Vote may reshape council policies

The perception that new kinds of voters -- mostly immigrants, blacks, and Hispanics -- will be deciding factors in Tuesday's election has pushed candidates to the left on key issues, raising the prospect of a Boston City Council that might be more willing to approve controversial measures like rent stabilization and an elected School Committee.

Six of the eight candidates for four at-large seats on the council favor a return to an elected School Committee and five say they are for rent stabilization. Three of the candidates want to abolish the residency rule for city workers.

Taken together with the positions of incumbent district councilors, the stances show that after next week the council could have a majority that favors an elected School Committee over the current appointed one. They may also add up to a council more likely to approve some form of rent control and relax the city's residency rules, after repeated defeats of such measures in the past.

''This is the new Boston," said Kathy Brown of the Boston Tenant Coalition, which authored the rent stabilization ordinance defeated by the council last year.

''More and more folks across the city are voting, and tenants are the majority," Brown said. ''It is about who lives in Boston and who votes."

Voters will elect at least one new councilor on Tuesday, replacing Maura A. Hennigan, who is leaving after her mayoral run. But so many of the eight candidates vying for four at-large seats, including the three incumbents, have changed their positions or are peddling messages they believe will appeal to the city's diverse voters, that political observers say the council is likely to shift on some issues, regardless of the outcome Tuesday.

On the question of whether Boston should return to an elected School Committee, for example, all but two of the eight at-large candidates favor the move. With five district councilors also for it, at least seven votes, a majority, is likely after Tuesday.

Several councilors said the widespread support for an elected School Committee, a move favored by minority voters, is a stunning departure for the council.

The shift, they said, is based on increasing frustration with what critics say is the School Department's lack of accountability to parents and the public.

''I now feel the appointed School Committee is not behaving as I expected it would," Councilor at Large Felix Arroyo, who is seeking reelection, said this week.

On rent stabilization, even candidates Patricia White and John Connolly, who are perceived as moderates in the race, have come out in favor. White, who has received thousands of dollars in contributions from developers, is supporting rent stabilization, even though the real estate industry strongly opposes it.

The proposal, which was defeated a year ago on a 5-8 vote, would allow elderly, disabled, or low-income tenants to appeal rent increases of more than 5 percent to a city board. Others could contest increases of more than 10 percent.

In order to have a majority of councilors for rent stabilization, two new candidates in favor of it would have to be elected to the council; if Stephen J. Murphy, a rent stabilization foe, should be upset by Connolly, White, or Sam Yoon, the bill would have six votes. Councilor Paul Scapicchio, who says he's vacillating, appears to be the most likely candidate for a seventh vote needed for passage.

''I was on the fence last time, close to voting for it," Scapicchio said.

Only two candidates, Matt O'Malley and Edward Flynn, favor abolishing the city's requirement that employees live inside Boston city limits.

But pressure from the city's employee unions has others reconsidering their positions.

Three councilors -- Murphy, John Tobin of West Roxbury, and Jerry McDermott of Brighton -- say they would support a cap that would allow workers to leave the city after a set period of time, such as five or seven years.

Two others, Michael Ross of the Back Bay and James Kelly of South Boston, said they would consider other changes in the law. Unions say their employees can't afford to live in such a hot real estate market.

''I was a big supporter in the mid-1990s," said Kelly, who is being challenged by newcomer Susan Passoni. ''But the city has changed dramatically, and the cost of living has gone through the roof. I'm willing to look at making some modifications."

Though Arroyo and Yoon, viewed as symbols of the New Boston, are opposed to an immediate return to neighborhood schools and an end to busing, a majority of the at-large candidates and several councilors say they strongly support such a move.

''This is a different city than it was in 1974," said Tobin, who is being challenged by Gibran Rivera for his Jamaica Plain district. ''There are 122 countries represented at English High alone."

Three at-large candidates oppose the construction of a Biosafety Level 4 lab in the South End.

The lab, which would house research on deadly biological agents, has been approved by an array of local and state entities but remains controversial among some residents, particularly in the neighborhood near its proposed site.

As the candidates compete for votes, several have accused their opponents of massaging, refining, or changing their positions.

Flaherty, who wrote a letter to the National Institutes of Health in September, decrying the proposed Biolab, now says he supports it, as long as the city has an evacuation plan everyone can live with.

According to Flaherty, the city does not have such a plan.

Connolly has been accused of multiple flip-flops. The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association says he led its members to believe he opposed the residency rule and a civilian review board to investigate complaints against police, until they failed to endorse him.

Now he champions the residency rule and the civilian board, they say.

Connolly, however, says, ''I've been crystal clear from day one. I've been a strong proponent of residency. I've taken stands because I believe in them.

''I want to be a strong independent voice on the council who thinks of the neighborhoods first," he said.