The Boston City Council created a special committee yesterday to investigate Mayor Thomas M. Menino's plan to move City Hall to the South Boston waterfront and appointed a potential mayoral aspirant, Councilor at Large Michael F. Flaherty, to lead it.
The move by City Council President Maureen E. Feeney sets the stage for a possible conflict with the mayor and a more forceful, assertive tone for her second year in the presidency.
Special committees typically have been set up to address crises in the city, such as youth violence or substance abuse. The Special Committee on City Hall will focus entirely on whether Menino's proposal is a sound one that fulfills city government's responsibility to residents.
"We have a fiduciary responsibility to the people we represent," Feeney said yesterday in an interview. "This doesn't have to be confrontational."
Flaherty has openly opposed the relocation plan, calling it a distraction from critical issues facing the city, such as gang and gun violence and the need for affordable housing and property tax relief.
The mayor, who first proposed moving City Hall during a speech in December 2006, is angry about the committee and considers Flaherty's appointment to it a personal attack, according to two city officials who spoke with him but declined to be identified.
Menino's spokeswoman denied yesterday that the mayor was upset and said he relishes the opportunity to talk about the revenue that selling City Hall would generate and the savings that could be realized with a new, energy-efficient building.
"The mayor looks forward to working with the council on his innovative idea," said his spokeswoman, Dorothy Joyce. "The potential for the growth and the possibilities on the South Boston waterfront are exciting and something we welcome speaking to everyone about."
Flaherty said he plans to call public hearings that would include residents as well as officials from Menino's administration.
"This committee was created to ensure that the public has a voice regarding access to their government's headquarters," he said. "It's the people's building."
Political observers say Feeney's actions indicate winds have shifted dramatically at City Hall, perhaps because of timing - the mayor's office is up for grabs again next year - or perhaps because the council is simply tired of being so agreeable.
Three city councilors are rumored to be eyeing a run for mayor. John Tobin of West Roxbury has said he will run if Menino steps down, Flaherty has not declared his intent, but has been fund-raising at a rapid clip for more than a year. And Feeney's name has surfaced since she took over the council president's office in January 2007.
During her second inaugural speech earlier this month, Feeney said she planned to scrutinize the Menino administration more closely, and she called for a citywide meeting of residents at the South Boston Convention Center, an idea that the mayor publicly opposed.
Feeney will not say whether she is contemplating a run for mayor. She said she is only trying to strengthen the council.
"We're going to be doing a lot this year," she said.
Feeney also created two other special committees yesterday, one dedicated to the upkeep of Boston Common, where drug abuse and crime became bigger problems last year; and one focusing on the centennial anniversary of the creation of the current City Council.
The council's first meeting this year will be at 12:30 p.m. today.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
