It may seem that Monday's election of James Kelly to an unprecedented seventh term as president of the Boston City Council is a vote for continued stability. Don't be surprised, however, if the seventh year of Kelly's reign proves very different from the six that have preceded it.

Kelly, who represents South Boston and the South End, was first elected president in 1994. The 13-member City Council annually elects its own president but that year a driving force behind the election was newly inaugurated Mayor Thomas Menino.

Menino, a smart student of Boston politics, knew that any successful mayor needed a cooperative City Council -- and that the key was the council's president. But in 1994 he faced a perplexing situation. Of the 13 councilors, seven were new. Of the remaining six, three (Maura Hennigan, Charles Yancey and John Nucci, now Suffolk County's clerk of court) hadn't been Menino supporters. Of the three left, Menino was personally most friendly with Kelly.

Kelly brought something else with him as well: He was Irish-American and he represented voter-rich South Boston. Menino, an Italian-American who had just defeated Irish-American Jim Brett, figured an alliance would bode well for him.

The relationship has worked well for Menino. Over the last six years the City Council has refused the mayor virtually nothing of importance. The council's single most significant power lies in its review of the budget, but each year the budget has sailed through smoothly with minor, if any, changes. Most importantly, the         relationship has kept Menino politically secure; at the end of his first term in 1997, the mayor faced the unique prospect of running unopposed for re-election.

For Kelly, the relationship has worked less well. To be sure, Kelly has been able to deliver jobs and services to his constituents. But the Menino-Kelly bond has always been grounded on personal affection.  The two men differ greatly on public policy issues, particularly on social issues such as affirmative action or gay and lesbian rights. On those issues and others, the mayor has had it his way, often to Kelly's chagrin. (In the past, Menino has made up by hand-delivering ice cream sundaes to Kelly's door.)

Kelly has never emerged as a vice mayor, if you will. Indeed, even in South Boston he has sometimes seemed eclipsed by the rising star that is state Sen. Stephen Lynch. It was Lynch, after all, who was photographed from his rooftop, becoming the defiant symbol of the Towne's resistance to a football stadium.

Now Menino, halfway through his second term and looking forward to a third, is contemplating his legacy. It turns out that that legacy, in all likelihood, will be the development of the South Boston waterfront, right in Kelly's backyard. That development has the potential to create not only a large new Boston residential community but also to remake the existing neighborhood in South Boston. Menino's legacy clashes not only with Kelly's sense of territorial prerogatives but also with his personal vision for the kind of residential community South Boston has been and should continue to be.

Thus the relationship between Kelly and Menino is unraveling. For example, late in 1999 Kelly got to the floor of the council and tore into Menino on a matter related to the Boston Housing Authority. At one point he accused Menino of acting like Pontius Pilate. Those were harsh words, neither casually made nor easily withdrawn.

Kelly has also pushed forward with the hiring of a City Council attorney - an old idea that he had never shown much interest in before. The mayor's office has resisted the idea, correctly fearing an on-staff attorney presages a more recalcitrant council.

In late December the administration placed a shot right across Kelly's bow, pushing the notion of another councilor, Allston-Brighton's Brian Honan, as president for 2000. Add to this mix three newly elected councilors and the fact that two councilors -- Peggy Davis Mullen and Mickey Roache -- are both eyeing a mayoral run against Menino two years hence. It all points to a contentious year. As a new century dawns, the council, once an easy ally for the mayor, may be so no longer.
 

Tom Keane, a former Boston city councilor, will be writing regularly for the Herald. He can he reached at tomkeane@tomkeane.com.