. This hearing order comes amid growing tension between OPAT and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, some of which the docket details. Not directly mentioned in the docket are outside demands for more action, with a recent call from community activist Jamarhl Crawford for a hearing on OPAT and the Boston Globe recently published an editorial titled “Wu, City Council should make sure police watchdog has bite.” Docket #0330 (p. 36-37) is a hearing order offered by Councilor-at-Large Henry Santana “regarding MassCore graduation requirements and student supports in Boston Public Schools.” This docket appears prompted by the Boston Globe report last Wednesday that ⅓ of Boston seniors were not on track to meet MassCore graduation requirements. Superintendent Skipper’s responded to the article at last week’s School Committee meeting, but created more questions than answers. The Boston Globe explained:
The hearing this docket calls for is an opportunity for Superintendent Skipper to clarify her comments. Docket #0333 (p. 40-41) is a hearing order offered by Councilor Flynn “to discuss pedestrian safety, traffic calming, and Vision Zero in the City of Boston.” This hearing order is timely: Vision Zero had its 10th anniversary last year, producing a series of retrospectives about the policy and its real world impact - check out this one from the founder & Executive Director of the Vision Zero Network. Here in Boston, that 10 year anniversary brought mixed news, with StreetsBlog Mass reporting last April:
The Council failed to hold any wide-ranging street-safety hearings last year, so perhaps this year this docket, along the many other related dockets already filed, will get a hearing. Docket #0337 (p. 46-47) is a hearing order offered by Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy “to consider a full independent audit of Boston Public Schools’ finances, operations and program effectiveness.” This is in response to news that BPS was running a ~$50M deficit - about 3% of the $1.7B budget - in the FY26 budget. Murphy’s hearing order echoes a call reported by the Boston Globe last week from Edith Bazile, who leads the Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council, one of the 4 city-wide parent groups that appoints a member of the School Committee Nominating Panel. BPS is going through its FY27 budget process right now, and as the next docket shows, BPS leadership appears both sensitive and responsive to public criticism. The next School Committee meeting is on Thursday, February 12, so if Superintendent Skipper responds to the call for an audit, it will be included in Friday’s “Weekly Transcript Round-Up.” Docket #0347 (p. 65-67) is a hearing order offered by Councilor Santana “to explore programs the City of Boston offers or could establish to prevent illegal discrimination by landlords and real estate brokers against prospective tenants utilizing housing choice vouchers.” Fighting housing discrimination is something that the Council has held quite a few hearings on, but which has produced little action in City Hall:
This month also marks 2 years since Lawyers for Civil Rights and the Housing Rights Initiative filed a lawsuit against 20 Landlords and Brokers for discriminating against Section 8 voucher holders. There hasn’t been any public reporting on that lawsuit since it was filed back in February 2024, but that April 2024 hearing on Councilor Louijeune’s docket featured testimony from Jacob Love, an attorney who works for Lawyers for Civil Rights - he is Speaker 13 & starts at the 49:17 mark. The remaining sections are “PERSONNEL ORDERS” which is legislative action required to keep Council staff on payroll and “CONSENT AGENDA” which are for recognition from the Council of events like birthdays and anniversaries. Nearly all these dockets will see more action in hearings, votes, and public discussion, so make sure to subscribe, and follow BPI on your favorite social media platform! Boston Policy Institute, Inc is working to improve the public conversation - help us by following BPI on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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