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Maureen Feeney

By adamg - 4/11/12 - 3:47 pm

The City Council today adopted new rules that will limit new City Clerk Maureen Feeney's ability to pick up some side cash by performing weddings.

City Councilor Matt O'Malley (West Roxbury) said the new rules will bring transparency to a government function and some extra money to city government. At the State House, state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is pushing similar legislation to limit the ability of city and town clerks to make money through weddings during business hours.

Under the new regulation, proposed by City Councilor Mike Ross (Mission Hill), any fees for weddings performed during business hours at City Hall will go into city coffers, rather than Feeney's pocket. Previously, Feeney and her predecessor, Rosaria Salerno, could keep the $15 fee for "solemnizing" a wedding.

In addition, the new regulation limits City Hall Weddings to the hours of 10 to 11:30 a.m. and 2 to 3 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays - although Ross said an "emergency provision" would let would-be spouses apply for a wedding at other times in unspecified emergency situations. But weddings performed by city officials outside City Hall during any business hours are now prohibited, although Ross added that that just means people will now get married "in this beautiful building."

By adamg - 12/21/11 - 12:46 pm

Murphy on live TV.Murphy on live TV.The City Council today appointed former Councilor Maureen Feeney as city clerk in a process that would have taken about 30 seconds if council President Steve Murphy had not taken the opportunity to rail against "the broadsheets" and a former mayoral candidate.

For 15 minutes, Murphy excoriated the Globe and Kevin McCrea, accusing them of creating a circus with moving goalposts that bordered on harassment and only showed they want to chose the next city clerk, but they don't have the right because who elected them?

By adamg - 12/20/11 - 9:19 pm

The Dorchester Reporter posts a copy of Council President Steve Murphy's recommendation that the full council hire former Councilor Feeney for the post of city clerk - which includes a bonus denunciation of a Globe story daring to question the timing of her interview for the post. The council is scheduled to vote tomorrow to appoint Feeney.

By adamg - 12/20/11 - 12:46 pm

Gin Dumcius tweets that state Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay) is filing legislation that would bar city and town clerks from making any money from performing marriages either during work time or in their offices even after hours.

Gee, what did a former city councilor expected to become Boston city clerk tomorrow do to annoy Walz so much that she not only files legislation but issues a press release that ends like this?

By adamg - 12/12/11 - 11:37 pm

UPDATE: The city has a fulltime legal department, yet apparently nobody thought to check whether interviewing a former city councilor less than 30 days after she quit might violate state ethics laws, the Globe reports (Globe account required).

A roving UHub reporter files this report from this afternoon's interviews of the two candidates for the job of city clerk:

By adamg - 12/10/11 - 3:34 pm

Steve Murphy's Committee on Rules and Administration will pose tough questions to Natalie Carithers of Dorchester on her bid to become the next city clerk at an interview on Monday. The committee is also scheduled to formally interview recently retired Councilor Maureen Feeney before members vote on a recommendation to the full council.

The interviews begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Atkins Room on the fifth floor of City Hall.

By adamg - 11/26/11 - 10:41 am

Pops points us to the official posting for the job of Boston city clerk. Among the requirements:

By adamg - 11/17/11 - 12:23 pm

Gin Dumcius soberly analyzes the PR mess Maureen Feeney's put her now ex-colleagues in in her frenzied dash to push City Clerk Rosaria Salerno aside so she can start clerkin' it up.

Just imagine if they were all in high school, though. Feeney'd be all "Listen, bitch, that job's mine, now move it!" and Salerno'd be "yeah, bitch, bring it! I'll cut you!" And Mikey Ross'd be waving his arms around going, "girls, girls, don't fight!" while Moose Murphy would just be standing there, happy he didn't ask either of them to the prom.

By adamg - 11/14/11 - 10:02 am

The Globe reports the longtime Dorchester city councilor quietly submitted her resignation last week rather than just waiting to be replaced on Jan. 1. Did she convince Rosaria Salerno to retire as city clerk?

By adamg - 8/11/11 - 11:23 pm

At a sometimes contentious hearing on taxi regulation - at which cabbies revealed plans to sue the city over its credit-card requirements - drivers, city councilors and the city taxi czar agreed on one point: The city needs to crack down on unregulated livery drivers and out-of-town cabbies stealing business from the locals.

All sides agreed drivers of black - and now sometimes white - cars need to finally come under city regulations. All sides raised the specter of livery drivers attacking passengers and driving without background checks.

By adamg - 8/10/11 - 4:20 pm

The Council's Committee on Public Safety holds a hearing Thursday on a proposal by Councilor Maureen Feeney (Dorchester) to create a civilian taxi board to oversee the city's medallion cab fleet.

By adamg - 7/7/11 - 9:52 am


Police supt. on 102 Blue Hill Ave.: "Something no 12-year-old should have to experience."

A day after police and inspectors swooped down on a Blue Hill Avenue building nearby residents called a criminal warren, city councilors and lawyers began hammering out an ordinance for cracking down on owners of troubled apartments - including a provision that would require licensing for landlords with repeat offenses.

By adamg - 5/25/11 - 2:13 pm

The City Council voted today it is fed up with absentee landlords who let their properties go to hell and backed a hearing proposed by Councilor Maureen Feeney (Dorchester) on cracking down on them.

Feeney said she plans a hearing at which she will consider landlord licensing that would "disqualify poorly attentive landlords from operating rental properties." Her hearing was co-sponsored by Councilor Mike Ross.

By adamg - 4/20/11 - 10:09 am

FeeneyThe Dorchester Reporter reports that Maureen Feeney has decided against seeking re-election to her District 3 City Council seat (Dorchester), which she's held for 17 years.

By lex.galloway - 2/3/11 - 3:54 pm

Marty HoganHoganMarty Hogan, who once ran for an at-large city-council seat, says he is running this year for the District 3 seat now held by Maureen Feeney.

Hogan, who ran citywide in 2007, joins Feeney and 2009 at-large candidate Doug Bennett, also making a run for a district seat this time.

Hogan says his campaign will focus on city budget reform, because the city is spending "lavishly." One area where Hogan would not cut, however, is in crime fighting - he says crime is "spiraling out of control." He adds he would oppose cuts in school and fire funding.

Hogan is a South Boston native who now lives in Ashmont. An IT consultant, Hogan is also president of the Dorchester Day Parade and sits on the board of the Dorchester Symphony Orchestra.

Feeney, who was first elected in 1993, has said that this next run will most likely be her last.

By adamg - 11/3/10 - 1:58 pm

A Boston Licensing Board hearing turned heated this morning when City Councilor Maureen Feeney accused the new owner of the Ka-Carlos building at 33 Hancock St. of lying to residents and city officials about his plans for the building.

Stephen Bingham, who bought the building at auction after Ka-Carlos closed following a triple shooting that left two dead, said he wants to open "a family restaurant."

By adamg - 6/25/10 - 8:44 am

Peter Gelzinis reports she proposed easing school budget woes by having teachers work for a day without pay. Meanwhile, with little firefighter-like fanfare, school janitors attended a council budget hearing to protest the loss of 41 janitors come July 1 (down from the originally planned 83).

By adamg - 6/14/10 - 9:58 pm

It was, Councilor Maureen Feeney recalls, complete pandemonium: Last summer, somebody opened five hydrants in the area around Norton and Bowdoin streets and the area became an instant disaster zone: Basements were flooded, backyards washed out, cars damaged and some little kids were sent tumbling down the hill because of the force of the water. Thank God a fire didn't break out in the area at the time, she says.

By adamg - 12/17/09 - 8:06 am

Mike Ball, who actually attended yesterday's City Council vote on term limits (I couldn't take another day of those alleged seats in the council chambers and so watched the procedings from our comfy couch on Comcast Channel 51), didn't think much of Maureen Feeney's performance as chair of the committee on government operations - which had bottled up the term-limits issue for months:

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