The Boston City Council announced a special election for the District 1 seat to be held on May 3 with a preliminary election to be held on April 5.

The seat is vacant after Lydia Edwards was elected to the state Senate in a special election last month.

The winner of the special election will serve the remainder of the term set to expire at the end of 2023.

Michelle Wu, City Council member and attorney, will be the next mayor of Boston.

Wu defeated fellow councilmember Annissa Essaibi George by 28 percentage points.

She will be the first woman and the first person of color to serve as mayor.

On March 22, Kim Janey became the acting Mayor of Boston.

Under the city charter, Janey who served as the City Council President, becomes the acting mayor when a vacancy occurs mid-term.

The seat became vacant when Marty Walsh formally resigned on Monday after being confirmed as the new U.S. Secretary of Labor.

Janey will serve the remainder of the year and a general election will be held in November to fill the position.

The Boston Municipal Lobbying Compliance Commission recently adopted lobbying regulations to complement the city’s lobbyist registration and regulation ordinance.

Effective immediately, clients or lobbying entities required to file reports must itemize all expenditures exceeding $35 on any day during a covered reporting period.

Expenditures not exceeding $35 on any day must be reported but is not required to be itemized.

For the purposes of lobbying, expenditures are any expense incurred or paid separately by a lobbying entity or client during the reporting period in connection with each decision, legislation, legislative action or administrative action of a city employee that it sought to promote, oppose or influence and the total amount thereof incurred or paid separately by such lobbying entity or client during the reporting period.

Expenditures include operating expenses such as the cost of clerical and administrative staff salaries or wages, equipment, and facilities related to a lobbying entity or client engaging in lobbying activity and specific expenditures for lodging, meals, gifts, transportation, entertainment, advertising, public relations, printing, mailing, and telephone.

The regulation also provides a definition for compensation; a lobbyist registration exception for technical service experts; fee waiver requirements; and authorizes the commission’s power to initiate a formal investigation, hold hearings, issue decisions, and enforce penalties.

Former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi is suing Secretary of State Bill Galvin in state court for the right to register as a state lobbyist.

The State Lobbyist Division, which is overseen by the secretary of state, denied DiMasi’s application in March of 2019, citing his federal convictions for fraud and extortion.

DiMasi is currently registered as a lobbyist with the city of Boston.

This month, a group of member associations, non-profits, and businesses working within the City of Boston submitted a memorandum of legal analysis regarding the city’s Lobbyist Registration and Regulation Ordinance expressing their key concerns with the legislation.

The ordinance, passed in October of 2018, took effect on April 16, 2019 and implemented broad lobbyist registration requirements and quarterly reporting.

The submitted memorandum asserts the ordinance is overbroad and does not include lobbyist registration exceptions present in state and federal law, including the de minimis threshold for incidental lobbying activity.

The memorandum also suggests language for proposed amendments to provide clarity while continuing to promote transparency and accountability.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance filed a lawsuit against the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) alleging that the state’s campaign finance laws are unconstitutional.

The law in question requires ads within 90 days of a general election naming any candidate or ballot question to include a statement from the sponsor’s chief executive officer, chairman, principal officer, or business manager.

The law covers television ads, radio, billboards, and print and must also include a list of the organization’s top five contributors.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance asserts these requirements may lead to biased judgments about an ad based on the named officer’s sex, gender, race, or other personal characteristics.

Additionally, they argue the requirements imply the donors funded the ad when they only contributed money to support the organization’s overall mission.

The OCPF has declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Mayor Marty Walsh signed an ordinance last week requiring lobbyist registration and reporting for individuals and entities attempting to influence city action.

The ordinance was passed by city council in late September and requires registration by every person retained, employed or designated by any client or lobbying entity to engage in lobbying or lobbying activities.

This comes after two years of Mayor Walsh calling for increased transparency through the implementation of a lobbying ordinance.

In July, Mayor Walsh vetoed a lobbying ordinance passed by council as it failed to define and regulate lobbying and did not create an adequate enforcement mechanism.

The new ordinance, effective April 13, 2019, creates a quarterly reporting requirement and penalties for late registration and reporting.

Last week, Mayor Marty Walsh vetoed a Boston City Council Ordinance on lobbying reform. Mayor Walsh first proposed an overhaul to the city’s lobbying laws in 2016, stating a need for an increase in transparency.

His proposal brought stricter lobbying laws mirroring those of the state in the form of a home rule charter which would require approval by the state legislature. Council passed its own version of the ordinance in late June hoping it would go into effect immediately upon signature by the mayor.

In vetoing the ordinance, Mayor Walsh indicated the passed ordinance failed to define and regulate lobbying and did not create an adequate enforcement mechanism.

Mayor Walsh stated his continued confidence in his recommended proposals, but Boston’s lobbying reform is headed back for more debate.

State and Federal Communications is headed to the NCSL Legislative Summit in Boston. Stop by and see us at booth 730!

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has filed a home rule petition with the City Council to establish a lobbying law for the city.

The proposal, filed with the council on February 1, requires lobbyist to register annually with the city by December 15 of each preceding year. The annual registration fee will be $1,000 for a lobbyist entity, and $100 for clients and lobbying agents. A lobbying agent is defined in the petition as “a person who for compensation or reward engages in a least one lobbying communications with a city employee.”

Activity reports are due twice a year, on January and July 15, and must include campaign contributions, client identification, “names of pieces of legislation or the decisions of the city employees” attempted to be influenced, statements of the lobbying agent’s position on the legislation or decision, the lobbyist’s compensation, and the dates of all lobbying communications.

The petition is based on the state’s lobbying law, the Boston Globe reports the mayor has said. According to the Globe, City Councilor Michael F. Flaherty Jr. said, “Let’s eliminate the hocus-pocus that used to permeate every corner of City Hall, where projects and petitions lived or died on who you knew and who you hired.”

If the home rule petition is passed by the City Council, it must then be approved by the state Legislature to become law because it includes financial penalties for lack of compliance.

Photo of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh by David Parsons on Wikimedia Commons.

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has announced he wants a lobbying ordinance for the city and he wants it modeled on the state’s lobbying law.

According to the Boston Globe, Walsh will propose regulations requiring lobbyists to disclose their clients, their compensation, and their activities involving development, city contracts, and permits. His proposal was first outlined to Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham. Walsh will propose his lobbying regulation as a home rule petition, which must eventually be approved by the state Legislature.

Secretary of State William Galvin said he would prefer a statewide law requiring lobbyists to disclose their activities in every municipality, according to the Globe.

On April 10, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced the formation of a city Ethics Committee.

The committee will review all changes to the city’s Ethics Policy, implement a new Statement of Financial Interest for all city employees, create continuing education programs around ethics issues, and analyze existing practices and procedures.

In his press release, the Mayor said, “The citizens of Boston and those who interact with our government should be absolutely confident that their government is working for them, at the highest ethical standards.”