Kim Janey

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.

After Wu took office, Janey remained on the City Council until her term as a councilor expired in January 2022.

In June, the Boston City Council approved Janey's 2022 budget, which included a plan to cut $399 million from the police budget, including a reduction of their overtime budget from $65 million to $45 million. Janey's office claimed that their long-term plan would be to add 30 more officers to the police force, claiming that doing so would help to cut down on overtime expenses. While her budget passed, aspects of it related to policing did receive vocal criticism from some members of the city council.

In June, Janey announced that the city would be funding a $500,000 three-month pilot that would see the MBTA's Route 28 bus be made fare-free. In 2019, as a city councilor, she and fellow councilor Michelle Wu had previously called for this bus route to be made fare-free. The city, in November 2021, announced that its data showed that during the pilot program ridership had increased to an excess of 70,000 in weekly ridership. Pre COVID-pandemic weekly ridership on the route had been 47,000, making the COVID-era pilot program ridership significantly greater despite the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transportation rider. The city concluded that, in comparison to ridership trends on comparable routes of the MBTA, the increase in ridership was directly attributable to the pilot program. A later more in-depth 2022 analysis found an overall 38% increase in weekday ridership from 7,500 before the pandemic to 10,200 during the September and October periods during the pilot program. The pilot program laid a groundwork to further fare-free bus service in the city implemented by Janey's successor Michelle Wu. In December 2021, after Wu succeeded Janey, Wu extended the pilot program by two months. Wu later succeeded in launching a two-year program to have the MBTA Route 23, 28, and 29 buses run fare-free for two years, with this program beginning on March 1, 2022.

In November 2022, Janey signed into law an that amended the city's existing paid child leave law to also provide leave to those who have had an abortion. The amendment changed the wording of the existing law from "stillbirth" to "pregnancy loss", and also extended paid family leave to those welcoming a new family member or acting as a caregiver.

In early March 2022, Janey joined The Boston Foundation, being appointed to a one-year term as an executive in residence. She was tasked with working with the foundation's president and chief executive officer, M. Lee Pelton, on a project related to documenting, preserving, and promoting awareness of historical landmarks located in neighborhoods of Boston with large populations of people of color.

In late-May 2022, Janey was announced as the next chief executive officer of the Boston Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), a nonprofit focused on addressing poverty. She succeeded Beth Babcock, who had led the nonprofit for sixteen years, on June 1, 2022. The organization had previously been supportive of Janey during her political career.

In the spring of 2022, Janey served as a teaching fellow at both Harvard University and Salem State University. At Harvard, she was a resident fellow of the Harvard Institute of Politics. At Salem State University she was a fellow at the Berry Institute of Politics. In the fall of 2022, Janey was a teaching fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

In 2021, Janey, with fellow councilor Andrea Campbell, proposed an ordinance that would have banned employers in Boston from running credit checks on job seekers, arguing that credit checks are most detrimental to low-income applicants.

On January 7, 2021, President-elect Joe Biden selected Boston mayor Marty Walsh as his nominee for Secretary of Labor. On March 22, 2021, Walsh was confirmed by the United States Senate; he resigned as mayor later that day. Janey, as president of the City Council, became the acting mayor of Boston, as prescribed by the Boston City Charter. Janey was the first woman and the first person of color to serve as acting mayor of Boston during a vacancy in the office. Janey held an unofficial swearing-in ceremony on March 24, 2021. The historic nature of Janey being the first woman and first person of color to hold any mayoral-style role in Boston's history caused Janey's ascent to the role of acting mayor to receive national media attention.

Janey, as City Council president, remained acting mayor until the 2021 Boston mayoral election in November 2021. Janey announced on April 6, 2021, her candidacy in the mayoral election. Per the Boston City Charter, acting mayors, “possess the powers of mayor only in matters not admitting of delay” and “have no power to make permanent appointments." In June 2021, amid tensions between Janey and the city council over budget discussions, the city council granted itself the authority to remove its president by a two-thirds majority vote. Should that action occur, the council would elect a new president who would be designated acting mayor. While Janey filled the some of the duties of mayor on an acting basis, during her term the duties of city council president were filled on an acting basis by the council's president pro tempore, Matt O'Malley.

In April 2021, Boston magazine ranked Janey at 32nd on its 2021 "100 Most Influential Bostonians" list. They wrote that, despite the limited powers an acting mayor has under the city charter, being poised to serve as acting mayor for a significant period of time (nine-months) meant that, for Janey, "even mayor-lite powers are a pretty big deal, all the more so during a pandemic and economic crisis." The magazine also opined that "Janey, though not a household name in the city until very recently, has plenty of experience and savvy to make the most of this opportunity."

In May, Janey signed into law an ordinance which restricted the Boston Police Department's use of tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets. Such a measure had been vetoed earlier in 2021 by Mayor Walsh. Around the same time, Janey announced that she had directed the city to drop its legal defense of a Boston Police Department promotion exam that had been criticized by opponents as "racially discriminatory". Janey ordered the city to move to reach a settlement in the years-long litigation surrounding the exam. This move followed both pressure from mayoral election opponents and a story in The Boston Globe on the lawsuit.

Also in May, a report from an independent probe was released, finding Police Commissioner Dennis White to have had a pattern of alleged domestic violence. After this, Janey made an attempt to oust White, who had already been suspended by Mayor Walsh months earlier. White took legal action, challenging Janey's authority as acting mayor to fire him. In June 2021, Janey formally terminated White's employment.

In May, Janey signed an ordinance into law which would move the nonpartisan primary for the 2021 Boston mayoral election, in which she was a declared candidate, from its originally-scheduled date of September 21, to the date of September 14.

In June, Janey signed an ordinance that would allow for there to be a binding referendum on the ballot in the November 2021 municipal general election as to whether the city charter provision relating to the municipal budget should be amended. Among the changes proposed in the amendment was giving the City Council the powers to line-item veto some of the items in a budget put forth by the mayor, amend a mayor's proposed budget both in whole and in part, and override a mayoral veto of a budget by a two-third's vote. These changes provide the City Council with more powering the creation of a budget. Another change in the amendment was creating an Office of Participatory Budgeting, giving the city's residents more power in the creation of city budgets. Weeks later, State Attorney General Maura Healey cleared the referendum for inclusion on the ballot. The referendum saw the amendment approved by voters, thereby amending the city charter.

On October 22, 2021, Janey sent a letter to the United States Census Bureau to announce the city's intention to challenge the 2020 United States census results for the city, alleging that the city's population had been undercounted.

Acting Mayor Janey announced on April 6, 2021, that she would run in the 2021 Boston mayoral election. This was Janey's first citywide race, and only her third-ever campaign for public office.

On September 24, Janey met with mayoral general election candidates Annissa Essaibi George and Michelle Wu at the Francis Parkman House, and the three agreed to November 16 as the tentative date for the expected transition of power for the mayoralty. After Michelle Wu won the 2021 Boston mayoral election, Janey served as honorary chair of Wu's mayoral transition team.

Wu became mayor on November 16, 2021, with Janey in attendance at the swearing-in ceremony. After Wu took office as mayor, Janey remained a lame duck city councilor until January 2022.

In January 2020, Janey was elected as president of the City Council by her fellow councilors.

Janey was re-elected in November 2019 with over 70% of the votes cast in her district. In her reelection campaign, it attracted attention that she shared a campaign office with both the reelection campaign of at-large councilor Michelle Wu and the election campaign of at-large council candidate Alejandra St. Guillen.

In November 2019, the City Council passed an ordinance authored by Janey, aiming to increase equity in the legal cannabis industry. The ordinance included the creation of a new oversight board to assess and vote on applications for licenses based on a set criteria. Mayor Walsh signed the ordinance into law later that month. John Jordan of the publication Globest wrote that the ordinance made the city the, "first US city to prioritize cannabis industry diversity". The ordinance changed the way marijuana dispensaries were awarded licenses by the city, establishing an independent board to review applications. Previously, licenses were awarded by the mayor's office.

In July 2018, Janey, along with fellow city councilors Lydia Edwards and Michelle Wu, introduced legislation that would have removed as-of-right designations for chain stores, thereby requiring a conditional use permit for a chain stores to open and operate in any area designated as a "neighborhood business district". In promotion of the proposed legislation, Janey said, "While chain stores also play a role in our economy, it is imperative that community members have the opportunity to weigh in on whether to allow them based on the unique circumstances of their neighborhood business district."

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 was first elected to the council in November 2017, as the representative of District 7, which includes Roxbury, and parts of Dorchester, the Fenway and the South End. In the September Democratic primary she led the field of thirteen candidates with 25% of the votes, and then she faced the other leading candidate, Rufus Faulk, in the general election. She won the election with 55.5 percent of the 8,901 votes cast. When she was sworn in in January 2018, she became the first woman to represent District 7 on the council.

In 2015, Janey served on the transition team aiding Tommy Chang in his transition into the position of superintendent of Boston Public Schools.

In 2015, Janey received the Boston NAACP Difference Maker Award. In January 2020, she received the Hubie Jones Award from the Boston Children's Chorus.

In May, Janey stated that the city was "reviewing" the possible use of ferries to bring people to Long Island, where facilities could be used to provide services to the homeless (such facilities had been closed on the island since the 2014 closure of the bridge to it). By the end of September, Janey ruled this out as a viable option.

In September, Janey signed into law an ordinance creating a city commission on Black men and boys. The Boston City Council had previously approved the creation of such a commission in 2014, but it had been vetoed by Mayor Walsh.

Janey worked as a community organizer and education advocate for Parents United for Child Care. She joined the Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a nonprofit, in 2001. At Massachusetts Advocates for Children, she worked for roughly seventeen years as an activist and project director, mainly focusing on eliminating the opportunity and achievement gaps in education for children of color, children learning English as a second language, children with special needs, and children living in poverty.

When she was eleven years old, Kim Janey attended school in Charlestown, Boston. She, along with other students, was bused from Roxbury to Charlestown, as part of Boston's controversial court-mandated school desegregation plan. She later attended high school in Reading, Massachusetts, under a voluntary program that allowed inner city students to commute to nearby suburbs for high school. She gave birth to a daughter at the age of 16. After graduating from high school, she worked to raise her daughter and attended community college. She entered Smith College but interrupted her studies to care for her ill grandfather after the death of her grandmother. She eventually graduated from Smith College in 1994.

In 1994, Janey participated in the Ada Comstock Scholars Program designed for students who are older than the traditional age for college students.

The video her campaign had released at its launch was noted for playing-up her acting incumbency, setting a tone for her campaign, which leaned heavily into her acting incumbency. Janey made a deliberate effort to avoid use of the title "acting mayor", promoting herself as being the "mayor". In late-August, Joe Battenfeld of the Boston Herald characterized Janey as having run a "Rose Garden campaign", emphasizing her acting incumbency through weekly press conferences and playing a visible role in the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a post mortem look at Janey's campaign, Joan Vennochi of The Boston Globe similarly described Janey as having taken a "Rose Garden strategy", speculating that she had patterned such an approach after Tom Menino's similar approach as acting mayor, which won then-acting mayor Menino the 1993 Boston mayoral election. Vennochi argued that, unlike Menino, Janey had been cautious in governing, and, "didn't define herself or her plans for a future administration", and had been "carefully scripted" in press conferences, outside of her controversial off-hand remarks about vaccine passports. Similarly, shortly ahead of the preliminary election, Ellen Barry of The New York Times had written that, as acting mayor, Janey had, "been cautious in her new role, sidestepping hot-button issues that could hurt her in the general election, and remaining largely scripted in public appearances." It was noted in a September 1 article in The Boston Globe that Janey had been absent at 30 out of 60 candidate events such as forums, town halls, and one-on-one interviews to which all of the major candidates had been invited, while each of the other major candidates had attended nearly all of these events.

Janey volunteered for Mel King's campaign in the 1983 Boston mayoral election.

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.

Kim M. Janey was born on May 16, 1965, in Roxbury, Boston, to Clifford B. Janey and Phyllis Janey, who divorced when she was young. Her father taught and worked as a school administrator in Boston, and would serve as superintendent of the Rochester City School District, District of Columbia Public Schools, and Newark Public Schools. The birthplaces of her ancestors include North Carolina on her mother's side, and Guyana, Virginia, Nova Scotia, and Massachusetts on her father's. One grandfather was born in Chelsea in 1915 and a great-grandfather in Medford in 1890. She "has had family in the city of Boston for six generations". Janey has ancestors that escaped to Canada through the Underground Railroad before settling in Boston in the latter half of the 19th century.

Janey referred to herself as being "mayor" rather than "acting mayor", identifying herself as Boston's 55th mayor. However, the Boston City Charter distinguishes between permanent and acting mayors.

Janey conceded the election shortly after midnight on the day after the primary election, when very little of the vote total had been released. When the votes finished being counted, she had placed fourth. Janey's defeat made her the first incumbent of any kind since 1949 to lose a Boston mayoral election.