BOSTON — Boston City Councilor Ben Weber broke his public silence Tuesday with an official statement denying wrongdoing — and confirming, in his own words, that the Boston Planning & Development Agency voted in January to extend a 10-year lease at the China Trade Center for the International Institute of New England, the nonprofit where his wife serves as a senior fundraising executive, two days after he took over as the City Council's Ways and Means committee chair.
Weber's official statement, posted on Boston City Council letterhead Tuesday. Image: Statement from Councilor Weber.
In the statement, posted to official Boston City Council letterhead, Weber called the reporting "disingenuous political attacks designed to smear me and my wife" and characterized a Mass Daily News article published earlier Tuesday as a "rage-bait post on social media."
"BPDA acts independently from the City Council and, in fact, I had no idea that any such vote had taken place before it was publicized in a rage-bait post on social media today," Weber wrote.
Weber's statement did not name the news outlet behind the reporting he characterized as a smear, nor identify the "rage-bait post on social media" it referenced.
"Rage-bait" has become a recurring framing among Boston City Council members when their conduct has come under public scrutiny. Weber's statement was released hours after the prior Mass Daily News reporting on the BPDA lease was widely shared across Boston-area social media.
A Tuesday Facebook post by Dorchester community advocate John Smith-St Cyere. Image: via Facebook.
It is the first time Weber has publicly addressed the January 15 BPDA approval that extended his wife's employer's lease for ten years. His defense is that he did not know about it at the time, and that the BPDA "acts independently" from the Council.
The recusal is partial
Weber said in the statement that he would recuse himself only from any vote on a $1.2 million Mayor's Office of Immigrant Advancement (MOIA) grant amendment that would have flowed through his amendment package to IINE — not from the overall budget vote scheduled for today. His revised amendment package, he wrote, is now valued at $6.2 million with the MOIA line stripped.
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"I will recuse myself from any discussion or vote to add funding for MOIA, at which point I can return to the floor and vote on an overall amendment package," Weber wrote.
The $6.2 million figure in Tuesday's statement is $2 million lower than the $8.2 million the Boston Herald reported earlier this week for Weber's revised package; the statement does not explain the discrepancy.
The recusal also applies only going forward. It does not address the January 15 BPDA vote on his wife's employer's 10-year lease, or any prior Council action involving IINE that took place while his wife held her senior position at the nonprofit.
"Wonderful nonprofit"
Weber's statement called IINE "a wonderful non-profit" providing "vital services to immigrant communities," said he has "never even attempted to use my position on the Council to direct resources to her employer," and called it "totally absurd" to suggest he sought the Ways and Means chair to ensure city funds went to IINE.
Weber said the Ethics Commission contact was his own initiative: "I proactively reached out to the State Ethics Commission again on Monday morning, and was issued written guidance about how to run an amendment process that eliminates any possible appearance of a conflict."
Dorchester community advocate John Smith-St Cyere filed a formal ethics complaint with the State Ethics Commission against Weber on Friday, per his own Facebook documentation. Weber's "proactive" Monday outreach came three days after that complaint was lodged.
"Obstructionist"
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Under Boston's charter, the City Council is structured to serve as a check on the mayor — reviewing, amending and approving or rejecting the budget the mayor sends over. The Ways and Means chair sits at the head of that scrutiny.
The statement characterized fellow councilors who voted last month to reject Mayor Michelle Wu's $4.9 billion FY27 budget as making "obstructionist calls for rejecting the budget" — language that places Weber, the Council's chief budget scrutineer, in the position of defending the mayor's spending plan rather than scrutinizing it.
Six councilors voted to reject the Wu budget in the May 6-6 deadlock vote. Weber, a Wu ally, was the swing vote that kept the mayor's budget alive.
Critics of the Boston City Council say Weber is functioning as a rubber stamp for Mayor Wu rather than a check on her — and they say he is not alone. A significant portion of the current Council was elected with Wu's political backing. The argument from critics: those councilors are politically indebted to the mayor who helped put them in their seats, and tend to vote with her on the calls that matter most — including this year's budget.
Within hours of the statement's release, Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata — a Wu ally who was the absent vote in the May 6-6 deadlock — defended Weber publicly on social media.
Boston City Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata's comment on social media. Image: Facebook.
The Boston City Council is scheduled to vote on the FY27 budget today. Weber's statement indicates he intends to chair the meeting and cast his vote on the overall amendment package, recusing only from any motion to add MOIA funding back in.
This is a developing story.
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