Boston council approves $13.3-million federal security grant after councilor warns of impending disaster in Chelsea and Quincy

The Boston City Council today approved a $13.3-million federal homeland-security grant without the normally required hearing after Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, downtown) warned there was no time left, that surrounding communities that would share the grant need the money now.

"Their safety will be impacted and I can't take that chance," he said, pointing initially to Chelsea and Quincy, but later adding Cambridge and Somerville as communities for which he said he felt the responsibility to get the measure approved immediately.

The money, in the form of an annual grant that Boston and surrounding communities have been receiving for years, pays for training and equipment for terrorist attacks and natural disasters. Eleven councilors voted to formally accept the grant; councilors Liz Breadon (Allston/Brighton) and Julia Mejia (at large) voted "present."

The council rejected the grant in December on a 6-6 vote, after some councilors raised questions about the impact of counter-terrorism efforts in the city's minority neighborhoods.

Flynn last week tried to get the council to approve the grant right away, but because that didn't get unanimous approval, council rules required it be sent to a committee for a hearing and deliberations that could include the four new councilors who did not take office until earlier this month.

Instead, Flynn rose at the end of today's regular council meeting and demanded an immediate vote again, even though the council's committee on public safety not only hadn't held a hearing on the matter, it hadn't even scheduled one.

Boston might be able to respond to a disaster without the training and equipment the grant would pay for, but Chelsea? Quincy? Flynn doubted that.

"We're sitting on this grant and some potential emergency disaster could take place," Flynn said.

And Boston is not an island, he continued: "What happens in Chelsea has a major impact on East Boston." Plus, Boston has a past that includes both the Marathon bombing and being the place where the 9/11 terrorists took off from, he said.

"I have seen how unsafe this city can be," he said, adding that when the council's committee on public safety did hold a hearing on the proposal in December, few councilors attended.

By himself, Flynn could not make council President Ruthzee Louijeune (at large) call for a vote; only the chair or vice-chair of the council's committee on public safety could. Councilor Brian Worrell (Dorchester), the committee's vice chair, moved to suspend the council's normal rules and vote on the grant. Committee Chair Henry Santana (at large) did not speak. He was not on the council in December, plus he is bound by a longstanding council tradition not to speak at council meetings until after he gives his "maiden speech," which he has yet to do.

Breadon, who voted against the measure in December, said she would vote "present" this time She said she actually supports the grant, but held up a copy of an internal report that raised issues with the way the city had monitored past grant money to ensure it's being spent appropriately; in fact, the report found "a significant deficiency" in auditing expenditures.

"I appreciate the important of this, but we also have a responsibility for good oversight of expenditures, especially in relation to federal grants," she said. She later added she's sure the money has been spent correctly, but that the city needs to be able to prove that to the feds - and that she was looking forward to a hearing to get answers.

Mejia did not raise any particular issues about the grant itself, but said she opposed voting on it without a hearing because the last thing the council needs is to show itself to be just a rubber stamp for the Wu administration - which wanted the grant approved. If councilors have questions, the democratic and collegial thing to do, on such a large grant, would be to hold a hearing, she said.

Councilor Erin Murphy (at large) voted for the measure, but said she shared the concerns about a lack of a hearing.

Louijeune, who raised questions about the impact on minority neighborhoods in December, after which she voted against the grant, said most of her questions were answere in several hundred pages of documentation she was forwarded by city officials, but said that because the grant comes up annually, Breadon and other councilors would be able to raise questions the next time around.