Boston City Council votes to accept federal grants for planting trees, housing migrants and upgrading three Roxbury streets, except for Councilor Flynn, who played Dr. No

The Boston City Council yesterday voted to accept millions of dollars in federal grants for projects across the city, including $20 million to upgrade Melnea Cass Boulevard, Malcolm X Boulevard and Warren Street in Roxbury, $11.4 million to plant hundreds of new trees and bolster an urban-forestry work training program and $2.3 million in two separate grants to help upgrade, expand and staff a Boston Rescue Mission program downtown that houses and train immigrants released from federal detention.

In all the cases, the council voted 12-1 to accept the grants.

Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) cast the lone no vote in all the cases.

Flynn said he wasn't necessarily opposed to the grants but objected to the way the council agreed to vote on them without first having committee hearings on them, because he wants to investigate how taxpayer money is being spent. Normally, matters before the council first are assigned to the relevant council committee, which then holds at least one public hearing and a "working session" before going back to the council for a vote, but councilors can ask for suspension of that rule and immediate passage of a measure if, for some reason, time is of the essence.

Other councilors, however, said time is now of the essence, either because the council's 2024 legislative session ends next month or because of the new administration coming into office in Washington, and that they were satisfied with detailed explanations forwarded by administration officials in charge of the programs.

Council President Ruthzee Louijeune noted that when Flynn held that job, he routinely allowed grants to come to a vote without a hearing before a committee, but Flynn held fast - although he did vote yes on two other donations without hearings, of 200 turkeys from Roche Bros. and 100 turkeys from TD Garden for needy Boston residents. The dollar amounts of those donations, however, fell well under the $1 million value Flynn set for deciding he always wants hearings.

"I do come to this building every day, five days a week and I do look forward to having hearings," Flynn said in response to a request for approval of a $11.4 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture's Forestry Service to plant at least 2,500 new trees across Boston, improve the patches in which existing trees now sometimes struggle to survive and to pay to train local residents in urban forestry as a career.

"I like to learn about the proposals and I like to study them and I like to ask questions and engage the administration staff on issues that are impacting the city." he said. "This is a particular issue I would be interested in. I need to do my due diligence as a city councilor to learn about funding when it's taxpayer money. I can't, I can't vote for something if we don't have all the answers."

Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, who asked for an immediate vote on accepting the grant, however, said Flynn knew about the measure and could have talked to her beforehand, but didn't.

"We all know the urgency around this sort of docket [item]," she said. "We have a president elect who has talked about dismantling the EPA and this is $11.4 million that will help fund trees in the city of Boston. I don't have any questions about it."

Councilor Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) joined Coletta Zapata: "We have an incoming presidential administration that is going to tear everything that we stand for apart: EPA, environmental justice, all of it," she said. "All of it is on the chopping block, and these are federal grants, some of them are very significant grants, there's no guarantee we'll ever, ever, ever get a grant like this in the future, in this next incoming administration. We have a responsibility to look at what we've got in front of us, look at the time on the clock, and move as many of these federal grants as quickly and as effectively as possible."

She added the concept of tree planting and urban forestry is nothing new, the city Parks Department and PowerCorpsBos have been involved in both for years and the council has exercised its oversight through past budge hearings. She said she agreed that in "normal times," the measure should have a public hearing before a council committee first, but: "These are not normal times and we have very little time to get to it and get this done before January 20."

Councilor Julia Mejia, who was thwarted earlier in the year - by councilors who included Flynn - in an attempt to have a hearing held on a federal grant that would include funding for surveillance technologies by Boston Police, said she appreciated Flynn's devotion to process and hearings, but added that "not everything has to be a fight and when we do fight, it should be for something worth fighting for," and planting trees just is not one of those things. She then briefly assumed the role of Elsa from "Frozen" and sang "Let it go, let it go, let it go!"

Flynn also voted against a $20-million grant from the Federal Transit Authority which, in conjunction with another $12.5 million appropriated by the city, would pay for the redesign of three key Roxbury streets to make them easier for people in various modes of transportation and better able to survive flooding in more intense storms. Flynn, who sits on the Planning, Development and Transportation committee that would have dealt with the issue, knew no hearing had been held yet still rose to ask Councilor Sharon Durkan (Back Bay, Bay Village, Beacon Hill, Fenway, Mission Hill), who chairs the committee, whether it had had a hearing on the grant.

Durkan, who spent much of the meeting upset with Flynn and his sometimes supporter Erin Murphy (at large), declined to answer and instead simply asked for a vote, which resulted in a 12-1 approval of the grant.

He similarly opposed two grants, totaling $2.3 million, from Homeland Security, to be split between the Boston Public Health Commission and the Boston Rescue Mission to house and support "non-citizen migrants recently released from DHS custody."

Earlier in the council meeting, Durkan expressed frustration at Flynn's - and Murphy's - tactics through a particular parliamentary procedure.

Murphy called for an immediate vote - despite the lack of a hearing - on a $50,000 state grant to the Hyde Park Community Center that would pay for various events and activities the center has already begun to organize.

Durkan, however, objected, which under the council's rules, means the measure could not be voted on and would first have to go before a council committee for a public hearing - which might not be able to be scheduled until after the events at the center were to have taken place.

Durkan said she has nothing against the grant but objected to the way some councilors, and she named Murphy specifically, pull stuff like this with grants all the time. "Do you see the point I'm making?" she asked.

Later in the meeting, however, Murphy again moved that the grant be accepted and this time it was.

Murphy did join Flynn to make up an 11-2 minority on a measure that would help settle a lawsuit by a Roxbury canvas and sail company involving land along Albany Street that the Boston Water and Sewer Commission rented to the company then decided it needed the land back and granted itself easements on the land via eminent domain.

The company, Harry Miller sued over the effective abrogation of its 35-year lease. Then the commission realized it didn't need the land after all and reached an agreement with the company to reverse the land takings, which would end the suit in Suffolk Superior Court.

Durkan called for an immediate vote because "without passing [the measure] today, this settlement may fall apart."

But Flynn called for a hearing first, or even just a look at a document from the city legal department explaining the nature of the suit, the proposed settlement and the financial ramifications of it.