Judge rejects bid to block Boston council redistricting for now

The Boston City Council was able to vote on a proposed new map of district council seats yesterday after a Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected a bid by a South Boston man and several South Boston groups to block the effort over alleged open-meeting-law violations by councilors.

"The plaintiffs in the papers submitted, have not demonstrated an irreparable risk of harm warranting a Temporary Restraining order," Judge Anthony Campo ruled yesterday.

However, Campo ordered a hearing for 9 a.m. this coming Wednesday on whether to block implementation of the plan approved by the council pending the outcome of the open-meeting-law case brought by Robert O'Shea, the South Boston Citizens Association, the Martin F. McDonough American Legion Post, the St. Vincent's Lower End Neighborhood Association and the Old Colony Tenant Association. They are represented by former state Rep. Paul Gannon.

O'Shea, chairman of the Ward 6 Democratic Committee, and the groups allege that council members held three meetings about redistricting in October without filing the legally required advance public notice: Oct. 10 at the Bolling Building in Nubian Square, Oct. 18 on City Hall Plaza and Oct. 19 at the Condon School in South Boston.

Complaints about the law normally first go to the state Attorney General's office, but O'Shea and the groups went to court because, they say, the Attorney General's office has told them it will not rule on their complaint there until after Nov. 24, well after when the council is to vote on redistricting. In addition to the council, Mayor Wu also has to sign off on the plan to redraw council lines based on 2020 census data.

In their filing with the Attorney General's office, O'Shea and the groups say they are not seeking a re-do of the meetings, but to force the council to follow guidelines set by New York Law School professor Jeffrey Wice, who advised the council's redistricting committee on how to draw fair district lines. The council yesterday rejected a proposal by Councilors Erin Murphy (at large), Frank Baker (Dorchester), Michael Flaherty (at large) and Ed Flynn (South Boston) to delay further action in part because they did not feel the map that won approval met all of his guidelines. Councilors who voted against that proposed delay said not all of Wice's recommendations were "required" - and also rejected Murphy's contention that more hearings were needed with Vietnamese, Spanish and Creole interpreters.

At one point during yesterday's contentious and lengthy debate, City Council President Ed Flynn, who represents South Boston and who opposed the redistricting plan that councilors ultimately approved, handed out copies of some formal complaint related to the redistricting process.

Flynn did not say publicly whether it was a copy of the South Boston complaint or something else, but several councilors took umbrage at whatever was in the papers Flynn had passed around. However, some councilors angrily denounced their contents, which they said referred to alleged meetings involving Councilor Ricardo Arroyo's office, which is not specifically mentioned in the South Boston legal complaint filed in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday.

"This idea of a rolling meeting in our office is frankly laughable," Arroyo said, adding that at one of the times listed in the papers, he was in a meeting at Lena Park in Dorchester, not in his office. Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson also denied being in Arroyo's office for one such meeting, calling the allegation "hot garbage."