Kim Janey

rdf:langString Kim Janey

rdf:langString Kim Janey

rdf:langString Kim Janey

rdf:langString Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

rdf:langString Acting

rdf:langString from the 7th district

rdf:langString Member of the Boston City Council

rdf:langString January 2018

rdf:langString January 2020

rdf:langString Acting

rdf:langString President of the Boston City Council

rdf:langString Kim Michelle Janey (born May 16, 1965) is an American politician who served as acting mayor of Boston for eight months in 2021. She served as president of the Boston City Council from 2020 to 2022, and as a member of the council from the 7th district from 2018 to 2022. She was the first woman and first black person to serve as acting mayor of the city during a vacancy in the office of mayor. Janey began her career as a community organizer and education advocate, working for groups such as Parents United for Child Care. and Massachusetts Advocates for Children. A member of the Democratic Party, Janey entered politics when she successfully ran for the Boston City Council in 2017. She entered the Boston City Council in January 2018, and was selected as president of the Council in January 2020. On the city council, she represented the 7th district (which includes Roxbury, with parts of the South End, Dorchester, and Fenway). Being the incumbent City Council president, Janey became Boston's acting mayor of Boston upon Marty Walsh's departure from the post when he resigned after being confirmed as the United States secretary of labor. Janey was a candidate in the nonpartisan primary of the 2021 Boston mayoral election, but had an unsuccessful fourth-place finish. Janey later endorsed Michelle Wu for the general election. Wu went on to win the general election, and became Janey's successor. Janey dealt with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Boston as acting mayor. Janey launched a Vaccine Equity Grant Initiative to increase awareness and access to the COVID-19 vaccine in communities that were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. As acting mayor, Janey attracted controversy for comments she made comparing vaccine passports to slave papers and birtherism. She walked back these comments. Janey announced a municipal eviction moratorium in August, after the United States Supreme Court overturned a federal moratorium that had been in place. Janey also dealt with the homelessness population in the Mass and Cass area, clearing the area's tent city towards the end of her acting mayoralty. Janey signed into law an ordinance which restricted the Boston Police Department's use of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets, a measure in the line of which had been vetoed earlier in the year by Mayor Walsh. Janey also fired Police Commissioner Dennis White after an independent probe found a pattern of alleged domestic violence by him. A municipal budget for 2022 was passed during Janey's tenure. Janey also launched a pilot program to have EMTs and mental health personnel respond without the assistance of police to 9-1-1 calls on mental health matters that are not a public safety concern. Janey also launched a pilot program that made the MBTA Route 28 bus fare-free for three-months. This laid groundwork that her successor, Michelle Wu, built upon to launch further fare-free bus service. Since May 2022, Janey has served as the chief executive officer of Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), a Boston nonprofit which addresses poverty. Janey has also held teaching fellowships at Harvard University and Salem State University and worked as an executive in residence at The Boston Foundation since leaving public office.