Nine Questions About Kickback Indictment of Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson

By NBP Editorial Board | December 7, 2024, 16:18 EST

Tania Fernandes Anderson, a Boston city councilor, has been indicted on federal charges that she took a kickback from a member of her staff who is a relative.

The indictment, made public Friday, says Fernandes Anderson demanded that the unnamed person pay her $7,000 in cash out of a fraudulent $13,000 bonus the city councilor had the city government pay the employee, described in the indictment as “Staff Member A.”

The handover of cash took place in a bathroom at Boston City Hall, according to the indictment.

For the Boston City Council, Fernandes Anderson, 45, is the first Muslim, the first immigrant from Africa, the first former illegal immigrant, and the first member whose spouse is in prison for murder.

Fernandes Anderson pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston on Friday, but did not answer questions from reporters.

But questions linger …

 

1.  What Bathroom Did The Cash Change Hands In?

 

Boston City Hall is a big ugly place.  It has lots of bathrooms.  Which one?

Can the city maybe put up a commemorative plaque?

 

 

2.  Was It A Gender Neutral Bathroom?

 

If you do enough virtue signalling, maybe it cancels out stuff like this.

 

 

3.  Were They Wearing Masks?

 

You can never be too careful.

 

 

4.  Was The Bonus An Example of ‘Transparency’?

 

Here’s Fernandes Anderson as a first-time candidate for public office in July 2021, according to The Scope Boston:

“If you know what my role is and you know what I’m working on, and you know who I’m doing it for, and you know where to go to monitor what I’m doing, then that’s transparency, right, because then you know what to hold me accountable for.”

 

5.   Was The Bonus ‘Measurable’?

 

More Fernandes Anderson in July 2021:

“… I’ll tell you that all my goals are measurable, and you be the judge of that.”

 

 

6.  Did The ‘Association’ Turn You In?

 

More Fernandes Anderson:

“And secondly, it would be to create allies. I can’t do this alone. It would be some sort of association that would hold me and the local government accountable. All of us are accountable …”

Wait, she did create “some sort of association” after she got elected, right?

 

 

7.  Where Are The Cries of Racism?

 

Fernandes Anderson is black.

She has been indicted.

“The city is repressed and racist or systemically racist,” as Fernandes Anderson put it in an interview in July 2021.

Ergo, this indictment is racist, right?

Whether it’s a federal grand jury that voted for it or Joe Biden’s U.S. Attorney who pressed for it – that doesn’t matter, right?

 

 

8.  Is This The Reason She Wouldn’t Take The Oath of Office Earlier This Year?

 

Fernandes Anderson didn’t say anything while the other Boston city councilors were taking the oath of office in January 2024, as this video from the Boston Accountability Network shows.

City officials later ordered her to take the oath.  She said she did.  But what if she didn’t?  Maybe it’s not a kickback?

 

 

9.  Is There Still Time To Get The Duck Boats To Go Through Roxbury?

 

Boston’s famous Duck Boats take visitors by historic sites in the city and onto the Charles River.

Fernandes Anderson as a candidate for Boston City Council had an idea:

“We can actually benefit from the tourist market, where we can create opportunities for the different cultures to intersect; where the duck tours should go all the way to the African American Museum, all the way through Roxbury, all the way through Grove Hall, all the way through. Franklin Park. And if they do already, they should be in a way where you come to an Afro-centric district in our neighborhood.”

 

New to NewBostonPost?  This isn’t the kind of content you’d expect to find in a Massachusetts news outlet.  But here it is.  You can get more news and commentary that respects conservative values for two bucks — $2 for two months.  Join the real revolution.