Terry Klein has a copy of the decision and some analysis of a case in which the council was accused of illegally barring the public from at least 10 meetings over a two-year period (including one on a tularemia outbreak at a BU lab). Although the court sent some issues back to a lower court for final disposition, the justices are clearly getting a little tired of the Boston City Council, in a decision that starts:

The city council of Boston finds itself, not for the first time, on the losing end of a determination that it has improperly excluded the public from its deliberations. ...

The Globe (well, technically, a University of New Hampshire survey group hired by the Globe) is surveying Boston residents to try to discern who might put up a good fight against Tom Menino next year.

The list of potential challengers, as seen by Globe survey takers: City Councilor at Large Michael Flaherty, West Roxbury/JP City Councilor John Tobin, Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley, successful businessman and unsuccessful candidate Chris Gabrieli and, of course, 1-800 Joe 4 Oil Kennedy, who, by law, has to be included in every single poll taken in Suffolk County.

Among the basic questions are how satisfied residents are with everything from education and crime fighting to street cleanliness and the state of public transportation and taxi service in their neighborhoods (taxi service as a big issue next year?).

Michael Pahre reports on e-mail from the councilor criticizing "the administration" for its failure to get a constituent-complaint tracking system running:

... I believe we have just heard the opening salvo of the 2009 Mayoral campaign. ...

David Bernstein lists and rates their odds against another presumed Menino re-election bid in 2009. Interesting article, but the Phoenix really needs to find a photo of Michael Flaherty taken sometime more recently than 1983. Also: Joe Kennedy for mayor? Does the guy even live in Boston anymore? And even if he does, ugh, enough's enough with him and his presumed right to whatever office somebody thinks he's running for.

Flaherty in the Phoenix:

Flaherty last month:

Mike Ball analyzes Tuesday's vote:

... We have two newbies who may or may not make a difference. Connolly has solid ideas for funding, Council power, education and more. The new guy in Allston-Brighton, Mark Ciommo, has his own very specific to-do lists.

This certainly was no revolution. The old guard is still in those big old chairs.

Murphy does little and is not likely to start now. Flaherty is the carrion bird waiting, just waiting for his chance to become mayor. ...

Chris Lovett takes a look at turnout numbers in various parts of the city. Even high-turnout West Roxbury was down 25% over the past election, although the real collapse was in minority ares - turnout was down 58% around JP's Hyde Square.

Winner:

Loser:

Big winner:

Winner:

Guy whose picture I didn't happen to take at the Roslindale Day Parade:
John Connolly

Steve Murphy proved tonight he's the Model T of elected officials: He can get elected to anything as long as it's an at-large seat on the Boston city council. He came in second tonight, giving him one of the four at-large seats on the city council.

Felix Arroyo, meanwhile, proved that, on a rainy day, when not even 14% of registered voters show up, organization DOES matter, as in: If you don't have much of one, you're going to wonder what the hell happened.

And what the hell happened tonight was that John Connolly, who had an incredibly organized get-out-the-vote effort, especially in his home base of Roslindale and West Roxbury, simply got more votes than Arroyo (who came in second two years ago, which led to a brief Arroyo-for-mayor boomlet). If the flap over Connolly's anonymous anti-Murphy mailings had an impact, in the end, it didn't matter (except to possibly give Steve Murphy some sympathy votes).

Of course, above everybody else sits, again, Michael Flaherty. Not really a surprise there, and you know he already has people thinking what colors to use on the "Flaherty for Mayor" signs. The only question is whether he dares to take on Tom Menino in two years or waits until 2013 - when, who knows, maybe he'll be facing Sam Yoon, who also got re-elected tonight.

Of course, the big question is what this all means for actual policy making in Boston. Granted, we have a "weak" city council, which makes it hard for them to actually get anything done, but they do have the power to hold hearings and get to vote on the mayor's budget, so it'll be interesting to read in the GateHouse and college papers what happens (since we obviously can forget about the Globe and Herald writing much of anything about the council).

In other races:

Mark Ciommo beat Gregory Glennon to win the Allston/Brighton district council race by a roughly 60/40 margin (props to Michael Pahre for calling that margin). He takes over for Jerry McDermott, who moved out of town.

In Dorchester, Maureen Feeney easily maintained her position as the only woman on the council, swamping Michael Cote.

Charles Yancey did even better against J.R. Rucker in his Dorchester/Mattapan district.

It was Chuck Turner over Carlos Henriquez in Roxbury in another trouncing.

All other district races were uncontested.

Vote numbers from the city elections department.

Michael Pahre looks up the latest campaign financial reports for Boston at-large council candidates and finds, among other things, that Michael Flaherty has spent more than any other candidate and yet is sitting on more money than any other candidate. What could he possibly want so much money for, hmm?

Also, John Connolly has figured out how to make it look like he has less money on hand than he really does.

David Bernstein reports that City Councilor Michael Flaherty has taken to thundering about "two Bostons" just like John Edwards with his "two Americas." If Flaherty does run for mayor, will that sell in a majority-minority city?

Bruce posts the records of $1,200 in contributions from Comcast employees to City Council President Michael Flaherty last year. Flaherty proposes making it harder to install satellite TV dishes, which might, of course, make them more expensive, which might just make people reconsider Comcast cable TV service.

Mass Marrier gets a bit annoyed when reading how City Council President Michael Flaherty refuses to admit that a court ruling that his council pals held illegal secret meetings might actually have some basis in fact:

... He's so low on the accepting-personal-responsibility scale, perhaps he should join the Bush administration. ...