Boston City Council Unanimously Establishes Reparations Task Force on Last Day of Session

BOSTON — December 14, 2022 — Boston City Council votes 13-0 to create a reparations task force on the final day of its legislative year. The council's year-end session on December 14 capped a two-year effort by co-sponsors Councilors Ricardo Arroyo, Tanya Fernandez-Anderson, Julia M. Mejia, and Brian Worrell, with Arroyo presenting the amended ordinance establishing three phases of work — documenting Boston's role in the slave trade, assessing remediation efforts to date, and delivering formal recommendations to the city within a maximum two years. Fernandez-Anderson cited data showing the average Black family in Boston holds a net worth of roughly eight dollars against nearly a quarter-million for the average white family, calling the task force "the next step" from words to action. The council also narrowly advanced an 800-page surveillance technology oversight ordinance 12-to-1 present, with multiple councilors warning they had not had sufficient time to review the policies and pledging hearings on specific technologies including ShotSpotter and drones in 2023. The session additionally approved $2,072,216 in collective bargaining supplemental appropriations for roughly 870 SEIU Local 888 employees, plus a separate $681,287 package for Boston Public Library staff, both designed to release retroactive pay dating to 2020.