Council counsel

It's time for the Boston City Council to carve out a leadership role for itself

The Boston City Council is frequently criticized for being a weak, ineffectual body. Its detractors often note that the board's only power lies in approving -- or holding up -- the mayor's budget. Or, in other words, that the board has no power. But it doesn't have to be this way. The city council is a strong platform from which to speak out on issues that are important to the city. Members can hold hearings -- and subpoena city officials. The council can pass local ordinances. And councilors are influential people in their own neighborhoods.

That adds up to power.

It's time the 13-member council started using it. Indeed, the continued health of the city demands it. Mayor Tom Menino enjoys a strong executive position that spares him from having to account for his actions to other elected officials -- such as a board of aldermen or selectmen. Such concentrated authority is never good. To counter this, Boston's city council needs to carve out a high-profile role for itself in city affairs. Below are three areas in which the council can -- and should -- play a leadership role over the next two years.

Solving the housing crisis. Surely there is no other issue that threatens the city the way spiraling housing costs do. The working poor have been squeezed for years, and now, as housing becomes more and more expensive, the middle class is also being edged out. That alone should alarm every elected official in the city.

What makes the issue so vexing is that there is no one all-encompassing solution to the problem. Still, that doesn't mean the council should just nibble around the edges of the issue by debating condo-conversion ordinances, as it did late last year. What's stopping the council from convening a consortium of the city's brightest minds from the development, banking, and neighborhood-activism communities to talk about solutions? To date, we've heard Governor Paul Cellucci talk about letting the free market play itself out. And we've heard Menino call for increasing development set-asides. It's time we heard someone talk about big ideas with regard to the city's housing crisis; after all, it's a big problem. The city council is in a position to foster this debate. It would be a shame if it were to pass on the opportunity.

Racial healing. It's up to Boston's elected officials to set a tone of acceptance of racial diversity within the city. And to speak out when racism threatens the community. It's not enough simply to be reactive to issues as they come up. The council can be proactive in seeking out ways to make the city a better place for people of all races to live together. How? One way is to keep talking about the issue. There's no reason why newly elected at-large councilor Michael Flaherty, who lives in South Boston, couldn't work with the newly elected councilor from Roxbury, Chuck Turner, to set up a series of conversations on race between the two communities. They could look to the example set by the Anti-Defamation League, which has been a leader over the past decade in building better relations between the Jewish community and the African-American and Catholic communities. The councilors could tap local leaders from the clergy, the schools, and the neighborhoods. The two communities, which have been at opposite ends of the city's racial divide, have a lot in common: poverty, poor schools, and the threat of gentrification from ongoing development. "Let's look at what the problems are and what it is that keeps us apart," says Janis Pryor, an activist and writer. "Those kinds of seminal conversations can give birth to a lot of innovative and creative solutions that would also bond people together."

Checking the mayor. You wouldn't know this from watching the council in recent years, but nowhere in the city's charter does it say that the first priority of city councilors is to suck up to the mayor. (At-large councilor Peggy Davis-Mullen, of course, is the notable exception to this sycophancy.) Boston's form of government allows for few checks and balances on the mayor. But that doesn't mean the council couldn't appoint itself as mayoral watchdog and hold Menino's feet to the fire on issues of housing, schools, and development. "They could certainly use the budget process for more leverage than they have in the past," observes Jeremy Pittman, chairman of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance. "They certainly have a bully pulpit. Even though they don't have much power, if they talk about an issue, [the media] will pay attention." Former city councilor Freddy Langone understood this and was a master at utilizing the power of the budget process. He tortured former mayors Kevin White and Ray Flynn -- and, more important, their department heads -- by holding up approval of the budget until his and other councilors' questions were answered. There's no reason current members of the council shouldn't do the same.

A little creative tension could go a long way toward re-energizing Boston politics. The time to start is now.

What do you think? Send an e-mail to letters[a]phx.com.