A state senator is in search of a change in Massachusetts regulation that may strip the Boston City Council of its authority to approve public security grants, after the physique’s “embarrassing” vote to reject $13.3 million in federal counter-terrorism funding.
Nick Collins, a South Boston Democrat, filed a invoice Friday that may enable that funding to be allotted to the supposed cities and cities, upon approval of the state Legislature and governor, thereby bypassing native our bodies just like the Boston City Council, as “no approval from the intended grant recipient shall be necessary.”
“The bill would ensure access to federal and state funds designated to assist our municipal partners in providing the highest level of public health and safety services in a dangerous world,” Collins advised the Herald. “We can no longer allow politics to come before public health and safety.”
If the invoice is permitted, the modifications would apply statewide, but it surely was filed in direct response to this week’s 6-6 vote from the Boston City Council to dam a $13.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Collins mentioned.
Seven votes have been wanted to launch the federal funds to the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, for coaching and operational must “help prevent, respond to and recover from threats of terrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive incidents,” in line with a communication from Mayor Michelle Wu, who put the grant ahead for City Council approval.
“We haven’t seen this intentional blocking of funds for public health and safety anywhere else in the state,” Collins mentioned of the Boston City Council.
Shumeane Benford, Boston’s emergency administration director, advised the Herald the rejected grant represented this 12 months’s annual funding supply for the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region, which incorporates Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, Somerville and Winthrop.
As the lead metropolis, Boston is tasked with performing because the approval authority for the grant, which is earmarked every year, at roughly the identical quantity, for the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region, Benford mentioned. An absence of annual funding may create operational challenges and theoretically result in layoffs, he mentioned.
“Specifically speaking for this grant and the resources that are made available, the city of Boston and the region has ample capacity, no doubt about it,” Benford mentioned. “However, anytime we delay taking money, it just increases the workload to make sure that we maintain our capacity and readiness in all those areas.”
A Wu spokesperson mentioned the mayor intends to refile the grant someday within the new 12 months, after the brand new members of the City Council are sworn in subsequent month.
The physique’s newest vote follows a weeks-long battle this fall that in the end led to the City Council narrowly passing 4 years value of funding for the Boston Regional Intelligence Center in October.
The $3.4 million in grant funding had been earmarked by the state, as 4 separate $850,000 grants, since fiscal 12 months 2020, however had been repeatedly held up by the Council in prior years over issues with the BRIC’s controversial gang database, which critics say disproportionately tracks individuals of coloration.
Council President Ed Flynn and Councilor Michael Flaherty, who each voted in favor of the most recent counter-terrorism grant, slammed their colleagues for rejecting the funding, saying that their actions harm not solely Boston, however eight different cities.
“The Council term ended the way it started,” Flaherty advised the Herald. “Nonsensical and embarrassing, where several councilors did not support the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management.”
“Not only did they fail the residents of Boston, they failed eight other cities and towns that were depending on this funding to protect themselves against acts of terrorism,” Flaherty added. “What an embarrassment.”
Flynn mentioned the physique’s resolution to “not accept $13 million from the federal government to deal with terrorism-related issues is a significant loss for Boston residents.”
“Boston is not immune from these issues, unfortunately,” Flynn mentioned, some extent that Collins made as nicely, saying that the town’s Logan International Airport served as a “launching pad” for the 9/11 terrorist assaults in 2001.
Voting ‘yes’ on the grant have been Councilors Frank Baker, Gabriela Coletta, Sharon Durkan, Flaherty, Flynn and Erin Murphy. Voting in opposition have been Councilors Ricardo Arroyo, Liz Breadon, Kendra Lara, Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia and Brian Worrell. Tania Fernandes Anderson was absent.
Louijeune, who was absent from a Monday listening to on the general public security grants, was the one councilor to talk in opposition to the Department of Homeland Security grant.
She talked about issues with funding being decided not fully by the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, however fairly by Jurisdictional Points of Contacts representatives “from each of the nine cities and towns that constitute the Metro Boston Homeland Security Region.”
Louijeune mentioned extra neighborhood conversations are wanted for the grant, however didn’t reply to a Herald cellphone name and textual content on Friday in search of readability on her remarks.
Breadon, who voted in favor of the opposite three public security grants on Wednesday, opted to vote towards the counter-terrorism grant, however mentioned that she was not influenced by any remarks that have been made on the Council ground.
She had been planning to vote ‘no’ on the grant earlier than the assembly, Breadon mentioned, as a result of she wished extra readability on how the funds could be used to answer pure disasters.
Breadon mentioned she usually helps the counter-terrorism piece, having voted for the grant throughout her prior years on the Council, however didn’t notice the funding could be used for pure disasters till Flaherty’s committee chair report.
“Given the recent history with what happened this summer in New York and then in Leominster, natural disasters, inundation of the waterfront in a big storm or all of those things,” Breadon advised the Herald. “It’s really just, I need some more information. And that’s all that was about. There’s no nefarious motive there.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”