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CITY HALL
Kelly’s revenge

BY DORIE CLARK

Last Friday was a good day for Jimmy Kelly. In the past year, the councilor from South Boston has become estranged from long-time friend Tom Menino and lost the council presidency (which he had held for a record-setting seven years) over a development deal he helped negotiate with the mayor in 1998. The deal would have given Southie up to $65 million in linkage money and other mitigation benefits from development of the waterfront — 51 percent of the funds developers were obliged to pay toward affordable housing, compared to the 10 to 20 percent of those funds typically granted to “impacted communities.” After the agreement came under intense public scrutiny last summer, Menino backed off; an angry Kelly and the South Boston Betterment Trust (the organization created to administer the funds) launched a suit against the mayor and the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The city tried to have it dismissed. But last Friday, Superior Court judge Elizabeth Fahey ruled that it could proceed.

The city’s corporation counsel, Merita Hopkins, plays down the decision. “It’s not unusual for a motion to dismiss not to succeed,” she says, “so it’s not something that’s a win or a loss. It’s just on to the next step of litigation.” The next phase is the discovery process, in which both sides present their version of the case. The judge then has the opportunity to grant “summary judgment” and end the suit, or again allow it to continue.

But Alan Spiro, the attorney for the South Boston Betterment Trust, sees Fahey’s decision as “a very important win because it undermines the legal argument that the city has been making.” The city has argued that the memorandum of agreement (MOU) outlining the South Boston linkage deal is not an enforceable contract. “One of the principal reasons [it’s not binding] is it contravenes the law,” says Hopkins. “There are many legislative mandates that we point to that require the city to operate a certain way when it comes to linkage funds, and that can’t be affected by independent contracts.” She also notes that the city never intended to grant the South Boston Betterment Trust such leeway in negotiating directly with developers for community benefits.

Spiro calls those arguments “seriously weak.” He’s expecting the case ultimately to go to trial, and feels confident of the result. “There’s no question the mayor knew about and approved the MOU and ordered it to be executed,” he says. “The mayor just had political second thoughts.” As Spiro sees it, a legal win would simply mean that “what’s going to happen is just what was intended —affordable housing is going to get built in South Boston.”

But it would also be no small triumph for Kelly, who was the sole South Boston lawmaker to join the lawsuit, and therefore put his reputation and political future most on the line (State Representative Jack Hart and State Senator Stephen Lynch also signed the MOU, but opted out of the suit). If the case fares well, it would mark a sweet comeback for a politician whose power many suspected was waning after he lost the council presidency — and sweet revenge against his erstwhile pal Menino. “This is going to go forward,” says Kelly, “and I am absolutely certain that when this is heard by the court, the truth will come out and Tom Menino is not going to look good.”

Issue Date: March 8 - 15, 2001