Boston City Council in transition, turmoil
Turner case clouds end of presidency
Councilor Chuck Turner and City Council President Maureen E. Feeney embraced briefly yesterday, then went to work with Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen, dishing up Thanksgiving dinners.
The holiday respite at Goodwill in Roxbury offered a rare moment of normalcy during a week in which infighting over the federal bribery charge against Turner erupted into acrimony that engulfed the typically collegial council.
Yesterday, just hours before the Thanksgiving feast, Turner held his second rally of the week to demonstrate his political support despite being led out of City Hall in handcuffs by federal agents Friday. A tense calm settled over the Boston City Council offices as councilors prepared for the weeks ahead and a possible federal indictment of Turner, which would trigger hearings on whether the council would seek to remove him from office.
Feeney has told lawyers to research her options and has fended off accusations by Turner that she rushed to judge him.
"It's hard to know that you might be doing something to someone you consider a colleague and a friend that is going to hurt him, but I felt it was my responsibility to put the council first," Feeney said this week.
With the city's lawyers and council staff, she has devised a plan that would be enacted if Turner is indicted. The council's rules committee, which she chairs, would meet to explore three options: censuring Turner, asking him to resign, or judging him unqualified to serve as a councilor. Broadening the scope of her response, Feeney is establishing an ethics advisory board to recommend ways of cleaning up the culture of City Hall.
Feeney has already taken the unilateral step of temporarily stripping Turner of his chairmanship of two committees.
Feeney had planned to cruise through the remaining weeks of her presidency before handing off the reins to Mission Hill councilor, Michael P. Ross, in January. Instead, she finds herself trekking through uncharted territory to respond to allegations that the body's most volatile personality pocketed a $1,000 bribe from an FBI witness.
Turner has insisted he has done nothing wrong and demanded at a rally Monday that Feeney restore his committee posts. She has refused.
As part of his public campaign to improve his image, Turner told a crowd of about 75 supporters gathered in front of his Roxbury district office yesterday that the case against him had been undermined by statements the federal government's cooperating witness made to the Globe.
Ron Wilburn, who has acknowledged he is the Roxbury businessman who gave handfuls of cash to Turner and state Senator Dianne Wilkerson, told the Globe that he never told federal investigators that he knew of Wilkerson accepting bribes from other business owners, contradicting a contention of the affidavits against Wilkerson and Turner. Turner blasted the media for not asking US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan about the alleged inconsistencies.
"Is it not hard news that Ron Wilburn, who was wearing his wire, is tearing his case apart," Turner said.
The rally came a day after Turner suggested in an interview on a Boston community television channel that if he did accept money from Wilburn, it constituted a campaign finance violation, not bribery.
The direction of Feeney's two-year council presidency changed dramatically Friday morning, when she received calls on her cellphone from Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis. Turner had been arrested at City Hall, charged in the same investigation that ensnared state Senator Dianne Wilkerson. The case led prosecutors to seek records from Feeney's office a month earlier.
"Emotionally, it was just really unsettling," Feeney said. She had prided herself on maintaining comity and consensus among a group of 13 ambitious councilors. Recent years have been marked by a collegial atmosphere, contrasting with the council's history of often contentious debates.
Feeney decided on two immediate actions: To temporarily strip Turner of his chairmanships and call an emergency meeting for Monday.
But she immediately came under fire from Turner and some of her colleagues. Two councilors, John Tobin and Michael Flaherty, questioned the wisdom of a meeting to discuss Turner's fate before he had been indicted. And Turner sent a letter to Feeney Sunday demanding that the meeting be canceled or held in public, and he called for supporters to join him in a rally before the scheduled meeting.
Feeney, after canceling the meeting, has insisted she did not fear a contentious public meeting.
"It became very clear as Councilor Turner continued lashing out that nothing substantive was going to be accomplished by going forward with the meeting," she said. "And I think this is far too serious an issue to have that process be compromised."
This is not the way Feeney planned to end her term. In October, Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, who was also seeking the presidency, eventually joined Feeney to support Ross, acknowledging that Ross had rounded up enough votes and staving off a January showdown for the post. Several councilors said they believe that the deal remains intact, even though Turner had been one of Ross's votes.
Ross said he supports the process Feeney has put in place. He also said the council can proceed with its business, which includes a vote on setting the tax rate, hearings on proposed restructuring of school attendance zones, and dealing with a mushrooming budget deficit that could force large-scale layoffs.
"We need to get on with our business," Ross said.
A regular council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.
All indications are that Turner, who has returned to work each day since his arrest, will be in his regular seat.
John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com. 