Murphy on live TV.The City Council today appointed former Councilor Maureen Feeney as city clerk in a process that would have taken about 30 seconds if council President Steve Murphy had not taken the opportunity to rail against "the broadsheets" and a former mayoral candidate.

For 15 minutes, Murphy excoriated the Globe and Kevin McCrea, accusing them of creating a circus with moving goalposts that bordered on harassment and only showed they want to chose the next city clerk, but they don't have the right because who elected them?

Gin Dumcius tweets that state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is filing legislation that would bar city and town clerks from making any money from performing marriages either during work time or in their offices even after hours.

Gee, what did a former city councilor expected to become Boston city clerk tomorrow do to annoy Walz so much that she not only files legislation but issues a press release that ends like this?

UPDATE: The city has a fulltime legal department, yet apparently nobody thought to check whether interviewing a former city councilor less than 30 days after she quit might violate state ethics laws, the Globe reports (Globe account required).

A roving UHub reporter files this report from this afternoon's interviews of the two candidates for the job of city clerk:

Pops points us to the official posting for the job of Boston city clerk. Among the requirements:

The Globe reports the longtime Dorchester city councilor quietly submitted her resignation last week rather than just waiting to be replaced on Jan. 1. Did she convince Rosaria Salerno to retire as city clerk?

The Council's Committee on Public Safety holds a hearing Thursday on a proposal by Councilor Maureen Feeney (Dorchester) to create a civilian taxi board to oversee the city's medallion cab fleet.

The City Council voted today it is fed up with absentee landlords who let their properties go to hell and backed a hearing proposed by Councilor Maureen Feeney (Dorchester) on cracking down on them.

Feeney said she plans a hearing at which she will consider landlord licensing that would "disqualify poorly attentive landlords from operating rental properties." Her hearing was co-sponsored by Councilor Mike Ross.

HoganMarty Hogan, who once ran for an at-large city-council seat, says he is running this year for the District 3 seat now held by Maureen Feeney.

Hogan, who ran citywide in 2007, joins Feeney and 2009 at-large candidate Doug Bennett, also making a run for a district seat this time.

Hogan says his campaign will focus on city budget reform, because the city is spending "lavishly." One area where Hogan would not cut, however, is in crime fighting - he says crime is "spiraling out of control." He adds he would oppose cuts in school and fire funding.

Hogan is a South Boston native who now lives in Ashmont. An IT consultant, Hogan is also president of the Dorchester Day Parade and sits on the board of the Dorchester Symphony Orchestra.

Feeney, who was first elected in 1993, has said that this next run will most likely be her last.

Peter Gelzinis reports she proposed easing school budget woes by having teachers work for a day without pay. Meanwhile, with little firefighter-like fanfare, school janitors attended a council budget hearing to protest the loss of 41 janitors come July 1 (down from the originally planned 83).

Mike Ball, who actually attended yesterday's City Council vote on term limits (I couldn't take another day of those alleged seats in the council chambers and so watched the procedings from our comfy couch on Comcast Channel 51), didn't think much of Maureen Feeney's performance as chair of the committee on government operations - which had bottled up the term-limits issue for months: